Stepping through the portal felt like diving into cold water. Aiden quickly discovered that entering the portal felt nothing like his Sonic Blink. Using his ability felt like snapping forward with one sharp, and precise jump. One moment he was in one place, the next he was in another, with barely a flicker of sensation in between. It was a clean break, like flipping a page in a book.

The portal on the other hand was a different experience entirely. He barely had time to brace himself before the sensation of movement, weightless and disorienting, washed over him. The darkness of the portal churned around him and his companions, warping space like an ink-black tide, before abruptly spitting them out onto solid ground.

Aiden stumbled forward, his worn boots kicking up dust as he caught himself. The others emerged behind him in staggered motions, each reacting differently to the transition. Skal landed with natural ease and grace, Winterhell shook off the momentary dizziness with an annoyed grunt, while Echo simply blinked, looking mildly impressed.

DeadPixel straightened smoothly, his metallic form eerily steady, and Optimus thudded onto the ground with a loud clang, his scrap-metal armor rattling on impact. Aviria adjusted her shimmering cloak, her golden eyes narrowing as she took in their surroundings.

At first glance, they appeared to still be in Lockhaven. Or at least, in what Aiden guessed was a version of it.

The crumbling ruins that were the remains of Ricky’s Emporium had changed drastically. Instead of a pile of collapsed stone and rotting wood, a dilapidated but still-standing building loomed before them. The skeletal remains of walls now had just enough structure to be recognizable, arched windows, soot-stained woodwork, and a sagging balcony clinging to the second floor. The remnants of an old wooden sign, barely legible through the years of grime and decay, dangled above the entrance, the last traces of paint spelling out Ric… Em…ium before it faded entirely.

“This looks like it could have been a tavern of sorts,” Aiden murmured, stepping forward.

It wasn’t just the sign. There were subtle clues all around them. Rusted lanterns still hung from the beams, their glass shattered but the metal frames intact. A handful of overturned tables, long since weathered into splintered husks, laid in front of the building on the crumbled sidewalk. The doorway, though broken at the hinges, was tall and wide, large enough to accommodate a steady flow of foot traffic of various shapes and sizes, giving the impression of having been designed for a place where people gathered.

Winterhell followed his gaze. “Yeah... I can see it. Not just a random shop, somewhere people met, planned and drank.”

“It makes sense,” DeadPixel added, his voice thoughtful. “Ricky’s Emporium,” he said, letting the name sink in. “It’s an unusual name. An emporium, typically, refers to a marketplace or a hub of sorts. This place could have been a trading post, but given the signs... perhaps it was built for adventurers.”

“That sounds like a lovely theory and all, but where in the nine circles of bureaucracy are we?” Skal asked, his nose twitching. His fur bristled slightly, his keen senses picking up on something the others hadn’t noticed yet.

That’s when Aiden saw it.

At the edges of the street, where the buildings should have continued, reality, in the conventional sense that Aiden understood it, ended.

A shimmering bubble enclosed the area they were currently occupying, forming an enormous dome-like barrier that separated them from the rest of this strange and alien alternate version of Lockhaven. Beyond the barrier, the city stretched into infinity, but in broken and fragmented ways. Streets and structures flickered in and out of existence, like half-finished thoughts unraveling in real time. Some buildings repeated themselves, existing in multiple places at once before collapsing into static, only to reassemble elsewhere.

And then there were the holes.

Jagged, irregular gaps lined the edges of the bubble, each looking like areas where the universe simply failed to exist. Aiden’s stomach churned as he stared into one. The sensation felt like staring into a void that wasn't just empty, it was an endless nothing. And yet, somehow, it contained everything. Like a hole in reality that shouldn’t exist, yet did, and simply by looking at it, his mind rebelled against the impossibility of it all.

Winterhell shuddered beside him. “Aiden... do you see that?”

“Yeah.” His voice came out quieter than he intended. “They’re….concerning.”

Echo let out a low whistle. “Well, that’s not at all ominous and terrifying.”

“Those… holes look like ideal gateways for shapeless horrors trapped within the blind eternities of the multiverse to enter into our reality and to consume us all,” DeadPixel said as casually as if interdimensional breaches were as common a nuisance as a leaky faucet, that dripped once every couple of minutes, just long enough to forget about it before dripping again.

Aiden, Winterhell, Skal and Echo stood in shocked and horrified silence at what DeadPixel had just said.

“Why would you say something like that?” Winterhell exclaimed, while discovering a whole new fear that would likely haunt her for the rest of her life.

“Why wouldn't I say it?” DeadPixel responded. “I mean, look at those things and tell me you're not at least half expecting eldridge monstrosities to emerge from those hole…rift… things.”

“Well of course we are,” Aiden said, “but we're not going to tempt fate by saying it out loud.”

