149 Phase 126: Descent

That was the end of any coherent organization on Skycrown. The mountain went down, panic went up, and then went ballistic and grabbed the situation by the throat when Cass made her broadcast announcement.

"Everybody, evacuate Skycrown Mountain. I repeat; get off this mountain as fast as you can!"

Colin stood beside her watching silently as the screaming became so loud, they could hear it all the way from the peak. Even Malcolm, Mountaineer of Numero, was huddling in the corner, arms wrapped around his legs and rocking himself, talking to himself. "3.141592… 92… 926… uh… 3.14159…"

Cass went over to him. "Malcolm, that means you too. Stop reciting Pi. Run."

"Uwaaaaa!!!" Malcolm shrieked at the top of his lungs and fled.

Casiphia turned to regard the rest of them then. Phillip, looking rather vexed. Colin considering her seriously. Alicia, looking quite fascinated.

"You seem… calm." Casiphia mused. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

Colin and Alicia exchanged glances. He said, "The Lower Plane."

"You've been there?" Phillip sounded surprised.

"Actually…" Casiphia paused. "First, we'll drop into the Ancient Ways."

"That sounds like Satrox's title." Colin mentioned.

"Yes. Exactly. It is a sub-layer between the Middle and Lower Plane, sometimes overlapping them. It is consistent like the Middle Planes, so the geography doesn't change without cause… but like the Lower Plane it is connected to all Dreamworlds, and distance there is compressed. A trip from a Dreamworld to a nearby Dreamworld usually didn't take longer than an hour. Before the Gate system was up, the earliest Dreamers used it to travel from Dreamworld to Dreamworld."

"A fourth Plane." Colin remembered what Dad said.

"You can say that." Casiphia studied the projection as it showed Skycrown sinking more and more quickly. "Hmm. Gravitic modules of some kind. Their mecha planted them in the ground all around the mountain. So that's why they surrounded us. It looks like the Gaians have more than one use for their terraforming technology."

" 'Environmental Control modules' indeed." Phillip shook his head.

Flocks of panicked flyers were spreading out from Skycrown like a shockwave on the projection, many of them with little green blips indicating someone else hanging on to a foot or a tail as they headed to safety. Sora himself had abandoned the battle with the Frenzied Drake in order to get Ezri's Evacuee group out. The Drake headed north, away from the catastrophe.

The Cult forces, meanwhile, appeared quite unable to press their advantage and take the mountain. They seemed to be having more on their plate than they expected when the Frenzied White Wolfcats found Icegate abandoned and turned on the next nearest humans in the vicinity; the Gaian army.

"It is time you got out of here." Casiphia straightened. "Skycrown is lost already; there's no saving it. We should all get away. Colin, Alicia…"

There was a roar of thunder and the ceiling came crashing down. Alicia let out a shriek of absolute protest as dust and crystal shards rained down around them.

Shiro was at Colin's side before he could do more than gasp. Sonic power blasted away every shard of crystal dropping onto him and Alicia. Snowy was on the other side, and Kirin was behind him, with Raiki and all her siblings on her back, Foxie and Sonia on either side of her with Eclipse above. All of them worked together to protect Colin and Alicia as the whole roof came crashing down on the Heart of the Mountain.

"There goes my throne room." Casiphia grimaced as a huge green metal hand grabbed her from above.

Another hand grabbed for Phillip, but he was already running. More hands grabbed for Colin and Alicia; he had a bare moment to glimpse three hulking giant shapes above before Shiro tackled him out of the way. {The Cult Mecha! This is bad!}

"Alicia!" Colin managed to gasp, but already she had an arm around Kirin's neck as the Storm Swan took her toward the tunnels. "Wait! Kirin! That way is…"

"Hurry!" Phillip yelled at him as he, too, dashed for the tunnels.

{It's our best bet.} Colin realized. {The cultist Mecha won't be able to grab us in the tunnels.}

Shiro took the decision out of his hands. He saw certain escape, and he saw an imminent threat far too big to fight. He shoved Colin ahead as he lunged for the tunnels and in a single moment had him safely in them.

"Keep moving!" Alicia yelled. "We have to find another exit before we sink into the Lower Plane!"

There was a bone-jarring impact, and then it felt like they were in a huge elevator dropping at immense speed. Colin found himself floating in the air. "Wha-?!"

"We're going down!" Alicia shrieked at him unnecessarily.

