It took barely a minute for the party crashers to show up and start shooting again–this time it was the plain clothes that were taking pot-shots at them with submachineguns and a fire orb Drenar hastily deflected up in the air, and airburst to little effect. With the lack of shrapnel in the devices, it was more like a firework going off. He still felt the sear of heat from the explosive on his face.

Where the hell was Angela and company?! They should have been here by now, and he’s busy trying to scream at everyone to get off the street while bullets are flying, and Joey flings several canisters that erupt into expanding foam. Those rapidly hardening barriers serve as cover for people pinned down by gunfire. Amaranth is tanking hits with his barriers, and there’s a scarlet up the street that has one of those ominous dark orbs in their claws, and preparing to launch it. The idea of being crushed by a singularity is not appealing.

“Joey, Scarlet is about to send a bad time our way, how do we counter it?!” he shouts from behind the cover of a large van, while she reaches to her dispenser. A plastic and metal canister with a silvery fluid pops out, that looks almost like liquid mercury.

“Standard counter is aerial dispersal of heavy magical elements! As luck would have it, charged magical ferrite!” Joey calls out as she loads it into the pistol-sized launcher. Amaranth charged plasma across his scales and rounds bounced of the barriers, and Drenar saw that ominous black mass firing forward.

“Joey, now!”

With a snap of a reaction, she shot the canister at the gravity well, where the canister dispersed into a cloud of fine particles, and the singularity stuttered and flickered before popping out of existence. The scarlet snarled and tried to form another singularity but Amaranth was already bounding forward to deal with the bigger threat, plasma surging across his body and wings.

“I think you need to switch to assault mode Drenar, this fight is a little overwhelming!” she called, out, even as plasma surged across his limbs.

“Much as I like the idea of murdering these fools so horribly the Talons think twice before messing with us again, stacking bodies is not a cool thing!” He realizes that this might be the time to go hulk out, and summons his transformation in the form of splitting skin, scales emerging through–and the armor shifting and accommodating his new form?! Kyle didn’t mention this part! “That said, who the hell are these guys, anyway?”

“I’ve seen that insignia on the armor before! They’re Ravager Company!” she called out with a bit of fury, and the way she set her teeth on edge. “Picture that horribly named US merc company that had unvetted contractors that murdered a lot of people a few years ago. Now, add a dose of magic, third-world oppression mentality, and add a dash of crimes against humanity!”

“Sounds like a bunch of winners. It’s not like we had enough enemies already,” he groaned as his teeth itched and his dagger-like dragon set came in–and extra ones, too. This truck was getting too small to hide behind, and Joey took an errant round that pinged off her arcane barrier. “We need to get these bastards down, Joey, we’re doing that thing!”

“Dragon gunnery platform!” She cheered with a roar of triumph, and she grabbed a hold of his armored collar with one hand and his neck with the other. He sprung upwards with a blast of kinetic energy directed behind him, and he gave a shake of his head to activate that earring that Sierra had given him. Now was a perfect time for a test!

His body felt light–lighter than it did when he was in flight, and the single pounce into the air got him skyward and flying over the heads of the Ravagers now trying to aim their fire at the airborne dragon, bullets and firey rays bouncing off his barrier. “Drenar, vehicle at the far end, machine gun emplacement!” She called out and tapped his left shoulder. That was a big problem that needed to be addressed right away.

He was already charging plasma across his claws, and threw out a blast that knocked the vehicle on its side, the weapon bending as it impacted into the road. The occupants were thrown like dice at a casino and are out of commission. Joey stepped on his shoulder between his wing blades and flung several canisters at the targets–elemental blasts that concussed the targets, or superheated their weapons and armor on contact, and they went down, incapacitated. A bright orange and yellow-tinged dragon with spines coming from its forelimbs and back takes to the air, and then his danger sense goes into overdrive. “Hold on!”

He swerved and kept Joey upright with a mental tug of telekinesis, just as something incredibly fast shot at him–he didn’t register it for a split second, but that dragon had shot a metallic spine at him, like a high-speed javelin. He dodged another while he closed the distance, but the third skimmed by and drove into his arm and completely bypassed his barrier. He roared in pain and prepared to give this attacker another dose of beatdown, and light surged around his body. This isn’t how his teleport normally–

Blink.

