"Sadistic Monster who loves causing irreparable damage," Geralt said with dead eyes.
"A fucking Sociopath who likes breaking others' objects because it gives him a sense of pleasure." Brance retorted with an equally dead expression.
"A lunatic who doesn't give a shit about anything other than his stupid plans and experiments," Stated Jessup as he struggled to shift the weight of the Cube to his non-dominant hand.
With their hurtful comments' three metaphorical arrows struck Cynrik's chest, causing him to stumble back and grab at the point of impact.
CRITICAL HIT! PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE WAS TAKEN!
"Why you gotta say such hateful and hurtful things…" Cynrik grumbled as he went through the motions of pulling out the metaphorical arrows from his body.
"Tsk, yall bastards are really trying me. Do you truly believe I won't sever the main cable and drop this fucking Cube to the ground and kill everyone inside?" Sucking his teeth and looking down at Brance, the left side of Cynrik's mouth curled up in a twisted smile, causing a shiver to run down the youngest Jetlensr's spine.
"Ha…ha…haa, we are only joking with you, big brother, who is wise, strong, and handsome. We would never actually believe in the wrong things we said." Failing to hide the apparent fear leaking in his voice, Brance back peddled instantly, causing Geralt beside him to nod like a bobblehead doll in approval.
"That's what I thought," with a satisfied grin, Cynrik looked up at Jessup as if waiting for his response. Instead of a praiseworthy performance, strain and annoyance painted the old man's face.
BOOOM x-9
Nine rapid and sequential explosions shook the house as Jessup ignored Cynrik and ruptured as many holes in the walls and one in the ceiling of the Training room as booms.
"Kid, I can't hold this thing forever, so knock off the petty bullshit and get up here."
"Nuh-uh, not until you take back what you said. I have all day. In fact, I find the Shadow Realm quite comfortable, so much so that I could probably even take a nice long nap here on the Cube." The smile dropped off his face, and a bored expression replaced the twisted one previously exuded by Cynrik as he quickly laid down while using the braided cords like an Umbra Mana Bed.
"Huh, oh for fuck sake, FINE, I take back what I said; you aren't someone who doesn't give a shit about anything other than plans and experiments, now hurry up and get this weight off my hands before my arm's snap off."
The distraction caused by opening the holes in the training room was enough to break Jessup's focus on the Cube he was single-handedly holding up. His feet had even begun sliding on the ground, drawing him closer to the portal as the seconds ticked.
"Meh, I guess that will have to be enough, ALRIGHT!" Cynrik bounced to his feet with a slight grunt, pulled the braided cords near his body, and clutched at the air.
Instantly, all eight of the tree trunk-sized Mana constructs condensed while releasing an eerie black glow. From their original size, they constricted and tightened as they rapidly transformed into the size of a thin piece of rebar.
However, unlike the steel alloy bars, these eight thin braided cords were as flexible as a strand of hair, and in seconds, Cynrik gripped hold of each piece, collecting four in each hand, and lept through the portal, back into reality.
Like before, when he fell into the Shadow Realm, the sudden change in G-force caused his stomach to churn; however, having expected this effect, Cynrik quickly ignored it and set about securing each of the cables into fixed positions around the room.
Luckily, like the Spatial Cube, the training room was in the shape of a perfect square, so although a few sizes smaller than the massive Cube, it was plenty big to distribute the cords evenly.
"Alright, together now, Jessup, we need to distribute the weight onto the cradle slowly, or else the cables will snap one after another like a rubber band pulled too far." Once the cords were secured, Cynrik flashed to Jessup's side and took hold of the main line, then floated up with a slow and steady blast of fire.
Below him, Jessup's body shimmered in Blue and Gold light as his feet left the ground, and he rose to the air, slowly trailing behind Cynrik as he pulled the Cube along with him.
For the next five minutes, things were tense for Cynrik, Brance, Jessup, and Geralt as the two people, in reality, closed the last couple of meters toward the barrier before securing the main line to the ceiling.
Almost instantly, the entire training room seemed to bow inward as the immense weight of the Spatial Cube was pushed onto the metallic walls and ceiling. After a few heated seconds, everything stabilized, and Jessup and Cynrik collapsed in exhaustion.
"Heh, well, that was fucking tedious, sitting up and crossing his legs; Cynrik started meditating to restore as much Fire Mana as his body could hold, a process which would take some time to finish.
Down below, Geralt and Brance undid the harnesses around their bodies and secured them to the ceiling of the Spatial Cube in opposite directions of the center of the construct.
Happy to finally have this stressful endeavor over, Geralt exhaled loudly and began laughing as his eyes met Brance's, and the two shared a moment.
Unlike Cynrik, who had been relatively idle since the slow climb began, Geralt and Brance's bodies were pushed to their utmost extreme. Being forced to bear a weight of 175 tons each, since it was equally distributed between them, was no easy task, and it left the two of them low on STAM and at around 65% HP.
The second the Cube left the ground in the Shadow Realm, and the weight was put on their bodies by way of the Umbra tendrils, the two had watched their HP steadily decline slowly.
The longer they found themselves in this awkward and uncomfortable situation, the more stress was put on their bodies. Muscles and ligaments tore, bones fractured, and if it weren't for the two of them having such high VIT stats, making their Passive Regeneration so high, they would have been crushed before ever reaching the halfway point.
Although they wanted to start the evacuation process as soon as possible, Geralt and Brance knew they needed to address their physical situation first, so for the next couple of minutes, the two downed a cocktail of HP and STAM potions until their resource stats were back at their maximum, before spreading out and picking out the people whose injuries were the most severe.
"OI, the docking procedure is complete; what is taking you guy's so long? Geralt, open the damn lid and allow the Ambient Elemental Particles to flood into the Cube. Brance needs time to get his HolyFire and Light Mana back charged up, so it's up to you to Start bringing the dead weight to the surface so I can expel the Death Mana in their bodies." Having finished up his Meditation, Cynrik pressed his face against the Spatial Cube and shouted at his brother and Geralt.
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