Could there be someone there?!
Startled, Kiana immediately cast aside any concerns about the location and decisively gave chase.
Ghost village or not, if she had seen a human figure, Kiana might have felt a little scared it was actually a ghost.
But it was a fire – not the cold blue or green will-o'-the-wisp kind, but a blazing, roaring inferno.
How could such a warm-toned, seemingly comforting flame feel eerie or frightening?
It wasn't even burning anything down!!
Besides, Kiana felt a sense of familiarity with that flame. That was the real reason she subconsciously followed it; the rest were just excuses she came up with after realizing what she was doing.
[Power Output: [%]]
Boosted by the Spirit Awakening Key, Kiana was fast. A single leap easily took her onto the roofs, which weren't particularly high here.
Her view instantly widened. Kiana spotted the "flame" rapidly distancing itself from her.
Looking closely... it seemed to be a person?
"Hey!!" Kiana cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and shouted towards the "flame."
"Wait up—!!"
The "flame's" figure actually paused for a moment at her words, stopping on a nearby rooftop and glancing back in Kiana's direction.
—
The torrential downpour seemed to lessen slightly; it didn't hurt as much when it hit his body.
A distant call echoed from far, far away. Shu remained kneeling at the dim crossroads, neither looking up nor responding in any way.
The cage around him was black, devoid of any light. Only the rain continued its relentless fall.
—
Taking advantage of the "flame's" pause, Kiana hurried towards him, trying to catch up.
She had a gut feeling... this person was the one she was looking for!! He was—
Huh? What was his name again?
The sudden question in her mind made Kiana falter. And in that instant of hesitation, Kiana had already reached the side of the stationary "flame."
[Operating Power: [%]]
Ah, forget it, just grab him first...
Kiana reached out, grabbing for the person's hand.
But upon contact, Kiana felt as though she had plunged her hand into a body of water.
Immediately following was an overwhelming sense of suffocation. Kiana felt like she'd been pushed headfirst into a pool.
She instantly held her breath, flailing, trying to surface.
But her body kept sinking relentlessly. The light around her grew dimmer and dimmer. She couldn't grasp onto anything.
Finally, she opened her mouth. Water flooded in, pouring down her throat, rushing towards her lungs.
The surrounding light continued to fade. Kiana felt herself falling towards a place untouched by light, falling towards the very bottom.
Falling... falling...
In the last moment before losing consciousness, Kiana felt her hand being grabbed. Someone was pulling her hand, dragging her rapidly downwards...
Wait, downwards?
Splash!
The sound of breaking water surface reached her ears. Kiana spat out a fountain of water, gasping desperately for air like someone saved from drowning, before managing to force her eyes open.
Why couldn't she open her eyes?
Because the wind from falling was too strong!!
After leaving the water, she was somehow plummeting through the air again!!
What kind of bizarre situation had she stumbled into!
"Wait!" Kiana suddenly felt the hand holding hers let go. She looked in that direction; the brightly burning flame was now rapidly moving away from her in the air.
Kiana reached out but grasped only empty air, forced to watch as the person who had pulled her from suffocation landed on a small floating platform, watching her continue to fall with cold indifference.
The Spirit Awakening Key didn't grant flight; Kiana could only let herself keep falling.
She flipped herself over in mid-air, trying to adjust her falling posture. First, she needed to figure out which way was down...
Huh?
Kiana blinked in mid-air, raising a hand to shield against the wind. She looked up at the vast expanse of water above, then down at the enormous clock face below her.
Twisted, eerie trees flew past her one by one. Luxurious palaces floated in the distant sky, stone castles, the corner of a massive pyramid peeked out, yellow sand swirled around a sailboat...
No, no, no, that wasn't even the strangest part!!
A horse-drawn carriage pulled a giant plaster statue! Its finger pointed towards a distant bathtub, which contained a huge satellite with deployed solar panels. A rope extending from the satellite trailed off, transforming mid-air into streams of vibrant paint, drawing an 'X' on a sheet of white paper...
...What kind of crazy place was this?!
How were all these things even connected?!
Kiana stared, dumbfounded, at this chaotic place, impossible to describe with words.
Suddenly, she looked down. A gigantic ship's anchor was rapidly approaching her, faster than a train at full speed!
Getting hit by that would definitely mean being smashed to pieces!!
Kiana quickly adjusted her position, kicking off the anchor just moments before impact.
The immense force knocked the anchor off course, while Kiana seized the opportunity to grab onto the thick iron chain attached to its end.
After several slips and regrabs, Kiana, her speed reduced by the repeated impacts, finally stabilized herself, clinging firmly to the anchor.
This anchor was huge! Kiana felt it was bigger than a basketball court!
Kiana looked up again, scanning the fantastical space, desperately searching for that small platform.
With just one glance, she spotted it. At that moment, the figure who had landed on the platform was leaping off, falling in a straight line onto another object, then using it as a springboard to jump elsewhere.
"Don't run!!" Kiana shouted, then gritted her teeth and leaped forcefully from the anchor.
It seemed like gravity didn't exist here. Kiana crashed straight into the massive bathtub, then started running along the edge of the football-field-sized tub, following the direction the figure had flown.
"Wait!" Kiana yelled again. "Are you..."
BOOM—!
Something smashed down behind Kiana. The massive tremor threw her off balance, sending her tumbling along the bathtub's edge several times before she regained her footing.
The figure in the air seemed to glance back at her, then inexplicably accelerated, rushing towards the distance even faster.
Kiana looked up. A mass of white mist appeared seemingly out of nowhere, gradually coalescing into a menacing shape right in front of her.
Kiana frantically looked back, saw the "flame" already far away, then turned her indignant gaze towards the "monster" before her.
"You damn thing... Get out of my way!!"