I will not die a Villainess's death

Thankfully, nothing much happened after that and things returned to normal.

Or as normal as they could for someone in Elysia's position. She could still feel all the eyes on her as Eve held her hand close. That grip hurt but Elysia knew she had to endure it for now.

She could not let her expression of pain show up on her face or Eve would realize that Elysia lied to her and then get worried.

That was a scenario that should be avoided at any cost. The ceremony needed to go off without any hitch.

"Elysia looks, the Hoy Chalice is here. It is my first time being this close to the actual thing. What about you?"

Eve had the look of an excited kid on her face currently. Her eyes all but sparkled as she took in the Holy Chalice.

"I saw it a few times before when I participated in this ceremony as the temple's representative. But I guess it will be my first time facing the chalice from the other side. I guess it makes me nervous as well."

Elysia could feel her heart beat faster and faster as the Holy Chalice came nearer and nearer.

Truthfully speaking, Elysia was not feeling nervous because of the Holy Chalice's presence but because of Eve's presence.

The vision from that morning had already put Elysia in an alert mood and now the magic oozing out of the Holy Chalice was distracting her. Eve was reaching out for the Holy Chalice when a very important fact occurred to Elysia.

Had Eve taken the necessary precautions before attention to the ceremony? Had she even visited the Ceremonial pool this morning?

Somehow Elysia already knew the answer to that question was 'no.' things had happened so fast that they had skipped everyone's mind.

"Eve, don't touch it. You have not visited the Ceremonial Pool today-"

But the deed was already done. Elysia was too late in getting that Chalice away from Eve's hand before she felt the tug of magic pulling at her.

"Eve, you need to let go-"

But Eve seemed to be in a trance. The magic of the Holy Chalice was trying to take control of her again and people seemed to have realized that something was wrong.

'Shit, I need to distract them all from the disaster that is about to happen.'

"The holy Chalice is reacting to the Saintess and trying to pull her into another world. Someone hurry up and interfere-"

Head Priest Yohan's voice broke apart the tense silence and everyone let out a small scream of fright.

But Elysia's focus was on the Holy Chalice and its magic. It was trying to pull Eve with her to another world.

"Elysia, what are you looking at? Hurry and pull her away."

Adam's voice came from right behind Elysia. He had a tight grip around her middle to prevent her from getting caught up in this mess.

"EVE, LOOK OUT."

Sara seemed to have joined the struggle as well but even their combined magic was not enough to fill the chalice.

"Oi, everyone let go of the Chalice at the count of three. I will seal it away."

Lucas's voice was loud and pierced the tense silence. Both Sara and Adam instantly let go but Elysia did not.

She had a feeling that Eve would disappear if she let go of the Chalice now.

"Elysia, you need to let go. If you do not then you will be swallowed in as well.

Her brother's hand landed on her arm right in time for Chalice's magic to fluctuate and the fabric of space to be ripped apart.

"Brother, you take hold of Eve. I will be back soon."

"No, you are not."

Elysia had intended to go through the portal on her own but Adam of all people realized what she intended to do and his hand reached out to grip Elysia's arms.

However, the ripped fabric of the space tore open right beneath the group's feet, not giving them any time to process what happened.

Eve's body lost its footing and her hand lost its grip on the Chalice. Luckily, Sara dove for her and caught her right in time to shield her.

As for Elysia, she shook off Adam's hand and reached out for the falling Chalice. She had a feeling that the Chalice was going to be important and that was not an item they should lose.

'Just a little more. I am almost there.'

"ELYSIA, GET THAT CHALICE AT ALL COSTS." Lucas's loud voice encouraged Elysia to keep on going.

Elysia stretched her hand out to catch the Chalice when she felt someone's hand close around her arm.

Those arms held Elysia close as she finally reached the Chalice.

"You are more trouble than you are worth. It's a miracle that you are still alive."

