Chapter 111: The World Beyond the Gate

Chapter 111: Chapter 111: The World Beyond the Gate

*The Mission Plaza.*

An Association base this large was never totally silent, trucks hummed through the lanes, staff hauled crates between warehouses, and healers checked their field kits while technicians tuned communicators and blades.

But compared to a normal raid day, the air felt thick and heavy. No one was joking. No one was bragging about who would bag the first monster.

Everyone knew what was happening out there. Dungeons were mutating mid-raid. Monsters were being pumped full of artificial power. Entire teams were being slaughtered because someone was rigging the gates.

And now, their squad was stepping into a completely unmapped S-rank gate.

Felix stood with his hands shoved in his pockets, staring at the gate on the wall monitor. It looked completely wrong. A normal rift had swirling colors and crackling energy. This one was a flat, dead sheet of dark blue glass, with faint ripples running across it every few seconds.

"That’s new," Felix said.

"Very new," Aria replied beside him, arms crossed over her chest.

The rest of the strike team gathered behind them. Darius stood calm and steady like an iron pillar up front. Kael let out a huge yawn until Lena jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Stop acting like you’re asleep."

"I am conserving energy." Kael groaned.

"For what?"

"For the inevitable running and screaming."

Ryan chuckled, Mira rolled her eyes, and Orion silently tightened the straps on his combat harness.

A short distance away, Seraphina stood alone. Liora stood even further back, clutching the strap of her supply pack with both hands. Her eyes drifted to Felix every few seconds, but whenever anyone else tried talking to her, she gave short, flat answers.

Mira had tried to check on her twice during prep.

"How are you feeling, Liora?"

"Fine."

"Did you get any sleep?"

"Yes."

That was it. Both times. Mira finally gave up and stepped back. Felix noticed, but didn’t push. Liora had spent months in a locked room; she wasn’t going to turn into a social butterfly overnight. She would open up when she felt ready.

Or so he thought, until Seraphina walked over and stopped right beside his right shoulder. A second later, Liora silently moved up and planted herself right beside his left.

Felix glanced left. Then right.

"Everything alright, you two?"

"Yes," Liora said quietly.

"Of course," Seraphina said smoothly.

Their eyes met right over Felix’s chest. Neither of them smiled. An icy, silent spark passed between them.

Felix let out a small sigh. He recognized that silence. Something was definitely going on, and he was completely in the dark.

Aria stepped to the front. "Listen up, everyone."

The chatter died down. The team turned to face her as she popped open a foam-lined black case. Inside sat small glass containers: two for each person. One narrow vial of glowing blue liquid, and a small glass tube holding a single blue pill.

Felix recognized them immediately. The countermeasures from the research bunker.

"This is the severance serum," Aria said, holding up the vial. "And this is the countermeasure pill."

Kael picked up his set, holding it up to the light.

"So we get the expensive toys."

"Very expensive," Aria said. "Production is extremely limited. The labs worked three days straight just to make enough doses for this strike team, so listen carefully."

Her voice went dead serious.

"Do not use these just because a monster hits hard. Do not use them just because you get a scratch. These are strictly for artificially corrupted beasts, monsters displaying mana and power far beyond their recorded rank."

"Understood," Darius nodded.

"Fight regular beasts with standard tactics, no matter how big they are," Aria continued. "If a creature’s core suddenly surges with chaotic, foreign mana—"

"Assume it’s boosted from the outside," Felix finished.

"Right. Severance serum first if you have time to drink it. The pill is for force-feeding the target if you can’t swallow the liquid."

"How reliable is it?" Seraphina asked, her violet eyes narrowing.

Aria hesitated for a second. "Reliable enough to save your life."

Seraphina caught the pause instantly. "Meaning not a hundred percent."

"No. It isn’t."

Felix looked at the blue vial in his palm. The lab had worked miracles making this in just a few days, but there was a massive difference between testing it on a chained Flameclaw in a bunker and using it against an unknown S-rank beast inside a live dungeon.

"We have zero intel on what’s inside," Aria warned. "The rift is brand new. No maps. No scout reports."

"No probes?" Ryan asked.

"We sent three automated camera drones inside," Aria said, shutting the case with a snap.

"They beamed footage for eighteen seconds before their signals cut out."

The plaza went dead silent. Even Kael stopped smirking.

"Were they destroyed?" Mira asked.

"Unknown," Aria said. "The gate is rated S-rank purely on its mana density. We don’t know the size of the world, what monsters live there, who the boss is, or if it even follows normal physics. We’re stepping in blind."

"So a complete unknown," Felix said.

"Yes."

Kael slowly raised a hand. "Question."

"What?"

"Can I call in sick and go home?"

"No."

"Worth a shot."

Lena smacked the back of his head again. "Be serious for once."

"I’m trying!"

Felix laughed softly under his breath. Aria gave the team one final, sharp sweep. "Weapons ready? Cores primed?"

One by one, they nodded.

"Move out."

The team boarded an armored Association carrier: a heavy transport built with mana-resistant steel plates, runic shock absorbers, and an emergency backup core to protect the team if the vehicle took a direct hit.

