Secret Realm

 "So, this is it," Era said, eying the reason for her family and town's destruction. Then again, if she did not knew better, she would have thought the place to be an entrance to a cave, not a spatial area.

 "No wonder your father will wander off. Even I can't sense anything from the place," Mashia commented, the dragon girl eying the supposed entrance with scrutiny.

 "So, should we all enter or?" Miriam asked, concern lacing in her voice.

 "Miriam, you enter the mansion, the rest will join in and explore the spatial area," the busty blonde merely nodded, though from the look of it, she was not happy with the decision.

 However, Era could not blame Ryker for ordering such thing. In the end, Miriam is still a mortal, so whatever is inside would be too dangerous for her.

 Though, she did wonder why Ryker let him and Ina join in as well. As if able to read her mind, he answered, "This will be a good experience for you as well allowing you to learn more of spatial area,"

 The silver-eyed man turned towards Mashia, "Do you know how to tell the difference between spatial area?" 

 The dragon girl sadly shook her head, "I've never been to one before. The most I heard is from the story told by my parents but they never told me the difference between them," she said apologetically.

 Ryker could only sigh, "We have to find out the hard way then, everyone, enter,"

-x-

 The first thing they feel after their entire body passing through the entrance was a slight vertigo as well as some headache. Thankfully, both effect pass quickly enough.

 "So, this is a spatial area," Era commented, eying the entire place. For all the things she had heard about it, she did not expect it to be so dark. Dark as in the very sky is painted black.

 While there are something that looks similar to the stars of the night sky, it only allow them to see it. The reason why they could see anything is because the black sky did not impede their vision.

 "We should be in a Secret Realm," Mashia suddenly said.

 "I thought you don't know the difference," Ina pointed out.

 "Some of the story my parents told me is that Hidden Realm and Natural Realm is created over a long time, with the latter would take centuries, maybe even longer to fully formed.

 However, the time it took allow the spatial area to develop natural lighting as well as night and day cycle.

 However, a Secret Realm, the abrupt kind that was caused by the death of a Source Grand Realm experts would not have such function. Only those at the Heaven Realm would have natural lighting.

 So, the owner of this Secret Realm is likely an Earth Source expert," she exclaimed.

 "I see. Well, we know the strength of the owner. Are there any possibilities of danger?" Ryker asked.

 Mashia shook her head, "Secret Realm will have their entrance opened all the time, so anything can exit and enter unless someone was able to turn the Secret Realm into a Hidden Realm.

 There will be nothing dangerous except for if the Soul of owner still here, but they usually act like guides more than anything else.

 Some beasts would take this as their home but often leave. Unlike Natural and Hidden Realm, Secret Realm are unable to absorb the worldy energy, making the qi and energy inside to be limiting and unsuitable for both cultivation and living.

 Unless the owner manage to turn this into a Hidden Realm, it would not amount to anything. The only valuable thing about Secret Realm is the fact the owner is Source Grand Realm expert, so anything left behind in their Secret Realm would be valuable.

 Unless your father manage to empty out the entire thing in one go, there should be more treasures to find, whether it was keep in the Inner Realm, or if the treasures formed over time," she explained.

 The rest nodded before Ryker gave them another order, "We will split up with Mashia and I leading each group. Ina, you will follow Mashia, and Era, you will be with me," the others nodded though they did glare at Era while pouting at him. Even the proud dragon girl.

 So, before they split up, Ryker kiss both Ina and Mashia. Needless to say, they stop feeling envious of the blonde.

-x-

 "You don't have to do this, Ryker," Era said, leaning towards Ryker as they talked.

 "Do you want to know what I want the most when my parents die?" he suddenly asked.

 The blonde went silent, as she knew he did not ask her for answer.

 "I want someone to help comfort it, to make the pain go away. While I already accept they are gone, it still hurting," he said. Era did not say anything but just hug him with one arm, hoping it would convey everything she wanted to say without the need for words.

 The fact the edge of his lips moving upward told her, the action worked.

 As they continue to walk, Ryker stopped all of a sudden.

 "What is it?" she asked, looking warily at the dark space in front of her.

 Ryker did not say anything but throw a stone at the dark space. Well, what she thought to be dark space but turned out to be a wall as the stone bounce of it.

 "Era, how long have we been walking?" he asked.

 "Probably half an hour," she answered, wondering what would cause Ryker to ask such question.

 "This place is too small," he said.

 "What do you mean?" Era asked out loud, though her sense was heighten, in preparation for anything.

 "Source Grand Realm are nicknamed World realm due to the cultivator who reach such height create a world or something similar inside of them.

 Even if it is not as big as the real world, it will still take days for us to reach the end, maybe even months. Yet, why did it only takes half a hour to reach the border of the Secret Realm," Era's eyes widened as she began to understand the reason for Ryker to be so awry.

 "Should we do something?" she asked, her senses going overdrive.

 "We have to converge with the others first before we can make our next more,"