Alice continually used her antigravity boots to glide into the depths of the abyss.
100ft…200ft…300ft…400ft…
Finally, encroaching upon 500ft, Alice was able to feel the connection with Zeel stronger than ever, signaling her arrival near the bottom.
She swiftly did the necessary equations to navigate the antigravity boots in delicate conditions.
This was done to ensure that nothing would go wrong with the recovery of Zeel's stasis pod.
Stopping right next to the stasis pod, only floating slightly in the air, Alice was about to reach out and touch the stasis pod but recalled what had occurred the previous day when Elizabeth attempted to touch her own.
"ET SUPERMOS ABSIT HOC HODIE" Alice whispered causing a faint light to shimmer across the stasis pod briefly, before retreating with a clicking sound.
Just as she was about to break down the stasis pod into silver balls – which had been programmed into all equipment for mobility purposes.
Alice paused when a hot breath of air was exhaled that almost blew her away. Turning her head in a slow manner, what she saw sent chills down her spine.
'I thought it was a fucking rock,' Alice yelled in her mind, chastising herself for missing such a huge Dragon wrapped around the stasis pod like it was guarding its most precious treasure – well surely it is.
Zeel, who had his eyes closed the entire time, forced himself to awaken even with the Draconic Energy rummaging his body.
When Zeel woke up, he stared into Alice's eyes; there were no words that needed to be exchanged between himself and Alice, intentions were shared alongside a brief mindscape conversation.
Alice flicked her fingers collecting the stasis pod in the form of silver balls, simultaneously using her telekinesis to float Zeel in the air.
She knew that he was trying to get his nanites to remove his limiters, so his healing factor could temporarily double.
He needed to be in battle-ready condition should anything unexpected occur during the extraction process or subsequent recovery processes.
Alice slowly floated Zeel to her side and soon the both of their bodies began flickering with white flames, then the nanites inside them also began to resonate.
Zeel's body was now repairing itself at an alarming rate visible to the naked eye, but Alice also noted that the breathing of the Dragonling had become a bit more hurried also. As fast as Zeel's body was repairing, it was also being broken down at a slightly slower rate.
This was no doubt a risk, releasing their limiters near a beast that lusted after energy like a human in the desert searching for water.
After creating a safe distance between herself and the slumbering beast, Alice floated Zeel into her arms as she shot into the air, nearly breaking the sound barrier.
She was truly panicking at this moment since she could see the Dragon's eyes twitch briefly upon their departure.
Zeel had already shattered the energy refining cycle a moment before they exited the abyss. At the top of the cliff, they saw an anxious Elizabeth – no doubt she had felt their panic and also began to panic.
Zeel could barely move his body since it was being damaged by the Draconic Energy almost as fast as it was being rebuilt by his healing factor. A quick limit removal and resonance with Elizabeth managed to keep the destruction of his body at bay for a little longer.
Zeel quickly threw three white balls from his storage dimension, while simultaneously projecting a hologram of the island into the air, quickly selecting three positions that acted as load-bearing locations.
The white balls were a special series amongst the gravitational balls The Crawford Family was well-known for. They took a very long time to be recharged, that's why Zeel was reluctant to use them in this scenario.
The white balls flashed and each shot in a different direction, Zeel could feel something rising from below at a rapid pace – of course, he could identify what it was.
'It will take approximately two minutes for the balls to get into position, we need to stall for that time,' Zeel thought as he shifted his gaze around to try and squeeze out as many benefits as he could from the nearby resources.
He laid his eyes on James and company who were just standing there, staring at him appalled, a smile graced his lips but did not remain as the group floated away before he could make a move.
Alice had no doubt sent them away after noticing he was prepared to sacrifice them to buy enough time for the balls to get in position.
Zeel snorted, clearly displeased at Alice's lack of resolve, he knew that extreme measures should be taken to give her a new perspective on matters that involve their immediate survival.
Alice paid no attention to Zeel, instead opting to use her telekinesis to shatter the entire cliff, sending a heap of rubble cascading downwards into the abyss.
