Chapter 43: Over the Gate

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Over the Gate

Jared skidded to a halt, boots grinding against black stone, and stared. The staircase had curved up and around the crater and delivered him right back to where he’d started, the narrow ledge where they’d first arrived. And hanging in the air across the ledge, glowing, pulsing, filling the whole width of the path, was the gate.

It was huge up close. It sat right in the middle of the stairway, wedged between the cliff on one side and the drop on the other. There was no gap. No room to squeeze past. The stairs simply continued on the far side, climbing toward the summit, and the gate sat in the way like a plug in a bottle.

’Great.’

He circled it once, slowly, studying the problem.

He needed to pass the gate without passing through it. If he stepped in, he’d be spat back into the city, and the whole gate would have to be entered again. If he turned around, he’d lose time. And there was nowhere to go but through, or around, and there was no around.

[Problem?]

’A small one.’

’I’m thinking though.’

He thought for a while. He walked up to the shimmering edge, put a hand out, and felt the heat prickle against his fingertips. The gate rippled faintly, as though it could feel him.

’The core is probably beyond this.’

It was just a feeling. Everything in his gut said that the heart of this place lay somewhere above them, at the top of the crater, wrapped in fire and stone.

The gate itself wasn’t that tall. He could see over it. A man could probably clear it with a good jump.

But he didn’t want to risk it.

’What if something happens? Dimensional repercussions. Time distortions. Some weird scientific thing I don’t understand.’

He assumed Gates didn’t like being touched. Gates didn’t like being crossed in odd ways.

[Oh, please,]

[Just jump.]

’What if it explodes?’

[It won’t explode.]

’What if I lose a leg? I could miss the angle.’

[You’ll lose nothing. It’s a door. Jump over it.]

’You don’t know that.’

[I know that you’re wearing a suit made of swamp and you’ve been fighting golems for how long now? If a gate is going to eat you, it will have to be very hungry.]

Jared let out a long, slow breath.

"Okay, then," he muttered.

He backed up 5 paces, crouched, and kicked off the rock.

The suit surged beneath him. He flew. For a moment the world was silent. He sailed over the top of it with a foot to spare and came down hard on the far side, boots cracking the stone, one hand slapping the ground.

He stayed in a crouch, waiting.

Nothing happened.

No flash. No scream. No missing limbs. The gate hummed behind him, calm and indifferent.

He stood up slowly and checked his arms. Then his legs. Then his chest.

’I’m fine.’

[Told you.]

’You didn’t tell me anything. You said it wouldn’t explode.’

[That counts.]

He grinned and kept going.

The stairs wound upward, steeper now, narrower.

At last, the stairs ended.

He stepped onto a wide, flat shelf of black rock, the summit of the crater. A ring of jagged peaks rose around him. The sky above was a boiling mass of smoke, streaked orange by the light from below. He turned in a slow circle.

There was nothing.

No glowing sphere. No pillar of light. No core. Just bare rock, scarred and cracked and empty, stretching in every direction.

’No.’

He walked to the center of the summit and stood there, staring.

’No, no, no.’

It couldn’t be. He’d been so sure. He had followed the feeling the whole way up. He’d leapt a gate for it. He had left the others behind, abandoned the fight, and gambled everything on this hunch. He expected the core to be beyond the gate. And there was nothing. Just a flat, dead shelf of stone.

Rage rose in him, hot and blind.

He drew back his fist and slammed it into the nearest wall.

CRACK.

The rock split. A web of cracks spread across the cliff. Then the ground began to tremble.

A shape heaved itself out of the broken wall, shedding gravel, its eyes igniting like two small suns. A Cinder Golem. It rose to its full height, rumbling, and lurched toward him.

"Not now," Jared said.

He didn’t even look at it. He turned, drove his fist through its chest, and watched it crumble into dust.

[Cinder Golem (lv6)] defeated!

He stood there, panting, hands hanging at his sides.

[Rex.]

’I know.’

[There’s no core.]

’I know that.’

He lifted his head and looked at the sky, at the smoke, at the thin red haze. Then, slowly, he let his gaze fall. He looked down over the edge of the summit, down the sheer wall of the crater, past the stairs, past the ledges, all the way down to the bubbling lake of fire at the bottom.

It was only when he looked from up here, from the very top, that he really saw it.

The lake wasn’t just a pit. It was big. Far bigger than he’d realized. It stretched across the whole floor of the crater, glowing and rolling, and on the far side, where the wall met the magma, there was a darkness.

