I awoke as the couch I was sleeping in lurched violently below me, throwing me across the room. I covered my head as I slammed into the wall, triggering my shield. When I came to my senses I heard Martin yelling.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

"What's going on," I screamed, trying to get to my feet. Everything felt floaty. That shouldn't be possible unless we were falling rapidly... oh, oh shit.

I grabbed the wall, heaving myself forward and down the hallway to the control room.

"Paul, thank god you're awake. I'm not sure what's going on. All of a sudden we started plummeting from the air but the crystal still has power and the power output hasn't changed."

I pulled myself into the small room and over to the control console. "Hold on, this may hurt."

I waited for Martin to grip the doorframe before jacking up the power output to max. I had noticed that the power of the crystal was dropping fast even though we were still falling. With my change in output, power rushed out of the crystal in a torrent. I felt the weight of gravity kick in as I was shoved to the floor, the power of the levitators trying to reverse the plummeting height of the house.

The force multiplied as the house came to a stop, then shot back into the air as the power of the levitators overcorrected. The house bobbed up and down like a cork in water for a minute until it reached equilibrium. I looked over at the passed out Martin, shaking him awake.

The man started, looking at me with concern, "did I break it?"

"No," I said, slumping back against the wall, "I'm not sure exactly what happened but I have an idea. I need to take a look outside before I'm certain. Can you keep an eye on the crystal's power? We used way too much to stop the fall. If it drops below two hundred slowly lower the output so we can land."

Martin nodded, picking himself up off the floor.

I stood up as well, walking to the back door on wobbly legs. When I opened the back door I saw the problem. High above was the treeline we had been flying over. It seems we had fallen into a deep crack in the land that dropped well over a thousand feet. The walls were sheer rock, heading diagonally from the southeast to the northwest.

When we were falling I had reduced all forward thrust to zero to help reduce the draw on the crystal. It was a good thing I had, our fall had carried us almost entirely across the floor of the chasm. When I looked around the side of the building we couldn't have been more than fifty feet from the wall.

Brackish water dripped from the top, pooling in small pools at the bottom before running off to the west. Movement in the shadows drew my gaze. My eyes watched creatures flit about in the gloom.

One tried to leap at the house with its grotesque limbs. It didn't get near the house but it got close enough for me to use Identify.

Rift-Stalker | Level XX

"Oh shit!"

I rushed back into the house, one might not be a problem but I had seen dozens of shadows moving around in the gloom.

"Martin, we gotta go."

"Huh," the startled man said as I rushed into the room.

I immediately rotated the house and put us on a heading northwest. "We have to keep the crystal powered or we're dead."

Already the gem had dropped to six hundred energy. Martin put his hand on the gem, pumping mana into it and slowing the drain. It went from dropping ten mana a minute down to one. He just didn't have the mana capacity to stop it.

Once I made sure the house was heading in the right direction I assisted in pumping mana into the pedestal. I also took a risk, slightly lowering the output of the plates keeping us aloft. The house dropped ten feet closer to the floor, further reducing the power draw. It was enough for it to level off with Martin supplying his mana to the crystal.

Even from inside the house we could hear the beasts screeching eagerly as they leaped toward the bottom of the house. I fed my mana into the crystal along with Martin, slowly raising the stored mana.

A few minutes later Fiona rushed through the house to find us.

"Oh gods, are you two alright?" Fiona asked in concern.

"Yeah, what took you so long?"

"I was scouting our path, I noticed the deep chasm but didn't think it would pose a problem for your levitators. When I realized you were no longer behind me I came looking. It took time for me to realize you had fallen into the depths."

"Ok, can you make sure we're maintaining the correct heading?"

Fiona nodded, rushing out.

Less than a minute later the house lurched, followed by Fiona rushing in.

"We have a problem, one of the creatures from below managed to grab onto the posts hanging below the house. I tried attacking it but it can see me and one attack nearly killed me"

"Shit! Martin, keep feeding the gem, I'll try to knock it off."

I followed Fiona out, she pointed to one of the posts along the side of the house but I couldn't see the creature from my vantage point.

"I'm going to have to fly to get an angle," I said, producing my staff and Imbuing it with ice and electricity.

When I was ready I leaped off and spread my wings, quickly moving to the side of the house.

Almost immediately I spotted the deformed monstrosity hanging from the wooden beam by one arm. It was frantically flailing about trying to get its other clawed arm into the wood but the movement of the house was throwing it off. Unlike its lower extremities the upper ones seemed to lack the strength to pull the creature up, for that I was thankful.

I didn't waste any time, flinging a stunning gust at it.

The creature wailed in pain as its beady red eyes focused on me, all eight of them. An involuntary shudder ran down my spine at this. The creature lashed out in my direction trying to tear me apart but falling short.

