“They’re catching up to us!” Mike shouted.
The Beather tsunami was advancing with a speed that began to worry the group.
“Calm down, everything is under control!” Lilith replied.
Kragg turned slightly to observe the state of the tsunami and sighed before returning to his seat.
“It’s really catching up to us,” he murmured.
Lilith glanced sideways at Kragg as he noticed how she was sweating.
“I know…
Just don’t mention it too much,” Lilith murmured back.
The cars jumped over the hills while behind them the tsunami threatened to catch up.
“I can’t go out to destroy it, everyone would die,” Lilith thought as she pressed the accelerator to the floor.
Kragg noticed Lilith’s uncertainty and, without moving from his seat, spoke: “Go out to confront it, but give us time to escape with everyone,” Kragg ordered.
Lilith looked at him briefly before smiling and, quickly, exiting through the window wildly.
The guys, seeing how the driver was getting out through the window, froze.
“Who the hell is driving?!” Zak shouted while closing his eyes, seized by panic.
The others were also stunned and Dave, as always, fainted again.
“Relax,” Kragg commented while, in a quick movement, he moved to the steering wheel taking control of the vehicle.
“What’s going to happen to Lilith?!” Anna asked while watching through the rear window as Lilith ran toward the tsunami.
“She’ll be fine, relax,” Kragg responded with a calm that disconcerted the youths.
Meanwhile, Lilith ran smiling with her katana in hand toward the tsunami.
“Give me the signal!” Lilith asked.
The sound of a radio with static sounded briefly before Kragg’s voice resonated: “Not yet…” Kragg replied while looking through the windows at how his allies accelerated in their cars.
“Yaa?!” Lilith’s voice resonated again, sounding anxious.
“Wait…” Kragg replied.
Kragg shifted his gaze to a radar that was stuck to the car’s screen.
“Now!” Kragg ordered.
Lilith finally jumped and launched herself against the tsunami while a second strand of hair began to glow silver.
“Buster…!” Kragg immediately accelerated to the floor while turning on his radio.
“Everyone accelerate fast!” Kragg ordered.
In the background, the drivers of the other cars responded.
“Roger that!
Why the hell is Lilith outside…?
SHIT, ACCELERATE!” the voice of one of the drivers sounded.
“What?!” the others shouted while in the background the engines roared loudly.
Zak shifted his gaze to the window and managed to see how the cars seemed to surf the sand hills regardless of the terrain, as if they were fleeing from something worse than the tsunami.
“Oh no, I don’t like this at all…” Mike mentioned while sweat beaded on his forehead.
He was clearly trembling, not because of the tsunami, but because of what was about to happen.
Kragg kept accelerating the car without stopping.
“BUSTER IMPACT!” Lilith’s voice resonated into the distance.
A great shockwave, similar to a nuclear bomb, shook everything, causing the car where the group was to rise slightly.
But it immediately came down, making the vehicle start spinning.
“What the hell?!” Zak exclaimed while clinging to the car seat that was still spinning.
It finally stopped.
Kragg remained silent for a moment before turning slightly.
“Is everyone okay?” Kragg asked.
“Y…
yes…” Anna replied while still holding her head, her ears ringing from what had happened.
Mike’s state was deplorable: he had a lost look and an expression that seemed to say “keep me alive”.
“Are you okay?” Zak asked with difficulty.
Mike turned his head slightly and looked at him.
“Y…
yes, I’m just dizzy,” he said, and immediately grabbed his head for the same reason as Anna.
Zak turned while observing how the tsunami that was chasing them had disappeared.
He could only see a giant crater in the middle of everything, with a light shining in the middle of the chaos.
“Uff…” Lilith let out a puff, panting from the great effort, clinging to her katana while already kneeling.
She stood up completely, cracked her neck slightly and observed all the chaos caused.
“Great…” she thought.
At that moment a car arrived.
Lilith simply smiled, satisfied for having accomplished her mission.
*** Once again, the sound of the light flickering constantly mixed with footsteps flooded the group.
“Finally…” Zak murmured while falling against a nearby table from the wild ride.
Anna simply watched him and leaned against a wall, clearly exhausted.
Mike got down from the car with a Dave already awake, but still stunned by the experience.
“Hey…
Weren’t you scared?” Mike asked while watching how people began to mourn their fallen comrades in that battle.
Lilith, who was drying her forehead still sweaty from the effort, looked at him and sighed before responding: “Yes…
I was scared, and don’t think my hand wasn’t trembling because of what I was going to do.
But if I didn’t do anything…
who else would?” “And what about those who died?
