Beyond?

by Andur

  In the corner of the room are several bound and gagged people.

  Then one of the white creatures turns around and hisses, alerting the others and the one handed man. He turns towards us and reveals a red glowing amulet on his chest. That artefact calls up memories. He points at us. “Kill them!”

  Ryland draws his sword, while the others are entering the room. There are thirty of the white creatures, but they are in a tightly packed formation.

  I raise my hand and cast. A small blue orb penetrates their ranks and bursts apart like a fragmentation grenade. It's one of my personal creations. If my clan can create something like a tentacle from mana, then why not weapons? And taking it a step further, why not condensing mana over its threshold and shooting that at your enemy?

  Karsen steps forward and roasts the opponents by shooting out flames from his hands. My grandmother conjures a ray of light which incinerates an opponent.

  But our enemies aren't slow. They lunge forward with incredible speed, some of them jumping onto the ceiling or crawling over the walls. Most of them are unarmed, but some have nasty looking rusty swords and axes. The fight turns into a bloody mess as both parties clash.

  We may have enough people, but our numbers are worthless. Most of us are still in the tunnel behind us.

  Ryland realizes that the situation can't go on like this and gives the only command possible. “Charge!” He jumps into the mess of skinny white figures while a yellow aura is encasing him. Hacking and slicing wherever the opponents offer a piece of flesh to him.

  I summon up all the mana in my vicinity and encase myself in a blue layer of mana. Another thought forms a spear in my hands and I charge into the enemies to create enough time for the rest of our people to leave the tunnel.

  One of the things jumps at me, clawing with futile effort at my exposed back. I sent it flying by ramming the blunt end of my spear into its jaw. Then Stella is beside me, nailing one of the creatures with an arcane lance.

  The man at the altar realizes that our offence is overwhelming his minions, but he is still grinning. A fireball appears in his hand and he aims it at the entrance as Ryland reaches him. I try to free myself to stop him from casting, but the creatures around me are too annoying.

  The summoner is still grinning while his head is being lopped off. The fireball rushes off towards the entrance and impacts right above the supporting arch of the entrance.

  People and creatures alike are blown through the air like puppets. The entrance caves in, but that's not the worst of it. Cracks are beginning to form in the ceiling. I ignore the enemies around me and send long tendrils of mana out to support the structure of the room. Other fighters realize what I am doing and jump to my aide and protect me.

  A big stone loosens and falls down, hitting Stella, who was occupied with and enemy. She goes down.

  “Stella!” I call out for her, but I am occupied at the moment. Luckily one of Ryland's subordinates deals with Stella's opponent.

  Other tendrils shoot up to the ceiling and stop the cave in for the moment. Looking for the origin, I find my sister imitating my attempt on stopping the cave in.

  Moments later the fighting stops and is replaced by silence. Only the moaning of the wounded and the muffled crying of some captives can be heard.

  I slowly walk over to Stella, keeping my concentration on the supporting tendrils. Luckily she is just unconscious. The stone gave her a big bump on the forehead though, so I pick her up in a princess carry.

  “Shit!” Ryland inspects the entrance while his subordinates are freeing the captives.

  I feel pearls of sweat forming on my forehead. Keeping my tendrils in this form is very taxing. “We have to get out of here.” Surveying the room, I find all the people who are known to me still alive and well. Only Stella is out cold.

  Even Agate survived somehow. Boot! Why didn't the summoner sacrifice her first?

  Talia walks up to the caved in entrance. “We need to dig.”

  “Stop it!” My sister calls out. “Did you take a look at my brother and me? We can't hold the ceiling for much longer.”

  My eyes wander to the red shimmering portal. “That's the only exit.”

  My grandmother gasps. “Are you insane!? Who knows where that could take us.”

  I don't answer and return my concentration to the ceiling. There is only one escape route. They'll have to admit it when the first rocks are coming down on their heads.

  “A chance with the portal is better than being crushed.” My sister admits and starts retreating towards the portal with a strained face.

  For a moment I consider to simply teleport out of here. I could save Stella. Maybe I manage to take my sister too. But that's it. I can't teleport all of them out of here before the ceiling comes down on their heads. There are tons of rock and earth above our heads.

  Ryland nods. “Through the portal. All of you. The people who can fight first, then the students.” He keeps watching while everyone disappears inside the red maw with horrified expressions on their faces.

  Me and my sister are the last to step through the portal. We nod to each other and then she is gone.

  While I am taking a last look behind me, the ceiling starts to crumble. But the only ones who are left behind are dead bodies.

  Then I walk through the portal with Stella in my arms, loathing where it will take me.

  21. ~Ice.~

  “Our culture was at its pinnacle. We had solved the mysteries of science and magic. We controlled the weather and travelled over continents within an instant. But nature taught us that some things are out of our grasp. Our sun darkened and couldn't warm our planet any more.

  So the cold came.

  And we died.”

  -unknown.

  Beyond, Somewhere

  Azir

  I step out of the red portal with a cloud of dust following me. Cold air bites into my skin and I watch the portal flicker for a moment, then it vanishes. I flick my tongue in displeasure, but now I am freed from the burden of keeping the ceiling from coming down on me.

