The intense ball of fire which enveloped Ty and his allies left a rugged crater in the ground as it blazed through the atmosphere. Ty urgently shouted for everyone to hang on and try to find a solution as cracks began to form around the protective barrier.
Drawing on the memories of the now-deceased Masaru, Ty continued to reinforce the barrier by wrapping more layers one on top of the other as numerous fragments intermittently broke off.
Eventually, they broke through the atmosphere, jetting through space at an accelerated speed. Time seemed to have slowed down, leaving a trail of black energy that trailed on the barrier’s edge.
Amidst the stars and numerous particles filling the space, Ty’s vision began to blur and fade and he acknowledged, "I’m at my limit.
I’ve been that way for a while now." Although his skeletal body’s stamina had been gradually improving, with everything that was happening, it was quite challenging for him to maintain it much longer.
Buckling to a knee, Ty clutched the crystal given by Elithira in his skeletal hands. As he tumbled over, he felt as if he was listlessly floating in the air before feeling a pair of hands support him, keeping him upright and steady.
"Don’t worry, Ty, I got you," Todd reassured, blood trickling from the corner of his lips, down his shoulder, and began to slowly freeze due to the coldness of space.
"Don’t push yourself; you could die, you idiot!" Ty spat, but Todd’s green hands forced Ty to a full stand as he retorted, "Nonsense!"
Abruptly, the sphere came to a halt, throwing Ty and his allies forward, causing their bodies to tumble in weightlessness. Though the sudden stop startled them, as Ty regained stability, his skeletal eyes widened at the extraordinary sight that lay before him.
The colossal castle perched atop a continent-sized rock and seemed to defy reality.
Its black and red structures stretched to the horizon while a blue supernova blazed behind it without scorching anything nearby.
The castle looked heavy enough to crush thought.
Its spires and walls cut long shadows across the rocky surface.
The scale alone stole Ty’s breath.
For a moment, no one spoke. Even Nana, half-conscious in Kaiko’s grip, stopped making noise. The supernova painted the barrier in blue light, and the castle swallowed that light without warmth.
"Why did we stop?" Todd’s voice pulled Ty back from his trance. However, before Ty could answer, his attention was once again drawn back to the castle.
The castle’s size held Ty in silent awe, but so did the pressure rolling off it.
Beside him, he could hear Kaiko’s sharp inhalation of breath along with a soft "incredible" which escaped her lips.
Todd stared too, awe and fear written across his face. Their reflections warped across the glassy orb around them.
Todd simply lets out a brief "wow," but before he could elaborate, the sphere starts to descend at an alarming rate, cutting Ty off and igniting in flames once again.
The barrier encasing them slammed through the top of the castle walls with tremendous force before shattering into thousands of pieces.
The sound was not one crash but many: glass, stone, metal, and bodies all finding new places to land. Ty felt the barrier fail around them and tried to pull one more layer together, but his focus slipped before the shape could hold.
The impact was fierce, a vivid manifestation of energy as it penetrated the ancient structure.
Familiar and foreign sensations jolted through Ty’s bones as breaking glass and crumbling stone echoed through the castle halls.
The entire group was thrown in all directions. Kaiko gripped Nana tightly, but even with most of Nana’s wounds frozen, the girl cried out when they slammed into the wall.
The screeching halt was a brutal welcome, and memories flooded back to Ty: cold stone walls and the silence after impact.
_____
Ty observed as his bones, guided by a light blue aura, began to reassemble themselves back to their rightful places.
A tingling coolness traced the paths where bones reconnected, each light clink marking another piece finding its place.
He could feel each bone slotting into its perfect place, sending slight shivers to run through him with each connection. Meanwhile, the scent of ozone filled the air, mingling with the metallic ring that would always accompany his healing process.
Once his skeletal structure was intact, Ty carefully reached into an opening in his chest, his fingers wrapping around a foreign metal object that was lodged within.
With a firm tug, he pulled it free from himself.
His bones swiftly healed around the area, the light blue aura sealing the space where the object had once resided. Now in his hand, Ty noticed that the small object was cold to the touch, and as he examined it, the air around him seemed to hum with energy.
Despite exhaustion taking a toll and his tolerance to pain dwindling rapidly, Ty managed to rise to his feet, his bones slightly trembling while the black flames surrounding him flickered weakly.
A cry of pain echoed through the hollow spaces of his face where flesh and lips once resided, as he gripped his shoulders tightly, trying to steady himself amidst the discomfort.
---
Elithira sprinted over, eyes widening at the chaos. Sogetsu lay in the corner, his body marked with dozens of burns from the trip here.
Her gaze darted to Ty, who looked like he had just pieced himself back together because he had. His bones still quivered, and exhaustion sat deep in his hollow eyes.
"Ty, what the hell happened to you? And how did you even get everyone here?" she blurted, relief and worry tangling in her voice.
As she glanced around the room, the reality of the situation of others began to sink in, as everyone who was there had their expressions filled with intense pain.
"I can use... other people’s... abilities... save the girl, though..." Ty managed to muster the strength to say those final words before exhaustion finally overtook him.
His vision blurred, and the last thing he sensed before passing out was Jade’s voice in his memory. Her warm smile followed him into sleep.
He wanted to tell Elithira he had not meant to bring everyone in so hard. He wanted to ask if Nana was still breathing. Instead, the dark took him before any of the questions reached his mouth.