Chapter 178: What’s The Plan? The memory of the Great One’s gaze flashed through his mind. That absolute, incomprehensible presence that had made his stolen divinity feel like a candle against the sun. Questions for someone who can stand in that presence without being crushed into nothing. Finn shuddered. Snap! Thalia’s fingers cracked sharply, jarring Finn from his thoughts. But he saw she’d directed the gesture at Casmir, who had been equally lost in contemplation. "Are you okay?" Thalia asked with concern edging into her voice. Casmir blinked, refocusing. "Yes. Sorry. I was..." he shook his head. "Never mind. Where was I?" "The breach," Yara prompted. "Right." Casmir gathered himself. "My goal was to find a way to bring you all back to our world. But now, with Finn and Deacon’s theory that these Gods want something specific from our plane... something we’re not yet aware of, I’m reconsidering our next steps." "I don’t care," Thalia said flatly, cutting him off before he could elaborate. "Whatever it is, we can figure it out in our own world. We’re not staying here any longer than absolutely necessary." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎 Casmir looked at her as if he wanted to argue. His eyes swept across the others, searching for support, for someone who shared his obvious curiosity about the divine mechanics they could still uncover. But he found only subdued faces. Exhausted Transcendents who’d been broken by encountering power so far beyond them that ambition itself seemed foolish. Even Himothy, usually eager for any challenge, just stared into the fire with a conflicted expression. Casmir nodded slowly. "Understood. Then let me describe where we are and where the breach is located." He pulled a stick from the fire, using the charred end to sketch in the dirt. "The breach spat me out right in the middle of a city. A major population center with thousands of people. If not for my spatial magic, I would’ve caused a massive scene. As it was, I warped myself into a nearby alleyway within seconds. A few passersby were spooked, but nothing catastrophic." He drew a rough circle, then added lines radiating outward. "I stayed in that city for two days, observing. Learning the language, or at least enough to get by. Understanding the local power structure. Then I spent the rest of the time before tracking down the spatial disturbance that marks the breach’s source in this world." Casmir marked an X some distance from the circle. "I wanted to ensure the location and stability of our exit route before activating my artifact and calling you here. And this—" he gestured to the forest around them, "—is where I set up my base. We’re a couple tens of miles from the breach source." "So close?" Thalia asked sharply. "Close enough to reach quickly when we need to," Casmir explained. "But far enough to avoid immediate detection. The breach is smack in the middle of contested territory. A border region between two rival countries. Skirmishes happen constantly. Patrols from both sides sweep through regularly." He looked around the campfire at each of them. "I chose this forest as a temporary base after getting as close as I dared. But even here, miles from the breach, being in the open like this is risky. Patrols reach this far. We should remain vigilant." Thalia immediately turned to the covert specialists. "Keeva, Osric, Tavian. Survey the area as far as you can. Standard perimeter, watch for any signs of approach." Casmir started to say he had already surveyed the surroundings, but stopped himself and nodded. "Good idea. Can’t be too careful." The three Transcendents melted into the shadows without a word, their concepts making them nearly impossible to track. Casmir continued his explanation, adding more details to his dirt map. "The breach is situated in a deep, artificially constructed hole. Some kind of facility jointly maintained by both countries, not out of cooperation, but necessity. They both discovered it independently and realized neither could control it alone, so they established a tense joint operation around it." Finn frowned, raising his hand slightly. "Wait. Aren’t they the ones who created the breach?" "No," Casmir said definitively. "Whoever’s behind it seems content to create and observe. Or they have a longer game we’re not seeing yet. But they’re not making themselves known to these two countries." "What if it’s natural?" Yara suggested. "What if we’ve been assuming it’s an entity behind it, but it’s actually this world itself generating the breach? Some kind of planar resonance or defense mechanism against the ’rubbing of planes’ like you said?" Finn shot that down immediately, and Deacon nodded in support. "I’m certain the breach is anything but natural," Finn said firmly. "The only thing I’ll concede is that it might have started as something natural, maybe a weak point between planes. But there’s definitely purposeful interference by some entity. The complexity Casmir described, the time weaving, the way it resists mana... that’s all deliberate engineering." "I agree," Casmir said. "What I felt when crossing was definitely not purely natural. It was too refined. Too precisely calibrated." He paused. "I also haven’t detected any spatial disturbance indicating anyone has successfully crossed through the breach from this side. So if the two countries are still trying to figure out how to enter it, their attempts are failing completely." Yara nodded, accepting the correction. Thalia leaned forward. "If that’s the case, then we have a better chance of escaping than I initially thought. If they don’t know what lies beyond the breach, if they don’t understand its mechanics or purpose, they might not be as die-hard in defending it. Their commitment would be based on possession and curiosity, not existential threat." "Partially correct," Casmir said, tempering her optimism. "They don’t know what it does, true. But the security level is still extreme. We’re not just talking about soldiers." He met Thalia’s eyes seriously. "There are God temples out in this wilderness. Multiple of them, from different pantheons. Priests. Divine warriors. And..." he paused meaningfully, "...I’m certain at least two Gods themselves maintain a presence there. Not full manifestations, but enough divine authority to make any assault extremely dangerous." He turned to look at Finn, and a dry humor entered his voice despite the grim topic. "But since we have our own God here now, maybe we have a chance." Finn saw the attempt at lightening the mood. But he couldn’t bring himself to genuinely smile or even respond to the quip. The memory of the Great One’s gaze was too fresh, the feeling of absolute inadequacy, too raw. Instead, he asked the only question that mattered: "So what’s the plan?" . . . . A/N: Don’t forget to vote with Power Stones and Golden Tickets. Also drop a review if you’re enjoying the story, it helps. 💪