You’ll make it. Nico transmuted his Skewer away. He climbed up as the fog below him turned bright orange. He made a health shell and jumped for the last foot he needed, catching Kara’s outstretched hand within the Locust. He pulled her down and she fell with him, crushing the shell against her hand.

Mid fall he was able to wrap her forearm under his neck. They fell straight for the flames, curtesy of the Glint-Crown, who had knocked them aside in its chase. For a mad moment, he was weightless.

He made a Kinetic Shell and charged a Bone Skewer. He tossed the Kinetic Shell before they were in range. It exploded, pushing the fire and Tengus aside. Nico was caught at the edge of the radius. It managed to slow him down, and not as much as he wanted, though a Tengu ended up softening the fall. He fell to his knees, killing it. He reached down and Siphoned it.

For the first moment in what felt like years, Nico stopped moving. He knew she was coming; he knew that for a fact. They just had to wait.

Nico was lifted off his feet. He looked around in panic to see Kara standing up. She lifted him up by his shirt and placed him on her back. She unhooked her scabbard from her belt and carried it by its center. She tied the chain around her palm and the scabbard so tightly it squeezed her bones.

“Wait,” he yelled over the Howling and fog. “Luna—”

The world shook to the right. Kara and everything else that had been trying to stand fell. The fog pulled back gently, then the earth under them shook again. It was a slight vibration, almost as if the mountain was being prodded.

Then the pulling started. The rain and flames and Tengus were pulled off their feet and rolled off the summit towards the Deep. Kara fell to her knees and pressed her hand against the ground. Nico placed his feet against the ground and pushed off too, keeping them in place as Tengus rolled passed them. Nico made a kinetic shell and tossed it behind them, scattering them away.

The pulling stopped. The Glint-Crown jumped out of the fog and flames. Most of its face was eaten off, revealing the raw meat underneath. On its shoulders was Luna. She jumped off.

Kara turned towards it, and Nico aimed his Bone Skewer at it. A green tracer went down the center of its body, and Nico’s Skewer went through its head.

Kara sheathed her sword, dashing towards Luna, as Luna dashed towards them, her arm stretched out. Kara ducked underneath it, letting it go over her other shoulder. They crashed into each other and went straight up towards the tree.

“Group hug,” Luna yelled.

Somewhere something exploded. It was the most bizarre sound Nico’s ever heard, like a Doomie falling down in the middle of its run, times ten thousand. It turned him half deaf.

Kara flipped in the air as she went towards the tree, or she must have, because the tree suddenly flipped away from them, and they were looking at the summit and going towards it. But then the Tengus on the ground slipped down, and then flew up towards them, making Nico very confused. The fog rushed past them so fast he couldn’t see anything but white. He was sensing the world with his Life sense, and it wasn’t making much sense.

Kara caught a branch. He couldn’t follow what she or the world did next. He thought she began jumping from one branch to the next, but even when she went what he thought was downward towards a branch, his body didn’t feel like it was going down. It felt like it was up. The Tengus flew around them, smashing against the ground, falling into the trees, and falling off the summit. They flew everywhere, as if gravity kept changing, and though Nico finally understood what happened, he couldn’t believe it.

The fog vanished into the sky. A blink later Nico was looking down the mountain across all of Earth, seeing the Deep’s white stretched across it, seeing the countless mountain peeks poke out of the ground like spears, seeing every city’s walls, seeing the wall of the 4th City and the collapsed side, and the world beyond, where the land was a hard gray wasteland.

The earth, the sky, the earth, the sky, the mountain was tossed into space, and Nico couldn’t believe it.

The wind stopped moving, bringing about a sudden quietness. They floated briefly as their momentum ran out. His head floated in his skull and his insides were in all the wrong places. No creature or mountains were supposed to be this high up in the sky.

“Heal Luna, strike me with the health shell when I land,” Kara said, panting more than he thought was humanly possible. Her heartbeat so loud he felt it against his ears louder than the Deep’s.

Nico followed her instructions without putting thought into them. He struck Luna with a health shell, and made an extra one for Kara.

