In Another World With Omnitrix

The portal shimmered like bloodied glass—deep crimson with veins of black spiraling at its edges. It pulsed with a rhythm that felt disturbingly alive, casting flickering light across the ruined streets of Caelmire's Upper District. The air hummed with charged mana, distorted and unstable, as if the laws of nature had warped the moment the seal broke.

Lyra Veyla stood at the edge of the containment perimeter, frost clinging to the ground beneath her boots. The wind tugged at her half-cloak, now soaked from the relentless rain. Her eyes remained locked on the portal, calculating. Waiting.

"Still want to be the first one in, ice queen?" came Saria's voice, sharp and teasing, from beside her.

Lyra didn't flinch. "Only if you promise not to ignite half the dungeon the moment something moves."

Saria Vorn smirked, the crimson of her cloak matching the color of the anomaly itself. "No promises."

Behind them, the remaining guild masters assembled in a loose formation. Theron Kaelis stepped forward without a word. He didn't need to speak; his calm, heavy presence filled the air. Galen Thorne adjusted his froststeel mantle, scanning the portal with narrowed eyes, while Elric Sylvanis's living staff pulsed with green light as vines coiled gently around his arm. Veyra Duskbane leaned on her obsidian-forged blade, casual as always, but the faint shimmer in her armor told a different story—her corestone threads were already reacting to the dungeon's pulse.

"On your signal," Theron said to Lyra, his voice as even and grounded as ever.

She nodded, inhaled once—and stepped into the portal.

The transition was instant, but not smooth. Reality folded inward, and for a heartbeat, there was no sound, no light—just a crushing pressure like she was being pulled through a funnel made of screaming mana.

Then came the light.

The interior of the dungeon was...wrong.

It resembled no biome they'd seen before. The sky—if it could be called that—was an arched cavern dome of obsidian-like stone, pulsating faintly with veins of bioluminescent red. Massive broken structures jutted out at strange angles—like a city had been swallowed, twisted, and compressed into a single space.

Crimson mist floated low across the uneven ground. Strange flora pulsed with corrupted mana, hissing when stepped on. The environment seemed to shift subtly whenever no one was looking.

"Spatial warping," Galen muttered, scanning the terrain. "We're not in standard dungeon dimensions anymore."

"No," Lyra said softly. "This is a layered fold. The environment's reacting to us."

"Or watching us," Veyra added, eyes scanning the dark shapes deeper within.

Saria drew one of her twin sabers, its blade glowing faintly with runes. "Let's move. The core signature is still active, but it's faint—like it's buried deep."

Theron led the group into the broken terrain. The air was dense with static; every breath tasted of old iron and arcane discharge. Occasionally, flashes of motion flickered in the corner of their vision, but nothing approached.

Yet.

They passed what looked like broken machines—remnants of technology fused with stone and bone. Elric knelt beside one, his staff humming softly. "This is relic architecture," he said. "But not from our age."

Lyra turned toward him, eyes narrowing. "Not from this world."

The group paused.

"You're sure?" Galen asked, frowning.

"I've studied enough relic frequencies to recognize interference when I feel it," she said. "Whatever powered this place wasn't natural. Or native."

Before they could respond, a sound echoed across the cavern.

A slow, deliberate clank—like armored footsteps across broken crystal.

All weapons were drawn instantly.

From the shadows ahead, a figure stepped into view.

It walked like a man—but its skin was plated with obsidian crystal, its face featureless save for a glowing slit of violet light. Its limbs were too long, joints slightly off, as if it had been built to mimic a human but never quite got it right.

And embedded in its chest, pulsing in rhythm with the dungeon itself, was a relic core.

A corrupted one.

"It's guarding the path," Saria said, stepping forward.

Lyra raised a hand. "No. It's testing us."

The construct tilted its head, as if hearing her words.

Then it attacked.

Blades clashed with mana-charged fists as Saria intercepted the creature in a flash of red light. Her saber met the creature's crystalline arm with a crackle of force, sending sparks through the air. But the creature didn't stumble—it retaliated with a heavy backhand that threw her ten meters back.

Lyra moved next. Ice surged from her palm, forming a wall that slammed into the creature's side and froze it mid-lunge. But the ice cracked within seconds, mana surging from the relic core in its chest.

"It's feeding directly from the dungeon," Elric called, vines lashing out to entangle its limbs.

Theron stepped into range, his sword glowing with an ancient enchantment. With one clean strike, he severed the creature's arm, the obsidian shattering like glass.

Galen unleashed a wave of frost to pin it down again, and Veyra followed with a blast of dark energy that cracked the ground beneath it.

The construct finally fell to its knees—light dimming, core pulsing erratically.

Lyra approached cautiously. The core's frequency buzzed in her ears, familiar in a way that turned her stomach.

She knelt.

"Same energy signature," she murmured.

"What?" Saria asked, brushing off dust and blood from her sleeve.

Lyra didn't answer immediately. Her fingers brushed the shattered plating around the relic.

"It's tied to the signal Nova Arcanum picked up last week. The one we flagged as non-terrestrial."

Theron exchanged a glance with Galen. "Are you saying this dungeon was built around a relic?"

"No," Lyra said, her voice grim. "I'm saying it was built by one."

The air around them seemed to grow heavier, the dungeon reacting again. The ground trembled slightly.

"We need to keep moving," Elric said. "If this is just a guardian, the core must be deeper in."

Lyra stood and nodded, casting one last glance back at the fading glow of the shattered construct.

Something was coming.

And it wasn't alone.

End of Chapter.

Thank you for reading.

A/N: I haven't had much time lately, so I couldn't write more chapters.

And one more thing — some parts of the story's lore might change because I couldn't remember everything, and constantly checking takes a lot of time.