I can’t see.
I can’t see two creatures strong enough to move a stone to block the entrance to this cave. Sure the opening was only a little taller than but still, strong enough.
I froze, muscles locked, straining every heightened sense for movent. The floor was littered with puddles. If they moved, I’d hear it.
I waited…waited more.
“Peter, what are you doing!? It’s about to attack yo—”
Luna’s voice cut off as my mind reeled, slamming shut any input from her.
A sudden impact caved into my gut. Hard.
I rocketed backward, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs as I crashed into the stone ground.
Then breath. Hot, wet, and hungry.
Right at my throat.
Instinct scread, and I moved without thinking, hands flying up, releasing two blasting waves to ss up whatever was above .
Nothing. No recoil, no surge humming through the air.
Sothing was wrong. Did I not release the blast?
No. I felt it. I fired, and the energy was gone…and so were the creatures that had been inches from bleeding dry.
I can’t hear.
Anything.
“Peter. I can see them,” Luna’s voice cut through the emptiness. “There’s a circle of energy surrounding them both.”
At least I could still hear her in my head.
“I can’t, Luna. That’s the problem. And you can’t do much more than warn .”
I scanned my internal fla. It burned a little brighter, but not enough. Not nearly enough. If I activated my Precursor Sense now, I’d get a few monts.
Then I’d pass out. And passing out ant dying.
“Move now!”
I dove. Blind.
Following her voice. Trusting instinct.
I wanted to ask which way, but how could she even explain it? She saw the world differently. Left, right, forward. They didn’t an the sa thing to her.
Unfortunately, she was right. There were two.
I felt the rush of sothing lunging past as I hit the ground, landing deftly on my hands and feet.
Pain.
A jagged, biting pain ripped through my ankle.
It pulled, and my flesh tore. Probably making my foot resemble party decorations
I yelled but nothing ca.
I—I don’t have a choice. I’ll die like this.
A do of sensation burst to life around .
And suddenly, I saw them.
Glowing with a pulse of red.
One latched onto my foot, jaws clamped tight, a crushing pressure like bone caught in a vice. And another figure closed in behind .
They were small, hooved, on all fours. Quick. Unrelenting.
I grabbed the one still latched onto my foot, one hand on its upper jaw, the other on the lower, twisting awkwardly to avoid its approaching companion.
Summoning everything I had, I pulled.
Resistance.
The beast thrashed violently, flinging its body around in a desperate struggle to stay attached.
Its teeth sank deeper.
A bolt of pain cracked through my ankle, sharp and brutal, like sothing had fractured under the pressure. A full-body shudder tore through .
But I refused to let go.
I summoned more power from sowhere, forcing the jaws to unclamp.
More thrashing. More struggling. But I kept stretching. Wider. Wider. Much wider.
There was no sound.
But if there had been…
Let’s just say I was glad I couldn’t hear it.
I felt it, though.
Ever torn apart an order of chicken wings? That pop when the joints separate? The slow pull of tendons stretching, fraying under pressure?
Yeah. That.
"Except, you know…raw. Unfiltered. Not softened by cooking.
Flesh ripped. Bone snapped apart. Small bits cracked under pressure.
The thing shuddered.
"You can see them now?" Luna's voice rang through the silence, relief threading her words.
I didn’t answer. My head was pounding.
And once again, my options were running out.
I had to shut off the ability.
Otherwise? Napti.
And napti now…was permanent.
I plunged myself into sensory deprivation.
And waited.
Had to take a hit. Then I could act.
I braced but…nothing ca.
No impact. No attack.
I couldn’t even tell if the surviving one had fled.
I needed to retreat to a wall. Reduce the angles. Control the fight.
But even shifting my weight sent sharp, burning pain lancing through my ankle.
I could stand...barely. But moving? I’d have to hop.
And if I lost my balance here, it was over.
"—er i— m—ing."
Luna's voice barely broke through the fog.
But I knew she wouldn’t speak unless sothing was coming.
