What Kaldalis saw when he arrived in the Paths Between Paths shocked him more than anything he had ever seen. In the back of his mind, he’d made a series of assumptions, and as soon as he Flickered, he had them all proven wrong. What was happening to him now was the most unexpected event he’d experienced since he was plugged into a machine and sent to another world.

His plan was working.

He was not floating in an empty void.

Instead, he was hurtling through it.

More than that, he was hurtling towards the giant floating shapes.

And they were getting closer.

Deep down, he knew there had been no guarantee that he could predict the direction of his momentum when arriving. He’d honestly thought there was going to be some trial and error. Perhaps even the need to level up his daggers skill to be able to get horizontal momentum from their Sprint ability.

But vertically downward was correct.

Perhaps it had been calculated by the Lataxinans. The easiest direction to gather momentum in was with gravity rather than against it. So they had ensured that their vessel was where it would be most easily accessed once someone had Kaia’s Flicker. Or, more precisely, once they had learned to travel the Paths Between Paths themselves. Just like humans sending a record disc out into space and assuming another culture could figure out how to build a record player, the Lataxinans had assumed that whatever came next could figure out how to teleport into their weird subspace dimension.

As the floating white shapes grew closer, more details began to resolve themselves. They were indeed connected in the middle by a narrow passage, as the diagram indicated. Their surface seemed to be made of some kind of luminescent crystal glass, but the light coming off of it was too bright to see through clearly.

Though as he hurtled closer and closer, he could see vague shapes within. A combination of experience and imagination filled in the blanks.

They were buildings. Blocky Lataxinan buildings, vaguely outlined within the glowing crystal dome.

Kaldalis tried to judge the distance as just a few hundred yards, but the vessel was much larger than he had anticipated.

He was very far from it still.

True to his expectations, though, there was no air resistance here. He wasn’t slowing down. And with the extra time bought by the slow debuff, he had remained in the Paths Between Paths for far longer than before. Not to mention that with the relic fishing rod in hand, his breath bar didn’t appear and began ticking down. Even without breathing, his lungs felt like they were full of fresh air.

It was all coming together. And the glowing structure grew closer and closer. He was going to make it. It was only a hundred yards farther. As it grew closer he started to see more shadowy details through the glowing glass. Structures. Roads. Farms. Livestock. Humanoid figures. He reached his hand out towards the surface, the Slow debuff making the motion sluggish and deliberate.

He was going to-

SPLASH.

Cold.

Cold.

Cold.

Reality reasserted itself and Kaldalis plunged into the ocean.

Letting out a cry of dismay, he would have inhaled a big mouthful of water. Fortunately, the Endless Breath ability meant that even after letting out a brief yell, his lungs were still full of air.

Swimming was almost impossible. Even though this world’s game mechanics made underwater movement simple, his body was moving too slow. He couldn’t counteract the pull of gravity. Just the same, with his fishing rod equipped, he didn’t need to breathe. He could just sink to the sandy floor and walk up towards the beach. The slow debuff wore off just a few moments before his head broke the surface of the water.

Heluna was watching for him a little way up the beach, and rushed out to help him the rest of the way to dry land.

“Did it fuckin’ work?” she asked breathlessly. “What were they like? What did you see?”

“I didn’t get enough speed,” Kaldalis said with a grimace. “But I could see it. I could see them inside.”

“So we get the fuck up and try again, right?” Heluna asked, brandishing his own sword at him. “No giving up.”

“I’m just going to get the same outcome again, though,” Kaldalis said, reaching out and lowering her sword with his hand. “I need to change something if I want a new outcome. I need more speed if I don’t want to fall short again in the exact same way.”

“How are we gonna fuckin’ do that?” Heluna asked.

“I don’t know,” Kaldalis said. He furrowed his brow, taking the opportunity to down another Minor Healing Potion while he was thinking. “The only thing I can figure is that I was still gaining speed when I Flickered. I need to get more height somehow.”

“What level is your spear skill?” Heluna asked. “You can get a fuckin’ double jump, if you’re high enough level.”

“I’m capped for my level,” Kaldalis said. “But I’m not opposed to grinding some EXP. I might be able to buy some time if it’s close.”

“I’m not sure,” Heluna admitted. “Maybe seventy? Seventy-five?”

