Cyrus Solaris
My cluster and I phased through the rift portal entrance, rocketing us through a tube of streaking lights until we were spit out onto a wet, sponge-like surface.
"Sora, what's wrong with your teacher?" Voen asked as we all got ourselves back on our feet.
I immediately noticed the difference between this rift and the rift I entered in the Valador region.
This place had an orange sky, where nine planets dominated the horizon above us, hanging so low they felt almost within reach.
Beneath the unimaginable sky was a lush jungle teeming with life.
Towering trees that nearly touched the planets in the sky, their massive roots spreading across the ground below.
At the basin of the mountainous trees was a vast swamp, where the mud swallowed our boots with every step.
Murky water pooled between clumps of reeds, while human-sized roots crawled through the muddy surface like living veins.
This place felt like it could swallow me whole if I weren't careful.
Just perfect.
I heard a soft hum, as if a purring kitten were behind me, and I turned.
There stood a silver cube with a glowing core at its center, projecting what seemed like cosmic cables at the rift's exit.
This must be the rift anchor, the machine Professor Rhondall told us about—the machine keeping this rift from becoming active.
"Alright, students, huddle up." Professor Varn said, standing firm at the top of a small muddy mound.
The sixty of us crowded around him.
"I'm sure you all got your debriefs a few days ago. I want to reiterate the goal for today. You are to bring back one thousand pounds of celestium from the mines.
You will likely need to make multiple trips. We have special buckets designated for each cluster to deposit their ore.
Each cluster will have its own designated route to the Celestium Mine, so there shouldn't be any crossing paths on the way there or back.
You will have one day to obtain the full amount. One professor will remain here to document your deposits, and one Professor will be stationed at the Celestium Mine to ensure no funny business occurs.
As you also know, you will be graded on how well you perform your cluster roles, and at the end of the exam, you will document and answer questions on your findings based on your position.
This is a category two rift. For many of you, this is a rift stage higher than your celestial core, which means it will still pose tough obstacles even when inactive, so you still need to be careful, even if there are no behemoths present.
And remember, the fastest team to finish gets to pick from the academy's relic vault.
Any questions?"
There were grumbles, but not one spoke up.
"Alright, now if you look behind you, Professor Thorne has laid out your item boxes for your cluster. Grab your supplies and tools, and after that, you are free to start the exam. And may the high pantheons bless your souls."
Everyone darted over to their respective supply boxes and grabbed their items.
In our box, everything was there just as I had left it.
I clipped my telescope and spectrometer to the belt of my combat pants, then slipped my Astroblobe tablet into the front pocket of my shirt.
I pulled the sheath the school fashioned for my staghorn blade over my shoulder and used gravity well to levitate the stress so it floated near me.
I also imbued my right shoulder with a bit of cosmic energy to ensure my Scale of the Eternal Hydra remained embedded in my skin.
With my blade, my stress ball close by, and my astral relic in my possession, I felt unkillable. I was the strongest I had ever been, and I wasn't in the mood for losing anymore.
Sora waved for us to come over, while Nerena was already sending her drone down our path through the jungle.
While she did that, Simon, our stand-in armament tech, began double-checking everyone's gear, and I used the time to point my telescope at the sky and see what it told me about the rift.
Based on what Professor Rhondall taught us, if the sky is orange, that means the star that exploded was a K-type. Which meant that if this rift were active, the temperature would be cooler, and we would have a week to conquer it before the Rift guardian escaped into the physical world.
That wasn't the only thing I looked for. I also began searching for any asterism I could identify, because those were among the biggest wildcards a cluster would face in a rift outside behemoths.
It took a little longer than I would like because they were so faint in the orange sky, but I found one.
The Brontes ' Crown.
After Simon finished checking Voen's gear, they trotted over to Sora and Nerena.
But I paused for a moment and looked behind me. My eyes settled back on the rift entrance.
Can't backtrack now. Remember why you are doing this.
I took a breath and followed after Voen and Simon.
When the three of us reached Sora and Nerena, Sora wore a determined look.
"Since we're missing our concordant, communication will be harder. We need to stay close, watch each other's movements, and follow my commands," she said as Nerena's drone zoomed back towards us.
Nerena snapped it out of the air with her tentacle and plugged it into her tablet, generating a holographic image of the path.
"There are a few obstructions on the way, nothing out of the realm we can't handle," Nerena said, pressing a button that made her drone collapse into a small cube, allowing her to zip it up in her pocket.
Sora nodded and turned to me.
"What have you identified?"
"The rift is a K type, and the asterism in this area, Bronte's crown, looks normal with no abnormalities."
