The monsters above were tearing their way down the jagged walls of the former blood maya lake, now a vast, hollowed cavern of chaos. There were six of them, each were abominations far beyond Bjorns current capabilities. Worst still, they seemed to be learning from one another during their brawl. Spells were becoming sharper and less chaotic.
Monsters of their level had some of the purest mana of monster kind. It felt more and more as if there were mages throwing spells than the monstrous beasts Bjorn saw.
There was no time to climb down carefully so he dropped. He was confident in his new levels of vitality, health regeneration and constitution. A hundred feet blurred past in a rush of cold air, and then he hit the cavern floor with a resounding thump! The stone cracked beneath him, buckling slightly, but just as he suspected there was barely any pain at all.
He had landed on the wrong side of the cavern. Almost completely opposite of the tunnel he had come through. Between him and freedom was a rapidly solidifying sphere of maya. It hovered ominously as if suspended in the air like a cocoon spun from pure death. At least that was what his instincts were screaming at him. He just froze and looked at the phenomenon as if it too were a monster readying itself to strike.
"Bjorn. Isin!" Failsafe screamed. "What are your two doing? One of you move!"
Bjorn shook his heads and noticed that the monsters above were far closer than they had been mere moments ago. He would later find out that it wasn't mere moments. He had stood there looking at the maya sphere for nearly five minutes.
Before he made it a few steps one of the monsters had landed. It was a grotesque mass of shredded wings and writhing tentacles, each appendage covered in bleeding, watchful eyes. The blood oozed from them like acid, but instead of pooling on the floor the streams of gore became projectiles that crackled with energy. Every shot was faster than a bullet. They sliced through the stone and rock like scalpels through flesh. Most of its attack was launched upward at the other rapidly approaching monsters but some were shot haphazardly and whizzed by Bjorn as he attempted to flee.
Now more than ever he was happy he had his Shadow Concealment. To say that he would have been monster food months ago without it was an understatement. Now it was the only thing keeping him alive.
A roar like a mountain dying split the cavern. The ground trembled so violently that Bjorn was tossed into the air. Debris and stones fell like rain in a storm. The entire chamber groaned like it might collapse under the magical bombardment.
The monsters didn't heed the obvious sign that they needed to get the fuck out of there and stop destabilizing the earthen prison they could very well create. Their monster minds could possibly comprehend that they were, in fact, soon to crush everything in thousands of tons of rock. If anything, the quake only drove them into a deeper frenzy. They hurled their spells like petulant, but powerful children.
The mana saturation hit a tipping point. Lightning-like arcs cracked along the ceiling, and a small mana storm began swirling at the mouth of the cavern.
That's when things got worse.
The solidifying maya sphere drank in the loose maya around it, then started on matter. Stone beneath it liquified, spinning upward in molten spirals before vanishing into the abyss at its core. It honestly looked kind of beautiful, if not for the fact that Bjorn, Failsafe and Isin were absolutely horrified and screaming.
The tentacle and wing covered monster seemed to notice too late. The gravitational pull yanked off a tentacle that wandered too close like paper in a tornado. In a heartbeat the rest of the monster followed, flesh, blood, bone, and mana were shredded and sucked into the void like a feast.
Bjorn saw the cave opening that would be his escape. He had a clear shot and was not going to miss it. He wove the spell for Juggernaut Stampede and launched forward in an instant. Forward in a straight line just as the spell said he would. Instead of reaching the entrance to the cave he slammed into the wall above it. There wasn't any pain thanks to the spell protecting him but it was unexpected.
He knew something was wrong when he didn't hear the veracious monsters fighting anymore. It was because they were all being lifted up. No, that's not right. The skyland was falling down. They weren't in the air for long just a moment before all of them fell. One by one they fell into the influence of the sphere and like the first monster, they were torn apart and pulled in. The influence of the sphere grew with every monster that fell into its range.
Bjorn climbed out of the small crater he created and prepared to hop down into the cave to escape.
"Bjorn," Failsafe warned. "If the skyland is falling, the last place we want to be is underground."
