I blinked, properly blinked my eyes. They weren't just stone and magic, and I could feel how gooey my body was. Was this what it was like to be human? Looking around I was in a white walled room that was falling apart.
It was such a boring room, I instantly tried to reach out to add some pillars or etchings to the wall. Yet, no mana came to my fingers, just dry air. Panic settled into me for a second before I banished it. The dragon probably held all the mana so it would be safe. Which also meant this was either an illusion, or her claims of being a God were pretty accurate.
The shift of shadows and movement from my left had me turning to face...a young girl. Her eyes were just a bit too wide and far apart, and her nose seemed flat against her face. I felt that it was an upgrade on the way humans normally were. Since it gave less of a direct target.
"Dragon?" I asked, unsure how to approach a creature that could make me fleshy. The girl wobbled her head, and it didn't seem like a gesture after a second. More like an uncontrollable reaction.
"Yes," Now her voice was nice, "I could only do so much to ensure you could exit the Realm safely. Earth isn't like that place at all." I looked around again, and noticed that there was a suspiciously large mass of shadows right above the gate we must have walked through. As well as rubble in several places, that made me itch to fix it.
"Father, I feel like I should reprimand you." The girl suddenly turns towards the mass of shadow. A pure white smile cracks through the seeming void. A smile I recognize and narrow my eyes.
"Demon thing?" I ask, and the shadows begin to gather into a dragon form.
"I always disliked that description, but it was fun to play the role." It's voice deep and seemed to make the room vibrate, "Now, we should probably leave this place since it's unstable." It shifted to the wall where it looked like a painting on the white surface. The girl waved her hands jerkily, but seemed to be motioning towards the obvious door.
I was terribly interested in many things but decided to focus on the present, and let my mind silently churn through the other issues. The door looked like the ones my children had seen at that place by the glowing lake. A wheel in the center you had to turn, yet this one wasn't going to move.
The shadow twisted around the wheel, and it just screeched before opening to a smell of mold and damp. Groaning sounds could be heard in the tunnel beyond, and I wondered if Earth had monsters too.
"It's the sound metal makes when it's under pressure." The girl answered, seeming to read my mind again. It was annoying, and something I would have to take into account if I wanted to figure out what was planned. I might want to walk around and explore, but that was going to be on my terms. I didn't come this far to be the puppet to someone else. Even if they were some kind of God.
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We stayed in silence as we walked through a leaking tunnel made of metal, and up a broken ladder that I was told to be careful not to cut myself on. It wasn't a total waste of time, because there was some interesting ideas to improve a few of my mazes. Yet, everything being so close was very unpleasant, and I couldn't just move my perceptions through the walls to scout around the place.
Turns out that we were in some kind of underwater vault, and when we reached the surface I was struck by how similar the place was to the memories of my children. This WAS that odd place on the water, but there were a lot of details that weren't close to the same.
Large things, maybe ships, were submerged in the water, and many of the buildings were damaged by vines and trees. But, for the rest of it, it was easy to see that they were the same place. Just with more time being abandoned.
"Wow, they moved me this far?" The girl asked suddenly, her body doing that twitching thing again. The shadow gained depth and rose from the ground.
"Mr. Easton couldn't hold onto you in private after the start of the war. He was president, but the others wanted the money that the military offered." I understood the words, but the context was completely lost, even though the girl did her nodding thing again. Just what had they done to open a door to the Realm?
"They did nothing, just used tools long since left behind." The shadow told me, making my anger rise. Did both of them have the ability to read minds? It then chuckled.
"I don't need to read your mind, to read your face child. It takes a while to control the flesh." And I realized that my face did do weird things in response to my feelings and thoughts. Like right now, it was heating up and changing color. Unhelpful.
"At least the war didn't poison the land to a point that no one could live anymore, but most avoid this region due to the supernatural activity." The shadow continued, talking to the girl again. She clenched and unclenched her hands a few times while looking at the expanse of gray stuff on the ground.
"It's going to be a long trip..." She kicked a foot and it twitched oddly. The shadow coiled around her.
"I plan on using my power to bring you back to the city. It's the only place you could bring the humans back, and... I know the trip by foot would be too much." It seemed to be concerned about the twitching and actions of the girl. Which just made my own feelings more intense.
"Alright, I think I want to know what is going on." The girl started to move her hands, but then almost fell to the ground twitching. Even with the concern I felt, I moved to her side to keep her from falling. Her body didn't seem to be working right, and I started having a suspicion.
"Sara...her name is Sara, and she is broken on Earth. It is why I took her under my wing so many years ago." The shadow responded. I tilted my head in confusion.
"Why not just use magic to fix the problems?" The shadow seemed to visibly slump.
"Earth hasn't had mana in a very long time. The Realm was the last of it's kind, and even it couldn't do much to the mana density. All it could do was make a few ghosts a bit more real and scare people." I blinked, Earth didn't have ANY mana?
"Wait, but how do they do anything?" I asked, my head hurt now.
"Science, something like enchantment...but it often leaves those like Sara...well you can see it for yourself." The shadow twitched around the now unconscious form of Sara. I decided to just shake my head at it all. No wonder humans came to the Realm if they had no magic here.
"Yes, yes, now lets get going. Her old house is waiting for us." And the shadow spread out to engulf me.