46 • Falling Grass

The first thing Spheris noticed was water. A river of it! Down below, shimmering in the breathtaking vista that lay before him.

He wanted to make a dive for it. Gods be his witness, he could have. He almost did. That was how thirsty he was. But looking down, he saw that there was not only a river of water. Another river was present as well, a corresponding one opposite it. Which would have been all good and fine if it was a normal river.

But no. This was a river of magma.

Its surface was roiling with red boiling heat. The magma was a little more circumfluent, but it was still way more dense than the river of water. And Spheris knew that if he jumped and the wind decided to toy with his lightless body a little bit, he could fall straight into that lake of magma and die like a cooked meal.

Or he could fall into the river of steaming water... and still die like a cooked meal. Right at the convergence of lava and water, a mesmerizing spectacle was created. The clash of elements formed a branching Y-shaped river that snaked its way through the rugged terrain. While the opposite branches of that Y were the magma and water rivers, the stem was a river of steaming water — a volatile amalgamation that the other two rivers had created.

Spheris shook his head. There was nothing scientific about that at all. But then again, he was in The Abyss.

As Talon soared into the expansive sky, Spheris's eyes wandered, taking in the majestic mountains that loomed in the close distance. They looked fairly normal compared to the ones he'd seen before in The Abyss, except their peaks were shrouded in wisps of ethereal mist.

'Strange.' he thought. 'What is this place?'

Flowers filled the ground, but they did not at all look appealing. They glowed like jellyfishes, and had random vibrant hues pulsing in their center. Also, there was no other kind of vegetation surrounding them. How in The Abyss where they just growing there?

And then, to his bewilderment, he noticed something even more astonishing — leaves descending from the sky in a gentle cascade, their delicate forms fluttering downward like a slow rain. Only for them to fall to the ground and just... disappear?

'What kind of artistic madness is this?'

Ting!

That flaring bell sound behind his neck rang. [Umbric Intuition] was warning him of something. With urgency, Spheris darted his eyes around and even behind, trying to find out what it was the Influence was warning him about.

And then, he caught sight of a horde of reptilian creatures soaring in the sky. Their massive wings beat rhythmically as they circled overhead.

'Well, they seem to be minding their business," Spheris frowned. 'So what could be the problem?'

Ting!

His [Intuition] rang again. And before he could even respond to the warning, one of the creatures — seemingly appearing out of nowhere — veered sharply towards the mouth of the cave and caught him deftly with its giant claws.

—

"Ahh!!"

Spheris couldn't recall the last time fear had driven him to scream so loudly. But being swept through the air with the giant creature's claws dug into his flesh, he could do barely anything but cry out in terror.

Another of the winged beasts swooped towards him, its claws aiming to latch onto his body and pry him away from his captors grip. With a desperate struggle, the creature holding him fought back, swooping him away and dragging him further into the sky.

The pain was searing and toppled with that, he was greatly overwhelmed with fear. But Spheris wasn't going to let himself become a mere morsel for two bird-like creatures to squabble over, as flattering as the notion sounded.

He aimed his fist at the creature's rear which was right in front of his face. 'Eat this!' he cried in his thoughts. However, when he attempted to conjure [Shaded Surge], he felt a disturbing weakness in his Essence. Something was amiss. It felt like it was diminishing... and fast.

'What the hell?' he gazed at the weak pulse of the dark energy around his palm. 'Something doesn't feel right. I feel... infected.'

The other creature attacked once again, and this time as it swooped in, its claws tore through Spheris's shoulder in a deep agonizing cut.

"Argh!" he cried out, the pain shooting through him like wildfire. "Blasted creatures!" His captor veered around and cawed at the other creature, warning it to stay away from its prey. From afar, Spheris could see a scared Talon, scrutinizing the scene and accessing how to attack.

"Don't do anything, Talon," he murmured. "These beasts are not a match for you."

His captor sped away to the skies while the other chased closely, claws prying. Spheris gritted his teeth, suppressing a groan as he struggled to endure the searing pain in his shoulder and abdomen. He raised his fist once again.

