Silence.
Erin instinctively closed his eyes before the explosion reached him. This moment gave him dejavu.
He didn't hear anything nor feel any pain.
As he finally opened his eyes, Erin was bewildered by the sight before him.
Just a few steps away, a small hourglass was quietly floating in front of him.
The scene in front of this hourglass was surreal. A dimensional explosion of unknown capacity was completely frozen. The edges of this frozen explosion stretched so far that it blocked most of the horizon.
Beads of sweat dripped off Erin's forehead. His eyes squinted in trepidation.
Wearing a powerful defensive treasure did not make him feel any more comfortable. In fact, most defenses were nothing when placed before this kind of explosion.
Erin looked behind him and saw that Chieftain Morack and Renald.
Like statues, the two of them were standing completely still. There were flabbergasted expressions on both of their faces. It seems that neither of them expected the dimensional portal to explode.
As Erin turned his head back to the floating hourglass, a small burst of knowledge rushed into the forefront of his mind.
[Timekeeper's Hourglass]
[An overloaded dimensional portal has been detected. Destruction is imminent.]
[Since detection, time has been frozen for one minute. 1 contribution has been deducted.]
Erin understood that the hourglass was the only reason he was still alive right now. Although he became more curious about it, what concerned Erin more was the active countdown flashing in his mind.
[0:27.. 0:26.. 0:25]
?!
Underneath this countdown were two options.
[Stabilize Portal?] [Destroy Portal?]
Erin realized that he wasted too time looking around and mentally selected the stabilization option. A new notification appeared after making this choice.
[3 contributions have been deducted. Portal will be stable for 24 hours. Once the stabilization period is over, the residual energy must be released from one side of the portal. If you do not select a side before the 24 hour stabilization period is over, the hourglass will randomly pick in your stead.]
Although Erin was relieved that the immediate problem was over, he was still bewildered. It seems that this solution was merely a temporary one.
'..residual energy must be released from one side?'
Erin thought about the details in this notification and frowned. When the stabilization period wore off, it was obvious that the outcome would be another dimensional explosion. The only fortunate detail was that Erin now had control over which side of the portal released this explosion.
When the timer finally reached zero, time continued like normal. The hourglass returned into Erin's body and the explosion was no longer restrained. Within that same second, Chieftain Morack instantly tried casting a defensive barrier around Erin and Renald but failed. The massive dimensional instability prevented him from successfully exerting his power.
However, before the explosion could reach any of them, an immeasurable power started emitting from Erin. This power encapsulated the entire explosion and created a thin energy barrier.
The most shocking thing was that it looked like time was reversing inside this barrier!
In mere seconds, as the barrier shrunk, the explosion receded like a tidal wave flowing back into the ocean.
After a little time had passed, it was like the explosion never happened in the first place. The energy barrier disappeared and the enormous dimensional gate was standing upright with a fully-functional portal inside of it.
Chieftain Morack's jaw dropped as he witnessed this.
Renald was dumbfounded. His body was literally shaking while his eyes were flickering between the dimensional gate and Erin. The scene was so unbelievable that his mind couldn't fully process everything.
'It seems that I still underestimated his power..'
Chieftain Morack sighed.
Before the chieftain or Renald could say anything, Erin looked back at them and started speaking, "I only managed to stabilize the portal temporarily. It will collapse in exactly one day. When it falls, the residual energy must be released."
"Fortunately, I can control which side the residual energy exits from. Since I don't plan on having this gate explode a second time, my only other option is to let it explode on the other side."
"We need to evacuate everyone from Planet Varce before that happens."
Erin's tone was so serious that it left no room for any rebuttal or questions. Through the hourglass, Erin could sense that the energy accumulated in this portal was far more than enough to support these plans.
The chieftain quickly understood how serious the situation was. He took out a special communication trinket and a chainwork reaction started.
With a single command, hundreds of military starships were summoned. They were ordered to appear above the dimensional gate continent as soon as possible. This was the best that he could do with such short notice.
The chieftain also took out several recon drones from his own dimensional treasure. He sent them into the dimensional portal to scout out the situation on the other side. Erin silently agreed with the chieftain's actions.
In a war, certainty was never guaranteed. Anything could have changed since their last update. The chieftain's actions made it clear that he wanted to act carefully.
A few moments later, the drones returned successfully. The chieftain let out a sigh of relief after confirming that the portal was stable. One of the drones flew before the chieftain and projected a report on their immediate findings. Reading this report, the relieved expression on the chieftain's face slowly turned into a heavy frown.
"..Strange. The other side of the portal is completely empty." The chieftain muttered. He looked towards Erin and said, "The other side of this dimensional gate is located in an underground stronghold. Even though the gate was deactivated for centuries, the stronghold is supposed to be guarded by active-duty personnel."
