Feeling his body connect to the space in front of the starting village he had originated from, Astaroth focused his mind and mana, taking a step forward. His body lurched forward, passing through an invisible film, giving him a bit of the same feeling as when he used the teleporter.
Appearing in front of the village, his stomach churned a little. Keeling over a bush to the side, Astaroth threw up.
'Hah. Weak mortal. That's what you get for using my powers without paying the just price.'
Astaroth answered out loud, not even bothering to waste the mental message.
"Shut up. You were trying to rip me off. And since you belong to me, now, I can do as I please."
'Tsk.'
Hearing the tongue click, Astaroth knew he had won that bout.
But, standing up, Astaroth found it strange that no one had yet intercepted him. There was usually a patrol out and around the village. Normally, they would have seen him appear and at least asked who he was before letting him pass.
He looked at his timer. Only four minutes remained.
He walked into the cave, and the eerie silence troubled him. There was no shout of kids playing, or the sound of hoes tilling the soil, or even the sound of wooden weapons clashing coming from the barracks usually.
The forge's chimney was not spouting smoke, like it usually did, and Astaroth finally noticed it, but there was no longer a barrier in place.
'What the hell is going on?'
Using his melded strength to the maximum, Astaroth toured the village in seconds, checking out every spot where there should normally be people at this time of day. Everything was empty.
'Why did you want to come here, Master Astaroth?' Asmodeus asked.
The demon could feel the angst in his master, and forsook his snippy attitude, thinking it better to stay neutral for now. Astaroth could lock him away, after all.
"No one is here… The village is empty. This isn't normal."
Walking toward the last place he had to go, Aberon's house, Astaroth felt his angst levels rising. When he got to the house, the door was slightly ajar.
"Master Aberon? Are you in here?"
The silence was his only answer.
Pushing the door inward slowly, Astaroth walked in. But where there used to be a mess of books and magic tools, nothing remained.
The house had been cleaned out. This worried Astaroth even more.
His mind was already racing, thinking about the worst-case scenarios. Racing to the bookcase that hid the passage under the house, he found this open, too.
He practically vaulted inside the tunnel, running on the wall on his way down, making it to the artifact room in record time. Where the cave usually lit up with the brightness of the artifact, and overflowed with mana, he only found a stone wall.
On the stone surface, a sigil was carved, and it leaked slight mana traces. Slapping his hand on the sigil, a mental message instantly assaulted Astaroth's mind.
'Do not open this, Young Man! Only trouble lies beyond this point. Something weird opened up in the artifact room, and to protect everyone, I sealed it away with the artifact's barrier. If you want to find us, Call on Terraria and Arborea. They escorted us to a haven further in the forest, hidden from everything. Farewell, Astaroth. And may you someday find us and rejoin your family. Aberon.'
As the message ended, the sigil erased itself from the wall, leaving only the flat stone surface. Astaroth had a bad feeling about what could have opened up on the other side of the wall, so he visualized the space on the other side.
The area was pitch black in his senses, and since it was past the barrier, his mana senses couldn't pick up on anything. Foregoing prudence, he teleported inside.
As soon as his body reappeared in the once brightly lit room, the mana inside rushed to him, its demonic essence trying to rest control of his body.
'Get back out, right now!' Asmodeus screamed in his mind.
Astaroth was already feeling his head buzzing because of the miasma's thickness, but he managed to teleport back outside to the main village. In his haste, he miscalculated his arrival point, and teleported ten feet in the air.
Feeling his body fall prey to gravity, Astaroth fell to the ground, smacking it hard.
"Oof"
He stayed sprawled on the ground for a moment, regaining his bearings, and letting his head stop thrumming. But Asmodeus cared little for his health and was quite agitated.
'By Lucifer! Why was there hell miasma in there, and why was it so thick?!'
"You don't need to shout, you horned idiot. I know why there was some miasma there. A tear must have opened. Aberon must have had no way to close it, so he sealed it. But I don't know how long that will hold."
'A tear? Is that what Vassago was rambling about? Wasn't that supposed to happen in your world, not this one?'
"It all starts in this one. It only spills into mine. The problem lies in that my world doesn't have powerful people like this one in it to defend it."
Astaroth looked at his timer again. Two minutes left.
He didn't have time to do anything about the problem. Calling Terraria and Arborea would take him longer than what time he had left.
But if what he glimpsed in the miasma was accurate, the seal from the shield wouldn't last the ten-year time skip. He had to warn the guardians of the forest.
Summoning Genie to his side, he looked at her in the eyes.
"Genie. I will be gone for a long time, soon. I will need you to deliver a message to the guardians of the forest for me. Can you do that?"
The wolf nodded her head once, signalling yes.
"Good. You will need to find them as fast as you can, and tell them that the barrier is holding back a great danger, but it won't hold out for as long as it needs to. They will need to fortify it."
He grabbed hold of Genie's head, sending the mental image he had seen inside to her.
"Show them this. It is of the utmost importance."
Looking at his timer again, his time was ticking away. One minute left.
Scanning Genie's level, Astaroth was reassured. She was strong enough to resist almost anything that this region could throw at her, so he wouldn't have to worry about her death during the time skip.
"I hope you will stay safe while I'm gone. You stay alive, you hear me? Don't make me mourn you."
Hugging her big and soft body, Astaroth made the wolf feel his love as much as he could. As the last seconds ticked away, he received a notification.
*Update time has arrived. Log-out procedure started. Come back soon, player Astaroth.*
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