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Accidentally Summoned 28
🕑 Added 2024-02-14 14:17:48 +0000 UTC28 – Ice realm
Ishrin did have special means, but they were much more limited than he was willing to admit due to his low power level. As they waited for night to fall, he took stock of what he had in his inventory, gathered some materials nearby—making use of his enhanced senses to spot interesting plants and minerals—and kept up his steel ball practice. Liù had gotten tired to chase the floating sphere after a while, and had gone to bother the girls for some free pats at first, then settled into Ishrin’s pocket with a chirp to snooze.
Once the sun was down, Ishrin gathered the whole team to proceed with his plan. He laid out the necessary ingredients for a rather interesting ritual he had come up while he waited, helped by the girls. A word of power, and the ritual came to life. There was no voice of reality announcing it to the world, for this was not a ritual that interfered with cultivation and the path to the heavens.
Instead, the firmament shifted. The deep lights of the stars blurred and moved, until the points of light flickering alone in a sea of black were impossibly fast streaks of color, like meteors that drew circles and arcs above. The whole sky spun quicker and quicker until it was impossible to tell what stars were visible and what were mere afterimages. The moon sometimes passed by, a streak of milk spilled on the table of the firmament, brighter than any of the other celestial bodies.
The girls watched in awe, mouths hanging open. Liù tried to stretch her arms out, to grasp the stars made of a light so intimately familiar to her, but the stars were beyond her reach.
“W-what did you do? Did you rewind time?” Melina asked, worried.
“It’s only an illusion. Don’t worry.”
Slowly the stars came to a stop, occupying new positions in the night sky compared to where they were supposed to be this time of the year. Three stars shone right where the holes were, their light weak and feeble but very visible when seen with magic vision. Like three solid beams, previously unseen magic hit the two crystals on top of the pillars from two of the stars, while the light of the third star lit the rest of the glade in a soft, ethereal silver.
The ground shook. The crystals lit up and started to shine ever more brightly, and the statues of the owl and dove were hit by beams from these crystals and exploded, shedding their stony exteriors to reveal a body of gold and jade. At the center, where Ishrin and the group were standing, they felt magic build up. Ishrin quickly moved them all out of the way right before four beams coming from the four vertices of the circle all converged on one point, hitting the air and severing the space that hung there like a sheet of paper being held over a candle.
It burned, and a hole appeared.
“The other realm,” Melina whispered. “Ishrin, we need to—”
“You are not seriously thinking about notifying the guild, are you?” Lisette cut her off.
Ishrin laughed. Liù too chirped in laughter, although he could feel that the pixie had no idea what the ‘grown ups’ were even laughing about.
“You’re right.” She said. “But, what should we do?”
“We go in.” Ishrin said. “Let’s see what’s on the other side.”
The poem did mention something about finding the lost spawn and bringing them back, after all. And the magic coming from the other side of the spatial tear was strong, but not unbearably so as to make it a dangerous journey for them. Worst case scenario, if they found creatures and dangers they could not deal with, they would return immediately to safety.
They stepped inside, and they were greeted by an alien landscape, their senses were assaulted by a magic so thick and dense that it made the usage of magic sight a disadvantage rather than a boon. Ishrin had it the worst of them all, his senses keener and awakened to a larger spectrum of reality than any of the others, despite their higher tier. As his eyes adjusted, he could hear Liù and Melina gasp at the sight while Lisette shifted in place, checking her weapons and armor. He felt sorry for her, but then he saw the hunger with which she surveyed the landscape. It was then that it dawned on him. She thrived in situations like this. She craved adventure and exploration, conflict and growth. Just like she loved discovery and magic, of which there was an abundance here. But she said nothing, and by the time his eyes adjusted, she was staring at the distant mountains with a stoic and focused gaze.
The sight was phenomenal. It was clear that this place could only exist thanks to the abundance of magic that overwrote the natural laws of the world, and let this eerie landscape keep existing undisturbed.
