I squinted, trying to confirm that it was not just the trick of the light, but with this kind of background, it was hard to mistake.

  There was something there, far in the distance. In every direction. Not a mountain range, no, it was too regular. But it was definitely there, revealing itself on top of the white ground and sky.

  -Mike. In the distance. You see that?

  For a second he was confused, unsure what I was talking about, but soon he spotted the same thing.

  -The hell…? What is that…?

  -I don’t know… it’s too regular to be a mountain…

  -Mountain covering the whole… fuck, I don’t know what.

  -I mean, everything is fucked up in this place, so why not?

  -I guess…

  -Let’s check it out then.

  -That far? You crazy?

  -What, you have anything better to do? Want me to break more of the floor again?

  -It would probably give us more clues about the place than just running towards a random direction.

  -You can stay here if you want. I’m going.

  -Splitting up? You think it’s a good idea?

  -What, scared something is going to attack you?

  -No, but… Yeah, you know, why do I care? - he asked himself, realizing what he just said. - I don’t care. Go if you want.

  -If I find something, want me to come back and tell you? - I asked, teasingly.

  He just gave me a stare.

  -Right, right.

  I looked into the distance again.

  It was hard to judge the distance, but it was definitely pretty far, whatever that was.

  Time to boost myself again, I guess.

  I sighed and the moment later I could already tell the time warp around me, to the point of almost stopping.

  Recently I’ve been using that ability pretty often, I was already pretty good at controlling it so it didn’t feel so weird to me, seeing Mike frozen in place.

  For a second I considered doing something to him, but instead just turned away and started running into the distance.

  The run was boring.

  Obviously.

  But also pretty weird in a way.

  Usually, I could tell my speed or even the distance I’ve travelled just by looking, but now, with the overwhelming whiteness, I couldn’t tell shit. After leaving Mike behind there was nothing for me to actually estimate my speed. Only indication I had was his mana moving away from me, disappearing in the distance, until finally, after a few minutes, it vanished completely.

  As I was about to complain to myself and worry how to even tell the direction, I felt something.

  A presence.

  It appeared right in front of me, just at the edge of my range of detection.

  I slowed down a bit, unsure what to do.

  I never expected to find a person here. I mean, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but was strange nonetheless.

  Who was that? Someone from the MIRE?

  Had to be. This was their place, right?

  As I was approaching, I realized that they were powerful.

  Suddenly, the presence shifted and moved away a good bunch to the side.

  Did they manage to detect me?

  I mean, it was possible.

  While on the outside only a couple seconds have passed, at least to others, the experienced mage would’ve clearly realized that something was approaching. And with me being that fast, I was probably getting mistaken for a spell, hence they moved away so they won’t be hit.

  To not make them even more suspicious, I decided to not change direction, only move towards them at the last moment.

  They didn’t do anything else for a while.

  The next reaction I got was just when I was in eyesight, but before that I had a different thing to be interested in.

  And that was the building.

  What I couldn't identify before, the weird shape on the horizon, was actually just a singular building. Which was weird, because it seemed like it stretched further than just what I was seeing in front of me.

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  It was just a brick. I mean, a square structure that, while a bit darker than the floor and everything else here, was still pretty hard to distinguish.

  What was not hard to notice, though, was a rather large hole in the wall, along with a presence that was hanging around, not too far away from said hole.

  A familiar presence.

  The fact that I recognized it made me stop in my tracks. I was not sure what to think of this development, because it was definitely the same mana as I had. As Mike had. As all of us with the main Origin Crystal.

  The fact that someone like that was here with us was concerning.

  It could mean that I just found someone that was an actual formidable enemy, not just another idiot or goon that was just put in our way to stall us.

  Or, if that was not it, it was even worse.

  If it was one of us, as in someone who was opposing MIRE and still had a formidable piece of Crystal with them, it meant that this place was indeed a good way of containing us.

  But, in truth, it wasn’t either of those.

  The second part, though, wasn’t far from the truth.

  In any case, I had to confirm my suspicions.

  I wasn’t going to hold back.

  As fast as I could, I launched myself forwards, towards the presence.

