Chapter 20 Truth Exposed
Iheld my breath as his lips made the slow journey to mine, only for him to stop the second we heard a noise.
“What was that?” I startled, and his head snapped up to take in our surroundings. He scanned the area as I held myself still in his arms, which tightened protectively around me. But then, after a few beats, he relaxed before stepping back.
“Just the wind… come, it shouldn’t be much farther now,” he said, taking my hand to help me over a high fallen tree.
Our would-be kiss was left as nothing more than a whisper in the wind of what could have been.
To say that I was disappointed was an understatement, but I guessed now was not the time to take that first step.
No matter how much I was starting to crave it.
We reached the pathway where the trees had been completely destroyed.
Apart from the scattered debris and the descent into the trench, the ground was strangely smooth.
As if something massive had carved through it with surgical precision.
The path stretched ahead, wide enough for a bus to drive through, and continued in a perfect line farther than my eyes could see.
“What caused this?” I asked, my voice hushed as I looked up at him.
He walked beside me now, his movements calm and measured, though the tension in his jaw betrayed something heavier.
His hands flexed slightly at his sides, his gloved fingers curling once, then relaxing again around the grip of his sword.
“The Rift,” he said, barely a whisper. “After it tore open the ground, its power reached high into the sky where the birds once flew. Then it created a doorway between your world and mine. For a moment, those two realms became one,” he told me, even as his eyes were everywhere, searching for hidden threats.
His voice, however, became a source of comfort as I struggled the closer to the Rift we traveled.
“What we walk through now is the scar it left behind, the mark of that violent union. The force of the Rift’s opening and the magic that tore reality apart is what caused this destruction.”
I shivered, despite still wearing his cloak that was more like a giant blanket because it was huge on me.
It wasn’t exactly the most practical thing to wear while hiking through a forest and due to its length, it dragged along the ground, but I made it work.
The scent of him still lingered within the fabric and it was a kind of strange comfort that I didn’t want to lose by removing it…
not that I would freely admit that, of course.
As for Atlas, his thick black tunic was layered with armor held in place with thick straps that crossed over his impressive body. The size of his shoulders was emphasized thanks to the interlocking armored plating secured there.
He paused, eyes following the trench as though he could still see the moment it happened.
“It is much like dropping a stone into still water. The ripples that form are the damage left behind. But unlike water, these ripples are not temporary. They do not fade with time. They remain, carved into the very earth itself.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing, my nerves tightening with each new step.
His words echoed in my mind as we continued along the path, the only sound the crunching bark beneath our feet.
We walked in uneasy silence, alone with our thoughts.
Each tread of my boot released the rich scent of damp earth.
And I breathed deeply, trying to calm my racing heart through the forgotten perfume of nature.
Before long, I noticed a faint buzzing sound, soft at first, like the wings of a distant hummingbird. But as it grew louder, I realized it would have taken hundreds of them to make that noise.
“What is that sound?” I asked.
“The Rift,” Atlas said simply, offering no further explanation.
With every foot closer, the hum grew sharper, rising in pitch until it sounded like the high crackling pulse of electricity running through storm-soaked power lines.
A faint vibration spread through my entire body, making my skin prickle as though I were being stung by a thousand nettles.
I brushed my hand along the back of my neck, pushing down the small hairs standing on end.
My head began to throb, and I pressed my palm to my forehead in a feeble attempt to ease the pain.
“Your body will adjust quickly,” Atlas said, his voice strained. “Stay strong.”
He didn’t look much better than I felt. His eyes narrowed, his shoulders tensed, his movements slowed under the pressure of the unseen force around us.
Then, suddenly, it all stopped, the humming, the vibrating, the electric sting beneath my skin…
all of it. It was as if we had passed through an invisible barrier, like some kind of test that allowed us entry.
And then I saw it.
Even though the Rift was closed, its presence remained as a shimmering outline that distorted the air like heat rising off a desert road. It was colorless yet impossible to miss, a vertical scar in reality that reached high into the heavens and vanished beyond sight.
“I don’t understand…” I whispered. “I thought you said this was the Rift.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, patient but curious.
