“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Roger said absently as the three of them sat together relaxing.
“You heard Asuta muttering up a storm, she was so excited,” Lira said, “Who knows how much longer they’ll be based on how she was acting.”
“No,” Roger said in disbelief as he turned to look at her, “Surely not? It’s been weeks! They can’t have been going for that long, could they? I mean they could but…”
Roger looked to Sean for support, but he just shrugged. They’d come back eventually. The threat of the Endless Flesh was defeated, no reason for them to rush.
“Maybe Asuta will have relaxed and not be so over the top once they’re done,” Sean said to reply to Roger, “Probably best for all our sanity that they take a bit longer. And to all the new Immortals floating around this place. Who knows how they would react if Asuta got in the mood to teach them one of her ‘sensei lessons’.”
Roger sat back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “Yeah,” he admitted, “You’re probably right, Sean. Hey what’s Ash up to anyways? Haven’t seen them in a few days.”
“She’s just mingling with the others,” Lira said, “She seemed interested in talking with some new people. None of these people hate her because she’s a machine so she can talk to them normally. I think she was a bit nervous about being so social, but over the last few days she’s really taken to it.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Roger said, “I didn’t think about how these Immortals act so differently around Ash than everyone else we’ve met. Good for them. I’m sure that Ash will-”
The door to the room opened and they all turned. Entiru and Alvrix were walking arm and arm and whispering to each other with smiles on their faces as they walked in. They froze and both looked caught as they saw Roger, Lira, and Sean staring at them.
“Ah, we can… go elsewhere,” Entiru said after recovering his wits and both him and Alvrix straightening and trying to look nonchalante.
“No, not at all,” Sean said, “Stay if you’d like, I’ve been curious about your homeworld actually. Gaia was it? I’ve only heard some snippets from the others, but mostly superficial things. We were just saying it’s good how all of you seem so friendly with Ash. Most people are prejudiced against him unfortunately.”
Entiru paused and hesitated before sharing a glance with Alvrix. The woman shrugged as she matched his look before the both of them walked over and sat next to each other on a couch opposite the chairs that Lira, Sean, and Roger were in.
“Of course,” Entiru answered, “Where to start? Ash there is truly a marvel of engineering. Never seen anything like them before. They’ve seemed friendly enough to us. Is there some stigma against Ash normally?”
“Yes, it’s rather horrible for her,” Lira said, jumping in, “Everyone judging her and thinking she might go rogue and start killing everybody at any second. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. They give a child an antimatter bomb and wonder how people get hurt. It’s not the fault of the poor intelligent machines but their bad parents for not helping them calm down and understand in their worst moments right after they first gain sentience!”
Sean reached out and put his hand over Lira’s and she calmed slightly as she started ranting and her volume rose slightly.
“Yes, that sounds… rather horrible,” Alvrix said, although both her and Entiru looked slightly puzzled as they apparently tried to piece together exactly what Lira meant by her words.
There was a short silence in the room.
“So, ah. What about this Genemother?” Roger said to break the silence, “What she’s like Entiru? People said you’ve met her right? Your Queen? Ruler?”
“Oh, I think you must have misunderstood,” Entiru said, looking relieved as the conversation shifted to more familiar territory, “She wasn’t a political ruler, running a government despite how we refer to her. She intentionally shunned power like that, thinking that Immortals shouldn’t be telling mortals what to do with their lives. I only spoke with her occasionally, but she was just as kind and wise as the stories always said that she was. It was always my dream to live in her service as a knight. As an Immortal, it only let me serve her in perpetuity instead of wasting away in old age…”
“So who was she if she wasn’t your ruler?” Roger asked, “A… spiritual leader? A ceremonial position?”
“It’s…” Entiru spoke, looking like he had too much to say and couldn’t figure out what to say first, “...It’s a lot more than that,” he eventually settled on, “It’s more than a spiritual leader. More than anyone else would be. She’s just… Even children know how important she is on our world. She’s the Genemother. It’s hard to describe how significant she is to us…”
Seeing Entiru struggling to explain, Alvrix spoke up, “Her and the other Nine were the first Immortals. But the Genemother was the first to help us mortals and care for us when we first settled the new world. The others stood back and wanted nothing to do with us… But she was always there, helping us grow and not asking for anything in return. Saying that someone is disrespecting her is considered one of the worst insults for us. That’s how important she is to our society.”
