The Dangerous False Sky

-Yunlan-

They reached the land of high picks by middle day when the territory of the Furies suddenly ended with a deep cliff and the nearest pick was several meters away into the sea of clouds and hundreds of picks as far as the eye could see. Zhao looked at the horizon with apprehension, wondering what will happen between those picks. The Oracle was in fact a god, which meant that his warning had even more meaning now.

"Yunlan?" Shen Wei asked when seen him frown in worry.

"Shen Wei, there is a huge beast deep down that false sky. Da Qing... can you picture it? See how far can it reach?" Zhao asked the Earth Prince who closed his eyes, as he touched the stone. It took him a while to feel the massive thing over the ground at the very end of the high picks and when he open his eyes again, there was a hint of fear in his eyes.

"To be honest, it's too big for me too sense it in full, but it covers pretty much as far as we can see..." They all looked at the beautiful, yet terrifying sight right in front of them.

"I can summon wind beasts, huge eagles that can safely carry us toward the next territory in the south east." Lin offered.

"No, flying around this picks is even more dangerous than hike them. The thing at the bottom of this place can reach quite high into the sky, so while in the air we will be easy targets." Zhao explained.

"I can create some stone bridges to connect the picks." Da Qing offered next.

"That too will make us easy targets, because the thing is quite sensitive to movements. That's the way it hunts in this forsaken place." Zhao added making the group feel a bit restless, because with the exception of Da Qing and Yunlan, no one else knew what they were going against.

"Then what? How are we going to cross those picks? Most of them are too far away from each other to jump to nearest ones." Wang asked worriedly.

"We still had our thread Master. Can you make us a strong thread bridge?" Chu smiled.

"Damn right. I can even create a wide tunnel if you ask me too." Chu said and Yunlan was glad that he was confident enough in his own ability, because they will need it quite greatly.

"That's good to hear... Lin, we will need the sharpest wind attacks you have at your disposal and a wind shield if possible. The tentacles that this beast has, are like magma to the touch. It will scorch skin in contact and if it holds you for long enough, it will set your body aflame, so be careful with those and avoid contact as much as you can. Take in mind that a fall will be fatal, so if things get ugly, don't rush or panic. It's too late to turn back now, so let's do this as carefully as we can and take care of each other as best as we can. Chu, tide us a shield that engulfed the entire tunnel made with hundreds of threads, reaching the pick.

They repeated the process several times, walking in silence and slowly, wishing for the thing bellow them to never notice their small movements, but after a few more hours of walking over threads, as most of the group reached the intended next pick, Lin felt a change in the air from bellow.

"Wow, I think is coming up!" Lin yelled and Chu looked at the last two that were still at the end of the barely visible tunnel. It was Guo and a healer from the Earth Clan. It goes without saying that Chu's heart went in frenzy as he saw a red tentacle coming up faster than he thought possible.

"Guo! Run!!!" He yelled as Lin's slicing wind, cut the first tentacle that came close enough to cause real damage. Gou and the earth healer did run the little distance they had left and Chu held Guo for dear life once in their side. Then a second and third vine, came up even faster and Guo, turned to send his sword shield down to intercept several more tentacles. They were lucky that they current pick had a flat part at one side in which they could make a stand.

Shen Wei created a barrier, in case they were overwhelmed, then shooted arrows of flames on the coming tentacles and Yunlan, at his side, did the same with cutting water. Even so, many tentacles replaced the ones cut and soon, Shen Wei's barrier was almost cover with red. He set on fire his barrier, but it looked like the thing had a certain resistance to his fire.

Shen Wei cursed, yet he used the fire arrows that at least turn them apart, but then, the tentacles begin to release some kind of red liquid over Shen's barrier, like molting lava and to his horror, it begin to penetrate inside it, setting anything it touched in fire. Shen created several more barriers one under the other to try to gain some time.

"Yunlan, my shield will not hold for much longer with this thing fluid!" Zhao cursed too.

"Da Qing, make a wide stone path for as far as you can, we can't stay in one place for long!" Hearing that, Lin gather the wind inside their shield and throw it outside with a strong gale of wind that shredded all the tentacles surrounding the barrier.

Da Qing used the opportunity to manipulate the earth and stone and create a wide bridge to several picks, then Shen dispelled his shield and they run for their lives. Guo keep up cutting tentacles with his swords before they could reach the bridge and try to destroy it, but even when the distance between picks in that part were of only a few meters, the red nightmare came from all directions. At some point, the recently made stone path was broken right in the middle, just were Yunlan was and Shen Wei looked back in horror as the red vine catched Zhao by the waist and pull him up with a yell of pain going out of their leader mouth. The others behind Zhao stooped, as the tentacle was right in their path, trapping them in the other side.

"Yunlan!!!" Shen Wei hestily shooted a huge arrow just below the Water Prince legs, to free his lover before risking the possibility of him been set aflame which cold be at any moment. In only seconds, Zhao was released as the tentacle was cut, but that make Yunlan begin to free fall. However, it was just the Water Prince luck that he fall back close to Wei, who catch him, almost at the border of the broken bridge.

"Damn it hurts like hell!" Yunlan complained, as he felt the intense burn all around his waist.

