Chapter 252. Freefall

[ to everyone who ordered a hardcover of book 2, if you didn't see on discord, my shipment got ruined by the delivery folks -- they left the box out in the rain, instead of under my covered porch. literal insanity. 4 books are salvageable but that isn't enough for everyone. it'll be a month more of waiting for another shipment to arrive. lovely!!!!!!!! let's hope for better weather next time. i promise everyone will get their book eventually.

fyi this is a double chapter (it's 2x the length of a normal chapter). enjoy! ]

Maria swung her arms around, mentally yanking the flaming centipede heads forward and whipping them into part of the main body.

She couldn’t get what Ian said out of her head. Crystal wanted them to save the centipede and help it escape to another plane? It sounded ridiculous.

Crystal, what are you up to? she wondered as Vik sent wind coursing along the centipede’s body, fanning her flames. Maria could control fire and force spontaneous ignition from her fingertips, but fire didn’t burn well in the vacuum, devoid of oxygen. It necessitated greater personal involvement, where normally Maria could start fires and let them rage out of control on their own.

It was an annoyance, but at least she didn’t need to worry about keeping herself alive in the void like the others. She could see now why Ash had chosen this hunt as their pageant trial. The challenge of fighting in the vacuum taught a lesson that someone like Alan, who was all but neutered by the void’s emptiness, would be unable to forget.

Crystal never answered, leaving Maria alone with her thoughts and the rhythm of battle.

As they hurtled toward the atmosphere, the centipede had been weathered down significantly. Now the majority of its mass was in Ian’s hands, filling his range of influence, though Danessa warred against him, severing his control.

But Ian’s goal had shifted from killing the centipede to helping it escape. He caught Danessa off guard when he suddenly pressed the centipede parts into the living main body, turning dead chitin into a defensive aegis that shimmered with iridescent Death energy and crackled with blue lightning.

Then Ian turned around to look straight at Maria, his eyes intense and glowing with violet energy. I can’t overpower Danessa directly, he said. The centipede is an array. I need you to find a way to activate it.

Maria knew that would kill Ketu and Danessa, who wouldn’t know to deaden their vitality. It would only mean the loss of one life each, but they’d respawn where they were ten minutes ago, all the way back in the depths of the void. With the centipede already on its last legs, their deaths would spell the end of the battle. If they wanted it dead, victory was theirs.

Most of Maria’s actual combat experience with her elementalism was learned within the Infinity Loop, in the minutes preceding Ari’s thrashing of Cunabulus. Most of her life, she’d been without elementalism, and naturally learned how to defend herself with End, weapons, and her own grit.

Her experience in the loop was far different from Ian’s, but fueled by a similar desperation. Ian was alone and confused, desperate to escape. Maria knew exactly where she was and why she was in the loop, and how to exit at will. But if she failed to grow strong enough within it, she stood to lose her country and the war. The pressure had turned the loop into a crucible. And still, she’d failed, losing to Ian. It only confirmed the disdain her mother held for her until her dying breath.

Being transported to Eternity was the final straw, shattering her sense of control. Her entire style of combat revolved around ensorceling people in oaths they could only escape through death. What good was that when death was so cheap, so impermanent? Her elementalism, while powerful, was still fairly new, untempered–outclassed.

Back in Messeras’ plane, Karanos had seized her with barely an exercise of effort. She’d been completely helpless before him. As a grown woman, she’d never felt so helpless in her entire life.

But she’d grown since then. She could stand and fight amongst the other ascendants, no longer mortal and vulnerable. She, too, could be unafraid.

A sentiment of rebellion stirred in her. She had no idea how to activate whatever array lay dormant in the centipede, but she had to try.

“Vik,” Maria said. “I’m going to try and activate the End array in the centipede’s body. You all should be able to handle this without me. Be ready for Ian to cloak you in Death when the moment comes–you’ll need to come in close.”

