In the past, when Rory had stepped through the Null Window to travel to the Maw, the journey had always been instant, one step and boom.

This time, things had changed. Rory found himself as an incorporeal comet rushing through a darkness filled with streaks of blinding white light. Only a few feet away, he could feel a shell of conceptual energy protecting him as the streaks of white light would occasionally slam into the barrier, only to ricochet off.

It was a stunning sight, but one that lasted only several seconds as the 'comet' form that he was in suddenly veered downward, impacting something.

Eyes fluttering - his real eyes - Rory stumbled as he took in his surroundings.

"Well…. Fuck."

On the one hand, the journey through the Null Window had been a total success.

On the other hand, his attempt to narrow and specify where he wanted to appear had totally failed. Initially, the intent had been to appear in an area with tropical trees or perhaps winter pine trees.

He'd gotten neither.

"I think I made a mistake trying to go for either or," Rory muttered. Rather than appear in an area matching either description, he'd ended up somewhere rather extreme.

The first thing to note was that he was upside down. Well, not from his perspective. At first, Rory had been somewhat confused when a glance upward revealed a black ocean floating in the sky. That was until he'd looked around and noted that the 'ground' he was upon wasn't solid ground but a patchwork of massive floating islands and mountains covered in volcanoes, ash, and otherwise apocalyptic sights.

Also, it wasn't just that he was standing on a floating island, but that gravity had seemingly reversed. He felt as if he were standing right-side-up, but the fact that his head was pointed at a far-away ocean hundreds of miles overhead said otherwise.

Well, not overhead. Below. Whatever. Relativity and all that jazz.

"Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore," Rory said as Eia began to uncoil from around him. Looking around, Rory took stock of his more immediate surroundings. He was in a gulch with a river of golden magma slowly coursing through, rocks the color of steel jutting out like the teeth of a massive predator.

Speaking of predators, Rory found himself staring at a monster, who was staring back as if surprised to see him and Eia appear from out of thin air. It was large, quite a bit larger than even Eia, at least forty feet long and nearly half as wide.

And it wasn't the first time Rory had seen the monster either.

Ashworm

Level: 68

A monster spoken of in whispered legends, the Ashworm is a close cousin of a Sandworm. It can live for tens of thousands of years as a simple pupa, hundreds of thousands as an adolescent, and upwards of millions of years beyond. Due to their natural strength, ash worms carry an aura of their natural affinities of ash and sand.

"Well, you don't fucking say," Rory muttered. An ashworm had been the first tier-six monster Rory had ever battled. Still, seeing as this ash worm was late tier-six, it was damn clear the ash worm he had battled had been a nerfed version, or perhaps one that had its growth accelerated to serve as a floor boss.

Either way, Rory was already preparing to deal with the beastie when Eia's head swiveled to look him dead in the eye.

"You want to take this?" Rory asked, eyebrows raised. When Rory had fought an ashworm in the past, he had been the one lower in tier; now, though, the roles had reversed. He felt more than confident that he could have handled the worm without much struggle.

Eia nodded her head, her tongue flicking out in the direction of the ash worm, which was slowly beginning to retreat, seemingly aware that it was the vulnerable one in a potential confrontation.

"Ehh, go wild," Rory said after a moment. As fun as it would have been to crush the ashworm in return for the near-death he'd had against one in the past, he was well aware of how the battle would go, closer to a slaughter as he knew its tricks already. Plus, he was tier-seven, and with the quality of his gear, a high-tier-six of the mundane variety wouldn't be much of a battle, just enough to instead be a warm-up.

"Oh, when it mutates into a chrysalis, leave it be," Rory added. While the ashworm form wasn't something he figured would be much of a challenge, the Reaping Ash Coscinocera was another story entirely.

Understanding his words, Eia zipped off to engage in battle with the ashworm that had tried to flee discreetly. Given that Eia was damn close in power to an Alpha variant, he wasn't too worried; she was far more agile than an ashworm as well. If things got hairy for whatever reason, he could assist.

Not bothering to watch how the fight would ensue, Rory instead took to walking around and examining their landing location. Climbing up the side of the gulch, Rory found that they were upon an 'island' in the sky, golden magma pools dotting the island as well as what looked like crater impact sites. Perhaps three miles in any direction, the only other notable thing was a faint shimmer of orange fumes radiating from one of the magma pools and shooting off the island, connecting to the next closest island.

Curious.

Jogging over to a magma pool -while ostensibly ignoring the sounds of giant death beams firing off in the background as Eia tore apart the ash worm- Rory peered into the molten liquid. It was different from Earth's magma, almost as if someone had fused molten gold with molten marble. It was also hot.

Very hot. Rory felt uncomfortable just standing near it.

But, letting his curiosity get the best of him, he stuck his prosthetic hand out, slowly reaching out. Hot as the magma was, his hand seemed to handle the heat until, at last, his fingers brushed into the molten magma.

