A sharp pain spread across Roley’s arm and shoulder, as his body dove into the gelatinous fluid of which the inter dimensional portal was made out of. Daniel’s hand, still tightly wrapped around his wrist, pulled him through distances he could have easily walked on his own, by the muscles and skin of his shoulder.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! Was that really necessary?” Roley cried once back in the trigate. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as his left hand, now tightly wrapped around his dislocated right arm, snapped it back into place with a clean pop accompanied by a sharp hiss and a gaze that could have dug through several layers of Daniel’s skin. “One moment you get cocky, then you act like this. Pick your damn mind!” 

Daniel turned to look back at the portal they had just crossed. Immense, and easily capable of allowing an entire planet to fit through with more than a bit of room for error. One like many others around him, surrounded by infinite white, empty space, but somewhat different. In Daniel’s eyes that portal looked like the entrance of a beast den, one he was not sure how he had come out of alive and unharmed.

“I did not want to test her patience.. Not after what we did to her.” Daniel said casually. Words that spoke of great danger and terrible consequences, but that for him, felt as a common occurrence. Or at least, it should have.

“You mean after what you did to us.” Roley retorted. “Locking lips with a psychopathic goddess was not within my plans for today.”

Daniel’s hands rose slightly, then slammed against his thighs in annoyance. “Well, we all did what we needed to do. Now, stop whining and hit me.” 

“Hit you?” Roley asked.

“Yes. Hit me.” Daniel confirmed as his body moved away from the portal, stopping only once he was standing in a particularly empty area within the Trigate. An easy task, considering how most traveling armies and wandering cultivators would avoid the entrance to the domain of Sound. “And don’t hold back. Use everything you have in a single attack, aim to kill me.”

Der, who had remained quiet so far, approached Roley. “I don’t think this is a good idea.” His baggy linen shirt floated around him, as if possessed.

Clearly annoyed by Der’s interruption, Daniel snapped his finger loudly. “Hey! I am not taking you anywhere until you attack me, so get moving.” He yelled, causing the conscientious figure of the old warrior to back away with a deep and long groan.

Roley let out a deep sigh. His hands rose up to his belly, palm facing one another, separated only by a few inches of empty space. Soon, this space began to distort, bent by the powers of primordial elements that emerged from underneath Roley’s skin, drifting into the very center of his focus. Soon, a multicolored and smooth bead of primordial power began to form. The very same Roley had gotten used to unleashing on anyone he wanted to see dead.

Yet, this time, something was different. When the element rose quietly in the past, they now emerged from within his body with horrifying sounds, crackling and snapping and thundering came out alongside the primordial powers of fire, wood and lightning and much more. These sounds merged together into a horrifying static as the bead of primordial power reached completion.

Once completed, Roley’s body froze solid. The power he felt coming from within the multicolored bead of mana was horrifying, far more than any other he had ever produced. So powerful, in fact, that he felt a primordial fear of it, like that of a man lost at sea, buried into a dozen feet of soil, or left to wander the emptiness of space.

Half a mouthful of saliva was brought down with a heavy swallow, as beads of sweat formed all over his body. His fingers had started to tremble, affected by the primordial fear the same way his mind had been. Yet, a voice snapped him out of this trance. “Get it together!” Daniel’s voice rang into his ears, washing away the crippling fear long enough for Roley to remind himself that this power was not dangerous, and that it was at his disposal.

“Are you sure you want me to attack you?” He asked an eager Daniel, whose body had bent slightly forward, ready to receive the attack like the receiver of a ball game.

“I need to know you won’t turn into a hostage the moment we meet a group of aspects of existence.” Daniel explained.

“Fine.” Roley answered before pushing the bead of natural power forward, and away from his stomach. The motion of his hands was gentle, and yet, the bead was thrown like a stone from a slingshot. It traveled across the white space at the speed of light, reaching Daniel only moments later.

Daniel’s pupils constricted. Golden power of karma flaked off of his skin, forming a rough barrier that, upon contact with the bead, began to crack instantly.

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Roley’s jaw dropped as the bead disappeared from sight, but then, a horrifying blast appeared in the distance. An explosion incomparably more vast than the death of the biggest of stars, followed by the trembling of the entire trigate. It was difficult for one to understand the concept. A formless void, devoid of any form of essence, trembling uncontrollably, as if possessed by the spirit of an earthquake, and yet, it was happening.

Daniel ignored the horrifying feeling ,and immediately darted in the direction of the explosion, which he reached several seconds later.

