—Ethan's POV—
I rushed after Aldrich without thinking, firing my grappling hook quickly enough to pass through the portal and pull me inside before it could close completely.
It was my first time experiencing teleportation.
Or rather, my second, considering I had already traveled through a Bonfire before. But this was different from anything I had experienced back then.
I wasn't simply stepping through a doorway and emerging on the other side. Instead, I found myself traveling through what resembled a tunnel, neither particularly long nor especially short, stretching across a small distance where everything appeared strangely distorted.
The space around me rippled and twisted, as though someone had grabbed hold of the world itself and carelessly rearranged it until nothing remained in its proper place.
I could see Aldrich emerging from the portal at the far end. He was still relatively close, and I realized that I would catch up to him very soon.
