7 Worlds: The 4th World Vol. 1

Alden and I looked around trying to get our bearings. We were inside an odd cave with strange rock formations that shone in a dim vermillion light. The birds were gone, at the very least we certainly didn’t see or hear any, in fact, we couldn’t hear much of anything outside ourselves. The strangest thing about this place was the longer I was here, the more I could feel something cowering inside me, trying to hide away.

“I don’t see Nicole, she must have wandered further inside?” Alden suggested.

“Knowing her…Probably,” I said, hearing footsteps along a path in front of him.

“That must be her now,” I said, rushing forward and bumping into someone unexpectedly.

“Ow…Cian? What the heck are you doing here?” Zypher asked, rubbing his chest that I had just walked into.

“Zypher?! How in the…When did you get here?” I asked, shocked.

“I’ve been here for at least an hour now. When did you get here?” Zypher asked, confused as he also noticed Alden coming around the corner.

“We just got here. How did you know about this place before us?” Alden asked, resting a hand on my shoulder casually.

“I didn’t, I noticed some odd things going on that led me to your school. I was looking for clues at your school and then, as I was leaving, I saw a pillar of light coming from over here. I flew towards it and then it kind of…Sucked me in?” Zypher shuddered.

I pulled out my phone, it read 3:47p.m. I checked for a signal but there were no bars.

“Well, I’ve got 3:47. What time do you have?” I asked as Zypher pulled out his phone to check the time.

“5:13pm…Well that’s not good. Looks like this place distorts time? Hopefully by only a small fraction but…Where’s Nicole? I sensed her with you earlier,” Zypher asked, sliding his phone back in his pocket.

“She entered a few seconds before us so we’re not sure yet,” I said, with a sigh, sliding my phone back into my pocket as well.

“I thought you’d be more concerned,” Alden said, with a hint of curiosity.

“I am concerned, but she’s pretty capable even if she’s new to all this,” I noted with confidence.

“Fair enough. Anyways, let's hope there isn't too much time difference between us. Zypher can lead the way since we just got here,” Alden said, nudging Zypher forward.

Zypher didn’t seem to mind the way they interacted despite the two year age difference. Alden wasn’t too far off in size from him either. Zypher sporting a thin build at 180cm was only 5cm taller than Alden– I wasn’t too far off from them though. As we made our way through the cave, it opened up into a massive cavern with clouds, trees, hot springs and more– It was incredible.

“Is there an entire weather system in here?” I wondered. “And this air pressure…I feel like my brain is being squeezed out through my ears,” I said, rubbing my head in a meager attempt at some relief.

“This is certainly interesting and Denko seems to be picking up signs of humanoid life, although it seems to be having difficulty functioning here,” Zypher said as they reached a cliff face leading up to the larger part of the cavern.

“Yeah, our Dratmana seem to be struggling again as well…” Alden acknowledged.

“Again?” Zypher inquired further.

“When we were at the school they seemed to have some difficulty but we’ll fill you in later,” Alden said, motioning for them to continue on.

We began climbing instead of flying because we had each established on our own that for some reason our quanum connection was distorted in this place. It was a small mossy cliff face—only about seven meters high—and it didn’t take us too long to scale it. As I peaked my head over top, the view we got from down below didn’t do it justice at all—there was an entire village up there.

“Time to go say hi,” Alden said, climbing over the top and standing up.

“Hey! We need to be more cautious!” Zypher yelled at him.

“It’s no use once he gets like this. Besides, he has pretty good instincts…usually” I said, offering a hand to Zypher, pulling him up over the lip of the cliff.

As we neared the village we counted roughly fifty wood huts that looked large enough to house a three-person family. The village was sequestered in such a way that there was only one entrance to the village—unless you could fly of course. Glancing to the sides of the narrow passage into the village, I noticed two large beast-like statues near the entrance. For some reason it gave me an eerie sense of familiarity as I stared at them. Suddenly, I felt a sort of panic creep into me.

“Stop!” I yelled to Alden and Zypher who obliged before quickly turning to look at me.

“Those statues…I think they’re guardian’s, not like us but…I’m not sure…It’s like I'm trying to remember something I didn’t even know in the first place,” I said, rubbing my head in frustration.

A scraping sound started to fill our ears before a low rumble started to vibrate the ground.

“Cian...One of the statues is moving…” Alden said, backing away with Zypher.

