Mystical Journey

In the north-east direction of what used to be Daniela, among the thick forest near the sea, in an underground base headed towards the depths of the world.

Among the dense forests, there was a lonely little town with very few people.

Looking down from above, amidst the forest as thick as a green ocean, the town was like an irregular yellow spot, clear as can be.

There was no sign of anyone in the town, everything around was surrounded by thick vines and grasses, from afar, the houses and buildings in the town looked like they were covered by a layer of sticky green liquid, and some was even flowing down from the roofs.

Walking inside for a look, he saw a curtain of dense green moss and vines, and the ones drooping down from the roofs were some long leafy vines.

Dressed fully in pitch-black, Garen walked into the town slowly.

This was once an entrance into the underground world, countless totem users going in and out had formed a busy town for trade and exchanging supplies.

And now, this place was merely a deserted wasteland.

Walking slowly down the town's streets, he would occasionally sense some movement darting through the thickets of dense foliage by the main streets, there seemed to be something small dashing past at high speeds.

The sky was dark and heavy with clouds, as though it could rain at any time.

Garen raised his head to look at the sky, his hands in his trouser pockets, as he walked slowly toward a house on the left with some worn and torn cloth hanging outside.

There was some blurry writing on the large red horizontal sign that he could not read clearly, and some black bugs he could not name were crawling over it slowly.

The house was still intact, just the doors and windows were all destroyed.

Garen pushed open the half a door casually, and walked into the house.

A stench of mold assaulted his nose, it was completely dim inside the house, and there was green moss all over the floor.

It had been three days since he came to this town, and he had not discovered anything, but he still did not leave.

He had indeed found the entrance into the underground, but unfortunately that entrance had been completely obscured a long time ago. After digging for more than a day and getting nothing in return, he simply gave up.

It had been three days, after one more day, he will leave this place. That was his plan.

Standing in the moldy house, Garen just stood in the doorway, raising his head to look at the sky outside the door, his heart completely calm.

Boom…

The deep sound of thunder came from the distant skies, and the sky began to grow even darker.

"It's going to rain…" Garen murmured instinctively, in this place with no other traces of human presence, he seemed to be talking to himself. But he also seemed to be talking to someone else.

"Yeah, it's going to rain…"

Suddenly there was another voice behind him.

Garen's expression froze for a second, and he turned around, deep in the darkness of the house, a huge silhouette appeared.

It was a grey-brown Mantis, a full two meters tall.

A giant Mantis dressed like a human. It just stood there in the darkness, only revealing its head, as it stared at Garen peacefully.

"Garen, it's me."

Garen's gaze intensified, he recognized this voice. Although it was old and weak, it was indeed exactly the same as that familiar voice from back then.

"Sun God King…"

This was the Divine God Palace Master that had explored the Shadow Ruins together with them.

Whooshhh…

In an instant, the rain poured down from the sky.

By the time he recovered, the man and the Mantis were already sitting side by side under the roof outside the house, staring at the heavy veil of rain less than a meter in front of them.

It was as though heaven and earth had been covered by this heavy rain, nothing could be seen clearly, and this house was their only shelter.

"I knew you would come." The Mantis said quietly, "Ever since totem power started vanishing, I just knew."

Garen looked at the veil of rain and said nothing.

"It's a new era now." The Mantis seemed to smile, "It's a miracle that I, a creature from the previous era, could last this long."

"Where are your subordinates? Where have they all gone?" Garen asked softly.

"Them? Most of them became normal beasts, but even more, died of old age." The Mantis replied calmly, "You know, most creatures don't live long to begin with."

"If you break through as well, could you continue living like me?" Garen asked calmly.

"I don't know." The Mantis raised its arm blades with difficulty, scratching its mandibles lightly, just like a gesture a real mantis would have. "Actually, I was supposed to die several months ago. But my premonition told me, that an old friend might come visiting."

"So you held on until now."

"That's right." The Divine God Palace Master looked at the veil of rain, without any hint of fear towards his impending death, just peace.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Garen fell silent.

"Anything I want to say?" The Mantis shook its head, "These years, I've gone to many places, so many, many places… Looking everywhere for the traces of the old era, I saw a lot, and experienced a lot. But when the Cthulhu King died in front of me, my heart suddenly went empty."

The torn bright red cloth curtain drooped down on the right, swaying in the wind, fluttering.

"That feeling, that you're the only person in the world, it sure hurts… There are people all around you, but not one of them is the same kind as you." The Mantis' mouth split into a grin.

Garen did not continue, and just looked at it quietly.

The sky was growing darker and darker, and time continued to tick by.

In the rain veil, the man and the Mantis chatted idly, talking about their experiences back then in the ruins, talking about their most painful experiences, their most proud moments, talking about all their stories since they were young.

In that moment, the two of them were like best friends who spoke about everything, and most of the time, it was the Mantis who talked while Garen listened.

The wind grew stronger, the rain grew lighter, and the Mantis' voice grew softer and softer.

By the time the rain had stopped completely, the Mantis was no longer breathing at all, sprawled quietly beside Garen, its body already stiff and cold.

"The weather tomorrow might be clear." Garen did not look at the Mantis, just staring at the sky calmly, "Too bad it doesn't matter for you and me."

