The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 49: Pushing goodbye. (Part 2)

Ardent Friend:

I arrived at Aria's school. The school ground took up a large space just on the North end of the city. The buildings grew tall instead of wide to accommodate the students but still had plenty of space for outdoor activities and relaxation. It was a place I had visited several times. Now it was under threat. I saw the drone fly by way up in the sky and from it I felt the danger falling. Those bastards were crazy. They'd really drop a bomb on a city school just to get back at Aria and us?

I climbed as high as I could and leapt into the sky towards the falling bomb. My instincts told me it was dangerous, that if it fell people would die. I refused to let that happen. I couldn't let people die from out fight. A dozen ideas how to stop it flashed in my mind, but I landed on just one. I couldn't tell exactly how strong it was and a mistake would mean death. The bomb needed to disappear, all of it.

When I had used the void before, I only ever created a sliver. A line that appeared and cut apart the world. Now I needed more than that. I needed to cut deeper and wider, to create a hole and banish away my target. My chest tightened in pain as the familiar sensation of the Void spread throughout my body, shaking the space around me. I breathed and leaned into the sensation. I could feel my energy sucked away as I floated in the sky. My Aura vanished, my mana disappeared, and the very energy of my body felt stagnant. I felt as I did when I returned from death and in that moment I swung my fist. There was no explosion of power, no light or shattering sound, just the Void. The bomb that was once falling blinked out of existence and as it did so, so did I.

By the time I realised, it was already too late. I felt the vacuum of the Void pull me in. The light of the world vanished and without warning I felt myself in a swamp of black. The dreams I had of my mother returned to my memory, this was the Void. An endless space of black and in the distance hallucinations of dull sparks that sprang uncertain colours. Strangely, though I couldn't breathe, I felt at peace. My mind felt calm, scarily so.

Wake up! Get out! The voice broke my numb mind. I almost lost myself. I needed to get out. With every passing moment I felt further away from Earth. I used the last dredges of energy I had left to find an anchor. I needed to escape the Void and to do that I needed to use the Void. It was a strange notion and the ball dropped. Light sparked around me, brighter than anything I had experienced before. It engulfed me and just like that the Void receded and I tumbled, falling from the sky.

"Shit!" I turned my body to see where I was, a sea of tress stretched below me and were rapidly approaching. My training kicked in and I immediately tried to slow myself only for a lightning like pain to flare through my mind as it twisted between consciousness. It was the feeling of having used up all my internal energy. Breaking through the Void had sucked up the last bits I had and now the fall was really going to hurt. More than that, I really might just die.

I forced the thought away and braced my body to crash through the tree branches, hoping they'd snap away and break my fall. My body was strong, but without Aura it couldn't resist that much damage. I entered the treetops and the fist branches broke away in an instant. They barely slowed me down. Then came the ground. A sudden force pushed me away, wrapping around my body and carrying me horizontally instead. I smashed against the dirt as grass and chunks of earth scattered away, finally slowing to a halt.

For a moment I breathed, alive but in aching pain. A shadow crossed my eyes.

"You okay?" the voice came from above me and as I looked up, someone stared down. "I barely managed to catch you in time. You're lucky I spotted you."

"Th-," I tried to stand but fell instead, my vision darkening. If this person saved me once, I really hoped they'd continue. Like that I fell unconscious.