The Dimensional Link

Aavern took a deep breath, struggling to steady his pounding heart and panicked nerves.

"They're all gone."

All of them.

The orbs were all gone.

"I'm sure we left them behind when we took the gems."

Someone had taken them.

That was the only possibility.

Aavern's thoughts jumbled in a panic as he moved through the air towards Ysk Mountain.

"Just one, maybe just one will be left behind."

Azor had warned them about what would happen if the gems and orbs were out of place. The island would fall into disaster.

Aavern passed through the doorway to Ysk Mountain, finding the creatures of Qade Valley gathered together, staring at Aavern.

Aavern looked around.

"Hmm? You shouldn't be able to see me," Aavern said, tilting his head. A noise behind him made him snap around in surprise.

The creatures weren't staring at him.

They were staring at the tall figure who was walking into the mountain.

Azor.

Aavern froze as Azor entered the cavern, looking around at the creatures, petrified by the appearance of the wizard of legends.

"Is this everyone?" he asked. His voice boomed through the cavern with power and authority.

Before anyone could answer, Azor held out his hand.

"Do me a favor and stay still."

Magic burst forth from Azor's hand. A wave of gray expanded violently and rapidly, so fast that by the time Aavern flinched, the wave was already gone. The gray swept over each and every one of the creatures, each with a look of shock on their faces.

A few in the back had looks of terror.

The announcer even tried to scream as the magic swept over him, but to no avail.

As the magic passed over the gathering, each and every creature fell silent and froze. Their scales, fur, and skin turned gray. Their eyes turned dead. All life left the creatures' bodies as they turned into stone.

Aavern's heart began to beat wildly out of his chest as he stood there, frozen, while Azor walked calmly through the statues that used to be creatures.

Aavern turned around, his face still stricken with shock, to stare accusingly at Azor.

"Why- why would you do this?" Aavern whispered. "What are you doing?"

His voice reached deaf ears. During the trial, Aavern's words never traveled beyond his own ears.

Aavern could only stare in shock, forcing his legs to move while Azor entered the tunnel leading to the air gem as if he knew it was there all along.

-

Cyil was startled out of his thoughts when the strange creature returned.

It's been going on for a day now. 

"What has?"

That battle. They never get close enough for me to see it.

"Who's fighting?"

From here, it looks like two black wyverns.

Cyil smiled. Dracoa was still alive, but she was fighting something. She might lose at any moment, but she seemed to be holding out well.

I figured out how to send you back.

"Really?"

Yes.

"How?"

Just walk back through your portal. It's over there.

Cyil looked over. The portal he made was sitting at an awkward angle over to his right.

"Oh." Cyil didn't know what to say.

Come visit again if you can.

"Okay. Nice to meet you, Overseer!"

Cyil waved a wing and left.

Cyil set out across the rift, gliding lightly towards the portal across the Dimensional Link. He stopped over the battle. The sight makes his heart stop. There it was, a black, shadowy shape. Still not quite a solid shape, but it almost made Cyil faint. Cyil watched as it snapped around to deflect a translucent, strangely shaped wisp slicing towards it. He quickly floated back up onto the rift, taking a significant effort to get through the strange current. He made it, but the portal has moved slightly. It was facing the wrong way, into the mountain instead of over it. He entered anyway. He was transported into the cave.

"Huh?"

The stone creatures they were fighting were all in their original spots, but faded and ghostlike. He looked worriedly around for the exit. Smooth stone walls, rubble piled all over the place, and faded stone animals who he once knew covered any exit there once was from the cave. He shivered at the thought and decided to break his way out. Finding a wall up near the roof, he stored another fireball in his fur. He then noticed it. The mostly cracked stone serpent up on the roof, beaming down faint lines of red to a creature below, growing stronger and suddenly disappearing, then releasing a creature from its mouth, which picked its way through the rubble to a tiny hole that was once the main entrance. Cyil flung the fireball at the stone snake. He was surprised when the fireball turned out to be shining white. It impacted with a deafening explosion. The stone snake shattered, crumbling once more. Shards of rock flew everywhere. The top of the mountain was blown off by the shockwave, sending a thick spray of rock chunks into the cavern and triggering a devastating avalanche outside. The rocky ghost animals returned to their solid, bluish appearance. The stone snake was now nothing more than a pile of rubble falling from the ceiling, now with a massive gaping hole. Cyil flew through the hole and saw a battlefield littered with the few remaining animals. He set himself on fire and plummeted into the ground on top of the last ones. They were promptly incinerated. One creature that managed to escape took Qassot's sword through the chest. The sword yanked itself free and returned to Qassot's claw.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I killed the stone snake which was reviving all the creatures."

"That explains why there were so many," Riselus grunted.

"I wasn't talking about that," Qassot said. She points up, "It's raining fire."

Cyil looked up. The vortex was barely visible, but it was infusing the clouds with heat. Fire and flame rained down the mountain on the freshly overturned rocks.

"Oh. There's a portal up there. Can you extinguish it?"

"I can't see it. There's too much fire."

Riselus heard this and rose parts of rock to make a spiral staircase suspended in midair. Qassot jumped up on them and put out the vortex.

Everything was on fire.

Cyil put his ninth tongue of flame into his fur and watched everything burn. He was oddly enjoying the crackling of fire, slowly turning everything to ashes. Qassot landed and extinguished everything. Cyil frowned at her. Qassot didn't notice. She instead was looking at the mountain. The numerous swords - there were now almost two dozen - slowly merged back together, becoming a single sword, which then sheathed itself. She shuddered and moved away from the other two. Qassot peered into a crack in the mountain. The stone animals were still there. Blue glow and all. Relieved, she got up and floated off of the mountain. The other two were looking at Azor's castle, the size of a seed in the distance, completely isolated from the surrounding area. Cyil was staring hard at it. Qassot came over to them.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Riselus pointed and Qassot fell silent.

