"Run!" Swordfish cried. Adnachiel suddenly ran towards them with her abnormal speed. Vine stopped, gripped the necklace and held out her front claw. A rift opened. She and Swordfish ran through it.
They were in the Ice Kingdom now, but they barely had any time to breathe before another rift opened and Adnachiel came through it. Her paws gripped the ice as she slid towards Swordfish and Vine. "Vine! Give me the necklace!" Swordfish cried. Vine quickly took it off and threw it to Swordfish. Vine shrieked as Adnachiel drew her bow. Swordfish held out his claw and another rift opened. Adnachiel was aimed right at Vine. Her dark eyes behind the skull showed no emotion. She let the arrow fly. Swordfish shoved Vine through the rift ahead of him. The arrow whizzed past Swordfish as Vine tumbled into the rift.
Swordfish hesitated before running in after her. He looked at Adnachiel for a moment. She didn't draw another arrow. She just looked at him. She raised her arm as if she was going to say something, but never did. She put her arm down. Swordfish jumped into the rift, and it closed behind him.
When Swordfish took a breath in the new world, all he got was smoke. He coughed. Vine was already covering her snout with her wing. They were in the Mud Kingdom now, and it was sunset. There were dead bodies everywhere. Mudwings were the tribe they saw the most of. Swordfish got a nice view of a dead dragonet with a sizeable hole through his chest, and part of his face was gone. There was another, older Mudwing with long burns all along one side of his body. His wing was nothing but exposed burnt flesh and bones. His mouth was open in a scream, reflecting the pain he died in.
This was the War of Sandwing Succession at its finest.
Swordfish suddenly whirled around to see a rift open across the battlefield. Adnachiel stepped out. Swordfish grabbed Vine and they jumped into a trench that had been dug. Inside was an Icewing. He had an open wound in his stomach, bleeding blue blood into the dirt. He had a spear next to him. He turned and saw Swordfish. "…Dirty…Seawing…" He choked out. He stared at Swordfish, hate burning in his bright blue eyes. Like an iceberg on fire. He looked down towards the spear, and then up at Swordfish. The Icewing didn't move though. He couldn't.
Vine had turned invisible, blending in with the mud and dirt. "What do we do?" She whispered to Swordfish. Swordfish looked at her and shrugged. He had no idea what to do. He looked at the trenches. How they kept going. Like a tunnel. They were endless. Vine twined her tail around his. Swordfish turned to look at her. She trusted him. Swordfish felt the fleeting sense of belonging, similar to how he felt in those weeks before Cedar stabbed Rattlesnake.
Vine peered over the edge of the trench, and then ducked back down. "I don't think she sees us yet." She said, a bit of pale green flickering through her scales. Swordfish was still looking through the trenches. Past the dying Icewing. Through the blood and smoke, they kept going. Multiple paths spreading away from each other. An idea began to creep up on Swordfish.
Suddenly, the Icewing began to scream loudly. Screams of anger and pain. Vine suddenly turned back to fully visible, her pale green appearing like a beacon through the brown and black. And then, Adnachiel was upon them. Her strange, talon-like melee weapons glinted the sunset's orange. Swordfish grabbed the necklace and held out his claw. The rift opened. Vine turned invisible and grabbed the spear the dying Icewing had with him. Adnachiel swiped at the space that carried the spear, and blood began to leak out of the empty space where Vine was. Her arrows kill things immediately, but not her other weapons. Swordfish realized. Swordfish kept the rift open, and then imagined multiple rifts, inside the rift, creating a tunnel, like the trenches. Multiple rifts inside that rift. "VINE!" He called. Swordfish ran into the rift, and Vine after him, escaping Adnachiel. The rift closed behind them.
Swordfish suddenly found himself speeding through worlds. Only getting glimpses of them before being flung into the next. He was flying, and so was Vine. He only saw moments of these worlds before flying to the next. A scene of a snowy forest, a crowd of Nightwings watching a stage, a palace in the sand with Sandwings flying around it, a small house on the water with three young Seawing dragonets playing outside of it. There were weirder ones too. A dark city with buildings taller than Swordfish had ever seen, scavengers with robes and flat hats on, a terrifying scene of a comet bearing down on the world. There were others too, but Swordfish had no time to see them.
