The Wizard

Chapter 19 part 2

"Gwydion," said Eduarda for the tenth time, "I'm worried sick. It's been six days since he's been fighting Samuel without any news—"

"Now, we don't even have a way to follow him," replied the dragon, keeping calm, "but I have faith in the Guardian."

Eduarda tried, but her nervousness increased more and more and neither her parents calmed her down, although they had tried more than once. Valdo also made an effort to help and failed. Then, Ezequiel said:

"My dear, Igor has faced this creature more than once and has always been defeated." She was going to speak, but the wise man signaled for her to calm down. "And whenever that happened, he beat a hasty retreat in order to recover and continue the battle. So, I think this silence is a good sign, very good indeed, especially after he learned to create the new protection barrier."

"Really?" She shook her head. "I should never have allowed him to fool me into not staying with him."

"He loves you very much, my daughter," insisted Ezequiel, "and he did that because he wants to see you safe. But how did he convince you?"

― ☼ ―

The sun was hot, unbearable, and all Igor wanted was to rest in a shade and drink some water. With great difficulty, he opened his eyes and needed all his willpower to get up, otherwise he would die right there. When night fell, the temperature of that desert would drop to negative values in a few minutes and very strong storms would arise for which he had no defense.

He knew that his life would not last even a couple of hours, but he needed to save the souls trapped inside him or all that effort would have been in vain. It was at that moment that he evoked the strongest thing he could think of: the memory of his sweet Eduarda. He thought of her with all the strength of his being and that gave him a little more energy to get up. He had to get out of that desert before he died for good.

He tried to raise his hand to open a passage and did not think right where, as long as there was water and shade, but his arm seemed to weigh more than a hundred kilos. He insisted a little more, very slowly, until he dropped his hand while activating that special sector of his mind and a portal was opened.

Slowly, he advanced one foot, followed by the other with great difficulty. It was a Herculean effort to take that step, but he needed to take one more. He touched the barrier, breaking the membrane that separated the two worlds and immediately felt the cool wind pass, causing a slight relief. He achieved the second step and reached the other planet, which should be at least twenty-five or thirty degrees cooler, providing him with immediate relief.

Igor needed to go as soon as possible to the Crystal World, but he was not sure he could and that made him even more desperate because, after the endless difficulties, he carried all those thousands of essences within him, lives that would disappear forever if he failed and died. To his great sadness, he felt that the end was imminent.

He still had time to think that, although he did not wish for death, he did not fear it and in that aspect he felt serene, but sad to know that he would never again in that life have his beloved fiancee in his arms.

With difficulty, he looked around and tried to calculate in which plane he was, but his brain could no longer work coherently because he had suffered excessive wear and tear. Without even closing the portal, he took one more step, this time much easier and what was left of logical reasoning told him that there the gravity was much lower, perhaps equal to that of Earth or even a little lower.

In a way, this brought him such a great relief that he looked around again and discovered, to his joy, that he was only a hundred meters from his goal. He sketched something like a smile and took one more step.