“We’re here in peace. We’re only looking for someone,” I tried to explain as the statue started to stand and straighten, rising up to a towering twenty meters.

Somehow, instinctively, we could all tell we wouldn’t stand a chance against these behemoth statues. While they emitted no quanum of any kind, their existence itself lent to some mystical sense of foreboding pressuring us to run away.

“That is enough,” another voice spoke quietly.

Suddenly a large well-toned man in an ornate mask adorned with sleeveless shaman robes appeared in the air next to the statue—he reminded me of a Samoan…a super Samoan? Floating downward, he rested his hand on the statue returning it to its slumber.

“Come, I welcome you to our village,” he said, as he landed gracefully on the ground and began walking through the narrow passage.

Something about the man was calming yet terrifying. We could sense no quanum from him—we could sense no energy from him at all. With a worried glance, we simply nodded to each other and followed silently. As we made our way through the village, more masked people came to greet us, they seemed incredibly welcoming and polite.

“Well met travelers, welcome to our village,” said an older woman—it was hard to tell with the masks on as their bodies were well built.

“What are they saying?” Zypher asked anxiously.

“They’re just welcoming us, can you not hear them over the mask or something?” I asked, surprised.

“Not a word,” Alden replied.

“They’re not that muffled,” I said, shrugging.

“No, I mean we can’t understand whatever language they’re using at all,” Alden said, uncharacteristically frustrated.

“Oh…” I said simply.

“Thank you for rescuing us and offering us this wonderful hospitality. Your assistance is greatly appreciated,” I said to the man who had saved us.

Standing next to him was even more frightening. Nearly three meters tall, with a medium frame, he looked as if he had been sculpted from rock and then left to bake in the sun.

“Young one, you carry her with you, and that is more than enough for me to help,” he replied.

“Her…Is Nicole here?!” I asked excitedly, looking around.

“Ahh, the small soul. Yes, she arrived three days ago,” he replied simply.

“Three days?!” I asked in shock.

“Unfortunately, the gateway distorts time greatly. You are all quite lucky that it was to a lesser degree. Come, I will show you to her, she has been awaiting your arrival,” the man motioned towards one of the huts and the crowd around them split apart to make way.

Leading us to one of the larger huts, he pushed aside the curtain and welcomed us in. Sitting at a table drinking soup was Nicole dressed in shaman robes.

“Well, don’t you look awfully comfortable,” I said, as we entered the hut, but she only glared at me.

“Well, don’t you look awfully comfortable,” Alden repeated to her, entering after me, completely oblivious to the fact that I also just said that.

Nicole quickly stood up, walked over to us, and yanked hard on our ears.

“Ow! What did we do?!” We both shouted in unison.

“You’re both idiots,” she said, huffing and releasing us.

“Uhh…Well, at least you’re in good spirits?” Zypher said, and then promptly received a kick to the shin, followed by him rolling on the ground in pain.

“So, what took you so long,” she said shortly, tilting her head slightly in annoyance.

“Time apparently moves differently for each individual that enters that stupid portal. It’s not our fault,” I said, rubbing my ear.

“Then how is it that you all arrived here at the same time?!” She shouted at us.

“To be fair, Zypher was lost for over an hour before we even got here. The real question is, why did Cian and I arrive together?” Alden asked quizzically while nursing his ear.

“I don’t understand why I’m involved in all this?” Zypher whined from the ground.

“Me neither, so deal with it,” Nicole said, hotly and returned to her soup.

“Ahem…My guests, I hope you will find this village to be of your liking. I will return shortly once you are settled,” the man said, barely escaping through the curtain that served as the door—I wasn’t even sure how he fit inside the hut to begin with.

“Anyways, who is he, and where are we?” I asked.

“This is the ‘Veytru’ tribe’s village, and that guy is their leader, Balfrus,” Nicole said, while casually sipping at her soup.

Suddenly my head started to feel as though a nail was being driven into it and I collapsed to one knee, holding my head in pain.

“Cian?” Alden asked, quickly kneeling and putting his hand on my back.

“I think I just need to rest, my head has been weird since we arrived here,” I said, as Nicole rushed over to help me to my feet.

“You can rest here in this bed,” Nicole motioned to a bed made of leather, wood, and covered in animal fur.

“Thanks,” I said, as Alden and Nicole helped me over to it.

