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Book 3, Chapter 58 - Evacuation
🕑 Added 2023-06-09 13:01:48 +0000 UTCDerivan's eyes glowed as he focused on keeping the portals open. The effort involved was immense — this was more than he had ever stretched Shift, and he could feel the way it was pulling at something fundamental to him, like he was stretching a muscle to the point of tearing.
Evacuating an entire city was, it turned out, not under the purview of Shift — especially when teleportation gates were more of a workaround than they were the intended purpose of the thing.
Small fights were breaking out all over the city. Evacuating was a serious matter, and not everyone believed it was necessary; the Wisfield Speaker's words hadn't helped the situation.
"You'd think they'd understand," Misa muttered. "The system is telling them to evacuate."
And it was. They hadn't seen it for themselves, because they were linked to Misa's reality anchor, but Helix had informed them shortly after he had received it.
[ Elyran Prime Anchor at critical integrity. Evacuation is highly recommended. Do not delve the Prime Dungeon. ]
Far, far too many civilians were claiming that this notification was merely a trick. They stayed in their homes, stubborn and angry, and refused to listen when their sons and daughters begged them to leave.
It was... tragic. Derivan had seen it personally, more than once; he couldn't help it. Shift made him more connected with space itself on a very fundamental level, and he had to push through two entire layers of reality just to get his portals functioning. He caught whispers from different homes, saw his own friends as they tried to convince different people to come with them, or resolved various crises begun by those that were too afraid to accept what was happening.
He didn't even entirely blame them. They were being asked to uproot their entire lives; it was no surprise that many of them would rail against it, look for any excuse to stay. The fact that some of their leaders were insisting that nothing was wrong no doubt helped them in that process.
And yet to leave them here was to leave them to their deaths.
There would come a time when they would have to force those remaining to leave, he thought. That time wasn't there yet, but it was close. For now, they focused on bringing anyone willing to go with them, and getting them loaded into the caravans that were waiting for them outside of Elyra.
It was a long, long line of caravans.
"You doing okay?" Misa asked him quietly as she walked past him, slowing down just for a second. She was carrying a large sack of what he knew were the belongings of a poorer family that lived in southern Elyra — nothing too valuable, but precious to the family in question. They were woodcarvers, and the sack was full of small toys they made for their children and distributed among their neighborhood.
"No," Derivan admitted. "It is... difficult. There is no battle to be fought here."
"We're used to solving problems with our fists, huh?" Misa said, laughing slightly. The laugh was a tired one, though.
"We try for alternatives when we can," Derivan said. "But there is no alternative here. It feels as though we lose, no matter the outcome; the best we can hope for is to save the lives of the people here."
"I mean." Misa adjusted the sack she was carrying, giving it a significant glance. "Is that so bad?"
"I suppose not." Derivan smiled a little.
"We're doing good out here," Misa said. "Maybe we can do more, I dunno. But if we're doing the best we can do, I think that matters."
"You have a way with words."
"Damn straight I do." Misa grinned. "I gotta get going. You gonna be okay for a bit?"
"Of course." Derivan nodded.
Truth be told, he was straining himself, even now. Shift wasn't made for transportation like this, and while he could exploit it to make this happen — especially with the high levels the stat had reached — he coudn't maintain it forever. Derivan felt something inside him struggle to keep every portal open, to maintain his awareness of reality and the way it extended through space.
But he could keep this up for a little longer. Just long enough for them to evacuate everyone.
—
Sev tried not to flinch when a divine connection suddenly sprang into place within him. We are out of time, Tempus said. The god sounded worried, and Sev didn't blame him; he could feel the divine domain in all of Elyra starting to stretch and crack, like an egg being ruptured from within.
No doubt an effect of what House Wisfield had done. They'd stopped that nascent god from being born, but that apparently didn't stop all of its effects. Whatever they'd set into motion was continuing.
He couldn't blame them entirely, though. There were so many compounding factors — the Elyran Prime Dungeon having to host an entire separate timeline, Irvis' presence taking it over and infusing the entire structure with his flesh...
"Derivan," Sev said. The poor armor looked exhausted. It wasn't apparent in any human way, but Sev could see that the light in his eyes were dimmer than they usually were, and the rock-solid steadiness of his movements had become something a little more shaky and uncertain.