Vik nodded to her, using her practice to relay the message to the others. With a flash of fire along her feet, Maria twisted and pushed off a centipede segment, propelling herself toward the front of the centipede where Ketu, Danessa, Marcus, and Ian warred. Now that the centipede was in shambles, Marcus had pivoted from eviscerating its body to attacking Ketu directly. He couldn’t kill the man thanks to Ketu’s superior ascendant energy defense, but he prevented the water elementalist from halting the centipede’s advance, allowing it to continue unfettered toward the far-off nethereal coil.

The array is going to need power, Maria thought to herself as she touched down on the centipede, one hand on a segment controlled by Ian, and another hand on the still-living body. But that would need to wait for when they got close enough to the nethereal light.

Normally when Maria dealt with other arrays, it was to break them. She sensed the array within the centipede like strands of thin chains. As she pressed her fingers in between the chitin, she realized that the chains were really shaped like interlinked segments of centipede chitin. The array was different than any she’d felt before, lacking the common structure that most practitioners employed. Instead of the typical arrays that relied on symmetry, geometric shapes, and text inscriptions, the centipede’s array was like a fractal, a pattern that repeated along its length. It didn’t have an obvious beginning or end.

This array is a mess, she thought as her awareness extended over the centipede’s body. But the more she probed its contours, she began to make sense of the chaos.

I need all of the shorn pieces to be in circuit, Maria transmitted to Ian. Make sure they’re all physically touching.

The centipede parts suddenly smashed inward, fragments that previously wafted nearby crowding and filling all gaps. It was then, with all of the pieces together, that the dormant array clicked into place. She sensed the winding circuit and its complexity. The fractal segments were almost a language unto themselves, imbuing meaning, almost like the scripts and sigils they used back home.

It was alien, but also fascinating. I could learn more from this beast than most ascendants, she realized, her resolve to help the centipede escape solidifying.

Ian, did Crystal say anything about the centipede’s intelligence? Was it instinct that led the centipede to create the arrays that snaked through its body, or was it something more deliberate?

It’s funny that you ask, she seemed convinced it was like herself–intelligent.

Maria squeezed her eyes shut. You didn’t think that was important to relay?

Was a bit distracted, he admitted. You think controlling all this mass and fending off Danessa is easy?

You seem to be doing a pretty good job of it, Maria said. Isn’t Danessa supposed to be one of the older, more powerful proteges?

Maria sensed his mental snort. I suppose. In a contest of healing, she’d win out, but we’re butchering this centipede. Every part of it that dies joins my arsenal. She’s trying to keep it alive now that it’s been cut down so much, probably so she and Ketu can try to kill off everyone else first.

Not if we kill them first. We just need to hold out until we approach the nethereal light and the array can charge.

Do we? Ian wondered. Can’t we power it some other way? What about using soul gems?

Typically Maria powered arrays with her own practice. The bigger the array, the more time and energy it required to establish. Some of the more complex ones, such as the array that kept the citizens of Selejo under her dominion, required multiple separate arrays that boosted one another, creating a confluence of power.

It was true, however, that many arrays ran off of–and required–certain types of energy. Transport arrays, for instance, required the energy of a Dark practitioner to activate, though most of the energy could come from unaspected energy, the kind used to power glossware like glossYs.

The array within the centipede’s body felt like the kind that required a certain type of energy to work, but Maria couldn’t be sure until they got close enough to the nethereal coil for the centipede to start leeching the energy into itself. It was entirely possible that it processed the energy before sending it into the array.

In that case, maybe unaspected energy would work. But Death energy from soul gems? She was skeptical, and told Ian as much.

Speaking of converting energy, what if you took the energy into yourself and used it to power the centipede’s arrays?

Maria’s mind automatically began formulating a response for why that would be impossible, but she stopped herself. Eternity was a land of the impossible–she just had to dare. Fine, give me some prismatic soul gems and I’ll see what I can do.

Some? A prismatic soul gem is incredibly powerful, Maria. I’ll give you five to increase the current you can extract, and even that will likely be too much for you to handle.

