635. Shattered Space!
Clenching her fists, Petra felt a sudden and inexplicable tension.
In front of her was a long-dried and dilapidated bathroom. The floor was covered with garbage and dirt, and in the corners, so plants had crept in through the broken windows.
There hadn't been any sign of human presence here for a long ti. Though it was technically a restroom, it looked more like a garbage dump. The drains were completely dry and overrun with weeds. There wasn't even the usual foul stench—only a desolate stillness hung in the air.
"Are you sure this is the place? I admit the atmosphere is a little eerie, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be any useful clues," Petra whispered.
Alex glanced around with a strange sense of intuition before speaking in a low voice. "This layer of reality is being masked by sothing. Soone is hiding sothing here."
This was likely the work of so form of magical energy. Many magical creatures were invisible to ordinary people—without a Wizard's Eye, their true forms couldn't be seen.
As he finished speaking, Alex crossed his arms. He brought his thumbs, ring fingers, and pinkies together while extending his index and middle fingers. Then he slowly pulled his hands apart, just like Doctor Strange invoking the Eye of Agamotto.
As Alex moved, a faint golden mist began to spread out, and under his guidance, it slowly peeled the reality in front of them open down the middle.
It was as if a thin curtain were being drawn aside by his hands. The warped layer of reality gradually revealed its true form from beneath the veil.
Before them floated a network of dazzling, hexagonal fragnts, shimring in the air like shards of broken glass. They intertwined and converged according to so unknown pattern, glowing faintly with ethereal light.
"What is this?" Petra blinked, staring at the strange sight in astonishnt.
"A portal—or more accurately, a fragnted piece of the spatial barrier. The outsider probably entered this universe through this kaleidoscope-like space," Alex explained, staring at the countless hexagonal mirror-like fragnts in awe.
"If I weren't already familiar with this universe, I might have thought we were in the world of Prival."
The glimring mirror portal… a mysterious traveler from another world… he had to admit, the similarities were uncanny.
But Petra didn't quite understand what Alex was referring to. She asked quietly, "Prival? What's that?"
Glancing at her, Alex casually replied, "It's a show I saw in another universe. It's about portals that connect the past, present, and future. The protagonists not only have to deal with prehistoric creatures, but also monsters from the future."
"You watch TV shows?" Petra asked, surprised.
"What, you think I don't? I'm still human, you know. I have hobbies too. Don't tell you thought I was so devil who keeps traveling to strange worlds and destroying them," Alex replied, rolling his eyes.
Petra chuckled but said nothing. She stepped around the portal and walked over to the bathroom window.
Noticing her movent, Alex followed her.
She crouched down and touched the windowsill lightly with a fingertip, brushing the dust and rubbing it thoughtfully. Her expression darkened slightly.
"Did you find sothing?" Alex asked.
"The soil here… feels off," Petra answered, choosing her words carefully.
Curious, Alex pressed on. "Off how?"
"There hasn't been any human activity here for ages. Other than that hidden portal under the layer of reality, there's nothing extra. But based on my senses, the dust here doesn't match the rest of the surroundings."
Petra pointed at a spot on the windowsill and tapped it lightly with her finger.
"There was originally a footprint here. It's been wiped away—very smartly, I might add. But I can control soil, which also ans I can distinguish its composition.
I'm certain so of the dirt left here doesn't belong to this place. If sothing really did co through the portal, then this soil is the trace it left behind."
Listening to Petra's deduction, Alex nodded slightly in agreent.
Although he really liked watching cri and detective shows, Alex knew that with his own brain and knowledge, it would be hard to quickly deduce so much. Petra's demonstrated abilities genuinely surprised him.
"So that ans after the other party ca to this world, they left through this window, right?"
"Most likely. But I'm curious—why would that guy leave here? If it were , I'd do everything I could to protect this portal, and use it as a base to achieve my goals by leveraging both worlds."
Petra stood up, puzzled, and turned to look at Alex. Since she didn't know much about interdinsional travel, she could only leave the question for Alex to consider.
Alex didn't disappoint her and quickly answered, "I know what you an. Suddenly having a portal connecting two universes, if used well, could indeed be useful.
But you have to understand—we can't be sure who the other party is. Maybe their universe is already on the brink of destruction and uninhabitable for humans. Maybe they are being chased. Or perhaps sothing ca with them. We just can't be certain."
Saying that, Alex glanced again at the portal and continued, "But I think the most likely scenario is that the traveler didn't even see this portal. In other words, the mont they stepped into this universe, they were separated from the portal into two different realities.
So that unknown outsider, not seeing the portal hidden behind the veil, would only suspect they were sent here by so inexplicable force. Under that situation, they naturally wouldn't stay put."
"I see." Petra nodded thoughtfully, agreeing that Alex's idea was very plausible. After all, when they first arrived here, they didn't see this portal either. "So what do we do about the portal?"
"I'll find a way to close it. This universe is chaotic enough already—if more things co out of here, it'll be a huge problem." Alex thought for a mont, then asked, "Petra, can you use the soil to track the creature that left here?"
"I should be able to. Since the soil isn't from this world and parts of it are different, if we follow the path of departure, we might find so clues."
After a pause, Petra looked again at the mirror-like portal and couldn't help but ask, "But sir, since there's already a portal here, can't we use it to enter the other party's world? At least we could guess who the outsider is based on that."
"You're pretty clever," Alex chuckled quietly.
It had to be said—maybe Petra's combat strength wasn't as strong as other heroes, and she was a minor character, but sotis, it's those minor characters who co up with good ideas.
Actually, Alex had already considered Petra's idea a long ti ago.
"Your idea is good, but don't forget, this portal didn't just appear out of nowhere. Given the current situation, it probably wasn't even opened by that outsider. Aren't you curious how it was created?"
"You an—"
Petra suddenly realized sothing and her eyes widened.
"Soone else has the ability to open portals, and that person opened these parallel universe channels, sending those beings that don't belong in this universe here!?"
Alex said nothing, just nodded slightly, tacitly confirming the guess.
"But why is that?" Petra frowned deeply. "Why would that guy do this? Isn't he afraid those outsiders might cause big trouble in this world?"
"That's exactly what I want to know,"
Alex said softly, folding his arms and continuing.
"If we pass through this portal, we will definitely be noticed by the other side. Since they can connect these two universes, that guy definitely has the ability to send us to other worlds as well.
At that point, every move we make will be completely observed by them. It'd be like a little mouse in a cage being watched from outside—the situation would be very passive for us."
"So what we need to do now is to find that outsider first, right? Wait, if you close this portal, won't that alert them?" Petra asked.
Alex just smiled slightly and shook his head.
"You're underestimating . Not stepping through the portal isn't because I can't, but because I don't want to show up on their radar too soon. And as for just closing a portal, I have many ways to hide myself."
"That's good."
Then Petra suddenly thought of sothing and asked, "Should we tell Logan about this?"
Alex was montarily stunned and lowered his head slightly, thinking about it.
Right now, Logan was pretty resistant to the whole 'hero business,' which was obvious just from how he reacted to Petra.
If Old Man Logan truly wanted to rebuild the X-n or had any passion to revive mutants, he would have imdiately taken Petra to et Charles.
But the situation was complicated—Charles was like an unstable bomb, ready to destroy everything around at any mont. Except for Wolverine, no one could withstand Charles's psychic shocks.
This forced Logan to let go of so things. As Charles once said—Logan was basically just waiting for his own death day.
Plus, Logan's body was deteriorating. Even if they told him about this, it probably wouldn't interest him.
Thinking of that, Alex waved his hand gently.
"Let's not tell him for now. This is our job."
......
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