Read Novel Full Chapter 177: Freefall (2)
Chapter 177: Freefall (2)
Shock.
The shock was the only word capable of describing what I felt when I released my attraction. Unleashing all the repulsion my mentality could handle against the nearby ground, I vectored it behind myself and at a steep angle. Already moving on a parabolic path, I only wanted to increase my speed while regaining some attitude at the same time.
Yet, the insane tightness that I felt all over my body when inertia struck back made me feel as if I would never be able to walk straight ever again. Feeling my blood oozing out of every pore of my body, I had no other choice but to suffer through the rebound of rapid acceleration.
In face of this overwhelming might, even my cultivation improved body reached the brink of collapse. Thankfully, the resistance of the inertia quickly faded away, as soon as the propelling force disappeared. Surviving through the worst part of the entire scheme, there was no longer any need for me to worry.
That is, if not for the fact that I was out to learn a new skill, and I still had no idea how to do it!
Coursing through the open skies, I could feel the residual vapour from the clouds slowly condensing on my face as I made my way through space at some astonishing speed.
But there was something that continued to stop me. Yet, rather than taking it for some kind of magical resistance, I was pretty aware of what the problem was.
Right now, in other to move even an inch forward, a part of my momentum had to be sacrificed to push the air in front of me aside. In other words, the resistance of the medium I was moving through along with the gravity constantly pulling me down made it impossible to break through a certain speed. With the resistance increasing proportionally to my own speed, there was a certain limit that I simply couldn't overcome.
Or could I?
There was no denying that this girl was clearly capable of doing it. Whether it was by using another force to push herself forward or by making her body more slick and aerodynamic, there was a method to overcome this limitation.
Yet, with the air hitting my face at some insane speeds, with my eyes threatening to cave in inwards my skull, I could hardly think about any concept to explain and understand it. All I wanted at this moment, was to get out of the way of all those forces that constantly tortured my body.
And then, it just happened.
As if I suddenly stopped in my tracks, the wind no longer crashed into my face. I could no longer feel my momentum as if my speed suddenly lost its meaning. Looking around, I could see the landscape changing at exactly the same speed at which it did a moment ago… But I couldn't feel a single indicator of moving through the air at a high speed!
Confused by the situation, I looked towards the girl far in the distance. For some strange reason, my eyes were easily capable of locating her.
But there was something strange about her movements. It was as if… She suddenly slowed down…
Out of a sudden, all the standard sensations returned. The flailing of the winds on my face, the resistance of the space itself that made it hard for one to move. All at once, they all returned, instantly putting a strain on my body.
Just like with inertia, humans perceived their reality with change. If one were to be in a world without a change, it would have to be not only a dead world but a dead universe at large. That was one of the reasons why human eyes had to constantly vibrate, introduce even the slightest change to the vision, for one to see an actual reality rather than still images.
And the same applied to things like pain and resistance. When the pressure of the wind disappeared, I could feel an insane relief, as if an overwhelming burden was taken off my shoulders. But at the same time, as soon as this strange moment ended, I was shackled and choked with the restraints that lifted only for a moment.
"CARE…" I didn't even get to hear the rest of the girl's sentence. As soon as I emerged from that strange, resistanceless world, I felt insane exhaustion taking over my mind. With my consciousness fading away, my vision blackened.
"Huh?" With my speed at its maximum, losing consciousness right now was a sure-fire way to die. No matter how enhanced my body was, it wouldn't survive a crash like that. Using every last bit of my strength, I forcefully kept myself awake, only to realise that I was no longer able to exert even a shred of my strength.
After this single moment of traversing the world unbound by its rules, not a single drop of mana remained in my body and soul.
Something like this happened to me for the very first time. Not even when I went berse…
As this sudden idea popped in my mind, I already reached my last straw. Even a single moment of hesitation more, and I would be no longer in control of the situation. Tightening my teeth, I rushed to invoke the very same dark blob of hate that still resided within my soul to this day.
While keeping my schedule packed allowed me to restrain this dark side of my soul, it never disappeared. And although I was capable of keeping it down on the daily basis, moments like the one when I fulfilled Ayda's request regarding that vicious female general only contributed to the slow but steady growth of this dark blob of mine.
Reaching for the core of the taboo, I was about to squeeze it and force all those vile thoughts back into my head, when my mind suddenly exploded in pain. Hitting something with the back of my head, it felt as if the world around me shook all the way to its core.
"Got ya!" Uttering with a tired voice, the winged girl grabbed me underneath my arms, flapping her wings to slow our descent. For a moment, I could only silently judge whether she would manage to slow us down enough before we would both crash into the ground. Then, my consciousness finally gave up.
When I came to be, I could feel the warm rays of the fireplace warming up the toes of my feet. Lazily opening up my eyes, I could barely see anything through the veil of an immense headache that numbed my mind.
"Don't move. You sapped your mana dry. It will take a few hours for your body to recover." Sitting right beside me, the girl calmly moved the ladle around a small pot hanging over the fire. Finally noticing the aroma, I felt as if its heavy, medicinal smell penetrated through the cloud of mind-numbing pain, reaching straight to my brain.
"What is…" Barely capable of uttering just those few words, I looked towards the pot. Putting her free hand on top of my mouth, the girl stopped me from speaking any further.
"You are insanely lucky to be able to taste this brew." Commenting under her nose, the girl didn't bother to even look at me, as if afraid of showing me her face. "Lucky…?" Spelling even a single word was a challenge.
"Normally, one needs to achieve a high court rank before being able to have a taste of this heavenly brew." Muttering silently under her breath, the girl continued to stir the pot for a few more moments, before raising the ladle filled with a greenish looking liquid in it.
Now that the soup was out of the pot, its aroma only exploded in intensity, filling the entire clearing around us. As if reinforcing my strength with just its smell, I felt my body moving on its own. Raising from a lying position, I leaned over my knees before greedily grabbing the bottom of the ladle and nearing my lips to its edge.
For some reason, it felt as if I was compelled to drink it, without the slightest care in the world about the hot metal burning the palms of my hands or the hot liquid frying my throat. The one thing I could do right now was to swallow mouthful after mouthful of this strange drink.
But as painful as this therapy was, I could feel its insane effect instantly. As if the purest form of energy suddenly exploded in my body, the warm brew dissolved into life itself.
As soon as I emptied out the utensil, my lungs instantly started craving some fresh air. With my breathing suddenly hastening, it felt as if every single breath struck into this blob of energy within me, filling my flesh with its sparks.
After just a few minutes of breathing roughly, all the signs of exhaustion and mana deprivation disappeared from my body, filling my mind with an intricate state of calmness.
In the end, even after my strength recovered, I still had to take some time to calm my agitation down. Insanely surprised by the effectiveness of this drink, I could only stare with awe at the girl who somehow whipped it out in the middle of nowhere.
"What is this drink?" Still in awe, I could only utter those words.
"Didn't I tell you?" Shaking her head, the girl replied. "It's a Heavenly brew. You don't need to know anything else. But more importantly…" With the sparks of curiosity appearing in the girl's eyes, she suddenly fell to all fours before approaching my side and staring at me intensely.
"How did you manage to hold the phasing for so long? It's the first time I saw anyone do it like that!"