The next day, Terra stands at the top of a mountain peak with Gabriel and the gang, all wearing thick jackets. This place is as close to the edge of the habitable zone as they can get. Down south is the direction of Eila's old school field, although it's too far away to be seen from here. So much has happened since Terra and Gabriel's dance atop that peak. Back then, she was terrified that he'd find out she was human: that she was deceiving him. Now, they're here. Gabriel knows everything, and he's about to help her save their people.
In front of them, Eila, the professor, and Ariel talk amongst themselves. The redhead was let out of prison with the promise of all charges being dropped, as long as she looks out for the professor and Eila. Eila clutches her right arm, still recovering from getting her magical chip removed. The three of them will be camping in a cave on a cliffside not too far from here, and no other fanice are allowed nearby.
Terra looks to the other side of the mountain, and all she can see is frozen deadlands. Those icy mountains are littered with cracks and prone to frequent avalanches. She's heard that if one ventures too far in that direction, they'll either freeze to death or run out of oxygen; both are not ideal ways to go. This place is cold and dark. One can hardly see the permanent sunset teeming on the edge of the southern horizon. To the north, it's complete darkness.
She knows the deadlands to the south are much worse, though. That is the side of the planet that permanently faces the sun, and it is always on fire. The only reason the fire does not spread to the habitable zone is due to the thick mountain range that stands between them and certain death. It's a brutal world, but it's their home, nonetheless.
After a while, the five of them spot a lone fanice with violet wings flying over the horizon. She lands, her arms filled with supplies.
"I got what was requested," Michaela says. "Camping equipment, rations, first aid kits, and weapons." She spreads them out on the ground, and Terra notices her old laser gun in the mix. So, they didn't throw it away after all.
Gabriel picks it up. "Take it. You'll need to defend yourself where we're going."
Her hands shaking, Terra grabs the weapon. She can't believe that at one point, she was thinking of killing a fanice with this. She's grateful it never came to that.
They grab other emergency supplies but do not take more than they can carry. Then, the professor, Eila, and Ariel get the rest. As Michaela hands the items over, she avoids eye contact with her former lover. Despite the fact they're helping each other, the two's relationship is still fractured.
Finally, Gabriel walks to the center of the mountain peak, trudging through the fallen snow. "Alright… are you ready, Terra?"
She nods.
Professor Faramund places a hang on her chin. "Wait. Will this even work? Remember, Terra is still immune."
"That shouldn't matter. Not with dimensional spells," Gabriel says. "In fact, it might work to our advantage. If I have to fight anything, I won't have to worry about her getting caught in the crossfire."
"Oh, good," she says, looking relieved. It's clear that even though they're allies, the professor does not want to remove Terra's immunity. She understands why.
Terra comes up to Eila and the professor, giving one last big hug. "See you on the other side, guys."
"I love you," her sister says, sniffling.
"Don't you dare die out there," Professor Faramund says. "You don't want to leave your sister all alone."
Terra lets go of them. "That won't happen. I swear, I'll return, no matter what the outcome." They may fail to find a new world, but they'll survive. She'll make sure of it.
With that, Terra makes her way to Gabriel, and the two take each other's hands. The king's eyes turn a shining crimson, brighter than they've ever been before. Blackness surrounds them.
And the world they know disappears.
Terra and Gabriel are falling.
The instant their world disappears and they enter a new one, they plunge hundreds of feet.
And there is nothing but bright blue waves below.
Immediately, Gabriel scoops Terra into his arms and spreads his wings. Their rapid descent stops with a jolt, and Terra stares at what's below: awestruck.
This world is covered in water.
The waves curl and crash below, and bright red sunlight pierces through them, revealing what lies in the depths. Hundreds of round, bubble-like structures stretch as far as the eye can see. Swimming through them are humanoid creatures with tails.
"Mermaids," Terra mumbles. Eila would be so thrilled.
"Looks like it," Gabriel says, breathing heavily. His wings move twice as fast to support both of their weight. "I can see why my family stopped their travels here." He looks across the horizon. "There isn't even anywhere to stand."
But the planet isn't locked, Terra thinks. The sun is high in the sky, bright and bearing its heat on the surface. She never thought she'd see a world without a permanent sunset. This entire planet could be habitable, if only it wasn't all oceans.
"We're moving on," Gabriel announces. "Even if there is land, it would be dangerous with all this water." He opens a portal below them, and they drop in.
