Damian felt like molten lava flowed through his veins, his body boiling as if submerged in thousand-degree oil. His vision blurred with streaks of blue, gold, and black lights as he plummeted into what felt like a never-ending abyss. This time, it was taking much longer than when he'd used the waygate a few days ago.
Just like before, the portal spat Damian out. He stumbled, losing balance despite his strength, and fell to the ground, gasping for air, his lungs had suddenly run dry. His entire body ached—his eyes, hands, legs, everything hurt, as if his insides were still reconstructing themselves. Finally, his breathing slowed enough for him to regain some composure, though his vision remained blurry.
Someone grabbed his shoulder, steadying him. Through the haze, Damian recognized Vidalia—her nature aura, her scent—it was unmistakable. She helped him to his feet, but something immediately felt wrong. The sensation of space tearing apart as the waygate opened was absent. Alarmed, Damian quickly wiped the tears from his eyes, clearing his vision, and looked back.
The shimmering blue portal was gone.
He turned back toward Vidalia, then scanning his immediate surroundings, hoping to find Sister Hadley. But there was no one else. Just the two of them.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
The land around them was completely empty—black, moist dirt stretched in every direction. No vegetation, no animals. Nothing. Where the hell were they? And where was Sister Hadley?"
"Why did you come through? Didn't I tell you to wait?" Vidalia asked behind him, but her words barely registered in Damian's ears.
What the hell had happened here? Was this really Earth?
"Whe… Where is she?" Damian's lips quivered as he spoke, his eyes still searching desperately for something familiar in this bleak landscape. Vidalia placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, showing all the feelings she could muster.
"I'm sorry, Maximus... There was no one here when I arrived," she said softly.
"How is that possible? The waygate doesn't just open randomly! She would have to be here!" Damian's voice rose, his emotions spiraling out of control as he struggled to comprehend the situation.
"Is this really your home?" Vidalia asked, her voice calm but filled with curiosity.
Damian looked up at the overcast sky. Grey clouds stretched endlessly above them, casting a dull, cloudy atmosphere. But he spotted one bright spot—the sun. This was Earth, or at least it also had one sun. Before anything else, he reached within himself, searching for his mana. It was still there.
And Vidalia's mana too. Good, that was good.
"Why did you dismiss the waygate?" she asked again, watching him carefully.
"I didn't. It closed on its own," Damian replied.
"What does that mean? Did you lose control, or did it just run out of mana because of the distance?" she wondered aloud, more to herself than to him.
"Probably the second one."
Damian took a deep breath. At least the air was breathable. Reaching into his spatial storage, he pulled out a runic scroll. He placed it on the ground, glancing at Vidalia, who understood what he was doing without him having to explain. Damian activated the scroll. As expected, flames erupted from the red runic circle above it, also burning the parchment beneath without the fire touching it.
The mana it absorbed destroyed the scroll, but the flames illuminated their surroundings.
"You weren't sure it would work?" Vidalia asked, more curious than confused.
"My world has no such thing as magic," Damian replied.
Her eyes widened in shock. A world without magic, filled only with normal, powerless people, was an unimaginable concept for her.
"And you kept this from me? What if we were stuck here with no mana?" Her voice grew cold, a chill in the air.
"I wasn't planning on bringing you here. You jumped in."
"Ahm.. But… how are you so advanced in spells then? I thought your knowledge came from your world."
"You'll have to marry me to learn that secret,"
Vidalia shot him a sharp look, which oddly made him feel better. His humor however was often a defense mechanism, especially when he was nervous or scared. The world he knew was gone, and the people he once knew were likely gone too. A storm of unknown emotions welled up inside him—was he the last of his kind? Or were there others somewhere, hiding in some last bastion of hope or a broken city?
Vidalia noticed the shift in his expression as he looked around once more, disappointment etched into his features.
"Why did you come through when I hadn't returned?" she asked, maybe to distract him, or maybe out of genuine concern.
"I waited for over 10 minutes, but you didn't come back."
"Ten minutes? You appeared here right after me—just seconds after I landed, you were already here," she said, bewildered.
"Huh? That can't be…" Damian muttered.
What the hell happened? Did he miscalculate? No, that was not it. Was time different here? The waygate crossing had felt much longer too. If their assumption that distance didn't affect the waygate was wrong… The hell..
"Damn it… I should've thought of that. It's a space-time spell—it obviously affects both space and time. That was stupid of me. I just hope the time difference isn't too great."
"What? What do you mean?" Vidalia asked, confused. For someone like her, the idea of time itself being altered was unfathomable. Time was supposed to be absolute, unchangeable. But for Damian's pea sized brain, who'd watched countless sci-fi movies and read novels exploring such possibilities, the concept wasn't so alien.
Black holes provided real-world evidence that time travel was theoretically possible. For her, though, it was a foreign idea.
"Time here is most likely different from our world. Maybe spending a few seconds here is like spending minutes in Eldoris."
"What? That can't be. Are you saying the few minutes we've spent here might be hours back home? That makes no sense."
"We need to get back as fast as possible. Hurry! Power the orb."
"It has a 24-hour cooldown, you fool."