Ascension: Online

Since all three of us were done with our respective fights, we wouldn't need to be fighting anymore today. Hina-nee, Furuwa, and I returned to the inn to discuss the issue with Aisa, just as planned.

After ordering some room service food since Hina-nee insisted we shouldn't talk over empty stomachs, we settled down with our lunches, and I began explaining the situation.

"Okay… so, basically, reality is going to shatter in a week."

Furuwa dropped her spoon. "What?"

"I'm not joking. That's literally what Aisa herself said."

"H-Hold on, what does she mean by 'shatter'? As in, reality will break and disappear?" Furuwa asked in confusion. "How is that even possible?!"

"We're stuck inside a video game that's really another world. And you're asking 'how is that even possible'," I said blankly, sending her an unamused look.

She sighed and averted her gaze. "You have a point. It's just… I don't understand."

"You don't have to," I replied. "I mean, I have no idea what's going on either, but it's pretty obvious that it's bad. However, Aisa did tell me how to prevent the catastrophe from happening."

"How?"

"Apparently, we have to locate these 'Reality Rifts', then seal them. Aisa-chan said she gave Kaze-kun a special power so that he could sense them, but he's not feeling anything right now, according to him," Hina-nee explained as I nodded in agreement. "Also, we have no idea how to seal them."

"So… we're stuck," Furuwa concluded.

"Yep!"

"Yeah, pretty much."

The two of us answered at the same time, though Hina-nee's response was a little too excited-sounding despite the impending disaster.

Furuwa sighed. "I get the gist of it. I'm really trying hard not to panic here, but it's hard."

"Understandable," I agreed. "So? Any ideas as to what we should do now?"

"I think we should still look for the rifts, even if we don't know how to seal them as of current," Hina-nee suggested. "That way, whenever we do find out the method, we'll already know all of their locations."

Furuwa nodded in agreement. "I like that idea."

"Yeah, me too, but… how do we look for them?" I asked. "I'm not feeling anything, even though Aisa said she gave me a power to help me find them."

"Hm… she said 'sense', didn't she? Perhaps she meant something along the lines of 'detect'," Hina-nee said. "But not, like, mentally."

"Huh?"

"I have an idea," Furuwa cut in. "Check your map."

"My map… oh, I see. That's certainly a possibility…" I murmured, pulling up my System and switching to the Minimap tab.

Hina-nee and Furuwa looked over my shoulder at my screen, then backed away.

"Hm… not that either… then what could it be? I doubt Aisa-chan was lying…" Hina-nee murmured.

"No… no, wait," I interrupted her train of thought, then pointed out my screen, after zooming out. "Look."

The two leaned in closer once more.

"Those black orbs… are those the space rifts?" Hina-nee's eyes widened.

"It must be… they weren't here before," I said.

On my map, within the Azrine continent, were three black orbs a short distance away from one another. They had a faint pale green glow to them, pulsing eerily.

"They're all in Azrine? That's weird…" Furuwa muttered thoughtfully.

"Did we just get lucky, or…"

"No. Aisa-chan was able to repair most of the other ones herself before she got completely deactivated, but couldn't manage to get them all before her time was up, leaving only three for us - the closest ones," Hina-nee said

"Oh yeah… she did say 'the ones she wasn't able to repair'," I murmured, recalling the conversation.

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's head out - two of the three are close to Qilian City anyway," Hina-nee pointed out.

I nodded. "Maybe we can find some clues as to how to seal them… after witnessing them ourselves."

*****

The three of us headed out of the city. There was one rift to the north to the city, and one to the south. Neither was very far, but they were past the forests on either side, so it wasn't exactly too close either.

Still, the distance was definitely manageable by foot.

In order to save time, I was planning on using a Fast Travel pack to return quickly to Qilian City after finding the exact location of the northern Reality Rift, then heading straight to the southern one. This way, I could save both locations, therefore allowing me to fast travel to them instantly in the future, once I found out the method to 'seal' them.

We passed by various Magic Beasts and Monsters in Lydia Forest, but we didn't bother with them. We were on a timer here - the faster we found all of the rifts and sealed them, the less stressed I would be. Besides, Aisa said we had a limit of seven days - one week - but who knew whether her calculations were accurate or not?

For all we knew, reality could shatter tomorrow. So, the safest play here was to simply take care of this matter as soon as possible.

Obviously, we killed any creatures who got in our way, but we didn't proactively hunt them down, so as a result, we didn't gain much XP from this expedition. Still, even if this was a waste of time long-term wise, this was necessary.

"We should be nearing the reality rift," I said, glancing down at my System. A map was displayed on it.

Our current location, marked with a blue chevron, was mere centimeters away from the first black orb, pulsating a pale green energy. Because the icon on the map was so obvious, I didn't bother setting a waypoint. The path we were on led directly to the rift anyway, so there was no point.

We were now nearing the end of Lydia forest, where the orb's physical location was, according to the map.

"Hm… don't you think… it's kinda quiet?" Hina-nee murmured, looking around. "On the way here, we fought quite a sum of battles against wandering Magic Beasts and Monsters, but for the past fifteen minutes, we haven't even seen a single sign of life."

"Yeah… I don't like where this is going," Furuwa muttered in agreement, scanning our surroundings.

I sighed. "In that case, let's slow down a bi-"

However, suddenly, as we all took another step, an immense pressure pushed us down, onto the ground. My knees buckled and I gave in to the sudden and powerful force, falling onto the dirt. I just barely managed to keep my body up using both my arms.

"Ngh… what the hell is this?!" Furuwa gritted her teeth as she was forced into a similar position.

"Mmngh…" Hina-nee bit her lip to help withstand the pressure, but she too was pushed downwards into a kneeling position by the mysterious invisible force.

[Multiple hostile intruders detected. Status: Calamitous. Extinction protocol activated.]

Paired with this calm and monotone AI's voice, the whole world turned black and white. An unknown power washed over the reality all around us, taking away the color from everything apart from ourselves. All noise stopped - everything stopped. Even time itself, ceased to flow.

The force on us was suddenly lifted, and the three of us quickly got back up on our feet to examine our surroundings. The force had pressurized the ground so much that cracks appeared, and various chunks of land and rocks floated in mid-air, apparently frozen in time.

"What the hell happened…?" I muttered aloud.

"Did time… stop?" Furuwa gasped in shock.

I tried moving backwards, but I ended up bumping into an invisible barrier behind me, trapping us here. However, fortunately, I was still able to move, so that meant we weren't frozen in time and had a chance of escaping… probably.

[Artificial intelligence activated. Welcome, intruders, to a reality rift. I am the Creator, founder of all of creation. A god, if you will. Do not think of this place as a mere hole in the endless annals of space-time. Within this rift lies both the power to save the world, and to end it. Which path will you take? Will you even be able to obtain the power at all?]

"The Creator… Aisa-chan mentioned that… we were to seal these rifts in order to prevent the Creator from directly interfering with this reality plane," Hina-nee said thoughtfully.

[With great power comes great risks. You will have 24 hours to locate the core of this rift and make your escape. Once the allotted time is over, this reality rift will implode. You and all memories of you will be forever lost in the dark corners of space and time.]

"What?! Hey, hold on-" Furuwa opened her mouth to try and protest, but the AI's loud voice drowned her out.

[Are you ready, challengers? The timer begins three seconds. Three… two… one…]

"I said wait, damn it!" she cried in frustration, but it was far too late.

[You now face divine judgement — may it extend eternally.]