I have Nine Lives

The scene that Felix arrived to see was quite chaotic. A gigantic gate of light was being opened near the ceiling of the underground area. Altraeimo's shivering form was dancing in front of the gate. He was blowing his flute to continue the opening and stabilization of it.

Felix's appearance didn't surprise Altraeimo in the slightest as he continued his dance while sending Felix a telepathic message:

"As you can see, you came a little bit too early, but I can't blame you. The commotion that happens when opening the gate is quite immense."

Felix could sense that. The earthquake that he felt when Altraeimo started even moved him a bit.

This showed that the opening between dimensions could injure Altraeimo if he didn't do it properly, so Felix wanted to make sure nothing happened to him.

If something happened to Altraeimo, his only chance of getting rid of this damn Lotus on his forehead would disappear until he died of old age.

Felix sighed as he watched the gate widen up further under Altraeimo's ritual.

He could feel his blood flowing quicker as he breathed in the energy that was slowly escaping from the opened gate. The shiny gate was opened enough for Felix's body to enter it.

But, he could sense that the space between the destination and the opening wasn't stable enough for him to enter it.

Altraeimo continued his efforts to stabilize the gate- while it was slowly widening by itself under his continuous dance, sweat started to drip from his forehead as the flute in his hands was cracking from his grip's strength.

The way he blew into the flute created a strange melody that Felix couldn't decipher at all, he had no music experience, but he could still feel that the tone was off and that the notes were strange.

Suddenly a bolt of red lightning left the gate and was ready to strike Altraeimo directly in the head, only for Felix to appear in front of him and absorb the red lightning into his body, leaving Altraeimo unharmed but scared.

Felix gave Altraeimo a nod and then returned to his previous place, giving Altraeimo enough space to continue his dance.

"Heup, Heup."

Altraeimo continued his dance as the flute in his grasp started to break down under his strange song.

Suddenly the gate stabilized as its light became completely golden, and nothing else seemed to come out of it.

Altraeimo breathed roughly as he fell on his butt. The flute had broken down completely, leaving it into bits and pieces on the ground below him.

He looked towards Felix and waved his hand to him. Indicating that he should get closer, Felix immediately appeared near him and supported him up.

Altraeimo coughed a bit, some blood spilling from his mouth through his fingers, but he ignored his injuries as he started to tell Felix:

"You will be teleported to the equivalent of our planet in the divine realm. I don't know much about the universe, nor did my ancestors, but they realized one thing with all of their research, if the divine realm is below the water, we are above it, and if we were to compare our universe to an ocean, we the mortals are above the water while the gods stay underwater where the pressure in higher, I'm not sure if you know the saying, but enough pressure can make diamonds from coal."

Felix nodded. This information was quite helpful but also useless at the same time to him.

"Also, one more thing... because I helped you, I hope that you will do us a favor and bring back some specimens from the god realm when you return..."

Felix nodded and then asked:

"About returning... how can I even do that when the Gods can't?"

Altraeimo's shaking hand went into his shirt before pulling out a green cylinder that he passed onto Felix:

"Break this cylinder and feed it your hex energy when you want to come back. I sealed the song that I used to open the gate in it."

Felix nodded and inquired:

"What about the dance moves?"

Altraeimo coughed a little bit more and responded:

"You won't need those. As I said before, our worlds are compared to the ocean, it is easier to float to the surface- compared to diving to the bottom. To open a gate that leads you back to us would only need you to use the song."

Felix had one more question before his soul would leave his body and enter the gate:

"Where am I supposed to keep it?"

"Keep it in your soul space. The cylinder is made from a special material... also, you should hurry up and go."

Felix nodded as his body went limp and his transparent soul left through his forehead, he glanced back at his downed body which was still holding onto Altraeimo and he said:

"Take good care of my body. I will be able to make a new one when I return, but it would be better to not waste my time doing so."

Altraeimo nodded and waved at him.

Felix's soul darted into the gate, leaving Altraeimo behind. Altraeimo glanced at Felix's immobile body and sighed before saying:

"Where should I even store this?"

Then he shook his head as the gate above him slowly started to close until a small dart of energy let it and entered Altraeimo's body which got invigorated as he picked up Felix's physical body and threw it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

....

Felix was quickly moving through a rainbow-colored spatial tunnel, he had the leisure to observe his surroundings, but all he could see at the edges of the tunnel were more of those red lightning bolts that almost ended Altraeimo.

At first, it looked to be leisure traveling, but the further Felix moved through the tunnel, the more he realized that he was being pushed back as if the destination was rejecting him.

Felix realized that it wasn't so easy to reach the God realm as Altraeimo had said. It seemed soul strength wasn't the only thing one needed to reach the destination...

Felix's soul started to morph from his normal humanoid form into his cat form, trying to see if the resistance from the tunnel would decrease if he did so.

Somehow the resistance did decrease a bit, but it didn't by much.

But any reduction was welcomed. Felix compared the resistance strength with the whirlwind that trashed him around in his mindscape at level 5, and if he was correct, the resistance was one level higher.

However, with his current strength, he could push through. Especially- now that his cat form lowered the resistance somewhat.

Felix started to push through the resistance as he moved through the tunnel further and further. But the more he moved, the narrower the tunnel became, and the closer the red lightning started to get him.

The one-bolt he absorbed using his body didn't mean much, but his soul didn't have the resistance to lightning as his body.

Also, as he glanced towards his sides, Felix could swear that the lightning was getting golden instead of red, and it looked to be limitless!

But he could see a shiny light at the end of the tunnel... he was getting closer and closer to the end of the tunnel and entering the divine realm!

Suddenly his soul body was slowly starting to get engulfed by the nearby red lightning as the tunnel became so narrow that only his cat form could barely move through it.

However, he was only a few meters away from the glowing light that would lead him to the divine realm. One more step, two more steps. His soul body started to combust due to the lightning that was continuously going through it. However, his soul was also healing at the same time. While the lightning could injure him, it wasn't to the point that it would become troublesome.

Felix's paw touched the light as the other parts of his body were getting consumed by the red lighting, but at the last second, his body was sucked into the light, leaving the tunnel to collapse onto itself and explode.

....

Felix woke up groggily, and as he looked around, he could only see yellow nimbus clouds surrounding him. On some nimbuses, there were long trees with blue bushes at the crowns. Which had green fruits that resembled pears with yellow and black dots on them.

Felix's stomach suddenly rumbled. Which made him truly wake up as he looked at the fruits at the top of the tree, normally he wouldn't get hungry, especially with his soul body.

But now, he felt quite hungry as he eyed the top of the tree and moved his paw, making a fruit fall onto it.

Felix morphed back into his human form and munched onto the fruit, it was rather bittersweet, but it filled him with energy and satiated his hunger.

Felix cracked his neck as he finished one fruit, and more fruits started to appear around him, which he finished just as quickly.

Now that he had filled his belly with some food, he continued to look around and realized that there was land below him. It seemed the divine realm had special locations where the clouds were solid, and the trees on the bore this fruit.

Felix decided to drop towards the land and ask some locals where the so-called gods dwelled, he could sense clusters of life below him, but none of them were strong.

Felix dived down from the yellow nimbus clouds and started to fly towards the green land below him, where he felt the strongest life force.

Felix knew that to find the important people, you would need to find the strongest person below them and ask.