After minutes of restless sprinting, Sulva, Saya, and both her parents made it to the base of the pyramid. The sun was nearly down for the day, its orange light bleeding through the skies as it slowly retired to slumber.
Most all the vendors had gone home, the streets now just as empty as what Saya had witnessed in the real world. Finally, the time to leave this strange dream land was upon them. Swallowing hard, Saya closed her eyes before swiftly opening them back up, activating her Soul Sight.
The world sank into a deep blue, and all she could see around her were the souls and magical energies within Sulva and her parents. But something else immediately caught her attention. While the “humans” in this city had no strings, there was one that stood out the most as it swayed restlessly high up in the air.
Attached to the top of the pyramid was a single thread, as long as the street they were standing in. If it reached down to the ground, she would simply be able to pull the magical string without any problems, but since she couldn’t achieve the height required, the only choice was to climb the structure.
Still, the nature of the thread made her curious. Throughout her life, she had known one fact for certain in regards to her Soul Sight. The longer the thread was, it often indicated the soul’s willingness or desire to die.
The thread on her parents and Sulva was unbelievably short and thin, almost as if it didn’t exist in the first place. Which led Saya to only one logical conclusion.
“It wants to die,” she mumbled to herself, her heart sinking in pity at the thought of such a young child even harboring those unsavory thoughts. However, the desire for death was something she was all too familiar with, and she decided not to push her judging mind any further.
“This is the right place,” she stated. “If you manage to get me to the top, I’ll be able to pull the thread, and hopefully undo this dream.”
Sulva nodded, as they both wasted no time making their way towards the cracked, ancient stone stairway. Not being able to overcome the first large step of the pyramid, Mark placed his hand under his daughter, lifting her up until she gained her footing.
She only had a few more to go, and then the steps the rest of the way were regular sized. If anything, they surprisingly seemed a lot thinner than most. It wasn’t known to anyone in the party, but the pyramid, especially the stairway, was designed in such a way so that the blood of the victims would flow all the way down to the bottom.
Because the steps were so thin, people often had to walk like a slithering snake in order to not accidentally trip and fall. It may seem like poor design, but it had been done deliberately to satisfy the god of this land.
Yucu Saa was an ironic name for this particular city. The name translated roughly to “mountain bird”, its language originating back in the Third World. However, the city was located neither in the mountains, nor did its citizens worship the bird deity.
Everything about this city, even before Saya had ventured into a dream version, seemed extremely ironic. But now wasn’t the time to scoff at the ridiculousness of the city’s history and origins.
The moment she took another step forward, darkness spewed out from the cracks in the stone, shooting upward to create a thin layer of mud-like walls. Saya stumbled back, nearly falling to the ground.
Like a signal beacon, citizens who had gone to sleep promptly left their homes, their bodies limping as if they were being puppeteered by an unknown force. Their eyes were half-open, and no cohesive words came out of their mouths.
Without hesitation, Sulva fired a magical blast of wind, sending a strong vortex forward. To give their daughter enough time, her parents did the exact same. But with hundreds of people slowly closing in on their location, it would only be a matter of time before they would all be overwhelmed.
“There is no escape. Yield thyself.”
A voice rang in Saya’s ear. She snapped her head to the source, only to be greeted with a black silhouette of a man plastered on the ground. In a way, she found the voice to be extremely familiar, but couldn’t put her finger on it.
But if it was talking to her, then she would respond, and hopefully get any answers she could.
“Let me through! I just want to leave this world and save my friend!”
“Thou liest. If thou, the Eighth Prime, truly sought to leave, thou wouldst have done so long ago.”
“Thy true purpose is to slay my master. I will not allow it.”
None of its words, or the situations presented to her made any lick of sense. Disregarding his comment about the Eighth Prime, her mind was far more fixated on the fact that the shadow believed she wanted to kill the boy.
It wasn’t her intention, but with the way her Soul Sight ability worked, it could easily come across that way. Deep down, she knew the shadow was right. She wasn’t certain, but there was nothing to prove that the boy wasn’t at the top of the pyramid, producing this dream world.
There was no way to prove her innocent intentions, but at the same time, she didn’t want to explain them to the monster.
The wall before her was a thin layer, but luckily, it didn’t have an infinite reach in height. If she were to do a giant leap, there was an immense possibility that she may be able to simply overcome the obstacle presented to her.