At the core of the blast, Daniel found an inter-dimensional portal. Once whole and stable, like any other, but now terribly damaged. A large portion of its upper stone skeleton had been blasted to pieces, separating the two ends of what was now a semi-circle by a few feet of watery substance, which leaked quietly into the white void.

Roley and Der arrived only minutes later, finding a curious Daniel and several million more cultivators observing the scenery in sheer dismay.

Der breathed sharply, his heart skipping a beat. His head turned slowly towards his companion, hoping to find comfort in seeing him experience the same emotions, but that was not the case. Roley was observing the damage he had done with excitement, and pride. Feelings that, considering their ignorance of the nature of the trigate, were quite abnormal.

What is an interdimensional portal? And what would happen if one was destroyed? These were questions that most people who had stumbled into the Trigate’s pearly white expanse had asked himself at least once, but never found an answer to, resigning themselves to the thought that no one would ever be powerful enough to actually succeed in doing so.

Even the aspects of existence, powerful beyond measure and most likely capable of such a feat, were not expected to succeed in such a feat, for their prowess were bound to the influence of their powers, and as was commonly known, the trigate was devoid of that sort of influence.

The white expanse of the trigate did not simply exist as a visible contrast to the darkness of normal space. In fact, the white void had its own purposes, and powers. One such power was its ability to corrode any form of power of existence that was created, or produced in its confines. It did not matter if such power was of primordial nature or of a lower tier, if it was omnipresent or rare to see, any power of existence would dissipate moments after being produced, without exception.

Knowledge of little importance to most cultivators within the multiverse, but also a terrible threat for the creatures they all feared, the aspects of existence, who had long since learned to avoid being caught within the trigate, for if they were, they would have little more than a fraction of their power at their disposal and a mortal’s body to defend themselves.

Yet, many of those who were aware of this quality, had rejoiced. Who could tell what would have happened, across the billions of years some aspects had lived, within the trigate had its space allowed for the existence of those types of powers. Without this safe zone seemingly made to separate the universes, who could have stopped them from destroying any portal that led to universes they had failed to conquer, or trapping one another into isolated universes, never to see the rest of the multiverse ever again.

And yet, despite this worry, many groups had made attempts. Isolationists eager to separate themselves from their conflicts for influence, and live free within their own universe. Some of whom, albeit extremely rare, had managed to unleash unspeakable attacks, armed with the collective power of trillions of powerful cultivators and their ancient cultivation.

Maybe some of them had succeeded, Daniel thought as the drifting blob of blue power moved back into place, soon to be tightly sealed by stones that, within minutes of their destruction, had started to repair on their own. How disappointing must have been, to see the efforts of countless civilizations go to waste just like that.

The trigate had always been a mystery. One that Daniel was unlikely to solve within his lifetime, had he cared to. At the moment, his interest lay elsewhere. In the young man whose feats he alone among the aspects of existence could have repeated, all the while not being an aspect of existence himself.

Roley was standing next to him, hands tightened into fists that gently waved into the void, dragged by his inflating and deflating chest. He stared at the destruction his power had caused with a mixture of pride and excitement. Of the possible outcome his actions could have, for some reason, he couldn’t care less.

“Not bad.” Daniel said. “With that level of power, you should be able to face aspects of the lower tier. It will be useful in the fight ahead.”

Roley’s eyes moved to Daniel, who was now looking back at him with a feeling he had not seen in his face for a long time. Thousands of years, in fact. He was being looked at with respect.

“I.. If I were to obtain a treasure of time, I think that I could-” Roley stuttered in between heavy breaths. His mind had become clear, more than ever, as a new goal cemented into the deepest parts of his mind. He wanted to ascend, for the first time ever. He wanted to feel the power that could put an end to everything that he did not like. An end to his fears and worries.

The thought spread across his body in the form of little bumps that covered his skin, viciously interrupted by the hold of a rough and heavy hand as it grabbed his forearm. “That isn’t our goal. Our goal is to find our people.” Der growled in a tone that could chill bones. A warning, as much as a reminder.

Roley quirked his head towards him, brows risen and mouth ajar. “Yes.. I-I know.” He muttered, caught in an act he too did not like. His arm twisted within the grip that bound it in an attempt to be free, which Der allowed soon after.

He had seen it. In Roley’s eyes, where once were white iris and black sclera or vice versa, his pupils were crowned with cracks of gold. “What is it? I said I know.” Roley repeated, bothered by Der’s gaze, as the cracks crawled back into his pupil, returning his eyes to their regular abnormality. His demeanor, proud and eager moments before, was now replaced by the usual tired shoulders, dragged breath and worried eyes.

“We are going, then.” Der said before turning back and heading off, followed by Roley soon after. Daniel observed the interaction in silence.