Colin wouldn't have thought it possible to hear anything at this rate of descent, but the screaming around them doubled, then tripled. He felt like his heart was climbing into his throat and his stomach was pushing it to move quicker that way. Try as he might, all he could do was flail in free-fall, unable to reach anything or anyone other than Shiro, whose hair was standing on end and for some reason suddenly felt like hard, sharp spikes.

Worse, the drop seemed to be getting faster and faster. The screaming, already loud as it was, quadrupled as more and more people realized it. Colin couldn't believe people were capable of screaming so loud, but as he found himself pinned to the ceiling of the tunnel, all he could hear in his ears were the sounds of people's voices overwhelmed with fear and panic. Some of those shrieks were enough to curdle the blood, and there were hundreds and hundreds of voices screaming…

And then the worst possible thing happened.

Everything went silent.

Everything stopped.

***

Alicia raised her head slowly, though it wasn't being 'raised', actually. She was still floating at the top of the tunnel, not quite able to get her feet on the ground. She should be able to, she felt. The falling had stopped, and 'up' and 'down' were back where they should be… but for some reason, she kept floating, even though she knew she had weight.

"What… what just…" She squeaked, then cleared her throat.

"We're there." Phillip said in a deathly quiet voice.

"Where?" Colin asked, hoarse.

Phillip pointed. Alicia looked and instantly wished she didn't.

Before them was a figure of nightmares. Like a chair-sized black glob filled with leering eyes and dangling tongues, and tentacles stretching out in every direction. It, too, was floating, though, thankfully, not as high as they floated.

"What is that?" Colin had the gall to ask.

"A wisp." Phillip told him.

"It looks more like a demon to me." Colin gulped.

"Wisps look like all kinds of things. They're all different in their own way." Phillip coughed. "They're the reason why the Ancient Ways are dangerous."

"What {are} they?" Colin asked again.

"They're… bits and pieces floating up from the Lower Plane" Phillip explained. "Wisps of nightmares that drifted far enough to enter the Ancient Ways."

Alicia felt a shiver. "When you say 'nightmares'…"

"Those are what we'll find in the Lower Plane. The Lower Plane is what we should {really} be worried about." Phillip confirmed with a pale-faced nod.

Alicia saw Colin's face harden as he made a decision. "Let's get out of here. Now."

"But the Mecha…" Alicia began.

"I don't think they're there any more. Or rather… 'here'." Colin glanced about. "See that? That's not the throne room."

It certainly wasn't. As far as Alicia could see, the tunnel entrance of the Throne Room had suddenly been cut clear away and looked like someone had opened a cellar trapdoor out into a wide brown cavern.

And there was a battle going on. Alicia saw Casiphia and Sora crouching behind a large rock for cover as a one-handed giant robot shot lasers at them. {Sora rescued Casiphia and now they're fighting the Cult's Mecha!}

"We have to help them!" Alicia leapt for it, then wondered how she managed to leap through the air when she wasn't within reach of the ground or ceiling. "Wist…"

It was then that she noticed something else. Her Comrades were gone.

"Look out!" Colin tackled her into the corner between wall and ceiling just as a flurry of tentacles went past.

{I could leap even when I didn't have my feet on the ground. That means, that wisp monster, too…}

"Shiro!" Colin called. "Raiki!"

{Wait. What?} Alicia stared as the white wolfcat and the blue stormcat dashed to flank Colin on either side as he brandished his staff. {How come his Comrades are still around when mine disappeared?!}

Not all his Comrades were around, Alicia realized. Most of them had disappeared. Only Shiro and Raiki remained. {Why them? Why only them?}

"Sora!" Satrox's voice sounded. He came running in with a long blue lance. "What the-?! How did that…"

Colin lunged at the Wisp, Shiro timing his own attack to match his, while Raiki let out a flurry of Sonic Bolts like a machinegun at the thing. The Wisp lashed back; tendrils of shadow whipped out like living lightning, and the three of them started dodging, their assault momentarily foiled.

Phillip, meanwhile, was tapping his Traveler watch, trying to call someone.

