After Bryson told Parker and the Exploration Association scientists what had happened Parker explained that he had seen the light and him vanish, and that they had gone back to the canyon and waited for him and Merton and Mortimer to return.
Bryson realized that the amount of time that he had thought had passed had not, and that Merton and Mortimer were still in there, and he wondered if they had vanished as well and were below in rooms like the one that he had been in?
Later Bryson finished eating and drinking and realized that he had actually survived what had happened there, and he spotted a light shifting about in the tunnel and the others followed his glare, and they heard Merton and Mortimer coming out.
Chapter 2
The New Dimension
Magnificent stars exploded out light everywhere, covering the entire sky, blinding them all as they emerged through the end of the tunnel at the other side of the hill.
Bryson was staggered! When Merton and Mortimer had mentioned the magnificent discovery that they had found at the end of one of the tunnels he had been sure that it had just been an alternative landscape from the jungle.
The hill was more of a mountain there, with shear slopes going high above them to what looked like a peaked mountain, with its massive shadows spread out everywhere into an immense cavity below, which looked like an asteroid impact cavity surrounded by hills, like a lost valley at the center of the island.
Bryson had even considered that it had been an immense cavity somewhere else! Even though he could explain the colossal stars and their brightness, and considered it was caused by some unknown phenomena.
The darkness of being in the tunnel with the fading lights had altered their eyes to seeing the slightest glows, so the brightness that blasted into their eyes left them staggered, and trying to see what they had found!
It was fantastic and he felt it was probably the most magnificent sight he had seen, and he wondered why? He sensed mysterious and magnificent things existed there, with there being dangers that they had not confronted before.
All the scientists and others placed their equipment all about him and sat on a flat rock ledge, searching the magnificent site, with their legs dangling over a hill of small stones, descending sharply below.
The valley below went out for approximately twenty miles in every direction across their front, and covered most of the island.
The island was far bigger than Bryson had measured it from the airplane, and he just recalled seeing the large center region and had not seen anything except a few hills, and that most of the island had seemed flat and covered by the trees, which they had found covering most of it.
The others started to realize the strange and dangerous land that existed there, covered in strange jungle regions, and Bryson spotted a strange fog creeping around over a region, and he started examining the sky with the others, as their eyes started altering to seeing what was there.
Many of them filmed the sight, which made the whole journey worth taking part in, and the scientists started to carry out their work with their equipment, and others like Parker started searching for the dangers ahead, and drawing maps.
Bryson stood and studied it, with the two paranormal scientists, Merton and Mortimer, in a silent conversation.
“Where do you think this is?” he asked them.
Merton shrugged, and followed his stare in wonderment to an incredible region of the sky.
“It could be another universe!” Mortimer announced, staring at the region of the sky. “Yet we know little of other dimensions and if they are infinite!”
Bryson realized that he still could not properly remember many things, since his ordeal of vanishing and reappearing!
It was as though someone had deliberately wiped something in particular from his mind, for some unknown purpose! It made him shiver thinking of it and what the consequences of it could be!
Did someone want know something, and had done something to his mind?
“The island could now be in another dimension and universe?” Merton announced absurdly, shrugging, breaking the silence. “Is there any difference?”
The sheer damage to the rock about them was staggering and many of the scientists had a hard time accepting it was only an asteroid impact that formed the cavity. Surely this was caused by far more than that!
In fact, Bryson could not remember such a powerful impact!
He started to think that it could have been made at a faster velocity than normal. Yet they were in another universe, and it could be virtually anything, going by what he had witnessed there! It could have been even a miniature sun, with a powerful density?
By the earlier frantic reactions of Mortimer he sensed that they believed that something was actually down in the cavity below, and that the appearance of the new universe on their return there had altered things, and that they were perhaps waiting until they had their attention again to announce their findings!
Although by the way that they had indicated things he was sure that they had not fully proven what it was, and it could be too unacceptable to believe! In vivid detail they had also detailed something of extraordinary value somewhere out there!
When Mortimer saw one of the scientists notice something he quickly started giving him his findings and that he believed it was a tower at the center of the structure, which they were there to find, and he identified the immense thick jungle region its immense shape could be seen buried under, which they could not properly see as the hill that they were on was too low.
Bryson examined the region and wondered how he had identified the center of the structure there, and he tried to recall the island from the airplane again and if he had seen anything, but he could not recall it and had not seen it on the photographs taken.
His mind conjured up vague visions of ancient lost treasure buried away in the depths of the jungle, and he wondered how old the structure was for it to be buried away there.