He stared at it.

’It’s beyond the magma.’

The thought dropped into his mind with the weight of a stone.

’The core isn’t up here. It’s over there. It’s on the other side of the lake.’

[That’s a fair observation.]

’If that’s right, then how do we reach it?’

He glanced along the walls.

’How could we possibly...’

He didn’t finish the sentence. He just sighed.

He thought about the gorilla suit. He had tested its durability, yes. Against lightning. Against fire. Against a charge of Starfire’s light, which had nearly stripped it off him. But he had never tested it like this. Not against a lake of molten rock that could probably melt iron.

’If the SwampGorilla isn’t durable enough, I could die.’

He stopped himself.

’I could actually...’

He didn’t say it. He lifted a hand and felt the pouch at his belt, he thought of a gem and the beast within the stone.

’The AntBeast.’

It came to him slowly, a spark in the dark.

’My ant can eat right through it.’

It could eat anything. Rock, metal, stone, fire. It had swallowed junk and spat out sparks. It could chew through a lake of lava like it was soup, and carve a path straight to the core.

’It could work.’

[It could,] the system admitted.

’It’s just...’

He looked back down the crater. Far below, tiny dots swarmed across the rocky shelf. The other rookies. They were still fighting, still battling the endless tide of golems.

’It’s just that there are way too many people here not to notice.’

An ant beast possibly the size of a skyscraper wasn’t something you could hide. They’d see it. They’d talk about it. Someone would ask where it came from. Someone would ask about the other beasts.

’Crap.’

His comm clip crackled.

"Is everything okay up there?" Karl’s voice drifted through, lazy and calm.

"I’m coming," Jared said.

"That doesn’t answer my question."

[He’s got a point,]

Jared ignored it.

He had already decided. He had made up his mind in the time it took to say the words. He couldn’t wait. He couldn’t ask permission. He was going to take the plunge, into the lake, through the fire, to the core. But first, he needed everyone out of the way.

He turned and ran.

He raced back down the stairs, leapt the gate again, and thundered down toward the shelf. By the time he reached the top landing, Karl was waiting at the ledge, hands in his pockets, with the crab boy sitting miserably at his feet. Down below, the rookies were still fighting, tiny figures swinging and shouting.

"Everyone," Jared said, into the comm. His voice cut across the roar. "Listen up."

The fighting slowed.

"Get back to the gate and to our world."

A confused murmur crackled through the line.

"I have a plan. Everyone has to be out for it to work."

"What?"

"What are you talking about?"

"We’re in the middle of a fight!"

"I said get out!" His voice cracked like a whip. "All of you! Now!"

There was a long pause. Then, slowly, grudgingly, the rookies began to fall back. They broke away from the golems, scrambling up the stairs, gasping, scraped and bruised. One by one they reached the ledge, soaked in sweat, and bent over, hands on knees.

Zoey was among the last.

She climbed the final steps, her braid half undone, a smudge of ash across her cheek. Her lizard trotted at her heels. She stopped in front of him and spoke.

"What if it doesn’t work?" she asked.

Jared didn’t respond.

"Jared. What if your plan doesn’t work?"

He said nothing.

"It seems you did not hear the miss," Karl said, from the wall. He pushed himself upright, grinning faintly. "What if your plan doesn’t work, Mr. Leader?"

"It will."

"And if it doesn’t?"

"If it doesn’t, you can always just send the others back in without me."

The silence was sudden and total.

Zoey’s mouth opened. Something in her face went small and hollow.

"Oh, don’t sound like that," Karl said, rolling his eyes. "You’re still leader, even if your plan doesn’t work. You heard the man." He turned to the others. "Everyone through. Let’s move."

The rookies shuffled toward the gate, hesitating, glancing back. One by one they stepped into the red glow and vanished. The crab boy went next, trailing after Karl, who gave Jared a small, strange salute before disappearing.

Only Zoey was left.

She stood in front of the gate, one hand on its edge, her back to him. Her shoulders were stiff. For a moment she didn’t move. Then, without turning, she spoke.

"Be careful."

It was barely a whisper.

She stepped through. The light flared and swallowed her.

Jared stood alone on the ledge.

The roar of the fight was gone. The heat pressed in, thick and heavy. Below him, the lava churned.

He took a breath and reached for his pouch.

"Here goes," he said.