Elder Shadow, despite his cultivation realm, decided we would enter the rift carefully. He staggered how and when we would enter with Shade going first. I hadn’t been able to learn or understand much about the Elementals I had seen, other than they formed family units, so I had no idea about their threat level.

They might be a peaceful people, but they might be territorial and protective as well, attacking anyone or anything that invaded their territory. We would have to carefully study them, not only to understand the social dynamics between each other and the world around them, but to determine if they used Qi.

It was unlikely that they cultivated as we did, but the channels I had noticed suggested that they did cycle energy in some manner. We would need to understand if they formed cores and had tiers like beasts or used some other method to harness the world's energies around them. It would make a difference how we approached them.

Elder Shadow decided Shade should enter first because he was almost as powerful as he was, both cultivators having reached the Nihility Realm. There were differences. Where Elder Shadow had reached the perfected stage, Shade had only advanced to mid-stage. I almost snorted in amusement at myself for using the word ‘only’ when referencing Shade’s cultivation. He was two realms and ten tiers higher than I was at my own beginning stage of Qi Gathering.

Shade’s real talent was with his stealth ability. They were on another level when compared to the [Flux] skill that I had learned and were even more versatile than Elder Shadow. His talent was so advanced that once he activated his skill, the shimmer as the tear in space reacted when he entered the rift was the only way I had to know that he had entered.

The rift opening itself was interesting. A distortion that warped light. It created the same strange distortion a piece of mirror you might find at a carnival had, but instead of reflecting, it seemed to warp. The rift caused the light to ripple between concave and convex distortion of light, but instead of reflecting our images at us, it acted as a prism to gather and bend light. It created an interesting pattern of shifting colors, refracting the colors of the rainbow in the same manner a diamond might.

“Jay, you should enter now,” Elder Shadow informed me, reminding me it was my turn based on the staggered order he had devised.

I had been examining the rift both visually and with my Qi perception and had allowed time to get away from me. I had found it interesting and frustrating that I couldn’t detect a change in the world’s energy, the Qi was just as abundant and uniform here as it was anywhere else. If I hadn’t stumbled upon the tear and noticed it visually, there would have been no way to notice it existed.

That made no sense to me. There had to be an energy cost for opening and remaining open. The rift allowed travel between worlds. It may not be a wormhole, but if it wasn’t, I didn’t know what else it might be. How it was constrained, the edges of the rift held and kept from destroying both planets that formed on either side of the tear in space, made no sense. If there was an impact on the world, it was negligible. There were none of the cataclysmic reactions you would expect.

“Wait,” Shade said as I was about to enter. He had dropped stealth as he exited the rift, thankfully, or I would have walked right into him.

“Someone just attempted to detonate a series of beast core bombs. If they had gone off, it would have destroyed the cave system just past the rift opening,” he informed Elder Shadow.

“Whoever it was, was too far away for me to locate with my perception, but they will have known their bombs failed. The triggering Dharmic spell was at the Nascent Soul level, so I was able to easily override the command.

“I noticed ten bomb clusters hidden and protected inside an illusion array, each array linked and programmed to explode in tandem. I have disabled the triggering spell that would have activated the bombs, but we will have to disarm and remove them before anything else.”

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“The timing must mean our presence has been noted,” Yvonne pointed out.

“I agree,” Shade said, “so do we continue, remove the bombs, and explore? Or wait for Patriarch Umbra to send more help?”

“Both, I think,” Elder Shadow replied. “You and I will enter the rift and disarm those bombs. Once that is done, you can begin exploring, and I’ll wait for the Patriarch and a translation device to communicate with the Elementals. Hopefully, we find whoever was hiding within, although I doubt it. Detonating those bombs would have destabilized the rift. Whoever was willing to do something like that would have either decided it was better to be trapped inside, or they know of another exit.”

“More than one rift can form anchoring the same two worlds?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Elder Shadow answered. “Rifts come in three versions, temporary, stable, and integrating. If you find a stable rift, you can be assured that there is more than one linking the two spaces and that at least one has begun the process of integrating the two worlds.”

“What happens during integration?” I asked.

“The two worlds merge, just as the word suggests” Shade replied, his tone suggesting he was questioning my intellect. “It doesn’t matter if our world is merged with the other or if our world absorbs the other, a melding takes place.

“The prevailing theory for the reason is posited on the belief that there is a multi-verse. Just as there are events that allow a universe to splinter and diverge, there must be events that allow the multiple universes to converge. The integration has an effect on our planet, but that effect is often beneficial. The changes are always limited to the shape and size of the world, additional eco-system forming, and the addition of flora and fauna.”

“Two planets just merge? And this has happened before?” I said in disbelief. “Wouldn’t that have cataclysmic effects on gravity, weather, and the relationship between the planet and the moons?”

“It should,” Elder Shadow agreed, “but it doesn’t. Yes, this has happened before, and as far as we can tell, while it does generate a plethora of Heavenly opportunities and tribulations, the destruction you would think should happen, doesn’t.

“Cultivators that are attempting to reach beyond the Immortal Venerable Realm make use of these integrations and the insane amount of energy that is released when confluence and integration occur to complete and advance their stages.

“We believe these cultivators are the reason the integration of worlds happens with minor disturbances.

“If we didn’t have cultivators able to bleed off that excess energy, someone that could collect and condense those forces, the changes to gravity and mass would have the world tearing itself apart. Some of the energy the Immortal Venerable cultivators collect, and cycle, adjust weather patterns and move the moons to a new orbit, one that maintains the status quo between the Heavenly bodies.”

“The amount of available Qi will rise,” Shade added, “it is impossible to gather and collect every bit of additional energy an integration provides. It will make it easier for lower-ranked cultivators to advance. At least until the energy fluctuations have stabilized and the planet has returned to equilibrium, the excess energies accumulated in dense pockets.

“New spirit plants, spirit ore, and nature Spirits will form, each working to leech the excess energy from the planet. To solidify Qi and give it shape and form.”

“There are real benefits to a planetary integration, but there are also dangerous disadvantages. A beast tide is inevitable,” Elder Shadow warned. “All rift openings have the potential for a beast tide, but an integration rift will, in all cases, produce that event.

“No one is certain why, but the beast tide will not remain localized to the area where the rift formed. It is as if the influx of extra energy creates a time of massive growth and expansion for animals and beasts around the world, as well as increasing the size of the planet.

“This frenzy of growth, the change to the life cycle for low-tiered animals and beasts, always culminates in battles of dominance. And it is these battles as the stronger beasts assert their authority and either maintain control of their territory or are defeated that drive the lesser animals and beasts to migrate in beast tides.”

“Do you think the Hindel knew?” I asked. “Is this why they traded the island away?”

“I doubt it,” Shade said. “They may have known about the rift, but trading the island away would have made little difference. The beast tides will not be limited to land, they will have their own swarms of frenzied animals to deal with.

“No, the Hindel wouldn’t have traded the island away because they were worried about defending from beast tides,” Elder Shadow agreed. “But there might be something on the other side of the rift that does concern them. A life form that may emerge that has them worried.

“Something they hope we can defend against, kill, or contain.”