A thousand years ago, a legendary wizard completely tore down a Transition Door but without receiving any response from the Grand Demon who built the door. Since then, other wizards believed that it might be dead, or at least it would not come back to bother people anymore.
Each Transition Door kept a fraction of the Grand Demon’s might, but such residue had no effect on anything.
“All guards shall assist me in opening the door. Everyone else, stay behind and wait,” Sennefer declared.
By those words, she meant to literally push the door open. Only a group of people with enough strength could succeed.
Wizards believed that the Grand Demon built the doors to protect creatures in outer levels so that the weak ones could not carelessly wander into deeper levels and get slaughtered.
Sennefer used to open the door by herself. But in her weakened state, she had to ask several guards to help her.
As the door slowly but surely opened ajar, Angor curiously peeked through the gap to see what was waiting beyond it. To his disappointment, he only saw a foggy wall.
He always thought that people needed to jump down some ladders or a pit to descend to the next level. Now he was no longer sure about it. Perhaps the different levels of the Abyss Plane were parallel dimensions connected by portals.
“Saw something wrong?” Madelyne saw Angor’s confused look.
“Erm, is the Abyss like the Fairy World, with many different dimensions existing on top of one another?”
“Not quite. The Midworld and the Otherworld of the Fairy World are restricted by the outermost Real World. But here in the Abyss, different levels are independent of each other. You can see them as different planes, which is not wrong. When the Abyss Plane came into being, an unknown rule of this world aligned these levels in a certain way. But other than that, they do not affect each other.
“What I said might not be correct though. Heck, even the most dedicated researchers can not definitely explain how the Abyss works.”
As they spoke, the Transition Door opened wide enough for the team to go through. But as soon as the guards canceled their support, the door began closing up slowly.
“Get in the queue and enter the door as fast as you can. Leave no one behind!”
Hearing Sennefer’s order, all wizards and apprentices hurried that way and dived into the fog.
Angor also put his questions away and steered his Gondola toward the door.
They spent half a minute moving across the impenetrable fog before they saw light again.
It was a snowfield. Apart from endless whiteness that stretched toward all directions and chilly wind that hurt their nostrils, there was nothing else in sight.
“Are we at level 3 now?” Angor focused and felt the primal mana around him getting more violent than ever. It would be extremely hard to meditate here.
The general environment didn’t feel much different than before. The sky was gloomy, and the wind was depressingly ominous.
Without stopping, the team kept moving forward, with the union guards paving the path for everyone.
After flying for another hour, they reached a lone shelter in the middle of the snow, which was an abandoned church-like structure called the Winter Palace of Nilehelm. It looked like a gathering place of religion, though the statues of vicious monsters and gargoyles sitting on the roof suggested that whoever was being worshiped here wasn’t the kind type.
At least the inside of the building was free from cold air, which was comforting.
“The Winter Palace of Nilehelm is an important transportation hub of the union. From here, we’ll split up and go different ways depending on what we came to the Abyss for.”
“The team is disbanding then?” Angor frowned.
Madelyne nodded with a serious look. “I don’t have to mention that fewer people meant less protection, right? Didn’t Leona give you some Nether Balm perfume? Once we start moving, you can use it.”
When most people found places to rest in the palace, Sennefer took several guards and left through the door.
Maher gathered the remaining guards as he explained to everyone, “Miss Sennefer is off to contact phantom beasts who’ll carry us to our respective destinations. The supply we’re carrying should be delivered to eight outposts at the front line, including the Twin Guard Tower at the Machine Gate, Port Kodo at the Spiral Water, the Escarpment Shelter at the depth of the Ruination Cave, the Overwatch Base at the edge of the Prominent Forest...”
Maher began assigning subsequent jobs to apprentices according to the quests they accepted. As for wizards, they either had their own plans or were following other orders given by their organizations, so Maher did not need to mind them.
With everything planned, people quieted down again to wait for their new transportation.
Meanwhile, Angor learned about these outposts with the help of Madelyne and Brofen.
These outposts were all built close to the entrances to deeper levels. The one Angor was heading to was the “Overwatch Base”, which was one of the most dangerous one, according to Brofen, because a demon castle was just beyond the entrance the outpost was watching.
In other words, if a demon from the castle wished to come to level 3, the first place they needed to get past was the Overwatch Base.
“The base is heavily guarded by many truth-finders, including Mister Phantom and Mister Eventide,” said Brofen.”If all goes to plan, that’s where Sennefer will go as well, so you don’t have to worry about demons.”
“Sennefer is heading to the Overwatch Base?” asked Madelyne. “Isn’t she going to find Mister Monkey and remove the curse on her?”
“*Sigh* Of course she wants to do that. However, Mister Monkey is staying at the deeper levels right now and does not stay at a fixed spot for too long. If he doesn’t contact us, we’ll not be able to find him at all.”
“Man. I thought he would always stay at the HQ of Moonfrost. So what’s going to happen to Sennefer?”
“The only way I can see is her waiting to get back to the wizarding world so that she can find someone else for help. But that won’t happen any time soon because we need to wait for the ‘downtime’ to pass before we can use the plane tunnel again.”
They suddenly heard a sharp noise coming from the outside that sounded like a blade cutting through the air, which was followed by the loud call of an eagle.
Brofen looked that way. “As expected. Garrosh is the first to arrive.”
Maher stood up and announced, “Garrosh is here. Those who are going to the Escarpment Shelter shall leave right now.”
Following the departing group, Angor also came outside and saw the phantom beast named “Garrosh”.
It was an... eagle. A really large one. By standing there, it easily towered above the Winter Palace and prevented drifting snow from reaching the building.
There was a fortified house built on its flat back. One of the union guards who left with Sennefer earlier was up there urging people to climb on.
About fifty apprentices and six wizards boarded the creature, after which Garrosh spread its gigantic wings and took to the air before Angor could get a full view of its magnificence.
The ground suddenly began to quake. In the distance, a red, horned scorpion even larger than Garrosh was rapidly crawling toward the palace.
“That’s Loccatann,” said Brofen. “It will take us to the Twin Guard Tower.”
One by one, several enormous phantom beasts came and each carried a group away.
“Aren’t you going to leave with them?” Madelyne saw Brofen looking at another leaving phantom beast, which had Maher on its back.
Brofen grinned. “Didn’t I tell you that I’m going to the Overwatch Base as well?”
“What for? You’re like, an important researcher in the union, not a fighter.”
“Take a guess.”
Madelyne suddenly put on an angry look. “Don’t you tell me—”
“Woah, easy there. It’s not like I’m going to bother you anyway.”
“Humph. Let’s hope so.”