After thoroughly observing the surroundings and making sure that there were no dangers present, I finally made my first step forward. Even though my every move was overfilled with doubt and caution, I did not feel any change within my body or basic rules of nature. I was able to breathe here, no direction was alien to me, I witnessed the delirious sights along with eyes in the darkest corners just fine, all I could hear was a monotonous buzz as well as a faint clatter somewhere far away. But then I noticed that I could not really smell anything, besides my own natural smell. It was rather unpleasant as I did not change my clothes for quite a while. I did not have any spares, only shorts and pants I received from that village. To think about it, Nila also never changed her clothes ever since I met her, however, she always smelled rather pleasant. Was it due to elven physiology, or she was able to make it clean using magic?
"What am I thinking about? I should move forward." I whispered under my nose, and so I did, taking a few more steps forward. I was going in the direction of the hallway that did not connect to anywhere, it was just a rectangular hole in the space that happened to have thin walls around it. Nila mentioned that I should not diverge too much from the main path, thus I made absolutely sure to not even shake my head too much.
It was a rather dubious task, since I could not help but be on my guard about those eyes all around the barrier. Just what exactly were those? They did not come closer, but were observing my every movement and even moved along with my own journey forward. Once I entered the hallway, there were no longer any eyes inside, only walls, and ceiling of the same red and green colour. Even though there was not any source of light, I was perfectly able to see even the lightest strokes of white pattern that broke down the boring appearance of those walls. Besides that, I was not able to see where this hallway led, the end of it was swallowed by darkness. I did not have any choice but to move forward, luckily, this road was a lot more straightforward than I expected.
To be frank, I was awaiting the worst upon my first arrival in the barrier. It looked so bizarre, so otherworldly even compared to the Schöltum region that was literally another world, but the joy of exploration was cut short, to my disappointment. As I traversed through the empty hallway, the darkness became more apparent the deeper I went and once my eyes could barely catch the light, I made my final step before feeling once more the breeze of the real world. It was still dark as we escaped from Wiskoschia during the night, thus I could not really see much, however, once I turned my face to the left, I noticed a faint glow deep in the forest.
I dashed towards that light, keeping in mind Nila's instructions for our meeting. It was a fair assumption that I happened to be in the monster realm now, that I should be on guard. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, compared to forests and plains back in the human realm, but perhaps, the night dumbed down my perception enough to not simply notice the difference. The only head scratching part was the lack of the city itself behind my back, as if it never actually existed. The only proof of human existence at this place was a small wooden sign that I barely noticed before going on the run.
While on the run, I kept my gasps low, as I did not know what kind of beasts could dwell in this place. Upon remembering the dreadful look of darewolfs and puppets that lured unsuspected individuals into the stomach of a carnivorous plant, I took out my newly stolen knife, or rather dagger. My heart rate did not dwindle what-so-ever, it was still in a rapid beat as I was certain that any encounter in such a scenario would be a dead end for me. All I could do for now was to follow the light and… pray to the very goddess I should slay. It would help if Solitaire could at least guide me through his snarly comments, but as always, he was never present at the time of need.
Soon enough, I escaped the grassland and dived into the forest, my eyes still locked on the light that became brighter with every step. The surroundings were disturbingly quiet, which I noticed only after going this far. It probably was not uncommon during the night, but even back in the Schöltum region, there were at least cackles of insects and night birds spewing from left and right. With my instincts I felt that something was not right, yet with my head I understood that safety was closer than ever as I finally saw the source of light along with the female figure who was collecting sticks from around the place.
"Nila!" I exclaimed, to which she quickly turned her head and greeted me with a waving motion of her hand. Then, her hand dropped while her expression turned serious. I finally heard the first of nature besides the gust of wind in this place. That was faint rustling coming from every direction, this sound closed onto me quite swiftly, making Nila yell, "Dusk, faster!"
She summoned her staff and fired a few Sham spells towards me, of course, those did not hit me, but rather the things that produced this sound. The leaves under my feet were blasted away from Nila's spells, and from them black liquid gushed onto me like a fountain. The moment I lowered my gaze, I saw dozens of centipedes of varying sizes. Most of those were not much larger than the length of my hand, however, some were the size of my whole body! Their bodies were covered in leafs and tree barks, the ones Nila hit were the longest and closest to my legs. I accelerated even further at this sight, my body felt lighter than ever.
"What the fuck are those!?" I screamed and finally stepped into the light of Polaris. As I reached her side, Nila removed her staff and sighed, "That's right, as someone who spent their entire life in the Schöltum region, you would not know of the dangers of the monster realm."
"Is this really the time to have a chat?" I drew my dagger and stood my guard, but immediately noticed that centipedes did not pass past the light of Polaris, most were stationed in the same place and some were circling around us, but none actually tried to break through.
At that moment I remembered that Nila already used Polaris to scare off animals or something along those lines. It seemed like this method of safe keeping works even in the monster realm, which she confirmed shortly after with a proud grin, "There is no need to worry, as long as we are in the light of Polaris, they would not dare to attack us. In the end, species of the monster realm are usually terrified of the display of magic."
"Is that so?..."
"That's right, but I did not expect Pleuropods to greet us of all things, I guess they are in their breeding season."
Now it made sense why I had not heard any other animal around, nature itself avoided this horrific sight in its highest numbers.
"Anyway, since we are here…" Nila turned towards me and opened her arms to proclaim, "Welcome to the monster realm, the source of most cryptids as well as campfire stories from every culture!"