Vastarael woke with a low, irritated groan.
Stone pressed against his shoulder. Something cold and uneven bit into his back. He blinked twice and when the dark refused to recede, his irises reacted on instinct, flaring alive with interwoven gold and sapphire light. He spotted cracked walls. He was leaning against a corner where two surfaces met at a slightly wrong angle. There was no familiar resonance of Divinity brushing against his senses.
"Figures..."
A dim light shimmered into being a few steps in front of him. The light morphed into a familiar silhouette. She stood there like a three-dimensional hologram pulled from memory and grief. Sapphire lines moved around her form before filling it in with impossible clarity.
Phaenora looked exactly as she always did when she manifested this way.
"You saw it too," Vastarael said hoarsely, already knowing the answer.
Phaenora nodded once. "Every second of it."
He exhaled slowly and dragged a hand down his face.
"Then that woman—"
"—was an Omniscient like me. Or rather, ■■■■ ."
"Then who in hells was the Second Prince?"
"I don't know. And that's what worries me."
"There's no way it was me," Vastarael said immediately, pushing himself upright. "I'm from Earth. Whatever body I'm in now didn't exist back then. If that was an Aeterium, then it wasn't this one. Which means it was either the first Aeterium to ever exist in this world or one of the seven transmigrators before me."
Phaenora didn't answer right away. Instead, she looked down at herself. Then she sighed.
"Well, if this place is a dimension, I can't stay like this."
"Like what?"
"A projection."
Before he could respond, she lifted one hand and used him. Body Reconstruction flared without warning. Vastarael felt it instantly.
Every pseudo-core in his body screamed as its stored energy was ripped away in a single, catastrophic siphon. His knees buckled as a painful sensation crashed through him. Phaenora manifested fully in a physical form but she was absolutely naked. She appeared seated directly on his lap.
"Sorry. I needed a physical body if I'm staying."
Vastarael stared at her, then down and then back up.
"You could have warned me," he said weakly.
"You would have objected."
"Fair enough I guess."
She shifted slightly, settling more comfortably against him with one arm looping around his neck.
"Are you okay?"
Before he could answer, a familiar sensation spread through his chest. Omniphage stirred. The endless hunger inside him opened just enough to absorb Phaenora's Soul Energy in. His body relaxed almost immediately, as his pseudo-cores was refilled almost instantly.
"Wow. I feel way better."
Her lips met his.
Omniphage surged again, absorbing more Soul Energy through the contact. The kiss deepened just a little before she pulled back.
"You used that as an excuse to kiss me."
Phaenora shrugged. "I'm an Omniscient. Multitasking is a virtue."
"You know you can just ask."
"Oh, I can do much more than this. But unfortunately—"
The door slammed open.
"Asenane's outside," Phaenora finished calmly.
Asenane stepped into the room and froze. Her eyes dropped. She then sighed so deeply, shaking her head.
"I leave you alone for five minutes because I'm worried you nearly died, and you're here making out with Phaenora, who is apparently alive, naked, and sitting on your lap."
"This is not what it looks like."
Asenane raised an eyebrow.
"It is exactly what it looks like."
Phaenora waved cheerfully. "Hello, Asenane. May I join you both?"
"No."
"Oh."
"You will have your own private time with him later," Asenane continued, pinching the bridge of her nose, "but right now, get dressed, get up and get moving. The Dafes have found us. And judging by how fast they tracked us, we're not just dealing with scouts."
Phaenora slid off his lap at last, reconstructing clothing around herself with a flick of thought.
"Well, looks like our little reunion will have to wait."
Asenane glanced back at him. "Try not to collapse again."
"No promises."
The moment they stepped outside, the world broke Vastarael's sense of orientation so thoroughly that his instincts rebelled.
There was no horizon. No sky in the way his mind expected one.
Instead, a vast realm stretched above them. It was an endless architectural sprawl of colossal structures hanging inverted like the bones of a dead civilization suspended in nothingness. Towers plunged downward into clouds that drifted below their feet, bridges moved upside down in impossible curves and entire city-blocks clung to the underside of reality itself.
"Oh. That's… charming."
Asenane didn't even blink. "Yes. The entire realm is upside down. Gravity works upward in the Hidden Citadel."
He followed her gaze.
What he had subconsciously assumed was a ceiling was, in fact, the ground. And what he had thought was empty air was a bottomless fall, except the fall went the wrong way. His body felt the subtle, nauseating pull dragging him away from the buildings and toward the void above.
"I hate this place already."
"As you should. We've confirmed three things since you were unconscious. One, already know. Everything is upside down. Two, we've been separated from Shimmer and Runner."
That made him still.
"Alive?"
"Yes," Asenane said. "But barely traceable. I can sense them but it's extremely faint."
Phaenora added, "Which means they're very far away. And three, based on the diary you researched, The Dafes are here."
According to Lysameria's diary, The Dafes are Common God-Ranked Creatures. To Divines like them, they are ants.
Vastarael barely had time to get used the shift in pressure before something moved in the clouds above them. Something massive descended.
A worm dove upwards. Its body was a titanic coil of cerulean-blue flesh. Rows of serrated ridges lined its length and its numerous red eyes locked onto them.
The creature saw them. Its maw opened and from it burst a cloud of shimmering spores. The spores materialized into hundreds of worms, each one the size of a grown man. Vastarael reacted on instinct. He tried to use the Divinity of Protection.
Nothing happened. The moment he tried to invoke it, his legs gave out. The world tilted violently as he slammed onto the stone. Phaenora was there instantly, gripping his arm.
"Easy there. You just woke up."
Asenane didn't wait. Frost exploded outward from her. A wave of absolute cold surged upward into the incoming swarm. The worms froze mid-motion before shattering into a rain of frozen fragments that fell away from them, disappearing into the void above.
Asenane exhaled once. "We need to move."
Phaenora glanced at Vastarael. "He can't exactly run."
Asenane shot her a look sharp enough to cut fate.
"You're the one who siphoned all his Divine Energy to give yourself a body."
Phaenora winced. "I apologized."
"And we're in another realm," Asenane continued. "Which means we can't draw Divine Energy from the world itself."
Phaenora opened her mouth but Vastarael pushed himself upright.
"I'm fine."
Both of them turned to him.
"I'm tired, not useless."
Another distant rumble rolled through the clouds. More worms were coming.
"We have to run. If we can't replenish Divine Energy here, then we conserve it. Our priority is to find Shimmer and Runner."
Asenane frowned. "Your Divine Energy is depleted."
"Not completely."
She stared at him. "Veneri—"
"I can get it from you and Phae. Divine Energy comes from faith and belief, even yours."
Asenane held his gaze for a long second.
"Fine."
More worms tore free from the sky.
"We have to move now."
They ran. They realized immediately that running in the Hidden Citadel felt wrong.
Every step pulled at them as if they were sprinting toward the edge of the world. The force of gravity was dragging at their bodies upward, threatening to peel them off the stone and hurl them into the endless fall above. Their legs pushed against ascent as they fought to stay anchored to an upside-down reality.
Below or above, three to five Dafes flew through the clouds.