Kaldalis grimaced. That was impossibly far away. He was just shy of level sixteen. He couldn’t race the rumors if the finish line was so far away.

“No good, huh?” Heluna said, mirroring his grimace. “Maybe if you could jump off of some shit? We could find a really tall tree? Maybe a fuckin’ cliff?”

“No good,” Kaldalis said. “If I fail again, when I get back I’m going to splatter if I hit solid ground. I need to land over water.” He scratched his chin thinking for a moment. “Unless you know of any fjords?”

“Maybe we could get your ass on a boat,” Heluna suggested. “But I don’t know that it’ll get you much more height. Maybe you could stand on my shoulders and fuckin’ jump off of me?” She laughed.

“Wait,” Kaldalis said. “Say that again?”

“A boat?” She asked. “Standing on my shoulders? Fuckin’ jumping off of me?”

“That one,” Kaldalis said, snapping his fingers. “I jump off of you.”

“I don’t know if you’ve fuckin’ noticed, honey,” Heluna said, putting her hands on her hips and squaring her shoulders. “I’m not that tall. I mean, sure, I’m a little taller than your cute ass, but-”

“No, no, not from here,” Kaldalis said. He stepped back and downed another potion. Along with his passive regen, his health was full again. And with his defensive cooldowns back online, he was ready for another attempt. “Trust me. I know how to make this happen. Slow me down again. Let’s go.”

They went through the same motions as before. Kaldalis burned all his defensive cooldowns and another healing potion to endure Heluna’s attacks long enough to get eleven stacks of slow, but once more he got just lucky enough to get another stack every time.

“Clock is fuckin’ tickin’,” Heluna said anxiously. “Whatever smartass bullshit you’ve got, now’s the time.”

Kaldalis held out his hand to her. “Do you trust me?”

With the slow debuff on, his voice sounded downpitched and slurred. He thought he sounded kind of like the monster version of himself.

Despite his unearthly tone, Heluna didn’t hesitate. She took his hand.

Kaldalis pulled her close, though the motion had a slow, dreamlike quality due to the debuff. As soon as he had a grip on her, he activated an augmented Jump, and launched himself diagonally over the ocean with Heluna in his arms.

“I fuckin’ get it,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the wind whistling in their ears. “Jump off of me. But from way the fuck up here.”

His diagonal jump didn’t get as much vertical distance as his first jump, but it still got him very high up. More importantly, though, it meant there was a lot of water underneath them when his momentum started to run out and he was at the peak of his jump.

“One for luck,” Heluna said, kissing him on the cheek. “Ready?”

She understood what his goal was, and so she didn’t fight him as he arranged himself atop her in mid-air. With his augmented Jump still active, he planted his feet against her thighs and kicked off.

The maneuver sent her rocketing down towards the ocean. While it wasn’t as effective as jumping off of solid ground, he did send himself up higher, sailing up to a much higher apex. He couldn’t even pick Heluna out on the water below when he finally stopped ascending.

Kaldalis came down at tremendous speed, fishing rod in hand. Before he hit the water, he felt like he finally stopped accelerating.

Terminal Velocity.

He physically could not fall faster, unaided. If this didn’t work, he didn’t know what other option he had. As the ocean rushed up, he knew if this failed, he had no chance of making it. Not without technology that he simply did not have.

The ocean rushed up at him as fast as it possibly could.

As soon as Kaldalis felt cold sea spray on his face, he Flickered.

One more, he rocketed through the void, towards the distant Lataxinan vessel. But this time, much faster. Instead of looming out of the darkness, they almost seemed to lunge towards Kaldalis. He was going so much faster.

And this time, he was fast enough.

After a few seconds, his outstretched hands touched the crystalline surface. He didn’t do a great job of cushioning the impact - he was still at terminal velocity when he hit - but going into a roll along the unyielding surface seemed to be enough. Some sort of artificial gravity seemed to have taken hold, and he stuck to the surface instead of bouncing off. He didn’t seem to take any fall damage from-

Or had he?

Kaldalis’s UI was gone. No quests. No health bar. No cooldowns. No inventory. As he came to a stop on the crystalline surface, he felt the impact. Soreness and bruises from the roll.

But of course he hadn’t taken damage.

He didn’t have hit points.

The Lataxinan Vessel existed outside of the system.

A tapping noise at his feet caught his attention. He looked down.

He had made contact. The Lataxinans were here.