The world above me disappeared as Ysevel's face buried itself in my chest.
We were both caught up in Irun's portal, which he'd conjured beneath him just as I was about to land a finishing blow. Nothing could've prepared me for what it felt like to go through it, since no one I knew had ever described anything like it to me.
As I felt the ground give way beneath me, my stomach felt like it was floating loosely in my body, giving me a slight sensation of nausea and unease that was comparable to jumping off something that was just a little higher than originally anticipated. Not only that but the lack of sound as we fell simply added to that unease.
I could see the light of the Between leaving me behind, not much differently than when I'd send my consciousness to the Ethereal to draw mana, but it was different in the way that I could physically feel the world around me letting me go; the weightlessness and deafening silence flooding my mind in one, fell swoop.
However, what caught me off-guard was that Ysevel had willingly gotten herself into this situation with me.
Why did she have tears in her eyes in the first place? I thought, shielding them within a heartbeat, recalling the desperate expression on her face as she leaped towards me.
I knew she wasn't sad by any means, but it seemed most likely to be a response to a feeling of dread that only she understood. I had to trust that she knew what she was doing when she jumped towards me and that whatever was in store for us was something we would need to face together.
The three of us plummeted through what I could only describe as a void-like space with innumerous pathways going in all directions both within reach and so, incomprehensibly, far away with a backdrop of a twilight sky. I couldn't tell where each of those paths ended, but the one I could see was approaching quickly beneath us. Its violet, swirling outer ring and dark center made it look like some kind of inter-realm maw that devoured everything in its path.
What is this place? Are these all pathways or remnants of portals left behind? I thought, momentarily awestruck by the strange sight before me.
That's when I noticed Ysevel looking up at me; her eyes still held a tear or two as she tightened her grip around my chest. Thoma, she sent, knocking me out of my momentary daze and pushing me to recognize the situation we were actually in.
Damn it! That fucker brought me down with him and ended up getting you as a bonus passenger along for the ride. How the hell are we going to get out of this? I thought, considering any potentially available options.
However, within the few seconds that followed, nothing came to either of our minds.
If only I had the power to reach one of the other paths, I wishfully thought with a heavy mental sigh.
After being slightly disappointed in my lack of power, I looked back down at Ysevel and did my best to give her a reassuring nod. She responded with one of her own and gently peeled one of her arms from around my chest as she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.
"Sorry about that," she said quietly. "It's alright," I replied in a similar tone. That was all I could say, especially with the sheer number of questions running through my head.
She and I were falling together since the momentum from her crashing into me earlier carried us a little further away from Irun. He was still reasonably close by, but not so much so that we were stuck together anymore. I could still see the blood from his missing arm severed at the shoulder trailing behind him as we fell, and wondered whether he was even still conscious at that point.
"Brace yourself," she said, noticing the swirling maw beneath us getting more immense. As we drew nearer, I could feel whatever force was pulling us downward beginning to shift and rotate us sideways as we barrelled toward the other end of the portal. My entire body tensed up, but Ysevel surprisingly looked more at ease than I expected her to.
Even though she was crying only a few moments ago, I'm surprised to see her shift her focus so quickly, I thought, admiring her ability to observe the situation objectively.
"Bend your knees and lean forward a little," she said, not bothering to look at me as if she were timing her landing. I wasn't entirely sure why she told me to do that, but I trusted her and followed her instructions.
She was two centuries older than me, after all.
The other end of the portal stretched across the entire width of the path, and our bodies, or perhaps the path we were on, rotated to make it seem like we had walked rather than fallen towards it. I held my breath, and she gripped my hand tightly as we passed through the threshold of the dark portal. The world lurched around us, and the reality of our situation struck me like a horse's kick.
We had arrived in the Underworld.
I was glad to have taken Ysevel's advice of bending my knees and leaning forward because as soon as the ground materialized beneath our feet, they sank just enough to throw us both off balance for a moment. I could see the ash-like floor sink my boots up to about ankle height, but what really fucked me up was the smell.
The sweet, pungent smell was palpable in the chilled air, nearly overloading my senses as I stared at the dull, gray sky. "Ugh, it stinks here," I said, scrunching my nose and exhaling sharply through my nostrils. I was quickly snapped out of my disgust when I felt Irun, whom I thought had passed out from blood loss, beginning to draw mana directly from the slowly churning sphere in the sky.
I could feel the dark tendrils of mana that were once slowly moving far above me race toward him like a viper striking its prey. I could see his missing arm beginning to regenerate, and I felt my stomach drop even further than it already had.
"Shiiiit! He's getting back up," I said aloud, gripping my sword and trying to ignore the sickly feeling that had overcome me within the first few moments of being in this new realm. I tried to get my focus back under control and re-enter my third stage as I began to move towards him… but I couldn't.
I couldn't send my consciousness to the Ethereal to enter the third stage, let alone call down any mana at all.
What? Why? Why can't I draw mana from the Ethereal? I thought as I tried again to no avail.