Oh, shit.
Alex's stomach tightened into a knot as his foot passed through the air where a mirror platform had been floating re monts before — and then kept going. Wind sent his hair whipping as he plumted through the empty space, spinning mirror shards sending light dancing across his face.
There wasn't even another platform to try and reach for. The nearest solid ground was over ten feet away from him. He couldn't grab it.
The hissing laughter of the shadowy monster that had just destroyed his platform rung in his ears, seemingly planning to follow him down to his death. The monster's shadow flashed by him as he plumted — or perhaps he was passing by it.
He couldn't tell. It was impossible to get his bearings. There weren't any landmarks to take his reference by. The only things around him were the fragnts of raining glass, the storming energy, and the blurred shadow of the monster that had just send him plunging into the abyss.
Disbelief drumd against Alex's skull. He'd co so far. Gotten so close. The throne had been just a few re steps away from him. Seconds at most. If he'd just sat down, he knew in his heart of hearts that he would have claid the domain to be his.
The power should have been his. He'd worked so hard. Prepared, studied, done everything he could to make sure he was ready to face whatever challenge the System put in front of him.
If there had been a monster to fight, he wouldn't have stopped until either he or it was dead. But there was no beast standing in his path. There was only empty air — and he couldn't punch the storm.
This is it? This is how it ends? Fucking falling? I battled my way through everything the System had to throw at . I took down a bloody Region Boss. And I'm going to die falling inside my own mind?
He didn't even know if falling here would be true death… but there was no doubt that the System would not let him fail without an appropriate punishnt. Maybe he would wake back up in his soul, the gate to his Domain forever closed.
That almost felt worse.
Defiance burned in his heart like a raging forest fire. Perhaps, if it had been just a bit stronger, maybe it would have been intense enough to reverse the flow of ti itself. Perhaps it would have let his foot land on the platform before it shattered and given him a chance to continue on his journey.
But fate gave him no second chance. Ti didn't back itself up and the world didn't bend to his will.
Alex just fell.
Fate can eat shit.
Alex let out a wordless scream as he thrust his hands out. He drove them into the shadowy body of the monster that had just tried to kill him. A part of him didn't even expect it to do anything. Shadows weren't exactly well known for being optimal grabbing subjects.
A powerful jerk that nearly tore both of his arms from their sockets made it clear that shadows, at least the ones that resided within Alex's mind, did not necessarily follow traditional expectations.
Alex's fingers had dug into sothing hard — and even as pain tore down his body and hamred into his shoulders, he wasn't about to let go. He let out a yell that was so mixture of pain, determination, and just screaming for the sake of it.
The shadow thrashed and writhed beneath him like a bucking horse. Alex pressed himself to it desperately, wrapping his legs around the monster before clinging to its body with every single scrap of strength his energy could bring to muster.
His new ride didn't much appreciate that. The world jerked and snapped around Alex. Crackling storm clouds tore past him so fast that he was pretty sure a few of them got stuck in his lungs. Every single motion threatened to rip his tenuous grip free and send him spinning back into the empty storm.
But Alex didn't let go. There were no mirror platforms to step on. He only had one way to get to the throne, and that was—
The world shifted.
All colors turned to gray. His vision inverted. For an instant, he felt like he was falling once more.
Then his vision snapped back to normal. Alex's stomach flipflopped as all the air in his lungs suddenly evaporated. He felt his grip dig back into the shadowed monster's body and he slamd against his side, no air left in his lungs to be knocked free.
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What the hell was—
The world shifted once more.
An instant later, it snapped back. Alex's fingers trembled as reality slamd into him like a hamr, over and over again. He didn't have the faintest clue what was happening. It was like—
The world shifted.
It returned.
His face slamd into the monster's side, a rung gong. He tasted blood in his mouth. One of his fingers had slipped free, and blood slicked a palms from where the glass had cut it open. There wasn't even so much as a breath of air left in his lungs.
Alex's teeth clenched. His fingers tightened back on his hold. He drew in a breath. Then he pulled himself upward. The monster was trying to shake him off, but it wasn't going to manage it so easily. He dragged himself another inch upward.
