Chapter 69: Orbital Strike
Arc ascended through the atmosphere at phenomenal velocity.
She moved so quickly that her cloak had burned away at the friction of the air. She had lost her hat too, which annoyed her. It had been a gift from Jim long before he became the Gun.
But Jim had died long before that poor Revolver put his spirit to rest; their curse had seen to that when it made him its newest host, and Arc had no wish to join him in the Nowhere now. Not while that bastard Zoa continued to breathe, not while the Gun continued to haunt this broken land.
She refused to bite the bullet before either of them did.
Why am I getting so worked up? Victory or defeat meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. There would always be a warlord threatening the wasteland, or a disaster knocking down everyone trying to build anything. Arc thought she could make a difference once, and failed. Why make a stand now?
It’s that brat. Her thoughts turned to her apprentice, who had continued to keep his faith even after seeing where their shared Path would inevitably lead them to. The way he’d picked up that girl Holster and so many companions reminded her of Jim and her own old companions. Curse you, Yuan. You made me care again.
Arc used Bullet Materialization to fire a bullet back at the earth below, then attempted to switch places with it. She immediately sensed an invisible wall form between her and the projectile that canceled her teleportation technique.
Her jaw clenched in frustration as she flew through a cumulonimbus. The Yinyang Khan hadn’t severed her from gravity’s bind. He had put a curse on Arc that separated her from the very concept of Earth. His sutra spell widened the distance between them in a way that blocked even teleportation.
That kind of curse worked on very specific parameters. The best way for Arc to escape it was to change herself.