032 - Sky Beyond Sky

Magnus felt a chill, a cold dread. The line he was going down went taut, as if someone were pulling from below. It shook, he hovered uncertainly for a moment, the other green strands shook, the vast darkness beneath the swamp suddenly seemed a hell of a lot bigger.

From deep in the dark earth came a low rumbling sound. Indistinct, a mass of faint green lights, countless green strands flowing into . . into it. Magnus froze, his mind numb with shock.

A massive green reptilian eye blinked, as it saw Magnus, Magnus saw it. A gigantic lizard lay curled deep in the earth, countless green strands attached to hundreds of thorns running the length of its back. Its eyes moved, deep green flecked with black and gold, Magnus froze.

The strand he was on vibrated fiercely, a surge of green energy surged up, hitting his red and flooding over. Magnus felt as if an open mouth was rushing up towards him, sharp teeth ready to bite and chew and tear him apart.

Focus!

The strand surged with red light, rushing down to meet the green and clashing with it, holding against it for a moment, then being entirely overwhelmed. Magnus felt the green come up, felt the energy he'd absorbed be overwhelmed. All those strands, all that life force . . nothing more than a drop in the ocean. The green energy that rushed up from the gigantic lizard was a tidal wave, drowning his awareness, throwing him out into a torrid of green and black.

A single thought burned inside - a single red thread, the same he'd plucked from his body. Against the mighty rush of green energy that came up the strand towards him Magnus pointed the thin red thread. It shot out, piercing through the green energy, piercing right through the deep darkness towards the massive lizard.

The lizard reacted with a flick of its tail. The earth trembled, every single strand became taut, vibrating and shining a vibrant green. The pressure against Magnus grew ten fold, as if a mountain of pressure suddenly rushed up from the lizard. The red thread faltered, not able to get any closer to the mass of green energy.

A shock wave ran up the thread, the thread shook violently turning black and crumbling. Magnus felt as if someone had just broken his finger, an intense agony. The wave washed over him, the strand cracking and breaking. His vision faded, everything becoming green and black.

Magnus snapped back to the swamp waters, back in his spirit form, his own body a few feet below laying in the mud at the bottom of the swamp.

There was a rumble, the waters shook, streams of gas bubbled up through the mud, several black rocks cracked in half. The strands that he'd turned red were green again, a bright vibrant green tide washed up through the mud, every bit of red instantly evaporating.

More and more, the mud shook, jets of boiling gas and liquid erupted through the swamp shooting mud and water into the air. The earth trembled, long cracks appears in the mud, more geysers erupting and shooting boiling liquid into the air.

A massive fissures opened up below magnus, his body slid from the mud and down into the new formed abyss. From the crack came a rush, a furious stream of liquid shooting up, carrying Magnus up, out of the swamp, hundreds of feet into the air. The geyser rushed up a hundred feet carrying Magnus and launching him off into the sky.

Up and up Magnus flew, off into the distance. He was in his spirit form, tied to his body by several thin red threads. He was wholly helpless, unable to even react or so much as curse himself, his rotten luck.

Thousands of fissures opened all over the Empire Swamp, jets of boiling waters shooting into the sky. The dead city streets burst apart, the many ruins falling into greater disarray and into the depths of the swamp. The many pillars and statues on the Witching Road trembled, collapsing onto the streets and shattering. The giant stone blocks, the entire wall of the dead city collapses, the black stones cracking and breaking.

The quake went on for several hours, the swamp waters draining into the hundreds of cracks leaving behind a barren stretch of damp mud and broken stones, of buried ruins jutting through the earth. The mud already had begun to dry, the whole swamp rapidly transforming into a desolate wasteland.

Magnus had been flung up out of the swamp, over trees and hills, over mountains and forests; expelled with tremendous force. His body like an arrow, finally reaching the end of its arc through the skies, fell to the ground, crashing sideways into the side of a tree and bursting through, into the earth. The sudden impact yanked Magnus' spirit form back into his body,

His mind was in turmoil, his body utterly exhausted. Barely able to be awake, Magnus tried to move, tried to see what part of him was not broken. He lay there in a daze for several hours against the trunk of a tree.

"Aaawoooo!" A wolf howl.

From the forest emerged a running wolf, its fur a brilliant white, running straight towards him, mouth open.