The Grand Weave

I grabbed Sereza's hand and tugged her to the portal. She looked back at the scramble of people rushing to the tent.

I shook my head. "We have to go. If something comes out on the other side, we'll need to be there in case."

She scowled but stopped resisting. I turned to Groxl, and he nodded while picking up both of his teammates and diving through the portal before I could blink.

The sight made me chuckle.

My life is absolutely ridiculous nowadays.

I kept a grip on Sereza's wrist, and we dove into the portal. The instant we passed through, I found a shell of mana separating us. There was nothing I could do except let the dimensional pathway transport me.

Except something went wrong. Something impacted the shell, and I found myself spinning. Head over feet, over and over, I tumbled fast enough to freeze my limbs.

Another impact rocked the barrier, and this time, I caught a glimpse of what hit me. To call it a monstrosity would be an understatement. It was a bloated mass of grey flesh coated in fresh black blood. The creature released a scream that I could not hear but feel. It caused a distortion along the spatial shell, and I found my insides twisting.

It looked like a scene from a horror movie, the massive creature continuously growing new appendages the moment the old ones split and died.

Exiting along its surface was a blip of blinding energy that fired off beams of light that disappeared after a certain distance.

Damn. Looks like I'm the only one.

It flicked out another tentacle, the splitting flesh lasting long enough to extend and slam into the energy shell that kept me protected from the emptiness.

I didn't understand how the pocket dimension inside a rift worked, but none of that mattered at the moment.

if I didn't do something, I'd die. But even as I tried to think of anything I could do, nothing came to mind.

Against the dimensional horror, I was a sitting duck.

Another tentacle lashed out slower than before, the surface of the bloated creature turning black with rot. It was dying, failing, but it would take me down with it.

Another slap against the shell resulted in a painful crack. Within the thin spiderweb of damage, a multilayered prism of light emerged, causing my eyes to instinctively squeeze shut.

Another ripple caused my insides to churn, and blood dripped down my face.

Give me a break, jerk!

I forced my eyes open and used my hands to block the sight of the cracks. They had extended from the last impact, and I ground my teeth. The small blip of light kept a continuous salvo of beams shooting out.

At least I'm letting everyone else get to safety.

I just hoped that Sereza made it to the otherside. It was a shitty reward for being the sacrificial lamb. And somehow, out of all those perks of being an adopted child to a god, I was pretty sure Cal would be unable to help me.

The creature roared, and this time, the tentacle that tried to reach me barely managed to scrape at my protection. The damage was light enough that all it did was spin me around a few rotations.

My body didn't get motion sickness from the rapid movement, which was nice, but there was almost no point in reorientating myself. I couldn't move, not unless I wanted to do something drastic.

And the only thing I could do was try and forcefully destroy the shell around me. Spirit Lord's Invocation was still running; my mana had somehow kept the transformation active despite Aine getting unsummoned.

If I pushed my hands to the barrier, it would be easy to absorb the spatial mana, or at least I thought so. I didn't know the full limits to Magnus' absorption abilities, so there was a chance that I wouldn't be able to. The only reason I thought it was possible was because I managed to disrupt the containment circles in the camp.

Fwip!

I watched the creature's tentacle coming toward me fall short of reaching the shell. Before the horror could even retract the limb, it withered and died, crumbling apart and separating from its body.

When it screamed, my head exploded in agony, and I coughed up blood. My insides felt like they had been rearranged, and my lungs were on fire.

I forced my eyes open, ignoring the tears of pink running down my cheek. The creature's body was a shriveled mess. Black tar poured out like a tidal wave, the pools of the stuff floating off before disintegrating among the chaotic field outside.

My eyesight was good, but I wasn't attuned to spatial energy, so seeing the chaotic whirlwind inside the blank expanse was terrifying. It was beautiful, like a twister of iridescent light that swarmed and destroyed anything it touched.

I laughed then. Everything was so damn annoying. Nonstop, it felt like I was being kicked by reality itself. It was as if my soul was to be punished for a past life's misdeeds.

There was no one to blame but my own. I walked into both rifts willingly. I was responsible for my actions even if I wanted to scream to the void about how unfair it was.

And when the horror released one final, silent scream, I grunted and let the damage come. A bone snapped somewhere, and more blood pooled out of my orifices.

But so what? If I'm going down, I'll do it with a scream out my lips.

I extended my arms, letting the full effects of the cracks affect me. What was another headache? Another source of pain to join the rest.

I growled and bellowed as I spat out more blood. My calm, rational self was gone. It had no use at the moment. I needed anger, so I let wrath take over.

