Chapter 244: For Eclat

Kothar went flying up, in actuality, the ship fell down around him, and in the narrow confines of the maintenance tunnel, he wasn't able to move his arm up above himself in time, and so running around as he was while looking up, Kothar was slammed face first into the ceiling of the tunnel.

The fall only lasted moments, and Kothar fell back to the floor of the tunnel, now on his hands and knees, tasting blood, Kothar removed his mask.

His nose was pouring with blood, since it had been smashed against the inside of his demon mask, although the interior was padded in case of any sort of blow, it wasn't intended to take on the full force of Kothar's body slamming against the top of a tunnel.

Lucio had intended the masks for the Nighthawks, and the nature of their work was mostly secretive silent assassinations and intelligence gathering, not full scale combat.

His vision still blurry, Kothar reached up and pinched his nose below the bone, reaching into his cloak for a strip of cloth with his other hand, he quickly wadded up two tiny scraps of material, and blocked his nose with them.

[Let's just hope I won't be needing to sniff anything out.] Kothar joked to Silane, as he got back to his feet, one arm resting against the side of the tunnel, still disoriented.

[All jokes aside, Kothar, according to my estimates, the ship shouldn't have fallen again for at least another fifteen minutes. Either my estimates were wrong, or the damage to the heart is far more severe than I anticipated.] Silane's voice was anxious, and even while she tried to remain calm, there was a clear hint of pain within her voice, after all, if the enormous ship fell out of the sky, it would be the end of the Isle, and perhaps the end of Eclat itself.

[II'd like to think your estimations were incorrect, but in my experience, you're never wrong, especially when it counts. Whatever's going on between my Artifact and that crystal in the heart is probably tearing everything around it to shreds, and besides, when it comes to Spatial Magic and spatial manipulation, things never go according to plan.] Kothar said grimly, his mask hanging from his neck by one of the leather straps that wrapped around the back of it.

[Alright then, Kothar, we've got no choice but to get to the command center as fast as possible. Go on. Cast a portal spell, only within your eyeline though, and I 'll do my best to help you align your portals.] Silane instructed, she knew that given the enormous scale of the Aemos, walking along the maintenance tunnels to reach the common center would be foolish, taking far more time than they likely had.

[Alright.] Came Kothar's matter of fact response, his mind shifting into calm collected nature that he had always slipped into when it came to battle, not only was Kothar's life on the line right now, but the lives of every being on Eclat.

Kothar channeled his Spatial Mana, and aimed about a meter in front of him, bracing himself for the worst. This was a gamble, with the way space was curving and bending, the portal just might end up within Koithar's body, ending his life. 

But it was a necessary one, Kothar could attempt an escape, but he would never abandon his home. Besides, without the Spatial Artifact, he was trapped on Eclat, just like the millions of innocent lives on the plane.

There was an odd distorted noise, and in front of Kothar, nothing happened. Kothar felt around himself, trying to sense where the portal had appeared.

It took a few seconds before he pinpointed its location, it had appeared above and to the right of him, moving far more than he had anticipated.

[Alright Kothar, you know the drill, open as many portals as you can, even distances apart, so I can adjust your aim.] Silane's voice was cool and composed, but Kothar could feel the anxiety underlying her thoughts, it was in the nature of their minds, neither could hide emotions from the other.

[Silane, I don't have the artifact, so I'm going to be using a lot more mana than usual. Even though my core was enlarged from the short contact with the crystal's rich mana, I won't be able to open as many portals as usual. Do the best adjustment you can with these few portals.] Kothar said, not surprised that Silane had forgotten such a vital piece of information, given her emotional state.

Kothar opened another three portals, each an additional ten meters further than the other, all of them appearing more and more off course than the last.

[Okay Kothar, but with this, I'll only be able to correct the course by ninety nine percent.] Silane said as she overlaid the corrected aim for the portal over Kothar's vision. 

[I guess there's some habits that you can't just change.] Kothar said, smiling, even while anxious and worried, Silane still retained some of her AI obsession with accuracy.

Kothar opened a pair of portals, taking a little more time than he had become used to. 

He opened the destination portal as far as he dared, and with Sialne's guidance, the first portal opened directly in front of Kothar, while the second hovered in midair further along the maintenance tunnel.

[Alright, there we go.] Kothar stepped through the portal, looking around above himself, one air raised in case of any further unpredictable drops by the enormous ship.

There were no vertical tunnels to be seen.

Kothar didn't complain in the slightest, instead he started channeling his Spatial Mana, opening another pair of portals and stepping through. 

Again, there were no vertical tunnels.

Kothar repeated the process another five times, only finding the narrow vertical tunnel he had been searching for on the fifth time, the rungs attached to the wall extending high above.

[Alright, this one's going to be a little tougher.] Kothar said, channeling his Spatial Mana.