As they continued flying for hours, the suffering began quietly.
At first, it was exhaustion. Veneri's Flight Circles began to destabilize. Each correction demanded more Soul Energy and every correction hurt. His reconstructed sapphire arm trembled.
Fractures spread across it with every sudden maneuver. He compensated by shifting Phaenora's weight and adjusting angles but every adjustment made the arm worse. It was functional yes, but only barely, and only because he was forcing it to be.
Asenane fared no better.
Her wings beat steadily but frost had begun to creep along the edges of her scales. Dragon fever still lingered in her system. Her body was burning through reserves it should not have been using yet. Every breath came a fraction heavier than the last. She kept flying anyway.
Sometimes the massive bats surged forward just enough for the pressure of their presence to wash over the trio. When that happened, their flight was hindered. Phaenora tried to raise another wall once but Veneri stopped her with a sharp shake of his head. It would only cost her his own energy.
Attacking the bats was stupid. They were extremely durable and if someone like Asenane couldn't even stab a bat using her entire dragon strength, they stood no chance. Vastarael's weapon combat would have helped but since he can't use a glaive with one hand, he could only fly and protect themselves.
The tunnel became narrowed as hours passed . Train tracks curved downward into a crystalline passage that glowed brighter the deeper they went. The bats adapted instantly, slipping through the narrowing space at high speed.
One bat brushed past Asenane.
The pressure alone slammed her sideways. She barely managed to recover. She used ice along her scales to prevent further damage. The bat injured her wing and shoulder but she kept flying.
"They're not trying to kill us yet."
"Then what are they doing?"
Before Asenane could answer Phaenora, a low-frequency hum rippled through the tunnel, Veneri felt the shrills slam into him like a wall. His vision turned white for a split second as his Flight Circles destabilized completely. They lost their balance for a bit but it was too late. The backlash from the shockwaves ripped through his body. The sapphire arm finally gave way.
It shattered at the elbow. Crystalline shards scattered into the air as Phaenora nearly slipped from his grasp. He barely caught her with his remaining arm but he was losing his balance. Asenane turned back with panic flashing across her face.
"Veneri—"
"I'm fine!"
That's when they saw a shining white light.
The moment it entered their field of vision, Veneri's Flight Circles collapsed without shattering. In a few seconds, all energy forms were absorbed almost immediately.
There was no time to think. Gravity sent both him and Phaenora down as though they were nothing more than discarded debris. The impact came seconds later. It drove the air from his lungs and sent pain tearing through his spine.
Phaenora screamed his name.
Asenane hit the ground a second later, coughing violently as blood splattered across the crystal floor. The white glow overhead intensified, siphoning her Draconic Energy straight from her heart. She felt it leaving her like heat pulled from metal. The bats did not slow down though. Their passage alone was enough to fracture crystal and pulverize the surroundings. Vastarael barely had time to understand what was happening before Asenane threw herself over him and Phaenora. Her wings snapped shut around them.
The first shockwave hit. The second shockwave hit before the echo of the first had faded. Then a third. And a fourth. And a fifth...
Asenane snarled through clenched teeth as bats passed through her wings. She was durable but she was not invincible. Beneath her, Vastarael was in extreme pain.
Omniphage activated on pure reflex, trying to pull energy from anything but the moment it touched the environment, the white crystal responded. The energy dissipated instantly and was absorbed into the structure.
Omniphage was being countered. And to make things worse, it was a passive Tether so he didn't have control over it. Phaenora felt it through their bond and panic finally broke her composure.
"Veneri, your Omniphage is resisting but it can't win! The crystals are eating everything it tries to pull!"
Asenane's eyes widened as she looked down at him. Omniphage attempted forced compensation, injecting fixed energy into his core but the tunnel responded by draining it faster than it could be supplied. Every attempt to stabilize only worsened the feedback.
He was caught in a closed loop. Absorption demanded energy. The environment stole energy. However, the compensation demanded more.
That was when an unknown portal opened.
A tear of absolute darkness split open beneath them, swallowing light, sound and resistance alike. Gravity twisted sideways and before any of them could react, the ground vanished.
Phaenora screamed as she was torn away. Her hand slipped from Vastarael's grasp as the pull intensified. Asenane reached for him, fingers brushing his sleeve but she was gone as well.
Vastarael heard their voices in the distance. They were warped by the void, Asenane was shouting his name, Phaenora we screaming for him not to let go. He tried to answer. He really did. His mouth opened but nothing came out.
As he fell, spinning helplessly in the dark, one thought crushed its way to the surface.
Ever since he had entered the Hidden Citadel, he was useless, restricted, suppressed and countered at every turn. His Divinities were not strong enough. His Omniphage was restrained. His body was incomplete. Every step forward had dragged them deeper into danger.
He was holding them back, even now.
He forced air into his lungs and shouted into the void.
"Find Shimmer and Runner! Don't look for me! Just go!"
The darkness did not answer.
His back slammed into something solid with enough force to drive the breath from his lungs and rattle his skull. Pain exploded through him in a blinding wave as his body rebounded once before settling into stillness. For a moment, he thought he had blacked out. He groaned, rolling weakly onto his side as his vision swam. He tried—instinctively—to activate Body Reconstruction but it failed.
The moment the process began, the atmosphere responded, ripping Soul Energy straight out of the reconstruction pathway faster than it could be stabilized. His injuries partially regenerated, then tore open again. At the same time, Omniphage surged. It tried to reclaim the Soul Energy he had lost. It also tried to draw energy from his soul.
That hurt more than anything else.
It felt like being hollowed out from the inside, like his very essence was being scraped raw. He screamed this time as feedback tore through his core.
This Praesit station full of of Bats was his perfect counter.
Body and Soul Reconstruction required a stable soul-state and a permissive environment. This place devoured stability. Omniphage required available energy and dominance over absorption laws. This place owned absorption. Even his Aeterium nature, which thrived on soul manipulation, was being smothered by a system that treated souls as fuel.
This Station of Bats was a siphon.
Vastarael lay there, gasping. For the first time since he had stepped into the Citadel, a terrifying realization settled over him.
If he stayed here much longer, it would drain him until there was nothing left for even Omniphage to consume.