The mountain began to sink back into earth. The wind picked up, and kept picking up. The world tilted sideways as the mountain did too. When the tree pointed towards the earth, Kara zigzagged towards the bottom of the trunk, bouncing off branches and catching them and swinging. By the time they reached the ground gravity pointed in the right direction. Kara fell into a crouch, lying her palm flat against the ground and her fist tightly pressed down, and had both of her arms burst apart.

She fell to her knees, groaning. Only cracked green bone was left on her arms. Nico watched the bones mend. The muscle sinew began regrowing in front of his eyes. Past the blood smeared against the ground he saw a thin layer of green yellow crawl across the mountain.

Kara stood up, growling. Luna woke up, and without prompting hugged Kara tighter. They fell to the side, away from the tree. Nico, his heart, and the rest of his organs sank.

With limp arms that hung in the air, Kara ran down the mountain in the same long strides he first met her with. In two leaps she reached the edge. In the third she leaped off. The mountain sank back towards the earth, spinning, and revealing the vast wires that lay on the bottom. It went, Nico realized, back towards the Deep.

“You Deviated it,” he yelled, laughing. They were flying towards the sky.

Their momentum ran out, and they sank back. Nico was pushed against Kara’s back, and Luna held both them even tighter.

Kara took deep breath and exhaled it slowly. He felt her relax, something he couldn’t possibly understand. She swung them around gently. He watched the mountain falling. It fell much quicker than them. The distance between them was too vast for him to grasp.

The side of the mountain vanished into the Deep. The fog blew apart, revealing the upside of a four legged creature with white and black spots. A thin blanket of yellow covered it. The mountain was around a quarter of its size. It crashed against the monster’s back. The ground under the Deep turned into a crater. Like glass, the entire bronze field shattered.

The shockwave reached them a second later, stifling their fall. It carried with it the sound of bronze exploding and the smell of metal being burnt. His ears throbbed.

The mountain slipped off and fell to the ground with a dull sound.

The Deep turned its head to the left, then to the right. It paused, then turned away from the half broken mountain as if nothing had happened. It went North-west on the Bronze Fields.

“What the fuck,” he said, a step beyond shock. If throwing a mountain at something isn’t enough to kill it, then nothing will. “I think I know—” they picked up speed and Nico swallowed his words.

The impact of the mountain had served to momentarily disperse the fog, Nico saw that the fog was being poured out of the Deep’s long, and somewhat dumb looking mouth. Below the Deep’s feet, in what seemed like miles, there were no footsteps being left.

Kara directed them for the Deep at a speed that was still going to turn them into a pile of meat and squished bones. They ended up falling towards its upper body, right on top of its neck, at maximum speed.

It happened in an instant. Kara touched the ground and slashed out with her sword at the same time. The sound barrier screeched a second later.

Nico and Luna fell on either side, gasping. The Deep’s back was smooth, hard, and lukewarm. A pale-yellow light reflected whatever he touched. The sound of the Deep’s heartbeat was as loud as standing on top of a giant drum. It shook the hair on the beast’s back.

“L-let’s do that again,” he said, standing up, then falling back down. His legs felt like jelly, and when he felt his stomach, he was sure his insides were softer than they were before.

Kara fell to one knee, breathing harder than both Nico and Luna combined. Her left arm swung limply on her side with the wind. Sweat and water dripped down her hair and fell against the Deep’s back.

Nico started making a health shell. Kara stood up and crashed into him, bumping him back. “Inspect it,” she said.

“Let me hea—”

“Inspect it,” she growled, and even though Nico had the health shell completed, he nodded and touched the Locust to its back.

(Boss) The Lost Cow ★★★★★

Shields: 11,452,226,763/12,923,231,231 (-2315/Second)

Energy: 11,452,226,763/20 (+1/Minute)

Boss Trait: Celestial Body (Legendary Trait)

This creature is mostly made of Energy. Does not have any cooldowns. Cannot produce Heat. Boosts physical attributes by 1% per each available Energy.

Current bonus: +11,452,226,763%

1st Skill: Complete Shields (Rare Rank V)

Your unused Energy is converted into Shields.

2nd Skill: Siphoner (Legendary Rank V)

Siphons all forms of Energy in a 3000-meter range.

