CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

  Five minutes.

  As it turned out, five minutes were exactly how long Shaper’s imprint managed to browbeat the bloated elemental into submission. Not because he ran out of material, necessarily. No, in fact, he could’ve kept it going for another hour more at least. But instead because he simply ran out of time. With the reserves he’d tapped into nearly exhausted, his options were, either, call it quits and preserve what little power the black orb had left, or rob the multiverse of Shaper’s would-be successors for all eternity.

  The simple fact that the multiverse at large would have celebrated such an outcome, made his decision all but a foregone conclusion. He only hoped he wasn’t dooming his most promising pupil in the process. With one last glance toward the unconscious form of his student far below, the image of Shaper vanished just as quickly as it’d arrived.

  Realizing it’d been had, the C Grade elemental raged.

  Radiating waves of outrage and humiliation, it did what came most naturally when angry, confused, and in desperate need of an outlet. It made to terraform the land like a bevy of fallen meteors. Flatten the realm in a calamitous tsunami of liquid shadow. Reap a terrible harvest of unmitigated, wholesale destruction.

  Or, in other words, throw one massive hissy fit of a temper tantrum. The very realm trembled.

  The sky fell.

  +++

  The flock of paper cranes settled into place. Their pristine off-white surfaces a stark contrast to the filth-covered masonry of the morbid soul space. Light swelled in their collective breasts, before they each went off simultaneously in a massive explosion.

  BOOM!

  The damp dungeon broke apart into thick streams of soul energy. At least half immediately went to repairing the damage his soul palace had sustained during the fight, but the rest flowed unerringly towards the see-through mist wall above. Poured into it. The mist grew lighter and more translucent by the second, Richard crossed his fingers.

  He watched as the very last dregs of soul energy filtered into the light cloud cover. Just as it seemed like it wouldn’t be enough, something inside him clicked, and, the next thing he knew, a feeling of release, so strong and profound he was actually brought to tears, stole through him. As if his entire being had been confined to the size of a pinhead all this time, and now, suddenly, his world had expanded a hundredfold.

  Richard basked in the liberating sensation for a moment longer, already sifting through the bevy of new information flooding into his mind, before he snapped himself back to reality. He turned to address his superego.

  “Anything?”

  Standing on a freshly repaired balcony, the well-kept man continued his study of the gathered torture victims. Though they’d supplied upholstered chairs and couches for their convenience, many chose to lean against bookshelves, or simply lie on the floor instead. Their wonder at being freed of their chains, after who knew how long in captivity, still palpable in their disbelieving expressions. Those that were still all there, anyway. Fortunately, only a few were so far gone.

  His body double clicked his tongue.

  “No, nothing yet…”

  Richard frowned. Not even the destruction of the creatures soul space had been enough to bring them back to awareness, huh? Shame. He glanced at one of the vacant-eyed captives and sighed.

  “Well, keep me posted. Holler if you notice anything. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Mhmm…” his double replied, not really listening.

  When the words finally registered, his eyes widened.

  “Wait-! Holler? But how am I supposed to-?!”

  By the time he’d spun around however, Richard was already gone. His superego groaned.

  +++

  Richard awoke to a jostling sensation and something hard repeatedly jabbing into his middle. Groggily, he pried his eyes open. Tried to reach up and scrape away the crust, only to find that his arms simply refused to obey him. And it wasn’t just his arms either. His entire body felt like it’d been run over by a truck, though why that wasexactly, was anyone’s guess. It might’ve had something to do with all the soul damage, or the burning of his lifespan, or that thing with his mana channels going rogue.

  In the end, all he knew was that his head ached terribly, his teeth hurt, and also, something was wrong with his vision. Everything blurry and indistinct. Thankfully this was only a temporary setback. And yet, by the time his eyesight had pulled into focus, the sight he was greeted with kinda made him want to push it back out again.

  The sky was falling.

  Almost like a children’s game of parachute, if said game somehow spanned from horizon to horizon. The C Grade Elemental serving as massive tarpaulin, and all the poor denizens of this realm involuntary participants. Which would’ve been fine, had he not featured rather prominently on that list.

  In the far distance, the furthest edge of the pseudo tarpaulin alighted on the ground. The explosive shockwave that followed wouldn’t have been out of place in the aftermath of an atomic bomb. Waves of earth and stone shunted sky high, as new peaks and valleys tumbled forth like ripples in a pond. And though they looked ponderous, Richard knew that was only a matter of distance and perspective.

  At the very least, they were moving considerably faster than a dead sprint. Which was a shame, considering the company he kept.

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  Holding him in a fireman’s carry with one hand, and white-knuckling the hilt of her rapier with the other, Denise ran headlong—muttering a series of quiet invectives under her breath all the while. To her left was Marlene, dressed in a baggy alien get-up—Penelope carefully cradled in her arms as she ran for all she was worth.

  How they’d gotten all the way out here in the first place, Richard couldn’t even begin to imagine. That they’d come at all was- Richard was suddenly forced to blink away tears. It was incredibly irresponsible.

  I mean really, what were they even thinking?

  Richard sniffled, and rubbed his eyes on the back of Denise’s hoody, only to immediately regret it.

  Argh! It burns! You live like this? This thing is filthy.

  Now he actually had a reason to cry, as opposed to the… other things. It was the soul damage, he was sure of it. Had his mind feeling all loopy. Denise started. Nearly missed a step. Once she’d recovered, she called back. Having to shout to make herself heard over the distant rumble of shifting stone.

  “Sleep well, princess?”

  This time it was Marlene’s turn to stumble.

  “Huh?”

  “Not you, your highness, I meant the special one here.”

