Chapter 260 - To The Ninth Dimension

John came back with the locator, the earring, and my saber. 

I already had my sword with me, and now I had my saber too.

I looked over the locator and it was fairly simple: or at least that's how Marcus set it up. Marg just had to be in my ten-thousand-kilometer radius and we were good to go. But I had a feeling this wasn't going to be that easy. The ninth dimension was a different dimension, meaning it was probably pretty big like this one too. And was there any footing there? Was there oxygen there?

The longest time I'd been in the ninth dimension was about a minute long and I was holding on to Marg at the time. I couldn't quite remember much about the place and then there was the thing about those shadowy monster things.

But I'd already made up my mind. There was no going back now.

"They told me to tell you to be careful," John said, obviously concerned. 

I actually hadn't seen him this agitated before. And judging by his tone, it was sufficed to say, the progress on their end wasn't great either. 

I smiled. "Well tell them to not worry." Anyway, I turned to the Lt. "Anything I should be aware of? Like any dangers, any pitfalls, and all that? And would I be able to breathe and all?"

"Nothing that I know of. The time in the ninth dimension flows differently and the laws are different: it's almost like flying through space and you don't need extra oxygen or food or anything: your body won't change when you're there. So, you won't feel anything oh and you would need at least some thrust or you'd keep floating forever. Our powers allow us to float in that dimension and travel instantaneously but I can't say the same about you." He exhaled. "And be careful about those flying black things. I'd seen you use plasma before so try to use that if they come after you. Under no circumstances are you to let your guard down."

"Don't worry, I won't. The last thing I need is overconfidence."

I was very much aware of the risks but Marg mattered more. 

He grinned. "You'd have made a fine soldier." Yeah- I wasn't so sure about that. He grabbed my shoulder. "I'll take you as far as I can, after that it's all you."

"Can I tag along? I'll be a great asset since we need to fly and all," John suggested. "Besides, we don't know what sort of troubles are there, so having a bit of a backup would be great, don't you think?"

I considered it. but in the end, "No thanks. Since I won't have to worry about my radiation harming people, I think I'll be able to at least fly with my barriers."

But there was a different reason, I didn't want John with me. This was probably a suicide mission. We knew virtually nothing about this ninth dimension and we had no way of making sure our plan would even work. And then the thing about the dimension itself. What if we all got trapped? I could take risks for my life, but I couldn't do the same for John.

He didn't seem convinced. "Alright." But he didn't say anything else. 

I gave Merin a nod and he nodded back. 

"Let's go."

"Once I drop you off, I'll be on a 12-hour resting period. It might seem like 6 hours to you, or maybe even 24 hours. Leave these markers behind whenever you pass a minimum range of 5000 kilometers. And don't count on the time dilation. Expect it to be shortened instead. Anyway, you ready?"

"Ready!"

I gave Merin and John a wave.

We teleported.

***

Black.

Things were black.

My eyes took a moment to adjust and instead of black, I saw a darker shade of indigo. 

No sounds, no smell, no feeling of cold or warmth. It was like my senses didn't even exist. Very nerve-wracking but- it was mostly an eerie feeling than anything else. It almost made me want to do a reality check- but I knew for a fact this was real- after all, I'd been to this place before. 

I turned on the locator but so far nothing. 

"So, she's not in the range yet…"

The locator still worked. Which was good but the fact that Marg wasn't even remotely close was not good.

This still gave me hope though.

"I'll try to take you as far as I can but- which way do you think we should go?"

I thought for a second. We could have basically went to any direction…"Which way is our home?"

"That way."

"Then let's move that way."

"Alright."

We kept going.

Traveling with him was rather fast. We were basically speeding through at roughly 1% lightspeed. 

But so far, nothing. 

He stopped. "I'm at my limit. As explained, I'll come back in 12 hours but it might be 6 for you. These are the markers. Use them wisely."

He gave me about a dozen small tablet-sized markers and dropped me where we were. 

I nodded and he disappeared. 

We'd basically traveled for like 10 seconds. 

With him gone, I just floated. This was basically zero gravity.

It wasn't hard to breathe or anything but just floating wasn't that great. 

I formed a half barrier- it worked. I also tried to use alpha particles as thrust- it was working but things were slow. I switched to other radiation and after a bit of experimentation, I succeeded in a decent amount of thrust. I'd say I was going about fifty times faster than sound. I also had a bit of acceleration too. Though with my prediction 60 times was my limit.

This world- this purple world was seemingly empty. I could see purple stars in faraway places but they were rare and they were really far. There were some black spots here and there. And I could see some black things coming my way. I was faster than them so they never got near me. 

Those things didn't have eyes and they were like tattered black robes but just with maybe a translucent black decaying head attached. Rather scary but I had better things to do than run around being scared. 

I continued like this for about ten minutes longer. Still, nothing but I released a marker. 

This went on.

Nothing.

There was nothing. No planets, no stars, no nothing. Not even debris, and I couldn't really see that far either as light was scarce. 

Strangely, I could breathe. Where the hell was the oxygen coming from?

Wait, was I actually breathing?

Now that I actually noticed, I wasn't breathing. My body didn't have any change and I wasn't aging: basically, all my bodily functions had stopped. It was almost as though I didn't exist at all, but I did. I didn't understand any of this and I didn't really have time to worry about it either. 

As for radiation, I was constantly being drained. And I wasn't recovering anything. 

'So, if I use up all my resources now, I'd be powerless even if I wait here for all eternity?'

It was a good thing I had a small chunk of cobalt in my wallet. I found it some years ago but never bothered to use it.

As I kept going, I saw debris here and there and something small in the distance. 

The small thing gradually got bigger and bigger. It was a planet. A broken planet- half destroyed, half intact. 

Meanwhile, my speed just kept on increasing. Right now, I was about fifty-five times faster than the speed of sound. But so far, no sign of Marg.

'Where are you?'

My hands and feet were slightly going cold- I was scared of the unknown. I was scared that I'd never find her- she'd- sigh.

I had to form barriers to avoid the debris. Some were barely the size of my fingers while others were the size of maybe the whole of Battlesuin mansion. I tried my best to avoid the ones I could, as for the ones I couldn't, I had to use my plasma balls and saber. 

Enira wasn't coming out as usual and I was losing more and more radiation by the minute. 

Sigh.

I'd stopped thrusting, and I tried using it backwards to slow down.

Some minutes later I finally saw the planet. It wasn't as big as a planet- maybe a moon?

This place had probably the most amount of those black things. They were everywhere and I just blitzed past them.

BLEEP!

But then all of a sudden, the locator gave a bleep. A refreshing sound in this void. 

Finally!

Marg!

My face brightened and I could feel the warmth of my body return. 

All this time, I was so unsure, I was so hesitant, so scared but finally! I didn't know if Marg was in this dimension till now and that was a real scary thought. But something even scarier lingered in my mind- what if I never find her?

So when the bleep did appear- it was almost like my whole body burned with hope. 

I dropped my second last marker and went straight for the bleep. It was somewhere on the moon-like thing.

I'd slowed down to about 10 times the speed of sound. 

I got closer and I got a stronger bleep- it was close- maybe about a few thousand miles but I was damn close.