Once the order was given, the soldiers jumped into action.
Some went towards the circular gate and began to operate its operation keyboard that was located at its sides.
The others began to connect the large transparent metallic tubes that were rooted in the ground, to the circular portal gate structure.
A few moments later the metallic tubes began glow with a white light that moved from the ground to the circular gate structure.
The empty space on the circular gate structure, was instantly filled with dazzling swirling yellow light.
Once this light appeared, a large attraction force began to emerge from the circular gate structure, the dazzling yellow light began to swirl in a circular motion.
The middle aged soldier who was standing a few meters away from the portal suddenly beckoned the two boys to approach the gate structure.
Zack and Leon cautiously approached the dazzling yellow light with squinted eyes.
As they moved further towards the large gate, the suction and attraction force that was coming from the portal would grow stronger.
The two boys experiencing the attraction force finally reached the gate structure.
They have been instructed beforehand to jump into the yellow light, once they reached the portal gate.
Under the guide of the attraction force of the portal, Leon and Zack jumped from the ground reaching into the portal.
The moment they made contact with the yellow light, they vanished into thin air and the soldiers who were near the power switch of the portal gate, turned off the switch, closing the portal in the process.
After he jumped into the portal, Zack suddenly experienced a weird tingling sensation. His mind was assailed with dizziness, in his field of vision, he saw a world of dazzling yellow light.
The attraction force of the gate structure, seemed to hold him and pull him towards an unknown place.
After a few seconds of flying in this dazzling yellow world, Zack finally had a change of scenery, alas a very familiar scenery.
Zack suddenly found himself descending from the yellow world and suddenly appear inside a dimly lit basement while being sitted on a wooden chair.
The gas mask that he was wearing before the portal jump was nowhere to be seen.
Before the spectacled vision of the young dark haired boy there was a long wooden table with a few scientifically steam powered items scattered on its surface.
On the other side of the table there was an old man with messy gray white hair, donning a pair of brown metallic googles with golden eye lenses.
Zack had emrged inside the weird basement , that he had seen in his dreams a few days ago.
Once he was inside the dimly lit room, the old man on the other end of the table, suddenly claped his hands and spoke with a relieved tone,
"Finally a success, l was starting to believe that it was a failure"
Still disoriented by weird sensational space travel, Zack could only say one word,
"What?
The old man waved him off and said emotionally,
"Oh don't mind the weird ramblings of this old man. We actually have more pressing matters to discuss and our time is limited"
Zack was too confused to even talk, so he just remained silent, letting the old man talk.
"Firstly, l want to congratulate you on surviving the week. Truth be told l was a bit skeptical of your survival chances and its good see that l was proven wrong.
Sadly we don't have time to celebrate, for the true danger has yet to come and you are still not out of harms way.
As l said before, l am going to give you a task since you managed to survive.
The task l am enlisting you is that you become an awakened before the emergence of the second fall.
If you manage to complete this task, l will reward you with a solution to your troubling situation, of that Arsonic curse"
Zack at this point had regained his composure and was now more attentive to the conversation.
Once he heard the words of the old man tasking him to awaken just before the second fall, he was starting to think that the man was crazy and was about to rebuke him for his insanity. The act of awakening as far as Zack has always known was not a process that could be influenced upon, instead it was a process that was random and unnatural. No one could choose to be a awakened, it was the awakening itself that chose the person. So when he heard the old man's words he couldn't help but regard them as insanity.
It was only after hearing about the solution to his curse, that made him not rebuke the man's insanity and willingly lend an ear to his words.
"You-have a solution to my curse? asked Zack with a surprised tone.
"The old simply nodded and said,
"Yes I do, although the method is not perfect and has its few flaws, l am confident in solving some of the bad traits of that curse.
Anyways thats if you manage to complete my task"
Zack didn't know whether he should laugh or cry in this situation.
The solution to his curse was finally in his reach but at the same time the task of obtaining it was an inconceivable one, that he was not confident in achieving.
Knowing full well of the inconceivability of the task at hand, Zack suddenly voiced out in despair,
"How-how can l even complete that task. Its not like one can just decide to be an awakened and then become an awakened just like that"
The old man laughed when he heard the young man's words, and said,
"Well that's your own problems to solve young, l can't help with that one"
Before Zack could despair more, the old man added,
"l will give you a hint in the matter though, in order for you to awaken, you need to assimilate the power of possibility of that B ranked mystical item of yours. That's the only way you can awaken.
Zack was suddenly perplexed and asked once again,
"What do you mean by assimilate the power of possibility-is that even possible"
The replied casually,
"Ofcourse it is, if not why would l even waste my breath talking about it"
.At this moment the basement suddenly experienced a tremor.
The old many suddenly turned quiet and stared at the ceiling.
A few moments later another tremor resurfaced again.
The shook his head at this moment and said it seems we are out of time.
After saying those words, he retrieved one of the scattered steam powered objects on the wooden table.
The item was a metallic clock that was interconnected with steam tubes on its sides and had steam air sack at its back.
Once he took the clock the old man pressured the air sack on the back of the clock and the clock began to emit steam.
A distant ringing sound suddenly sounded from the clock and the world before Zack began to change. A few moments later he was standing on a solid ground under the vigilant watch of a group of armoured soldiers, with a gas mask on his face.
Leon was just beside him simply with a confused expression displayed on his face. Zack didn't know whether this was because of the space jump or if the young awakened had met the old scientist too, after all the man was practically the leader of his organization, surely he would want to meet up with him.
Behind the two boys, there was a metallic gate structure similar to the one that they had just emerged from.
Just a few meters ahead of them Zack noticed a fortified area with large walls and tall concrete buildings.
This was probably the military academy.
While Zack was busy scanning the surroundings, a tall youthful soldier with curly brown suddenly approached them.
"Welcome to Academy base number 43, l am captain Sterling of the exploration unit and l will be your welcome guide"
After the man introduced himself he began to explain the rules of the Academy, its rules and the classes they were supposed to attend.
"This military academy is one of the sixty three structured academic bases of the Union army.
Before the fall of the dimesnal border, it was used to train upcoming militants of the Union army and now its now serve the purpose of preparing humanity for the Anomaly.
The rules of the academy are very simple and straightforward, no killing allowed outside the dueling ring, discipline is a must for all students and weakness is a sin at this school.
Now here at the academy, you will be subjected into various study categories based on your talents, but there will be one main study that will be mandatory for everyone and that's combat class"
When Zack heard these words, he couldn't help but curse his luck, ofcourse he knew that once he was in the military academy he would be subjected to combat class.
After the young soldier was done with his explanation, he led the two boys to the academy base.
The two boys treaded slowly behind the soldier as they followed him into the base.
They passed the large brown gate that served as the entrance of gate.
Unlike the other gates that Zack usually saw the area did not have any soldiers stationed to guard it.
Once they were near the large brown metallic gate, the gears of the gate began reverberate, automatically opening in the process.
Once open Zack and Leon were surprised to see the scene of area inside.