She couldn’t see Ian clearly from behind the wall of centipede segments, but she caught flashes of movement as he darted through space, perfectly at home in the weightless vacuum, puppeting himself with greater ease than normal without gravity acting against him. He’d been holding his breath the entire time they’d started the centipede chase, relying on his practice to keep his body functioning without a new source of oxygen. She knew he couldn’t hold on forever, but he projected absolute confidence as he sent his army of centipede constructs after Danessa, overwhelming the Life practitioner through sheer tireless numbers.

She jumped back as five centipede constructs burrowed through the wall of insect flesh and appeared before her, baring the gems socketed haphazardly on their bodies. Maria grasped one of the gems and yanked it free, its centipede host curling in on itself. She’d never used herself as a Death energy battery before. Staring at the gem’s obsidian surface, she wondered, How hard could it be?

She thought of herself siphoning the energy into her cold, dead corpse. Lovely. Death energy, activate!

But nothing happened.

Ian, how do I absorb the energy?

You’re one of my constructs, Ian replied, his thoughts absent. She sensed him dodging a barrage of Ketu’s ice, which meant that Marcus was failing to keep the man occupied, and Danessa had officially admitted that Ian was more than she could handle. It should come naturally to you. They all figure it out.

Maria wanted to point out that there was a huge difference between decemantic and necromantic constructs, but decided it was moot point. Ian knew she was fundamentally different from the decemantic minions he used as cannon fodder, but if he thought she could do it, she wouldn’t let him down.

Especially if it was now Ketu and Danessa versus Ian–the necromancer couldn’t wait for the centipede to reach the nethereal light. They needed the vitality seeking array to activate now.

She held the gem up to her chest and grimaced. Other constructs had the gems socketed within them–was she supposed to insert it into her heart, or something similarly gruesome?

Then she had another idea, bringing the gem toward her mouth. It reached her teeth before she gave up–the gem was as big as her first, and too large to fit down her throat.

Y’jeni, this is so stupid, just work!

Maria clenched the gem in her hands and marveled as energy began to wisp off of it. She released her grip and the energy subsided. I’ve never seen anyone crush a prismatic soul gem for energy before, but maybe that’s the answer.

She returned the gem to her teeth, winced, then bit down with all her strength. The large gem cracked and melted into her throat as a liquid. If she’d been alive, the liquid could have entered her eyes and given her vital vision.

Maria had never actually heard of what drinking liquid Death energy would do to a person, let alone a construct.

As she reached for the soul gem in the second centipede construct, her body seized, vertigo crashing over her mind. Suddenly she felt as though she were screaming energy from every orifice, oily tendrils erupting from her like liquid fire. She had so much power thrumming through her, but she didn’t know how to use it.

I’m supposed to do something, she realized, coming back to her senses. She blinked, then stretched out her hands, black energy leaking like amorphous claws from each fingertip as she grasped the centipede’s living half in her left hand and its dead half in her right.

She felt extremely drunk, but forced herself to clumsily behold the array in her mind, completing the circuit. With a dumb smile plastered on her face, she imagined all the energy that was making her loopy entering the empty circuit instead. Wouldn’t that be splendid? It would kill two birds with one stone–Maria’s drunken impairment, and the array’s dormancy.

Maria, what’s happened? Ian called out, his voice oddly loud.

Lots of energy, she replied. Lots. You weren’t lying. It’s going away, though.

Into the centipede? Ian confirmed.

Yeah. I’m pushing it all into its body. I wonder if it’ll explode?

What’s wrong with you? Ian asked.

I think I drank too much. I’ll only drink a shot next time.

You can’t get drunk, you’re undead! he exclaimed, exasperation and worry coming over their bond in equal proportions. Damn it, I wish I could come to you, but they’re giving me no reprieve, even with the others coming in close to assist. Ketu’s a one man army.

Maria could only distantly understand what Ian was saying. Good luck.

The energy continued to gush out of her body and into the array, but it was a river flowing into a dried up lake. It wasn’t enough.

Woozy, Maria flew over and yanked another gem free. She placed her hands back on the centipede while the gem sat between her teeth. This time, instead of crunching down with all her jaw strength, she exerted gradually more pressure until the gem began to leak a vapor that built up and condensed into a liquid down her throat. Each drop of the gem liquid that fell roiled the energy in her body, like water when dripped into acid.