Because they seemed happy…” Anna commented.
“No one is happy, girl,” Kragg responded briefly before continuing.
“No one is happy dying…
It was simply that or everyone died.
They fought to the end because there was no other option.
Why were they smiling?” Anna and Zak watched as Kragg took a breath before continuing to speak.
“They died by their own creed.
They were afraid, yes.
Their whole body trembled while they sweated because of the situation, yes.
We are all living beings, we all feel fear…
But it’s different when one has already decided their fate, when one has already decided how they will die.
They didn’t die sad, but they weren’t happy either…” Kragg finally finished while withdrawing to a corner.
“Did they have families?” Zak added in a whisper.
Lilith looked at him sideways while closing her eyes briefly.
Then she set down the towel she was using to dry her sweaty hair.
“Yes…
They had siblings, children, or a father and mother who surely waited for them.
From the moment we fell into this dimension and couldn’t return, there seemed to be no hope.
But…” she paused and shifted her gaze toward where Kragg had disappeared “when they saw the slightest chance to return home, they risked everything.
They knew some would die, but they still moved forward.
Although not all would survive, they fought so that their comrades could return home.” “Why didn’t you help them?” Zak asked.
Lilith sighed while looking at her katana.
“You saw what I caused…
Imagine if I had helped what would have happened.” “I understand…” Zak murmured.
Anna watched as a group of men stored medals in small chests and, in one of them, she managed to see two red scarves similar to the ones those two brothers wore in battle.
A lump formed in Anna’s throat as she understood the consequences of such a battle.
But in that same instant Kragg entered, this time carrying the dimensional weapon.
“Alright, it’s time!” he announced with an empty but determined look.
All the people who were doing their things shifted their gaze toward Kragg, just like the group.
“Time to leave already?” Zak asked.
“Yes!
After all, by causing so much chaos in this dimension, unfortunately we attracted the attention of more creatures and it would be annoying to deal with them,” he replied.
“I understand…” Lilith murmured before jumping up from the box where she had sat briefly.
“Everyone it’s time to go, to return home!
Get ready!” she ordered.
Everyone began moving quickly while storing boxes in the trunks of the cars.
“How is a rift going to let so many cars through?” Zak asked, clearly confused.
“After all, I can only open rifts big enough for one person to enter, but this…?” “Relax, you just adjust the weapon a bit and it’s ready,” Kragg replied.
Anna, who noticed how they were already preparing to leave, ran toward them and asked clearly worried: “Hey!
Didn’t you say you would help us?” Kragg sighed slightly before speaking: “I had forgotten.
Well, follow me,” he ordered.
Anna and Zak looked at each other briefly before following him, while the other guys followed them.
They arrived at an almost desolate area where there were only a few boxes.
“Okay, I’ll be honest with you, kid.
Being a bearer of the AllDither you can travel to all the dimensions you want.
Not only can you move between dimensions, but it’s worse if you don’t know how to control it because it can end up sending you to a dimension of the Void.” “Void?” Anna asked.
“Yes, it’s rare and really rare that someone arrives like that, but also dangerous, because to enter a dimension of the void they must pass through the Central Dimension and, lastly, the interdimensional barrier.” “Are you telling me we entered where we shouldn’t have?!” Mike commented half paranoid, seized by fear of where they were.
“Yes, but relax, you’ll be able to return.
But it won’t be so easy, because they want to go back between dimensions.
That will force Zak to use double his energy.
As a consequence, he will have to rest two days, or he will die from the excess and you will be stranded in an unknown dimension.” “I understand…” Anna murmured.
“Alright,” Kragg approached Zak.
“Kid, to go back in dimensions it’s almost the same, but keep in mind that if it’s costing you, leave it for a few hours, okay?” “Okay.” Following that, Zak positioned himself and began to concentrate.
“Think that you want to go back.
Surely to advance through dimensions you say ‘Get me out of here’.
Don’t think, just feel…” “Take us home,” Zak thought.
While a small rift, but yellow in color, began to materialize.
“He’s doing it…
But it’s yellow?” Mike commented.
“That’s the effect.
Yellow rifts make you go back in dimensions where you’ve already been and sometimes to new dimensions, but relax,” Kragg explained.
While Zak was concentrating, out of nowhere a man came running: “Sir!
General Lilith is vomiting blood again!” Kragg growled: “Shit, I told her not to overexert herself…
I have to go, guys.
You know, it was a pleasure helping you and take care,” Kragg finally said to leave with the man.
The yellow rift that Zak was creating kept slowly getting bigger, big enough for the guys to enter…