Somniabor

Passed Time

Incomprehensible dreams passed through Alex's drifting mind. Fire, demons, and their scary ancient history teacher were chasing them through tighter and tighter corridors. Until everything slowly began to pass into darkness.

Alex suddenly awoke at the feet of the chappel podium.

The air felt weirdly chunky and clogged, even though the sky was completely clear.

The sky, which was shining through a gigantic hole in the ceiling, brought Alex out of their half-asleep thoughts.

It was uncomfortably stuffy like all the clean air had been replaced by syrup.

This observation shook Alex, it could only mean one thing. The Air was so utterly interspersed by magic, meaning you could feel it with every breath.

The aftermaths of the destruction no doubt and just as dangerous.

If the first was a controlled and directed assault, this one was a lingering chaotic poison, able to distort the entire reality around Alex.

Having just awoken, Alex's untrained student body was not ready for even more exercise, but they had no choice.

Blasting open what little remained of the chapel doors and laying their eyes upon the aftermath of a slaughter.

The City was completely torn apart, but not in the expected post-apocalyptic way. There was nothing left of the ground except some tiny islands of land floating about, without direction.

The Density of Magic was so high it caused spontaneous and colorful explosions and electric bolts.

Alex's home had been wiped cleanly off the face of this world,

forever.

"Well, it was only a matter of time. Nothing you can do about it now.

All the people would have died anyway." But this pitiful attempt at self-persuasion did little to quell their anger. A great injustice had been done and someone was going to pay for it.

But Alex wouldn't get their reparations if they died here.

With each step, the air grew more and more viscous, and with each breath, the magic started pelting Alex from the inside. Like hundreds of little needles were flowing through their airways.

Jumping across the floating pieces of the city, the islands slowly parted and gave way to an abyss of nothingness. On the other side, there lay the hope of solid ground. For any ordinary being, only death would await, but with this concentrated magic around them, Alex could shape a path. One step after the other, they gathered more and more magic below their feet. It was not the belief that drove the next step, it was cold calculation and knowledge, an expertise within a field, which fueled their confidence.

The real ground felt freeing, with each passing step the air felt cleaner, and movements could quicken, unbound by the burden of immense energy way them down.

For a fleetingly short moment, Alex could forget their worries, but there was still work to do.

The next order of business should be gaining intel, on who their enemies were. The prospects of how to enforce that justice could be figured out later.

The closest town was only a couple of days away. This journey would be a marathon, not a sprint. There was no reason to rush through, time was on their side.