She had also felt the rising crisis that was the Dragon, they had woken it up by severing the energy cycle between itself and Zeel.
Elizabeth quickly charged a couple of lightning balls and floated it over the cliff in the case the Dragon broke through.
Then Elizabeth created a giant lightning construct that vaguely resembled a net and positioned it in the air above the cliff.
Boom
Boom
Boom
A huge collision noise could be heard as the Dragon collided with the falling rubble, then an enormous head was raised from below the cliff. The head was met with a bombardment of supercharged lightning balls, but this did little to hinder the movement.
The Dragon brushed off the hit with little to no resistance.
Zeel raised his hands in the air causing vague red electricity to flicker alongside the white flames lingering on his body, many metals materialized from his storage dimension and began forming an enormous fist above the head of the Dragon.
The Dragonling was currently attempting to angle its body so it could crawl onto the collapsed cliff, Alice and Elizabeth were using their abilities to push it back down with little success.
Zeel decided to risk it all, should the Dragon be allowed to make it back above ground, he was sure that this world would be doomed anyhow. Just in case, Zeel already had a vial of white flames in his hand, one of the many capsules provided by the destruction of Mogador.
Zeel currently had a total of ten capsules that could be used to Mjump ten times consecutively. Four harvested from the destruction of Mogador, and seven for the partial harvesting of the Quasar.
Zeel used his mechanical constructability to form an enormous fist, the huge fist began flickering with red electricity courtesy of his kinetic energy generation.
Alice specialized in telekinetic energy manipulation, Elizabeth with elemental energies manipulation, and Zeel was purely kinetic energy manipulation that could be fused with his Technomancy skill.
Zeel used his hyperkinetic exertion so that the impact would be magnified a couple of times over. Hyperkinetic Exertion made the force behind every impact exponentially greater.
Efficacy manipulation was then added to make the mechanic fist function beyond 100%.
Efficacy Manipulation made any mechanical or technological invention function at more than one hundred percent of its normal capacity.
Fusion was then used to join Elizabeth's silver lightning net to the mechanical construct, and to make the finishing touches Zeel also added his dissolve ability to the tip of the enormous, mechanical fist.
Fusion was Zeel's own technique that integrates any two technologies together, while Dissolve was used to literally dissolve any technology into its base components.
This was no doubt the strongest attack Zeel could muster in any given circumstance; this attack could rival an atomic bomb in intensity but with much less flashiness due to dissolve being added.
This attack would give a burst of energy before restoring all matter to zero.
Waving his hand Zeel, Alice and Elizabeth watched as the enormous fist smashed into the defenseless head of the Dragon, but they also saw the Dragon open its mouth for a brief moment before a massive explosion shook the entire island.
Alice, Zeel, and Elizabeth were blown a couple of feet away before Alice managed to freeze them in the air using her telekinesis, they levitated for a while, allowing the explosion to calm down before returning to new sand-like ground – dissolve had truly done its job.
Zeel coughed a couple of mouthfuls of blood since he had nearly depleted all his energy for that attack. Now, Zeel barely had enough energy to keep the Draconic Energy raging in his body at bay.
When the smoke cleared up, the trio faces turned black since the Dragon had its head towards the skies with smoke origination from its mouth, a few specs of dragon blood could be seen on its lips but nothing significant.
"Did it eat the attack?" Alice asked in shock.
Elizabeth turned pale as she quickly denied it "That's impossible. Dissolve would have severed the intermolecular forces that held its organs together,"
Zeel smiled bitterly since another fifteen seconds were required for the white balls to approach their appropriate positions "Yeah, now it has more than enough energy to finish us off,"
As he was saying this, Zeel was also activating their Mbeamers for a quick jump – he would sooner abandon this world than perish in it.
However, before he could input the vial of energy required for each jump, the vial shot out of his hand and into Alice's.
Alice looked a bit sadly at always having to be the bad one in their relationship "I can't allow you to abandon the problem we caused. The people of this world would die,"
Zeel's eyes flickered with murderous intent for a moment before calming down, he didn't have the luxury to debate morality with Alice at the moment since they could very well succumb to this morality at any moment.
