Thick layers of liquid released by the tentacles creeped all over Professor Atkinson and Dolores' bodies and completely enclosed them from the outside. The liquid somehow allowed them to breathe in it, but it also sealed off their magical powers and rendered them powerless. It did not appear to be completely hostile or malicious, however, since the liquid also seemed to be serving as protective layers as they were dragged through an unstable spacial tunnel behind the portal.
The completely white toad-like creature that came with the tentacles was also enclosed in a blob of the same liquid, while staring at them with its eyes. When the professor and Dolores looked at the toad-like creature, they couldn't help but feel mocked and carefully examined and probed at the same time. Both the professor and Dolores could tell that the frog was not any kind of strong or powerful entity, but instead, a minor spirit - something that was mostly known to be weak and almost driven into extinction. The creature with the two tentacles, however, was something that could bring nightmares to children and even some adults - it was an enormous floating creature with hundreds if not thousands of tentacles in the higher sky with its tentacles extended towards at different directions, and a big, droopy and slowly moving stomach on the lower part of the body.
"Do not worry. It's just that it's of the utmost importance that we find you and you come with us." the toad-like creature opened its mouth and spoke in English.
"Wait, you speak English? How come?" Professor Atkinson asked, also noticing that he could speak just as freely when completely enclosed inside these liquid blobs.
"It's not a hard skill to learn, and it's not a secretive language either." the toad-like creature responded: "Now, please stay still, The One has been expecting you."
"The One?" Dolores asked.
"You'll meet her soon." just when the toad-like creature was about to answer more, they had already reached the end of the spacial tunnel. The blobs of liquid moved downwards and became two giant floating mattresses between them and the vast ground that occurred below.
Professor Atkinson and Dolores tried using their magic to decelerate their descent onto the ground - and it worked. The elemental and other kinds of magical energy was abundant in the air, though slightly chaotic, which made their spells only marginally less easy than they would be in the professor and Dolores' normal environment.
Far beneath them was a giant stone plaza with a temple at the center, which also had a gigantic diameter and was surrounded by a sea that was constantly changing in color as the waves flowed by. There were two suns up in the sky with the same bright orange color, one big and one small, and the bigger one seemed to be rotating around the smaller one. There were many small floating islands in the air around them, the bottoms of which were made of crystals of different colors, and the tops were all shaped and had small buildings, altars and pillars of light on them.
Both Professor Atkinson and Dolores recognized almost instantly that the ground, the plaza, the pillars and ruins below them - they had a very similar layout to that of the giant plaza where the temple of Xyn was located. There were similar wide and straight pathways to a distant temple that was located at the center of the giant plaza - the most obvious difference was that it was floating in the air, and somehow it looked like a lot of parts of its upper structure were destroyed.
"Professor, look at the pillars that are still standing - " Dolores' eyes opened wide and said to Professor Atkinson: "They're in the positions of the destroyed pillars in the other temple."
Professor Atkinson glanced over the buildings and ruins below, and he could see what Dolores was referring to - a large part of the plaza below was basically the same design and structure as the plaza of Xyn's temple, the pillars that were standing below were at a lot of the spots of completely broken pillars in the other plaza which they visited many times before; and the pillars that remained in the other temple, were in the spots of broken pillars below. And combined with the fact that the temple back at Xyn's was mostly underground while the temple of this place was floating in the air, they were getting a sense that there was some kind of special connection between this place and Xyn.
"I think this - this is probably owned by an avatar of Xyn." Dolores said as she landed on the pathway below: "Only that - Xyn's place was much smaller because of the energy walls surrounding the entire place."
"Or, is this Xyn an avatar of mine?" a gentle female voice resounded in the ears of both the professor and Dolores: "Come to the temple, I've been expecting you."
"What the hell is happening here ..." Professor Atkinson took out the dark orb, and then found that the shimmering lights were jumping all over its surface, pointing to every direction possible.
"The One will have answers to your questions." the toad-like creature said: "Please proceed. It's impolite to keep The One waiting."
Professor Atkinson and Dolores took a look at the toad-like creature, the proceeded to head for the temple.
"And to answer your questions - yes, I am a minor spirit born here." the toad-like creature told them from behind.