Streamers of pain pierced Alex’s palm. They twisted, tore, carved down through his arm and into his chest to grip his heart like a fist of ice. His breath froze in his chest and he let out a choking gasp — and the world changed.
Dark water swirled up from the ground and a black wave crashed overhead, muting out the light and banishing the mountain around Alex. The Mirorrlands fell away, replaced by the expanse of his Mind Palace.
Berith released his hand as a marble pillar bearing a basin upon it rose from the depths of the water to sit between them. A miniscule amount of energy swirled above the pillar in a faint, hazy mist.
Alex glanced at the demon out of the corners of his eyes. He hadn’t been freed from his chains. Even in Alex’s soul, they still bound him to something beneath the calm water’s depths. Berith gave his arm a slight tug, then smiled wryly.
“It seems my bindings followed me. Unfortunate.”
“Were you planning for this to break you free?” Alex asked as the pain faded from his body.
“Planning?” A chuckle rang out and Berith shook his head. “No. I hoped. Hope is a cheap currency.”
Berith lifted a chained hand over the basin, drawing his heavy restraints taut in the process. He clenched it into a fist. The ball of mist collapsed in an instant, raining down in faint droplets to pool at the bottom of the marble. Berith curled a claw inward and pressed it into the pad of his thumb. It pierced through his skin and a single droplet of blood rolled out, dropping into the thin layer of bright blue water below. A ripple passed through the glistening liquid as the blood dissolved within it.
“My portion of the bargain is complete.” Berith lowered his hand and settled in to sit behind the basin.
“That’s fine with me. All I need is a way in and out of here,” Alex replied, stepping up to the basin. He looked into the murky water, hesitating for a moment, then placed his hand into the water.
The liquid drained away. Icy energy coursed through his body, clawed at his heart, bit at his mind like a dozen irate rodents. Golden letters tore into the air and carved out a message.
Your Stage has advanced to Novice 3.
Please select your third Auxiliary Skill from the following options.
[Riftwalk] — Gain some control over the Rifts that connect the Mirrorlands and the rest of the Infinitum.
[Demi-pire] — Drain energy from other creatures through drinking their blood, taking a small portion of their powers for a duration.
[Nexomancy] — Gain limited control over the spoken word, allowing you to create verbal pacts and punish those that break them.
Holy shit. Gain control over rifts? As in, the things that sent me into hell? An auxiliary skill like that sounds like it would get some ridiculous abilities, not to mention getting me a way out of this creepy place… as well as getting back.
Even if I leave now, I’m going to want to come back for Mirrorlands monsters to bind at some point in the future. This is incredible.
The abilities he’d been offered were all clearly inspired by actions he’d taken in recent times. That gave more credence to Meiderly’s claim that every class was completely unique. Even though it was immediately clear to Alex that his deal with Berith had netted him Riftwalk, he still paused a moment to look over the other skills.
One gave him what appeared to be a very similar skill to Claire’s, while the second actually looked pretty interesting. He strongly suspected that any contract he’d be able to make would be directly linked to his own power, so they wouldn’t just automatically force things to obey agreements if they were stronger than he was.
The skills were interesting, but neither even came close to being as useful or powerful as Riftwalk.
As soon as he came to his decision, before he could even speak it out loud, the words vanished and his status shimmered to life of its own volition.
Alex Vaya [Human]
Class: Evoker [Mirrorlands]
Stage: Novice 3
Title Fragments:
[Mirrorlander]
Active Titles:
[Anomaly]
[1/5]
Soul Manifestation:
[Spatial Mirrors] (Novice 1)
Auxiliary Skills:
[Requiem to the King] (Novice 1)
[Monster Medley] (Novice 1)
[Riftwalk] (Novice 1)
By the time Alex waved the words away, he realized that his Mind Palace had faded away and he stood in the Mirrorlands once again. Berith was still chained before him. Amusement burned in the demon’s eyes as he released Alex’s hand.
Alex stared at his palm in disbelief. Thin red lines pulsed beneath his skin before fading away. His arm had been completely healed.
