GATE: The United Nations of Earth

Chapter 37: "Priority: The Gods".

Chapter 37: "Priority: The Gods".

----

The storm makes it always dark regardless of day or night, only thanks to the digital clock on board that the SIFs could tell how many days have passed. It has been a little more than 2 days since they left the village. The lack of vision and sensors in the thick vegetation makes it almost impossible to go too fast despite the vehicles' hovering ability.

All the wounds of the SIFs are now completely healed and the TAC suit extension from their lost limbs acts as a temporary prosthetic arm or leg until they could get back to base and regrow. Rory's situation has improved slightly but she has been in and out of a coma for the last 2 days despite Jimmy's best efforts to help her.

"How's she doing?" Ava asks, looking back.

"To be honest, I have no idea, commander" Jimmy replies, seeing the confused look on Ava's face, he continues "Her wound should be healed by now, it looks like something is preventing the healing process but the scan is not picking up anything. My first thought was that she got an unknown infection but the others healed nicely so that theory was out of the window. None of this makes any sense".

"Kaian, any magic spell you could use?" Ava asks.

"Apostle weapons contain some of the most powerful healing magic of this world, if it didn't work then any other healing spell would not work" Kaian replies.

"Well try something at least?" Ava keeps pushing.

"Alright" Kaian says as he extends his hand over Rory's wound and starts casting a spell. A pinkish aura envelops his hand and Rory's wound. After a few seconds, Rory goes into a convulsion causing Jimmy to stop him and give Rory a shot of morphine to calm her down.

Kaian gives Ava a 'told you so' stare without saying anything.

"Let's hope whatever gods in the valley can help her" Ava says.

"Commander, we're in the eye now" Rob says as they reach the center of the storm which is also the Valley of The Gods "We're there".

The convoy leaves the thick fog of the storm and enter the center of it. Heavy rain becomes light rain, thunder could still be heard but, for the first time in days, they can see the sky and sunlight. Unlike the dark and grim forest that they just got out from, the valley is green with grass with unusually tall trees scattered. These trees have white bark and colorful leaves. There are all kind of strange but beautiful animals, birds that could not be found anywhere else on this world and they all look so elegant and mystical.

All sensors of the vehicles are, suddenly, working as normal again. Scan indicates that the entire valley is the center of the storm and this storm isn't moving at all despite its strong wind.

"You guys seeing this? It feels like we're on one of those Gaia worlds" Ashley says.

"Yeah, it's beautiful" Ava replies then looks at Kaian at the back "Ok what now?".

"We must travel to the center of the valley where the gods live" Kaian replies.

"Alright, center it is" Ava says then nods at Rob.

It is much easier to drive now because of the clear vision and the grassland. As they're going deeper into the valley, the rain stops completely and the sun shines brightly, beautifully. Large herd of white deer-like creatures with golden antlers run across the green grass field around a lake of incredibly clear water.

A pair of white wyverns zoom pass the convoy at low altitude, high speed then pulls up and flies away. Unlike the wyverns in the Imperial Army, these are larger and have beautiful white fur. The sensor of the APC measured their speed up to Mach 1.5 as they passed by. There has never been any kind of creature on any of the known planets in the entire Milky Way that could reach that speed naturally, not even from the other galaxies that the expeditions were sent to.