>>5237132You aim to ascend…literally, this time.
[Up!] You declare, and Ozmas doesn’t hesitate as four of her six limbs twist and distend into a pair of wings, their see-through nature belying the sheer thrust you know they’re capable of. You’re on her back in one moment, and in the next you’re off, hurtling skyward and leaving the hordes behind.
Or so you thought.
A glance over your shoulder reveals the roiling tangle of bodies far below you have merged into a single entity, a winged, ungainly thing that’s slowly accelerating towards you as its form twists into a more aerodynamic shape to give pursuit. Still, Ozmas pushes forward at a breakneck pitch, the verdurous clouds above flickering with streaks of emerald light, their flashes becoming more frequent, more violent as you approach. A sound tears forth from Ozmas’ throat, her Lexicon piercing the clouds as its heart is revealed to her senses.
{There’s something up there!} She yells as you tear a piece of chitin from you own chest, the plating spiraling into a javelin that you hurl down at the pursuing abomination. {Something big!}
Your lance strikes true, the beast’s body speared through from every conceivable angle as the javelin replicates itself four-dozen times on impact, and still it continues its mindless pursuit…but it gives you a chance. It’s then that you shift your focus skyward in time to see the clouds part—their master, revealed.
A great undulating shape rests in the clouds, its translucent skin revealing shimmering innards. Hundreds of jagged spines jut from its body at random intervals, crackling with lightning that’s dispersed into the clouds that billow from its pores…but as you draw closer, its true nature becomes clear. Its body is simply a sheath, one that contains a sea of disembodied nervous systems.
{The bodies…their bodies are below, but their minds are-} Ozmas chokes out, her disgust giving way to indignation. {This thing won’t stand in our way…}
You can feel the power well up within her frame, as you have countless times before. But still, you can never get used to it…you wonder if anything could possibly contest her, in her current state.
{…nothing can}
Ozmas looses a scream of defiance and fury, the string of arcane epithets hurled like a curse to the heavens. As one, the bodies below and the minds above invert, their own bodies torn apart by a spasm of self-destructive movement. The translucent thing erupts, showering you and Ozmas with neurofilament and liquified remains, but still she surges skyward, even as reality warps, turned inside out in the same manner as your foes, until-
(Climb)