This was more efficient, but it was still too slow. Maria knew what needed to be done.

She crunched this gem like the last, but held the liquid in her mouth. Then, slowly, tentatively, she let a trickle through.

The explosion of energy through her fingertips was outlandish, leaving her stunned and reeling. She nearly swallowed the whole mouthful out of shock.

I might have really died if I did that, she thought. That would be a stupid way to lose a life.

She felt more lucid after expelling so much energy, so she did the only thing that made sense: ingested more of the metaphorical poison. As the ichor of Death fell down her throat again, a flood of Death energy gushed out, saturating the array, but also the centipede’s body, killing it. She hadn’t realized that the energy was wreaking havoc on the centipede’s body until now, when her fingers sank into rotten, withered flesh that had formerly been alive and strong.

You’re killing it, you need to stop! Ian exclaimed.

Maria retracted her hands. The energy continued to gush out, though with no outlet, it pooled around her, filling the vacuum, motes of Deathly darkness mingling with absolute darkness.

I need to give it an outlet, she replied anxiously. She felt so out of control. She felt sick and oddly alive, almost as though she were beyond herself.

Suddenly Ian was beside her. She didn’t even see him come. He was a mass of bandaged darkness, every inch of him wrapped. He looked more like a monster than a man, like the boogieman of children’s stories.

Maria practically fell into his arms–if one could fall in outer space. Ian pulled her up to his head and held her close, then kissed her through the bandages.

The energy in Maria’s body reversed its direction of flow, radiating not out but in. It streamed into Ian’s body as he held her in the embrace. It went on for several seconds, longer than would normally be comfortable, but it wasn’t like Ian had air to breathe in the void.

All the while the battlefield raged on beyond the aegis of woven centipede carapaces, the elementalists pitted against Ketu, Marcus striking doggedly at Danessa.

Ian pulled away and placed his hands on her shoulders. We’re nearly at the nethereal skylights. The centipede is hanging on for life. Hopefully the coil’s energy–paired with the energy you converted and fed into its array–will be enough, else Crystal will have my head.

Maria looked up at him with wide eyes. There was a startling aloofness about him that left her dumbstruck. He was so at home in conflict.

She wrapped her arms around his torso and pulled him closer. You are a different creature than I, Dunai. I pity your enemies and rejoice that I am no longer among them.

She couldn’t see beneath the Death energy over his face, so she had no idea what his reaction was. He took his arms off her shoulders and reached for the ornate dagger, pulling it from the void storage sack on his waist. He held it up, its blade only illuminated by the ambient violet glow of the other centipede constructs offered to Maria as sacrifice.

Back to Dunai now, am I? he murmured. With an abrupt shake of his head, he was gone again, whipping through the centipede wall and back into the fray beyond.

Once more in control of her faculties, Maria placed her hands back on the centipede, avoiding the rotten section. She wasn’t sure what to make of Dunai’s melancholic statement in the moment, so she chose to ignore it. If Ian said they were approaching the nethereal coil, she needed to be ready to spur the array on and activate as soon as possible.

Every passing second was an agony of suspense. Maria couldn’t see the outside and had no idea how close they were. Vik’s air couldn’t even get in, Ian’s barrier was so tightly constructed. But she didn’t want to bother Ian when he was fighting. Aside from the omnipresent centipede, the vitality of the others and Ian’s Death-veiled figure was just about all she could see.

Suddenly, Ian’s Death energy cloaked the rest of their allies, and Maria knew without being told that the time had arrived. Her fingers tingled with anticipation.

That was when she felt it–the anxious stirring of the centipede, its entire length writhing as though in rapture. Energy coalesced along its length and healed it, restoring its ruined vitality. Energy then filtered down into the array, coursing through the circuit.

Maria closed her eyes and sent her attention into the array, speeding along the natural process of gathering energy. She could tell that the centipede understood what she was doing and welcomed the assistance. It was a bizarre, if effective collaboration.

Working together, it only took moments until the array activated.