  Kneeling down, I cast an environmental protection spell on Stella and me. Afterwards I start healing her. Then I look up to survey our surroundings.

  We are in an icy tundra without signs of life. There are some hills to our east though. The sun in the sky gives off just a dim light. Enough to see, but by no means a source of warmth.

  I count twenty three students and eleven of Ryland's subordinates. Agate is currently busy with healing one of them.

  The others are in various conditions. Some are unharmed, others are wounded. Hopefully Agate can patch them up, she is an Eddin after all. Karsen and Talia are searching the horizon for signs of life.

  “This isn't how I imagined the place from where those creatures come from.” Quarma mumbles.

  “Where are we?” Ryland sheaths his sword. “And how do we get back?”

  Quarma turns and looks at me, squinting her eyes. “Indeed.”

  I try to smile, but it doesn't work out that well. “Let's start moving first. If we run out of mana we will freeze within minutes.”

  Quarma waves at the horizon. “Pick a direction.”

  I shoulder Stella and orient myself. There is something like a depression in the snow further ahead. Probably a road or an old riverbed. Following either of the two should lead us to a town or city. My old world had a high population while it was still alive. “Follow me. Keep an eye out and stay together. Don't let anyone fall behind.”

  I start walking. Ryland and Quarma follow me while whispering with each other.

  Valeria catches up to me and grabs my clothes. “Is this your old world?” She whispers. My parents were of the opinion that it would be best to tell her everything about me when she entered university.

  I sigh and nod. “Looks like it.”

  Her expression turns frightened. “Can we make it back?”

  Probably. But I can't promise it. It depends on our luck and finding out where we are. “There
is a chance. We were lucky that the portal was summoned in this godforsaken place.”

  Valeria raises an eyebrow. “Why.”

  “Imagine an army of those white creatures pouring through it. The summoner probably opened his portals in random locations all over the planet.”

  I arrive at the depression and sigh in relief. It's really an old riverbed. So I keep following it. After an hour of walking Stella finally starts moving on my shoulders. It takes a while to explain everything that happened to her, but I managed to do it while we walk.

  It seems like it's morning in this world, but I still feel the lack of sleep. It was night-time back at home, so I am starting to get tired. We need shelter and better clothes.

  Then I notice some piles of snow in the distance in front of us and stop. They are blocking the path through the riverbed.

  “Is something wrong?” Stella asks while following my line of sight.

  I shake my head. “No. Just a small hindrance. And food.” I take off into the air and hover over the snow-piles. Then I raise my hand and start nailing them with arcane missiles.

  Animalistic screams escape from them and nine monsters burst out of their hiding places. They are huge and muscular, vaguely humanoid and with huge fangs in their faces. All of them are covered with white, long fur.

  One of them throws a huge ice spear at me, but I am out of reach. I pay it no heed and continue nailing them to the ground. Seconds later all of them are dead. I float down to them and create a dagger out of mana in my hand.

  The others reach me as I start skinning one of the beasts. They are three times as big as us.

  Talia looks at me with a wondering expression. “What are you doing?”

  I smile and raise a part of the hide of one of the creature. “Clothing. Skin it fast before they freeze. And gather some of the blood.”

  Beyond, Somewhere

  Stella

  It has been three days since we started our march through this no man's land. Azir is leading us somewhere. He isn't willing to talk about it, but I can see in his face that he isn't happy to be here.

  We lost three people on our trip. Two students simply disappeared, we don't know what happened to them. And one of Ryland's subordinates died during a particular cold night a day ago. We found him in the morning, frozen.

  We were giving our best to build shelters for the nights, but the cold was still creeping inside.

  Azir got moodier with each day. Today he didn't talk at all. I follow him up a steep hill when he suddenly stops and a mad laughter escapes him. “HahahahaHAHA!”

  I stop, baffled, and look up to him at the top of the hill. “What's wrong?”

  He turns around and points at our group. “Look at yourself! Three days in ice and snow and you guys look like a bunch of cavemen!” He points at us and I turn around.

  The people who were following us with tired faces look up. Their faces are bloody and dirty from the fat of some creatures. We covered ourselves with it to protect us from the cold. All of them look hungry and starved, especially Quarma.

  Azir is avoiding her as much as possible, which strikes me as strange. Isn't she his grandmother?

  “But fear not! There is hope behind that hill!” He turns around and jumps. Gone! I stagger forward, falling, then I crawl the last five metres up the hill.

  What I find behind it is a town like none I've ever seen before. Even though it's frozen and dead like everything else on this world, it's magnificent to behold. The buildings are huge and dwarf everything I know from Nict. Maybe the palace in the capital can compare to one of them. But there are hundreds. Some of them so high that I can imagine them scraping the clouds.

  They seem to be made from solid blocks of obsidian. My attention turns towards Azir, who slid down the hill and is on the move towards one of the first buildings. He stops at a big shield at the side of a road and hits it to free it from the snow, revealing strange symbols.

