"Home?" White asked curiously. "Why master? You want me to be there with your cousins and grandmother? I don't think they're in any danger."
Ning chuckled a little and shook his head. "No, not my home. Your home," he said. "I need you to go back to your universe."
White was surprised for a bit. However, after a few seconds, he nodded. "If that is what you require of me, master. I will do as you say," White said.
"I'm sorry. I promised you I would keep you around for 5 days, but I'm already sending you back at the start of the third day," Ning said.
"It's alright, master," White said. "I might have been too hasty in coming here as well. Had I known I had a granddaughter at the time before I accepted your offer, I might not have come. Alas, she must have grown up so big by now."
Ning smiled. "Come, let me get you back."
The three of them flew over to the location where the portal had opened. Everything around it had become a huge mess with trees and rocks pulled all the way to the portal.
Ning had to pull out some trees even to see the tiny bit of portal that remained. It was all but gone.
"This is its status now?" White asked. "Wasn't it bigger before?"
"Yes, but it was supposed to have disappeared mere 2 minutes after we came back," Ning said. "And yet it was kept open for this long because someone decided to dig their nose in this matter."
"Oh, who did?" Sorlus asked.
"It's a constellation. You don't need to worry," Ning said and looked at the portal. He asked the system if could do anything here, and the system replied that he could indeed do something.
He could use a generous portion of his energy to pull open the fabric of space and reforge the portal to the other universe.
This time, however, it would last mere seconds.
"Alright, I will open it any time now, so listen to me carefully. There are people that were thrown in there. I don't know how if the people in there are alive or not. It has been years for them since they left, so it is likely that they are used to living there by now. Either that or they never survived in the first place."
"Other than that, there is also the possibility that they are struggling and need help. Do what you can to help them, okay?" Ning asked.
"I will, master," White said.
"Good," Ning said. As he did, he thought of something else. He remembered the thing he had left behind in the other universe, the knowledge of the truth.
"Right, listen to me…" Ning said a bunch of information very quickly, explaining the truth and everything about the other world. Since White was the only one he could trust, he relayed everything he had kept hidden. White wasn't the one he was waiting for, but he could help in finding that person.
White's eyes went wide in awe when he heard that. "That's… there's no way that's true," he said.
"It is," Ning said.
"So… so… our world, it was…" White couldn't articulate the shock he was feeling at the moment.
"Yes, it was," Ning said. He grabbed White's head and did something. "I've locked your memories with my powers. If someone tries to look at it, it will erase itself. Make sure you do not tell anyone about this. Not even by mistake."
"I promise, I won't master," White said.
"Good, let me open the portal now," Ning said and walked forward.
"Master!" White stopped him before he started.
"What?" Ning asked. "We don't have much time. Every minute we waste is days gone in the other world."
"No, I just… I wanted to say goodbye to the others," White said. "Can I not meet Saphandra and the rest before I leave?"
"Oh, sorry. I didn't think you would care," Ning said. "Let's go quickly then."
Ning teleported back into the Tae household where the brother and sister duo were watching the news alongside Saphandra by their side.
"Cousin?" "brother!"
The both of them quickly walked out off the sofa and ran towards Ning.
"How is it? Is everyone okay? I saw you on TV," Hi-Ah said.
"Brother, how are you so fast? Even the TV camera couldn't pick you up," Jung-hee said.
Ning smiled. "We can talk about that later," he said. "For now, White wants to say goodbye. He's going back home."
"Goodbye? Why so early?" Saphandra asked as she flew towards him.
"I'm afraid the situation calls for it, sister Saphandra. I will have to go back," White said.
"What situation?" Saphandra asked.
"I will explain in detail later, but now just know that he is going back to look after the people that have gone missing in the small radius," Ning said.
"They… they went in there? Wasn't the portal closed?" Saphandra asked.
"Later," Ning said, not bothering to repeat.
"Anyway, it seems this is my goodbye," White said. "Thank you for treating me like a human and letting me enjoy the normal life of one."
"Treating you like a human?"
"A normal life?"
Both the brother and sister were confused.
Saphandra on the other hand only smiled. "It was fun going around the world with you, White. I hope we can meet again in the future," she said.
"I hope so too," White said. "For now, this is goodbye."
"Let's go, we need to hurry," Ning said.
White nodded and together, the two of them teleported away.
The two arrived back on the mountaintop where they had left Sorlus. Ning quickly walked up to the place where the space was still cracked and started pouring in his energy to open it wide.
The portal reformed instantly, but it was unstable.
"Go in quickly," Ning said.
White nodded. He walked forward and stopped right before the portal as he turned around. He gave a deep bow towards Ning.
"Thank you for everything you've done for me my entire life, Master," he said. With that, he turned around and walked through the portal back into his own world.
