RIn left the arena without saying goodbye to Ryan. And as much as he knew it would probably take some time to meet up with her again, he knew that the fate of the two would be connected now. The battle caught everyone's attention, both because of Ryan's amazing summoning ability and the speed of the confrontation.
Beating Rin Silvermoon only further increased the already explosive popularity of Ryan, who could now be considered one of the strongest travelers on the continent. As much as everyone considered him the strongest, in his mind, this duel was a clear defeat.
'She let me win...' he thought, in a loop of regret. For him, it would be easier to lose the duel than to win undeservedly. Still, he knew that if RIn had not given up, she would have won the event.
There were only a few battles to conclude now, and no participant is as strong as Rin. So with the end of this duel, Ryan was already sure that he would win this championship and further increase his reputation. In a way, this admiration was doing him good. Having hundreds of people cheering for him made his own demonic energy increase, a result of the succubus system, the more adored he is, the more powerful he becomes.
But it was still strange to him this sour taste of regret and defeat, tired, he chose to just ignore it and get on with his day. 'I guess I just need to cope with that' he thought, as he left the arena and went to talk to Syl.
Sylvanna Lullaby looked beautiful that day, the two of them met near the arena where the battle took place. She was wearing a beautiful black dress, with a neckline that was hidden by a thin transparent fabric with spider details. All her clothing was worthy of a vampire, although now she was just a very pretty human who followed the gothic style of clothing.
Normally she would greet him with a smile, but it was evident that she appeared to be a little worried. In her cell phone messages, she said that she needed to speak with him urgently. Her beautiful face was uneasy, and when the two looked at each other, she seemed to feel a sense of relief, running towards him, Syl pulled a book from her black bag.
"Ryan! I need to show you this" she said, but before she opened the book, Syl looked from one side to the other and felt uncomfortable in that place. Extending one of her hands, she opened a portal that led directly to her office.
"Follow me, it's not good to talk here" she said and Ryan nodded confirming.
The two went through the portal and were thrown into a room similar in size to Ellen Evergreen's. There was a couch with pillows and blankets on top of it, and several alarm clocks scattered about the room. All the furniture in that room was black leather, matching the somber decoration that followed the stereotype of a vampire.
Holding one of the alarm clocks, Ryan had a confused face, but Syl explained why the room was so strange. "In the old days I would sleep on the couch and have trouble waking up, so I would set all the synchronized alarm clocks to wake me up. That curse wiped out any energy or will to live that I had" she said, laughing at the serious and complex issue, but which was now just a problem of the past.
Sitting down at the table, the two of them looked at the book Syl took out of her bag. There was a heavy magic book with hundreds of pages, but she also removed a notebook with notes and her handwriting. Holding a pen, she went about pointing to the magic circles in the book and explaining what they meant.
Syl was restless, and looking deep into Ryan's eyes she said "I found this book in the teachers' collection, when I put my hand on it, all its contents changed. I still can't find an answer to that, but the content of it is amazing.
His eyes widened, revealing that intense red color. Before speaking anything, he let her continue speaking.
"I couldn't understand this language, but this is a book with information from second world portals. When I tried to recreate one of the magic circles, instead of setting a position for it, the portal threw me into a forest full of fairies. I created a portal to the second world Ryan."
Both Sylvanna and Ryan knew the seriousness of what was being discussed. Sighing, he explained what had happened with the book "This book was made by the underworld realm of the second world, it is written in one of several demonic languages. You have access to it through your contact with me, who has a connection to demonic energy. If you want, I can ask Nyx to translate this book for you.
It was rare to see Syl excited, as much as she knew the seriousness of that situation, it was clear that this new discovery was making her interested. "We... need to talk about this demonic energy issue later. But please have Nyx translate that book!" She said, jumping out of her chair in excitement, only to blush immediately afterwards at the display of energy.I think you should take a look at
"You really are much better than before," he said, laughing at her unexpected reaction.
"I still can't get used to so much energy. Before I was always off" she said with a laugh.
The possibility of the connection between the two worlds with the use of portals was something Ryan had thought about for a long time, but knowing that it was possible made it all a little more complex. The appearance of portals was always random, so the possibility of creating a portal that leads directly to the second world was surprising.
Studying this information could give him an answer to that question he had asked hundreds of times before, where the portals came from and why they happened. After meeting with the ice ruler and the crystaldrift blacksmith, the theory Ryan had was that the portals were time challenges and not direct connections between worlds. He was sure that the time of a portal was closed in a cycle that disconnected from the current world, so knowing that portals could be made artificially created a clear question in his mind.
'Are they creating a closed loop in time or taking it from one side to the other' If the first option is true, this is nothing more than a slightly stronger temporal magic. If the second option is true, the whole world would collapse with that discovery.
Nyx appeared in front of the two, answering Ryan's call.
"WHAT! YOU MANAGED TO OPEN A PORTAL TO THE SECOND WORLD? I THINK THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE!" she said, shouting euphorically as she danced through the air in the room. Flying over to a chair, she dropped down hard and pulled out the book with a gigantic cheer. "Let's see" she said as she began to read.
After turning a single page, she looked at the two of them with a disappointed look "This is a little more complicated than I thought, I can't understand much" she said. Still, Nyx was explaining what each part of the book meant to Syl. The two were managing to understand each other and get answers together.
"So this portal wasn't meant to connect the two worlds..." she said, after understanding the manuscript of the page that had given her that answer. Still, the portal she had opened no doubt led to the second world, since there are no fairies in the human world.
When Syl explained what had happened, Ryan and Nyx confirmed to her what she already knew, that this was undoubtedly a portal to the second world. According to Syl, she had entered the portal and had been thrown into a magical forest, Nyx interpreted this as strong evidence that it was one of the High Elves' regions.
"You were lucky to escape in time, the elves in the fairy forests are not very friendly when you don't speak their language" said the succubus.
"That's what I imagined, I had heard stories about the portals with fairies, but what surprised me most was hearing the elves talking from afar. I could see two young elves practicing archery, that's what scared me the most, since it is a fact that conscious beings don't stay inside portals" said Syl.
This phrase changed everything, after all Ryan had encountered more than one sentient being, even humans inside portals. This made even for a second, he had a doubt about it. But how could Sylvanna accidentally trap an entire region in a time loop, the simplest answer was obvious, she could connect the two worlds.
Before he could think much about it, a call came in on his cell phone. Ryan would have to go quickly to the guild base to talk. Nyx and Syl headed toward Olivia and Lux to continue with the project of reviewing that book, while Ryan went on his way to talk to Aether and John Wrinn.
'This is all getting weirder and weirder' he thought as he entered the portal his watch had created.