Chapter 42-Departure

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A/N: Discord for pictures and questions: https://discord.gg/hrHretR

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<One Week Later>

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Itachi stealthily made it up the ancient mountain running low to the ground as he expanded out his senses in front of him. Tens of monarchs surrounded him, and the mountain seemed never ending as it slowly slopes up.

He had finally started exploring the ancient mountains in the summon dimension, but he was being quite cautious. Instead of flying, he powered up the mountain each step crossing over 50 feet. So far, he had avoided alarming anything because he would have no idea what awaited him at the top.

On the mountainside there was a grand Forrest with trees towering hundreds of meters tall

Jumping to a treetop, far in the distance a few hundreds of miles away, clouds covered the higher levels of the mountain giving it a mysterious look. Even using magic sense, he couldn't tell what was past that so it was understandable he was quite cautious.

A few miles more miles up, he stood silently in a treetop watching a massive draconic beast fly over his head. There was no mistake that it gave off a steady Emperor level of power that scared a few of the monarchs below which had grew even more numerous.

They are becoming quite common he observed as he found quite a few in the miles radius around him.

Another thing he observed was that the beasts were smaller on average, yet size didn't always mean strength. From a few previous encounters on the mountain, he had been able to tell their strength was more compacted which wasn't too surprising.

Instead of eating more being the overlord of an area like a normal monarch, they had been constantly competing with their brethren giving the beasts an overall more dangerous feel. Even with hiding his magical signature completely and moving in the shadows, a few came close to discovering him which says something about their senses.

Eventually he made it to the cloud layer tens of miles up which seemed to faintly swirl around the peak. Instead of being completely white, their were vague tints of purple and magenta giving it an exotic feel and he couldn't see through it at all.

Different from the steady slope covered by grand forrests,

The magic energy this high was tens of times stronger than the main world, and he could tell cultivating here for a long period of time would be amazing.

He could vaguely sense some sort of magical energy inside, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it at all and he debated whether he should just return for now.

Finally after a period of debate he stepped into the cloud layer. It completely blocked his senses so he could only walk forward one step at a time as he made his way up.

No beasts were in this layer and he continued cautiously since there had to be a reason for that. He was prepared to switch on demonization quickly to react to any threat.

Finally after a few hours of this cautious behavior he emerged from the cloud cover as his looked at his surroundings with a bit of awe

"This stereotypical place should have the overlord of the mountain' he thought wryly observing a massive almost plateau of flat land surrounding an almost sheer cliff that led straight up above. He couldn't make out the peak, but lightning flashed around it giving a creepy vibe that screamed something is hiding there.

Dotting the landscape was almost some sort of civilization of dragons. He observed two young dragons fighting playfully as the parents lounged around watching. Buildings almost similar to what he had seen at the Rocky Mountains dotted the landscape, but these were on a much more grander scale.

He observed one dragon crash into the side of one building, but it didn't even shake, and he guessed they were made out of some sort of strong material.

They looked noticeably different than Kayda so he wondered if they were her family or not.

'Should I reveal myself, or would they attack' he thought not sure what he should do at this point. He sensed many Emperor level auras including a few that would even give him trouble.

Finally he stepped out choosing to try to communicate with them

Upon seeing him, the closest one which happened to be a low emperor rank, jumped back immediately warning its brethren as it regarded Itachi cautiously

Holding his hands up as a gesture of peace he immediately began speaking the language which he had learned from Kayda "I mean you no harm, I was only exploring this land" he said as the dragon squinted his eyes which he guessed was an expression of distrust and confusion and a bit of surprise most likely since he also spoke the language

After a few seconds, he motioned for the others to clear a path "Go and speak to our ancestor, outsiders haven't appeared for generations" he said as the others moved out of the way looking at Itachi warily

He breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn't attack him, but he wasn't sure if this meeting would be the best idea.

Beautiful lightning wings materialized behind him as he flew to the top arriving on the peak.

Instead of a dragon like he was expecting, there was simply an older looking man sitting throne type of chair regarding him with a calm look.

The most frightening part, was that he couldn't sense anything at all from the man like he didn't exist at all.

"Umm sorry for intruding elder" he spoke a bit cautiously

The old man chuckled waving his hand in a dismissing gesture " It's all good after all, I've wanted to meet you for a long time" he spoke quietly yet his voice seemed to permeate through the surroundings

"You have heard of me?" Itachi said a bit surprised since he didn't thing the elder would know of matters in the other dimension

"I guess you could say that I'm somewhat of a guardian for this world he spoke with a small laugh before looking back towards Itachi with a curious look

"Imagine my surprise when you appeared out of nowhere with shocking abilities. With a body perfect for evolution, you destroyed the known path quickly rising to the peak of the world in a mere few years. I truly am curious to know where you came from" he said with an eager expesssion that scared him quite a bit

"Errr elder is benevolent and he wouldn't bother with such a small fry like me" he said hopefully causing the elder to laugh

"Relax, I'm not going to do anything to you, I am just curious which world you came from previously" he said like Itachi was some sort of puzzle "There have been a few clues, but I haven't been able to tell anything" he said causing Itachi's eyes to widen

"You know of the other worlds?"

