“Hold on! Don’t let go!”
I wrapped my arms around a vibrating marble column, my body whipping in the air like a flag. The floor became a vertical wall; the ceiling transformed into a bottomless cliff. Storm Clan nobles who failed to find purchase fell like hail, screaming as they vanished into the cloud sea below. At this velocity, impact with the ground would flatten us into two-dimensional portraits.
“If you want to live, follow me!”
Jasta’s voice cracked with terror. The fox was on all fours, claws digging into the masonry, his fur puffed out in sheer panic, yet his eyes burned with survival instinct. “The Emerald Hangar! There are reserve ‘Wind-Wing Shuttles’ there! Escape pods for the Dukes! I know the way!”
“Lead!” I roared, swallowing bile, and released the pillar.
We began a desperate parkour run through a dying city. The island was tilted at nearly sixty degrees. We ran across what used to be facades, leaping over fractured beams and dodging statues falling like kinetic missiles.
BOOM!
A massive chunk of ceiling crashed down, blocking the path.
“Move!”
Garza bellowed. Even in this chaotic gravity, his balance was supernatural. He slammed his remaining shoulder into the multi-ton rock, shattering it with a brute-force impact that sent debris flying.
“Stay close!” Mykra dissolved into a shadow, scouting ahead to avoid structural faults. Sarak dangled from Garza’s grip like a ragdoll, muttering a frantic mantra: “...We’re gonna die... we’re gonna die...”
Ten minutes felt like a century. When we finally burst into the Emerald Hangar, the scene was more hopeless than the fall itself.
It was a gladiatorial pit. This VIP evacuation point housed a dozen streamlined, gold-inlaid magitek shuttles. But now, it was swarming with hundreds of panicked Storm Clan nobles. Elegance, etiquette, and hierarchy had evaporated in the face of survival.
“That’s my ship! I am a Councilor!”
“Die! I need a seat!”
Spells flew wildly. Wind blades sliced throats. Women were shoved off gantries. Blood slicked the landing pads.
“Damn it... there’s nothing left,” Sarak wailed.
“There! In the corner!” Jasta pointed to the far end of the hangar, where a dusty, older-model shuttle. “One left!”
We sprinted. But the ship wasn't unclaimed. A group of robed mages was trying to force the hatch. They saw us—saw the blood-soaked Wolf King and the human.
“It’s them! The ground-crawlers who destroyed the island!” a mage shrieked, eyes bloodshot, staff crackling with lightning. “Kill them!”
“Garza!” I shouted.
No further command was needed. The Wolf King roared and lunged. Ignoring the lightning scorching his flesh, he grabbed the mage by the throat one-handed and hurled him out of the collapsing hangar bay like trash.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Sarak! Open it!”
I rushed to the control panel, only to find it flashing with red runes—a biometric lock. “It needs a Storm Clan feather print! Dammit!” Sweat poured down my face.
“Let me! Let me!” The goblin engineer leaped from Garza’s grip, tackling the console. She pulled a chaotic mess of tools and crystals from her vest, fingers moving in a blur. “Damn archaic system... three hundred years old... logic is full of holes! Give me ten seconds!”
The hangar roof began to cave in. A steel girder crashed down five meters away, showering us in sparks. The island’s descent was accelerating. Wind pressure was tearing the outer shields apart.
“Hurry!!” Jasta screamed, tail tucked between his legs. “We’re going to impact!”
“Got it!”
With a pneumatic hiss, the hatch slid open.
“In! Go!” I shoved Sarak and Jasta inside, then shouted at Garza and Mykra, who were covering the rear. As the last body rolled into the cramped cabin, the hatch slammed shut.
Through the viewport, I saw the hangar disintegrate. We lost our footing.
“Ignition! Max power!” I yelled at Sarak in the pilot’s seat.
“Hold on to your butts! This is gonna be rough!”
WHOOSH—!
G-force slammed us into the seats. Just as the hangar collapsed, blue magical fire erupted from the shuttle’s thrusters, ejecting us from the side of the falling island.