“Fate?” DeadPixel asked, raising a metallic brow, which made it difficult for Winterhell to not smirk at. “What does fate have to do with any of this?”

“Because fate can't wait to kill us all,” Skal said. “Tempting fate is basically the same thing as writing a letter to the High Council with all your fears, weaknesses and shortcomings, hoping that they'd just file it away without ever using any of it to design specific quests and encounters that cause your worst nightmares to come to life.”

“Huh,” DeadPixel muttered to himself, “I suppose I never looked at it that way.”

Optimus, oblivious to the existential horror unfolding at the edges of their reality and the ongoing crisis Winterhell suddenly found herself in, clapped his hands together. “Alright! Let’s get moving. If this place was a tavern, it might have something useful inside. Maybe even a hint about what we need to do.”

Aviria was already studying the magical bubble, her sharp eyes scanning its perimeter. “This doesn’t appear to be any sort of illusion that I’m familiar with,” she muttered. “We’re somewhere else entirely, maybe even some… time else. A fragment of the past, maybe, or a separate plane intersecting with Lockhaven.”

Skal exhaled, his ears flicking in agitation. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it.”

Aiden turned back toward the dark entrance of Ricky’s Emporium, the rotted wood still standing just enough to cast long, menacing shadows inside.

A breeze rolled through the fractured streets, rattling the remnants of the old tavern sign. It swayed on rusted chains, groaning softly against the wind.

Aiden clenched his fists. This wasn’t part of the plan, he thought as he took in the alien scenery. None of this was part of the plan, or rather things were happening in the wrong order.

He had tried to be methodical. The plan had been supposed to be simple: get new abilities, find the right teammates, and then, and only then tackle quests.It was supposed to be simple. If he had stuck to that, he could have kept control, could have kept everybody safe.

But instead, they had jumped into a dungeon raid on impulse before being fully prepared, and now they were standing in a strange alternate version of Lockhaven that felt like it could, at any moment, break apart at the seams.

Nothing ever went as planned, and he felt that it was all his fault. To make things worse, his friends had followed him willingly into the portal, relying on his leadership to make the right call, to keep them safe. A cold shudder ran down his spine as he thought of AeriKnight and her own poor judgement that had gotten all her party members killed. His stomach twisted as he remembered the panic in her eyes as she had realized, too late, that she had led her group to their deaths. He didn’t want his friends to end up like her ill-fated companions.

Winterhell’s voice cut through the fog of his mind.

“What are you overthinking this time, Aiden?”

Her tone was light, teasing, but he could hear the undercurrent of concern beneath it. She knew. Maybe not everything, but enough to see that he was spiraling. And she wasn’t about to let him disappear into his own head again.

Also she didn’t have any more clubs she could use to knock his senses back should she need to.

Aiden exhaled sharply. Winterhell was here. Skal was here, even that insufferable Echo was here. They weren’t dead. They believed in him.

He looked at her, reading the easy confidence in her smirk. And he realized something else.

He wasn’t AeriKnight. And this wasn’t her party.

He saw Optimus with a look of dissatisfaction plainly written on his face. Aiden guessed that he was expecting everybody to fall into rank behind his leadership and to charge screaming towards the remains of Ricky’s Emporium. He and Aviria slowly tiptoeing towards the tavern’s entrance, presumably to explore and to salvage anything of value.

His heart pounded, his thoughts racing as he weighed their options.. He looked back towards the portal and saw that it was still open, indicating that should things go poorly, they might be able to exit this strange place and regroup back on the other side.

As much as he hated to admit it, Pekisee was right in saying that this event wasn’t for the faint of heart, and Aiden would be damned before he lost to that sentient dumpster fire. There was only one way he could think of that would result in him and his party making it out of this raid alive, and that was to gain more power, and to gain it now.

Aiden took a deep breath, his mind locking onto a single course of action. He turned to Winterhell, who was still giving him a concerned look.

“I appreciate you looking after me Winterhell,” he said, his voice a blend of genuine gratitude and firm conviction that surprised even him. “But now is the time for me to look after you. I think we’d be crazy to go any further in our current state, lacking power to properly defend ourselves against whatever this place has in store for us.”

Winterhell, who had been half-expecting Aiden’s signature brand of turning goldfish into whales, blinked in surprise. “I feel like you have a point you’re trying to get to,” she said, “so why don’t you stop acting all melodramatic and just tell me what it is you have in mind?”

“It’s going to be something ridiculous,” Skal said with a confident smile.

“Why would you outright assume that it’s going to be something ridiculous?” DeadPixel asked, taken by surprise and feeling slightly worried by the possibility of having made a huge mistake in joining Aiden and his group for what was ultimately a completely unknown raid that could very well spell out the end of his contributions to the event he’d been hoping to do well in.

