Hope you like the chapter!
Hump woke with a jolt.
Essence tremors rippled through the ground beneath him like the distant echo of something shifting through the fragment. The sensation crawled up his spine, dragging him from sleep in an instant.
Around him, the others stirred just as quickly. Tiredness vanished in the rush. They were all on their feet within seconds.
Celaine was the only one awake, her hands on the gateway fuel console as she fed essence into it, exhaustion lining her face. Nishari stood near the entrance, low to the ground, a deep growl rumbling in her chest. Through their bond, Hump could feel it clearly—anticipation, tension, the urge to fight.
“Anyone think that’s a natural phenomenon of this world?” Dylan asked dryly.
“Feels a little too much like before for that,” Hump said.
Emilia was already sticking her head out the door, peering out into the fragment beyond. “Most definitely not. There’s a crack in the sky.” She glanced back at them. “They’re coming.”
Hump’s jaw tightened. “Where are we with the gateway?”
“It’s close,” Dylan said, moving to Celaine’s side. “Hump, if you jump in now I can boost you. We can speed this up.”
Hump nodded once. “Let’s do it.”
He stepped in beside Celaine, helping her to her feet before taking her place and forcing his essence into the gateway. It felt like trying to move muscles already pushed past their limit, every part of him protesting as he dug deeper. His channels felt sluggish, his essence thick and unresponsive, like cold sludge dragged through his veins.
It hurt, but Dylan’s blessing was there to bolster him a moment later. Warmth spread through him, steady and grounding, easing the strain just enough to keep him going. Not removing the pain, but making it bearable.
Together, they rushed to finish fuelling the gateway. Time stretched. Every second dragged on as Hump maintained the stream, the runes of the gateway slowly brightening as the essence stones reached capacity.
It took about twenty minutes, the rest of the party keeping watch by the door.
“How’s it looking?” Hump asked.
“Nothings come through yet,” Emilia said.
“It’s getting wider,” Bud added. “I don’t think we have long.”
“We’re ready,” Hump said, moving to the central orb and activating the gateway. The rift tore open space before them. “Let’s move.”
No one hesitated.
They passed through in quick succession, boots striking new ground as they emerged into the next fragment. Hump turned as the last of them crossed and forced the gateway shut behind them, cutting off whatever followed.
Darkness swallowed them. Complete in all directions. No stars, no hint of bioluminescence. Just nothing.
Hump lifted a hand and activated his Ring of Obsidian. Golden sand poured out in a slow, controlled stream, spreading across the ground and into the air. Light bloomed outward, soft and shimmering, illuminating the cavern like a sky scattered with stars.
Jagged rock formations rose around them, the ceiling lost somewhere in shadow. The space felt vast. Empty.
“How are they following us?” Dylan asked.
“Either they’re hunting us or they know the route,” Celaine said. “They could just be following the same Path to Heaven as we are, only one step behind.”
“Doesn’t explain the scouts,” Bud said.
Celaine shrugged. “If they’re moving an army, it makes sense to send something ahead.”
“That’s true,” Emilia said. “Better that than the alternative.”
“Two… maybe three worlds left,” Hump said, rubbing at his eyes, trying to clear the fog in his head. “If that’s the case, we might stay ahead.”
He looked around at them.
“How long did we sleep?”
“Four hours,” Dylan said. Then, after a beat, “Maybe.”
It wasn’t enough.
They all knew it.
Exhaustion clung to them, heavy and inescapable. They had tried to rest, but there simply wasn’t time. Not now. They had all wondered what waited at the end of this path. If this truly was a race… would being minutes ahead even matter? Hump wasn’t even sure what to expect once they reached the end. Would the Twelve help them? Would they even be there?
Hump pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes, trying to rub away the tiredness. “I’m sorry, but I think I need to sleep again. Is anyone in form enough to start on the gateway?”
“I can do it,” Emilia said.
“Thank you.” Hump turned to Celaine. “How are you feeling?”
“Good enough to scout,” she said immediately. “I’ll shout if I need you.”
“Take Nishari with you,” Hump said. The dragon was still restless, energy buzzing through their bond.
Celaine nodded. “Come on, Nisha.”
Nishari perked up at once, her earlier tension turning into eager movement as she bounded after Celaine, claws clicking lightly against the stone as they disappeared into the cavern.
Hump watched them go for a moment.
Then the weight hit him again.
He lowered himself back down against the cold rock, leaning his head back as his eyes closed.
“Wake me when it’s my shift.”
***
“One more to go,” Hump said, a tired smile breaking across his face as they arrived in the twelfth fragment.
It was a world of sand and stone.
The gateway stood within a dome of hardened glass that shimmered faintly with protective enchantments. Outside, towering pillars rose from dunes, their surfaces worn smooth by endless storm. A constant, grinding torrent of sand battered everything without pause. When the wind shifted, the pillars hummed like a giant windpipe, an everchanging song echoing through the land.
They were so close now—one more world to go—but their pursuers were catching up.
They had barely been there an hour when the sky split. A crack tore across the amber sky, bleeding red light into the storm. The moment it appeared, the air shuddered, and the song of the pillars deepened, becoming heavier and ominous.
“We’re not going to make it in time,” Celaine said quietly.
“One more stop,” Hump said with what confidence he could. “We just need to push through for one more, even if that means we fight here first.”
“The sand might cover us,” Celaine said, peering through the glass dome. “We can barely see the sky as it is. It’s only when the wind breaks that the rift becomes visible.”
Dylan frowned, thinking. “Could you cover the barrier in sand? From above, it might keep us hidden. The intent in the sand is so confused it might cover up whatever essence spills out.”
