The Third Portal: Chapter Fifteen

Dusk flew as fast as she could, gathering power from her birds, from her insects, and from the sky estragon within her. With all their spellcraft supporting her, she blazed through the sky, moving almost twice as fast as the original, terrible broom that her older brother had once used. 

She was glad it was gone – flying on a cloud or under your own power was so much better than flying on the power of a stick. She understood why Dragontooth didn’t allow people to fly on items in its sky, and instead preferred the underground transit system. Maybe when she was as big as Delitone was, she would be able to do something similar. Maybe the myrmekes could help, if only she could convince some to move in… 

In the distance, Dusk saw the camp that the other people had set up, and finally relaxed the grip she held on her other flying spells. The immortal cloud beneath her helped provide the power to flight, but calling on her denizens still put a faint strain on her spirit. 

As she arrived in the camp, she rushed to the nearest person and began telling them about the desolants.

Her big brother had asked her once if she wanted to project big, like Idyll, who chose to project as the size of a human, and she’d laughed at him. She liked being this small, and building more projected size as a dominion didn’t seem like it was worth the effort. It was better to refine her control over the world around her, and to strengthen the connection to him and her little sister, than it was to expend the energy to grow big. Even when they all became Arcanists and she got her Authority, she couldn’t see herself doing something like that. 

As the human laughed, patted her head, and then kept walking, Dusk re-evaluated that stance for the first time. She knew that Idyll would never have been brushed off like that. 

Well, if random people wouldn’t work, then she’d try and do things the way her older brother would. She poured her mana senses over the camp, looking for the big turtle.

He wasn't there. She didn't know if he was still tracking down the wasps, or if he had returned to Port Ruby. The fear and anger almost made her cry, until she spotted the werewolf’s mom. The mom was in the tent with someone else, who also had creation mana, presumably the local guildleader that the bright dragon, Ivy, had told them about. 

Dusk brightened at that. The werewolf’s mom might have ignored her when they’d first appeared, but they had seen one another. There was a much better chance of her listening to what Dusk had to say. 

She flew to the tent, but the flap was closed, and when Dusk tried to push through the flaps, there was a flare of protective magic. Some sort of ward was turning the thin flap into an impenetrable door. 

Frowning, Dusk slammed her bodyweight against the door, but nothing happened. She let out a growl, drawing on the sounds produced by one of the bucks within her for the vocalization, and thrust her hand out. A shockwave rippled out of her hands and punched into the tent flap, sending ripples through the ward. 

It might have rippled, but it didn’t break, so Dusk unleashed three more shockwaves at the door. A human that had intense death energy in his body and death magic leaking from his soul ran up to her, shouting at her to stop.

She ignored him, conjuring a pair of giant hands from the earth and pounding on the door. The human cast a spirit trap at her, and she tried to shatter it with her mana. 

Nothing happened, so Dusk flexed her dominion, and her little sister’s dominion joined with her own. Their power twined together, becoming something greater than the sum of its individual parts, even with her sister still working to catch up in power. 

The spirit trap shattered, and the man stared at her in shock, clearly not having expected her to be able to break out. As he raised his hand to try again, the tent flaps were thrown open, and a pair of humans strode out. Both of them looked very disheveled, with messy hair and rumpled clothes, but the werewolf’s mom looked at her. 

“You were the little nature spirit that was with the phantom fox, weren’t you?” 

The man, who had one hand that looked massive, plated, and tipped with sharp claws that reminded Dusk of something in between human and dragon, turned and looked between the two of them. The creation-mana constructed arm flexed and rippled, almost seeming excited by the werewolf’s mom’s words 

“There’s a phantom fox here? I didn’t…” 

Dusk cut the man off. She had more important things to do than feed their misunderstanding, so she turned and addressed the werewolf’s mom, and began speaking rapidly, her words coming out as the pounding of the waterfall into her central lake. She explained how they’d been investigating the ant situation, and had discovered that there were a nest of desolants and myrmekes, and the raid that she’d helped her brother drive off. 

The werewolf’s mom actually listened to her, which was good, then spat a curse and spit into the dirt. 

“You’re certain of what you saw? These weren’t just normal ants that had desolation-focused cores, or elementants, or burnants, or anything else? You’re completely, entirely certain that these are desolants?” 

Dusk met the woman’s eyes and nodded. She had fought them, and had heard the evil ghost’s words. These were desolants. 

“Primes. Should we let the desolants finish the rest of the myrmekes, then wipe them out?” the dragon-armed man asked.

Dusk glared at him. That was wrong on multiple levels.

“Do you know if the myrmekes would be amenable to trade?” 

That made Dusk frown at the werewolf’s mom as well. That shouldn’t factor in saving the ants or not. Still, she said they were, and explained how they’d given her a bit of gold for helping defend their nest. The man let out a sigh of frustration, then nodded. 

