The Record of Unusual Creatures

1Y'zaks old place was in a universe at the outer rims of the Empire's borders. In fact, with the great expansion 10,000 years ago, the Empire had claimed plenty of uncultivated space. And this "reserved land" only had the most basic of sovereign hubs and monitoring outposts. Y'zaks' place did not even have a World Gate.      1

Hao Ren was planning a one-way teleportation for departure, and manual navigation for the return trip. His plan was to use the World Gate to "catapult" into Y'zaks' homeworld and use the Petrachelys' void drives to slowly make their way back. That was his conclusion after studying the World Gate's activation rules. The method could potentially save them loads of time as well.     

The ship soon arrived at the magnificent gate in deep space. It was a sight to behold as always with the traffic of various civilisations going in and out of the gate. It was as busy as ever. It was only here in the deep void of space that you could see so many extraordinary races and civilisations in the universe. This was Lanina's first time seeing the World Gate and she was immediately stunned beyond words by the magnificence of the planet-sized structure. As the ship slowly approached the gate's light screen, the succubus subconciously tied her tail into her knot, revealing her anxiousness.     

"Ten thousand years ago, a one-way launching like this was not possible," the MDT explained as it slotted itself into the console. "Back then, World Gates needed to be present on both ends; one being the launching point, and the other the receiving point. Breakthroughs were made later on for one-way launches and the World Gate can now serve as a guiding launch pad. I've already sent the coordinates to the World Gate and it will send us close to our destination. Of course, we'll have to do it manually when we return."     

Hao Ren thought about it for a moment. "So, there won't be any problems? Let's say, a civilian vessel without a void drive accidentally enters the one-way launch bay, will it be stranded?"     

"What do you think the sovereign hubs are for? Decoration?" The MDT considered the question juvenile. "The sovereign hubs have the ability to monitor the data transmission of every world, and similar to the control terminals used by the Celestials, it prevents unauthorised entry. Every person passing through the gate will be scanned, and any unauthorised persons or vessels will immediately be transferred back. Nonetheless, there are extremely rare occurences of leakages, but those are very small data packets, similar to a human's data. This is a general case of "traversal".     

Lanina did not understand the weird technological mumbo jumbo that the MDT was spouting. She stared intently at the fast approaching light screen and realised that the real size of the structure could not be measured by eyes alone. She finally believed that Raven 12345 and Hao Ren could be relied upon. She then popped the question, "This gate... was it created by your goddess?"     

There was reverence in her high-pitched voice.     

Hao Ren was checking on the ship's status when she asked the question. Without turning back he said, "No, she did not, but it's under her supervision."     

Lanina took a deep breath. "So... if she's that almighty, why didn't she fix that house of hers?"     

Hao Ren was truly confused and turned to face Y'zaks. "Old man, was there something wrong with your education system? Why is this lady here so insistent about fixing houses?"     

Y'zaks covered his face with his hand. "Let's just leave it at that. You just do your thing. But honestly, any normal person would have the same reaction if they saw your house and then the World Gate."     

Shrugging, he eyed the information hologram and announced, "Hold on tight, we're almost ready to launch. This is a one-way launch, so expect a little rattling."     

As he finished, the Petrachelys hyper-accelerated into the almost borderless light screen, and only stardust lay in their wake.     

After some violent shaking for a good while, things started to settle down. Lily climbed up from under her chair as she tugged on Hao Ren's pants. "Mr. Landlord, you said there would be rattling? You call that rattling?"     

Hao Ren stood up, still dazed from the experience. After confirming that the ship had reached the correct coordinates, he pulled Lily up from the ground. He noticed that almost everyone was getting up with the exception of Y'zaks. The big dude seemed to be stuck in his chair. Even the violent shaking did not make him budge.     

Hao Ren then smacked the MDT. "Why was there such a violent shaking? Are one-way launches always like this?"     

"Nonsense. Do you think that one-way launches are a leisure service?" The MDT buzzed from the command console. "Only the military, or civil servants of the Empire need to use one-way launches regularly. Most common races can't use it. Besides, it's part of standard Imperial facilities; its most notable trait being solid and reliable, so who has the time to consider comfort as a priority... Help me, I'm stuck..."     

Hao Ren used a chopstick as leverage to get the MDT out of the console as he looked at the holographic display of the scenery outside. "So, we're here?"     

The Petrachelys was floating above a roiling dark crimson cloud, which gave out the vibe of an endless red smog. Light in the area was eeriely dim as well, and you could scarcely tell the light's source. Hao Ren used the optical sensors to take pictures of their surroundings; there was no sun, or any bright celestial bodies nearby. Within the crimson clouds, there was only a huge mountain range of sorts.     

Y'zaks looked at the area and quickly realised where they were. "We may be inside the Hulme Smoke Columns. This is indeed a safe space to enter. No one would open a dimensional gate here."     

He then pointed towards the red smog. "Over there."     

Hao Ren reconfirmed that there were no anomalies around the Petrachelys and allowed the MDT to pilot the ship out of the smog.     

The roiling thick red clouds seemed almost impenetrable, but it soon thinned out as the ship made its way through the clouds and outside the Hulme Smoke Columns. The land's landscape now lay bare before them.     

It was an eerie crimson land, which stretched on for miles on end, and the hue of the land seemed like it was soaked in blood—a rather scary image to have. The land was bereft of any green vegetation and the uneven terrain was dotted with many odd looking objects. From a distance, one would be hard-pressed to tell if they were the local flora. The group saw rivers and valleys as well as plains and hills from the ship, but all of them had that unnerving blood-red tint to them.     

One of the mountains in the distance had something bright, winding and sinew-like flowing from it. And upon zooming in, Hao Ren realised that it was a lava waterfall!     

The skies above the crimson-tinted land were equally brooding. Thick clouds roiled across the skies as if there was something burning eternally behind the clouds. From a distance, thunderous streaks of light raced across the horizon. It almost looked like falling meteorites were igniting the atmosphere.     

"F*ck..." Hao Ren gawked at the very inhospitable and hellish scene before him. "Your place sure is taking survival to the next level."     

Y'zaks looked longingly at the scene and nodded in nostalgia. "Ahh... I can finally see my old place again..."     

Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "I should have just thrown you on Mars back then. That would have probably eased your nostalgic itch."     

Y'zaks retorted in a serious manner, "No way. Mars is too chilly, not even comparable to the warmth of my old place..."     

Hao Ren allowed the ship to scan for a suitable landing site by the plains, and used the optical sensors to find out what the Hulme Smoke Columns were all about. What he saw was a great wall of smoke, which bellowed and created dust all over the place. He could not even get a proper view of the thing. After letting the ship run a couple hundred of kilometres ahead, he finally managed to get a full view of its scale. It was gaseous pillar that protruded from the planet's core and it had managed to pierce the sky. There were no signs of it spreading all over the land and it was pretty much like a smooth heavenly pillar.     

The magnificence of the scene had everyone in awe.     

Hao Ren then realised something: he was truly in the land of demons, hence caution was the name of the game. Anything that could survive in this hellhole and still wage wars was not to be trifled with!