Soul Eater but it's Sonic

Chapter 41

Silver and Blaze spent hours travelling across wind warped sand dunes that seemingly stretched onward without end. It was a region generally referred to as New Babylon, although they were far from any of the populated cities that stood in the more scenic and livable areas. Their great progress was made thanks to the procurement of some cutting edge technology in the form of a hoverboard.

It was called extreme gear. The machine was shaped like a metal board with two rounded hovering mechanisms on the underside. Along with having its own internal power source, a rider could pour their own soul wavelength into the machine to boost its performance further. Extreme gear was exceptionally fast, and allowed a rider to traverse a wide range of terrain with ease, so it was well suited for crossing the sprawling desert.

Blaze had familiarized herself with similar vehicles while growing up in the Sol Kingdom, though this was her first time using something this efficient. Silver had been carried in weapon form for the duration of the journey. While proceeding further into the desert, Blaze floated off of a hill, then did a front flip.

"You're getting pretty good," Silver said.

"Well, we've been travelling for a whole day. I was used to the increased speed after the first hour," Blaze navigated over a slope. She gained a bit of air, then spun sideways once before landing. "It's mostly just dull at this point,"

Off in the distance, a large vortex was becoming visible. It was muddy and dark compared to the rest of the area. Violent currents of wind brimming with energy formed an enormous cylindrical veil that stretched up into the clouds. Intermittent bursts of sparks shot out of the dust. Silver looked out from his weapon form with bewilderment.

"Let me guess, we're headed for that awful looking storm?"

Blaze nodded. "It's a scientific anomaly. Since it's positioned outside of the DWMA and Sol's jurisdiction, there's a lot of mystery surrounding its origin. It's been around for a while, but Sol only began investigating it over the last decade,"

"If it's already been studied, then why are we here?"

"The others never got very far. The intensity of the vortex made it lethal to anyone who enters after just a few minutes,"

"Just send in a robot!" Silver chastised.

"Robots fared even worse. Their sensors get scrambled, then they just go in circles until they break. Robots also didn't last much longer than people inside the vortex, and there's a wide area to investigate. Any technology used needs manual operation. It seems that having a soul wavelength is an advantage, so our best bet is to go in ourselves now that it's weakened,"

"Weakened?"

"By the kishin's power spreading across the world,"

"How could the kishin's chaos wavelength make a giant, deadly vortex less deadly?" Silver wondered with disbelief.

"Think of it like two cyclones colliding. The opposing directions of the air currents weaken each other. This scenario is similar, or at least that's what I was told,"

"When we enter, how long do we have before..."

"We have half an hour," Blaze replied. She reached into her pocket and retrieved a small rounded disk with a numbered dial. "This simple timer will keep us from staying inside too long. This extreme gear is durable enough to last well beyond thirty minutes in there,"

"Then let's get going,"

Drawing near the vortex revealed a raised stone structure perched on the very edge of the swirling cloud. A steep cliffside sat beneath the anomaly, with the attached structure serving as an access point.