The archway turned into a portrait of something oddly familiar in front of Cal’s eyes. But before he had a chance to consider just what he was seeing, Fulginanis popped out of it.

“It is complete. I believe I even found the location you wished to visit. This should make your journey considerably easier.” Fulginanis said.

“Why does it look like something out of the Everglades?” Ethel asked.

“I cannot answer that.” Fulginanis looked apologetic at their lack of answer.

“Andy, you ready to go or do you want a day to rest?” Cal looked at his friend, concerned with how much mana he had used to open this.

“I should be good, besides look at Bill; he’s way too excited to make him wait.”

Andy wasn’t wrong. Cal had never seen the capybara look so engrossed in something. He was currently darting around the archway, measuring some of the symbols that had appeared etched into the stone gateway.

“What, did someone say my name?” Bill asked.

“Yes, but it’s nothing important. Ready to go, Bill?” Andy walked over to his familiar.

“Oh, absolutely, this is fascinating.”

Andy pushed him through and then walked through himself. Ralth followed behind them wordlessly.

“After you, Ethel,” Cal said.

“Oh, so now you have manners.” She snorted and walked through.

Cal waved goodbye to his spirit before joining the magic users on the other side. He felt queasy. That was different than the standard cracks he was used to stepping through. The others looked to be in about the same state as him, other than Ralth.

“You will get used to it. It’s a lot like getting your sea legs. I promise.” Ralth pat Andy on the back as he spoke.

Cal fought down the urge to vacate his breakfast and looked around. Ethel was right. This place felt like Florida, complete with the humidity and bugs. How the hell did a Florida swamp end up on Titan?

“Huh, there really is a fence over there,” Cal announced, having spotted it.

It looked to be a small wooden barricade, more for show than actual function. Cal walked towards and saw a strange building further in the distance. There was a path that led to the building from a break in the fence. The grounds seemed to be well maintained.

“So, guys, I think there’s a house down this path.” Cal turned back and informed them.

The house, for lack of a better word, looked to be made of mud and mana. Cal could see the mud actively flowing through walls, kept in place by what he thought was a wall of mana somehow. It was oddly beautiful.

“Interesting. I’ve seen mana-infused buildings before, but nothing quite like this.” Ralth said.

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“Well, time to go knock.” Cal strolled forward down the path.

He stopped in front of a large, heavy wooden door. He didn’t see any sign of a knocker or doorbell, so he raised his fist and rapped on it three times.

There was no answer.

He rapped another three times.

“Oh good, it’s the whoever made the spacial gateway in my front yard come to visit. That’s exactly how I wanted to spend today.” Came the voice from somewhere inside.

The door creaked open before Cal had a chance to respond. In the now open doorway stood a frog, a nearly two-foot tall frog. It was wearing robes and standing on its back legs, but still clearly a frog.

“Uh, hi, I’m Cal and…” He was cut off.

“Yes, I do not remotely care who you are. Why are you here? Why is there a gateway in my yard? And just who the hell taught the mammals to channel?!” The large frog asked, his voice full of annoyance.

“Well, we built the gateway to come see you. We were hoping you’d consider training us. There aren’t really many people on Earth who have any magical talents, let alone any as skilled as you. And that’s the big problem no one taught us.” Cal answered.

“Hrpmh. You expect me to teach you to channel? I’m Glurm Lightning Leaper, Lord of the Southern Swamp Nebula, Prince of the Fifth Dynasty, and Supreme Champion of the Ninty-Fifth Universal Games, for god’s sake. I do not teach the likes of you, and even if I did, I’m retired.”

“Oh, well, we didn’t know about the retirement, but you know there is an invasion happening from another dimension, and I believe Earth is your home planet. So maybe you’d consider teaching us so we can stop it.” Cal tried smiling as he said this.

“What are you mammals even called? Gorillas? No, wait, I remember it’s humans, isn’t it.” He sighed loudly. “Alright, I’m bored. I’ll give each of you one chance to become my student. Giant man, you’re first. Catch.”

He threw a mana ball from nowhere directly at Ralth, who, to his credit, had his hands around it, ready to catch it before it changed direction and shot directly into the sky.

“Next!” He fired two electrical blasts from his eyes at Andy, who dived to the ground only to realize they weren’t actually aimed at him. They started zigzagging in the area before knocking Ethel over.

“Two down, but I’m bored now, so I’ll hit you three at once. Don’t get hit for thirty seconds.” Several hundred mana balls appeared all around them.

They quickly started bouncing off the ground, ricocheting off anything they hit. Cal jumped to the side, dodging one. He saw Andy tuck and roll out of the corner of his eye but quickly lost focus on that as two more balls nearly grazed him.

He ran towards the Frog, hoping it would be a safe area, and bounced off an invisible shield.

“Fuck!” He yelled out as he was hit by five balls at once.

He rolled to his side and saw Andy on the ground as well, but to his surprise, Bill was still going. He had control of several of the balls and was using them to shield himself from the others.

“Ten seconds left,” Glurm called out.

Bill took a step backward and tripped. Wait, what had he tripped over? The path was clear before. Cal had a feeling the frog had just cheated. Bill fell over, and the balls rained down onto him.

“Well, you’re all as terrible as I expected, except for the rodent. He was just a tiny bit better than I expected. Tell you what you come back in a century, and I’ll consider training you. In the meantime, get off my moon!”

In response to his command, the balls turned into floating arms, and each picked up one of them and carried them all back to the gateway. Cal heard Glurm’s door slam shut behind them. There were several loud protests but the arms kept moving and then tossed them all back through to the void house.

Cal stood up.

“Well, you all look okay, so I guess we'll try again next loop. Good job, though, Bill. If he hadn’t cheated, I think you’d have had him!”

“Thanks. Now that we know he has that shield up, I’ll work on a plan for the next loop.”

“I believe in you, little Buddy. In the bad news, I suppose this means we have to let our prisoners give us some training in this loop.” Cal was not remotely happy about that.