It was too bad that Durff was going to die. He kind of wanted to make it to Augmentation. It was a dumb dream, maybe, but that was a level where he would be strong enough to prove that he was a good cultivator. Integration was not something everyone in the upper realms could achieve, but there were still so many they couldn’t be counted. Augmentation cultivators, however, were special.

He’d seen them in the Veiled Brilliance, like his aunt Eka. There were some weak ones and some strong ones, but everyone respected them. People would have to stop calling him a dumb brute if he got that strong- even if it was probably true.

The blood wasn’t that big of a deal. He was more worried about the way the rest of his body was breaking down, and the fact that his upper energy was going to run dry fighting the big snake. Then his whole body would collapse. But he couldn’t let Misi or Juli or even the grumpy Jyotsana go first.

Everything was breaking around them. Durff smashed an incoming fang, cracking it apart. He was getting pretty good at that. They were all funky with how they grew and shrank and seemed to sometimes poke in different directions, but he’d hit enough of them to get it.

“What’s that?” Juli pointed. Durff vaguely swung his senses in that direction, but he wasn’t able to notice anything except more of the snake. Maybe from her position, things were different. Everything was weird here.

“I can’t quite make it out,” Misi frowned. So he did notice something?

“Injuries,” Jyotsana said. “Fresh ones. Not caused by us.”

“What does that mean?” Durff said.

Jyotsana smiled. “Someone else is fighting this right now. Or perhaps… it never recovers damage. But I think the former is more reasonable.”

“I don’t see anyone,” Durff said. “How big are the wounds…” he trailed off, when he finally sensed them. The wounds went all the way around. Sure, it wasn’t enough to cut the thing in half, but the fact that there were arm deep wounds that far was still impressive. The wounds were rubbing against the structure around them, sometimes, and weird not-blood spilled out.

“I’m gonna smash it,” Durff declared.

-----

For such a ponderous creature, the distortion beast was not actually slow. The great worm only moved a small portion of its visible body length in any given moment, but what Velvet could comprehend of its mass was more than the entire stable subspace they had been in.

She had been there moments before. Now she was caught inside the distortion beast and was being carried away. She felt the world break down around her. Ironically, the mass of the distortion beast trying to crush her likely kept her safer than she would have been free. She still needed every ounce of her energy to protect herself, but it would last somewhat longer.

Now she was uncertain if she should escape. Velvet was minimizing her presence so the distortion beast didn’t try to actively destroy her, and that was working well enough. But without a stable subspace to leave into, she would have to be very decisive in cutting her way into normal, functional dimensions. First order subspace was naturally quite stable, so if she could reach that she would be fine. Probably.

Too bad she didn’t make use of it aside from traveling, and often she was carried by ships. She was capable of traveling through subspace on her own, but not an expert.

Waiting too long would be a risk. Velvet knew that, and she prepared herself to act. Once she reached a certain threshold, she would slice her way out. Until then, she was slowly prying herself out of the dense musculature and overlapping physicality of the distortion beast. Such things were a pain to deal with no matter which level of existence you were on, it seemed.

Then Velvet sensed something. Which was just as surprising as what she actually sensed. For a moment, she thought she was imagining things. She wouldn’t hallucinate if she passed out, she’d just cease to exist, so it wasn’t that. But sometimes, the mind played tricks.

Intentional perception would negate that in a single moment. No, it really was there. They were there. After considering it, Velvet didn’t find it quite as unbelievable as she had at first. Durff had already declared his intention to continue seeking out the locations of the Nighstar sect. Here he was, at one. That Velvet certainly hadn’t expected to reach. How many lightyears had she covered in just a few moments? Hundreds, certainly.

She didn’t hesitate any further, slicing her way out of the beast as subtly as possible. She almost got pulled back in as another series of dimensional tremors came from the beast. The continuation of its injured, or new damage from Alva? It didn’t matter either way.

Velvet was drawing close to the space. The four were attacking the beast as parts of it drew close. She hadn’t wanted to reveal her Augmentation cultivation to them, but she was in no circumstance to hold back. Paired daggers sliced, finally dropping flee disconnected hunks of flesh. Flames scoured near her.

An uncomfortable moment of being exposed to null space, and then she was standing next to them. Stronger tremors began, threatening to pull them out. “Durff! Grab the twins!”

For his part, the man didn’t hesitate at the sudden command. Any surprise he felt at her appearance didn’t seem to be much. Velvet rushed inward, catching Jyotsana along the way. Durff followed after her as they pulled away from the outer edge. A wave of spatial distortions pushed them outward, but Velvet remained inside. The others were briefly exposed to null space, but the worm’s tremors were less. The final death throes… Velvet hoped.

All five of them ran further inward. Fighting it was useless now. The structure was collapsing around them, but the center seemed to be holding together. Space was vaguely stable there. They could-

“Hi, Sybella,” Durff said. “Where’d you come from? When did you get so strong? Have you always been an Augmentation cultivator?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The crumbled structure didn’t block their movement, which meant they reached the center area quickly. It also meant the formations were barely functioning, as they were build into everything.

“Hello, Durff,” Velvet replied. “And the rest of you. I was in the worm. And I’ve been in Augmentation since before you met me.”

She didn’t mind explaining at least that much. Theoretically, she should just kill them all for the sake of Scarlet Alliance security. Durff didn’t deserve that. The twins didn’t, either. Jyotsana… was probably fine. Not killing her, but she could potentially keep secrets.

