chapter 19: World 1 End+Honeypot world Interlude and Berserk Interlude.

I stared at the spot that Ram had disappeared from in bafflement.

The crater filled with molten slag was empty, but for some reason I felt like something was looking at me from it.

It was like rage and primordial hunger combined.

I started to feel a massive amount of danger from all directions as a swirling vortex of energy materialized beside us, revealing a familiar portal leading to Kasimir's interplanar bazaar.

"Quickly, my friends!" Kasimir's voice echoed from within the portal, a sense of urgency lacing his usually jovial tone. "Step inside before it's too late!"

"What's going on?" I asked, my hand instinctively reaching for my sword.

"No time for explanations!" Kasimir urged, his eyes wide with alarm. "The source of a massive surge of Red Mana is about to reveal itself, and it's not friendly. Anyone colorshifted that far red with Red Mana is surely nothing but a savage beast now!"

Rem and I exchanged a worried glance, but we didn't hesitate.

We stepped through the portal, the familiar surroundings of the bazaar momentarily calming our frayed nerves.

However, the respite was short-lived. The portal flickered and closed behind us, and the walls of the bazaar seemed to shimmer and distort as Kasimir channeled his magic.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice laced with concern.

"Planeswalking," Kasimir replied, his brow furrowed in concentration. "We need to put some distance between ourselves and that...creature."

With a jolt, the bazaar lurched, and the world outside the windows blurred into a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.

When everything finally settled, we found ourselves in a new location, the view outside showcasing a bustling cityscape unlike anything we had seen before.

Kasimir leaned against a nearby counter, wiping sweat from his brow. "That was close," he muttered, his voice tinged with relief. "I've never encountered such a concentration of raw, uncontrolled Red Mana before. It was…disturbing."

He turned to us, his eyes filled with a mix of curiosity and concern. "Now, tell me, my friends, what exactly transpired with your companion?"

Rem and I recounted the events leading up to Ram's disappearance, describing the anti-mind control ring, the surge of magical energy, and the whirlwind that had engulfed her before she vanished.

Kasimir listened intently, his expression growing increasingly grave. When we finished, he remained silent for a moment, lost in thought.

"By the description of events," he finally spoke, his voice low and thoughtful, "it seems your companion was an unsparked Planeswalker."

"A planeswalker?" "A Planeswalker, what happened to my sister?" Rem and I echoed in unison, unfamiliar with the term and worried both.

"Individuals with the innate ability to travel between planes of existence," Kasimir explained. "Their spark, a latent potential within them, can be ignited by a moment of intense emotional upheaval or trauma. It appears that the shock of discovering the truth about Roswaal's manipulation, coupled with the sudden realization of her own power- caused your companion's spark to ignite and for her to planeswalk immediately."

"Where is she now? Can we go to her?" Rem asked, her voice trembling with a mix of hope, dread, and fear.

Kasimir shook his head, a sorrow filled frown upon his face. "I'm sorry, my dear, that is a mystery. When a Planeswalker's spark ignites, they are often flung through the Blind Eternities, the chaotic void that separates the planes. Where she ended up is anyone's guess."

Rem's knees hit the misty blue material the Bazaar's floor was made of, and she started to cry.

I sad down next to her, and let her bury her face in my chest.

"What will happen to the world we lived in? The Waterfall world?" I asked, as Rem continued to sob.

Kasimir grimaced, "With that hostile planeswalker- or well- can't really call that a planeswalker, maybe a planar catastrophic entity- on your home plane, it will take someone with at least the strength of someone with a stable balance of over 1500 lands to stop it. That probably isn't happening, so that being will likely convert it into a destroyed flaming hellhole, and then eat it for its newly converted lands as Red Mana. Given the size of the Waterfall world, it will gain another 100 Red mana to use for energy and then move on to the next thing it notices."

"Shit." I said.

—

"So, Can I do anything else for you, dear customers?" Kasimir asked, looking put out and a little unsure.

"It's fine." Rem whispered. "We'll find our way. I'm sure."

I nodded, and smiled at Rem. "It'll be okay. Even if it takes an inordinate amount of time, we'll find her."'

"It's good to leave the portal open when customers are going to inhabited realities. Never know what's on the other side, and I'd hate to lose more customers. although If you want to planeswalk again for any reason besides extreme danger it will cost you 1 Mid-quality spirit stone." Kasimir told us.

I nodded and exited through the portal.

We were on some kind of massive floating platform.

In front of us was a pitch black genie looking thing.

