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"Yes!" Adam said

I heard shouts and looked down the aisle to see a line of ry to feed on our thoughts while the arch operators recoiled with horror

"Go, dah The world warped, snapped back into place, and I stood feet away froe of the rooh it since we’d never closed the connection Everyone else entered right on e from Christian

The Obsidian Arch is shut down The Darkwater people will be stuck at the La Casona way station for as long as I can od," Shelton said, taking a step toward the room exit An invisible force seemed to push him back The air around us warped and bent like a bubble

Disconnect, I thought to the portal we’d just coe of the control roo portal reateway behind us and the mansion’s omniarch

"Close the other portal," Shelton said "They’re reacting off each other!"

"I’ain Energy arced, popping and crackling off an invisible barrier around us I tried to deactivate the e between the columns flickered to a silvery sheen With a loud pop, the two portals suddenly shut down The bubble of energy around us warped into an oblong shape and snapped back into a sphere The world flickered

We stood in utter darkness evencold stabbed into s I heard someone suck in a harsh breath

I realized, with horror, this was the same way I’d ended up in El Dorado the first tiiant slabs of stone A round I had no trouble recognizing the place It was the city of death, El Dorado I didn’t want to be here Anywhere but here

Flicker

We stood on a rocky plain of shining obsidian Twin moons hovered on opposite sides of the horizon, one dark and shadowy, the other brilliant white Two feures stood a hundred feet distant, the thick hair on their heads writhing like snakes They stood with legs spread shoulder width, hands reaching for the sky Their heads tilted back,inhumanly wide An eerie chorus reverberated infilledfork Pressure built fro wouldn’t stop It wouldn’t stop! My teeth claether

Quiet!

"Look at the stone," Adaht to his ears A grimace contorted his face

Two thick colurew fro vortexes As they grew, a vein of white laced through the obsidian

They’re growing an Alabaster Arch!

These ht be the people who made the Grand Nexus Who made the Obsidian Arches

Flicker

We stood in a control rooh it looked double the size of the others I’d seen before The agonizing song vanished fro frohs of relief fro the size of the Obsidian Arches, stood before us, a di from the white veins Hordes of cherubs stood frozen around us The nearest one twitched Its featureless black head jerked toward us, ar out

"Dah nah!" it screeched

The roo toward us on infantile legs

"Holy mother of baked ham!" Shelton shouted "Get us out of here!"

Why was this happening to us?

I just want to go home!

Flicker

We stood in a carpeted roo into a slice of pizza screamed Pizza still in hand, he flipped backward over the couch and scuttled on his butt toward the kitchen Déjà vu snized this place

It’s hoed, but not the layout Why e here? I looked around in confusion before an idea clicked into place I’d wanted to go home, and the bubble had taken us here Now all I had to do was turn this infernal portal off!

Disconnect! Turn off! Deactivate! Stop!

The bubble winked out A wo pajalass of water The glass shattered on the tile floor even as the gibbering h the spilled water

"We’re free!" I said "Let’s get out of here"

The new ho a door shut I was ads, but noasn’t the time