Eternal Malediction (RE)

Chapter 112: Copycat

The wind didn’t ease but, if anything, grew sharper and became more aggressive as they got closer to Earth, as if the sky itself resisted what Nova was about to do.

His body steadied just enough; that was all he needed, a simple decision.

Nova’s hand slipped inside his jacket, fingers moving with slow and precise motion despite the violent drag of the air; for a brief moment, his grip search... Then he found it. And he pulled it free.

He pulled out a thing, a rigid, green card.

From deep within him Prana surged through his core, threading along his veins and snapping into his fingertips like drawn wire. The sensation was sharp, electric and controlled, but only just.

His fingers tightened around the card as he spoke to himself, "... Let’s see if these hold. " The Prana didn’t stop at his skin; it flowed outward as if it were spreading and stretching. It shouldn’t have mattered. A simple object, weightless in a storm of falling bodies, and then he looked down to the visible earth as they just pierced through the cloudy layer, and he threw the card towards it.

But the moment it violently spun with purpose towards the Earth, something shifted within it. Prana stirred, not gently nor slowly.

It surged.

At first, it was nothing visible, just a distortion, like heat rising from stone. Then it expanded further, pushed by its own will alone, forced into shape. A plane, it looked unnaturally plastic-smooth and long, as if its surface were made out of rubber.

It folded beneath them, extending across the open air toward the distant forest below. Not falling with them but anchoring itself, resisting gravity in a way that made the world feel slightly wrong.

A translucent stretch of energy shimmered faintly as it spread wider and wider until the green colour deepened; it was now solidified into the shape Nova intended it to become.

The first body hit it with a dull impact and then a rebound; instead of breaking or snapping a bone and ending in silence, the body stretched on the green plane. The force dispersed across the surface, was redirected and softened.

Alive. Another hit. Then another.

One after another, the falling figures struck the green plane, stretched it and lived, all while some rolled, and some bounced awkwardly and some slid across the surface before coming to a stop. The prana thickened in waves beneath the impact zone of where the plane was going to land, reinforcing just before contact and thinning elsewhere to conserve output. A constant recalculation, a shifting lattice of energy adapting in real time.

Nova’s gaze sharpened.

There were still some others falling, and he picked them out instantly, the worst cases. The ones with no chance of surviving even a softened impact. Those were the ones he prioritised, subtly guiding the surface’s tension beneath them. The rest... would manage.

One by one, the critical impacts were absorbed, and the storm of bodies thinned and the chaos above lessened. Nova exhaled through his nose, steady despite the strain clawing at his focus.

That’s enough.

He released a fraction of the output, letting the outer edges of the construct dissolve into the air. The massive stretch of green shrank, concentrating beneath the remaining descent path. Then, his own landing.

Nova angled his body, aligning with the surface he’d created. The wind still tore at him, but now he had control just enough to guide himself cleanly. The moment approached fast.

Closer... Closer...

The surface flexed beneath him, prana dispersing the force as his body made contact. The rebound was controlled and minimal. He absorbed the rest through his stance, boots skidding slightly across the green plane before stabilising completely.

Around him, scattered bodies lay across the construct. Groaning and shifting, some beginning to stir back into consciousness.

Nova didn’t linger on them. His hand moved to his face towards the mask.

There was a brief pause, and then he pulled it off. The wind tugged at his hair immediately, but he ignored it, letting the mask hang loosely at his side. The disguise wasn’t needed anymore, not here, not now.

As they glided down on this green plane till they reached the ground with a bit of a jerky journey to the Earth, the green plane evaporated back into prana once again. His gaze lifted upward; someone else had moved. Roy didn’t see them, but they weren’t falling; they were moving.

It was Kieran, already awake and already working; figures were clustered around him mid-descent. No, that was wrong; they were not clustered but more like connected like a chain.

People linked together, one after another, their bodies forming a rough line extending from him. Some conscious, gripping tightly. Others limp, dragged along by those who still had awareness.

He looked to the side at the area at which they were going to land, a forest with barely any open space, and in a moment flung his hand to the side, releasing prana from his fingertips, cutting the trees surrounding the area in which they were about to land.

Trees fell; leaves fall while swaying side to side. Now there was a good amount of space for them to land in without getting touched by the trees and their branches.

Roy watched as the chain descended rapidly, closing the distance to the forest floor. They were too fast. Even though they were organised, that speed would kill them, and Kieran knew that. Which means he’s waiting for the last moment.

Roy’s eyes narrowed slightly as the chain of human beings was about to splatter onto the ground. Then he saw it. Right before impact, Kieran moved with a controlled release, his soul art or at least what people thought it was.

Reversal.

The effect was immediate, with the downward velocity that was violent and lethal collapsing in on itself. Not stopped. Not blocked.

Reversed in meaning, the magnitude flipped.

What should have been a catastrophic impact turned into a controlled deceleration, the entire chain of bodies slowing sharply in the final instant before touching the ground.

They landed.

Harder than Nova’s group, of course, because he became stationary right before hitting the ground, but the main point is that they were safe; none had broken bodies or died.

Just rough, survivable impact.

The slightly opened forest floor accepted them ungraciously.

Leaves scattered. Branches shook. The aftermath of force but not destruction caused by Roy and the green plane.

Roy watched the landing in silence for a brief moment.

His gaze lowered again, scanning the people around him as more began to stir, confusion slowly replacing unconsciousness.

Roy rolled his shoulder once. Then his grip tightened slightly around the mask in his hand, and he put it into his pocket.

The situation wasn’t over. Not even close, but the fall was managed for now.