Chương 26: The Path Beyond Maps

"Currently, there are four popular theories regarding how the Tyrant of Vyrmgaard opens rifts."

"First, he cuts the world with some dreadful blade from the stars. Second, he pulls space apart with his astral lead hands. Third, he has discovered a method of exploiting weak points in the world's spatial mana fabric to reach the rift dimension. Fourth—and this is my personal favorite—he simply hates us so intensely that reality gives up and tears itself open to avoid getting on his shit-list."

"Naturally, the Board prefers the third theory, because it contains more diagrams."

"As for myself, I advise caution. When a locked door bites, bleeds lead, and occasionally vomits demons into your room, a wise man shouldn't spend too long wondering how the hinges work."

"Ha!"

"Whatever method the Tyrant uses, I suspect mortalkind will not benefit from poking it with a scholarly stick." —State from Professor Lavrenty Kholodov, Author of 'Preliminary Spatial Rift Hypotheses' Orland took off running before Miriyela could stop him. The idea was still rough around the edges, and it was little more than a handful of thoughts colliding inside his skull, but he'd long since learned that waiting for a perfect plan was how he'd get himself killed.

Everything he'd done since he put on the mask had started with half an idea and an unreasonable amount of confidence—so whether that said something good or terrible about him, he honestly wasn't sure. Time to find out, he thought, reaching under his coat and putting his mask back on.

"Great Hero!" Miriyela called after him.

"Where are you going?"

"Town hall!" he shouted over his shoulder without slowing.

"And if I'm wrong, you can laugh at me later!" The princess and the mole-drake hurried after him while he sprinted across the sleeping square. The entire town really was peaceful at midnight—homes were dark, doors were shut, and nobody was standing outside to let the lead flakes scrape their skin—so he felt only a little bad as he kicked in the door to the town hall and made a loud crashing sound. Inside, the town hall was dimly lit with a single manalight lantern on a round table.

Maps, reports, inkpots, and scattered documents covered nearly every surface of it, while Kazimir and Nikolai, who'd been standing hunched over beside it for hours, looked exactly as exhausted as he'd thought. Even still, only Nikolai snapped his head up to look at him as he barged in. The old wolf didn't even bother looking.

"What's your problem?" Kazimir muttered while drawing on the maps.

"Unless the mine has somehow collapsed a second time, I suggest you stop making noise and go to sleep." But Orland ignored him completely. He crossed the room in three long strides, then slammed both his hands onto the large regional map spread across the table. That finally made Kazimir look up, irritation deepening on his face.

"I'm gonna knock you out if you keep—""Where are we?"

"... What?" Orland tapped the map.

"On here. Where's Zimnerudik?" The old wolf stared at him for a moment as though trying to determine whether exhaustion had also finally melted his brain. However, the reason for the question was something much simpler: he just couldn't read, so he needed someone to point out the location to him. Fortunately, Nikolai wasn't a grumpy old man, so he leaned over and pointed towards a location near the northeastern section of the map.

"Here, Great Hero. This is Zimnerudik." Orland immediately focused on the spot. While Miriyela and Sharsana barged into the hall as well, making Kazimir scowl at them for all the ruckus they were making, Orland's eyes followed the nearby roads, rivers, mountains ranges, settlements, and regional borders spreading away from the town. He barely heard Miriyela calling out to him. His mind was already racing ahead. After several moments, he pointed at the dot that was Zimnerudik again.

"Okay. So the rift all the way down in the fifth lower mineshaft connects directly to the Tyrant's place, which is on a continent somewhere north of this map, right?" Nikolai frowned slightly at the question.

"Yes? It's a rift. It should be bridging the space between Zimnerudik to the Tyrant's tower in Vyrmgaard—""And what about other rifts?" Orland cut in.

"Are there any other rifts in this area?" Nikolai exchanged a glance with Kazimir before the compass-like stardial communicator hanging from his belt chimed. The soldier excused himself to walk off a little, and Orland watched as Nikolai flipped the communicator open, turned the crystal needle a few times to make it glow, and held it up to his ear. Moments later, several overlapping voices poured through from the glowing needle.

Orland couldn't make out a single word those garbled voices were saying, but Kazimir answered in Nikolai's stead, using his quill to tap a few dozen more dots around the area.

"Ever since we sent out a request for reinforcements about four hours ago, we've been receiving tons of messages from the Rift Sealing Corps stationed in forty-five settlements around the region," Kazimir said plainly, his quill moving across the map as he spoke.

"Mining towns like Rusalka and Zimnerudik. Farming villages like Sisenka and Kimoltsy. Fortified outposts like Fortress Arkhano. Trading posts like Charsovo. Every one of them has reported the appearance of a rift in the heart of their settlement, and that their rifts are growing at abnormal rates as well." This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"As bad as ours?" Orland asked, unable to stop his brows from raising.

"No. Thankfully not. But still significantly faster than normal." Kazimir drew lines connecting all of the rifts in the area, and Orland grimaced. There were so many of them that connecting them with lines made it look like a web of rifts.

"It was a good thing we contacted most of them before the rifts opened. Common-Grade and Uncommon-Grade demons are pouring out of those rifts, but they were ready because of our warning, so they're holding their posts well enough… for now. They won't be able to hold on for long, though.

