Crash Landing

Driving the soul power within his body, Lucius started to use the [Dance of the Death God] scythe technique.

'First Movement: Slash!' he shouted internally.

Red vein like patterns started to pulse rapidly in crimson color. The energy then started to coalesce to form black mists near the concave edges of the scythe. The scythe was radiating an eerie and dark feeling.

Just as he entered the range of the rock, Lucius gently flicked his wrist. The scythe shot out in a diagonal arc, slashing onto the large golden rock falling from the sky.

DING!

A sharp sound of a metal cutting into rock was heard. Gritting his teeth, Lucius continued to pour his soul power into the weapon and pushed the execution of his technique to the maximum.

The red energy veins started to pulse even more rapidly, as the scythe slowly sunk into the large rock. With a final push from his side, half of the scythe's edge was already embedded into the rock.

Having secured his hold, Lucius readjusted his grip over the weapon and fiercely pulled himself towards it. Cutting across the air, he finally entered the region of the golden light, surrounding the rock along with Reyna in tow.

Just as their bodies entered this golden field of light surrounding the asteroid, the sensation of falling, the heat due to friction, the wind streams blowing upon their bodies, suddenly disappeared.

Replacing them was a feeling of weightlessness. Their bodies started to....float.

"....What?" Reyna's dumbfounded voice was heard.

Ignoring her, Lucius gently pulled back his scythe from within the rock and floated up towards the top. Landing upon a relatively flat area, he set Reyna down and immediately sat cross-legged and started to recover his soul energy.

An invisible, refreshing energy was surrounding them and entered their bodies. All the piled up exhaustion, both physical and mental, rapidly started to disappear.

Reyna's mind was overtaken by a comfortable feeling. The urge to sleep rapidly grew as her eyelids started to get heavy. She started to yawn and laid upon the ground near Lucius.

Escaping from the space station, falling from the sky, avoid death multiple times, all these factors had led to considerable exhaustion, building up within her mind. Reyna was tired in both mind and spirit. This refreshing energy, which was similar to a warm blanket in cold winter, melted the exhaustion within her mind.

Just as she was about to doze off, Lucius' voice suddenly sounded.

"Get up. Let's go," he spoke while rising up to his feet.

Inspecting the scythe for any damages and ensuring that there were none, he nodded his head in satisfaction. Directing his indifferent gaze towards Reyna, he started at her to get moving.

"But....isn't it safe upon his rock. Can't we just stay here until we land in the ground?" Reyna questioned her.

To understand Reyna's thought, let's take an example. Consider the rock to be like an elevator. Just like how an elevator travels from the top floor to the ground floor at fast speeds while the passengers within feel nothing, the rock and the golden energy field surrounding it played a similar role to the elevators, with Lucius and Reyna being the passengers.

Being told that they had to jump off this 'elevator' once again, did not seem correct in Reyna's opinion.

Hearing her question, Lucius replied with a question of his own.

"Tell me, what will happen when the rock hits the ground with its current speed?" he blandly asked.

Faced with this question, Reyna's tiredness immediately disappeared and her face immediately paled.

An elevator without it's brakes was not an elevator but a death cage. Continuing to fall in their current speeds, without slowing down meant one thing. Their deaths.

"Stop wasting time and get up. We have to jump to another rock." without waiting for her reply, Lucius simply used his arms and pulled her up.

Placing her atop his back, Lucius spoke a two words.

"Hold tight."

He then immediately started running towards the edge of the rock.

"wait!wait!wait!wait!wait!WAIT! AHHHHH!!!" Reyna was given no time to prepare herself mentally, before Lucius jumped.

As their bodies left the golden energy field, all the natural factors which had been absent atop the rock assaulted their bodies once again. Reyna wanted to cry, alas found no tears falling.

Their bodies continued to fall downwards, passing through the layers of black cloud heading towards another golden asteroid.

