Back in Ti
Salvos grab my hand!
I glanced up and saw my companion leaning over the edge of the portal. I tried to swim out of the darkness out of the black ocean that was closing in on . My companion reached out for and I reached for him
And the circle closed.
Everything went black. There was no more light. I felt like I was being born once again, stuck in an infinite void. I tried to break out of it. I swung my arms, scratching at the surface, but nothing broke. Nothing except for the silence in my head.
Now Leaving [Lair: Lucernas Lamp].
Now Leaving [Demon Kings Domain].
Now Leaving [Nexeus: Netherworld].
After those words ca, there was nothing for a mont. Just a mont. Then I heard a crack.
Now Entering [Nexeus: Mortal Realm]
Salvos!
And I snapped back to reality; felt the loss of gravity. The mory flashed in my head, coming and going in an instant. I rembered that mont the mont where Id lost my first companion, Haec. It haunted to this day. It was my greatest regret.
I hadnt been prepared for it. I was only trying to save him, but I abandoned him. I broke my promise to him. I said Id be his leader. That Id always protect him. I failed. I left him alone in the Netherworld to fend for himself.
Was he still alive? My Dad told he was alright. But that had been a month ago. The Netherworld was a dangerous place, and plenty of things could change in re monts there. After all, I rembered a ti when it hadnt just been Haec and I. When there had been others there. We banded together. Not necessarily for safety, but simply because we didnt know any better. There were so many of us, and in a flash, I was alone.
And it was happening again.
I was going to be alone again. Not just that I was breaking my promises again. Just like last ti. All in an instant.
I looked up. Daniel, Edithe, Willy, and even Orgaf yelled as they ran for . I reached out to them, opening my mouth
And the circle closed.
Everything went black. The portal vanished as I was dragged out of the Mortal Realm.
Now leaving [Nexeus: Mortal Realm]!
I rembered this feeling like it was just yesterday. The odd sensation of crossing through the planes. From the outside, entering and exiting a portal seed simple enough. It was as though I entered and exited one limb at a ti. Nothing complex about that.
But when I entered the portal, I was engulfed in darkness. No it wasnt just shadows. It was nothing like Orgafs magic. It was different. A deep, looming emptiness consud . I couldnt even feel the [Hellabomination] clinging onto my leg. In here, there was truly nothing.
The only thing I sensed were words in my head, sohow echoing in this bottomless pit.
It was odd. I had been here before, but I felt nothing like this the last ti I crossed planes. It was, as I rembered, a mont of nothingness. Then suddenly I was in the Mortal Realm.
However, here? At this mont? A split second extended to an eternity. A place where ti itself didnt matter. It was like I was trapped in a [Warped Ti] bubble, except far more potent. It was the ho of the Devil: the place where reality mattered not.
I could sense everything happening, unlike back then. But why? Why was I acutely aware of my surroundings? How did I know how quickly I was traversing through the thin fold between planes? No it wasnt a distance I was covering, per se, but it was the only thing that let contextualize what I knew was happening.
It was like seeing sothing you couldnt quite comprehend. It reminded of when I first saw the corruption or when I first took in the sight of a rock before proper examination. I knew what it was, yet I couldnt quite parse this. But the fact that I was even aware of sothing I hadnt known before was a testant to how far Id grown. To the strength of my Class. [Planar Navigation] and my other Class Skills helped make sense of my surroundings, and it let act during this immortal mont.
I closed my eyes not that it made a difference and I concentrated. I was being pulled into the Netherworld. Not just by the wild Prival Demon, but by sothing else. By the magic of the summoning ritual.
The fold between planes was nothing like how Id imagined there were layers to it. I was tearing through these layers, damaging reality itself. The holes closed behind , reality reasserted itself, but weaker now. And I didnt have much of reality to pass through until I was fully out the other side.
I had to cut it off if I wanted to escape. To get back to the Mortal Realm. I began to focus on distorting reality around : to create a field that snipped the threads of magic reeling into the Netherworld.
Then I hesitated. Did I really want that? This was my goal all along, wasnt it?
I had wanted to return to the Netherworld since the very beginning. Since I arrived here to the Mortal Realm. Id be able to find Haec reunite with him! Id make sure he was safe; bring him back with .
to the Mortal Realm. Where Humans would hunt him and kill him for who he was. For the sin of being born a Demon.
If he was discovered, I wouldnt be able to protect him. Not against Helena Warshade. Not against Clayton Skyshredder. Not against Humankind.
I was not strong enough to keep my promise to him. I didnt want to admit this my pride refused but I knew it was true. Id fail him, just as I did the first ti around.
And more than that I still had promises to keep in the Mortal Realm. There were so many things I had to do. I couldn't leave yet.
Words echo in my head. Belzus words.
You who have shed what you are in exchange for the security and protection of Humans.
It swayed tried to convince not to make my choice.
Are you actually ashad to be a Demon?
But Id already made my decision. Long before this mont. I brought up an arm, even if I couldnt feel it. The only thing I sensed were the mana threads that tugged through the fold between space, protecting from its pressure.
Once I severed the thread, nothing would protect from the all-consuming nothingness. Id have to fend for myself. Still, I grabbed the mana threads and ripped it all away
Then I was turning. I was tumbling. I was no longer headed for the Netherworld. I was spiraling out of control, yet I remained still. It was paradoxical. It didnt make sense. But a sense of dread crept in. And the encroaching death of my senses lood over .
I began to wrap myself in my own magic, like [Warped Ti] did to my targets. A distortion in space, but in this compressed reality. I wove the threads, creating a cloth to wear. To protect .
I couldnt build a house with what little magic I had to work with. I wasnt as strong as my Dad not yet, anyway. I only had what little layer covering . And it was eroding quickly. It would fall to this overwhelming pressure.
My sensations numbed even further. Even my magic felt like it was withering away. I opened my mouth to scream just to feel sothing. But nothing ca out.
I couldnt lose myself. I had to make it back to the Mortal Realm. I couldnt die here, trapped between the planes. My Dad wasnt going to save . No one was going to save here. Except for
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myself.
I still had a Class advancent. One that I had saved up for the future. I had options. Four of them, to be exact.
[Archmystic of the Nexeus] was the first of them. It offered security kept what I had and built upon it. There was little risk to it, and while it could save from being overwheld by the fold between planes, it also might not offer a way out.
The next was [Draconic Apprentice]. It offered power, pure and simple. It was a drastic shift away from the path I had undertaken, but it gave strength above all else. Perhaps it might be enough for to brute force my way out, or maybe not
Third ca [Space Archmagus]. It was the clearest solution to this predicant of all: a net of safety in this pit of nothing. The equivalent of a [Space Archmage], Id undoubtedly be able to find my way back to the Mortal Realm with it. And, eventually, Id be able to find my way to Haec with it. But would I be able to keep my promise then?
Lastly, there was [Younger Sentinel of Spaceti]. It promised to give what I needed to protect those I cared about, and more. To save the world. Like a [Hero]. Unfortunately, I wasnt a [Hero]. That was Daniels job, not mine.
I looked through my options. All four of them, once again flashed in my mind. [Archmystic of the Nexeus], [Draconic Apprentice], [Space Archmagus], and [Younger Sentinel of Spaceti]. It was a tough choice.
I felt the cloth of protection I wore beginning to peel away, the threads undoing themselves. A sense of fading urgency moved to act, and I considered it all.
Belzus words. My failures. My regrets. My goals. My predicant. It all weighed on .
All of it. For a mont, it felt like it was too much for to handle. My pride felt like it would shatter. But my eyes flashed. In the nothingness, there was sothing. I was there. And I made my choice.
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