"Yeah, that's hot." Rory wisely noted. With anything other than his prosthetic hand, touching the magma would have been an exceptionally bad idea.

My deductive skills are unparalleled. Who'd have thought touching magma would be unwise?

What was interesting about the magma was that it seemed to lack any sense of earth elements. It was almost as if the concept of magma had been given form, pure of any superfluous things, such as requiring rock and stone to be melted down in the first place.

"I wonder if I could do anything interesting with this," Rory said, pulling his hand back out and rubbing his chin with his hand that hadn't just been dipped into magma.

As curious as it was, Rory was distracted by the ground shaking, something nearby crashing hard to the ground.

Ahh, Eia's probably done.

Returning, Rory found Eia partially wrapped around the quickly disintegrating corpse of the ashworm.

"That didn't take you long," Rory noted. Watching the corpse break down, he was soon met with the familiar sight of the oversized chrysalis remaining.

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Unlike the last time he'd fought an ashworm, no swarm of baby ashworms appeared, silence reigning as the chrysalis quickly matured.

Approaching the chrysalis, Rory gave it a single quick stab with his banner, burning up some of the remaining anima that would fuel its metamorphosis. He didn't want it to come out too strong after all.

Nearly a minute passed before the chrysalis began to fall apart, an oversized moth remaining.

Reaping Ash Coscinocera-Peckish

Level: 70

Born from the chrysalis of an ash worm, the Reaping Ash Coscinocera is a bringer of smoking erosion and death. Forced to pupate before true maturity and further forced to emerge early from its cocoon, the Peckish Reaping Ash Coscinocera is devoid of nearly a quarter of its full strength.

"I'll handle things from here," Rory said as Eia pulled back, leaving Rory to confront the moth alone.

Seventy-two, or maybe seventy-three, was its peak based on the description.

Giving it a few moments to gather itself, Rory waited for the oversized moth to react. It would be a good test of his capabilities, a fight against a non-alpha variant monster of a similar level.

At last, the moth seemed to take action as it turned toward Rory. The last time he'd fought one of the monsters, it had haphazardly blasted a zone of eroding aura that had only worked as well as it had because Rory had been far under-leveled compared to the monster, his own aura having still only barely begun to develop.

Rory was in a far better position this time around, so he was surprised when, rather than a blanket aura of erosion, blades of condensed aura shot forward with each flap of its wings, carrying the dangerous scale flakes within.

"Oho," Rory whipped his banner outward as the wave of the flag, and the briefly conjured illusion distracted the monster, allowing its attack to miss. "Not bad,"

Whether it was because the last time he'd fought one of the Reaping Ash Coscinoceras, it had known it was against a significantly weaker opponent, or because it had been badly damaged before it ever had the chance to pupate, it had never bothered with forming an attack like this. Had it attempted the old tactic of a blanket zone of weaker erosion, Rory could have easily walked straight through the aura with only minor discomfort.

When its aura was condensed into intelligent wind blades carrying those eroding scale flakes, that was a different story entirely.

Still, Rory wasn't worried. Pointing his hand forward in a finger gun, projected bullets began to fire out like he was blasting away with an automatic rifle. Several of the projected bullets managed to strike the monster before it went on the defensive, its aura pushing outward only a foot or two as the area of dense erosive energies dissipated the 'low caliber' bullets before they could touch the monster.

"Alright, not bad," Rory muttered. Clearly, Coscinoceras were primarily aura-based fighters; overall, the most skilled manipulators of aura and their affinities Rory had encountered, aside from Apostolos.

Huh. I wonder if it's something about being infused with anima that helps out.

An interesting thought, but not one Rory was going to spend too much time dwelling on for the moment.

"Surely you aren't just an aura fighter, right?" Rory prodded as he fired a conjured arrow at the monster, the arrow managing to strike the monster moth even through its shielding aura.

Flapping its wings, Rory felt a pulse of power outward as the dust and ash around it began to kick up into a swirling tornado. With another wingbeat, dry lightning began to crackle within. Finally, with a third wingbeat, the condensed storm was launched in his direction.

Was that all one skill or several used together?

The dumber side of Rory wanted to see what would happen if he attempted to tank the attack now that he had such high-power armor. Still, powerful armor wouldn't change the fact that he was far from being a tank-type combatant.

Probably not a great idea.

Choosing not to give in to his childish impulses, Rory instead latched onto the sense of the small storm, feeling for the 'weak' points before he lashed out with his hand, attempting to unravel the skill through a pure manipulation of pneuma.

Unfortunately, nothing happened aside from the storm slowing for a split second.

Damn, but I'm not surprised.

Trying to unravel the skills and magic of an equal-tier opponent was damn near impossible, and while Seems Unseen would make it marginally more feasible, the reality was trying to manipulate or unravel skills still 'protected' by the aura of another was a practice in foolishness.