Whoosh
Whoosh
Whoosh
Faster than any of them could see, a tail came sweeping towards their location at inconceivable speeds – surpassing the speed of sound by a couple of times.
Zeel knew he was the only one who could actively respond, but his escape would sentence Elizabeth and Alice to death.
The impact would reduce them to a bloody mist no doubt; the nanites could cure any injury given time, except instances where the entire body was instantaneously destroyed or the heart was destroyed in its entirety.
Zeel had already used the majority of his energy for the earlier mechanic fist attack, even with his limiters off, he didn't have enough energy to save himself and the girls. But once again his body reacted without his needing to think extensively.
Zeel used kinetic activation to move Alice and Elizabeth's bodies at speeds beyond what they could muster on their own.
Kinetic Activation could put any stationary body into motion, without the object or person being able to resist.
After moving the girls at the speed of sounds behind himself, Zeel then pushed forward both hands as if to hold the incoming dragon tail.
The impact immediately shattered the bones in both his hands, but with the aid of kinetic energy dilution, he was able to lessen the momentum enough to not die immediately.
Kinetic Energy Dilution would immediately stop a runaway train the moment it came in contact with Zeel, but it made minimal difference to the speed of the dragon's tail whip.
Zeel was tossed back a couple of feet. Regaining his step, Zeel then used the remote explosion to cause five consecutive explosions in front of himself in a desperate attempt to slow the dragon tail down some more.
Remote Explosion was a primitive method that Zeel preferred not to use ever. It simply concentrated kinetic energy at a remote location and made it explode outwards.
Basically, a concussion bomb that could act as a stopgap when he was desperate enough.
However, this was still not enough as Zeel was once again pushed back by the Dragon Tail that now added Draconic Energy to its momentum.
This time he was pushed within an arm's length of Alice and Elizabeth, who had been continually drifting back due to his use of Kinetic Activation – though not fast enough.
Zeel knew that should the tail hit them, they would no doubt die from the Draconic Energy imbued within. He was surprised that he could stay alive at this point, most likely because the Draconic Energy had been refining his body for the past 28 years.
Dragons were known for their sturdy body, while Homo-Superiors were known for their over-reliance on technology.
It was already a miracle that Zeel could survive two seconds against a weakened Dragon without any technology whatsoever.
Suddenly, a new feeling was birthed inside Zeel's chest – desperation, desperation unlike any other before it.
Zeel still had some trump cards but he was reluctant to use them with his survival guaranteed, either way, he grew conflicted inside.
He could escape because what Alice took was one vial out of the ten Zeel had available for a Mjump.
Zeel decided to take one last risk before deploying an unrecoverable trump card, the Draconic Energy that had remained isolated inside his body, had now been allowed to reign freely and combine with his own signature energy.
Mixing certain energies were unrecoverable for many beings in the Multiverse. Hence why energy sensitive beings were careful about the type of energy they would expose themselves to.
Zeel was no different, but he was also very reluctant to abandon Alice and Elizabeth.
Zeel's ruby-red eyes grew black slits for pupils, his white-silver hair had a faint red near the tips, black scales sprouted at scattered locations all over his skin, his teeth grew slightly longer and sharper.
The aura surrounding his body became dark-red.
Then with a great bellow, Zeel thrust his hands outwards catching the dragon's tail that managed to push him back a couple of inches – almost to the point of hitting Alice and Elizabeth, reaching just inches from their pale faces.
Alice and Elizabeth were frightened beyond belief. One moment they were staring at the Dragon, and the next moment they felt their bodies move without their willing it to.
Then everything else was a blur, the next thing they knew, Zeel was holding a massive tail inches away from their face.
Only....
That wasn't the Zeel they recognized.
Here is a chapter...
This chapter serves as a pivotal point in Zeel's character...
Dragons are prideful but also aggressive, so the Draconic Energy will be a major plot point for many future mishaps.
Wanna find out what happens next?
-----> patrɛon.com/The_Young_Flash