Intruder From the Sky

Sezel squeezed his eyes shut and plunged into the purple maelstrom of energy, swirling like the eye of a storm.

His heart tried to hammer its way out of his chest. His lungs burned, each breath a ragged gasp for air that wasn't there.

Damn it all.

Sezel's body crossed through the gate and shot through the other side, now he could just hope to be transported to a safe place inside the Spirit Realm. But his luck said otherwise. The moment his body exited the rift, his pupils shrank to pinpricks. His mind wiped itself clean.

There was no ground beneath him. His gaze dipped down to confirm the horrifying truth: he was suspended in the open sky, with the earth a terrifying distance below.

'Tsk, this is bad.'

It was indeed worse than bad. It was a death sentence. His body plummeted, clothes fluttering violently as he gained velocity. The air was a physical thing, clawing at his wet clothes as gravity took hold, yanking him down faster and faster. Each passing second added to his momentum, pulling him toward the ground like a meteor destined for impact.

His body was in terminal free fall, he could twist, he could turn, but what good would it do? Land on his legs? They'd turn to powder. Grab a tree? His arms would be ripped from his body.

'Shit, there is no way to land safely,' he realized with a surge of panic. And what is this place?

He squinted. A sun. A real sun was blazing above him, scorching the rain from his clothes until they steamed. The sky was blue. Azure. He jumped inside the Gate and was supposed to be transported to the Spirit Realm, and he pictured himself to be greeted by the same void of a starless sky.

But contrary to that, there was a sun, few clouds drifted across the azure sky, was he even in the Spirit Realm?

But leaving that for now, the main issue was the landing, because that question could wait. The ground couldn't. 'I need to think of something.' He searched his person for any kind of aid, but found only the cold steel of the katana and the dead weight of the pistol.

'Well I think I am stupid.'

He recalled the Slayers who had entered before him, each equipped with a large backpack. Those packs likely contained survival gear and other stuff a Slayer needs to survive in the Spirit Realm, perhaps even a parachute. But regret was a useless luxury.

What's done is done, there was no way Sezel could revert back time and then grab one of those packs. The only thing he could do was to focus on mitigating the impact. The only way was to find a surface that could absorb the shock.

He searched through the forest below, that seemed to be on a higher altitude from the rest of the land around it, like a sole mountain standing atop a flat ground all around. His gaze darted through the forest. Time was running out. The wind had begun to whip at his skin with stinging force.

The pressure and the constantly changing speed didn't let him fathom his landing spot. He opened his arms and legs, attempting to increase his surface area and slow his descent, but the fabric of his shirt strained, threatening to tear apart under the pressure.

As the distance shortened, his heart hammered, his mind fractured into pure chaos. Then, just a few hundred meters from impact, he spotted it: a wide, flat expanse cutting through the trees, its surface appearing strangely soft compared to the surrounding terrain.

Sezel gulped hard, 'I have no choice, but to do it.'

He unbuttoned his shirt, flanking it above his head, fashioning it into a makeshift parachute, putting all his effort into slowing himself down and changing the course of his direct impact. The technique did work, his speed decreased marginally, just enough to guide his fall toward the soft-looking surface.

THUD!

"Fuck." The word was beaten out of him as a tremendous pain laced through every bone and muscle in his body. His head spun and his stomach churned violently, forcing him to throw up. He collapsed onto the semi-soft ground as wide as a highway road, his body a single, throbbing ache.

As he lay there gasping, he felt a strange sensation. Suddenly everything around him moved. He staggered to his feet, clutching the tattered remains of his shirt, and watched in disbelief as the massive trees around him began to drift by. His heart skipped a beat.

He checked the surface around him, brushing his hand over the soft scales, 'No way,'. The realization was a cold spike of dread in his gut. He was on the back of a colossal animal, the brown scales were indifferent from mud.

'It's a damn snake.' he realized. A leviathan.

Sezel took a few large breaths and stood up, covering the shirt over his body once again. He lurched to his feet, ready to run, to jump, to do anything. Suddenly the immense creature stopped, the abrupt halt in momentum throwing him off balance.

It was too late. He felt an immense pressure descend upon him, the palpable aura of a predator. He turned slowly, his heart stomping in his ears, and met the gaze of two enormous eyes, they were fixed on him, the intruder from the sky. The sound of its deep, resonant hiss was a death chime played just for Sezel.