Chapter 61 – Time For A New Tool

Darya quickly realized she had made a critical mistake. She needed to use Terminate to phase through water. If she crashed into the water surface at the speed of Frame Selected Entity, it wouldn’t be any different from crashing into concrete. 

It didn’t help that the gray world of the depth buffer looked almost similar to the monochrome of the Terminate. 

[Vainfall: Terminate]

She avoided instant death by a millisecond because she plunged through the surface almost at the same time as the Terminate. 

Zooming through the translucent gray of the water felt a lot different than cutting through air. Visually, it looked as if she had hit a transparent sludge. Physically, there was no difference in speed. She appeared above Nerima only a few feet away. 

Prediction dots formed when she slowed down enough to affect the water, showing the bubbles and the splitting. She had two seconds left of Terminate, and only the breath that she held before she dove in. 

She started looking for the thread-like spell from the malignant merfolk Shadow. It had splintered into several strands upon entering the water. Two had hit whales nearby, but a thicker thread was lodged deep in Nerima’s long tail, slightly below the bendy part that looked like her knees. 

It’s gone clean through her! Oh no, my water horse.

Darya charged red mana into her gauntlet, making it glow brightly.  With a strong, slow swipe, she slashed through both the water and the thread. Prediction dots showed it severing, and the resulting mana reaction when hers came in contact with the Shadow’s. 

Twisting in place, she extended the spear and swung around the other nearby threads. 

She had misjudged the Dreagan and its Shadows. She wasn’t the only worthy target. Nerima was more than ‘spectacular’ enough for it. 

As the last half second drew near, she still wasn’t done. She couldn’t leave the whales to their fates.

[Vainfall: Terminate Twice]

Rotating around, she targeted the nearest beluga in trouble. It was at least two school buses in volume with a glowing circle on the forehead. The thread had gone through its tail. 

[Frame Selected Entity]

Splitting the water again, Darya began counting the seconds. 

One. 

She came to a stop tens of feet away due to the animal’s size. 

[Skill: Wind Step]

-20 SP • 8s Cooldown

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Dashing in a splash of prediction dots, she reached the tail and cut the thread with a swing of her spear. 

Two. 

The whale filled half her vision, blocking her line of sight to the next one. Darya turned in place, pushing against the whale with her feet. 

Three. 

Spiraling out, she saw the other whale. It was in a much more dire situation. The thread had gone through one side of its head. Her blood ran cold when she imagined the same thing happening to Nerima. 

Half, and fuck no. She’s got to get back to the ship. 

The world flickered as the second Terminate activated, visual artifacts flickering at the corners of her vision. 

[Frame Selected Entity]

Zooming forth, she appeared in front of the whale. It already looked hopeless, but she didn’t want to leave its fate up to God without doing her part.

One. 

Twisting in place, she swung the spear through the thread and watched the prediction dots sever. 

Two.

She targeted Nerima at the end of the same spin.

[Frame Selected Entity]

Phasing through water, she came within feet of Nerima. She was still holding her breath, because she wasn’t sure if her head would be above water when this Terminate chain ended. 

Three. 

She pushed against Nerima and circled to her front. What she needed to do next relied entirely on proper communication. 

Half. Nothing like scaring her shitless by appearing in front of her nose. 

The world caught up with the prediction dots from the moment she splashed in, quickly going through the sequence of actions. Several water explosions followed, around each time she began and ended a zooming movement. The mana threads sparked and slashed in half, dissipating in huge splatters of red and yellow from her Manacers. 

Nerima’s eyes drifted, still mid-panic after getting hit. She shuddered in fright as soon as the monochrome world faded and Darya appeared out of nowhere. 

She heard a watery ‘Princess’ as Nerima reached for her, and Sarka yelling the same word from the ring. 

Darya began throwing her hands around like a maniac. She was almost out of breath, and had the will to hold what little remained.

Up! Go, jump! up! jump! Jump with me!

“Go up, Nerima! up! Princess wants to go up!” Sarka yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice even clearer in the water. 

Nerima seemed to understand her frantic movements. She grabbed Darya around the torso and slammed her bleeding tail against the water. 

Darya felt the water split above their heads, and she ran out of breath halfway through the fast climb. Luckily, she managed to will herself not to inhale. 