“The… first ten immortals?” Lira said slowly, “And… There were exactly ten? Those were the people on your world?”
“Yes, of course!” Alvrix said a little defensively, “They’re the first ones, the Shadow gave them the first blessings ever and sent them to settle their new world to resurrect humanity. If they hadn’t settled Gaia then everyone would have perished along with Earth!”
Half way through Alvrix’s response, Sean abruptly realized what Lira had been hinting at. No way… The first ten Immortals. The ten Founders that created that artwork on Immortus Station. Emily was one of the founders.
“What was her name?” Sean said suddenly, “The woman, this Genemother? What was her full name?”
“Emily Stenson,” Entiru said instantly before looking at all three of them as their jaws dropped and they collectively took in deep breaths.
“Oh shit,” Roger breathed, “It really is her. What are the chances?”
“Her?” Entiru asked sharply, “You know about her? Do you know where she’s gone? It was our hope to organize to find her and save her if she’s been captured by the Endless Flesh…”
“Well…” Sean said, “Remember Emily? Our savior repairing the weapon that blew up the main ship of the Endless Flesh? That’s been off celebrating with Asuta for the last few weeks?”
“Emily? What’s that got to do with…” Entiru said before realization flashed across his face and his whole body froze.
“No…” he said in disbelief.
“What is it? I don’t understand,” Alvrix said as she looked between Sean and Entiru.
“Emily Stenson. That’s her full name,” Lira replied and Alvrix seemed to finally understand and also sat there equally stunned.
Then Entiru burst out laughing and everyone jolted in place.
“Ah, this is wonderful!” he said, “She doesn’t need saving after all! Such a relief, I had worried about finding her in this wider galaxy and universe that we’ve found ourselves in all these years later.”
“Yes, it’ll be interesting when she gets to meet you again…” Sean said before trailing off at the end. He thought about how Emily had acted after they returned from their journey to the past together. If that’s how she reacted to Earth… Then how would she react to these people from the distant past who knew her?
— — —
“My Queen, we enter your service once again!” Entiru shouted and the large hangar filled with Immortals immediately dropped to their knees and put a fist over their hearts over their chests. Every single Immortal that had been from Gaia. It hadn’t been all of them, maybe less than twenty or thirty percent of the total number of Immortals that had been saved actually were Gaians. But that still represented hundreds of them all swearing absolute loyalty to Emily without a single person dissenting.
“Thank you,” Emily said, still looking vaguely overwhelmed even days later after hearing the news of the Gaians and who they truly were. But not as much as Sean had expected her too honestly, based on her behavior since he’d known her. She seemed oddly grounded and thoughtful ever since she’d returned after her long vacation with Asuta.
Even the news of the Gaians hadn’t fully shaken her from her thoughtful mood, her frowning slightly and staring into space most of the time and seeming slightly distant as she spoke to everyone.
“As your Queen, I gratefully accept,” Emily said loudly, “May peace, justice, and kindness spread through the world,” Emily answered Entiru, “Thank you all, I’m glad that you’re all here and safe.”
“Hah!” All of the Immortals let out a martial grunt before beating their chest twice with their clenched fist.
After a few more formalities the ceremony ended and Emily walked forward into the crowd and started speaking with them. Now that the ceremony was over Emily had relaxed and seemed to have snapped out of her strange mood recently as she spoke with the Gaians. She seemed happy to see all of them, greeting them like old friends. Hugging them and even comforting a few that seemed overwhelmed with emotion when they greeted her.
All of them seemed supremely relieved that Emily hadn’t been captured by the Endless Flesh like the rest of them. Although there was some shouting and swearing once Emily broke the news about her terrible reputation in the wider galaxy to them. It seems the idea of everyone hating her for so long was a supremely upsetting idea to them.
“I bet it was the other nine!” Entiru suddenly said over the babbling of the crowd, “They were always trying to worm their way into controlling us and Gaia. I bet with all of us gone they swooped in and exploited the Genemother’s kindness for their own ends.”
Most of the Gaians nodded and muttered agreement.
“No, no, it wasn’t like that,” Emily protested, “Look, I know how they acted on Gaia. How they were always trying to make themselves look better and make decisions when they were in the Council. But after what happened they were only helpful in fixing things up and assisting with the terraforming efforts.”
