[191] The Gate of Heavens

[191] The Gate of Heavens

Chapter 191: The Gate of Heavens

Note: Added an image at the end of the last chapter, showing Pangeal. Check it out!

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Pangeal was much larger than Earth, and I recall it to be much prettier too from space. Yet more than beautiful, right now it was awe-inspiring and disconcerting.

The blue spheric planet, suspended in a dark lake that was the cosmos, was tainted with unsettling anomalies. Two massive, crimson pillars of blood and void energy were erected from both poles, spiraling into the void like grotesque corkscrews, distorting the planet’s beauty. Each of them had to be thousands of kilometers tall for them to look like thick iron nails sticking out of a tennis ball.

“What the fuck is that?” Quetzalcoatl scowled at the sight. Even to an outsider, those two things were clearly unnatural.

They weren't the only thing. Vast patches of red and yellow sprawled across the landscape; the red regions glowed with swirling chaotic energy, while the yellow areas lacked any light of life, they were deserts in the middle of forests, clearly not made by my Goddess. Swirling clouds and storms danced around other regions, painting a picture of a world in desperate need of salvation. There was also a purple spheric barrier surrounding the planet, which I don’t think was set up by an ally.

“...Three of the moons are gone,” I looked around and noted. Pangeal used to have six moons, that’s how big it was. Only three remained. As we’ve guessed before, the enemies were at least Planetary Level.CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

“Two were destroyed when I was here,” Galaxara said. “The other must have been destroyed after... I am unsure how long it has been since I left. These pillars weren’t present when I was here, and they exclude such metaphorical weight that I do not see them being built in a day.”

“They can, in fact, be built in a day,” I said, crossing my arms. “They are a construct called the [World Pearl Engine]. Each of those constructs absorbs a planet's energy and turns it into a little, pearl-sized orb. Some entities would consume it as a pill, while some might use it as a battery for galactic weapons of mass destruction.”

“You seem to know a lot,” Ranefer said, her tone laced with suspicion.

“I have seen it in a dream,” I lied. I've used similar constructs in my 7th life, as the Emperor, and even in my 9th life, as the Venerable One. Both were different universes and so they used different names. Then one might ask, how am I so sure about those two pillar’s names? It’s because I recognized them.

The Order of the Crimson Abyss.

Those multi-dimensional fools who scrambled my mind and killed me, trying to stop my reincarnation for good.

They were a very grand and large organization, with more than thousands of smaller organizations under it, and more who were in alliance with them. Numbers were their power, they were rich in quantity. That was how they defeated me too, by grouping up with thousands of other multiversal entities against me.

However, I don’t think they’re directly involved in Pangeal’s situation. Because they also sell their stuff as merchandise to unrelated groups and organizations.

Those two pillars were made by them; The Order. I could see the markings of their unique logo even from this distance. However, it was one of the lower-grade products. They’d have used a higher-grade pillar if the Order had been personally involved. I'm assuming this is some random interdimensional group that bought the pillars from The Oder and is plundering worlds using them.

It just happened to be my world.

...How fucking dare they?!

“Based on my knowledge, it should take about a year for such a product to absorb the energy of a planet this size and turn it into an energy pearl. Since there are two pillars, that time is halved to six months. From the damage seen in the land mass, it should have been four months by now. So it has been that long since the Goddess abandoned this world.” I said, “On another note, that's the same time my Goddess spent on our earth too, so it's safe to assume the passage of time is similar if not the same.”

“Hey, I didn't abandon it...”

Ai chimed in, “That means only two months are remaining until total destruction?”

“Yes, until Apocalypse.”

“....”

A short silence paused, and Ai continued, “If so, doesn’t that mean the process is about 80% done? So why does the planet not look worse? Based on what I'm seeing, while it does look to be in a bad state, that’s only the case in some parts. Like 30%. I think we have more time at hand, Aqua.”

“We don’t. It looks good from the outside because it will speed up like crazy near the end. The last month will be hell incarnate, while the rest are used to spread its roots all over the landscape,” I said. “We’re lucky we weren't too late, but at the same time it makes me mad we weren't early. So many must have died...”

“What are we waiting for?” Ruby asked. “Should we be wasting time like this?”

“You're right, we shouldn't,” I said.

“But there is an issue,” my Goddess let us know. It was not a new issue, we've discussed this before. “As expected, teleportation in and out is blocked. My child, Ruby, please try to teleport us inside and see if it works.”

