Chrysalis



Hunkered down in my little bunker, I can't see much, or even sense much, with the surroundings filled with ash, so it's no surprise that Torrifex's fireball takes me by surprise.

A brief flash of powerful fire mana, followed by my stone barrier glowing cherry red then melting away is all the warning I get. Even my antennae don't give me enough of a heads up to do anything about it. All I can do is curl over like a pill-bug and hope for the best as the devastating fire erupts all around me.

Quite naturally, I'm sent flying by the force of the explosion.

My legs waggle in the air beneath me as I try to get my bearings and assess the damage. Firstly, HOT! That was a spicy meata-ball! I'm literally smoking, there is smoke coming off my carapace.

Stupid demons! How dare they sully my shininess with their pitiful magic? I'll make them pay! Or, I'd like to make them pay, but perhaps not right at this moment. Looking down, I can see the vast ocean of dense ash clouds waiting for me to land in them, and I'm not too keen on the experience.

Shield mana! Don't fail me now!

With so many mind-constructs churning constantly, I manage to create the shield beneath my legs just as I reach the peak of my arc, before I begin to descend.

Holy moly, I really got shot high up. I might be able to see my house from up here!

Of course, this means I'm stuck in plain sight, about fifty metres off the ground.

Beneath me, three tier eight demons glare upward with hungry gazes. Torrifex is so mad he's practically boiling, I swear if he gets any more red he's going to explode. Or maybe he's just preparing another massive fireball to detonate me in mid-air.

Yep, that's definitely what he's doing.

Please, Invidia, I hope to goodness you've finished your work. I also hope that idiot can do what she said she can do. Otherwise I'm going to thwack her right into the next century!

Torrifex launches his fireball, and at the last possible moment, I dive from my platform and freefall downward. Behind me, the fireball detonates like a miniature sun. A very angry, rage-filled sun.

My entire vision is filled with red, but I don't allow it to distract me. Sunk deep into meditation, I let my fears and worries slide from my thoughts and concentrate on what I need to do.

I'll only have one shot at this and I need to make it perfect.

My brains burn fiercely as I push them as hard as I can, sucking in mana, pumping it into the contructs I'm maintaining, and weaving the resulting mana into the spells I need. It's mind-meltingly difficult, but I need to get it done before I hit the ground.

Which is in about one second. Everything happens at once.

A wave of ash rises to meet me, followed closely by a thousand blades slashing upward, seeking to pierce me through. A great rushing sound vibrates along my antennae to the point I can't hear anything else.

I couldn't have asked for a better chance than this, all three of them, packed so tightly together. I can do this! All I need to do is survive, which… should be fine?

The thousand blades of Somonax crash into me at once, smashing me from every side simultaneously. A moment later, the ash cloud envelops me and I can't see anything but black, and can't feel anything but pain.

Somonax manages to cut massive grooves into my diamond carapace, but not enough to get all the way through. Not on that strike, at least. After that, the destruction properties in the ash take over and I feel like I've been dipped in acid.

It's very unpleasant.

My HP drops precipitously and continues to fall as time passes. When I finally manage to hit the ground, I'm down to half, which is worrying, but it's greater than zero. So I win.

Take this, you fools!

Doing my best impression of Pyrixan, a colossal burst of mud explodes outward from me just as I contact the ground. As if launched from a geyser, the brown, mucky substance rises like a tidal wave before it crashes down, carrying everything with it.

In that instant, everything around me is coated in a thick layer of mud, including the three demons.

FLASH HARDEN!

One moment, I'm surrounded by goopy mud, the next, it has frozen solid, hardening like concrete in the blink of an eye.

Of course, concrete isn't going to keep tier eight demons still for long. I think I have… one second?

[TINY, CRINIS, INVIDIA! LET'S GOOOOOOO!]

Quick as a thought, I summon my pets before I reach out to the nebulous connection I maintain with my most irritating student.

[Get your pretentious butt in here right now!]

There's a purple and pink flash, followed by a strange pop, and a little ant manifests directly on my head.

"It isn't pretentious if you're BRILLIANT!" she cries.

"No time for stupid! Do it!"

Thankfully, she doesn't waste any time on further words and I feel her mana swirling. Quickly, it resonates with the enchanted pods Invidia removed from his mouth and buried around the basin.

I have no idea what was in them, liquid of some kind and a bunch of inscriptions, from the sense I got with them, but now that Brilliant is working her spell, I can feel an absolute torrent of power unleashed from them.

At the same moment, the three demons break free, but it's already too late.

Lightning flashes, my vision blurs to nothing.

Tiny, Crinis and Invidia reach my side just as we are ripped from our location in space and moved to somewhere rather different.

[Tiny?]

[Hrrr?]

[Were you always a cat?]

[HRRRR?!?!?!]

"My bad! One second!" Brilliant cackles.

Another flash and we are back in the third stratum. But not quite where we left.