"Yeah of course, after all, I am the protector of this one and I can tell when something strange is going on" he said mysteriously

"Are there many others like you?" He asked curiously eager to know what realm the man had reached

"Hmmm you could say that I guess, but asking anymore would hurt you more than it would help you" he said not giving anything more away

"Do you know how I can visit the other worlds, do I fly through space or something?" He asked causing the man to laugh

"That would take thousands of years for your level and you would eventually run out of energy and die" he said with amusement finding Itachi's words very funny

"There are arrays set up by the ancient gods which can be used to travel between the worlds. In theory, all the worlds are connected, but some are easier to find while others are on the periphery.

We are considered closer to the periphery and we only have a few arrays set up" he said gesturing across the ancient stone landscape with many marks and patterns that seemed to give off a strange feeling."

"Are you saying some of the worlds have many people traveling too and from them?" Itachi asked curiously

"Correct but some are much harder to find than others such as this one. The popular ones connected to many others and they are called hubs. To sum it up, these worlds typically are much larger, have stronger inhabitants, and have higher quality magical energy." he said leaning back in his chair

"Now, you may ask why I'm telling you this, but it is simply because you are too strong for this world, so I would prefer if you left" the man spoke as Itachi took in all this new information

He called out Kayda from his contract space who immediately looked out a bit tensed up before relaxing.

"Elder, do you know who her family is?" He asked curiously since he hadn't seen any clues on his way up

"Hmmm interesting, so that's what happened" he muttered to himself regarding the young dragon with a look of curiosity

"An outsider, a peculiar dragon from another realm visited a while ago. I typically prevent stronger beings from running rampart in this world, but he just wanted to look around so I let him explore this dimension without affecting the main world.

He ended up liking this one dragon from the tribe, and eventually the female dragon gave birth to you" he said looking at Kayda in remembrance while the former didn't seem to recognize him

"Do I know you?" She asked hesitantly

He dispelled her thoughts "I normally don't get involved with the outside, so you probably wouldn't recognize me. When he threw you to the mortal plane, It annoyed me quite a bit so I ended up kicking him out and he returned back home. Your mother sadly died due to complications at birth so she is not her anymore." he paused for a moment as Kayda looked a bit sad since she never knew her mother and now she knows why.

"I was actually going to try to raise you myself, but I see you found a much better person" he answered lightheartedly with a smirk causing the blond haired girl to blush dispelling the previous sad mood

Itachi put an arm around the young girl comfortingly "I'm glad you came into my life" patting her head

"Can I bring everyone else with me?" He questioned and the elder nodded "Of course" he replied "you can bring your little entourage with you" he said with a wink and Itachi concluded the elder was a huge pervert

"Alright one last question, is there any difference in time flow?" Itachi asked as the elder smiled "Indeed, the time laws slow down the further out in the periphery you are, and as you move towards the core it speeds up. Don't ask me why, even I don't know" he finished which reassured Itachi.

He wanted to go explore the other worlds, but he would feel bad if he came back and everyone else died of old age. This would at least help him a bit.

"Alright I'll be back" he opened up the Super tier summon magic the dimensional gate once again, arriving back in the home dimension. The first thing he did, was inform Ling Ling and Mu Ning Xue who were understandingly shocked at this revelation.

Itachi had told them about where Kayda had came from, and how he was going to explore it, but they never would have guessed there was such a huge secret.

Next he informed his sister at the Parthenon that he would be gone for a while which he admittedly felt quite bad about. He loved her a lot, but there was no reason to get her involved when he was traveling to a new world with hidden risks. He was already quite hesitant to bring the others, but he knew they would refuse to let him go off on his own like that.

Finally 5 month later, everyone had said their goodbyes to those close to them but like Itachi, they couldn't tell the truth of what they were doing. They had been making preparations for the trip, and Ling Ling even broke through to high tier in sound and fire.

She had also awakened the wind element and the last months they spent all their effort brining it up to high tier so she could fly.

Itachi had reached the peak of all the elements in Super Tier, and he was stronger than ever prepared to face the challenges of a new plane.

All 4 of them stood in the center of a complex array formation that seems to involve very high level space and chaos laws from what he could tell, but it was too far above his level for him to make anything out. They were holding hands standing together in a circle with Ling Ling and Xue'er to either side while Kayda held on across.

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The elder seemed to be preparing e formation as he walked around while the quartet watched on nervously as Itachi made last minute preparations for the trip. Inside his space storage was food water, and almost everything you could thing of because he did not want to be unprepared.

He brought their mansion, a few smaller houses, multiple cars and planes and a few military type vehicles. While the technology in this world was a bit worse than his previous, they were still quite modern inventing many weapons that could take on smaller monsters.

He even had multiple cold weapons forged out of some of the strongest metals available although they were incomparable to his Naginata

"Alright are you ready to go" he spoke cheerfully

They nodded their heads as the array around them began moving. The lines on the ground glowed as the space seemed to distort completely. Itachi felt some sort of unknown power seeping into his body and he became quite alarmed "what is going on!" he shouted struggling to hear his own voice through the whirlwind of energy surging around him that seemed to directly fill his body

A clear voice resounded inside his head "Since you are too weak to make the world adapt to you, you are adapting to the world" he said simply "before you panic, it is simply changing you to be suitable for that world, it isn't necessarily making you weaker"

He said as white began covering Itachi's entire vision

The last thing he remembered before he fainted was holding onto them tightly as a powerful force pulled them to places unknown...