Chrysalis
chapter-1309

Overhead, the enormous chunk of stone looms like the hammer of a fat and drunken god. Millions of tons? Billions of tons?

Who can say? I’m certainly not busting out the scales, that’s for sure!

My brains burn inside my head as they are pushed beyond the limits which exist past the first set of limits. Every mind-construct screams with effort, getting double, or triple the amount of effort from each cell of my brains that they should be capable of.

The mana flows like a hurricane, and I mould it to my will, forcing it down, through the construct and out the other side, into my rapidly growing spell.

All the while, the great hunk of stone falls towards us.

My first spell fires off with an all too familiar howl. A gravity bomb, not even an especially large one, rockets upward from my mouth and flies directly into the face of the collapsing mountain.

All too soon, the size of the bomb is completely dwarfed by the city-sized hunk of rock, but I’m not worried. Well, I’m not worried about that. This was merely the first salvo, and I’m confident it will do its job.

It takes longer than I expect for the spell to hit; the stone is simply so huge, I’d assumed it was much closer than it actually was, not that it’s a relaxing thought. If anything, it helps to drive home just how much danger I’m actually in.

As expected, the moment the bomb comes into contact with the mountain, it expands, and begins to devour. However, it is hopelessly, laughably outclassed by what it faces. In an instant, the spell vanishes from sight, disappearing inside the stone as it remains in place, but the rock falls around it.

With my unique gravity sense, I know that my spell only managed to penetrate a little over a hundred metres into the enormous plate of stone, which must be three to four hundred metres thick at least. I suppose this is proof that there is only so much ‘suck’ in each gravity bomb I make, which is surely proportional to how much mana I put into the spell. The sheer volume of stone was too much for such a piddly bomb to consume, and it was quickly overwhelmed.

However, it did its job perfectly, carving a tunnel to the interior of the colossal stone.

Mana continues to flow, and I send all of it into one, dark mass. Energy thunders through my body, pushing the gravity mana construct to its limit. I have to dedicate too many minds to just maintaining and controlling the flow of energy, not to mention operating the construct and holding it together, so I don’t have as many as I’d like holding my spell together.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Which is a problem.

Rapidly taking shape is a ball of super-compressed mana, revolving and spinning within me as I focus inwards. Every spare mind, along with my main brain, is concentrating on this alone, squashing down the fresh gravity mana and then feeding into the growing monstrosity.

The still-forming bomb darkens continuously as an endless stream of power flows into it. Gradually, I’m forced to peel minds away from gathering external mana and dedicate them to holding the damn thing together, lest it explode in my face.

The Gravity Bomb roils and churns violently, threatening to come undone, the sheer volume of power forced within it straining to burst free.

Oh no you don’t!

Mandibles clenched, brains steaming, I push, and I push, and I push. The spell firms, then wobbles, then firms again as I continue the unrelenting flow of magic.

There’s probably people yelling at me right now. Protectant, doubtlessly, but even I don’t have the brain power to focus on something like that right now. Every mind construct, every neuron, is dedicated to this spell. Increasingly, more and more of them are dedicated to simply containing it.

From an endlessly deep purple, the colour of the bomb changes to a nigh perfect, seamless black, and the spell itself sucks in the magic I push toward it without any input from me.

Unlike the last time this happened, I eagerly offer up all the power I can summon. All minds are cut off from external mana gathering and instead dedicated to maintaining the spell as I reach within, and empty out my gravity mana gland.

A flood of mana is released, and it is consumed.

In an instant, the bomb within my body has become a violent and unstable nightmare. It thrashes and boils within as I force my will upon it, trying to hold the damn thing together with all of my might!

I just. Need. It. To. Stabilise. For. A. Second!

Throwing back my head, I aim as best I can, then let it rip.

In the same moment, my Altar drains of energy as I empower the spell to my utmost limit.

There, just above my head, a monster is born.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLL!!!!!

The world goes black, and the sky starts to scream.

Sails are torn from masts, ropes are ripped apart, the formerly calm waters rise up around us, lifting the boats along with them. Frothing waves form and crash into each other in an instant, and the wind. Holy moly, the wind.

The Gravity Bomb I fired is so perfectly dark I can’t even see the edge of it, the light around it is completely lost. It’s almost impossible to tell the size of it, but I fear the thing is almost as large as I am, and it hasn’t even expanded yet.

From kilometres around, the wind comes, a shrieking hurricane forms around the bomb as it consumes the air around it, sucking in more, which sucks in more, which sucks in more, until my antennae are whipping against my carapace and I fear they’re going to break off.

What have I done?

“Uh… maybe hold onto something. This could be bad.”