“And who’s in control of this Immortal Council now? The main government of the galaxy?” Entiru challenged as the rest of the crowd quieted down at Emily’s words, “Peter Rose! The leader of the other nine. How do you know they weren’t helping you for their own power? Why else would they let people think such horrible things about you, Genemother?”
“Look, it wasn’t like that!” Emily insisted, “Things have only turned sour in the last few million years. Long after most of the other nine were long gone from the galaxy, out to explore the wider universe. Before that things were… tense, but not like they are now. Peter Rose just wants the best for everyone, he’s just very stubborn in doing it his own way like he has with the Immortal Council. They have their flaws, but his system has worked out for almost everyone but me.”
Entiru opened mouth to say something else, but as Emily stared at him pointedly, he closed his mouth and looked away at the ground while still looking upset.
“I get it’s hard to understand,” Emily said, “I don’t like how people in the galaxy see me now either. But it is what it is.”
“It doesn’t have to be!” Entiru said as he looked up again, “If someone’s behind it or not… We’re all here now! We can go out into the galaxy and tell them what you’re really like!”
Emily looked uncomfortable before sighing, “Well, we can discuss that later. The Plaguebringers have no problems at all praising me, you might just get yourselves in trouble if you’re too open about me not being some ruthless monster or evil goddess. I’ve already talked with Asuta and we’ll host you all here for a few centuries for whoever needs it. But I’d like you all to go your own way to explore the galaxy. Get on your own footing and see what’s out there. You’ll be able to visit us of course, but things can’t return to how they were with Gaia now that there’s a whole galaxy out there for you to spread out in.”
Most of the Gaians seemed disappointed but understood her point. Although after Emily left, Sean heard Entiru gather some others and discuss settling a new planet of their own. A ‘new Gaia’ where they could live away outside the confines of the Immortal Council’s regulated zones of the galaxy for Immortals.
It seems that all of them had a faint distaste for the Immortal Council as a whole once they learned that Peter Rose was the one who controlled it. It seems that they didn’t think that he was evil or anything, just someone ambitious and power hungry in a ‘crass’ way as Alvrix said when Sean asked her about it. Something that Gaian culture shunned away from as they seemed much more communal and focused on the needs of the community rather than the much more individualistic Immortal Society that Sean and the others were more used to.
Even on Enguli, in his small town, there had been that strong streak of individualism and pride in being as independent as possible. The Gaians were completely different, focused more on working together as a large group out in the galaxy rather than dispersing into smaller groups as Sean might have expected them to.
Sean, Lira, Ash, and Roger were seen as experts of sorts as they all milled about in conversation and told the others about what they’d seen in the galaxy. Some of the non-Gaian Immortals filtered in the room too as time passed and they seemed to realize that the ceremony was over and that Emily was gone. The remaining seventy percent or so of the Immortals were all still incredibly old, all over ten million years old at least from some rough calculations. Even if they weren’t actually from Gaia itself. So they were just as interested in what Sean and his companions could tell them about the current state of the galaxy as well.
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Ash was particularly popular with all of the ancient Immortals, as he had a flawless memory and had studied history much more than his Immortal crew members ever had. So he was able to answer their questions about the past while Sean, Roger, and Lira only knew bits and pieces besides the current state of the galaxy.
Most of their knowledge came from interesting tidbits that Ash had told them during his studies, but they did their best when all the other Immortals crowded in to ask them questions.
Eventually, the conversation that eventually evolved into an interrogation as they were surrounded on all sides by curious Immortals ended. Everyone drifted off and they managed to politely escape and head back to their rooms to relax. It had been a long few straight days of talking for all of them and they were all ready to sleep and recharge their social batteries after having to talk to people for so long.
— — —
Five hundred years passed. Over time the over fourteen hundred Immortals that had been saved by the Endless Flesh filtered out and left to explore in the galaxy. Most in small groups of three or four close friends that they’d made over the last few years who set out on their journeys together. Emily and Asuta had plenty of money and spare ships even as they recovered from the invasion of the Endless Flesh.
Asuta and Emily gave the small crews a basic hyperdrive capable ship so they could get to a more urban star system. From there Emily had given all of them passwords and keys to some funds and access to some of her digital assets to start them off.
The amount of money Emily gave access to each of them was a bit mind boggling honestly. For each crew of four or five maximum people Emily gave enough funds that unless they blew it all somehow that they should be able to buy almost any type of ship they could want in an urban system. Even one of the high luxury models.
