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Notch stumbled, so hard did the shock hit.
And it was more than disorienting to half-fall while slowed by the Compelling, a Compelling that seemed to be failing, but one which also refused to disappear fully.
Even over the roaring of the Fura Leones, or the relief at seeing Flir alive or the muted surprise that Argeon was suddenly within his reach while Emisa stood beside him, despite the fear that he wouldn’t get a chance to save Sofia if Chelona succeeded... he had been sure he was ready to face whatever happened.
But he was wrong.
And as Notch looked down now, a vague sense of the others closing in behind him, he gaped.
A Sea Beast had thrust itself up from the ocean, its vast maw open.
The waterfall was a thin stream in comparison, and the plummeting shape of Zasemu’s tainted body so small... and the Sea God, the Mother of all Sea Beasts, was a thing of stunning beauty.
Or at least, it had once been so, for the decay of vast age gripped it now.
Like a once magnificent tapestry that had faded, the brilliance of its shimmering rainbow scales had been marred by dulling or missing patches. In some places, the patches were so great that greying flesh and pearlescent white bone was visible. But that was only one part of the God; most of its body was hidden from view, yet it seemed more serpentine than whale-shaped.
Would it empty the very sea when it landed?
Zasemu was swallowed and the Mother began to fall, turning her head. Notch flinched from her gaze; her eye was a black swirl lined by red, and it drove him back a step.
Amber light exploded.
He fell back further, covering his eyes as the cavern shook. Pieces of stone cracked down but none seemed close enough to do any harm, the sound was distant anyway... for once the incandescence eased, he could see where the spear had lanced the Mother just beneath the head.
She writhed.
Water churned and scales glittered. Wind and spray rushed up to meet all who stared down, buffeting them.
But a sound also rose – a scream that swelled and crashed like the furious waves she was already making. Notch backed from the edge now and slammed his hands over his ears as those around him did so – all save Chelona, who merely stood with her arms aloft as if revelling in the chaos.
The LightSpear pulsed now, no longer coloured with the mighty amber glow of sap. Instead, a pearl-coloured liquid bearing a silvery glow filled the shaft... and the new liquid was not surging downward. At all.
It was being drawn up.
Chelona had won that which she craved. The giant steel shaft had not simply been a thing to skewer the Mother after she’d taken the bait, as it seemed Zasemu’s body had become, but the spear was meant to draw the Mother’s Lifeblood.
Wind continued to roar around the cavern, the scream blending with the howl, then intensifying until it became a force that tugged at Notch. He swore as he clung to the walkway, his paws warping the steel – he would not fall.
Paws?
He had transformed already, tunic and cloak in tatters but his pants at least mostly intact. Nearby, Emisa’s robe whipped and fluttered where she’d taken shelter.
And then it all died away.
He blinked. Had the Mother broken free or been—
An ear-splitting smack rose from below and a bare breath afterwards, a fountain of water struck the floating city. The force rocked the platform, the LightSpear and the cavern’s ceiling alike. Water and stone began to crash down, but the larger chunks bounced from an invisible barrier.
Amber pulsed between the stone like previously hidden veins – the city had resisted the force of water, it seemed.
Notch rose to a crouch and peered below again.
The ocean lay in turmoil; dark water and white churn, but the Mother was already slipping beneath the waves, a vague shape only, a massive, giant stretching beyond the bounds of his view. The surface of the water shimmered still, bright with hundreds upon hundreds of scales.
“Notch.”
Emisa was waving him closer – she knelt beside the prone form of Chelona, who lay still in her white robes, soaking wet as water dripped from her dark hair. Her eyes were closed but the sense of her power remained... he approached with another low growl, the sound involuntary, it seemed.
Other figures had drawn nearer, though most held back. One was the Lord Protector, Argeon aglow – Flir by his side.
Notch found himself able to smile as he met her eyes. She smiled back, despite a moment of shock – doubtless at his appearance, but she did not speak.
“She is not defeated,” Danillo said.
“This is one of her husks, then?” Notch asked.
He nodded. “It is, Captain. We must find her and the Halidriandl – it is no doubt higher up in the palace, I feel something above us.”
“As do I,” Emisa said.
“Does she have enough power to use the machine?” Flir asked.
“I fear it possible, even with a partial success only. The Mother’s Lifeblood is... potent beyond what even I imagined,” he said as he started from platform’s edge. “Quickly, to our plans, then.”
Notch rose and followed the small group from the walkway. He wanted to stop Flir and embrace her; he’d missed her strength and resolve. But he did not, it may have even startled her, but more importantly; work was yet to be completed.
Danillo stopped before he’d reached everyone. “Zasemu’s head is gone...” Then he spun. “She is moving already!”
“What can we do?” Flir asked.
“I must think. The city itself – it’s changing,” he replied, speaking quickly. “The petals are folding up and tilting; it’s transforming the streets into funnels.”
“Why?”
“There are other groves in the city; she’s funnelling the sap to the palace, likely to compensate for not Harvesting as much Lifeblood as she sought.”
Flir narrowed her eyes. “Then we split up and stop her, right?”
“We do,” Danillo replied.