1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

They walked in the empty space, surveying their surroundings and looking for any threats. Well, one might assume that the void between the gates of their original world to the new world would be empty. But to assume anything and base plans on probabilities wasn't something they liked to do.

The four set of steps were muffled by… Whatever the floor was made of, the silence only broken by the crackling of the torch and the sound of cloth friction, accompanied by the occasional tint of metal hitting metal.

"Olva, still nothing?"

The man who just spoke was the one holding the torch. He had bright orange hair assembled into a ponytail and a well-groomed beard adorned his face, which was quite fitting for his thick build. His body was covered by a padded coat with his family blazonry: a red and yellow griffyn holding a spear and a shield on a dark blue background. Leather boots covered his feet, and an axe on his right hand had red glowing runes etched on it. On his back, a heather shield bearing the same blazon rested.

"Nothing, Ygar. The void between the gates isn't a fixed path, and time isn't as well. We'll reach the other side when the gods decide we have."

The woman who answered him was… Peculiar, to say the least. She was human, but the ice-blue, almost white retina of her eyes gave her an otherworldly feeling. The fact wasn't helped by the gnarled staff she held with a purple gemstone on the top. She was covered head to toe in fur clothes, the only skin showing being her face in a hood, and her hands. Her skin being very pale, one might even confuse her for a vampire.

Ygar groaned and resumed his long walk. They had been walking for three hours straight now, and while they weren't tired the sole of their feet was starting to hurt. A few more minutes passed in silence, and was broken by the sound of someone sniffing at the air, followed by a sneeze.

"Puah, the wind stinks here!"

Ygar looked in the direction of the voice.

"What do you mean? Did the gate open in a slum?"

After all, the priesthood of Hardy was very clear on one point: the gate had opened in a city. While it would make their scouting mission harder because of the density of population, it wouldn't be impossible.

"No… Smells stuffy, dirty… But not as in a slum… It's quite hard to explain…" answered the deep voice.

Ygar didn't question the answer of his battle brother. After all, Valgerd had pulled him out of tight spots more than once, just as he did. They trusted each other like brothers. They had even swore to Emroy the warrior bond. The figure in front of them stopped for a moment as it took out a bottle and drank, allowing Ygar, Olva and their fourth member to catch up. As the torch approached, his features slowly revealed.

Valgerd wasn't human. He was a demi-human of the Wolfman race, but he preferred to describe himself with the word of the language of his people: a Barghest. He was tall, easily dwarfing Ygar (who was already quite tall by human standards) by a head. With his body entirely covered in grey fur, it was no wonder he wore little clothes. He had stripped blue and white pants, a dark green cape on his back and at his belt was hung a flanged mace, as well as a shortbow held in place in an adapted quiver holding both the bow and arrows. Another belt went from his left shoulder to his right waist, holding a number of pouches, a knife and two small bottles. Hidden by the cape, a well-groomed tail swished back and forth as he walked.

"Get back in the front, beastman! Your role is to scout ahead, so do not stop and do as ordered!"

The voice that rang out seeped with content, and both Valgerd and Ygar frowned. The last member of the group wasn't a mercenary. By looking at him, one might consider him the paragon of imperial style. Short black hair, brown eyes, light skin, shaved face… He wore leather shin guards extending to form sandals at his feet, a pair of bracers showing his status as a centurion, dark red pants and an armor made with dark blue wyvern scales, leaving his arms bare. He held in the left hand the scabbard of a spatha, with the weapon sheathed inside.

Valgerd's face turned into a strange smile, at least to human eyes. It was hard to tell if he was smiling or if he was about to attack someone.

"But of course, imperial centurion Gelt Del Arturos. After all, how could I refuse the orders of someone chosen by the senate to oversee this mission… Surely there is nothing more important to your imperial highness…"

The wolfman walked forth, distancing himself with the rest of the group, ignoring the frustrated expression of the imperial. As soon as he was far enough, Gelt addressed Ygar.

