The General Commander was strained. Despite her outwardly composed appearance, she knew she was grasping at straws. Whatever was happening in the real world was way more dire than she made anyone believe. For a gateway to be opened between two worlds, there had to be an exchange between them— a handshake between their anchors. These anchors must have been established well beforehand in both worlds for stable passage, otherwise it would be like shooting into the vast darkness of the void, hoping for a lucky hit. The odds of that happening was so small that you were better off not trying at all.
She had never expected herself to be in a situation where she would unhesitatingly come to the decision of doing just that. It wasn't that she was ill prepared— there were coordinates to various Ryvelin owned anchor points with her, even a few publicly known anchor points belonging to other families, just as a precaution, but not a single one was reachable. It felt like there was a veil blocking her anchor from reaching any other on their world.
The idea itself was absurd. That would mean that whatever was happening went beyond just their family. It affected every other noble family... and even the Bravenheart Royal family, as their gateway was also unreachable.
If not for her years of experience in dealing with stressful situations, she might have lost herself to despair. No one wanted to die being devoured by the void. It was the most painful way to go. You slowly fade from people's memories like the world itself forgets you. Only tier six and above powerhouses hold the power to keep you in their memories, while everyone else forgets.
Alyra had picked up that something was terribly wrong. She knew her sister very well and could tell when something was off. But she also had the sense to know that this was not the time to distract her. She was using every ounce of her focus to steer them forward while trying to use the consolidated origin as efficiently as possible, which was proving to be difficult.
The hall was pin drop silent as everyone watched with bated breaths. The view the giant window provided was useless to them at the moment, only filling them with a sense of dread and their utter insignificance in the grand scale of things. A few of them even turned their backs to the view to stop the feeling of paranoia starting to creep up.
Zephyr used the time to focus his mind on other things, like asking for more details about Virtual and 3D environments.
He was able to learn the basics, like the general idea behind them, how they work, and their applications. The 'how they work' aspect where Aegis talked about Polygons, Textures, Modeling and whatnot, mostly flew right over his head. The terms were totally foreign and he could only glean a bit from their translation. What intrigued him was the application aspect.
Asides the possibility of experiencing worlds he'd never seen— the popularly known Holy rift world, Drasil, owned by the elven royalty being one of them. He'd always wanted to visit— the possibilities in regards to work applications appealed to him even more. He imagined himself setting up his own virtual runesmithing workshop, where he could test out crazy ideas he would never try out in the real world. Ideas that would have severe repercussions because of how dangerous they were.
The one thing he had an issue with was that from Aegis' explanation, VR seemed to work on a different process than the spell the Grand Commander casted. In fact Aegis never mentioned anything about a spell, making him probe for further clarification, and apart from the general reminder that Aegis could not interact with mana, Zephyr got the familiar prompt he hadn't heard for a while - Access Denied, User Privilege Insufficient.
He was just about to make a sarcastic remark when the hall shuddered, drawing gasps of exclamation from everyone.
The General Commander frowned in concentration as she redoubled her efforts to stabilize the construct. She had given up on trying to reach their home world directly— the journey towards a supreme energy world like theirs untethered would mean certain death, crossing the barrier into their universe alone was enough to kill them, and that was even if they could find their way there. Instead she was hoping to crash into any close-by low energy world like the one that just got devoured. It was a stretch, but at least more feasible than heading for their world— Low energy worlds were usually clustered together, clashing over eons to one day form low energy systems and eventually universes— But the odds were still against them, astronomically.
GROOAANN
The hall shuddered again. This time more violently. They could see some dust falling to the ground. Cries of fear pervaded the hall as the Grand Commander grimaced. This was more than just some minor turbulence. Something was happening. She thought.
Suddenly, from the giant window that provided no light previously, light started to flood into the hall, at first dimly then slowly brighter. Bright enough to overshadow the soft light from the chandeliers in the hall.
