Confirmation of actual laser weapons in the hands of extradimensional locals ultimately didn’t change our method of operation. Normally the protocol would have been to bring more Extra operatives to help remove problematic tech. At least for weapons of war, removing them from places they weren’t supposed to be was a high priority.

The problem was, we didn’t seem to be able to get any Extra agents to the plane. Though it was time to try again, and hopefully figure out more about what was going on. For that, we returned to Entheas with our captured weapons.

I was under no illusions that I could overcome a natural change in the makeup or some sort of modifications crafted by the greatest spellcasters in the world under my own power- I didn’t have enough information to know which- but as this was a recent event, I expected that the results weren’t quite as fixed as it might seem.

It was also possible that being on the other side of the equation would be useful somehow. The plane wasn’t completely cut off, after all.

I had some experience with that, actually. Though the ancient plane where Comhghall lived wasn’t entirely sealed off from travel, at least at the time. Given that Doctor Doomsday’s bots came to that plane and what happened between the material plane and Elysium, most likely that had changed. Comhghall had mentioned something to that effect.

We were still able to contact New Bay via Sending. I would have been rather worried about our prospects of getting home, otherwise, but I didn’t expect the situation to have shifted that much in the few days we were here.

“Alright Midnight, first we’re going to split the cost. If we still can’t bring people through, we’ll reassess the situation.”

Normally the setup of Extra’s teleportation hall was that people would end up in arbitrary alcoves, but this time I was expected and people needed to be in place. Gate didn’t last all that long, and spending half of its duration running towards it from the other end of the hall wouldn’t be a good use of that time.

Mana began to flow. I felt a connection to New Bay, allowing me to smoothly create the necessary link. I’d merely lived here, but Earth was home.

The portal opened up to a number of well equipped individuals. “Good to see you guys again.”

The woman at the front nodded, then pressed her hand against the surface of the portal. Which was… still weird. It was supposed to just be open so rejecting entry like that was unusual. If a portal didn’t open it was one thing, but once open I expected everything to go through. Portal Theory didn’t speak on such a phenomenon. Time to seek out more comprehensive books.

“Testing material transferral,” the woman said. She tossed a stuffed bag through. “It appears to have been successful.”

Malaliel picked it up. “Thank you. Mage, are you able to determine what’s keeping them?” She started sliding captured lasers towards them, so that their origin could be assessed properly. “Make sure you check for bugs,” she warned.

I frowned. “Well, it shouldn’t exactly be a planar barrier. But uh… have any of you spontaneously developed portal powers?” I asked. “Actually, I’m going to have to step through.”

As usual, the process was literally as simple as walking. From the other side… I had better context for what was going on.

“Nobody has, actually,” Zorphax commented from nearby.

“I’d expect as much. No mana is coming through this portal,” I said. Even though mana was already on Earth, it only seemed to do anything when directly after a portal. Was there some other feature? Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to discuss, and walked back through the portal. “I’m going to try one more thing in a few minutes,” I said. “You have about ten seconds if you want to say or toss anything. Keep your hands and feet safely positioned.”

There was one experiment they attempted which was trying to push a length of pipe through the portal. It wouldn’t budge… but when they let go part of it tumbled through. And then was cleanly bisected when the portal closed as both halves ended up in different dimensions.

“Remind me to be extremely careful with my wings,” Malaliel commented.

I nodded. “Portal safety is extremely important.”

“That was so cool!” Zeb said, running over and looking at the length of pipe. “What a clean cut. No wait, it just stopped being connected so… Hmm, I wonder what happened to the molecular bonds? Fluffy, stop! I’m looking at that and it’s probably not tasty.”

Fluffy had clearly been sizing up the metal pipe as potential food, and continued to sniff it, but he didn’t try anything more.

“So what else are we trying?” Midnight asked.

“So, it seemed that mana wasn’t flowing out the other side. I don’t know if that’s the intention of these changes or a side effect, but clearly it was done on purpose.”

Midnight flicked his tail. “I don’t think the ambient mana in New Bay has gone down noticeably.”

“Correct,” I agreed. “What do you think that means?”

“Well, it seems to be quite recent. We can already assume it’s less than a few months old because of our prior trips. So perhaps we haven’t noticed the change in mana levels because of that. Alternatively… this isn’t actually cutting off the mana flow at all.”

I nodded. “An interesting theory. And why would you say that?”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Because the mana flow is through permanent portals. At least however many Doctor Doomsday has set up and we haven’t found to close them, potentially others. I don’t think he would easily let his portals all be sealed without at least fighting back.”

Sir Kalman was nearby. “This doctor fellow… I can tell he’s a villain by the way you speak and his name. But can he really stand up against the world alone? You make him out to be limitless.”

“He’s been a thorn in the side of New Bay for over a decade,” I said. “Nobody’s been able to capture or kill him, and any defeats he suffered were only temporary setbacks from which he seems to have come back better equipped. I’m not going to say he could overpower the whole world working together here… but both of us know that people aren’t fully coordinated. Also, if he’s working with these dark elves and the orcs he pulled through… they would be working with him to keep the connections open.”