We hung in the air. Free from the island’s gravity well, the sudden silence was deafening.
Through the glass, wolf, goblin, fox, and human alike held their breath, staring at the apocalyptic spectacle outside. The city that had ruled the sky for centuries was now a sinking Titanic. Its massive bulk tumbled, carrying unstoppable kinetic energy toward the earth.
“It’s over... Skyreach is gone...” Mykra covered his eyes.
A split second before impact, a miracle occurred.
The once-faded array of floatstones at the island’s base ignited into a blinding, unstable azure glare the instant they brushed the surface's chaotic gravity field. Like two titanic magnets forced together at the same pole, the ground and the island’s core recoiled in a violent, mutual rejection.
The trajectory shifted. The island didn't smash vertically; it skipped like a stone on water, "bouncing" violently toward the northern range.
The massive island acted like a steel blade, slicing deep into the Blackrock Mountains north of the city. The multi-million-ton mass didn't disintegrate; it wedged itself into the mountain.
Dust swallowed the sun. When the tremors finally ceased, I saw the most staggering sight of my life.
The Sky-Isle was now a tilted, artificial mountain, thousands of meters high, fused with the natural rock. Its tail still pierced the clouds, sparking with residual mana, while its head was buried deep underground.
Even kilometers away, the shockwave hit our shuttle like a hurricane hitting a leaf.
“Brace!! Shockwave incoming! Crash landing!” Sarak screamed, fighting the stick.
I gripped the handle, and darkness took me.
Cough... cough...
I inhaled air tasting of ozone and dust. I opened my eyes. The hatch was warped, hanging half-open. I stumbled out onto the tilted slope.
We had crashed on a hillside a few kilometers from the impact zone. Trees were snapped like twigs. In the distance, Skyreach’s lights flickered wildly, and walls were cracked, but the main structure held. The "Steel Mountain" had taken the hit for us.
“Everyone alive?” I rasped.
“My back... and my purse...” Jasta crawled out from under an airbag, face grey with ashen, but his hands were checking his gold. “Creator be praised, the money is safe.”
Garza kicked the crumpled hull open, dragging an unconscious Sarak out with one hand. Mykra stood in the shadows, untouched.
“Alex!”
An engine roared. A heavily modified off-road vehicle tore through the dust, screeching to a halt. Zayla leaped out first. She didn't wait for the vehicle to stop completely, sprinting to me. The perpetual tension in her frame only dissolved when she saw me standing.
Brad leaned out the window, whistling. “Bro, that's one hell of a delivery. You trying to punch a hole straight through Valsalia?”
I took the canteen Zayla offered, washing the blood from my throat. “Just a little demolition work.”
“Is it over?” Jasta sat on the ground, looking at the smoking, tilted mountain with the relief of a survivor.
The ground vibrated.
Thump... Thump...
A low, continuous rhythm. Like a heartbeat.
I turned toward another direction—a smaller impact crater a few hundred meters away. That was where Selena fell.
There was no dust there. But at the bottom of the crater, I saw an unsettling, blue-black storm slowly coalescing. The energy wasn't holy anymore; it was twisted, filled with the madness of the dying.
“No.”
I clenched my fist.
“The real trouble is just starting.”Jasta looked at us, his voice low. “That madwoman... isn't dead yet.”
Next Chapter Intro: Selena isn't done. Broken and twisted by the fall, she merges with the remaining mana of the island to become an avatar of the storm itself.
Question of the Day: Selena is wounded but dangerous. What is the best tactical approach?
(Click to choose)
?? A) The Siege.
Result: Attrition. Surround the crater with tanks and artillery. Pound her until she runs out of mana. Safe, but slow. Valtharax might wake up before she dies.
?? B) The Duel.
Result: Honor. Let Garza finish it. He knows her weaknesses, and his rage is a weapon. If he wins, the Wolf-kin join you permanently. If he loses, you lose your tank.
?? C) The "Lightning Rod" Finisher.
Result: The Engineer's Choice. Use the crashed island's own conductivity against her. Lure her to the spire and short-circuit her mana into the ground.
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