Chapter 24 - Tear

The path ahead of them swayed side to side, hard stone moving as easily as a slithering snake. The area Lazar and Ciel stood on, right at the edge of the cavern, seemed to lie just outside that swirling vortex of warping movement.

The closest pillar rumbled, suddenly dropping downwards into the inky depths below. The outer layer of the opposite wall was stripped away, joining the flying debris and platforms.

“What is this?” Lazar breathed, his eyes following those unpredictable movements. They were violent and jerking, but there was an odd beauty to it too, in the way those reflective stones gleamed like shattered pieces of condensed light, in the silver cracks that glowed like the sun. Even the shifting bridges and pillars, for all their danger, resembled breaths, twisting in a strange and mysterious dance.

Ciel stepped closer, squinting into the cavern.

“It looks like a fun path to me,” she drawled. As if to emphasize her point, a smooth stone slammed into the wall a few feet in front of them, causing the whole area to shake.

Lazar winced. “We could go back to the tunnels,” he suggested. But even as he spoke, he felt that tug grow stronger. His free hand rubbed at his chest unconsciously, and his shoulder ached with the motion.

“Oh no, didn’t you hear me? I said it would be fun,” the demon stressed with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not so sure dying would be—”

“Have you ever died before?”

Lazar blinked, thinking for a moment.

“Does falling count?”

Ciel patted his uninjured shoulder. To his own surprise, the seraph didn’t immediately flinch away at the contact. Perhaps his instincts were beginning to grow used to the flesh eater’s presence.

“That just proves my point. Which means you can’t actually judge if dying would be fun or not.” The demon grinned, pushing back stray strands of hair and revealing that gleaming mass of eyes. Their gold hue looked all the more vivid against the silver light.

“Seriously though, I’m pretty sure those two demons weren’t the only ones in the tunnels. You say that pull or whatever is coming from here, right? Sounds to me like this is our best shot. We’d have to come back here anyway even if we went around.”

That was true. The pull did indeed originate from the center of the cavern, which meant they would eventually need to cross it if they intended to keep following the sensation.

Lazar glanced behind them at the opening in the cave wall, remembering the two demons. The one he’d fought specifically had looked newly formed, and while the second demon was more solid, neither had been particularly evolved. Images of the barren field he’d landed in and the quivering masses flashed in his mind. It was possible that a similar area lay deeper in the tunnels, and the two demons had come from there.

If that was the case, then it might be better to risk crossing the cavern. Even with Ciel healed, if the amount of demons was anything similar to the number born from the field, then any fight with them would be well beyond their current capabilities.

The seraph turned to the cavern, grey eyes scanning the undulations in the stone.

As he’d originally suspected, the motions remained concentrated within an invisible sphere that engulfed much of the cavern, but not all of it. The place they stood on was one of the “safe” areas, and there were a few dips and ledges against the wall that were also outside of that warping force. Across the cavern, he could just barely make out another entrance, much like this one, that he assumed led back into the tunnels. If things went wrong, if whatever lied in the center of this cavern was malicious, then they could bolt for that exit.

The strength of the warping seemed to grow stronger closer to the center. Near the perimeter, if they were careful, they would probably be able to remain on the path. The problem was getting to the middle. The pillars were inconsistent, and the paths and bridges, too, were unreliable. They would appear and disappear without prior notice, and there was no guarantee they would even lead to the center.

The seraph’s gaze landed on the flying debris. All of it swirled around the central portion of the cavern, drawn closer and closer in chaotic motions that vaguely resembled spirals. Quite a few pieces were large, more than large enough to stand on.

Lazar stared at the stone that had just embedded itself into the wall in front of them. Though it had initially looked firmly stuck, he now saw that it shook slightly as whatever force that manipulated it beckoned it back.

“Ciel,” he said. “I…think there might be a way to get to the center, or at least close enough to see what’s causing this.” His eyes darted to the flesh eater. “But it’s dangerous. It might be better to return to the tunnels and search for an alternate route to the gate. I’m still not sure this… sensation is leading us in the right direction.”

