Hinterlands (I)

The fish that Magnus had baited out was surprisingly nutritious. Most of it was fed to Javelin, who enjoyed it very much. The group ate in simple joy, allowing Magnus to soothe his own mind.

It was only during the middle of his meal did Magnus realise that something was wrong.

A slight tremor in the earth had bothered his Hivemind members. Even the fog that the undead hid in had receded.

Just then,

Poof!

A Scroll appeared before Magnus' face.

With ever-increasing familiarity, he unfurled the scroll and read its contents.

[[ Sub-Trial: The Hinterlands of Thare ]]

[[ Thare was once a fragmented world. Pieces of it were lost due to a primordial calamity. You are now nearing one of the missing puzzle pieces. ]]

[[ Stay alive and retrieve a Placement Key fragment for your world. ]]

[[ Reward: Gatemaker's Scrolls ]]

In the next moment, the world around Magnus blurred and changed colours. He wasn't even allowed to tear the Scroll.

It was supposed to be nearing sunrise, but now, a blue sun shone directly above his head. It dyed the entire place in a deep blue light. Bluer than the ocean.

Magnus and his Hivemind members were instantly on alert.

Yet after a few minutes of anticipation, nothing appeared.

It left Magnus puzzled.

Until he looked at the ground.

"Cracks..?" Magnus' eyes followed the cracks as they gradually grew in size. "This should be heading straight west..."

Curious, Magnus followed the trail. He had an intuitive feeling that he had to find out what the world would look like if it was fragmented.

Something was drawing him in. Something important that he must get no matter the cost.

It left Magnus wondering just what kind of item it was.

'It is likely the Placement Key fragment... If it isn't, then I can just chalk it up as some Half-Night Tome number two.'

He thought about these things from within the Hivemind.

Restiel had been flying for hours already, but the mountain beside him seemed to have grown infinitely larger. The sun refused to move from its midday setting. And no other life form aside from blue and cyan plants could be seen.

Magnus was starting to get bored.

And he indeed got bored as Restiel flew for another few hours.

The world was lifeless and silent. It was eerily so. Everything was much too peaceful in this blue world where cracks could be seen in the ground, the air, and even the sky.

Ah yes, the cracks.

It was the only solace Magnus had, as he would've gone insane if he was unable to tell how much progress he was making.

The cracks were growing larger with every hour that Restiel flew due west.

They were currently large enough to fit a human hand.

"Weird," Magnus muttered as he had Restiel plunge his hand into the crack.

His hand moved through it like it was nonexistent. Not ghostly or ethereal like Magnus' ghost form, no.

It was like the crack existed in a whole different dimension instead.

There was no fluctuation in its form as it lay there, static and otherworldly. It did not flicker, move around, nor emit light.

It was just there.

And it seems to have been there since time immemorial— at least that was what the scroll said.

.

.

.

Magnus continued his trip through the lifeless blue world.

He kept going until he chanced upon something that had a different colour— like him. It was an old man, hunched over a blue walking stick, with long white hair and a beard of the same white colour that touched the blue forest floor.

The old man was incredibly eye-catching.

"Hello?" Magnus approached the man through Restiel's angelic figure.

He landed at the old man's side.

"O-oh!" The old man exclaimed, startled, "Young man, please don't do that. It's bad for my heart!"

"Ah," Restiel put on an embarrassed expression,

"My bad, Mister. I seemed to have had loose control over my emotions. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," The old man breathed, looking Restiel up and down, "You seem to be a good child, aren't you? What are you doing here in this dreary world?"

"That's the same thing I wanted to ask you, Mister. I am here because I have a task I need to complete. What about you, Mister?"

"A task?" Awe appeared on the old man's face, "How brave, how brave. On the other hand, I'm here because I had nowhere else to go. Living here was the only choice I had once upon a time."

"Once upon a time?" Magnus echoed, "Then why do you not leave?"

"I simply can't. I'm stuck." The old man sighed, "No matter how much power humans can achieve, it won't be enough to mend this world."

Whoooooom!

As the old man spoke those words, he released immense pressure. Undulating forces exuded from his frail form, creating a false sense of gravity.