There was only one giant robot outside, Alicia saw now. The one that had grabbed Casiphia, the one with only one arm now. Sora and Casiphia themselves were separating, trying to outflank the Gaian Mech. Satrox was charging in from behind, and the thing was looming over the three of them, completely undaunted about being assailed on all sides. {Well, if I had a giant robot that shot lasers, I wouldn't be too worried about three teenagers with spears and swords either.}

"Mip." A small voice turned Alicia's attention to Phillip. There, at his feet, was a blue bunny. {What the-? Phillip's bunny made it as well?!}

Phillip noticed her gaze. He shrugged. "I guess bunnies make noises too."

"They do?!" Alicia stared, then shook her head. "Wait! That's not the issue!"

"Right. We gotta get out of here." Phillip said. "Before we end up in the Lower Plane. The mountain is still sinking."

"Still sinking…?" Alicia gulped, looking around. He was right, she saw. They hadn't quite stopped going down entirely. They were inching downward with every second.

Lightning blasts in rapid succession brought Alicia's attention back to Colin's fight against the Wisp. He was in a bad situation, she saw, locked staff-to-tendrils and being forced down as he struggled. Shiro and Raiki were throwing sonic bolts and lightning at the Wisp, and it hissed at them furiously, but it wasn't backing down.

Alicia raised her shovel. Phillip took out a bow. He said, "Phileo!"

The blue bunny zipped forward in a blur. A crackling bolt of what looked like ice and lightning slammed into the Wisp, causing it to leap back in shock. It spasmed for a while, then turned to the bunny and lashed out at it. {Wow, what was THAT?!}

Shiro and Raiki went all-out. Raiki let out a full blown blast of lightning as Shiro charged, surrounded in a field of sonic energy as he rammed into the Wisp.

The Wisp flailed, and Colin went stumbling back, no longer locked in place.

"Colin!" Alicia grabbed him to steady him.

"No! Stay back!" Colin gasped.

But it was too late. Alicia had one vexed moment to wonder about his lack of gratitude before she felt something scaly wrap around her ankle.

"Wuaaa…!" she yelped as she was whisked through the air upside down.

She could feel it looking at her, even before she was held dangling in front of its face. Hundreds of leering eyes, and tongues licking at the air…

"Get AWAY!" She shrieked, and whacked it on the head with George's shovel.

Nothing. Not even a flinch even though she hit it in multiple eyes with the flat of the shovel. She tried again, and this time, she used the edge, not the flat.

No good. Alicia felt like she was hitting rock rather than eye tissue. The impact jarred her arms. {Why…? Why?!}

Colin was there so suddenly, Alicia thought he'd somehow learned to teleport. He bashed at the thing from point blank range, his staff whirling so fast, Alicia could barely make out a blur. The sound of it hitting the Wisp sounded like a hundred hammers on anvils, but still, the Wisp didn't so much as stir.

"That's not going to work!" Phillip called as another Ice/Lightning shard hammered into the Wisp, causing it to falter and hiss. "It's not about how hard you hit it, it's about your supposed strength with Adventura imports! But try to cut her free! Use an edged weapon! A sword or a knife or something!"

"I don't have an edged weapon!" Colin barked.

{And I lost my sword already…} Alicia really regretted it now.

Phillip fired an arrow of light, a single yellow gleam that burned into one of the Wisps' larger eyes. The thing snapped at him, snarled, and promptly swung Alicia over to keep her between it and Phillip. {It's using me as a shield?!}

A sudden overwhelming reverberation nearly knocked Alicia unconscious. Her eyes watered as she saw a strange mix of almost transparent colors forming intertwining waves between Shiro and Raiki. Some sort of combined attack…

They launched it. Alicia could almost feel the sonic energy that thing contained as it ripped through the air and blasted into the Wisp. She felt the tendril around her ankle loosen and seized the chance to kick it away.

"MOVE!" Phillip had another arrow of light nocked on his bow, and Alicia found herself hauled away by the waist even before she reached the ground. She gave Colin a wide-eyed glance, only to see him equally wide-eyed and fearful. {He's not thinking. He's acting on sheer impulse, or instinct… he doesn't realize what he's doing. He's not looking at where he's going… where he's bringing me…}

"Not that far!" Phillip yelled, but it was too late. Colin leapt clear out of the tunnels with Alicia under one arm and his staff in the other, right out into the battlefield where Satrox, Sora, and Casiphia were struggling with the giant robot.

The giant robot instantly noticed them, and recognized them. It made a grab for them both and very neatly caught them in its grip.

Stuck now in a cold grip of durasteel, Alicia had only one word to scream out at the situation.

"COLIIIIIIN!"