The Villain's Story

?Like the slow shatter of a mirror, small cracks appeared inside the gateway, exuding a blue light. The cracks expanded until they reached the ends of the portal, and then. They started to fall.

From the center, pieces started to fall.what was behind the pieces was not the other side of the wall, but what seemed to be space itself! Filled with stars and clouds of gas. It was beautiful, yet it also raised alarms in the mind of a person. The vastness scared them, just as much it awed them.

"Prepare the crystals!"

Sabrina shouted from the back, unable to contain her excitement. She urged her grandfather to hurry. Hugo listened to the will of his granddaughter and raised his hand, Members of the Wellington family took out large crystals the size of the human upper body, of various colors.

"Set the convertors."

Richard ordered, and Twilight brought out devices that looked like large rings and fixed the crystals onto them.

The portal needed spatial mana to be operable, but Humanity had no such artifact which could convert other forms of mana to that of space.

It didn't, so the team simply used converters to convert mana into its most basic form. Alan and Sabrina had designed the portal in such a way that it would convert that mana into a form suitable for it.

The conversion rate was not remarkable, but they didn't really have another choice. Alan didn't have an infinite amount of mana to power the portal.

The cracks were slowly dissaprarign, and the vast horizon of doace, in its endless beauty was in front for everyone to gaze upon. They were mesmerized by such a sight but called themselves soon.

"Ha... "

The last crack disappeared and a wave of energy burst forth, pushing everyone back. Alan was unable to maintain his balance and fell on his ass, yet he didn't mind it and continued to stare at the completed portal.

"Marvelous..."

Hugo muttered, nothing but awe present in his voice. Sabrina let out a strange sound from behind, a mix of a laugh and a 'hmph'. But everyone ignored her, for they were all too busy in admiring the portal.

"The first portal constructed by humans... "

"That's space magic for you... "

Various sounds of praise and shock escaped, but before they could increase Richard put a stop to it.

"Gentlemen, I know that's clearly a great sight, but we should be cautious."

Some sense was knocked into the team, and they readied themselves. Alan took out his spear and pointed it at the portal, ready to take on anything that would come from it.

"Hold, be ready."

Various spells were already cast, to stop the advance of anything that could come out from there, and everyone was tense.

The clock ticked, and soon an hour passed. Everyone remained the same but Sabrina, who was drinking coffee nonchalantly in the back, seemingly unworried.

[Please show some... caution. ]

Alan said to her, wishing she would come back to her senses but she simply responded.

[I have you here, so there's no need. ]

Alan lowered his head, hiding the expression on his face.

Half an hour passed, and the team was still as tense as ever. These people here were hardened veterans, who knew that a single second was all it took for things to go haywire.

Sometimes, it would take even less than a second.

"At ease, send the drones."

Richard ordered, and some of them, most in the back lowered their guard. To rest a little but the ones in front with the most beefy armor stayed vigilant.

"Yes."

Aerial and ground drones, each specially manufactured to handle what they could imagine coming from this expedition went inside the portal. Each was connected to a wire. They decided to go with this primitive method because... Honestly who would expect a wireless or remote connection to work?

Shortly after they entered the portal, the wires moved up and down, followed by a sideways moment. The motion was repeated three times.

"They haven't met resistance."

An awakened said from the back, Richard signed in relief and asked.

"Any footage?"

"Sadly... The cameras we installed seemed to have stopped working."

"Shit."

A curse escaped Hugo's mouth. The motion of the wires was a signal they had decides on before in case this very thing happened.

"Retrieve the drones."

Soon, the drones returned, without a single scratch on them. Various awakened got ready, and wrapped specially produced wires around themselves.

A group of five entered, and the others in the room watched with bated breath, hoping for good news.

A while passed, and they saw a disturbance in the portal. Ripples appearing and in response they raised their weapons and cast supporting skills on themselves.

But that proved to be a useless measure. The people they sent returned, with a smile on their faces.

"Report."

Hugo ordered, eager to know.

"It's a plain, filled with green and blue grass. The air is breathable and does not appear to be contaminated, and besides flora, no other life is present for miles from what we could see. There are two Suns in the sky. And the gravity is a bit strong than Earth..."

As the awakened listed the details of what he had experienced on his little adventure, the group had wide smiles on their faces. Alan had to hold Sabrina back from rushing inside already.

[Calm down!]

[Come on! They said it was ok! Let me go! ]

He still didn't let go.

"Haha... "

A dry laugh escaped Richards lips, the billions spent on this project were worth it. Just the fact that there was a habitable area outside was enough. Even if it was devoid of minerals or resources, it was... Good.

He looked at Alan with a satisfied gaze, who in response raised his thumb up and smiled. It was a cocky smile, full of arrogance but Richard ignored it.

He shouldn't ruin this moment, and he didnt want to as well.

Everyone was eager to enter, and both heads finally gave the order.

"Let's go."

They marched inside, Alan and Sabrina entered last, much to the latter's disappointment.