The next dozen universes are the same: water worlds with various creatures in their depths. Some are human-like; others are monsters Terra never would have imagined in her worst nightmares. In one dimension, they were so large one immediately leaped out of the sea and tried to eat Gabriel the second they arrived. He repelled the titan with his mind, sending it crashing back into the sea and creating tsunamis in all directions.
By what must be at least the thirtieth world, Gabriel is clearly tired of carrying Terra. She's growing weary of the constant sunny blue water as well. With each jump they make, she wishes more desperately to see even one sliver of land, but no such luck.
Then, finally, after about ten more jumps, they see solid ground.
Exhausted, Gabriel tumbles onto the black rock below. Terra falls out of his arms, scraping her arms and legs. This may be land, but it's more jagged than Viatrix's mountains.
"I'm… sorry," Gabriel says, panting.
"It's alright," Terra responds. She immediately whips out her medical kit and starts cleaning her wounds. Who knows what kind of bacteria has now infiltrated her immune system?
Gabriel's hands pulsate red, and he puts them on his wings. "This should help the pain temporarily, but we really need to find a string of worlds with land soon."
"This place has land," Terra states. "That's a good sign, right?"
"Indeed. If we keep going, we'll find worlds similar to this. My only worry is how sudden the transition happened. Where's the wa—" Then, he looks up, and his jaw drops.
Terra follows his gaze.
And her chest freezes.
Thousands of feet above, a planet-sized water vortex swirls in a whirlpool. Is it just her… or is it getting closer?
They're not going to stick around to find out.
"We have to get out of here!" she screams. Not even Gabriel is powerful enough to stop such a force.
Another portal opens, and they sprint into the next world.
The next set of universes have oceans, but they're in strange and dangerous places. Some swirl in vortexes in the skies. Others travel in ginormous singular tsunamis or even shoot out of geysers from deep underground. Either way, they're both completely soaked by the time the two of them get to actual solid ground.
Now, in a damp underground cave, it finally seems like they can rest.
His wings trembling, Gabriel tries to look around the massive cavern they've found themselves in. All around them are mushrooms covered in a powdery red substance. It glows, illuminating everything around them, from the massive stalactites above to the strange statues of people with mushroom hats.
"Gabriel, you need to lie down," Terra says. "Get some rest, even if only for a few minutes."
"No…" he mumbles. "Something feels off about this place."
Terra pulls the gun out of her pocket. "I'll keep watch. Here." She grabs a blanket from her backpack and lays it on the cavern floor. Then, using the bag as a pillow, she ushers the fanice king to the makeshift bed. Once he is settled, she glances around, ready to attack anything that pops out.
But the cave is silent.
Too silent.
No water dropping. No faint sounds of a breeze from outside. Nothing.
Terra's heart pounds through her ears.
No place is this quiet, not without a good reason. She tries to figure out what's off about this cave, noting the giant fungi, strange statues, and red substance glowing everywhere. It pulsates in a rhythmic pattern, glowing extremely bright and then growing dim.
Then, suddenly, the lights go out.
Terra readies her weapon, pointing its searcher laser in the distance, but it glitches out, vibrating in circles around them.
Either the weapon is broken…
Or they're surrounded.
Gabriel shoots up from his seat, a ball of fire appearing in his hand. It grows brighter until it illuminates the area.
The mushroom statues have moved.
Some are across the cavern. Others are so close they're only a few feet from Terra and Gabriel. They look like people with mushroom hats, except their skin is a pallid white, their eyes are sunken, and their teeth are blackened serrated knives. They're all frozen in place, baring their fangs, their eyes locked on the fire Gabriel has made.
The light is stopping them from moving.
But not for long.
Slowly, that fire begins to die. Gabriel's hand shakes as he struggles to keep the flame strong, but it's no use. "They're… countering me."
Terra thinks of pulling the lantern out of the backpack, but it's no use. It doesn't run on electricity, so its flame would go out, too.
"Gabriel, we should leave," she says.
"No. If hostile entities exist here, we will encounter more in the next world. Perhaps worse. We must take this time to rest." Enraged, Gabriel's eyes turn bright yellow, and even more fire erupts from his hands. He aims it in all directions, and the resulting inferno consumes everything around them. The creatures squirm and squeal in agony. Then, they're reduced to ashes.
