Unlike the previous portal, the gateway here rested directly upon the rocky ground instead of floating above it. So even if they encountered something dangerous, they could still make it without needing the suit.
For several seconds...
Nobody spoke.
Even the experienced soldiers found themselves frozen by the breathtaking landscape stretching endlessly before them.
"...Wow..."
"Look at this place..."
"Where the hell are we?"
"What are those...? Sky rivers?"
Soft murmurs spread throughout the squadron as every visor tilted upward.
The sky above them was nothing like the one inside the previous Hell's Gate Young Aether had entered.
No familiar blue sky.
Instead, enormous rivers of crimson light flowed across an endless sea of black clouds, twisting through the heavens like celestial currents. They resembled gigantic cracks carved into reality itself, carrying streams of glowing energy that slowly drifted from one horizon to the other.
