Seth surfed through the air, casually standing atop a long board which had it's wheels torn off. They might have been an island, but surfing wasn't really a popular pass time, thus skateboards and longboards were a better option.

It was still unbelievable that he somehow thought of sword surfing before he thought of actual surfing, or skating. But I guess that's what life of nothing but games and anime does to a man, it leaves you tunnel visioned on the fantastical.

When he arrived at the side of Loch Ness, he found Astra idly sitting by the waters edge. Her knees were against her chest as she sat atop a rock, watching the waves of the lake lap at the bank and at the Kelpie's trotting across the waters surface.

The Horse formed kelp creatures bent their heads, lapping at the water they stood on, and occasionally shot glares towards Astra. But none of them dared to approach or drag her into the watery depths, as was their nature. Despite their glares, there was a clear hint of fear and apprehension in their beady black eyes.

Perhaps one of them had tried to drag her down, and had suffered a shocking demise for the trouble.

"How's the new leg treating you? Any issues with it?"

Leaping off his hovering board, Seth let it stay in the air as he landed next to Astra. Her eyes stayed on the waters surface, but her hand brushed over the magical new leg, and the harness that kept it attached and powered.

"It's fine... I suppose. I still have a little trouble with wiggling my toes. But that will pass with time. There's also the pain... but you know all about that, don't you?"

"Heh, yeah... It's not real and you shouldn't be able to feel anything through it. But sometimes... you still can. You feel the wind on your fingers, the throbbing pain of the stump. I had an inch for an entire day that I couldn't even scratch, because it wasn't real.

You can feel a lot of things, but not really... they are all just memories. Phantom Pains. I don't think they ever go away."

Seth raised his own magical limb, the metal hand that had long replaced his old flesh one, and curled the fingers into a clenched fist. It was a fist that was so tight that it would have caused blood to trickle down his palm from his fingernails digging into his flesh.

But when he released the fist there was none of that. Just a perfectly carved metal palm with a rune engraved into it.

He let out a mournful sigh, before putting on a half hearted smile as he held out that hand to Astra. She glanced at it, smiled softly herself, and took it without hesitation as he pulled her to her feet.

"Now, what's all this about a key? And why did I have to come like this? Couldn't we have gotten Lee to pop me over, it's not like it would take much time."

"Lee is busy dear. Plus, did you know that they are calling him your Omen now?"

"Omen? I guess he did spend a lot of time transporting our troops. And where he went..."

"Death followed. Hence, the Omen of the Death-bringer. Besides, Is that your way of saying that you don't enjoy playing the obedient servant of your Queen?"

She gave him a sly smile and brushed her fingers down the side of his face, trailing under his jaw before flicking her finger off the end of his chin as she walked away without another word. Her hand still raised, as was her finger, as if that was her bidding him to follow like a good lap dog.

And, as if there was a leash wrapped around that finger, Seth did indeed follow right behind her.

"Well... I never said that. Anyways, I am technically the servant of Lord Corvus. This is... simply convenient. That's all."

She laughed softly as he fell in step beside her, her hand lowering until it clasped with his. As they walked to the hillside entrance of the secret cavern that hid beneath Loch Ness, Astra filled him in on the details regarding the gate1.

They had collected the metallic blocks to finish the archway before the war had even occurred, even if it wasn't very long before. But even still, there was always a collection of puppet workers assigned to this project, placing the blocks in place and completing the archway that was named Heaven's Gate.

The issue was even when the archway was complete, it never activated. At the very top of the archway, where the capstone was, there was a slot still left empty. It was small compared to the rest of the arch, roughly the size and shape of an American football.

Without this, it was assumed, the gate would not function. So the project was left until the war ended so that it could be given more attention to finding the object that went into that slot, which was named the Key.

As it turned out, the attention was unneeded, as Astra found the key during her recovery. It was in the ring Seth had given her, the Lightbringers storage ring.

Her own storage gift had merged with the ring, increasing its storage capacity and, most importantly, giving her access to its contents. The only reason it had taken a week, besides her recovery, was because she had to physically sort through the contents of the ring for anything useful.

Apparently, according to Astra, the Lightbringer liked to keep... trophies of his sexual conquests in there. So naturally she had to burn those and take a few baths to cleanse herself before she could find the useful stuff. Such as the Key.

When the arrived in the cavern room containing the ancient structure, Seth greeted the companions who were waiting for him. Those who had been brought along for security.

Fox stood beside the wall, sporting a fresh scar across his eye that was still thankfully functional. Although his face now had a 'deformity' it simply added to the mystique and rugged allure of the silver haired older man. That simply wasn't fair.

On his hip he now wore two swords, like a samurai. His usual sword, which rested in its sheathe, and another one that was not sheathed. Instead it's blade was wrapped in thick cloth and tied tightly to his hip.

Bob was hard to see, his shifting stone dust body blending in well with the environment. But even if he couldn't see him, Seth would always know that his most loyal and long lasting companion was there.

Carnifex was also waiting, although he seemed entirely unblemished from the previous battles. Unlike their silver haired companion, Carnifex was not standing alone. Instead he was surrounded by five full suits of armour, just like him.

These suits were covered in runes that glowed with an eery, sinister green light and gave their already fierce armour a slightly demonic and otherworldly appearance. An intimidating sight that was completely ruined by the fact one of them was prancing about like a child and was eagerly waving at Seth when he arrived.

Those suits of armour, were his Dead Men. The latest version of his project to give spiritual beings, such as the wisps, a tangible body once more. The one prancing about was his first and most well behaved subject, the young girl who had lost her head.

These were not their final designs, he still had a lot of work to do. Afterall, the sinister look really didn't suit someone like her and he wanted to give them actual bodies, not just war machines to pilot and fight with. But it was nice to see his work paying off.

Plus, seeing them standing there in all their glory was already sparking his imagination with even more projects... such as a-

"Hello!"

"Argh!"

Seth yelped in fear and flinched as a little lizard-like creature appeared out of thin air next to him, It's scales shimmering as it manifested back into a physical form. The creature stood on two legs, and only reached up to his hip in height. His nerd knowledge gave it the name of Kobold, with this particular one having given itself the name of,

"Nugget... You're still here then?"

"Yes! I have never left. I have been waiting all of this time for the gate to open! I must fulfil my purpose. Mistress is busy taking care of the bird, so I must be extra good in my task!"

It squeaked back in a chipper, high pitched tone that overflowed with child-like innocence as it pointed over to a pile of fish bones in the corner.

Seth rolled his eyes and decided to ignore the little creature. He had honestly forgotten about it until now, so putting it to the back of his mind again wasn't such a hard task.

Taking the American Football shaped, deep blue crystal from Astra, Seth connected his threads to it and let it float into the air, before slotting it into place at the very top of the archway. He closed his eyes, channelling his mana through his threads and into the crystal, which began to hum gently.

A pin sized light appeared in the centre of the crystal, which grew in size the more energy he poured into it. The intricate library of runes carved into the mystic archway lit up alongside it, starting from the top and working their way down. Thousands of tiny runes covered each metallic brick, surrounding the large singular rune in the middle of them.

When the last of the runes was lit up, the crystal pulsed with a blinding light before the space within the archway shattered, being replaced by a swirling vortex of deep purple energy and glittering stars. It was like a space Nebula had swirled into a tornado, and they were staring into the eye of the storm.

Holding his breath, Seth took a few shaking steps forwards, before stepping into the swirling vortex, which eagerly sucked him into its embrace.

For a refresh on Heaven's Gate, go to chapter 231

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.