Chapter 113: Realm Space
Cracks snaked all over the ground almost immediately.
The surrounding earth near the two colossal monstrosities gave in under the weight, as dirt and stone sunk down like water.
It all happened almost instantaneously.
Lloyd still stood at the same spot but not for long. He had properly estimated this was the exact spot he needed to be. Not too close, not too far.
The remaining force from the worm’s skyfall descent had started to shatter the earth that was further from the point of impact.
That surrounding area did not sink under the weight, but instead began to fracture into different sized slabs, before a burst of overwhelming force started to blast them into the sky.
Of course all these things happened within a fraction of a second. Lloyd saw the ground one moment, and then the dawning sky in the next.
The swordsman now got to experience what Zan felt when he was launched into the skies. Air resistance pushed onto his back as if the sky bore its weight on top of his shoulders, and a powerful force rising from below him kept him almost glued to the flying slab of earth.
Lloyd flew higher and higher, and further and further away from the colossi. Yet this was not part of the swordsman’s plan. He was not planning to use the slab as an escape tool.
Lloyd was unsure if the monsters would turn its set of maws towards his sister and her warriors next, so if he had the chance…he’d like to keep them here. For a while, preferably, and permanently, if he could.
Energy entered his legs again so he could leap off of the hurling slab, but the powerful counterforce below him was born from the monster’s falling weight. It overwhelmed whatever meager force Lloyd tried to gather, and continued to force him further upwards along with the stone.
Without choice, Lloyd drew upon the sources he saw within the visualized rain, and willed his thousand sword fragments to cut the stone beneath him.
The broken blade followed his will, but reflected his being. It did not cut the stone beneath him, but instead unleashed devastation upon it. The sword fragments smashed onto the stone in a flurry, reducing the area near Lloyd into dust.
With nothing beneath him the swordsman fell from the sky. He was a little further from the monstrosities than he wanted, but nonetheless the situation wasn’t irrecoverable.
Lloyd shifted his body to change the way he fell. He went from a straight plummet to an angular descent, his trajectory now shooting him towards the two colossal creatures.
Battling the air resistance, his swordhand strived to place itself in front of him.
Lloyd sunk into himself again, aiming to draw out deeper power from the well of sources he connected with.
He closed his eyes only for a moment, but that was when lightning flashed right before them. Bewildered and confused, he looked around himself, for he was sure the sky was clear.
The light of dawn was peeking from the horizon, he only had to turn his head a little to see that the sky was without clouds.
…He brushed off the odd occurrence. Time was short and he was rapidly descending. He had to gather the most power he could for this strike.
Once again, ignoring warning, the swordsman closed his eyes to sink deeper into the dreadful sources.
The storm within his mind and spirit ravaged further and more destructive. The extreme wind blowing in his ears mysteriously started to sound like flooding rain within a rampaging storm.
Lloyd’s hand that grasped the bladeless hilt, flung back to point towards the sky.
The sword fragments gathered into a blurry fog just behind the hilt. Patiently, they waited for their creator’s command.
‘Forward, forward, forward…’
The more Lloyd sunk deeper into the baneful sources, the more he felt as if he wasn’t drawing upon their power, but instead like he was being assimilated into them.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He repeated the words said to him like a prayer for protection, and they were his single anchor to avoid such a thing.
…Moments passed, and Lloyd seemed to have succeeded in his goal.
He sunk deeper in exchange for more power, and now power overwhelming gushed out of him.
Normally on the planet of Eok, the center of energy was found within the stomach, solar plexus, or chest area, but the sources chose to manifest their aid using a different opening point of creation.
Overwhelming, flooding power gushed out of Lloyd’s heart, and it felt once again like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand— or more accurately several.
‘Forward, forward…’
He pushed on. He was not yet finished, he had to command the swords to his will.
“Pierce.”
Lloyd's swordhand turned away from the sky, and the bladeless hilt pointed itself down towards the head of one of the beasts.
Like pious followers hearing the will of their god, the sword fragments obeyed his will.
…Yet once again they mimicked the state of his mind and spirit.
While Lloyd said to pierce, his heart said to destroy, and so the sword fragments listened to the more genuine expression.
The creator’s heart cried out for annihilation, so the thousand sword fragments transformed into a rainstorm of devastating, metal sorrow.
Just beneath his bladeless hilt, each sword fragment came down like heavy droplets, and each of those droplets contained illogical, terrible power.
The seemingly light and weightless fragments of metal gained new weight and force.