Ketu and Danessa died.

She sensed immense jubilation and triumph over their bond, but Maria only felt tired, if intrigued by the centipede’s alien intelligence. She liked winning, but Y’jeni, what she wouldn’t give for the chance to quietly meditate and decompress.

Maria left the centipede and carved a path through Ian’s centipede wall, rejoining the others. Vik had recreated an orb of air around them, giving them all a moment to catch their breaths.

“–bring it to another plane,” Ian explained, gesturing with the dagger. His face was bereft of the Death energy tendrils, but it wasn’t his normal face. He’d used the dagger on himself again, though this time the third eye was missing from his forehead. His skin was as dark as the void, his features made more angular by bony ridges. Everything about him seemed more predatory.

“You and Maria had the greatest hand in victory,” Marcus conceded, surprising Maria by being the first to seemingly agree. “However, is there a vulnerability close enough to reach? If we can’t get there fast enough, others will kill the centipede out from under us.”

Ian snapped his plane compass open. “I’ve been steering it toward one this entire time. It’s on the surface, but if we move quickly, we can do it.”

Vik and Alan shared uneasy expressions, but ultimately agreed to the unexpected plan.

Maria couldn’t blame them. Covered in Death energy and under the dagger’s transformation, Ian was extremely intimidating, and Maria had spent time around a number of powerful, intimidating practitioners. There was just...something about the way his eyes pierced into everyone like he was seeing into their souls. Maria knew he couldn’t see the souls of the living–he lamented it all the time–but looking into those smoldering violet eyes, she almost believed he could. The intensity was unsettling, and Maria knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose. Maybe it’s the shape of his brow when transformed, she mused. It makes his eyes look more sunken in, putting them in sharp relief. Or maybe it was how expressionless he looks, like his entire face is carved from stone.

Since they all agreed to Ian’s–technically, Crystal’s–plan, they moved quickly, steering the centipede past the nethereal coil and toward the surface. The centipede bucked once it realized it was being forced away from its source of energy, but together Ian and the elementalists controlled enough of its body to resist its efforts and drag it downward.

They hit the atmosphere with a ferocious hiss. They were moving so fast–Maria’s job was to bleed off the heat of their descent and keep them alive. Once again, Vik was an indispensable partner, the woman reducing the density of the air, decreasing the air resistance, while she blasted them with wind to slow them down. They were moving so quickly that their concern wasn’t being caught by other ascendants, but splattering the centipede across the ground.

Ian dove ahead, plane compass in hand.

Maria had a strong sense of déjà vu as Ian reached out to slash the sky. Less than a year ago, he seemed to have stood in this very place, full of uncertainty. He’d struggled to part the veil, nearly severing his hand on the veil’s shorn edge.

Now the veil appeared to peel away of its own accord as Ian ran two fingers down it, mimicking the gesture that Karanos favored. He then clasped both edges in fingertips coated in blue energy and tore the veil apart with a ferocity unfamiliar to Maria, his strength enough to form a hole ten feet across. She realized with a start that his fingers were dark talons, not formed by Death energy, but induced by the dagger’s transformation. While Ian had let his Death energy tendrils drop, Maria couldn’t see his arms beneath his armor. She wondered if they, too, were as dark as the void.

The other ascendants rushed toward the hole in the veil and enlarged it, no small feat given the elasticity of the veil’s edges, especially on this plane. Peeling the veil away required all of their concentration and effort.

The centipede froze, visibly shocked by the veil’s sundering.

Maria was also surprised, but for a different reason. The scent of sweet flowers wafted into her nose, dulled by her undeath, but still she remembered where she’d smelled those flowers before.

The fragrant veil.

Ian seemed to realize it just as she did, his eyes growing wide. He moved to shut the veil, but the others held it open, confused by his change of heart.

It was too late, anyway: the centipede pounced on the opening with gusto, its body filing through the veil like an eel in the muck, swishing back and forth over the ground, its many segments churning up the ashy terrain.

Messeras is going to kill me, he thought, and disappeared into the new plane, his hands glowing blue and violet.

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