“Good point,” Sir Kalman said. “Sounds a bit like a dark lord.”

“I mean, top tier supervillains are effectively the same, yeah,” I nodded.

Official histories said there hadn’t been any dark lords in centuries- though really, the title just went to anyone that required people to unite to take them down. They were probably all bad, but who would know since history was written by those who remained.

“Anyway,” I said. “The plan for Gate is to try to seek out the connection through any remaining permanent portals to New Bay,” I said. “I’m going to supply the full casting of Gate, and Midnight can attempt to strengthen it with Alter Portal. We’ll both be feeling around for any connections.”

The three spellcasters- Boom, Bolster and Bandage- all watched carefully. Some day, they would be able to use Gate as well. It was unlikely they could learn at their current level because the gap in required mana was far too great, and a quarter of a Gate didn’t give you a small Gate, but one that never opened. Still, it wouldn’t hurt for them to observe.

This time as I formed the connection, I thought about other portals. Unknown in location, but almost certainly around somewhere. Hooking through those portals, a connection should break through whatever limitations were currently being imposed… in a completely untested theory I’d just come up with. The result was… I certainly felt something. But even with Midnight’s contributions there was no clear difference from before.

People with mana could walk through in both directions, unattended objects moved through just fine, but anything with people was unable to pass. Zorphax had actually run off and grabbed a potted plant, which also wasn’t able to move through. Which raised up a lot of questions in my mind. What about bacteria? Were they riding on me or had they been left behind? I hadn’t suddenly gotten sick so they probably counted as part of me, but I wondered about the cutoff.

I hadn’t even known about bacteria a year and half ago. What a drastic change in perspective, huh?

“Well, that didn’t work,” Midnight said.

“You could say that,” I shrugged. “Or you could say that we moved one step closer. Did you feel any connection to other portals?”

“Vaguely,” Midnight admitted. We’d worked together on portals for a long time. “I was kind of hoping we could force through this barrier, though.”

“I don’t think it’s an issue with the Gate spell directly,” I shrugged. “Otherwise it wouldn’t form. So even maximum power and Alter Portal might not do it. But if we can find one of the dark elves’ connections- or ensure they are no longer functional- that would be helpful. Except… I guess they could still throw guns through, and anyone from this world like the problem group here could go both ways. How annoying.”

“Indeed,” Midnight agreed.

“So yeah,” I said. “We need to ask Duke Ruvyn to get us access to a good Scrying mirror.”

“Or we could use your phone.”

“The screen’s so small!” I complained. “But I guess it is reflective. I’m not sure if it’s a good channeling medium?” I tilted my head. “The thing Vilhelmiina made certainly made Scrying more effective.”

Either way, it didn’t take long to go find the Duke. He was quite glad to bring us to their best Scrying vessel. The problem was…

“This is a lake,” I said.

“Clear Moon Lake is the greatest focus a diviner could ask for.”

“... What sort of diviner?” I asked. “Because I’m not a druid,” I pointed out.

He frowned. “Though some efficacy may be lost, I do believe it should still be suitable for your purposes.”

“Alright,” I said. “Do you suppose the dark elves have protections against Scrying them?”

“It would be inconceivable for them to be lacking in such an area. Otherwise, we would have outmaneuvered them long before. If you can wait for a blue moon reflected on the waters, the power should increase several fold.”

“How long would that take?” I asked.

“There is one coming in merely one hundred and seventy days,” the man said. “Quite soon.”

“... That’s like five months,” I pointed out. “We’re not planning to be here that long. Also, you’ll continue to take losses during that time.”

He nodded. “I understand, but that is when it will be most effective. You are of course encouraged to try your hand at your convenience. The full moon begins in two nights, and would be nearly as potent.”

Wasn’t moonlight just reflected sunlight? Why wasn’t that any good? Except perhaps how brightly it reflected off the water. Well, we might as well give it a go regardless.

“Let’s try and find any portals,” I said to Midnight. Technically, we’d never been successful with that before. Previously we’d been drawn only to large concentrations of power, capital cities… which may or may not have had portals. But here we were metaphysically closer. Besides, a magic lake had to be better than Vilhelmiina’s creation, right?

It was not better. At least not during the day. I could feel that immediately as I focused on rejecting the notion that the moon meant anything. Though maybe it wasn’t the light that mattered? No, I had to stop thinking about that. Portals.

Slowly, an image formed in the lake. Reflected in it was the image of… Entheas itself. How useless.

Sure, it was a nice view looking down from the sky… but not useful.

“Hey, do you happen to have a bunch of open portals around the city?” I asked.

“Not that I am aware of,” Ruvyn said.

“Ugh. Of course. What a waste of time.”

I could feel Midnight didn’t feel the same, however. He climbed back onto my shoulder, leaning close to speak privately. “... What if there are portals here? It would be quite a problem in the future.”

… Great. Now we had another thing to deal with. Maybe Malaliel had a portal scanner or something.