Dust showered them from overhead, as something like a small meteorite hit somewhere overhead, and Bryson realized the dangers of meteorites there, and small objects could do damage.
The scientists were now more interested in the galaxy of the universe that they were in to pay much notice to the structure, and they were actually witnessing black holes in the sky above and photographing them, and none of them seemed to have realized fully that space could have such objects the way they were, and they saw their powers for real.
Some of the scientists started to see the influence of something on a large region of space that they tried to identify, and they believed some colossal object was there and they continued to search for its location, and they continuously grew annoyed at not having the equipment they needed, especially as they might not ever get the opportunity again.
Bryson gasped when examined the region in more detail and saw the true size of its influence and that it stretched out far further than he had noticed.
The world’s rotation was about the same as the Earth’s and the daytime was about the same. Even though and the suns now virtually covered all the sky, in all their different sizes, going deep into the immense galaxy, and lit the world far more brightly than a mere sun. They were so packed together that there was virtually no proper darkness of space visible, and he wondered what it would be like there when the sun was there, and if the world actually needed a sun, and he wondered how dangerous it was having so many large suns covering the sky.
Debris from it or some other place the island had been at were scattered all around them, which had not been properly visible before, and he saw large dense gas clouds and debris being illuminated by powerful stars, with large asteroids shifting by.
The dangers there seemed to go beyond his comprehension, and he watched giant suns blaze brightly in the depths of space, and they all stood stunned as an asteroid soared across the upper atmosphere in a ball of flames, blazing into the atmosphere, leaving a thick trail of smoke across the sky.
Chapter 3
The Central Cavity
A coldness edged its way into the wonderland landscape and Bryson marched on behind Parker and Mortimer, who were leading the exploration team through a strange marsh region filled with incredible wonders, with unknown life forms and vegetation everywhere, between jungle regions, where they went to avoid the thick jungle regions to get to the structure easier and quicker.
The world about them was like a cross between two worlds, and going by the amount of dimensions and weird locations they believed the island shifted through it was perhaps a combination of far more.
The cavity was a lost world and inconceivable and mind-bending!
Earlier they had been in immense stars blinding them everywhere, and the vast heat of the large suns rising over them had them staggering like they were in one of the warmest desert regions, and some of them even suffered from being delirious and the high temperature had them throwing themselves into streams of water. Now the large stars were all distant and space was almost empty of stars, and the temperature dropped dramatically, and they were wrapped up in clothes and some of them showed early signs of colds.
The world was floating on the edge of a mammoth galaxy, which was perhaps why it had not been destroyed, and it had an almost empty intergalactic region stretching out for many light million light years at the other side.
It was a world trapped between two vast and powerful regions! One side of the world had an immense galactic wonderland and the other side had a vast stretch of emptiness and intergalactic void, which allowed the island around them to return to its original coldness, and some snow even floated down.
Yet the world’s sun emerged over the horizon in front of them, but did little and was like another astral object in the sky, giving some light and heat!
Bryson even wondered if he could survive there! Though much of the vegetation looked edible they had not found anything that was nourishing and up to their normal standards.
If the world had a summer or winter he had not seen anything that indicated it, and he gasped at what the extremes of both could do! Could the immense galaxy get closer to cause immense temperatures that would be deadly and kill them? Yet there had to be polar regions that were cooler, where they might survive.
He stood examining some vegetation that shifted near them and seemed to be able to eat something from the ground.
He could not get if it was the strange environment about him or all the strange stars that had blanketed the sky, or something strange existing there or the universe that they were in, or a combination of everything that created different reactions all about the region they were in.
Strange vapor clouds shifted about, sometimes shadowing them at a distance, probing them, and analyzing them for some purpose.
They all watched one vaguely lingering over a deep impact meteor crater in the mind-bending landscape and it form shapes of an animal as though either trying to form into one or return to being one, and he wondered what it could be!
The sun was above the skyline and the faint stars there were vanishing, and areas of fog illuminated like luminary rays of bright alien moonshine, and they approached a jungle ahead, which they would soon have to enter!
Even the thunder and lightning there was different and appeared and vanished over and over in different forms. Some took weird variations and lightning even shot upwards into space! Two small deep black thunderclouds seemed to orbit each other while their lightning blasted at each other.
Bryson always had the feeling of mysterious things being there and hidden away. Sometimes he felt as though they watched them, and for some reason avoided them as though they belonged to something more powerful.
He was not sure if they could survive being there, and took everything as he came to it!
