Chapter 91: Delving Into the Darkness

Magnus's heart pounded in the deafening silence as his eyelids slammed open. For a minute, he believed that he may never stop falling after he had fallen—into what appeared to be oblivion. Time stretched and twisted as his body rolled across an infinite emptiness, his limbs weightless.

Then the world came back into focus with a start. Breathless and confused, Magnus fell to solid ground. He was now surrounded by a chilly, rocky terrain of dark stone and whirling mist instead of the warped emptiness. Like the remains of a once-living land on the verge of destruction, the air smelt of decay and raw power.

He forced himself to stand, cleared his head of the confusion, and started to walk. The rift. The animal. Celeste... He needed to locate them. His pulse still thumping, he staggered forward as the thought seized him.

There was no one around, but a faint whisper reverberated through the atmosphere.

"Magnus."

His spine froze when he heard the voice. There was no mistaking it. Heavenly.

His eyes were wide as he wheeled toward the sound, but the mist was too dense. He struggled to see any things in the swirling fog, and his breath caught. Was it a ruse? Was that her?

A figure—a recognizable and eerie silhouette—rose from the shadows as the mist moved fiercely. Magnus' heart ceased beating. Celeste was not the one. Something else was involved. A worse thing.

The figure moved like a marionette caught in a storm, its movements jerky and out of place. Magnus attempted to concentrate on the shape in front of him, but his gut twisted with fear.

It was a man, or the remnant of a man. His eyes blazed with a strange, unearthly light, and his skin was pale, stretched taut over bones. If it could be considered a smile, he flashed rows of jagged, pointed teeth.

The figure's voice sounded like gravel against steel as he rasped, "You think you are the hero, do not you?" "You believe that everything can be stopped. Magnus, however, it is too late. It has already started.

Magnus took a step back, reaching reflexively for the relic that had been his only hope. However, his fingertips tingled from the weird power that came from the ground, and the air around him was getting colder.

"Who are you?" Magnus, attempting to maintain a steady tone, demanded. His thinking was clearer than ever, but his heart was pounding. This creature—this thing—was no typical foe.

The figure cocked his head, amusement shining in his eyes. "I am who I am because of the rift." A hint of the future, a shadow of the past. It cannot be stopped. You couldn't.

Magnus's eyes narrowed. He felt a pull from the creature's words, a disturbing reality hidden beneath the craziness. The rift was more than simply an adversary. It was a development. A power that devoured people as well as worlds.

The air surrounding Magnus hummed with a terrible intensity as the man raised his hand. "Hero, time is running out. Already, it is too late. Magnus could feel the fissure in the ground beneath his feet.

As the ground broke beneath him, sending sharp rocks and rubble soaring through the air, Magnus dove sideways. The creature's instruction caused the mist to whirl and twist furiously. It was dominating the area around him, not simply playing with him.

"Enough!" Magnus scurried to his feet and yelled. He pushed his mind into focus, and his fingers became tighter around the relic. Even though the rift had too much power, he could not allow it to take this world—not while Celeste was still alive.

Magnus forced the item forward, pushing through the dizzying energy with a burst of will. For a brief instant, the chaos around him appeared to slow as it pulsed in his palms, reacting to his commands.

The monster, however, was uncompromising. It made a hollow, piercing laugh. "You believe this will stop me? Magnus, it is not enough. It will never be sufficient.

Magnus's jaw tightened. This has to stop. At all costs, he had to destroy the rift.

Magnus could only hear his own labored breathing as the figure disappeared into the fog. However, a dim, recognizable light started to flicker through the mists in the distance. Did the rift cause it? Or something else?

Magnus cautiously moved in the direction of the light, each step deliberate, every sense vigilant. His surroundings continued to fall apart, with bits of reality falling through his fingers like sand. He sensed the existence of the rift, the dark that beat in sync with his heartbeat, and a deep hum beneath the surface.

Then the ground rumbled again, as though his thoughts had called it forth. The light intensified, casting a disquieting tone across the mist. When Magnus recognized what it was, his stomach turned.

Despite the voice in his head telling him to stay back, he stepped forward and said, "Celeste?" She was standing in the middle of the light, her figure blurry and broken, when the illumination flared once more.

Her eyes were wide as she gazed at him, yet something was not quite right. Something is wrong.

"Magnus..." she murmured in a garbled voice that seemed far. "You ought not to have attended."

His heart sprang, but it was soon overtaken by fear. He did not know this Celeste. She was not like this.

Magnus fell into darkness again as the ground gave apart beneath him and a huge shadow loomed over them before he could get to her.

The nothingness seemed to swallow him whole as the descent seemed to go on forever. Magnus briefly believed he might never touch the ground before his body struck a solid object—a chilly, smooth surface that was not natural. He pushed himself up, confused yet resolute, his mind racing.

He was in an unfamiliar environment that resembled the interior of a live creature more than anything else. The air was heavy with power, and the walls pulsed with black, weird veins. This was the starting point, the center of the rift.

The figure reappeared in the middle of the room. It was different this time. higher. more powerful. It had a more substantial shape, as though it had been created by God and was made from the rift itself.

With a voice full of finality, the monster declared, "You were never meant to be here." "The plan has a fault in you. A fissure in the world's foundation

Magnus took a step forward, reaching for his last opportunity as the relic in his grasp glowed brightly. The rift must be closed. This was his only opportunity.

With one quick action, Magnus was flung backwards into the glowing center of the fissure, where everything around him started to pulse more rapidly. The creature raised its hand.