Above the Free Cities

3:25 P.M.

At the most basic level, the Breach was a giant hole in the ground. This description, of course, is insufficient to accurately describe it. The Breach was hundreds of miles in diameter. It was surrounded by a circular mountain range of unnatural, jagged peaks and uninhabitable grey valleys. The peaks of the mountains were so high that they were covered in unmelted snow, though the land below was still a vibrant green. Despite their monumental height, the mountains were miniscule compared to the Breach. From the cargo plane’s vantage point, we could see beyond the mountain range. The Breach extended out into the horizon, and I couldn’t see even a hint of its end.

The thing about a hole that big is that Ferrum curved at about the same rate as Earth. From ground level, the horizon on Ferrum terminated at about 3 miles. From five thousand feet up, the horizon terminated at about 90 miles. Even at that altitude, I could only perceive half of the Breach.

The experience was made all the more surreal by the fact that I could not see its bottom. Steam obscured the interior of the Breach, though I supposed it would be more accurate to call them clouds. The steam rose higher in the air closer to the center of the Breach, creating a colossal column of steam in the center of the continent. The massive column slowly rotated like a massive, contained hurricane. Some thermodynamic process at the bottom of the Breach must have caused water to vaporize and turn to steam.

The steam reminded me of the Khyber River I saw during my brief time in Osiris City. It was a wide river that was probably big enough to sail a small ship on, but it didn’t flow into the ocean. Instead, the Khyber River flowed into the Eastern Chasm, from where it would probably flow into the Breach.

Seeing the Breach made me think of the map that Melkior had shown me. The four Chasms connected the ocean surrounding Rubigo to the Breach. Did the water flow from the ocean into the Breach? Once it did so, would the water turn to steam and return to the air as vapor? I couldn’t be sure without looking closely at one of the Chasms.

Overall, looking at the Breach from the sky was like looking at a sunken sea of clouds. I felt like if I were to fall into the Breach, I would never stop falling.

“It’s beautiful,” Null said from beside me.

I couldn’t put it better myself.

The Breach was essentially the cause of all Rubigo’s problems. It changed the ecosystem and climate, and it was the cause of the five Deluges. Yet, the Breach had an undeniable ephemeral beauty. A part of my brain wondered if this aesthetic appreciation for the Breach had been placed in my mind by GM. Poldra’s stolen addiction still loomed large in my mind.

After a few more minutes of flight, the Southern Chasm, a long crack to the south of the Breach, appeared over the horizon. Dendrite and I would drop over Threshold City, which was a few miles east of the Southern Breach.

“Did GM really create the Breach five hundred years ago?” Null asked with her eyes locked on the massive hole that dominated our view out of the plane’s windows.

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“I doubt it,” I said. “I’m sure it’s just flavor text GM added when he took over. There’s no way the guy we fought in the Great Hall is actually strong enough to crack the planet’s crust.”

“Maybe, I don’t know…” Null said, deep in thought. “Melkior, Fatima, and I tried out some high-level spells yesterday. The things we can do with magic are… ‘cataclysmic.’ That’s what Melk said.”

Melk, huh? I hadn’t thought to shorten his name. The nickname almost made his username sound cute.

“If we can cut the sky itself and summon the power of a hurricane with a few words, how strong is GM? How high does the power ceiling go?” Null asked.

I couldn’t give her an answer. I didn’t even know how strong I was at the time. I certainly didn’t know how strong GM was. Even my physical strength was a mystery to me. I had easily lifted a several-ton slab of metal and jumped dozens of feet into the air, yet that didn’t even begin to strain my 48 Strength muscles. Perhaps my first meeting with my legion would give me a chance to see the peak of my physical strength.

As I expected, the pilot’s voice came on over the intercom a minute later. “We are approaching Threshold City. If you are dropping here, please step onto the launch area now.”

Dendrite and I rose from our reinforced chairs. I approached the metal crate closest to the exit ramp and placed a hand on one of its corners. Dendrite stood on the other end of the crate. He made sure to stand out of the way of the path the crate would take to exit the plane.

As I looked at Dendrite closely, I noticed that he had a mace made out of black metal hooked to his belt. I would later learn that this was called a “flanged mace.” At the time, I thought that Dendrite’s mace was the same kind of mace that Sauron used at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring. The head of the mace was not perfectly spherical but was rather composed of a central sphere and six thin outward protrusions. I didn’t know much about melee weapons, but I figured that Dendrite’s mace would be good at penetrating armor.

Dendrite’s mace wasn’t particularly strange. Every Apostle present was carrying some form of weapon. I was carrying an assault carbine in one hand and a pistol on a holster latched to my belt.

The exit ramp started to open, and the passengers’ compartment was once again filled with the sound of a gale. Ten seconds passed before the exit ramp finished opening and the pilot’s voice said, “Go, go, go!”

I pushed off on the metal crate with one hand. As expected, I barely had to use any strength to throw the crate out of the back of the plane. The parachute deployed successfully, and the crate’s velocity was slowed after it fell a few dozen feet.

After I pushed the crate out the back of the plane, I found myself standing on the precipice of the exit ramp. The momentum of pushing the crate almost caused me to fall out, and I stepped back from the exit ramp automatically.

I had never previously had a problem with heights, so I thought that jumping out the back of the plane would be easy. Yet, the sheer amount of space between me and the ground, the vertiginous feeling of nausea that filled my body as I stood there, and the sense that the entire world was looking up at me gave me pause.

I turned to the other Apostles in the compartment with a fearful smile on my face. Great. I had to be the first one to falter. I began to say, “I think I might need a…”

A jolt of fear shot through me as I saw that Dendrite was standing less than two feet behind me. Dendrite said, “No time for hesitation, big guy. We’ll miss our drop.”

As Dendrite spoke, he reached forward and grabbed me under the armpits. He lifted me in the air like I was a toddler and started to swing me backwards.

“Wai…” was all I was able to enunciate before Dendrite threw me out the back of the cargo plane.