Chapter 14 - Rift walk and reintroduction
Kyrain was once again in the guild training arena with his mom, but this time he wasn't about to get it handed to him.
He was fine creating the first tear in the world, but for whatever reason the rift he created opened into darkness. From what his skill said, he should be able to open it up to another location and essentially "step through."
Tobias was the only other person free to come with, as Sebastian and Elijah had picked up a short two man job from the guild.
"I don't get it." Kyrain said becoming frustrated with the lack of progress. He knew where he wanted to go, but could get it to appear on the other side.
"Have you tried fully picturing the other side clearly in your mind before you open the rift?" Tobias asked trying to be helpful.
"Not really, I have an idea where I want to go, and it's more of a flash in my mind." Kyrain replied.
"Well, some of your dad's old books we used to read always talked about holding the image in your head the entire time."
Kyrain just shrugged as he had nothing to lose. He closed his eyes and pictured his front yard then reached out and, as he had begun to call it, tore. The rift opened with a howl and tons of pressure. On the other side he could see his front yard and a car driving by, but couldn't hear anything from the other side due to all the interference.
He had a bag of apples he picked up on the cheap on the way over. Taking one he tossed it in, but there was a resistance and the apple was thrown in a black gap between the points and disintegrated. He looked at the text of his skill again trying to see if he was missing anything.
Rift Walk(a) - This extremely rare skill is known only to exist with the dragons and usually requires a massive amount of aether to perform. With antimatter, the user may tear holes in space and bridge the gap with that same power creating a wormhole between two points the user can see or has been to. The wormhole is as long as a step. Warning: Distance depends on tier. Current max distance: 4000 miles
Note: Tier 10 offers a bonus.
A part caught his attention, "bridge the gap." Using his control over the antimatter, he felt around the inside of the rift and connected the two points with a tunnel of his power and the rift went silent. He could hear the birds singing on the other side and the pressure was gone seemingly help back by his power.
Kyrain took another apple and tossed it through. There was no resistance this time. He tossed another apple, but this time on the short gap between the points. It hit solidly on an invisible ground.
Kyrain wondered why there was even that gap. He pulled his power back and the rift collapsed sealing itself off. He went through the same process and this time a little faster knowing what to expect. He bridged the gap as it opened on both sides.
However, with what he wanted to happen fixed in his mind, the gap between the two points of the rift was nearly non existence and it became more of a portal than a tunnel and that was much better and what Kyrain was after. It turns out visualization was the key.
He practiced over and over for the next half hour making sure he was proficient in his rift walk powers. His mom asked questions here and there about difficultly, AM drain, and if there were any other affects he could sense.
Finally he was ready to give it a shot. He opened up a rift to the front yard, and stepped through. It was strange to Kyrain going from one place to another instantly with absolutely no sensation save for that of walking through a door. He closed the rift and waited for a minute, before opening it back up and stepping back through where he left the guild.
"I've got the basics figured out." He said to his mom.
She got back up from the bench she was on, doing some reading for work. "Nice! Do you remember what Mr. Shephard's yard looks like?"
"Kind of, it's been a while. I'll give it a shot." Kyrain said as he began to remember what the yard looked like. To his suprise it came back way clearer and way easier than he thought it would. A possible perk from becoming tier 4.
He tore the rift open and he could see the yard he was looking for. It looked a little different than he envisioned, but it was the same yard. Kyrain stepped through and felt the temperature change as did the humidity. His mom was behind him, she slowly pushed her hand, then arm through before she just came through. Tobias was on the other side, looking through like he would a window.
"I'll stay here guys. Good luck." He said as Kyrain shrugged and closed the rift.
They turned as a man with short dark hair, dark skin, and looked like he should be at a lifting competition from the amount of jacked he was, came around the corner with the biggest friendliest smile Kyrain had ever seen.
"Mrs. Ekart and Mr. Ekart. It's great to see you guys again." Came the friendly and incredibly polite greeting. The memories Kyrain had of Chris Shephard always showed him being the friendliest most polite individual he had ever met, almost like a jolly giant.
That kindness was certainly not weakness though. The Sage is very protective of his students and one time he was lumped in during one of his classes when he got to see a taste of what monster was kept under that friendly demeanor.
A boyfriend of one of the children's mother came by to pick up one of the children, but he wasn't on the list of authorized personnel to get her. Mr. Shephard had to tell him no and the man became angry and threatened violence.
After minutes of attempted de-escalation the man was asked to leave, but rather than being an adult, he tried to actually intimidated the Sage. It didn't go well.
According to the guild public records as Kyrain didn't know at the time, Kris Shephard's path was the same as his nickname "Sage." With the knowledge he possesses he had learned how to control all five elements and done so in a way that is unmatchedas far as anyone knew. The only downside to his path was his lack of path support in the physcial stat,which is part of why he trained so hard physcially. However, his spiritual stats and mental stats were off the charts.
The belligerent, violent boyfriend was frozen, thawed out, encased halfway in rock, lifted up and tossed into the parking lot where the guild came by and collected him. No charges where brought, but he was highly encouraged never to return to the school.
"Come on in! We were getting ready for dinner and would love to have you guys! I'm already excited to hear about this skill! It clearly works well." Kris said with his huge friendly smile.
Kyrain and Brittanie followed him into the house greeting Elena as they went in.