Chapter 5
I felt a little bit of relief as the gear continued to function properly. I continued to slowly reduce the power, dreading what would happen if the gear suddenly stopped working.
Luckily for me, I was able to reduce the power down to a level low enough that I felt I'd be able to power the gear for nearly a day. This would have to do since I didn't dare go any lower than that.
Now I had to find a way to set things right. But where to begin? The only place I could think to go was to Word's citadel. If there were any clues to be found about how to stop the dragon-human war he had planned and return things to the way they were, then that would be the place to find them. The question was: would the citadel still be where I remembered it being in the previous reality? The only way to find out would be to go there. Time was short and it would take awhile to get there, so I took off running.
As I set out, it finally dawned on me that I could still feel my weight on my feet. So that would mean that I was still being acted upon by gravity even though the gear was isolating me from normal space. That seemed reasonable since I had to still exist in the universe otherwise it would have violated the law of conservation of matter. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, so even though I was in my own little region of space, I was still in the universe itself, and so my matter existed. Matter always has mass, and having mass meant that gravity would still be acting on me and holding my feet to the ground, which was why I felt my normal weight.
Having mass also meant that I wouldn't be able to walk through walls and it explained why I didn't fall through the surface of the drag-way. So even though I couldn't be seen and nothing could touch me in here, I still had to use doorways and I could still fall. It was a good thing that Connor had taken the time to teach me some basic physics. I had no idea that would ever come in handy.
As I continued on, it wasn't long before I began to notice that things weren't right in the city. Even though it was still early in the morning, I should have passed someone by now, but I was all alone on the drag-way. No dragons or humans to be seen anywhere. What's more, the surrounding buildings were all dark. This was erie and strange.
After a time, I came into an area where it looked like a riot had occurred. There was extensive damage to the buildings which had broken windows and cracks in the walls. Debris littered the street. The whole area appeared to be deserted and the buildings all seemed empty. Something had clearly happened here. I found this to be unsettling and I picked up the pace.
The parts of the city I was passing through now were becoming more and more damaged the farther I went. And still no one was anywhere to be seen.
Farther on, I rounded a corner past some large buildings, and off in the distance ahead I could see frequent flashes lighting up the sky. So far, all the parts of the city I had been through were dark and seemed to be deserted, so I figured I'd better check this out. I turned in the direction of the lights and kept up the pace.
As I got closer, I began to feel deep periodic vibrations in the roadway. Then I began to hear it. The vibrations I had felt where caused by large impacts that I could now hear. Above this noise, I heard the sounds of commotion. As I approached, these became the sounds of chaos. It sounded as if some sort of demolition was underway, with explosions of varying intensities at different intervals. I saw smoke rising in the air. Then I could hear dragon and human voices. It was just crowd noise at first, then it more clearly became yelling and shouting; the sounds of panic and anger. The flashes of light were more distinguishable and more frequent now. I hurried on to get to a point where I could see what was happening.
I was nearly upon the scene now and the sounds of destruction and chaos were unmistakable. I reached a point in the roadway where it came to a crest that allowed a vantage point to look down on the scene below. What I saw caused an icy chill to spread over me and a knot to form in my stomach. My legs felt weak and my heart ached at the sight. It was something I never thought I'd ever see. Something I never wanted to see. Something that made me feel more shock and sorrow than I had every felt before.