As Sennefer spoke, Angor quickly went over what he read about the Abyss Plane before.
He remembered “Cinder Rock” as a frontier city established by wizards. The city was located on top of a single, gigantic rock at the center of a messy rock formation, and it was usually safe from invasion because it was hard to detect.
When Dave and Hercules went to the Abyss in search of materials, they took their residence at Cinder Rock as well. Later, Dave introduced his experience to Angor. He claimed that the “awesomeness of the architectural miracle cannot be pictured by human speech”.
And those words got Angor really curious.
But it seemed that this wasn’t a good time to go sightseeing because the city was in big trouble.
Madelyne saw Angor’s worried look and said, “The Scythe Wielder is a half-breed weaker than low-leveled demons. Don’t scare yourself yet. But at this rate, there will be more and more demons going after the city. We’ll not keep Cinder Rock safe forever.”
“But there are many more settlements other than that place, right?” asked Angor.
“Every major establishment in the Abyss took us thousands of years to build and maintain. We simply cannot give up any of them unless absolutely necessary.” Madelyne sighed. “Besides, they’re all far apart from one another. Transporting people and resources across great distances can be risky.”
Some of the regretting apprentices looked eager to quit now. But they just couldn’t, because certain people in the sky were here to make sure that they were “off”.
While most people remained awfully quiet upon hearing the sad fate of the great city, some people were now giving the members of Gravity Forest—a wizard and a dozen apprentices—hostile glares. If what Fortuna said was true, it was indeed a member of Gravity Forest who led the demons to Cinder Rock.
However, people were also aware that they were very likely to be in the same place as the unlucky apprentice, should anything go wrong over there.
“May I know who Fortuna is?” Angor asked in a small voice.
“She’s the one who’ll guide us to our destination. As for her true identity... I don’t know. Maybe this is another secret kept by the Moonfrost Union.”
As the afternoon sun escaped behind clouds and caused the area to darken, Sennefer finally finished the spell she had been working on.
“The coordinate is set.”
Following her words, a great power that seemed to be from another dimension descended upon the cliff. It chased away the sun and clouds, reversed the weather, and summoned a deadly lightning storm upon the area.
Within a matter of minutes, the once relaxing afternoon time became the center of a natural disaster. For a brief moment, Angor thought he was tossed back to the Devil’s Water.
Sennefer lifted an object in her hand and threw it into the center of the gathering power.
Pong!
A black, swirling vortex materialized in front of the platform.
Against the rampaging air current that came with the dark entrance, several apprentices with unstable footing were blown into the sky.
Sennefer’s clear voice reached everyone’s ears in the disturbance.
“The tunnel is on. All of you, get ready to jump!”
A group of guards of Moonfrost Union started chanting something in unison. After another few seconds, they brought up a glowing barrier, which floated ahead and covered the vortex.
“Go!”
Maher, the captain of the guards, went first and dived into the vortex. On his way, a small part of the shining barrier clung to his body and protected him from the harmful dimensional energy in the vortex.
Following his lead, more people jumped off the platform and flew straight into the entrance with different looks. While some of them looked as determined as ever, some were clearly not happy with their choices.
Everyone knew that the Abyss was a horrendous trap that might even prevent powerful wizards from ever returning.
“Let’s go.” Madelyne looked at Angor. “Don’t stress yourself. We should be safer than you thought.”
She winked and disappeared into the tunnel.
Angor wondered if Madelyne was comforting him with a lie, but he wasn’t about to change his mind now.
He took a deep breath and activated his flying boots.
He suddenly remembered a popular phrase he read on the hologram tablet.
If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.
“Whatever you are, I’m going to take a look. And I’m sure ain’t going to stay there.”
...
He did not know how long had passed.
Angor felt gravity taking over again. Also, the scent of rain was replaced by the hot smell of sulfur. The air wasn’t pleasant to breathe anymore. It was too hot, and a bit smoggy.
“Is this the Abyss?”
The first impression he gained was that this place looked a lot like those fictional post-apocalyptic worlds in the movies.
There was no sun above him. The sky was completely covered behind a thick layer of haze. There were pillars of smoke all around him, sending more pollution into the environment.
The ground beneath was hot to the touch.
He reached out a hand and caught a small cluster of burning ash in his palm, which was blown to nothingness in the next second.
The temperature alone was enough to instantly kill an untrained mortal if any of them came here for some reason. Not to mention the murderous intent that filled up every corner.
“Yup, we’re officially inside the Abyss Plane,” Madelyne spoke from behind Angor. “Note that the Abyss is huge. There are different sights beyond what you can see, like great forests and fields of snow.
“But one thing will never change.” Madelyne looked up at the sky. “No matter where you go, you’ll be living under that impenetrable curtain of smoke. You will not be able to distinguish day and night, because it will eternally look dark for the most part. Without using sight-enhancing tricks, you will not see very far. No sun, no blue sky, no hope.
“Buuut I’m only speaking from my limited experience. I’ve never been to the deeper levels. Maybe it looks brighter there? I don’t know.”
Angor looked down and collected his thoughts. There was no immediate danger yet, though something was already urging him to leave as soon as possible.
“You doing good?” asked Madelyne.
“I think my body got sluggish... And I can’t draw in the primal mana around me at all because it’s so out of control. Other than these, I’m fine.”
“This is expected. The sluggish part is because we’re foreign invaders to the ‘world’s consciousness’ here, or in this case, the ‘abyss’ consciousness’. Wizards will soon get used to the deterrent. You, however, must take extra care when spending your mana, because you’ll need several times longer than usual to get it back through meditation.”
Such interference with mana was a bigger problem for Elementalists and Occultists. Bloodline users like Madelyne, however, could do better because their bodies were already sturdier than usual. Moreover, there were passive Bloodline traits that did not need to consume mana.
However, Angor did not have such a gift for now because his “projection bloodline” had yet to present him with any usable powers.
“Glad you’re fine. Now, follow me.” Madelyne looked ahead, where a group of people had gathered up.
There were two women waiting at the center of the group, Sennefer and Fortuna.