Chapter 335: Aeronatutical Endeavors

[Note to self: Do not believe it when a god tells you that an interdimensional worm is the best means of travel.] Mike thought while desperately clinging to the slimy hide of the creature in question.

They were currently streaming through the air in a realm that appeared to be entirely composed of ice and snow. To make matters worse, he'd evidently attracted the attention of some of the inhabitants of this world, beings of animate cold air, who seemed bound and determined to drain him of his heat. So far, Fire Magic had been sufficient to keep them at bay, but he was beginning to wonder how much more time they would be spending here.

Something like a shudder passed through the worm and suddenly Mike was being forced to cling tighter to the creature's skin as a wave of unseen energy tried to strip him from his perch. He'd experienced this a few times before, and knew that it meant they were passing through another interdimensional rift.

For a brief moment, the world seemed to vanish and a massive pressure squeezed him against his erstwhile mount. Then they were through and he could breathe once more. Glancing over his shoulder, he ruefully noted that they were still not in his intended destination. Instead, it looked like they were taking a detour through some kind of hell dimension.

The ground in this realm was composed of torn and broken obsidian mingled with free flowing streams of lava. Mike could see twisted and horrendous creatures cavorting amongst the desolation. It was as if he were looking at a caricature of what Hell would look like if all elements of civilization were completely removed from it.

Thankfully, they did not spend long in this disturbing place, and with another intense shudder the worm was once again moving through interdimensional space. Once they were through the momentary rift, Mike saw an orange-red sunset over the ocean and he assumed that he was finally back in Ea.

"Thanks for the ride!" He yelled over the sound of the wind before letting go.

As he was falling towards the distant waters, he distinctly heard a low-toned rumble from the direction of the creature, making him think that it not only heard and understood him, but was capable of reciprocating the sentiment in some fashion. The sound was cut short as it punched another hole in reality and disappeared into it.

Mulling over the unusual nature of the beings that inhabited this realm, Mike tried to orient himself to his surroundings. From the looks of it, he was currently over an ocean, but he didn't know which one it might be. He hoped that the worm had brought him close to his original location, but he could just as easily be on the other side of the planet.

Thankfully, he could at least determine which direction he should be traveling in due to his familiar connection with Selene, who should still be in Gildusi at this moment.

[Now that I think about it, I wonder what sort of aftereffects the collapse of a dungeon might have on the surrounding area. Hopefully, the others didn't get dragged into it.]

After a few seconds of falling, he began flying towards a point on the horizon while the sun was off to his left. This meant that he was probably heading generally north.

He tried to recall what was south of Gildusi, but honestly couldn't remember. Finally, after spending roughly a half hour speeding over the ocean, he decided to check, and pulled a map of the Inland Sea Region from his storage.

"Alright, based on what I can determine we should be somewhere…" He started to explain to Audra, who'd curiously poked her head out of his pocket, "south of here."

He was pointing to a location that was called simply The Mire, a large stretch of apparently uninhabited land to the west of Dovistan. Seeing as there wasn't any water visible in that part of the map, he could only assume he was somewhere outside of the Inland Sea Region. Which in turn put him somewhere to the west of the legendary homeland of the giants

For a moment, he considered flying over in that direction, at least until he found land. It would give him a point of reference and a place to rest should this flight take longer than he anticipated. However, he eventually gave up on the idea. There was no telling how far away it was, and there was a very real possibility that he could miss the continent completely and simply sail on to other parts of the world without knowing it.

Besides, something about that direction gave him a weird vibe. It seemed like his instincts were telling him to avoid that area. Which actually made him even more curious about what he would find, but eventually he decided to pursue the course of action with the lowest chance of failure.

Resigning himself to a lengthy flight, he began considering what he should do to pass the time. Practicing Space Magic, something that had moved higher up on his list of priorities since being trapped in a collapsing dimension, would be fairly impossible to do while moving given his current level of skill. He also didn't want to do anything too mana intensive in case he needed to take action suddenly.

Finally, he settled on summoning a small lizard and once again experimenting on possible applications of Life Magic. Up until this point, he'd determined that he could repair and enhance tissues, but he was having some difficulty overcoming some inbuilt limitations.

The solution he'd come up with once discussing the issue with Reber was to try directly augment a creature's anatomical makeup rather than simply relying on higher levels of mana to produce greater results.

To that effect, he was trying to see if he could alter the nature of the lizard's body without causing too much harm. Judging from the pained squeals his attempts caused, he was failing in that regard. However, after a fair amount of effort, he was able to change the pigment of the animal's skin, turning it from a dull green color to a dark black.

It was something of a success, since it proved that the idea was sound, but he still had a lot of trial and error to go through before he was ready to try it on any of his party members.

"I guess I'll call this a proof of concept for now." Mike muttered to himself while looking down at the lizard cradled in his hands. It was regarded mournfully until he allowed the spell to end. Frankly, he didn't have the heart to put it through any more suffering.

Glancing around at the seemingly unchanging stretch of ocean, he grumbled. "Alright, that's one task in the bag, but still no land in sight. Just how much longer is this going to go on."

