"What the hell is that doing here?" Talon exclaimed as he took one step back instinctively. "I didn't certainly create that."
"You didn't, and I don't know what it's doing there either," Acrypha replied.
'How did this appear? No one is capable of opening a crack between dimensions except for Talon...' She thought to herself as she frowned.
"Could it be a gate?" Talon asked again as he tried to find an explanation.
"No, gates don't look like that. They're far more stable than that rift too."
"Stable?" Looking back at the thing, Talon noticed how it kept pulsing and moving ever-so-slightly as if it was on the brink of imploding on itself. "I guess I get what you mean... But, if it's not me who created it, and it's certainly not a gate then..." At that moment Talon's mind clicked as he realized something.
Acrypha also seemed to reach the same conclusion he did at the same time. Looking at each other, they didn't even need to say what they had in mind to realize that the other person reached the answer.
"Could it be... A gate created by someone else? Perhaps the same people that woman belong to..."
Talon never forgot about Terren's entire conflict. She was by far the most abnormal individual he had ever met, someone who came from an unknown world, seeking to destroy the Core Dimension. She had somehow tapped into the realm of dimensions and defied all logic to make something that was impossible before.
"That's the most logical answer. The crack does look like something that is barely under control. Whoever created it is still not knowledgeable enough to create a stable and bigger crack." She explained as she inspected it with her eyes.
'But, it's still damn impressive to see. So it was all real. Someone is finally challenging the Core Dimension and succeeding.' A small, cold smile started forming on Acrypha's face. For some reason, she felt rather excited to see such a thing.
For how long has the Core Dimension been unrivaled? Eons and eons of time. She had read about civilizations rising and falling, great individuals reaching new heights and then falling to the bottom, and many other things happening across years and years of history. Yet the only constant through all of this was the Core Dimension.
It remained the sole overseer, the ruler, the judge, the jury, and the executioner. Nobody ever even fathomed the idea of toppling this vague existence down. Yet, she had witnessed a historical moment right now.
'Perhaps this was the first step toward achieving the impossible.' Pursing her lips, her eyes wandered to Talon. The moment the word impossible rolled out of her mouth, she could only think of him.
She knew that if there was a single person capable of doing something of this caliber, it was this young man.
"Can I touch it?" Talon, unaware of her thoughts, asked curiously.
"No, it looks really unstable. Even if it's not big, it might suck your arm in and rip it off with ease." She replied.
"Hmm, ok scratch that. But... Now that I think about it, why did this monster bring us here?"
Looking down at the dead Shadow Crawler, Talon squinted his eyes. The monster had run here without hesitation as if he knew the place. The way it died and the direction it was moving in indicated that it was trying to approach the rift.
Rubbing the back of his head with a sigh, Talon turned to Hyun-Jae. "Uh, how should I explain this? Mmm, where you are standing right now, I can see an open rift, like a black hole. It's pulsating and it looks awfully similar to the Core Gate." He said.
"Here?" Hyun-Jae pointed at her position.
"Yes, you are standing in the heart of it. I don't know why you can't see it, but I can, very clearly too. I can also feel it trying to suck me in. I don't want to approach it or I might get pulled."
Hyun-Jae flinched when she heard that and she naturally stepped away from that spot. But still, she couldn't really see anything odd.
"..."
"I know it's hard to belie-"
"I believe you." Hyun-Jae shook her head. "I'm just trying to understand why I can't see it."
Talon would be lying if he said that he didn't feel a little bit happy when he heard Hyun-Jae immediately acknowledging his words. She didn't even think twice before believing him even though her eyes betrayed her. She trusted Talon more than she trusted her own senses.
"... It's pointless to stand here. We should leave for now. We can return later and inspect it more."
'The possibilities of this thing are endless. It could be the rift that Terren came from, or it could be the rift that brought Shadow Crawlers to this realm. That could explain why Mono-Dimensional creatures like them ended up on Earth.' Both Acrypha and Talon had many theories of their own.
But, to confirm any of them, they had to get more information first. As Talon turned around, he shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out a flipped piece of paper.
'Could the answer be in this piece of paper?' He asked himself.
Since the moment Terren gave him that thing, he had kept it with him the entire time. He would be lying if he said that he didn't feel very curious to just open the paper and check its content. But, he knew that the woman told him to only open it after he finished his first gate for a reason and he wasn't dumb enough to let curiosity be the end of him.
"Ah well, I'm going to enter my first gate soon. Whatever happens, I will get to know more after that."
Walking outside, only Hyun-Jae was left behind. Her eyes inspected the room one last time before she finally walked after her companion.
'I don't have a good feeling about this.' She thought to herself.
It was always a very bad feeling she would get whenever something unexplainable happened. This one was particularly odd even amongst those instances.
Whatever that rift is, it hid far more than it has shown.
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ????