Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

The first stones that fell from the crumbling ceiling far above were tiny.

Adon didn't even change his trajectory through the air. He just used Telekinesis to gently redirect them away from his and Rosslyn's bodies, and the rocks fell harmlessly into the void below him.

As he drew closer to the ceiling, however, the world began coming apart more quickly. The crystals at the very top of the structure exploded, and the preexisting cracks spiderwebbed in all directions.

A few seconds later, a giant hunk of rock broke loose and dropped straight down toward Adon and the Princess.

Prepare for turbulence, Adon sent.

Rosslyn nodded, otherwise remaining still and silent.

Then Adon swung through the air, spinning his body and closing his wings so that the pair hurtled violently toward the far cliff. As Rosslyn's body struck the hard stone, Adon felt the impact reverberate through his legs all the way out to the tips of his wings.

The Princess didn't react at all, though. She was unnervingly still. Adon thought it was probably because all her power was running through him. She had exhausted herself physically at the bottom level and barely had any strength left even to think.

But he couldn't afford to worry about her just then.

The massive chunk of rock fell past Adon and Rosslyn, and what felt like a solid curtain of air struck Adon's wings in its wake, smacking him and, more directly, Rosslyn, into the wall again.

Adon flapped his wings once, hesitantly, scanning the area above him for more debris, afraid to take off. There were other rocks falling, though none as large as the first one. He tapped into mental magic as he tried to chart a course through what felt like an asteroid field in the air. Time seemed to slow down slightly for the butterfly as he boosted his perception and navigation skills to their limits.

I am all right, if you are worried about me, Rosslyn thought. Her inner voice was listless. Please, you must keep going. The dungeon will become inescapable at this rate…

Roger that, Adon sent.

At the same moment, his mental efforts produced their result. A route announced itself to his brain, opening before his mind's eye like a golden path, zigzagging through the air.

He took off, a little clumsily, but that was all right. He had accounted for his own inexperience in using the massively enlarged wings and for the Princess's weight.

The Princess and the butterfly danced up through the air, spun to the side, darted diagonally, twirled again. The giant set of wings skimmed along the edge of a rock and borrowed its motion to change the flying creature's momentum slightly. Light seemed to shine through, like they were at the end of a tunnel.

There were actual intact glowing crystals left in some of the tunnels up here, where the destruction signal had not reached yet, near the level that had dropped Rosslyn into the abyss.

Adon was scanning his surroundings, getting his bearings, looking for a certain tunnel, when one of the nearby caverns collapsed and spat out a handful of boulders.

Crap!

This little miniature collapse was something Adon's predictive thought process had not factored in. He spun again, frantically fluttered, ducked Rosslyn's body to avoid what he imagined would be a fatal head injury. But one of the smaller boulders struck her unavoidably in the stomach. He felt the air go out of her and her whole body stiffen as she took the blow.

She suppressed any reaction in her inner monologue, but she could not keep herself from reaching up to clutch at her side with one hand. And Adon could feel she was also suppressing her body's urge to retch. She didn't want to distract him.

Without any of her mana available to defend her own body, the Princess was using nothing but muscle and grit to endure any physical blows that the flight inflicted on her. Trusting Adon to keep them from death.

I'll do better, he thought furiously. You won't regret putting yourself in my hands!

The butterfly darted up and forward into a tunnel that had not yet collapsed. This happened to be one of the most stable spaces the dungeon had created, Adon knew, because it was the passage from the level he and Rosslyn had descended from up to the next floor.

My memory is finally coming in handy, Adon thought. Navigation is so easy now!

He swooped in and glided on an upward current, relying on Rosslyn's incredible reinforcement of his wings and the wild winds that were pushing up from behind them as the rest of the vast abyss continued to collapse.

The air pressed him harder and faster than he could have propelled himself even with magic boosting his strength, and for a minute, their travel speed accelerated.

Then the source of the wind was suddenly closed off. At the same time, Adon sensed an increased darkness from behind him. He knew what had happened.

The back of the tunnel had collapsed. Distantly, he heard the thunder of more stones crashing against stones. The whole passage was slowly falling apart.

I have to go faster.

Adon beat the air with his wings as hard as he could, ignoring the sharp pain as he struck against a wall with the edge of one of them. The confined space of the passage made that difficult to avoid, and with the darkness, his depth perception was a bit off despite his multiple eyes and modes of seeing.

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He flapped harder, repeating the effort over and over to try and replicate the acceleration the wind had given him until just moments before.

Just a bit further…

The collapsing tunnel was drawing closer to him, slowly but surely, he knew. He had to move faster.

He had to… Adon felt the heat before he saw the slight reddish glow. Then he knew it was upon him.

The magma level.

Yes!

