Azrath held his breath as he passed through the portal. He refused to breathe the tainted air of his master’s once sacred corridor. He didn’t care if they spent a year in this awful place. He would not relent.

Everywhere was green and bright; the corridor walls swirled translucent waves, but that was essentially all there was to see. The hall stretched on with no end in sight. 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Darris was now entirely in the portal with him. Azrath couldn’t see his face, but he could tell the giant was sneering by his tone of voice.

“Oh, come now, bird, you must have something to say to me. After all, I’m the one who poisoned this place.” He followed his statement with a few gentle squeezes. 

Azrath knew what Darris was doing, the Sah. Of course, Darris could feel him holding his breath as he held Azrath, and now he was trying to goad him into taking one. But Azrath wouldn’t bite. 

“When I first walked through here, it felt like traveling through a coursing river against the current. But now, there’s nothing. Any influence your Urzuran had is now gone. This place now entirely belongs to me. How does that make you feel?”

Once again, Azrath refused to answer. Though, his lungs were beginning to burn. They were so much smaller now. When he was in his original form, he could hold his breath for several minutes, but now, who knows how long he would hold out. 

“Would you look at that?” said Darris, pressing Azrath against the glowing wall, “I think I see something out there! Can you?”

Azrath’s lungs were about to burst as Darris flattened him between his hand and the wall. He did look, though. He looked past the wall and into what he now saw was a deep, dark void. His body shuddered involuntarily. He knew what that darkness was. He had seen it before with his own eyes as he traveled between Eziro and Earth via the crack in Urzuran’s wall. 

He had heard the stories of the Inbetween ever since he was a child, back when travel between worlds was as easy as a teleportation spell. Ezirons were commonly popping from one world to the other to collect knowledge. Most were content with this, but some were curious. Curious about what the place in between worlds was like, or even if it existed in the first place. 

Those who thought they were brave enough to try were quickly proven foolish as most of them were never seen again. And those who were lucky enough to escape met a fate worse than death as they were found with their minds completely gone, lost to madness. Any knowledge the Ezirons had of the Inbetween came from the insane ramblings of these mad men and women, who spoke of darkness, bizarre power, and strange creatures that dwelt within.

When asked for details, the mad would start screaming without stopping, eventually passing out from lack of air. None of them lasted long, either dying mysteriously or taking their own life.

Soon the story of the Inbetween became something parents told their kids to make them behave, describing horrific monsters such as the Murrowa, a giant, fish-like being that could move through darkness like water and swallow anything whole, including emotions like hope and happiness. 

That was just one of the many creatures his mother described, but Azrath had been skeptical for most of his life until he came face to face with the crushing darkness itself.

He was reminded of his helplessness as he floated along with nothing but senseless thoughts to keep him company. 

Darris had said there was something out there. And he was right. If nothing was ever a something, then it was the Inbetween. A place where reality no longer existed. At least when he had traveled through it the first time, Azrath had Urzuran’s wall to protect him. But now, the walls that surrounded him only belonged to evil. 

“Yes, come this way, if you dare… I’ll take you on.” Darris was muttering under his breath. But at what? There was nothing out there. Then Azrath saw something. Something within the nothing. Two pinpricks of light. It was impossible to tell what color they were through the green wall, but they were small and slowly growing larger. 

A chill ran through Azrath as the eyes grew distinct enough to see that they were looking directly at him.

Azrath couldn’t help it. He gasped as the horror approached.

“So, you’ve given up, eh. A shame, really.” Azrath couldn’t tell if Darris was talking to him or the eyes as they began to retreat inexplicably. “Oh well. Maybe one day soon, I’ll venture out there to conquer its mysteries.

“And may you rot out there.” Azrath put as much venom into his voice as possible. 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Very much.”

Darris laughed at that. “I see. Well then, shall we get a move on?”

He walked in silence the rest of the way. Azrath focused on holding his breath again, which was made difficult by Darris dragging his body across the wall. He may have lost before. But he would breathe as little as possible in such a putrid place. It didn’t take long for the corridor to lose its solidity, which meant they passed through the other portal. 

Then the world grew dark. Or rather, the portal's light was gone, leaving them in a dimly lit room. It took a moment for Azrath’s eyes to adjust. He immediately recognized where he was. 

He had never been here in person but had seen it a few times in the sword’s visions. The dark throne room made of polished stone where he had watched the Hidaar succeed in poisoning Urzuran’s portal. Azrath had never imagined he would ever step foot in this place. The Inbetween sounded quite appealing right about now. The atmosphere was unbearably humid. The air itself was saturated with an oppressive weight that felt like it was crushing him from every direction.

“I welcome you,” Darris’s tone of voice gave away his sneer again, “to Sohaud.”