What Lies Before the Wall

Anna, Chiya, and I went to the South Western wall right after we finished eating and thank the chef for the delicious meal. It's nowhere near Iska's cooking, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Our hotel or every Guild's hotel is located near the closest wall next to a critical spawning point, where the void army usually spawns. Even from our room, you could see the warning bell tower through the window.

Because of this strategic placement, we can always reinforce the walling troops without having to rely on any form of transportation.

Well, my excuse for this one was just I forgot to invite the two dragons to come along with us.

"Through here."

At the bottom of the wall, adjacent to the main road, there is a door used by soldiers to access the stair heading to the top of the wall. It was a spiral staircase, but there are 3 levels of hallways to enter before finally reaching the top, and on it planted tons of windows to shoot from. In this case, this wall is similar to the one installed in Genka's cities.

We both use guns for defense after all.

"Oh, there's a lot of cannons here… more advance than the Kendang's Uhndak at that."

At the top we found soldiers walking and chatting at their post. They all guarding this wall alongside their cannons with a pitch-black musket in their hand.

"It's so… barren," I said looking at the terrace of this city.

"Well, it's a desert, Your Highness." Chiya almost sounded sarcastic there.

"I know, but when you see our city at Kendang or any city in Selebes, there's always planes of farm and plantation next to the city wall, and all the way till the limits of an arrow fired from the top of the wall. Though sometimes they both got separated by a body of water." I explained.

"Hm? I thought you'll separate the location of a city and farm?" The lady wondered.

"It used to yes, but with how easy plants grow in the New World, each city decided to cultivate their own food instead," I told her.

"By the way, Dear Prince. There's a couple of glowing light down there." Anna pointed down at the outside. As she said, dozens of black lights were floating above the sand, with white mist circling around each one. "Should we like… check it?" She suggested.

"I thought as much. But how do we get up here? I don't see any gate near us." I place my eyes on the outer part of the wall and saw how flat it was, with no spot for jumping or climbing.

I can jump up to 10 times my height which is usually enough for any Genka city, but the Grand City has a wall towering a minimum of 25 meters (82 ft) thick. If it has at least a mound or spike that I can put my feet to on the middle of this wall, then I can easily jump from the bottom.

"No worries, I can cast a portal between up here to down there." Chiya offered while being playful with dark purplish energy on her fingers.

"Good, then let's go examine that light."

The ashen lady then extend her spiked whip and whip it to an empty space above the wall. As if she split the air open, a purplish portal with a dark center that absorbs dust around it then summoned itself before us. Meanwhile down there right behind the wall, another portal also unlatched its access.

We proceed to walk through it and continued our way to the ominous light outside of the city.

"Whoa… it felt so weird ahahaha." We found ourselves stepping on the smooth sand right after going out of Chiya's portal.

"Why do I feel like it's sucking my feet in…"Anna wondered.

"Maybe it's your weight that pulling you." I spontaneously said.

*Smack!*

That beloved lady of mine suddenly punched my shoulder as a response. "I thought you're better than this with the ladies, Mister Lion Prince of the Sword Noble Family." She said with a curled forehead.

"Well… it's you— aw!" She smacked me again, even harder this time.

"So, Your Highness. Can I take off my shoes?" Chiya asked me excitedly, ignoring whatever was happening between me and Anna.

"Isn't there like scorpion lurking in the sand?" I asked her.

"Even better!" She shouted at me with that perverted face of her.

"Well… you do you…" Neither I nor Anna got weirded out by her behavior at this point. We're getting too used to it.

The ashen one then took off her shoes, which are some sort of black kitten heels then we move on to our objective. To be fair wearing footwear with a thin back in the desert is pretty hard. Anna and I on the other hand were on the flatter end.

"Hmm… judging by the atmosphere I take it the void folks isn't anywhere near." The air still felt light at the moment we got close to the white mist-covered black light.

"Will there anything happens if we touch it?" Anna asked the same curious question on my mind.

"I mean… the governor or the soldiers didn't warn us about the light. Even as we standing so close right now, they don't seem to do any attempt to stop us." The three of us stared at the Kaoma on top of the wall, who just gazed at us without doing… anything. None. They just stood there like a statue.

"How about this." I transformed a ring on my left pinky into a throwing knife. "I'll throw this, and see what happened."

"Sounds good." Chiya concurred while Anna nodded in agreement.

"Alright, here we go." I raised the knife to the level of my ear and effortlessly threw it to the black light.

*!!!*

The knife got absorbed, cease from existence. It's now long gone with no way to retrieve it.

"Is this thing… a portal?" I'm confused and bloody scared. I hoped that won't trigger anything that gonna bring catastrophe to the Kaoma.

"More like a seed of a portal I guess." Said Chiya. "But why do they need a seed for it? All the void people we encounter can easily open up a portal without any preparation."

She's correct though. In fact, some of them can travel from spot to spot instantly by quickly opening a portal or summoning multiple ones.

"I think… I have the grip of the reason… but I really, REALLY hope I'm wrong."

Spoiler. I'm not wrong in the slightest.