“What I say sounds like blasphemy, but there are things not even the gods understand! Things only us mortals can gain access to, and the gods don't want us to know! There are secrets buried in this land, and I intend to dig them out.” -Estlof Greater.

  Aster

  The countdown was finally coming to an end. It felt like a lifetime since the token had been found, and the event was finally about to start. A few final checks made sure that all was good to go. We hadn't exactly restocked at a store or shop, but hunting had provided food. Since my undersuit and armor repaired most of the damage, there wasn't a need for other clothes. Still, I did have the non-ruined clothes Kulni and, funnily, Arilon Academy's uniform stored as backups.

  “You can keep looking into the crystal, but nothing will change. We've got all we can get.” The voice of my bond rumbled, and I nodded reluctantly.

  She probably could tell that I kept looking at the mental image of what the spatial storage space held, and I knew she could feel the slight stress from the bond. With some effort, I pulled my attention from the storage space, looking up to my bond. She was coated in a light dusting of the ever-falling snow the north of the continent provided. I started to pace in front of her. “I know, I know, Umbra, but I get antsy just waiting, and we still have.” looking at the token, I read the display and groaned. “Five minutes.”

  My bond chuckled, a rumbling noise that got deeper with each set of levels Umbra gained. She was ever-growing but still had a way to go reach the size of Silt or another of the riders from Arilon. She spoke as she watched me walk in circles. “You can wait in a tree or under a mound of snow for hours as still as a sleeping bear waiting for prey to get close, but a few minutes before the event, and you're jumping like a rabbit.”

  Turning, kicking a small patch of snow, I watched it and shrugged. “Yeah, but that's different. It's hunting. We've been waiting for this event for months or maybe even a year at this point! I'm worried that we won't be ready for what's inside. I wish I'd looked into the previous ones more at Arilon.”

  Umbra snorted, and she shifted, flexing her wings. “Don't be foolish. You told me that you heard no event is similar to another.”

  I nodded slowly at my bond but still felt anxious. I hadn't slacked in preparing for the event, but I still wondered if there was a way I could have done more to prepare. We'd gained levels, new skills, fought beasts, and even practiced together, but wasn't there more I should have done? I reached up, rubbed one of my ears, and stopped my pacing with a sigh. No, there wasn't anything more I could have reasonably done. Umbra had pointed that out more times than I could count.

  Looking at her, I tilted my head. “Do you have your token?” I'd given the black disk to her a few days ago at her request, and it hadn't returned to me since. That confirmed it was her token and answered a thought about how bonds entered the realm event.

  Umbra lifted her talons, showing the bracelet that she had gotten all that time ago, and I could see the talon wedged in between it and her scales. “This is where it keeps appearing. I hope it doesn't scratch a scale.”

  I smiled and then walked over after checking the time and seeing only two minutes remained. I scaled up her arm as she held it out and tied myself into place near her shoulders. “Well, we'll get to see what a realm event is like.” Pulling out my helmet, I slipped it on and switched to speaking through the bond. “I wonder if there will be snow or if it's going to be like a dungeon.”

  Umbra didn't reply around and just sent a mental shrug through our connection. Then, before I could think of anything else to say, a screen appeared.

  [Realm Notice: Void Realm Event will begin shortly.]

  [Notice: Token Holders who are entering the event are recommended to enter an open space to avoid destruction or nearby surroundings.]

  [Token Holder Notice: To proceed into the event, snap the token and confirm entry.]

  I blinked at the trio of notifications, then raised my token. I held it, looking down at Umbra, who had pulled herself out and put it between her teeth. “Are you ready?”

  “Of course, we've been waiting for this for ages.”

  With the unspoken countdown, we both snapped our tokens. It was surprisingly easy, and unlike previous attempts to even scratch the token, it felt like breaking a twig. I watched in fascination as the token started to dissolve into a black mist Before another screen covered my view.

  [Confirm entry into Void Realm Event? Y/N]

  [Progenitor Notice: Many dangers lie in wait inside a realm event.]

  I scowled at the blue screen, then the purple one under it. That had to be the most useless notice I'd ever got. Of course, there would be danger; wasn't that a given? With only a thought to Umbra, we both confirmed our entry and then there was a pause as the screens closed.

