Otherworld Adventure

Cecil quickly accelerated and followed after the two automata who were now rushing towards Gabriel's location as fast as they could.

Cecil was able to keep up with their speed and this caused the two automata to be quite surprised. They didn't think that a mere human could keep up with their speed after they transformed their armors into their high-speed flight mode.

He stably kept up with their speed and agilely navigated through the large winding route. Cecil was rather amazed that the automata could move so agilely at high speed using their armors. They were masterfully using the armor like it was a part of their bodies.

"How much farther are we?" Cecil called out.

"We're about halfway there, sir!" Helen replied.

"I'll go on ahead! You guys catch up!"

"Huh?"

Cecil started spreading his Mana Sense out and within his range, he was able to find his brother's location and quickly used Nature's Shift to arrive at Gabriel's location in the next instant.

Seeing him suddenly disappear, the two automata widened their eyes and immediately began accelerating.

Cecil knew that he should have used this method much earlier, but he wanted to make sure that the two automata were safe moving through the sky fortress' interior. His worries were unfounded because the two automata moved at super-fast speeds which didn't leave the monsters that they passed by with any chance to attack them.

*****

Once Cecil arrived at Gabriel's location with his Nature's Shift, he immediately noticed the turbulent mana wreaking havoc in the air. The cause of the turbulence was the black hole-like portal that was in the center of the large room he had just teleported into.

He saw Gabriel and the few people that he brought along hiding behind a broken wall at the far side of the room located directly opposite of the only way in and out of the rampaging transfer gate's room.

He tried using Nature's Shift to move over next to Gabriel but was surprised that he was unable to.

"...It's because of that portal...it's disrupting any use of mana within this room!"

Cecil clicked his tongue and began taking out a few things within his spatial ring. Fortunately, he had teleported into the room behind some debris that he could use for cover. The unfortunate part about this was that because before he could transfer himself next to his brother and the rest, the portal's turbulence had forced him out of his Nature's Shift prematurely and landed him a little bit off from their location.

"Gabe! Everyone!"

Gabriel heard his call and looked past the wall he was hiding behind.

"Cecil, we need help!"

"I know! Let me get to you first! I can't use any mana so just wait a bit!"

"Alright!"

Cecil and Gabriel both had to yell to hear each other because the portal which was basically now a black hole was sucking in everything, the air, the mana, everything.

Even the debris and the broken wall that Cecil, Gabriel, and the rest were hiding behind were no exception. If they didn't act fast, they'd be in trouble real soon. No one, not even Cecil, knew what would happen if they were sucked into that portal. One thing was for sure, that portal wasn't the portal to the next trial stage.

Cecil had already pulled out a rope and a few other things from his spatial ring. He looked around and saw the exit was just behind him so he quickly moved to the exit and into the large corridor.

He found a few pillars close by and began wrapping the ropes around the pillars. As for how there were even any ropes inside his spatial ring, even he didn't know. He only remembered stuffing in whatever his wives gave him into his rings so thankfully, there were a few handy things inside such as the couple bundles of rope.

After wrapping the rope around the pillars in the corridor, he began joining the bundles of ropes together. He was a little skeptical if the ropes would even hold up without snapping or breaking apart on the tied together area, but thankfully, a solution in the form of two automata arrived.

"Sir, you're already here!" Helen asked in amazement when she saw Cecil doing something just outside the transfer gate's room where her Commander was currently trapped in.

"Perfect, you two came at the right time. Can you do something with your powers to adhere together or combine these ropes?" Cecil asked while he showed them the long rope he had just finished tying together.

"We can connect them and reinforce it with our armor, but it'll leave us weaponless and defenseless with our armor not on us," Pollux answered.

"Just do it. I'll leave a clone to protect you two while you're defenseless. This is for the sake of your Commander's safety so hurry!"

Helen and Pollux both nodded when they heard it was to rescue their commander. They put a hand on the ropes and their armor began melting off of the body and began moving to their arms and onto the ropes.

The liquid metal armor began adhering to the ropes and reinforcing it. When they were done, a long metal rope was created temporarily.

"This is great! Okay, just stay back and if you can, keep an eye on the pillars. Don't let them break!" Cecil said to the two before he left behind a clone wielding his Serenity with them.

He quickly rushed back into the room with the long metal rope. He braced himself and began running straight towards Gabriel and the rest who were hiding.

"O-Oh shit!" Cecil cursed out when he felt his body being sucked into the portal.

He thought that using mana to anchor his foot onto the floor was enough to get him by, but he had forgotten that mana was also being pulled into the black hole-like portal. Cecil reacted quickly by pulling out his gunblade and stabbing it into the floor.

"Th-that was close!"

He began slowly walking his way towards the group by taking a step forward pulling out his sword and stabbing it back into the ground to keep himself from flying away. He continued doing this until finally, he reached Gabriel and the rests' spot.

"You brought a long metal rope...are you going to tie us all together and pull us out?" Gabriel incredulously asked.

"H-hey! That's all I got! Unless you have a better idea!" Cecil replied.

"Can't argue with that, but I honestly thought you'd have a more creative solution, but is the rope safe? It won't break from holding all of us together?"

"It's been reinforced by your automata's armor. We have to hurry, I'm not sure if any monsters will come, but the twins said that they'd be vulnerable without their armor!"

"Everyone, get in line. I'll tie the rope around that broken pillar and use these to tie yourselves around the metal rope before you guys start moving slowly to the exit!" Cecil said while tossing out a few normal ropes to Gabriel and everyone.

Celestina, Cecilia, and Karen quickly took a few and began distributing it to everyone else. They felt a little bit bad because they came intending to help Gabriel, but they instead only became a burden when they landed in some trouble.

"I-I'm sorry Cecil. If we didn't insist on coming, Gabriel and the others with him would have been able to easily get out of here..." Cecilia said apologetically.

"Never mind that, it's not like you guys could have predicted something like this would have happened."

"That's just the thing though, I can predict it, remember?"

"Oh? Y-yeah, I almost forgot that you were a clairvoyant priestess..."

"Muuh...well, I did predict it, but it was a little bit too late..." Cecilia said this and was quite downtrodden.

Her future visions were always late or imprecise when it mattered most.

"We can be all apologetic later. For now, just hurry up and get out of here. I'll stay back and keep the rope in check."

The others began attaching themselves to the rope and slowly began walking out of the room with their bodies attached to the metal rope, keeping them anchored and safe from the portal's suction force.

Cecil looked over at the portal with his Mana Eyes and tried to see if he could pick up what caused the portal to begin collapsing in on itself. However, when he used his Mana Eyes, he noticed something floating next to the portal without getting sucked in.

It was a blob of light and he couldn't help but notice that this blob of light seemed to be staring directly at him.

"What is th—Huh?!"

Before he could question what that thing was, the blob of light suddenly shot towards him and in the blink of an eye, it was already upon him.

"Finally, you're here!"