Chapter 165: Dream Portal
The clearing reeked of damp leaves and blood.
Anastasia squared her stance, ready to strike the black wolf. Before she could move, heavy boots crunched behind her. Detective John Wayne, Inspector George, Daley Findlay, and seven armed policemen burst out of the brush with weapons raised.
"Lady Anastasia, we'll help!" Daley called, already preparing his spell.
"No." Anastasia's eyes stayed on the wolf. "Go. Selene is chasing the goblin alone—we don't know what tricks that monster still has."
Daley and the others hesitated, then pushed deeper into the forest.
Far ahead, Selene's pursuit stretched into the night. She followed the goblin through a tangle of trees when the sound of shouting reached her from the front.
'What are humans doing here at this hour?' The goblin glanced ahead, startled, but it didn't slow. Its rough green skin began to shift—turning olive and smooth—its frame lengthening, ears and nose shrinking. In two heartbeats, it looked like a terrified boy.
Still running, the "boy" burst from the undergrowth toward flickering torchlight and the clash of steel.
"Help! Somebody help me! Someone's trying to kill me!"
The battlefield froze. Nearly fifty men faced off in a hidden grove—some with razors, truncheons, and brass knuckles; others with pistols and blackjacks. One side wore red scarves and work boots, the other silk scarves, tailored coats, and peaked caps.
A bulky red-scarfed thug stepped forward. "What happened, boy?"
"Is he your setup to distract us, Danny?" a slim man with a pistol sneered.
"Does he look like one, Sam?" Danny shot back, raising his hand for his men to stand down.
Weapons lowered. All eyes turned to the bloodied boy—and then to Selene as she emerged from the trees.
A deep silence appeared on the battlefield.
Sam instantly swung his pistol toward her. "Why are you chasing a kid?"
Danny lifted his sword. "We may be thugs, but we don't stoop to killing children. Leave him alone and scram, or we'll cut you down with these Lion bastards."
Selene opened her mouth to explain—but fresh figures followed from behind.
"Miss Selene! We're here!" Daley shouted, then stopped cold.
Inspector George's face drained of color. "Oh damn. Both underworld gangs of Reme City at once…"
Sam's eyes narrowed. "So you lured the police here to trap me, Danny?" He drew a second pistol, one aimed at Danny, the other at George.
"For Divine's sake, I didn't!" Danny barked, as his men pulled pistols of their own—some now aimed at the police.
Selene's stomach sank. What kind of nightmare is this? Her eyes darted—then froze. "F*ck. He escaped!"
The boy—no, the goblin—was gone, sprinting for the far trees. Selene lunged after it, but the gangs reacted first.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Bullets hissed through the clearing. Daley raised a shimmering ward of space to block the first volley.
"Go after him! We'll hold them!" John shouted, firing back.
Selene cast the [Teleport] spell, reappearing beyond the crossfire, and sprinted into the woods.
The chase stretched on for minutes. The goblin stumbled, panting. A sleek black cat lagged behind it, tail lashing. Suddenly, the air ahead cracked like broken glass.
An eerie black portal spiraled open, pulling at everything around it.
The goblin and the cat were yanked inside and vanished.
'Dream Portal?' Selene blinked forward to the rift and cast [Dream Walk]. Darkness engulfed her.
When her vision cleared, she stood in the same forest—only drained of color, black and white like an old photograph.
"How did you get here?" the goblin rasped, eyes wide. Its body melted back into its true form.
"She smells familiar…" the black cat hissed, fur bristling.
The goblin whipped out a dagger and lunged.
Selene flicked her hand. [Dream Alter]—her figure warped and vanished. She reappeared behind it, a dark blade forming in her palm.
It was the Rank 2 [Dark Knife] spell.
The shadow-forged dagger pierced the goblin's forehead. It crumpled without a sound.
The cat froze, then let out a shrill, human-like roar. "I WILL KILL YOU!" Dream energy exploded outward, warping the monochrome forest.
'This cat can talk—and it's powerful?'
Before Selene could act, the cat launched itself at her, claws flashing. Around them, reality fractured: portals opening one after another—a glimpse of John and Daley running toward her, a volcanic wasteland, a cavern, a deep sea.
Thinking fast, Selene kicked the goblin's corpse through the portal, showing her allies. She seized the cat by the scruff and leapt—but the ground shifted. Her foot slipped.
