"..." Everyone in the lab was silent with a question mark in their minds.
How could it not be? The one before their eyes was a white cat meowing at the weird dog in animal language!
Every leader of each country gave Kenji a questioning look. Still, none of them knew what kind of interrogation method this was.
"Is this what you call an interrogation?" Tang Zhou smirked in mockery.
"Yeah, give my cat a few minutes, and she knows what she's doing." Elysia nodded while waiting for Vanessa.
"Heh, so your cat is an intelligent one? Even though that cat managed to extract information from that weird tiny monster, can you understand your cat's language? It's just a waste of time. We should have done some experiments on the research subject." Tang Zhou folded his arms arrogantly.
"That's not going to get us anywhere. Ability users are commonplace in your eyes, but why would you question someone who always carries a beast around? Have you never heard of a beast tamer? Please keep quiet, or my cat will be mad at you. She is stronger than you, believe it or not." Elysia cut off anyone who was about to speak. It was no time for anyone to interrupt her cat during an interrogation.
"You!" Tang Zhou felt humiliated. Unfortunately, before he exploded and scolded this ignorant little girl, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, why don't you leave this little girl alone for a while and see what her little pet can do. It's rare for me to find a beast tamer. There aren't many ability users like them." The Russian leader shook his head. He then looked at the two girls with some question marks in mind as he was curious about their identity.
After a few meows and raw language, Vanessa climbed onto her master's shoulders. She told her master all the results of her interrogation via telepathy.
"Hum-mm, I see... So, it's like that." Elysia nodded in understanding. She then sealed the tube again with her transparent barrier so that the underworld hound would not escape.
*Rumble!* *Rumble!*
Before anyone could open their mouths to speak, the floor shook with a jolt as if a great storm had hit the mothership.
"What happened? Did a giant wave hit the mothership in this sunny weather!?" The Russian leader frowned at this strange occurrence.
"An attack?" The American leader narrowed his eyes.
They then turn on their tablet to view the situation outside using their privileged channel.
The sky was so dark with a few flashes of thunder and lightning. A ferocious storm had completely enveloped them so suddenly. Tornadoes could be seen all around, and a giant whirlpool appeared at a point not far from the mothership.
"Report, sir! We lost contact with all of the investigative teams. A giant red hole appeared out of nowhere at the bottom of the ocean and sucked everything up!" An elite opened the lab door hastily and reported the current situation.
"!!!" Everyone was alarmed. They then immediately rushed to see the report in question through their tablets.
Sure enough, a giant red hole could be seen a few kilometers below them, and it sucked in everything, including warships, submarines, and even the mothership!
"We'll be sucked down there in a matter of minutes!" Kenji exclaimed with urgency. He rushed out of the lab, and so did the other leaders because they had something to do.
"..." Elysia didn't know what to say at this point. She had no idea what was going on, but someone had clearly sent a team out to sea and screwed things up.
"Ely, this is completely out of plan. Let's go to the command room. Erina must be worried about us." Sylvia picked up the underworld hound's tube and went to Elysia's side.
"Well, this is not in my plans at all." Elysia put her hand to her forehead before they rushed away from there.
On the way to Japan's headquarters, she consulted Elena and Rhea. However, their current situation was complicated, full of dilemmas because many people were involved.
"Elysia-san, we are sucked into the bottom of the sea! It's a black hole with red color, right? Will we survive that?" Erina immediately welcomed her friends who had just arrived.
"Mm, we are sucked into the underworld. Those fools probably messed things up by tampering with that gate. No, they must have broken that ancient gate." Elysia looked at the large monitor in the command room. The mothership couldn't resist the suction force of the red hole. The mothership and everything were drawn there.
"Eh, where are your father and grandfather, Erina-san? Why are only you, Mio, and a few elites here?" Elysia then realized a rather strange thing.
"They went to the main command room to handle everything." Erina held Elysia's hand reflexively. She was scared and nervous, but she couldn't carelessly touch things.
"..." Elysia could feel Erina's hand was shaking. This girl clearly had a lot of worries and fears because of their current situation.
"We'll be fine. I'll vouch for that. Let's sit there and see where we're thrown after going through that red hole..." Elysia clapped Erina's hand, and the latter responded with a tight grip.
The girls then sat side by side on the bench in the command room center and stared at the monitor.
"Ely, we're going into the underworld. It seems those human idiots caused the dimensional gate to malfunction. But, no problem, I'll protect you." Sylvia hugged Elysia and Vanessa from the side.