Adam's complaining voice was filled with relief. Somehow, Elysia had a feeling that she would find his eyes full of irritation if she turned around now.

"Brace yourself. We will be landing soon."

Elysia closed her eyes as she felt Adam's magic surge around them. Her vision overlapped with her reality and her heart felt like it would explode out of her chest but Elysia still held on to the arms around her.

She knew Adam would not let anything happen to her.

And then they hit the surface of the water. It was a hard fall and Elysia cried out in pain as her hand experienced the sensation of being broken again.

When they broke to the surface, the world seemed to have changed once again. The forest looked destroyed and in front of Elysia stood a familiar gate she had seen when she had gone unconscious.

It was the place she had seen in the memories she had no recollection of.

"So this place did exist. I thought I was dreaming back then."

But there was an acute difference between the place Elysia saw in her memories and the one she was in right now.

The place in Elysia's memories was full of life and vigor. It was green and had a lot of life.

While the place in front of her eyes was all but destroyed. Everything had an air of abandonment circling it.

"Where are we?"

Adam asked the question Elysia was wondering about.

'Yes, where in the world did we end up at?'

______________________________

"Lucas, this place is-"

"Our home world. We are back here at last. What a bittersweet feeling it is to be back here for so long."

Lucas took in the ruined landscape of the place he had once called home. This world used to be such a vibrant place before its curse had been laid down.

In the end, no one survived the aftermath of that curse and they had to relocate to a new world.

"I wonder how we ended up here. The Holy Chalice was supposed to be a one-way door to bring the magical sacrifice out of the Gold's realm but why did it connect to here?"

This was a loaded question and it had a lot of answers.

It could be that this was an accident, a mistake on someone's part, or even a deliberate attempt to cause harm. The lack of information made it impossible to know what was going on.

"So, how do we go back from here? The last time we opened up the sync portal, it exhausted most of the world's magical resources. How will we manage to open up the portal this time?"

Sorias had a point when he said that. Opening a one-way portal was difficult enough, but to open it in reverse was even more bothersome.

The only stroke of luck they all had was that Elysia had managed to get her hands on the Holy Chalice in time before it cracked. Lucas had seen his sister reach toward their ticket home.

"But that is another problem altogether. We will need to find our other companions before we can even think of going back. Luckily, finding that half-ling will not be a problem. Elysia on the other hand. I cannot feel her magic so I think she...."

"Will not be a problem. The Crown Prince was the one who reached Elysia which was lucky for us. I am sure his draconic senses will lead him right toward the only treasure this land holds."

"You mean-"

"He would head toward the Dirac mansion that holds the only active magical crystal this land had left. So that is also what we will head toward now."

'As for the sacrifice for the gods, well, that is something that we will see about later.'

Lucas was sure that this mishap would have caused a massive disaster back home. But a small investigation would reveal that this was someone's cruel trick to cause the ceremony to fail.

Personally, Lucas was looking ahead to going back home and dealing with the person who had dared cause this mess for him. He was also interested to know what kind of person sent them back into this world.

"I bet 'that world' is pissed that its favorites escaped and somehow ended up here. It would do its best to get us back so we shouldn't worry so much."

After all, if Lucas was right about the prophecy and its meaning, then that meant that 'their new world' would do its best to get both Adam and Eve back.

Somehow, their interference had turned out to be for the best. It gave them a fighting chance.

"Anyway, we should start gathering up oxygen cores we see and process them. The level of oxygen present in the atmosphere will not last forever with all the trees gone from this world."

"And this time when we bid farewell to this world, it would be forever. I am afraid that it would not survive any longer."

Maybe it was a coincidence that they had ended up back here, maybe it was fate. But one thing was for certain, this place won't last.

"Perhaps this is a warning for us to not interfere with things once we go back or things would end up like this."

Maybe Sorias was right and this was a warning. But even if it was, Lucas knew he would not take it to heart.

For all their sake, he would fight back and win this time.