But that didn't mean Rory wouldn't still try and test just how foolish it was.

Against an aura-based monster? The answer was 'about as foolish as putting a screen door on a submarine.'

The storm continued to barrel toward him, and even as he evaded, it switched courses, following him like a living twister.

Oh, it's a tracking spell. Nifty.

The Coscinocera peppered several more skills around, but none were as impressive as the dust twister and accompanying lightning. It was relentless, following him with dogged determination and growing as it picked up more and more dust and ash from the surroundings.

Well, no point dragging this out.

He had gotten what he had wanted from the 'battle,' so there wasn't much use in extending it any further.

His banner vanishing, Rory held a bow a moment later. It was a sturdy and reliable bow, but far from a master-crafted item. It didn't need to be, though, as with a snap, several chains shot upward, ensnaring the Coscinocera as he pulled back the string of the bow, a red crystalline arrow appearing.

Activating the offensive use of a barrier gem within the bow, the arrow glimmered for a moment.

Still not enough.

Altering his aim a tiny bit, Rory smiled.

Perfect.

Releasing the bowstring, the arrow leaped through the air, accelerating halfway through as it suddenly began to cut through opposing air resistance. Empowered with the anti-barrier effect of the barrier gem, the arrow cut through the aura guarding the oversized moth as the arrow struck it through the abdomen.

But we're not done yet.

Still avoiding the dust twister, Rory peppered the moth with more arrows. The chains that had leaped up to ensnare the monster had already been eroded, but at that point, it didn't matter. Pin cushioned by quite a few of the specialty projected arrows, the coscinocera's strength gave out as it unceremoniously fell to the ground beneath it, dead without further struggle.

"Yeah, not bad," Rory said. "I'll probably try again without pre-damaging the chrysalis in the future."

Eye twitching, Rory quickly took an interest in the fallen corpse. Next to it, Rory pulled his knife free as he slashed it, eyes widening a fraction.

"Haven't seen one of these in a while,"

Inside the corpse was a single pearl-like orb, a monster core.

Score.

He'd only ever gotten two monster cores in his two-plus decades on Aelia. He had a strong suspicion that it was because, below a certain tier, monster cores were exceptionally rare, and the only reason he'd gotten a second one was repayment for the fact that Rory had been forced to expend his first monster core in what was basically a test being run by Eon.

"Maybe I'll finally start seeing these more often," Rory muttered to himself as he examined the core. As a monster core from a tier-seven monster, it was heftier than the first monster core he'd ever received. However, it was still severely lacking compared to the tier-eight monster core that powered Ehkorrus.

"Ehh, beggars and choosers and all that," Rory said as the core vanished into his inventory.

With both the corpse and the monster core handled, Rory turned to face Eia.

"So, not much left to do on this island from what I can see," Rory said. "Want to go for a change of scenery?"

Eia slithered closer to him but otherwise made no move to show a response.

"Good enough for me,"

If he were correct, the orange shimmer he'd seen above one of the magma pools was their key to leaving the otherwise unremarkable island. Rory also suspected that this was how the ashworm had made its way to the island in the first place. Tracking the orange haze, Rory examined it for several seconds before nodding.

"Yeah, pretty sure I'm right."

For good measure, Rory picked up one of the steel-colored stones and flicked it toward the hazy orange fumes. Instantly, the stone was caught and whisked away, flying through the air upon a floating orange stream.

"No idea how that works," Rory said with a grin. It had been a long time since he'd seen something he had no clue about. "But seems interesting enough. C'mon, let's get a move on."

Without a hint of hesitation, Rory took a running start before launching himself through the air, leaping over the magma pit, only to feel as if he were suddenly caught in a riptide, whisked through the air.

A glance back showed that Eia followed his lead, now swimming through the orange airway.

"Whoo-hoo!" Rory shouted, enjoying himself. It wasn't just that he was flying through the sky on a naturally occurring rollercoaster, but the freedom he felt that had raised his spirits, elation washing through him.

As all good things do, it eventually came to an end as Rory noticed they were approaching a much larger landmass, an entire floating mountain range at least a hundred miles across. Several of the mountains were spewing magma, and others had purple lightning striking overhead. At the base of the mountain range, there was a dense 'forest' of 'trees.' The trees looked more like grey coral, with black leaves that Rory couldn't accurately estimate from the distance they were at.

The airway soon flowed into yet another magma pool. Before Rory could be submerged into a rather scalding bath, he tossed himself from the airway with a small matter of will, landing next to the magma pool. Following him was Eia, who seemed to flatten herself and glide through the air like a flying snake.

"Show off," Rory snorted at the serpent. "Now that we're here, maybe it's time to set up some sort of 'base' or something like that," Rory said.

The serpent nodded once in acknowledgment, following Rory as he turned to admire the chaotic scenery ahead.

Time for a new adventure.

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