143 A Daring Escape For Two (2/2)

This was not what he envisioned when he wanted to prove himself dependable to Lu'um. Coming back as half of a severed torso would not send the message he wanted. Surviving by the skin of my teeth isn't what he wanted. That would not cut it this time around for Reed.

I've never seen a dependable sock puppet before, much less a living one. Don't think Sweetcheeks would be very happy if she saw me return like that...

Then again, I'm pretty sure she'd prefer to see me alive rather than dead at the end of the day, so...

The fissure had been closing for some time already, to the point that Reed could now faintly the shadows of either end of the fissure. If he didn't make up his mind, he'd turn into mush when it was completely sealed.

Reed had nearly given up on getting out in one piece as he envisioned until...

He saw a tiny, gleaming dot in the distance. It was small but it continued to grow larger for every second that passed until it turned into a giant, shining comet.

Oh, great. What could it be this time? Another problem for me to deal with, huh. Just my goddamned luck.

Reed gathered Anima around himself and strengthen his aegis the best he could since there was nothing else he could do. He was already going way too fast to doing any kind of evading.

He was on a crash course was imminent with whatever had been unlucky to fall into the fissure. Either Reed could break through it with his immense force, or it would turn him into meat paste should he fail.

That was what Reed initially thought it would go down until he realized how very... familiar the comet's shine was to him, as if he had seen it somewhere else.

W-Wait, should—

The gigantic comet suddenly passed by Reed in the blink of an eye and suddenly performed a graceful 180-degree drift back toward the surface, dragging him in its tremendous wake, accelerating him way past what he had been capable of.

It was Mother-Bound-In-Stars. She had descended into the fissure herself to recover Reed after she saw that he had not yet returned.

Reed quickly figured out what Mother-Bound-In-Stars wanted him to do and hurriedly clawed his way onto her shell as fast as he could. She was several orders faster than he went it came to speed, so he focused all of his efforts onto the simple task of holding on to her.

Mother-Bound-In-Stars was akin to speed incarnate in Reed's eyes. He couldn't even keep up with their surroundings as they blurred into a haze of color and light. It was a genuinely terrifying experience as he screamed his lungs out in fear.

He could literally feel his bones rumbling precariously within his body, as if they were made of glass. His sweat and tears poured out and streamed backward as he struggled to keep onto the blazing comet with all of his might.

”CAN... YOU... SLOW... THE... FUCK... DOWN!!!!!!!”

When Mother-Bound-In-Stars heard Reed's frantic request, she turned her head around and, in an all too human fashion, did something he had never seen before. It put the fear of God in Reed.

Her eyes gleamed mischievously, as if she had been amused by the request. For once, Reed had said something she liked.

She loved it when someone tried to tell her, the Empress of Centlani Deep, what to she should do —when someone dared to challenge her rule.

Reed felt a sudden chill run down his spine when her shell started to shine even brighter than before. An enormous amount of Anima gathered around them and then...

Mother-Bound-In-Stars got serious. She unleashed her full power and cut loose, hurtling upward so fast that her shell had caught on actual fire.... along with Reed.

She had seemingly turned into an actual meteor. There was no stopping them now....