He was traveling at a good pace, and he estimated that it had been close to an hour since he'd returned to Ea. The fact that he'd not only not made it back to Gildusi, but hadn't even encountered dry land during this time was starting to concern him.

[While I may not be a match for anything with a jet engine, I'm not exactly taking it easy either.]

Using some rough estimations based on the speed of his shadow sliding across the surface of the water, he figured he was going at least 300 km/h. This was nowhere near his top flight speed, but was instead a pace he could maintain for long periods of time without using too much mana.

[I could pick up the pace, I suppose. This ocean can't be never ending.]

He sighed. With his titles and abilities, he could probably comfortably float in the water for a while to rest and recover his mana, if necessary. However, he was reluctant to get too close to the sea. Something about the fact that he'd yet to see any signs of life was starting to unnerve him. It would not be surprising at all if there were some kind of horrendous monster watching him from below the surface.

"Maybe there is just something wrong with the wat-" He was trying to convince himself when a panicked mental message interrupted his musings.

From the very beginning, he could tell it was coming from Selene, but the contents were garbled and incoherent. Try as he might, he couldn't make out what she was trying to say. The emotional side of the message, though, couldn't have been clearer. Something was happening, something that terrified her on an instinctual level, and she was doing all she could to reach out to the one person she knew could help her.

Only that person was half the world away.

He tried to talk to her, get more details of what was going on, but the connection suddenly dropped and he could no longer even sense where she was.

"Shit." He growled in frustration, already cursing himself for not taking the appropriate precautions.

Realigning himself with the as of yet unnamed dragon that was apparently still hanging out in the forest to the north of the city, he began planning on how to increase his speed.

[Space Magic is unreliable, and the Orb can't be controlled. Limit Break is still on cooldown, and even if it wasn't, there is no guarantee that it would work either. I can brute force it by simply pushing more mana into my flight, but I don't know how much further it is and what I'll be getting into once I'm there. I need something else. Something like…]

Glancing down at his hands, he muttered. "I can mimic the compression cone with hardened air, and there is no need for fuel when you can summon fire at will, so it is just a matter of whether or not I can withstand the forces involved."

He pulled Audra from his pocket and encased her in a sphere of compressed air that should allow her to survive for an hour or so, and then dropped her into his inventory before she had a chance to complain. Based on his previous experiments, she should then be isolated from anything that occurred outside of the inventory space.

Feeling a small amount of trepidation, he began forming the large conical structure in the air beneath him, making sure to anchor himself to it to the best of his ability. After adding in a rudimentary windscreen in the hopes of reducing the inevitable wind pressure, he injected high intensity flame into it.

As the acceleration started to take hold, he found himself hoping that he didn't end up doing serious damage, either to himself or wherever he ended up. After that, there was no room for anything else but to hold on for his life.

-------------------------------------------------

Julia sighed as she watched Dorn squint out of the tiny window. "What are you doing?"

"Something is up. There are far too many people out on the street. I can only assume the Shadow Council is making their move." He muttered without taking his eyes off of the smoky glass.

"You've been saying that all afternoon. How much longer are you planning on hiding up here?" She demanded, glancing around at the dingy attic of an abandoned store they'd taken refuge in after witnessing the murder.

Dorn turned back to her, a look of impatience on his face. "I've sent word to a few individuals I can trust. Should they have leave to do so, they will meet us here. We will need all the help we can get." He grimaced and looked back at the window. "That is, if we aren't too late already."

Sighing again, she walked over to stand next to him. "I don't know what you're...actually, that does look pretty strange."

As she was watching, she saw a man round the corner at a sprint, a group of pursuers just behind him. He was about to make it through to the next street, but one of the men chasing him suddenly leapt into the air, crossing a half dozen meters in a single bound, and came crashing down on the poor fellow. It was hard to tell through the old window, but it looked like the pursuer was biting him on the neck.

This impression was horribly confirmed when the other men ran up, bent over him and began visibly tearing at him with their fingers and teeth. She could barely hear his strangled screams which seemed to continue long after he'd stopped moving. It took her a few seconds to realize that the screaming was coming from other parts of the city, and it wasn't just one or two voices making the sound.

"...I don't think your friends are going to be able to make it." She whispered.

"No, I don't think they will." He replied, whispering as well. "We should stay here until it's safe to go out. Thankfully, they should not be aware...do you hear that?"

Julia tried to reply, but her words were lost in a wave of increasingly loud noise that caused the building to shake and quiver. The sound, like a non-stop explosion that just seemed to get closer and closer, grew to the point she felt the need to clutch her ears.

The windows shattered under its force, and the small part of her mind that could still process what was going on wondered if this might be the end of the world.

Just as quickly as it arrived the sound stopped, fading into silence in a heartbeat. After a few moments to collect herself, she stood up and looked around. Dorn was crouched nearby in a similarly stunned state.

"Are you alright?" She asked, noting with some alarm that her hearing was muffled so that it sounded like she was talking through a pillow.

Dorn looked up at her in alarm. With a start, she realized that she was shouting unintentionally. She shot a glance back down at the street, only to meet the cold-eyed gaze of one of the killers down below, his mouth still trailing the gory remnant of his last victim.