After an unknown period of time, Adam opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was getting submerged in the gargantuan tsunami. However, right now the scene that greeted him took his breath away.
A sea of stars!
Adam looked up to see a sea of stars. Or was it the cosmos? Or perhaps it was yet another painting. He could not tell. But all he knew was that it was beautiful. Perhaps the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes upon in his life.
"This is the world of magic that I yearned for." He mumbled.
He looked around and finally realized where he was. He was currently floating in the ocean. An ocean made of radiant water. The ocean seemed to be floating in the infinite void that was the Spirit World.
"Is this the same ocean as before?" He mumbled, "it should be."
He tried to move around and was happy to know that he could. He was finally in control of his body. He swam aimlessly, trying to figure out where to go. But he couldn't. The boundless glowing ocean was everywhere. In the end, he gave up and started floating with his face up.
Since he couldn't do anything about it, he might as well enjoy the view. He no longer wanted to return to the material world. He was starting to like this place. Something about this place made him not want to leave.
When he looked at the myriad stars in the sky, he couldn't help but smile. "How can there be something so beautiful in this world?"
But then he realized he wasn't in the world that he knew. This was another dimension.
Suddenly…
SPLASH!
A ginormous figure jumped from underneath the surface of the ocean, a few meters away from him, and made a beautiful arc in the air. Adam's eyes widened when he witnessed this.
It was a giant whale the size of Moon City!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})With another splash, the whale dove into the water and then vanished into the depths, leaving Adam speechless.
"A Spirit World creature!" He exclaimed.
Following that, about a dozen more creatures jumped out from the water. But they were all smaller than the whale, but many times bigger than their counterparts from the material world.
Adam gasped in shock at this development. It was a pod of dolphins!
They were happily swimming around him, diving in and out of the water. Seeing this, Adam couldn't help but begin to laugh. Suddenly, a dolphin approached Adam, causing him to become vigilant.
However, the dolphin simply rubbed its head against Adam in adoration. A much smaller dolphin that had accompanied this dolphin also came closer and began playing with Adam, splashing water on him with its tail.
Adam was speechless. He then asked the bigger dolphin, "Is this… your child?"
The dolphin nodded.
"What?! You can understand me?" He asked in disbelief. This time all the dolphins present started making weird noises. And strangely enough, Adam could feel as if they were saying yes to his question.
The baby dolphin then swam around Adam and started pushing him from the back.
"Haha, what do you want?" Adam asked playfully.
The baby dolphin made some weird sounds. Adam could vaguely understand that it wanted him to come with them.
Adam thought for a while and then nodded. "Alright."
He grabbed the fin of the mother dolphin and then climbed onto her back. Following that, the dolphin swam away into the distance along with the rest of the pod. Adam was completely in the moment, enjoying this otherworldly experience.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})But little did he know, the chain that was binding him to the material world had already broken and disappeared!
…
In the material world, Berger had an extremely solemn look on his face. Over an hour had passed and Adam had still not returned. In the dangerous environment of the Spirit World, the soul of an outsider would be constantly eroded over time.
And to make matters worse, a few minutes ago the chain had also snapped because of some inexplicable reason. The old gnome's brows had furrowed into a tight knot. Things weren't looking so good.
If Adam, an outsider, stayed in the Spirit World for an extended time, he would perish!
Edward and Lisa were completely flustered. They kept asking the gnome questions after questions.
"What happened to Adam?"
"Is he going to be alright?"
"Why did the chain break?"
"How are we going to get him out?"
POW! POW!
Berger smacked the kids in the head with his smoking pipe. "Shut up, you little twats!"
Edward and Lisa could only lower their heads with tearful eyes. Seeing this, Berger's tone softened. "You kids don't have to worry. I still have a contingency plan."
"Woof!" Blackie stood on his hind legs and crossed his arms, nodding heroically as if saying, 'Leave it to me!'
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})The kids' eyes lit up. Blackie was a resident of the Spirit World, he could surely find Adam. But then Lisa thought of a crucial point and asked the gnome, "But how is Sir Blackie going to find Adam?"
Berger chuckled. "Blackie has already left a mark on that troublemaker." He then looked at his familiar and nodded. "I'll leave it to you, old friend. You must find him quickly and get him back!"
"Woof!" Blackie waved his tiny paw, resulting in the formation of a small portal that led to the Spirit World. Following that, he swiftly jumped inside.
…
At some point, the pod of dolphins entered a small river that had diverged from the ocean. The river was flowing through a valley. And the mountains surrounding it seemed to be made out of pink crystals.
No one would believe Adam if he said so. The youth was taking in all the scenery as he held onto the mother dolphin's fin. He didn't know how long he had been traveling with the pod, but he enjoyed every second of it.
Suddenly!
Help… me…
Adam turned his head in a particular direction, his eyes narrowing. "What was that?"
He then looked at the dolphins around him and asked, "Did you guys hear it?"
The dolphins made some weird noises as they continued to swim. Understanding their intent, Adam frowned. "Was I imagining things?"
Help me!
Once again the words echoed inside Adam's mind. But this time, the words were laced with a great sense of urgency. The youth involuntarily clenched his fists as his heartbeat sped up.
"Who is it? Where are you?" He screamed. But no answer came.
Unlike the other malevolent voices he had heard before, this one seemed to be truly desperate. It seemed like the owner of this voice was in a very precarious situation. But Adam didn't know whether to respond to it or not.
Berger had clearly warned him not to respond to the voices in this Spirit World, but his intuition kept telling him otherwise.
As the plea for help continued to ring inside his mind, Adam grimaced as he subconsciously covered his ears. But the voice continued to call out for help, each call more desperate than the last.
"Ugh! Fine, Damn it!" He roared.
Then, he instructed the mother dolphin to take him to the place where he thought the voice was guiding him. The pod of dolphins happily obliged.
After traveling for a long time, the pod of dolphins soon came to a stop at the edge of the river. Adam discovered that a straight drop was directly in front of him as if he were standing at the precipice of a high waterfall.
Adam was scared shitless.
"Oi, oi, oi!" His knees buckled as he tried to speak to the owner of that voice. "Is this where you were guiding me to? You must think I'm crazy!"
Save… me… hurry…
Adam couldn't help but curse inwardly as the voice continued to call out to him. But there was no way he was going to jump.
All of a sudden, a large floating island materialized in front of Adam, just across the waterfall. The youth was dumbfounded.
One moment there was nothing, and the next moment an entire island appeared out of thin air!
At the center of the island was an ancient and dilapidated citadel. It was dark, gloomy, and fear-inducing. And around the citadel was a lush forest. The trees were tall and their leaves were dark purple. Shadowy figures could be seen dancing in the dark forest.
Seeing this, Adam nervously gulped. He looked down and asked the mother dolphin, "I think we should turn back—"
But the words got stuck in his throat when he realized that the dolphins had disappeared. And he…
He was already standing at the periphery of the dark forest!
