“Exit the loop?” Aurelius asked, “Why are you only approaching me about it now?”

  “I’ve just been working on a few theories on the side, and I only managed to contract a spirit for the errand a week or two back.” Seraphine shrugged.

  Aurelius frowned with questions in mind, stepping beyond the manned turnstile of the Portal Station, and walking down into the atrium of one of the most iconic building in Tlacualtzin. He had been to this building exactly once previously in his life, where his family had used portal tickets gifted to them to travel on a holiday.

  And there was one word to describe the building. Beautiful.

  The atrium was a place that looked much like a colosseum, with a layer of water surrounding the walkways.

  Despite being built nearly a century ago, the building felt rustic and blended seamlessly with the modern aestetic. The portal station had a large transparent ceiling, one whose metal beams used strengthening charms to hold afloat.

  This made the insides of the structure a rather comfortable temperature, hovering around 24 degrees, and the central waterfall was an aesthetic decision that Aurelius really quite liked.

  The arches and curves of the room created gigantic steps that ascended, with each level holding its share of portals that led to the different destinations of Teotlcan.

  And all around this beautiful display of architecture, were movements of people, suitcases and trolleys of shipments, all melding together with the noise of the water features around the room.

  “Wow, I gotta admit, the photos in the papers don’t do this place justice.” Seraphine commented next to Aurelius, closing her eyes slightly to enjoy the thin breeze generated from the waterfall.

  “Which portal is ours?” Seraphine asked.

  “H-1, we just need to walk up to the 1st step, given that this is a domestic portal.” Aurelius replied, scanning the room for section H.

  “But before we go there, we should get our money’s worth.” He smiled, taking note of his portal entrance.

  He then made a beeline for the first destination of his well deserved break.

  The Portal Room’s very own free flow bar.

  ???

  “Delicious.” Aurelius declared, finishing up the last slurp of his Southern Style Mocktail with the ridiculous name of ‘The Dragon Fang’.

  “You know, when you said free flow bar, I expected you to get actual alcohol.” Seraphine commented in amusement, putting down her final sip of the mojito she had ordered.

  “Nono, I don’t drink. I’m 18, remember?” Aurelius replied, rolling his eyes.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  First it was Mr. Tona with his cigarettes, and now, Seraphine with alcohol, but it seemed as if the ‘adults’ around him were trying to tempt him into their own respective vices.

  The two of them entered the platform H-1, enjoying the last taste of the Portal Station.

  The actual portal was 2-directional, and that meant that there was a few minutes in intervals between the two stations transfers.

  The reason that Tlacualtzin’s portal station was so well known, was due to it being the central hub of portal transport acros the continents.

  The city had, with the investment of the Aethernalian Royals, worked with the Magic Commission to create the first of its kind, allowing for a transport hub to open within the city.

  Goods from the central continent passed through the hub to get to the other continents, and between the cities of the continent.

  It boasted an impressive portal connection to around half of the world’s cities, which amounted to nearly 300 portals within the building across its sprawling steps.

  Their destination, Cessatio, was a city on the Eastern Shores of the central continent boasting a population on the smaller side in Teotlcan, with around 4 million residents staying in the area.

  The portal held a translucent, swirling quality, with a smoky outline. As the last shipment of trolleys exited the portal, the tickets held in their hands burned up cleanly and instantly with a small flash, approving their journey to the city of Cessatio.

  And the two stepped into the portal, and out into the beautiful beach city of Cessatio.

  ???

  “You’ve surely created quite the itinerary.” Seraphine commented in amusement.

  “Yes. Yes, I did. So, what’s this about an exit?” Aurelius asked, enjoying a virgin Pi?a Colada, overlooking the Great Eastern Oceans.

  He had booked the perfect hotel on the sides of the gradual rocky mountains of Cessatio, with all sorts of packages for himself to enjoy in his last hours of the loop.

  He adjusted his sunglasses on his face, and leaned back to enjoy the full possibilities of the beautiful day.

  “So we know that there is a time limit on the loop, one that presumably follows the laws of energy and limitations.” Seraphine started.

  “But there has to be a limit to its affected area right? After all, the energy consumption would be infinite with an infinite radius of the affected area.” She asked.

  “Yeah, that’s the theory.” Aurelius lazed, sipping at his drink in satisfaction. He had been certain that the prickle of pineapple on his tongue made for an excellent way to end his loop, and he was almost certainly right.

  “Do you know that the spirit realm is local to our solar system?” Seraphine asked, her rather formal clothing a contrast to the shorts and patterned shirt that Aurelius was wearing.

  Her statement gave Aurelius pause.

  “...What?” Aurelius questioned, sitting up with a frown. He was not aware that the spirit realm terminated in the first place.

  He had assumed, given the fact that it was a realm on top of the plane of reality, that the ‘coordinates’ of the spirit realm was theoretically infinite.

  “I’m surprised you don’t know this. Don’t you know of the famous story, Icaro, the first man in space?” She asked.

  “I believe that Icaro attempted to find out the furthest coordinates of the spirit realm 500 years ago.” She explained.

  “The lunatics who had attempted to escape the atmosphere of the earth through teleportation with the spirit realm, had not been seen again after their attempts, for centuries prior.”

  “But Icaro was a different kind of lunatic. He correctly deduced that it may have been a lack of oxygen in outer space that killed those who attempted it.”

  “And under the blessing of his monarch, he forged a contract, put on a suit of air created with his own wind magic, and teleported into space.”

  “And he was the first to come back onto Teotlcan. At least, his corpse did.” Seraphine continued.

  “His corpse?” Aurelius asked curiously.

  “Yeah, the suit couldn’t take the pressure difference, and he just… kind of popped out there in space, staying alive just enough to make it back to Teotlcan.” She explained.

  “But what’s interesting is how Icaro managed to find the coordinates of the region that he had teleported to.”

  “It took a few centuries after his attempt for us to try to understand outer space, given the rather trivial nature of studying such areas.”

  “But when we looked back at Icaro’s notes, we found that he had basically used mathematics to trick the coordinate system of the spirit realm into sending him to the outer edges.”

  “He basically speculated that the spirit realm was circular, and used complex mathematics to derive out the possible coordinates of the edges. And spammed the coordinates in teleportation.”

  “His innovation is actually quite well known among academics, given that it contributed a lot to our understanding of spirit world teleportation.” She finished.

  “So what I’m saying is this.”

  “I investigated the edge of the spirit realm to see if I could find any irregularities with the time loop.”

  “And I think… I’ve found something.”