Im paralyzed. The violet around vanishes, swapped for a deep blue palette through which I can barely sense the world around , my body in a prison made from inertia. My arrogance swapped for fear, the moisture in the air still allows to observe Rheas disappearing form.
She still has her arms wrapped around in a hug from when she smashed into . Her hands are stretched out in front of her, to my side. The world outside my visual senses is made up of blue volutric fog, a rough form of my spiritual sense telling whats going on. Sensing water mana is less accurate than feeling for air, but the ntal strain that cos with emotionally faking is lessened. This entire situation does scare , after all.
Instead of uselessly worrying and fretting over things that are happening, I start thinking up and calculating my way through possible solutions again. The Nexus and the qi-empowered core are communicating still, through a rip in the fabric. Doing so more observation tells that the only thing disintegrating right now is Rhea. Shit, the second knuckle of her pinky just vanished
Stamping down on the swelling surge of panic, I keep going through the motions. I see flashes of bright aning each ti a part of her disintegrates, why would that be?
My braincore is still a partial eyecore, I notice. Grasping onto this thread of hope, I continue the process of forming a detailed model of an eye inside the core. The world around lights up with vague threads, the area between the low moon and the core a blinding pillar of data. I stop when my mind feels like its cooking, the pressure of having to keep track of octillions of atoms now replaced with the density of the communication Im sensing and seeing.
Then I feel entropic contrast build up around the core, and I know what is about to happen. The flash of aning and reality that warps another piece of Rhea into nothingness is over before I can stop it. Another little bit of Rheas middle finger is just gone, the only indication it was ever there the small bit of vacuum before her open wound.
The blue fades as I get angry. The fear of losing her, and also my own life, clouding out my panic. The blue haze is entirely gone by the ti I spot the second flash, a few subjective minutes of ntal stewing later. This ti, I nearly see it happening in ti. Like a galactic clock cycle, another small bit of reality is rewritten.
The third ti I see a bit of Rhea disappearing only serves to piss off even more. Ive kept running through all kinds of scenarios at this point, extrapolating all kinds of possible solutions to this predicant. Ive co up short every single ti.
Moving into Tree is the most obvious solution, but forcing myself through that portal in space takes ti. Rhea will only be left with half a torso in the best and most optimal scenario I could co up with. Other tricks, such a deploying a new protective weave or just legging it, all co to the sa conclusion. There wont be enough of Rhea left to heal before I can accomplish what I want to achieve. My anger has only grown. Im now furious to such an extent that I can see the small strands of dark mana generated by the bacteria and fungi present in the soil below.
The large weave around us is still rotating at an impressive speed, and the protective formation will move between the core and the moon in but a fraction of a second as the hole rotates away. Rhea will be just a head by then, though.
Another piece of flesh vanishes in a flash of aning, and I have had enough.
The buildup of aning happens again, the black rectangle bathed in a vicious light of information, and I refuse it. I throw every single speck of anger, willpower, life experience, and discipline I have at the stupid fucking thing.
YOU CAN NOT! I shout.
The buildup falters, unable to reach the critical montum where pure information becos such a burden upon reality that it folds. I refuse it with all my might, using nothing but sheer pigheaded willpower to deny.
YOU MAY NOT! I bellow.
The beam of power coming from the moon intensifies, channelling more aning into the core. I refuse it from happening, unwilling to let that thing continue.
YOU WILL NOT! I scream.
Then the entire world explodes into white, and ti resus its inevitable march. I feel warm and cold all over as my blinded vision returns to , and I see that the world is slowly starting to move again. Rhea continues tackling , her clothes slowly flapping in the wind. Cracks form across the field of shimring stars, shifting dots of light refracted by fractures in the black surface of the core in front of us.
Blearily, I realise that the woven shield has rotated, and is blocking the moon again. I watch in passive fascination as an ergency process makes hold on to Rhea before calling out to Tree. The only thing I consciously manage to do is to raise my middle finger to the dungeon core, a small bit of glee in my heart as I see cracks slowly running through its outside.
The world reduces to a point as darkness closes in, I see a single image of Rhea, clutching her bleeding fingers as a golden glow is all around us. Then darkness takes the last bit of light I see.
the scuffle. We were just shoving qi inside the thing, when everything went white, and I suddenly stood right here. The fact that my fingers were gone was a little more pressing than asking Drew - who is still unconscious - why he didnt take you. Now stop biting , you stupid fuzzball!
Squeeeee!
I dont know! Hes perfectly fine now. I managed to keep him together, so calm yourself!
The world wobbles around as my consciousness erges from thick tar.
Squeak. Snort!
Snort yourself. He did that all by himself, he doesnt need us mothering him. I an, how many tis did he pull your bacon out of the fire, miss Lola?
I hear so unintelligible yet cute sounding grunting noises. I feel like sothing weird is going on, but for the life of , I can't rember why I should give a single shit.
Its safe. What do you an, your old ho? Isnt this your ho?
More weird squeaking noises follow the lovely voice.
The necklace isnt your ho. Stop accusing of random stuff and help figure out why he isnt waking up. Tree, you big lump of timber, you help too.
A lot of odd things, but I cant find it in to care, so I roll over and go to sleep again.