The demon laughed, the sound ringing out and echoing around the cavern.

“You already know what I’m gonna say, right?”

Lazar smiled. “Yes, but it’s always good to confirm.”

“Riiight. And what about you? You got an opinion?”

The seraph studied the cavern again, eyes tracing swirling stones. “I think it would be safer to leave,” he admitted. His hand rubbed over his chest again. “But…I’ll admit I’m a bit curious, and I’d like to know what this tugging sensation is.”

“Well, worst case scenario we can jump onto one of those safe spots,” Ciel said. So she’d noticed them as well. The demon’s smile widened. “But it sounds to me like we’ve already made a choice.”

Lazar considered this.

“Yes,” he finally said. “I suppose we have.”

—

Getting onto the piece of stone was easier than expected. It was large and smooth on one side, forming an ideal platform, but its surface was still soft enough for Lazar’s halberd to slice through. The vibrations had grown even stronger as the piece was steadily pulled out of the wall, and the seraph dug the blade of his weapon deep into its surface to use as a grip.

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Ciel, meanwhile, had sprouted two extra arms from her shoulder. One of them gripped the edge of the stone along with one of her normal arms, and the other limb and arm she kept loose, ready to use to bat away any stray debris that might fly at them.

They agreed to ride the platform until they could see the center. If it really was the realm gate or some sort of path to it, they would keep going and jump off when they reached it. If it wasn’t, then they would leap to one of the stable ledges jutting out from the edges of the cavern and make their way around the walls to the exit on the other side.

Lazar tightened his grip on his weapon. He was still trying to use mostly one arm, but at this point he’d accepted that reinjuring his other arm was inevitable.

The stone jolted again, and Lazar studied the swirling vortex. The debris wasn’t distributed evenly, and there were some parts that were emptier than others. His eyes rapidly scanned their movement, waiting for a larger gap to appear.

“Now!”

Ciel’s free arm punched into the cavern wall, cracking the stone and fully knocking the wedge of rock free.

The stone platform immediately jolted forward, and Lazar dug the halberd in even deeper as they went flying through the air.

Wind whipped past them, so strong that it felt like knives cutting into their skin. Smaller pieces of debris jetted around, and they were simultaneously pressed closer into the stone or at danger of flying off depending on how it moved, rising and falling and spinning freely.

A second large stone barrelled straight at them. Seconds before it would impact, Ciel kicked out at its center, shattering it to pieces. Those stray shards sprayed out, and Lazar raised one hand to cover himself, but he still felt several pieces slice into his skin.

The platform jolted again, shooting upwards. Tall pillars and waving bridges became blurs around them, and just when Lazar thought they might crash, the force pulling the debris yanked them back down.

Lazar heard Ciel laugh beside him, loud and wild and just a bit manic. He forced his eyes to stay open against the air pressure. He realized two things. The first was that, though it wasn’t a remotely standard trajectory, they did seem to be getting progressively closer to the center of the cavern.

The second was that, despite everything in him telling him not to, he was enjoying this.

With every lurch, every dip and sudden rise, he felt his heart beat faster, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He basked in the feeling of the air beating against him, those loops and spins all too similar to the tricks he’d once performed in Elysium’s skies when he thought he could get away with it.

It was exhilarating. It was freeing. And despite the voice in his head telling him that this was bad bad bad, he couldn’t deny that he felt alive.

The platform twisted, dangerously close to colliding with one of the pillars, close enough for Lazar to reach a hand out and brush against the stone.

They shot forward again, barrelling towards a denser field of pillars that occupied the center of the cavern. Lazar leaned his weight to one side, testing it, and sure enough they could somewhat control the tilt of the makeshift platform.

Over the wind and the roaring in their ears, he met eyes with Ciel. Her extra arm fanned wider, forming a net above them to guard against stray rubble, and Lazar shifted, steering the chunk of rock as it wove around pillars and bridges and stalactites. His heart raced faster, and he got the sudden urge to release his hold on the halberd. He didn’t, of course, but he felt something like giddy laughter bubbling in his throat.

