NEMO: Into The Depths

Chapter 23: No Mercy for the Wicked

Now.

Too early.

The darkness was not a problem, but the orange light that momentarily flooded his senses. His mind had to work overtime to keep his own count in focus as he plummeted down, waiting with his arms tucked close to his chest, for his brain to flip the switch.

Don't cut it close, I want this body in pristine condition for myself.

Such a bleeding heart you have, oh Empress of the Void.

NOW.

Unfortunately, her command coincided with his mind telling him the same, and his arms shot towards the sides of the hole in order to drag him to a stop. However, as soon as the threads of his shirt neared the rocks, a rogue strand struck a jagged edge of the granite surrounding him from all sides. The miscalculation had immediate effects, his velocity ground to a halt in what felt like a blink of an eye. His shirt, even with steel threads intertwined through the cloth, couldn't handle the sudden burst of pressure. The white fabric stood no chance against the roughness of the rock, and the rip would've followed the length of his arm if the steel didn't snag it early, setting off alarms in his head.

As fast as he was able to, Alex jerked his arms back to his chest, before the sound of his shirt tearing even reached his ears, fighting against the air whipping by them. His mind switched tracks almost instinctively. His consciousness rushed towards the darkness around him, timing it so that the faint flicker of flame wouldn't slow the spell down, making it race against his own body. Given a somewhat surprising boost by the freeloader in his mind, it delved into the shadow that he was about to be splattered against.

It collapsed the ground into the abyss, causing umbra swirling upwards to catch their master. The portal to the void was wide enough to accommodate him, the inky sea rising to wrap themselves around his feet. The darkness exerted enough resistance to slow him down to a halt without crumbling his entire spine, the frigid pushing him back to the surface before he could fully submerge. As he rose, the slit to his domain started to mend, the shadows leaving a patch of themselves atop his shirt's torn threads, and soon he could feel his soles on rock once again.

Thank you.

A response would've been more surprising. Alex touched the rip in his shirt to find an interim mend already in place. Hovering his hand over it, he stared at the cloth surrounding the black patch, trying to catch every single character it held; colour, lustour, and whatever else one could notice at a glance. Mana seeped out of his hand, floating in the air between, condensing to a mist only a fairy could appreciate before it started to layer upon the umbra.

First, the inky fabric was concealed by a layer of white, stretching over the edges till it was flush with the cloth. Second, from the edges of the magic, threads appeared to materialise throughout, turning pale, chalky, ivory, to finally settle on a pearl that mimicked the rest of his shirt. And as it neared its end, the entire spell rippled along itself, creating crevices, shifting its lustour to match what surrounded. It all only took him a wave of a hand before even he couldn't make out the split between the illusion and the rest of his sleeve.

"Move," His partner's voice bellowed from above.

Just as he took a step forward, Elyza appeared behind him, her red hair flickering with the flames in the tunnel. Yet, as her feet shifted from the sides of the ladder to the ground, her green eyes reflected concern along with a shade of olive.

Gesturing for him to raise his hands to make sure he wasn't bleeding, she sighed out, "Why must you be this way?"

"The demon in my head asks that every day," Alex replied, holding his hands above his head and twirling for her, his ears catching a hushed echo of a footstep in the process.