Chapter 3 - A Rift

Aedan knew he had screwed up big time. Punching Darian, a prodigy with ability to manipulate elemental magic with his fingertips was possibly the dumbest thing he could have done.His body was already aching from the crash against the tree after Darian's wind m magic launched him right after he punched him. It was nothing to take lightly.He knew he couldn't fight them. Facing Darian and his cronies without magic was a losing battle from the start. So Aedan did the only thing he could think of. He gritted his teeth, spun on his heel, and ran."Get back here, you damned coward!" Darian's voice rang out behind him, filled with fury, maybe this is the first time that somebody had hurt him. Aedan feels a little bit of satisfaction because of that. But it didn't last long.Aedan heard the familiar sound of wind magic building behind him."You think you can get away with that?!"Aedan didn't bother to look back. His legs pumped furiously as he darted through the dense forest, branches whipping his face and the undergrowth grabbing at his feet.He heard the whoosh of air just before something sharp sliced across the back of his leg. It was Darian's windbolt."Argh! Shit!"The pain flared but Aedan barely registered it. His body was in survival mode now. He couldn't stop, not if he wanted to live.He plunged deeper into the forest, the sounds of his pursuers growing fainter as the trees grew thicker. He wasn't sure where he was going, only that he needed to keep moving.Every step sent a sharp jolt of pain through his leg but he pushed through it. Stopping was not an option!Aedan ducked under low-hanging branches while breathing in ragged gasps. He had no plan on how to get out of this mess. If Darian caught him, he was as good as dead. He could just bury him here just like that. And knowing his reputation, no one on the academy will bother to look for him in days, or maybe ever."Don't let him get away!" Darian's voice echoed, distorted by the wind and distance.Aedan forced himself to move faster and ignoring the burning in his lungs. The deeper he went, the darker and quieter the forest became. He hoped it would be enough to lose them. Fortunately, there are no monsters this close to the academy ground.But then, something strange happened. As he pushed past a thick curtain of vines, Aedan stumbled into a clearing, and his foot caught on something hard and sending him tumbling to the ground. He hissed in pain as his injured leg throbbed from the impact.He looked around, realizing that he had fallen on a pile of rubble. Stone fragments and pieces of ancient runes lay scattered around, half-buried in the dirt. The clearing was overgrown but in the middle of it stood something odd—a large stone archway, cracked and worn with age, but still intact.This was the relic of ancient civilization from the Age Of Invasion. He knows little about it, cause only little knowledge about it is being shared.He dragged himself to his feet, wincing as he put weight on his injured leg. His eyes were drawn to the archway. Something about it called to him, a strange hum of energy emanating from its center.He limped closer, his hand outstretched toward the archway. As his fingers brushed the stone, a pulse of energy surged through him. Something like a rift appeared in the air as if tearing the fabric of reality.His mind then swam with fragmented images. Flashes of a world unlike his own, filled with towering machines and buildings made of glass, advanced technology, and weapons unlike anything he had ever seen."What is this...?"Before he could process it, he heard Darian and his cronies crashing through the forest behind him, their voices growing louder again."There he is! Don't let him escape!"Panic surged through Aedan, but before he could make a decision, the archway shimmered brighter. The air around it twisted and distorte. Without thinking Aedan did the only thing that made sense in that moment.He stepped through.The world around him shifted, and in an instant, everything changed.The world around him dissolved into a disorienting swirl of colors and sounds. His legs felt like they were treading on something, like stepping on air that somehow had weight. His entire body spun, though he wasn't sure whether it was the world turning or just his head.For a moment, panic clawed at him."I'm going to die. I just walked into something weird and I'm going to fucking die!"But then, anger surged through him replacing the fear. His thoughts turned to Darian and his gang, their smug faces and their constant torment. A fire burned in his chest. In his head, all he wanted was revenge. He wanted to kill Darian.He wanted power, the kind of power that would make everyone who had ever looked down on him pay.That's when he felt something, an object materializing in his hand. His spinning stopped and he found himself back in the real world, standing just beyond the stone archway.Aedan stared down at his hand with heart pounding in his chest.It was a strange black object, unlike anything he had ever seen. Roughly rectangular in shape but its form curved at one end where a grip that feels fitted perfectly to his hand was molded.The rest of the thing was flat, with smooth edges, and there was a hole at the front. The whole thing was made of a material he didn't recognize, smooth like polished stone but far lighter. There is a crescent shaped thing in front of the grip that he think is made to be squeezed by finger. Otherwise, why it was placed there?He turned it over in his hand. It had no visible runes and no enchantments or magical inscriptions, nothing that suggested it had any connection to the forces he knew.Yet it felt powerful.Aedan's brow furrowed. What was this thing? He had no idea how to use it, but somehow just holding it gave him strange sense of possibility."There he is!" it was Darian's voice.They arrived a moment later, their wands in hand."You're done, Varros!" Darian said with bloody lips and nose and burning eyes. "I'm going to really kill you this time."Darian waved his hand, conjuring sharp wind blade and directing it at Aedan.Aedan feeling his life in danger, he point the thing in his hand at Darian and squeezed the crescent shape thing as hard as he can.BANG!---