But with the young mage not possessing any capability of casting elemental magic, she would have to confide in someone else to use wind magic for her. Physical strengthening was one alternative, but with how young her body currently was, she feared the risk of accidentally hurting herself.
Yes, she knew her body wasn’t technically “real,” but the anxiety took a toll on her mental state nonetheless.
Biting her lip in frustration, she twisted her body, yelling out at the top of her lungs, “Dad! Can you use wind magic to boost me up?!”
It had happened so suddenly that Mark was taken aback by his daughter’s request. Truthfully, he had zero desire to fulfill her wishes, as one wrong move could result in his child getting hurt by his own hands.
But upon taking one good look at her determined face, he couldn’t resist the pull that was her charisma. He couldn’t help but curse himself for being such a weak-willed person, unable to follow through with even his own worries. But the truth was, no loving father is ever able to resist their daughter.
Besides, with how the hordes of undead-like people were slowly approaching the pyramid, it would only be a matter of time before she would get hurt regardless. He shouted back at Saya as his Birthmark glowed a bright green.
Immediately, Saya kicked her feet toward her father. She leapt as high as she could, her small frame and weight making it seem like she was soaring in the air. Extending her arms out, she watched as a vortex of green wind spiraled from her father’s palm.
From the corner of his eye, Sulva saw the potential failure occurring before him. Despite being fearful of Oktavia, Sulva wanted nothing more than to escape this world that he had come to call hell. Saya may have found peace in the presence of her parents, but he had nobody to turn to, besides his own mind.
He hadn’t even been aware that both Mark and Joy weren’t simply another illusion in this make-believe world until Saya had come into frame. If he wanted to escape this dream, no matter how much he hated the idea of it, he needed to aid Saya.
Extending his arm, he stood beside Mark, casting a powerful wind spell. The two elemental forces united with one another to create a single vortex. Its strength was more than enough to propel even the older version of Saya.
Shooting upwards like a rocket, the sharp sting of the wind forced Saya to close her eyes. She bit down on her lower lip as hard as she could, while making sure her teeth wouldn’t pierce through the skin.
Her dress and hair fluttered violently. As her momentum slowed, her body began its descent. However, she still kept her eyes closed. It wasn’t due to any elemental or magical reason. Being so caught up in her plan to reach the pyramid, she had forgotten one crucial detail about herself.
She was deathly afraid of heights.
“—EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!”
If someone were to have been able to hear her, they’d assume she was getting chased down by the most fearful demon on the planet. It was only a matter of time before she would come in complete contact with the ground, but no matter how much she tried, her eyes simply wouldn’t slide back open.
Internally, Saya couldn’t help but laugh at her own incompetency. The fact that she could stare down and fight a giant, alien-like monster without any qualms, yet feared heights, was something that would be worthy of Veronica’s insults.
But when her mind drifted to the people who relied on this plan being successful, her attitude shifted completely. She wasn’t fighting just for herself. She was fighting for Albo and her parents. If she were to let something so trivial as height stop her now, then she might as well have given up at the start of the journey.
Slamming her eyes open, the magical energy within her started to wind itself up. Carefully allocating her magical gear usage, she shifted her own body weight to match her desired trajectory. So far, everything was somewhat according to plan.
All she needed to do now was make sure she would stick the landing on the square surface of the pyramid. The first and most obvious route would be to harden her body as much as possible through physical strengthening, but being in an unfamiliar state of her body, she feared she might accidentally blow herself up if she allocated too much.
The second option was riskier, and required much more effort on her end. Since her body was now in descent, it was only a matter of time before she would reach the height necessary to touch the lingering thread. There was no rule stating that she needed to actually be close to the source. If she somehow managed to pull the thread mid-air, then her problems would be eliminated almost immediately.
However, the major downside of this strategy was that if the thread wasn’t fully pulled, she would simply be plunging to her death. As she drew closer to the thread, she needed to make a decision as quickly as possible.
“There’s one more option.” she said, frustrated.
Shifting her body, she aimed herself to land at the corner of the top of the pyramid. She zoomed past the thread, missing her chance at the second option entirely.
Upon selecting her destination, she immediately shifted all the magical energy in her body to her right arm. While she feared that complete physical strengthening could explode her body, she was already experienced with losing one limb.
In front of her, she visualized breaking three invisible plates. She output at least half of what she used back when she battled against the Cradle King, but due to her younger body, her magical gears whirred loudly regardless.
Small sparks of blue lightning shot out from her fingertips. Winding her right arm back as far as possible, she sprang it forward, shooting out a thin but powerful magical beam towards the ground.
