Chapter 44: Traversing the Chains

The wind whipping across the vast, purple-tinted abyss roared like an angry beast, buffeting Raphael’s heavy frame as his boots hit the first massive link of the iron chain.

The rusted, torso-wide metal links swung precariously over the endless, swirling void below. Traversing them was a nightmare of physics and spatial control. Every step required flawless weight distribution; a single micro-adjustment in momentum or a sudden gust of wind threatened to pitch him off the slick, frost-slicked iron and send him plunging into the infinite twilight below.

CLANG!

The chain swayed violently under his immense weight and speed, causing Raphael to grit his teeth, his six-foot-seven frame lowering to lower his center of gravity. His heart hammered against his ribs as his right boot slipped along a patch of frozen rust. He pitched forward, the endless void gaping beneath him, before he slammed his heavy axe straight into the seam of a metal link, anchoring himself just inches before tumbling into the abyss.

"Sovereign!" Vanessa’s voice echoed sharply from the shadows, her dark mana stabilizing the chain’s wild oscillations, but the wind continued to howl with unnatural ferocity.

Raphael pulled himself upright, his breath coming in sharp, icy gasps. He couldn’t afford a single lapse in concentration, but before he could stabilize his footing completely, the dimensional clouds above parted, and a barrage of screeching shadows descended upon the narrow chain.

A flock of winged void-beasts, their bodies composed of razor-sharp bone plates and shifting smoke, plummeted straight toward him. Simultaneously, ethereal, translucent figures with long, trailing tresses and hollow, weeping faces materialized directly out of the air surrounding the chain: Void Banshees.

SCREEEEEEECH!

A Banshee opened her hollow maw, unleashing a localized, high-frequency sonic scream.

The invisible wave of sound struck Raphael like a physical battering ram, causing blood to instantly trickle from his ears as his vision blurred, the sheer acoustic force shattering his focus and causing his knees to buckle. The micro-thin layer of mana protecting his skin flickered violently under the sonic assault, and he nearly lost his footing on the swaying iron once again.

Taking advantage of his disorientation, two winged beasts lunged from his left flank, their obsidian talons snapping toward his neck.

Raphael forced his godlike neural processing speed to override the agonizing ring in his ears, and through sheer force of will, planted his back heel against a rusted rivet and swept his greatsword upward in a vicious, defensive arc.

CLANG!

The broad steel blade intercepted the first beast’s talons, but the impact was shockingly heavy. The kinetic force traveled up Raphael’s arms, jarring his shoulders and driving his left boot back an inch over the chain’s smooth edge. These were not the fragile scouts he had obliterated at the portal; these entities were dense, adapted to the oppressive gravity of the Vault, and fought with ferocious coordination.

The second winged beast slammed its heavy body straight into his chest.

Raphael gasped as his breath was forcefully expelled. The impact sent him tumbling backward along the iron links. He slid fifteen feet, his weapons dragging sparks against the rusted metal as he barely managed to hook his left leg around a vertical link to arrest his momentum. Half his body dangled over the empty air, the howling abyssal winds tugging at his hoodie.

"Get off!" Raphael roared.

He drew his arm back and drove the spike of his battle axe straight through the winged beast’s core, detonating a wave of compressed mana inside its torso until it dissolved into black ash.

He hoisted his body back onto the chain, but there was zero time to recover. Three Void Banshees glided down, their translucent forms floating effortlessly across the void.

As Raphael swung his greatsword in a horizontal cleave meant to bisect the central spectral horror, the Banshee’s eyes flashed with a sickening violet light. Her physical form instantly dispersed, turning completely intangible.

The heavy slab of steel passed harmlessly through empty air, hitting nothing but mist. Before Raphael could pull his sword back to reset his guard, the intangible Banshee solidified directly within his reach and thrust her elongated, icy claw straight into his chest plate, bypassing the metal entirely to grip his internal mana pathways.

A paralyzing, soul-crushing frost flooded Raphael’s bloodstream. His heart stuttered, his limbs turning leaden and numb as the entity began siphoning his vital energy.

"Insolent spirit!" Vanessa roared, unleashing a burst of dark gravitational force from her staff, but two more winged beasts intercepted her spell, forcing her to defend her own position.

Raphael’s silver eyes burned with cold, unyielding fury through his messy dark bangs. The frost in his veins threatened to freeze his core, but he refused to yield an inch of ground.

Compress and sever! His mind screamed.

Ignoring the excruciating cold tearing through his organs, Raphael abandoned the long reach of his sword and gripped the haft of his battle axe with both hands, channeling every drop of his remaining mana directly into the blade until the steel glowed with an intense, razor-sharp silvery-violet light. He didn’t aim for the Banshee’s body, but the spectral tether binding her spirit to the void.

He executed a short, brutal, close-quarters thrust with the axe’s top spike.

SHRRRR-BOOM!

The high-frequency mana coating the axe’s tip pierced the Banshee’s intangible chest, disrupting her spiritual core. The entity let out a horrific, dying shriek as her spectral form cracked like glass, shattering into sparkling, harmless violet dust.

Raphael didn’t halt his momentum. He spun on his right foot, using the lingering swing of the axe to drag his greatsword along the chain, sweeping the remaining two winged beasts off their perches and sending them screaming into the dark abyss below.

He stood hunched over on the iron chain, his broad chest heaving raggedly, blood dripping from his nose onto the rusted metal. His muscles throbbed, his hands trembled from the brutal kinetic impacts, and his mana reserves were noticeably depleted.

Traversing this domain was a bloody, grueling war of attrition. Every link of the chain was paid for in blood and absolute physical exertion.

Raphael raised his head and wiped blood from his lip with the back of his gauntlet. Through his messy dark hair, his luminous silver eyes locked onto the edge of the second floating island, still a hundred meters away across the swaying metal bridge. More dark silhouettes were congregating along the landing zone, their hollow eyes glowing through the purple mist.

A dark, savage grin split Raphael’s face. He tightened his bleeding fingers around the grips of his sword and axe, letting the Sovereign’s Veil flare once more around his battered frame.

He took his next step forward onto the swinging iron.