Higher Plain Ch 40: The Creatures Escape!

The creature did not stay buried.

Its broken body carved a scar through the forest as it tumbled, tearing up earth and trees in a line of devastation that stretched for miles. Ancient trunks snapped like kindling beneath its weight, their splinters carried aloft in the violent heat radiating from its veins. Smoke curled from its flesh as it writhed, until at last the beast clawed its way up from the wreckage, standing tall amid a graveyard of trees.

It panted, chest heaving, eyes aflame with purple fire. And then—something darker fell across it.

A shadow.

The monster tilted its head back, glowing eyes widening. Above the canopy, the sky itself seemed to bend. A vast shape blotted out the sun—a body so enormous that for a moment it looked as though a mountain had torn free of the heavens. But it wasn't stone. It was flesh. Steel. A titaness in motion.

Kaelira came down like a meteor.

The world screamed as she landed.

Her colossal foot smashed into the ground with a force that sent shockwaves tearing through the land. Earth buckled and split, ridges rising up like waves as the forest was shredded apart. The air itself whipped into a hurricane, ripping leaves and whole trees into the sky, flinging them across miles of broken terrain.

The impact was apocalyptic. Soil and stone exploded outward in every direction, avalanches of earth collapsing on themselves as the ground cratered under her weight.

When the dust finally cleared enough to see, Kaelira stood tall, her steel-plated foot planted firmly in what had once been a thriving forest. Now, it was nothing but a flattened wasteland of splintered trunks and shattered ground.

Her eyes gleamed with feral triumph as she ground her heel into the earth, twisting slowly. "Come on," she muttered, grinning. "Let's see you crawl out of that."

Behind her, the ground quaked again—not from the creature, but from Faylina.

Each of her strides leveled more of the land, massive footfalls reducing groves and ridges to rubble with every step. She slowed as she came up beside Kaelira, her face tight with unease.

"Kaelira," Faylina said, her voice low but edged with urgency. "Be more careful. That little jump of yours... was it necessary? Look at what's left of this land."

Kaelira's grin didn't falter. She glanced down at the wasteland beneath her shoe, then back at her sister. "What's necessary is stopping that thing before it gets stronger. The longer it lives, the more it feeds. If a forest is the price, so be—"

She cut off, her voice catching. Her expression shifted.

Her foot.

A searing heat began to pulse through the sole of her shoe, hot enough to make her flinch. The steel glowed faintly, smoke hissing from the edges where her boot pressed into the ground.

"What—?" Kaelira muttered, brow furrowing.

And then her whole body jolted.

A sudden burst of purple light erupted from beneath her heel. She hissed, lifting her foot quickly, and in that instant the glow surged upward into a blinding beam.

"Ahhh!"

The scream ripped from her throat as the violet blast struck her chest full force. The impact was like a cannon to a wall—Kaelira's colossal body hurled backward, her arms flailing as the beam tore her off balance. She crashed into the earth with a force that split the land open, carving a crater that swallowed whole hillsides in an instant. The impact sent dust and rock billowing into the sky like volcanic ash.

Faylina gasped, stumbling a step as the ground convulsed beneath her. "Kaelira!"

But her eyes were pulled away almost immediately—drawn to the monster.

It rose from the ruins below, its charred frame now swollen with power, towering above the broken forest. Purple light poured from its wounds, mending them in grotesque pulses of energy. Its roar split the heavens, so loud that birds miles away scattered in terror.

The beast lifted its claws skyward, glaring up at Faylina with nothing but fury in its glowing eyes.

She stared back, her pale lips pressing into a hard line, heart hammering in her chest.

"...Damn it."

Faylina's chest rose and fell, each breath deep enough to pull the wind itself into her lungs and rattle the trees below. She stepped forward, planting her boots into the forest with enough force to scatter trees like matchsticks. The ground cracked outward in jagged lines as if her very presence was tearing the land apart.

The beast roared up at her, its body glowing brighter with every pulse of violet light. Faylina grimaced, crouching low, her enormous frame blotting out the sky over entire miles of forest. Her hair fell in sweeping curtains that caught the wind, strands as thick as ship masts whipping violently across the ruins.

"Stay down!" she cried, slamming her hand into the earth.

The impact was catastrophic. The shockwave traveled outward, flattening everything for leagues. Forests collapsed, boulders shattered, and whole rivers shuddered out of their banks, flooding lowland fields. A wall of debris rolled across the land, consuming villages in dust and thunder.

The creature staggered but did not fall. It lunged at her arm, claws slicing into her forearm. Faylina winced, blood — bright and enormous — spattering from the wound like crimson rain across the forest below. Humans, if any still survived nearby, would see the sky streak red as droplets fell thicker than storms.

"Enough!" Faylina snarled.

She swung her arm, her hand colliding with the beast mid-air. The strike sent it crashing through a ridge, boulders tumbling like toys beneath its body. But the creature sprang back up, faster than she expected. Its wings snapped open with a violent pulse of violet, and it shot upward, raking across her cheek with a searing strike.

Faylina staggered back, the land quaking beneath her heels. Her cheek burned, smoke curling faintly where its claws had cut her skin. Her jaw tightened; she lunged, hands snapping shut around the creature like a cage.

For a moment she had it. She squeezed, every tendon in her colossal arms straining, the air around her trembling with the pressure. The beast shrieked, its purple glow flashing like lightning between her fingers.

Then it exploded outward with a burst of energy.

The blast hurled Faylina back, her feet gouging trenches through the land as she fought to keep balance. Villages on the plains below disintegrated under the wind alone, that shockwave flattening roofs and toppling walls. Faylina groaned, her arms trembling from the pain, but she forced herself forward again.

She stomped down, her heel digging into the forest with such force that the ground buckled upward around it. She reached, grabbed, and swung the creature down with all her might. The impact flattened an entire swath of land, throwing trees and soil sky-high, the crash echoing like mountains collapsing.

But still it moved.

The creature clawed free, violet veins blazing brighter than ever, its charred body stitching itself back together before her eyes. It leapt straight at her chest, ramming into her sternum hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. Faylina stumbled back, clutching at her torso, coughing, her hair spilling wildly across the ruined land.

She growled and grabbed for it again, her hand catching its wing. With a furious twist, she flung the creature through the forest, splintering trees for miles in a single arc. Dust and soil blasted up in a rolling cloud that swallowed everything beneath it.

Her chest heaved, her blood dripping onto the broken land, and still the beast rose.

It spread its charred wings wide, glowing brighter than ever, eyes locked on her with unyielding rage.

"Why won't you—" she began, only for it to cut her off with another roar.

With a violent heave, it leapt into the sky, cutting upward through the clouds with terrifying speed.

Faylina's eyes widened. "No..."

She reached upward, but her fingers grasped only air. The monster had already vanished, its trail burning violet across the heavens.

Her breath shuddered, her knees trembling as she sank down, clutching her bleeding forearm. The forest around her was no longer a forest — just a wasteland of shattered trees, drowned rivers, and ruined land.

Above it all, the sky glowed faintly purple in the direction the creature had flown. Faylina's heart sank.

"...Damn it."

And for the first time, she felt the weight of her own failure press against her size — not only in her inability to stop the beast, but in how much of the world she had already destroyed trying.