Sean had asked Emily about it, and all she’d said was that she had enough money to spread around and she didn’t mind. It seems that when she toppled evil governments or corporations she saw no issue with ‘liberating’ their assets from them as they went down. So she was sitting on top of quite the pile of wealth that she’d accumulated over her life.
The vast majority of the Immortals took Emily up on her offer for the smaller crews and the money and left while thanking her profusely for saving from the Endless Flesh as well as the help afterward.
Even the Immortals that had seemed skeptical or suspicious of Emily’s motives in the beginning had turned around and apologized to her for believing the ‘rumors’ about her connection to the Plaguebringers. But all of them seemed to see her positively now from what Sean had seen.
It seems that even in the ancient days after Gaia's destruction there’d been rumors she’d been connected to the Plaguebringers, although it was only rumors rather than the accepted ‘fact’ like it was in modern times. And the increased villainous characterization of the Plaguebringers in modern times rather than the faint distaste the ten million year old or more Immortals seemed to have for the organization.
It seems that back then that the Plaguebringers were seen as a sort of necessary evil working to combat the Endless Flesh rather than the pests and immoral monsters that they were seen as in the galaxy today.
There was one large group that went all as one. Five or six of the Gaians had split off and left spread out with some of the other crews in the intervening years, but the vast majority of the Gaians wanted to go all together. Entiru had been pushing hard for them to find and settle their own world as a ‘new Gaia’ for centuries now. Alvrix also pushed hard for the idea, although Sean could tell she was only doing it to make her boyfriend Entiru happy rather than being overly invested in the cause herself.
It had taken a long time to get everything prepared. Five hundred years. But two years ago the massive expedition had finally been ready and launched out into the galaxy. All the other Immortals were gone from this place, the Gaians being the last to leave. They had scanning equipment, some customized terraforming equipment and spores to create life on whatever planet they chose to settle. Sean wished them well, even if he knew the Immortal Council wouldn’t be happy once they realized what the Gaians were trying to do.
It felt so much quieter with everyone gone now after things being so hectic for these last few centuries.
Sean and the others had been following along and trying to help Asuta and Emily as they worked to fix the devastated environment of their planet. The swarms of the Endless Flesh had trampled everything under their feet, and consumed any biomass they could get their hands on. Besides the occasional small plant or small creature no larger than a pinky, all other life on the planet was gone now that the Endless Flesh was defeated and their members all killed by the strikes by the weaponized satellites in orbit and missiles from Asuta’s fortress cities.
Mostly Sean and the rest of his companions took their ship out into the galaxy to pick up some supplies and biological samples for Emily and Asuta’s terraforming efforts. The terraforming spores could only iterate and diversify life from the animals and plants that were given it initially. So Asuta and Emily wanted a wide variety of creatures that they could introduce to the planet in groups to create the biomes that they wanted.
Sean didn’t understand the customization process of the terraforming spore despite Emily trying to patiently explain it to him several times. And Asuta as well although much less successfully and more incoherently.
Asuta knew the process down to heart, but she often got excited and skipped several steps in her explanations and moving onwards without even noticing her jump and leaving Sean even more confused than he had coming in.
Emily and Asuta finally released the terraforming spores on the barren planet about three hundred years ago. They’d already seeded the various regions with the life that they wanted to form the scattered ecosystems that they wanted. But the species were fragile and by Emily’s estimates the biosphere would collapse again within a few decades if nothing was done to fix it.
So the terraforming spores would spread and grow to fill in the gaps and make the biosphere robust and varied again across the planet.
It should be another two or three hundred years before the terraforming spores finally became infertile again and started dying off. But for now the planet was bursting with new life, with new species appearing seemingly almost daily and recreating the massive web of life that had been lost in the Invasion.
— — —
But none of that was important right now. Right now Sean was curled up with Lira on the couch for their romantic movie night. It was pretty standard fare, very cheesy so far with the drama. One nice guy, two girls. One who was completely toxic and pretentious and was the man’s current girlfriend, and the other small world girl that the audience was rooting for to get with him in the end.
The male lead was opening the door to his apartment, unaware that his toxic girlfriend was waiting inside shouting at some poor delivery worker over her holopad.
He opened the door and froze at the explosion of sound from inside his apartment contained by the sound proofed walls and the door opened.
The girlfriend’s head snapped to the man.