"The path up is clear," Isin added, voice grim. "The monsters are all gone. Now is our chance."
Bjorn looked up and just like they said all of the terrifyingly powerful monsters had been consumed into the growing maya sphere. He didn't have time to think, only to act. He couldn't see the gravitational pull the maya created but the effects on the environment were all too obvious. He watched molten stone coil and twist through the air like serpents, drawn inward with terrifying force. It was growing fast.
He scrambled upward, hurling himself along the cavern wall. He conjured the spell Juggernaut Stampede, propelling himself forward with explosive momentum each time he saw an opening to do so. Still, the maya's influence climbed faster than he did. The feeling of impending dread kept his claws moving as fast as he could possibly push himself.
Then the influence of the maya sphere stopped. He was only a few dozen feet from the edge of the chasm. One of his heads watched in wrapped attention as the others focused on getting out. The orb contracted in an instant to a size no bigger than a storage crate. Cracks formed across its surface like an eggshell under strain.
Bjorn reached the top right as the shell broke open and a clawed hand reached out. Wisps of white maya lazily curled into the air. Bjorn didn't wait around to see what was going on or what was crawling out of that maya shell. He climbed out and ran with every muscle straining as if death itself were snapping at his heels.
Hurricane level winds swept over the land ripping up trees as the skyland started to slowly tilt. No, not just the one he was on, all of the skylands were falling. Including the flaming island with vines that stretched all the way to the ground several miles below. It was looking awfully close.
"Is it just me or is that coming towards us?" Isin said.
"No it's not just you." Failsafe yelped. "Bjorn run faster! Faster!"
"I need to focus, guys!" Bjorn screamed.
Bjorn saw a shadow rise from the pit behind him, wings flared, white maya cascaded off its form like divine fire. He picked up his pace not wanting to be on the menu of whatever hatched from a demonic egg.
"It's flying!" Failsafe yelled.
"I can see that!" Bjorn snapped.
He reached the treeline and vanished into the shadows harsh light flickered through the canopy as the flaming skyland drew closer. The flaming vines descended, curling across the forest like burning tentacles. Fires erupted in the undergrowth. Winds roared, spreading the blaze in every direction.
In moments the two skylands would impact as Bjorn repeatedly used his only real spell to shoot himself relentlessly forward. He blasted through trees, leaped over rocks, slammed through anything in his path. It was not time to be stealthy, it was time to survive.
As soon as he broke through the last of the forest he saw the mountains. He had no hesitation as his muscles burned as step by step and claw by claw he pushed himself up. The ground beneath him groaned like a dying beast as the magic holding everything aloft unraveled faster.
There is not really a word to describe what it was like to see a mountain in front of you one second then to see and feel the ground beneath your feet crack and spiderweb. Then that same mountain is torn away in a violent rejection of the earth. Bjorn thought of a few words, but none of them were more coherent than a string of panicked curses.
He couldn't go forward so he picked a direction and started running. The ground was breaking apart beneath his feet.
"Can we survive a fall from this height?" Bjorn gasped.
Failsafe hesitated. "Uh… with our current constitution, vitality, and regeneration… maybe? Can you use Stampede in midair?"
"I don't kno—whoa!"
A flaming vine whipped across his path, splitting a tree in half with a sonic crack. He barely dodged it and kept running, teeth grit.
"There's a lake!" Isin shouted. One of his heads pointed across a collapsing ridge. "That skyland over there!"
"That's one of the first skylands we saw." Bjorn said responded. "It looks like it is falling about the same speed as this one."
"No choice, aim for the water." Failsafe said.
He sprinted to the edge gathering as much speed as he could. His heart hammered in his chest and just as he leapt, a concussive blast of heat and force slammed into his back like a hammer. The two skylands collided. A geyser of white-hot flame and failing magic exploded in a coil of destruction behind him.
The shockwave hit him midair, ripping through his senses. Despite his magical protections, pain lanced through him. Hydra regeneration kept him in one piece. He flailed, limp and spinning, falling from the heavens. He saw the lake, he saw the sky, he saw darkness.