The news about the immense hole in the Scorching Wastes arrived like another tremor shaking their fragile stability. Mireia returned from a supply exchange with a Versari contact, her face pale, relaying the information to the assembled Sorcerai in their makeshift camp.
"A hole..."
She repeated, her voice hushed, disbelief warring with the grim reports.
"Kilometers wide, near the supposed location of The Abyss. Bottomless, they say. Appeared after a strange energy pulse was detected deep underground."
Silence descended upon the small group. The flickering elemental lights cast long, dancing shadows, making the familiar faces seem alien and strained. Flareon felt a cold knot tighten in his stomach. First the creature, then the attacks, now a literal hole torn in the world near a site of ancient, dark legends.
Boltar slammed a fist onto the salvaged table he was leaning against, the impact echoing sharply.
"The Underworld!"
He declared, his lightning-sharp eyes blazing with conviction.
"I told you! The legends are true! Lioran's seal... broken! That's where the creature came from! The Voidwalker! It crawled out!"
He gestured emphatically, the air around him crackling faintly.
"This proves it!"
Seren, sitting nearby reviewing sketches of the strange tablet, looked up sharply, her expression a mixture of alarm and skepticism. She respected Boltar's power, but his leap to mythological conclusions chafed against her Farseer training.
"Proves it?"
She countered, keeping her voice steady despite the tremor of unease the news provoked.
"Or does it just add another anomaly we can't explain? Boltar, the Voidwalker we encountered... it didn't crawl out of the ground. It descended. Silently. From the sky."
She stood up, pacing a few steps, gathering her arguments.
"Starbreach didn't see it coming until it was practically overhead. How does something that massive emerge from a subterranean realm and reach altitude undetected? And the energy... they felt... atmospheric. Extraterrestrial, even. Not geological."
She faced Boltar directly.
"Isn't it just as likely that whatever force caused the attacks, whatever brought the Voidwalkers, also caused the hole? A side effect of immense energy discharge? Maybe the hole isn't the source, maybe it's just another scar left by the real threat?"
Her words resonated with some of the other Sorcerai, who exchanged uncertain glances. Ferran frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Gravus remained impassive, but his gaze was fixed on Seren, considering her points.
Then, Fujina, the quiet Wind Sorcerai, spoke, her voice a soft murmur that somehow cut through the tension. She remained seated, gazing towards the flickering water globe Mireia maintained.
"Perhaps... the distinction isn't so clear."
All eyes turned to her. She rarely spoke at length, and her contributions were often oblique, reflective.
"The legends..."
Fujina continued, her gaze distant.
"They don't always describe the Underworld as merely 'below'. They speak of it as... 'Other'. A place where the rules are... bent. Broken."
She looked towards Seren, then Boltar.
"Perhaps 'Underworld' was just the simplest way our ancestors had to describe something fundamentally alien to our world, whether it originated deep within the planet's core, or... somewhere else entirely."
She concluded softly, letting the ambiguity hang in the air.
"The depictions... they were always out of this world, even when they placed it beneath our feet."
Flareon listened intently, his mind racing. He thought back to the Frostfang, the impossible creature passing overhead, the sheer wrongness of it. He remembered Seren's insistence on the alien energy signatures, Boltar's certainty about the Underworld legend, Fujina's description of it being 'Other'. Could both be right, in a way?
"Wait..."
He began, his voice cutting through the quiet contemplation. He looked from Seren to Boltar, then around at the others.
"What if... what if..."
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, the firelight catching the intensity in his eyes.
"What if The Abyss... isn't just a hole into the ground? What if it's not even a physical route in the way we think?"
He met Boltar's gaze, then Seren's.
"The thing Lioran sealed... isn't a place below, but a gateway? A tear between... dimensions, maybe? Between our world and whatever 'Other' place the Voidwalkers come from?"
The suggestion landed in the quiet room with surprising weight. Eyebrows raised. Gravus tilted his head slightly. Even Boltar paused his restless fidgeting.
Flareon pressed on, the idea solidifying as he spoke.
"It explains the alien energy signatures, the impossible biology... they aren't from Terravos, they're intruding."
He looked around the group.
"It fits the legends of something 'Other', something chaotic breaking through. It fits Seren's observations of something alien violating our world. It connects the hole in the ground to the monster from the sky."
The implications were staggering. A stable gateway to another reality, sealed by a legendary figure, now broken open, unleashing horrors upon their world.
Mireia stared into the distance, her healer's mind likely grappling with the cosmic scale of such a wound. Ferran absently rubbed the strange tablet Seren had found, its alien nature suddenly feeling far more ominous. Gravus nodded slowly, the geological impossibility of the hole making more sense if it wasn't purely geological.
Boltar opened his mouth, perhaps to argue, but then closed it again, frowning deeply. A portal... it didn't contradict the Underworld being the source, merely redefined what the 'Underworld' was.
Seren looked at Flareon, a flicker of surprise and grudging respect in her eyes. His theory, while terrifying, elegantly reconciled the conflicting evidence and mythological interpretations in a way neither she nor Boltar had managed. It wasn't just a flight of fancy; it was a hypothesis that addressed the major points of contention.
"A dimensional gateway..."
Seren murmured, the concept both horrifying and intellectually compelling.
"That... could account for the energy readings. And the method of arrival."