Felix sat in the middle row. Darius sat across from him. Aria took the front passenger seat.

Without a word, Liora slid into the seat on Felix’s left, and Seraphina took the seat on his right.

Felix looked between them. "Did you two plan this seating arrangement?"

"No," Liora said with wide, innocent eyes.

"Pure coincidence," Seraphina said, looking straight ahead.

Felix shook his head. "Sure it is."

Two rows back, Kael leaned over to Lena. "Do you think he has any clue?"

"Any clue about what?"

"Never mind."

The transport engine hummed to life. The heavy carrier rolled down the ramp, heading straight toward the gate.

Up close, the flat blue surface looked like a solid wall of dark ocean water, vibrating with ancient, suffocating mana pressure. Felix could feel the weight of it pressing against his chest even through the vehicle’s thick armor.

Whatever lived on the other side was old, massive, and powerful.

The carrier stopped five meters from the rift. The side doors hissed open.

"Check your gear," Aria ordered.

Blades clicked into sheaths. Magazines snapped into rifles. Potion vials clinked. Felix flexed his fingers, letting a tiny spark of emerald mana dance across his knuckles.

"Let’s move," Aria said, stepping out first.

One by one, the team walked straight into the dark blue sheet.

---

Felix stepped through and the world instantly twisted.

Cold.

Not freezing, but dry and stale. The smell hit his nose next: cold iron, thick dust, old engine oil, and a faint chemical tang.

Felix opened his eyes. His boots clicked against solid, flat flooring.

He was standing in a massive, underground concrete bunker.

"Status check," Aria said immediately, her hand on her weapon.

"Clear."

"All good."

"No monsters in sight."

The team gathered together. Aria looked around, her brows furrowed in shock. "This... wasn’t on any projection."

Rows of gray concrete walls stretched down long, dark hallways. Heavy rusted iron doors lined the corridors. Thick bundles of black cables ran along the ceiling, and broken emergency lights flickered with faint red sparks.

Yellow caution signs were bolted to the walls, stamped with strange, angular letters.

Mira stepped up to a sign, leaning in close. "I can’t read a word of this."

"Neither can I," Orion grunted.

"It doesn’t match any ancient script from known rifts," Liora murmured.

Seraphina ran two fingers along the cold concrete wall. "Someone built this. With tools. Not magic."

"Definitely modern engineering," Darius agreed, inspecting a metal door frame.

Felix knelt down and touched the gray floor.

"These tire tracks and boot marks are ancient."

"How old?" Aria asked.

"Hard to say," Felix said, rubbing the coarse gray dust between his thumb and fingers.

"Decades, at least. Nobody has walked through this hall in a very long time."

Kael lifted his hands, aiming down the dark hallway. "So... are we fighting zombie soldiers or mad scientists?"

Lena sighed loudly. "Why must you say things like that?"

"Look around! We’re in a creepy abandoned military base!"

"He’s not totally wrong," Felix pointed out with a grin.

"Felix, do not encourage him," Lena scolded.

They moved down the main hall in a tight formation, sweeping room after room.

The layout was eerily familiar: science labs with smashed glass beakers, barracks lined with stripped metal bunks, supply rooms stacked with empty crates, and a central command deck full of dead monitor screens.

Aria raised a fist. Everyone froze.

She pointed to an open doorway on the left. Darius stepped in first with his shield up, Felix right behind him.

The room was packed with dead servers and rusted generators except for one metal box near the back. A small red LED light was blinking slowly on its front panel.

Mira walked over. "Something down here still has backup power."

"Don’t touch it," Aria said sharply.

"Wasn’t going to."

Kael poked his head in. "Yep. This is definitely the part where the mutant monsters crawl out of the ceiling vents."

Lena grabbed the collar of his vest and yanked him back into the hall. "Stop trying to jinx us."

"I was just making an observation!"

Felix couldn’t help but smile. Even though the place was strange and creepy, the team was steady.

Still, the lack of monsters felt wrong. An S-rank gate was supposed to be packed with high-tier predators. Where was the danger?

After twenty minutes of exploring empty corridors, Aria made the call. "We aren’t finding answers down here. Let’s find a way to the surface."

Darius pointed his flashlight down the far end of the hall. "Vertical shaft ahead. Metal stairs."

"How high?"

"About sixty meters up."

"Move out."

The metal stairs had rusted and collapsed in several sections, but for an S-rank strike team, a sixty-meter climb was nothing. With mana reinforcing their legs, they vaulted up the shaft in seconds, landing on a solid platform outside a heavy blast door.

Aria raised her hand, signaling for silence.

Everyone held their breath.

Felix’s ears twitched. He picked up sounds through the steel hatch: muffled, rhythmic, unmistakable.

"Voices," Felix whispered. "Human voices."

Aria’s eyes widened. "How many?"

"At least twenty. Maybe more."

The team exchanged stunned looks. Actual human beings living inside an uncharted S-rank dimension?

---

A/N: Toss your Power Stones below to help Felix survive his own teammates!