Hump hesitated, already running through the idea. “I can try. But if they know where to look it won’t do much.
“We can cross that bridge when it comes,” Bud said. “If we must fight, we must fight.”
Hump nodded, then got to work. He was too tired to fuel it himself so he created a formation on the ground around the gateway, fuelled by essence stones. He shaped a thin veil of swirling sand that moved with the storm itself. It wasn’t perfect, but from above it would blend in with the shifting dunes and storm to an undiscerning eye.
They spent what time they had empowering the gateway. They’d become quite efficient when it came to shifts, each of them so tired that falling asleep during their rest periods was almost instantaneous.
But for all their efforts, it wasn’t enough. They were too slow.
The rift tore apart the sky like a gaping wound. Finally, it was open. Finally, they could see who had chased them so far across the abyss.
And from it, demons poured through. Dozens at first, then hundreds. They emerged through the fracture in the sky, their forms twisted as they landed across the dunes, spreading out like a searching tide.
Hump’s heart hammered in his ears. If this came to battle, they couldn’t overcome such numbers.
But the worst had yet to come.
“That’s Karlac,” Celaine said suddenly, her voice low.
Hump froze. “Shit.”
He hadn’t seen him yet, but he trusted Celaine’s eyes over his own. He had wondered who was following them, and in truth, there were worse options. The problem with Karlac was that his issue with them was personal. The warlocks had grander goals than tormenting a party of adventurers, but Karlac… he wanted revenge, along with Hump’s spellbook.
“The demons seem to be searching with purpose,” Celaine continued. “Wait.” She pointed at the rift. “Look there.”
Massive monoliths were dragged through the rift, each one embedded with essence stones the size of boulders, glowing with a deep, violent red. One by one, they were planted into the sand, forming a pattern across the landscape.
Hump’s confidence slipped further with each one. There were too many. Karlac alone would have been enough to threaten them. With an army…They wouldn’t last minutes.
Still, his veil kept them hidden for now. The storm shifted, and a lull tore through the wind, clearing the air just long enough for Hump to spot Karlac Gormoth.
The devil stood amidst his forces, towering and still, his presence warping the very air around him. He stood tall compared to the other demons, utterly still while the others writhed around him. His wings hung like shadows from his back, untouched by the wind, and his tail curled behind him.
His face was strangely human, but his features too perfect. Other than the one eye that Hump had ruined, blackened and hollow where Hump had struck him with the Sands of Osidium,
And the other…
The other was staring directly at them.
Hump’s breath caught. For a moment, he was certain they’d been found. He didn’t dare move, let alone speak. All of them froze, waiting.
Then finally, Karlac turned away.
Hump let out a shaky breath. “How long?” he asked.
Celaine went to check on the gateway before returning. “Fifteen minutes.
Hump swallowed. “I don’t know if we have that long.”
“It’ll work,” Celaine said confidently. She wrapped her arm around his, and he put an arm around her shoulder, pulling it close. “It’ll work,” she said again.
Hump nodded. He didn’t like the ‘H’ word, but right now, that was all they had. Their luck had certainly run out.
Together, they watched as the demons activated their monoliths. Tendrils of essence lashed out between them, linking the structures together before a beam of red energy surged upward into the sky.
A second rift began to form above them.
“So that’s how they’ve been doing it,” Hump said.
“If they’re moving on already, maybe it really isn’t us they’re after,” Celaine said.
Hump frowned. “This is Karlac. If he’s here without the demon lord and warlocks, I can only think he’s after whatever lies at the end of the Path to Heaven for himself. That could be something we don’t know, or it could be the Book of Infinite Pages and us.”
Hump maintained the formation until the gateway was activated. The demons would need some time to open the rift of their own, though they didn’t seem to tire like Hump and the rest of his party.
Emilia arrived beside them. “We’re ready. Shall we open the rift?”
Hump nodded. “Do it.”
They gathered before the gateway. Hump placed his hand upon the orb, envisioning the Path to Heaven. There was only one spot left along the way. They had almost made it.
With an effort of will, the rift opened before them.
And at that exact moment, Hump felt it. Intent snapped onto them. Something saw them.
Someone.
The storm died beyond the glass dome. The pillars no longer sang. Silence filled the fragment.
And demonic essence descended.
“He knows we’re here,” Hump said. “Through the rift!”
They were through in moments, all of them turning in the gateway room on the other side, weapons drawn. Hump stayed at the rear, forcing his will back into the gateway, fighting to close it before anything could follow. They stood in silence, all aiming for the rift, waiting for some enemy to follow.
Seconds stretched. They waited, yet nothing came. No claw reached through. No shadow crossed the threshold. No demon forced its way into the chamber.
The rift flickered, then collapsed.
Silence followed. Real silence this time. They held their positions for a moment longer, tension refusing to release all at once, then slowly looked to one another. Relief broke first, then tired smiles broke across their faces.
“We made it,” Bud said, his tone bittersweet. “The end of the Path to Heaven. Maybe we can finally get some answers.”
No one talked much. Together, they turned toward the exit, only to find themselves inside another chamber. Dust coated every surface, thick and undisturbed, as though no one had passed through in a very long time. Narrow windows lined the walls, letting in faint, muted light from the fragment beyond.
Hump stepped closer to one and looked out, only to pause at the sight. This was no unpopulated fragment. Stone walls stretched outward in layered formations, rising into towers and battlements. Every inch of the landscape had been shaped with purpose—defensive lines, reinforced structures, pathways designed for control and protection.
A fortress.
Hump stepped back from the window, his expression tightening. “Seems we’re not quite done yet,” he said. “I think we might need to take a look around.”