Assuming she was aiming for the top of the pyramid, the shadow redirected its mud to encase the surface. However, the beam flew right past the mud. Before it could react, Saya had already landed on top of the pyramid.
“That was close! I thought I’d blow my arm out again, for sure!”
“—Ah, shoot. I should run.”
Sprinting as fast as she could, her Soul Sight became active once more. At the top of the pyramid, where she was, there was a small enclosed room from which the thread was seeping out. All she needed to do was take a few more steps, take a right, and pull the thread as fast as possible.
Of course, her mind raced at the possibility of killing a child, but she decided that she’d simply live with the consequences of her actions if it ever came to that. Just as she took another step, she felt a looming presence breathing down her neck.
The young mage didn’t even need to look back to recognize its presence. To stop Saya at the very last moment, the shadow had finally summoned the gray monster that defeated her in the first place.
“H-Hey, long time no see.” she remarked.
It was strange. For some reason, even though the stakes had never been so high in her life, she couldn’t help but make light of the situation. Perhaps it was the talk she had with her mother, or the relief that washed over her upon realizing Albo was going to be healed.
Ignoring her comment, the monster raised its right arm as high as it could. The sky seemed to crack open with how fast its movement was. If Saya didn’t act quickly, she would end up the same way she did in the real world.
“You keep using the same move over and over again,” she grunted out while channeling magical energy into her legs. As the monster swung down, she sprang upwards, dodging its blow entirely with a hop.
“That at this point, you’ve become predictable!”
Being in the air, however, presented its own set of problems. Now she was fully under the mercy of the monster’s movements, as she had no way of dodging its next blow without any form of platform to kick her legs from.
Winding back its left arm, it immediately shot its punch forward. Saya closed her eyes, anticipating the impact at any second. She regretted being so cocky towards the monster when, in fact, at this point, they were even in wins and defeats.
Three fireballs shot forward at incredible speeds, all of them exploding on the surface of the monster’s arm. Its momentary pause of shock was enough to give Saya time to land. When she glanced back down at the bottom of the pyramid, she saw all three of her allies on the verge of being overwhelmed, with their arms raised towards the top.
Her bare feet tapped against the floor as she pivoted her body and made her way inside the small building. Just as she feared, in the center was the same boy that she had rescued, laid out straight on an altar.
With the monster just behind her, she had no time to even hesitate her next action. Sharply inhaling, a wave of courage surged through her body like electricity, giving her the final boost necessary to commit to her actions.
Just as her hand hovered over the thread, the roof was blown open. The monster tore the building apart, hoping to expose the young mage and crush her beneath the falling debris.
With no backup left, the monster swiftly bent its upper body down. It opened its monstrous palm, slapping Saya’s feeble body against it like swatting away a bug. She felt the pain of the impact immediately, her bones on half of her body shattering into dust.
Like blowing out a candle, her consciousness left her just as quickly as she breathed. As her body started to fly away into the vast open skies, her hand just barely grazed upon the thread. Then, like instinct, she clenched the thread as hard as she could.
The air cracked in reaction to how hard the monster had struck her. Fully unconscious, her body went flailing across the air. While her hand started to loosen up, magical energy surged from the last remnants of her desires, sending out jolts of arcane energy.
In response to her pleas, her hand remained glued to the thread. Having grabbed onto it so close to the core, the monster realized its mistake too late. Saya had intended to jump off the pyramid once she secured the thread, but by sending her flying, it had unintentionally helped her achieve her goal in a far more efficient and hasty manner.
As Sulva’s body became overwhelmed by the ghoul-like citizens of Yucu Saa, he saw the skies crack like glass. Black mud, similar to the one that had drowned him, started to seep out, eventually flooding the streets in a matter of seconds.
The monster screeched in pain. Meanwhile, the shadow rushed to its master’s aid as quickly as possible. Its non-existent eyes gazed upon the boy’s now floating body, as his very existence started to disintegrate.
For Saya, the sensation of flight remained, but the world around her had changed. No longer in the dream-city of Yucu Saa, she felt as if she were falling endlessly through a vast tunnel. Her senses slowly returned to her, and when she opened her eyes, she was met with a spiraling corridor of light, composed of cycling magic.
It wasn’t impossible to assume that what she was witnessing was most likely the boy’s magical gears. At the end of the tunnel, a pure, blinding white light awaited. In a matter of seconds, it swallowed her whole, leaving her vision completely white.