He never thought he would be happy to feel he was about to be burnt to a crisp. With Rosslyn's help, he at least stood a chance against the insane ambient temperatures in that level. Her power still flowed through him.

But if the two of them were crushed in a cave-in, it would be a very boring ending, with nothing to be done by either of them to salvage the situation.

They burst out of the cave, and the full force of the volcanic temperatures struck him in a wave of inferno heat.

Just as quickly, Adon felt additional power rush out of Rosslyn and into himself, rendering him even more robust against the oven-like environment.

The Princess's body lay limply in the grip of his legs as she did this. Her mental activity was minimal and extremely subtle, as if she was in deep meditation. Only the continued flow of energy from her core into his body gave Adon the confirmation that she was still conscious.

But was her pulse weakening?

The butterfly continued flying and tried not to let himself falter as he felt for Rosslyn's vital signs through the limbs wrapped around her waist.

Yes, he thought everything in her—breathing, pulse, brain activity—seemed to be slowing down noticeably.

I have to get us out of here…

The butterfly shot forward, rushing past stone and magma in a race against both the collapsing dungeon and the Princess's apparently deteriorating condition.

His memory came in handy again. He avoided taking false turns or getting into fights in the maze-like level and reached the passage further up before the collapse of the dungeon could catch up with him.

He darted into the tunnel heading up. As soon as the change in temperature made it obvious they were no longer in the magma level, Rosslyn decreased the flow of energy out of her body and into his slightly, just to the amount she had kept it at before they were inside of a volcanic level.

He chose to interpret it as an encouraging sign. She still had precise enough control of her mana and awareness of her surroundings to do that.

Just you wait, Rosslyn, Adon sent. Stay alive. We'll make it outside soon.

Rosslyn did not respond except to cough.

He flapped his wings and flew upward, bolstered slightly by the rising warm air from the magma level. It was only as he got further from that floor and its unusual heat that he realized Rosslyn's temperature was staying quite hot.

She didn't protect herself from the temperature down there? he thought. Or… she couldn't protect herself and me?

The Princess had already expressed that she thought his life might be more important than hers. Adon wanted to argue with her about it, but the decision to prioritize him over herself had apparently already been made. She was a very stubborn princess.

Now his focus belonged on the continued flight upward, on hopefully saving Rosslyn from burning through all that she had left.

He flew so quickly that the surroundings blurred, and the world reduced to just him and the woman in his grip.

After a couple of minutes of this, he sensed the familiar change in air currents again. Though the dungeon collapse had fallen slightly behind him now, the magma level had just been destroyed. If he and Rosslyn stopped for long, or simply failed to maintain speed, they would risk being caught up in the continuing spread of the circle of destruction.

Adon flew as quickly as he could until he reached the entrance to the second level.

He burst out through the entrance, and he tried to continue flying past it with the same energy, but as he passed over the threshold, there was a sudden drop in power.

Rosslyn's flow of mana through Adon's limbs, into his body, and concluding in his wings, had taken a precipitous dip.

He still had enough total energy to keep his wings from suddenly breaking, but not enough power to actually flap them. They effectively turned into miniature parachutes again.

He angled them slightly, to make his body function as a glider, but the bigger problem was clutched in his limbs.

Rosslyn, are you all right? Adon sent. I feel a change in your energy levels, and your body is hot. Your pulse is too slow, your breathing isn't very strong…

I apologize, Adon, Rosslyn thought. I do not have the strength, I have reached my limit, I…

The flow of power from the Princess into Adon suddenly stopped completely.

Rosslyn, stay with me! he sent. Stay conscious!

He no longer had the strength to stiffen his wings, and his flight path was already dipping precipitously as his glider-like form became even more similar to a simple parachute than it had been before.

It was all he could do now to arrest the speed of their fall.

Telepathically, Adon felt the Princess's brain was half-asleep, her consciousness drifting away from him. He knew her body had been pushed to its limits. He just hoped she wasn't about to suddenly die from overstressing it.

Rosslyn, please stay awake! Adon sent. I'm not strong enough to carry you on my own. We're about to land on the ground, and then I need you to be able to walk. My Transformation is going to fail soon, and I'll still be able to fly, but I won't have energy to do anything to help you. You need to stand up and walk!

I… cannot, Rosslyn thought. The words sounded as if they came from very far away at a great cost in effort.

Yes, you can! Adon insisted.

He pushed some of his own energy into her, through their physical connection, but he felt the quantity of it, how the amount that he could spare was insignificant compared with the wealth of resources she had just lavished on him. Despair seized him.

Stay alive! Adon demanded.

I'm alive, Rosslyn thought, her inner monologue almost drunk with tiredness. Just too tired. I can feel the darkness all around, I… Save yourself. You promised. Live…

Ros—he stopped his message in the middle of naming her. There was no point.

He could feel it. Rosslyn's consciousness had faded away completely.