Chapter 625: The Sudden Hazard (2)
Mikhailis barely managed to brace, boots skidding on loose shards. He caught one last glimpse of his own palm as the sigil blazed into a miniature sun. From within the translucent shield, it painted the chamber in a storm of blood-red strobe—pulsing so bright he could see the bones in Rodion’s arms through the panels.
He tried to shout—Elowen, Rodion, anyone—but the moment he opened his mouth the sound evaporated. Air fled his lungs as if the chamber itself had gulped it down.
A second flash eclipsed the first. Where light had been only unbearable, it now became total, filling every crevice until there was no up, no down, no color—just scalding white. It felt like falling into the heart of a star and finding nothing there but glare.
Then the floor vanished.
He had enough presence of mind to realize he was airborne—Rodion still clamped around him—before a g-force punch knocked thought loose. Wind roared past, cold as glacier runoff. His stomach tried to claw its way through his spine. If Rodion hadn’t been fused to him, he might have tumbled end over end into who-knew-where.
<Incoming. Defensive maneuver initiated.>
Rodion’s voice rang inside his skull, crisp yet echoing, as though coming through three layers of crystal.
What the hell is this?! The thought screamed through his head but never reached his lips. Another flare—briefer, a camera flash compared to the earlier supernova—and then darkness, absolute and immediate. Stars exploded in his vision, but whether real or retinal he could not tell.
Air returned with a vengeance, whipping hair against his cheeks. Before he could orient, gravity snapped back.
Impact.
They hit something soft but unyielding—spongy turf overlaying hard-packed earth. Rodion absorbed the worst of it, servos whining under stress as metallic limbs dug into moss and loam to cushion the landing. The shield plates folded back with a hiss of depressurization, leaving him blinking in the dim.
The first thing he noticed: smell. Rich humus, wet stone, a faint tang of bioluminescent fungus. A forest scent—but unlike any canopy breeze he’d known. Cooler, damper, weightier, as though trapped under miles of rock.