- I'll do it - Said one of the members of the order, the man was tall, dark-skinned and robust complexion, lacked hair, always had a serious expression on his face, with his eyebrows moderately furrowed. The man approached him wandering, he stepped aside leaving the way free.
- Are you sure you know what you're doing?
- I wouldn't be standing here in front of you if I wasn't - The man took a deep breath, then releasing what would most likely be the deepest sigh of his life, he took a step, not a step away from walking through it.
- I'll see you on the other side - Those were his words before crossing the portal.
As he entered the place was quite green and lush, the smell of dampness penetrated his nose, the texture of the ground was soft. It looked like he was in a jungle, everyone else was on the other side watching the man's actions carefully, waiting for something to happen. The man turned for a moment to look at them, then gestured with his hand with a thumbs up as a sign that everything was in order, then simply walked further into the flora of the site. He spent approximately 10 minutes walking as he made his way through the undergrowth until he reached what appeared to be an immense field of flowers, he was at an elevated point, perhaps a mountain, the sun bathed the green and lush grass with its rays, while the clouds continued on their way quietly, there was no other presence of life but the flora of the site. The man took off the mask he had connected to an oxygen tank, at first he doubted if it was a good idea, until in the distance, a few meters away a couple of cardinals perched on the top of a tree, transmitting a deep feeling of peace while he heard their beautiful song. This gave him enough confidence to finally take off his mask, taking a deep breath while closing his eyes, as the wind hit his face. As he exhaled he let out a soft sigh, opening them slowly and with his forehead up looking at the horizon he called the base to report the status of the place.
- Base, this is Dwayne ... clear, too clear. The only signs of life I've managed to spot in the place are plants, insects and birds. We could do big things here.
After the communiqué Dwayne took one last look at the beautiful landscape in front of him, admiring it for a few moments before returning to the base. His message was well received by the team, several celebrated in their own way, some shook hands while others embraced and toasted with a glass of water, having succeeded in opening the portal not only showed them that their work had not been in vain, it also gave them a livable place with the necessary resources to regain the comfortable lifestyle they used to have before agreeing to join the project. They no longer needed to manage their food rations or drink water made from their own urine; that day they not only changed the rules of the game, their lives had changed as well.
The following years were the best for the order, they had managed to transport the orb into the new base of operations using their own energy to their advantage, with the help of devices known as "Rift Guns" (RG), guns charged with energy from the same, the firing device was charged by placing an orb on top that kept the zero charge contained, This device channeled the waves depending on the frequency emitted by the reality where it was, establishing the connection with the waves previously registered in the base reality, all the RG devices had as an anchor point the reality 0, place where they had migrated their old base. This was now underground, taking advantage of the natural protection it gave them, as well as blocking any type of signal from the outside. They could not risk that something or someone would try to throw away all the sacrifices made during the last years to make all this work.
The wanderer always kept that possibility in mind, so together with the rest they set to work on an effective defense system in case they ever had to fight to defend ground zero. The interior of the base was reinforced with concrete-reinforced steel, improved remote weapon systems such as automated turrets, energy shield barriers and two reset protocols in case all of the above were ineffective. Dwayne was the one who was supervising the development of these protocols, hand in hand with 2 members of the team in charge of carrying them out, at this point the order of the oath had reached the pinnacle as far as technological advances were concerned or that was what they believed. Despite all the progress they obtained in these last years and all the projects they were able to carry out such as improving the equipment of the members of the order of the oath and most importantly, the fact that they were able to improve the operating system of "Bridge", their biggest project to date. Thanks to the advances that were obtained by experimenting with other trips to other realities and the data collected by the RG devices, they were able to install a control panel where they stored in a huge list with frequencies of all the realities registered by the RGs of the Raiders. Creating a cloud storage system that remained within the Order's archives, forwarding the recorded information to the central "Bridge" server. However, despite this he felt unsatisfied, despite all they had, their discoveries, their equipment and even the power of the universe under their control, there was a thorn that kept him awake at night since that day when they were attacked by beings from an unknown reality, percussive monsters, rough-skinned, rock-hard brutes powered by fragments of four equal faces. At the head of their ranks was what appeared to be their leader, humanoid in appearance, wearing platinum armor, as well as markings on his face and completely purple skin. It was a difficult night for the order, at that time they had not had much time to move to this new world, they were almost completely vulnerable, had it not been for the natural defenses of ground zero, they would have lost more members than they were at first, a pretty low blow to the order, surviving only 15 members after what happened that night.
It was for this reason that led the wanderer to adopt a more tyrannical and categorical stance in the way he acted. They were no longer just suggestions, they were orders that had to be obeyed without grumbling, and he began to call himself "The Ageless"
This new form of leadership did not sit well with the team, most were unhappy with the new image of the man who years ago gave them the opportunity to contribute and be part of something bigger, now he was totally unrecognizable. Even so, despite their dissatisfaction, they preferred to stay by his side, not for pleasure, but because they had nowhere else to go, the only alternative being to escape from reality 0, something that at first hand was unthinkable, but as the months passed, this possibility stopped sounding like madness and began to become a hope.