Something invisible or unseen nearby sounded as if it were breathing over there, or something was there and the environment was reacting to its presence and its paranormal powers.
The two paranormal scientists loved watching the others trying to explain things, and he was sure that they believed supernatural things and occurrences existed there.
When they entered the jungle it was so thick and dangerous that he thought the whole journey would be called off, but they kept finding regions to get through, while they kept a look out for all the dangerous things that they knew of.
The sky became almost hidden beneath the immense tree structures. The archeologists he noticed went closer to the front and had their guns ready, as it took a dangerous appearance like the last jungle when they had been chased into the canyon!
Chapter 4
The Structure
Strange illuminations and life forms shifted through the trees and occasionally violently smashed things around them, while the amount of them and their powers grew, and Parker started to hesitate on whether to continue! But they were trapped and many of the things were behind them following their scent and trail, but they still had the guns.
Bryson realized the mistake of doing such a venture without properly planning! Yet they could not have done anything more!
He wished Parker had used his connections in the military to bring in some military with their weapons! It would be a mistake continuing to do what they were doing there, and they surely would eventually regret it!
The thing he noticed was that the things about them seemed to avoid doing anything, for some reason he could not identify, and he realized that he still felt like he was being watched over by things! And even since something took control of the plane!
There was still no suggestion of what they were up against other than it seemed to want them for something!
He still sensed there was danger and that many of them could die! And he felt it more than ever there, like in the last jungle at the canyon.
Thick vegetation surrounded everything and they had to hack their way some of it, and Bryson watched the amazed scientists when they had to hack down new incredible species of plants! Though some managed to gather seeds, for if they ever were able to return to the Earth.
Parker was good at locating where they should be going, and he knew that they would get there!
Yet their legs started sinking deeper into stinking vegetation that resembled quicksand in places, and they insisted that it would not turn into quicksand and continued on through as if it were not there and only another obstacle, and the deeper they went into the jungle the worse it got and Bryson kept hearing more and more lethal sounding creatures behind them and knew that they could not return.
Bryson felt something was going to happen, and so did the others, and it proved true when a giant light emerged through the undergrowth at their side, and pulsated like a living thing, magically illuminating and blasting beams of light through trees.
Their pace increased and Parker tried more accurately to take them through clearer and less swampy regions! And Bryson kept trying to grasp what could create such power in such a place!
“Look out there!” one of the scientists eventually hollered, from over at their side, making them jump and their adrenalin wildly pump through their veins.
Bryson was one of the first to search and properly spot what it was, and where it was, and saw a structure buried away in the thick landscape, and he was astounded not only by its immense size but because he had a sensation that it had colossal power and somehow the light was connected to there, and it eventually left him staggered! He sensed things existed at the structure that went out beyond there to somewhere beyond space and time, and that paranormal energy existed there! And he looked over and saw Merton and Mortimer standing staggered by it!
Although when they approached the structure it felt blissful and the dangers surrounding them seemed to start to vanish! It radiated through the wood like a spellbinding sacred place, and they forced their legs to move on faster towards it.
Its appearance as they moved there, out of the deplorable jungle, was staggering, and he was fascinated to see and hear all the dangers around them withdrawing and going in
the opposite direction!
For some reason he started thinking that the treasure surely existed there! Bryson was amazed at the speed that they were now moving towards it at, without the vegetation and swamps, and started to realize how enthusiastic they were to get to it! And he even sensed many of the others thought the treasure was there, and were confident it existed!
They forgot their battle with the things of the jungle and made for the blissfully sanctuary, and Bryson watched the others and realized how much they were taking things there would be what they were looking for, and it was where they wanted to be!
The place could be anything? And why did they want to meet with what landed their airplane there? There was no proof of anything! All it could be was a bigger disappointment!
While they approached, in stages of glimpses through the trees, they started to get a bigger surprise and realized that the structure was a castle, and the scientists started arguing over whether it was of human construction! Yet many structures could exist on other worlds with same structures as on Earth! There were only so many basic constructions available for good buildings!
Its presence drew them there and was like it were glowing with power through an area drained of power, shining out like a lighthouse in a dark sea, and supernaturally glowing!
Chapter 5
The Phantom Castle
They proved that it was a castle when they reached it, and after studying its structure most were sure that it had been built in the style of an Earth castle.
The size of the castle could not be properly seen or measured by the scientists as it went out into the thick jungle and undergrowth, and it was colossal and they were sure that it was about 10 miles long and wide, especially by using the photos that they had taken from hill, before they had come down and entered the jungle.
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