  If I was to deal with it quickly, I had to use the surprise factor.

  Sure, I was detected, but still was hasted, so whoever that was, they would definitely still be at a disadvantage, power or not.

  Even if they had the same ability as me, and that was very possible with Origin Crystal, they still had to engage it. And it would at least take a second, which would be a lot longer for me.

  In a straight line, I shot towards the presence, but as soon as I got close enough to see their face, I stopped myself.

  The presence reacted.

  I think I underestimated the perception or speed of the person in front of me. Or both.

  They definitely had the same ability though, the fact that they were right now gunning right for me was an obvious indicator.

  I was preparing for the inevitable encounter, but almost immediately got confused when I saw what was coming for me.

  Same as the person in front of me.

  -Mike?

  -Mor?

  We both looked at each other with confusion.

  -What are you doing, attacking me?! - he asked, irritated and somewhat suspicious. - And what are you even doing here?

  -Me?! What are YOU doing here?! I’ve been running for a long while and you…

  -You ran away in a different direction, what are you even talking about?

  He stopped. And suddenly turned a bit more hostile.

  -Is that you even…?

  -What are you… ah.

  Yeah, that checked out.

  I didn’t understand how exactly we met up again, but that reaction was a fair one.

  I definitely proved that I could split, while not exactly a skill I practiced, it was possible.

  But, so could he.

  -I am real. Are you?

  -Obviously.

  -”Obviously”...

  We were at an impasse.

  At least, seemingly.

  There was no real way to confirm us to each other.

  Was it needed, though?

  I took a gaze at our surroundings.

  No wonder I thought it was familiar.

  It WAS the same building.

  Down to the floor and the wall I broke.

  -How the fuck does that make any sense…? - I said out loud to myself.

  -What, being…

  -Not that - I interrupted him. - We are both real, yeah I know it’s you. My bad.

  -That’s a sudden change…

  He didn’t seem so convinced. No wonder.

  -Well, I have no proof but I just got one from you. Or the place rather.

  -What?

  -I recognized shit I just broke. Well, recenlty. So I somehow made a loop.

  -Makes no sense. You definitely came from the other side.

  -Sure, sure. I don’t care if you believe me - I said as I was moving towards the building. - But if that’s right…

  -What are you doing?

  I ignored his question and instead looked towards the broken wall.

  It wasn’t that tall, just maybe a meter more than my height - just like a regular one-story building. The size matched what was on the inside, so there was no space-fuckery there, at least not this spot.

  -Should be easy…

  I jumped up without issue - a bit of mana focused on my legs was enough.

  -The hell…?

  I still was ignoring him.

  I was more interested in what I could see from up there.

  The roof was flat. The whole building was more like just a large rectangular slab of concrete or whatever this was than anything else.

  But, it gave me a bit of a look in the distance.

  On the horizon there was still that strange shape that I thought I ran towards. From every direction as well. From up there I could see a bit more of it, but it didn’t help much, it was still a distorted mess.

  -What if I go further up…?

  -The fuck are you doing? - I heard from down on the ground.

  Mike was standing right next to the building, looking at me with a question in his eyes.

  -No longer suspicious of me?

  -Only you do weird shit like that. Mind explaining, though?

  -In a moment. I just need…

  I took a closer look at the floor. Or rather the roof of the building.

  Looked sturdy enough…

  With as much strength and mana as I could muster in a moment, I pushed myself and jumped up, as high as I could.

  I didn’t expect that I’d manage to leap so high with just a sliver of preparation, but I reached more than ten meters up in the air.

  Before I got stopped, that is.

  I straight up crashed into something.

  With the jump I intended to check the horizon to maybe see more of the inconsistencies, seeing as the space was apparently looped, but the fact that I rammed my head into the ceiling completely threw me off.

  To the point where I crash-landed on the building, breaking through the ceiling and landing right next to completely stunned Mike.

  -Ow. My bad.

  But he was not listening to me, instead he was looking up.

  He was looking at the spot I crashed into…?

  Yeah what was that even.

  The spot where I reached… cracked.