I didn't want to get anywhere near this creature. Area of Denial might protect me but if it got me in its grip and pulled me to the ground I was dead.

I didn't have long to figure out how to get rid of this creature, my wing timer was ticking away.

I looked at the foundation support it had latched onto and got an idea. With a silent prayer that my staff wouldn't explode, I added a third Imbue, this time adding wind.

I whipped two Stunning Gusts at the post the creature was latched onto. The wood exploded as my attacks sliced into it. The chunk of wood the creature held onto broke away and it fell, hissing in rage as it disappeared into the gloom below. Quickly I flew back to the porch, landing with only seconds to spare as my wings vanished.

As soon as I got back into the control room I once again set the power to maximum, bringing the house back up a few more precious feet.

Hour after exhausting hour crawled by as we fed our mana into the stone. Two more times I had to dislodge unwelcome visitors from our underside. After the third time, I chopped a foot off each support, making it much more difficult for the creatures to gain purchase. It was a testament to the creatures' levels that none had died after they fell back into the darkness below.

I did mark the location on my map, calling it The Dark Abyss. I wasn't rewarded with experience for naming the landmark. I pittied anyone who had come across this landmark before us.

Eventually, the light started filtering down from above, causing the creature below to slink into whatever dark holes they crawled out of.

The walls had started to get closer on the sides, forcing us to adjust our course. This actually benefitted us as well. My plates didn't just push below themselves, they pushed a few feet out, kind of in a cone shape. This gave them overlapping coverage but also let them push against objects not quite below the house. This meant as the walls got closer the house started to rise out of the chasm.

It was a slow process and some of the rock outcroppings had already gouged the exterior of the house. I had to halt our forward progress for fear of tearing away the mithril reinforcement lines or one of the plates.

By the time the house rose from the chasm, it was already past noon. Fiona found us a quick and dirty spot to land less than a mile away. I set the house down with a grinding shake. After looking outside I saw that the front porch had collapsed taking the small roof with it.

I sighed, "Well, we're going to be here for a bit while I do some repairs."

"Sorry again about not notifying you of the chasm," Fiona replied

"Not your fault," I said in frustration, "It's mine. I should have considered the possibility. For now, let's just assume anything that isn't trees or dirt and stone a hazard we will need to test before crossing."

Fiona nodded.

"Speaking of hazards... anything around the area we should know about?"

"I didn't see any houses but my search was a bit rushed. I was just about to head out and do a more thorough search."

"Alright. Martin is already asleep and I have some repairs to make. When he wakes up I'll get some sleep. It's going to take a few days to recharge the mana heart if we want to go more than a few miles," I replied, running my hand through my hair in frustration.

"Don't worry, if there is anything dangerous nearby I will find it."

"I know you will, Fiona, be safe ok. I know you took a lot of damage from that creature, you need rest as much as either of us."

She gave me a ghostly peck on the cheek that somehow radiated deathly cold and love at the same time before she flew off to scout.

After she left I rubbed at the spot she kissed, trying to warm up the skin. I wasn't about to acknowledge that it was painful. Turning back toward the house I inspected the damage more thoroughly.

It wasn't all that bad, it just looked like the nails holding the roof to the rest of the house had pulled out. The porch was another matter. The steps were a mess, and some of that was from our maiden voyage. It was a good thing I had Martin gather building supplies before we left. Who needs hammer and nails when you have a mana engine and an air nailer I said with a grin.

First I set about clearing the wreckage. I decided to keep the roof portion intact, lifting it up using my Earth Fist and a bit of metamagic. I pulled out the original levitator plate I had designed, sliding it under the raised roof.

The plate wouldn't be able to move it far but I just needed it out of the way for now.

I fed mana into it, lifting the roof with a groan. I pushed it to the side, setting it on another set of stone pedestals. Then I got to cleaning up the broken wood and stairs. Some of the stairs were salvageable so I put that wood aside. I cut the extra length off the old stair runners to match the new height of the foundation, minus the last step. I wanted to account for sinkage. I also mounted the stairs on hinges so they would fold out of the way during flight and landing.

Once that was complete I levered the support posts back into position and used some of the unused boards to keep them in position.

Next, I crawled under the porch. I wanted to reinforce the porch so I attached bracing boards, connecting them to some of the structural beams. When I felt it was as strong as I could make it I moved out from under the stoop. I brushed the dirt off my hands and walked over to the roof.

This was going to be the hard part. I had to think about it for a few minutes before coming up with a solution. I created a series of stone pillars that slowly increased in height, allowing me to slowly increase the height of the roof until I had it in position. I anchored the roof back to the wall, reinforcing it as I did with the porch.

After that was done I removed the stone pillars and stepped back to inspect my handiwork.

It looked almost as good as it had before and would be far stronger than it was before.