Hiro felt his whole body being forcefully pulled inside the gate, the strange darkness forced him to close his eyes from dizziness. The feeling stopped soon, he opened his eyes to see a giant sculpture carved out of white marble. His own 170cm figure seemed nothing more than an ant in comparison.
He raised his head to peek at the face of the standing figure. A masculine handsome face showing a relaxed smile, green eyes carved out of some unknown orb shining.
"It's Elans… the womanizer. I wonder how he handled so many wives."
"This man is someone thou know?"
"Yeah, in a way."
He shifted his gaze and inspected the place. The place lacked any roof, only crude white walls on four sides. His eyes stopped on the wooden door behind the statue of Elans.
"Why am I not surprised by this… Let's go enter that door."
Right as he came near the gate, it opened with a creepy creak~. He entered the poorly lit hall with Tsukiha following behind.
"Whoa! That's really something."
"Where do those gates lead? We are having an ominous feeling from those gates."
He nodded at Tsukiha's assumption. The hall stretched as far as his eyes went. In front of him stood fifteen gates of different sizes. The smallest was around 10 meters, a golden text of 'Two Months left' hung above it. While the biggest extended for more than 100 meters with 'Ten years left'.
[Host is only recommended to enter the first record with current strength.]
'I just need to kill the creatures born from chaos like Elans did?'
[Affirmative. That has always been the responsibility of Ortus bearer. To eliminate the creatures trying to eat away the Records in Dimensional Gap.]
Record, a small world birthed in dimensional gap by a reason even Elans didn't understand. Many were as small as a city, while a few reached the size of the very Underworld he lived in. In Elans theory, Underworld along with Earth and Heavens were counted as a Record.
The nothingness in dimensional gap also gave birth to creatures, born with the power to manipulate Chaos. Just their existence in any record distorted its space and caused world boundaries to become unstable. Elans configured the Ortus Mainframe to automatically trap everyone of them in the fifteen records, in other words, the gates in front of him. The higher the size, the stronger the world boundaries it held.
If left unchecked, they would devour the record that trapped them and slowly wander to different worlds through the Dimensional gap and wreak havoc. The time limit above every record showed the time left for it to be consumed.
The chaos element granted them a kind of immortality and only he possessed the power to kill them. Only attacks with Origin Energy could truly kill them. Until now, Elans had been doing it but after he disappeared 15 years ago, no one has taken care of the creatures. He was like a silent hero, protecting everyone from the darkness.
'If I don't do it, then I'll be forcibly transferred?'
[Affirmative.]
He stopped in front of the smallest gate. This responsibility felt truly heavy on his shoulders. If he failed, he didn't know how long it would take for Ortus to find a new compatible host. He didn't care about others but Sona, Serafall and Lady Sitri were his family and his death could possibly mean the demise of every Realm including Underworld.
He once again steeled his determination. "Tsukiha get yourself in combat mode. I have no idea what kind of monster or demon lies ahead."
"Very well."
[Accessing the gate mainframe… Complete… Opening the gate…]
Just as aux-san voice stopped, a burst of gray flame-like aura appeared from the gate and created a vortex inside.
Sword check… Food check… Sumatofone check… Tsukiha check...
He nodded at Tsukiha and entered the blurry dark vortex.
His vision darkened for a moment. He blinked his eyes to adjust and observed the area. The surroundings appeared to be a normal forest, just the sun hanging above the clouds was pouring out grey sunlight bringing a bizarre coldness instead of warmth.
"Where are we?" Tsukiha blinked its eyes and looked around curiously.
*Roaaar~!!!*
"I take that back, it's not normal."
The roar even silenced Tsukiha for a moment. A chill crawled on his back, he hurriedly covered both of them in a transparent aura, stealth ability of Goap Clan and hid behind a tall tree.
A moment later, *Thump!* *Thump!* Earthshaking noise came from the front. He peeked his head out, only enough to catch a glimpse of the creature, a body covered in spiky dark green scales and thick muscular arms that appeared thicker than the tree he was hiding behind.
Every step of it caused a tremor and produced a loud noise. The ten-meter tall trees around only reached its waist. Giant was the only word that came to his mind.
He furiously scanned the memories to find any information.
"Damn, an evolved cave troll... its power should be around High Class to Ultimate Class."
"What are we going to do?" Tsukiha asked in an excited tone, feeling the thrill of adventure.
He was at a loss of word at his new partner, but he couldn't deny the thrill himself. After being caged in Sitri clan for years, the current situation gave rise to a strange sense of freedom in his heart. The fresh smell of lush trees only increased it.
'It doesn't feel bad.'
The situation wasn't as bleak as he thought, if push comes to shove, he will fly away on Tsukiha's back. The slow giant might not be able to catch him at his base speed much less Tsukiha's flying speed.
"We will search for a safe base in this forest then find some weak monsters. I need to test something."
He climbed up on the tree and surveyed the area, he found the back of the Giant troll moving towards the west. He shook his head and swept his gaze over the vast forest. To the east, he discovered a barren wasteland, yet for some reason, he sensed some dangers there.
[Scan finished… A thousand and nine chaotic lifeforms detected in a radius of five hundred kilometers]
'It'll take a lot of time going through an area this big.'
He jumped down the tree and used aura to suppress any sound. He tapped Tsukiha's snout and headed toward the East.
The chilly wind caressed his cheeks, the sunlight only increased the chills further. His devil body appeared to have no temperature resistance in this place. After half an hour of walking, he stopped in his tracks. He barely heard the roars ahead of him.
Tsukiha also heard it and stared at him with an inquisitive gaze. Apparently, it trusted him enough to leave all the hard decisions to him.
He smiled softly and followed the roars to arrive in an open area. What greeted him was an epic battle…