Slowly the nothingness receded. Ingrid's senses returned, and she found herself in a bed inside of a cramped metal room with rounded square windows, like the ones inside a tilt-rotor. Glenice was sitting in a chair by the bed.

"How..."

"So she is awake," Glenice said.

"How are you here?" Ingrid finally managed.

"The Marines cut the trees and I landed your fighter up here."

Ingrid tried to sit up but she was too weak. "Where am I?"

"Not far from where you collapsed," Glenice said. "There was a medevac with the rest of the Marines. It turns out Vaska was right about a trap. Hundreds of fighter jets were hiding behind the portal waiting for you to arrive there. They are being cleaned up right now, and therefore we are grounded up here."

"How long?"

"About three hours I think. The Taisians have left for Jelka. I left my Taisian airship not long after you collapsed, and then I flew here, as I said, in your fighter jet."

Ingrid attempted to sit up again and this time she succeeded. She looked around, then pointed to the lavatory. Glenice released one of the rails on the side of Ingrid's bed and helped her stand up.

After snacking on military rations and drinking a glass of water, Ingrid's condition began to rapidly improve. "I want to go for a walk," she said.

Glenice grabbed a magenta Colored Orb from within her pack. "She wants to talk around."

"That's good," Vaska said through the Orb. "The first time is always the worst, Ingrid. We will need to practice together from here on out, I think."

Hundreds of people with masks were gathered outside a line of Marines with rifles, blocking them from approaching the aircraft. They cheered when they saw Ingrid, however she quickly turned away and began walking toward the edge of the inverted pyramid. The stumps of felled trees lined one of the bog-like fields of grass near the edge. The mirrored metal edge of the pyramid was more than wide enough for the landing gears of a fighter jet. Ingrid's fighter was resting closer to the grass with a great deal of buffer against the edge.

"One of the Ice-Two missiles is gone," Ingrid noted.

"I went hunting on the way here," Glenice said. "Just to see how she files."

"And how did it go?"

"I've never flown anything like it," Glenice said. "Vaska said that it is aerodynamically unstable. Anyways, I scored my first kill ever. Trainers like me don't see much combat."

The ladder was still mounted on the lip of the cabin. Ingrid eyed it with longing. "Is the airspace around the portal clear?" she asked.

"I have no idea. Are you feeling good enough to fly?"

"Yeah," Ingrid said. "I feel better every minute. Whatever was wrong with me, it was not physical. It was something else, something worse." She walked up to the edge and looked down at the red landscape far below. It felt so strange to be standing forty thousand feet in the sky in the open air. If there was a battle down below, Ingrid could not see it.

"Are you sure you want to be so close to the edge there?" Glenice asked.

"It's fine. Do you have the crystals?"

"Yes, right here." Glenice pulled a stack of gems out of her pack and handed them over. Ingrid fished out one of the dark crystals and summoned the ocular demon.

"What do you see down there?"

Few enemies remain. The fighting has dropped down below the level of those giant creatures. Both sides are using the giants to block missiles.

"How many enemies?"

I only count six. No five, one was just killed.

"I am going to close the portal," Ingrid said. "Then I'm going to fly back to Vaska. Have the Marines leave the pyramid."

Glenice shrugged. "It's not my sky to take away from you Ingrid."

"Well said."

Ingrid quickly learned to appreciate Glenice's skill as a pilot as the fighter gained speed on the tiny strip of mirrored metal at the very edge. The slight engine torque inside the airplane was enough to cause the nose to drift away from the grass. The nose left the ground before it became a problem, and Ingrid rocketed off in an aileron roll over the edge, following the surface of the inverted pyramid in a nose-dive.

The purple-gray light of the portal flashed briefly in the distance. She rolled over and pointed the nose at that light, descending rapidly. As she did so, the altimeter increased rapidly as the air density decreased toward the inversion. Mercurial giants marched along the mountaintops far below.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Two enemies passed through the portal, the ocular demon reported. One is a fighter jet, the other is a... very old airplane. It has been many moons since I have seen an airplane like that one.

"A warbird?" Ingrid asked.

In your language, yes. I recognize the pilot's flying style. That must be Bertrand Vike.

"I have no idea who that is."

My pilot was killed by that man maybe, sixty years ago in your sense of time.

It must be a very old man. Similar to Ivan maybe, Ingrid thought. Both enemies were still too far away to see, but the portal was slowly growing in size. Soon Ingrid could see the neat, grid-like patterns of the streets of Jelka beyond the portal. Explosions flashed in those streets.

Incoming Dark-Three missile, the demon said.

I can hunt the one moving faster, one of the shadow hunters hissed. Let me go!

"Dark-Three missile launch!" she said. Her missile was leaving the rail as she veered up to drag the incoming missile into the dense air above, against gravity. "We'll see how good he is at defending."

Fortunately for Ingrid the enemy pilot was not very good at defending, and there were no nearby giants to hide behind. The enemy missile ran out of energy and fell short of hitting Ingrid, however her missile struck the nose of his airplane. The ocular demon reported that the entire cabin had been destroyed in the fireball, leaving a headless airplane to spin out of the sky. It had just been a bright flash to Ingrid's eyes.

