Chapter 421 (1/2)

Chapter 421

Chapter 419: Black Doors

ARTHUR LEYWIN

As I watched the others vanish one by one through another portal—the fourth now since leaving the third djinn ruin—I considered the mentalthe proper zone, it was still strange Unlike all the other pictures in my mind, which included a sense of what to expect in the zone, this one was eible blank slate

I cast a glance back at the zone we’d just cleared: a suffocatingly craerous, but straightforward The unknown beyond this next portal unsettledof the portal’s internal light that dragged ht wait on the other side of the portal, my sister was already there without me With this in mind, I stepped in after her

I appeared surrounded by…nothing Absolutely nothing Void emptiness in every direction And I was alone When I tried to call out for my sister, no sound came I tried to look down, but there was no down, or up, or me

It felt like when I’d first appeared in the Relcitombs I didn’t relish the sensation

‘At least you’ve still got is’s voice sounded in my head ‘Wherever I am Can I still be inside you if neither of us exist?”

Then, like a scene fading in at the beginning of an old Earth movie, the zoneacross sround at Mica, Boo, and Ellie Except so with thelass, and their movements were stiff and unnatural

“El,” I said,muffled and incomplete

Her mouth moved in response, and I read my naet out of here, I thought I feltforward, and thenaround—I had a body again, I realized—I exale of mana, about seven feet tall and three feet wide, hovered just beyond the edge of the ground I now stood on An identical shape stood a few feet to its left Lyra was peering curiously out from its surface

I heardwhisper co away from Lyra, I crossed to the other panels—doors, I decided h in truth they resembled a physical door only in their outline “It’s okay,” I assured ainst the surface of the door She raised hers as well, placing it where , and you will”

She nodded, her features hardening, the panic easing away When nothing happened, her brows furrowed in concentration, but she was still inside the door

Regissee the smooth surface “Maybe there’s so Regis was right The doors reathed in aetheric particles With ainst the door, I sent aether out through ertips

Ellie ih That was really uncomfortable”

The doors re what happened to the Granbehls, I hurried to release Boo, Mica, and finally Lyra in the same fashi+on

I watched each of them for a eness in their behavior, as there had been with Ada when she was possessed And, when they stepped out of their respective doors, no reflection or ie was left behind

Once they were all free—and I was convinced they were thes

We were standing on suishable froainst Ellie protectively, his s

Mica rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, an uneasy frown creasing her features “I feel…weird Not sure how to describe it”

“Yes, there is a strange sensation in the at…or like we are wrong,” Lyra said as she bent down to run her fingers across the sround “This is mana Pure, focused mana No physical landscape at all” Her eyes traced a line into the distance “It’s a platform See there, a subtle shi+ft in the blackness?”

I ht We were standing on a floating platform in the void, a twenty-foot square “There could be others that we can’t see,” I proposed, squinting and pushi+ng aether into n of ate blind I should be able to…”

I activated God Step, but nothing happened No aetheric paths lit up in my vision or called out their presence to me, and I didn’t experience the expanded, innate sixth sense of low It was like it was doris clicked his tongue in frustration “It’s the same with Destruction It’s there, but…not”

With no clue what that ht mean, I sent aether into Realround glowing like multi-colored fireflies Aside fro at in the void, Real

But at least it worked

Turningthe closest one, from which I’d released Lyra It felt smooth and silky, like polished obsidian, but there was a static tingle to its surface “If aether pulled you all out of these things…”

I sent a small a lurch,back at my companions and their surprised expressions

“It’s okay,” I said, e, as if I were underwater I was certain that these doors had so the zone, but their purpose wasn’t immediately obvious “I just need a minute to think”

My perspective was fixed, so I couldn’t look to the side, or up and down I couldn’t move at all Like when I’d first appeared in the zone, it was as ifbut my companions, the platforave me pause What if they really are doors? I wondered I had stepped out of a door by thinking about it Perhaps…

I focused on the door Ellie had appeared within and thought, I want to go through that door

Like before, I began drifting forward For an instant, I thought I would appear standing in front of Lyra’s door, as I had htly as I hts

A couple of seconds later, I stepped back out onto the platfor behindback and forth as Ellie gasped out, “Arthur!” She took a couple halting steps before Booher back with his broad head She twisted around, searching frantically; her eyes skated right past me, stopped, then jumped back She pressed a hand over her heart and her expression softened “You scared the crap out ofthe others to turn around as well A low, nervous whine from Boo served to add emphasis to her distress

“How did you do that?” Lyra asked, her lips pursed as she considered the black rectangles lined up along the platfore

I quickly explained what I’d done, and my theory

“So you think these—doors?—can move us around the zone?” Mica asked Brows raised, she turned to her left and right, gesturing at the vast eo where?”

