I was not sure how much rubble lay on top of me, but I was having some serious trouble trying to move it; I could see light through gaps in the stone, a pulsing red that irritated me on some deep, fundamental level. I felt something shift close by, and then heard the grind of shifting rocks and felt rhythmic impacts as heavy objects fell.

“You Void sucking bastard; do you know how much that’s going to cost for me to fix?”

The only answer was dry laughter that was closer to a dusty choking than anything I would normally associate with mirth, but there was no doubt about what it was.

“Think it’s funny? This place runs on a tight budget, for a city. I’m going to split you from end-to-end and use your blood as mortar.”

Tain’s voice was deadly serious, despite the relative levity of his words. I could not see him, but I had no problem believing that he would really build CeeCee into the walls of the place when everything was said and done. But the laughter went on, and underneath it I felt the blood rage stir, pushing me towards stupidity, and something deeper, something I had not felt from it before, like a call to... surrender.

“Hey, I know it’s tempting, but you don’t want any part of that; it'll take your mind and then we’ll take you. Now, I realise I’m already going to kill you, so the threat may not mean much, but with a mind has to be better than without, right?”

As the Marshall spoke, I twisted my body, trying to work myself free but though I felt a little give, that was everything. I had lost my Focus when falling, even Instinctive Precognition unable to figure out a way for me to escape the fall, and I had blacked out for a moment as my head hit the ground, and the rubble hit me. Tough I may have been, but tons of stone is tons of stone. Needing more time, I re-Focused and tapped my Path, the continuing exhortations to stop grinding into an attenuated mess. Being fast did not make me any stronger, and the additional time from my Path did not increase the force I could bring to bear, but it did mean I could potentially move into spaces that would have closed previously. And, of course my lightning did add to my momentum. Additionally, I could feel the lashing destruction begin to smash away at the stone, which was a benefit I had not considered.

I began to twist harder, thrashing back and forth in an effort to break free and was actually making some headway when the stones on top of me were swept away as a body smashed them aside, freeing me. Leaping to my feet, I glanced to the side where Tain was climbing out of the pile he had been knocked into, wiping dust from his coat with a look of pure irritation. Seeing me looking his way, the Marshall rolled his eyes and pointed in the opposite direction.

Turning, I saw CeeCee stood over a glowing red pool, a thin line of it arcing up and into him pulsing like a heartbeat. I could see strangely familiar rainbow light dancing along its length, and just above the pool’s surface. The rainbow light was oddly compelling, fascinating even, and I felt an impulse to reach out and touch it.

Without conscious thought, I found myself moving towards it, but after a step or two, something screamed inside of me to throw myself backwards; it was not Instinctive Precognition and it was not automatic, and with an effort of will I ignored it, taking another step.

CeeCee was frowning at me, the choking laughter falling silent. I took another step, and one pale arm rose to point at me, followed by a hiss and another impulse, this time to kneel. This time, I did stop, though only for a moment; I had been pushed by Apex level beings, had their wills imposed upon my reality and I knew how to resist, when it was possible, and so I focused and stepped through it, one more step and then two.

I heard distorted sound behind me, the Marshall speaking again, but I could not understand the words; even if he had spoken faster, sound only travels so fast and my time aura made no allowances for ease of communication. I considered dropping it, but quickly dismissed the idea; even with Instinctive Precognition, I probably was not anywhere near fast enough to avoid a Pinnacle without it active.

Ignoring Tain, since I could not make out a word of what he was saying, I took another step towards the blood and crouched; a flicker of motion to the side making me look up; I saw him once more flinging himself backwards and away, a furious look on his face.

Dismissing that particular mystery, still feeling drawn towards that rainbow light, I reached out, even as I was hit with impulse after impulse that demanded I back off, throw myself down, even kill myself. They were growing stronger by the moment, but I could still ignore them, so I did so until my hand hovered just above the red liquid, fingers trailing in the spectral light.

I had no interest in the blood itself, it was that familiar light that drove me, and as I touched it, I gasped as I felt it begin to flow into me, making it so much easier to ignore the mental assault. The light did not seem to care about time, rushing to fill me like water into a desert, my body sucking it in and feasting like a beast long starved.

All at once I became aware of my abilities in a way that I had not been before; I could feel my Precognition, my Luck and my Lesser Regeneration where they tied into my soul, spinning through my body in complex arcs of rainbow light, and colours I had no name for or any way to describe. They were like three-dimensional mandalas, but even more complex, moving and touching parts of reality I had never seen before, parts of me I had not known were there. I thought about touching the threads of spun light, but they looked so delicate that I dared not, for fear of shattering them to glittering dust.