Meanwhile, Erina clasped her hands and closed her eyes in Elysia's arms.
'Underworld, here we come~' Elena chirped cheerfully, in contrast to their current situation.
The mothership was finally sucked into the red hole after all resistance attempts against the suction force failed. After some time, the energy supporting the dimensional hole began to run out, and the portal vanished.
The ancient gate, along with the ruins, disappeared without a trace. That day, the mothership and the entire fleet disappeared from the face of the Earth in a fierce storm. No one could explain why and how it happened.
The world was left in confusion when they lost contact with all fleets in the Pacific Ocean.
After a few moments passed, Erina slowly opened her eyes. She instantly blushed a bit because she woke up in someone's warm embrace. This was a comfort she hadn't felt in a long time, someone's warmth.
Perhaps, the last time she felt this kind of warmth was before her unique ability awakened. However, now she had a friend who was immune to her golden touch.
Erina closed her eyes again and hugged Elysia's waist before inhaling Elysia's body scent. For some reason, she had the urge to do that.
"Hmm, it's like teleportation. Where are we now?" Elysia ran her hand through Erina's hair and looked at the monitor. She could see a vast expanse of misty black land. The cloudy blood-red sky made the atmosphere even eerier because not much light could pass through the fog.
"Hmm?" Erina was curious about their current situation. She peeked out from Elysia's arms.
Some people could be seen lying on the floor, groaning in pain. It looked like they were thrown around during the shock. However, why she didn't feel the same pain?
"Are you okay?" Elysia released Erina from her arms.
"Ah, umm, I'm fine. Thanks for protecting me." Erina assumed that it was Elysia's doing, so she remained sitting on the bench without receiving much of a shock.
However, she immediately blushed when she remembered that she had buried her face in Elysia's soft breasts.
Moments later, several people burst into Japan's command room.
"Elysia, we would like to hear information and opinions from you regarding our current situation. Please don't hide anything. Military emergency law applies to you now." Mitsuzuka asked in a rather heavy tone.
Elysia then faced the group of people at the side. "Do you believe in another world? One that is not on another planet, but just like an alternate dimension of Earth?"
"Another world? Haha, it's just what I thought. Hey, is the one you're talking about is another world like the fictional stories that Japanese entertainment often creates?" The American leader laughed as his guest seemed to hit the mark.
"No, no, not that one, but something like this world's different realm." Elysia shook her head.
"Hmm? Why don't you just say what you know, clearly and frankly? Is that little monster a creature from hell guarding the gate?" The Russian leader put his hand to his chin and looked at the weird dog one more time.
"Mm, I'm sure you know about heaven and hell, but this isn't one we're going to talk about. Earth has another realm where the inhabitants are not human.
You will probably see many spirits, ghosts, djinn, and even demons if you have supervision. They actually have their own home dimension, and that gate is truly the gateway to the underworld. It belonged to the most glorious empire of the ancient era. One of the unrecorded in history.
This seabed monster is the guardian dog of that gate, but it has been dramatically weakened by time and age. Even so, it can injure you quickly and might kill you effortlessly in the water. Please be careful." Elysia explained several essential points to these leaders like she had no other choice.
"So, in conclusion, the ancient ruins beneath the sea are a castle from an empire far in the past? One of the oldest magic eras on Earth? Do they even have the technology to link alternate dimensions to the real world? This may sound like nonsense, but we all live in this bullshit beyond common sense." The British leader folded his arms with some considerations in mind. He was the first to believe because he was no stranger to the dark witch era in past European history.
"Another world, alternate dimension? Rubbish, why should I believe this nonsense?" Tang Zhou frowned.
"It's fine if you don't believe it. The truth is here. We are in the underworld. Your people screwed up that ancient gate, right?" Elysia rolled her eyes.
"Well, we can't deny it. Looks like the investigative team took action outside of their mission and accidentally triggered the ancient gate mechanism." The American leader made an excuse.
"No, the team in question has clearly ruined that ancient gate. If the conditions are as you say, then the gate will only open as a portal to the underworld instead summon a big red hole." Elysia heaved a subtle sigh.
"Hmm, you seem to know a lot. Are you from the underworld? Are you a human or a demon?" Mitsuzuka frowned as his suspicions began to come to light.
"My cat conducted an interrogation on this underworld hound. Did you forget about that?" Elysia raised the tube to show everyone the underworld hound.
"Well, so we are now in the underworld? This is a foreign world, yes? Are there natural resources such as oil here, hmm?" The American leader rubbed his chin with a grin on his face.