Chapter 439: The only choice (1/2)

While the many beehives that were the prominent figures of Higrove were stirred into a state of restlessness, inside the bubble Aiden finally came to a decision. He had to take this chance, he had to try and do everything in his power to save Number 3.

Turning his head to the side, he willed up the system interface for the first time since all of that had just transpired. In the next moment, as his eyes quickly glanced over the system's map, he suddenly froze.

To his great shock and an equal amount of surprise, once again there was an uninvited guest standing just behind him. Luckily, it was green, and though not much could be gleaned from the tooltip the system gave, based on the sensation, he already knew who came to his help.

”You are late.” Aiden muttered in a curt, cold, and emotionless manner, remarking the obvious statement while he quickly navigated through the system's interface to the 'Domain' tab.

In the next instant, with a swipe of his arm, the air buzzed, as a Dimensional Gateway appeared, surprising the previously silent Masked Mistress.

Truth be told, the Mistress, for the first time, since what felt like forever, didn't exactly know what to do, or how to proceed.

By pure instinct, she used her strongest, best option to assure the safety of the two. Still, the energy signature was felt by many others, and just simply hiding inside a sub-dimension could only be a temporary measure until they could think of something more… permanent.

Still, as she was debating how she should call out, Aiden managed to exceed his expectations and also shook her mind.

”You…  How…” She muttered with utter bewilderment as masked face scanned the strange-looking [Gateway]. ”What is this portal? Where does it lead to?”

Unfortunately, there were no answers to her questions. Time was indeed off the essence this time, every second, every instant spent here could be the deciding factor that could decide the fate of his master, Number 3.

Ignoring the slew of questions fired in his direction, Aiden picked up the fainted body of Number 3 into a princess carry, and without wasting any time, hurriedly walked towards the portal.

Before stepping through it and vanishing, he halted just for a moment to respond briefly.

”I'm taking her to a safe place. Don't worry, once everything is resolved, I'll go and find you and explain what is going on. For now, just trust me, that this is her only chance and that I will do everything I can.”

With that, Aiden crossed through the portal to Haven. His figure, carrying the unconscious Number 3 vanished from this world in an instant.

The Mistress was utterly shocked and confused about what had just happened, or more precisely HOW it happened. What Aiden just did should have been impossible, well at least for someone at his level of knowledge. Unless someone was adept at the laws of space or could traverse and cross through the multitude of worlds and dimensions, they couldn't enter and at the same time, escape like Aiden just did.

One has to understand that this spell is anything but simple. The dome that she formed was a special type of Portal that sent everything inside of its domain into a special sub-dimension, a tear between realities that normally only the Mistress knew the way to leave.

Although her intention wasn't to trap and ensnare Aiden and her twin sister, this was the best approach to temporarily shield them from the many eyes pointed towards their direction at the time.

Still, despite everything, going against her expectations once again, Aiden did the impossible and left towards somewhere she herself couldn't trace with ease.

As she thought about it, a thin smile slowly began to curve the edges of her lips, though the ever-present mask on her face made sure it remained hidden. Looking at the empty space for a bit longer, she couldn't help but lightly chuckle at everything.

'Very well, Aiden. I…' She hummed, giving a quick glance at the tavern's direction where the rest of the party waited for the youngster's return with growing concern and worry. '…WE shall eagerly await your return…'

She shook her head as she silently drew a curved line in the air in front of her.

As the black door, the 'regular' [Portal] emerged from the empty air, she stepped into it, leaving the space and returning to her mansion. Just as she left, her spell, the bubble also vanished with her, returning the back alley to its 'normal' state and leaving only an already forgotten, lifeless body in it.