Back to the Present...
Fatheema and Luna spent the entire day in the middle of a vast grassland inside their dimensional shelter.
"Fatty, once you've finished everything you need to do here, what are you going to do next?" Luna asked, her eyes gazing into the distance.
"Well, of course I'm going home and going back to my normal life. Going to school, joining extracurricular activities, hanging out with my friends, and all that," Fatheema replied, her thoughts drifting far away.
Surprisingly, the life she had once considered monotonous and boring as a high school student was something she now longed for, especially after being forced to lose those ordinary moments.
"You're lucky you still have a purpose. You still have something to fight for. As for me, I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore. My family, my friends, even my entire people are gone. There's nowhere for me to go and nothing left for me to fight for."
"Luna, as long as we're still breathing, as long as we're still given the chance to live, there will always be hope. There will always be something worth fighting for. Maybe we just haven't found out what it is yet" Fatheema tried to reassure her little friend.
"If you go back to your world someday, could I come with you? There's nothing left for me here. Could I just live in your world instead? Maybe things would be better for me there."
"Hmm... I'd be happy to have you. But are you sure? Besides, my situation here is pretty dangerous. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish everything and make it out alive. If I can return safely and bring my father back with me, I'll take you on vacation and we'll have some drink 'es teler' " Fatheema answered enthusiastically. The thought seemed to motivate her even more. She wanted to resolve everything as soon as possible and return to the life she had once known.
"Luna, like we talked about before, I need a better weapon. What do we do next?" Fatheema changed the subject.
It seemed that everything had to be dealt with as soon as possible. With the right weapon and proper preparations, she felt more confident about succeeding. What she was facing was no ordinary creature. She was up against the strongest being of his kind—the Ifrit King, Leomorth.
"I need some materials to make the weapon. We'll have to go to Mount Kalavajra to get them," Luna replied excitedly, "We should leave as soon as possible"
"All right. Let's get ready, Luna. I think we've rested enough," Fatheema said as she slowly stood up and stretched both arms above her head.
After some time, the two of them set off toward Mount Kalavajra. They took an alternative route that was rarely used by ordinary travelers. They deliberately chose this path to avoid any of King Leomorth's troops. The cruel king had been sending his soldiers throughout the region to capture anyone considered a threat to his rule. And the two of them were now on his wanted list.
"Fatty, it'll take us more than a week to reach Mount Kalavajra. If we use the portal, we could probably cut the travel time in half, since we only have a standard portal device with a limited range," Luna explained.
They could use the portal to shorten their journey, but there was a problem. The portal they possessed had a limited range. On top of that, the device had previously been damaged and Luna had only recently managed to repair it. She still wasn't completely certain that it would work at one hundred percent efficiency.
Portals were among the most important technologies in Saroya. There were several types. Some could transport people over short distances of around one kilometer. Others could reach dozens or even hundreds of kilometers. There were also rare portals that required enormous amounts of energy and could transport beings between worlds. It was this kind of portal that King Leomorth had used to travel to Earth—and to capture people, including Fatheema's father.
The technology of Saroya had already achieved things far beyond what human technology was capable of. One of them was portal technology. The ability to transport living beings through a doorway or portal was something that would be difficult to explain using classical physics.
These portals were capable of folding space between two different points with different coordinates within the realm. Their underlying principle was similar to the theoretical concept of a wormhole. This made it possible for a distance that would take light an enormous amount of time to cross—perhaps even a light-year or more—to be traversed almost instantaneously.
Wormholes remained one of the great mysteries of science. How such structures could exist and how they could be formed were still matters of theory and hypothesis. Yet the civilizations of Saroya had already developed technology capable of manipulating wormholes and controlling them as gateways between locations. They achieved this by using a mysterious form of energy known as exotic energy, which could be obtained from various materials found throughout the world of Saroya.
Perhaps the entire universe was actually one interconnected whole, formed upon a framework of undetectable matter. It was as if some mysterious substance permeated every corner of the universe, leaving no true emptiness behind—a hidden medium connecting one place to another.
One form of such mysterious matter was what science called dark matter. Because exotic energy was limited and the portal device needed to recharge after each use, the two of them decided to limit their use of the portal. The rest of the journey would have to be completed on foot.
Fatheema wore a light-blue shirt and dark-blue bootcut jeans that ended just above her ankles. Her feet were covered by short black leather boots. A dark-brown pork pie hat with a black band covered her head, while a dark-green knitted scarf was wrapped around her neck.
Luna, meanwhile, wore a light-green dress beneath a long black cloak with a hood that concealed most of her face.
They had changed their appearances so they wouldn't be easily recognized.
After all, they had effectively become fugitives—or targets—of King Leomorth.
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That morning, in a quiet village, people went about their daily activities as usual. Most of their lives revolved around farming, raising livestock, and, of course, buying, selling, and trading goods.
The village was located in a fairly remote area, on a stretch of land nestled between hills on both sides. This gave the village two routes leading in and out: one at the front and another at the rear.
The village consisted of permanent houses built from materials such as neatly arranged, sturdy stone. At the front of the village stood a gate connected to a main road. If followed, the road would lead to other regions, allowing travelers to reach nearby villages and even larger cities. The village was called Asterion.
It was a remote and peaceful village, yet surprisingly lively for a settlement located at the edge of the continent. The rear of the village was connected to a road that eventually opened onto a vast grassy plain. Beyond the plain stood a forest stretching along the slopes of a mountain range.
Inside one of the houses, two girls were sitting across from each other at a square-shaped table.
***