Also, all of them might die here anyway. So there was that.

“That explains a lot,” Misi said. Juli nodded.

Jyotsana just grunted.

“That’s nice to know before I die,” Durff said. “I was friends with an Augmentation cultivator. Right?”

Velvet nodded. “We’re friends,” she agreed. Durff smiled. “If you’re actually dying, I’d suggest consuming any medicine you have. Even if it’s outside in.”

“Oh.” Durff looked around. “I thought the snake was going to kill us.”

Snake was… definitely incorrect for the distortion beast. Worm wasn’t quite right either, but it was a thousand times closer than snake. Aside from being a long shape, snake barely fit. The concentric rings of teeth fit a worm… just far too many of them stretching seemingly forever.

They were right in the middle of the worm, which meant it didn’t smash into them too much. It was slowing, Velvet thought. She hoped it was actually going to die.

Jyotsana was carefully taking things in and out of her bag at different angles, before finally consuming a few pills of condensed powder. “Guess we might as well try to stay alive as long as possible. But I don’t think there’s a way out of here. If there was… it’s busted now.” She gestured around them, and there really was little remaining around them. “Unless you suddenly became a formation grandmaster, we’re still just as stuck.”

“Are you?” Durff asked.

Velvet shook her head. “Nah. I was with one, though.”

Misi sighed, “That would be nice.”

“Right?” Juli said. “We could just wait here to be rescued.”

“That’s my preferred plan,” Velvet said. “Not confident about cutting my way out of here.”

Durff sat down. “Break time, then.”

Velvet also sat.

“So we’re just waiting to die, then?” Jyotsana leaned against a wall, which was a difficult maneuver at the moment.

“No, we’re waiting for rescue from her formation grandmaster friend,” Durff said.

Velvet nodded. “I suppose I should try to contact her so she knows where to look.” Velvet pulled out a communicator. “I wonder if this works in partial order subspace…”

“What’s that?” Misi asked curiously.

“Comms device,” Velvet said.

“It doesn’t look like any sort of transmission array I know of,” Misi frowned.

“That’s because it’s special,” Velvet shrugged. How long would it take a message to reach if it worked? Would it be instantaneous? Would it have to cover hundreds of lightyears and take months?

Velvet got a response a few moments later. Or at least, her communicator lit up. Calling it a response was a bit… generous. The device itself indicated that the message was corrupted, as it was truly random information. She sent a response, explaining things properly just in case it worked one way.

Then she got a sound file. Corrupted and painful to listen to, but she responded with one of her own. “Which location did you come from?” Velvet asked. “That might help her pin us down.”

“... it doesn’t look like you’re getting information across,” Juli commented.

“Maybe not,” Velvet said. “But I absolutely won’t if I don’t try.”

Jyotsana gave the location. Velvet sent it on, both text and voice.

“Are these places adjacent?” Velvet pondered aloud. She hadn’t run into another one- nor anything else. Maybe there was a connection between them. Yes, that would make sense wouldn’t it. If nothing else, the worm might have made the path by trying to consume both. Maybe it was or had been doing the same to the rest of them.

“How long do we have to wait?” Durff asked.

Velvet shrugged. “I don’t know. A day, maybe. Or a year. Probably not more than that.”

“... Will this place last that long?” Misi asked.

“I wouldn’t know,” Velvet said. “All I do know is that-”

She jumped up. Her energy reached out, towards a fading arrow that was slipping out of the worm. The null space nearly erased her efforts before she touched it, but she made contact. Hopefully… Alva could get feedback somehow. Velvet didn’t have any way to give a response.

“Oh, an arrow,” Durff commented. “Were we supposed to follow it?”

“I don’t think that’s wise at the moment,” Velvet said. “Though we might try that if things become riskier.”

Jyotsana grimaced, sliding to the ‘floor’. It didn’t exactly function as they would expect, but once someone was in a comfortable position they could remain still and pretend that they weren’t potentially a moment away from overlapping with other objects in the most unpleasant way.

With the non-panicking examples of the others, the twins kept some semblance of calm. They were the youngest of the present cultivators, probably no more than a hundred and fifty. That wasn’t exactly a child, but running into new and seemingly impossible threats could fill anyone with despair.

Velvet’s guess was technically right. And it was far closer to her hopeful prediction. The worm slowly drifted around them, no longer squeezing and stabbing. Seventeen hours later, the worm began to glow. Just part of it, random slashes. Or rather, the markings Catarina had made.

Had she predicted this somehow? No, that was unlikely. Instead, the formation markings had likely been some she could use for generic purposes. Velvet saw the worm’s flesh around the runes begin to shrivel. She stood, sensing something.

A wobbly tunnel opened up. “Better hurry,” Velvet said. “You won’t want to miss this.”

It had been seventeen hours. Nobody was asleep, despite their fatigue. Almost a day, which was barely anything as far as several-hundred lightyear subspace rescues went.

Velvet knew Durff would follow. The others had to make their choices, and quickly.

The tunnel wasn’t a portal, but it did seem to be stable space. She flew forward, hoping that it would last. She didn’t risk touching the edges, as any number of unpleasant things could happen. That became slightly harder as it began to shrink… but several arrows flying past her gave Velvet hope. They avoided everyone, then managed to turn back, disappearing from view.

A few moments later, the rear of the tunnel began to pull in behind them. Velvet hoped that was on purpose. Just in case… “Faster!” she urged. “Come on!”