331. Fifth Tier Breakthrough (IV)

Well, that was strange.

Eh.

Zane was not particularly interested in prying into other people's business. And Burnwater seemed to really rather avoid talking about it, which was just fine with him.

He moved on. Turned back toward the Gate.

"Oh! One moment," said Burnwater hastily. "You can't bring any foreign magic items through the gate. That means no Interspatial Rings. It'd destabilize the rift, you see. It has trouble admitting folks as is. That's part of its great challenge, actually."

"Hmm."

Burnwater assured him he would keep it safe while Zane went in.

"Sure," said Zane. He had a few elixirs in it. A few hundred max Sky-grade spirit stones Reina gave him for no particular reason—just to spend however he liked, in case he needed it. There was also an emergency stash of some of Evan's cookies.

"Don't eat any of the cookies," Zane warned Burnwater.

The old fellow looked mortified. "Of course! It's just for safekeeping. You have my word."

He nodded earnestly, made a little gesture over his heart.

It seemed genuine enough to Zane. "Alright."

He handed his ring off.

"It's quite dangerous, this way," said Burnwater. "The only way out is to comprehend the rift's Law, and break free. Usually only peak Minor Gods would be allowed to delve them. But the old Master must know you can withstand it."

Zane nodded.

Burnwater perked up. "Just one more thing—there's a mild time dilation between realms. Nothing too drastic. A day in there's like a week outside. These rifts'll save you a lot more time than you lose, but I still wouldn't take too long in there!"

"Sure," said Zane. "Anything else?"

"Nope," said Burnwater, nodding happily. "I'll see you soon, junior apprentice-brother—with your new Heavenly Solar Flare Laws. Us Stormfire folk—we're all rooting for you!"

***

Zane strode up to the rift—so close the heat grew almost painfully hot in his face.

He stepped through without hesitation.

His foot touched down on golden stone.

It was like the surface of the sun had hardened, packed into stone. A stone ridden with ravines, stretching on and on, deeply uneven, rising and falling in dramatic swoops, as though scooped out by giant hands. Crops of crystals studded them here and there, burning with Solar Flare.

The place reminded Zane a bit of the Grand Canyon, only grander.

It was also the hottest place he'd ever set foot in.

It felt like he'd been plunged into a fired-up furnace. The air here couldn't sit straight. It was hot enough to melt Sky-grade steel like mere ice.

Even Zane, with his body, had to wince.

It came from the Law.

Solar Flare Law choked the air, swirling up blistering clouds of gold Solar Flare sparks all over the landscape.

There was so much higher-tier Law, packed so dense it was like a physical thing—a crushing, searing presence. Even just breathing, he felt it scorching down his throat, his lungs...

He frowned.

Little bursts of Stormfire flared within. Flared down his skin. He had to burn essence just to fend off the atmosphere.

Then he felt the rumbling.

It was a constant thing, a massive white noise, waxing and waning, pouring down from the heavens—he looked up.

The sky was torched.

Shocking lines of gold-white burst into being, living and dying in seconds, running hundreds of miles long—shattering, raining down gobs of boiling liquid fire all over the lands. Cascading like meteors…

High up there, he could sense an incredible density of Law—so thick it willed sky-spanning Solar Flares into spontaneous existence. Making an atmosphere of violent light—striking like auroras of fire across the sky. The light in this realm was uneven across the desert, a world under constant storm. Brighter where the flares burst to life, then darkening, brightening again.

Something about it made him stare.

There were a few other light sources. He looked about, found lakes of swirling gold-white, that hyper-dense fire made liquid, something far more intense than magma.

Then there were the distant funnels of Solar Flare—tornadoes, if Zane had to guess. Scouring the horizon.

It really was a world molded and shaped by Solar Flare, Zane thought. It was packed into every inch of it—the air, the soil, the sky… he had never felt a single Law shown so strongly.

The benefit was enormous. Especially for a man like him.

Usually when he learned new Laws he was used to having to really look for it. Find flickers of it in its natural state, and carefully tease it out.

Here it there was so much higher-order Law, it attacked him.

He sweat—and it evaporated instantly. Went up in flame. His skin was going a little red under the constant assault. His mouth already felt dry, and he had to heave in heavy breaths just standing there. Breaths that seared his lungs…

A lesser body would have already collapsed, he knew.

He felt viscerally the wonder and the danger of this realm.

Zane knew he would grow tremendously here. He had a Great Circle of Heavenly Stormfire; he only had to break through—the last step. Even that would be a reckoning—Noughtfire had taken pains to emphasize that.

But in this environment, with what he knew he could do… he felt confident seizing Solar Flare would be a matter of time.

That was also the problem. The time.

He also felt the burden that was taking on his body.

His skin was singeing wherever those Solar Flare sparks landed—a constant pinpricking pain, especially as the thicker clouds crashed over him.

There was no free essence in this world—it was disconnected from the outside Universe, he felt. Its own pocket dimension. Only Solar Flare.

He had no Interspatial Ring to replenish himself either.

Once he burned out of essence… that was the end.

Above him, the skies howled and raged.

This world wanted to kill him.

