170 Local problems (1/2)
Starring at the familiar symbol she could have seen everywhere nearly half of a year ago, she wondered if it was too obvious or not. However, with the missing parts where no stones were present, it would be extremely hard for anyone that didn't know about it to find the solution. Even then, there was still a few other figures that would make sense, as she reorganized the circles of stones again to see if she was right.
By the time the demons figured out that there was a problem and came back, she had already left the place, leaving behind her one of those fake symbols. However, since someone would need to be up in the air to truly notice all the patterns, the only thing they realized was that the stones seemed to have been moved. Left with no choice with the disappearance of the intruder, the last remaining action they could do was to report this to their superiors.
Leaving Leilade free to roam as she pleased. Not that she was particularly thrilled when she noticed that not only time was strangely behaving, but space itself was not doing any better. Only then did she realized she had not traveled to another planet, just to another reality altogether. Truly cursing the sheer bad luck of Candaith for this one, she now understood how even he failed to at least contact the Demonic Empire.
Using the term reality was maybe not that appropriate, as it was not as much as different timelines or alternative realities than completely different universes. Taking the example of a bubble, multiple bubbles can still exist all in contact with each other or floating freely in the air. When they were alone, everything was fine, but when they touched, strange things began to appear. And if one tried to create a portal with a path crossing one of those intersections, it would most likely end up in the other bubble.
It was not unheard, only extremely rare to witness it. For the record, the Venerable Ones, the Demon Gods came from one of those other bubbles. In fact, they pretty much fled it, as their own universe had been destroyed completely, leaving them no choice but to run. Only to happily discover a very young universe, ready for them to claim. Of course, their happiness instantly decreased when they met the Ancients that had made a vow to destroy all the gods, almost making them regret their former lives.
As for how it was, apparently, not really that different from this realm. They even had managed to gain full control, through a collaboration between multiple gods, permanently manipulating the population living across the planets. The only thing they had to fear was an opening that they tightly defended, only to have an unforeseen event happening. As for the details, no one really knew, except that everything seemed to have been caused by one creature whose name shall not be pronounced.
This also explained why even decades and even centuries after the disappearance of the Ancients, the Venerable Ones were not that eager to expand their grip toward the former territory of their enemies. Letting their other competitors grab many unknown technologies, such as The End. Provoking the current state of Leilade and the rest, including her disciple Akama.
The more she thought about this, the more she came to the conclusion that the three portals still active on the planet she left, like the one in the Forbidden Mountain should also lead to other planes. The smaller the bubble was, the most likely it was to gather in a group. Otherwise, the pressure would be too high, reducing it into nothing. Even then, she was not really sure about the exact behavior, as it was too rare to be studied. Probably only one race could come up with a real answer, unfortunately, she was not part of it.
As she flew for hours, she began to be more and more confident that it was a really small plane. Basically, it was completely flat, something that should not be possible for a planet. That also meant there were no spatial nor gravitational laws applied to it. In fact, she wondered if there really was a sun. Floating upward to uncover the truth, she was soon blocked by the red clouds.
”No sun then.” Using magic to pierce through them, she felt an extremely strong resistance, making her immediately stop. If she inadvertently collapsed the plane, she wouldn't even know how she died. But for her, that was still a piece of extremely good news. First of all, whatever was hidden in here would be easy to find, as it was not an entire planet to search. Secondly, she was almost certain she could create a portal to at least go back to Archet, where Malakov was. Almost confident.
With that in mind, she resumed her travel, while looking down to see the surroundings. Noticing the first buildings she ever saw in here, she also spotted humans painstakingly farming something while demons were keeping an eye on them. Even then, the difference between the fearful face of the humans and the impassive expressions of their jailers were easy to spot. After all, both of them needed something to eat.
Leaving the air above the farm, she kept going, only to find more and more of those. A river painted red, looking almost like its liquid was blood, had been modified to conduct water to those plantations. Even it seemed basic, at least, it proved that whoever was in charge realized that if the humans were happier and well-fed, they would have more meat on them. For she had seen stupid races seeking instant profit running out of resources and disappear because of it.
Only after two days like that did the farms and small towns let places to more fortified positions. Even then, there was an impressive lack of cattle or farm animals, as she had not spotted anything but demons and humans. However, there were stables here and there, and some buildings definitely looked like they could shelter those animals. Right before she bypassed completely one of those fortified small hamlets, she spotted a gathering of demons around two humans.
It was a couple, one man and one woman. Both were fearlessly starring at a demon that had his sword raised above them. From the looks of it, they didn't seem to be scared of dying, and even from the distance, she could see their wide smiles. Getting closer, she still hid her self, to not perturb the ongoing event.