An iridescent and transparent energy dome appeared above the edgelands like a shield. But when the beam of light struck the dome, the dome seemed to have only held for a very short moment before giving way to it. The beam of light got thinner after penetrating the dome, and for some reason its trajectory changed as well - it was now targeting the tallest building on the edgelands - the Bastion of Gwai-Mon.

“Crack!” the entirety of the Bastion of Gwai-Mon shook and smoked like it was struck by a bolt of lightning. And some kind of strange energy wave was released from the position of the strike.

A lot of elementals screamed and tried to run away from the Bastion of Gwai-Mon. But some high ranking elemental officials were running or flying towards it.

“Dolores.” Professor Atkinson called out to his assistant, while holding a dark orb with shimmering spots of light on it.

“This is - this is the first time it reacts to anything.” Dolores’ eyes opened wide at the orb, which was a “locator” or “map” of Xyn’s descendant, which was given to them by Xyn himself: “But - what? Why?”

“Let’s go and see.” Professor Atkinson pointed at Lin’Er, who started hopping towards the Bastion and said.

“What are you following me for? This could be dangerous!” Lin’Er warned the professor and his assistant when she realized they were following her on her way to the Bastion of Gwai-Mon, which was just struck by the beam of light, which was something that had never happened before: “Not even we know what was going on, this is something completely new and unknown. If something happens, I won’t be able to help or protect you!”

“It could be related to our mission here.” Professor Atkinson answered with a stern voice: “For quite a while, this is the first time we’ve got an actual hint of a clue.”

“Yes! Which is why we simply can’t back down from this.” Dolores also said: “Sorry we can’t tell you why or what it is, but we cannot miss this! And don’t worry, we can handle ourselves!”

“Alright! Then follow me closely!” Lin’Er sighed.

The structure and body of the entire bastion was still shaking, even though the beam of light had already subsided. As Dolores and Professor Atkinson followed Lin’Er through the bridge and gate into the interior of the bastion, they felt that the vibration was coming from one particular direction - somewhere above and on their right.

The elemental officials started swarming to the source of the vibration, some of them flew, some of them scaled up, some of them just ran up the walls and through them. Lin’Er extended her left arm forward at the corner between one of the walls and the ceiling, a hole opened up, just enough for both the professor and Dolores to fly through and land on the upper floor.

Following the aftershock of a loud boom, Professor Atkinson and Dolores ran through a long and winding hallway with different directions of gravity pull, and into a spacious room with a long stone table at the center, a high ceiling and only one window - from the looks of the room, there could be more, but a giant hole with a portal inside was where they would have been.

The elemental officials stared at the portal and started murmuring, anyone with even the slightest tactical common sense would know that this would be a terrible breach of security and extremely dangerous for a bastion, yet none of them attempted to attack or seal this portal. And the reason for this was simple: all of those in the room could sense an extremely powerful being was right behind this portal, and it was just there seemingly to serve as a warning and deterrence against any rash attacks or actions against the portal.

Before long, two translucent light green tentacles with the ends wrapped together like two human hands came out of the portal. As the two tentacles unwrapped, a completely white toad-like creature appeared - it was sitting on the two tentacles, in a crystal shell that was shaped like a tight fitted armor, with its two eyes scanning the room and the individuals in it.

Professor Atkinson took a peek at the dark orb - the shimmering light seemed to have concentrated at the positions facing in the general direction of the portal and the tentacles.

The completely white toad-like creature opened its mouth, and started speaking in an ancient tongue. To the utter surprise of Professor Atkinson and Dolores - they could understand every word of what the toad-like creature is saying.

“To all the voidborns present and listening - this is not a declaration of war. This is the declaration of connection, we, the lost and forgotten tribe, are only here to claim our rightful place among you, and to connect ourselves to this bastion and the edgelands, thus allowing us to enter into the neutral ground. We come in peace and prosperity, but we are not afraid of conflict or war and we will defend ourselves should we have to.”

“This is outrageous!” one elemental official of fire and earth yelled in his native elemental language and charged at the two tentacles and the toad-like creature, swinging his maul made of lava and burning rocks at the portal. But the maul was stopped midway by one of the tentacles, and then the elemental official of fire and earth was tossed to the side along with it.

“We would like to state this fact loud and clear: we come in peace and prosperity, but we are not afraid of conflict or war, and we will defend ourselves should we have to.” the toad-like creature repeated.

The elemental official that was tossed aside and unharmed was clearly one of the more powerful ones in the room, and thus no other elemental official was willing to try again.

The next moment, the toad-like creature had its eyes fixated on Professor Atkinson and Dolores. And without saying anything, the two tentacles shot at them and wrapped around their waists. 

Both Professor Atkinson and Dolores felt a forceful pull on their waists as well as a powerful seal from the tentacles, and almost completely helplessly, they were pulled into the portal as it closed right before the elemental officials.