When we landed inside the asteroid, the massive ship slowly powered down until only a faint hum remained.
The ramp hissed open, and I followed Dante down onto the rough stone surface. The interior of the cave wasn’t impressive, no metal walls or lights like I half expected, just rock smoothed unnaturally, almost like claws had carved it hollow.
There was nothing inside except for two things: a wide runed circle drawn into the stone floor and a simple chair positioned beside it, as if whoever designed this place intended to spend a long time waiting here.
The air was cool, dry, and silent, broken only by the distant groan of the asteroid shifting around us.
"This is it," Dante said.
He gestured toward the runed circle. "This is the channel. It connects directly to the world of Peanu, just beyond this belt. It was made with the help of our spies already inside, and my intervention."
I studied the glowing inscriptions. They weren’t like ordinary teleportation runes, each line shimmered faintly with spatial essence, and I could feel their instability. "So this circle is like... a doorway?"
"Exactly. But you need to understand something first."
Dante sat down in the chair, his eyes half closing. "Any time space inside a world is forcibly torn from the outside, the ruling authority of that world is alerted immediately. Just like our emperor knows when you open a portal to your pocket realm, the same applies everywhere."
I frowned. "How do they know?"
He tilted his head, as though deciding how much to explain.
"Because of the world core. Think of it as the heart of the world. When space is torn, the core feels it. Instantly. And to preserve stability, it sends out spatial fluctuations, repairing the tear as quickly as possible."
I folded my arms, staring at the circle. The word "world core" struck harder than I let on.
"Every world has a core," Dante continued. "Its strength depends on the world’s own depth and might. A weak world will have a fragile core, easily shaken. A strong world has a core that even I wouldn’t dare confront directly."
I fell silent, my thoughts returning to my quest. Feed a world core to the Dawn Core.
"Where is a world core located?" I asked quietly.
Dante blinked, surprised by the question, then shrugged.
"That’s something very few know. In our world, only the emperor knows its true location. Normally, a core doesn’t just sit somewhere you can walk to, it hides inside a pocket dimension of its own. And it has enough will to defend itself. If you were to go looking, it would be the one hunting you instead."
So even Dante didn’t know. That was both relieving and frustrating.
I gestured at the circle again. "Then if I use this portal, won’t the emperor of Peanu know instantly that someone’s broken in?"
"Yes. If you used the natural way. But what I’ve done here..." He leaned forward slightly. "I’ve created a channel anchored inside an abomination zone on Peanu. There, a grandmaster abomination with mastery of space rules. By building the exit inside its domain, the signal becomes... muddled."
"Instead of a clean tear in space, this channel creates fissures. The emperor of Peanu will sense them, yes, but he’ll believe the fissures are forming from inside his world.
Like another anomaly, the kind abominations leave behind. He won’t suspect an outside intrusion, at least not immediately."
I stepped closer, running my hand over the faintly glowing runes. They buzzed against my palm, unstable yet precise. "That’s clever. But what’s the catch?"
Dante’s mouth curled into a thin line.
"The downside is pain. Traveling this way means the channel itself is jagged, incomplete. You’ll feel the fissures tear against your body. I can cross safely because of my own protections, but since you’re going alone..." He paused. "You’ll be on your own to endure it."
I exhaled slowly. "So, pain in exchange for stealth." The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the ⓝovelFire.net
He didn’t embellish it, but I could tell from his tone that "pain" wasn’t just discomfort. The risk was real.
Still, I found myself nodding. "That’s fine. If it means I can move without immediately alerting an entire empire, I’ll manage."
He leaned back in the chair and sighed. "Then it’s settled. I’ll hear about whatever you’re cooking up there from our spies. Do you want me to have them meet you and give updates directly?"