“Alex?” Claire asked, the concern in her voice even stronger than before. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Alex flexed his hand, then grinned. Either Berith’s blood or leveling up had healed him. Either way, he had his hand back. “I guess I’ve almost caught up to you. We have a way out of here now.”
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Berith leaned back and rested against his chains. “Let’s get this on with. I’m eager to see another world after all the time I’ve spent down here. Go take a look at the Rift.”
Alex approached the crackling fissures, taking care not to touch them on accident. Claire joined him, but her suspicious gaze remained on Berith. The energy didn’t look any different, but something about it had changed. It felt, for lack of a better word, more grounded.
The power almost felt like something tangible that he could grasp. As Alex focused his attention on the new ability he’d gained from his deal with Berith, he felt power start to pump beneath his skin.
“Go on,” Berith said. “Touch it. Carefully.”
Alex looked at his hands, then back up to the rift. He reached out and brushed the back of his hand across the energy. It was warm, but it didn’t burn him.
“Good. What skill did you get?”
He doesn’t know?
“Riftwalk. I thought I got your skill.”
“You got a variant of it. I don’t know exactly what it does, but I can guess. The fundamentals will start the same.” Berith shrugged and his heavy chains ground against each other. “Here’s the good news. As long as you keep that skill active, you can work with and pass through a Rift.”
“And the bad news?”
“First, not all Rifts are made the same, and you’re going to have next to no control at this level. For the time being, you’ll only be able to access the world you came from and the Mirrorlands. Second, when you pull open a pathway between worlds, you aren’t the only one that can pass through it.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “You’re telling me we’re going to have to fight something every time we pass through?”
“Not every time,” Berith replied. “It depends where you are and how much energy is in the area you’re trying to leave or enter. You aren’t the first Riftwalker and you won’t be the last. There are measures to keep you from breaking in.”
“Or breaking out,” Alex finished. “Would you say that this mountain would count as one of those high energy areas?”
“Use your own senses. Touch the Rift again. Feel.”
Alex focused on Riftwalk again and let his fingers brush across the hissing purple energy. When it didn’t burn him, he tightened his grip. Power hummed at his palms — and the world started to darken around him, as if someone were dimming the lights.
A deep, frosty chill wrapped around his chest. Goosebumps prickled at the back of his neck and raced down his arms, wrapping around his body like tentacles. A deep sense of unease set in at a rapid rate. He pulled his hands back from the portal and the world snapped back to its proper self.
“So?” Berith asked, his ever-smiling face as amused as always.
“I get the feeling there’s quite a bit of energy here. Does that mean we’re guaranteed to summon something really interesting?”
A laugh rolled from Berith’s chest. “Ah. Refreshing. For a moment, I thought you might have been scared. Anything in this area will be too much for you to handle. My presence has changed this location too much. No matter. Open the Rift. I will clear the way for you as the final portion of our deal. Any future rifts you deal with, so long as you do not open them in the presence of one such as myself, will be a challenge more suitable for you.”
Alex almost asked Berith how he was meant to open the portal. Before he could, he realized that he already knew how. Something deep inside him had changed with the power that the demon had traded him. It was more of an instinct than knowledge, but he knew it to be true.
“Fill me in?” Claire asked, noting the lull in their conversation.
“I’m going to open the portal. Something might come out of it. If it does, the demon will handle it.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“Just like that,” Berith agreed, even though Claire couldn’t understand a word he said. Something told Alex that the demon spoke more to entertain itself than any other reason.
“Let’s do it, then,” Alex said. The faster he got out of the Mirrorlands and got a chance to drink some water and eat, the better. He still didn’t know what would be waiting for them on the other side of the Rift.
He activated Riftwalk and grabbed onto the Rift. Energy thrummed at his palms once more and the world started to dim, but he didn’t wait. He dug his fingers into the energy, pulling it apart like he was forcing elevator doors open.
The rift resisted him. Alex gritted his teeth and pushed his body, slowly forcing the line open into a yawning vortex. Seconds dragged on. His muscles trembled but he continued to push. Inch by inch, the energy gave way.