  For a moment, I was puzzled. Nothing had changed. There wasn't a portal, and we weren't whisked away to another place. Then I noticed the snow. It had stopped falling. Not just ended, but the flakes in the air had stopped moving and just sat there like they didn't care that they weren't following the rules of the world. My fascination lasted until we started to fall upward. I don't have the exact words to describe how falling upward feels. But it was like the world had decided to flip in the wrong direction. The sky became the ground, and the ground the sky. It wasn't like floating. That feeling didn't turn my stomach into a cartwheel.

  Umbra, in a show of skill or maybe using a skill, was able to flip us around after spinning wildly. Her wings twitched and bent, stopping our spinning, and then flared out to balance us. The only problem was even as she slapped her wings, we didn't stop falling. In fact, it felt like we were speeding up.

  I took a moment to look down at the ground, or rather up at it, and after a wave of vertigo, I blinked. I'd seen the ground from high up before, but we had to be double our normal height, maybe triple. Looking into the distance, I could see the land, the mountains that we were now above, the clouds that I didn't notice us passing through. And then there was the ocean. It was massive, bigger than I could believe. Even having seen it at the shore, it was hard to understand how big it was, but up this high, I still couldn't see the end.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Then my view turned black like I'd blinked my eyes. It only lasted for a moment. Then everything shuddered, and the world was gone, just gone. In its place was something different, and we were falling towards it.

  Umbra had to flip us again so that we were level with it, but flapping her wings still had no effect on slowing us. I stared at what replaced my home in fascination, awe, and a small bit of fear.

  The only way I could describe it was broken. Broken, shattered, and ruined. What was below us was a small broken piece of something. It was a world or a realm. It was too small, but it was similar but oh so different. The ground was parted and split into understand, or maybe thousands of pieces. Small mountains were on their side and crumbled. Pieces of land floated in ruined clumps miles or only feet off the ground. And beneath it all was nothing except an expanse of distant stars. Nothing was under the land and looking to the sides. I could see nothing in the distance besides more stars. The same was true for above us.

  Yet even alone in this place, and through what had to be massive destruction, the place thrived and even adapted. There was green on a lot of the pieces of land or rather floating islands, I guessed. Plants grew, and massive trees stood higher than even the trees in Claw Wood forest could reach. Large vines connected some of the masses of land together. There were islands that poured endless water off the sides and onto others or into the void. On some of the floating land mushrooms, the size of buildings grew, and ruins of what had to be walls littered the ground. Some of the islands that were higher than others were linked with paths of stone in twisting and crumbled paths that were only held tighter with what had to be magic. It was one of those that we fell towards.

  We were about two thousand feet above the stone island when the wind started to pull at my clothing again, and we started to slow.

  I gripped Umbra tightly as the dragon gained some semblance of control over her own descent and angled us to the side where a smoother patch of a stone waited. She heard the scrape of her bond’s claws as they failed to grab the stone, and she moved forward a few steps before she halted.

  I shifted, scanning around, up, and to the sides, my bow out as I looked for any danger but didn't see any signs of life. “Look at this place, Umbra, it's amazing! There's so much mana in the air it's almost sticking to me.”

  Umbra looked around as well, then moved over to the edge of our stone outcropping, and we got a good look at several of the islands. “Everything seems to be floating. There's no ground. I wonder what happens if we fall.”

  A shiver ran through my spine at that thought. Would someone just fall forever, or did something else happen? Either way, with the thousands of islands spread out and connected the way they were, it was almost a maze. I didn't get a chance to voice that thought as a system message appeared.

  [Welcome to the Void Realm Event challengers of Clatermara and The Broken Realm! What awaits you is the remains of a shattered world full of lost treasure and dangers. With the merging of two systems, new and old artifacts see their last chance at discovery by you. Move smart. The void consumes, and in time, nothing will remain.]

  [All challengers have been given a temporary spatial storage tattoo that will work inside the realm. Treasures gained in the realm can only be stored in this tattoo. If you are dealt a lethal blow, all rewards gained will be transferred to the dealer of the blow, and you will lose your tattoo but will be healed in the process and will be given the option to leave the event or continue without a tattoo. Take note the only way to return to your realm with rewards is to leave through a portal gate. Good Luck to all, and I will be watching.]