Finally, Swordfish and Vine came to a stop. Vine had turned a combination of pale green, orange, and gold. "Three moons! What was that!?" She asked, breathing heavily. Swordfish was still getting used to standing still. "I opened multiple rifts inside a rift. We just went through, like, twenty different worlds. Hopefully we can lose Adnachiel now." "That was… fun!" Vine said. "So many colors so fast!" Swordfish groaned, still dizzy. "Hey… where are we?" Vine asked.
Swordfish got up, and took a look around. The world was dark and eerie. Dark clouds covered the entirety of the sky, with slight blue light shining through. Swordfish looked at the buildings, dilapidated and broken. Some things were floating in midair, various bricks, boards, and other items. He didn't hear a sound from the entire place. "Possibility." Vine said, reading a sign nearby. "This is Possibility?" Swordfish wondered to himself. He had always imagined so much more… happy.
As Swordfish and Vine began to walk through the strange, dark world. They came across one singular dragon. A Sandwing. He was staring ahead, his eyes wide. Vine walked right in front of him and he didn't react. He didn't move. He just stared ahead. Vine had already turned back to pale green, and Swordfish was scared too. So much so, that he couldn't control his shaking.
The world was cold. Not like cold weather, but like it lacked heat entirely. Looking up, Swordfish could not see the sun nor moon. Just darkness. As the pair walked over a bridge that crossed a river, Swordfish looked down to see that the water hadn't frozen over, but it wasn't moving. It just… stayed where it was. No currents. No wind. Just absolutely still water.
Swordfish turned a corner and saw another dragon. A Nightwing this time, staring into space like the Sandwing had been. He didn't move. He didn't make any noise. Next to him was a barrel, floating in midair like it was nothing.
"Hey Swordfish, what does that say?" Vine asked. Swordfish walked over to her, to see her pointing to a sign on a building. "Possibility Education" Swordfish read aloud. "So… It's a school." Vine said, and Swordfish nodded. They entered the building.
Inside was no different than the rest of the city, but Swordfish felt something change. Like he could feel someone else with him other than Vine. Something powerful. They eventually came to a room labeled "Principal." When they opened the door. There was a Nightwing sitting at a desk, staring into space. Just as dead inside as everything else here. A plaque on his desk read "Principal Nightvision."
Suddenly, a loud bang from somewhere in the building interrupted Swordfish's examination of the room. Vine looked up, and so did Swordfish. Right above them, the ceiling began to break. The boards suddenly broke away and through the hole Swordfish saw the soulless eyes of Adnachiel, she had already found them. Swordfish grabbed the necklace, but Adnachiel fired an arrow. It went through the hole and hit the necklace's string with such force, it ripped it right off of Swordfish's neck and it fell to the floor.
Adnachiel dropped through the hole and slashed at Vine with her talon-like weapons. Vine turned invisible just in time, and dodged the attack. Adnachiel turned around to face Swordfish. Swordfish grabbed a board that had come off the ceiling, and whipped it at Adnachiel. It broke on her, doing nothing. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver, but didn't draw her bow. She was just going to stab him. Swordfish froze with fear. But Adnachiel suddenly stopped advancing. She held the arrow threateningly, but bent down and grabbed the necklace off the ground. Swordfish watched helplessly as she threw it on the ground, and stomped it with her foot. The green stone shattered. "NO!" Swordfish yelled. Along with the stone, she had shattered any hope of escaping this world, and ever getting back to a place like home.
Vine suddenly appeared and jumped onto Adnachiel with bravery Swordfish didn't know she had. Adnachiel stopped in her tracks when Vine used her claws to cover Adnachiel's eyes. Swordfish grabbed the remains of the necklace and ran out of the room. Vine jumped off of Adnachiel and turned invisible and followed Swordfish. As Swordfish ran, he looked behind him to see Adnachiel draw her bow, and aim at… nothing. But then it hit Swordfish that she was aiming at invisible Vine as she ran. I knew it. She's mainly going for Vine. This also means she can see past Rainwing invisibility.
If she won't kill me...
"Vine! Take this!" Swordfish yelled and held out the broken necklace. Swordfish watched as an invisible claw took the necklace away. Swordfish took a step towards Adnachiel. She paused. She didn't fire her bow. The arrow was drawn, she was aimed right at Swordfish.
But she didn't fire.