And now Ive had enough! You get up right now! A roar shakes my bones, the vibrations tossing around and lifting from the ground. Isnt an earthquake supposed to be over after a few seconds, though? And I really should have hit the ground by now. Instead of landing on a hard surface, I seem to be floating on a rather soft bed of feathers.
My eyelids fall open, and I see a furious face centitres away from mine. My mouth curls into a lazy smile, but I dont really know why. Theres lots of stuff behind the woman too, but nothing interesting. A rabbit seems to be biting my nose, but thats not interesting either.
Drew, whats wrong?
My mouth smiles wider, but I dont reply. My eyes fall close again as I tumble around, and I let myself fall into another slumber.
Im breaking your ship. Drew, you shit, Im actually going to destroy it, you know. Im being held aloft as my eyes are word open by a force I cant see. I seem to be facing so form of wooden construction. I know it from sowhere. Once again, I dont care. The woman steps back and lifts a finger. I feel like I should reach out to her, maybe I should stop her? Her fist shoots out towards the pristine hull, smashing a good five rows of planks into smithereens. I feel a faint twinge, but nothing more.
I idly wonder why the woman seems to be spraying the shattered remains of the boat with water coming from her face? She really went to town on the thing, screaming all the while. Now shes just sitting there, letting water drip from her eyes.
Very weird.
Ah well. Sleep overwhelms and I welco it.
Shes back again. This ti, the little white critter has joined her. The tall one is carrying a large tal slab, orange and blue lines intermingling on its dark surface. What seems to be a tree is inlaid in silver along its length. Two pictures of the white creatures face are also present, one glowing a warm orange while the other glows icy blue.
The female raises the thing high into the sky, only to smash it down on the ground. Everything shakes for a bit, so I take a look at the object she is slinging the large slab against. The anvil made from a dull, pitch black material sinks deeper into the ground each ti she brings the objects violently together. The violent explosions of pressure and noise pound through my chest each ti the heavily breathing woman brings the slab down.
The white little thing cos closer, and starts annoying the busily working woman. They bicker a bit, one shouting and the other yelling even louder. Im ready to let my eyes close, but sothing seems to prevent my eyelids from falling, no matter how heavy they are. The spectacle continues, and I cant help but watch on. She bashes the long thing against the small thing over and over. After a while, she has started leaking sothing wet from her entire form, making her clothes stick to her body. I feel a slight hint of sothing in my lower body, but its gone before I can grasp it.
Then things co to a point. The white little one has been getting more and more restless, hopping around and nudging the tall one. Then a single crack appears in the long slab of tal. Then the woman smashes it down again.
A small explosion of red and blue sends everything flying, including . Finally able to close my eyes, I let sleep tak-
A slap wakes . Dishevelled white hair rims a pair of red and puffy eyes that burn with purple inner fire. I am hauled upright again as the woman stumbles off. She stops, picks up the now brightly glowing long tal thing and starts shuffling back to my position. She lifts it with trembling hands and brings it down. I can see that the glowing spiderweb of fractures will land right on the anvil. I know that its going to break.
The white ball of fluff cos charging in, looking equally dishevelled. Patches of fur are missing, an orange and blue horn sputters in and out of existence on her forehead, and I can see a crazed look in her little black eyes. I can tell that the small rabbit will land between sword and anvil, and I know that it will do actual damage to all involved if this strike continues.
Thats when I realise. I dont want this. I dont want the glowing tal slab to explode in a deadly concoction of mana stone, tal alloy, and compressed qi. I dont want the woman to be torn to shreds. I dont want the small little thing - Lola, I belatedly realise - to be hurt. I dont want my own sword to break. How dare Rhea try and smash that thing. Does she even know how long I worked at that? At least several hours, and now shes trying to destroy it?
Why?
For the first ti in an eternity, sothing flickers inside of . A piece that I didnt even know was missing trickles back into place, and it has the gall to pretend it was never there.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! I shout with all my might. I let the single syllable rip through my throat as I force more air through my vocal cords.
WHAT THE SHIT! I continue my tirade. What in the everloving Out of breath, I fall to the ground. Then I realise that standing is a lot of effort, and why should I bother? I'll just fall asleep again. This is followed by a small trickle of power from the very core of my being slapping that lazy version of myself in the face.
Drew! Then Im smothered by long limbs and a small furry body. As I fall backwards onto the dirt, the last few hours co back to . The horror at the bizarre state I was in is only lessened when I realise what Rhea has been doing.
Miss Re-Haan I slowly ask. What did you do with my ship?
A fist slams onto my chest. No.
What happened to Tree? I ask while taking in the situation around . The entire dinsion has gone to shit. I'm reminded of the ti when I sucked up all of its power to fuel my step into the foundation realm. The lack of power in the air had let everything float off into unstructured chaos. Looking around, I see streams of water floating alongside rows of trees, thick wads of dirt still clinging to their roots. I even see a few mutants here and there, flailing around as they float.
No. Just The emotion in her voice stops in my tracks.
Okay. Lets just lay here for a bit, okay?
I feel a tearstained face rub against my chest as she nods. I put a hand on her back and relax a little, processing what just happened.
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