Each one bearing the spiritual weight of sorrow and rage, their weight multiplied a few tens of thousands of times. Each one filled with the essence of shattering heartbreak, so each one gained a supernatural capacity for destruction.
‘Forward…forward…for—’
The words that Lloyd repeated over and over in his head gradually faded. Drowned out by the sound of flooding rain.
He fell towards the head of one of the colossi. His consciousness was buried deep within the rain, and it was approaching ever closer to wherever the sources resided…
In the physical however, the thousand sword fragments continued to carry out their creator's will. They were intent on carrying out their god’s command, even if it would be the last time they heard him.
…
Zan fell through the air too, except he was conscious…and the intense darkness was making him question whether he wasn’t.
Was he just closing his eyes, then? He blinked over and over.
This was odd. The young man was used to pitch black darkness because of the caves he used to reside in. But also, because he had an eldritch eye that could literally see through the dark.
He should have been able to see quite clearly because of the eye, and if not, he should at least have been able to see vague outlines and shapes.
Was the darkness in front of him, magical in nature, then?
…He had a feeling he could see through supernatural darkness now too. The kind that shrouded Mila’s hellish laboratory. That darkness was so pure, that it felt like physical substance instead of an absence of light.
Yet still, within this godforsaken place, he saw absolutely nothing.
When the festering wall of flesh sealed him inside its mouth, it seemed as if his sight had simply turned off. The red eye that was always glowing, simply lost its powers without explanation.
A strange oppression bore down upon him from all directions, and that was when he most clearly felt it.
A severing thread, and a new one being sewed into his being.
He knew he was still inside the monster's mouth, yet…it felt as if he had entered another world.
Gone were the winds that reminded him every second that the planet was breathing life into him.
Gone was the earth beneath him, that propped him up when he could not bear to support himself.
Gone was the sky that watched over him, and acted as a blanket of protection from threats he would never ever know.
As Zan entered a new world, now more than ever, he felt the abundant amounts of warmth and care that the world had for him.
And yet, he only felt it now most clearly, when he felt its absence.
Gayle spoke of the very world being alive, and now that his connection to it, his bond to it, was severed, he felt…pure loss.
Splash!
He had fallen in between the massive sized teeth, and landed in its drooling liquid.
Acid bile scorched his skin. Good thing he was corrosive-resistant, for if it was Lloyd that was swallowed up, even with his strengthened knight-body he would have instantly melted away.
His acid resistance did not stop the pain, however. First Zan felt wet, before he felt an intense stinging and burning. He had felt fire on his skin before, and the sensation he was feeling came close to that.
One difference of course, was that fire emitted light. In here, he could not see his skin melt and regenerate over and over.
The pain was no short of agonizing. He would have screamed if he wasn’t fully submerged in the liquid.
That was when his falling momentum took him all the way down. His feet touched the fleshly ground, before he stomped on it with full force.
In the hot and repulsive air, that was when he heard it.
The massive teeth started to twist and churn.
They were used to more massive prey, so it was awkward for them to eviscerate an ant. The world of teeth sunk back into the wet and squishy flesh, only to re-emerge into smaller versions the size of greatswords.
Zan acted fast. His glowing eye stopped working? Then the only fix was to force it to work.
He willed his energy to move into the eye, but…it moved at a snail’s pace.
‘What…’
What was this? Why was his energy moving so slow? It was even moving slower than before!
Zan tried to feel the changes within his body, and that was when he noticed something odd.
Although the energy within his body moved slowly, his black blood and black heart were pumping at speeds he had never ever seen before.
The pumping blood smashed into one of his eyes, and his black heart suddenly pulsed loudly.
An unseen wave of purple energy spread from it like a tidal wave, as it washed over the many planes of creation.
His left eye then started to glow purple, and Zan could feel…his teeth start to grow into long knives.
Zan faltered. Not just his body, but a part of his conjoined mind and spirit wished to unleash a devouring rampage.
That was when Quin, who was still on his shoulder in the form of a flesh pauldron, squeezed a bit tighter.
…For a brief moment, resonant light shined brightly within a place of absolute darkness.
The undead hand’s touch, affected him in a way that touched both his mind and spirit.
Zan shook his head and immediately, he called upon the power of his own will. This time it manifested not only from his headspace, but also his black beating heart.
The purple glow of his left eye, started to shift in saturation and hue. It did not return to the same usual color, but instead became a darker, menacing shade of crimson.
Zan could once again see in the dark, but his vision was in all red…