Page 194 of I Ran Away to Evil
Keith offered, “If it helps, I was portaled here and found myself already inside the bubble.”
“They portaled you into the trap.” Gerda kicked a stone from the destroyed wall. It hit the pink bubble and was consumed by the Void. “That means it’s an enchantment. It’s maintained by its own mana, and we could potentially just attack it until there isn’t any mana left to sustain it.”
“I don’t know if that will work,” Keith said. “I have a perk that lets me connect to my enchantments and resupply them with mana from a distance.”
“Beg pardon, Your Viciousness.” Gerda lifted one eyebrow at the Dark Lord. “But you are a level eightyArcane Sage. This was cast by someone under level sixty.”
“Still.” Keith shrugged. “That doesn’t stop the dimension from collapsing on me and Voiding me out of existence.”
Gerda put her hands on her hips. “Which one of us is the expert in dimensional magic?”
“You can’t expect me to believe that you’re anexpertin one of the most difficult forms of magic just because your class lets you make portals! You just cheat with bridges.”
The two of them began arguing back and forth.
I contemplated throwing rocks at the spell until it popped, then something Gerda had said piqued my interest. “Wait, Gerda, how do you know the caster is under level sixty?”
“Because my [Pocket Dimension] skill only lets me analyze things of equal to or lesser—”
The troll cut herself off, and it looked like she had an idea. “Anyone got a waterskin?”
Keith twiddled his fingers. “I can make as much water as you need in here, not that it’ll help.”
“I do.” I pulled out one from my storage and handed it over.
“Now, no one say anything, or the dungeon might explode. I hate [Mana Burn], and this is more complex than I’m used to.”
We both readily agreed and let the woman do her work in peace. Gerda walked up to the bubble and began using the broken pieces of the wall to build asmall arch in front of it. We watched in confusion as she worked, only realizing what we were looking at when she was almost done.
“It’s a bridge!” I cried.
“CHEATING WITH BRIDGES!” Keith announced indignantly.
“Shut it!” Gerda uncorked the pouch and laid it down so a trickle of running water snaked beneath the “bridge.”
“In Between the light Unseen,
Void and Space all mixed in place,
By Water’s gift, [Dimension Rift].”
Gerda gathered her magic all around her, and I could see wisps of aquamarine power floating into a formation. The water beneath the bridge flowed toward the bubble but rose on strings of mana as it touched the outer surface of the dome. The droplets, reinforced with magic, bobbed into a spell pattern in the air as if they were dancing raindrops.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the water became a gently spinning circle that wound around the pink bubble, enveloping it within the trail of droplets.
“I’m going to try and take control of the dimension. I’m a bridge troll. This is my bridge. That is myspace.” The waterskin was out of water, but more water manifested itself. Gerda instructed, “When I say so, take your sword and stab the bubble to destabilize it.”
More and more water rose from beneath the bridge to join the initial formation.
I pulled my sword from her sheath and prepared to execute a sword perk. Jacqueline was wary of the bubble, and of her own volition, released a sheen of [Void Intent] that rippled along her blade.
The water was now whirling in a streaming tornado of white, far more than could have possibly fit within the waterskin. Power crackled within it, and I could just barely make out the pink of the bubble.
“Now!”
I focused my all into my sword. “[Force Thrust].”
Jacqueline hit the wall of water and smashed through it to the bubble. Sparkles of black and pink and silver and green erupted from the area around the sword in a blast of mana. My sword sung. She laughed. She screamed. Jacqueline’s [Void Intent] consumed the dimension walls as it was in turn consumed by flecks of Void.
