Chapter 249
249 Second Attempt
(Jane’s PoV)
It was the first time he called my name. It was so heart-warming yet amusing. It was like we were getting closer to each other as a sense of familiarity filled my senses. With that thought it mind, I approached him in big strides.
His eyes were opened but he looked like he was staring so far ahead. They were blank, like a blind person’s eyes. Even so, his right arm waved right at me, beckoning me to approach him.
“You made it?” I sat in front of him, my heart ached seeing him looked like a blind person. I knew it was just physically temporary, that he could still see me even under that situation, but it still saddened me pretty much.
“Of course.” His smug smile comforted me a bit. He was fine, I told myself.
“Then, let me see them.” I sat down cross-legged in front of him. I took his right hand and grabbed it with my own hand. After taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and channeled myself to follow Putra’s stream of consciousness. He didn’t resist me, which made everything went smooth.
It might took several minutes for me to drift down his stream of consciousness before I finally stopped in a vast place which looked like an open space between the active volcanoes; minus the dark sky. I couldn’t see the sky at all. It was only darkness as far as I could see. The sources of light came from some small rivers of lava, extending from one side to another side.
Putra and I were standing in the middle of what seemed to be a big piece of flat rock where lava was flowing around us. Not too far away from him stood couples of weird creatures in various shapes but with one similarity; ugly. Well, what did I expect from monsters, anyway?
“Who are they?” I asked Putra who was standing proudly, as if he was waiting for me to praise him.
.....
“They are the spirit from the volcanoes near the portals in the world. I know they don’t look as good looking as I am, but it’s just because I am more powerful than them. If they can nurture themselves well, they can gain a human form like mine.” Putra explained. “Of course, no matter what, I will still be stronger than them by lot.” He added quickly. He didn’t even bother to hide the pride in his voice.
“Ah.” I nodded my head before I patted him on his head. “You did great! Thank you.” I smiled at him genuinely.
Under the illuminating light from the lava around us, his already dark skin turned slightly redder when he blushed. Turning his head away from me, he scratched his head in embarrassment. “It’s nothing for me.”
I smirked, but didn’t say anything further. Looking at the creatures in front of me, I realized the seriousness of this problem. The amount of portals were being represented by the number of creatures appeared in this room.
How many days would I need to close them all?
I rubbed my forehead, feeling helpless. Asking help from the other geezers would be hard without exposing Putra’s position. Considering their previous attitude towards me, I doubted they would not have any ideas towards Putra. The First Master might be powerful enough to hold her ground against the previous Masters, but I didn’t think I could do the same. I mean, I was sure that I could win and overwhelm them, but not without price.
Unless I knew any method to reduce the losses, I wouldn’t want to act harsh.
I sighed as I realized the complexity of the matters in my hand. If only I were a bit more stronger...
“Woman, what are you doing spacing out like that?” Putra’s voice snapped me back to my senses. I smiled wryly hearing him calling me like that. He might be feeling awkward calling me my name. I should teach him to call my name properly as soon as possible.
“I’ll sort you out later.” I rubbed his head.
Watching as his eyes widened in horror, I guessed he caught on to what I was talking about.
“Now, where should I start?” I instinctively did a series of stretching and warming up, as if I was getting ready for a sport competition. My eyes darted from one to another creature, thinking on which one I should pick first.
“Which one is the worst of all?” I asked them. I didn’t care whether they could understand what I said or not, no... it was more like I had not thought about it at all.
Only after I said all of those that I realized that there was a chance that they didn’t understand me at all.
As soon as the realization hit me, I heard a soft chuckle behind me. Without turning back, I had already known whose voice was that.
“Putra, tell me, where should I start?” Ignoring his stifled giggling, I went right to the point.
“Hm? You’re not going to deal with them all in one go?”
“Do you think I can do it?” I turned back to look at him. If he said I could do it, maybe I would give it a try.
“What? You’re not confident with yourself? And here I thought you are invincible.” A mocking smirk appeared on his face.
“Do you want to try me?” I cracked my knuckled with satisfying sounds and approached him with an evil smirk on my face -not that I realized that, though.
“Evil woman! Go away!” He shouted in horror.
I laughed. “I said I would sort you out later. Just wait.” I grinned at him.
Putra shook his head quickly and his whole body was trembling. Serve you right for taunting me! Ignoring him, I turned my sight back to the creatures and randomly picked one among them.
Let’s try one! If it was not as hard as I thought, I would try to work on two or three in one go. My comprehension about the layers of dimension and portals before was proven to be extremely important in this mission.
I stood in front of the selected creature. After giving it a thorough scanning, I decided to get into business. What should I do, then? Crossing the dimension to arrive at the specific place of portals? Wouldn’t it be too complicated? How many times should I cross over then?
“Sit down.” I beckoned at the creature in front of me to sit down. Of course, I sat down cross-legged on the spot as well.
After sitting down face to face, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “Show me.” I commanded it. I felt a slightly cold and slimy thing touched my hand and it was as if I was doing a VR.
There was an image in my head. A lustrous forest with snow on top of it. I was sure I had seen it somewhere but I couldn’t remember. After all, almost all mountain looked the same, so I just ignored it.
The scenery in front of me changed as I was pulled even closer to the mountain. It seemed like I was at the foot of the mountain. There was a resort, a luxurious one. However, I couldn’t see any human there. Mist rose from several places of the resort but I couldn’t detect any malicious intent from it. Instead, there was a sense of indolence in the air.
“Huh? Is it an Onsen? Am I in Japan?” I looked around me as I realized where I was.
Indeed, this was a hot spring resort located in a foot of a mountain. What mountain it was, I had no idea. The creature brought me here which meant the portal was here.
But where?