Skal gave a short chuckle before continuing. “You’re new here, so I’ll let you in on a little something. If Aiden is about to do something without giving much thought, then it’s probably going to be ridiculous with a high chance of getting himself and others killed. But if he does something after thinking about it, then it’s definitely going to be completely ridiculous with a practical guarantee of getting himself and others killed.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Skal gave DeadPixel a satisfied wide toothy grin, while Winterhell looked at him disapprovingly. After a brief moment of silence, the attention shifted back towards Aiden who was doing his best not to lose the resolve he was building up.

After a brief hesitation and an encouraging nod from Winterhell he finally spoke. “Since our levels are currently so low, I don't think we should go any further without first taking the time for Skal, Winterhell and myself to each use one Shard of Ascension in order to give us a better chance to get out of this place in one piece.”

DeadPixel stared at Aiden while Skal grinned triumphantly.

“You want to use power-ups in the middle of a potentially deeply hostile environment?” DeadPixel said his voice filled with disbelief.

“I told you,” Skal said, “he never disappoints.”

“That sounds highly risky,” Echo said, “are you sure you've thought this all the way through?”

“Thought this all the way through?” DeadPixel echoed the Goblin, “Aiden have you gone crazy? Do you need me to spell out to you just how bad of an idea that is?”

Before he was able to say anything else, Aiden interrupted him, “first off, I went crazy years ago, but that's besides the point. And secondly, I'm fully aware of the risk of exposing ourselves out in the open like this, only to obtain new abilities.”

“Only to obtain random abilities from a system none of us fully understand. Abilities that we won't be able to fully utilise because we wouldn't have had any time to learn how to use properly,” DeadPixel interrupted Aiden, his voice growing louder. “This isn’t a risky plan, it’s downright reckless and puts us all in danger.”

Optimus tried to weigh in, but went entirely unheard as Aiden matched DeadPixel’s volume.

“You’re right, DeadPixel, this is reckless. So I’m calling this plan the Reckless Party Protection Program because it’s the only way I can think of that will see us through this raid alive and in one piece.”

Aiden planted his feet firmly and looked DeadPixel straight in the eye. He knew he needed to push back hard, but he also needed to make sure that his new ally understood where he was coming from. This wasn’t about arrogance or some delusions regarding his own genius. This was about the survival of his friends, and of the entire raiding party.

"You want to talk about risk?” Aiden continued. “First off, I don’t think we’re in as much danger as you make it sound. The fact that we’ve not been swarmed yet suggests to me that we need to trigger the enemy mobs to come at us somehow. Maybe by finding a specific item or entering a specific room in the tavern. But here’s a guaranteed risk, if we don’t power up now, we won’t survive this raid. You, Optimus and Aviria would be dragged down by the rest of us. That’s not a question, that’s a fact. Whatever abilities we get, even if they aren’t perfect, they will still be better than what we have right now.”

DeadPixel was taken aback by the sudden and surprisingly strong position Aiden was taking, and before he could add anything else, Aiden continued, spiraling into a bold, nerd-rage filled monologue.

"Right now, we're practically walking into the unknown with nothing but a few tricks and some optimism. Winterhell has one spell. One. Skal is tough, sure, but one frontliner doesn’t make a full party. If something attacks us in force, we’d be done before the fight even starts. I can blink and bash in heads with my lute. For crying out loud, I’m supposed to be a support caster, but I don’t have any support spells."

DeadPixel lifted a finger to speak, but Aiden wasn’t done yet.

“I’m fully aware that the abilities we end up with might not be the perfect answer to our current predicament, but it’s not like any of us fully understand the ones we do have anyway, so don’t go around warning about the dangers of claiming new and unknown abilities, since that’s all any of us have been doing so far, and saying anything contrary is simply naive. On top of everything, it’s not like adding new abilities would damage our group synergies, since we don’t even know what each other’s specific abilities do, so adding new ones really won’t make a big difference. Hell, I don’t even know what race you got. Don’t get me wrong, you look super cool, but I haven’t got the slightest idea what you are and if you have any specific affinities.”

Aiden paused for a moment, trying to calm himself before getting carried away and saying something he’d regret. After a deep breath, then continued, his voice lowered.

"We could run back through the portal, or it could just be a false exit that kills us all. If I need to choose between potential danger now or certain death later, then believe me, that’s an easy choice to make. Should we have used our shards before stepping through the portal? Well yes, obviously, but here we are. I’m not joking around when I say that I have every intention of getting us all back in one piece.”

DeadPixel studied Aiden for a long moment, then, in a quieter tone, said, "You actually believe this will work, don’t you?"

Aiden didn’t hesitate. "Yeah. I do."

DeadPixel stared at Aiden, unmoving. Silence stretched between them, tense and heavy. Then, finally, he exhaled, shaking his head. "You’re insane." He crossed his arms, glancing between Aiden and the others before muttering, "But you’re also probably right."

