Earth

Page, Arizona

"You got everything packed?" His uncle's gruff voice sounded from behind. 

"Yes Uncle, I got what you told me. Books, writing materials, that crystal currency you told me, clothes, some water bottles, some MREs, and that sword you gave me. Which I might add, you never taught me how to use." Ace said, as he pointed at his black backpack laying next to his uncle's old Subaru.

The night was windy, and more chilly than usual. Page is a small town in Arizona, so not many people were about at this time of day.

'Perfect for what we want.'

"Ace, don't forget about the things I told you. It's very important you follow my instructions. Remember , careful what magic you use, unless times are dire. Pay attention to detail. After you get there, don't forget to look for someone to help you with cultivation. You have learned all I could teach you."

His uncle continued after giving him a solemn look. "Don't disappoint the memory of your parents. Remember our family motto." 

"Yes uncle, I won't forget all you have taught me, I will make my parents proud." Ace said with conviction.

His uncle's eyes moistened a little. "I know you will." He said as he reached into his pocket, first pulling a 6 foot staff made of wood with a small brown crystal in the top, after, he pulled a small piece of paper that had clearly been folded a couple of times.

"Don't forget the staff, use it. Here is a map I drew to help guide you there once you cross."

As Ace received it , he asked. "Uncle, can you tell me more about this bridge? How many are there?"

Taking a deep breath, and staring at the night sky, he replied. "They are not really bridges, at least not physically. They are more of a spatial gate, connecting this world to another. There are six in total here on Earth, two of them are controlled by the American Covenant, as you know, they control both South and North America."

"There is one in the border of Mexico and Guatemala, the other one is the one we are going to, Antelope Canyon. As for the others, well, most of them are controlled by British Council of Wizardry."

"One more question, you told me the bridges, gateways, were closed a while back, and have been since. Why is that?"

"That Ace, is a very long and complicated question, it is not just the gateways on Earth that are closed, but all of them, from thousands of upon thousands of planets. The main reason, if you have to know." He gave him a look. "It's because of a great war that occurred 18 years ago."

"Now get on the car, we have to go." His uncle threw the cigarette he had in his hand, he does not smoke, but seems to always hold one in his hand.

"Yes Uncle."

They drove for around fifteen minutes from page to Antelope Canyon, there were two cars parked there. 'Must be security.' 

His uncle parked the car, and they both got out, they were both dressed in black, he was wearing black tactical pants, and a black polo with a thin black sweater on top.

Ace opened the trunk to get his backpack out.  

"Let's go, I have to activate the gateway for you." His uncle told him as he closed the trunk.

Seeing his uncle move his hand, Ace wanted to pay attention to see if he could learn something, no matter how he tried when he practiced with his uncle, he couldn't do magic without having the runes appear in front of him, but his uncle made it look easy. As his uncle's hands moved the rocks in front of them opened, it was as if someone lifted a curtain to reveal what was on the other side. Revealed it did, inside was a courtyard from what he could see, it was night time as well.

"I wish you the best Ace, and I will see you after you graduate." His uncle told him.

"I guess this is it then, thank you very much for everything uncle. I will keep in mind all that you told me, and I will be the first in my class!" Ace said with conviction.

"I know you will, show them our family is one of the best, and by then you will earn the right know." He placed a hand on Ace's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Now go!"

Since he could remember, he had been training with his uncle, not knowing about his families history, or even his family name, from either side, he just knew they had died when he was a baby. 'One day I will know, one day I will make them proud.'

As he stared at the other side, Ace wondered if he would feel dizzy, like the first time he attempted to teleport. 'That was the worst experience ever.' He thought, remembering how he puked for what felt like hours.

He decided to get it over with and just jumped the last step as he approached. He just felt a change in temperature, and that was it, it just felt warmer.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Looking around, he was in a courtyard, of what he assumed was a castle, as he could see two towers on the corners of the wall in front of him, everything seemed to be made of cobblestone, if it was not just recently built, it must be cleaned every day thoroughly, as he saw everything seemed to shine as if recently waxed.

He turned around to face behind him, the portal back to Earth was closed, in its place, he saw an archway made of some weird sparkling black material covered in runes. Behind the archway there was a fountain, it had a statue holding his finger to the sky, water in the shape of lightning seeped out of his finger, before falling back down into the fountain. Beyond that was what appeared to be the main grounds, there were two large wooden doors that had to lead somewhere inside the castle.

Ace ventured forth, the doors opened with just a touch, belittling their height and feel. Inside, was what you would expect from the Palace of Versailles, everything was a decoration, from the carpet he was standing on, depicting some battle of mythical proportions, the walls full of depictions and portraits of different people, to the high ceiling above, a fantasy version of Sistine Chapel.  

Everything was spotless, and even though his uncle had told him his old friends would not be home, he still called out a "Hello? Anyone here?"

Waiting a few seconds before trying again and not hearing a response, Ace continued his exploration, deciding to take the stairs to see if he could get a high vantage point and orient himself before looking at the map.

He kept climbing step after step, if it was not for his cultivation being in the Bones Strengthening Realm, he might have stopped a while back, that said, he was starting to sweat a lot.

'How many floors have I climbed already? 35?' He wondered. After finally climbing to the top, he took a while to rest before continuing, taking a few deep breaths.

He saw that the top most floor seemed to open up to a big opened balcony, a red carpet led to the small wall separating the balcony to a certain death. 'Did the pope welcome people from here?' He smirked as he walked up to the wall.

What caught his breath was the view, this castle was clearly in a mountain, the surrounding area below the mountain was covered in buildings, this castle was smacked right in the middle of a huge city that went on forever on whichever side he looked. 

"Wow, the owners of this castle must be extremely rich to own a mountain in the middle of a huge city like this." Ace exclaimed in wonder, taking the whole city in.

