068 A Strung Bow

The wind that had carried them upward vanished in an instant. Gravity reasserted itself with a vengeance.

They were falling.

Penny yelped, flailing as the sky itself seemed to fold around them.

Gryphon was already casting, but the sudden change in physics had thrown the mage off his tempo, and he was clearly struggling to gather his magic. "Hold on, hold on—!"

Azel twisted mid-air, grabbing Penny's wrist before she could spin out of control. He blasted out a wave of raw, precious mana, propelling them toward Colwyn, ensuring they stayed close together. If they separated now, they'd never find each other again in this collapsing space.

The sky—no, the world—was coming apart in jagged, shifting shards of light.

The ground below warped unpredictably, flickering between solid land and endless void.

Gryphon snarled. "This is really not ideal!"