Weirdos IV: The Emerald Heart

Chapter 8: Between A Rock and A Hard Place

Ike's POV

The entire Mansion almost flipped upside-down when I told the people about my dream involving Serafina. Ezekiel contained me iniside a room before having Faye and Cataleya check me for any traces of Serafina's magic. Thankfully, I avoided being quarantined when the two girls didn't find anything troublesome in me. However, the incident only fuelled our leaders to prioritize and rush our preparations for the trip to Delphina.

It took Ezekiel and the other leaders several days to plan and decide the best time to consult the old Seer. Ezekiel has a hunch that Serafina will also visit Delphina, that's why we didn't go immediately to avoid running into the leader of the Legion. The surveillance team led by Yvanna made sure that Serafina is at Emerald before giving us the go signal.

Ezekiel also carefully chose the people that will be coming with us. Crimson and Kuya Quentin of Sir Fraeo's team will be coming for monitoring purposes, the former for being a Fox Weirdo with heightened senses and the latter for being a Radar Weirdo; Cataleya might be able to help the Seer; Professor Elena's Temporal Weirdness will help for a quick escape; while Faye, Tony, Philip, and Jethro will provide additional offense in case we got involved in a fight.

We also won't be teleporting directly to the place. Professor Elena will detour us to three or four places first before eventually teleporting to Delphina's residence to confuse anyone (Jaeron, to be specific) who might try to trace our portal. She will also do the same thing before we go back to the Woodland Mansion.

On the morning of our departure, Ezekiel made sure that everyone knows what their roles are in our trip.

"It won't take us long. We probably wouldn't even stay there for half an hour. We'll go, ask questions, get answers, and leave," he said as everyone prepared in the entrance hall of the Mansion.

"And how sure are you that Delphina hasn't sold you already to Serafina?" Professor Sivera asked Ezekiel. "Maybe I should go with you, Izzy. An extra hand won't harm the team."

"Delphina doesn't take sides, for your info. She is an independent old hag who intentionally isolated herself from all the bullshit of the world to achieve a different level of enlightenment and wisdom. I actually envy her a lot because she doesn't need to deal with the stupidity of the rest of the planet," Ezekiel replied.

"Lucky," Faye whispered.

Ezekiel gathered everyone outside the Mansion for his final reminders before we officially depart.

"You have no excuse but to be ready for this trip. We chose you because we believe that you can contribute greatly to the safety of Ike and everyone else in the team. I would also like to thank you for not thinking twice when we asked you to come with us in this dangerous trip. I cannot assure you that there will be no turbulence in our trip, but I strongly believe that there's no trouble strong enough to break our trust and bond with each other. If we succeed today then we will be one step closer to saving RB and bringing him back to where he belongs," Ezekiel said.

Those who won't be coming to the trip wished us a safe journey ahead. Professor Elena opened a portal and all the members of the party stepped into it, with me entering last. I glanced at everyone in the Mansion before stepping into the swirling vortex of white light which closed with a loud crack after I passed through it.

A scorching desert greeted me as the portal disappeared.

"Seriously? A desert? Of all places? Of millions of places on this planet, you chose to bring us here. Great," Ezekiel said to his sister.

We repeated the process of entering portals four more times. Each portal brought us to a different place—from freezing mountaintops to mushy swamplands to chilly rainforests. The final portal led us right to the edge of a towering cliff overlooking a thunderous sea. I looked behind me and saw hills and mountains clothed in a green carpet of grass and trees extending for miles towards the land. The entire place looks like two worlds merged into one.