Chapter 241: Into the Open Dimensional Rift
A gentle breeze swept through the desolate alleyway. Expanding my Presence Detection, I sensed the presence of people inside the buildings, but they remained completely still, showing no signs of movement.
“I was really worried that we might get ambushed out of nowhere,” I muttered.
“Y-yeah,” Ivan replied, his voice a bit hesitant.
Just then, a soft, sobbing sound reached my ears from somewhere nearby.
“Is that… a child?”
The voice sounded young, and it gradually drew closer. Suddenly, a small Majin with four arms emerged from the alley.
“Mommy… where did you go…?”
It seemed to be lost. I couldn’t tell if it had been caught up in the panic of fleeing townsfolk or if its parent had abandoned it in the chaos. The child walked awkwardly, favoring its right leg as if it were injured.
“Is that really a child?”
I instinctively crossed my arms, observing the quietly crying Majin. Its height was similar to mine, but the proportions of its head and body suggested it was still very much a child. It wore a hooded robe, but the hood had slipped back, revealing its face. With its upper hands, it wiped its eyes and looked around for its mother—only to lock eyes with us, freezing in place.
“…Who are you?”
The child’s words brought a flicker of relief. I wasn’t sure if I should feel reassured, but at least it was better than it screaming and running away.
“Mommy…?”
What should I say in response?
As I pondered, the Majin child slowly approached, rubbing its tear-filled eyes.
“Did you get separated from your mother?”
However, at Rio’s words, the Majin halted in its tracks. Blinking rapidly, its expression shifted to one of growing fear.
“You’re not Mommy…! Y-you’re Subterraneans…! I have to run, Mommy—!”
With that, it let out a wail and dashed away down the alley.
“…”
We stood there, momentarily stunned, as silence enveloped us for a while.
“Did it just say ‘Subterraneans’?”
Rio turned to us with a startled expression.
“Yeah, I definitely heard ‘Subterraneans,'” I confirmed.
“Aren’t those the ones that attacked from the Dungeon?”
“Yeah… Do we really look that similar to them?”
The three of us, including Ivan, tilted our heads in confusion, but none of us had ever seen a Subterranean, so we couldn’t draw any conclusions.
“Let’s just keep in mind that they look similar,” I suggested.
“There’s no point in overthinking it,” Ivan added.
“Right… So let’s hurry and get out of here,” Rio urged.
This was a conversation that had nothing to do with us, as we were about to use Dimensional Magic to return to our world. We decided to leave before any Majin guards or soldiers gathered.
“Alright, I’m going!”
“Leave it to me.”
“Sure.”
“We’re finally going home!”
“Woohoo!”
At Rio’s rallying cry, everyone nodded in agreement. It had been a week since we had fled to the mountains beyond the castle. The place we thought was the mountain peak turned out to be just a part of a larger range, and there was still more mountain beyond it. We didn’t need to escape that far, so we set up a Camping House at a vantage point overlooking the castle and town, where we had been training Dimensional Magic until today.
“It’s been a long journey,” I remarked.
“Well, it’s only been a week,” Ivan replied.
To avoid disturbing Rio’s concentration, I spoke softly to Ivan as we reflected on the past week. Our training had been filled with trial and error, but once we discovered that we could assess our Skills, progress came quickly. It seemed that, in magic, visualization was crucial. We needed to vividly imagine the world we wanted to traverse to and connect the two worlds with Dimensional Magic Power.
At this point, I could only think of the “Anywhere Door,” but it worked perfectly. Having already learned Teleportation and memorized the coordinates of our previous world using Spatial Magic had proven invaluable. It helped us capture the essence of our previous world with Dimensional Magic. Thanks to our relentless training, our MP and Magic Power had also grown significantly.
“But when I saw a familiar landscape through the rift, I felt a wave of relief,” Ivan said.
The “rift” he referred to was a small Dimensional Rift we had opened during our training. It was the moment we confirmed that the Skill to Traverse Dimensions was indeed real, just as the deity had said.
I could open a rift too, but my Magic Power was insufficient, so I could only peek through with one eye. Now that we had reached this point, it was just a matter of enlarging the rift. As long as it was big enough for all of us to pass through and could be maintained for a sufficient amount of time, we would be fine. I had practiced to ensure it was a comfortable size and duration, just to be safe.
“…It’s opened!”
In front of Rio, a rift large enough for one person to pass through had formed.
“…Then I’ll go first,” Ivan said, swallowing hard.
“I’m going too!”
Next was Nil, who hopped onto Phonia’s back.
“Go ahead.”
“Got it.”
Rio seemed determined to maintain the rift until the end, following Nil into the opening. The surroundings were a blur of light and darkness, and the ground and sky seemed to meld into the same scenery, making it hard to tell if we were standing or walking properly. I could sense Rio following behind, but no matter how far we walked, the landscape we had seen through the rift didn’t seem to get any closer.
Had we been walking for about thirty minutes? No, it might have only been five minutes. My sense of time began to blur when suddenly, a woman’s face appeared from the other side of the rift.
“Oh my, are you all heading back already? That’s a bit boring, isn’t it?”
“Hehe, indeed. It seems like it would be much more fun over there…”
“Kyah! Then why not send them over there!”
“That sounds delightful!”
Before we could even ask who they were, a dark hole opened beneath our feet, and the four of us, along with one creature, were sucked in and fell into the abyss.