Chap 201: ABANDON SHIP!

Glowing shapes slowly turned toward them through the fog and shadows, heads rising, bodies shifting as attention spread through the mass like a ripple across water. The valley’s noise didn’t stop—but it changed. Growls deepened. Wings rustled. Something massive dragged itself across the stone.

Tee and her teammates had been seen.

The creatures stared with ancient, predatory focus, their eyes locking onto the five figures standing where they didn’t belong.

Shapes moved through the fog and lava light—some walking, some slithering, some dragging themselves across the rock with limbs that looked half-formed.

One creature unfolded from the ground like a nightmare flower, its ribbed wings peeling open slowly while a mouth lined with translucent teeth stretched across its entire chest.

Another crawled sideways along the cliff face, dozens of hooked legs clicking against stone like a storm of knives.

Some of them had eyes.

Others had far too many.

Clusters of glowing orbs blinked across slick black skin, each eye turning independently as if the creature were watching the world from a hundred directions at once.

One enormous shape rose from a lava river.

Its body resembled a serpent, but its head split into three separate jaws that opened in different directions. Molten rock dripped from its scales as it lifted itself higher, the heat turning the surrounding air into shimmering waves.

Something else moved in the darkness behind it.

Slow.

Heavy.

The ground trembled as a hulking beast pulled itself upright. Thick fur hung from its shoulders in charred clumps, but beneath the fur were plates of black bone that scraped against each other like grinding metal.

Its eyes burned a violent crimson.

Then it roared.

The sound was so deep it shook the stone beneath their feet.

Other creatures reacted to the noise—not in fear, but in excitement.

The valley came alive.

Winged horrors burst from crevices in the cliffs, their wings made not of skin but of thin blade-like bones that rattled when they flapped.

A long, eel-like creature burst from beneath the ground, its body covered in twitching tendrils that tasted the air before it lunged toward the Sentinels.

Something with no visible head skittered across the lava fields on spindly limbs, dragging a swollen sac behind it that pulsed with sickly green light.

Then the sac split open.

Smaller creatures spilled out, dozens of them, immediately sprinting toward the scent of blood.

The monsters could smell them now.

Warm.

Living.

Soft.

Fresh meat.

High above, the sky began to fill with wings.

But not all of them were mindless beasts.

Tee felt it when she reached out with her mind.

Some presences were sharp—calculating, aware, ancient. Those creatures watched the Sentinels with deliberate patience, like hunters studying prey before striking.

Others were simpler.

Wild.

Driven by instinct alone.

Those were the ones charging recklessly through the chaos.

Those were the ones she could control.

And somewhere in the madness—

She spotted one.

Tee created another forceshield over her and her teammates, but it wasn’t to hide themselves once more. Her focus shifted to the massive ball of burning green energy that came towards them. 

“An attack!! Duck!!”

The warning came a fraction too late.

The massive ball of burning green energy slammed into Tee’s newly formed forceshield. The surface warped instantly.

Then it shattered.

Fragments of Ether burst outward like glass.

The burning substance splashed across them.

It felt like molten lava.

Tee cried out as droplets struck her arm and shoulder, searing through the thin remains of the shield. Around her, the others staggered as the weakened barriers collapsed under the impact.

What was that blast made of?

“Dammit—!” Zod shouted.

The valley erupted.

Creatures that had been sleeping began to wake. Giant red eyes opened in the darkness like furnaces igniting. The ground trembled as enormous bodies shifted and rose.

A roar rolled across the valley.

Then another.

The noise became overwhelming—wings beating, claws scraping rock, bodies slithering across magma-cracked ground. Tee’s ears rang violently.

Everything sounded distant.

Muffled.

Her heartbeat thundered in her skull.

They were surrounded.

Blasts of energy and claws tore through the air around them. The Sentinels scattered, leaping between jagged stones and streams of glowing lava.

No time to stop.

No time to think.

Just move.

Tee’s hands flared with Ether, bending fire like molten ropes. A river of acidic liquid hissed across the jagged lava fields, rolling toward the charging monsters. With a swift motion, she redirected it back at them, splashing across claws, wings, and armored scales. Some of the smaller beasts shrieked as the acid burned through their hide.

Splintered attacks—chunks of rock and molten debris hurled by the creatures—hit her makeshift barrier and broke apart as if striking an invisible wall of energy. Sparks, molten droplets, and shards rained down around them.

Her teammates responded in perfect rhythm.

