We slowly were watching the landmass shrink and the canopy turn into a green blotch of colour. Soon, we could see the shore and the overwhelming amount of sea.

  Exactly what you’d expect, right?

  But there was a small issue with that…

  -Where are we… Where are we… - Mike kept muttering.

  -Just wait a moment. I still can go higher.

  I only stopped when I felt like the mana was too thin for me to go on. But, it was enough for us to see a good part of the landmass we were standing on.

  -Say… Do you recognize this?

  -I… I actually do not - I admitted. - I mean, I’ve been out of the loop for a while, but this is…

  -Yeah… not something that changes so much…

  Neither of us knew what we were looking at.

  The shape of the land didn’t resemble any that we knew of.

  -What the hell does this mean?

  -That your portals were shit - I simply said. - Or mine. Or both most likely.

  -What, you mean… We landed in a different world!? Is that even possible?

  -Why not?

  -It’s… I mean… I don’t know!

  -If you have a better idea then do tell. I honestly don’t.

  -Didn’t you think the same thing when you first woke up? - he asked, not convinced. - And what was happening then?

  -That the time passed? You think we just got tossed forward in time?

  -I mean… I was sure my portals were working… but…

  -But…?

  -I mean, it’s not the first time I experienced the time dilation.

  -But… to be on a scale where the continents shifted?

  -They didn’t have to shift. Maybe it’s just the sea level that changed.

  -What, global warming without people?

  -Why do you think no people are here?

  -If they were and they were the case of global warming, I am pretty sure we’d notice at least some urbanization. Not just find a singular skeleton.

  -I mean… we are in some jungle. Maybe… We’re just…

  -Stop.

  -I don’t fucking know! I am trying to figure stuff out!

  -Aha.

  -Shut up. I mean, there has to be something!

  -Okay, okay. I agree, both of those hypotheses are highly unlikely, but our main problem is to figure out which one is actually true. Or there’s something else going on.

  -I don’t know what that “something else” would be.

  -Me neither. But the problem is, how?

  He went silent.

  Can’t blame him. I didn’t have many ideas either.

  -Well, the only thing I can think of is to just go flying again… - he finally said.

  -I guess. I did think of teleporting us back…

  -Back?

  -To the Edge. I mean, if this is the same world then…

  -That makes no sense - he shook his head. - Okay we teleport there. And what?

  -Then…

  -Exactly. If we just are moving forward in time, we’re going to find a bit more ruined island. And if not then we just go back to our original world…

  -Eh… right. And there's more… problematic outcome possible.

  -Problematic?

  -Let’s say we port there, but there’s no island any more. Be it the time difference or something else, we just are dumped in the middle of the ocean.

  -We’d be fine. We have magic.

  -Yes. But then what?

  -I… I am fucking lost.

  I only sighed.

  -Me too… This is getting too confusing.

  -Mh.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  -Let’s just fly. For now at least. Up here maybe scouting will be a bit faster.

  -I guess…

  But it wasn’t all that smooth.

  I am not sure if that was thanks to the mana being too thin, or maybe because of just sheer distance, but I started having problems with sending mana towards our plane.

  It wasn’t really an immediate issue: there was still enough magic for it to respond to me and to fly, but the amount of force I could output without draining the “battery” was a lot lower than before.

  It wasn’t all that bad, though. Despite that, the distance travelled was still far larger than what we were capable of just above our heads.

  But, despite all that, we still couldn’t find any familiar sight.

  -This is getting weirder and weirder… - I commented, when we finally reached the end of the landmass.

  -Yeah, tell me about it. Is this the northern pole?

  -It is a pole alright. Hard to tell which one.

  -I guess.

  -At least we know that is the same.

  -If that even matters.

  -Sure.

  -Honestly, it’s pretty surprising. We were that close to a pole?

  -I mean, we are almost in space. It’s not that unusual. With that much mana, we can…

  -No, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, we haven’t lost the signal yet, right? It’s amazing how far you can reach.

  -Oh.

  That was a fair point. I guess my earlier argument about the magic getting weaker with distance was incorrect.

  So it was really just the problem of mana being thin in the upper atmosphere?

  -Hold on a second. We are in space.

  -I mean, not exactly.

  -Yeah, yeah. But shouldn’t there be some… space junk visible?