That left the warbird, which was also too far away for Ingrid to see. However, the pilot was bravely approaching her, his propeller against the thinning air. He will be able to follow me through the inversion, even up to the level of the pyramids, she realized. Her major advantage was her larger engine and therefore higher speed. The warbird likely had eight guns on the wings and would still be dangerous if it got too close.

I can hunt the enemy! her second Dark-Three missile announced.

"No!" Ingrid shouted. "I am saving you for something more dangerous. I will try to fly two-circle and kill him with my cannon."

An enemy is approaching from below you, it is fleeing from allied fighters.

Ingrid rolled on edge and turned until she was flying away from the portal. Then she finished rolling until she was inverted. Behind her and below, yellow-orange bullets streamed out from the warbird's direction, falling far short of hitting her.

He is just trying to be annoying, the ocular demon said.

"Dark-Three missile, wait and then launch as soon as you can hunt the fighter."

She flew in silence, hanging upside-down in the cabin. The harness pressed against her shoulders and neck. The airplane shuttered slightly in the wind. Her remaining Dark-Three missile ignited and left the rail. In that instant she began defending by flying up and away.

Enemy missile incoming.

"Of course," Ingrid said.

Once again the enemy missile lost the fight against gravity, and once again her own missile scored a kill. She looped around through the sky, searching for more targets for her last Ice-Two missile. However the Ten Skies fighters had succeeded in clearing out the enemy.

"A relatively quiet flight," Ingrid said.

Careful, the enemy warbird is still chasing you. If he gets closer you will need to be defensive.

Without seeing him, Ingrid pushed the throttle to full and accelerated to four hundred knots indicated. "We'll see if he can keep up," she muttered. More yellow-orange shots lanced out from the warbird, which appeared as a dark speck, barely visible against the foggy rust of the far side of the cylinder. These shots also fell far short. Ingrid continued to arc through the sky, and technically she was in a very large two-circle pattern with the warbird.

He is using his flaps, slowing down to reverse direction. He wants a one-circle fight.

"As he should, but I am not fighting one-circle with a warbird. I have the better airplane, I'll fly two-circle." She leveled the wings, pulled on the stick and went into a vertical climb and then into a loop. The warbird continued its turn, expecting to meet her head-on in a one-circle, but she snuck up behind him from above. He was close enough to see with her own eyes by the time he noticed her. She continued to press towards his tail, attempting to start a two-circle, but he skillfully kept her in the same spot relative to himself, in a sort of limbo at an angle away from her nose.

Ingrid deployed the air brakes and full flaps, slowing down to a crawl to prevent an overshoot. Once again he skillfully positioned himself in an awkward spot relative to her nose, above and rolling away into a blind spot. She broke off, released the air brakes, raised the flaps and went full throttle again. "I'm tired of this."

This earned Ingrid more bullets from the enemy warbird, which fell very far short as the powerful jet engine tore her away from the fight. With the other pilot chasing her, she was once again in a very large two-circle, one she would eventually win. She expected him to try to change directions again, and this time she would be ready. She curved one way, as if to loop around and complete the two-circle, but then violently changed direction by pointing the nose at the ground and even using the rudder to slip the nose sideways toward the sky. This maneuver cost her most of her airspeed, but with her engine she did not care.

As she predicted, the other pilot had changed direction in a bid for a one-circle, but now she was offensive, in lag pursuit on the outside of a two-circle fight. She pulled the man into her gunsight. "Ice-Two missile launch!" she snapped. Her last missile left the rail, rocketing towards the enemy airplane. Realizing that something was very wrong, the little warbird did something that she had never seen before, something she would have never thought possible. It tilted upright and then, with what she assumed to be a massive kick to the rudder from the pilot, the airplane began to slide sideways through the air, dancing on its tail and wobbling slightly with the rotation of the propeller.

Remarkably this almost worked, as the missile nearly missed the warbird. However the proximity sensor must have activated because it popped, showring the underside of the enemy airplane with shrapnel. This must have severed the cables connecting the pilot to the tail, because the airplane began to spin violently like a pinwheel. She kept it in her gunsight as it fell. "I am very sorry old man," she said as she pulled the trigger. A trail of white-hot bullets raced straight into the warbird's glass canopy with enough force to break both wings off.

A fitting end for that man I think, the ocular demon said. Tragic but better than dying in a hospital.

"How old do you think he was?"

At least one hundred of your years.

"Goodness," Ingrid said. "You said you fought him before. Was that during a war?"

Not a war, he was a gladiator of sorts. Air to air combat was a bloodsport in Kanti for a time before it was banned. That man won dozens of fights and killed many pilots. He was very popular during his career.

"Do you see anyone else out here?" she asked.

No, the airspace around the portal is clear.

"Well Titania, I have good news for you. We can finally close this portal and go back to my world."

I am going to tell mother about your bad behavior, Titania warned. Mother will know what to do.