Terra's jaw drops. The scent of burning flesh lingers in the air.
Just how powerful is this man?
As if answering her, Gabriel drops to one knee, out of breath again. More mushroom monsters are lingering near the cavern walls, though, and their light is quickly running out. Knowing what she must do, Terra aims her gun at the creatures and fires.
Each shot goes straight through their heads, and they collapse to the floor one by one. Terra doesn't stop until she doesn't see a single creature left. Then, she tends to the fanice king.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he says, breathless. "Just need… a few minutes."
"Of course, but you know we can't stay for long." She thinks of the horrors they've experienced so far. "Want to wait for this universe to expel us home? Take a break?"
He shakes his head. "We should only do that if we have no other option. It'll take… a lot of energy to get us back here. I can only use so much at a time, and we only have two days. We must… use it wisely."
"That makes sense," Terra says, grabbing his hand. "You're doing great. We'll find a place. I'm sure of it."
"Keep backing me up like that. It helps a lot."
She nods. Noticing how cold Gabriel's hands feel, Terra holds them again. They sit together in the eerily silent cave until they have to move on to the next world.
Gabriel was right about hostile creatures. It seems they have moved out of the trail of water worlds and into the one of monsters. Most of these worlds are made up of vast caves, too, unsuitable for human life. So, the duo tries to get through them quickly, engaging in as little combat as possible. However, just as with the ocean worlds, these, too, are numerous and vast. Eventually, Gabriel's exhaustion becomes glaringly obvious again, and they are forced to take a break.
Both Terra and Gabriel collapse onto the floor of a bright crystal cave. This one is more beautiful than the ones before. Its angular crystals growing from the walls and ceilings display all colors of the rainbow. Terra is nearly transfixed by it, but she knows better than to trust appearances. As they sit down to rest, she keeps her weapon in her hands, and Gabriel's eyes remain red.
Expectedly, something appears in the corner of Terra's eye. A small and short thing is running toward them. She raises her weapon, preparing its aim system, but Gabriel beats her to it. Pink particles appear in the air, and the creature falls.
Yet something feels wrong.
Cautiously, Terra stands and moves to inspect the body. To her horror, what appears to be a humanoid child is lying on the ground, its eyes lifeless. It has no sharp teeth, claws, or a weapon. Sure, its translucent skin showing all its organs is off putting, but it has an adorable little bald head and brown fabric dress.
"What are you doing?" Gabriel asks weakly.
Terra can't answer. She has a feeling he killed something innocent, but how can she know that for sure?
Chatter chatter
Coming from the direction of the child are bigger creatures. However, they look the same as her with their translucent skin and lack of body hair. One, which Terra can only guess is the mother, picks up the child and cradles it in her arms. Tears come out of her eyes.
Gabriel stands, and the other creatures shy away from him, terrified.
"Gabriel, I don't think they're hostile," Terra says.
His eyes turn red. "You have no way of knowing that."
The fanice approaches the cave dwellers, and they back away further. The biggest one bravely stands at the front, holding a shaking arm in front of its family. With a wave of his hand, Gabriel slams the creature against a nearby crystal, knocking it out cold.
"Stop it!" Terra yells. "They aren't even fighting back!"
But he doesn't listen.
Another creature falls to the floor. Dead, just like the little one.
Terra leaps between them, cutting Gabriel off from killing the next.
"Snap out of it. Please!"
Finally, light returns to the king's eyes.
One of the creatures falls to its knees, clasping its hands together and speaking frantically in a gibberish language. Its glassy eyes stare pleadingly at Gabriel.
Soon, the others follow this one's behavior, pleading for their lives.
"These look like peaceful people," Terra says, "and you just killed two of them, including a child."
Gabriel's face contorts with horror. "I… how was I supposed to know? For all we've seen, they could have bared their fangs at any moment. Still can."
"I'm not blaming you, but what should we do? We can't just leave them like this." The dead child lies in the center, and its mother still cries.
Without another word, Gabriel approaches the creatures. The closer he gets, the more they cry, their tones desperate. "It's alright," he says, bending down. "Let me repair the damage."
He places a hand on the child's body, and it glows red. Next, he walks over to the two incapacitated adults and does the same thing.
The first to wake is the one who was unconscious. It runs over to the child, who awakens a few minutes later. The mother hugs her child, her sobs turning from agonized to grateful. The other creatures stare at Gabriel in awe.