I prepared myself, guarding whatever felt the most vital. But instead of another bite, I was knocked off my feet.
The force nearly flipped . I hit the ground, stone slamming into my spine.
But I managed it.
Sothing was in my grip.
“—O! —ER ON—”
Luna’s broken shouts barely registered.
It would be fine after this.
A thin, hairy leg.
I pulled, hard. Gripping with both hands, preparin—warmth.
Spreading from my gut. At first, oddly numbing, then just...warm.
Then fire.
Boiling. Searing.
I felt my blood flowing like ink from the punctures. The teeth painting a picture of splintering pain across my side.
I couldn’t even scream. It wasn’t that kind of pain.
Only a breath escaped. But it carried everything inside .
My grip loosened.
I tried to aim at the third beast, but the mont I reached, teeth clamped down on my free arm.
My vision blurred.
I felt sothing tear. The pain should’ve been worse. But it wasn’t.
That felt like a problem.
I let go of the leg but my hand didn’t move.
It flopped down uselessly.
I still had plenty of internal force left.
The fight had barely started before I was already losing
But my mind was fogged with exhaustion.
My limbs rooted. Or maybe they were just being torn apart. Honestly, it’s getting hard to tell anymore. My body felt distant, like I was barely inside it.
Move.
Co on!
MOVE!
I tried focusing. Reached for anything. Tried to summon resistance.
But the weight of blood loss was crushing .
Another numb pressure in my gut.
It was too much.
My fingers twitched, raw with pain.
They scraped at the wet stone and soil beneath . It felt like tundra.
Was the cave actually that freezing, or was I just slipping away?
Thi—this is how? Really? No fight? No final quip?
No, that wasn’t . I would laugh last, especially if I was the creator of the punchline. Who would dare to think this is the way I go?
I wouldn’t take it. If this was it...it was it.
Clarity struck like lightning.
Suddenly, my energy flowed freely, and the fog lifted.
Screw it. Thea warned never to do it, but what did that matter now?
Fighting against my own fading body, I summoned everything.
Everything.
My Precursor Sense slamd back to life.
I roiled with my last effort.
The entirety of what I had left exploded outward.
There was no echo. No explosion that I could sense.
But I still had that last bit of feeling in my limbs.
The cave trembled, vibrations pulsing beneath . Sand and loose pebbles rained down, speckling my face.
I couldn’t even tell if I had won.
My vision swam. My head lolled to the side. The last specks of warmth seeped from my body.
A numbness crept in, slow, inevitable.
My limbs hardened, like stone blocks sinking into the earth.
But...the mont after I released the world filled with color.
The auras, the ones I had co to recognize through Luna’s eyes, danced.
Twisting in patterns I couldn’t comprehend. Curling. rging. Breathing.
There was a flow to it. A rhythm. A pulse.
One that was far beyond .
For a mont, I wondered, had I sohow entered Luna’s body again?
Did I earn a brief reprieve from the inevitable fate?
But no. I still had the wherewithal to barely feel my own limbs.
I let out a chuckle, and realized that I could hear again.
My voice, rattled, but there.
"I guess it’s not such a bad sight."
I stared up, trying to glean so hidden secret locked in a plane that existed beyond my reach.
My vision blurred and the patterns fused together. Colors rged. Forming a blur of distinct power, vast and omnipresent.
Flowing into everything.
I felt ice slithering through my veins as my eyelids fought to stay open. Sothing was moving in there…
Not that it mattered.
Weightless comfort carved its way into my mind and sank deeper, further into an abyss I knew I couldn’t co back from.
And worse than the pain, worse than the cold creeping in...was the realization of my failure.
My world would never be avenged. I would never find the monster who sent billions to their graves.
I could never deliver fury. Retribution.
Nothing.
He would live contented and unbothered. By , anyway. No scars, no wounds, not even a passing thought of the destruction he left behind.
I thought I heard Luna’s voice, but I couldn’t tell if anything was real anymore.
My vision vanished.
Elric.
Sia.
Lyra.
Thea.
"I just…want to see you all again."
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