Okay, I admit it. I’m effing screwed. I’m too shocked to even have a panic attack at the six stark-red pupil-less eyed dragons. What the hell do I do now? Well Reggie Shellcracker, I guess we try to burn up our dragonforce while fighting tooth and nail to get into as many of their chests and throats as we can. I’m sorry buddy. We tried. We really, really tried. We did sorta good, didn’t we? We saved four people, four enemies who accepted mercy. We got our allies home safely too.

Hell, other than being completely out of safe resources, we’re in almost perfect condition, better than when we woke up in the morning honestly. Other than a pounding headache. I suppose I could maybe take one of them out if I get high enough to charge the other energy cell, and get it into their nasal passages before letting it explode. I need to finish off the one on the ground before one of them decides to off their ally and eat his heart before I can do it. Let’s see. I can maybe do either one more quickened Steely Body spell, or one G S E of something like Balefire while inside one of their nostrils or throats. One or the other. Something tells me I need to do the Steely Body spell just to survive long enough to even do the energy cell.

What do I do after that? Just void dragon biting and clawing? Whatever. Figure it out as we go. Not much point in fussing about it. We’ll give it our all, our everything, and beyond. All of my loves? All of my families? I love you all. I’m sorry I didn’t make it home.

Struggling out of the muck, levitating myself as my powers slowly come back to me, I draw Frostburn and sweep it across horizontally to point at each member of the group as I brazenly call out, “I am Reggie Shellcracker! I am the Hero of the Order of the Onyx Dawn. I am an archmage Aliased Schism! I am the Void Dragon Honoris Causa! I claim the dragonforce of your fallen brethren, and if you do not step away, I’ll claim yours as well!”

Deep breath Reggie, hold it. Check to see how many adamantite shavings you have. At most one more cast. Well then, that’s all you get. Let’s do this. Quicken casting a Steely Body spell, taking me a fair ways past my easily safe limit, I don’t feel too horribly affected by it yet. It might be the extra strength from becoming adamantite that is keeping me from succumbing to sudden muscle weakness though.

Ugh, my vision’s so screwed up that I can’t even tell what colors they are. Wait, what are— Should I be giggling that a Damnation is breathing fire at me? There are six dragonfrights engaged, and at least one dragon breathing fire on me. I know they’re deadly, powerful, durable, but there’s something not right about them. If they’re being piloted by fragments of the emperor, if he’s busy, they’re being piloted poorly.

I just laugh out loud as I try to get my bearings. I hear their wings flapping, and sense the hurricane-strength gusts being directed my way, but I keep an extra telekinetic grip on myself, and a T K Square at my back, and the one under my feet. I don’t feel them approaching in my silent sonar. My thermal senses are screwed up from the massive fire breath, which, to be fair, is incredible for how shortly it was charged. It’s still going, and it’s beyond enorm—. What.

What?

What!?

I shout, “Get back here with that! It’s mine! You’re mine! Come die! What the hell!? What the hell!? What the friggin’ hell!?”

Gorram motherfuggin’ sons of crapsack pieces of crap. They stole my kill! Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of honor for the Honoris Causa or something? Bluh, probably not amongst beings like the Damnations. Also Reggie, the one you ‘killed’ was still technically alive, and you didn’t really kill it, the Worldstorm did. Boo, hush up with your logic. Sons of motherfriggin’ crapsacks. I guess I can drop my Honoris Causa. Huh, I got a lot of energy out of that Damnation. I’m back to around a hundred fifty percent just from the dragonforce I was able to absorb. Wowzah.

Well now the hell what? Where the fricklefrack even am I? Ugh. I take a deep breath, sigh, hold my breath and let myself float back down to the ground. I sit in the mud grumpily, in lotus position, then lean forward to place my elbows on my knees and rest my chin in my hands. What the crap? What the everloving crap? I’m not even injured! I went through all that, and here I am, out of resources, lost in friggin’ Spine of the World Nowhere Rayileklia.

I let the Worldstorm Vortexes toss us around quite a bit. I have no idea where they tossed me to too. I might not even be able to get back if I went over the wrong side of the ShizTinth stronghold. Bluh. I guess I could try to find the stronghold, and finish off any stragglers? Or, um.

I reach into the dimensional pouch and write a note complaining to Luni, “Location unkown. I beat a Damnation. Piledrived it through Worldstorm. Other Damnations all arrived, stole my kill, and left. I’m lost. How do I get home?”

