Magma Dragon's Heir

Chapter 124 - Challenge

56th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycleThe fourth geyser field came with a realization. It was over. From that point on, the Valley of the Lost would continue to grate at Newt’s nerves. Things had reached their peak, and the only way forward was downhill.

Knowing what was wrong and why, would help Newt cope with his dark mood better. At least he hoped it would.

Newt grasped the myst crystal and worked it free from the crack it was lodged in. He had just started working on a new geyser, and he hoped he would find at least a dozen myst crystals inside it. His teammates needed the resources, and making any dent in his debt was better than nothing. It seemed so strange that something so basic had frustrated him just a day ago.

He turned around to follow the ropes out and brandish his trophy, then encountered a problem. He took a step, then another. Newt should have left the geyser in a single step, yet he had made three and remained trapped inside the scalding torrent.

He wanted to shout, but could not inside the column of gushing water, so instead of following the ropes, he moved sideways until he was out of the geyser.

“Guys!” He gazed at his tethers. They started around his waist, stretching into the mist until they faded away. They seemed dozens of yards long, taut like bowstrings.

Newt’s skin crawled. The ropes were five yards long, with around ten feet of slack between him and his teammates so he could move around.

Newt considered the records he read and his personal experiences in the Valley of the Lost, and none explained the strange phenomenon. He dropped Granite Crust and Magmin Scales, and the ropes yanked at his spine. His friends were pulling with all their might, but their strength proved insufficient. Somehow the force dispersed after a moment, but Newt followed the ropes, wandering the mist. For a moment, the pressure against his flanks increased, but then disappeared, and the ropes were no longer stretched tight.

Newt’s breathing quickened, a panicked habit rather than an actual bodily need, as he stared at the slack ropes lying on the ground. His head spun, and he felt like he really needed to sit down.

Newt naturally knew what had happened. He simply refused to accept the reality of his situation.

His gaze wandered to the rock in his hand, his eyes growing wide.

The spongy stone was more or less the same size as the others he had gathered, but instead of oozing, wisps of pale myst flowed out of every tiny orifice, dancing and mixing with the myst in the air.

The thought forced Newt to accept the fact; he had somehow strayed into a higher realm zone.

Newt crossed his legs and sat, not out of shock, but because he needed to think.

After a moment, more relevant thoughts entered his mind.

Newt drew a deep breath and exhaled, doing the basic meditative breathing exercises to calm his nerves.

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A part of Newt, a very vain part, was certain he could do it. Ever since they entered the Valley of the Lost, he dispatched most third realm manabeasts with a single blow, and they no longer proved a challenge. Hopefully, that meant he was ready to fight the ones in the next realm.

The considerably larger problem was traveling without a compass. Newt would have no goal, and he might spend days going in circles, or worse, heading into the fifth realm zone, whose denizens he was certain he couldn’t beat.

He looked around. The geyser was still there, but it was behind his back.

Slowly but steadily, Newt inched his way towards the geyser. Each step felt wrong, but he reached his objective after nearly half a minute of focusing on his body moving the way he wanted it, and not the way it wanted to go.

Returning to a familiar point felt good, in a sense that Newt had achieved his minor goal, but it was also bad, since the Valley of the Lost resisted his effort. Worse, he was none the wiser about what he should do next.

There was a minor problem, however. Newt had no idea how to find the barrier or lay his hand on it. It was supposedly impenetrable, but intangible.

Newt lost sense of time as he gathered thirty-nine fourth realm myst crystals from the geyser. He would have tried for more, but the rushing torrent had grown strong enough for his footing to become unsteady. Newt did not dare take a risk. With the way things were going, if the geyser lifted him too high up or launched him into a great distance, he might land atop a manabeast. While he was confident he could fight them, that assumed neutral circumstances, rather than dropping from up high in front of a saurian ready to maul him.

Newt withdrew from the water, a small pile of mysterium waiting for him. He fit half of them into his food sack, and the rest he placed inside his robe’s various pockets.

Newt wished to avoid the unpleasant topic, but there was no room for delay unless he chose to sit down and wait for rescue.

He turned full circle, two-thirds of it were undesirable directions, and a third felt just right.

He turned the other way, and a subconscious part of his mind kept screaming that he was heading into danger, somewhere wrong beyond words. Newt ignored his roiling guts and took a step. It was the first of many on a difficult journey.

***

Gatemaster Greenthorn sat on the porch of his humble abode in the middle of the island jungle. His eyes were closed, his chest moving in a steady rhythm, which was completely pointless for someone at his realm. It had been centuries upon centuries since the last time he felt hunger, thirst, or the need to breathe.

But steady, timed breaths helped him focus on his contemplations. The final pieces of his tenth realm needed more time to design and theoretically test than they needed to implement.

Greenthorn believed his realm a mess. He had no idea how the jumbled ideas and concepts he had manifested managed to propel him to his current heights. The tenth realm was the top of the world for most, yet to him, standing at the top, it was an even greater mystery. One he spent ages unraveling. One he hoped his order’s newest aberrant member might help solve.

Hours passed in quiet contemplation when another anomaly happened.

The gatemaster opened his eyes and glanced towards the distant Valley of the Lost.

Several scenarios flashed through his mind, but none seemed any more valid than the rest, as such all and none were correct.

Greenthorn let out the breath he was holding since he had noticed the anomaly.

Greenthorn closed his eyes, focusing on his own problems, but a sliver of his mana sense followed Newt, wondering what the boy would do.