In the middle of the air, hovering above us, was just a crack in the air. Like a broken mirror, the reflection was cracked, and I could see the building and two of us staring directly at it.

  Wait, reflection?

  -I don’t know what you wanted to do - said Mike - but it worked even better than you thought.

  -Yeah, no shit… - I replied, trying to wrap my head around this development.

  -This is a room then…

  -Yeah… at least vertically it’s normal it seems.

  -Vertically?

  -Yeah, I jumped to see if the horizon was just a reflection too, but it’s more like the horizon is copying itself.

  -Ah. You looped.

  -Yeah. Sounds familiar?

  -Like the barrier - nodded Mike. - And it has the same weak point it seems.

  Right. I remembered that the last time he also managed to crack the sky before he managed to get out.

  -Does that mean…

  -They sealed us again - he said. - I mean… wow.

  -This time it’s smaller I guess…

  -And we went in willingly.

  -That’s debatable but… yeah… - I sighed. - Fuck.

  -Well, it’s not all that bad. We at least now know how to get out.

  -You intend on repeating the same bullshit you did before?

  -Yep.

  -But don’t you need a lot of power…?

  -I do. But I do have it, right?

  He looked directly at me.

  -I have a perfect battery right in front of me.

  Uh-oh.

  I quickly collected myself and stepped back from him.

  -And you think I am going to just fall over and let you use me?

  -Well, you are pretty charged…

  True. I did absorb a lot of magic recently.

  -I am not…

  -Who says about “using” you? - he interrupted me. - Aren’t you going to help willingly? Or you’d rather be stuck here forever?

  -I…

  -Besides, I doubt I’ll need as much power as before. Look.

  He pointed towards the cracked sky.

  -If that’s what your head did, it’s not even going to be that hard. Hell, I don’t think I’ll need to go through all the trouble I went through before. Apparently our prison is a lot less durable than they thought.

  He raised his hand and pointed towards the crack in the sky.

  -Gymnu.

  A lightning jumped between his fingers and shot towards the sky.

  It struck right in the spot I crashed into with a loud, thundering noise.

  And actually made an impact. The crack visibly shuddered and grew a little bit.

  -See?

  -That is poor planning.

  -Planning?

  -What, did they just expect us not to destroy it…? I don’t get it.

  -Well… when you put it like that… - he said, looking up. - I thought that they might just not expect us to detect it… But that sounds really far-fetched.

  -Right? I get it if it was, I don’t know, hundreds of times further away, but not that easy to reach…

  -Yeah! And I didn’t even put much force into it… Hell, I just jumped.

  -Let’s not underestimate the hardness of your dome - he pointed out. - You probably would’ve cracked anything, really…

  -Well, yes, but at least I’d have to put some effort into it. Like the ground here.

  -True…

  -And even if not that, let’s be real, we aren’t exactly on “friendly terms” with each other.

  -The fuck you mean? - he scowled.

  -You know very well. Or at least that’s what it looked like earlier. In any case, that’s not the point - I shook my head. - The point is, with the two of us, there is an almost one hundred percent certainty that sooner or later one of us would launch a spell. A spell large or powerful enough to reach the top of this barrier - I said pointing up.

  -That’s fair…

  -And if your lightning managed to deepen that crack, there’s…

  He stopped me.

  -Hold the fuck on. Where is it?

  I looked up.

  He was right, the crack in the sky was no more.

  Did we just… lose sight of it? No.

  There was not even a sign that it was there in the first place.

  -Huh. That explains it…

  -Automatic repair…?

  -Probably - he agreed. - But that doesn’t change a thing.

  -Exactly - I said, preparing to jump up again, but stopped myself. - You know, you go this time.

  -Excuse me? I don’t have a stone head to…

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  -Not that. Toss a spell. See how much damage you do without me.

  He tossed me a look, but nodded.

  -Okay. Gymnu!

  Repeating his earlier spell, he gestured towards the blank sky.

  I expected it to do something.

  But not to get reflected straight back at him.

  Mike didn’t, either.

  He took the full brunt of his own attack.

  -AAHH!

  -Holy shit!

  I think he’s glad he didn’t go all out with that lightning.

  The attack sent him to the ground, reeling from pain. He got hit right in the shoulder, charring his body, filling the air with an unpleasant smell of burned flesh.

  -Well, now we know how they expected to contain us… - I said, not really moved by his wound.

  -Yeah, I am fine, thanks for asking.

  -Oh, come on, you’ll live.

  -Pfh.

  Sure, he did get damaged, but so what?

  While still on the floor, he was holding his shoulder, trying to move his arm that was refusing now to raise.

  -Want me to help you heal again?

  -No thanks. I don’t want any more crystal in me.

  -Hah. Suit yourself.

  -You knew that it would happen, didn’t you?

  -You had your suspicions too. But no, I didn’t. I did think that it would be too easy just to send a mediocre spell… I thought it would absorb it or something, not fully reflect it…

  -Yh… Right… But it does make sense…

  -Yep. If it works vertically, why not horizontally?

  -So, it’s your turn then - he said, rising from the ground.

  -What, want me to get reflected? Or you’re looking for a feedback loop? - I said, pondering. - I mean, it might work, but I mostly absorb spells, not reflect them, I’d have to…

  -Not that. Just fucking hit it. I mean, it worked before?