“Retul! Come and tell this man how he’s wrong!” the girlfriend demanded before the male lead could even process what was happening. The man reached behind him with a put upon expression as his girlfriend shouted at him for not supporting her immediately as he hesitated at the door. Just before the door shut behind him, Sean saw a shadowy figure standing in the hallway with blazing orange eyes. The Shadow. But then the door finished closing and the Shadow was gone again.
Sean sat up and tuned back into the show that had frankly been boring him a little before this. Was this secretly a horror movie? Had it been holding out on him just to throw in a twist at over half way through?
Lira shifted from where they were snuggled into each other but didn’t say anything as she sensed him perking up and engaging with the movie again.
The movie continued and the male lead’s relationship with his toxic girlfriend worsened even more as his relationship with the woman he was supposed to be with flourished. The two went walking in the local park together and talked about their families and their hobbies. The Shadow was standing there flickering in the trees, its blazing orange eyes staring directly at the viewer. Whenever the characters turned, the Shadow dissipated and faded away again into the shadows. There one moment and gone the next as soon as one of the characters was about to lay their eyes on it.
The Shadow was showing up more and more often in the film, no longer the small sightings and glimpses like earlier but becoming a looming presence over every interaction. The characters of the film kept continuing with their relationship drama unaware of the lurking Shadow watching them from behind whenever their heads were turned. Building the suspense for whatever would happen next.
Sean sat up, riveted by the suspense as the relationship drama reached a climax. The male lead had broken up with his old girlfriend and was about to confess his true feelings to the kind woman he was supposed to be with. They were in a hot drink shop together and the male lead was building up the courage to confess his feelings as their drinks grew cold between them on the table as they spoke.
But out of the window in the street, the Shadow stood clear as day. Pedestrians walked on the city streets right by it, completely unaware of its presence. Sean barely even paid attention to the melodramatic conversation between the male lead and the woman across from him. Every few seconds the Shadow would flicker and phase back into existence closer to the couple on a part of the screen that Sean wasn’t directly staring at at any particular moment.
The Shadow in the movie kept its glowing orange eyes fixed directly on the viewer. Sean tried to catch the Shadow’s reappearance as it disappeared again. But somehow it appeared again on the complete opposite side of the screen as where Sean was looking. It was uncanny how the filmmakers had managed to do this…
Finally the male lead and the woman were holding hands and kissing each other over the table with their drinks gone fully cold on the table beneath them. The Shadow was looming right outside their window staring at the viewer with its blazing orange eyes.
Sean waited in suspense for what was going to happen. Would there be some disaster? Would one or both of the characters become an Immortal as the finale? What would happen?
“I didn’t know you were so excited by the drama,” Lira suddenly whispered into Sean’s ear, “You’re so… riveted.”
“This show is amazing,” Sean whispered back, “The suspense! This is really coming out of left field. You didn’t tell me that this was a horror film.”
“Horror film?” Lira asked in confusion as the jealous ex-girlfriend walked in the door and gasped in betrayal at seeing her former boyfriend kissing the other girl over the table. The Shadow still stood outside the window of the coffee shop staring at the audience. It raised its hand and reached out to place its hand on the pane of glass as its eyes glowed with an orange light as it tilted its head to the side inquisitively.
The confrontation on screen continued between the love triangle and the male lead finally stood up for himself and told his old girlfriend to leave him be. The Shadow remained, staring at the viewer and ignoring the drama happening right in front of it. The jealous ex-girlfriend turned and left the shop in a huff and the male lead and his new girlfriend sat at the booth and restarted their conversation again, holding each other's hands and looking happy. The camera panned backwards, slowly zooming out as the conversation became muted and indistinct and the background music slowly started playing louder.
Half way through its slow zoom outwards the motion stopped and it started zooming back in slowly. The music stopped all at once. The Shadow remained standing outside the window with its dark hand pressed against the glass, staring unmoving into the camera with its glowing orange eyes.
Lira reached to the side and pressed the button on the remote. Changing the volume? The audio was warbling and distorted as the couple’s conversation remained indistinct even as the camera grew ever close to the both of them.
The background started slowly tinting more and more orange the more the camera moved inwards towards the couple and the looming Shadow outside at the window.
“Wow, no idea you liked it so much,” Lira said, “I thought it was fine, but… C’mon Sean. Stop staring at the screen. It wasn’t that amazing. You must have seen that cheesy ending coming from miles away.”