“Uh…what the hell?”

Drenar blinks and feels like he’s weightless. The great, encompassing white is all around him, again. He peers around and sees Joey looking around in confusion. He knows this place.

“Drenar? Are we in the aether?” she whispered, as he glided through nothingness–and yet, he still felt the current of air breezing by his wings. “Did your teleport do something?”

“I have no idea.” He cranes his neck around, looking in that white light, trying to find a landmark, something that doesn’t blur into this impossible blank space. He looks at her, and the concern on his face is apparent. “Joey, did you do something?”

“Uh, no. Weren’t we just fighting Ravagers?” she asked, then furrowed her brow, a slight breeze ruffling her hair. “Alex, your input?”

Something pulled us here. Alex’s determined voice breaches through both their minds, and Drenar is at a loss for why this is happening. Drenar, quickly, try it again.

He tried to focus but felt no surge of energy across his body. He gritted his teeth, and tried again, and let out a gasp–the focus reminded him of the spine still in his arm, like the world’s deadliest needle. “Uh, having some performance issues,” he uttered anxiously. Joey gave him a sidelong look.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“As an academic, I would respectfully disagree with that. No need to be embarrassed,” she responds coolly. She sees his wounded arm, and grabs a field compress. “Drenar, you’re injured, take care of that–”

“Hang on. I see something.” He narrows his eyes and focuses on the depths of the aether, then, he sees it. Something moving. Or falling? He points it out with a claw, and Joey follows his direction.

Alex takes an interest, and he feels that mental nudge from his companion. Drenar, fly closer, I think that’s someone else in here! Maybe another drakensoul?

“Drenar, you never explained this the first time. You got pulled into the aether when you first merged with Alex?” she asked as he banked right, and followed that distant yellow speck. Flapping his wings proved difficult with the lack of gravity, and Joey held on gently, and braced against a ridge on his back, between his wings.

“You know, that’s a good question, Joey. The first time I was here, was right before my theoretical merge with Alex. Except I brought reality with me. Sort of. Until it disintegrated. But this is a whiter shade of pale, like what I saw when I first held Luminari.” This place made no sense at all, how was he even breathing here? He looked at his arm, and that spine was still there, having worked its way past his armor scales, and embedded. He yanked it with his other arm and spun mid-air from the recoil of sheer pain, and he gritted his teeth. “Ow. Yep, injuries are still real here. I’ll take that field compress, now.”

“Here, this will help. Regen salve and field bindings,” she added as he made a few loose wraps at the injury–a clean hit, and he examined the spine in his hand, a narrow trickle of blood on the end “Marigold spiker spine. Nasty. They can fire them off like an armor-piercing sabot.”

“Dragon scales are not invincible. Noted.” He kept flying toward that distant yellow speck that was getting larger. And he could make out something. A low, distant sound. “Joey, do you hear that?”

“Sounds like someone crying. Really distantly.” She narrowed her eyes to look at that distant object, and she gasped. “That’s a person!”

“Better hang on!” He flapped his wings with increased speed, and used his tail like a rudder to angle in the lack of gravity. There did seem to be air resistance though, and he could sort of ‘guide’ himself using his wing flaps, and he extended his tail and arm feather flaps to adjust course. “You know something? Remember that lady we saw that you claimed was Gaia when we were in the aether last time, assuming both of us aren’t crazy? What’s the deal with her, exactly?”

“You heard Kiera talk about her. She’s the guardian goddess of our world. Or she was, until she was killed during the end of the Schism war, and went down like an utter boss and saved the world. But, the Followers of Gaia have a different theory.”

“Wait, that sounds like some kind of...religious following," Drenar sighed. “I am immediately wary of anything that sounds, you know, divine. Because my agnostic status has been body-checked repeatedly by reality lately.”

“Want my official viewpoint?” she asked with a soft breath. Alex chimes in again before he can get a word out.

I do. Also keep a heads up, if we pop back into reality, we still have a dragon to deal with that was charging at us, Alex commented with a sharp bark to his words. Joey took a deep breath, and Drenar strained his ear crests to barely make out that exceedingly distant wail for help, from extreme distance.

