The Rift

Even with careful and slow movements, simply sitting up cost Katherine several minutes and she almost passed out more than once. Finally, with sweat on her forehead and gritted teeth, her back reached a vertical position. For a short moment, she halted and only gasped for breath. Was it her imagination or did breathing turn more torturous by the second? The white sparks in her vision multiplied as well, but neither was her biggest worry.

Anxiously, her hand wandered down her belly and when she reached the wet blood between her thighs, she pressed her eyes close and swallowed against the lump forming in her throat. Her baby... her little baby... if only she could save it by remaining still, she would.

Instead, she forcefully subdued her emotions and turned sideways onto all fours. Without sight, she deduced that crawling was better than walking. The new position strained her belly which was pulled on by gravity, yet she could still handle the pain. Much better at least than the thought of what it implied, which she had locked away deeply in her hurting heart. Since she didn't know from where she fell, she faced a random direction and began to crawl. She could just hope that she was not crawling parallel to the canyon's walls.

She moved her legs for the second time when suddenly the darkness in front of her seemed to rip open with a sound like a clap, loud and brisk. White blinded her vision. Surprised, she jerked back, yet before she could see clearly what it was, the light vanished again, exchanged for a multitude of new sparks.

Katherine shook her head and blinked against the disorientation. But before she was sound enough to move again, another clap came from behind her, then another at the side, and another, and another. Soon, Katherine felt like sitting in a pan with exploding oil, only much louder. At least she was not burned. Or was she? Somehow, her power dwindled at an increasingly alarming speed. If it continued like this, she would be sucked dry and defenseless in no time!

When she realized this, Katherine's limbs moved in a frenzy, trying to escape the area as fast as possible. However, for such straining activity, she needed more air than she had. Thus, dizziness overcame her and she had to stop and rest her head on her arms after a few meters. The clapping sounds around her continued, even growing louder as whatever-it-was rapidly ate through her power. She tried stopping the output, but it seemed impossible without stopping her power altogether - which was impossible as well!

Helplessly cowering on the ground, Katherine covered her ears against the increasingly noisy environment. Light flickered all around her, not only from her ability but also from the strange gaps opening and closing faster than blinks in the darkness. It was a torrent of sound and light, almost as if she sat in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning striking millimeters from her skin. Her magic was nearly depleted, only residuals flickering weakly to her protection.

Then - KABOOM!

When the brightest gap until now opened, the sound made Katherine's ears ring and sight swim. The echo traveled along the canyon, cracking the earth and loosening rocks that rumbled down into the darkness as avalanches. Luckily, only a few stray stones hit Katherine, leaving bloody scratches. She didn't even have the luxury to care about those. Instead, she stated with an open mouth and watering eyes at the brightness that parted the fabric of reality.

It looked as if a universal knife had made a diagonal cut of roughly the high and length of Katherine's body into the space behind her. A blinding white light poured through, and for a second, Katherine saw colors swirling inside. Then, just as suddenly, a terrible suction force emerged from inside the rift, pulling everything within the vicinity towards it. Nothing was spared; the dark river, the stones of the ground, the rare bits of air, and also Katherine. Caught in the stream of darkness gushing through the rift, Katherine fought desperately against the current, yet it was hopeless. With a scream, more furious than fearful, she vanished inside the rift.

Above the river, Ve lifted a brow when he heard the scream, but was much more interested in the whirl that formed in the darkness. Liters and liters of it were pulled into the space behind the rift as if it was an insatiable monstrosity. From above, where the rift was not visible, it looked like a plug was pulled from the canyon's floor and the darkness rapidly flowed through it. Still, with the gigantic mass of the darkness, it would take long for the river to dry out.

"It is happening," Ve said with an eager, almost fanatic gleam in his eyes. "Finally, the dimensions are connected. Now, we can enter and see the residence of gods!"

Bending over the cliff to have a better view, Ve was too distracted to notice the warm breath that drifted down his neck. Then a friendly whisper. "Yes, please lead the way."

With a gentle push, Ve lost his footing and fell from the cliff. After the moment of surprise, he roared in anger and turned in the air to glare at Ethan. "You -"

Whatever he wanted to say, the darkness swallowed him first. Ethan smiled and waved as if to say goodbye to a friend instead of sending someone to his death. "Thank you for your hard work!"

Then he turned around to the other researchers and guards in the cave. None of them had realized what happened yet. They stared at Ethan with varying degrees of surprise, disbelief, and shock.

Ethan smiled back harmlessly and with a flick of his fingers, a half-circle of roaring flames rolled into the cave, consuming everything in its path. The researchers were hit first. Whoever wasn't fast enough to hide behind the equipment, turned into screaming human torches. The guards with their metal armor fared a bit better. Two even instinctively raised their hands to shield their faces and due to the metal gauntlets, their actions succeeded. The others screamed as their skin was burned, and fell to their knees, or stumbled around blindly.

When the flaming wave passed, two guards and three researchers were still unaffected. The former bellowed curses and stormed forward to avenge their comrades, while the latter did the opposite, scrambling to their feet and running into the tunnels that lead from the cave.

Ethan watched them flee, then turned to the approaching fighters and raised his hands, murmuring in a sing-song-voice: "Stomp the ants, stomp the ants before they sting ~"

Against a proficient dragsean war magician, normal soldiers were almost useless. Especially if it was someone like Ethan, who could turn his flames hot enough to melt metal if he so wished. It took but a few seconds before the cave sported nothing but burning corpses and a maniac who happily hummed to himself as he sat on the cave's edge with his legs dangling down, happily waiting for the river of darkness to reveal the outcome of their experiment.

"Kitty, Kitty, you are such a joy to watch... even though I can't really see you right now."