Narrowly avoiding another pillar, the stone burst forth, arcing high and nearly touching the ceiling, and Lazar looked down.

He stilled.

There, in the center of the cavern, was a tear.

Debris and stray stones flew around its open expanse, a physical rip in space that resembled a gaping wound. Everything that got too close was either absorbed or, more often than not, disintegrated. Boulders to rocks, rocks to shards, shards to dust.

That silver light, he realized, was simply an extension of the destruction. This cavern, seemingly alive with motion, was being actively ripped to shreds. He stared into the tear’s empty center, a window to the Void, and a strange hollowness washed over him.

But this was wrong. The light from those smaller cuts, the interior of that tear, was pure white.

He’d seen tears before. The tears opened by fallen, the ones that appeared seemingly at random. In all of them, the glimpse into the Void was a matte darkness in which no light could enter. A darkness that consumed everything. He’d never seen nor heard of a tear like this before.

Lazar’s chest burned, and he grabbed at it, hand right over the marking. His soul hadn’t been drawn to the essence of the realm gate. No, it had been pulled here, the Void beckoning him closer, as if urging him to fall faster into complete annihilation by the Oblivion.

His throat felt dry. He thought he could feel the markings growing, expanding, but he couldn’t tell if it was his imagination or not. All he knew was that they had to get far away from here.

“We need to land!” he yelled over the rushing wind. Gritting his teeth, he used his injured arm to grip around the edge of the platform and ripped the halberd out with his other. Now dangling by one hand, the smooth stone felt more precarious than ever. He tightened his hold.

The chunk of debris was reaching the end of its orbit, soon about to draw closer again. As they passed by a thick stone pillar, Lazar slammed the end of the halberd into the structure, attempting to propel them away. They barely moved, only slowing down slightly. Weak, he thought. Much too weak.

A second force smashed into the pillar. Ciel flipped around, her hands firmly gripping the edge of the rock, and she kicked off the pillar with both legs. The combined force was enough to send them forward into the cavern wall, but Lazar could already feel the stone resisting, ready to move back again.

He swung the blade of his halberd and buried it into the cavern wall just as the platform began to pull away. His shoulder burned, and he could tell he’d reopened the wound on his arm. He didn’t let go, and he felt Ciel grab onto him as the stone jetted out from beneath them.

For a second, the two hung suspended in the air. Then gravity brought them slamming down.

The screeching sound of metal against hard stone pierced Lazar’s ears. He saw sparks rise, but after the fight and fall against the flesh eaters, this was nothing.

The two of them crashed onto a ledge jutting out from the wall, landing in a heap. Lazar gasped for breath, only just now realizing how winded he was. The bandage around his arm was quickly blooming red.

He turned around, but his view of the tear was obscured by a shining pillar. His eyes traced the ledge they were on, just outside the field of the tear’s effects. They were fairly close to the opposite exit, he saw. If they kept winding around the perimeter of the cavern, they would be able to reach it.

“I’m sorry,” Lazar finally managed to say once his breathing had steadied. “I should’ve known it wouldn’t be the gate.”

Ciel’s extra limbs had been detached sometime during the crash, but she’d managed to keep a hold on the makeshift bag. She was shaking, and Lazar realized that it was with laughter.

“Are you kidding? That was the most fun I’ve had in centuries. And I thought that cliff stunt was good!” Her voice boomed, free and unrestrained. Golden eyes seemed to dance in the light.

Lazar just stared at the demon, mind still whirling. The seraph opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped halfway.

A rock tumbled down. Footsteps approached from behind.

He acted on pure instinct. Lazar spun around, lunging forward and swinging out with his halberd, completely ignoring the sharp sting in his arm.

The blade of the weapon came to a stop a hair’s breadth away from the neck of the intruder. Lazar froze.

Staring up at him, caught behind cold metal, was a wide-eyed human child.