Oro's body fell to the ground, blood pouring from the fresh wound created by the tearing of space. Asterie had simply waved her hand, and the man's arm was torn clean from his body. He screamed in agony, arm moving to try and halt the bleeding. If Esme were here, such a thing would be possible.
The magnificent healer was not present, and nobody else had an ability strong enough to reattach or regrow his arm. For now, he'd have to try and limit the bleeding. But, they did not have the courtesy of time right now.
Hiel's large hound used one of its claws to scoop Oro's broken form from the ground, bringing him onto his bag where he rested. Hiel waited there, quickly tending to his injuries by tearing off a piece of Oro's shirt and wrapping it around the fresh, bloody stump where the limb used to be.
Backpedalling away from the woman, nervous sweats dripped down Worthy's face, his eyes watching Asterie's form for any shifts in her stance. Without effort, she'd used the space that they occupied against them. They'd been betrayed by the very thing that allowed them to exist, to some degree. However, the child also found it extremely odd how easily she could control space — it wasn't right.
Space within the abomination was not the same as it was outside. One thing Worthy had learned through listening to Esme talk at some point was that space and time went hand-in-hand. However, on the First Floor, there was seemingly no time, at least not the concept of time that allowed aging or deterioration. These natural laws of the universe had been altered and governed within the boundary of the tower, or at least within the inside of the beast who'd consumed the lifeblood of a dead deity.
Assuming there was a being with a higher authority in the tower, or at least something that placed strict laws on how things should behave within the beast or the space that it occupied — a stopgap of some kind, maybe.
It was even imaginable that the corpse of the Blood Marauder was challenging the very nature of the tower and its rules. There was no true way to define a deity with what the child knew, but it could be assumed even the mysterious towers had limits on what they could influence. Of course, there were few things that could ever reach that limit, but something once classified as a deity by someone who created a Gateway on their own should be more than qualified.
'Is there nothing to keep her ability in check…?! No! I'm asking the wrong questions. Is the ability in check now, and it'll be even worse when we get to another Floor? Crap! Shit! I can't think of anything, I'm losing it!'
He knew the power to control space was an almost divine ability, but what were the chances that someone who acquired that ability was not only among the thousands trapped on the First Floor, but had also been enthralled by some unique abomination in this accursed hell?!
At some point, the child realized he'd had far too much time to think. When he looked around, he realized that he was surrounded by multiple panels of light, gridded together to shape a well-constructed dome around him, Taivat, Oro, Hiel, and his two summons whose lifeless eyes were scanning their surroundings.
Taivat's hand glimmered and light sprung to life in his hands and blossomed into a litany of different shapes that created the barrier surrounding them. That barrier was being battered from all sides, and if not for the grid, it'd have already broken down beneath the superhuman strength the Climbers each possessed. The handsome man had saved their lives, if only for a few minutes.
'..You're kidding me. Everything I think about has to be a bad omen or something.'
Worthy recalled hearing about the boost in physical power he had when he was unconscious, attacking Cross. He was a mere child, so he quickly came to understand that an adult would have a burst of strength far more outlandish. Thus, Worthy realized his prediction was inaccurate.
'Minutes? It'd be a stroke of luck if this barrier survived thirty seconds!'
Taivat looked truly taken aback as well, his intricately crafted barrier showing signs of breaking apart in only a few seconds. Voice unable to conceal its subtle trembling, he spoke, "Boys, we do not have a lot of time here. Hiel… Will Oro be able to make it?!"
Oro was trembling and wincing as Hiel tried tending to his injuries. It was a sad sight, but a promising one, because it proved that the man was still alive. Asterie had tried to split him in two, but it seemed whatever limit was applied to space that the child theorized played a crucial role in his survival. He had a dozen ideas behind the limits of the ability and the reason certain things happened, and didn't have a margin of enough time to confirm any of them.
"He needs a healer as soon as possible, or this arm may be gone for good!" In short, he'd survive, but was also at risk of suffering permanent damage. A missing arm was the least of their worries now, however. Each of them was in danger, and Hiel's monsters would hardly cut it in clearing a path.
Every person outside the barrier had a Reward. It might have been something as useless as being able to control the strings of one's shoelaces with a thought, or as powerful as unleashing invisible attacks upon anybody within a certain radius.
'Controlling shoelaces? Yeah, right. It's more like controlling steel threads. This place is too dangerous for something as lame as that.' The quality of Rewards was based on how challenging the tower was, so there was no way anyone in the group could have an ability as pathetic as that.
What he wanted to know now is why he was not seeing any of them use their respective Rewards. Asterie used hers without restriction, only being stopped by the defensive grids Taivat conjured. Yet again, Worthy didn't understand what was stopping her ability from influencing them, but he wasn't against it either.
"Any suggestions about how we get out of this?!" Worthy shouted, looking around at the flood of Climbers assaulting the barrier. It was amazing that the grids lasted this long, a result of Taivat's quick thinking. If he'd made a simple dome, it would've collapsed in on itself by now.
The child didn't want to risk using his navigation ability, simply because he could not think of anywhere to go. He thought about going to War Reaver, but that man would undoubtedly know about what was happening by now. The Holy Knight must've been preoccupied by more pressing matters, especially after the things that Worthy revealed to him.
