Chapter 166 - Terminal Velocity

Alice tumbled end over end, the doorway vanishing behind her as she spun through negative space, feeling more nauseated with each uncontroll

Alice tumbled end over end, the doorway vanishing behind her as she spun through negative space, feeling more nauseated with each uncontrolled rotation. She twisted her torso and swept her scythes through the air to trim her spin, managing to steady herself a little better as she continued her descent.

The fake apartment was already shrinking to a speck above her. Taking things at face value, it would seem she’d be stuck falling forever—but she knew better. Lorelai had explained once that negative space always existed parallel to, and was “stitched” to a physical realm. That meant there was always a bottom, even if you couldn’t see it.

Negative space wasn’t to be confused with the domains voidlings originated from; those places weren’t parallel or adjacent to anything. They were adrift and untethered, lacking any laws to govern them. A quite literal void. Here in negative space, gravity still meant something.

Fragments of a shadowy city slipped past as she dropped further. Chunks of shadowed buildings, a fire escape floating free, and streetlamps only appearing connected to anything if she focused long enough to search for it.

Then, her boots struck something hard and slick. She skipped across it like a stone over water, somersaulted, then landed in a crouch as she slid backwards until coming to a stop.

She was on a glassy platform, see-through but with swirling colors just below the surface, like oil under ice. She walked to the edge and peered over to see the cosmic void below. Where she currently stood was not the “true” ground of this iteration of negative space, more like a floating island.

If the demon were to follow her here, she would have nowhere to run. Thus, her best option was not to be here at all.

Without a second thought, she stepped off the edge and let herself fall again, waiting to reach the true ground. Finding an exit down there would be its own problem, but hopefully Nyx would catch up and guide her.

A sudden CAW! shattered the quiet.

Her head snapped up instinctively. Thinking at first that it was her voidling, but no, the pitch was too deep.

A blot of black took a sharp turn and headed right for her. The shape resolved into a massive bird, its incredible wingspan beating once to give it a downward thrust before straightening into a dive. Its eyes burned like red coals, its hooked beak gaped wide.

A second demon? I see…

Alice tightened her grip on her scythes, pulling them into a ready guard mid-fall. It was certainly a demon, but its core was unlikely to be in its face. She didn’t have time to figure it out, so simply blinding it seemed the best course of action. She had little ability to maneuver in freefall and would certainly take damage from its initial strike… But if she could take out its eyes in the exchange, she’d at least be able to avoid becoming its prey.

The bird came down like a bullet, closer and closer, beak wide and more than capable of snapping off an entire limb. She’d never had such a serious injury as dismemberment before… but her fears of being forced to discard her flesh would have to wait.

Just a little closer.

Her hands tensed on her scythes, ready to lash out in a burst of motion the instant the bird reached her.

Suddenly, a black portal opened beside them as a loud, more familiar caw rang out.

Nyx dove between them, flesh peeling from her bones to lash at the demon bird’s face, causing it to squawk and snap its wings wide to kill the dive. Alice kept falling, catching a last glimpse of Nyx carving circles around the creature, her wings splintering into sharp tendrils that jabbed at its eyes.

“Caw! Demon be gone! Caw! Cleanse corruption! Protect order! CAW!”

Alice allowed herself a thin smirk and looked down. A gray expanse was rising to meet her, likely the true ground. She tossed her scythes away and prepared for impact. Falling at terminal velocity from this straight angle wasn't ideal.

Still, she had plenty of practice on how to land from high falls, and the nice thing about physics is that one cannot fall faster than terminal velocity. With her size and training, she’d be able to make it through the landing without great injury.

Upon impact, she let her feet touch first, allowing some of the energy to disperse up her leg as she rolled into it, next touching her knee before pivoting so her thigh and hip arced along the ground. Then, shoulder to shoulder, legs up, keeping her head off the ground and neck stiff. Her palms pressed down to bleed off the last of her fatal momentum, and finally she turned and let her elbows take the rest as she rolled with the last of the landing. She continued to tumble along the ground a few times in a controlled manner until she finally got her feet under herself again and slid to a halt.

She had learned some of this in recent years when parkour became popular enough for there to be good information about it. She had discovered most of it herself through the years she spent perfecting her shadow stepping, but she was the type to never allow herself to stop learning.

She stood, bones thrumming, but nothing broken. Likely, she’d have some bruises, but nothing serious and certainly nothing she couldn’t deal with.

However, there was another pain creeping along her skin from Lorelai’s corruption that she tried to steer her mind from. She realized the more she focused on it, the worse it would get, and exerting herself too much would cause it to flare up regardless. Right now, it was manageable.

She cracked her neck and looked around.

She was on a city street, or at least, the muted negative of one. Cars drifted past as shadowy wisps, their noise softened similarly to underwater vibrations. Along the sidewalk, silhouettes of people moved in a steady, almost programmed rhythm.

Alice looked up. This iteration of negative space had compressed many different parts of the physical world on top of one another. Outlines of buildings floated at every height. Roadways slid at wrong angles between them, suspended in midair, flickering in and out like someone kept rearranging pieces of a puzzle.

Her main concern now was the fact that there were two demons and they had seemed to be working together. The snake woman had intentionally separated her from Morrigan, possibly attempting to feed her to that bird demon. 

Though there was the possibility it was coincidental, something in her gut told her it wasn't.

