There was nothing. Nothing to see. Nothing to hear. Nothing to feel. Just nothing. This was not how Elise remembered traveling through a Gate.
Fear started to rise within her. At least she still had emotions. While she was trying to understand what was going on, she felt another presence beside her. She panicked at first, but quickly realized that it was something familiar. The presence had a comforting feeling coming from it. And suddenly, Elise experienced something new.
"Relax, I am helping you to hold your consciousness together." The Traveler's voice was coming from nowhere, but also from everywhere.
"We got interrupted when we were about to enter the designated Realm."
Interrupted? By what? She regretted even asking. As if it were answering her thoughts, another presence appeared close to them. And it was colossal. Just for a moment, Elise thought it was about to crush her, just with its Energy mass. But the Traveler was holding her together as he said. He was blocking most of that overwhelming presence. What even was that?
"YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN MY REALM." Whatever it was, Elise also heard its voice inside her head. It had said 'my Realm'. Was it the God of this Realm? She couldn't identify any gender from the voice. Maybe it was closer to the feminine side?
"We are just travelers. Our friend lives here, so we wanted to give him a visit." The Traveler tried to explain.
"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. YOU ARE THE ONE THEY CALL THE TRAVELER. THE TROUBLE MAKER. I DON'T NEED THE LIKES OF YOU IN MY REALM." The Trouble Maker?
"Why are you letting him live here then?"
"WE HAVE A DEAL. HE IS PROTECTING MY REALM FROM THE LIKES OF YOU."
"Come on. Don't be like that. Why would I make any trouble where my friend lives? We really need to see him. Can't you make an exception?"
It paused for a moment before answering. "I DON'T WANT ANY QUAREL WITH YOU. LEAVE, BEFORE I MAKE YOU."
"How about this, let's do the usual. I promise that I will not harm your Realm in any way. I won't even use any Energy outside of my body."
It paused again to consider. "YOU WON'T USE ENERGY, YOU SAY. WOULD YOU MAKE A BIND ON IT?"
"..." The Traveler hesitated. "Sure, why not?" This was the first time Elise had seen the Traveler hesitate. What was that Bind thing?
"IT IS SATTLED THAN. I DON'T WANT TO FEEL YOUR ENERGY ANYWHERE IN MY LAND. YOU WILL NOT DO ANYTHING THAT WILL HARM THE INTEGRITY OF THE FABRIC OF MY REALM. AND LASTLY, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE ANY BIG MATERIALISTIC CHANGE IN MY REALM. DO YOU ACCEPT?"
"Isn't that a bit too much?"
"DO YOU ACCEPT!?"
"Yes, yes. Whatever. I won't even need to do any of it probably, since he lives here."
Elise didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. She just opened her eyes inside a totally different environment. They were still in a forest. Or something similar to a forest. The plants and trees were nothing like those Elise had ever seen. Every one of them was a warm shade of red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple. The trees were not that dense, and every one of them had colorful flowers and fruits on them. Not just trees, but also the bushes and the grass.
Elise could breathe normally, and there was no additional weight on her, so the gravity must have been about the same as in her Realm. The Energy density was a bit more, but not as much as the Realm they first went to.
She could see a mountain range from where she stood. Waterfalls were falling from it here and there. Which meant there must have been lakes or rivers nearby.
Everything was so fascinating. So perfect. As if they were all created specifically to be as beautiful as possible. No wonder the God of this Realm didn't want any trouble.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" The Traveler was standing next to her, savoring the view just like her. "They sure put a lot of effort into making it that way." He started to walk.
Elise checked him to see if there was any difference while following him. But there was nothing visible on him. "Are you alright?"
"Of course. Why shouldn't I be?" He was clearly avoiding the topic.
"That Goddess said something about a Bind. What is it?" She decided to ask directly.
"Ah, she just put a condition on me, to limit my Energy usage. It is nothing serious, don't worry."
"What if you break it, or can you even break it?
"I can, but I would rather not. I would end up losing a lot. Binds are an advanced topic; we will look into them sooner or later. Don't bother yourself with it for now." He closed the topic just like that, and Elise did not push any further.
They were walking toward the mountain range. Elise noticed some bugs and small creatures along the way. They did not seem harmful; they were only filling the forest with charming tunes and bringing another depth to the already fascinating environment.
"Do you know where he lives?" She asked.
"Nope. I can't sense above a certain distance right now."
"So... where are we going?"
"We are just walking. I wanted to look at this place from the top and experience more of this beautiful environment. He will find us anyway."
Elise didn't know he was the kind to appreciate these kinds of things. She wondered what more she would learn about him. He had never told her about himself or his past in detail, so Elise didn't actually know him that well. Actually, what about the sword master he mentioned?
"What is he like? The sword master, I mean."
"Oh, he is..."
Elise found herself in the air suddenly. She was walking just now, so how? When she heard a loud noise coming from below, she looked down to see what was going on.
There was a giant red dust cloud left from a huge explosion.