After a full day of doing nothing not even meditating, I was whisked back.

  As soon as I saw Velarion, I let loose.

  "What the fuck, man? You said it was safe! I nearly fucking died!"

  He regarded me with a detached expression, his golden eyes unreadable. "Don’t be overdramatic. You should have been able to handle anything there."

  That did it. All the pent up fear and anger from the past few days exploded out of me. My voice rose even higher, my chest heaving with the weight of everything I’d bottled up.

  "You're supposed to be my fucking guardian! And there’s another thing, Earth is being invaded by the fucking Astral!"

  He opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off before he could even get a word out.

  "And don’t give me any bullshit cryptic half answers. I know what I saw! There were rips everywhere! For a supposed all powerful guardian, you sure are doing a shitty job!"

  The air shifted instantly, becoming thick and suffocating. The aura around Velarion changed, his golden eyes flaring with an intensity that made my very soul quiver. It felt like I was being crushed under the weight of an impossible force, like the fabric of reality itself was pressing down on me. That’s when I knew, I had gone too far.

  His voice was dangerously low, each word carrying a weight that sent ice through my veins.

  "You’ve been alive for a few decades. Don’t presume that you know anything about anything."

  He took a step forward, and the pressure increased. I could barely breathe. My bones felt like they were about to crack under the strain.

  "I’ll crush you like a bug if you ever talk to me like that again."

  My body locked up, frozen in place. My throat was so dry I couldn't even swallow. I had fought monsters, survived brushes with death but this? This was something else. I had let a few victories go to my head, made myself believe I was something more than an insect in the presence of a god.

  Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the pressure eased. Velarion exhaled, the golden light in his eyes dimming, though his presence remained overwhelming.

  "Look, I know how you must feel. You've just been introduced to all of this and feel without direction, but believe me when I tell you that I have trained thousands of ascendants. More than a few of them were from Earth. Coddling you would lead to a guaranteed death at best."

  I was still shaking, but I managed to whisper, "I'm sorry. It was just... too intense."

  He sighed again. "Just mind your tone next time. Now, tell me what happened."

  So I did. I told him about the Zyrrithak, the strange portals, my inability to get back to my body. I recounted everything, every detail, every terrifying moment. My voice was raw by the time I finished, my breath uneven, my hands clenched at my sides to keep them from shaking.

  He listened, his expression unreadable, but I could see the amusement in his eyes even before he spoke. "What did you expect to happen, going around flaunting your energy? Of course you were going to attract shadow creatures. That’s literally how we got introduced."

  I took a few slow breaths, forcing my temper down. "You never said anything about that."

  Velarion rolled his eyes. "I didn’t think you were that dense. There's a lot to learn, and me repeating obvious things won’t get us anywhere."

  That still didn’t make sense. "But I thought being high leveled was supposed to protect the reality barrier, not attract monsters."

  That actually made him laugh. Not just a chuckle, a full, amused laugh, like I had just said the dumbest thing in the universe. I was about half a second away from risking my life just to punch him in the face.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "First of all, you’re not strong enough to consider yourself high leveled, not even close. And yes, a high level presence does protect the barrier, shadow creatures still have a survival instinct. They won’t approach something vastly stronger than they are."

  He sat down, crossing his front legs like this was the most casual conversation in the world. "Unless, of course, they’re young or extremely starving. But what you call high leveled beings can easily take care of that."

  I exhaled sharply, forcing myself to think through his words. It made sense. I should have remembered that. I had been so focused on what I didn’t understand that I overlooked the basics.

  "Okay, I’ll be more careful next time. But what about the rips?" I locked eyes with him. "Please, answer me directly. Is Earth getting unanchored?"

  Velarion didn’t answer immediately. His gaze flicked past me, as if he were looking at something beyond my perception. That pause made my stomach drop. But before I could press further, he finally spoke.

  "Rips in the reality barrier happen all the time. Worlds become unanchored when the Astral overwhelms the reality barrier."

  "So... that’s a no?"

  He sighed, rubbing his temple. "Not for a long time. And you shouldn’t worry about such things."

  My jaw clenched. "It’s my home."

  His expression didn’t change. "And what are you going to do if it happens? You don’t have the power nor the resources to do anything about it. So stop assuming things you have no idea about and focus on getting stronger if you really want to help your planet."

  He was right. Of course he was right. I needed to get stronger, to learn more, to truly understand how all of this worked. But that pause, that brief hesitation before his answer, that lingered in my mind. I knew what I had seen. Something was happening to Earth. And no matter what Velarion said, I wasn’t going to ignore it.

  “So what do I do now?”

  “Explore. And I’ll say it again in case it didn’t stick, don’t beacon your energy like a lighthouse. Focus on how your energy flows. Don’t just activate a skill. The system isn’t there to make you lazy. Think of it as a mold, it will take as much energy as you give. You need to learn how much energy is necessary for any given skill.”

  I muttered to myself, “You could have told me that.”

  He heard me. For a tense moment, I thought he was going to take offense, but he just chuckled. “You’d have figured it out yourself. Don’t think too much about it. Your skills are still not strong enough to cause any problems, just try and focus when using them.”

  I nodded. “Okay, what if I can’t go back to my body?”

  He sighed loudly. “Don’t let cowardice stray you from the path. That resistance you felt was mostly in your head. Don’t let fear cripple you.”

  “Mostly?”

  He gave me a flat look. “Yes, shadow creatures can disturb the flow of energy around them, but it’s insignificant at the level of the Zyrrithak you encountered. Now go. You’ve wasted enough time.”

  I went back to the city, and the first thing I did was use the pendant to contact the elves. Still no response. So, I decided to stick with walking, even if I really wanted to vault around buildings.

  I kept walking around for an hour, not really doing anything but looking for any disturbances in the reality barrier. I noticed some small rips, ranging from the size of a small coin to some bigger, about the size of a dog door. They immediately disappeared.

  Moving through familiar streets, I eventually walked back towards my apartment, just in case. I manifested a small, two foot sword and activated my astral sight, focusing on my arm. The sword had the same energy density as the rest of my body. I reabsorbed it and manifested another, trying to use less energy. It definitely wasn’t instinctual, but I managed to limit the energy going into the skill. A dull sword formed, it looked shoddily made and brittle. I tapped it against a wall, and it immediately chipped. One strong swing, and it broke. So, there was a sweet spot somewhere in the middle.

  I tried again, adding a bit more energy to it. The sword glowed faintly in my astral sight and felt more solid. It wasn’t as sharp as I wanted, but it was still a deadly blade.

  I kept tweaking the skill, but something always felt wrong. I either used too much energy or too little, and I needed to give it all my attention, something I couldn’t exactly do in the middle of a fight. But not wanting to waste more time, especially since I started feeling the pull on my tether, I moved on.

  I wandered through the neighborhood, keeping close to home, when I noticed a bigger rip, smaller than the one the Zyrrithak had emerged from, but still significant. I approached cautiously, stopping ten yards away, ready to bolt at any sign of trouble.

  The portal started pulsating. I hid behind a wall and manifested a spear and a shield. The first thing that emerged was a beak, then a small head, followed by two black wings with feathers that looked like they were barely hanging on. Then, a humanoid figure stepped through. It had no arms, only two large wings. A bulging gut sagged beneath its chest, and it stood on bird like feet. Its whole body was covered in patchy, tattered feathers.

  I gripped my spear tighter and steadied my breathing, ready for whatever was about to happen next.

  Umbersclaw (lev 97)

  This is all that remains of a once proud, flight capable species that ruled the skies of Veylith. Their civilization spanned the clouds, their mastery of the winds unrivaled until their world was lost to the Astral