Chapter 674: Hopeless Search
The original tip of the spire had jutted several hundred yards above where the top now was, but it had been blasted apart in the initial explosion. The beautiful mansions and terraces that had wound around the spire were gone, reduced to ash or showering the ground around us in a storm of ash, debris, and meters. Smoke poured from the vents and chasms opening into the center of the spire, blotting out the sky. The light evening sun, hovering a hand’s breadth over the lip of the distant caldera, was blood red with particulates filling the caldera.
The center of the spire was still obscuring in waves of mana and smoke, hiding the bodies of the emerging dragons. The occasional shockwave tore through the veil, but more filth closed in immediately, revealing little more than glimpses of the hellscape within. Wisps of Elaine’s soul and Avant’s mana entwined with the dreadful aura of the two dragons, creating an overbearing combined pressure matching that of the Ally of Fate.
Traversing the torn landscape as it was would have been impossible for me, but Fable crossed with the same confidence as our journey across Blue Canyon. He leaped across bubbling pools of lava, dove through geysers of spitting fire, and crossed gaping chasms by treading across the thin ridges and pillars of stone left behind. I didn’t really know where we were going, only that it was closer to where the keep had once stood. Closer to the center of the spire., and the dragons that resided there.
As we came to the lip of a particularly large chasm, Fable stopped, sniffing the air. I wrinkled my nose at the acrid scent of smoke, uncertain of what exactly he could be searching for. As far as I could tell, we were standing in the ruins of an old mansion, still a few hundred yards from the edge of the courtyards surrounding the Imperial Palace.
An impression wormed its way into my mind from my bond with Fable, and I yelped, throwing my arms around his neck.
"W-wait! Don’t jump–"
That was as far as I got before Fable Lunged into the chasm. Not over, but in.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my stomach twisting as the feeling of weightlessness gripped it. Thick gouts of smoke smothered us, the air filtering through my wards dry and stale. I could imagine us rushing toward the wall on the other side, nothing but fire and darkness waiting for us below.
Our momentum came to an abrupt halt as Fable’s paws found purchase on something, our fall shifting into a trot. I squeezed him tighter, tentatively peeking through his fur.