11 Welcome to Carina

The group walked through a long stone corridor and exited out into a vast, open courtyard full of tons of other groups of kids.

Saiph hadn't heard otherwise, so he just tried his best to stick to his group and subsequently his escort.

After a bit of time, it seemed like the group was sitting down in an open area and not doing anything, for whatever reason.

After sitting down, Saiph wasn't sure if his legs were ever going to work properly again. They just were so stiff.

While thinking of such silly things, Saiph's gaze wandered upwards and met the backside of the towering entryway of the fort. He felt a bit dizzy and fell back onto the grass beneath him, gaze still meeting the entryway.

Word traveled from person to person that they were stopping to wait for a few more groups reached the World Gate so they could all go through at the same time. Saiph wasn't going to trust that information outright, but it seemed reasonable enough so he settled down.

A few hours passed an a couple thousand stiff kids and their few escorts were all standing in front of a mesmerizing fluid wall that looked like space itself was being warped into.

"You will all enter the World Gate now. Due to the bending of time during interplanetary travel, you will not find yourself in Carina with your current group. Please, find the nearest escort and reform one so you can safely travel across the world."

A loud, unfamiliar voice spoke from somewhere. It certainly didn't belong to his escort, but Saiph didn't care too much right now. He was still drained from the long, monotonous march there.

The massive group of people moved onwards, onwards towards the massive spatial distortion, flowing like a river. Saiph watch in awe as the people just ahead of him got absorbed into the World Gate like nothing he had ever seen before. Their bodies melted into particles that got rapidly sucked into the World Gate, nothing left over.

Saiph semi-warily stepped up to the portal and braced himself. He felt the skin being pulled from his body, but it didn't hurt. The sensation was strangely surreal and uncomfortable and as time passed it only got worse. Most of his body was stripped away and then, nothing.

Suddenly, Saiph was inside of something that he had to assume was the space in between worlds. He looked back to the gap in his memory and frowned.

'Did I die? Was I destroyed and reformed?'

The nature of death and the sense of self wasn't the most appropriate topic to ponder during this magical journey through the World Gate, so Saiph shook his head and looked around.

He most certainly still had his entire body, flesh and all. His gaze coasted from his lower body to the surroundings.

In the distance, a massive horizontal pillar of pulsating light beamed through the empty cosmos, this space that Saiph found himself in. These empty cosmos were truly devoid of light. In any arbitrary direction besides the massive light pillar, there was nothing but absolute darkness.

However, it was a different type of infinity and space than the space that Saiph had found himself in when he was seriously injured and saw that curious black fog. Outside of that room, there was no space. Here, the laws of space and time seemed to stretch into infinity, it's just that there was nothing there to highlight it.

Saiph felt mildly troubled, though, that he wasn't moving. He was idling in place, reasonably far away from the light pillar, the only thing visible. There wasn't any other people in the same situation as he was, as far as Saiph could tell.

With little else to try or do, the boy attempted to swim over to the light. Strangely enough, it worked. Despite not feeling any resistance to push off of, Saiph propelled himself through the space without issue. In fact, the speed far surpassed any swimming speed he had ever reached in the water before, although the surreal feeling of moving quickly through a space devoid of air jolted him and threw off his senses.

Stroke after stroke, Saiph picked up more and more speed until the pillar of light was only a few feet away.

VWOOM

Saiph plunged into the light pillar without resistance and felt a force grab him from the side and drag him along with the light. He accelerated faster and faster until he felt his body break and split apart, a similar sensation to when he was initially dragged into the World Gate.

This time, however, his consciousness didn't break and he still somehow viewed the entire process. The light was beautiful. It encompassed all of reality and drew out mesmerizing patterns and illusions in front of Saiph's eyes.

Strange creatures made of light danced to and fro, jumping across the interior of the pillar horizontally and vertically, with no real rhyme or reason. None of the creatures made any anatomical or physiological sense to Saiph. Each and every one of them looked like they would die in one way or another if they were made from flesh and blood.