  [Realm Quest: Voids Event. You have entered A Realm Event hosted by Void. Gather riches, discover what lies in the center of this realm and leave without being dealt a lethal blow.] [Reward: What is stored inside your personal spatial tattoo] [Party Skill Reward: Unknown]

  [Realm Side Quest: Open one of the Central Vaults] [Vaults remaining: 12]

  My mouth twitched into a wide smile. This was a treasure hunt! Glancing over the first two systems screens, I frowned. They were blue, but they weren't normal. They were almost like I was being talked to by someone. It didn't have the dull but seemingly optimistic feel I was used to. Then there was that line. I will be watching. That was ominous and creepy. Still, that didn't get my mood down. Treasure! I patted Umbra’s neck excitedly, forgetting to use the bond. “Umbra, there's treasure!”

  The dragon tilted her head back and looked at me, then huffed, but I could tell she was excited. She loved adventure books, but her favorite times were when people fought and when they got treasure in the stories.

  Then there was a scream, not a normal scream that might come from a human. No, this scream was loud and inhuman. It held a guttural note that promised violence and bounced off other islands. That noise sobered me up and drained the excitement, and slowly, I pulled an arrow out of my spatial storage. This place was like a dungeon, probably worse, and I had no idea what to expect or what grades would appear.

  “That wasn't from our island, but it was close,” Umbra said, and I nodded and replied using our bond.

  “We need to see what waits for us here. We should clear the island and then explore nearby ones carefully. What do you think?”

  Umbra started to move away from the edge. I realized she wasn't as bothered by the noise as I had been and was already looking around as she answered my question. “One island at a time. I can fly between the paths so we are not limited by bridges. If we find something that we can't fight, we back off and search on another island. We need to be careful, but we also need to move fast.”

  I thought about it. If this was a treasure hunt, then we'd meet other people searching as well. That was a given. We had options when it came to them, but that could be decided on later. What Umbra was saying or wanting to do was move faster than anyone else and gain as many treasures as possible. I couldn't fault her for that. Greed at the possibility of new rune-etched or enchanted items filled my blood just as much as hers.

  Looking at my hand, I frowned and stored my bow. I pulled off the glove on my left hand. Seeing nothing, I did the same for my right hand and saw what I was looking for: that tattoo that had been mentioned. It was just a simple black swirl of ink that ended in a circle in the middle of my hand. Rubbing it did nothing, but I did untie myself and sent my thoughts to Umbra.

  Sliding Off her back, I looked around. Finding a grey-colored pebble on the ground, I started inspecting it. There wasn't a screen that appeared, and no mana was inside of the stone. I tried to store the pebble in the gem my collar held and felt a mental resistance as it refused to enter. I tried again, but the pebble refused to enter the storage. Tilting my head, I raised my right hand and focused on the stone and tattoo. It vanished with a small pop of noise, and I jumped slightly. I wasn't used to any noise being included when stomping was stored, but it did answer my question, and like a second image, I could see the storage space like a mental image and the line pebble Stored there. Only I couldn't see the bounds of the item. There were no walls in the space. Did that mean I could store as much as I wanted? Picking up a handful of pebbles and storing them, I let out a slightly manic giggle. Umbra had picked up on my intentions and moved over to a large stone. After breaking it into a smaller holdable size, she stored it, and I gasped in amazement and excitement. She had a storage tattoo as well, but it was only on her left front foreleg. Before I could start tearing the island Apart and storing it, I was met with another system screen.

  [System Out of Date, Pending updates: 104. Stand by for updates. It is recommended to sit or lay down.]

  I paused and felt a spark of confusion. Pending updates? Didn't we just have an update? That thought was tossed as my legs fell out from under me, and my body stopped working. Next to me, I could see the same thing happen to Umbra. I felt panic swim into the bond as I tried to move with no success and was forced to look as another screen appeared.

  [System Updates Beginning]

  There was a sharp pain in my chest and mind before everything went back.