Liam stepped forward without hesitation.

The moment his foot crossed the boundary of the portal, reality vanished.

One second he was standing on the hill surrounded by hundreds of chanting witches.

The next—

Everything disappeared.

The ground beneath him ceased to exist.

The sky vanished.

Up and down no longer had meaning.

A violent force slammed into his entire body.

"UGH!"

Pain exploded through every muscle.

It felt like invisible hands had grabbed every atom inside him and were trying to pull them in different directions. His bones felt stretched. His skin felt like it was being peeled apart. Even breathing became difficult.

The pressure was unimaginable.

Then the others entered behind him.

Liam saw flashes of movement as Irina, Tatiana, Leonid, and the witches were dragged into the current alongside him.

The tunnel of darkness they had entered was gone.

Instead, they were surrounded by an endless ocean of distorted light.

Everything twisted.

Everything moved.

Everything warped.

Colors Liam didn’t even have names for flashed around them.

Space itself looked broken.

Like somebody had taken reality, shattered it into a million pieces, and forced those pieces together again.

Suddenly—

A hand grabbed his arm.

"Liam!"

Mary’s voice cut through the chaos.

He turned.

Mary looked nothing like her usual calm self.

Her face was pale.

Sweat covered her forehead.

Her fingers dug into his arm hard enough to hurt.

"Give me everything you have!" she screamed.

Liam reacted instantly.

There wasn’t even a second of hesitation.

Power exploded from his body.

Golden light erupted beneath his skin.

The glow became so intense that everyone inside the portal could see it clearly.

His veins lit up.

His eyes shone.

Even his hair seemed illuminated by the immense energy pouring from him.

Mary immediately seized control of it.

The witch stretched both hands outward.

The moment Liam’s energy touched her, she began weaving it.

The process was impossible to understand.

It looked less like spellcasting and more like somebody manipulating the laws of existence itself.

Golden threads emerged from Liam’s body.

Mary caught them.

Twisted them.

Folded them.

Compressed them.

Then wrapped them around the seven travelers.

A cocoon formed.

A massive shell of golden energy surrounding everyone.

The instant it completed—

BOOM!

Something struck the cocoon from outside.

Everyone staggered.

Tatiana gasped.

Leonid’s eyes widened.

Irina instinctively reached for balance.

The cocoon had saved them.

Outside, the journey had become visible.

And what they saw stole the breath from their lungs.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody could.

The sight was simply too unbelievable.

Endless rivers of distorted space stretched in every direction.

Massive storms made entirely from light raged beyond the cocoon.

Fragments of what looked like shattered galaxies drifted past them.

Stars appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Entire sections of reality folded inward like paper before unfolding again.

Time itself seemed broken.

Liam saw flashes of impossible things.

A star being born.

A star dying.

Entire worlds appearing for less than a second before vanishing.

None of them knew if what they were seeing was real.

None of them understood it.

All they could do was stare.

And endure.

The cocoon shot forward at unimaginable speed.

Faster than light.

Faster than thought.

Faster than anything any of them had ever experienced.

Meanwhile Liam continued feeding energy into Mary.

And feeding.

And feeding.

And feeding.

The drain was monstrous.

His body had never experienced anything like this before.

The System had forced him through pain.

Forced him through combat.

Forced him through countless impossible situations.

Yet this was different.

This was pure exhaustion.

Pure depletion.

His reserves were being emptied faster than he could comprehend.

Sweat rolled down his face.

His breathing became heavier.

His legs began shaking.

Still he refused to stop.

Mary needed energy.

The cocoon needed energy.

And if the cocoon failed—

Liam looked outside again.

His stomach tightened.

The violent turbulence surrounding them had somehow grown worse.

Reality itself looked hostile.

Massive tears appeared in the fabric of space before sealing themselves.

Invisible waves slammed against the cocoon.

Every impact sent vibrations through the golden shell.

The seven travelers could actually see what would happen if their protection vanished.

Death would be instant.

No.

Not death.

Something worse.

They would simply cease to exist.

Their bodies stretched across unimaginable distances until nothing remained.

Even Leonid, who rarely showed emotion, had gone completely silent.

Tatiana couldn’t look away.

Irina’s face had become serious.

For the first time since entering the portal, genuine fear flickered inside her eyes.

The danger surrounding them was simply beyond anything they had ever faced before.

Liam gritted his teeth harder.

His muscles trembled.

His vision blurred slightly.

Still he continued.

More energy.

More power.

More.

Mary could feel his condition worsening.

She turned toward him.

Her own voice sounded strained.

"We’re almost there!"

Liam nodded.

Then pushed even harder.

The remaining golden energy inside his body surged outward.

His glow intensified one final time.

Every last drop.

Everything he had.

He poured all of it into Mary.

His knees nearly buckled.

His chest burned.

His entire body screamed for him to stop.

Yet he endured.

Because now they could see it.

Ahead.

Far away.

A light.

A destination.

The endpoint of their impossible journey.

The cocoon accelerated one final time.

The raging storm outside became increasingly violent.

Space twisted.

Reality cracked.

Invisible forces slammed against them from every direction.

The cocoon trembled.

Mary’s face turned white.

The two accompanying witches looked close to collapsing.

Everyone held their breath.

Then—

WHOOSH!

Everything stopped.

No turbulence.

No storms.

No distorted space.

No pressure.

Nothing.

The cocoon burst apart.

The seven travelers were violently ejected.

The sensation was so sudden that none of them even had time to react.

They crashed onto solid ground.

Hard.

Irina rolled several times.

Tatiana landed awkwardly before catching herself.

Leonid hit the earth and immediately pushed himself up.

Mary collapsed onto one knee.

The two witches lay gasping for breath.

Everything spun.

Nobody could focus.

Their vision had become completely blurry.

Colors mixed together.

Shapes stretched.

The world refused to stabilize.

For several seconds nobody could even tell where they were.

Sky.

Ground.

Trees.

Mountains.

Something.

Everything looked distorted.

Everybody struggled to recover.

Everybody except Liam.

The moment they landed—

He collapsed.

Completely.

His body hit the ground without resistance.

Not because he was injured.

Not because he was unconscious.

But because there was absolutely nothing left.

Every drop of energy inside him had been consumed.

His reserves were empty.

His muscles wouldn’t listen.

His body felt heavier than a mountain.

Even lifting a finger seemed impossible.

The last thing he saw before darkness threatened to swallow his vision was the blurry outline of unfamiliar skies stretching above him.

A new world.

They had actually made it.

Then his eyes slowly closed as exhaustion finally claimed him.