-----------------------------

Lucius spent the next 10 minutes, performing the same action dozens of times. Finding a rock falling at a lower elevation, jumping towards it, piercing into it with his scythe to secure his position, landing upon it and recovering his soul power, before repeating the above action once again.

Just as he landed onto the fourteenth rock, Lucius could see the ground growing progressively larger in his vision. There were less than 500ft between the rock and the ground.

'Almost there.' Lucius told himself.

'Jump from the rock when you enter the 50ft range with the ground. You will have a very small timeframe to complete this action. Stay alert!' Ka'lor'ah cautioned him.

Lucius did not sit down to recover his soul power, instead of walking near the edge of the rock and intently observing the ground.

Unlike the brown soil, green trees, blue waters present on the Earth, Deatov's surface was completely different.

The sky was ash-grey with black clouds present in them. A single sun, which shone crimson in color provided daylight for 16 hours of the 28-hour cycle. The days were long and the nights were short.

On the ground, one would find the absence of trees or any kind of foliage for that matter. A barren, cracked land which was also grey in color, covered the entire surface of this planet. Water was a scarcity, only present deep within the planet.

Deatov was a mineral planet. Mankind did not come here for water or for scenery, it was here to completely mine the energy resources within the planet's surface.

The entire surface was cracked and shriveled, with grey rocks being the only thing present. Looking into the horizon, one could see the existence of humongous mountains present in the far background, with only their vague silhouette seen.

Watching the ground draw rapidly closer in his vision, Lucius tensed his muscles and bent his knees. Waiting for the exact moment, he slowly counted the seconds.

'NOW!' with a sudden roar in his mind, Lucius unhesitantly jumped off the golden rock.

Zooming across the sky, Lucius' body headed towards the ground. Creating a barrier out of what little soul power he had remaining, Lucius embraced Reyna and braced for impact.

BANG!

With a loud sound, their bodies smashed into the barren grey ground. The force of impact directly destroyed the barrier in front of him and entered Lucius' body. His bones shook and his muscles screamed. Large amounts of pain flooded his mind.

Gritting his teeth, he absorbed the impact in its entirety, taking care to protect Reyna. Her importance was far too great. Having come this far, he could not risk the failure of his plans.

After the initial impact, Lucius' body did not stop but continued to roll through the ground. Although he had negated the impact to the largest extent, the residual force was simply too great.

BAAAANNGGGG!!

An even greater sound was heard from the distance. The large golden rock from which Lucius had jumped, had finally struck the surface. Rolling through the ground, Lucius could feel the large amounts of forces traveling through it. The seemingly solid ground shook like the waves on the surface of the sea.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

More sounds continued to be heard in the distance as the other rocks also started to crash into the ground one after another.

'Lucius! You have to get off the surface immediately!' Ka'lor'ah's panicked voice screamed.

This was something that he obviously knew. Staying on the surface, meant the possibility of being crushed to death by the falling rocks.

Continuing to roll forward, Lucius noticed a large crack on the ground towards his left. The crack seemingly formed a narrow gorge in the land, making a small opening that led into the ground.

'That should be fine.' Lucius told himself.

Forcibly twisting his body, Lucius rolled towards the gorge before finally falling into it.

Just as his body was dropping from a height of 30ft, his senses suddenly warned him of mortal danger. Immediately tossing Reyna aside, he bent his body in an impossible manner.

Just as his body was about to hit the ground, a sharp, spear-like rock fiercely stabbed into his right shoulder, completely impaling it. If not for his last-minute movement, that rock would have successfully pierced his heart!

"argh....!" a low groan exited his mouth, as he threw up a mouthful of blood. The sheer pain from having his flesh pierced and his bone shattered, flooded his mind. His consciousness started to fade, replacing his vision with darkness.

"LUCIUS!" Reyna's panicked scream was heard, followed by the sounds of shuffling feet.

That was the last thing Lucius heard before his mind blacked out.