The Void

As you gazed into her eyes, you started to feel weird. You couldn't shake off the feeling like she was poking you from all sides, trying to pierce whatever barriers you have to search underneath. And then she lifted the lid, her all seeing sight piercing right through you for a tiny millisecond.

"Rachel!" You could hear Stevens scream, which brought you back to the reality.

Rachel lied on a floor, conscious, but trying to gather herself, bloody tears coming down from corners of her eyes.

"I'm so sorry. What happened?"

She finally settled herself, and with Stevens help, got back on her feet.

"I was supposed to check your magical potential." She said with shaking voice.

"Magical potential? I thought humans don't get to do magic."

"That was true until a few years ago." Steven started explaining. "After the portal opened and we got our first visitors, they thought they can't do anything magical in our world. But after some time they could again use their abilities. Of course, on a much smaller scale."

"Why?"

"It's because the rift is an all time opened connection, and this other world is like a fountain overflowing with magic. It doesn't have anywhere to go, so it leaks to our world, slowly filling us with this thing. Rachel here spent a lot of time near entrance to another world and developed the ability to detect and assess magical abilities of others." He pointed at a woman that was straightening out her attire.

"Okay then, what's mine? I assume that was not the usual reaction to the test?"

"You assume correctly." She answered while cleaning up her face with a tissue. "I saw something completely new, and I'm only heard about that from the visitors that got through here."

"What do you mean? What can I do?" You were both worried and curious about your newfound abilities.

"You can't do anything, at least on your own. But your aura, your whole body, is sucking in, consuming magic to the point where it can actually disable and harm anyone that tries to use magic against you."

You looked at her with confused expression.

"What?"

"Let me put it this way. My talent is quite invasive. It's like stripping all your defenses just to look at your aura and potential from the inside. I nearly passed out when I managed to get through only to get knocked down by your defense system. It's not something you will be able to control, but it will level the playing field against mages out there."

Steven smirked.

"I never thought I'd see the day. Congratulations, David. I believe you have talents of the Void, the so called anti magic equation."

"So magic can't hurt me? That sound good." You admitted, feeling quite well about this talent. That would definitely help you out there with your goal.

"Not exactly. Let's say an elementalist conjures the sword or any other tool. They are still able to harm you with that tool. Same with any environmental magic. Your talent just protects you from direct attacks, like mine."

"One more question" - you said to both of them - "why does no one knows about it?"

"We try to keep at as a secret. We don't need a bunch of wannabe mages blowing up cars and houses."

You nodded in understanding, then apologized one more time to Rachel and got to signing off the documents.

Next days flew by quite fast, busy with handling all the necessary matters, like quitting your job, saying goodbyes to the few people you actually liked, and cancelling the rental on your apartament. Obviously you were also getting a fast course on survival and geography of the other world. They were teaching you how to handle a sword, even though you already got a pretty good idea about that, But they also showed you some basic horse riding, and survival skills that you were going to definitely need out there. Millie gave you a short lesson in history on their world while suppressing her natural instincts to jump on you and make you her mate. You learned values of different currencies used, cultures of each area, and how to best avoid any traps and ambushes.

All of it took a little over two weeks. Today was going to be the crossing day. You spent last night at one of AWIO bedrooms. You moved out two days ago, sold most of your things, gave away the rest. Then you donated all the remaining money into the charity that helps monster girls settle in this new world.

As you stepped through a heavy vault-like doors, Steven showed you the portal.

"This is it. The rift, the portal, the doors to another world."

It didn't look like much, just a big glowing frame hanging slightly above the floor level.

"Now David, I see you got your gear, and I know that you are as prepared as you can be for journey out there. But I have to ask one last time. Do you want to do it?"

He asked, while holding a small camera, recording all that was happening.

"Yes, I do." You answered, shook his free hand, and stepped through.