Aiden felt a wave of relief wash over him, but before he could do or say anything else, Skal let out a deep, booming laugh, clapping him on the shoulder so hard that he nearly knocked him over.

"See, DeadPixel?” the lion man said after he recovered enough to speak, “Now you’re getting it! Aiden’s plans always sound insane, because they are." Skal grinned, flashing his fangs.

“And here I thought you were working your way towards a compliment,” Aiden said, straightening himself again.

“I was getting there,” Skal said with a wink. “As I was saying, his plans always sound insane, but he hasn’t been wrong yet.”

“I’d take it if I were you,” Winterhell smirked, "that’s the highest praise you’re gonna get from him."

Optimus who looked entirely dissatisfied with the way things were unfolding before him crossed his arms. "This isn’t a personal experiment, Aiden. It’s a raid, and you’re gambling with all of our lives." Optimus exhaled through his nose, his expression dark. "But since you’re so determined, I won’t waste my breath. We’ll take up a defensive formation and hold the area. Make it quick, because the moment something comes for us, I’m calling the shots."

No one responded.

Instead of the argument continuing, there was only silence, and not the charged, dramatic kind. Just the awkward, lingering kind where nobody wanted to acknowledge that someone had just said something and was expecting a reaction that wasn't coming.

"I’m a Talonite,” DeadPixel said, breaking the awkward silence.

That earned him several raised eyebrows.

"A what?" Echo asked.

"Talonite," DeadPixel repeated. "I’ve never played as one before, and I’d never even seen one in the game until I got the race with my genesis orb. Apparently, they’re golem-like beings crafted by the forgotten gods of the forge. Something about being shaped from the bones of fallen worlds and given life through divine fire. Not gonna lie, sounds pretty metal."

Aiden squinted. “Wait, are you saying you’re literally a walking, talking divine weapon?”

DeadPixel crossed his arms, considering it. “I guess? More like a living artifact, maybe. I don’t actually know all the lore. I don’t think that Talonites were even a playable race before this event, so maybe I just got super lucky?”

Skal grinned. “Either way, that’s a hell of an upgrade from just ‘mysterious robot guy.’”

DeadPixel smirked, his metal face shifting unnaturally in a way that shouldn’t have been possible for steel. “Glad to impress.”

Winterhell crossed her arms. "Alright, that’s cool and all, but can we get back to the part where we become slightly less useless?"

Aiden exhaled and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get this done.”

***

Aiden, Skal, Echo, DeadPixel, Optimus, and Aviria formed a tight defensive perimeter around Winterhell, keeping their focus on the eerie silence around them. Nothing had attacked yet, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t.

Winterhell let out a slow breath, gripping the Shard of Ascension tightly with both hands. The fractured gem pulsed in her grasp, glowing faintly, as if responding to her touch.

She hesitated for the briefest of moments, and then with a mental prompt, she activated the shard.

A blinding, prismatic light erupted from the shard’s core, its shattered edges releasing a swirl of iridescent energy. The colors danced wildly, forming a shifting aura of rainbow fire around Winterhell.

The air hummed with a haunting, melodic resonance, neither a song nor pure sound, but something caught right in between.

The light wrapped around her body, spiraling outward like a living storm, its hues pulsing through her veins. For an instant, it was chaotic, flames and ice battling in a swirling maelstrom, until suddenly, the aura collapsed inward.

The colors didn’t disappear. They changed.

The rainbow glow faded, splitting into distinct elemental forces, crimson fire licking at her fingertips, and deep azure frost creeping up her arms.

Winterhell shuddered, eyes widening as the energy flowed, not just around her, but inside her. Her breath came out in a misty fog, even as the air around her shimmered with residual heat.

Then, in one final pulse, the magic settled.

A burst of multicolored light rippled outward, like an unseen force. Dust and debris lifted slightly from the ground before slowly drifting back down.

Winterhell stood motionless.

Her hands twitched. Her eyes still glowed, but with something deeper, an intensity that hadn't been there before.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Aiden swallowed, the air still humming faintly around them. "...Winterhell?"

No response.

She was still staring straight ahead, her gaze locked onto the system notification floating in front of her, reading and re-reading the text, taking in the new information, as if afraid of missing something.

Then, without a word, she gave the mental command to share the ability description with the rest of the party.

DeadPixel, usually composed, actually let out a short, quiet laugh. A dry, disbelieving sound.

Then he shook his head, stepping forward. His metallic form cast deep shadows against the strange and alien landscape as he regarded Winterhell with something dangerously close to approval.

"Alright," he said with a grin, voice edged with something new.

"I take back my skepticism."

A beat of silence.

His golden eyes gleamed.

"I think we’re going to get along just fine."