  “Aww,” Richard croaked. “Well, aren’t you a charmer? You’d better watch that silver tongue of yours or I might just blush.”

  “Not that kind of special.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  Marlene’s eyes widened when she saw him.

  “You’re awake! Oh, thank goodness. I wasn’t sure- but, no. Course there ain’t nothin’ to worry ‘bout. Everything’s gonna be just fine, mark my words.”

  And of course, that was when the shockwave from that distant impact finally reached them. A whirlwind of dust and flakes of shadow kicked up in its wake—2D trees promptly uprooted and flung for several kilometers. The wind howled. The ground shook. It was utter chaos. It was pandemonium. It was…! Not affecting them in the least and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why.

  Until he saw the look of concentration pinching Marlene’s face, and caught the hem of her mantle fluttering on nonexistent winds. Somehow she seemed to be arresting the momentum of the violent shockwave entirely. Creating a cone of stillness amidst the raging tumult.

  Denise, who’d stopped running and was now breathing hard, shifted Richard so that she was cradling him in a more comfortable position for the both of them. He flicked a knowing glance her way. She met his gaze briefly before they turned their collective scrutiny onto their resident royalty.

  “Named ability?” Richard asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Seems pretty darn strong.”

  “Oh, you have no idea.”

  “Name?”

  “Glacial Inertia.”

  “Ooo! Fancy.”

  “She’s been keeping it pretty hush-hush for the time being. Or, well, trying to. Mutters it under her breath so often it’s hard to miss. It’s actually starting to get on my nerves.”

  “Hmm. Happy for her though.”

  “Oh, yeah. No, totally. If she’d been able to do that way back in the clearing, well…”

  Denise trailed off into a contemplative silence.

  “Still, doesn’t hold a candle to yours, far as naming conventions go. I mean, it lacks a certain gravitas I’ve come to expect, you know? Your flare for the dramatic is sorely missed.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman’s cheeks redden.

  “I hate you.”

  “No you don’t.”

  “Yeah, well…” the woman grumbled.

  In the companionable silence that followed, Richard went through a quick checklist.

  The creature’s body was recovered and is currently in storage. And that goes doubly so for any traces of my off-brand mana. Penelope’s gifts should all be safe and secure. Which only leaves my Mark 4’s.

  Richard reached into his storage to retrieve his blood red talismans, and was immeasurably disappointed when he found he only had a few hundred of them left. Richard glanced up at the sky. The next earth and sky collision was imminent. If he was right about how far the portal was, there was just no time—simply no way they would make it out on foot.

  The shockwave passed and Marlene slumped, nearly fell to her knees. A quick hand from Denise helped catch her before she fell.

  Especially if they had to wait out any more shockwaves like that one. And yet, there wasn’t much he could do with so few talismans. Only… there was one thing that came to mind. The only caveat being that he’d have to be outright certifiable to suggest it.

  When he was unceremoniously shrugged back into the fireman’s carry, he realized going insane had actually served him pretty well thus far,

  “Wait!” the two paused, fixed him with questioning looks.

  Richard looked from them, to his paltry string of talismans.

  “What’s your opinion on roller skates? Are we yay or nay?”

  +++

  The forest whizzed by so incredibly fast, everything which wasn’t immediately in front of them was promptly reduced to a series of gray smears.

  I’d always wanted to go kitesurfing, but just never found the time.

  Which of course meant their current predicament was like a wish come true. If one of those tricky ones involving ham-fisted morals and alarmingly well preserved monkey parts. And while, perhaps, this was alsoneither the time nor place to be indulging such fantasies, it was kinda hard to argue with the results.

  They were eating up the distance at a voracious pace. He could only thank his lucky stars the woods were sparse with trees and shadow beasts alike, seeing as making sharp turns with these things was an iffy proposition at best. A deafening boom signaled yet another calamitous collision had sent a third cataclysmic earthquake their way.

  Nothing to worry about, really, seeing as, in the event they were overtaken by the first one—the mountain range of a seismic wave moving a kilometer a minute—there wouldn’t be enough of them left for the second wave, let alone the third.

  Still, they were having fun weren’t they?

  That Marlene had yet to stop screaming, and Denise to quit swearing was just a difference in recreational preference, surely.

  Richard spotted the portal, just as the rumbling from behind grew deafening. Awkwardly cradled in her arms, as Denise held onto the control bar of the talismanic kite for dear life, Richard had front row seats to the incoming calamity. The wall of earth so large, it seemed to go on forever. Extending up and to the sides for as far as the eye could see.

  And closing fast.

  The portal neared. The wind howled. The ride grew so bumpy, he worried the girls my snap an ankle. He hadn’t exactly been able to tailor the skates to fit them perfectly, after all. It was just as they were nearing the home stretch that Richard realized something.

  How on earth were they meant to close the portal after they were through.

  The portal loomed large. The earthen tsunami seemed to crest. Hundreds of tons of rock and soil cascading down in an avalanche of imminent destruction. Time seemed to slow, and then, Richard saw it. The linchpin holding the outcome of this dramatic tableau in the balance. The pretty pink parasol nearly bent backwards holding the impromptu portal open.

  The earthen wall came down. Richard and company slammed chest first into the parasol. Burst through in a shower of dirt and debris. At which point the deafening roar cut off abruptly as the portal snapped closed behind them.

  For a time, they merely lay right where they’d fallen, breathing heavily. Weak, feeble, and lying on his side, it was honestly starting to make him feel a bit nostalgic. They hadn’t been better times exactly, but they’d most definitely been simpler. Staring up at the blinking system notification that’d been trying to get his attention for a while now, however, he had to say he preferred complicated if it meant more goodies like these ones.

  Right then! No more dawdling!

  It was finally time to pick a class.