Okay, so, depending on the year, we should definitely leave soon.

"Uh, hey, do you know what year-" I started to speak to the iconic mr. popo, but what it said next and how it said it fucking made me decide to fuck off back into the portal right now.

The thing that looked like Mr. Popo but certainly fucking wasn't gave a smile. One that was so fucking massive that it left his face entirely.

"Oh, outsiders from afar, Popo hasn't taught you the pecking order yet, so I better fucking do it right the fuck now."

That is not motherfucking normal, is this some kind of honeypot dimension for dragon ball fans?!

"BACK THROUGH THE PORTAL NOW!"

We made it through the portal and it closed behind us.

"Yes, yes, I'm already on it, no need to tell me to leave, eldritch horror outside. Let's go." Kasimir said.

The face of the thing pretending to be mister popo slammed into the side of the bazaar and it even cracked enough for us to hear, "BITCH WHY YOU RUNNIN" come from it.

We were far away from that hellhole in moments.

We just stared at each other, hearts pounding.

"Hopefully we've landed in a less dangerous space now. Apologies customers."

I just sat down and said. "I think I need a drink."

—

After a quick sit down at the bar, and a day to calm down in a kasimir brand hotel situated within the bazaar itself, We returned to the portal.

With a deep breath, we stepped through the portal, bracing ourselves for whatever awaited us on the other side.

The scene that unfolded before us was both shocking and horrifying.

We found ourselves in a dimly lit chamber, the air thick with the stench of blood and decay. Chains and instruments of torture adorned the walls, casting grotesque shadows that danced in the flickering torchlight.

In the center of the room, a man with a twisted, manic grin was meticulously working on a prisoner strapped to a table, his tools glinting with a sinister gleam.

The prisoner, despite the obvious agony etched on his face, refused to cry out, his lips pressed tightly together in a defiant grimace.

His body was marred with wounds, burns, and lacerations, a testament to the torturer's sadistic pleasure.

Disgust and rage surged through me as I witnessed this scene of senseless cruelty. Without hesitation, I drew my sword and lunged forward, my blade slicing through the air with deadly precision. The torturer's head rolled across the floor, his manic grin frozen in a silent scream.

Rem, her eyes wide with shock, moved to my side as I began to remove the restraints from the prisoner. "Hey, man," I asked, my voice gentle despite the anger still simmering within me. "What's your name?"

"Griffith," the man rasped, his voice hoarse from pain and exhaustion.

A strange feeling washed over me, a sense of recognition that sent shivers down my spine. "Of the Band of the Falcon?" I inquired, my voice laced with disbelief.

Griffith nodded weakly, his eyes filled with a mix of confusion and pain.

A surge of rage, hotter than any forge fire, erupted within me. Memories of a doomed timeline, of a world plunged into darkness, flashed before my eyes.

This man, this Griffith, was the architect of that apocalypse, the one responsible for countless deaths and the shattering of a golden age along with the rape of his literal best friends girl along with the murder of ALL his friends besides ONE not for the lack of trying.

Without another word, I plunged my sword into his chest, again and again, a hundred times in a seeming instant.

His eyes widened in surprise, then glazed over with the finality of death.

Rem stared at me, her expression a mix of shock and confusion. "Tereda, what are you doing?!" she shouted, her voice trembling.

"Don't ask," I replied, my voice cold and resolute. "I'll explain everything once we kill the king here."

Rem, trusting me implicitly, nodded and followed me as we left the chamber of horrors behind, stepping out into a world that was both familiar and terrifyingly unknown.

—

We re-entered the portal after killing King-Fuckup-mc-daughter-want while remaining unnoticed, Rem called out. "Wait, explain! Why did you kill that defenseless-"

I finished my transaction of 10 copper coins for the correct volume of the manga.

"That guy, Griffith, becomes Femto. Read that and you'll understand. I don't know why we ended up in a fictional-like world- but that was a world from a really fucking dark story."

Kasimir piped up. "Ah, Yes, most worlds have a fiction equivalent due to other worlds calling out to nearby worlds. If a world is nearby, you better believe someone will write about it!"

Frowning, Rem picked up the manga and started reading.

She couldn't finish it knowing that on the other side of the portal that could have happened.

She burned it with her less than stellar fire sided Huma.

She shook her head.

"Can we go somewhere else?"

I nodded, and tossed Kasimir one of my 11 Mid-class Spirit stones.

"All aboard the Kasimir express!" He said, smirking.

The Room shimmered and twisted as we ended up opening a portal somewhere different.