(Aboard the Black Serpents Guild Craft, En Route to the Spatial Tear)
It had been 2 hours since they left the atmosphere of Twin Fang City, when the Captain of the aircraft finally announced that they would approach the Spatial Tear in T minus 12 minutes.
Up till this point, all that Leo observed through his window was an endless stretch of black.
As most of what he saw in this journey was the silent void between planets, that was untouched by wind, sound, or sun.
The stars barely flickered in the distance, far too faint to give warmth, and the team sat within the craft rather peacefully, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts as the fighter craft cut across the cosmos at unbelievable speeds.
Then, the distortion appeared.
At first it was a speck— just a faint glint in the dark, like a far away light being emitted from a lighthouse.
But as they neared, the anomaly grew in scale, and its unnatural nature became impossible to ignore.
The spatial tear was shaped like a vertical gash in space itself, hovering between systems with no anchor, no orbit and no mass.
It appeared like an oval mirror of sorts, with reality itself folding inwards around its edges, as if the laws of the universe were bending to accommodate its presence.
A membrane of rainbow lights seemed to cover its entry and from this side, it was impossible to discern as to what may be going on the other end.
’So this is what a tear in space looks like–’ Leo thought to himself, as this was completely unlike anything he ever saw in space textbooks before.
*WHIRR*
The hum of the engine intensified as the aircraft decelerated.
Inside the cabin, the runic circuits flared to life as the onboard enchantments activated. The hull groaned once, then stabilized as low vibrations began to echo from beneath everyone’s seats.
"We’ll breach the entry point of the Time Stilled World in thirty seconds. Everyone, check your seatbelts. This isn’t a soft ride," Raiden warned, as he raised his arms to catch everyone’s attention.
Listening to his words, Patricia immediately tightened her straps, while Bob adjusted his posture slightly.
Karl muttered something under his breath as he clutched the seat handle.
And Leo simply narrowed his eyes and leaned slightly forward, watching the tear grow larger through the viewing port, as the craft approached the entry point.
Then—
*CRACKKK—THWMMM*
The moment the nose of the aircraft pierced the boundary, reality shattered.
Not literally, but that’s how it felt. Like every physical law had just convulsed.
Time twisted, gravity reversed, and for a single disorienting second, Leo felt as though his body had folded in on itself.
A deep, resonating pressure clamped down on his chest, like he was being buried beneath invisible weight as his mana spiraled, his heartbeat stuttered and his vision split into double frames.
’The fuck?’ he wondered, almost clutching his head in pain, when suddenly, almost as fast as the disorientation appeared, it disappeared as well.
Color returned to his eyes, shapes and figures solidified, and the craft successfully managed to burst through to the other side.
They had successfully entered the Time Stilled World!
As Leo gazed out of the window, the first thing he noticed was the twilight darkness covering the sky.
It was a disturbing shade of darkness— an eerie blend of charred gray, streaked with sickly orange, faded violet, and occasional hints of red that bled across the sky like bruises on rotting flesh.
There was something about it that felt deeply unnatural, a kind of oppressive palette that made the world feel heavier just by looking at it… like even the colors themselves were tired of existing in this world.
Islands floated where land should not exist, and streaks of distorted light cut unidentified paths across the air like lightning frozen in time.
’So this is the Time-Stilled World’ Leo thought, as the aircraft stabilized for only a few moments before the cabin lights turned red and the emergency eject lights began to blink.
"The captain will open the rear ejection bay now…. We have a 30 second window to jump.
Grab your parachutes and get ready—" Raiden said, as he was the first to grab his parachute and line up near the evacuation door.
"We can’t stay inside this zone for more than sixty seconds. The shielding won’t hold past that! Be fast—" Cipher added, as he lined up right behind Raiden.
Then, as soon as the door opened, Raiden first kicked down the supply crates, before leaping behind them as he vanished through the hatch, his silhouette dropping into the swirling haze below.
Cipher followed. Then Patricia. Then Bob and Karl.
With Leo being the last one to jump.
Gravity claimed him instantly. The wind surging past his ears as the vast, alien sky swallowed him whole.
He didn’t scream. He didn’t flinch. He simply watched—calmly—as the ground beneath him grew closer with every passing second.
The parachute rune embedded in his gear activated on its own, releasing with a faint pulse of blue mana. The recoil pulled hard against his harness, yanking him upright mid-air as his descent slowed drastically, the world below coming into clearer view.
Beneath him was a flat plain…. Endless and desolate.
The soil was the color of ash, not dirt, which looked soft and dry beneath a matte, faded sky.
Tufts of grass sprouted across the land, but none that Leo had ever seen before.
They were thin, sharp-edged, and a dusky gray-green, almost metallic in texture, swaying not with the wind but as if controlled by something within the Earth.
*Thud*
Leo hit the ground with a soft thud, the powdery ash kicking up around his boots in a slow, unnatural swirl.
The grass near his feet didn’t flinch. It bent gently, as though acknowledging him, then returned to stillness.
Leo unhooked the harness in a single smooth motion and looked up.
The aircraft that had delivered them here was already rising through the cloudless sky, its thrusters rotating, leaving behind faint concentric ripples in the air.
Higher and higher it climbed, ascending toward the crescent seam in space that shimmered faintly above the Gray Sky.
He watched silently as it reached the tear.
The moment the aircraft crossed the boundary, it vanished without resistance, consumed by the red-violet slit in the sky, as a breath later, it was gone, leaving him and the team alone in this foreign world.