(Meanwhile, Moltherak’s Floating Island, Leo’s POV)
Leo stood on the edge of the floating island with his heartbeat drumming louder than usual, as Moltherak loomed behind him with a watching stillness.
The old dragon had deemed him ready to make his first jump, and hence, he prepared for it with bated breath.
’Step 1, conjure the aura shield’
He thought, as he tightened and reshaped his aura into a thin, focused layer meant to protect his mind from whatever the fourth dimension attempted to imprint upon him.
"Today is different from the previous attempts, boy," Moltherak said as he settled onto his coils, the ancient dragon’s voice echoing faintly through the open island.
"Today, you are not just knocking on the door of the fourth dimension, but rather stepping through it... even if only for a breath."
*Gulp*
Leo swallowed once as he nodded, his aura flaring softly in acknowledgement as it flowed around him like living silk trying to search for weak spots in the fourth dimensional membrane around him.
"So the exit is five hundred kilometers from here?" Leo asked, as he exhaled sharply to steady his nerves.
"Exactly five hundred and forty-two," Moltherak corrected with a low rumble of amusement. "A short hop. A child’s step. But for your first entry, it is enough."
He said as Leo lifted his hand and let the aura pull into his palm, compressing into a dense dagger shape, as Moltherak watched the angle of Leo’s stance with sharp scrutiny.
"Remember," Moltherak said, "a shallow entry angle for a short distance. Too deep, and you will shoot past the mark. Too shallow, and you will barely leave the terrace."
"I know," Leo replied quietly, as he traced that mental slope in his mind again, shaping it as Moltherak had taught him, a gentle downward angle, almost like skipping a stone across still water, something that sliced the membrane without diving too far inside.
His aura stiffened, ready to strike.
"Very well," Moltherak murmured, "open it."
Leo’s breath trembled once as he thrust the aura dagger forward.
*CRRRAAACK—*
The world rippled at once, violently but beautifully, as a thin rupture tore through the surface of reality, the surrounding air bending inward like fabric pulled into a whirlpool, while the pressure of the island thickened in response, turning every breath into a weight he needed to push through.
*CRRRSH*
The fourth dimension stirred behind the crack, shimmering with that same impossible distortion Leo had glimpsed before, yet this time the void did not remain on the other side of a window.
This time, it pulled at him as if beckoning him to enter.
"Step through," Moltherak commanded, as Leo inhaled sharply and leapt.
—
The world vanished instantly.
No sound. No weight. No direction.
Just a sensation of falling without falling, moving without motion, as the space around him stretched like liquid glass that folded inward like a twisting ribbon.
His body lost the meaning of left or right or forward or backward, as if he were drifting through a sea with no water to hold him and no gravity to guide him.
*Fssshh—*
Colors flickered at the edges of his vision, colors he knew yet somehow did not recognize, mixing with shadows that refused to behave like shadows at all, as though the fourth dimension rejected the idea of silhouettes and instead painted disturbances rather than shapes.
*Bzzzt*
A faint hum vibrated against his aura shield, brushing against him like someone whispering directly into the fabric of his thoughts, as if testing him, probing him, trying to seep past the shield wrapped around his mind, as Leo clenched his fist tighter.
*Clench*
He could feel the tunnel’s slope guiding him, that very angle he carved into the membrane earlier pulling him downward in a smooth glide, almost like sliding along a blade-thin current.
"So this is it..." he whispered, even though no sound should have existed here, "this is the fourth dimension."
He observed, as the tunnel bent slightly, responding to his exit vector.
*FSSHH*
A subtle tug pulled him forward.
A subtle tremor that hinted that the exit was near, as he sliced his dagger through the very next weak point he found, which caused light to return from the other side.
*FWIP—*
Leo burst out of the dimensional tear in a flash of distorted air, tumbling forward with a gasp as the rupture sealed behind him with a soft, elastic snap, sending a shockwave that disturbed the ocean beneath him.
*SPLASH*
He landed straight into the vast ocean exactly 542 kilometers from the floating island, as his hair and body became drenched by the tainted water of the Stilled World.
’I did it.... I successfully navigated a space tunnel!’
He thought, as his heart pounded with joy while his mind pulsed with adrenaline.
"Five hundred forty two kilometers in a single step...
Hahaha... Hahahaha..."
He chuckled, as his breath came in controlled bursts as he ran a hand through his wet hair, still trying to absorb what he had just done....
However, before he could celebrate too much, a loud boom sound interrupted his thoughts.
*BOOOM*
A sudden boom of displaced air erupted behind him as Moltherak appeared through a separate tunnel, landing gracefully with wings half-spread, his golden eyes gleaming with approval.
"You did not collapse. You did not lose your way. And you did not scream."
Moltherak said, as he approached with a heavy, rumbling satisfaction.
"For a first leap, boy, that is more than enough."
Leo exhaled again, this time with a trembling smile, because even though it lasted barely a breath, he had tasted the impossible.
He had stepped into a world that lay beyond a normal human’s senses and survived to tell the tale.
"Now, we teach you how to do it again... and again and again... until it becomes second nature to you."
Moltherak instructed, as Leo nodded slowly, the hunger in his eyes returning as he felt fired up to finish this last phase of his training as fast as possible so that he could finally be with his army.