Dreams Come True

The Hills Of Dun Broch

I lazily leaned over the side of Zomboss' pod, said scientist and our resident yakuza making idle chit-chat as we flew through the portal to our next destination. Maria and Manolo were with Star and Marco on Cloudy; Steve was gliding all on his own; Ralph had Hilda, Alfur, Twig, Vanellope, Barranco and Dave on his back; Jenny had Maple, Ruby and Iris on her back; and Galacta was flying calmly, holding onto Izzy.

Gladius was gliding with a slight bob to his movements, like he was in time to a song's beat. I chuckled a bit at the sword's actions, and turned my attention down the portal, towards where we were coming from. It was odd, seeing the portal from this direction. It almost made me feel sea-sick, so I faced forward to keep me from losing my lunch.

"Feeling a bit queasy, Caleb-Chan?" Majima mentioned offhandedly.

I nodded weakly, then swallowed. "Yeah... looking back is soooooo weird."

Zomboss nodded in response. "It is very nauseating. When I get the chance, I'll have to study these gateways so I can understand them more."

"Don't", Gladius chided. "I remember back, I'd say around 455 AD, at the peak of the Roman Empire, Rainbow made the very unlike her choice to do more with these portals. It resulted in the castle being obliterated three times over because of a time implosion."

Zomboss twisted his face into an over dramatic grimace, and hiss. "Ooooookay then. Scratch that."

I snorted. "Not surprised. These places are just pure energy, with way too much energy to really handle."

Gladius hummed. "Not necessarily... It's simply because these portals are made of the same material as the universes they connect between, and that material is heavy, dense, and unstable. Time and reality manipulation are the lower end of possible side effects."

I shared a fearful look with the pod's other passengers, then gulped. "What's the highest end?"

"The Vortex is born again and everything is put into jeopardy."

We all gave him a weird look. "The Vortex? What the heck is that?" Izzy asked.

Gladius sighed. "It's a long story, but the short is that..." He paused to take a deep breath. "When the fabric of a universe folds or corrupts in a certain way, usually when too much of the twin's and Rainbow's flows into a single spot, the Vortex is born. Called many things, the Vortex is the most extreme escalation of a black hole's singularity. It's alive, and eats everything relentlessly. The only time it was around... well, there's a reason universes are separated like how they are now..."

We all baulked at him. "Gladius... please don't tell me what you are implying..." Ralph said in a fearful tone.

"Everything, long ago when humanity was just starting to establish stories of Gods and Goddesses, the Vortex was formed when everything was in one single universe." Gladius shivered, then continued. "Even with everyone's combined power, it couldn't be stopped, so I was forced to watch in horror as Rainbow, Lightness and Darkness nearly killed themselves trying to create the multiverse. It's why they aren't omnipotent beings of complete unstoppable power anymore. Luckily, the Vortex was stopped, unable to sustain itself outside of a universe.

"Ever since that day, the Vortex was one to be feared, and no one was allowed to try and mess with a universe's fabric. We were lucky Rainbow's experiments didn't spawn it."

We were all silent at that, taking in the horrifying implications that there was something that was that unstoppable. That hungry. That... monstrous.

Star looked sick. "And Mewmans called people like Buff Frog monsters... what the heck..."