The hole in the world wasn't black. It was the color of a migraine.
Kael stood at the edge of the shattered Inner Sanctum, looking down into the swirling abyss that the Spire had failed to Plug. It wasn't empty. It was writhing.
"We need to go," Elric yelled over the sound of tearing reality. "Back down the ramp! Before the whole damn mountain falls!"
"We can't," Kael said. He pointed his sword—the iron one, not the obsidian arm—at the darkness below.
It was bubbling up.
Things were climbing out of the pit. Not creatures like the Landshark. These were worse. They were collections of limbs and eyes, stitched together by hate and geometry that hurt to look at.
"Shit," Elric breathed. "They're breaching."
"The plug is gone," Kael said. "They smell the world."
One of the creatures—a mass of wet tentacles with a human face screamed in the center—pulled itself onto the ledge.
Kael didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and drove his boot into its face.
"Fuck off," he grunted, kicking it back into the dark.
It fell, shrieking, but ten more were climbing up behind it.
"We can't fight an ocean, Kael!" Elric shouted, slicing at a claw that grasped the rim. "We die here!"
"No," Kael said. He looked at the Cylinder. It was vibrating so hard it cracked one of his ribs.
...Seek the Master... it commanded.
"He's down there," Kael said. "The First Sword. He went in."
Elric looked at the pit. Then he looked at Kael. "You're insane. You're actually thinking about jumping."
"The Spire is dead, old man," Kael said, watching the ceiling begin to crack. Debris the size of carriages started to rain down. "The way back is closed."
"That's suicide," Elric spat. "That's worse than death. That's hell."
"Maybe," Kael said. He grabbed Elric's shoulder with his obsidian hand. The grip was unbreakable.
"But hell is where the answers are."
"Kael, don't you dare—"
"Trust me," Kael lied.
Then he jumped.
He didn't just step off. He launched them.
Elric screamed—a long, high sound that was immediately swallowed by the roar of the wind.
They fell.
The Spire receded above them, a shrinking circle of inverted stone. Then it was gone, swallowed by the mist.
There was no up. No down. Just the rush of cold, dead air and the feeling of falling forever.
Screams drifted past them in the dark. Shapes moved in the fog. Something wet and massive brushed against Kael's leg.
He slashed at it blindly. His sword connected with meat.
"Keep falling!" Kael roared at Elric, who was flailing in the void. "Don't look at them!"
"I can see them!" Elric shrieked. "Use, I can see their faces!"
"Close your eyes!"
Kael didn't close his. His Void Sight was wide open. And what he saw made him want to vomit.
The Void wasn't empty space. It was a web. A massive, sticky web of energy, catching everything that fell out of reality. And sitting in the center of the web...
Kael saw a light.
Not the white light of the Spire. A gold light. Dirty, heavy gold.
"Target!" Kael yelled, angling his body. He dragged Elric with him, swimming through the air.
"We're going to crash!" Elric screamed.
"Better than floating!"
They hit the 'ground' hard. It wasn't rock. It was a pile of rusted armor and bones that shifted like sand.
Kael rolled, absorbing the impact, and dragged Elric to his feet.
They were alive.
"Welcome to the bottom of the world," Kael spat, wiping slime off his face.
"You bastard," Elric wheezed, checking his limbs. "You crazy, magnificent bastard."