Blurred Line Between Realities

"Hey! Why do you think you all deserve to sign up for this!" Emery said with an angry face as he stared at Novius.

Novius simply ignored the man and continued writing his name.

Elijah has seen this man multiple times now, and is absolutely sick of him. "What did Novius do to you Emery?"

"This isn't about you, nobody."

"I beg to differ! Clearly you stated that we all don't deserve to sign up for the tournament. So explain to me, what did Novius do to you." Elijah turned around and moved closer towards Emery. His medium length blonde hair flowed down the sides of his ears, and his fire red eyes accentuated his masculine looks.

Words came out of his mouth that shocked everyone in the room while Novius continued staring forward at the sheet he had just signed. "His father killed my father…"

Elijah didn't respond but instead tried to shake the hands of Emery, who was clearly not doing this for no reason. He was ten years old, and he believes Novius' father killed the man that raised him, and created him. His anger and hatred makes sense, which is why Elijah did not retaliate further, especially after he saw the eyes of Emery glistening with moisture.

"Why don't we settle this in the tournament. You are a bright red core right?" Elijah asked with a genuine smile.

Emery was confused as to why this person was being nice to him, and was too late to respond until a member of his party cut in. "Don't bother talking to them, Emery. You have already written your name down. Let's go." The man who spoke was a noble friend of Emery named Jared. Jared ruby, the youngest son of a formidable hunter captain. To Elijah, it seemed a fire affinity was extremely popular considering two of the eight party members had fiery red eyes, eyes that burned with confidence.

Burning with confidence? Elijah thought about this though that came into mind by observing the people in front of him. Amaris had icy blue eyes, and seemed like a cold person if you never had a conversation with him. What if your affinity changes you? Fire is destructive, but also something that aligns with confidence as it never backs down. A fire will always continue to spread if it is able.

Elijah, Novius, Theon, Raylen, Harry, Aslan, and Alexia signed their names onto the sheet. Emelia did not only because she mainly focused on support and defense. Yes it would help her a lot, but fear was also a factor here.

The party concluded with looking over a couple different missions and decided on one that stemmed from the Nova40 stronghold, one of the hardest red core missions that was always a first choice for any red core mages. The only difficult thing about the mission is simply the terrain. A cave system full of steep drops, waterfalls, ponds, and even hot springs made it complicated to navigate, even with the wooden bridges and staircases that lead to a five hundred foot drop. The kappa's would be fighting the party as they descended due to the small caves with dead ends that housed large amounts of kappas. The mission was marked as a priority because the previous party did not complete this mission. They never even made it to the bottom, and half of them never returned.

Elijah decided to return to the Weltor estate without Alexia and Novius, and insisted on returning by himself even when Alexia wanted to follow.

His plan was actually to go down the entrance of The Catacombs, where people lived, and find a secure place he can freely go into the whirlpool instead of jumping over the ledge in the grand park. Every time he had gone past the whirlpool, and into the nothingness that lay beyond, he ended up in the cave with Abel. Figuring out the reason was something on his priority list.

The walk was relatively short, only fifteen minutes. People were passing him with looks of confusion as he walked down the slightly steep road that led to The Catacombs.

Instantly the familiar sight of only slightly glowing plants and flowers that were accompanied by the new light technology employed by the Magitech Guild.

There were only two openings that led to the torrential current of the whirlpool, but only one of them was tucked away around a thick stone corner. The perfect spot for Elijah to secretly jump into the water.

As Elijah inches closer to the wall of water, his gray and black casual clothes begin to be soaked by the excess water coming from the controlled current. Suddenly, something caught his eye, not just one, but a couple human bodies were faintly in sight passing quickly through the water. Without hesitation, he disappeared, and began chasing the bodies with his eyes opening and closing rapidly. Flying through the whirlpool made it easy to control his body, and he soon reached the body with a trail of blood.

This doesn't make any sense! Why are their bodies flowing into this whirlpool? If they are bleeding, they were recently stabbed and killed based on the fact they weren't moving. What is happening?!

The man Elijah was looking at had his eyes clothes, but had several wounds all across his body, which was completely ridden of clothes. A fatal opening was in the center of his chest. It seemed like a hole was burned through his body that caused his entire chest to blacken and crack apart.

Knowing there was nothing he could do, he flew to the top just to get a breath of air, and instantly flew down to the bottom where the void of nothingness was.

That looked like murder!

Elijah reached the other side of the whirlpool, and immediately felt a pull on his body. Resisting was extremely difficult, but eventually, he felt an intense vibration that would cause an earthquake wash over his body. Shortly after, a loud POP was heard along with Elijah blacking out.

…

The sounds of dripstones dropping water in small puddles echoed along with the coughing of an older man.

Elijah had half-woken up, meaning that he was not aware of where he was, and was inside his own head. 

An ethereal string of light entered the sight of Elijah, and suddenly, the surroundings became clear. A familiar looking boy was lying on the ground, along with Abel, the twisted man. He seemed to not notice him which was weird as he was very powerful. However, when Elijah realized the boy laying in the ground was himself, panic stirred in his mind.

Am I dead?!

Wait.

I've done something like this before. Even with it happening very few times, I remember the white string and feeling distinctively.

Astral Projection!

Elijah's body that he noticed was slightly translucent, was flowing through the air the exact same way he flew. His head did not touch the ceiling, and flew straight through it. The sight of the earthen granules and the feeling of water passing through his body gave him a weird feeling. 

Elijah's ethereal hand raised, and a small burst of mana was formed into a ball of water. Magic was able to be casted!

Abel jumped at the sight of this, and knew it was Elijah, however, Abel saw no activity around Elijah's body, and was heavily confused by the sight.

"Elijah! Are you doing that?"

Words tried to escape his mouth, but to no avail. Elijah quickly flew above the cave, passing through the extensive amount of earthen matter and caves, and shot into the sky with an ethereal string extending from his body.

This was a form of true freedom!