  -Oh. Yeah, that’s true. If we are on Earth that is.

  We’ve been a bit preoccupied with what was below us, that it didn’t occur to either of us to look even further up.

  As on command, both of us looked up.

  And as on command, there was a rather obvious piece of space junk flying overhead.

  -Well, that answers that - I mumbled.

  -I knew it was too weird to be true - commented Mike.

  -Like this isn’t weird in itself. If we really are still here, that means it’s just the time that is fucked. Damn portals…

  -Ah…

  -”Safe”, my ass. You dragged us through time.

  -I… I…

  -Doesn’t matter - I stopped his stuttering. - Well, at least I don’t have to be that much on guard any more. MIRE is done.

  -I… They…

  -Yeah, if enough time passed for continents to either shift or flood, there’s no chance in hell for MIRE to even remotely care. Or probably it doesn’t even exist, since it wasn’t doing so hot recently. I mean, not recently. Damn.

  He didn’t say a word.

  I guess the “revelation” stunned him a bit. Not sure why.

  -I should probably continue looking for people… - I mumbled to myself. - There has to be a city or something…

  It took me a good part of the day to finally find something of note.

  All that time I was just flying alone, while Mike was suspiciously quiet, sitting nearby with his eyes closed.

  He stepped away from me and broke contact after one of closer interactions with space debris: I apparently flew high enough for that to be a problem.

  It didn’t damage our scout, though. I managed to change the direction quick enough for it to just fly past.

  I am not sure what exactly I dodged. But, definitely man-made, judging by the looks of it.

  What I deemed interesting enough to start descending, though, was a large flatland. First that I’ve seen in a long while. So far I’ve only seen sea and green sea of trees, so seeing just grassland was enough to warrant interest.

  But, what was a bigger part in my decision was something that looked vaguely city-like.

  It wasn’t just a set of buildings, no. Of course, it was ruined and barely even reminiscent of structures, at least from up high. What caught my attention was the scale: not just some small town, no. Actual capital scale. A first since… well, since before the whole cataclysm of our making.

  I took a peek at Mike.

  He was still out of it. Or maybe he was just sleeping?

  I didn’t really know if he needed it any more. I honestly doubted it, but it doesn’t mean that he couldn’t just fall asleep for the sake of it.

  It’s not like it’s only your body that rests while you are asleep.

  With him or without him, I was going to check it out anyway. And maybe if he’s not breathing down my neck I’ll be able to be a bit more careful and thorough with my scouting before getting portaled towards it without previous notice.

  But again, would he even do that any more? After learning that even those portals that he thought safe, were actually as unreliable as he was accusing me of creating?

  Who knows?

  -I found something.

  I thought mere thought of a discovery would wake him up from the torpor, but I was completely wrong.

  He was still sitting there, eyes closed.

  -You hear me? There’s a rather large city there. Or what used to be a city.

  Still nothing.

  I stood up and approached the guy.

  Was he in his own head so much he really was not hearing me?

  -Hey. Come on.

  I poked him in the shoulder, but still, he didn’t react.

  -What’s wrong with…

  My poke was hard enough to make him lose balance and he, straight up, lost balance and fell over, lying on the grass.

  -...you?

  He was sleeping?

  Or unconscious?

  I quickly took a gaze on his mana, but it didn’t seem that much different from what I knew was normal to him.

  Sure, he was a bit weaker, but that was it.

  Definitely not weak enough to warrant loss of consciousness.

  Upon a closer inspection I figured out that he really must’ve been just sleeping. His breath was deep and regular, his body still warm and I could definitely feel his pulse.

  But, he was not waking up for some reason. I even shook him a few times, but still got no reaction.

  -Well if not this, then… Elvu - I said, pointing a finger at his face.

  A thin stream of water emerged from my fingertip and splashed him in the face.

  -Even this? HEY!

  Now I was sure that something was wrong. That was not a normal state for someone to be in.

  As I was pondering how exactly I should go with it, I got an idea.

  What if I poke into his mind a little bit?

  I didn’t really have experience in looking into other people, but definitely managed to contact them on multiple occasions. What if I tried that?

  Just like he did before, I placed my hand on his shoulder and focused.

  I intended to speak my words right into his mind, to see if he’s able to respond or just hear me, but before that, I heard something.