harleyscars Chapter 1100: The Dormant Gates
Chapter 1100: The Dormant Gates
But see, that literal ground-shaking prompt hadn’t only been witnessed by two people.
For in truth, in places that should’ve been familiar yet somehow weren’t, the very same message appeared.
The script varied.
The symbols differed.
The language itself seemed completely foreign.
Yet no matter how it was written, no matter how strange the characters looked, it would all inevitably translate to the same thing.
[BRIDGING CONNECTION REQUEST DETECTED...]
[ALLOW CONNECTION?]
[YES] [NO]
Now, whether the following information would be considered fortunate or unfortunate would largely depend on one’s perspective.
Because at that very moment, there were exactly three separate groups capable of responding.
Capable in the sense that they still possessed just enough strength to reach a gate they hadn’t really seen respond for what felt like an eternity.
__
High above, where the air had long since become thin, poisonous, and hostile to life, a rather stealthy group raced across a mountain range swallowed by corruption.
They weren’t merely running.
They were leaping.
Their figures bounded across jagged cliffs and fractured peaks with movements so fluid and silent they seemed almost weightless. Between them, they carried an ornate enclosed seat, keeping it remarkably steady despite the impossible terrain.
Black corruption pulsed across the mountainside like diseased veins.
The miasma was thick enough to suffocate lesser beings.
Yet none of them slowed.
Their eyes remained fixed on the summit where the gate... their bridge had suddenly flickered back to life.
They had been running and fighting monsters from the moment they accepted the connection. And all they could hope for was getting there with enough time to spare for preparation.
See... there was a time when they would simply be excited to interact with the gate, but now...
With the last contact being so long ago, and the clan head in this less-than-stellar condition, who knows how beneficial or disastrous this crucial moment could be?
[ENGAGING BRIDGE CONNECTION...]
[27%...]
At nearly the same time, far across a place split apart by countless wounds, another group received the same prompt.
A group of women stood at the edge of an immense precipice.
Below them stretched a colossal crater filled with churning rivers of corrupted lava and countless monsters crawling through the molten landscape.
It was truly a place no one would want to be caught dead around.
And yet instead of running away to safety, they didn’t hesitate to risk it all.
The instant they accepted the connection from the prompt that had suddenly appeared, they threw themselves forward.
The cliff vanished beneath their feet as they plunged through the burning air.
Smoke and ash rushed past them.
The volcanic wasteland expanded below.
And dead at its center, a gate pulsed like a beating heart.
[64%...]
Elsewhere, the expected battlefield had truly unfolded into dust, corruption, and chaos.
A suddenly desperate group of reinforcements charged forward, weapons drawn and voices hoarse as they chased after a figure they continuously addressed as "Your Highness."
Dressed in immaculate white, the individual at the very front never slowed.
Not once.
Far in the distance, a massive gate towered above the horizon.
Between them and their destination stood an entire valley that had long since become a monster nest.
Corrupted beasts covered the landscape.
The gate itself was practically buried beneath a writhing sea of enemies.
There was no time to seek cover and no time for caution.
And really, for beings who had genuinely considered vanishing to end it all, how could they start worrying about their safety today of all days? So they simply fought while moving.
Cutting.
Charging.
Forcing their way forward.
Time was running out. And while the gate itself shouldn’t vanish once the connection was established, there was no guarantee whatever awaited them on the other side would remain available forever.
And such would be unthinkable for the likes of them.
Thankfully, it seemed most of them shared the same sentiment, as more and more of the once-hopeless survivors followed in his footsteps.
Had they possessed the same strength they once did, this likely would’ve been little more than a trivial march.
Unfortunately, those days were long gone.
Even now, he could already tell that some among them had pushed far beyond the limits of what their diminished states should have allowed.
Yet somehow, they continued.
Bones cracked.
Muscles tore.
Spiritual energy burned far more than it had in who knows how long.
Still, they refused to stop.
Refused to fall.
They threw their entire existences into that final charge, bulldozing through endless waves of corruption and scattering monsters like chaff before the wind.
They were finally that desperate.
[98%]
Then, just as they staggered into their destination, practically half dead from the journey, the progress bar finally reached its end.
[100%]
[CONNECTION COMPLETED]
[BRIDGE CONNECTION NOW ESTABLISHED.]
For a brief moment, silence followed.
Then, unbeknownst to the waiting crowds...
The world shook.
Not one world.
All of them.
Ancient gates that had remained dormant for ages suddenly erupted with blinding light.
Spiritual Energy surged, space twisted, and reality distorted.
And for the first time in a very, very long while—
The separation between isolated worlds no longer seemed quite so absolute.
Though admittedly, it arrived in a rather unusual form.
Huh?
Not a delegation.
Not an army.
Not a random outbreak of intelligent aberrants.
Not even the long-forgotten Hall of Fame updates many had secretly missed.
Instead, every participant who gathered was greeted by a completely out-of-place projection.
"..."
"..."
Just as expected, nobody knew how to react.
Because there they stood amidst battlefields littered with severed limbs and corrupted carcasses...
There they stood after fighting through what had likely been the most brutal subjugation campaigns they had undertaken in ages...
There they stood after reaching the gates through blood, sweat, and increasingly questionable life choices.
Only to be greeted by...
Hexagons.
Slightly different hexagons.
Now, normally, geometric shapes wouldn’t have stunned beings of their caliber into silence.
However, these particular hexagons carried something embellished directly on them.
An emblem.
One that apparently nobody recognized.
To be completely honest, it was rather unnerving, though no one who still had pride would likely admit it.
The creature prominently displayed on the label possessed absurdly round, beady eyes that seemed to stare directly back at whoever looked at it.
Its body was striped yellow and black.
And... and the wings!
It had suspicious wings.
And for some reason, it appeared far too cheerful.
"..."
"..."
What kind of beast was this? Was this a new level of aberrants they had yet to encounter?