"Come on, Essence. Come on! Just one [Surge]. Come on!"

He felt the energy course through his body, a single push of his already weakened Essence. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" he looked back to see the attacker was closing in. "Come on!"

Boom! A surge of shaded energy burst out of his fist and exploded right through his captor's rear and out of its mouth. Diabolical fashion. Purple blood exploded all over, and the creature began to plummet to the ground in a shower of dismembered reptilian fragments.

And Spheris was falling as well.

The rushing air whipped against his back, his hair swirling above his face, and his scarf billowed like a speeding flag. Seeing the strange turn of events, the attacking bird quickly spun around and swooped down, still intent on capturing him. But Talon intervened. He wheezed past the creature's face, capturing its attention and changing it's trajectory.

'Talon, you suicidal genius!' Spheris silently commended. Yet, his relief was short-lived as he realized the perilous position he now found himself in. With no means of flight, he was hurtling towards the churning river of magma below, not the river of water.

Awesome, what amazing luck he had.

Gritting his teeth, he began to search for ways he could shift his fall. He flapped his hands frantically, attempting to generate enough wind resistance to veer towards the path of the water river. But that was a hilarious fail.

Then, with a sudden burst of inspiration, Spheris closed his eyes. 'I know I've already asked before, but just a [Blast]. Just a small, strong [Shaded Blast].'

He activated the Influence, and a small, yet strong [Shaded Blast] was exactly what he got. Using the dark energy to propel himself sideways, he redirected his fall towards the water river instead. Just in the nick of time, he plunged into the cool embrace of the rushing water.

Ah, water.

For a moment, the relief of quenching his thirst was fleeting and he began to scoop cups of the river into his mouth, drinking greedily. But a moment was all it was.

Soon, Spheris quickly found himself at the mercy of the river's powerful current. It immediately knocked him off balance, pushing him with its flow of force.

'Can I get a damn break!' his thoughts cried. Surging through him, panic played a part in his struggle against the tide. He tried his best to swim against the current, seeing where it was taking him to: The clashing convergence with the river of magma. But Spheris was no swimmer.

His heart pounded gravely. Great climber, great runner, great jumper, but awful swimmer. Spheris gnashed his teeth at the thought. Was he going to die because of it?

No.

True Resilience. That was what the glyph had said. Spheris was resilient. And so he darted his eyes at his surroundings and his gaze caught a sturdy stone protruding not so far away in land. He quickly activated [Embrace Of The Dark] and somehow — gratefully — the Influence was conjured.

Spheris stretched the tendrils to the rock and hurriedly wrapped it around its body. After affirming that it was tight enough, he began to pull himself out of the water and its heavy current.

And for a moment, it worked. For a moment, Spheris thought that he was going to survive yet another tribulation The Abyss had thrown his way. But then that weirdness with his Essence came again. It weakened him, weakened his powers. The sensation was not easy to explain, but it felt like he had been infected and it quickly became clear that the Scorvulcans' venom was taking its toll on him. Poisoning his core.

And so because of how weak his Essence had gotten, the tendrils dissappeared and Spheris was rocked hard by the current, forcing him face first to a rock protruding out the river and knocking him out cold. Slowly, he began to sink into the water as Talon flew down to the surface, cawing loudly in a bid to wake him up.

But Spheris sunk deeper and deeper. He felt weightless, suspended in a timeless void where nothing seemed to matter except the water. It was as if he had been transported to another world, one untouched by the chaos and turmoil of the surface.

Then he returned to that place... the nothingness. And whilst he tried to comprehend whether he was dying once again, a dark flash struck his mind. A familiar dark flash.

No. Heavens, no.

The visions were back. A dark forest, a black moon. Nothing. A dancing shadow, a dystopian world of darkness and destruction. And then nothing. A fallen kingdom, dead men, skulls, bones, monsters of the dark roaming. And once again... nothing.

Then, he heard a familiar voice.

The same angelic, ominous voice that he heard when he first died. 'So here you are once again, Spheris Arnadel.' The voice echoed in the darkness. 'About to die.'