"You will tell your subordinate to watch his tongue, or I might very well order his to be cut!"

"You won't do anything to him. He isn't a subordinate; he is a battle brother and I shall suffer no humiliation or any harm to him. You'd do well to remember I was chosen by the senate and blessed by the emperor himself for this mission. And I shall only answer to the senate or the emperor. You're just an observer."

This frustrated even more the imperial, it was all true. He wasn't expected to scout, he was only there as a witness should the mercenaries try to lie once they would come back to make their reports. Sighing in defeat, he straightened his back and walked forward, ignoring the smile forming on Ygar and Olva's lips.

The path was long. After two more hours of walking, a well-needed meal and some rest, and another hour of walking, the signs of reaching the other side started to show. First, it was Olva who raised her hand, stopping the two men.

"I feel a… Disturbance… I'm not sure but-" Olva's voice was immediately cut by Gelt's.

"Cut to the chase, witch! What are you speaking about?"

The former snow wych sighed.

"Vokzal'naya, I would have told you if you didn't interrupt me… I think we are reaching the end. Valgerd should be able to smell the other side soon."

And her predictions came true. As a light appeared in the distance, the wolfman reached the group.

"We're here. But I hear a lot of noise. Didn't the Hardy priest assure us we would reach the end during the night?"

"Yes." Gelt quickly answered. "Maybe they aren't human and live during the night?"

It wasn't such an absurd proposition. After all, many races in Falmart lived during the night and slept through the day, be it civilized or not. Goblins, for example.

When they finally reached the end, a strange sight welcomed them. People in primarily white clothes, walking around and holding strange contraptions. Some of them wore white robes, while some others seemed to be completely covered in white clothes that left only a small opening for the face and some cylindrical metal tube in their back. At first sight, they seemed all human.

An area of sort seemed to have been delimitated by yellow ropes, and people in blue and black uniforms seemed to be patrolling the perimeter. Fortunately, a strong source of light bathed the exterior in a cold white light, but the inside of the tunnel remained dark.

"Olva, do you have it?"

"Of course."

From the folds of her fur coat, she took out a folded black piece of cloth. It was an extremely rare item, lent to them from the imperial armory by the emperor himself. Should they lose or try to steal it, their whole family and friends were sure to be horribly tortured, and they would be hunted down even if they left the continent.

"Everyone, come around me."

Ygar, Valgerd and Gelt huddled the closest they could to the wych, and she unfolded it in the air, letting it fall on them. Curiously, they could still see through it.

"It's still hard to believe… To think we're completely invisible… The gods truly gift us with wonderful things…" Ygar couldn't help but comment. Olva's dry voice was quick to bring him back to reality.

"It only hides us to the eye. Be careful not to let it slip and be silent. Emroy may have blessed us mortals with items such as those, but we're not sure Emroy's blessing will extend to the other world. If it doesn't, this cape won't hide us forever. Ygar, you tell us where to go."

Leading the group, Ygar led his team to the new world, under Emroy's veil.

Oblivious to what was coming from the gate, Maya was cooling down a Starbucks cup. While the strange building that had appeared from nowhere a week ago was bringing a lot of curiosity from all around the world, Maya Kita had started to grow bored of it.

When it had first appeared, the Japanese government didn't really know what to do with it. It blocked one of Ginza's district road, but apart from that it did nothing. However, many questions had arose in the scientific community. For example, how could it have a seemingly empty black void on one end, and a stone wall on the other end? Would something come out of it?

The Japanese population being what it is, many stories had already started to pop out on the internet, one of them mentioning an invading army of roman and fantasy soldiers, others mentioned aliens, and even religion wasn't left out. Many religious leaders had already spoken, stamping the strange structure as a message from their respective god.

