Li approached the rift.
"Tia, stand behind ," said Li as he knelt down, eyeing the fluxing black tear in space through his empty eye sockets. He could feel a distinct chill emanating from the rapidly oscillating rip, the kind that Tia did not like.
"Tell ," said Li to Lira as the dragon watched from behind him. "Where does this rift lead exactly to?"
Lira shrugged, her armor clanking with the movent. "I do not quite know. When my real body traveled through it, I saw that it simply stood in an empty void of darkness. The void that lies above the skies."
"Space," said Li. "Did you see anything else around you? Stars? Other worlds in the distance?"
"Stars, yes," said Lira. "But I know now from Shen'sai that those little twinkling lights are unfathomable distances away. Aside from stars, nothing. Simply the void. But rifts like these emanate a signal, you see, a coldness averse to all life and yet just as alluring as a lamp light to moths to those of your kind."
She narrowed her eyes at the rift. "Thankfully, the herald seals of the demons prevented this rift from ever opening wide enough to create a strong enough signal. It has only enough scent to it to attract ssengers and straggling spawn that travel the vast void haphazardly.
Every so often, perhaps once a decade, there will be a monstrosity that sniffs this rift out, and I am here to fell it."
"I see," said Li. "That explains the dead fire vampire. To my knowledge, the fire vampires travel in packs, forming living cots of fire and flesh. Were there not more? Or rather, did not the Old Ones in command of them co with them?"
"No, and thank all that exists for that, for the first ti I traversed the rift, I was not yet strong enough to contend with the Old Ones, nor had I this torch to fend against them. I suppose the fla creatures were far flung scouts, far enough from their main body that their absence draws no attention. Disposable feelers in the dark."
"You did not have the Protheas to begin with?" Li felt surprise.
He could understand how Lira fought against Old Ones with the item. It was specifically designed to beat back Old Ones with its anti-eldritch properties, and it was also a New Ga item. Well, it existed in the base campaign, but in the New Ga added content, one could take the Protheas and upgrade it to a Celestial-tier item easily on par with or exceeding Li's own celestial gear.
The entire upgrading process was a whole pain to deal with. In the lore, the original Protheas was a construct created by Helius to fight against his corrupted brother, but it proved too weak to fight against the multi-planetary and dinsional threat of the Old Ones.
Thus, any good-aligned character could right before the very final boss go on a space faring quest and, at a place called the Font of Life at the heart of the universe, it was said, they could dip the Protheas and upgrade it into a weapon that even Old Ones feared.
Right now, though, the Protheas was in its base, divine tier state. Still capable of harming Old Ones, but a little outscaled compared to truly endga content.
"No. I found this weapon in another world. Much like this one. The very sa magic flowed through it, but alas, it was destroyed by an Old One. Yet in its core, there still stood this weapon shining with the light to destroy the dark. Forged too late to save that world, but not too late for others."
"The very sa magic you say?" Li perked up, delaying closing the rift as his interest began to rise.
"I do not understand the concept too well, but Shen'sai states that it is a phenonon called alternate dinsions. Many different versions of our reality layered atop each other on the sa board, but still distinct. I suppose that world was a version of this one." Lira shook her head with a sigh. "A premonition of what is to co should the Darkness reach this world."
"Alternate dinsions…," muttered Li, understanding the massive implications of this revelation.
How many more worlds were there just like this one, based off of Elden World? How different were they?
Or, perhaps a more striking question: were there more players?
Li knew that it was exceedingly unlikely any player was in this world or had been in it, but perhaps he had been thinking too small. Perhaps they were in entirely different worlds. Alternate dinsions. Different realities.
"Tell , Lira," said Li. "Tell of your travels. Where your real body is now. Whether there were more worlds like this."
"When I first investigated this rift shortly after its ergence, I slew the creatures that had erged through it. But before I myself took to traversing the rift, I called to Shen'sai, a specialist in spatial and dinsional travel who had long left this world, and he ca back.
With his expertise, we traveled the rift, clearing out any threat on the other side. We traveled further, to other worlds, ands still, to this day, we travel, fighting against the eternal Darkness" said Lira. "But I have encountered no more worlds like this other than the one in which I found my weapon.
As for where my real body is, well, I do not know. It is too far away for , a construct, to connect with. But I know that once you close this rift, it will co back, and then the mories I have made since its absence will flow back.
I am sure my true self will then aid you should you need it." Lira jabbed towards the portal with the sharp side of the Protheas. "We will have more ti to talk. For now, it would do well to close this rift, if you so can."
"I can," said Li. "But what of you? How long will your construct last?"
"My construct is bound to the guardianship of this rift. With it closed, I will perish in a day, I suppose," said Lira casually. "But that is more than enough ti to talk, and I have grown quite bored of sitting here all day, every single day for the past hundred or so years."
"Only a day?" asked Tia, worried.
"Worry not, little dragon, for as a construct, I was always ant to be a temporary existence," said Lira. She spoke to Li, "I only ask that when this form of mine dissipates and solidifies into a shard of mory, that you return it to my true self when she arrives."
"I have no issue with that. I trust that in tis to co, your true self will be aiding ?"
"If you ever even need any help, then yes," said Lira.
"Then so be it. This rift will be no more," declared Li. He ca up to the rift and looked at his hands for a second, the sharp branches that ford his fingers and the plant wreathed palms that glowed with life. He neared them to the portal, the rift a fluctuating bubble of darkness no larger than a basketball, and sensed the chill emanating from it.
The cold wilted the green plant life on his hands, and yet, it still beckoned to him with familiarity, like visiting an old childhood ho.
He jamd his hands into the rift, feeling energy and force whirling around his fingers, large arcs of black energy crackling around him.
He did not have any spells to close a rift like this. But he had powers beyond Elden World, powers that proved he was beyond this world and many like it.
He tapped into his eldritch side.
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