Swordfish's knees were shaking. He stared at Adnachiel right in the eyes. This was the same thing that had killed Rainfall. The thing that had terrorized his dreams. The long, beaked skull she wore showed no emotion. Only now did Swordfish get a good look at the demon. The hunting cloak she wore was black and dark green. She had straps on her arms to keep the talon-like weapons in place. She wore coverings on her feet that went up to her knees. There were also straps on the right and left sides of her head and on top, as if they were the things keeping the skull there.
Suddenly, Swordfish felt the strange presence there again, like someone was watching him. Someone was rooting for him. If Adnachiel wouldn't shoot him, what was stopping him from attacking her? Could he kill a demon? Swordfish looked for the presence again. It was definitely there. It was something about this building…
"HEY! WHY DID YOU KILL RAINFALL?" Swordfish yelled at the demon. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL RANDOM DRAGONS?" Adnachiel still didn't fire. Swordfish could still feel no emotion from her. "WHAT DID RAINFALL DO TO ANGER YOU? WHAT DID HE HAVE TO DO WITH THE VISITORS?" When Swordfish said 'visitors,' the same blue light he had seen beaming through the dark clouds began to shine through the windows of the school.
That's when it hit Swordfish. This was the power of the visitors. Something was special about this particular world. It was broken, yes, but it also was extremely linked with the visitors. Their presence was strong here.
But what did they want? Were they on Adnachiel's side, or Swordfish's side? Swordfish could only hope they were on his side.
Suddenly, a voice whispered in his head, a female's voice. "Rainfall had everything to do with all of this." Swordfish stared at Adnachiel. She stared back. "He had to die. I killed him, and I'll kill you and Vine too." She suddenly tilted her head, as if to get a better angle on Swordfish.
"It's not your fault. You just have to die now."
Swordfish swallowed. Those arrows killed everything they hit. The necklace had been broken. The world he knew had been an illusion. He was going to die, living nothing but a fake and terrible life.
What happened next was a blur. A pair of dragons suddenly attacked Adnachiel from two sides. They wore white hoods, and moved faster than Swordfish had ever seen a dragon move. They rammed her from two sides, knocking the bow out of her paws. One of them stood on top of her, pinning her down. Adnachiel held out her arm and the bow flew back to her. The other white hooded dragon breathed fire on Adnachiel, and Swordfish saw it was a Sandwing. Adnachiel swiped at him with her claw-weapons, and managed to hit him. He staggered backward, a trace amount of blood coming from the three scratches now on his chest.
Swordfish heard breathing next to him and saw the necklace pieces floating in midair. "Vine?" He whispered, and she turned visible again. "Who are they?" Vine immediately asked. "I have no idea." Swordfish answered.
The first mysterious dragon was a Nightwing. She extended their claw out of her cloak and slashed at Adnachiel. But Adnachiel rolled out of the way, and aimed her bow at the Nightwing. But the Nightwing disappeared in a flash of blue light. The Sandwing did the same. Adnachiel turned in multiple directions, picked up her bow and opened a rift. She didn't have a necklace or anything, she just… opened one. She ran through it and it closed behind her, leaving Swordfish and Vine alone again in the strange dark world.
After they had calmed down, Swordfish and Vine turned to deal with the broken necklace. "Do you have any ideas?" Vine asked. "No. I know just as much about Abyss' necklace as you do." Swordfish replied. "On another note, do you feel the power here?" Swordfish asked. "…No…" Vine said. "This place is like the rest of the city. A big lack of power. Not even the dragons here work anymore." Vine said solemnly.
"You really don't feel it? The power? It's the visitors! It has to be." Vine looked at Swordfish doubtful. "I don't feel any power at all." She said. "Well, I think I know how to get back to my home. It just might work. Just… don't talk." Swordfish said. Vine stopped talking.
Swordfish cleared his mind and took a deep breath. He was holding the remains of the necklace. He focused on the light that he could see shining through the clouds outside the windows. They were here. He thought about the world he used to live in. He thought about the hands that had stabbed him and Vine. He felt that same power here. Their presence. He just had to-
Hello? Visitors? Are you there? My name is Swordfish. But you probably already know that. I'm reaching out to you. Out of the story itself. Please. Help me. Make a rift open in front of me, one that leads to a world just like the one I used to live in. Please, if you have any mercy, make this happen.
All it takes is one.