The moment the portal opened, Arthur could see the image of the world behind it hazy at first before it suddenly got clear.
And the world he saw wasn't as majestic as he imagined, not filled with palaces or fancy buildings but only with ruins.
"What the hell happened there?" He couldn't help but recall his bad omen about his godfather and his delay in responding to the earlier message he sent to him. "This is bad!" he muttered with a gratified dark face.
The scene that appeared through the portal was seen by all in this part of the world. Arthur didn't think much about who was going to see this, and now all he cared about was what he should do now.
The hope he had to get reinforcements from was now crushed. From just the narrow window of that world he could be sure that a huge fight erupted inside that place.
And whoever was attacking he managed to penetrate through all the defenses there and crushed the world.
"It's like what happened at the academy," he clenched both fists before relaxing them all of sudden.
Amidst all the ruins a small dot suddenly appeared. They were heading towards the portal from a far place, and with time more dots appeared.
A grand army was slowly gathering up and Arthur had only one question in his mind at the moment… Were they friends or foes?
"Can I kill this portal?" he didn't hesitate to expect the worst and hurriedly asked his system.
'Ding! You can easily cancel the array,' the system said, 'but you'll risk losing all the energy stored inside. You'll abandon everything you fought for to get, and that means if you want to re-establish it again then you'll have to work from the scratch.'
"I don't mind that," Arthur was decisive, "if they turned out to be enemies then I won't hesitate to kill that portal."
He turned around, looking towards the direction of Doaf and Amera. "Gege, send a message to Doaf and let him come here now!"
'Right away.'
The tree function was extremely limited in this world, but it could easily connect with the nearby Doaf. "Also make her check over the enemies approaching," he added when he realized he was distracted from his enemies for a long time.
He had many things to do but that was a grave mistake and he wanted to keep an eye on them now.
'Doaf is on his way already,' she returned fast to say, 'and the enemies need at least five days to arrive.'
"That's… good," Arthur was relaxed a bit when he heard that. "Even if I had to start from zero then I still have time to do that."
He then turned to check on the portal and the large number of small dots drawing fast towards the portal.
And Doaf also appeared coming fast from the horizon. In less than five minutes he arrived beside Arthur, and his dark face told Arthur how he was feeling right now.
"I'm sorry for what happened," Arthur said while feeling some blame for that.
"That's impossible," Doaf was still in deep shock, "that world was heavily fortified. Not even ten great armies can penetrate it!"
"But…" Arthur pointed to the portal, "this is obviously a lost battle."
"It's a sign for destruction," Doaf firmly said, "but who cares as long as we won the war!"
Arthur was taken aback with his logic and didn't know what to say. He remained silent while Doaf's firmly believed in what he just said and totally ignored the skeptical vision of Arthur.
"You'll see," he turned his head towards the portal, "I bet they are all my fellow brave warriors."
"What if… they aren't?" Arthur slowly said, "I plan to seal the portal."
Doaf didn't turn to him or said anything for roughly five minutes. "In that case… that would be the right action to take," he finally said slowly while his eyes were totally fixed over the portal without even blinking.
Arthur could only sigh. Seeing one's home in such a state while the person was in dire need for their help was a very brutal situation, something Arthur hoped would not come true.
Yet he didn't adopt the hopeful vision of Doaf and started to arrange his back up plan.
'Send word to Amera, make her stop that array,' he inwardly said to Gege, 'also spread the word, every single one here has to be ready… we might have unwelcome guests.'
'I'll do it now,' Gege answered.
'Ding! Y'know we have limited power here,' the system said, 'Ding! I believe you should seal the portal right away and not risk losing anymore.'
'I know what you just said is the wisest thing to do,' Arthur said before stealing a glance over Doaf and sighed, 'but I have at least to do him this favor. He… needs to know what happened to his world, and I will support his back until he confirms that.'
'Ding! You shouldn't let that portal be opened for too long then,' the system could only say, 'Ding! At least if enemies were arriving, we need not let them reach here in great numbers.'
Arthur nodded and remained silent. Gege informed him that everyone was ready for war, but she brought one piece of bad news.
'Amera says that she can't cancel the array.'
'How come?' Arthur was surprised, 'just let her leave the array to be attacked by the berserk energy here.'
'She says she did that already,' Gege said, 'but some sort of weird energy is maintaining the array working and making it intact despite everything.'
That seemed to be something weird but Arthur recalled what Doaf and Amera said before about this array. 'Sigh, it seems everything is crashing down fast,' he knew he had nothing in hand to do, 'let them retreat here then. If things went south then we should be together.'
'She is coming here now with everyone else,' Gege said, 'what do you plan to do?'
Arthur turned to the direction Doaf came from and could already spot far dots coming from far. 'I'll wait,' he turned his gaze up there, 'I'll have to wait and see who they are and what they are planning to do.'
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