"Alright, good, and Simon, how's our gear?"
Simon gave a thumbs-up.
"Alright, I want Nerena leading us. I'll follow behind her, Simon, you will be in the middle, Voen after him, and Cyrus last, bringing up the rear," Sora said, coating her hands in the electricity.
"Let's get going."
As we moved down the path, it felt like we were entering a wet, soggy cave. The thick branches of the jungle intertwined above us, creating a dense, braided canopy that blocked out much of the sky.
There was nothing silent about the path either. The frogs were croaking, insects buzzing, water dripping, leaves rustling, and branches creaking; it was a hodgepodge of noise.
But the unsettling part was wondering about the things that didn't make noise and where they were in relation to us.
It's like they had somehow recreated the first midterm exam.
Gravisense picked up everything here, bombarding me with gravitational waves. There were so many large objects close together that it muddled my ability to distinguish among the masses, causing more mental strain than I expected.
The mere thought of it was slowly driving me mad. I knew there had to be Behemoths lurking somewhere, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They had the advantage, too. Our mobility was nearly cut in half, with our boots sinking into the mud with every step.
Calm down, Cy. The teachers said there shouldn't be any behemoths in here.
A few moments passed, and I tapped Voen's shoulder.
"Hey, do you hear anything that sounds odd to you? Like a sinister whisper of sorts?"
Voen jumped.
"Dude, please don't do that; it's rough in here for me as it is."
"My bad… I just remembered what you were able to do in the totem games."
Sora peeked over her shoulder.
"We gotta blockage up ahead. Simon, can I get your help, please?"
Simon broke formation and walked to the front. Before us stood a gigantic dam made of massive trees, at least thirty feet tall and fifty feet wide.
What made this?
"So what exactly did you want me to do?" Simon asked Sora, his arms shaking slightly.
"Break it. You have tools for this kind of thing, right?"
"A-Absolutely," Simon said
What's his problem? This place is unsettling, but get it together, man.
Sora instantly shot me a look, as if she were correcting a behavior.
Ah, shoot, she probably sensed that.
Simon pulled out a heavy-duty power drill and approached the dam with Sora.
Sora placed both her hands on the dam, letting electricity flow into the wood. A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.
Is she trying to weaken the wood?
Then Voen stepped up.
"Sora, if you are trying to burn a large tree in this damp climate, you are gonna need more volts than that."
Her eyebrows furled.
"Could you have told me that sooner, Voen"
"How was I supposed to know that's what your plan was?"
Sora paused, then stepped back to the dam. This time, large arcs of electricity shrieked as blue sparks jumped to the damp wood.
Sora placed her hands on the dam, pouring more cosmic energy into her attack. It took a few minutes for the sweet smell of the charred wood to envelop the area.
"Simon, you're up," Sora said, stepping away from the blackened wood.
Simon pressed a button on his heavy-duty power drill, and the tool came to life, its whine drowning out the white noise of the jungle.
He plunged the drill into the charred wood, and black chips flew everywhere, but as I looked more closely, I noticed he was making no progress beyond that first layer at all.
Sora placed a gentle hand on his back, and a faint spark trickled into him.
"Take a break."
Simon pressed the button on his drill, and the machine slowed to a halt.
"Huh, that's strange. I don't know why it couldn't push further." Simon said, taking a look at the drill bit.
His face grew pale.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"Well, you see, it appears maybe… I forgot to sharpen it," he said, scratching the back of his head.
You have to be kidding. This has to be a joke. The school staff must have set me up with this incompetent dude.
"Out of my way," I said, slipping past everyone.
I walked up to the dam, channeled cosmic energy into my fist, and struck it with all my might.
Hitting the wood felt like trying to go through reinforced steel. My knuckles were bloodied and stung, but I created fault lines throughout the structure.
I could have easily done this whole thing myself. Probably a lot faster, too. The longer we take, the more uncomfortable I am walking through this massive jungle, making us more vulnerable to attacks from whatever lives in here.
I turned to my cluster.
"Stand back."
They did as I asked, and I activated my tidal push ability, imagining a piston shooting through thick logs in front of me.
The dam began to bend, splintering under the force I commanded on it, until I heard the sound of a thousand cracking whips echo throughout the jungle.
A human-sized hole formed, allowing us to advance through the dam.
"Cyrus doing it that way is dangerous. What if there was water behind the dam?" Sora said.
Here we go again, calling out something I did wrong, despite them not providing results.
"Since when could you do that?" Voen asked as he stepped through the hole.
I just gave him a shrug and stepped through the hole.