The water bubbled up, giving off a torrent of mud along with the sparks in it. The lumps began to rise, as high as one meter and above. As Daniel Storm squinted to confirm the truth of the object he was seeing, someone called out to him from behind.
"Dan! Dan! Come over here! It's time to go home! Uncle Ted will kill me if you don't come home soon." She was Wendy, Daniel's cousin who lived under the same roof as him. Her very thin body seemed to be shuffling among the damp grass beside Musi Lake, a lake that was the pride of Noland City because of its abundant water sources.
Recently, however, the water level had suddenly dropped drastically, and some of the lake's edges had begun to dry up uncertainly. No one knew in detail what was going on, experts were heard to be researching the situation.
Daniel was reluctant to turn his head to Wendy. He was still squinting at the sight of the water that was starting to shrink. If only he had binoculars, maybe he would immediately know what was going on in the middle of the lake. Maybe it could be used as homework for him because it meant that he had to start setting aside his allowance to buy binoculars, another useless thing that was always criticized by Uncle Ted who was very disciplined.
"Dan!" Now Wendy had arrived right behind Daniel's back. Seeing her cousin who focused his eyes in one direction, Wendy did the same. However, her forehead frowned because she did not find the slightest strange thing in the distance. "What are you looking at?"
In a very serious voice, Daniel replied, "Nothing. Only birds are drowning." Without noticing Wendy at all, he had turned around to go home immediately.
Wendy was right. Daniel must go home immediately otherwise Wendy would be in trouble, on the one hand, Daniel would also be in bigger trouble. Uncle Ted could do all sorts of unpleasant things when he was angry. He could have infiltrated Daniel's room and confiscated everything in it, as a form of proper punishment.
For now, Daniel must not lose his stuff, he would keep all of his notes well in a drawer. And neither anyone was not allowed to read his notes, or everyone would think him crazy.
"I'm not sure you found the drowning bird in the middle of Musi Lake earlier. Come on quickly tell me, what do you see?" Wendy urged in that hopping gait. Attached to her body was a long-sleeved shirt with stripes of various colors. Her curly hair made her thin face look even more pathetic.
"I only saw that." Daniel looked back at Musi Lake. In one flash of shadow, his sharp eyes had found a long, scaly claw that sprinkled out of the water. It was one of the water monsters that had just risen to life, only that it had not yet risen in perfect shape.
At the time of awakening, the imperfect monsters would only live like spirits, without bodies that could be seen with the naked eye. The spirit could only be seen by a few creatures, and not all monsters could see the spirits of others.
Daniel's eyes widened, looking a little shudder and pale. This was not the first time he had encountered strange things in Musi Lake. A few days earlier, Daniel noticed that dozens of throats suddenly floated and then sank without a trace.
For all of this to happen, Daniel was still researching the cause of it all.
But the task became more difficult to find answers because the problem was that not everyone saw what Daniel saw. Not everyone felt, heard, smelled, and was able to touch what Daniel touched. Whatever it was, Daniel knew that something was wrong going on in Musi Lake.
The core of the universe in his body had given him the energy to see and feel all of this, making him more sensitive than any other being, even more, sensitive than the exterminators of the Sotah world who were still rampant on earth and living in various unknown places.
"Again you look back. Did you find the drowning bird again?" asked Wendy stupidly. The freckles on her face were getting gloomy as it was getting dark. The silhouettes of the two of them fell and stretched when they were at the entrance to Musi Lake in the north.
"Nothing," said Daniel, who was pondering many things.
Wendy snapped her fingers. "Ah, I know. Don't tell me you're here to watch monsters rise from their graves? Don't tell me you're here for a monster that you research."
Daniel did not answer at all when Wendy, who was taller than him, now pushed his body backward very hard. "Oh come on, Dan! Uncle Ted will punish you if he finds out about this. He already said that in this world there were no monsters. If there were any, the experts would have found them.
"If you insist on seeing strange things, I'll bet that it's a ghost! Right. it must be a ghost. "
Daniel did not answer anything because he felt that it would only waste his energy. For those who do not believe, then whatever Daniel would say would still be considered foolish.
Their two feet walked without stopping, on the damp grass which had begun to warm slightly as they approached the city center. Wendy kept on rambling on and Daniel was preoccupied with his thoughts.
Until finally Wendy grimaced and held Daniel's arm because she was trembling. Daniel, who had just lost his thoughts, now began to look up. "What is wrong?" asked Daniel casually.
Wendy's face started to turn pale, and even her nose, which was often flushed from the humidity, With a trembling voice, Wendy stammered, "W - where is this? Why did we get here? "
Daniel immediately flashed his eyes. His cotton jacket wrapped around him for sure. His sneakers had become a pedestal for his body to turn around.
Now they were in the forest, with a lot of trees. Daniel did not remember any forest like this in the city, or around Lake Musi. Not to mention the sound of screams everywhere, as well as broken branches as if they could speak. And there was a strange feeling in Daniel's body as he stood in the forest, half of his body as if he had fallen asleep.
The energy in the portal was still enough to swallow him up, if the core in his body couldn't awaken then he wouldn't be able to fully awake.
"Wendy, listen! Did you hear something?" exclaimed Daniel with focused eyes and ears.
Beside him, Wendy was already crying. "No, I didn't hear anything. All I can hear is that my heart is starting to go crazy. How do we get out of here? I didn't even have a cell phone with me." Wendy as an ordinary human would not be able to distinguish whether she was on earth or in a portal to an undefined realm.
"Cell phones are useless here," muttered Daniel, which made Wendy confused. Amid the confusion, Daniel did not explain in detail the meaning of his words.
He only knew that he was in another portal that technology would not be able to grasp. The only reason why Daniel and Wendy were trapped there was that the wave of the portal was forming a strong vortex so that it opened.
And another reason was that there was a creature on the portal that deliberately opened the door of another dimension. The creature that Daniel had encountered before when he was seven years old. A monster with a giant body, with very sharp horns that swirled and was ready to rip the body to death. Daniel still remembered his thick aura, including the scent of burnt smoke that always wafted from his body.
Crackle!
Wendy jumped up and cried uncontrollably on the damp ground. The surrounding shady trees suddenly seemed to narrow and seemed to surround them. Each branch was slowly seen moving, forming a pinch ready to lead two teenagers to a predator's stomach.
Bright red flames caught in Daniel's sense of vision. A long silhouette fell on the trembling ground. Just then Daniel put his stance on, grabbed a baseball stick in his backpack, he was ready for battle.
"Come here, Monster!" Daniel hissed determinedly.
***