Ruby looked at her and nodded. Closing her eyes, she focused and spread her purple mist. Once more it enveloped us, but when it vanished we still stood in the same spot. The teleportation didn't work.

“Alright then,” Both of our bodies shimmered, and my Goddess let out a sigh in an ethereal voice.

“I shall now explain for Ruby's sake since she's not up to date with the plan. This isn't going to be a usual teleportation, this is reality manipulation. so don’t be surprised when you wake up. As the creator of the world, I'm going to manipulate its history and reality to fit you two into the world, I can do it so subtly that those Outer Gods wouldn’t notice. When you open your eyes again, you'll have new identities, and will be in the safest place closest to the Elven Forest; the Continent’s Best Academy, Eldein. The Academy right now should be busy training battle soldiers to fight the otherworldly demons. Because of that, you two should not face trouble gathering information about the current situation in the world and then traveling to the Elven Forest.”

“H-huh? New identities?!” Ruby, who must have thought this was going to be a normal teleportation, was surprised to hear that. Perhaps she feared losing her current identity to the one, unable to cope with her new memories? I didn’t know.

There was no need to worry, the new memories would be pretty blank. Our names will be the same, and we will be orphans. I have planned it with my Goddess before, all of our actions were planned. It’s alright to take Ruby with me indeed because she's my twin, there was no need to change stuff up the planned backstory because of that.

I watched her confusion unravel while the purple light grew brighter and enveloped both of us. She shouted, but it was too late.

“See you soon, everyone,” I said my goodbyes to those who were watching, my hand waving in the direction of Ai although I couldn’t see her anymore due to the light, as my and Ruby's bodies vanished.

We vanished from the moon and appeared inside a royal magical classroom. I need to quickly leave this place.

****

[Third Person Point of View]

“So he’s gone...” Shoko looked a little dejected after Aqua's departure.

“It’s alright, they’ll be fine,” Ai, who was more worried than Shoko, consoled her by patting her shoulder. She looked at the second sun, which Galaxara already stared at.

“Helios,” she commanded, “bring us to heaven.” And beams of light shot toward all twelve of them. Quetzalcoatl would have fought back if she sensed any animosity in the light, but it was purely a transportation beam. Light touched all of them, and their bodies shot toward the second sun.

Everything blurred, they blitzed forward at a speed beyond light since spatial magic was also at work, and the cosmos twisted around them to pull them into another realm, another dimension. When the blurring surroundings calmed, they found themselves in a cloudy sky, dropping toward a grand majestic castle below.

“Please brace yourselves, my guests,” Galaxara said, her purple eyes shining, and all of them stopped falling. They levitated, and she gently lowered themselves in a high balcony of the castle.

The castle was grand, dozens of floors high, and a whole kingdom-sized other castles and gardens spread before them. There was heavenly food everywhere, and so were people. Yet nobody touched any of the food. They stared at the large screens that were floating in the air, showcasing scenes that Ai assumed to be from Pangeal.

Wars, battles, death. Famine, orphans, and dying old people. The screens showed the worst things that Ai had ever seen, and the people in heaven watched those scenes with teary expressions. They cried, wept, and threw their food at the screen, in the hope that at least one of them might cross the dimension and reach them.

“What is Hero Jasmine doing?!” There weren’t only sad people, however, there were also those who were angry. An old, muscular man the size of an ogre growled at the screen, where a woman wielding a sword was battling white-skinned demons. “How can she not even beat such weak demonic bastards! FUCK!”

He slammed his fist on the floor and the area exploded. Just from his size and aura, Ai could tell that the old man was someone powerful when alive.

[Image Here]

Spoiler

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“O’ King of the Barbarians,” Galaxara said from beside Ai, and although they were a few hundred feet high in the sky and hundreds of meters away, her voice carried all over heaven. A billion or more heads turned toward her from all over heaven, and the Barbarian King was no exception. “Please do not be so angry.”

“I...”

“Ah...”

“Is this a dream...?”

Many blinked at the scene, and a short silence passed. A moment later, screams of hope-filled heaven. The strongest entities in heaven, as well as Archangels, those very few who remained, rushed toward the palace to greet their mother. For the first time in months, the people of heaven who thought their Goddess was dead, felt hope.

...That hope burst into an uncontrollable cheer when they heard who she had sent to Pangeal. The King of the Barbarians laughed like a maniac, swiping the screens with his large hand to look for that guy.

His old rival, Pangeal’s Last Hope, Sephiroth Babylon.

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Author Note: The old man is Barolt, the Valterian Warrior, from the “Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World”. Its peak, I recommend it