RE:WRITE

29.0 Grayscale_Chapter 7: Graphite

Everything passed by in a blur.

Mountains, lakes, plains and rivers whizzed by, painting the world beneath us in streaks of colors. But the world above stayed the same; a dark sky stretching endlessly into the distance.

Flames twirled around us, licking and dancing all over our bodies without burning them. They weren't hot either, but warm and maybe even comfortable.

The winds whistled by, filling my ears with a roaring sound that made my head hurt. My eyes were watering but I barely managed to make out Runir mouthing something to Amy.

She seemed to have heard him since the colorful streaks vanished and my heart went up my throat as we plummeted to the ground.

Debris fell everywhere as we crashed into the rocky ground. Amy let go of me and I fell to the ground, dizzy and exhausted.

"What is it?" asked Amy, unfazed by the crazy ride.

"W-wait a second." said Runir, holding his head. He took out some water from his Storage and drank it. "That's better."

"Why did you make me stop here? We need to hurry. Kai is fighting that thing alone right now!" Amy said, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Well, I'm sure the Fire Goddess wouldn't take kindly to a meteor crashing into her shrine. We might just get blasted out of the sky. Besides, I've already made a plan using my Ability but for it to work, we need to sneak in without anyone noticing." said Runir.

"A plan? Care to elaborate?" asked Amy.

"No. For some reason, my Ability explicitly told me that revealing the plan would be a bad idea but trust me, it's our best shot at beating that masked freak." he replied, calmly.

I stood up. "Either you're lying because you don't want us to know or your plan is so fucked up that we'd never agree to it if you told us. And I don't know which is worse." I said.

"The lava fields should be a little further ahead. We better hurry, Kai can't hold that thing off forever." he said, running up the mountain trail.

Damn it Kai, you better hold on till we get that fucking goddess. I thought, as I rushed after him.

Soon, my clothes were soaked in sweat as the air became hotter. The rocks were darker here and crumbled more easily.

"Fuck. Why can't we use magic to cool this shit up again?" I asked, panting.

"Because we have to conserve our mana." Runir said, wiping the seat from his brow.

The lava appeared soon enough.

Liquid rock goo...gotta say, lava is pretty disappointing. I thought, as we finally reached the lava fields.

"Right, now we just have to change into our bathing suits." Runir smirked as he took something out of his Storage.

"Stop messing around." I said, sternly.

"Fine, fine. Just hold on to- what's that?" he said, squinting his eyes.

I heard it too. It sounded like someone was...crying? It seemed to be coming from a figure standing beside a large rock. Whoever it was, they were standing right between us and the lava fields so we'd bump into them for sure.

As we got closer, I noticed that it was a little girl wearing dirty brown rags and a scarf. Her face was buried in the hems of her tattered robes as she sobbed into them. I exchanged a glance with Runir, could we afford to stop?