Twin stars, red and blue, shone at opposite sides of a ringed planet that hung in space behind a frozen mountain. Ahead of them, from a crack in the rocks they could see a huge lake opening up to a desolate tundra of ice spikes and yellowing grasses swept by the wind. There were no traces of buildings, of civilizations, not even monsters. All they could see was undiluted nature, and nature alone. Silence reigned supreme, all sounds drowned by the incessant howl of the wind.
“We need a plan.” Lisette said.
Ishrin looked at Melina with a mischievous expression. “Boss?”
The foxgirl sighed. “I guess I am the boss here, being the highest Tier.” She nodded, taking a survey of the land. “We need to explore. The poem was not very clear about what to do except that we need to find something and bring it back.”
“The lost spawn.” Ishrin said.
“Indeed.” Lisette added. “However, it is not to be taken from granted that the words ‘lost spawn’ refer to children. In many quests, items are often talked about as if they were people.”
He looked at her in surprise, but Melina did not. It was clear that the two knew each other pretty well, although their relationship seemed to be limited to professional matters. At least, he thought it was.
“She is right. It could be a magic item, for all we know. This realm doesn’t seem to be very big, so we should be able to spot anything out of the ordinary and investigate it. Ishrin, what does your vision tell you?”
“That it’s a mess.” He said. “I can only see a pervasive haze of orange and deep blue coming from those stars.”
“Nothing else?” Melina asked.
“Nothing, sorry boss.” He said with a grin.
She smiled at being called boss. “Alright then. We do this the hard way.”
The realm was not big. Only visible to Ishrin, and only if he happened to be floating roughly 20 kilometers above the surface, thick walls of magic surrounded the whole realm and cut it off from whatever laid beyond their opaque magic surfaces. All that was within these walls was the tundra, with its mountains and lakes, and the vision of the hanging planet in the sky.
“I think it’s fake.” Ishrin said. “It doesn’t move or change perspective. It’s not a real planet. Besides, it’s too small.”
Melina narrowed her eyes. “How can you tell? Have you seen planets from above before?”
Ishrin nodded. “Many times.”
“It could be a projection.” Lisette said. “To hide something.”
Melina nodded. “It has been a long day and I’m feeling tired. We should find shelter and make camp for the night. It’s too dangerous to roam half-asleep.”
“Do you want to go back?”
“It seems quiet enough here,” she said. “We’ll take turns keeping watch.”
“I will keep watch first,” said Lisette. “However, I must ask. Ishrin, do you not know of any magic to deal with sleep? It is most bothersome.”
Ishrin smiled at the stiffness of her request. “I do, but the weakest magic I know is still a Tier 5 spell. Can’t cast it yet.”
“Our Tier 5 or your Tier 5?” Asked Melina.
“I’ve decided to classify stuff according to your tiers. Makes it easier for everyone. I’m at Tier 2 and can cast up to Tier 4 right now, although not at full power if I go above my tier.”
***
As the group made their way across the icy landscape, they left the opening to the realm behind them. It waited there, patient, stable, immobile. There was no way to safely close it from the inside, or they would be stuck in the realm for who knows how long.
The opening did not care either way. It was content to just be, an immutable entrance to an unstable place. The clock was ticking already, for the appearance of a disturbance had already begun to upset the precarious balance of the magic that held the pocket world alive.
Something else disturbed the entrance. Suddenly a mechanical arm burst through, popping the thin layer of reality like a soap bubble, temporarily disturbing the natural flow of things that were and that will be. Red, malicious eyes shone under the hood of the not-man that crossed over moments later.
The robotic servant scanned the area. He attempted to contact his master, but his signal could not cross over to where the AI was waiting for his reports. Not a problem. He had instructions to follow, and they predicted that he would not be able to report to base just yet. It was hard for technological signals to cross over to other universes, after all.
It was much easier for them to penetrate through rock and steel.
The robot did not smile. It did not wait to see the results of its actions. It was incapable to feel any emotions.
As soon as the signal to awaken the artifact was sent, along with malicious code to alter its goals and objectives, the robot turned around and left. Its malicious eyes turned to other missions, following the wishes of its master and creator. Utterly uncapable of feeling the malice that was ascribed to them, yet unnerving all the same.
