The moment Arthur pressed down his foot over that rock the world started to dim like lights were turned off. Arthur glanced around and the sky started to show strange wisps of bronze color like it had rivers running inside it.
And these rivers were made out of bronze energy that roared and swirled around like they were racing for something, or falling from high down.
"Is it normal?" Arthur asked as he felt some dread coming from these energies.
"Dunno, first time to see such a thing," Doaf said before glancing at the person next to him, Amera, "did you experience something like this before?"
And she shook her head firmly while her face told Arthur she knew something and didn't tell.
"If anything you know then you should tell me to help," Arthur urged her to speak.
"I believe there is a conflict," she slowly said while pointing to the sky filled with these wisps and added, "a conflict between the energy used to summon the portal and the energy naturally presented here in this world."
And Arthur got her meaning as he felt his heart clenched all of sudden… his deepest worries had come true.
"There is something interfering with the portal?" he asked, trying to confirm his worst guess.
"I believe it's not something," yet she said something different than what he had in mind, "it's more like there is no organization of energy in this world… no control over it."
As he didn't get her point she turned to Doaf as she explained, asking for him to understand, "the portal we are trying to initiate is like digging directly in the middle of a calm lake to reach the bottom, crack it and reach another place down there. But this world looked nothing like a calm lake but a raging sea. So we are now clashing with mighty waves trying to stabilize our digging."
"The world's energy is already in turmoil!" the face of Doaf shown with the light of realization, "that's… bad!"
Arthur looked at the two with a loss look over his face while waiting for someone of them to step forward and explain things to him.
"The rules of this world's energy are damaged, there is nothing to regulate it and so…" Doaf paused while Amera added: "You can't depend on something that's already chaotic to support and fuel the portal… instead this energy antagonizes what we are trying to do here."
"Letting our efforts be wasted…" and Arthur finally got the point while raising his head to the sky as he deeply muttered, "the world's will didn't respond before because she wasn't arrogant, but because she doesn't exist initially here… she is dead!"
His sudden realization made his mind pretty chaotic at this moment while the system tried to find out a solution.
'Ding! If the energy of this world can't be used, then we should try our best to nullify its negative effect.'
"Like what?" Arthur asked and the two in front of him were seemingly puzzled for a moment before dropping it. they got used already to how Arthur works, and how he looked lunatic sometimes.
'Ding! We should keep it busy dealing with something else, something else.'
"Like… what?" Arthur gritted his teeth as he wanted a solution. The rock underneath his feet was starting to emit burning energy that he didn't feel relaxed with.
The array was failing, and he could tell that just from the signs in the sky and the words of Doaf and Amera.
'Ding! An explosive array, something that can exhaust large amounts of energy without giving anything in return.'
"…" Arthur didn't speak as he waited for his system to give him the answer he wanted.
'Ding! An energy black hole, that's what you should do… at least it works out in theory.'
"Do you know of any array that would act like a black hole or something?" he instantly turned to the two in front of him and asked.
"Black hole?" Doaf asked with puzzlement.
"Like absorbing energy and dumping it away," Arthur said what he understood from his system.
Yet the face of Doaf revealed his inability to help, unlike Amera whose face showed her deep thinking, and deep hesitation.
"You know of such a thing?" Arthur couldn't help but ask and drove her to speak what she had in mind.
"There is such an array," she said before pausing for a couple of moments, "but it's too risky to use. I recall my grandmaster warned me from thinking about using it under any circumstances. Unless it was hopeless you shouldn't use it, she said these words to me."
"And do you think we aren't hopeless already?" Arthur said, "c'mon, tell me the array and I'll do it."
"Wait a minute…" Suddenly Doaf screamed in panic as if he realized something scary, "you can't possibly mean that thing?"
"He asked for a place to dump energy at and that's the only place we can use."
"B… But it's forbidden!"
"What are you two talking about?" Arthur stopped the two from continuing their bizarre words and asked for more information.
"There is a place that's related to any higher realm in our universe," Doaf was the one to speak, and he seemed quite agitated while speaking about that, "that place is endless, with nothing that can fill it no matter what."
"Sounds perfect to me," Arthur honestly said.
"But that place… it has some terrifying things… things that can't be dealt with even masters without grouping together," Amera said, trying to persuade him from using that array, "and even with that they won't be able to come out unscathed. Some would die, imagine us!"
"What's that place exactly?" Arthur asked.
"It goes by many names, but the most famous one is the originals cemetery."
The word made Arthur's eyes shine brightly as he suddenly recalled the unpleasant experience he had before. "Is it a strange place filled with tombstones?" he asked, "and souls live in it?"
"You've seen it?!!" The shocked expression was on both of their faces.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m