Chapter 8 - A New Journey

The winner will be decided after three rounds of fighting. The first round was won by the person Alex placed his bets on. His name was John, while his opponent was Patrick. John was a man with a short statue, but his eyes looked anything but nice. He taunted his opponent while fighting, which made his opponent lose his stance and he won by a large margin. Cheers and boos could be heard as some were happy while the rest were sad as their player did not win. 

The next round started, with the opponent winning that round. Everyone became tensed in their seats as the last round would determine the winner. The last round started shortly after, with the fight fiercer than before. Grunts of pain could be heard from the stage as they both fought to defend their honor. After a few minutes of fighting, John managed to finally knock out his opponent. Cheers could be heard loudly across the arena as many people won their stakes.

Alex decided to stay for a few more battles to gather enough currency to use. Some hours later, he left as he was satisfied with the gains he made. Though he lost four times he didn't let it sadden him as he knew he could not win every time. He managed to accumulate a hundred thousand dollars. The currency used in the outer area was dollars, though in digital form. The inner and core area uses gold for their transactions. 

Standing outside the building as he pondered on what to do next, he did not bother waiting as he immediately headed towards the teleportation station. Arriving at the station. He looked at the building, which had two doors, for entry and exit. He entered the building then headed over to the counter. He met a lady who gave him his ticket and deducted the funds from his account. The price of traveling almost made him choke. He discovered that he had to pay more than half of his earnings, but he received a two percentage discount when she discovered he was a citizen of layer A of the outer area. 

Standing before the portal that would take him to his destination, he entered and felt space warped around him. The feeling was different from when he traveled through the void using the skill he learned from the vision. Suddenly, he felt a tingling sense of danger briefly. Though it was very short, he felt it. He had a premonition that if he did not act quickly, he would definitely lose his life and there was nothing he could do about it. Even the so-called stone in his possession would not be able to help him. 

Coming out on the other side, he breathed a sigh of relief when he did not feel the sense of danger anymore. Anything that could make him feel that level of threat must either be equal to the lady he is expecting or more powerful than her! He shuddered at the thought of this. He was just a normal person before all this started. Clearing his mind from depressing thoughts, he checked the map that appeared before him, following the directions to get to his apartment.

Minutes later, he stood before a tall building with twelve floors. His floor number was the tenth floor. He took the elevator to his floor, then headed to his apartment. Entering his room, the first thing he did was to go straight to his bedroom to sleep. He needed a good rest due to all the things he had gone through. His brain needed to cool itself for him to know the next course of action. Minutes later, he could be seen lying in bed with him snoring softly.

Somewhere in the void.

Alex's other self stopped before a massive crater as he observed it. The crater radiated intense energy and was filled with cracks as it appeared to be on the verge of shattering. 

"With this, I should have more than thirty percent success regarding my plans. He waved his right hand and scattered what looked like seeds on the crater, which made it shrink to the size of a baseball. He took it in his arms, then looked around him to ensure he was not discovered. 

After ensuring he was not discovered, he tore open the void before him before entering. 

Seconds later, he was ejected from where he had entered, which made him vigilant. For someone to be able to eject him from the void, there are only three readons for that to happen. And he was certain the person was not as strong as him as he felt the aura released by the person.

He quickly regained his thoughts as he concluded that the person depended on a great weapon to deal with him. Weapons like that would take longer for him to heal, and he did not have resources to waste.

A few seconds later, the void, a distance from him, then a beast's head came out. The beast stared at Alex for a long time then ignored him, sniffing the air as it looked like he was searching for something. After finding nothing, he glanced over at Alex, who stood calmly.

 "Hand back the crater you took!" ordered the beast. Alex sneered as he imagined what the beast was trying to do. He brought out the crater in its small form. Showing it to the beast.

"Good. It shows you know how to respect your elders. Now bring it over and let me check its authenticity." The beast continued. He could not contain his excitement when he thought of how delicious Alex would taste. He could already imagine his expression as he saw Alex come over. All of a sudden, his vision turned dark as he saw a massive palm slap him on his head. It also reacted quickly, by erecting a sturdy shield around him, concentrating most of it above his head.

The palm landed on the shield as it shook heavily. The beast opened its eyes wide. How could a human possess this kind of power? He quickly erected another shield and a big weapon appeared before him. The weapon was a prong with three teeth. It exuded a savage aura as it was released. The teeth dropped with a white liquid around them that raised the surrounding temperature to several degrees. 

Alex felt a threat coming from the weapon, so he decided to be cautious. 

"Feel the joy of my three-pronged battle weapon", the beast cracked up in laughter but stopped when he discovered that Alex had somehow left without him noticing. He roared loudly in anger as he couldn't get what he came for. He pulled his head back into the void and disappeared.

Very far away from where they had a short exchange, Alex stood where he was with his face filled with a frown.

"The timeline has changed greatly. This weapon is not supposed to appear now." The requirements to receive that weapon was very hard. He even failed twice. 

He looked in the direction of his other self, but couldn't discover anything unusual.

"As long as the change is not too much, it will be good." He took his gaze from there. He then continued his journey.

Invaders territory.

The outer area of the invaders could be seen to be in a state of unrest as the best fought one another frantically. A higher level beast could be seen looking at all this without interfering. This phase was important for them all as this was when most of the lower-leveled ones gained intelligence. Some lower-leveled beast could be seen standing apart from the rest, crying out to the sky as they watched their fellow beasts battle one another. 

The higher level beast overseeing all these reared his head backwards as he looked at his fellow coming out of the inner area. The newcomer checked all that happened and nodded to himself. He looked at the beast standing beside him and asked how long this was going to take. He also brought up the issue of war with the inhabitants of this world, but their leader had yet to give orders. They were to stay where they are.

The higher levelled beast could take humanoid form, but they still retain some of their features.

Border between human territory and the invaders.

Soldiers can be seen dressed in futuristic armored suits as they battled the low level beast. The battle had turned into a fierce one with humans gaining advantage slowly due to the lack of reinforcement from the invaders side.

Tens of battleships could be seen flying as they supported the troops from the air. Explosions could be heard around as beast and man alike experienced casualties. Some soldiers could be seen using weapons that emitted fire, while some used guns that shot rapidly. The slight advantage humans gained, continued to increase till the creatures decided to retreat. 

In the military camp.

A man in a black suit could be seen standing before a man in military uniform. The soldier handed a small bottle filled with brown liquid to the black-suited man. 

"It was nice doing business with you, commander." the suited man said as he received the vial.