Li approached the rift.
"Tia, stand behind me," 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 me," 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 movement. "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 messengers 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 comets of fire and flesh. Were there not more? Or rather, did not the Old Ones in command of them come with them?"
"No, and thank all that exists for that, for the first time 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 flame 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 Prometheas 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 Game+ item. Well, it existed in the base campaign, but in the New Game+ added content, one could take the Prometheas 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 Prometheas was a construct created by Helius to fight against his corrupted brother, but it proved too weak to fight against the multi-planetary and dimensional 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 Prometheas and upgrade it into a weapon that even Old Ones feared.
Right now, though, the Prometheas was in its base, divine tier state. Still capable of harming Old Ones, but a little outscaled compared to truly endgame content.
"No. I found this weapon in another world. Much like this one. The very same 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 same 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 phenomenon called alternate dimensions. Many different versions of our reality layered atop each other on the same 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 come should the Darkness reach this world."
"Alternate dimensions…," 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 dimensions. Different realities.
"Tell me, Lira," said Li. "Tell me 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 emergence, I slew the creatures that had emerged through it. But before I myself took to traversing the rift, I called to Shen'sai, a specialist in spatial and dimensional travel who had long left this world, and he came 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 me, a construct, to connect with. But I know that once you close this rift, it will come back, and then the memories 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 Prometheas. "We will have more time 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 time 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 meant 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 memory, that you return it to my true self when she arrives."
"I have no issue with that. I trust that in times to come, your true self will be aiding me?"
"If you ever even need any help, then yes," said Lira.
"Then so be it. This rift will be no more," declared Li. He came up to the rift and looked at his hands for a second, the sharp branches that formed 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 home.
He jammed 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.