His Spirit Energy spread out like a thick blanket over the entire area. Magnus could not see where his powers ended, but all he knew was that it was massive beyond imagination.

'How many stars is his rating?!' Magnus inwardly exclaimed.

He was staring at the environmental changes in shock and awe as Restiel wrestled to remain standing.

Slowly, Magnus witnessed the cracks in the area lessen in width and length. It drowned him in further astonishment.

'He's mending the world! No way!'

But,

Crack!

It wasn't enough.

Crack crack crack!

The world's crevices once more returned to their former state. As if all the Spirit Energy that the old man expended meant nothing to it.

"See?" The old man heaved a deep breath. "No matter how strong I am, I am nothing."

The old man turned around to walk,

"No man is an island. I cannot mend this world alone, thus, I cannot leave." He said, forlornly, "Come, young man. I have something to show you. Perhaps it would help you with your task."

"What is the price I must pay?" Restiel asked with his expression, stern.

"A promise."

The old man said as he walked,

[ A promise that you one day pull me out of this time-isolation phenomenon. ]

The old man's voice spoke in his mind, sending chills straight through Magnus' spine.

'What?' He gasped in shock, 'Time-isolation? Does he mean this blue world..?'

'But I won't be able to return here unless it's through a Trial...' A sudden thought shook Magnus to the core, 'Wait... Trial... The Otherworld Trials... Is he conscious of where he is?'

Perhaps those ideas were a bit too far from the truth, it seems. As the old man continued his words,

"I want to one day leave this dreary blue world," The old man said, shaking Magnus from his thoughts.

"I can feel how isolated this place is, from both reality and time. Nothing here dies to old age, and nothing is born. You, on the other hand, have residues of a way out. You are isolated from isolation itself. It is special, and at the same time, it is fragile. You can age, live, and die here. And I would've taken it from you if not for how delicate it is. So instead, I wish to hear your promise in exchange for what I am about to show you."

Magnus gulped upon hearing such words. He felt an unprecedented sense of danger at just a few mentions of something being taken from him without him having any way to fight back.

"A-alright." Magnus then went and said with wariness in his expression, "But I wish to see this object first before I make any promises."

The old man nodded, seemingly accepting Magnus' display of wariness.

"Then let us walk."

.

.

.

Magnus and the old man walked for several hours before they finally arrived in front of something interesting.

It was a significantly larger crack in the world. A crack that seemed more like a portal instead. It was a gaping hole in the world, that Magnus could even see through it.

"Is that..." Magnus muttered in surprise as he looked inside, "A temple?"

"It is indeed a temple. I don't know what it is for or for who it is. I never dared enter. But this is the only anomaly that I have seen in all my time here." The old man straightened his back, "If you're looking for something, that is the only place where something different likely resides."

"Then, how do I get in?" Magnus moved his hand into the hole in the world and discovered the same phenomenon he had been experiencing for hours upon hours on end.

It was intangible in all capacities.

"I can send you in myself," The old man now stood at his full height. Towering over Magnus at a great 6'7" allowing his long hair and beard to no longer touch the floor.

Hummmmmmm!

A low tune of power exuded from the old man, and Magnus instinctively felt fear and excitement.

'I want to see if I can survive his pursuit,' A thought appeared in his mind, but it was quickly snuffed out.

Not now, not yet.

"But first, your promise, young man."

Magnus nodded.

Secretly smiling deviously from within the Hivemind, Magnus began,

"I, Restiel Bavia, Archangel and Member of the Hivemind, promise to one day pull you out of this location and phenomenon."

Whoong whoong whooong!

A mystical power descended at that moment, wrapping Restiel up and binding him to his words.

'Interesting,' Magnus thought, 'My suspicions were indeed correct.'

There was indeed something that acted like a contract. Something that made the old man confident that Magnus would do as he promises.

'And I have likely found a loophole in the system... If it tries to implicate someone, it would be the Hivemind's Restiel and not me as a whole.'

Unaware of Magnus' thoughts, the old man nodded.

"Very well done. Now, let us hope that you can survive what comes next."