Saeda’s force shield flared around them, forming a glowing dome that deflected incoming attacks. Zod lifted jagged stones telekinetically, sending them crashing into monsters at close range. Another pressed hands into the lava-scorched earth, summoning jagged daggers of rock, strapping explosives onto them before hurling them at distant targets.

Ether drained fast. Each summoned blade flickered, shattered, or disappeared midair. Shields thinned and flickered, energy daggers fizzled to useless skin.

“We can’t hold this much longer,” Tee thought, teeth gritted.

Above them, the sky seemed to rain fire. The swarm of flying monsters spat torrents of molten ichor all at once. Lava and acid fell like hell unleashed, hissing against shields, rolling across rock, and forcing them to dive and roll to avoid being smashed. The heat clawed at their lungs. Even the air seemed to burn.

Tee’s eyes widened. 

“I have to do something… now.”

She gathered her focus, forming a glowing orb of condensed Ether between her palms. Its light pulsed violently, radiating raw energy. For a heartbeat, she imagined bending the threads of space itself.

She had never done that before.

Never.

Hands trembling, she wove the Ether around her teammates, wrapping each of them in a protective sphere. Then—she pushed.

Reality itself seemed to shiver. The ground, the molten rivers, the screaming monsters—all stretched, blurred, and disappeared in a dizzying sweep. The valley vanished.

Tee’s sphere moved them through a tunnel of shifting space. The roar of monsters, the heat, the smell of acid and fire—everything was left behind.

When it ended, they landed hard on scorched, uneven terrain. Dust and smoke swirled around them. The monsters were still out there, somewhere beyond the clearing, but the immediate danger had lessened.

Or so she thought. 

Tee ducked beneath a snapping jaw the size of a truck and rolled across scorched ground. The heat scorched her lungs with every breath.

That place was a death trap.

Then her eyes locked onto something in the chaos.

A creature soaring low across the battlefield.

Massive wings stretched outward like storm clouds. Thick fur lined its back and shoulders, dense enough for something to cling to.

But that wasn’t what caught her attention.

Its mind.

Compared to the others—sharp, ancient presences brimming with predatory instinct—that one felt… simpler.

Unfocused.

Instinct-driven.

Tee focused.

Ether pulsed behind her eyes as she reached outward.

The creature resisted at first, its mind thrashing like a wild animal.

But then—

It stilled.

The beast let out a confused screech and veered sharply, wings beating wildly as Tee forced it lower toward them.

“Get on now!” she shouted.

The creature crashed down beside them, wings thrashing violently and kicking up ash and molten dust.

The others stared.

Zod blinked. “She can’t be serious.”

Tee glared at him.

Kie yelled, “GET ON!”

Zod immediately climbed onto the creature’s back.

“Right. Yes. Of course,” he muttered. “They’re both mad.”

The others scrambled up, gripping thick clumps of fur as the beast struggled under Tee’s control.

Behind them the valley roared.

Monsters were recovering.

And they were not happy.

Tee released a massive pulse of Ether.

The shockwave blasted outward like a thunderclap.

Creatures across the valley recoiled, wings folding and bodies bracing as the energy rolled across the battlefield.

For a brief moment—

Everything paused.

“MOVE!!” Tee commanded.

The beast obeyed.

With a violent thrust of its wings, it launched upward.

They shot into the sky.

Below them the valley stretched endlessly—rivers of lava bursting from the ground, jagged black mountains rising like broken spears, fields of hardened magma frozen in twisted waves.

They flew through narrow gaps between towering rock formations, the creature’s wings barely clearing the edges.

“Uh… Tee?” Saeda said.

“I know.”

Behind them—

A swarm.

Dozens of monsters had taken flight.

Then hundreds.

Wings filled the sky like a living storm.

“They’re following us!” Zod yelled.

“No kidding!”

Energy blasts ripped past them, exploding against rock spires and lava pools below.

“Focusing here!” Tee snapped.

The terrain was insane.

Sharp volcanic pillars shot upward from the ground like teeth. Streams of magma erupted unpredictably from cracks in the earth.

“Good thing this isn’t Earth,” Tee thought. “Nobody would ever believe this.”

“Range is terrible here!” Zod shouted. “My blasts can’t reach that far!”

“Use the explosives!” Tee thought back.

“I’m all out!” he yelled back.

Saeda reinforced the beast with another shield, but it flickered weakly.

“It won’t hold long!”

