We were finally headed to the West portion of the Systemic Lands. Going over the level 5 zone and about to swing North, keeping near the West side of the Rift. I half expected some sub-boss, challenge, person, or craziness to show up but nothing happened.

I just enjoyed traveling at high speed and not having to worry about the flying monsters. That was the best thing about airships. Even with the extreme costs, repair bills, and everything else that went into them, they were great for traveling around quickly.

There was also the fact that I was finally going to get some answers. I had waited a long time and had waited around to get stronger, just for this.

My danger sense suddenly spiked. Where?! I was looking around, but didn’t spot anything. I checked behind, nothing. I couldn’t see above or below, with my back against one of the masts of the Crystal Vortex. I couldn’t move about safely, otherwise I might get blown off. And while the airship ignored conventional physics to move, I wasn’t so lucky. Its top speed would outclass anything I could do, even with skills.

The sense of danger was growing stronger, much stronger. Whatever was coming wasn’t a simple monster. It had to be at least a level 7. There! To the left. A bright yellow beam was quickly approaching. I could finally see it at the edge of the obfuscation effect. Not yellow, golden. My heart began to beat faster in fear. We had less than four seconds. Captain Francis must have seen it the same time I did. The speed of the airship rapidly picked up and went into a steep ascent.

For a moment I felt that Captain Francis had made the right decision to ascend. The beam was massive, and there was less room to maneuver close to the ground. While it didn’t seem like it, with the roads being level, it proved that the terrain was very flat in the Systemic Lands.

Staying close to the ground would make us an easier target and have a higher chance of being in the range of attack. This was a city sized attack. Faster! I knew the Divine Empress had survived the destruction of Purgatory, but she had been missing for a long time. Anything that could put her out of commission wasn’t simple.

The attack was bleeding energy in all directions. The beam would miss us, but the sheer amount of energy being given off was no joke. My hands reached behind me and gripped onto the mast. For one brief moment in time, I held onto some hope that we weren’t going to be totally obliterated since we cleared the massive golden beam attack.

That was when the shockwaves of residual energy struck the Crystal Vortex. A massive wave of energy swept past me, and my head was spinning for a moment. Even with the roar of the wind, and my head spinning, I heard a massive explosion behind me as the airship lifted up in the air and forward. It also went into a partial rotation, to the right. I saw the golden beam of energy disappearing off into the void. That was when the airship lost all thrust and lift.

I had to act quickly. An uncontrolled descent would be death at these speeds. And we were above a level 4 jungle zone, which was bad. The entire airship was tilting sideways. It was no time to be conservative. Air Burst! I raced forward and smashed through the door into the energy storage room on the main deck. It was also used to store other things.

I grabbed one of the level 7 summoning spheres. Air Burst. I raced back to the front of the airship as it reached its apex and began to descend while in a spin. The forward momentum was kind of decreasing since the airship had lost power, but we were going too fast. I chucked the summoning sphere straight off the front of the airship while using sonic manipulation.

“Summoning sphere three!” There was no activation. We had a plan in case something like this happened. I scanned the airspace behind us. There was debris and I saw bodies, spinning away, having been sucked out by the rear explosion. We were moving too fast, and there was no way to retrieve them, unless I left right now. Even milli-second I wasted, the distance between the falling people and the airship would get worse.

I kept scanning and saw Michelle in free fall. Save her or try to save whoever was left on the airship? She had been in the kitchen area, right before the bridge. If the rear engine had exploded, she was probably sucked out and possibly knocked out.

Or the energy shockwave knocked people out. It was intense. I hadn’t noticed it, but my stats were much higher than everyone else’s stats. She couldn’t be allowed to die no matter what. Her value eclipsed everyone else on the Crystal Vortex. Air Burst. I leapt off the side of the airship after her. Air Burst.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I used the skill repeatedly. A soldier was flying nearby and I grabbed them by their armor as I made my way towards Michelle. The ground was rapidly approaching. I reached her and tossed her over my other shoulder. Air Burst.