“The followers of Gaia believe that the mana crystals are her legacy. Her lifeblood. They believe she isn’t dead, and that someone stole her away at the last second. Without her presence, the mana crystals have been shrinking, not even including mining for them in the intervening years. Which dovetails with what King said, but I think that was him trying to play us along, like usual."

“Okay, but what is Gaia? Because ‘who’ sounds academic, ‘what’ does not,” Drenar pointed out. Joey nodded sharply at this.

“The presiding theory is that she’s a Kinsgard, a member of an ancient, god-like race. Kyle was obsessed with the subject for a while, you should have heard him during our time at the academy.” she took a breath and peered at that growing speck which seemed to be flailing. And Drenar could make out a distinct word or two. ‘Help’ is one of them. The other being ‘mommy.’

“Okay, so, ancient god race, and then what?” he asked. As if this is anything they can talk about like it is normal.” Joey frowned and rubbed at a bruised hand, and adjusted her position to be closer to his head.

“They created or nudged all life on earth. Some buried settlements do not match draconic historical records. No one has an answer for them, and what little magitech they found in them, couldn’t be explained. It was broken, but far too advanced for dragons.”

“Intelligent design?! Ah for Fate's sake, if this theory pans out, it’s gonna make all the nutters back in high school sound sane,” he groaned. “Let’s suppose for the sake of curiosity, it’s true. Is mana the source of all magic?”

“There isn’t a magic out there that isn’t tied to it, in some way or form. At least, as far as I know,” she added with a huff. That distant figure now had a distinct form, and she peered outward, fighting against the glare of everything around him. “Uh, I think that’s a guy. Draconic boyfriend, I need your eyes.”

“It’s a guy. And he’s wearing a hazmat suit or something. He has wild hair. Worse than mine,” he added with a frown. “He’s also praying to Gaia or something, can’t quite make it out because he’s sobbing. And calling out to us?”

“How’d he get here? Unless your magical, world-shattering teleport isn’t an exclusive,” she added with a sigh. “Seriously, Drenar, you and the rest of our friends are weirdos.”

“Oy, says the kitsune with an increasingly unlocked psionic suite,” he grumbles. “Pay no mind to my intrusive thoughts. There’s about twenty of them a day, and half of them inspired by Julia.”

Would you two please focus on the rando falling through the world between worlds?! And check to see if he has a linking book, you know! Alex let out a sound of exasperation. This is why I can’t have nice things, isn’t it? You two nerd out so hard.

“Did you just make a pop culture reference, Alex?” Drenar chuckled.

Hey, it’s your head. You were thinking it first. Seriously Joey, see what I’ve been given to work with?

“Alright, let’s go get our mysterious visitor,” Joey said as she grabbed a loop of rope out of her purse–why did she have that in here? He had wings, rope was now a redundancy. He could also make out the man with brown hair, a yellow protective suit, and strangely, holding a glowing mana crystal. He’s sobbing and waving at them.

“Thank the Fates you’re here, I’ve been teleported into the great beyond, and I saw a goddess, and then I found a jungle, giant monsters tried to eat me, and–”

Drenar groaned. This guy has been here a while, because he sounds utterly hysterical. “You know what, theory number two. We no-clipped into the backrooms, and so didn’t this guy,” he growled. “What level is this, anyway?”

“How do you have so much time to waste on useless drivel?! Yet, you still run a cracking good mage team, fighting all nefarious mages of the world?” she bellowed out, her eyes lit with anger.

“There’s always time for useless nerd stuff, Joey.” He banked to adjust his angle to grab the man, still flailing about as if he couldn’t move. “Hang on, I’m gonna grab you, so don’t panic!”

“I was past panicking two teleports ago! My wife is gonna kill me, because I’m late for dinner!” he screamed in outrage. Drenar puzzled over that telling statement. He reached out a clawed hand, and the man reached with his free hand, and that brilliant blue crystal surged with light. “Um, thank you for rescuing me–”

As soon as Drenar grabbed him, the entire world flared to an impossible white color, and then reality popped back into existence, and his eyes widened.

That Marigold spiker was still there, flying over the darkened street of Mercadian Promenade with a look of sheer shock, and they collided in mid-air.

As they tumbled to the pavement, Drenar also noted that their plus one, a young twenty-something male was still there in his outstretched arm, holding on for dear life, and Joey let out of shout of panic.

That ground is coming up at them, fast.