The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family Chapter 356: On the other side of the portal (1)

To Reidar, it didn't feel like he was falling; it felt like he was being unmade.

He tried to deal with the sensation of crossing what he assud was the event horizon, but his mind couldn't map it as a physical transition like that of changing location, which he could only infer, though, since he had never teleported before or gone into a portal. Instead, he felt a violent change of reality itself.

Plus, the feeling was disorienting for many reasons; for example, one second, he could feel the resistance of the dirt under his boots and the strain of his muscles as he grappled with Mara in the forest; the next, his brain stuttered as the very concepts of "forest" and "dirt" simply ceased to exist, as everything else did.

The gravity he expected to drag him down vanished, leaving him sick with disorientation, replaced by an omnidirectional pressure. He felt a spike of genuine terror, as if the universe were trying to compress his entire being into a single mass of flesh.

Reidar gasped, expecting air, but found only a thick-filled viscosity. He could not understand or na what he was feeling. It was simply too weird.

Although he braced himself to choke as the mysterious substance flooded his lungs, the reflex never ca, and he instead felt a cold so intense that it bypassed his resistances entirely.

He realized that the temperature must have been many tis below zero degrees Celsius, and as he flailed in the emptiness to orient himself, he quickly understood that "up" and "down" were obsolete concepts.

He watched dizzily while flying at high speed through a void of screaming lights and strange objects that moved too fast for even his F.L.A.I.R attribute to render.

Then ca the nausea; he felt stretched, a horrific sensation like his limbs were being pulled toward four different corners of existence simultaneously. Desperate for an anchor, he pulled up his System interface, searching for the party status.

—[]—

Jake: [CONNECTION LOST]

Lena: [CONNECTION LOST]

—[]—

They weren't here, which made him feel both relieved and isolated. Then the pressure inverted, and the void tore open.

The freezing vacuum was replaced by searing heat and the impact of solid ground.

Reidar hit the rock shoulder-first. The force should have shattered the bones of a normal human, but his S.H.I.E.L.D. was far higher than that of a normal human at that point, although it was nothing compared to what the others had, since he focused on A.C.U.M.E.N.

Behind him, the portal snapped shut with a sound like a vacuum seal breaking. The light collapsed inward and disappeared, leaving nothing but searing heat.

He was truly alone at that point because he had crossed the portal.

[You have entered a New World.]

[System Data not found.]

[Environntal Hazard Detected: Extre Heat.]

[Oxygen Levels: Low. Toxicity: Moderate.]

Reidar scrambled to his feet. He ignored the bruising on his shoulder and the screaming warning signs in his vision. Instinct took over, forcing him to check the environnt.

The world Reidar found himself in appeared to be lifeless and desolate, devoid of any signs of organic life.

Choked with heavy, low-hanging clouds, the sky lood as a bruised, swollen grey. Bleeding up from the ground itself, the light illuminated a world where no sun hung in the sky.

Standing on a vast shelf of jagged obsidian, Reidar looked out over a landscape of black and glass-like rock that stretched as far as the eye could see.

An angry red glow pulsed through the smog and illuminated the black rock from beneath, where veins of magma ran through the ground like open wounds. Ash clouds swallowed the peaks of massive basalt spires that rose in the distance while dozens of volcanoes along the horizon spewed columns of fire and soot into the air.

The air reeked of sulfur and iron; its oppressive heat parched his throat every ti he breathed. Besides, the temperature wasn't just uncomfortable—it was actively damaging his body.

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

[You are taking 5 Fire Damage per second.]

"Shit."

Reidar cast [Wellspring of Vitality], and his health started surging back again. Then he scanned the imdiate area; his eyes ended up onto the only other living thing in this area.