Hunter Of The Six Realms

Chapter 27

Kaizen smiled, awkwardly scratching behind his head. "You could say so." He replied, almost gritting his teeth as he forced the words out. Damn it everything was ruined now. They'd definitely start making mockery of him now.

"So he really does have white hair like I heard. I suspected he was the one but I wasn't sure." Someone whispered quietly but Kaizen heard everything clearly.

"Don't mess with him, the princess already gave out a warning." Another whispered back. Kaizen froze, raising a brow, but he didn't turn to look at who had just spoken.

The princess? what the hell. Now it all made sense, the usual ridicule and criticism he always received was absent today. Everyone seemed not to notice him like they always did because of his white hair, and the ones who did notice him were friendly, more friendly than he ever knew.

What exactly did the princess tell them, did she threaten them? Why would she go that far for me?

He recalled her saying she was repaying a favor for someone, who in the world could that be? He had a really short term memory so he sucked at remembering stuff, it was really hard for him to recall who exactly could the princess be repaying a favor on behalf of.

He wasn't really a helper, he kept to himself most of them time, so who...who...wait!

The last raid. For the first time in his life, he had saved someone. Not just one but two people, that was a memory he could never forget. Was this him already reaping the benefits. Could it be one of those two people the princess was talking about? It was either Real, or the healer he had also saved back then.

"Enough with the whispers, we're heading in." Ash's voice cut through, silencing everyone.

With that said, they all set in. As soon as they crossed into the beast realm, the portal crackled, then glitched. Everyone turned to look back at the swirling yellow portal, and right at that instant, to their complete shock, the portal transformed into a blood red color, then disappeared, trapping them inside.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Was that just red I saw or am I hallucinating?" Mira asked, confused as she stared blankly at the place where the portal had been.

"I—i saw it too. The portal turned red, and...And now it's gone." Thorne confirmed.

Their voices were trembling slightly in both denial and disbelief.

"We're trapped, in what seems to be an S-rank portal." Dael added in a quiet tone.

"S-rank? No way, it can't be."

Everyone began to panic, Ash turned to Kaizen, looking completely defeated and confused.

"You were right. I should have...I..." Ash started, looking down and feeling ashamed.

"It's not your fault, I was also confused...the portal was clearly wrong. let's just hope the rescue team are able to come in time before whatever beasts In here can devour us." Kaizen said, turning around to observe the area.

It was a smooth marbled floor spread out, endless.... pillars standing several meters away from eachother, all around the place. It looked like an endless hall, almost like a palace, just without a throne.

"Is this....what an S-rank portal looks like?"

"Why the you care about what it looks like? We're gonna be death soon. A level six squad has so chance of surviving an S-rank portal. We're cooked."

"More like fried, I fucking knew today would end up as the worst, unfortunately it's gonna be my last too. God help me, my wife, my daughter..." Thorne broke down.

"Can you shut up and stop crying over what can't be solved with your damn tears, you should be happy no beast is attacking us yet ." Jane cut in, irritated by how he was overreacting.

"Wait, you're right. Why hasn't any beast appeared yet?"

"I can sense something is in here. It just hasn't shown itself yet." Kaizen interrupted, and everyone turned to him.

"I can't sense anything though." Kira said, she had performed an earth magic that was usually used in sensing mana and listening to footsteps.

Her palms placed to the floor and she'd release a little bit of mana which would be channeled directly into the earth and send waves, once those waves come in contact with anything on the earth, she'd be able to sense it. And with that, she's able to tell it's location too. Not just the earth, trees included.

"Except us, this place is completely empty." She added.

Kaizen's brow furrowed, "I'm sure I sense something, I..."

"You don't even possess any mana, how can we trust your judgement? Kira, are you sure?" Jane asked, turning to her.

"Yes, one hundred percent."

"So we're in the beast realm but there are no beasts. Then what the hell was that red color the portal changed to?"

"Maybe we're just trapped in a void." Yuno chipped in.

"So you mean to say this isn't the beast realm?"

"It isn't, this place looks a like fucking endless palace. We're in the middle of nowhere for God damn sake." Jane said, her tone impatient.

The Beast realm was never something like this, it always had earth, grasses, trees, stones and Beasts. And not a endless marbled floor.

"Let's start moving for now, we can't remain here and wait for nothing. We might find the hound stone if you keep searching." Ash said, his voice instantly pulling the group in harmony.

They all began walking, but Kaizen remained behind, observing for when the beast would finally make a move. He could sense the beast, but surprisingly, he couldn't tell it's location or it's rank.

The squad walked for a while, thirty minutes passed, one hour, two hours....until Dael couldn't take it anymore and collapsed on the marble floor, breathing hard.

"This is insane, something is wrong with this place...it's endless, there's no way out. It's like we're trapped in an illusion."

"You're right about one thing." A feminine voice spoke from absolutely no where, echoing all around them. And right at that moment, Velmaria appeared from above, descending down slowly, her arms spread apart as she landed gracefully, her hair dancing with the wind.

"There's no way out." She added, her lips curving into a wicked smirk.