Miko quickly threw her last explosives as far as she could. Kie too. 

The explosives detonated midair.

Massive fireballs erupted through the pursuing swarm, sending several creatures spiraling downward.

Still—

More kept coming.

Then suddenly—

Tee’s eyes widened.

The landscape ahead cleared.

The strange rock formations vanished, revealing an open expanse stretching all the way to the massive barrier far in the distance.

The forcefield.

Freedom.

But something else was there.

A monster.

Flying straight toward them.

Directly in their path.

Zod shouted, “It’s going to collide!”

Tee frowned.

“No… it’s bluffing.”

She reached into its mind.

And froze.

“It’s not bluffing.”

“ABANDON SHIP!!”

She jumped.

The others screamed as they followed.

“WE DID NOT THINK THIS PLAN THROUGH—AAAAHHHH!” Zod howled.

Above them the two enormous beasts slammed into each other.

The impact unleashed a devastating shockwave that shoved the falling Sentinels downward.

Fast.

Too fast.

Straight toward the massive forcefield below.

Tee felt tears streak across her face as the wind screamed past her.

Blasts from pursuing monsters zipped by as they dove after them.

She flipped her body upward for one last look.

The sky was filled with wings.

Too many to count.

Crisscrossing through the air as the swarm descended.

“Maybe this is better. If I don’t see it coming… maybe it won’t hurt.”

The barrier rushed up toward her.

Then, she decided she was not going to fail. She powered up with Ether energy and bent the energy creating the orb creating a large hole. She and her teammates passed through it and then it began to seal back together.

Above her several monsters smashed violently into the barrier since they were too large to pass the hole, exploding in bursts of energy.

“Tee!!”

Her eyes snapped open.

She was still falling.

But she was inside the large orb. 

Below her the ground rushed upward.

She wrapped herself in Ether, slowing her descent.

The others didn’t have that option.

They hit the ground like meteors.

BOOM.

The impact sent a massive shockwave across the surface, the earth rippling like liquid beneath them.

Dust exploded into the air.

Tee landed moments later.

She rushed toward the crater.

“You guys alright?!”

The others slowly emerged from the impact zone.

Hair completely wild.

Clothes scorched.

Faces covered in soot.

Zod staggered forward.

He paused.

Then dramatically dropped to his knees.

“My knees!!”

He groaned loudly.

Kie asked aloud knowing their minds would be in too much of a mumbled mess with all that must be going through them at the moment, “Is everyone alright?”

Saeda in her monotone, “Give me… a minute… before I decide if I’m alright.”

“Neat,” said Kie, staring up into the air to notice the monsters piling up on the other side of the orb. “They can’t pass through.”

“But why did we?” Miko asked, hands on her knees. 

Tee, “We’re the good guys.”

“That is such a lame excuse,” Zod said standing up. Their suits began to heal themselves, covering scrapes, burns and bruises. “This is a good sign.”

Saeda touched the earth with her summoning glove. Nothing happened. “It’s completely drained.”

“And we’re all out of explosives,” Miko added. 

“Not me. I’ve barely touched my explosives.” Tee said. 

They decided it was good to split up the remaining explosives evenly among themselves.

She looked over at Kie, and despite the exhaustion and lingering adrenaline, a small, wry smile tugged at her lips.

“Maybe… we should… say goodbye now,” she said quietly, almost to herself, almost daring the words. “Before this gets worse. You… you’ll find some nice girl in your district, someone with no… no death-assuring ailment. Someone you can actually be happy with.”

Kie blinked at her, a faint, unreadable expression crossing his face. Then, slowly, he smiled—a small, crooked smile that hit something deep in her chest.

“And you,” he said softly, “you’ll find someone crazy enough to do… the crazy with.”

They both chuckled, a little hollow, a little bitter, the sound caught between relief and pain.

Then the laughter faded.

In the brief pause, the world seemed to shrink to just the two of them. They glimpsed the sadness hiding behind each other’s eyes, the weight of unspoken truths and feelings neither had fully allowed themselves to acknowledge.

Tee took a small, shaky step forward. Her hands rose, trembling slightly. “Can I… just… one last hug?” she whispered, her eyes wide, luminous with unshed emotion.

Kie didn’t answer with words. He just closed the distance, pulling her into him. Tight. Closer than she thought he would. Her hands found their way into his hair as his arms wrapped around her back, anchoring her like he couldn’t let go.

Then it shifted.

Their lips met.