Then, they bow. They get onto their knees and dip their heads as far into the crystal floor as they can go. Eventually, even the mother joins in, forcing her kid to kneel.
Uncomfortable, Gabriel leans toward Terra. "What is going on?"
"I think they believe you're a god," she whispers. "I mean, it's not far off."
He looks at her quizzically.
Before they can process the situation, Terra starts feeling a pull on her body. It's as if an invisible force is tugging on her entire being, making it impossible to move. Then, a portal starts to open.
"Oh no," Gabriel says, clearly feeling it too. "We waited too long." He tries to counter the effects, but it's too late.
The two are ricocheted back to their home dimension.
They land back in that snowy field atop a mountain, and Terra immediately feels the chill of the cold. She pulls their jackets out of her pack, handing one to Gabriel.
"Damnit," he says, wrapping it around him. "I lost focus."
"I think you lost more than that," Terra responds. "I've never seen you be so ruthless."
"We've been fighting so many monsters I just assumed they would be harmful too. It's clear all this traveling is starting to mess with my head."
"We need a break," Terra declares. "Let's go back to camp and rest. We can try again after we get some sleep."
Gabriel's eyes narrow. "That will leave us with only one more day."
"It'll have to do. We can't go any further right now. It could get us killed."
With no choice, the two weary travelers head to the cave where the professor, Eila, and Ariel are set up.
…
Not wanting to wake the others, Terra and Gabriel set up in a different part of the cave. Once their sleeping bags are set up, they both stare at the ceiling. Terra's eyes are drooping, and her body feels like it's been through a shredder. She's covered in bruises and bandages. She cannot even imagine how the one who's been performing magic feels.
"Hey…" Gabriel says weakly. "Thanks for having my back."
Terra turns toward him. "Why wouldn't I? You've done so much for us despite our circumstances."
"I'm just doing what's right. That's what I always try to do. Back there, though… I wasn't myself. We'd been fighting countless entities in so many worlds that I lost track of who was friend or foe. How were you able to stay so calm?"
"Experience, unfortunately," Terra says. "When you're living somewhere where every day is uncertain, when any stranger on the street can be your enemy… you learn to tell the difference between people." She recalls first meeting Gabriel. From the beginning, he didn't seem like a bad person, even though the professor said he was. It turns out, he isn't. Her gut feeling was right.
The fanice king turns toward her, positioning his wings behind him. "Is that what life was like in Nadura City?"
"Not for everyone. Eila and I were dealt a bad hand."
Gabriel's turquoise eyes are darkened by the cave lighting. "Come to think of it, I know nothing of your story. I know you want to be a medic and care deeply about your family. You're adopted, too. What happened to your birth parents?"
Terra freezes. That's not even something she wants to think about, much less explain.
"Am I overstepping?" he asks, noticing her expression. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"No, it's okay," she says, taking a deep breath. "I'd rather not remember that time. That's all. As far as I'm concerned, my life started three years ago, when Professor Faramund found us."
"That's why she means so much to you, isn't it?"
She nods.
"Well, when you're ready, I'd like to hear that story."
Terra smiles. One day, it might be nice to tell him. He could relate to the feelings of hopelessness she had back then.
But only if they complete this mission.
If they can't, she won't be able to look at him anymore.
"Let's see if we can save the humans first, alright?"
He goes silent for a moment. Then, he takes a long, labored breath. "It might not work. I wanted to be optimistic, but we haven't seen anything close to this world. I'm tempted to search the dimensions nearest this one, but I know they've already been scouted. We're looking for a needle in a haystack here, and that's if we get lucky."
"Hmm," Terra says. He's right. If they continue with what they were doing before, they'll keep finding trails of random worlds, most likely of which will not be suitable. "Can you… jump ahead?"
"Huh?"
"Instead of traveling in a straight line, can you jump ahead? Go to a random world, and if its not the right theme we're looking for, jump to another?"
"Too risky," he says. "We will inevitably run into a world made of lava, or a place where the air is poison. We have to remain in that string, where the worlds are at least breathable."
"I see, and are there really no other paths to take? No more strings of habitable worlds?"
"There aren't," he responds grimly. "My family has mapped thousands of paths to hundreds of thousands of places. What we saw today… that's the best chance we have."
Terra looks back at the rocky ceiling. She can hardly see it in the darkness of the cave. "Well… we can't give up hope. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow our luck will turn. After all, I think the last creatures we saw may have been intelligent life. If there's one, there will be more, right?"
