Chapter 500 - Wait, You Mean We Only Just Got To Another Plane?
(MC POV)
I came back to a rather sorry sight.
If it was that crazy girl, I don't think any of the monsters could fight her one on one if she had her full strength.
Scratch that, if she had her strength in the Cloud Plane, she could wipe this entire place out of existence easily if she wanted to.
So the fact that she only threw aside or froze everyone that tried to stop her meant that she isn't at that level yet. Good news because that meant I could still probably take her on if I needed to fight her, bad news because I have no idea how she's getting stronger.
I used both my healing pills and healing Technique to heal everyone as best as I could, at least there was no one in need of resurrection this time.
They were protesting against me wasting my healing pills on them when they couldn't die but no way I can just let them 'die' like that, right? They did tell me they still feel pain even if they were immortal, so unnecessary suffering is a big no no in my book.
Thankfully, most of them were only restrained by some kind of immobilizing Technique which even affected Shiori and Akari to a degree.
They managed to break out of it on their own but by then she had already blown past them.
And the target for her assault was…
"The portal huh… Can't say I'm surprised," I mused, looking down at the stairs.
"Yes… Divine One…" Benjamin confirmed, looking quite anxious.
The monsters had filled the entire stairway again with rocks and even poured sand into it, but that crazy girl just blasted the entire thing away to get to the portal.
I reached up and waved my hand, releasing Thomas from being stuck on the ceiling.
The giant Behemoth landed beside me, bowing his head and immediately apologizing for failing his duties.
I patted him and gave him a few words of assurance before turning back to regard the main problem.
"The portal's still up, huh… I would have thought it was a one person and done thing, which would usually be the case," I commented, crossing my arms. "Did she say anything though?"
Benjamin nodded, "She did… But it was some language that we've never heard before, it sounded like gibberish."
Yep, that's her alright. There is no one in existence that I know of that ever knew what she was talking about.
I thought maybe she was speaking in some unknown monster language but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Guess she really is just crazy.
You know what's worse than getting tortured by some crazy, demented girl? Getting tortured by a crazy, demented girl who keeps shouting in a language you don't understand at you. You don't even know how to stop the torture or why she's even doing it.
Glad I left those days behind.
"What should we do now, Divine One?" Thomas asked, finally lifting his head from the floor. "Should we go after her?"
I raised my eyebrow, "Huh? What for? She went through the portal of her own accord. Got nothing else to do with us. Just plug the hole back and call it a day."
Saying that, I turned around to leave, only to see everyone staring at me, surprised by my words.
I raised my eyebrow at them, "What?"
"We… We thought Divine One would want to go through the portal or something…" Stephanie admitted, poking her bony fingers together.
"Why would I want to do that? It's not like we own the portal and charge people for using it in the first place. She's gone to another Plane and most likely wouldn't come back anyway. No reason for me to actually go there now, right?"
"I… I guess Divine One has a point."
"Erm… But Divine One might want to take a look at this though… The intruder dropped this while going through the portal..." Benjamin told me, pulling out something from his sleeve.
He passed what looks like a piece of paper to me, worry clear on his face.
A little confused as to why this was something he brought up to me specifically, I took a look at the paper's contents.
The paper turned out to be a drawing of me, or at least a person that looked like me.
I looked at him skeptically, "She dropped this?"
Benjamin nodded, "I tried to pull her back at the last moment when she was going through the portal… But all I did was tear off a part of her cloak and that was the one thing that dropped with it."
Stephanie poked her hands together, "We thought… She might have been Divine One's acquaintance… And we mistakenly raised our hands against her…"
I shook my head, "No, she's definitely not a friend. I'm more surprised that she has this though… But I do not think it's a drawing of me."
True, the facial features look similar to mine, but the man in the drawing had short hair compared to my longer one. If you took a closer look at the drawing, you'll realise that the man had sharper features than me.
"Mind if I keep this?" I asked Benjamin.
"Of course not, Divine One."
I stored the drawing into my storage ring, now my curiosity is piqued.
I turned back to look at the portal, considering my options and the risks that I might take.
Maybe…
Maybe I should just pop in there, follow her around for a bit just to see what she's doing?
"Don't suppose anyone of you has some rope?" I requested.
Surprisingly, someone had a coil of it on hand and passed it to me reverently.
I picked up a piece of rock that was laying by the side and used one end of the rope to tie it, making sure that it wouldn't come flying off when I tossed it.
Satisfied, I held on to the other side of the rope and threw the rock into the portal, the projectile disappearing into it without a sound.
I waited for a few seconds before tugging on the rope, pulling the rock back through the portal without any issues.
Hmm… So it's a two way portal, this is convenient.
But still, no reason not to be safe I suppose.
I summoned a clone of myself and directed him to pass through the portal with the instruction of returning right after they came out from the other side.
He marched through it and several tense seconds passed before he returned, looking absolutely fine.
"Shiori, Akari," I called out, the two foxes immediately directing their attention to me after being called. "I'll be heading in there for a bit, just to look around. In the unlikely event that I don't come back immediately, get in touch with my disciples and tell them about this place and what happened to me."
Shiori lowered her head, "Is this… Wise? Divine One?"
"You can trust them if that's what you're asking, they won't tell a soul about you guys living here."
Last time they thought I went missing, the country went to war, after all. So I think this is worth the risk.
"It's not that, Divine One, this place is your Sanctuary after all, we will never turn away anyone who believes in Divine One. What I meant was for you to go through alone."
I shrugged, "Even if something goes wrong on the other side, I can manage. Don't think you guys are able to find your way back here in the event you get stranded there, right?"
Everyone shook their heads.
I smiled at them, "I'm just going to go in for a bit to look around. Someone help me tie that rope around my waist."
Benjamin volunteered and took the rope I had used on the rock to fasten it securely around my waist, giving it a tug to ensure it was tight before nodding to me.
I looked back at everyone who was still looking at me worriedly.
"Relax, in and out. Twenty minute adventure, easy. I'll be back before you know it," I assured them.
"Take care, Divine One."
With that, I stepped through the portal gingerly, making sure the rope stayed on me.
My vision flashed white before clearing up to show me what seems to be a featureless plain.
Hmm… Weird place for a teleporter to be.
Right, I'll just take note of the portal location and fly around to see what…
I looked behind me to see the distinct lack of a portal, the rope that should have connected me back to the Earthen Plane severed.
Fuck.