Days one and two passed in a state of agonizing, heightened alert. Kaelen was completely immersed in the Dimensional Lock ritual. The chamber now glowed with a continuous, white-hot light, and the Codex of Echoes pulsated at the center, acting as the perfect, unmoving anchor for the dimensional rift being slowly woven around them.
The siphon of Aether from the Sunstone Vents was now intense, and the resulting chaotic energy leakage was exactly what Elara feared. The surrounding peaks likely registered a massive, sustained magical disturbance.
Elara kept watch from a fissure near the main entrance, rationing their meager supplies.
On the third day, the threat arrived. It wasn't the Shadow Legion, which was compromised, but the Collegium Scryer's Guild—a group of low-level, high-volume mages whose only skill was detection and surveillance.
Elara spotted them first: three figures in the blue and silver robes of the Collegium, moving cautiously across the plain, guided by the overwhelming Aether signature Kaelen was emitting.
They were not fighters, but they carried Binding Charms—spells that, if successfully cast, would temporarily paralyze Kaelen, causing the Dimensional Lock ritual to instantly fail and consume him.
Elara triggered her first diversion: a simple Smoke Potion placed on a heated rock near a secondary tunnel. The resulting plume of acrid, dark smoke immediately drew the attention of the lead scryer.
"Check that fissure! It's an escape route!" the scryer shouted, misinterpreting the smoke as a sign of a hastily abandoned camp.
While the two other scryers focused on the wrong tunnel, Elara silently activated her second diversion: a minor Flare Rune at the mouth of the actual entrance. It gave off a brilliant, non-Aetheric flash of light, blinding the scryers momentarily.
Elara used the brief window of confusion to act. She sprinted from her hiding spot, retrieved two handfuls of sharp, ordinary stones, and flung them at the two distracted scryers.
The scryers, who assumed they were facing a magical threat, were completely unprepared for a non-Aetheric attack. One took a sharp stone to the face, stumbling back and dropping his Binding Charm. The second flinched, misfiring his own Charm into the ground.
The lead scryer realized the deception: "It's a distraction! A zero-rank civilian! Ignore her! The signature is coming from that hole!"
But the momentary confusion was enough. Kaelen, though unable to move, had subconsciously tightened his core during the intrusion. The Dimensional Lock was now 90% complete, the dimensional fabric shimmering around the chamber entrance.
Elara knew she couldn't stop them again. She retreated back into the chamber, taking her place beside Kaelen, her heart hammering.
"They are coming, Kaelen," she whispered, planting the Obsidian Staff firmly into the ground beside the rune circle.
Kaelen's lips moved barely a fraction. "Final stage. Now, Elara. We cross the void."