  -Ah. Well, I suppose. A lot less complicated. But still annoying.

  -What, tired of jumping?

  -Yes, actually. I’d rather be grounded. But, I have a different idea.

  During my escapades I have multiple times been broken into pieces. Oftentimes I did it myself.

  I had some practice.

  So, doing it again was easy.

  I didn’t even have to focus much, it was just like breaking a branch from a tree: I grabbed my arm and it just… came right off.

  -You can do that so easily?! - yelped Mike, not hiding his surprise.

  -I didn’t expect it to go so quickly, but yes… - I said, smiling.

  I couldn’t help but remember when I had to put a considerable amount of mana and force into a spell to try and actually try and harm myself.

  Now it just came to me naturally, like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

  I wasn’t sure if I should be happy about that.

  Same with replacement.

  Just a single thought was enough to regrow the missing limb.

  Not sure if that was because of me being overcharged or what, but that one bothered me more for some reason.

  -Tossing this is going to be infinitely easier, right? - I said, raising the newly made “projectile”.

  -This is so weird. But yeah, I guess.

  -Hah. Well, here goes…

  I leaned back and tossed it as high up as I possibly could. Considering the point where I hit the ceiling, it should hit no problem and make a decent dent…

  Crack.

  Yep.

  It wasn’t the same size as my stupid head did, but the crack definitely appeared. I’d say it was less than a half of it, but still. Progress.

  -Nice hit! Grab your hand and I’ll continue… Gymnu!

  -Okay.

  It was working.

  But this time, his spell was a lot less powerful and made a lot smaller impact for some reason.

  -You holding back too much? - I asked, picking my own arm up.

  -No point wasting mana if you can just toss your hand. Just need to keep it from fixing, right?

  I guess he was right.

  It seemed to go smoothly at first.

  It appears that Mike also had some doubts.

  -It’s going too well…

  Right. At this point the crack was already the size of… well, it wasn’t a crack any more. It was the size of a whole building I crashed on top of not so long ago.

  -You also have doubts?

  -Not doubts per se… it’s more like… we are prisoners here, right?

  -Supposedly - I agreed.

  -So we have to be monitored. Or something.

  -Right. And they are letting us wreck our prison cell?

  -Exactly!

  -How ignorant do you think they are? - I asked after a moment of consideration and a few more tosses.

  -What?

  -I mean, if the not-janitor was any indicator, I think they just think that we are out of the picture. Dealt permanently.

  -Didn’t they think so with the whole island business? Didn’t they learn?

  -I guess it would be even worse - I agreed. - More like regression.

  -Yep.

  -So, you think they are preparing something?

  -Maybe. Or there’s something else that is blocking us from leaving here.

  -A second layer? Maybe…

  -Whatever it is, we need to be prepared for anything.

  -Not like we have anything to prepare with…

  -I suppose… I probably would try and prepare something to teleport, but as you know we lack… everything.

  -And the portals are one-way here - I reminded him.

  -I assume that only works for as long as we are in here.

  -Maybe. Well, who knows. Instead of worrying, why won’t you put a bit more effort in/

  -Ehe, right…

  -I am serious. If they are preparing, the faster we breach…

  Crack.

  -...the better.

  Crack.

  -Oho, I guess I don’t need to! - he said. - One last!

  This time, we attacked together.

  I tossed my hand again and together with his lightning we struck the cracking sky, finally making… a hole?

  Not really… It was really like a mirror.

  The moment both spells struck, the cracks in the white void started branching more and more, the pieces that had been separated instead of falling started just vanishing, letting us peer into whatever was beyond.

  And beyond… was nothing?

  Instead of overwhelming whiteness, there was just black. Not much of an improvement, but still.

  I was going to say something to complain, but realized that there was no place nor time, because the blackness was spreading.

  Like one big piece of glass, the whole place started to shatter.

  I was unsure what to think of it, that is until I felt a pull come from where the destruction was spreading.

  -What is this?!

  I wanted to ask, but couldn’t speak a word. The air from my lungs was getting pulled out and along with the sound was getting sucked out into the black.

  I could tell at a glance that Mike was in a similar situation, and as I was to contact him with my mind I realized that I was no longer standing on the ground.

  Both of us were slightly raised off the ground and slowly ascending towards the epicenter of the break, where we aimed our attacks before.

  -What the hell did we do?!

  -That’s definitely not what I expected!

  Both of our thoughts reached us at the same time as we suddenly sped up and instead of slowly ascending, we were now racing towards the crack in the sky…

  Wait, what sky?

  At this point, there was no sky. There was no white void or room or whatever we were in before.

  We were suspended in blackness, the whole “cell” of ours not existing any more, the remaining pieces already vanished.

  I am pretty sure Mike was flailing about and trying to cast some kind of spell, but was not successful, be it because of a sudden change of scenery or just straight up his magic was refusing to work correctly in this new void. I tried too, maybe to control my own flight a bit using some wind, but couldn’t muster any mana.

  Shit.

  We were about to crash into each other, when we suddenly stopped.

  It felt like an eternity, but we spent just a split second in that black void…

  Before being violently ejected back to the normal world.