Hm, no idea when Lu will get the note. I’m just gonna friggin’ nap for a while, maybe the origami giraffe will wake me up. Ack, koff, pluck, pleh. Can’t sleep face up under Rayileklian skies doofus. Yeah, yeah I forgot. It’s been a while. Ugh, acid rain in my nostrils and mouth. I know why we have it, basically for what I just did there. Preventing the Damnations from being able to freely travel. They’re using up a ton of energy flapping at low altitudes. To what? Beat a hasty retreat from a single Shellcracker? I’m not that full of myself. Something is going on here.

Still, I’m kinda sleepy. That was a hell of a lot of exercise. It’s like, not even noon yet. Started fighting at like five to six in the morning, each floor didn’t take more than half an hour, maybe an hour on floor five, then maybe an hour beating a hasty retreat, and the Worldstorm might have been half an hour getting the Damnation into it, then through it. It’s like nine or ten am. Friggin’ hell.

I was kinda hoping to get to hang out with Prinny and Illy and read trashy romance novels. Instead, I’ll probably get a note telling me Kinzul says I might as well go to my next target which will be like three days solo travel in some direction or something. I mean, not that I’d begrudge my Lady’s orders or anything. I’m just really pooped, and want some relaxation. My muscles are stiff and sore as hell. It’s a good thing we found out adamantite is almost acid immune. I wouldn’t have really been willing to risk diving into the Worldstorm otherwise. Last time I tried to do a Steely Body up into the Worldstorm, it was just enchanted steel that lost its enchantment when Steely Body ate the metal of my equipment.

Is— is the sky opening up? I take a deep breath, hold it, and begin leaping upwards, doing repeated T K S Ls. There’s the tiniest sliver of a corridor directly above me. Is Kinzul here? I’d think she would be coming down herself, or at least reaching out telepathically as I get closer and closer, higher and higher. The lightning that zooms directly at me then suddenly curves around me still gives me a bit of a start. A startlement? Something or other.

Up, up, up we go. When we stops, nobody knows. Seriously. I mean, I guess this is a sign and all. A little bit ominous of one. A tiny beam of light through an endless storm, and ascending that beam of light? Heading up to heaven now are we? Hm, there’s some static. I mean, more than the obvious static hum and the separation of ozone. Something in my brain.

Well. Now what. I’m above the Worldstorm finally. Feeling kinda sleepy. Really sleepy. This is kind of bad. And of course the hole in the Worldstorm has healed up beneath me. Ugh, I wonder if I can get my T K grip to stick to me while I’m unconscious. Well, let’s see. My general direction from Mount Solace should be somewhere to the west. So if I head easterly, I’ll at least be making progress towards it. Then again, Lady Kinzul was able to open up the sky directly above me.

What if she’s sending someone to this location? I could be lost until I pass out. But if we’re hundreds of miles from Mount Solace, even a quick member of the Order is going to take hours to get here. Huff. I guess there’s not much for it but to try to stay awake in position. Maybe if Lady Kinzul somehow senses me falling through the Worldstorm again, she’ll part it for me. I’ll probably wake up on the way down, maybe a second or two before dying.

Sighing, I sit on a T K Square above two more T K Squares, just on the off chance that they might not all fade at once if I pass out. Opening the dimensional pouch, the origami giraffe nearly leaps out to fall to its doom, and I barely manage to catch it, and myself as I lean over reaching for it. I am so, so, so very lucky I have multiple T K grips. I’m quite foolish.

Let’s see what Lu has to say, “Eight minutes, then one hour, Me and Lil fast form. Coming to get you.”

Really? Lil’s got a form that hits over two hundred fifty miles an hour? Well, with Lu’s songs or buffs or something. I guess, his solar Latent, eight minutes is a reference to Can’Z’aas, so probably getting Lady Kinzul to help with an evolution or something. Or he probably doesn’t even need her help. I’m the only one that explodes when I reach out to Can’Z’aas.

How do I keep myself occupied for an hour, without moving from this spot? I guess I could kind of devise something I’ve been thinking about. I want to try to get a mental subroutine picture going, like the old Can’Z’aas inventory menus and stuff. Draw it out a little bit, let’s see. What do I want to keep track of? Staff charge, S P for me, dragonforce, and bandolier knives for sure. Anything else that recharges daily? The sandstorm cloak, but me using here was more of a one-off. I mostly use it for conjuring water for Dagdha’s Cauldron.

Seriously, anything else Reggie? I’m thinking I’m thinking! Gimme a minute! Ugh, fractured psyche. Oh yeah, wasn’t there a brain pop? There were some thoughts while—. Maybe don’t think about the things that cause your brain to explode or trigger trauma panic attacks when sitting precariously above the Worldstorm? Ah, touche. Right you are. Yes, true. Okay then.

