The mountain was made up of seven gigantic disks, each smaller than the last. As planned, they’d landed on the edge of the bottom-most layer.

Dario watched as the others picked themselves up and ascended through the sky towards the upper layers. The legends rose towards the other layers by their own power, while Toku was carried under Sweet’s arm like a sack of potatoes.

He knew that he would likely not see them again, at least until he had completed his mission. Due to the characteristics of this other realm, one could ascend from one layer to the others, but never descend. At least, not without immediately incurring the warden’s wrath.

As a proud soldier of the Holy Truth, he had been tasked with the all-important mission of scouring the first layer for their fallen allies. It was, by itself, apparently several hundred times larger than the land held by his Holy Kingdom. Still, he’d been told it was the least dangerous of the seven layers, with the weakest officer.

That clearly had nothing to do with why he had been assigned to this layer

At least his mission was simple, and he knew which way to go.

Dario tapped his left gauntlet. Unlike the rest of his armor, which was as gaudy as it was functional, it was a uniform dark-gray. The only hint of its special nature was a tiny, pitch-black jewel at the center of the palm.

He tapped the jewel and his armor dematerialized. He’d worn it as a precaution while traversing the tunnel between the two sides, but the Holy Truth had provided them safe passage. Now, though, he had to fit in.

For that, his shiny armor would only be a detriment.

With how much smaller the other side was from the Myriad Worlds, almost the entirety of the first layer was made up of a city that would dwarf the entire Kaita Kingdom, but was also so vertical that it almost looked like several cities stacked on top of each other.

Dario moved his gaze from the city to the ground before him. Judging from how far the city—and the wall encompassing it—looked, he was at least several hours away.

Well, no matter. Dario rolled his shoulders and began to jog his way forward. The Holy Truth would guide his way, and he would not waver from its path. No matter where it took him.

***

As it turned out, the path was a bit longer than he’d anticipated, Dario had vastly underestimated just how far the city was—and how big it and its surrounding walls were.

He’d first realized just how much trouble he was in when, even after jogging for several hours, the city walls had seemed no less closer. Then, when he’d finally made it near the wall, he’d found that there was another problem. There was no point of entry.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Search as he might—and he did for minutes and hours and days—he could not find a way in.

“Am I going to have to blow my way in?” Dario mused, staring at the colossal wall before him. “But if the wall’s this tall, how wide is it?”

He pulled an ice cream sandwich out of his left gauntlet’s holding space as he contemplated his options. After finishing, he licked the chocolate off his fingertips and drew his sword.

Holding it upright before him, he chanted, “Oh, Holy Truth. Give me the strength to protect all that is good!”

A golden aura surrounded his sword. After taking a moment to prepare himself, he swung his sword at the wall.

Dario had expected to break a few bricks, maybe make about a foot’s worth of progress into the wall. Instead, from where his sword and its golden aura met the wall, an incredible force exploded outwards and sent him flying backwards.

After landing most uncomfortably on his tailbone, Dario picked himself off the ground. After the dust had settled, he saw that he had somehow blown a massive hole, some fifty-odd feet wide and just as long, in the wall.

“Well, well, well. Looks like training paid off after all… I should probably sneak in before the authorities come looking, huh.”

With that, Dario dashed through the hole in the wall. As he did so, he found that he’d done so none-too-soon; an entire horde of the city’s denizens surged past him in a mad dash to reach freedom beyond the city walls.

The desperation and hope in the eyes of those who passed him was a stark reminder of what the other side and this city were.

The seven layers of hell, a prison beyond the boundaries of space and time.

And he’d just entered it.

***

Toku would never admit it, but his ego was taking quite the bruising. It was his own damn fault for being unable to soar his way through the air like the Boomtown legends could, but to be carried up through the air to the second layer like a child was, to put it lightly, humiliating.

It didn’t help that although hopping from one summoned plane of mana to the next allowed for the legends to ascend through the air, it was far from a smooth or quick experience, especially when compared to flying.

With each hop, he experienced multiple sensations. First, a lurch as his body was dragged along with Sweet’s momentum. Then, as Sweet landed on the next mana plane, he felt a sense of weightlessness, before another lurch.

By the time they made it up to the second layer, the food within his stomach was threatening to escape—it was a feeling he’d never experienced before, and he did not ever want to again.

As he and Sweet stepped onto the ground of the second layer, he staggered forward and knelt on the ground.

Toku huffed as he caught his breath and tried to quell his uneasy stomach. “Oh, sweet ground! Humans were not made to traverse the air.”

“You can’t lose your lunch just because of a bit of turbulence. I thought I’d trained you better.”

“You trained me how to fight, not how to be a damned bird.”

“Well, go fight then.” Sweet gave Toku a cocky salute as she leaped off the ground. “Don’t you dare die here! Between you and that Dario kid, you’re just slightly less insufferable!”

Toku tapped the fingers of his left hand to his brow, then extended his palm towards Sweet. “Do not worry, teacher. We all have a time and place, and this…”

He turned and took in the sight before him. “This is not mine.”

Likewise, the others who’d made the trip to the other side soon arrived at the layer they’d been assigned.

Of course, Toku had been assigned the second. Sanchi, third. Hugh, fourth. Lo, fifth. Boom, sixth. And, being the force of nature she was, Sweet had been assigned the highest seventh layer.

One by one, they found ways to sneak into the society present on each layer and began to lay the groundwork for their mission.

Search and rescue.