“What I saw that day, three years ago, wasn’t this. The world opened like a crater. I watched creatures crawl out from beneath the earth, not through the air.”
He nodded slowly, as if he understood exactly what I meant. Then he went on to explain.
“Portals between worlds, gateways, doorways, whatever name you give them, they are not meant to be destructive forces. In truth, they are often quite beautiful, like a veil between realms that shimmers like the night sky. Like a blanket of stars slipping down from above to touch the Earth.” His voice softened, melodic in a way that painted the image so vividly that I could almost see it.
“You make it sound almost poetic,” I said, unable to stop the faint smile tugging at my lips. He returned the smile, though it was tinged with sadness. “Why isn’t this one like that?” I asked.
“Because this Rift was born from evil shroud in pure darkness,” he said quietly.
“It did not draw on the essence of nature or the will of our gods. It was torn from the shadows, fueled by hatred and corruption. When a portal is born of darkness, it cannot simply open. It tears, it scars, it consumes. It brands both sides with its presence, claiming all it touches.”
I shivered again, pulling his cloak in closer around me.
His gaze drifted up the length of the distorted air, following its endless climb.
“Whoever created it must have wanted to bring through an army of dark ones, perhaps more than we can even imagine. To achieve that, they needed a Rift of tremendous scale. But such magic cannot be controlled. It is like detonating a bomb. You may predict the damage, the radius of destruction, but in the end, the chaos has a will of its own.”
A chill crawled up my spine. “Are you telling me this same Rift exists in your world too, tearing through your lands?” I asked, wondering if it mirrored our own.
“I don’t know,” he admitted after a moment, his voice low.
“And I almost feel guilty for hoping that it doesn’t, considering how much it has affected your world,” he confessed honestly, and I couldn’t blame him. I would have had the same hope.
He gestured toward the faint shimmer before us.
“This veil, this distortion you see, rose from the crater you witnessed. The creatures you saw weren’t climbing up from the ground, Alexandra. They were passing through from the other side.”
“I see,” I murmured, my voice barely audible. “So, it was an illusion. A mirage of sorts?”
He nodded once. “Yes, that is a good way to describe it. Come, let us finish this.”
He reached for my hand, his fingers steady and warm around mine. I hadn’t realized I was trembling until his touch stopped the shaking. The air ahead buzzed faintly again, soft and menacing, as we drew closer to the shimmering veil.
“What do you want me to do?” I whispered.
“Just reach out and touch it. But only for a moment. That should be enough.”
I swallowed hard, and it felt like lead balls were squeezing their way down. I didn’t want to do this, but I knew that I had no choice. Not when so much was on the line.
His fingers slid away, freeing my hands to do his bidding. I turned toward the shimmering veil before me, the translucent doorway that pulsed with silent life, and for a moment, I simply stood there, heart pounding against my ribs.
I just needed to touch it.
Drawing in a shaky breath, I reached out with what little confidence I could summon. The closer my hand came, the stronger the pull grew. Like the Rift was a magnet and I was helpless metal caught in its field.
The instant my fingertips made contact, heat exploded through me, fierce and consuming. Every scar along my skin ignited as if acid had been poured into them. My muscles locked, the cords of my neck stretching tight as a voiceless scream tore itself from my throat.
That feeling I’d endured in the Warden’s office had been nothing compared to this. That was but a whisper… this was the full raging bellow screamed to the Gods above!
The world around me dissolved. The forest, the light, the sound of Atlas’s voice, all of it vanished in a burst of blinding heat. I was falling and flying all at once, suspended in a storm of pain.
And then, I saw it.
Flashes of memory struck like lightning, fragments of the day the Rift had opened.
The ground was splitting beneath my feet.
The wind howled like a living thing. Screams echoed in every direction.
But now, the vision sharpened, the haze peeled away, and I finally saw what I had refused to see before.
The truth.
My hands. My own trembling hands raised toward the sky, my mouth open in a silent cry, the blinding white fire that burst outward from me, tearing the world apart.
And as that realization crashed over me, the light swallowed everything whole. My world turned black, and the last thing I heard was Atlas shouting my name before I fell into nothingness. Just as I realized…
It had been me all along.
I had caused this…
I had opened the Rift.