The rift here in Zimnerudik is likely the catalyst for the accelerated growth of all rifts in the area, since one rift being widened forcefully affects all other rifts nearby, so as long as ours isn't closed—""I think I've got an idea." Kazimir glanced up at him.

"I know I said I called for reinforcements, but with all the nearby Rift Sealing Corps busy with their own stations, I'm calling for backup from further away. They won't arrive for at least another two days, so if your great plan is to have all of us excavate the cave-in, forget it."

"We don't have to clear the cave-in," Orland said, tapping the Zimnerudik dot on the map again.

"If all the rifts in the area connect to the same place, then why don't we just jump into another rift and pop back out in the fifth lower mineshaft?" Kazimir paused. So did Miriyela. And Sharsana. Even Nikolai stopped speaking into the stardial communicator to stare at him. For several seconds, nobody said anything or did anything—until Kazimir shook his head lightly, so small and so subtle it was almost as if he didn't even realize he was doing it.

"... Are you dumb?" Kazimir muttered, resuming drawing lines between all the rifts.

"No. Out of the question. We're not doing it." Orland snatched the quill away.

"Why not?"

"Because—give me the fucking thing back—rifts aren't just a tear in space like some door you can jump through," Kazimir said, snatching his quill back with a scowl.

"All rifts are connected to something we tentatively call the 'rift dimension', which is this warped, fucked-up realm that serves as an intermediary between Vyrmgaard and wherever the Tyrant wants his demons to pop out of. It's his realm. It's a place nobody with more than half a brain has ever jumped into and returned from alive."

"So… it can work?"

"What?"

"Rifts are like tunnel entrances, and this rift dimension is the web of tunnels," Orland said plainly.

"Nobody normal has ever jumped into a rift and survived before. Has a 'Hero' ever done it?" Kazimir glowered at him.

"Jumping into the rift dimension while you're still Uncommon-Grade is like skipping straight to Vyrmgaard without having finished a single one of your divine quests. It's the Tyrant's realm."

"I heard you the first time, and that's exactly why he won't be expecting it," he said, grinning at Kazimir from ear to ear.

"Come on. It's do or die, right? Every hour we let the rift grow, stronger and stronger demons will be pouring out of it. Your reinforcements won't arrive quickly enough, so we'll intercept the demons' reinforcements by popping out of their own rift…" Then he trailed off, turning his grin into a feral, taunting one.

"Unless you're a coward. In that case, you can stay behind. Me and Miriyela can totally—" Sharsana growled at him.

"Me and Miriyela and the mole-drake can totally do this alone," he said, shrugging.

"Your call." Kazimir looked ready to strangle him, but then the old wolf opened his mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. His eyes went back down to the map. They drifted across the marked settlements, the roads, the mountains, and finally settled back onto the little dot representing Zimnerudik. Orland was right, and he knew it. That didn't make him any less reluctant about the plan, though.

"You're insane," he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. Nikolai looked no more comfortable about the idea. The soldier's gaze bounced nervously between the two of them, clearly hoping one of them would suddenly come to their senses and admit the plan was impossible. Unfortunately for him, Orland wasn't feeling particularly sensible tonight. The old wolf finally looked up again.

"... Let's pretend for one second that you're the Hero—""But I am the Hero—""Let's pretend for one second that entering a rift isn't immediate suicide. We go in—then what?" Kazimir's gaze hardened.

"What happens when you're surrounded by demons? How do you intend to fight off however many hundreds of thousands are in that warped space? And even if you do somehow manage to survive all that… how, exactly, are you planning to find the Zimnerudik on the inside? You've got no clue what it looks like. I've got no clue what it looks like." It was Orland's turn to open his mouth, then close it again. Good questions, actually.

There's forty-six rifts in the area, and if the rift dimension is a place where distance is all messed-up, there's no saying exactly which rift is the one we're looking for. The demons inside the rift dimension are probably not gonna welcome us, either. So how do we… His eyes drifted across the room absentmindedly. Then something tugged at the back of his mind: the sound of heavy, heavy footsteps that'd been echoing through the woods for most of the past week. … Huh. You're still around, aren't you?

And as for the method to identify Zimnerudik's rift from the inside, he also recalled what Miriyela had told him back when they were slaughtering their way down the mine.

'Songiron' is the metal they're harvesting in Mine Zimnerudik, which people use as metal identifiers. Dwarves can hear metals 'sing'... and Nikolai… His eyes snapped towards Nikolai immediately. The captain of the Rift Sealing Guards shifted uncomfortably, but he wasn't looking at the man's face, nor the man's helmet, armor, or sheathed blade. He was looking at the dull silver band on the man's wrist, which was etched with tiny grooves, spirals, and branching channels resembling the rings of a tree.

Name: Songiron Band Type: Passive Implement-Class, Common-9 Attribute Addition: +2 Clarity Ability Description: When the band is equipped, it will resonate with all nearby metals and vibrate in different patterns, allowing the holder to identify and locate all nearby metals. The passive cost is 0. 5 mana regeneration per hour.

Damn if he pretended he could actually read the relic's ability description now, but he felt like he had a pretty good idea about what it was anyways.

"... Just hear me out first." He beamed at Kazimir, and then at everyone else.

"Afterwards, do exactly as I tell you."