# Chapter 1: Tearing Open a Space-Time Gate with Bare Hands
Northern Territory of the Empire, Moldavia, south of the Great Aias Mountains, Dwarf settlement.
Year 832 of the Falling Stars Era, March 1st, 9:45 AM.
A mage who appeared quite young held a brown wooden staff as he stood before a lava lake, watching his teacher suspended above the golden magma, constructing a massive and complex space-time spell.
Before his eyes, the white-haired old mage draped in gold-embroidered robes smoothly manipulated deep blue space-time runes, combining them into one magical character after another that shimmered with light. They transformed into spatial nodes, repelling the surrounding fire elements, then took root in the void, connecting to the space of another world.
As vast magical power was channeled, the deep blue door gradually opened—but opening it actually required no effort, or rather, it could be said to require no expenditure of energy at all. In truth, what the old mage was doing was suppressing this space-time gate's endless expansion.
"Once fully expanded, the radius will be seven hundred meters. Such a massive space-time gate will even greatly affect the underground dwarf settlement below."
Sighing softly, the young mage gazed at his teacher with admiration: "If not for Teacher restraining it, the instant expansion of the space-time gate upon activation would cause unimaginably terrible geological changes."
The mage's name was Loranda, and his teacher was none other than the Empire's Chief Archmage, Nostradamus.
This mage was now twenty-one years old and had studied at the Imperial Royal Mage Academy for eight years. Today, along with thirty-one of his classmates, he had come to assist Nostradamus in investigating the space-time gate and maintaining the space-time passage.
These thirty-two people were all Nostradamus's most loyal disciples. They were basically commoners and those from humble origins, not a single noble among them. Even without money to purchase spell experiment materials and magic books, they relied on their own talent and hard work, striving desperately without excellent bloodlines. Now they had all reached Silver-rank strength—in a sense, they could be called geniuses.
A few days ago, Nostradamus had rushed to the academy and openly gathered them, these commoner disciples, saying they were going to the Northern Black Forest for a field internship to closely observe the consequences of Chaos erosion. Of course, this internship would definitely add credits and year-end grades, and those who performed well could even apply for scholarships first.
Needless to say, everyone was immediately attracted by this excellent condition, and the thirty-two-person team was instantly fully staffed.
In the gradually warming weather, they passed through numerous checkpoints. The fortifications reinforced due to the winter Black Tide had not yet been fully dismantled, and they saw various legions stationed in different fortresses. The heroic military bearing made these commoner mages' hearts surge with excitement.
This was only natural—commoners who wanted to rapidly improve their status had to rely on military merit. If they rendered great service, they could even be quickly granted nobility. Eighty percent of the Empire's nobles had come about this way, and the various legions were where these mages would work after graduation.
Using flight magic and teleportation spells, they took only a few days to reach the south of the Great Aias Mountains, the Northern Rune Dwarf settlement.
Of course, they all knew that this sudden field investigation definitely wasn't really for observing Chaos erosion samples—such a topic wasn't something they could study at all. Their teacher was just finding an excuse, and Nostradamus quickly gave them the true purpose of this trip to the North.
Searching for the space-time gate.
The old mage roughly explained the cause and effect to his students: basically, the lord of Moldavia in the North, a guardian of an ancient elf clan from the Far South, and the local dwarf leader had all mysteriously disappeared in this area. They had likely been swept away by a suddenly opened space-time gate. Now they needed to quickly find the space-time gate that might have caused their translocation, then rescue them.
"Um, Teacher... how long have they been missing? And what professions are they?"
"About two days. One Gold-rank Druid, two Gold-rank Warriors."
Ha, two barbarian professions, and one environmentalist who doesn't understand the subtlety of magic.
Loranda thought to himself with an inner "aha." If three Gold-rank mages had been swept into a space-time gate, they might have already constructed a return gate using local magical materials by now.
Only we mages can truly comprehend the mysteries of space-time!
Regardless, after going back and forth several times, the mages led by Nostradamus finally determined the location of the space-time gate and established the containment array.
Now was the moment for the old mage to open the space-time gate.
The array activated. Thirty-two Silver-rank mages converged their power, cooperating with Nostradamus to connect the passage between dimensions, slowly opening the deep blue door. A vast chaotic aura instantly spread, but the mages, having prepared in advance, had purification shields as barriers beside them and weren't disturbed. However, the lava lake before them, upon contact with the chaotic aura, rapidly began to cool and solidify, turning into gray-black rock.
After the space-time gate opened, several mages left the array. They donned their full magical equipment, ready to enter the other world to rescue the missing people.
But before they could enter, with a fluctuation of space-time, two figures appeared within the deep blue door.
Accompanied by golden battle qi and green natural force, Claire and Moria quickly passed through the space-time passage and landed on the already solidified magma.
"Nostradamus, it really is you!"
