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Chapter 250: The Great Migration - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2024-05-25 05:40:48 +0000 UTCThe worldstrider looked at the little group of children, and smiled to itself.
It had succeeded.
It had taken a great deal of time, effort, and patience, but the worldstrider had stolen the cube. It could free its people from the pocket dimension.
As the worldstrider fled into the night, it thought about the effort it had taken to steal the cube.
The children had been very wary of letting the cube slip out of their sight. The leader, in particular, watched the cube as if it were a grenade that might explode at any moment. The worldstrider honestly wasn't sure why the boy was so wary of the artifact. For months, the body had even placed it under his pillow before he slept.
Luckily, his vigilance hadn’t lasted forever. After a year of the cube doing nothing, he had started leaving it in the base when he hunted for food.
From there, the worldstrider had only needed an opportunity to divert the children from the house. It had found a small herd of mountain goats and driven them towards the children by stinging them with magic. Eventually, the creatures had lost their temper and started chasing the worldstrider. All it had to do after that was lead it towards one of the children. Its body blended in perfectly with the night sky, so the children hadn't noticed its existence. All they had seen was a herd of mountain goats charging towards them. The children had taken one look at the herd and decided to get out of the way - followed by a hunt for meat. That hunt, naturally provided the perfect opportunity to steal the cube and flee.
After the worldstrider left the area, it found a small crater in a nearby mountain. It was shallow, but it would still block the view of nearby animals and people. The worldstrider took out the cube and got to work.
It spent three days messing with the cube before it finally figured out how to activate it.
The first thing the worldstrider discovered was that the damned Zelyrians had added safeguards to it. They had tried to make it impossible for worldstriders to use at all.
Fortunately, nobody had maintained or repaired the cube for several centuries now. The anti-worldstrider measures built into the cube had started to fall apart. Even though it took a great deal of time and effort, the worldstrider managed to get it working.
The second thing the worldstrider realized was that the cube wasn't made of pure metal. It was closer to a mixture of manifestation essence and physical matter. The worldstrider had no clue how the Zelyrians had created it. The Zelyrians may have been ungrateful, backstabbing wretches, but they were exceptional mages. The cube was a work of art that the worldstrider could barely understand.
Luckily, the worldstrider didn’t need to understand it. It just needed to know how to operate it.
After the worldstrider injected some of its own essence into the cube, the cube projected an image of a desolate void into the worldstrider’s mind. In the midst of this empty void, there were dozens of tiny, purple stars. The worldstrider realized that those were ‘unopened portals’ after tinkering with the cube.
Unfortunately, the cube was more damaged than it had realized.
Several of the little ‘stars’ inside of the cube had cracked, like glass thrown off a building. Nearly a third of the portals were broken. With that many portals missing, some worldstriders might not be able to escape. Their tethers would limit their movement too much to flee.
The worldstrider grimaced at the thought, but shook its head. Maybe the elders of the clan or the local leaders would know how to fix that. Even if they didn’t, it was better for some to escape than none.
The worldstrider fed one of the ‘stars’ in the cube some essence. The cube sputtered and churned, like a machine trying to work with a broken cog. Moments later, a small portal appeared a few meters away.
The worldstrider spent several seconds inspecting it, before it made its way through the portal.
It took almost an hour of flying to make its way through the other side of the portal. The worldstrider winced. This cube really was breaking down. The worldstrider was pretty sure that the cube was supposed to instantly teleport the wielder instantly. There shouldn't be any travel time at all. But the cube was so close to broken that the spatial folding was messy. Luckily, it still worked.
The worldstrider felt a bit worried once it realized how much the cube had deteriorated. If a spatial tunnel collapsed while its people were leaving, this would become a bloody catastrophe. Anything inside of a collapsing spatial tunnel usually died. Hopefully the cube would hold up for long enough for everyone to escape.
The worldstrider felt a tug of bitter amusement at that. It had never thought there would be a day where it hoped that Zelyrian technology would work better.
Once the worldstrider made its way to the other side of the spatial tunnel, it spent a few seconds examining itself. Then, it grinned even more widely than ever.
The tether hadn’t grown any stronger, even after it returned to the pocket dimension. One of its bigger fears had been the idea that the tether would reassert itself once it returned. If that had happened, things might have gotten more complicated. But this worry was a moot point. Once the tether had been damaged by leaving the pocket dimension, it seemed that it wouldn’t repair itself.
The worldstrider saw a few other worldstriders look at it in shock as it crossed back into the pocket dimension. The worldstrider wiggled its greetings at the others, before it floated over.
“Where is the organizer for this area?” It asked.
One of the nearest worldstriders pointed it in another direction, and it flew away.
It only took a few minutes before the worldstrider met with the local leader. When the worldstrider looked at the eagerly wobbling body of the local leader, it felt even happier than before.
The leader of this area had seen it enter the pocket dimension through the portal. And clearly, the local leader was as eager as it was to leave this broken place.
The worldstrider told the local leader its plan to flee this world. The organizer only spent a few minutes verifying its claims, before it called a meeting for all of the nearby worldstriders. Some of them couldn't make it that far, because their tethers limited their movement. Fortunately, over half of the nearby worldstriders were able to attend the meeting. Those that hadn't joined would still hear of what had happened today.
The worldstrider and the local leader spoke of their plan. A way to leave this broken place and enter the rest of the dimension. They also talked about the risks. The cube could fall apart, or the spatial tunnels could collapse and kill everyone. Despite the risks involved, the consensus was nearly unanimous. Almost everyone wanted to take the risk and flee. The worldstriders at the meeting wanted to see sunlight and feel wind again.
The worldstrider activated the cube again, and a few portals opened up nearby. The first worldstriders swarmed through the portal.
And then, about two hours later, the first escapees were dragged back to their original spots. They dragged most of the people behind them back into the pocket dimension as well. The spatial tunnels weren’t big enough for more than one worldstrider to fit through at once. If one worldstrider was dragged back, they dragged everyone else with them.
The worldstrider frowned. Its own tether had grown much weaker once it left the pocket dimension. Why was there such a big difference?
The worldstrider and the local leader brainstormed, until the worldstrider realized what had changed.
The worldstrider had felt the tether weaken after the portal between the pocket dimension and the real world broke. In other words, being completely cut off from the pocket dimension was what weakened the tether.
After that, the worldstrider and the local leader created a new escape plan.
This plan was much slower than the original escape plan. Only a few dozen worldstriders left through the portal, before the worldstrider with the cube closed the portal again. On the bright side, this worked perfectly. Once the portal was closed, everyone’s tether weakened, leaving them free from the pocket dimension.
After the first group successfully escaped, the worldstrider eyed the cube.
Only a few dozen worldstriders could flee every two hours. This was far less than it had been hoping for. Could the cube hold on long enough for everyone to escape? If it broke, was there any other way to let the worldstriders escape?
After that, the worldstrider gritted its teeth. At the very least, some of its people would be able to leave. With any luck, the cube would hold out long enough. Even if it didn't, some would still escape. It would be the very last one through the portal. It wanted as many to flee as possible. The group continued evacuating.
After a month, the first major prison had evacuated. It was going slower than it would have liked, but there was one, undeniable fact that kept the worldstrider moving forward.
The worldstriders were able to leave. The great migration had begun.
Author’s Note:
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Comments
Rain
TFC
Andrew Williams
"The worldstrider was pretty sure that the cube was supposed to instantly teleport the wielder instantly." Double word there. TFTC~
SomeRandomGuy
Tftc! Sounds like a new world ending threat may be descending onto our group of vagabonds xD
