Destroying My Own World

"Welcome to Warsaw, Mister Mykel. It is an honor for you to come here and we are grateful when we heard that the Rebirth Guild is going to deal with the portal," The president of Poland said and he personally welcomed Mykel and his team. "Please follow me, the Valhalla Guild and the Olympian’s Guild have arrived at the portal," he continued.

Mykel looked at the colorful city that was being rebuilt and he could see the remnants of the skyscrapers in the distance. It was similar to what happened in New York, the only difference being that Warsaw took heavier damage.

"The Winter Guild is from Germany, right?" Elena asked as she looked at the map on her phone. "It’s weird to think you can just walk and you move from one country to another here," Elena said as she looked at the neighboring countries on the map.

"This country is a part of the Balkans," Mykel answered.

"Balkans?" Jeanne asked.

"One of the origins of Goddess Mara from my novel," Mykel answered. "She’s the Goddess of Earth and Spirit in this mythology. She’s the highest being here," Mykel pointed out.

"So she’s like Gaia?" Aurea asked.

"Yes, and the gate is located in Latvia, a country up north from here. If we go there and enter the gate, we can see her," Mykel answered as he nodded his head. "I remember that she wanted me dead by sending me a notification," Mykel continued.

"Is she still doing that?" Jeanne asked.

"I threatened her back and since then nothing happened. I think there’s a reason why I don’t get any notifications anymore, and that’s because the new system is broken," Mykel answered and explained.

"Ours is also broken," Elena answered as she stared at her status screen. "It shows weird symbols and I can’t see anything but those," Elena continued.

"It’s twenty-five days left, and I think it’s a sign that all the characters from my novel are slowly gaining their powers back," Mykel said as he looked at his status screen. "But even so, I still can’t contact Luciel and the others," Mykel sighed and rested his mouth on his fist.

Everyone went quiet because they had the same thought that Luciel and the others might have died. Without the power of the system, they were nothing, not even better than a lesser demon. The chance of them being alive was close to zero, but as long as the system came back, Mykel could bring them all back to life again like it was nothing.

Mykel and his team arrived at the portal which was at the center of the city. It was similar to the one in Montana, but the aura around the portal was different.

"Is something happening over there?" Bhatmelec asked as she nodded up at the sidewalk where Magnus was trying to calm down a group of people.

"I believe they’re the remaining members of the Winter Guild if I’m not wrong," Enma answered. "I think they want to join the expedition to take back their friends’ bodies," Enma pointed out.

Mykel and Elena decided to join in and hear what it was all about while the others went to grab a cup of coffee and breakfast. They both listened to Magnus’s explanation, and it was as Enma said, those people who wanted to join the expedition. But, the reason was that their Gods and sponsors wanted them to bring back the artifacts that were lost inside the portal.

"What’s the problem then? Let them join," Mykel said as he looked at Magnus.

"That’s not the problem, the problem is that they want to go in there and go their separate ways," Magnus replied. "I know it’s none of our problems, but the media will bend the story and make it looks like our problem if something happened," Magnus explained.

"And that’s a problem for you? Why do you care so much about their opinions when we are the ones who are saving the world?" Mykel asked.

Magnus didn’t know what to respond to, and then he sighs as he nodded his head with understanding. Magnus then told those people that they were allowed to get inside, and as soon as he said that those people entered the portal on their own.

"You allowed them to enter on their own?" Lazarus asked as he walked toward Magnus and Mykel. He didn’t want to deal with it so he let Magnus do it.

"He did. I tried my best to convince them to stay and let us take back the artifacts," Magnus answered as he looked at Mykel. "Mykel, if something happened, it’s on you," Magnus said.

"Sure. I don’t care about public opinions anyway," Mykel answered as he walked away. "My team is good to go. Let’s head in in half an hour, so get prepared," Mykel said.

Everyone gathered in front of the portal and reporters were taking thousands of photos from all sides. Magnus and his team prayed to the Gods as Lazarus and his team gave a final check on their belongings.

"We are good to go," Magnus said to Mykel.

"Let’s head in," Mykel nodded and entered the portal first with his team.

As soon as Mykel came into the portal, he could feel the rocks under his feet. He looked down and everything was rock and pebbles as far as his eyes could see. There were rock mountains and hills, and there were also giant boulders stacked to each other like a tower.

"The air here is really refreshing," Jeanne said as she looked at the dark blue sky with lots of clouds. "But it looks like it’s going to rain soon," Jeanne realized that the clouds were dark gray.

As soon as Jeanne said that, they could hear ticking sounds on their plate armor. Those were droplets coming down from the sky, but then they heard weird sounds coming from the ground. They heard sizzling sounds all over them, and they came from droplets that hit the rocks and turned into gas. Then suddenly they heard screams from the back line.

"My eyes! My eyes!" A man screamed in pain as his eyes slowly melted.

"Keep your heads down and cover your head and skin! It’s acid, not water!" Magnus shouted as he put on his helmet. "Follow me and hide under those boulders!" Magnus continued and pointed at the boulders in the distance.

Mykel looked up and let the acid hit his face, and he felt nothing even though the acid got into his eyes. Elena and the others tried to look up as well after they realized the acid didn’t affect Mykel.

"Looks like we all know why the Winter Guild and the other guilds died. This is a bit too much for the first place, but I guess they’re not playing around about killing humans," Aurea said and started chuckling because she liked the idea.

"But it seems it doesn’t affect clothing and only reacts to human skin. Even the rocks are not affected by it," Rozan pointed out as he looked at his suit and the rocks on the ground.

Magnus and the others were safe after taking cover under the boulders, but some got heavily injured on their skins and scalps since they didn’t have a helmet to cover their heads. They were all healing those who got injured, and then suddenly Mykel and his team casually walked in and looked at them with disappointment.

"You’re alright? How?" Magnus asked in disbelief as he looked at Mykel and the others who were drenched in acid but they were fine.

"We are in a different league, that’s how," Aurea chuckled. "Well, since you guys are in trouble, we decided to wait with you guys here until the rain stops," Aurea said.

No matter how strong Mykel’s team was, to be immune to acid was beyond their beliefs. They knew how to raise their skills and how to obtain a specific skill. If they had resistance to acid, that meant they had the experience of getting exposed to acid which should be enough to melt their skins and flesh.

They all waited for two hours until the rain finally stopped, and everyone who was injured had been recovered. They all could have started moving again, but then they realized that the remaining members of the Winter Guild were ahead of them.

"They’re dead. I guarantee you," Lazarus said. "You can see the longer we walk further, the fewer boulders to protect us. None of them wore a helmet, so that’s why I said they’re dead now," Lazarus explained.

"Nobody knows, they could survive," Magnus said as he looked into the distance and saw nothing but rocks and boulders.

As they walked and presumed that either those people were alive or not, Rozan suddenly stopped walking and Magnus hit his back. Mykel and his team looked back to look at Rozan who seemed to have realized something.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Rozan said as he looked around. "Have been walking for a long time, but there isn’t a single demon or monster here," Rozan pointed out.

"And?" Aurea asked.

"I was thinking about what kind of monster lives here, and then when I thought about the acid raid I realized something. What kind of creatures could live and aren’t affected by the acid rains," Rozan explained. "The answer is this," Rozan pointed down to the ground.

"Rocks?" Lillith asked with her right eyebrow raised.

"Golems," Rozan answered.

As soon as Rozan said that, the ground trembled heavily and everything was trying to keep their balance. Suddenly the rocks on the ground started to combine and became a ten-meter-tall monster, a golem as Rozan predicted.

"I knew it, I’m fucking genius," Rozan said.