Happy New Year!!!

***

Wind howled across the open sky as Arthur and Selene cut through the clouds like two streaks of light, one silver-blue, and one golden. The vast green forest stretched endlessly beneath them, with wide rivers glimmering faintly in the afternoon sun, and distant mountains appeared frequently on the horizon.

Arthur glanced sideways at Selene, her hair whipping in the wind, her expression calm but focused. He couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer and asked. “Alright,” he said over the rush of air, “where exactly are we going?”

Selene’s golden eyes flicked toward him, amused. “I heard from a group of explorers that a pocket dimension gate appeared north of here. Apparently, it needs multiple people channeling mana simultaneously to open.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow. “A pocket dimension inside the Ancient Realm?”

She nodded. “Weird, right?”

Arthur hummed thoughtfully. “Weird doesn’t even begin to cover it.” He adjusted his flight path slightly, following her lead. “The Ancient Realm itself is a pocket dimension. Creating another one inside it would require… absurd levels of spatial control.”

Selene smiled faintly, half teasing, and half curious. “You sound like you’ve done this before.”

“I’ve read about it,” Arthur said, his tone almost distant. “To stabilize a pocket dimension, you’d need precise control over spatial laws.” 

He had read in the Codice that to create and stabilize a pocket dimension it requires a huge amount of energy and knowledge of dimension forging. He knew the technical part as his dimensional storage works on a similar principle, but the physics behind them were entirely different.

The Krozonites created his dimensional storage by compressing space to a single point, without increasing gravity. A self-contained pocket that doesn’t collapse in on itself. It’s… science pushed so far it might as well be metaphysics.

But the ancient realm was created by an entirely different method, it wasn’t created through spatial compression at all. It was more like… it was cut from another dimension and inserted into Thyrandel.

Arthur continued, “And I believe this ancient realm already existed and was only grafted in the space of Thyrandel.”

Selene looked at Arthur with a confused look. “You think someone sliced a whole reality piece and stitched it in here?”

“Exactly.” His tone was flat, but there was a glint in his eyes. “That kind of dimensional work would need an energy source comparable to a star. It seems whoever, or whatever made this realm wasn’t playing around.”

Selene let out a low gasp hearing the amount of energy needed to stabilize this realm, it was humbling to know there were or are people who are strong enough to build and support the energy expenditure of this realm.

They flew in silence for a while, only the sound of the wind whipping between them. Arthur looked northward, scanning the horizon and asked. “So how long until we reach there? At your top speed, I mean.”

Selene thought for a second, doing some mental math. “At least five hours, if I go all out.”

Arthur grinned, his hand reaching for hers mid-flight. “Then let’s make that one.”

Selene looked at Arthur and asked with a bit of worry in her voice, “Would you be okay at that speed…”

Before she could finish, Arthur’s grip tightened gently around her hand, and said, “Don’t worry I can handle it.” 

Selene gave him a deep look and nodded. The next second the world blurred from Arthur’s perspective. The clouds split apart with a thunderclap as the two shot forward, breaking the sound barrier hundreds of times over.

The landscape below became a smear of colors, as the forest vanished behind them.

Selene’s voice echoed faintly in his mind. ‘Arthur! Are you okay?’

He laughed, the sound carried away by the roaring air. ‘You said five hours! I’m waiting!’

‘Idiot!’ she yelled back, but there was a smile on her lips.

…

By the time they neared the location, the forest had thinned into rough terrain, a wide, rocky plain littered with jagged stone spires jutting up like the teeth of an ancient beast. And above it all hung the gate.

A massive, circular portal floated a few meters above the ground, its surface shimmering like a crystalline pond. Symbols pulsed faintly across its edges, ancient and unreadable runes that twisted and rearranged themselves.

All around, groups of people had gathered. Dragons in their human forms, demons with dark horns and yellow eyes, elves with their signature calm expressions, humans in armor and mage robes, and all kinds of demi-humans, all crowded together, more than a thousand strong.

Most of them were at lower ranks, mages or martial artists, but Arthur quickly noticed the stronger ones by their aura. There were at least seventy Archmages who stood scattered across the field, their huge mana restrained in their small figures. There were also around twenty Grandmaster rank martial artists present among the crowd.

Arthur and Selene descended quietly, their landing barely disturbed the dust.

Dozens of heads turned towards them for a brief moment, with a lot of eyes sizing them up, gauging whether they were a threat or just two more competitors, but when no one recognized them as enemies, the crowd’s attention shifted back to the gate.

Arthur’s gaze swept across the field, and then he saw them.

Finn, Leon, Eva, Natalya, and Sophia stood near one of the rock formations, talking among themselves and with a group of people. Finn was halfway through explaining something with overly dramatic hand gestures while Leon stood beside him, trying and failing to look serious. 