The old dwarf seemed to be an acquaintance of the old mage. After landing from the space-time gate, he looked up, saw Nostradamus floating in midair maintaining the array, and immediately laughed, greeting: "You came pretty quickly after I went missing."
"Thank you." The elf wasn't as carefree as Moria. She also knew the old mage but didn't say much, merely bowing slightly to express gratitude.
"Stop with the nonsense, Moria. Where is Joshua—that human lord?"
Both of his old friends had returned safely so quickly—this surprised Nostradamus but delighted him even more. However, after looking back and forth for a while, he still couldn't find the third figure, so he frowned and asked with confusion: "You've both returned, but where did he go?"
"He said he had something to do and left the group midway. Now I don't know where he went."
This was Moria's answer.
"That fellow!"
The deep blue light flickered on and off. Vast power vibrated as Nostradamus and his students struggled to maintain the space-time gate. He said somewhat irritably: "This large space-time gate here is tidal in nature. It opens and closes with the surge of magic power. The next opening will be at least a day from now."
"If he doesn't come over now, he'll have to wait until tomorrow!"
Meanwhile, Loranda, who was assisting in maintaining the space-time gate, caught his breath.
The space-time gate before them contained power far beyond what anyone had imagined. To calculate its space-time characteristics, everyone present felt their minds weren't enough. Even with an Ultimate-rank mage presiding over the array, it put considerable pressure on them, these Silver-rank mages.
"What is this lord even doing!"
Under fatigue, Loranda couldn't help but start disliking this lord who hadn't yet appeared: "He's clearly just a warrior who can't even create his own space-time gate, yet he's so slow to return. The space-time passage won't wait for anyone!"
From the other world, a decayed and deathly wind continuously blew through the space-time passage. Although the external energy within was eliminated by the shields, the smell of this air made everyone feel terrible. In contrast, the dwarf and elf were somewhat emotional beside them—they actually felt the environment had finally improved and was much more comfortable.
"No good. If this continues, when the space-time tide recedes, even I won't be able to sustain the gate's opening!"
Sensing something was wrong, Nostradamus felt his stamina rapidly declining—a sign that the space-time tide was slowly receding.
Not only that, the old mage also detected a trace of chaotic erosion.
Another five minutes passed.
A gasping sound came.
The space-time tide had nearly completely receded. The natural assistance disappeared. Now, the power required for such a massive space-time gate was indeed becoming too much for the mages to bear.
The space-time gate, which had expanded to a diameter of thirty meters, was slowly shrinking. And Nostradamus was gradually, bit by bit, closing the space-time gate.
He could only wait until tomorrow. He thought somewhat regretfully.
But suddenly, contrary to the previous decayed and deathly smell, a fresh breeze of order emerged from the shrinking space-time passage.
Everyone was stunned.
How did this feel completely opposite to before?
But the space-time passage was still slowly closing. Everyone's power could no longer maintain it.
The wind of order grew thicker. Nostradamus's heart tightened.
The Chaos Warden possessed purification power. On the other side of the space-time passage, Joshua was definitely rushing over quickly. But the space-time gate was about to close, and a warrior certainly wouldn't make it in time!
"Ssssssssssss."
A piercing space-time hum sounded. The space-time gate shrank smaller and smaller, to the point where a person could no longer enter. Seeing this, the dwarf and elf couldn't help but sigh.
"It looks like Joshua has to wait another day."
"Why didn't he come over faster?"
The mages present all felt very annoyed. They'd have to come again tomorrow? They thought so. They'd already wasted so many days in the North. Their time was precious. Even with credits and year-end grades as compensation, they couldn't waste it like this!
Loranda thought the same. He was already starting to regret abandoning his spell experiments to come to the North with his teacher for this meaningless business.
As for Nostradamus, he was somewhat puzzled. He didn't think Joshua was the type of person who would deliberately make others worry and wait.
But what exactly had he gone to do?
Boom!
A vibrating sound came. The space-time gate seemed to have completely closed.
But everyone's gaze didn't disperse. Instead, they all focused on one point.
At the spot where the space-time gate had been, there was a finger, suspended in the void. Around it, deep blue ripples vibrated rapidly.
The finger slowly slid, and the space-time gate expanded accordingly.
In the silent gaze of the crowd, more and more of this finger's owner entered this world.
A palm.
An arm.
Half a body.
"Open for me!"
A somewhat muffled voice came from penetrating the space-time passage. Violent tremors accompanied by crimson impact blasted a large hole in the space-time gate. And thus, Joshua and his figure appeared before the stunned crowd.
The fresh wind of order and the decayed wind of chaos intermingled. The source of the order power was Joshua. He held one hand with his figure, carried a blue-purple rune core in the other, and his face showed some fatigue.
Without paying attention to the shocked expressions of others, Joshua simply frowned, looking at a small piece of silver-white crystal in his hand—something that had suddenly appeared and was now burning.
A fragment of Burning Steel.
To be continued...