They breached the surface like a submarine launched missile as Nerima carried her into the air, hugging her tightly. 

Darya vacuumed air into her lungs, half smothered by Nerima’s chest and her rags. Reaching out, she touched Nerima around back. 

“Princess, what’s the plan—”  Sarka asked urgently. 

“Get ready!”  Darya interrupted him. 

[Spell: Flying Celestian]

-254 MP • Circle • Instant

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They never splashed down. The ocean winds carried them in the same trajectory as the jump. 

The siren howl Nerima let out sounded like a disaster warning. 

“Oh, dear!” Sarka exclaimed. 

“Calm down, Nerima!” Darya said, changing their positions mid-air. She rolled Nerima into a hug. 

“I’m flying!” Nerima shrieked, heart pounding like a generator in her small upper body. “Princess! aah! I’m scared!”

Right. Mermaid in air. She had definitely never flown before, probably never been this high in her life. 

“Relax, we won’t fall. We’re like a kite now, see?” Darya said, grabbing the loose wet rope that connected them to the Desert Rose. 

Nerima buried her face on Darya’s chest, only opening one eye to look at it. 

“Aaah!” She yelled again, squeezing Darya with all her might. 

As they floated, Darya looked at the Desert Rose. The situation there seemed to be even more dire. Seris was probably doing everything she could to hold up the hull shield. She wasn’t going to see Nerima floating like a helium balloon. 

“You’re wounded pretty badly, Nerima. We need to get back to Seris.” Darya said, looking at her blood-soaked tail. 

“Princess! From the left, I detect hostile mana!” Sarka shouted. 

A powerful gust of mana passed by them only a second later. It looked identical to the mana thread that came from the merfolk Shadow. She traced it back to the same looming sphere in the distance. 

The other split strands were heading their direction, closing in from several sides. 

“Not this again!” Darya cursed under her breath. 

[Skill: Smooth Slither]

-30 SP • 30s Cooldown

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Darya carried Nerima in a wide arc, spiraling outwards to the right. Nerima screamed again, but it was muffled against Darya’s chest this time. 

“Hold on, we’ll get out of here!” Darya yelled over the winds, aiming her trajectory towards the Desert Rose and beyond. 

A new glowing thread of mana appeared just then, a fresh attack from the same Shadow aimed directly where she was heading. 

[Skill: Warding of Alta]

-30 SP • 250s Cooldown

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Blue mana burst from her skin, tightening around her like a shell from head to toe. The hunched and rotated in place, covering Nerima with her body. She felt the thread like a lash against her back. 

Something else happened at the moment of impact. The thread bulged like a balloon and exploded in a collapsing spiral. A black hand emerged from it. 

“Princess! Shadow’s here!” Sarka howled dismally. 

“Oh shit! That was a traversal?!”

 Darya didn’t have enough time to ready her next swing. 

[Vainfall: Terminate]

One. 

The merfolk Shadow was halfway out through a twisting mess of mana. She spotted several more threads already heading their way. Half blinded by rage, she targeted the Shadow. 

[Frame Selected Entity]

Phasing out of Nerima’s desperate hug, Darya appeared two feet away from the Shadow. This was no doubt a merfolk mage. It already had a hand pointed in their direction, mana sparking between the fingers. 

Two. 

Clenching her fist, Darya drove it into the shadow’s torso. She did it fast enough to phase through, but slowed down when she was forearm-deep. Pouring mana into the gauntlet, she flared her fingers. 

Three.

She pulled her hand out, doing as much damage with her claws as possible. The prediction dots showed the Shadow nearly breaking in two, and its spell firing off into the distance. 

Half. 

As the world caught up to the prediction dots, something suddenly changed behind her. She felt the initial gust of wind. It was strong, even through the fading monochrome world. 

Turning around, she saw the silent wall of black. The Dreagan had moved without her even noticing, using the Shadow to distract. The air it displaced with the straight-line movement was already splitting the water behind it. Darya knew she and Nerima would be separated the moment Terminate ended. 

This isn’t going to work. I need something new to beat this one. 

This time, she didn’t have to chain Terminates to break the world. She had already set up a macro to make it all happen and get herself back into the /dev void.

[Vainfall: Open Void]