City Of Sin

Book 2: 1-10

A Mishap

The feeling of passing through a planar portal was about the same as any other. One’s consciousness blanked for a brief moment, before glitching back into existence. It felt longer than usual, though, but then again they’d crossed an immeasurable distance in a mere few seconds.

Archeron men were waiting at the other side, having built a reconnaissance base and set up a Lighthouse of Time to guide those who came afterwards. In the vast and chaotic currents of time and space, the Lighthouse of Time would provide a stable position to lock on to, preventing the traveller from losing their way to a deviation in the teleportation route that was set up on short notice.

According to the information Richard had acquired, the base wasn’t particularly large. Even including the natives they’d subjugated there weren’t more than fifty people present, and the place was barely larger than an adventuring party’s camp. Seventeen of the Archerons sent out in the original party had survived, having explored less than fifty kilometres out. It could be said that they were still rather clueless about the plane’s situation.

However, the coordinates of every stable plane were extremely precious. Once the plane was completely conquered, it would result in a large fortune and innumerable resources. Gaton only had one unconquered lesser plane himself, so Richard didn’t exactly have a choice.

Richard was already quite satisfied with lodging at a relatively safe base, with men who’d arrived beforehand and were already familiar with the environment. Many of the initial dangers involved in planar travel had already been avoided.

A burst of dazzling white light appeared in Richard’s sight. It blinded and hurt him, taking away the colourful lights that had pervaded his vision upto that point. There were no dazzling lights when he regained vision, however; he instead saw a cloudy sky, with trees and mountains around. A gentle breeze blew past his face, telling Richard that a whole new world had opened up ahead of him.

Outside of the purple flora, everything present looked quite the same as Norland. It was unknown whether it was due to a particular season or it was normal all year round, but the mountain range that stretched endlessly under the azure sky was covered in various shades of purple that exuded vitality.

However, there was barely any time for Richard to admire the scenery of the plane. A strong sense of danger suddenly welled up in his heart, and the sharp whistle of the wind suddenly rang in his ears. A cry rang out, and from the corner of his eye Richard saw Waterflower charging towards him.

Waterflower pinned Richard to the ground, and an arrow whizzed past them right after to bury itself right next to his cheek. The strong winds hurt his eyes, the arrow still making a disturbing hum as it vibrated in the earth.

Although this was a close shave with death, Richard was a lot calmer this time. Enemy attack! That was the first thing that came to his mind.

“Follow me!” Waterflower said stiffly. She leapt up like a cheetah, her figure constantly switching between paths. She took a winding path as she charged towards a tree not far away. Richard flipped onto his feet as well, swiftly running alongside her.

A novice knight was running as well, not far from them. However, he’d barely taken a few steps before some arrows whizzed by and pinned him down. A sharp whistle rang in the air as a hatched flew over, burying itself into his back. The knight shouted in agony before collapsing to the ground.