“Alright. We should kill the queen and set up ward barriers around the myrmekes territory, as well as establish a rate of trade. Do we need to call in more arcanists from Port Ruby?”

“Agreed on the first few points,” the werewolf’s mom said. “The desolants haven’t overrun the entire island, so they must not have the desolation mana sources to raise multiple queens. There’s probably only one. Still, who knows how many soldier ants there might be? I don’t think we need more Arcanists, but we should assemble at least a dozen spellbinders.” 

Dusk said that there wasn’t time for that. Her brother was out there, defending the myrmekes hive. They couldn’t just let him stay out there on his own!

“Sorry kid,” the dragon-armed man said. “He’s going to have to hold out for a few hours. We’ll move as fast as we can, but we can’t just rush into danger.” 

Dusk turned and started to head back, but the werewolf’s mom held up her hand.

“Wait. It would be faster if you could guide us.” 

Dusk turned back, stamping her tiny foot in frustration, but agreed. Around her, the humans started moving into action, so she drifted down to sit on the ground and waited. Eventually, since it was clear that they would actually need an hour or more to organize their expedition, Dusk drew herself into her mana-garden. 

Her sister floated in, descending from the sky, and Dusk peeped a question at her. Dawn said that she was here to help, and she’d just finished a bit of work of her own, which made Dusk nod her head. That was fair, she knew that her little sister was working on a full gate spell. One that allowed her to enter other people’s spirits was incredibly strange, and shouldn’t work based on the understanding of spells that Dawn had, but everything about her sister was strange. 

It was a good sign that she was starting to catch up, though. Even if she wanted to go to the top of that big floating mountain in order to ascend, she now should actually be ready to ascend when she got there. For right now, though, it was work time. 

There was one obvious step she could take to help her older brother when she got back to him, so the pair drifted into the snowing, sandy desert of her third gate, and to the very edge, where a wall of mist lay. 

She hadn’t been idle on the boat-ride here, and had almost completely dug out her second set of steps, which would take her from the middle of third gate to the peak. In fact, the only reason that she hadn’t advanced already was the fact that she was waiting for her brother to break into the middle of third gate with at least his life and death mana, so he wouldn’t get too far behind her. 

Besides, it wasn’t like there she’d just been sitting around and doing nothing. She had polished her latest offensive spell, Snowglobe, as well as the world-mammoth spell, and the dominion-amplification and supporting spells that she’d been given by Knowledge. She’d also gotten incredibly close to finishing the mana meditation that could only be used by worldspirits, which would have provided another boost to her power without needing to advance. She had still been progressing, only in a lateral way, rather than a direct ascension. 

Now, though… 

She and her sister floated into the hole she’d made, and Dusk pushed on the wall. Dawn’s dominion struck the wall at the same instant her own did, and under their combined will, it shattered.

As easy as that, new power poured out from the center of her mana-garden. It rushed over her, reinforcing every aspect of herself, enriching her dominion, refining her mana, improving her control. 

Dusk stacked the bricks up on the walls of her third gate. It didn’t provide much extra power, but it did provide a little bit, and every bit of power helped.

Dawn wiggled in the air like a wet spaghetti noodle that someone had thrown, and Dusk let out a cheer. It was half-hearted, though. She was too worried about her brother. 

With nothing more to do, she began cycling her mana meditation, preparing, and felt Dawn’s power flow in along the swirls, loops, and knots that the meditation was creating. Her little sister’s power helped, tightening the flows, refining everything, and Dusk felt herself creep closer to reaching the final bit she needed. 

It was within grasp, she just needed to reach out and–

Someone called her name, and her eyes snapped open. She floated up to see the pair of not-so-nice arcanists. 

“We’re ready,” the werewolf’s mom said. “Lead the way. We’ll be right with you.” 

Dusk snorted and drew on the power of her various flight spells, then blasted off as fast as she could. She passed by the wards in an instant, and then was zipping along the grass. In her mana senses she could feel flight spells, flying magical items, and potions activating as the spellbinder team and two arcanists came after her. 

The werewolf’s mom was the only one whose flying device was fast enough to catch up with Dusk. within a few moments, she was flying next to Dusk, standing atop a rich red and amber carpet. 

“Cut your speed way down,” she said. “Most of our spellbinders aren’t professional fliers, they only fly at about thirty or forty miles an hour. You’ll leave them in the dust as you are now.” 

Dusk let out a sigh and slowed her flight, dropping everything until she was using nothing but the immortal cloud and her single flight spell. She flew as fast as she could while letting the others not get too far behind. 

The entire time, Dusk kept her eyes to the horizon and hoped. 

Her brother just needed to hold out. 

She was coming.