"But you will live." Shen said, letting him down instantly and start running again, while holding Yunlan's hand to make sure he will follow him despite the pain, because there was no time to heal him or let him rest. The others jumped the short distance and follow their leaders very closely.

Da Qing keep up making bridges in the run, honoring the words of Lord Shi of his exceptional control over stone and earth, but unfortunately, many more were broken when less expected, even when Lin was warning them of the coming attack from bellow and striking several ones with sharp wind.

Striking the red things or cut them was simply not enough because they were too many to fight them all at once, which eventually got them hurt when a tentacle graze them somewhere or grab them. At the end, Shen summon the Guardian Phoenix, with its godly flame, that not even the tentacles could resist those flames.

It was easir to avoid the tainted vines with the Phoenix acting as their shield, but keeping the Guardian summon for a long period took a toll on Shen's fire magic, but it was the only thing strong enough to keep the tainted beast away from them to safely cross that cursed territory. Yunlan was sure now that the massive beast below them had absorbed the poison of the meteor for longer than the foundation of their Clans, centuries ago.

However, soon their stamina decreased a great deal without time to rest or heal their burns, which make them react sometimes a bit too late. This happen at one particular time almost at the end of the false sky territory, in when they were reaching the biggest pick of all. There, a tentacle came out of nowhere in front of them and crushed against their path to their other side, making part of the created bridge to crumble under their feet.

Half of the group begin to fall, but as Chu had put his threads all over them, they crushed into the face of the cliff instead, hanging only by the invisible safety net of the Puppet Master. Shen Wei, which was still controlling the Phoenix, was the third from the last in the line, which mean he was hanging on Chu's thread, with Guo just above him and Zhu Hong above Guo, while Yunlan was at the top, out of the immediate danger.

"Zhu Hong!!" Da Qing shouted, seen her disappear the last from the safe ground into the deep cliff.

"Shen Wei!!!" Zhao yelled as he ran to the border.

"Guo!!" Chu also screamed at the same time as Yunlan did moving to see them hanging. Then, he commanded the magical threads, to pull up the falling group, but as they begin to be pulled, another red tentacle raised from the deep and grabbed the last one hanging in the air, who was the Earth healer by his leg, pulling him down along with Zhu Hong, Shen Wei and Guo. The Phoenix came to save his summoner, but unfortunately, his heavenly fire melted Chu's tread in the process.

All three of them, Da Qing, Yunlan and Chu were stunned for a few seconds as they saw them fall freely, then acted almost in sync, with Chu sending down more threads to catch the falling men and woman, Yunlan sending his water dragon to also use it as a rope to hold them and Da Qing pulling out a big piece of stone from the cliff so they could fall over it.

Falling over ground, Shen hastily stood up to cut the tentacle from the Earth healer leg, but as he took his dagger out of the hilt, the screaming man burst into flames in such a fast way that stunned even Shen Wei, because it spread in a mare second and he could not control the crimson fire, consuming him to ashes in less than half a minute.

"Oh, gods... Oh godsss!!" Zhu yelled horrified with the scene, but was pulled up by Chu's strings, as well as the rest. Qing held and kissed Zhu to try calm her down, while Zhao hugged his still stunned lover and Chu pull close Guo, who already had tears falling down his cheeks.

"Yunlan... get into the stone... none of you will survive if it keeps up for longer. The Phoenix will carry the goddess stone without scorching it and throw it to safety with the last of the Prince fire magic." The voice came from inside his mind and it was unmistakably Lord Shi's voice, so he gather his star magic and send them back to the goddess dimension.

The Phoenix took the stone on its claws and fly away with magical speed. No one talked for several minutes, still shocked by the horrible and sudden death they all witness. Then Da Qing kneel and bow to the ground.

"May the goddess have mercy of your soul and grant you rest at the heavens, Xue Song." He prayed and Zhu prayed by his side, crying and passing an arm over Qing's shoulder. The others offered their prayers to the lost soul as well, in their own way. However, Zhao stood by Wei, who was still too shaken by the death of a member of the group that he was unable to save, even when he was so close.

"Shen Wei... come..." Zhao whisper quite gently and slowly guide him to their healing water. Shen Wei was almost spent of magic and Zhao was seriously scorched and in great pain both physical and emotional. He lamented the death of their companion, but deep inside he couldn't avoid thinking, he was glad it wasn't Shen Wei, the man that held both his heart and life in his magical hands.

"Come, my Wei..." Zhao whisper again and Shen automatically follow him inside the water. Then Zhao held him, despise the intense pain in his waist and when Shen softly sobbed over his chest, finally opening himself to Yunlan, he whisper kinds word in his ear, while rubbing his back.

"Yunlan... Yunlan... I am a master of fire.... how come I couldn't...?"

"It wasn't your fault... don't blame yourself... we all knew from the beginning that not all of us will be coming back... still, we must keep going... cry it all out now, then let it go." Shen held him tighter and Zhao repressed a yelp of pain. No pain will matter in a moment in which his gentle lover need his warmth and after he calm down, he kissed all his tears away and both of them offer their prayers to the poor soul.

AN: Here you go, I hope it was exiting enough. Thanks for reading this far.