Tower of God: The Flower of Earth (Slow Updates)

Chapter Fifty-One

I watched as Mercy vanished before the cloud of darkness. What had happened? Had she betrayed us? Were we all going to die?

Screams and yells echoed in my ears, before I faintly heard someone calling my name.

"Jigu... Jigu... Jigu... JIGU!" The last one caused me to snap out of my trace. "Get out of there!"

I looked as the cloud of darkness was almost upon me, and quickly steered my lighthouse out of the cave. The creature that should have belonged in the forest gave chase to the large group, snapping up a few of the lagging regulars with its beak, as we heard the agonizing screams and crunches. I wanted to go back and help, but the darkness was too close to my lighthouse to do anything much.
"Follow the lighthouses! They have the best view!" Someone below shouted. I looked around at the few lighthouses that did survive the darkness, before trying to scan the terrain to make a map.

"This way!" One of the quicker lighthouses announced, before turning and steering another way.

I gave a sigh and followed, as those on foot hurried after us, not wanting to be turned into... Whatever creature that was food.

I put my lighthouse in cruising mode and leaned back in my chair. What had happened to Mercy? Did she abandon us? Lead us into a trap?

I felt Chrome nudge me as my pocket was flashing, saying I had a message.

"Who is it from?"

I opened it and saw there was a message from Mercy. I hesitated on opening it.

'Jigu, sorry I have to do this without warning you or the team. But technically, guides aren't supposed to help with the tests on this floor. So I had to skip to the next floor.' I could hear the beast's roars in the background. 'Don't worry. I'll wait for you up there. See you and everyone soon.'

I sighed. So she hadn't abandoned us.

My lighthouse rattled as something made it skid to a stop, and systems started powering down. "What? What's going on?" I tried to regain my controls and tried to use my second one as an observer to see what was going on, only to see that I was being drawn into the dark cloud of the beast. "No no no no," I repeated over and over, trying to steer my lighthouses out of the way, hearing the beastly roars echoing in my ears.

My lighthouse glitched and seemed to be shutting down. And I couldn't get it to stop.

"There! I see the town!" Noe shouted, and hurried to get the others to go towards it, before turning back to see my lighthouses caught in the storm, another one vanishing into it. "Jigu!" She panicked and looked around. "Dustin!" She grabbed his arm, the barrier that prevented teams from touching vanished the second they saw the town. "I need a boost! Jigu is stuck in the storm!"

He looked and nodded, bending down so she could climb into his cupped hands. She flinched as she did so, knowing this would hurt a lot, especially since she was still healing from the floor of riddles.

"Ready?"

"Ready." She nodded.

"Bombs away!" He yelled, throwing her up into the sky like a cheerleader, as she swung her whip out and extended it far enough to wrap around my lighthouse. "Mighty charge!" She shouted, electricity running through the braided leather and shocking power back into the cube.

She started falling, as Dustin prepared to catch her as I was able to speed free of the darkness with the extra power boost. She wrapped up her whip and tried to slow her fall by spreading her arms and legs out to increase the surface area. She knew she would be fine, having a high level of pain tolerance, but still did not want to go splat.