Nearly two minutes later, the rift finally surrendered. It snapped open into a wide purple disk of swirling purplish-black magic with a sharp snap and Alex’s hands dropped to his sides as he drew in a relieved breath.
The reprieve didn’t last long. A shadow passed over Alex and the pressure in his ears popped. A deep chittering groan filled the air. He stiffened and craned his neck back as his heart skipped a beat in his chest. Beside him, Claire breathed a curse.
Riftwarped City-Eater Centipede (???)
An enormous City-Eater Centipede emerged from a matching portal above them, curling through the air like a hurricane extending down toward the earth. It had completely cast the mountain into shadow and still hadn’t been completely revealed.
Black energy washed off the massive monster and over the mountain. The portal took on a dark glossy sheen as the monster’s power passed over it. Alex reached for it, but his hand pressed against what felt like a pane of glass instead of passing through.
“As I said, you aren’t the only Riftwalker,” Berith reminded Alex casually. “Anything drawn by you opening a portal isn’t going to let you traipse through it. Especially not when the area is so saturated with my power.”
Alex stared up at the City-Eater. It was the biggest monster he’d ever seen bar none, and even as it raced down toward the mountaintop, he couldn’t quite comprehend just how large it was. It made the other City-Eaters look like normal insects.
Chains creaked and groaned as Berith pressed his palms together, then turned his left hand over to point its fingers at the ground. The chains binding him shuddered and pulled taut. He looked up at the monster plummeting toward them, mandibles the size of skyscrapers open to devour the mountain whole, and smiled.
“Soul Manifestation,” Berith intoned. He pulled his hands apart and a sphere of twisting gray and blue energy swirled to life between his palms. Wind blew Alex’s hair back and whipped at his eyes as pressure rolled off Berith in a wave. “Jaunt.”
The ball of energy erupted, expanding faster so quickly that he could only make out the afterimage of the dim energy as it rolled past Alex’s face to spread out to cover the entire peak and tinge everything a faint shade of blue. Ripples passed through the air around him like oil spreading through water. Worlds shimmered within the glistening patches — an enormous forest of burning trees the size of towering buildings, a huge ocean of blood, a warped library stuffed chock full of more books than he could ever hope to count. They appeared and vanished faster than Alex could track, a vortex of realities flowing by like a rushing river.
Alex’s ears popped as the pressure changed. Something streaked through the air, so fast that he only registered its afterimage.
Three glowing lines burned across the City-Eater’s face. The monster peeled apart, pieces of it plummeting away as if it had been diced like a spring onion in a fine restaurant. Each chunk of the monster must have been the size of a city on its own, but massive rippling splotches of oily magic swirled up beneath each one, swallowing it whole.
Berith’s gaze turned back to Alex.
“I look forward to our fight, Alex” the demon said, his smile growing wider until it pressed against the edges of his face. “Try not to keep me waiting for long.”
The black sheen that had been covering the portal faded and fell away. Alex’s hand slipped into it and a violent tug nearly yanked his arm out of its socket as the Rift sucked him in.
He felt Claire grab his other hand and then they were gone. Berith’s laughter echoed in Alex’s ears as the Mirrorlands vanished behind them. Swirls of iridescent light danced around him and his body felt like it was simultaneously getting stretched out and crushed.
And then it was done. Alex’s mind briefly registered that he was falling a split second before he smacked face-first into cold, wet ground with enough force to knock all the breath from his lungs.
A thunk and a groan beside him marked Claire’s arrival, but he was far more concerned with the prickly blades pressing against him.
Grass. Beneath it, dirt. Blessed dirt.
Alex forced his wrung-out hands to move and he shoved himself upright. A field stretched out around him. The sun rose overhead, singular and golden yellow as it was meant to be. A gentle breeze curled across his back and the smell of fresh grass welcomed him like the embrace of an old friend. There was no mistaking it. Alex couldn’t help himself. He started to laugh.
He was back on Earth.