Together, she and the cat tumbled into a different portal and were gone.
…
Branches snapped underfoot as John Wayne and Daley Findlay tore through the trees. A cold wind hissed between the trunks, carrying the echo of distant gunfire.
Then the air ahead cracked like black glass. A swirling, shadow-rimmed portal opened just meters away. Before either man could stop, something shot out of it—the goblin's body, limp and blood-streaked—smashing into a tree with a dull thud.
John skidded to a halt, pistol raised. "What—?"
The portal shrank in on itself, collapsing into a pinprick of darkness and then nothing, as though it had never existed.
"What happened?" John demanded, eyes scanning the clearing. He crouched by the corpse, then straightened to glance around. "Where did that wizard lady go?"
Daley's brow furrowed. "She must have entered the portal."
"Aren't you a spatial wizard? Can't you do something about it?" John pressed, remembering the shimmering ward Daley had cast earlier.
Daley shook his head, still scanning the air with his senses. "No. I don't even feel a ripple. It's like the space here is perfectly normal."
Boots rustled behind them. Anastasia Ravenshield, Inspector George, and the rest of the squad emerged from the undergrowth, weapons ready.
"Let's search for her," Anastasia said after a quick briefing from John and Daley.
They fanned out, checking the ground. The soil was churned where Selene had landed, but there were no tracks leading away. No broken branches, no scent of magic. Only the goblin's body lay as evidence.
John crouched, fingertips brushing the dirt. "She disappeared from here as if erased. High probability she entered that strange portal we saw—and is now trapped inside it."
Daley's jaw tightened. "It's better to ask Thomas about this. He might have some clue about her disappearance."
"She won't die there, right?" Anastasia asked quietly.
No one answered. The question hung in the cold air.
Daley cursed under his breath and kicked the goblin's carcass, then paused. "Right. We came here for this goblin."
Anastasia straightened. "I'll stay here and continue the search with Detective John and the others. You should return to Giaris and inform Mr. Holmes of what's happened." Her tone was firm, but her eyes flicked toward the corpse. "Take it with you. He'll want to see it."
Daley exhaled, nodded once, and stored the goblin's body in his spatial ring. Two constables stepped to his side.
Without another word, Daley turned and started walking toward Reme City, leaving Anastasia, John, and the rest to search the haunted clearing.
…
A dull ache throbbed behind Selene's eyes as she blinked herself awake. The air smelled of damp stone and straw. When her vision steadied, she found herself lying on a rough mat of reeds inside a dark, uneven cavern. A single magic lamp hung from a hook hammered into the wall, spilling a cone of amber light across jagged rock.
Next to her, the black cat lay curled tight, tail twitching even in sleep.
"Ugh…" Selene pressed a hand to her temple and sat up. Alas, her hands and legs shivered a bit. Her heart beat abnormally faster as she cautiously looked outside.
'Finally, I can see the light.' She muttered.
It had been more than ten hours since they came to this unknown cave.
Selene tried to leave as they landed in this strange cavern. But outside, the night was eerily dark. So, she stayed in the cavern instead.
She glanced at the cat and, with a tired flick of her finger, tapped it on the forehead.
The cat shot upright, fur bristling, and hissed at her.
"Don't hiss at me," she muttered. "It's your fault we're in some unknown land."
Ignoring the way its green eyes glowed in the lamp's light, she rose, brushed straw from her robes, and walked toward the cave's mouth.
The tunnel opened halfway up a mountain slope. Cold air washed over her face, smelling of pine and wet earth. Beyond the lip of stone, a vast world unfolded—rolling plains like a green ocean, two silver rivers braiding together far below, then spilling off into the distance.
Selene's breath caught.
'I know that dream portal sent us to a different location… But this feels like I've been in a dream!'
Two suns hung in the sky—one great and golden, the other smaller, pale as a coin. Their twin lights crossed the clouds, throwing strange shadows across the land.
And above, impossibly high, a dozen islands drifted in the sky—forested plateaus and jagged mountains floating a thousand, maybe two thousand meters up, their undersides glinting with waterfalls that fell into mist before ever reaching the ground.
She gripped the edge of the stone, trying to steady herself. "Where… the hell did you bring me?"
The cat padded to her side, tail lashing. Its voice rolled out like a hiss of steam. "Meow… I should be the one angry at you—for killing my friend."
Selene stared at it, the alien sky reflected in her eyes.
…