Crossroads of Oblivion (Book 3): A Portal Progression Fantasy Adventure Series by Dem Mikhailov

Author:Dem Mikhailov [Mikhailov, Dem]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C-Publishing
Published: 2025-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

I AM A METHODICAL PERSON. I am methodical…

That thought flitted through my mind again.

Or was it a mantra?

Or the hope I was using to prop up my shaken confidence; to convince myself that I was being thorough and not running for my life in a panic?

No… it was a mantra blinking away in my simultaneously utterly exhausted and activated mind. I badly needed sleep. I had spent too long in the frozen tomb, drank too much coffee, and ate too many sweets. And this was the result — I was on the edge, and there was no nuance; I saw everything in black and white. There were no other colors, no shadows.

White now. Black night. White fingers. Black levers. White breath. And the black whisper of the Pillar…

Shaking my head and biting my lip without mercy, I sat at the control levers of my cruiser staring into the blizzard raging beyond the window. I was flying almost blind. The map saved me by indicating any large objects that stood out even in the eternal twilight of this place.

The colossal Pillar stood imposingly to my right and its whisper rang in my head, twisting with the howling blizzard wind. The whisper was insistent. It was trying with everything to reach me, to penetrate the periphery of my consciousness and take hold of the very center of my mind. And that thing voice was closer than ever to its goal. I was too tired to resist it. My only hope against it was to ponder deeply something that would truly suck up all of my attention, making me forget my fatigue, my pain, my fear…

I could usually do that. But now, while I fought the cruiser’s controls, battled back the mounting nausea in my gut, wincing from the strange painful flashes that came from somewhere at the bottom of my eyeballs, I could only manage one thing — a mantra.

I am a methodical person…

I am a methodical person…

I felt like I hadn’t slept for two days and imbibed only energy drinks in all that time… And finally making it to my bed and lying down, eyes closed, I couldn’t sleep. My overstimulated central nervous system rebelled, shaking with neural fever… Instead of sleep, I watched a light show created by my own eyes or mind that took formless white spots and turned them into bizarre images like a flattened bird swallowing a man whole… That’s exactly what I had just seen in my left eye…

Doomed laughter erupted from my breast, and I shook my head, bringing me great relief. The intensity faded. I still felt tremors that shook me, but I was able to gain control of myself, just as I was controlling the cruiser. I had control over my fate again. Unfortunately, the heavy weight of fatigue still bore down on me, but it did retreat ever so slightly when I swore to myself that I would take a long rest after this. But fatigue was not a problem. I was used to working past the most severe fatigue.

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