He patted the clothes on his body, and stood up. The Mantis' corpse was already shattering slowly, soundlessly turning into something like black ash, flown away and scattering in the wind.

"Now it's just me…" Garen laughed self-condescendingly.

He rolled up his sleeves, the small and clear Imprint on his arm was still there, so he pressed it lightly.

The surroundings darkened.

After a moment, it lightened up again.

He was still standing in the doorway of the house, the scarlet-red banner straight beside him. Some of the floating leaves froze in the air on his right, some raindrops had dripped from the roof and were about to crash into the ground, but they never could.

The world seemed to have stopped in this moment.

Garen looked around him, there were silver rings hanging all around him in the air, each huge ring swaying occasionally, and then they soundlessly began to shatter and fall, turning into countless metal shards.

And after the old rings collapsed, some new silver rings appeared slowly, but they still could not match up to the speed of collapse.

Garen did not look at the whole inner world, he just reached out his hand, and a trident like an ice-blue water mirror gathered in his hand.

Psst!

The bottom of the trident pierced into the ground, upside-down.

"Have you come?"

A deep man's voice came from the forest in front of Garen.

"Kid?" Garen raised his head and looked forward, the Imprint telling him he was not mistaken.

That ancient man walking out of the forest in front of him, was the one who was once Kid.

He looked obscenely old, not at all like a person in his sixties, but more like an ancient monster who had lived for several centuries, the wrinkles on his face were as deep as gutters, his skin was like tree bark, and covered with tiny black spots.

He wore grey cloth, holding on to an old wooden staff, and walked out of the forest like it was only natural.

"I waited a long time for you." Kid leaned on his staff, standing quietly in front of the forest, and watching Garen.

"What on earth happened here?" Garen walked up to him, standing in front of Kid. "Why did the totem power vanish?"

"This is the image I left behind in the Imprint." But Kid ignored Garen completely, just saying his own thing. "The real me, and everyone else, have died in the thirty-two years since that battle."

He paused. "If you can wake up at the very end, and see this, then perhaps you are considered lucky. This image can only last thirty years."

Garen shut up, he had already noticed that although Kid's eyes were looking at his direction, his pupils were not concentrated at all, and seemed to be looking through him, at the things behind him.

"The world is collapsing. Totem power is collapsing." Kid said deeply, "This is the result of our research. Because I am the youngest, I lasted until the end. But soon enough, all unnatural things will be expelled by the Door to Heaven, including me."

"Expelled?" Garen's heart gave a jolt.

"That's right, you didn't hear wrong." Kid nodded. "The Door to Heaven is not a dead thing, after that Battle of Heaven that time, it felt threatened, so totem power began to be eliminated. All unnatural power began to die."

"Only those who have truly escaped the shackles, the Form Six who have escaped the control of totem power, might perhaps be able to escape the effect of the Door to Heaven completely."

Garen listened to Kid's explanation quietly.

"But, in the world that no longer has totem power, even if Form Six fighters would probably be unable to touch the Door to Heaven ever again."

Garen nodded despite himself.

Totem power was indeed a unique power that only this world had, and after eliminating totem power, without the support of the surroundings, even if the Form Six secret techniques succeeded, forming a highly-compressed soul Seed, it would still only have the power of a Form Four during the totem era, maximum.

But even so, in such a world without unnatural power, his power was already definitely the most powerful, unrivaled existence around.

"Be careful, the Door to Heaven won't let you go, it will surely try everything it can to expel you." Kid left with that line, heavily, and his whole person slowly began to fade, disappearing where he stood.

"Be careful…"

That last voice was still slowly echoing, and only then did Garen wake from his thoughts.

"The Door to Heaven…"

Before he knew it, that familiar huge set of white light doors had appeared again in the sky.

There were countless mountains, flowing rivers, and flying birds on the door frame, like so many miniature worlds, unbelievably realistic.

The white light shot down like pillars, going past the slowly disintegrating silver rings, and falling onto Garen's body.

A huge complicated will, like that of countless creatures combined, exploded into Garen's heart.

"Leave… Leave… Leave…"

"Leave…"

"Leave…..."

The endlessly repeating will kept assaulting Garen's heart, as though countless people were constantly howling softly into his ear.

This combined will had no consciousness, it was just the will of countless creatures mixed together. It was a bleary, muddled will.

Garen seemed to hear the whole world in it, animals, people, fish, birds, everything with life, all gathered into a huge current, and wrapping him up in it.

In that moment, he seemed to feel, as though he was the last poisonous tumor in this world, and the whole world seemed to be desperately trying to expel the existence of such a tumor.

From the dark sky, there was just one clean white light pillar surrounding Garen, falling from the sky, like a staircase to Heaven.

Garen smiled slightly.

This world actually had a conglomeration of wills like the Door to Heaven, and he clearly remembered that the worlds before this, the surroundings of Earth and the Secret Technique World, did not have such an existence, or perhaps they did, and he just did not notice.

The universe sure was mysterious.

"If possible, I'd like to go back to the place I had come from." He lightly sent out his own will. If the Door to Heaven had a consciousness, perhaps…

Soon enough, a scene appeared that took him completely by surprise.

The images and memories of his initial arrival into this world abruptly appeared in his mind.