302: Strange Place

Strange Place

Miles rose from where they fell and looked at Val and Makwa. After making sure they were fine, he looked around. 'At least the illusion is broken.' He sighed as he blinked. The bloody aura and woman disappeared as soon as they passed through the portal.1

There wasn't much around. As far as the eye could see, a forest was reaching out. The trees were purple unlike their Earthly counterparts, and the branches were pink. Although they looked beautiful it was because of their unique colors.

The ground was covered with red grass and had a soft texture. Felt like grass on Earth, but the color was crimson red. If it wasn't for Val's confirmation, he would think the grass was a part of the illusion. But it was real.

There were two celestial bodies pinned in the sky. Miles thought them to be moons, as they weren't as bright as a star nor as big as planets. They didn't look bigger than the Moon and they were very close to each other.

"Is this another planet?" Val asked with Makwa in her hands.

"Seems like it." Miles nodded, "There must be a portal in the ravine. We fell right into it."

"This world's gravity is a lot less than Earth's." He then added.

"Hmm. I am not sure if we are lucky or not for falling into this portal. We might have died if we were to fall into the ravine." Val said as she tried to walk in a direction.

"Should we return?" She asked.

"Let's take a look at this world. I also need to replenish my energy. I cannot carry all of us for the time being."

"Rome, Rome!" Val cried in distress.

"What happened? Miles asked but realized his connection with Coin was also gone. He couldn't feel Coin in his mind at all. He looked at his wristwatch and realized the screen was black.

"What is going on Miles? What happened to our wristwatches?" Val asked in a panic.

"Seems like we entered a dead zone," Miles said with a wry smile. "Don't worry, their electricity sapped dry, they will be fine when we charge them back.

"Seems like nothing alive is in here," Miles said as he tried to feel his surroundings.

"Nothing," Val said as she shook her head. "Nothing is living in this world beside trees. I can't even feel insects."

"Oh?" Miles looked at Val with questioning eyes. They kept on walking until they came out of the woods. Miles looked to see if there was anything to see, but all he could see was a mist covering the area.

"That mist looks weird," Val said

"What do you mean?" Miles asked.

"The mist is covering the area we are in like a circle. Mist is fluid, so should move without limit. But it is stopped outside of that circular area as if something is stopping it." Val explained. Although Miles couldn't see the little detail, he too realized mist was stopping at some point.

He drew his bow from his back and created an energy arrow. He pulled the string all the way back and released the arrow towards the mist.

Arrow pierced through the air. The gravity wasn't affecting the arrow at all, so the energy arrow went straight, but when it was about to enter the mist, it clashed with thin air and got deflected. For a second Miles saw fluctuation in the air.

"Barrier!" Miles exclaimed in surprise.

"Why would there be a barrier in this place?" Val asked in surprise. Miles looked around and took a step forward. He was facing the barrier, so Val couldn't see his face. Miles activated the elemental vision. A pink sphere starting from mist to reaching out the forest appeared in front of him.

"What the hell is this?" Miles switched to Energy vision and saw a big amount of energy was gathering at the center of the barrier. It was on the other side of the forest.

"Let's go that way." Miles pointed at the center as he deactivated the vision. Val nodded and followed.

The area wasn't big, and they arrived after they walked some distance. When Miles reached the center, he realized it was just under the portal where they fell. Even their depressions were still on the grass.

"Can you feel anything under the ground?" Miles asked. Val looked at him with questions in her eyes, but focused her powers on the ground, after a while, she opened her eyes in surprise. "I first thought there was nothing, but now that I focused, there is something preventing me from looking." She said excitedly.

"Let me dig," Miles said and reached out his two arms. A shovel made of energy appeared in his hand. He made it as strong and sharp as he could and started to dig. Because the gravity of this world was lesser, the soil was softer. Miles could push the shovel easily, and the energy was also helping him remove more and more earth from the ground.

After digging more than 30 meters, Miles felt the ground under him quaking.

"It is caving in!"

He was still wearing his wings, so he floated in the air and the ground he was digging started to crack open and a large amount of earth fell from the hole that had just appeared.

It looked like a dark eye opened up on the ground looking back at them eerily. Although there wasn't any sign of life, it still gave a bad feeling to all three. Miles was holding Makwa and Val tightly while his back was cold from the aura seeping out from that hole.

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