Space folded. And kept folding.
The maw's far edge creased inward like paper, torn fingers closing around it, green blood oozing from them as black bones protruded from beneath tattered skin.
"Haah!" Those fingers pulled, dragging an arm with shredded muscle upward, until a violent jerk from below wrenched it back down.
Olivas whipped his head downward, one bloodshot eye staring, teeth rattling loose, plunging into darkness below.
"Bell Cranel! You leech! Let go!" He thrashed his hips, legs arcing side to side. But Bell clung to his thighs, body swinging with the momentum.
Olivas tried to flex his finger, but the ring there had already dissolved into ash. Locking his muscles, he drove his free fist downward, tearing toward Bell's crown.
Bell tilted his head, and those black knuckles grazed past his cheek, but the sound of popping bones echoed as the creature broke his own shoulder, redirecting his fist into a wide, pendulum-like sweep.
Letting go of Olivas's thighs, Bell's grip slid down to his ankles, the sweeping strike missing his skull by an inch.
Then he yanked hard on his grip. The creature's hold on the maw's edge slipped, sending both of their bodies plummeting once more. Yet Bell's spine was already curving into a U-shape, heels leading, shins following, knees folded.
Olivas stretched his arm to its absolute limit, his slipping fingers grasping desperately for the edge.
Before he could reach it, Bell's heels planted firmly on his spine, launching himself upward by using the creature as a springboard, hurling Olivas down into darkness in the same motion.
Bell's body hung suspended mid-air, arm outstretched, fingers grazing that edge when—
A violent force wrenched him down.
Olivas clutched both of his feet, a horrendous smile across his half-melted face. That edge and Bell's fingers slipped past each other by a fraction, then the distance between them rapidly widened.
One centimeter. Ten. Thirty.
A tail sailed through air, coiling around his wrist and arresting his fall. A stone wing followed, bracing against his back for support, and finally, a slender hand descended, closing around his tattered collar.
Three faces gazed down from above. Lyd, Gros, and Alfia.
All three heaved him upward, and Bell ascended, but Olivas rose with him, still clinging to his feet.
The creature opened his mouth, biceps straining as he prepared to spring himself above all of them. "Haha... thanks for the assist, everyo—"
Bell's bare foot planted on his nose. Flames exploded outward, point-blank into his face.
Everything flashed white.
When Olivas's vision snapped back, he was already plummeting, that edge meters above him, while Bell's feet touched down on its surface.
Air tore against his back, and darkness swallowed his arms first, then his torso, followed by legs.
The last to vanish was his face.
A moment before it did, Olivas snarled, his voice reaching up to all of them. "Bell Cranel! Watch out for your Goddesses, we'll target them next!"
And he was gone. Swallowed into unending darkness, falling down floor after floor.
Bell froze mid-ascent, his breath going still, and under everyone else's gazes, he slowly twisted his neck back, looking into that darkness with a single eye.
"... Unfortunately for you, there will be no next time."
He mumbled as his heels dug into the surface, that tail, wing, and hand holding him retreating.
Alfia stood ahead of him, arms crossed once again beneath her chest, eyes glancing past his shoulder to where Olivas had vanished.
Standing to the left was Lyd, rubbing his head with a single claw. "What do you mean by no next time, Bell-chi?"
Wings folding at his sides with a flap, Gros raked his tail across the ground, wiping green blood from it. "If you want to target that thing now, Bell Cranel, it will be nearly impossible from here."
Bell turned toward Gros and nodded once. "You're right, targeting him precisely from up here would be impossible, but who said I was only targeting him?"
A collective silence fell at his question.
He shifted his gaze behind Alfia, where Mahoraga had already dissolved beneath its waist, white flecks drifting over to merge back into him.
The Divine General smirked in his direction before vanishing entirely, the wheel above it floating over to lock in place above his head.
"Hey Lyd, can you give me your scimitar?" Bell asked, turning around to face the maw, lead foot sliding an inch forward to rest at the very edge of it.
"Eh? Sure, take it." Lyd's hand went to his sword before he finished those words, unsheathing it from the scabbard and holding it toward Bell.
Gros rested his hands on his hips, eyes narrowing at the exchange, though he didn't say anything.
Bell extended his arm leftward, fingers closing around the scimitar's hilt.
Alfia brought her gaze to him at that motion, taking in his posture, her eyes moving from his feet to crown before landing on a golden flake flickering across his bound hair.
"... Don't make too much noise."
With those words, she grabbed Lyd's swishing tail near her and pulled him along.
"Huh? Alfia-chi, where are you dragging me off to!?"
Alfia didn't reply, only dragging him away faster. She blurred and halted two streets away, looking back at Bell alongside a protesting Lyd who kept trying to jerk his tail free.
Golden radiance bled from Bell's palms as he aligned that scimitar downward, tip pointing at the maw's centre.
He glanced to his right at Gros. "You should fall back to a safe distance."
"Hmph." The Gargoyle folded his arms behind his back and didn't budge.
"I warned you," Bell said as flames ignited over the scimitar, its metal heating to an orange-red visible to a naked eye.
Heat mirages materialised within a hundred meters. Streets far to either side seemed to stretch and warp, drawing close. A rock shook loose from a building on the stretching street to his left and fell to the ground, yet no sound came.
Gros swept his face around, taking a step back unconsciously.
Cracks raced across that scimitar now, more light bleeding from them and illuminating the maw's depths, banishing shadows like sunlight.
Bell brought his other hand forward, closing it into a fist. Fire expanded from both edges, solidifying and arching into a bow.
Gales picked up next, spiralling behind his elbow as he nocked the scimitar on his bow. Wind curved on winds, expanding skyward, a twister of reddish-orange swirling behind him.
Water from a well nearby rose in small drops, dissolving into vapour with each inch they ascended.
Rooftops, lampposts, and entire streets peeled upward like ribbons and flew toward the twister, disintegrating within its vortex of flames.
A wayward gale slammed into Gros, and he only had time to widen his eyes before his feet wrenched from the ground, hurling him into a house four streets away.
Bell pulled his scimitar arm back to its full length. His bow's body curved like a spine, golden strings erupting around him in the thousands and plunging into that maw.
He freed a single finger from the bow and curved it, making a beckoning gesture.
All those strings twitched, then tore free and twisted along the scimitar's body, aligning with those cracks running across it.
Bell held it there for a moment.
Then let go.
The weapon was nocked on his bow one moment, and the next it had already vanished into that maw silently, leaving a trail of golden flakes behind.
The twister behind Bell's elbow died abruptly, as if someone had cleaved it in two.
Everything returned to calm as he turned around and walked away.
Only his whisper was left behind.
"Hold on tight, Olivas."
A pause.
"... And you too."
...
..
.
[Author's Thoughts]
Alright, and one thing here, its not the spirit he is saying the last line to.
Oh and today, there's a Fate chapter coming too later.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!