The transition was not instantaneous. It was a violent, tearing sensation, as if their bodies were being disassembled atom by atom and rewoven into a new pattern.
When the white light faded, Arden fell to her knees, retching. The air tasted different here clean, sterile, metallic.
"Is everyone... whole?" Kael's voice was tight. He was checking his weapons, then his own hands.
"We made it," Jian said, scanning the perimeter. "But we're not in Kansas anymore."
They stood in the middle of a plaza. It was the same plaza where Arden had conducted the Symphony of Chaos. But it was wrong.
The crater was gone, replaced by a perfectly smooth, polished obsidian floor. The ruined buildings were gone, replaced by towering spires of white glass and chrome that spiraled into the sky like frozen lightning.
And the sky… the sky was perfect. A deep, unblemished blue. No clouds. No birds. And, looking closely, Arden realized it wasn't a sky at all.