To at least try to understand the what, how or why, the Japanese government had contracted many companies to send their scientists and do every test imaginable. Maya had been tasked with measuring the temperature of the structure at different places, and different times to see if it was somehow involved into the gate's presence. Feeling the drink in her left hand, she drank a bit then used the gun-shaped infrared thermometer in her right hand, noting the temperature. Then, she walked back to a desk where her notepad was left, and scribbled in it.

Columns (25/05/2026, 4am) – 15°C

Dropping the pencil and the thermometer on the table, she approached a camping chair and heavily sat on it. She groaned when she realized her cup was empty, then resumed her long watch, striking a short conversation with a nearby police officer.

Only after a few minutes and out of boredom, she decided to check the photos taken by the thermal camera set to take a picture every five minutes. This would allow her to spot any minute difference she would maybe miss. The characteristic sound of a picture being taken was followed by a short beeping sound of the laptop connected to the camera signalling the good reception of the picture. She clicked on the new icon, but it was the same as all the other. A desperately blue picture, showing absolutely no temperature change and nothing of note. Frustrated to no end, she brought her hand down on the keyboard and sighed, closing her eyes.

"Something wrong, Maya?"

The one that asked the question was one of Maya's colleagues. He had been put in charge of the chemical analysis of the component of the gate, something that was at least more interesting than temperature. She opened her eyes and faced him out of politeness.

"No, nothing. Only blue, blue, blue, blue and blue. Ho, and did I mention blue? Maybe cyan?"

He lightly chuckled at the joke, before nodding and going back to his work. She reported her attention back on the computer, and silently swore when she realized she had accidentally changed the display of the photos in the folder from orderly lines with the date and hour taken, to a small preview of each picture with its name under it.

She was about to change the display back to what it was before, when her hand stopped.

One of the previews wasn't completely blue.

With an almost juvenile excitation, she clicked on said picture and studied it. It showed the gate as it was before, but four figures walking very close to one another were apparently walking out of it, clearly visible in yellow and red on the blue background. Excitation slowly becoming nervousness, she looked around, but everything was the same as before. She waved to the closest police officer, catching his attention.

"Apart from me, other scientists and other police officers, no one passed in front of the gate, right?"

The officer lightly smiled.

"No Ma'am. You said yourself that you didn't want anyone walking between your equipment and the gate, you even said it personally to each of us. We still remember it."

She nodded to thank him, before going back to the mysterious picture. The file name said it had been taken ten minutes ago. Did the inhabitants of the void come out? She wasn't superstitious, but when something as extraordinary as a whole building appearing out of nowhere happened, her view of superstitions had changed.

However, she calmed when she remember one thing: she was probably one of the most protected people on earth right now. There were police officers constantly patrolling the area around the gate, as well as military road blocks further down each street leading to the gate and cameras constantly surveying each and every corner.

She rose from her chair, made sure that the thermal camera worked right with a few test pictures, confirmed that the reception of the files on the laptop worked correctly and even looked for stains on the lens, but everything was alright. Only able to conclude to a bug in the program, she closed the window, put back the display to what it was before and grabbed the infrared thermometer, going for a few more temperature checks.

A detached corner of her mind wondered about one of the four figures clearly not human, and the cut security tape in the direction they seemed to have been walking in. But it was quickly overwhelmed by the coping mechanism.

Fantasy creatures? Monsters of the void? Mere child tales… right?

Hello there, author here.

Here I am, starting a Gate fanfic. I was always kinda disappointed as to how the serie turned out, and I like to write original things. As I think it would make common sense for any general with more than a pea for a brain to get to know at least a little bit your enemy before the fight, I figured they would scout out the enemy before meeting something they know nothing about on the battlefield.

Now, for those that are looking for awesome gun fights and medieval armies swatted by artillery, this story isn't for you. This will be more of a "reverse-adventure", as well as a detective story (I don't want this story to be too long, and will probably end it around the actual invasion try of the empire). Please tell me what do you think of the concept with this prologue in the comments, it would help immensely.

For now, good night and see you next time!