“Ending?” Sean muttered, “But this is the best part. What’s going to happen next?”
“Sean, the screen’s off. What in the galaxy are you talking about?”
Sean tore his eyes from the screen and looked at Lira in shock. She raised the remote and pressed what he could now see was the power button twice.
“See? On and off? What’s up with you? You’re acting strange.”
The hair on the back of Sean’s neck prickled and a chill ran down his spine as he dragged his eyes back to the TV. He jolted as he saw that it was a zoomed in image of the pair of the Shadow’s glowing orange eyes shrouded in darkness. Filling the screen and blazing like glowing flames as its gaze bore into him.
“Sean,” the Shadow said in its dozens of overlapping voices that reverberated through the room. It was real, the Shadow was really here talking to him through the screen somehow,
“Three portals, three journeys, two done.
“One with both. One with Emily alone.
“Now it is your turn.
“Go now or at a time left unspoken.
“There is no escaping or hiding beneath a stone.
“You can only accept it.
“Or be left with that paralyzing fear of the unknown.
“Live the past as if it were your own.”
There was a bright orange flash that filled the room and Sean covered his eyes and started breathing heavily in panic. He felt Lira’s hands running over him and shaking him and her worried voice faintly pierced through the warbling distortion of the Shadow.
When Sean lowered his hand the Shadow was gone. The screen had returned to the view from the interior of the coffee shop. All the people and cars were gone, disappeared as if they had never been in the film at all. Sean could see the two cold cups sitting orphaned at the table of the film’s main couple.
In the center just in front of the table a blue rift suddenly formed and split the air. Sean’s heart beat faster. He stumbled to sit up and turned to Lira who was panicking next to him.
“It’s the Shadow!” Sean shouted and he saw Lira flinch at his volume. But he could hardly hear himself through the distortion and warbling coming from every direction around him.
“It’s appearing in the screen to me, I have to go!” Sean continued, “The Shadow told me to go in. I don’t want to do anything that would upset it… It’s another one of the blue portals.”
Sean stood up and stumbled over to the screen and paused to stand just in front of it. Lira followed him as a variety of expressions washed over her face at his words. He hesitated just in front of the flickering screen with the blue rift inside. The camera had zoomed in so now the rift itself looked like it was only a foot away from the screen.
He almost reached out his arm before stopping. He turned and suddenly kissed Lira passionately. She flailed in surprise, but wrapped her hands around his head and kissed him back once she recovered.
He drew back and cupped her face, “That’ll have to last me for however long I’m in there,” Sean shouted again as Lira looked back at him with concern in her eyes.
“I’ll be back,” he promised, “In the blink of an eye.”
Lira nodded silently and Sean released her. He raised his arm and took a faltering step forward. He gasped as his arm sank into the screen, causing its surface to ripple like water as his arm sank into it. He could still feel his hand even as it was submerged in the screen.
He reached out and touched the blue rift. Everything in the real world flickered and dissolved into motes as the image of the cafe became solid and real.
Sean was drawn into the portal, and saw the blurry figure of Lira quickly backing away as he was drawn into the screen. Her and the rest of the real world was smearing and bleeding into each other like a wet watercolor painting.
Sean closed his eyes as his arm kept being drawn slowly into the portal. He took a sharp breath and on seeing Lira’s panicked smeared motions from the corner of the room, decided to speed things up.
Sean reared his head back and dove forward head first so the top of his head sank into the screen and impacted the blue rift in the digital world. It grabbed onto him and drew him inwards. After only a second his head was submerged into the portal and all thought ceased as he only saw blue light all around him.
— — —
Lira panted heavily with wide eyes as she pressed herself into the wall of the room as hard as she could. Sean’s arm had just sunk into the dark black screen with what looked like a ripple of water. His body jittered and distorted like a corrupted signal as he stood there with his arm buried in the rippling surface of the black screen. After a few seconds Lira’s eyes widened as Sean dived head first into the screen. His body went completely limp as soon as he did so. It took ten painfully long seconds for everything including the tips of his feet sank into the black surface like he was being sucked inside.
The strange rippling of the screen suddenly stopped as soon as Sean fully disappeared. Lira cautiously approached and put her hand on the black surface. It was hard and smooth, just the same as it had ever been. There was no sign of Sean or the Shadow.
He better be safe and come back right away like he’d promised…