It took almost infinity, so it seemed to Adam, until they finally reached the end of the portal. But he was able to think a lot during this time, about the story that Neill told him and which he simply held too implausible, about what he had heard and read from Lanfar and above all about what had just happened. About Jack's death. The creature had found it easy to cut him in two.
Adam constantly had to refrain from pouring the contents of his stomach on the creature when he recalled the images of Jack's dead. In addition, both he and the being still stank of his blood.
He couldn't move because the creature was holding him tightly over his shoulder. Even if he had wanted to, an escape would have been impossible, because he neither knew how to get back, nor did he dare to flee from the being that carries him or even to fight against it. His only option was to wait and hope that the creature wouldn't kill him once it got where it wanted to go.And so he didn't even dare to tremble, even though it was terribly cold.
Despite his thick blazer, an icy wind caressed him, which gave him goose bumps all over his body. He constantly watches the being below him, but the cold didn't seem to bother him at all, although it didn't have the slightest protection against it.
Her surroundings were constantly changing, as if she were repeatedly traveling through other worlds. Sometimes he saw a huge wasteland made of pure ice, then again a world, incredibly similar to the earth, but with inhabitants who had nothing to do with people. He saw worlds with human-like creatures and then again some that were ruled by animals that in many ways resembled human abilities.
But eventually they came to a world that seemed almost like his. The only difference was a different epoch of time. All around stood men in heavy iron armor.Their faces were covered by cross helmets and on their banner was the same dragon that he had seen so often now.
Suddenly one of them broke away from the group and gave the being that Adam was still holding over his shoulder to understand with a wave of the hand that he should let go of him. With great astonishment, the being did what the man wanted and just let him fall.
Adam hit the stony ground hard and lay down for a while, because even this ground was cozier than the creature's shoulder.
But soon two of the men came up to him and picked him up. But he couldn't stand. The long journey and his tiredness thwarted his plans. His legs felt like butter and just gave under his weight.
The two men who had just helped him up had to bend down again and this time they didn't let go of him in the first place but held him the whole time.Another of these masked knights broke away from the crowd. But this one was different. He wore thick shoulder protection over his armor and a red cloak attached to it, which made him look as if he belonged to a higher class than the rest of the knights.
This man also wore a cross helmet and a red dragon was depicted on his armor.
But instead of the gauntlets that the others wore, he only wore normal leather gloves and boots that looked a lot more comfortable than the boots of the others.
Directed to the creature he made a strange arm movement and in a rough, scratchy voice, the voice of an older man, he said: "Discede!"
The being suddenly shone in a strange light and seemed to burn. The light got stronger and stronger and at some point Adam could no longer look in his direction and closed his eyes.
When he could open his eyes again, the being was gone. It hadn't left a trace that would prove it ever existed.But Adam seemed to be the only one who was puzzled by the whole situation, because not one of the rest moved even a millimeter or indicated that he was confused.
Adam looked around again. His gaze fell on one of the knights. He looked different from the other knights. Something was bothering Adam about him. But he just couldn't say what.
The man in the cloak came slowly towards Adam.
But Adam tried to free himself from the tight grips of the knights who held him, but in vain. They still held him tight and would not let up.
The man slowly raised his arms. He looked at the man with a fearful face.
But he started to laugh. A loud and booming laugh, but Adam had the feeling he heard something familiar in it.
When the man finally stopped laughing, he put his hands back down and took a step closer.
"Don't worry Adam, I have nothing to do with you! I just wanted to take off my helmet so you can see who you are dealing with."And again he started laughing. But this time the other knights began to laugh too. The man raised his arms again and reached for the helmet. Quickly but without acting hastily, he pulled the helmet off his head and handed it to one of the knights.
Adam was frightened. Could it be?
"Neill?"
"Ahh, you recognized me. I didn't think you'd find out," he said with a grin on his face.
"But ... how is that possible? You can't exist twice ... can you?"
"Haha, no, that would be nice. Let's just say, besides your world, there are other, similar worlds like this one. Sometimes these are just a little different, but it can also happen that the whole world is completely out of joint, like here on Mira. Time has stood still here. Hundreds of years ago, as you have probably already recognized from my armor. Well, it changed pretty much everything. But let's get to my castle first, get there I will explain it to you in more detail. "With another movement of his arm, he turned around. The knights behind him moved aside, opening an alley through which Neill and the knights, who were still helping Adam stand, could walk.