He was being pulled downward in a spiral fast enough that he might have missed it if he hadn't been paying attention. Along the way he could feel the edges of the tear, it felt more like a crack in a wall instead of a door.
Maybe that was closer to the truth, which would explain why Hrólmir couldn't enter. With his level of power, a crack this small would just become bigger if he tried to enter, releasing a large number of dark beasts in the process.
Once on the other side he felt the world snap into place. What entered his vision was a world of floating water, rivers and ponds were everywhere, floating past as they connected or disconnected to various areas of the void.
There was barely any land to stand on.
"Well, this might be a problem for us. Without land it will be much harder to fight or search for the world crystal." Chronos said
"We do have some water walking and water breathing potions but not enough for several days of searching." Lyla informed him.
It was only now that he remembered that Gregory and Lyla had bought potions for them. There were only four of each, it was enough to last for a day but not much longer and unfortunately Chronos didn't know any techniques that would allow someone to walk on water.
He would have to fix that when he had a chance.
Varkesh brought a singer over to them, "Singer Nerethis, cast a water walking spell on them. You'll need it in here pup."
"Thanks fish. I was worried about how to get around."
Although they still insulted each other, everyone around them could tell that there was a level of respect in their voices.
Carefully sensing his surroundings Chronos could feel movement from several creatures in the water and something strong was definitely watching them from the shadows. He could also sense power gathering to the right but nothing in the middle of the void.
That was strange, the world crystal was supposed to be the focal point of these void spaces with everything floating around it. If it wasn't there then something had to move it.
"Fish, we aren't alone here. Something moved the crystal to the right." Chronos whispered to Varkesh.
He nodded before turning to give new orders to his troops.
"Send out three teams to search the surroundings. Don't go far from this sandbar until we know what we are facing."
After the water walking spell was cast Gregory left to map everything he could reach. Starting with the little sandbar they were standing on.
Almost immediately black piranhas tried to attack everyone that left only to be rapidly cut down as the orcas passed them.
While the scouts were out the rest of the troops built a small temporary camp and set guards. Luckily it didn't look like anything was interested in their presence here.
After a short while, the scouts returned to report, and Varkesh was waiting for them at the center of the camp.
"Captain, there are many dark beasts in our surroundings but no indication of intelligence at this time. From what we could tell there are only a few landmasses and those are controlled by monsters. The current is constantly changing direction and there seems to be no natural laws controlling anything here."
Listening to the report Varkesh formed a plan.
"We only have a few hours before the trolls arrive, everyone will start searching to our right and perform a sweep with the sandbar as the center. This space is not very large thanks to the seal theater; it shouldn't take us long to locate our target. Once found, report back first, do not approach on your own."
"Yes, sir."
Entering the water Varkesh led his troops to the right of the sandbar with Chronos' team following on the surface.
Several monster fish attacked during their journey, but since none were above tier two, they easily defeated anything that came their way.
Chronos found it a bit strange that there were so few swamp creatures in the tear but attributed it to how young and small the tear was.
After an hour they changed direction to sweep around the sandbar but after sensing the flow of power in the air Chronos realized that the gathering point had changed.
"Is the devil moving it or is it in the currents? This could be a lot more troublesome than we thought." He whispered.
After another hour and a half, they had circled around 40 percent of the sandbar. There had been many monsters, and they had cleared two more sandbars to rest on with ease, but they still couldn't find the crystal.
As for Chronos' senses the gathering point kept randomly changing locations drifting from place to place. It didn't seem to be controlled but its movements also didn't match the currents they had seen, not that that meant much when nothing here stayed the same.
They stopped at another sandbar after killing a razorjaw that had claimed it.
"Pup, can you still sense where power is gathering?" Varkesh asked.
"Yes, but it keeps drifting around at a constant pace. It hasn't stopped moving and it doesn't feel like it is being carried but I can still feel something watching us."
Varkesh had a thoughtful look on his face.
"From the sound of it the devil can't find it either. Its movements are similar to being caught in a current, if water still follows a similar dynamic to the ocean, then it's probably caught in an outer current circling this inner current. Has it crossed our path since we began searching?"
"No, it's been moving against the currents we're following. Is that normal?"
"Yes, the currents deep below the surface of the ocean often move in the opposite direction from those on the surface. This void has many saltwater fish mixed in with freshwater ones; it makes me think that we're in the middle of a large circular ocean. We need to get to the outer currents before the crystal passes us or we'll be stuck chasing it forever."
"How are we supposed to do that when we can't even see all of the currents? Some of the void currents don't have water in them otherwise we'd already be in the middle of an ocean." Chronos pointed out.
"Watch and see. Singer Nerethis, I want every singer to sing the echo-map song. Direct it at the void, treat everything around us like it is an unmapped location within the ocean." Varkesh smilingly replied.
"Would that really work?" She asked.
"It should, for now give it a try. Until we know it won't work we should try everything available."
"Yes, sir."
Chronos watched as the singers sang and soundwaves became visible as they traveled. Originally, they travelled in a nice wave pattern, then they deformed as they collided with air before being dragged in a specific direction.
"Whenever we are lost at sea, we use sound to map the currents around us. Sound travels differently in the water than it does in air, which allows us to track the movement of water. Since this void acts like the deep sea I thought we could try this method, it seems like it works well. Give us sometime and we'll find a way to the outer currents." Varkesh spoke with pride.
"It is impressive that much is certain." Chronos said as he watched the sound waves bounce off of invisible currents.
Making sound visible had greatly changed how merfolk society worked in the past so much that songs were incorporated into almost everything the merfolk did. Like with the harp enchanting swords on its own in Aelira's tent.
Even to this day every singer great or small was given great respect.
As they sang the singers started changing locations and the orca guards took notes of everything they heard and saw. Before long they had a map of every nearby current and began predicting the currents movements further away.
Once they had the nearby currents, they left to continue mapping currents until they found a way out. The orca guards acted as escorts as the singers sung the echo-map song while the deep priests mapped everything they could find.
Sometime later they found several patterns that allowed them to locate a few currents that would take them to the outer currents.
However, as they approached the current Chronos got a really bad feeling. Running forward he caught up to Varkesh.
"Fish, I can feel it coming."
"I see, battle formation blackwake interlock formation."
With that order the orca guard formed a defensive formation with twelve guards on the outer ring forming a harpoon line, ten guards on the inner ring acting as a breaker line, and eight guards along with Varkesh in the center protecting the priests and singers.
The only ones not protected were Chronos' team, but the orca guard's formation was tilted to place them above its center.
"Haha, they're using us as bait." Chronos said "Gregory take care of Sariah, Lyla do you need help?"
"Don't you dare! This is my chance to bash a devil's face in." She said with a maniacal grin.