Derivan inclined his head slightly to indicate that he had heard him, but otherwise stayed focused. Sev took a breath, hating what he had to ask of his friend.
"We don't have time to do this the right way anymore," Sev said quietly. "Elyra's going to collapse. We have to force the issue."
In the center of the city, a gaping hole in the Divine was forming. It was right above where the Prime Anchor was situated, and the hole was only expanding. Sev knew that Derivan would be able to feel it within moments.
Sure enough, Derivan shuddered slightly, glancing in the direction of the hole. "Elyra is falling apart," he said. It wasn't a question.
"Think you can push yourself just a little more?" Sev asked. He placed a hand on Derivan's shoulder. "I'll keep you healed up."
Derivan's voice was grim. "I believe I do not have a choice."
—
Misa was mid-step when she felt the shift in the timelines. She kept a version of her Echoes running almost all the time, now, just so she could feel out the different possibilities created by her taking different actions; now, a good half of her potential selves just vanished into a hole in the center of the city.
She stopped, dropped what she was carrying, picked the nearest two people up under her arms — though they screamed in protest — then used [Me, Myself and I] to duplicate herself. A dozen different copies of her flickered into existence, and each one of them sprang into action, grabbing different civilians and hauling them towards the nearest portal.
She didn't care if they argued. There was no more time to wait for them to come to terms with what was happening. Not if the entire city was collapsing. Street after street was starting to vanish in her mind's eye, and although she couldn't necessarily remember that those streets were supposed to be there, it was easy to map out the hole by the absence of her alternate selves.
Elyra, she was pretty sure, was not supposed to be a ring.
Misa kept moving. Some portals flickered and failed, and Misa felt Derivan's attention elsewhere, but she couldn't spare him any more attention than that; she had to focus her attentions on the evacuation.
She only hoped things were going better for her friends.
—
"There," Vex said. He was calmer than he should have been. His heart was pounding in his chest, but his voice came out steady and strong, and he kept the anger from his voice. "The center of the city. Something's missing. You have to be able to tell — there's no mana there."
"That's... strange," Karix allowed. He sounded confused. "But it's always been like that. Hasn't it?"
"If there was a mana void sitting in the center of the city, we would have bent all our efforts towards studying it, and you know it," Vex said dryly. His father couldn't deny the logic there. "It's new, and we need to get everyone out. You promised to support me."
"And I will," Karix said. "But the level of magic we need to evacuate the city..."
"We need a spatial anchor to keep the ritual stable," Vex agreed. He was stronger now. Strong enough to teleport an entire kingdom out of its borders? No.
But Derivan's portals could improve their reach, as long as he could open enough of them.
—
"Deri," Vex said. Derivan opened exhausted eyes to greet his boyfriend with a faint smile, though that smile dropped slightly when he saw Karix standing next to him. The older lizardkin held his hands up in surrender.
"Peace," Karix said. "I'm here to help."
"He is," Vex confirmed. "We need your help to evacuate the city."
"I am doing everything I can," Derivan said quietly. It was straining him deeply, now, as difficult as it was for him to admit it — he was no longer opening static portals. Instead, he opened portals as needed to capture people that were in the verge of falling into one of the many holes opening up around the city and deposit them outside. It was a task that was taking all his concentration.
"I know," Vex said quietly. The lizardkin's voice — full of confidence and affection — along with the light touch of scales on metal did a measure of work to restore his failing focus. "Once we do this, you won't have to keep your focus up. Think you can do it?"
"What do you need of me?"
"Six portals, one at six different equidistant points around the borders of the city, and a seventh one right here," Karix said, interrupting. Derivan cast a tired glance at him, but acquiesced when Vex nodded to confirm it.
Compared to opening dozens of moving portals around the entire kingdom, a mere seven portals was easy. The only problem was the amount of people that would be lost if he did that. At the rate the holes were expanding...
If he wanted to save everyone, he needed to keep all seven of those portals while keeping up his efforts in rescuing everyone.
Derivan had no teeth to grit, but he forced his will into steel, and began opening yet more portals.
