As expected, Dilan's group found themself in front of the permanent Gate even before Dilan had arrived.
They waited for him impatiently and looked at each other with faint smiles.
"Is it weird for me to say that this feels just like we're back in the past?" Victoria squealed out in joy. She looked at the others and felt nostalgic.
"We're not riding in Dilan's coattail again, right? He will have to rely on our strength now!" Kathrine declared proudly, pushing her chest out as if she was the heroine of her own story.
However, it was just a moment later when Yvonne patted her older sister's shoulder.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but I doubt that Dilan will ever have to rely on anyone…as sad as it is."
Dilan smiled when he saw the excited faces of the small bunch of Demi Gods. They looked all excited to fight by Dilan's side after such a long time.
It had been 27 years and they wanted to witness Dilan's progress while showing how strong they have become on their own!
The latter was the most important, but nobody wanted to acknowledge that. It was as if everyone was trying to keep their mouth sealed about the truth, except a bunch of people, whom Dilan had never seen before.
They didn't even think about showing off their powers. On the contrary, they wanted to keep their powers a secret until they could trust Dilan more than they were currently able to.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Even Felicia came!" Siegfried shouted all of a sudden, his eyes gleaming eerily.
"We allowed you to enter the Gate, but you will have to stay either next to Uncle Dilan, Aunt Rory, or Aunt Yvonne!" Lara declared once again, ready to scold her son.
Siegfried felt like he was getting treated like a child, and that was exactly the case. He was Lara's -not so little- little child!
Dilan had noticed Felicia and the bunch of other Demi Gods already, but he didn't really think much about them.
Rory and Yvonne were still the strongest in the batch, followed by Williams, Victoria, and Kathrine. As for Sven, he decided to join as well, but mostly to record everything and to hand out a few commands whenever it was necessary.
He wanted to have recordings of everyone's strength to make sure that he and the intelligence department could make precise calculations about their strongest combatants' combat prowess.
As for the Ascenders, who stayed behind to protect the flying island, there were only a few Demi Gods and a big bunch of Tier-4 Ascenders.
However, that was no problem because it was rather easy to call back everyone. Each of the Demi Gods had an instant return magic scroll that was anchored to the center of the flying island. They could activate the magic scrolls tens of thousands of kilometers away from the flying island, and even within Gates that were locked near the anchored location.
Dilan was also given an instant return magic scroll, which was more than enough reason for him to summon the Hyel Deestruto Armor set and make his way inside the Gate.
He didn't show any hesitation, let alone fear of the unknown… which were luxurious feelings he couldn't afford after the things he had witnessed.
Stepping through the Gate, he emerged in a huge forest that was filled with countless redwood trees. They towered hundreds of meters above him and blocked his view from the area around him.
Spreading out his senses and with his Mystic Eyes activated, he was able to see and perceived the dense currents of mana that made their way through the forest. It was also possible for him to make out several other things that attracted his attention.
"Are you guys sure that this is just a normal Gate? It feels more like we entered a completely different planet…" Dilan asked out loud while bending down to touch one of the large twigs that had fallen from one of the nearby redwood trees.
Using his comprehension of Green Magic, Dilan was able to tell how old the redwood trees around him were. By touching the twig and the highly nutritious wet soil, he was able to learn a lot more about the Gate's interior and the environment around them.
"You might not have noticed it yet because this is your first Gate after such a long time, but this is basically how all Gates feel…though I don't know what you mean when you say that it feels like we entered a different planet. I was on a few different planets and they all feel the same…not entirely, but mostly…" Siegfried stayed by his Uncle's side, exactly as his mother had asked.
He might already be 27 years old but he still knew when it was better to stay around someone stronger and when he could do whatever he wanted.
Siegfried had yet to choose the difficulty for his Tier-4 advancement mission. There were still a few things he had wanted to improve before picking his advancement mission, and he felt that he could find out what he was missing by staying next to Dilan.
That was what his intuition told him…hopefully, he was not mistaken…
"Once your senses are stronger, and you can use the Mystic Eyes, you will feel it as well. The mana here seems of different nature than the mana on Milarn. It's subtle and you might not actually find anything odd about it, but there is a difference that shouldn't exist if the Gate had been created by the planetary core," Dilan explained as simply as he could, attracting the attention of the other people around him.
Dilan's group knew what happened to him, and they could tell that he was about to say something important.
As for the others, they followed the crowd and quieted down and their attention turned to Dilan before they realized it.
"To put it in extremely simple terms, that means the Gate had been created after this place came into existence…a very long time ago, or the place had been created as a Gate to a different planet or realm, and our Gate in the forest had been created much later!" Dilan finished, but his words caused only more confusion.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm'Did I say something weird?' He wondered, not really understanding how his words were so hard to comprehend.
"That means this Gate may have even Lesser Gods," He added after a while when he felt that nobody understood his words.
"What?!?" Everyone in Dilan's group shouted something along those lines, while the batch of Demi Gods that didn't belong to his people started to trash him,
"Don't bullshit us?!??"
"What the hell do you know?!"
"You are just a fraud!!"
When Dilan heard the word 'fraud', his head flicked over to Felicia. However, instead of hearing her shouting any words of insult, the woman remained quiet. She merely looked at him, with a heavy expression as Dilan added another point, probably the most important.
"And they will be able to step through our Gate as long as they meet the Gate's requirements, which won't be difficult by now!"
**
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