The render started to shake violently. The recruits' small cries had turned into full on shrieks of panic. Even Zephyr was clutching onto anything he could hold, eyes wide open in fear.
The Grand Commander clenched her teeth hard, visibly straining against the sudden pressure.
They were caught in a gateway link.
Of all the probable scenarios, this was one of the most inconceivable. The odds of this happening was so infinitesimal that they were more likely to randomly stumble through ten low energy worlds consecutively, spend a day in each, before taking another blind shot in the void and landing right in a mid level energy universe just in time for afternoon tea... before doing the same all over again.
Someone somewhere was journeying between two anchors and they just happened in on their path. The Grand Commander did not know how to deal with the situation. There hadn't been a case of this happening in all her studies. She watched as despite her efforts, the grand hall very gradually came undone like a cloth being pulled apart from the seams.
She threw all caution to the wind, burning through the origin crystal without any care for efficiency.
The render threatened to dismantle under the repulsion of encroaching on the gateway link uninvited, and without the corresponding anchor. It's presence even destabilized the link, threatening the safety of the original travellers.
Suddenly, through the chaos of it all, the General Commander's eyes widened as she noticed a surprising but dreadful detail. She forced out a yell to her sister, "IT'S A HIGH LEVEL UNIVERSE!!— GRADE THREE!!!"
Alyra's mouth opened in shock at the implication of the words and she couldn't help but glance at the recruits below, an unreadable expression crossing her eyes before disappearing like it was never there. Zephyr caught the look, along with a few other sharp recruits, but they couldn't decipher the meaning in regards to what the Grand Commander yelled. Besides, they were struggling to hold on already as is, tumbling and crawling closer to the two sisters up on the throne for safety. Their surroundings seemed more real than the ground below which they were.
As Zephyr crawled forward holding onto anything he could, trying to stabilize himself through the reckless tremors and spins the render had spiraled into, his eyes met the single eye of the man that was bound by the hand and mouth, the prisoner that had previously seemed like he was dead— Smiling Devil. A fiery intensity burned through his eye that stared at Zephyr. It felt like he was trying to desperately communicate something to him. He repeatedly glanced further away, towards the now flickering and fading glass window on the opposite end of the hall.
'Is he urging me not to go forward?' Zephyr stopped, simply holding on to the leg of a chair rooted to the ground in the hall. He didn't know the man, but for some reason his look felt genuine, and coupled with the earlier look Mistress Alyra had given them, alarm bells were ringing in his head.
"Zephyr, why are you stopping?!" Jet yelled right behind him. The hall had settled into a steady spin in a forty-five degree tilt that meant everyone had to be fully prone and careful not to fall slip down to the glass.
AHHHHHH. Someone yelled as they lost their hold, tumbling down the hall and straight onto the already weak glass construct, shattering it easily and disappearing into the light beyond, now dimmer, colored by the darkness of the void creeping into the gateway link from their point of entry. The person served as a lesson to the other recruits who watched on with trepidation.
'That could've been me!' Zephyr looked straight at the man ahead. He had a look of confusion in his eye, like the current development wasn't to his expectations. He looked like he was thinking for a bit before suddenly turning his gaze to the sides of the hall glancing repeatedly like that was the new goal.
'Oh, now he wants me to go to the sides.' Zephyr thought sarcastically.
"What's at the sides?!" Jet yelled through the chaos, prompting Zephyr to look below. Jet had noticed the man's looks after wondering why Zephyr was holding him and everyone behind up.
"I don't know... but I don't feel comfortable going forward. My gut is telling me something is wrong. I wanna see what happens first!" He looked towards the front where those that were previously sitted close to the throne had already started climbing the steps, holding on to the side rails for support.
Cedric, Anna and Helga not too far ahead of Zephyr heard his response and stopped to watch also.
...
Nothing happened.
The recruits got to the top safely and stood firmly on their feet. The ground was more solid there, with barely any sway. Their safety spurred a lot of the other recruits onward and even Jet and the others started to doubt Zephyr's intuition. They had seen Mistress Alyra's look, but there was nothing of note they could point to that could be dangerous.
