Back to The present
At the center of the reflective palace there was a giant flesh fish that had just destroyed a gate like it was paper and then.
The world exploded in a storm of impact and motion.
The moment Kai launched himself forward, his body vanished into a streak of blurred after-images. The crimson glow of his eyes pulsed, sharpening everything the twitch of a tendril, the vibration of the air, even the faint wet sound of flesh shifting beneath the reflective palace flooring.
The first small flesh-fish darted toward him, its body more a pulsating lump of meat than a creature. Kai's blade flashed.
SCHK!
The creature split cleanly in half, dissolving into stringy meat fibers before it even hit the ground. Another came from the left he twisted, let it pass inches from his throat, and thrust his flaming dagger backward, piercing its malformed head. The flame roared, eating through it like paper.
Three more rushed in, their teeth clicking wetly. Kai landed low, spun, and in one fluid chain of movement cut all three a downward slash, a rising slice, and a snap-kick that sent the last spiraling into a reflective wall where it smeared like rotten clay.
The reflective palace trembled.
And then,
BOOM.
A tentacle the width of a tree trunk slammed down, crushing the ground where Kai had just stood. Shards of mirror-like floor shot outward like knives.
Kai leaped back, body blurring.
BOOM.
Another tentacle descended, the impact rippling through the entire palace.
BOOM.
A third one.
BOOM.
A fourth.
Each strike shook the world.
Kai gritted his teeth, eyes sharpening into his Third Vision, the air around him bending as lightning began to crackle through his veins.
Move faster.
He darted sideways becoming lightning itself. The tentacles tore through his after-image, pulverizing the ground.
They retracted with terrifying speed.
Then,
FWUMMM
They shot forward again, this time moving at the speed of whips cracking.
Kai felt the air pressure spike as the first tentacle swept horizontally toward him. He dropped under it, slid across the floor, switched to fire mid-movement, and conjured a bow of pure flame. A blazing arrow formed instantly.
He fired.
The arrow streaked across the palace and fizzled uselessly against the flesh behemoth.
"Tch."
No reaction. No wound. As if it hadn't even noticed.
Then the tentacles aligned again,
Second one descending.
Third one carving through the ground behind him.
Fourth coming for his ribs.
Kai spun, jumped, rolled, and evaded each blow by only a breath, the palace floor exploding behind him in cascading shockwaves.
He kicked off a chunk of shattered flooring, soared upward, and landed on one tentacle as it withdrew. The flesh beneath his foot pulsed and writhed like a living throat.
Kai sprinted along it.
He dashed toward the massive central flesh-fish the one whose many faces blinked in eerie unison. It towered above the flesh ocean, surrounded by its thousand puppet spawn.
He leapt.
Hands extended.
Fire gathering in his palm.
A beam forming,
And then,
All at once the thousand flesh-faces turned their eyes toward him.
Even the enormous five faces surrounding the core slowly peeled their eyelids open. Their maws gaped with unnatural angles, revealing rows of mismatched teeth.
Oh… no.
RRRRRRAAAAAAOOOOOOHHHHHHHH—!!!
Five mouths opened at once.
The world burst into chaos.
A torrent of water, ice, mist, wind, and erosion energy blasted upward in a converging sphere of destruction.
Kai barely reacted in time.
He ignited the fire element beneath his feet.
FOOM!
and the explosion of flames pushed him backwards.
But the force was too much.
He lost control mid-air.
The blast hurled him toward the reflective palace doors like a ragdoll.
His back hit the massive door.
CRASH!!!
Pain exploded through his spine. His dagger flew from his hand, skittering across the mirrored ground.
His breath vanished.
His vision shook.
No time.
The five tentacles shot toward him again,
all of them converging toward his pinned form.
Kai forced air into his lungs,
and threw himself sideways just as the tentacles slammed down.
BOOOOOM—!!!!
The shockwave rolled through the hall, flipping him mid-air.
He hit the ground, rolled, and switched to wind. A current wrapped around him and he glided low across the reflective surface like a leaf pushed by a storm.
But the small flesh-fish didn't slow.
They rushed him in a swarm.
Kai gritted his teeth, holstered his dagger sheath, and ripped out his gun instead. As he slid backwards, he aimed upward and opened fire.
BANG!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Each bullet punched through a fish, tearing holes through fleshy skulls. They burst into wet clouds of meat.
The giant fish's heads rotated again,
The five colossal mouths opened wide.
This time Kai was ready.
Wind surged around him.
He thrust both hands forward,
a roaring storm current erupted and attempted to deflect the incoming barrage.
Water smashed into his wind barrier.
Ice stabbed through it.
Mist seeped around it.
Wind shredded it.
Erosion dissolved it.
The five elements overwhelmed him simultaneously.
KAAAAA—!!!
Kai's scream was lost in the explosion.
The blast tore him from the palace, his body flipping uncontrollably in the air. His gun spun from his grip. His limbs trembled.
The glittering mirror sky approached rapidly.
Kai exhaled in relief.
I'll land on the reflective layer.
His back struck the mirror sky,
except it wasn't solid.
It shattered like thin ice.
CRACK—SHATTER—!!
Kai's eyes widened as he passed through the mirror surface.
Nothing caught him.
No force pushed him back.
He fell straight through,
and below him, the world turned red.
The vast flesh ocean rippled beneath him, tentacles writhing like serpents, thousands of tiny flesh-fish gathering at the surface, waiting.
He kept falling.
Kai gripped the air, trying to summon wind.
but his concentration wavered.
He looked up.
The swarm of flesh-fish was already diving after him.
He looked down.
The ocean of pulsating meat rose to meet him.
In the final second before impact.
Kai's crimson eyes flickered once.
And then.
he plunged toward the flesh ocean.