"Yes," he says, "but we don't want a world that's already inhabited by such beings. We'd be hypocrites to unleash the humans upon them."
"Then we'll just need to find a place that's habitable, not hostile, and empty. How hard can that be?"
Gabriel scoffs.
Terra buries her head under the sleeping bag. She now understands why no one else attempted this before.
The next day, Gabriel and Terra get up bright and early, leaving the cave before the professor and others notice they're gone. If they see them, they'll ask questions and shed doubt on an already hopeless mission.
Double-checking that they have the needed gear, the duo gets ready for the next jump. Gabriel looks much better today. His wings are sparkling, and his movements are much faster.
They hop straight to the last dimension they were in: the crystal cave. Before they prepare to continue exploring, Terra takes a moment to admire the rainbow stalactites one last time, until she spots a peculiarly shaped one.
It's a crudely carved statue of a man with wings. The local humanoid creatures are seated in a circle around it, bowing. Hearing them, some creatures shoot out of their seats and rush toward Gabriel. They look like rabid fans at a concert.
Terra laughs. "Oh, look! You have fans."
The fanice rolls his eyes. "Let's get out of here."
The next world is a marvel Terra could never even imagine.
Like the others, there are many caves, but they are shallow. Many feed into bright turquoise rivers on the surface. For once, when they appear in the world, they are above ground.
The next thing Terra notices is the sky: bathed in twilight and filled with several planets, some blue, some purple, and some pink. The colors perfectly complement each other. To make things even more beautiful, hundreds of trees with bright pink blossoms surround the river's edge. In the distance, there are tall skyscrapers with round pink roofs and bright turquoise buildings that reach the clouds.
They've found their first intelligent society.
"Grieg," a high-pitched voice says from behind.
Terra and Gabriel turn around to find an alien that's half their height. It has big bulging eyes, green skin, and two wavy antennas on its head. It looks straight out of an old sci fi tale. The alien waves at them. "Grieg grieg grieg. Grieg grieg?"
"Sorry…" Gabriel says. "I don't speak, umm, grieg."
"Grieg grieg!" it shouts, seeming offended. "Grieg grieg griegggg."
"That last one sounded like an insult," Terra notes. "What did you say to it?"
"No idea," the fanice answers. "It doesn't matter, though. This world won't work."
The two of them leap from intelligent world to intelligent world, and while travel is much easier than the oceans, these places aren't any more habitable than others. Every advanced dimension is heavily populated, and not all the locals are as friendly as the griegs. Still, they push on, even as each realm grows darker and darker. Eventually, Terra and Gabriel realize that they aren't in cities anymore. Now, they've arrived in a forest.
Terra would consider this dense moss-covered forest a good place for her people if it wasn't for the fact that most of the trees are shaped like human skulls.
"This is bad," Gabriel says. "Whatever this place is, I don't want to see more of it."
"Well, we can't turn back. Do you… want to try another method?"
He shakes his head. "There aren't any better ones."
Despite the terrible omen, they move on.
And the next world is even stranger.
The sky is black, and the trees are sparsely planted across a dark plain. The only light source is a golden river, which strangely smells like honey.
"Another bad one," Gabriel says. He tries to open a portal, but it doesn't work.
He tries again.
And again.
Nothing happens.
In fact, his magic isn't working at all. His eyes remain a cool turquoise no matter how hard he tries.
Gabriel lowers his arms, realizing their predicament. "No… this isn't possible."
"Why isn't your magic working?" Terra asks. "Are you too far away from its source?"
"No, it's always with us. Distance shouldn't matter."
"Then what's going on?"
"I don't know!" he shouts.
Terra takes a step back. That sounded so hostile. "Hey… it's alright. We can just wait to be taken back home. The Law of Expulsion will work, right?"
"It should," he says.
They wait in the black forest with the strange golden river, sitting on the rotting grass. After several agonizing minutes, the portal home opens.
The two emerge back on top of the snowy mountain with only hours until Michaela's deadline. Terra falls to her knees, exhausted. She stares at her hands, bare and spread out in the snow.
Gabriel curses under his breath. It's jarring, hearing such language come from him. Terra didn't even know the fanice knew those words.
"Wh-What now?" she asks. Although she's afraid of the answer.
"I have no idea," he answers.