The world shifted.
He fell.
The world snapped back. Alex slamd into the monster's side again. He had no sense of direction anymore. There was no up or down, no left or right. There was only forward. Alex didn't care what magic the shadowy creature could bring to bear. He didn't care what it was or why it stood in his path.
He was going to climb up to the bastard's head and force it to take him back to the throne.
And, if it refused, then Alex would take comfort in the fact that he wouldn't be going to hell alone.
He climbed.
The world shifted.
And, when it ca back, he climbed once more.
Alex clawed his way up the monster's body, through the storm clouds twisting and thundering all around him. They changed positions every single ti the world changed, but nebulous clouds weren't the best reference to tell position from.
He wasn't in a position where he could pay it any attention anyway. There was only one thing that could take up any attention within Alex's mind, and it was putting one hand in front of the other, one foot before the next.
All that mattered was the climb.
His ride wasn't too happy about its new passenger. It twisted and squird as the world flashed around them, doing everything it could to fling Alex free. The monster flew through the crackling storms, sending energy scoring across Alex's body like the lashes of a whip. It coiled and repeatedly shifted in and out of the gray world.
Every shift drove into Alex like a physical blow. It stole what little breath he'd managed to gather back and threatened to tear his grip away. His fingers trembled with exertion and his muscles burned and scread for a break.
Alex answered their pleas by climbing.
The fingers that lost their purchase found it once more. He let the energy searing across his body drive him forward. The pain ripped him back into awareness, keeping him from passing out from the imnse forces his body was undergoing.
If the monster wanted him off, then it would have to tear him free with its own hands.
But it didn't.
A purple cloud slamd into Alex's face as the storm shifted from gray back to color. Then it shifted once more —
And the world was suddenly quiet. No more lightning or swirling mist struck at him. There was only emptiness.
Alex hung in the endless sky, limbs wrapped around the murky flesh of the monster. They hung suspended in the sky far above the storm. Clouds of Riftwarped Qi still hung around hm, but no lighting passed through their bodies.
They were just clouds.
And for a brief second, all was still. He couldn't keep himself from staring down at the storm far below them.
It was a vast thing, stretching out so far that he still couldn't see the end of it. Sheer magic emanated from every bolt of lightning that tore across the canvas of the mist like angry brushes of paint.
Woah.
It's… beautiful.
The second stretched on. Perhaps the monster was just as entranced by the swirling storm below them as Alex was. He could have watched it for an hour and not felt like he had seen all the power had to show him.
But this wasn't the place that Alex wanted to be. The storm wasn't sothing he wanted to observe from afar.
It was his Domain. The place Alex belonged was not above the roaring lightning and crackling Qi.
He wanted to be within it.
"Take back," Alex said. "You want to let go? Take back. There's nothing else you can do to get rid of ."
The second dragged on. For a mont, Alex wondered if he'd sohow killed the monster. He still couldn't tell where its head was. For all the climbing he'd done, the only part of the monster he'd actually managed to see was its shadowy body.
Then the world shifted.
Riftwarped Qi-filled storm clouds expanded all around Alex as he suddenly found himself within it once more. And, finally, he realized what the shifts actually were.
The monster was teleporting.
No sooner than Alex had his revelation did the world shift once more. And this ti, he was ready for it. Sothing about the shifts felt less violent. More intentional.
The world went back to its proper color.
Alex's breath caught in his chest.
Floating before him was an obsidian throne.
He released the monster, dropping down to the platform the throne sat upon before his ride could change its mind. The ground swayed beneath his feet. Alex was dizzier than he'd ever been in his life. It felt like he'd been rattled around by a furious child.
But he'd made it.
He turned around. The monster was gone. All that remained around him were the fragnts of mirrored glass and the loud thunder of the still-roaring storm. Loud, but not quite as loud as the beat of his own heart.
I did it.
Alex sat down upon the throne. Upon his throne.
The storm went silent.
He had claid his domain.
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