Chapter 133: Into the White

The excitement of finding a clue on how to escape this weird dimension spread through his body.

Not wanting to waste any time, he tried to put this new knowledge to work and create a portal.

But it was hard, incredibly hard, even for him. Sitting on the ground in the bedroom, Valerian began to sense for the space mana in the surroundings.

Because of the nature of this place, there was a lot of it around, to a point where it almost felt suffocating for most.

When he felt all the mana in the surroundings, he tried to open a portal by ripping apart the fabric of space in front of him.

But instead of a portal, only a thin slice appeared, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t expand the slice any further.

When he realized that his method wouldn’t work, he switched to another. Instead of ripping space apart, he tried to apply his method for teleporting to create a portal.

Normally, he folded the space around his body, creating an entry point, and then he would fold the space again at the destination where he wanted to come out.

This space folding was instant, and while his activation wasn’t instantaneous, he could appear anywhere within his range almost instantly.

’Within my range...’

That was the whole problem: he had to create a portal to somewhere he couldn’t reach with his mana sense. So it wouldn’t be as easy as just expanding the space fold to make a portal.

’But normal mages figured it out, so there is no way I can’t.’

The existence of portals that connected the world meant that even a human could learn to create portals, so he should be able to do it as well.

’But traveling between dimensions is not something that a normal portal can do. This has to be different.’

Continuing his experiments, Valerian tried everything he could come up with to open a portal that would lead him out of this dimension, but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find something for now.

Knock Knock

Hearing the knocking, Valerian stood up and walked to the door. When he opened it, he saw Lyra standing there with a smile.

"Good morning, Valerian! I hope you slept well!"

"Good morning, and yes, I slept well."

Lying through his teeth, Valerian didn’t want to reveal to her that he didn’t need to sleep. He was still not convinced about this whole Riftfall village thing.

Lyra didn’t notice his lying and asked him with a small blush on her face.

"Do you maybe want to join me for breakfast?"

’Right, people eat three times per day...’

After losing the need for food, Valerian kind of forgot just how much a person had to eat. Normally, he would eat one meal per day, and even that was only because Seraphine cooked it. If she didn’t, then he would most likely forget to eat at all.

"Sure. I will be down in a minute."

Smiling brightly, Lyra nodded and sped down the stairs. Valerian closed the door again and walked to the window. Looking outside, he saw the white forest with the purple leaves.

The strange pull from yesterday was still there, as well as the begging to not step inside.

’I will go in tonight.’

He had to go into the forest. It was dangerous, and with his weakened body, he definitely shouldn’t step into the forest that had monsters inside that could slip past his perception so easily. But he wouldn’t find a way out of here by just sitting inside the room and meditating.

That was not how magic worked in Eldoria. To become better, one has to face life-or-death battles; only through necessity is true magic born.

Stepping away from the window, Valerian walked down the old stairs that creaked with every step.

Walking to the table he and Lyra had eaten at yesterday, he sat down and waited. He could have asked her if she needed help in the kitchen; it would be the ’right’ thing to do.

But honestly, he couldn’t be bothered to.

After waiting for a few minutes, Lyra walked to the table and set down a bowl of stew from yesterday.

"I’m sorry, it’s just the food from yesterday. I don’t have much more."

With an apologetic look, she sat down across from Valerian after placing the plates on the table.

"It’s fine."

They ate in silence, and Valerian stopped when Lyra did. After she finished with the dishes, she walked back into the living room only to find an empty room.

"Valerian?"

Calling out to him, she received no answer. With slight confusion, she began to search for him on the lower level of the house but wasn’t able to find him. Panic rose in her chest, and she tried to find him.

"Valerian! Where are you?!"

Her breathing became heavy when she didn’t get an answer. She ran up the stairs frantically, stumbling on her way up.

"Valerian!"

She ran through every room but wasn’t able to find anything.

"No, no, no, no, no!"

With heavy breathing, she ran down the stairs again, nearly falling over, but she didn’t care. Standing in the living room alone, she couldn’t form a coherent thought. When she was unable to find him, with pure panic, she flung open the front door.

"Vale- "

"Yes?"

Standing on the porch, looking over the village, was Valerian, who looked at her with confusion.

She looked terrible, and nothing like the kind and slightly shy girl from before. Her eyes were wide, her breathing heavy, and tears began to build in her eyes. There was a look on her face that screamed of fear.

Valerian wasn’t sure what was going on, as this was not what he would have expected to happen when he just stepped out for a moment.

"Is everything alright?"

She didn’t answer him, like she couldn’t hear a word he was saying. She stepped closer to him, not taking her eyes off his form. She threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

"Lyra. Let go."

She didn’t, and clenched a fistful of his shirt, keeping him locked between her arms.

"Lyra, I said. Let go."

Now he was getting more than annoyed by the sudden physical contact with her. He tried to pry her arms off of him but found her unbelievably strong, a kind of strength that didn’t match the strength he saw with his [Dragon Eyes] at all.

"Lyra."

His mana began to leak from his body and flooded his arms. At the same time, he activated his [Racial Skill] [Dragon Fear].

A terrifying wave of mana left his body. It wasn’t just contained around him and Lyra; the mana wave spread across the whole village, causing every villager to fall to their knees. The children and weaker ones lost consciousness instantly.

That seemed to have done the trick, as a semblance of self came back to Lyra and she let go of him.

Shakingly she stepped back, and Valerian deactivated his [Racial Skill].

"I- I’m sorry. I th- thought you disappeared."

Looking into those big purple eyes, with tears threatening to fall out, anyone would want to take her in their arms to comfort this traumatized girl.

Valerian moved faster than she could react, his hand wrapping around her throat, squeezing down hard enough that she wouldn’t pass out, but also so firmly that breathing became difficult.

"Don’t. Do. That. Again."

The tears left her eyes as she looked at the terrifyingly cold eyes of Valerian, who increased the pressure around her throat.

"Answer."

"I- I- I won’t."

He held her locked like that for a few more seconds before letting her body fall to the ground.

Stepping off the porch, he turned around and looked at her. The coldness in his eyes didn’t disappear.

"Do that again and you will join your family."

He heard her break down in tears, but he didn’t turn around and walked straight to the edge of the forest.

He could hear the other residents of Riftfall run to the coughing and crying Lyra, and they even threw insults at him. But he didn’t turn to her, and just looked at the forest in front of him.

"That’s a bad idea."

Valerian didn’t turn when he heard the tired voice of Asterion.

"Then stop me."

He took a step forward, then another, and another, but Asterion didn’t stop him and watched as Valerian entered the forest around Riftfall.

He continued to watch as Valerian’s form became smaller and smaller, until he finally got blocked out by the white trees.

With a big sigh, Asterion turned his attention to the house at the other end of the village, where the inhabitants were taking care of the crying girl.

His eyes tightened when he saw Lyra cry. But he didn’t go to her or try to comfort her, choosing to stay at a distance and just keep watch over her.