[Stable Gate is now Active]
[Stable Gate charge: 3 days left]
The purple swirls of the portal that formerly occupied the entirety of the new, massive gate have pulled to the frame's edges, bending the fabric of the space itself to reveal the familiar world on the other side.
For a fraction of a second, a sense of great accomplishment filled my soul.
I did this monumental task. It drained all of the aura I'd gathered before going through the rebirth and forced me to tap into the mysterious, faint aura hidden somewhere inside of me...
But I did it!
Sure, only with Fay's help in reining that mysterious aura in... But I simply couldn't care less. Or rather, thinking about it, I felt overjoyed over how our bond could help us overcome even such great odds.
'Power of friendship, huh?' I couldn't help but note, the corners of my mouth twitching as I raised my eyes.
The first thing I saw was the empty look on Makary's face, followed by worry quickly appearing in his officer's eyes.
And as I looked back into the familiar world...
All the rush for celebration, all of my sense of accomplishment... They all drowned in the extremely bad situation on the other side.
The circle of Fay's kin was broken in a total of seven spots. Celestials and Divines continued to hold their ground only thanks to the greatest effort and sacrifices of their strongest.
Still.
Imperial soldiers who somehow made it that far into the forest within the few minutes we took on Earth were pouring through the gaps and canvasing all over the open space. For now, though, they didn't attribute much attention to the gate itself, but...
'Madam is nowhere to be seen,' I thought, activating all of my skills in succession the very moment my body physically realized the scale of the threat, long before my mind could actively process it.
A flash.
Right as my Aura Tribute rebounded off my severely exhausted soul, my blood tribute kicked in, feeding off my blood rather than the aura I lacked. And it was thanks to this tiny delay, that I happened to catch what looked like a more intense ray of sun descending down the tattered lines of the celestials.
'How is he...?!'
Eye of time kicked in.
The last time I used it, it brought me below my current level of intelligence. And yet, strangely enough, the effect of the skill proved much stronger than a mere three points in a single attribute could be. Yet, as much as I wanted to delve into this topic to potentially find something interesting...
Right in the middle of this flash of intense light descending upon the lines of my allies, I saw the very same man who walked all the way to Madam's barrier under the barrage of several firearms concentrating all their fire solely on him.
'He should be dead...'
My entire body started to tense up. Because the worst part about it all was how this man...
Was dropping down through space, even when the time should have come to a complete stop.
Makary turned his head and silently looked over.
"You will know when you do," he replied as he gave me an intense stare.
'Another limitation?' I thought, gritting my teeth as I shot my eyes toward the nearest group of simple soldiers.
"You guys, don't get startled," I called out, easily gaining their attention...
And then making an entire unit of roughly fifty battle-ready men nervously twitch when the empty wall of the hangar revealed itself to be a portal leading straight into an otherwordly battle.
The clash where humans in more or less uniform outfits vicious battled the collapsing rights of humans...
Humans, shiny humans, golden and silvery humans, and oversized animals.
A battle where spells and magical projectiles flew all over the place while a common soldier achieved feats unheard of on Earth.
And a battle where... A battle that wasn't even nearly as bloody as an average encounter of an average military since the conception of mass conscription within the first superpowers of Earth.
"It seems I need to see them personally, can they drop the shades so I can see?" I turned my head over to Makary, only for the man to already keep the mouthpiece up.
"Pilots, show yourself to our guy," Makary wasted no time on the trivial, effectively tackling the potential source of the issue. And in the next moment, a thin line of dark panels around the front three-fourths of the craft faded away, revealing the clever mix of battle simplicity and technological complexity of the craft's cockpit.
And behind the glass...
"Oh damn!" the voice of one of the pilots screeched from the speaker in Makary's hand while one of the maglevs shook a little.
"Everyone, it's your turn. Don't get startled, and prepare. You will see a portal to another world and a vicious battle on the other side!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs only to fall back and hang down from Fay's shoulder.
"Just a little bit more," holding me as tightly as she could, Fay whispered in a voice as sweet as it was full of concern and restrained worry.
She hated every second of watching me weakened or wounded... But she could also see how determined I was to pull this thing through.
And somewhere deep at the bottom of her soul, I could sense a fair share of Fay's own worries, mostly centered around the only other being she really cared about.
Using Fay's sweet voice as an encouragement, I took a deep breath and rose up once again, taking a long look at everyone within the hangar.
Contrary to charging up the gate, revealing it to the masses brought no further burden upon me.
"Everyone! They will only see you once you cross the gate. Help the defenders despite how scary or different they may look, they are our allies!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs once more. "Kill the imperial soldiers! Support the white, hold back the golden, and kill anything that tries to kill you!"
Right at the last note of my call, I willed every last man I could see within the hangar to gain the ability to perceive the gate.
All of those who managed to gather thus far collectively shook. Only those already primed managed to keep their composure, already getting used to the idea of what was going on on the other side.
Ultimately, they were soldiers and battle was exactly what they signed up for. And even if some of them joined the military just for the sake of their careers back in the day... those who answered Makary's call were fully aware of what was expected of them.
The crowd within the hangar shook as a wave of realization moved through them.
"It's go green, guys," Makary commented in the voice of an uncle pointing out something a nephew should be long aware of with a small smirk. "Maglevs first, establish a perimeter and support high priority white. Once there's some space," Makary looked over to the infantry and the drivers of the less impressive yet still deadly vehicles stacked at the back of the hangar, "we are going in."