Someone behind Jet shouted at Zephyr to make it quick and he leaned to make way for them to crawl up the sloped ground.
Eventually, nearly all the recruits had reached the top. Asides a few who also fell to their demise, only Zephyr and his crew of friends and acquaintances, along with a few other cautious recruits remained.
Zeke was right at the front, between the steps and rest below. He, along with his team were waiting to see what would happen.
Surprisingly, neither Mistress Alyra nor the General Commander said anything, only watching with a seemingly uncaring look.
Zephyr's mind was cycling through so many thoughts as he weighed his options. What was he even afraid of? How stupid would it be if this was all for nothing? Say he goes along with his guts and the man's suggestion, was he to break the damn walls? And to meet what, the same demise as the others who fell below?
His hesitation started to make everyone waiting tense. Zeke was looking between the throne and them indecisively. The General Commander was gritting her teeth like she couldn't hold on any longer.
Zephyr was asking Aegis about possible weak points of the wall at the sides.
Suddenly, the General Commander's eyes burned with madness and decisiveness as she sensed something outside.
"LAW!!... MOVEMENT IS PROHIBITED HERE!!" She yelled with ferocity, burning up the last bit of origin in the crystal.
A lot of things happened within the few seconds after that.
As Zephyr heard the start of her call, his body moved on instinct, all alarms bells blaring wildly. He jumped to the sides, straight at the weak point Aegis had pointed out. Right behind him Jet had also jumped without hesitation, his body in the motion of casting a spell targeted at the man bound way ahead of them by the stairs. It seemed he wanted to destroy the chains that tethered the man to the ground. Behind him, Cedric and the others had also jumped. Zeke had let himself into a free fall, hoping to latch onto something and follow after them. Only Jamie from his group was decisive enough to follow instantly, the others had hesitated. And it cost them dearly.
Immediately the Grand Commander finished her statement, a terrible sense of oppression that could be felt very clearly descended on everyone.
Starting from those closest to her, everyone froze in motion like statues. The effect spread like a wave, reaching those further away a beat later, giving some people the time to realize something was wrong. They had just begun to turn and run when the wave met them, locking them in their running motion.
The spell Jet fired hit right on point, snapping the metal chain used to hold the already bound Smiling Devil to the ground. His body tumbled straight down after Zeke and Jamie, ricocheting off a piece of furniture and right into the trajectory of Zephyr's path.
The General Commander watched with derision in her eyes as they all made a last struggle. She had lost control of the render with that last call, exhausting all the origin left in the crystal and all mana she could muster, fully powerless at the moment. She could see the hall being devoured by the void from the other end, fading out of existence rapidly. But there wasn't a trace of fear in her eyes.
"JET! FIRE AT THAT WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!! AIM FOR THE BOTTOM!!" Zephyr pointed at a sofa that lined the side of the wall in between a statue. He was betting everything on the sofa's underside being being a structural weakness— merely a visual placeholder in the render. Even if the commander knew the castle intimately, she wouldn't know the details of every crook and corner.
Jet, fresh from casting a spell, spun in the air and locked on to the sofa without asking any questions.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
A thunderous volley of fire arrow spells landed on the underside of the sofa. It flickered wildly in a cacophony of pixelated chaos, but it wasn't enough. It needed a small push to get over the edge.
Just as Zephyr thought to use his hand as a weapon to smash the flickering construct, disregarding any pain, a giant warhammer whizzed right past him by a hair's breadth.
WHAM
Cedric's warhammer landed the final blow that tipped the flickering sofa construct over the edge just as the General Commander's law took effect over them.
With a flash of light, the underside of the chair unraveled instantly, tearing the whole side of the hall open like a glitch and sucking their locked bodies into the blinding light of the gateway.
The last thing Zephyr saw was a body crashing into his before being sucked out of the opening, the fates of those behind him unknown.