The Celestial Way

Chapter 26.2 - The Celestial Way

Veralla hurtled through the warpstorm, half-blind from fear and sensory overstimulation. She had no idea where she was or where she was heading; she only knew she had to take Mentoria away from the Shard, away from where Airo was. So Veralla focused on his presence through the mindlink and moved in the opposite direction as fast as she could.

Mentoria chased after her, a great menacing aura tailing behind, shackled by another's will. The titanic dragon roared, the wordless challenge full of rage and frustration that her quarry continued this futile elusiveness. She was swiftly gaining upon Veralla, her reality-altering willpower unparalleled to something as trivial as a cutting-edge aethertech jetpack.

Veralla had a mere second of headway, and it was going to disappear soon. She could not evade pursuit in a straight chase, and worse, she must not to. Once far enough from the Shard, she had to keep Mentoria in a relative stationary position, until... until the starship fell upon her and killed her.

The presence behind her grew closer. Too closer.

Veralla checked the jetpack's odometer. This was far enough.

She pulled upward sharply and then instantly switched into a diving spiral. She felt a giant claw slashing the air mere inches away from her left wing. She looked back. Mentoria had already changed direction, roaring as she came upon her. Veralla cried out, veering sideways, and avoided being disemboweled, yet Mentoria's tail slapped her on the follow-up strike. Veralla spun out of control, pain across her whole body leaving her breathless.

She fell through the featureless darkness, sleets of reality particles beating her scaled hide, tearing openings in spacetime, catching glimpses of Mentoria baring her enormous fangs in triumph, swooping for the finishing blow.

Reality particles, windows to temporal spatiality, hailing in a warped, fractal whirlwind...

Leading elsewhere.

Veralla summoned her hyperfocused will, Mentoria's claw reaching out to crush her, and plunged through a passing fractal manifold.

And re-appeared above and to the side, a hundred wingbeats away.

She had done it.

Exhilaration filled her. But it lasted only an instant as Mentoria turned, roaring, and charged at her. She sought the nearest reality particle large enough to pass through and dived into it, willing it to shift her elsewhere.

She appeared in another place, even further away. Mentoria faced her again, a roar erupting from the throat of the titanic Primordial, her wings and foreclaws flaring in a deadly gesture as she cast out another reality-unraveling invocation. Veralla again reacted instinctively, negating the lethal Æther spell, yet Mentoria was already charging in, covering her attack with the spell. Veralla particle-shifted barely in time and came out under Mentoria, winning a respite for a few moments before she had to evade the next assault.

This turned into a dangerous game. Veralla jumped from one fractal to another in the howling warpstorm, Mentoria every time on the verge of catching her. The Primordial dragon roared in fury, blasting her firebreath, making ligthning-fast lunges, hurling more existence-erasing invocations, yet Veralla always managed to evade through sheer determination and luck. Mentoria tried to follow her through the miniature holes in reality but the local spacetime had become so unstable she could not control the manifold's exit points. She now pursued Veralla madly, becoming more and more riled up as endlessly long minutes passed and slowly accumulated.

Veralla realized if she could keep up, she could hold Mentoria pinned in place.

But she did not want Mentoria to die.