Sure, the snake demon could have set up a layer here in negative space, and that other one just so happened to find its way through on its own. But… that was wishful thinking.

More likely, these demons were guided together. If that were the case, then the vision she first had so many years ago may finally be upon them.

***

Morrigan forced herself to stand, teeth clenching as her broken arm shifted. She cradled the injured limb at the shoulder with her other hand, steadying herself against the sick feeling as the changeling continued snapping at the air.

“Stop it!” she commanded internally, not thinking it would actually listen. Surprisingly, it stopped. Each tendril snapped to attention almost like they were soldiers carrying on until a general walked in. She then called them back under the seal and locked them in, in the back of her mind, promising to free it again if needed.

She then turned her attention to Fenris, who was in an awkward dance with the spider demon. He’d raise his scythe for a swing but back off from the spider demon’s slashing legs keeping him at bay.

“Damn, this is annoying,” Fenris eventually sneered, hopping back a step and putting his scythe over his shoulder. “Guile. Little help here?” he asked, cracking his neck.

A small black creature then appeared out of Fenris’s clothing. Morrigan wasn’t sure if it had been under his jacket or in a pocket. The ferret-like voidling did two quick circles down Fenris’s leg and then shot across the ground in a blur of black towards the spider.

Several jabs from long furry legs tried to impale the voidling, but the little black creature shifted from side to side, easily avoiding them. Fenris took advantage of the spider’s distraction to advance as well. This time, when a leg swiped at him, Fenris met it with his scythe, hacking it clean off and aiming to lunge right at its face.

The spider reared upward as guile got under its thick and furry abdomen and started jabbing tiny spikes into its body. The spider hissed in pain, the sound giving a muted wobble of an echo through negative space.

Fenris jumped high, hacking off another leg and then plunging back down as the spider reared up further. His scythe passed from the hissing, saliva-spitting face of the spider and across its body as smoothly as a knife through butter. That is, until it seemed to snag on something.

“Gotcha!” Fenris cheered, wrenching the scythe inward on the snag, then ripping it back again.

The spider reeled as Fenris’s feet touched the ground and then he quickly rolled backwards. The little black blur of his voidling followed him until his master stopped in a crouch and Guile spun his way up Fenris’s body until he was perched on his shoulder.

The demon began to dissolve, not leaving any natural bones behind, but more turning into a puddle of goo that leaked over the edge of the platform and dripped into the vast expanse below.

Eventually, something solid revealed itself from amidst the goo. It was a ribcage-like structure, just like the demon Morrigan had faced in the woods, and already the eye-like thing inside it was dissolving as a wailing scream tapered off.

“Ha! Easy game!” Fenris chuckled, raising back up. He looked to the sky, propping his scythe over one shoulder while Guile remained perched on the other.

“The demon was weak,” Guile said, “There will be stronger ones.”

“Hey, don’t threaten me with a good time. Honestly, Master Lawrence made such a big deal about demons, I was expecting more. Glad to know that’s a weaker one.”

“Lawrence?” Morrigan asked, still nursing her injured arm. “The reaper who lives in the woods?”

“So you met him?” Fenris tilted his head. She wasn’t sure if he was smiling or not. Technically, skeletons were always sort of smiling, but something about Fenris seemed like he was doing it purposely, more so than others.

“Yeah… I went camping with some friends and crossed paths with him. We happened to end up fighting a demon while we were out there, too… Uh, Lawrence didn’t show up until later, though. But are you his apprentice?”

“Yup, he trained me. Good times. I need to remember to pay him a visit. He kind of forgets the rest of the world exists while living out there.” Fenris then popped his scythe off his shoulder, holding it low on its shaft as he pointed it forward at Morrigan. “Now, you’ve got a pretty interesting friend tagging along there, huh?”

The changeling stirred at its acknowledgment. “Yeah… It’s a bit of a long story, but I needed to do this to save my body,” Morrigan explained.

“Can you control it?”

“Uh. Not really, but kind of? It’s supposed to just react to my own consciousness.”

“Heh, that really is interesting. Pretty cool, though.” He returned his scythe to his shoulder and began walking away. “Well, guess I’ll have plenty of time to ask questions about it. Seems we’re going to be stuck hanging out for a while.” He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down.

“Is it weird that there is more than one demon here?” Morrigan asked, following him but keeping a cautious distance. She still wasn’t sure if she could trust him or not.

“Yeah. You just witnessed my debut as a demon hunter, you know.” He stared down into the cosmic void below, shaking his head.

“Wait… You’ve never fought a demon before?”

“Nope. Demon sightings are supposed to be rare. It’s a bit disappointing to hear a total rookie has been having more fun than me.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it fun.”

“Hm. Anyway. Guile, can you find a path down for us? I don’t exactly like hanging out on this floating island where we are basically sitting ducks for whatever might come by next.”

Without a word, Guile jumped from his shoulder and into a black portal that opened and swallowed him up.

“So, if demons are so rare…” Morrigan pondered. “Why did we suddenly run into three of them, assuming that statue thing was one?”

Fenris chuckled softly, shaking his head as he looked out over negative space. “Well… if we’re lucky…” He turned to look over his shoulder at her, and this time, she was sure he was smiling intentionally. “A rift to the demon world may have opened. In which case, things are about to get really, really interesting.”