I woke up to my own coughing. Everything around me blurred and doubled.
"Oh, you're awake," Kaelen's voice reached me as if from underwater.
I tried to brace myself on my right arm. The Centurion responded with an unpleasant metallic screech. Near the elbow, one of the chitinous plates had cracked, and the exposed mountain lizard tendons were now grinding against the edge of the aircraft-grade duralumin.
"How much... time?" I rasped.
"Three hours, just as agreed. You're punctual even in your sleep."
Kaelen sat opposite me, stirring something in a small pot. His amber sphere hovered in the air above him, casting jagged shadows across his face.
I tried to call upon Will to Live. Just to test the system.
Nothing.
"We need to go," I forced myself to sit up. My head spun, and nausea rose in my throat.
"Listen, Iron," Kaelen stopped stirring the brew and looked at me seriously. "Maybe we should wait it out for another couple of hours?"
"No. The sector boundary is unstable. If a mana tide surges, we'll be atomized. Help me up."
Kaelen sighed, stepped over, and lent me a shoulder.
Two hours later, we reached the final stage of the Rift.
Space here was torn to shreds. We could see chunks of buildings ripped from distant cities, rock fragments, and entire trees swirling in the gigantic vortex of a magical storm. The static electricity was so dense that blue sparks arced from my fingertips and my hair stood on end.
"Right..." I tried to focus. "To the right... thirty meters out... the oscillation frequency is lower. If we take a fifteen-degree angle... we can slip between the main torrent and the gravitational pocket..."
My voice failed me. I broke into a fit of coughing, pink froth forming on my lips.
"Seven... seven degrees north..." I whispered, trying to hold the formula in my head, but the numbers crumbled like dry sand.
Kaelen stopped. He looked at the raging vortex ahead, then at me.
"Enough, Iron," he said quietly.
"I can still... let me calculate the impulse delay..."
Kaelen adjusted his grip on me, slinging my arm over his neck. "Shut your mouth and just don't get in my way."
He extinguished his sphere. The amber light vanished, leaving us in the gloom. Kaelen closed his eyes.
"What are you... doing?" I breathed.
"Trying to hear the path. The Rift has a rhythm. I'm trying to feel it."
He took his first step into the center of the vortex. Right in front of us, a fragment of a marble column hurtled past, meant to smear us across the rocks, but a second before impact, Kaelen ducked slightly and pivoted his torso. The column flew mere inches from my head.
"Left," he whispered under his breath. "Now, a dash..."
A massive funnel of magical flame erupted directly along our course. I wanted to scream that we needed to bear right, but Kaelen did the exact opposite, quickening his pace and plunging straight into the thickest part of the light.
"You've lost your mind!" I shouted.
We burst into the center of the flash. For a split second, I thought we were about to be vaporized. But instead of pain, a strange, deafening silence washed over us.
I felt something soft beneath me.
I opened my eyes and immediately squinted. The light was different. Brilliant sunshine.
We were lying on a gentle hill. Below us stretched a plain covered in dense pine forests, with silvery ribbons of rivers winding through them.
"Did we... make it out?" I barely recognized my own voice.
Kaelen lay beside me, arms flung wide, gulping down air. His doublet was reduced to tatters, and a long scrape stood out on his face, but he was smiling.
"We're in Eridan, partner," he exhaled.
"Welcome to the Kingdom of Eridan… or rather, its capital—Weisburg."
Look at that sky. It isn't trying to kill you, is it?"
For a few minutes we lay in silence, simply savoring being alive. Finally, I forced myself to speak.
"Kaelen..." I hesitated. "Why?"
"Why what?" he propped himself up on his elbows.
"The Rift. You could have bypassed it through the southern passes. It would have taken three or four months, but it's safe there. With your resources and artifacts, you could have traveled in comfort."
Kaelen chuckled and, plucking a blade of grass, thoughtfully twirled it between his fingers.
"Three months, Iron. Do you have any idea how much wine a man can drink in three months? How many interesting people he can meet? Life is too short to waste on long detours. Pushing straight through is fast, bold, and gives you that exact rush that keeps your heart pumping."
He went quiet, then turned his head to face me.
"Now it's your turn. You saw the state you were in. Why did you drag yourself through this tear in reality with me?"
"...To become stronger," I answered honestly. "If I couldn't pass through the Rift, I would never reach Dornheim." "And if I didn't, I would have let him down," I mentally added.
Kaelen snorted, shaking his head. "Well, I'll be. You seem smart enough, Iron, but sometimes you're such an idiot."
"What are you talking about?"
"You ever hear the saying: a wise man doesn't climb a mountain, a wise man goes around it? Well, that definitely doesn't apply to you," he smirked.
"Look who's talking," I said quietly.
Kaelen sat there for a bit, then got up and extended a hand. I grabbed hold of it, and with a single heave, he hauled me to my feet.
"Alright, 'Strongest,'" he nodded somewhere into the distance, where the outlines of city towers faintly peered through the gray haze. "Eridan is massive, we won't get lost. Let's move, a proper drink wouldn't hurt either of us right now."
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