The progress halted an hour in on the next morning. The [Digger]s had stumbled upon a cavern in their path. It was not the one we were looking for, sadly. The place looked almost like a crack in the tectonic plate being a near-vertical slit three metres across. It slimmed down below and the ceiling was blocked by some large boulder having stalactites hanging off it. A few bats were scared away by the noise and light which alerted me and Alex.

With the hindrance, the dwarves decided to build a platform of wood across. That would take some more time which I spontaneously decided to use by exploring the opening. In my metal form, of course.

I used a shadow tendril to carry along a vis lamp from the dwarves and made my way down into the darkness. The stone was rough and had crumbled away in some places as I found at the very bottom filled with gravel. The rift extended several hundred metres on both sides before I gave up. It was wide enough to let me fly but my shadow wings would not fit. That made me unable to make use of my top speed. I almost expected it to reach all the way to the Dwarven Hills.

As I made my way back, I took a closer look at the walls. It only took a little imagination to realize they might have fit together at some point. That explained the gravel at least. Only, what could have created this? What was able to break the world? Or was it just tectonic movement? Maybe this was a spot where a plate was breaking apart and in a few hundred years it would be two? More like a million years, probably. Though, thinking about it a little more that seemed unlikely. If this world was like earth, it would have an inside of magma which would be slowly cooling down. In that process tectonic movements should slow down as well, right? Or was I remembering it wrong?

It made little sense to think about it with my half-knowledge and I knew someone that might have a better idea. After I got back to the tunnel, I told Alex of my findings while we watched the construction efforts.

“So, do you know how that works?”, I asked.

“Tectonic movement? A little, I guess? It’s not my speciality… I think it was caused by the difference in density between mantle and crust? There are basically three types of movement. First, when plates slide along each other. Second, when they move towards each other and third, when they separate. That last one is caused by magma pushing from below or something? I really don’t know.”

“Interesting. Maybe I should ask the dwarves. The Gurrin dig a lot. They might know something.”

“Good idea.”

We returned to observing the dwarves teach goblins how to make a wood platform while Roguk threw out all their considerations for support with his alchemical compound. Simply sticking the logs into the stone made that part much easier. Soon after, they were finished and the digging commenced. It only took another two hours before Harra called to halt.

“We’re close to the crystals. You guys go dig.”

That was our line. I had already prepared my excavation focus never having dropped my metal form and Alex took up one of the pickaxes. It looked a little comical with the tool being a little taller than herself but she had no issues swinging it. The metal she was made from served to give her enough weight to counteract the momentum and impact as well.

“How far do you think, Harra?”, I asked.

“Maybe two – three metres.”

With a bob of my head, I got to work. The green beam of the excavation focus dug into the ceiling while Alex started work near the ground. Every few minutes we took a break to let the goblins carry away the detritus. After the third pile, Harra spoke up again.

“Okay. Now only Fio. Keep some distance. Ye ’re close to breaking through.”

Alex stepped back a bit and I carefully got to work again. I started from the bottom to prevent a huge pile of crystals crushing me, just in case. That ended up being the smart decision.

After maybe twenty centimetres, I broke through. A torrent of near-physical darkness gushed out of the hole and I almost felt crystals grow on my body as the vis flooded into me. Every sound mellowed and still, I made out a suspicious crack. I took a step back, then another. It was impossible to see even with my senses.

“Alex, where are you?”, I called out.

“Haven’t moved. I can’t sense where I’m going. Don’t want to fall.”

“I think the wall is gonna break.”

“Then get away!”

“I’m doing just that!”

A resounding crash interrupted our interchange and I felt something hard-hitting my body only to slide off. It was followed by a wave of objects that made the surrounding darkness seem like a cloudless summer day. The crystals were so dense they seemed to suck up the light. A few of them had one or two lighter streaks growing through their facets. When the first one hit my thaumium body, I blacked out for a moment. Mentally. The pure surge of energy shot into my form and tried to find an outlet. My soul retreated to my inner gate, leaving my body to fend for itself as I closed up. More and more waves of energy shot inside and it almost felt like I would crumple under the pressure. My core was not in this reality at least. The outside Status was what saved me at that very moment.

Still, I eventually opened up to let the darkness in. Only a tiny bit and yet the energy was nearly too much to control. I guided the vis through my soul, around my core and into the Empty. What I had not predicted was my self being dragged along. I tried to hold tight and stay with my body but it was futile. The darkness overwhelmed my meagre strength no matter how much I struggled and after what felt like an eternity, I was washed away from reality.

My vision shifted to see all around me at once. I had to narrow my perception down to not go insane from that simple image. In front of me was my inner gate ripped wide open with tenebrae vis gushing through and into the Empty. Behind me lay my Beast Core with a flickering purple image of my real body around it. It was quickly shrinking under the pressure and being sucked up into the spherical gem.

For a moment, my soul was occupied with the beauty of my true self. This was the result of my evolution. A perfect orb shining crystal white. From within, colourful swathes shone out through complex yet simple facets and fractures. Black, yellow, green, silver, white, purple, cyan and olive. It was lacking some warmer colours but there was little I could do about that. I observed as even more black rushed inside and filled out some of the fissures. The image deeply scared and fascinated me at the same time.

Shortly after, I noticed what my Core lay on. A nest of purple sticks and webs. I remembered this the last time I was overloaded with flux. When I absorbed that major node and had gained the alteration to [Eldritch Shift] that let my true body slip outside. I had reformed the shape of my soul with the mind spiders observing. Right now, there were none. No matter where I looked, the spiders were nowhere to see.

With panic, I noticed how my perception was slowly washed away from my Core. What would happen if my soul was no longer with my body? Would I be reborn again? I did not want that. I had made some wonderful friends and found a home. And there was yet so much to discover and learn about… everything. I needed to get back. And so I pushed into the stream of darkness. It was far less consuming outside here and yet more powerful in a different sense. Something was definitely off with my perspective. My mind tried to make sense of it but it seemed impossible. I was incapable of getting closer to my Core.

Then, I looked ‘up’, for lack of better description. ‘Above’ me was something resembling an eye. Facets and colours arranged in a fancy circle reflecting all aspects. The centre was deep purple. Something without colour moved to cover it from both sides. Like a curtain. Or a lid. I made out the hint of a face. A huge mouth filled with tentacular teeth and a lump of tendrils in place of a tongue. There was a body. Then there was no body. The eye disappeared and yet was still there. I saw. My perception expanded. Returned. Back to what it should be. The Empty had no directions. It had no space. And yet there were places. It had something like time but that was not very straight forward. It was tied to the beings. The souls which had a body in reality. I finally saw my inner gate for what it was. An impossible door that opened in all directions at the same time. My intention to only open a tiny hole had opened an infinite number of them and flooded my soul with vis. There was a clear border where ‘I’ stopped and the Empty began. And that border held something else. Another soul.

“We meet again, little one”, the eldritch monster said, “I see you heeded my advice.”