One, in particular, that stuck out to Saiph, looked like a mix between a reptile and a mangled corpse of a deer. The head of the creature was that of a snake, or possibly a strange lizard. Its shoulders merged into its head directly; it had no neck. The rest of its body looked like a deer that was thrown off the top of the stone fortress, save for a long, reptile tail that dragged out from behind the creature that was as about the same length as the rest of it.

These haunted figures danced around Saiph in a playful and aloof manner, either teasing Saiph or mocking him- he wasn't sure which.

Saiph was mesmerized by the light show exhibited and fell into a light trance. When he awoke, he was warm and wet.

The boy jumped to his feet and fell right back over again from the sudden rush of dizziness overcoming him. He -- this time slowly -- got back up to his feet and looked around. The flora here was very verdant and lush, and a thick layer of warm moisture gushed from the air and pushed Saiph's levels of energy down.

It was overwhelmingly hot and wet. Saiph started choking and hyperventilating.

No one had told him that it was going to be so humid here!

After a few good minutes of adjusting to the drastic climate change, Saiph took a deep breath and started to look around for other people.

The dense forestry made movement very strenuous and inefficient, frustrating Saiph.

Why would anyone ever want to live on this stupid world!?

Tripping, stumbling, sliding- Saiph had done it all after just a short few minutes.

"ARGH! I give up!" he shouted in frustration after a few more minutes of failed traversal. He sat down and pouted in an open area, just hoping that he would find someone soon. Or, rather, that someone would find him soon.

A long time passed and there was still no noise from anything besides the occasional breeze in the wind. Saiph found this curious, as there should have been a copious amount of insects and animals in such a plant rich ecosystem, and therefore oxygen rich as well.

Maybe staying still wasn't the best option, he decided after a bit longer. The World Gate could have thrown him somewhere far away from where he was supposed to be. It was also possible that we was a few hours or even days behind the rest of the group judging by how he was placed outside of the pillar of light.

Hence, the young boy once again set off to break through the thick vegetation. Even despite his interests as a Spagyrist and potion brewer, he didn't stop to peruse for any rare or useable plants or possibly Flora Magicae in this exotic new environment. His mind just wasn't in it.

This time around, Saiph moved slowly and tried to stay high and above the ground-level shrubs and growths. It wasn't too hard; many of the plants were very woody and firm.

Saiph found quite a bit of success with this new technique, and moved through the jungle at a reasonable pace, contrasting his prior efforts.

After a long time of arduous effort, Saiph finally had a result. While going in an arbitrary direction was a risky move, it seemed to have payed off: just through the brush ahead Saiph could pick out a small clearing, and then, past that, it looked like it opened up into a vast clearing. Maybe it was the jungle's edge just ahead!

Saiph hurried forward and jumped into the clearing. Just as he was about to push through and into the brush…

CRUNCH

Saiph felt a force grab his right arm and pull him back a bit, then letting go.

He looked over his right shoulder and saw a stump where his arm should have been.

"Wha..?"

Behind him, a gaping, toothy maw had an arm held in it. The owner of the maw was… green… and… long…

Saiph felt faint and came to a sudden realization.

"AHHHH!!!" A raw scream ripped through the boy's throat uncontrollably. Tears dribbled down his face as he dropped backwards onto the ground.

The creature chomped down on the arm in its mouth and swallowed. After it was done, it turned back to Saiph and looked down at him.

"No, no, no!" he yelled and frantically flailed backwards away from the monstrosity.

"Go away go away go away!"

BOOM

Suddenly, a massive burst out from behind Saiph and engulfed the creature, blasting it backwards and away from the boy. Two figures jumped out from behind Saiph and collided with the creature, dropping it to the ground.

With the immediate danger subsided, Saiph felt the blood drain from his head, falling prone on the ground. His vision started to fade and he felt himself drifting into the abyss.

"Get the kid!" a fierce voice shouted.

"Did the Dead V get him?"

"He just lost an arm, there's still…"

"...."

"...."

Saiph couldn't make out the rest of their conversation despite them being just in front of him. He also couldn't tell what either of them looked like or what was really going on.

Was this the end?

Saiph felt a bitter fire of injustice ignite in his Spirit before slipping into an unconscious state...….