3rd Skill: Energy Storage (Common Rank V)

Increases your Energy Storage by 10. Siphoning more Energy while your Energy is our above maximum will cause you to take consistent damage.

Ultimate: Fog Disperser (Epic Rank V)

Transmutes Energy into fog. Extends the range of your transmuter skills to where the fog reaches.

“Celestial Body, Life Shield, Siphoner, Fog Disperser,” Nico said, crushing against her shoulder. Her left arm noticeably went up an inch after reattaching.

“How much Energy?”

“I don’t know,” Nico answered. “There are eleven digits, so whatever comes after millions? The mountain shaved one off.”

“How do we kill it?”

Nico smiled. “We can—”

“Throw eleven more mountains at it,” Kara said, in her deadest voice.

Nico pursed his lips. “You do realize comedy is literately the only reason I’m still sane, right? And you just took it from me. My best punchline. Gone. Now I’m insane, and it’s your fault.”

Kara paused. She nodded and asked him again. “How do we kill it?”

“Unless you plan on bringing down the other half of the moon on top of its head, no, we cannot kill it.”

Luna crouched besides them, huddling them up together. “If you two have nothing else to do now, would you like to give me a tour of the 3rd city? I’ll give you a tour of the 5th in return.”

“Can we send it into space?” Kara asked.

“Pardon?” Nico looked across the Deep’s broad back, understanding what Kara wanted, but not quite believing. He still could not fathom how large it was. Something of this size should have sent mini earthquakes with each step. And that’s because its mostly made of Energy.

“If Energy is of no concern? Maybe, but this is way beyond my pay grade. You’ll need to hire a real Specialist to work it out.” He pointed at Luna with his chin. “She’s a step ahead of you. The 3rd and 5th cities are our best bets, maybe the 1st, but even if we do find one, we’ll still need an obscene amount of Energy to get the material and skills.”

“Luna,” Kara said. “What would happen if I threaten to destroy any city that does not give me what I need?”

“Wow,” Nico said. “You sure jumped to that one.”

“You’ll need to make a demand, followed up by the threat of total annihilation. The first city you do this to will not listen. The second might. The third likely will.”

“Would you join me if I chose that method?”

“I would on more conditions than you would like to deal with, the least of which is you dedicating yourself to rebuilding the world that you destroyed,” Luna said. “The end of the Deep will do nothing for the benefit of life. There will only be more of it, and the one we already have is enough to be ashamed of.”

“Are you really fine with that?” Nico asked. “We’re talking like, thousands of people getting eaten here.”

“Would you like the short answer, or the long one?”

“Short one,” Kara said.

“Give me freedom, or give me death,” Luna said.

“And will you?” Kara said, turning towards him.

“Give me freedom, or give me death,” Nico said, then quickly added, “but not the 3rd City just yet, I have people there.”

“No,” Kara said.

“No?” Nico said.

“No exceptions.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because then it would be give me freedom, or give everyone I don’t care for death,” Kara said.

“Urgh. Definitely not as catchy. Also, you’re doing your stupid logic again, so no.”

“Then if it reaches that point, know that we will become enemies,” Kara said.

“So humble, it’s more like me becoming your prey, but I take your point,” Nico said.

“I’m going to let go of the sword. It’ll fly back.”

“Kara, I have an important question,” Nico said, emphasizing that he would really like it answered. “What’s the point of returning the sword to the owner? Did she plan on using it this way so—”

“So when that she may lose it, it would return to her,” Kara said.

“Yeah, but this is probably one of the strongest Augmenters in the world—so why waste one of its five slots on something seemingly so pointless?” That Function was mainly for weapons that are thrown, not Charge swords. “It really beckons the question.”

Kara turned back towards Luna. “Have you made your decision?”

“Not much to think about, unfortunately,” Luna said, grasping the sword. “You’re the best type of negotiator.”

“But she didn’t negotiate with you, she just told you—oh. Yeah, of course,” Nico said. He looked at them, at the sword, and the 3rd City that was miles away and protected by a very tall wall. “So how is this going to work exactly?”

Kara let go, and Nico very quickly realized that it wasn’t.