  Then he continues onwards.

  I slide down the hill myself. It's a fast ride, but there is a big free area at the foot of the hill. The soft snow stops me at the end and I stand up to follow him between the buildings. The rest of the group is close behind me.

  We find him inside something that can only be called a shop. The display window is broken and he is rummaging around between books and papers. Quarma steps forward and picks up one of the books.

  It is written in a strange language. The symbols are completely unknown to me.

  Azir is on the ground, kneeling above a big unfolded map and muttering something while he is studying it.

  The rest of the people file slowly into the shop with wondering expressions. Valeria steps towards Azir with a hopeful expression. “Do you know where we are?”

  He nods and points at a spot on a big landmass. “We are here.” Then he points onto another landmass with a big ocean between them. “And we need to be there. From there we can open a portal back home.”

  Quarma drops to her knees beside me and sits on the ground. “Then we are lost.”

  Azir raises an eyebrow and looks at her like an idiot. “No. That's good. Now I can teleport us!”

  Ryland gasps. “You can't teleport to another continent!”

  Azir makes a dismissive gesture. “You mean you can't. But we should sleep and rest first. I can't take us there all the way and it'll be a hard trip to get to our final destination.” He stands up with the map in his hands. “Everyone. Clear the ground. I need a few metres of space.”

  Some of the battered people follow his order while others barricade the window against the cold air outside. Others break some of the shelves to make a fire. Three days were enough to fuse our group into a community where everyone has his fixed tasks.

  Azir grabs a frozen block of blood. He was carrying it around for a while. Then the blood melts between his hands and floats towards the cleared area, forming a huge magical circle. It takes no time at all and the blood is frozen again.

  He takes a deep breath and walks towards a wall and sits down, leaning against it. Since everyone else is just tired and exhausted, they all lie down and try to sleep. All of them are hugging each other, trying to get a little warmer.

  I made Azir into my very own pillow. His sister fought for him in the first night, but she gave up and slept with her grandmother instead. Walking up to him, I sit down and hug him from the side, not caring about the others inside the room.

  He places a hand around me and smiles. It is getting dark outside and the people settle down to sleep.

  When everything calmed down I decide to ask him the dreaded question. “Azir? Why do you know so much about this world?”

  22. ~Rested.~

  “Deeper and deeper we went. Down into the earth, yearning for warmth. Down in the depths we found caves and tunnels. Endless miles of them. And other things, life which evolved in the darkness and heat of the earth. The deeper you go down towards the planet's core, the thicker the mana around you gets. We already knew that long exposure to mana can change your mind and your body. The creatures which exist down here are warped, twisted and malformed. Those creatures didn't belong on the surface and they didn't acknowledge our position at the top of the food chain.

  But that's not our concern. We, who chose to live down here. Because the same is happening to us.”

  -unknown.

  Beyond, Somewhere

  Azir

  “Azir? Why do you know so much about this world?”

  I tense up when Stella asks me the dreaded question. “There are some things that can't be that easily explained. And some which are better left unsaid.” I feel Stella's hug becoming tighter.

  Her fingers claw into my side. “I want to know. Even if it's a dark secret. I can see that being here isn't good for you. You look sad, especially since we entered this city.”

  “Will you tell me why you aren't introducing me to your parents then?” My eyes wander to the other people who sought protection from the cold. “Maybe we should discuss t
his in private, later.”

  Stella looks towards the other people. Then she stands up and pulls me to my feet, dragging me to a far off corner of the shop. There she pushes me down and sits down between my legs, placing my arms around her. “We've known each other since we were five! Unless you tell me that you are another person, you can't tell me anything that would change my mind about you. I admit that there are some aspects about my family which I don't want anyone to know about.” She stops for a moment. “And I haven't told you... because I am not allowed to. If I told anyone, we wouldn't be able to enjoy our university life any more.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “But I wouldn't tell anyone. So...”

  “It was a bargain. I really can't tell anyone. But I promise that we'll always be together, even if someone finds out. I was promised to get something important if I can make it through university with my current identity.” Stella whispers grabbing my hand. “So now your turn.”

  I am puzzled. Does she belong to one of the great clans after all? Why would she disguise herself as a commoner? And what's up with that stupid bargain thing? She must have made it when she was five? What kind of deal do you make as a five year old child?

  Leaving me none the wiser, I grab her hands. I'll have to tell her at some point anyway. Better now than never. “I lived on this world. I was one of the... seekers of knowledge, just a bumpy translation. That's what they called us. My people created this city. We thought of our civilisation as untouchable. The pinnacle of society. We controlled the weather of our planet and we could travel from one continent to another within the blink of an eye.”

  I gather my thoughts. “I was always a loner, trying to unravel the last mysteries of magic and science. But then one day our sun darkened and shone less brightly. We never found the reason for it. Well, let's say that we didn't have the time to find the reason. Our planet cooled down and as there wasn't enough food for everyone, wars broke out. We thought we were above such low activities. In the following years I watched my people die. Either they froze to death, or they were killed by others of their kind. It was a hard time and I did some uncivilised things to survive.”