Bring it on!

The creature extended, tearing itself away from the rotten husk that remained of its body. As it drifted closer, I saw the piece of flesh that had the blipping light. I waited, but the portal was silent. All the people had entered and escaped, or they were dead. In the end, I probably wouldn't be alive to care.

The creature drifted close enough that it elongated its body into one final tentacle. I could already see the limb begin to split and blood drain away. It grew another tendril, smaller, thinner, that wrapped around the seam and forced the split to close.

Another scream and reality bent. With one last ditch effort, it whipped its body towards me, and I held out my hands and pushed into the spatial mana keeping me safe.

Right as the tentacle reached within a couple of meters, the air was knocked out of my lungs, and I felt mana force itself into action. There was an explosion of pain from inside my soulspace, but then Chomperz rushed out.

He reached the edge of the shell and opened his mouth. I couldn't think, but I felt a force press down on my arms and knock them away.

Somehow, I was alive, the creature having stopped only inches away.

None of it made sense.

The creature quivered and then became limp as it split into two. Each half crumbled to dust and drifted off into the spatial winds above.

"Chomperz... Wh-what are... doing."

The dragonling turned around, and I saw something strange in his eyes. There was a single red rune so tiny it was impossible to make out what it looked like in the center of his pupils. The black void made the glowing red appear in sharp contrast.

He chomped the air, then turned around and placed both talons on the edge of the shell.

My vision faded as there was a sudden rush of movement, and I was thrown backward. Before my consciousness went, I sensed the spatial mana reinforce and wrap itself further around my body.

My ass hit the floor, and my mind was shocked into being awake. I groaned and tried to push myself up, but my limbs refused to respond to my commands.

My chest was cold, and I tried to dive into my soulspace but was rejected with another round of mental hammering that caused me to clutch my head.

I let the pain ride out till the headache stopped, and I opened my eyes. They didn't open, and I nearly freaked out till I tried again and felt my eyelid peel away.

A few more tries got half my lid open, and I noticed a crusty substance had glued my eyelid closed.

My fingers were the next to come back online, and I slowly inched my way to my face. By the time I managed to reach my chin, most of my hand was back to functionality, albeit very slowly.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of crystal covering my face. I brushed my fingers against my shoulders and reached for above my head, but there was nothing. Spirit Lord's Invocation was no longer active along with Magnus.

I tried to shift my vision around, but I had to give up when my eyesight started to swim.

"Chomperz? You there? Magnus?" I called out.

No response.

I groaned and slowly moved my hand to my eyes, where I helped my eyelid tear itself free from the dried blood that had sealed it shut.

I am never entering another... stupid rift. Not until I tier up. The Weave can find another fool to mess things up.

Without access to my soulspace, I was forced to lay there in misery. I even tried to pull up my system, but the sharp pain it caused in my chest made me stop.

So, for what felt like hours, I lay on the cold ground and waited till my body slowly returned to functionality. At least the room was clean and silent. From the looks of it I was underground, judging from the stalactites jutting from the ceiling.

Carefully, being sure not to get up too fast and reinjure myself, I sat up. My back hurt, but what wasn't?

Using the elegant method of crawling my way towards where I saw a stream of water, I managed to go till I reached the edge and collapsed with a groan.

It took another thirty minutes to clean myself off from the amount of blood and muck covering my body. The effort was tiring, and I was still dirty in some spots but felt clean. Cleaner than I had been, at the least.

I saw stairs leading up on the far side of the extended cavern, so I knew where the exit was. But I wanted to sleep. The rift could handle itself for a few hours.

Of course, the moment I tried to close my eyes, something shifted inside my chest, and I felt a dull ache in my head disappear.

Blinking slowly, I tried to sit up. My fingers flexed, and I tried to channel mana into my hand, but the flow felt sluggish, and my arm started to throb, so I ceased.

With a grunt, I rolled over and laid my head on the ground, using the remains of my cloak as a makeshift pillow.

There was only one thing left to try, but I hesitated. I knew my luck, and the chances of things being normal for once were abysmally low.

However, it was better to bite the bullet and get it done with. If ripping the bandage off revealed a nice messy scar, then fine. I'll just go to bed and let future me deal with the problem.

With a long and drawn-out sigh, I queried the system, and the cavern ceiling was replaced by a line of text that floated in the air.

Survive the Invasion:

Days survived: 8/15

New Objective: End the rift. Help the goddess by freeing her priest from the ritual. This is a personal mission available to only you.

I closed my eyes and snuggled into my cloak.

Truly. Fuck the rift.