Eva looked a bit different, she appeared a lot stronger, and calmer but still had that confident glint in her eyes. Natalya had her hands folded in front of her as she listened to the others, clearly still shy to express herself properly, and Sophia just shook her head, smiling quietly at Finn’s antics.

Arthur couldn’t help but smile faintly. “Well, look at that.”

Selene followed his gaze. “Are they friends of yours?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Come with me.” as he led Selene towards them while still holding her hands.

She hummed but didn’t object, following as he started walking toward them.

Finn was mid-story when he noticed the approaching figure. His eyes widened, and his jaw nearly dropped in a dramatic way as if he couldn’t believe Arthur could be alive. “Arthur?! You’re alive!”

Arthur raised an eyebrow. “Were you expecting otherwise?”

Finn’s grin widened as he smacked Arthur’s shoulder with a laugh. “Man, I thought you’d gotten eaten by some monster or worse, fallen for a demon woman or something.”

Arthur coughed as he glanced sideways towards Selene. “…About that.”

Selene side-eyed him.

Finn’s grin faltered. “Wait…who is she?” as he saw Arthur holding hands with the woman which he had ignored previously due to his excitement of seeing Arthur again after more than a week.

As Finn pointed it out, a blush creeped up Senele’s face as she hurriedly removed her hand from Arthur’s. And Arthur was going to explain before they guessed things wrongly when Leon intervened.

Leon stepped forward, shaking his head in amusement but smiling all the same. “It’s good to see you again, Arthur.”

Arthur nodded and gave a thumbs up to Leon inwardly for the save. “Likewise. Looks like you guys managed to survive this realm too.”

Sophia smiled warmly. “Barely. We all got separated right after entering the realm, but somehow, fate, or bad luck brought us back together.”

Eva crossed her arms. “Speak for yourself, I’ve been having a blast.”

Arthur chuckled. “Glad to see some things never change.”

Natalya bowed towards Arthur politely. “Hello Arthur. He’s been unbearable since he found out he could fly.” As she looked towards Finn.

“Flying’s awesome!” Finn protested.

Selene smiled faintly at the banter. She’d heard about Arthur’s companions from his mouth before but seeing them together made it clearer of the bond between them.

Finn, as if remembering something, pointed a finger at Arthur, “Hey! Are you trying to ignore my question!?”

Arthur sighed and introduced Selene, “Everyone, this is Selene, she is from the Drakmire continent. And Selene, these are my friends from the academy.”

Selene gave a short bow and said, “Hello.” The others also greeted her politely, but didn’t ask further questions as this was not the right place to talk.

The girls looked at Selene with stars in their eyes, at how beautiful she was, and they had already positioned her as Arthur’s girlfriend after seeing them holding hands.

Meanwhile, Finn grumbled and complained in a low voice about not getting a girlfriend even after nearly a year at the academy.

Arthur tried his best to ignore the looks his friends were giving him and glanced at the massive gate once more. “So, what’s the story here?”

Leon stepped forward, his tone shifting to something more serious. “The gate appeared about two days ago. No one’s been able to open it yet. The runes are ancient, possibly from the era of the gods. Some think it leads to another part of the Ancient Realm, others believe it’s a sealed dungeon.”

Finn scratched his chin. “Or maybe it’s where all the real treasure’s hiding.”

“Or death,” Eva added with a grin.

Arthur folded his arms. “Either way, we will find out soon.” As he could guess from the runes, it was a medium to transfer energy, and with sufficient energy the gate could be opened. And he guessed many others here had also figured that out by now.

Selene nodded beside him, her aura suppressed so as the others from the dragon clan didn’t recognise her with Arthur, as she was wearing a disguise.

Finn’s grin returned. “Of course we are. Wouldn’t be us if we didn’t run straight into the most dangerous thing around.”

Leon sighed as he looked at Finn. “And somehow, we’re still following him.”

Finn grumbled. “Hey! Look at the bright side, I led you guys to treasures.”

Sophia shook her head, smiling slightly. “Let’s just hope this time we don’t end up nearly dying in the first five minutes.”

Finn just scratched his head in embarrassment as the others laughed.

…

As the evening sun dipped low, painting the sky in streaks of gold and crimson, the thousand gathered warriors began to form circles around the gate. Groups aligned, mana started to surge, and faint ripples of energy shot through the air as people began channeling their power toward the runes.

Arthur stood with Selene and his friends at the edge of the inner ring, watching as the symbols along the gate’s surface started to grow brighter.

The air grew heavier. The runes began spinning slowly, light coalescing into the center of the circular frame.

Selene looked at Arthur. “This gate feels… wrong.”

Arthur nodded slightly, his eyes fixed on the forming light. “Yeah. I feel it too.”

Finn frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Arthur’s expression darkened. “Be extremely careful once you are on the other side of the gate.”

A hush fell over the crowd as the gate finally opened. And whatever lay beyond that gate… was extremely dangerous.

***

——————————: END OF BOOK III :——————————

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