Diamonds

Dismounting and moving closer, D spied the small hole concealed in the
thicket. It was the same hole where Lina had her encounter with the ashgray shadow.
It was probably a trap. Without the slightest pause, D threw himself in.
A strange sensation prickled his body. That could only mean one thing
—a spatial distortion. Two points were connected, warping the space and
distance between them. Those two points were probably the hole . . . and
the ruins.

There was dirt beneath his feet. Less than a foot away was someplace
with an expansive floor paved in stone. This was probably one of the ruin’s
emergency exits. Either all the circuits blown when D broke free from the
sealed dimension had been repaired, or power had been restored to this area
alone.

D picked up a pebble by his foot and pitched it forward. At the
boundary line between the dirt floor and the paving stones, the pebble gave
off a pale flash of light and fell on the other side. The shape was exactly the
same, but the pebble’s substance was different.
“So it’s dead? Looks like I’ll have to pass a compatibility test.”
There was a powerful guard on duty here. Anyone or anything failing to
match the predefined physical criteria of the spatial rift would meet a silent
material death.

Perhaps D would be transformed into diamond?
Without taking time to think, he stepped silently forward.
Every one of his cells emitted the sparkle of jewels, and dreamy flames
colored his countenance.
As soon as he set foot on the stone floor, the glow flickered and faded
away. With just a light toss of his head, D ventured into the depths of the
darkness.

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