Reaching the top of the jungle canopy, I gained some elevation once more while looking around. The airship crashed into the jungle in the distance. Air Burst. I didn’t see an explosion which was a good thing. One of Fiyaz’s people crashed into the jungle nearby, dying instantly.

I let myself drop through the canopy with my two shoulder passengers. I landed on the ground and immediately saw green clouds of gas rushing at me. Poison Gas Monsters, of course. Acid Shot x10. I took out the nearby monsters and quickly set off in the direction the airship had crashed. Hopefully there were survivors or supplies.

Michelle and the soldier would have bruising and maybe some internal injuries, but I needed to move. The biggest threat after the airship not exploding, were monsters rushing it and killing everyone inside. The flying monsters that had been chasing us would also descend soon and kill everything nearby. I had some hope that would be able to save everyone.

After that I could worry about that golden beam. A meta-point? The sheer distance was mind boggling. There had only been two attacks that had ever exceeded the range of the obfuscation effect. The first being the Almighty System acting on those shards, similar to the city shield. The second time being when the System Store was most likely destroyed by the Astrologer’s homunculus and the Divine Empress, which also destroyed Purgatory. That golden energy wave was not something I would forget. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the Sense stat at the time, and I couldn’t make out the energy in that beam attack that had occurred.

It was more than a beam attack. It was a super beam attack. Looking at it, had been like looking at the sun. Blinding and very hard to make anything out other than the bright golden color. I also hadn’t been able to tell if it had curved for us. It was just so big up close, that any changes in its trajectory had been subtle enough that I couldn’t spot them.

Whoever, or whatever launched that attack, wasn’t simple. I still couldn’t get over the sheer range of the attack and how quickly it had traveled. There had been only a couple seconds of warning, before we were struck. A meta-point skill? If so, that was an incredibly powerful skill. Anyone who used it, it would be impossible to trace back at this distance.

I frowned. At least two. One for targeting us, and one for the attack. If this was the kind of power on this side of the Systemic Land, I was already regretting coming over here. I didn’t want to think about the loss of life either. All those stats, knowledge, and combat experience. Also, the Crystal Vortex. A crash like this wasn’t something that could be easily fixed.

It took fifteen minutes of hard running through the jungle zone, but I spotted the airship wreck stuck up in the canopy. Acid Shot x20. Air Burst. Air Burst. I killed the Poison Gas monsters and quickly ascended to where the airship stuck on some branches.

It was tilted sideways and I saw the rear fully for the first time. It was bad. The bottom rear of the airship was completely gone and appeared to have exploded, partially. I frowned. Normally an explosion was all or nothing. Perhaps Captain Francis was pushing the engines too hard and then the energy wave pushed them further, overloading them? Burning out the connection from the energy storage to the engines?

That would explain why there was only a partial failure and not a complete boom. I landed on top of the airship main deck, I had been standing on a short while ago, still carrying the soldier and Michelle. They still hadn’t woken up yet which was concerning.

I had to hurry. I had minutes before the flying monsters caught up. We hadn’t slowed down normally, which would have allowed them to catch up over time. We were at cruising speed, which meant that the flying monsters kept a set distance behind us while we avoided their attacks and being caught up on, while not outpacing them, which was another headache.

My head was still pounding and I didn’t have the mental energy to work out the math. Only that I needed to hurry as much as possible. I carefully put Michelle and the soldier down in the energy storage room. I winced. All the summoning spheres and other supplies were missing. Probably lost off the side of the airship while it was crashing.

The stairs at the back of the airship were missing, since that had been next to the engines. I had to get to the lower deck another way. I could go around through the opening that had been ripped at the back of the airship, but I was going to make another hole. It was quicker, and I wanted to keep my eye on Michelle as much as possible. I couldn’t lose her.

I ripped open the deck with my hands. I could only hope that some people survived the crash. Since they were unconscious, they wouldn’t be able to activate their full Body stat, which was my biggest concern. If they could do that, then they probably would be able to survive. Now, not so much.

The Crystal Vortex was done. This incarnation of the airship had served me well until the next one. I refused to number them. If I did that, then my heart would weep about the immense cost. Ripping open the deck, I prayed that people survived. It was a slim chance, but any chance was better than none.