It was just a question of what happened first. If he could grasp the enormity of that Tier 5 Law, and broke out—or if it finished him off.

Now he knew why Burnwater thought it was dangerous. It was throwing Zane straight into the deep end.

Just how he liked it.

As he stood there, feeling searing flares scorch his body up and down, scorch through his lungs, hearing that deep rumbling pouring from the Heavens, seeing gold-light flaring and dying and flaring again, there was a fierce joy in his heart.

He smiled.

Time to get to work.

Looked around, wondered where might be a good place to sit down and really start taking things in. Everywhere felt decent to him. But the Laws seemed most concentrated around those Solar Flare lakes, or the crystal-bunches studded into the walls. He started making for the nearest one.

…Was it just him, or was that rumbling getting louder?

He blinked. Turned around.

Streaks of light swirled in the far distance. Just a little—but gathering at a surprising pace, swirling to a funnel. It seemed like a burgeoning tornado, just a few hundred miles off.

A Solar Flare burst into being right above it, swirling into it—lending it a massive infusion of power.

In an instant it bulged to twice its size. Its raw essence, its Law, had grown to the limit of what most Minor Gods could muster.

Zane took a moment to take it in. It was one of the first things he'd noticed about Solar Flare. That scope could not be compared with Stormfire's. That thing filled skies, powered natural disasters. He'd keep it in mind as he tried to comprehend the nature of it. Think big.

The tornado kept rumbling, thickening fast, brightening, and those streaks of light swirled faster, fiercer, as though growing angry…

Zane frowned.

The column started wobbling as though drunk, careening across the landscape, sucking up dense pools of Solar Flare as it did—

It started teetering toward Zane.

The winds started buffeting his face, tugging at his locks of hair.

…It was time to get out of here.

He stomped down. A crater materialized at his feet as he blasted away. He stomped once, twice, taking plateau-spanning bounds, leaping entire gorges in a step.

His new Asura Titan's Body could spike much faster in power, he noticed. The engine of his physique was nearly unmatched now, even for Minor Gods.

He managed to put a good deal of distance between him and that tornado in just seconds.

Then he heard another rumbling—this time, out left.

There was another one. Speeding toward him fast—a few hundred miles off, but closing the distance fast—and this one was a good way toward full-size. How many of these things were there?

He narrowed his eyes, and bolted.

He stomped down so hard it crumbled the entire plateau—BOOM!

An eruption licked at his heels and he blasted away, even as massive boulders were ripped out of the ground all around him, fed into the beast.

In just a few seconds, he'd cleared the threat again. But he didn't let his guard down.

The Law in the air seemed to be thickening, wherever he went.

It was looking like it'd be finicky finding a place to rest.

He went still.

That rumbling… why was it even louder?

He chanced a glance behind.

It came from the two tornadoes he'd just left behind. Only they weren't coming after him—they were going for each other.

The vast strength of their pulls sent them careening into each other.

They embraced in a vertical column of Solar Flare, ripping into the Heavens.

An expression of Law so pure, so strong, Zane couldn't help but pay attention. A brilliant tower of gold, chasing away the colors of the world.

He felt such a clear impression of it then—just standing there, watching, letting those insights saturate his mind…

He would need to digest it. But that moment stayed with him, and he knew he'd gained something quite valuable. Just being close to that thing was surprisingly useful for his comprehension.

Then that great column teetered—like those monstrous forces were on the verge of tearing each other apart.

And then something quite unexpected happened.

Their spins came aligned.

Their columns bulged out.

And right before Zane's eyes, a super-tornado—twice as large, twice as tall, howled into being.

The plateau he was standing on began to quake.

Not just that. The plateau over, and the next one still—entire canyons were quaking. The flecks of flare around him grew even hotter, a surging heat, spurred on just by being near that incredible colossus of the most destructive Tier 5 Law Zane had ever seen.

The essence in that tornado would take a small army of Minor Gods to muster…

The damage his body was taking now grew a little alarming.

Blasted by those sparks, his Health was dipping 1% per second even this far out. How devastating would it be if he were plunged into the heart of that thing?

He would not allow it to happen.

He was moving even before the thing had fully formed. Stomping down—

But the plateau shattered beneath his feet. He stomped on air.

Then he was falling amid a shower of giant boulders, falling into the endless ravines, then arrested mid-air—falling sideways, along with the rest of the shattering canyons, as the winds of that tornado raged fiercer, sucking in the world—

Zane growled. Summoned a glut of essence, and kicked off the air. Hard.

Stormfire erupted at his heels. And he shot out a good few miles, fighting the gale-force winds, fighting the very air he was kicking off of—

He was a blaze unto himself, the one defiant light challenging this burgeoning Solar Flare apocalypse.

And he was winning.

Willing his way out in fifty-mile blasts, willing his way out by raw force and essence mass and grit—

Then a hundred-odd-ton chunk of plateau slammed straight into the side of his head.

It was not enough to knock Zane out. Not enough to even make him see stars.

But it was enough to knock him off balance.

He roared in fury, trying to right himself, but there was nothing left to stand on.

He was dragged straight into the heart of the storm.