Chrysalis

“Hold, dammit!” Brilliant roared.

“I’m not sure it can take it,” Assistant cried out. “It’s going to overflow!”

“It needs more power! Give it everything you’ve got!”

“We can’t do any more, the matrix will collapse!”

“A little further,” Brilliant urged as the mana surged and frothed. Dimensional boundaries were cascading around them and she could peer into them all, flashing images of twisting reality that bent and warped themselves around her.

They were so close!

“It’s gone! Run!” Assistant shrieked, and Brilliant was vaguely aware of her followers ducking for cover or diving into the blast cages. She herself didn’t move, of course, transfixed as she was by the beauty she beheld in front of her.

“So beautiful,” she whispered.

A moment later, she was spear tackled and knocked from her observation platform.

“Experimant! What are you doing?!” she yelled.

the ant replied, flicking her antennae with irritation. “It’s a little difficult to make use of your insights if you die in the

Eldest had been at pains to

boasted,

to the ground. Then the explosion finally happened, the haywire mana discharging as purple lightning that arced over the

right,” Brilliant muttered. “Forgot about

before the mages and carvers that made up her merry band began to emerge from the reinforced concrete bunkers someone had decided to install in their research chamber. She strongly suspected

everyone,” Brilliant rushed around the team, giving everyone an enthusiastic tap with an antenna. “Fantastic experiment, another rousing success! We are getting ever closer

emerged, still hugging the floor as the last few sparks danced across the walls. “It seemed like it went rather

“How many times do I have to teach you? Only a truly successful test will end with a multiple manifold-collapse. We were able to peer deeper into the weave than ever before! Our goal has never been closer than it

behind thick layers of hardened ice and

threads. Our spatial pathway managed to make it a third of the way to

means any ant who travelled through it would be liquified. Not quite the result we are

We are making great strides. Great strides. You don’t discover the secrets of teleportation magic

my brain could handle it….” Assistant

to travel through regular space,

evident in every line of her carapace, but it was Assistant who

as r-regular space. It is a dimension. Everything i-is a dimension. If you

rather find our way back to it. Right now, all we are doing is shooting bright light into the dimensional weave, illuminating the darkness so we