Raven-port! Yes, most definitely. Um, Necrometal has some spelly things in it, but I didn’t really figure them out, there’s some exclusivity or some charges or something, and the daily aura, and the reactionary necrotic energy absorption. It’s honestly extremely powerful in a particular niche, and versatile within that niche too. I maybe possibly could have survived some of the laser-meister’s blast with Necrometal on, because it does reduce incoming radiant related damage. I hope the prisoners are okay in the portable hole. That’s a lot of pressure on Illy, who probably still thinks I just died. Poor Illy.

I sigh wistfully as I think of the beautiful younger mirror image of Lady Kinzul. They aren’t identical by any means, but their midnight-sky skin has such an ethereal alien beauty to it, and their forms are similarly proportioned, sculpted to perfect majesty. Illy wears her hair partially up before hers cascades, while Lady Kinzul’s hair is a full cascade to the incredible nape of her back. I really shouldn’t be thinking about my Lady’s bare back, and that subtle curve just above her tailbone.

Rattling my skull, I try to find another topic, so my mind goes to worrying about Prinrin instead. She was looking pretty beat up. I’m sure some volunteers would go to Sponge for her, right? She did say that as a shorty, a, what was it, a shrimp or a runt? That she’d get snubbed frequently. It’s worrisome to think that people might lose their empathy with her because she’s short for her dragon-ness.

Brain, do not start going down that path. Nope, don’t think about it being Friday, and the things you like about Prinrin’s body. La la la. Think about advantages that you passed up, or used too early, or other things you learned while fighting like this.

Hm, good point. I’m not suited to long stronghold fights, not really. Half of the reason I’m in such good shape is *because* Ahliyui and Ahliyuri surrendered, rather than fighting me. If the four had continued to beat on me together, I’d have used up most or all of my resources, slowly whittling them down. I definitely wouldn’t have had the S P left over to try diving through the Worldstorm in a controlled descent.

Wait. It’s like, going on noon right? Possibly even earlier. It looks like the sun is in the east though. Ah, I hope that is what I think it is. My beloved buddy, rocketing this way with Luni guiding him. I can almost sense them, almost. A bit closer.

As we pop into our shared thinkspace, our telepathic avatars hug one another tightly. I wish Teuila could be here too, but she’s fighting some Heironymous Bosch Gold Storm something someone or other and his blue dragon wife Maribel or something. I know I’m butchering those names. It kinda doesn’t matter, because they’re going to be corpsefied shortly. That probably seems horribly crass, but I’m not feeling up to filtering myself about people that help Terrorzin right now.

Lu’s telepathic avatar cups the left cheek of mine as she wears a sad smile and laments, “Oh Reggie. It never seems to get any easier. You’re so close but so far away still. I love you, my Hero. You did so good. I’m so proud of you. Kinzul is too.”

Chipperly, Lil chirps as he chimes in, “Me too pal! Really, a whole Damn Nation? That’s a lot!”

Snrk. I snort and begin laughing as my telepathic avatar shoves its hand in Lil’s avatar’s face. Luni’s avatar jumps on him, and we dogpile him together, rolling and laughing. Shaking my head incredulously I tease, “Lil you’re such a doof. I love you buddy. Thank you for coming to my rescue. I’m getting really sleepy. It’s been a rough six or seven hours or so.”

Examining my avatar, Lil comments, “You do look mega sleepy, mega mega mega sleepy, but you also look *good* pal! Like, like something about you is so, so, so mega hot, mega mega mega hot! Almost as hot as Ixeyla!”

Chuckling, knowing that that is tremendous praise coming from Lil, my avatar snuggles my buddy’s while it’s got him in a headlock. Could it be my new level of my Honoris Causa? What are they called? Stages? Engages? Levels? Tiers? Phases? Ranks? Calibers? I like that one. “Why that’s a high caliber Honoris Causa you’ve got there pal,” “Why thank you my friend, it is indeed.”

Snrk. Okay, I really, really need sleep. There’s Lil and Lu, for sure, so I begin levitating their way as Lil becomes larger and larger off of the horizon while approaching. Holy crap. Lil is friggin’ huge. He also looks much sleeker in this form, more aerodynamic, with only a bit of extra rear proportions for hind leg leaping strength. He basically would look a bit like a fighter jet when viewed from above. This has to be a higher stage evolution.

Lil chimes in, “Yup yup! Momma and me worked on this one together, doing that self acty whatsit. Actualize-ation.”

Smiling at Lil, I lower myself into Lu’s waiting arms atop his back. As much as I want to catch up, I can’t remain conscious as all my muscles sag, loosening completely as I become a wet-noodle version of myself. Luni tucks me in closely against her breast, holding me tightly and leaning down against Lil’s back as she hums. She strokes a chord on her harp, setting it to loop a sound, and continues humming to me softly while empowering Lil somehow. Lil wheels around, and we head for home as I pass out atop his back.