He noticed far in front of him, a huge dome building that had a blue beam of light heading high into the sky, following the beam he couldn't believe his eyes. "No way! This defensive array must cover the whole city!"

Ace looked all around and noticed that besides the dome, there were four towers that seemed to be powering the defensive shield.

"That much energy must cost a fortune to maintain! I can't even see the stars." He said in awe.

Ace pulled out the map and staff his uncle had given him from his pocket, proceeding to open the map. 

"The fuck is this? It just says 'You are here. Go forward to Gorene Peace Park, can't miss it' in freaking bold red letters!" 

A line and arrow pointed from the park to what said '15 blocks forward, 2 to the right. Enter my friends library, he knows me. Ask for the way to Rudoth Academy' followed by a sad looking attempt at a smiley face. 

"Why didn't I opened the map sooner?" Ace lamented as he walked down the stairs. Going down was much easier than going up, taking him less than five minutes. As he arrived at what he assumed was the foyer, he headed towards the main entrance. The doors opened by themselves as he approached them, he turned around and bowed his head a little in thanks, before turning around and following the path down the mountain. It was a road that curved one way and then the other, it took him an hour at his power walking speed to get to the bottom. 

There were gates that led inside, the rest was surrounded by tall walls. The gates were opened completely, they seemed very intricate, and had a large cursive A on one side. As he came out of the property, he noticed that it seemed the mountain were in a busy intersection, as he saw a lot of people walking in the sidewalk outside the gates. 

As he took a second to take it all in, Ace noticed that some people stop to stare at him and shake their heads, a little girl across the street even jumped and pulled on her mother's sleeve to point at him. 'At least the people here look like people from earth, even if some are wearing weird attires.'

'Why are they acting this way? Am I wearing very outlandish clothes?' He wondered as he looked at the people on his side of the street and saw a few shaking their heads as well.

One person walking towards him said. "At least you tried huh? Everyone must have tried it once. It's good to keep hope young man, maybe one day someone will!" The middle aged man wearing red robes told him with a smile as he patted his shoulder and kept walking on.

'What's going on? Do they know I came from Earth? No, it should be something else. But what?' 

Ace kept walking, if a bit faster than before. After walking for another twenty minutes, he saw a huge park comparable to central park right in front of him.

There was an entrance with a huge gate with golden words floating right on top. Gorene Peace Park

"Gorene Peace Park,this is it." Ace continued walking following the sidewalk, there were people everywhere, exercising, walking , or just enjoying the view.

Feeling magic close to his right he gripped the staff in his left hand tighter, turning around he saw a group of twenty to thirty teenagers with books floating in front of them as they chanted some incantation together, most of them seemed to have completed it successfully, as a small ball made of light floated in front of them. A few failed and nothing happened except their books falling down.

'Spellcasters!' Ace stared at them. 'Wow, they must be a school group practicing outside.' He was excited to see a spellcaster for the first time, having studied for years what he would see Klosos once he arrived here.

He continued walking, eventually reaching what he assumed was the center of the park, a huge statue that looked very lifelike of a man in his late 20s or early 30s with a resolute expression seemed to be casting without a wand, staff or book, an array with 10 circles would appear in front of his outreached palm every now and then. A lady was standing next to him she seemed beautiful with enough detail on her face to see hair strands, her expression stern as she too casted a 10th circle spell at some enemy only they saw. 

'Two 10th circle Magician!! ArchMages! No way! Wow, I wonder who they were?' Ace admired the statues and walked around to see if he saw anything that would give him a clue.

There was a small plaque that was made of some yellow crystal. "Arius Gorene Savior of the Worlds." Next to it was a plaque made of a teal blue crystal. "Awyss Zinada Savior of the Worlds." Flowers were placed around the plaques.

'Yeah that is very informative. I wonder what they did to 'save' the worlds?'

Turning around he saw that many other people would come by and stare, many would bow with respect, before continuing on their way. 

Ace noticed that not too far was a big diagram on the floor and noticed people were heading that way before disappearing and some would appear now and then as well. 

'A teleport diagram!'

'I wonder how it works,' Ace spread his senses trying to see if he could find anything about it. He could detect magic from the surroundings depleting every time someone used it, but that was it.

'Pity.'

Ace continued his voyage, walking out of the park, and after fifteen blocks eventually reaching the intersection on the map, turning right. 

He was amazed with the people flying, some had metal or wooden staffs that they rode on, others had some kind of shield made by their wands underneath them that allowed them to fly, he even saw a few body cultivators using swords to fly. Ace saw the teleportation diagram been used every now and then as well.

'Let's see, the library should be here right?' He doubled checked the crudely drawn map and it was clearly the corner he was looking at from what he could tell.

"High Altitude Coffee" 

'My uncle has never been good with directions.' He sighed as he walked in. 'What to do? Just ask someone I guess.'

"Stop blocking the way." A voice said from behind him. 

Ace turned around to see a blonde hair lady with green eyes, she was wearing a red dress with a golden letter 'I' embroidered on her left side of her chest.

"I apologize." He told her as he moved out of the way, out of the corner of his eye he noticed two people wearing long red cloaks give him a stare before one faced inside the store while the younger of the two faced the street. 

'Bodyguards?'

He turned back to stare at the girl, and notice that most people had regular clothes compared to hers. Shrugging, Ace faced the front of the line, and noticed people seemed to be paying with a bracelet.

Looking around he noticed most people had a bracelet in either wrist, staring back at the girl he did not see a wrist whatsoever, but noticed a silver ring with a red stone on her right index finger and wondered if it served the same purpose. 

The bracelets he noticed had a clear crystal on them. 'They must mean something.' 

BOOM! CRASH!