Chapter 225: Escape Velocity
Jace Brontarion
A firm, cold darkness surrounded me. My usual sanctuary had become a prison, its false clouds swirling in a vortex beyond control.
With all my strength, I pounded against the dark, charcoal-grey clouds enclosing me, but they refused to yield. I reached for the storm outside my nimbus prison, willing it to answer my call. The clouds came, yet none could pierce the impenetrable barrier of false clouds.
My pulse thundered as I tried to fight my way out.
I have to get out of here. I have to help Sora inside the rift; I can’t let her down again.
Think Jace.
I used my storm drift ability to become intangible and tried to phase through the fake clouds, but I couldn’t.
You have to be kidding me!
I took two long, steady breaths, remembering the lessons my master had taught me when I was younger.
You are not the storm; you are the calm within it.
I took a few more breaths, and my pulse eased, and the flow of my cosmic energy settled.
I felt the ionized particles racing around me. Ice particles and water droplets collided, generating static electricity and separating positive and negative charges. Beyond the counterfeit clouds trapping me, the surrounding storm responded.
I compared that to the ionized airflow inside the fake cloud. My senses told me there was barely any charge present.
I had an idea, but it required a level of precision I have never executed before.
No time like the present, I guess.
Using my first node ability, I commanded electricity to cover my entire body, illuminating the inside of the dark prison.
The electricity crackled all around me as I expelled all of it, forcing its way through the first inner layer of the fake cloud surrounding me.
The electric field within the cloud was far too weak. If my plan were going to work, I’d have to amplify it.
I had to break the insulating capacity of the air trapped inside to the point where I could form a negatively charged ion channel, invisible to the naked eye, that would allow lightning to escape a cloud.
So many channels were opening up for me; they were also closing just as fast. It was hard to focus as I tried to figure out which channel would lead me towards the academy.
Still not enough time; they close on average in one microsecond.
I had no choice.
I dug deep, focusing harder on keeping as many ion channels open as I could, my body now glowing a radiant blue, as all the darkness inside this cloud fully disappeared.
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Controlling this output was extremely taxing; I felt like a crazed beast doing anything it could to escape captivity.
As my outpour of electricity crashed into this insulated cloud, the ion paths I created stayed open for a bit longer.
3 microseconds.
I just need a little bit more.
I pushed the output of my electricity a little more, forcing my entire body to shake violently.
But in that last push, it happened.
5 microseconds.
I cut off my control over the electricity and allowed my body to go completely passive. Activating Stormdrift, I turned intangible and let the ionized channel drag me forward at blinding speeds.
The ion channel forced my intangible form to zig-zag throughout the sky, following the path downward, pausing every fifty microseconds before moving again.
I had never moved this fast; I felt like a living bolt of lightning rocketing downward to the surface.
It was so fast that I almost missed my target, which was the floating academy.
But if I wanted to stop, I had to abandon my intangible form. I pictured my arm moving, and my body began to solidify. I looked back toward the dark sky above.
I finally got to see what trapped me.
The sky was filled with massive, dark, dense clouds that surrounded and devoured the real clouds above. Moved like some kind of unnatural predator, consuming the storm around them while crackling with flashes of multicolored lightning.
As I fell, I commanded the real clouds, who were still free, to come to my aid.
The amount was small, but more than enough to slow my descent.
It took a few seconds, but my descent stopped just as I was approaching two figures standing in the rain on the central isle.
When I looked closer, one figure looked familiar. It was a girl with bronze skin and black hair with red highlights.
Mira?
She waved me down.
When I reached the central isle, she looked a little frail, but she still had the same fire in her eyes.
“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be in the rift exam?” Mira said, yelling over the hard downpour of rain around us.
I grimaced.
“I got trapped by fake clouds.”
“What do you mean by fake clouds? Mira asked, her eyebrows squishing together.
The expression didn’t last long, as her eyes quickly widened.
“Wait, that might explain why our service is so spotty.”
“It's a long story, but I gotta get to that rift,” I said, commanding my cloud to rise back into the air.
“Wait, if you are going, bring me too.”
I looked at her, assessing the flow of her cosmic energy. It was stable enough, despite her physical condition.
“Fine, but hold on tight.”
She began to climb the cloud, but the guard started to reach for her.
“She is under direct orders to be escorted back to the medbay.”
I looked back at Mira.
“Is that true?”
She shook her head.
I gave the guard a light zap, pulled Mira onto the cloud, and waited for her arms to wrap around me.
She hesitated.
“What, you scared? I don’t bite.”
She rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around me.
Once she was secure, I darted toward the floating isle where our cluster was stationed for the exam.