“There must be other platfore of our platfor that makes sense”

“If this is one of the djinn’s puzzles,” I said, thoughtful, “then there is always an intended solution”

With ainst the cold surface of the door, I released another pulse of aether and felt myself be drawn back into it

This tiht in front of me, I focused on the e into space, soht and a few dozen feet below us, there was a second platforle

“I found it,” I said, carefully stopping h that distant door It felt reckless to go and leave the others, especially if they couldn’t navigate the doors on their own “Regis, you can sense the direction in is loped to the edge, staring out in the direction I indicated “There’s nothing out there”

“Maybe you can only see it froer on her lips thoughtfully

“Only one way to find out, Regent Leywin,” Lyra said, turning away frois’s line of focus

I hesitated, but only for athe others behind, this see through the empty space toward the leftmost of the two doors I could see Like before, I slowly picked up speed as Ibuilt within rew closer and closer to the second platform, but I was unsure if it was so to warn er

Twenty seconds or ain The diffused, sourceless light of the zone lit up this much smaller platform, and I couldn’t help but wonder why I hadn’t seen it iht ‘The platform just kind of appeared a second before you did’

Looking back, I could justthe edge of their platform perhaps three hundred feet away

Betweenwithin shadows

I thought I was iered, clawed hand reached out fro into the flat, black panel of mana A second claw followed, and, very slowly, spindly ar a horribly skinny creature out of the black background and into reality right in front of ainst shi+ny black skin that blended into the darkness behind it The flat face had no mouth or nose but four out-of-place eyes As it uncoiled fro up at it; the creature was at least seven feet tall

It blinked, each eye closing and opening slightly out of ti atan aether blade ininto h the aetheric barrier that clad my skin

My sword punched into its bony chest, then ripped up and out the side of the neck Its eyes rolled in four different directions as it toppled over, and when it struck the ground it dissolved into the platfor a hand torapidly, as expected At least that power is working

‘You knoe’ve seen a lot of shi+t in here, but that thing was nightis said via our telepathic link

“This is going to be a proble the obstacles this zone presented Is everything still clear over there?

‘Yeah,’ he confirmed, absent his nor to the others worked the sah space, the shadows rippling as if the void itself was alive, before I finally stepped out of Ellie’s door on the starting platforone

“This is going to take so what I’d learned to the others

Mica jurio first”

I had released her fro it with aether, and I attempted to put her back into it the saainst the same door I’d used, I sent a sh, Mica vanished fro portrait of herself

“Now, can you see the other platforh one of those doors,” I instructed

She nodded, but nothing happened Considering e already knew, I assumed that aether was the problem She couldn’t ht I already knew the solution to that

I confirmed that she was focused on the distant door, then iain

Mica appeared right in front of ain as she realized where she was “It didn’t work”

“Perhaps you were not focused enough,” Lyra said, crossing her arainst dwarves,” Regis h out of my sister

Mica’s eye narrowed, but I stepped in between theu her throat “I was one hundred percent focused It has to be soh, if Professor Relictouest”

“It’s worth being exhaustive,” I said, waving Lyra forward

She passed into the door easily, but, when I imbued it the second time, she too stepped back out onto our platfor was that no moreplatforh the zone

“Now that we know there are other platforh?” Mica asked, stepping up to the edge of our platform “I can’t see it anymore, but you were just over there so for a reply, she lifted up off the ground and flew out into the void The e of our platfor and wrapped around her throat A second raked down her face, shearing through her protective rasped at her ankles

I grabbed the back of her armor and yanked her onto the platform

Three of the creatures caher in the side of the head Unlike the other, this one had no eyes, only an openteeth The skull collapsed, splattering dark ichor over Mica andthe collarbone of another Twin arrows sprouted frole, off-center eye

Ripping herself free of

I took a step back The overlarge ha they black bone As soon as she stepped away, breathing hard, the three corpses dissolved

She brushed her hair froreat idea”

“It does seeate the zone,” Lyra co at me “Your path Which I must say, for the rest of us, is rather unfortunate”

“There has to be a way through,” I said, stepping up to one of the doors and staring at it “We just have to find it”