Eternal Malediction (RE)

Chapter 111: Sky High

The wind was screaming, tearing through the air like something alive, a feral, relentless force that clawed away at everything caught within its grasp. It howled past ears, causing Nova’s black cloak to flutter veraciously while it pressed against skin. Forcing its way into lungs in sharp, uneven bursts.

A bright, unyielding light.

Even with eyes closed, it was there. Blinding. Bleeding through the edges of eyelids like a crack in reality itself. It was harsh, an endless white that refused to fade

For a moment, there was nothing else. There was no ground, no sky or any sense of direction.

Just light and the sound of howling wind.

Nova’s brow twitched, then his eyes opened. The brightness slammed into him, forcing his pupils to constrict as the world rushed into focus all at once.

An endless sky, but it was in the wrong direction.

The horizon stretched above and not below. Clouds drifted like scattered islands across an inverted ocean. The world was flipped, twisted into something his brain struggled to process.

Then it clicked; he wasn’t looking up but looking down.

He was falling, upside down.

The realisation hit like a jolt through his spine, and his body instinctively reacted. His limbs tensed. Fingers twitching as his sense of balance scrambled to reorient itself. Air rushed past him, dragging his cloak and pulling his hair while pressing against his face with relentless force.

Nova’s eyes darted around after getting accustomed to the blinding light caused by the setting sun. He wasn’t alone. Other bodies surrounded him, dozens of them flailing and more in the distant.

They were doused in dark orangey-red light with a light blue and white outline caused by the sky and the clouds. Some spinning and some tumbling uncontrollably. Others were stiff, limp and completely unresponsive. Their limbs flailed violently as the wind tore at them, twisting their forms like discarded puppets.

All of them were unconscious.

His gaze darted from one figure to another, quickly assessing. They were falling too fast.

Nova exhaled slowly, forcing his breathing to stabilise despite the chaos. The air resisted him, but he pushed through it, grounding himself in the moment.

His mask shifted upwards, a faint slip against his skin.

Without hesitation, Nova lifted his single gloved hand, fighting against the resistance as he reached up and pressed the mask back into place as the dark crimson teardrop jewel that was attached on the fly flew side to side. His fingers adjusted it with practised precision, ensuring it sat firmly where it belonged.

It was now stable; his gaze steadied again onto the endless sky.

And then... The fog returned to him.

A creeping, suffocating presence, slipping into his thought like something unwelcome yet familiar. A pull. He remembered the sensation of being dragged, of being pulled in. Like gravity had shifted its focus and chosen him specifically, and not just him but other specific individuals as well. They were taken. But why them?

Nova’s eyes narrowed slightly as he thought about why they were taken away; it was as if someone had brought them here and now, they were being dropped, from this height...

He glanced around again, this time thinking. There was no visible ground as they hadn’t pierced through the clouds yet, but it was coming. The Earth was coming. The subtle shift in pressure, the way the wind clawed more aggressively as they descended deeper.

They were extremely high, but close enough to the earth that most people wouldn’t even comprehend the situation before it ended.

Nova exhaled.

Impact would be absolute for many of these people if they didn’t do anything to try and survive, but most will fail.

His gaze flicked back to the unconscious figures around him. Their limbs are limp, heads tilted at unnatural angles, and if nothing changes, "They will all die."

Nova closed his eyes briefly and breathed in and out. Then he opened his eyes with a sharper intent.

So that was the situation. His thoughts aligned quickly while falling, looking at multiple individuals with extremely limited time.

His lips pressed into a thin line. "... Right."

A quiet sigh escaped him, not of frustration, not of fear, but of acknowledgement.

Of course it will be like that.

Nova’s eyes tracked the nearest figure to him, a boy, maybe late around the same age, tumbling head over heels with no sign of awareness.

Another.

A woman, arms flung outward and her hair waving while spinning, slower but still out of control. Distance was not that big of a problem, but the rate of descent was a bigger one.

They were all falling at roughly the same rate, but positioning mattered; without control, he couldn’t reach them effectively.

And even if he could, then what? Catch them?

He clicked his tongue softly. There were more than ten people in his view as well and a lot more in the distance.

He wanted to be efficient; Nova’s mind moved faster now, running through possibilities. Discarding them just as quickly.

He didn’t have ropes or tools to use, and he didn’t have time to wake them up individually, and even if he did, panic would make things a lot worse.

Untrained people flailing mid-air?

That’s just faster death. His eyes narrowed. So brute force solutions are out. That leaves his gaze shifted upwards towards the distant, inverted sky.

Think. What do I actually have control of here?

Air. Position. Momentum. Prana.

That’s it.

Nothing else. No external structures. No terrain to use.

Just... Nova’s eyes widened slightly.

A small shift in his posture again. More deliberate this time.