“Alright, you’re ready for cosplay?” standing in front of a closed gate made of thick stones with foggy patterns on the surface, Fubei Li asked Xyankor, Dave and Perketta with a smile.

Fubei Li was Jianmen’s avatar, therefore technically a non-elemental being; Dave and Xyankor were Depth Dwellers, and Perketta was a Fog Dweller deputy, which meant that none of them were creatures of the gaps, and they would definitely be noticed and very possibly hunted when they went through the stone gate. This was the very reason that they would need to go into the several emptied out and carefully processed husks of creatures of the gaps before they go.

“What’s that?” Perketta’s wings were severely damaged in the battle against the invasion of the creatures of the gaps, one that brought them these husks, so she made the tough decision to cut them off completely and regrow them later - something that beings made of flesh and bones could not do easily.

“It’s something some humans do - they dress up and go to conventions ...” Fubeil Li tried to explain, but it seemed to have confused Perketta even more: “Alright, maybe I can explain it in detail later.”

“Yeah, it’s better to experience than be explained to.” Dave laughed and shrugged: “I remember the time when I went to my first convention - it’s kind of a bummer man, nobody recognized the character I was going for.”

“Alright alright, it’s time to go, before we have another invasion.” Xyankor shook his head and stepped into the husk beside him. The husk automatically rose up and covered his whole body inside, and gradually adjusted the transparency of the body to cover up Xyankor’s presence inside. His husk was that of a light blue creature that looked like a belt fish with two front claws and razor sharp fins on its back, as were the other three husks that were going to be used by the team - these were members of the relatively less violent and destructive creatures of the gaps during the invasion, the theory behind which were that since they were big in numbers and less violent, it would be easier for them to blend in.

When all four members of the team finished “dressing up”, the Fog Dwellers in charge of the stone gates infused their power into the two seals on the side, and the gates opened up and revealed a bright light blue energy vortex inside. All four individuals wearing the husks jumped into the vortex one at a time, after which the two Fog Dwellers immediately shut the gates to prevent anything from coming out.

All four of the infiltrating team brought with them a special artifact - the fail-safe that will theoretically open emergency portals and send them back to the realm of the Fog Dwellers when triggered - theoretically, because they were never actually tested, which was because no one had ever been to this previously unknown and young realm from which the creatures of the gaps came.

The exit of the portal led them to a giant “tube” made of floating rocks, dirt and crystals. On the inner surface of the “tube”, there were patches of dirt soft and fertile enough for vegetation to grow. Thus they could see small forests, and grasslands all around them. There were thousands of creatures that were either floating in the space at the center of the “tube”, and there were even more that were inhabiting the walls of the “tube” just like normal animals living on plains and mountains.

There were clouds of luminous gas floating in the tube, providing lighting for the entire environment, which made the journey of the team easier.

The husks they wore were quite convincing - as they “swam” across the internal space of the “tube” and passed by a lot of other creatures of the gaps, none of which had any kind of unnatural reactions to their presence. They were traveling in a one-two-one formation, where Xyankor and Dave were at the front and back respectively, and Fubei Li and Perketta were in the middle travelling side by side. This also seemed to be the common formation in which the actual creatures they tried to impersonate traveled.

“This tube seems to be a mini-realm, and the other end is some sort of jump point to nearby realms.” Xyankor said to the other members of the team: “Be careful. The locator did pick up some very very weak signal, it’s not clear where it could be or if it was a wrong reading, but at least it’s something.”

The “locator” was an artifact Xyankor and Dave crafted with the help of the Fog Dwellers, which would serve as a detector of the energy waves and ripples released by voidborns. It could detect the presence of Depth Dwellers and Fog Dwellers from a far distance away, and it should be able to detect the new voidborn if it was going to be like other voidborns.

“I thought it would be more intense, since the predators were so ferocious when they were in our realm.” Perketta said: “But things are just so calm here.”

“These seem to be all preys, so don’t let your guard down.” Fubei Li looked around from inside the belt fish creature husk and said: “We all know what the predators look like, things could turn sideways the moment they appear.”

The clouds of luminous gas rolled and tumbled in the space, at times cracking out thunder and lightning like clouds of the human world, and at times shooting out beams of light at the walls of the “tube”, infusing the rocks, dirt and crystals with traces of energy. 

When they were almost one quarter of the entire length of the “tube” away from the other side of the “tube”, a soft and gentle beam of light came from the empty space outside of the “tube”, and within the gentle beam of light, the shadow of a tall and slightly humanoid creature started to emerge.

The team of four stopped, because all of them recognized instantly that this shadow came for them - they did not know what gave them away, just that it did.

“Welcome.” the shadow said to all of them, the message was delivered to them in their own native languages through telepathic means: “You have a lot of questions, and I have some answers to them. Follow me.”