“I’ll be fine, just too much excitement for one day I’m sure,” I said, in an attempt to be reassuring but was only met with concerned looks.

“Just rest for now, we’ll talk later,” Nicole said, before returning to her soup.

Somewhere between her slurps I started to drift off—that must be some damn good soup—I thought as the pounding in my head finally drove the last bastions of consciousness away.

-----

“Khasar,” a warm voice said, a soft hand resting on my cheek.

This voice, this touch—they were so familiar. My eyes struggled to open, but I was able to focus enough to see that I was floating on my back in the air, clouds flowing below me. Underneath the clouds I could catch glimpses of what looked like a ruined city.

“You have taken the first step. You will need to take more. Slowly, you will awaken,” the voice said.

“Yasvei? Is that you? Are you the one from my visions?” I asked, finally placing the voice and looking around for her.

The clouds suddenly cleared away, as if pushed outward by a pair of hands, revealing the city below.

“You must unlock the passage to Talis and save Jiyei,” she continued, ignoring me.

“My father will guide you as far as he can but we can’t let Shamla see you. His corruption runs deep in you, the THING he left in you…No…Not now…I’m sorry…” the voice faded.

“Wait! I have so many questions, I don’t understand any of this. What AM I?! WHO AM I?!” I shouted but received only the sound of the wind whipping past my head.

It suddenly grew colder as whatever force held me in the air vanished, plummeting me towards the ground. As I fell, I could see the ruins in more detail—several stone beasts similar to the ones I had seen earlier today were there. From what I could make out, the ruins were laid out in a circular pattern with several tower-like structures jutting up from the rubble. In the center there was an even taller tower that was different from the rest in ways I was having difficulty understanding. Sitting on a throne inside that tower was another familiar figure from my dreams—it was Jiyei. His regal form upon the throne seemed dark and cold, as if he himself existed only within the abyssal depths of the ocean. Standing behind him was a shadowy visage, the malicious aura screamed at me—Shamla. As I came closer to the ground and my descent slowed, I could feel control of my body return. Somehow twisting midair, I managed to right myself and land carefully on the ground in front of them.

“Ahh, you’ve come at last brother,” Jiyei spoke coarsely with a coolness that chilled me to the bone.

“What is this?!” I yelled, confused and anxious.

“Fool brother! You spent too much time wandering and all for naught. The throne is mine, this kingdom is MINE! Not father’s! Not yours! It’s mine!” He said with a certain finality.

“I don’t understand…” I said, looking around the ruins—there was certainly nothing here worth ruling at this point.

“Jiyei, he’s come too soon. He does not have the capacity he once had. Yasvei’s seal hinders his abilities. We will have to break the seal to take back the seed I left within,” Shamla said, solemnly.

“What a shame, that I should have to kill you like this, brother. Yet I cannot properly rule until you are dead,” he said, standing and unsheathing a black blade that pulsed in a pale silver light with a gentle blue hue.

“Truly, you think that will work?” A voice spoke from beside me and as I turned I noticed a man in a strange uniform, a blood red phoenix embroidered on his black and silver jacket, his long flowing white hair parting just enough for it to be visible.

“Another cretin, here to protect you? Always…It is always YOU! Why does everyone help YOU!” He shouted charging forward, sword in hand but Shamla appeared in front of him holding an arm out across his chest.

“Do not move my King,” Shamla said, worriedly.

“Perhaps the most intelligent thing you’ve ever done. I would applaud you more, but then again I wouldn’t want to spoil you. It's clear your mother did enough of that. Indeed, spoiled. So much so that I can’t differentiate you from rotting a carcass,” the man said, taking a step forward and vanishing before reappearing seated on the throne. “It’s nice to see you’ve rearranged things since I last sat here,” the man said observationally.

“Interesting,” Shamla said without turning, lowering his hand from Jiyei’s chest.

“I believe that this meeting is over. Until next time Nu-”

“You will not speak my name, dark one. You are only a vestige, a shadow, clinging to this vessel,” the man said.

Shamla stood silently for a moment, contemplating, before abruptly tapping his staff on the ground three times causing Jiyei and himself to vanish into a shadowy mist.

“We will meet again. Climb the steps, Cian,” the new man said before snapping his fingers.

The world started to collapse in on itself like a card pyramid. I tried shouting—I tried to say anything, but nothing would come out.

Everything faded away into nothingness.