Moment by moment, I felt my resistance to the demands grow, felt my Agency grow, I realised. Which meant that CeeCee was an Apex – or the equivalent. I knew the impossibility of what I was thinking; I should stand no chance against an Apex, even if I was a Pinnacle myself, their Authority extended for miles, and while I could resist effects outside of their bailiwicks, within their chosen Domains, I was as helpless as a baby. But I was not helpless.

Confusion warred inside of me as I tried to resolve my contradictory reality, flickers of the Blood Marshal being forced back again and again at the corner of my vision, as well as sweeping arcs of cutting force that always passed to either side of us.

I shook myself mentally; regardless of the reason, this energy was obviously bolstering the both of us, with CeeCee’s control growing stronger, even as my resistance grew, though I was staying ahead of him, barely.

I do not know how long the two of us faced each other, time still crawling as the rainbow light within the pool grew dimmer and dimmer, but eventually I felt a tug, and blinking hard I looked down at where my hand hovered, and saw that there was now a line running between myself and the crowned interloper, a direct connection that signified to me that the well had run dry. Another tug came and I felt the spun light inside of me stir and shift, pulling on my soul like a tether. Frowning, I wrapped my will about the connection and began to pull myself, a snarl becoming visible on my opponent's face.

Sweat beaded on my brow as I fought to hold onto the energy I had syphoned, the pressure attempting to draw it out of me increasing moment by moment, as if others were joining in and taking part. I could feel my will slipping and I knew that this was a fight I simply could not win, but could not afford to lose. If CeeCee succeeded in stealing the gossamer, prismatic energy then I would be doomed, my mental resistance swept aside like cobwebs before a great storm... or in this case, a helpless Path stage before a somehow-sort-of-Apex-but-not-really.

I had to find a way to sever the connection before my will slipped, had do something or I would end up flinging myself into the stone like the Marshall, or worse. Taking a deep breath, I stood and began to walk backwards, the demands hammering at my mind fading with distance, though I noticed a rictus like grin spread across CeeCee’s face as I did and my worry grew, rather than fading.

I took a step, and another, the line connecting us attenuating as I tried to snap it with my will, flexing and thrashing mentally every bit as hard as I had with my body earlier. My throat was dry again and my head was pounding as I fought to sever the connection; I considered dropping my Focus and Path again, but as fast as the tugs seemed with them active, I thought I would stand no chance without, simply losing by default. I quickly changed my mind.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of struggle, I felt the connection grow brittle and snap, right as I bumped into somebody behind me. Turning in surprise, I saw the Blood Marshall, covered in thick dust and scrapes, a wide smile on his face that somehow spoke of anger. I offered him a thumbs up, to let him know I was not insane – though that may not have helped – and was about to turn back to face CeeCee when Instinctive Precognition howled, wrenching me to the side and forcing the flow of Praxis though my Focus and Path to its maximum as half-turned and kicked off the ground using my echo kick; I felt the strange lack of sensation even as I tried to make sense of whatever the danger was, but I was thrown skywards through the hole above us at a rate that left even my accelerated senses reeling. High into the air I shot, high enough to see the curvature of the planet below me, high enough that the sky began to turn dark fade to black, and the air grew too thin to breathe.

As I flailed, suspended in the open air, high above the ground for the second time in two days, I tried to figure out what had caused my rapid departure; CeeCee had certainly grown stronger, but so had I, I thought. I had been able to resist his mental compulsions, and at my best I was his equal in speed, if not might. Either he had grown sufficiently powerful by drinking the rainbow Kool-Aid to force me to just nope out of there, with no hope of a victory at all, or something else had changed.

As I was at that point quite far from the battle, I dropped my Focus and allowed my Praxis to slow as it passed into and through my Exemplar, letting it sit at my new normal to speed my descent. I felt panic rise up within me at the falling, but I knew I would either survive, or not and so I turned my mind back to the room with the pool.

I had just broken the connection, could the pool have exploded? Perhaps the rainbow light had a qualitative impact on CeeCee’s cultivation? It was all guess work. Whatever happened, I hoped Tain was okay; he had been mostly holding his own before, or at least holding the strange crowned man back, but if the other’s power had shot up, there was no telling what state he would be when I arrived back on-site. If there was still a site.

Peering down, I tried to see, but I was still too high; I could make out the dot of the Stone by then, but could make out no other details, or at least any that would give me a clue.

With a sigh, I settled in to wait, trying not to think about distances. It was after this fall that I bothered to work out the effects of terminal velocity on a cultivator...