'You're smaller than the asteroid back in my world.'
So close—right within reach of his hand. It almost felt like a dream.
"Now all that's left is to wait for a portal to open."
Slowly, he lowered his gaze—but his eyes widened in horror when he saw the bottom of the underground dome.
'Oh, man…'
A pit filled with bones lay below. Hundreds of elongated skulls were piled within it, with deep, circular eye sockets and jagged jaws. At first glance, they looked like serpent skulls with humanoid traits.
He took a step back and remained silent, staring into the abyss.
Then, he let out a tired sigh.
'So this is where the beings who once lived in that city ended up?'
Judging by the number of bones and the shape of their bodies—far more reptilian than human—it was impossible not to imagine that possibility.
'If I stay here… does that mean that serpent will show up soon?'
He bit his lip, drawing a drop of blood that slid gently down his skin before touching the ground.
'But I don't have any other choice. It's now or never. If a portal opens, I'll jump in without thinking. I don't care where it takes me! I don't care how much that monster terrifies me!'
He clenched his fist tightly. With a leap, he slid down the steep ground. When he reached the bottom and stepped onto the bones, he grabbed the hilt of his sword and waited.
'There's nowhere to hide here. There's no way to escape either. If I stay in the tunnel maze, sooner or later I'll get lost and the Aberration will attack me. This is everything I can do—and everything I will do!'
He gathered enough courage for the fear caused by the gas coating the walls to calm down and turn into resolve.
'For the first time in my life, I've been cornered. I lost my eye, and I've been on the brink of death ever since I arrived in this place. If not now, then I'll never be able to go back.'
With a clumsy, graceless combat stance, Nova waited, staring at the holes in the walls. His eye wandered across the surroundings, alert and patient. As the minutes passed, he realized his enemy wasn't going to appear.
He waited for nearly an hour, but there was no sign of the beast.
He looked down at the ground, exasperated. He frowned and grimaced.
'So I finally decide to be brave, and you don't show up… Stupid Aberration.'
He crouched down and looked at one of the skulls.
"You probably waited a long time too, didn't you?"
The skull didn't answer. Nova sighed and stared at the ground. He remained in that position for a few minutes until he felt a deep pulse of energy coming from the rock embedded in the ceiling.
He looked up. His eyes filled with hope—he recognized that sensation anywhere. If Dimensional Portals opened constantly on Terra, then the same should happen here.
'Finally. I'm getting out of here!' he thought, a faint, hopeful smile forming on his face.
That was the advantage of someone who already understood how portals worked.
But… wait…
Taking into account the bones on the ground, the fact that portals likely opened frequently, and that Nova himself had appeared near that rock in the ceiling, that meant—
'Wait a second. There doesn't seem to be anything edible down here. Then that Aberration, all this time…'
Staring at the piles of bones, he noticed that there weren't only remains of beings from this world. Buried among them, barely recognizable, were skeletons of other mysterious species resting in silence.
'Damn it… So that's why it's always moving.'
The serpent, which had likely carved the tunnels, seemed to use the portals to devour whatever came out of them. Nova had been fortunate enough to appear above—but now he was down here, where a portal was about to open.
He frowned. Concern showed in his eye.
'If I can feel when a portal is about to open near me, that means the Aberration probably can too.'
Either way, the serpent would soon appear here—to devour whatever emerged from the portal or possibly enter it to invade another world. The possibilities were few, and there weren't many options to consider.
Suddenly, as if Nova had summoned the bad omen with his thoughts, a hiss echoed in the distance. The ground trembled. Rocks and dust fell from the ceiling.
'Shit. It's coming.'
He had learned the Aberration's modus operandi far too late. Who could blame him? He was completely unfamiliar with how this world worked. He was lucky to have found even fragments of what once lived in the city—now scattered as bones in the pit.
'Come on, damn portal. Open already! I have to get out of here!'
Because the energy source was small, the pulses were weaker.
Crackle!Ssshhh!
Sparks began exploding above Nova's head. Spectral whispers echoed. An ethereal light flared to life. Opening like the mouth of a monster, the Dimensional Portal was ready to be used.
'Perfect!'
The moment the portal opened, Nova jumped with all his strength to pass through it. Hope filled his heart—but reality struck him mercilessly when the serpent burst out of one of the tunnels.
He was slammed by the beast's massive head. Before he could reach the portal, Nova was sent flying into the jagged rocks.
Craaaash!
The impact thundered through the chamber. Rocks shattered, and Nova was slammed against the wall. His eye flew open as the air was knocked out of him. He spat blood and remained dazed for a few moments.
'What the hell…? How…?'
With his vision distorted, he saw the beast coil its enormous, elongated body atop the pile of bones.
It was gigantic, with a thick, extended body nearly twenty meters long. Its scales were sand-yellow, jagged like uneven stone, protruding outward in four-pointed cone shapes resembling mountain peaks. Its reptilian head was somewhat small compared to its body, but judging by its jaw, it could swallow almost anything.
With its yellow eyes, it stared at Nova and hissed, analyzing him. In the next instant, it lunged forward with its mouth wide open—revealing that it possessed only a single fang, sharp, elongated, and curved like a sword.
'Damn it. I was so close.'
Despair was palpable—but something else was too.
At that moment, Nova's solitary eye glowed with a faint orange hue.