Another Stupid Isekai

Since the device was destroyed, I thought that maybe there was a chance for me to 'shadow walk' out, back to Loistavadvaar, then maybe return with replenished strength, but my attempt failed. A similar experiment, just with the telekinetic ability to teleport, which I performed next, also didn't succeed.

Next idea was to leave the planet and try in space. After all, the portals were somehow working, so there was a possibility of me getting away too.

I somehow launched myself into space, then got close to one of the portals, attempting to leave once again. This time too, I failed. Even trying to go past the portals didn't fix the issue.

There was something there that prevented me from leaving. Maybe something stretching beyond just the domes and the planets. I couldn't really tell, but it didn't matter in the end. Important was only the fact that I needed to find a way to get my strength back.

I had an idea. Risky, one could say borderline stupid, but it could work. The plan was to travel to a different planet in the system, and from there invade one of the domes. Hopefully a small one, that wouldn't be as well protected, hunt something quickly, replenish my strength, and return.

After a few more seconds of thinking I even decided to travel back through the portal, to find something in the system with S4G planet, because there would be weaker guardians there - that was my line of thoughts.

The travel was a true horror. I barely could keep the bubble intact with traveling at not that high speed. Quite fast, but nowhere near as fast as I could. Eventually, though, I ended next to a decent target with several domes spread across the surface of an atmosphere-lacking piece of rock.

I passed into the influence of the local device and quickly went to locate it. It wasn't that hard to spot because of the plaza. There were two guardians protecting it. They are similar to bulky creatures with bark-like skin.

I attacked them without hesitation, and they answered with violence. There was more thought to their reaction than I anticipated. At first, I didn't get to this conclusion, trying to get rid of them. It looked kind as if a wasted man, barely able to walk, was trying to beat up two kids. That was basically the state I was in.

Then they started talking to me, and I still needed a few seconds to register that. Something which never happened before, but since it was so unexpected, and my focus was to kill them from the start, things didn't click in time.

I pierced through the chest of one of them, thinking I grabbed the spine, so I pulled it out. To my surprise, it was a red shard. A familiar crystal. After all, I used so many of them already.

This made the other one furious at me. The defensive approach he showed at first, which I failed to notice, turned into full hostility. If I had enough strength, I probably would stop him, then maybe somehow communicate with thoughts, but I was already practically falling on my face. This led me to kill him too.

I sold the two crystals, got back my strength, then sat down, contemplating briefly what I just did.

At that point, I finally fully grasped the situation. No longer under the influence of the device, as the link coming through the main city was broken. For a moment I wished we could do the same with Bahumdabars' legacy, but all the saplings I've seen were not grown enough to break the link. Only the one in Aaraam'soturi was, but that tree was protected.

- It would be so much easier - I told myself, before finally getting up. - I wasted enough time.

With those words, I created a bubble of psionic energy, enveloping myself inside, and then departed. Accelerating as fast as possible.

The fact that I was butt naked took some of the drama from the situation, but for me, it didn't matter much. After all, if I were to survive, I didn't have to mention that part. The victorious write the history, or so they say.

It took some time, to pass through the first portal, and then go through the second one, but I eventually ended up where I was supposed to end - the center of the fifth region.

It was nothing I expected to see. There was no star around, just the ring with the portal, hanging above a vast, flat piece of rock, bigger than any planet I'd ever seen before. Completely enveloped in a dome that allowed me to peek inside.

It was mostly one enormous city, with lands spreading on its borders filled with monster lairs.

It was so big that a ball-shaped planet couldn't fit it all, so probably the device destroyed the astral body itself, shaping it into something different.

The city itself was also not as I thought. I expected something futuristic. Maybe a single structure with everything packed inside, like something I've already seen. It was simply not that. It was something completely unexpected.

A fairyland from a medical fantasy. A peaceful agglomeration of the good king.

It had rows of buildings, and castles here and there. From such a distance all looked like dots. Bigger and smaller, but they were there.

- Flat earthers would cry if they would see this - I joked to myself, before diving in.

I headed straight to the center, where the 3D arrow was leading me but didn't make it too far. The city was definitely deserted, but I expected to see some guardians sooner or later. They just had to be there, right? Wrong. There was nobody, but one single person that blocked my path.

The general supreme.

I just knew who he was from the start. There was no doubt about it in my mind. It just had to be him. There was no other possible option.