"When my recon drones entered, they used my authority to access the local communication channels. There were no responses. The radars and cameras on the drones didn't detect anything too."
Erin furrowed his eyebrows and said, "If the other side is a stronghold, is it even possible to send in starships?"
He looked up and saw a few military starships already arriving. The speed of military starships shouldn't be underestimated. During times of relative peace, they only fly slower to conserve energy and fuel. When given military orders, these conservative actions are thrown out the window. The stress then falls onto the logistics division to maintain a steady fuel supply for the front-line ships.
"There are no issues. The underground stronghold's primary purpose is to protect and hide the dimensional gate. There are reinforced passageways that connect the gateroom chamber to the planet's surface. Even if we can't use the passageways immediately, at max capacity, the main chamber is large enough to hold several squadrons."
Chieftain Morack's explanation relieved a lot of Erin's concerns.
While the chieftain continued making more military arrangements, Erin saw a small figure fly out of his starship. The figure glanced at the giant dimensional portal with amusement before finally landing on top of Erin's head.
'..She grew heavier.' Erin mentally complained. It was like a small boulder was gently placed on his head. Aura could sense the discomfort. She channeled spiritual energy to lighten herself so that she wouldn't restrain Erin's movements.
Erin turned his head to look at the now empty starship. He was concerned that the Planetoids would recognize his starship on Planet Varce. After quickly calculating his options, Erin made a decision and stored the starship back in his main dimensional treasure.
The chieftain saw Erin's actions and nodded. He respected Erin's cautious nature. Renald looked unaffected. The scene from earlier still had him shivering a little.
Before Erin could ask if the chieftain was going to use his own starship, a large and unique ship broke through the clouds above and quickly landed near them.
"Shall we go?" Chieftain Morack notioned Erin and Renald to follow him. While entering the ship, the chieftain casually mentioned that this was a specialized warship.
The interior of this ship was far different from Erin's expectations. Shielded wires, pipes, and reinforced metal halls composed the vast majority of the starship. It was all purely focused on functionality. There were even many emergency rations and weapon arsenals that were strategically placed throughout the interior halls.
Unlike Erin's starship, the chieftain's command center was filled with people. They were there to relay orders between all of the arriving military starships.
When Erin first entered the command center, many of these beastmen were in awe at the small dragon sitting on Erin's heads. If it weren't for the chieftain's glare, they would still be staring.
By this time, several recon starships had been sent through the portal already. Unlike the drones, the capabilities of these starships were far more accurate and advanced. It didn't take them long to confirm that, despite being empty, there were no hostile presences within the vicinity of the stronghold. The air was normal too.
Once these reports were verified, Chieftain Morack ordered his warship to enter.
Crossing through the dimensional portal was a smooth and painless process. A stable portal virtually guaranteed safe passage. Only unstable rifts or portals would cause issues.
After reaching the other side, Erin looked out the wide-angle windows. The interior of this stronghold was surprisingly simple. If he wasn't told this was a stronghold, he would think it was a really well-constructed cavern. The sight reminded him of the military-starship arsenal that he saw on Planet Charh. It was just a lot smaller and more rustic. Erin also saw a few buildings on the ground that reminded him of sentry towers.
There were giant stone pillars evenly placed along the walls. These pillars were connected by arches which supported the wide cavern's ceiling. Countless lights were scattered across this ceiling. These lights were turned on by the recon starships that entered here earlier. The beastmen on these starships also confirmed that there was no lack of energy reserves.
Everything was fully-functional. The only thing missing was the stronghold guards.
Several more military starships followed in after the chieftain's warship. These ships landed on the ground and sent out soldiers to assume guard-duty. Several intelligence officers were also sent out to support the staff from the recon starships.
These officers were ordered to connect the stronghold's local communication network to Planet Varce's planetary network. This would allow the chieftain to acquire updates on the situation above. Because the stronghold was meant to hide and secure the dimensional gate, its construction prevented normal communication channels from getting through. They could only receive real-time updates after connecting the stronghold's dedicated network.
After floating down the enormous stronghold cavern, Erin finally noticed several sealed passages at the end. Made entirely of metal, these giant circular doors varied in size. While most of them were evenly placed across the cavern walls, the largest one was actually on the ceiling! It's size was comparable to the nearby dimensional gate.
Chieftain Morack ordered the warship to stop. He was waiting for a report from the intelligence officers that he sent out earlier. Until he had an idea of what was happening above, the chieftain had no intentions of opening these passageways. Behind them, the military starships crossing through the portal were slowly filling the main chamber. By the looks of it, even after they all crossed over, the space was more than enough to accommodate every ship.