There was limited time to think, and even less time to prepare for the inevitable collapse of the barriers. As layers cracked, Taivat stacked more layers underneath in attempts at buying them time. But as more cracks appeared, the grids became larger. Larger grids meant more damage sustained, and thus the fortitude of the defensive measures would become less efficient by the second.
Though he was in agony, Oro managed to shout, "If… If we stay here… We're dead men! You hear me? Dead men…!"
'That wasn't helpful at all. No kidding, we're dead men. We're surrounded… Wait.' It struck the boy later than the others. Dead men. Dead… men.
"Deadman Walkyr?!" It was Taivat who broke the brief silence. Walkyr was a difficult man to find once he broke away from the group. He could go anywhere in an instant, and in a city filled with various towers and unnatural curves, that made him all the more difficult to pinpoint. However, finding him would no doubt make them safer.
The only problem would be if Walkyr was with War at the time. Assuming both of them were preoccupied, there'd be nobody to keep them safe besides themselves. Besides Walkyr and War, the group couldn't think of anybody capable of postponing or outright defeating Asterie as she is now. Not only was her control over space gut-wrenching, but body had most likely undergone the same physical enhancements as the other mind-controlled subjects.
If her words were to be taken at face value, then the Climbers who arrived with War Reaver possessed a bothersome resistance to mind control. Worthy was taken over when he was at his most vulnerable — his mind shattered and left in a state of disarray. Anything could enter his shell of a body in that state and puppeteer him, even if his mind was protected by the Holy Knight. Protection could not be given to something that did not exist to begin with.
Oro was irritated, but not by the lack of an arm. That was close behind the source of his newfound frustration. "Yes, Deadman Walkyr, Taivat! Say it louder so they hear you, maybe?"
"Nothing can hear us through my dome, don't sweat it. Are you certain the Deadman will help us? I don't mean to be pessimistic, but we might be better off taking our chances duking it out here." Walkyr was nowhere near a selfless person. Getting his assistance with anything was going to be a tall task.
"...Yes." Oro saved his strength, deciding not to talk further. If he was not confident that Walkyr would help them, he would not have shouted out his name. There were other strong people in the city whom Worthy hadn't met yet. Even if they weren't as capable as the foreign mercenary, there were Climbers that could give a solid fight to the enthralled group, assuming they didn't use their individual Rewards.
Hiel took nervous glances at both of his summons, and then down to Taivat and Worthy. The man spoke quickly, "Whatever you decide, we need to act fast. You can keep adding layers to the barrier, but we can't fit the hound in here. We need it to get Oro out of here without slowing down!"
The hound was just large enough to fit two or three people onto its back. Worthy would be able to ride it, and maybe Taivat too if they were lucky.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Worthy announced his plan. "I can lead us to the Gunslinger! Mr. Hiel, will you be able to fit everybody on Bonecrusher?!" Worthy had finally thought of a name for the hound, and Hiel did not have time to argue about it. The child was already rushing over to climb the beast.
The man opened his mouth to protest, then closed it, and then opened it again with a sorted response, "Yeah! Taivat, hop on behind me! Kid…"
Time was not on their side, in the end. After a brief moment of communication, their window closed rapidly. Cracks emerged across each of the grids on the barrier's first layer. Simultaneously, dozens of defensive meshes shattered and crumbled to the ground in a mess of shining fragmentations.
Worthy managed to make it to the rear of the hound, while the harpy swooped down in time to wrap its talons around Taivat's shoulders.
Another layer of defenses was made, and this one showed signs of cracking quicker than the last. And within mere seconds, it crumbled too, and the swarm of Climbers descended on the four inside.
As the swarm fell upon them, two shapes burst the epicenter of the chaos, a hound and a harpy, each carrying its own respective passengers.
"Go! Go! Go!" Worthy's arms were wrapped around the tail of the abomination, which he didn't have enough time to climb. The child was dangling as the massive wolf landed on the roof of a building. Meanwhile, the Harpy was carrying Taivat, whose hands shined to create various shields to block projectiles flying through the air after them. Neither were in comfortable positions.
Worthy abandoned all hesitation, using his Reward to pinpoint Walkyr's shifting position. The man was moving around a lot, and so was the thread connecting to him. The child had pointed in the direction they should head, and that was the most that they could do. Because now, they were being chased.
The sky rippled, but the hound acted just quickly enough to avoid having its tail split from its body. It leapt across to another rooftop, and the space where it once stood folded in on itself like a sheet of paper. Asterie, who'd just destroyed the strongest layer of Taivat's defensive array, showed no signs of slowing down.
The woman withheld a laugh, her hand falling to her hip as she idled, watching as the hound ran across rooftops and the harpy flew through the air with speed that must've brought Taivat discomfort. "How barbaric of them, leaping around like uncivilized beasts."
It was a beast that was leaping, however. Asterie closed her eyes and felt a hint of annoyance swelling within her, and she sighed. When her eyes opened again, she was standing in the air over Middle Town, and her sights were set on the fleeing hound and its riders. Then, her sights locked onto the handsome man, Taivat. "Ugh! It'd be such a waste for a heartthrob like him to die! Lord Edwin could make great use of his power!"
Oh well. Orders were orders, especially when they were given by the soon-to-be devourer of the world. Lord Edwin was the most ambitious and beautiful man throughout the entire tower. Taivat was a looker, but not nearly good-looking enough to betray the one who stands beyond all.
"Here I come, sweetheart. I hope you won't hold this against me too much."