Dragons

Double Update!! I imagine that you all were a little less upset with me before, so hopefully this helps a bit.

I (Warp)ed a few more times before stopping to take a moment and reorient myself, refocus on what it was I needed to do, but I found it to be harder than I first thought: the heart-break of having to leave one of my closest friends in both physical age and enjoyment was something that I didn't expect to have to go through...I didn't even feel like this when Red and the others had left: That was just sadness. This...this was worse, and it took nearly ten minutes before I was able to set my heart on continuing on lest I miss the chance to save Red like I'd been unable to in the past. 

I needed to continue. Not just because I wanted to see if Redline and the others were doing okay, but I also wanted to see what was so important that was happening down South that it warranted sending hundreds of thousands of refugees North for fear of the city itself falling. There was also this nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that I would find one of the things that I'd asked the Voice about when it was being difficult and not answering my questions. 

Notice: User is likely being drawn in this direction due to the collective conscious that all those chosen by The World can feel others of their likeness. 

Whelp, I guess that confirms it then; though, I wonder if this other Role is the new one that I'd seen designated by The World? And if it was who were they, and why was I connected so closely with them? In what way? 

I waited a few moments for the Voice to answer at least one of my questions, but the damn thing was being as stubborn as ever, so I just continued to fly/(Warp) my way around until I could see the walls of Forge rising in the distance: It didn't seem like the city was being attacked...at least, not till I got closer that is. 

The entire Southern Gate was swarming with Undead, and while the gates seemed to be holding there was something strange about the force that didn't seem natural in any way. I was thankful of my (Invisibility) as I floated down and studied the area for a moment, but nothing really stood out: The Undead were actually being beaten back by the mages atop the walls and it seemed like they had a handle on the situation, so I didn't interfere and instead moved to go deeper South, past the ruined forest and into unknown territory. 

<
The World has sensed A New Chosen Near.
The World offers a Quest: Rescue the New Chosen and flee without getting captured yourself. 
Reward:
--Insight towards progressing the (Spatial Warp) Skill
Failure:
--Penalty effecting the Skill (Spatial Warp), lasting the next week.
--Potential Capture and Experimentation. 
Do you Accept: Yes/No

The World has sensed Several Targets within range of Chosen.
The World offers you a Quest: Terminate the Blights upon this World (3/3)
Reward:
--Temporary boost in power closest to the one faced. (Note: If more than one Target enter the same area this boost will take into account the greater threat and elevate your own abilities to the nearest level nearest their own unless the greater threat is eliminated or otherwise incapacitated).
--Permanent Boost to User, Increasing all Stats by +5% upon elimination of a Target -- +15% if all Targets have been Eliminated
Failure:
--Temporary Decrease in all Stats by -30% for the next two months. (Number of Targets = -10% Decrease) 
Targets Remaining: 3/3
Do you Accept: Yes/No
>

I was shocked. Not only was The World telling me that there was another Chosen like me nearby, but it was also saying that they were captured and likely being experimented on based on the second failure condition, and that they were surrounded by what was likely to be super strong beings that The World seemed to have something against. 

I did not envy them: If they'd pissed off a Cosmic source of power, then they likely deserved whatever it was why The World wanted them dead. I passed over what looked like a brutal fight-scene, but the vibes I got from the area weren't good ones; in fact, they were actually telling me to avoid the area at all costs because I would likely be killed before getting the chance to react from whatever it was hiding itself down there. 

Instead I shifted my direction of travel to go wide around that area and resumed my travel South once I was a decent distance away that I could no longer feel that nagging dread that my instincts were warning me of. It was unfortunate too, because that seemed like it was the exact location that the summoned Undead were coming from, and it didn't look like the process nor their numbers were going to slow anytime soon with that power in control of the area. 

It wasn't long before I ended up within range of what looked to be another castle of sorts, but the place was dark, gloomy, and foreboding to look at.

I looked at the rescue Quest again, and thought to myself for a moment while I hovered just out of range of the distance I expected a Ballista Bolt could go. There was really nothing keeping me from doing the first Quest, and I don't think anything else here was stronger than whatever it was guarding the spawn location for the Undead army. 

I accepted the Quest and (Warp)ed down into the center of the Castle's courtyard, hoping and praying that my newly Evolved capabilities were enough to keep me from being sensed as I scouted out the area a little before slipping past the large gates leading into the castle itself. As an added precaution I slipped into another Layer of Reality using (Planar Shifting) and set that as my base Layer before deactivating the Skill: Hoping that it would both keep my from detection should I accidentally run into something or someone, as well as hoping that the Layer I was in was a copy or mirror of the current layer so that I could still walk around here. 

When I deactivated the Skill I knew immediately that something had changed about my surroundings, but as to what it was I couldn't put my paw on it...Landing on the ground thankfully didn't cause me to fall through the floor other wise I would've been extremely embarrassed and a little torn on how I could advance safely, but thankfully I was still able to phase through buildings and walls without issue as they technically weren't a part of this Layer. 

