Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain wondered who he should think of… Terra or his kids? While he was feeling conflicted by thinking about who was the most important, he realized that he didn't know how Danny and Annie looked now as adults… so he focused his mind on Terra.

The crystal ball shone a few times, and that made Rain rolled his eyes even more. Eventually, she appeared in the crystal ball, and much to Rain and Seara's surprise, they found her fighting the beast queen… on a volcano and surrounded by lava.

"I thought that volcanoes didn't exist here because this layer is above the surface of the earth…." Rain thought while frowning.

With a thunderous roar, Terra lunged forward, her clenched fist aimed at the Beast Queen's large figure. Simultaneously, the Beast Queen countered, her own powerful fist hurtling toward Terra in a display of raw strength and anger.

As their fists collided in a cataclysmic impact, a shockwave reverberated across the arena. The ground beneath their feet trembled violently, and the fiery landscape seemed to respond to the intensity of their feelings.

The very Earth quaked as if stirred by their immense power. Lava, bubbling beneath the surface, surged upwards, surging in powerful currents through the molten veins of the arena. Within moments, towering pillars of lava erupted from the ground in all directions, casting an ominous glow across the arena.

The scorching heat intensified as the pillars of molten rock soared high, their fiery glow illuminating the arena in an awe-inspiring yet perilous display. The once stable ground became a landscape of unpredictable danger as the tumultuous clash between Terra and the Beast Queen set the surroundings ablaze with untamed elemental fury.

"Why does everyone look so cool when fighting?" Rain thought.

Just when things were getting interesting, the crystal ball broke into pieces… it was a pretty crappy magic relic, but at least the shards formed an arrow pointing to the Southeast.

"I already kind of knew that they were in the beast people territory… those guys would have a hard time living in the Ocean," Rain said. "The beast people were bad at magic, after all."

"If you could teleport in that same direction, you could find them now… they are exactly in this direction, but that can change," Isa said. "The relic tracked the mana of the surroundings and pointed toward it."

"It is rather rustic," Rain said.

"The relic is one time only, and it costs too much mana to make it," Isa said. "We never had much use to find people, so we didn't try to improve this."

"You didn't use a magic circle either," Rain said.

"That is because this is something my friend created, and he didn't use that method," Isa explained.

It was pretty obvious at that point in time that Isa's friend was someone from Earth… that was the third person that Rain knew that came from Earth from the past. Regardless, that wasn't very important right now…

As Rain recounted the events of his defeat at the hands of the dragon god, he carefully detailed the moment when he was defeated and he was smashed against the land. The meteor destroyed his body and the capital as well, not only that, but it also pierced the whole land by an overwhelming force that breached the known boundaries.

He described how, during his confrontation, the impact had torn through the fabric of their realm, creating a rupture in the very land they stood upon.

Isa and Seara, listening intently to Rain's explanation, couldn't help but furrow their brows in deep concern and confusion. The gravity of Rain's words weighed heavily on them as they comprehended the magnitude of the breach caused by the dragon god's overwhelming power.

Their expressions turned graver as Rain continued, mentioning the world below, alluding to the existence of a realm beyond their known reality. The mere suggestion of a world unknown, one that lay beneath their own, created a sense of unease and foreboding in Isa and Seara.

The notion that their world might be connected to or impacted by an enigmatic realm below stirred a sense of disquiet within them. It hinted at a broader, more intricate web of existence…

"... That is all very hard to believe," Isa said. "The dragon god can attack with meteors?"

"... Rain blocked a few of them before he disappeared," Seara said while rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Rain wouldn't like about this kind of thing, but… that would explain why our mana becomes less efficient as deep as we go."

"You guys tried to dig as well?" Rain asked.
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"We tried to find a way to reach the sea dragons territory and ambush them and that proved to be a massive pain in the ass," Seara nodded. "We also tried to use the areas that they didn't use on the deepest parts of the ocean and we confirmed that once more."

As Rain listened to all that, a sudden realization struck him like a bolt of lightning. He pondered the aftermath of the meteor impact, recalling that the shield—the ancient artifact—should have been within the vicinity of the capital when the calamity occurred.

His mind raced through the chain of events, connecting the dots between the destruction caused by the meteor and the subsequent upheaval triggered by the dragon god's power.

The realization dawned upon him: if the shield had indeed been present in the area affected by the meteor strike, it should have been sunken underground along with him. However, Rain paused, considering an alternative possibility—that only the parts directly impacted by the meteor were obliterated, leaving untouched or buried the portions that lay beyond its immediate reach.

He also didn't hear its voice while he was below…

"I can't let anyone find that guy, and since I am no longer there, someone might eventually find it," Rain thought.

"It is also weird to think that the dragon god is in another world training… for what exactly?" Isa asked, but Rain just shrugged.