"It's too far away," Riselus said, "There's not enough rock here to make a bridge."

"Can't we just fly or float over?" Qassot suggested.

"You can, Cyil can, but I can't."

Qassot could barely see through the humid mist and the purplish streaks, but enough to see a jumble of pale bricks on a floating island far away. The sky, now below as well as above, was a brilliant shade of deep blue, fading to black in some places, with the smudged dots of stars clustered near the sun.

Qassot sighed. "There is no way we are getting there, and the Dimensional Link is still blocked off."

Cyil perked up.

"Who says we can't?"

-

Aavern shook in a mixture of anger and shock as he watched Azor easily subdue the guardian with the same wave of gray and take the air orb from its pedestal. In the final throes of the guardian's resistance, its massive tail smashed through the floor of the chamber, revealing a shaft further below. The now-frozen guardian gradually slipped and fell down into the shaft, landing with a crash far below.

"That makes four," Azor said, smiling with satisfaction.

The smile was laced with anticipation and strange intent that sent a chill down Aavern's spine.

There was a tearing noise as the world itself began to crumble.

Aavern was still in shock as the world erupted into light. Brilliant white lit up the world as Aavern emerged into the small space where he met the Overseer. Every fiber of his being tingled with power as the light gem floated towards Aavern, settling into the last golden chain he had stored in his fur and hanging itself around Aavern's neck.

The earth itself erupted into a resounding cheer, celebrating the new owner of the light gem. The world, the rivers, the trees, the sky, the void and toroid itself, everything groaned and shouted, raising their soundless voices in a triumph. A clear voice resounded through the world. The voice of the Overseer congratulated Aavern.

He is victorious.

Light enveloped the world as reality celebrating Aavern's success.

He had passed the trial.

But the shock and dread on Aavern's face didn't change.

He stumbled slightly, looking around in a daze.

Congratulations, you have succeeded.

Aavern turned his head groggily to look at the Overseer.

"Have I really?"

Yes. You are now the wielder of the Light Gem. Aren't you happy?

Aavern shook his head slightly as he gazed blankly at the Overseer.

"I need to check on something."

Without another word, Aavern left the rock and sped out of the toroid. Newfound power surged through him as the light gem settled around his neck and accepted him.

Aavern didn't notice. He eyes were focused on where the rocks suspended in the void should be.

He visited them one by one, and with each one, he fear and anxiety in his stomach rose and grew stronger.

The blue rock was off.

The green rock no longer glowed.

The red rock cast no more light.

The gray rock was no more than a lump of earth floating through the void.

Aavern remained there, with dread on his face, as he looked at the gem around his neck. Shock suddenly ran through his brain, a sharp burst of adrenaline that screamed at him.

Aavern turned back and rushed to the toroid, back to the rock which held the light gem.

The runes still glowed.

But there was a figure standing there, approaching the rock.

Aavern's body erupted with light as he struck the figure with a powerful beam of magic. The figure easily turned and blocked with a storm of black fire.

"What are you doing?" he snarled, descending in front of the figure.

Azor's cold face stared back at him.

-

A few minutes later, Riselus had found a round rock a little bigger than Cyil. He hurled it up into the air. Cyil waited for it to come down, then pulled an almost white fireball from his fur. He leapt up and smashed it into the rock just before it landed. The vortex opened.

They were sucked through the portal into the dimensional link.

"You weren't kidding," Qassot murmurs, "There really is another way in."

The rift lies before them, a vast expanse of blackness with a faint greenish grid lying on the invisible ground on which they glided across. Cyil went ahead a few paces.

"I'm back!" he yelled.

"Who's he talking to?" Riselus whispered to Qassot.

"I don't know, but he seems to have been here before."

"I hope nothing bad happens."

The creature emerges from the mist.

"Who is that?" Riselus calls up to Cyil.

"This is a creature who lives here. It manages the place."

Actually, I just watch over it. The light gem used to handle it. The orb is also gone, which is an issue.

Cyil started getting excited.

"So that means that Aavern succeeded?" he asked.

You will know soon enough.

"What even are you?" Qassot asked.

"Well, we came to say hi and get to Azor's castle by taking a shortcut through here," Cyil piped up.

Very nice. Make sure to move the vortex to where you want it.

"Will do."

Cyil led them away and quietly asked Qassot how to move the vortex.

"I don't know, you made it," Qassot replied.

Cyil tried grabbing the edge of the vortex. He went right through to the other side and had to fly back in before he fell into the void between the island parts. He tried fanning it with his wings but only succeeded in blowing some dust into Riselus's face. Qassot finally extinguished the fire surrounding it and had Riselus alter the ground-like substance underneath it. The vortex was slowly moved across the rift, gaining speed. Cyil stuck his head in occasionally to make sure it was going in the right direction. After a while, Riselus rested and let it glide. It stopped soon after. Cyil jumped through it. He landed at the edge of the mountains surrounding Azor's castle. He looked around and recognised the former shoreline. He went to jump back through the vortex. On the other side, Qassot was staring curiously at the center of the rift, where the toroid appeared through the floor.

"We're right at Azor's castle. Let's go," Cyil called.

Qassot just stood there.

Riselus prodded her, "It's time to go."

Qassot muttered something and leapt through the portal. Riselus followed. Cyil cast a final look at the toroid. The fight was still going strong. He smiled slightly and leapt through, closing the portal behind him. On the other side, they looked at the mountain range. A small path had been broken through it. They walked along the path and through it to Azor's castle.