It was a strange thing to consider: that the planet itself existed in multiple Realities, but I didn't think too hard about it otherwise I would definitely go into a dangerous tunnel of thoughts, conspiracies, and doubt that I didn't need right now. Instead I wandered through the halls looking for anything or anyone that seemed like they would lead me to a jail, prison, dungeon, or whatever the equivalent was here so I could find this other Chosen and escape with them before things got messy. 

The more I explored the place, the more confused I got: Where were all of the bad guys? I mean it was nice that I hadn't run into one of them yet, but I'd gotten quite deep into this place now and I was sure that I would've run into castle guard or something during my explorations...I looked at the (Planar Shifting) Skill's description again and read through it again, and as I reread it I understood something else. If I was in a different Layer of Reality, and it would be harder to effect things between Layers without difficulty and practice, then I was probably unable to see beings the existed in another layer of Reality unless I split my vision or some other aspect of my being in part to actually sense what was happening in a second reality when my physical self was in a separate one. 

I went into one of the side rooms of this place and decided to do a quick experiment to determine the minimum I needed or was comfortable with doing this with before continuing and I also wanted to see if shifting different parts of my being also meant that I needed to shift my mind between the different Layers of Reality along with them in order to not lose the limb...or if keeping the Skill active mitigated that requirement and acted as a sort of bridge for my senses. 

The first thing I decided to shift was one of my paws, as I was sure that it wouldn't be too bad of a thing if I accidentally lost the limb or something as I could probably shift into the reality I lost it and reattach the limb before shifting back into the second Layer before anything serious occurred. And if not...I guess it would probably be a little smarter if I shifted a single claw or something else I knew I could regrow without issue easily enough...

I felt the Skill activate the moment I chose on shifting the claws on my left paw into another reality--after extending them of course--and to my surprise I didn't immediately lose them as the Skill sort of split my conscious mind in multiple perceptions of what was happening and I could feel the same hard stone floor under my paws in two realities rather than just one; it was a strange feeling, but at least I knew that I wasn't going to immediately lose a lime by just using the Skill if I did this to attack and what-not. It was just going to take a lot of practice before I got comfortable doing this for extended periods of time, and it was going to take even longer to learn how to fight like this because of how strange it felt for my senses and mind. 

I returned my whole self into the Layer I was using to hide and decided to shift my eyes into the Original Layer that I was from, and i started with both eyes, but thought about something and decided to use only one of them--returning the other, my left eye, to the Layer the rest of me was in and keeping my Right in the Original Layer I came from as it was the one with the menacing looking door and I hoped that if someone was able to see part my (Invisibility) the strangeness of seeing a singular floating eye, and the shock of what it's face represented would be enough of a shock to them for me to either strike or return everything to the Second Layer I was currently using. 

This was all...very confusing. 

I looked around the room a little, the feeling of the room shifting around without the feeling of the rest of my head following with was strange feeling in only one specific part of me, and it was actually really nauseating to view the world this way: I could feel myself moving and everything that surrounded my eye moving according to how it normally worked in the Second Layer, but in the Original Layer for my singular eye things just moved and the sudden shift in perspective threw off my perception and sense of mobility as I seemed to need to relearn how to properly walk while doing things this way. 

I walked in circles around in the abandoned room--for both Layers thankfully--as I got used to the feeling, and when I was sure that I'd gotten used to it I moved to go through the door like I usually did and--thankfully--my Skill seemed to be aware of whenever I moved through another physical object or vice-versa as I was sure that my eye ball hitting the door would've been both extremely painful and it would definitely caused me to lose what I'd eaten not a few hours before (Warp)ing here. 

I breathed out a sigh of relief once I'd passed through the doorway without problems and immediately noticed the differenced of the Second Layer versus the First and Original Layer: Firstly, the colors were more vibrant in the First layer compared to the Second, with the Second being a little dulled out and the shadows seemed a little darker than normal for my comfort; Second, the Light was a lot more...real in the First Layer over the Second; And third, I noticed that the Second Layer didn't actually have the atmosphere of Life that my original Layer did, the  sights and the general feeling of what my Right eye saw compared to my Left made the Second Layer seem more like a prison than another Reality. 

...I hoped it wasn't like this for the other Layers I could access, because I wasn't sure if I would even want to learn to use more than two at once if this was what it felt like. 

Though, now that that was over with and I felt a little more used to moving around I could resume what it was I was doing before: Searching for this Captured Chosen and getting them out of here somehow.

Dragons

I don't know if I made this chapter repetitive or not...I don't know, truly.

I just wanted to showcase the (Planar Shifting) Skill a little and try to help visualize a little of how it's actually used in regards to situations like this, because it's like his prior Skill (Incorporeality) in use, but it's stronger and more versatile in it's capabilities. Plus there are a lot of fun things I can do with a Plane-Related Skill like this, and I think it would be fun (and maybe funny too) to see how Sc'the learns how to use this along with it's drawbacks. 

Thanks for Reading and I'll see y'all in the next one!

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