A few minutes later, the intelligence officers reported. They successfully secured an active connection.
Chieftain Morack's warship then connected to the stronghold's dedicated network, of which was now re-connected to Planet Varce's planetary network.
"Contact the military commanders stationed on this planet." Chieftain Morack ordered.
"Understood." The beastmen officers in the center answered in unison.
Merely twenty seconds later, one of the officers walked up to the chieftain and said, "Sir, only one commander responded. It appears to be Commander Warrick." Inside the warship, to facilitate quick communication, the honorifics were brought down to the bare minimum. While it might be different on other starships, the chieftain insisted on this rule for his warship.
A glint shimmered from Erin's eyes as he heard these words. Warrick was one of the main reasons why he was going through all of this effort.
As for Chieftain Morack, there were complicated emotions on his face.
'Only one? Have the other commanders fallen already?'
This thought floated to the top of his mind. While he was very glad that Warrick was okay, he was disappointed that virtually no other commanders survived.
"Put his channel through." The chieftain said.
A large, misty video-feed was activated in front of the chieftain. Because Erin and Renald were next to him, they also had a clear view of this video-feed. While the concept was similar to a holographic panel, it wasn't exactly the same. Similar to the star map trinket, the live-transmission needed spiritual energy to work.
On the other side of this misty screen was an unfamiliar figure inside what appeared to be a hospital room. This beastman had bandages wrapped over his left eye. His face was emotionless.
"Honored chieftain, thank you for your timely arrival. I am a Second Lieutenant Emerson of Commander Warrick's fourth division."
"The situation is grave and many have long since given up any hopes for survival. None of us anticipated that you would personally intervene!" He turned the video device around so that it could face the nearby window. From the view outside, the hospital room was obviously located on a high floor.
Outside and far below this building was a very large crowd of civilians. Many soldiers were scattered around this crowd, trying to maintain order. Both the civilians and the soldiers looked extremely fatigued.
This entire group appeared to be inside of a make-shift city shelter.
"Rest assured, the evacuation of this planet is already underway." Chieftain Morack started comforting the other side first. "May I ask why you have Commander Warrick's communication device?"
Emerson nodded respectfully before turning the video device again. The video-feed was now directed to the only bed in the hospital room. On this bed was an unconscious, elderly beastman being treated by military medics.
"Commander Warrick was injured during the latest attack. He is currently unconscious. Following him, I am currently the only military officer within the vicinity." Emerson explained before turning the device back at him.
The chieftain's eyebrows furrowed at this unexpected sight. Even though Warrick survived, his condition didn't look very good.
Erin also frowned deeply at this sight. In case the chieftain didn't have the resources needed to completely save Warrick, Erin started mentally searching through his treasures. There were quite a lot of powerful consumables in his storage. Some were even high-grade medicinal tonics.
"What's Planet Varce's current condition?" Chieftain Morack asked.
"..."
Emerson was silent for a moment before quietly speaking, "..We ..lost."
His emotionless face finally cracked. It looked like he was trying very hard to restrain the tears gathering in his remaining eye.
The chieftain frowned. This was the worst-case scenario.
"Could you clarify? The last report we received insisted that the defenses could last up to five more days. Your words mean this isn't the case anymore. I need to know as many details as possible."
Chieftain Morack didn't let any of his emotions get to him. The most important part is figuring out what happened so that they could react accordingly. While his intelligence officers were still gathering information, Chieftain Morack wanted to take this opportunity to get a firsthand account on what happened.
As a military lieutenant, Emerson recollected himself quickly. He quietly walked outside the hospital room and entered a nearby, empty room. Although Warrick was unconscious, the medical medics could still hear. Before entering this room, he ordered several patrolling soldiers to guard the door. This floor had many soldiers stationed because Warrick was being treated here.
From these actions, it was obvious that Emerson was trying to be confidential. Since that was the case, the chieftain used his spiritual energy to adjust the video-feed. After adjusting it, only him and Erin could hear what Emerson was about to say.
Even though Renald quickly realized that the chieftain muted him, he dared not say anything about it. He was still trying to gain merits to make-up for his recent demotion.
"The channel is secure now. Speak everything." Chieftain Morack ordered. This matter was of significant importance.
"..Understood." Emerson let out a deep breath.
"To begin with, the last report we sent was true. The planet did have the means to maintain our defenses for another five days. It's just..
"..We didn't anticipate those means would be taken away so abruptly."
An abnormality was within the chieftain's expectations. He asked, "By the Planetoids?"
"No.."
Emerson looked like he was hesitating to continue, but the chieftain motioned him to speak.
"..It was by the other military commanders.." Emerson's words made the atmosphere freeze.