Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 91: Collapse

A loud grinding noise sounded out through the corridor, followed by a resounding crash, a piece of the cube had fallen into the corridor behind Kothar. Kothar kept his gaze forward, and continued on his breakneck sprint out of the cube. 

Again and again, he threw out portal after portal, leaping through them to sidestep the winding maze that wrapped through the cube. The orange glow that had filled the corridors was slowly fading, as life left the massive, moving structure.

"A portal to your designated home plane is ready, would you like the portal to be opened? Y/N '' The abrupt message from the Pebble appeared in front of Kothar's eyeline, but he dismissed it immediately. He had no idea how long the Pebble would take to open the portal and furthermore, he no longer trusted the far too useful device after it had led him to the waiting claws of the mantis.

[Before you say anything, Silane, we'll take it once we see this through.] Kothar said as he dodged a massive chunk of falling rubble.

[I wasn't going to say anything. After single handedly tearing this place down, the least we could do is stay till the end.] Silane replied, a genuine hint of sorrow in her usually bright voice.

[The mantis would've taken it if we hadn't Silane, and unlike him, we could come back and rebuild this place one day.] Kothar replied, he wasn't sure if he was trying to persuade Silane, or himself. But to be fair, if he had fought the mantis within the center of the cube, who knew how the Imperium might've been destabilized.

All around them, as the ceilings of the corridors grew darker and darker, the cube truly began to fall apart, the faint light of the giant moon above in the hazy sky filtered through a massive chasm above Kothar, and he leapt upwards into the gap that had formed.

At least in here, there was one direction where he knew that there wouldn't be parts of the cube falling or moving.

Kothar deftly leapt up the irregular edges of the cube, as the chasm widened. Pieces of the cube narrowly missed him as he made his way out of the monument. As the structure fell apart, the chasm widened, gradually forming a slope. 

A stray portion of the cube fell straight down toward Kothar, aiming right for him. Gritting his teeth, Kothar simply threw the widest portal he could make at the cube, opening another behind himself.

By now, he stood at the top of the crumbling monument, all around him, he could see the ruined plane, the scale of this world astounded him. As far as he could see, the shadows of old structures remained, the rubble forming the remnants of great buildings and rows upon rows of houses.

Far on the horizon, Kothar could see an enormous pile of rubble, and it took a moment before he realized what he was looking at, the remnants of another cube.

Kothar sighed as he realized what had likely happened all across this world, the Imperium was far too precious to leave behind, no matter how wondrous the cubes themselves were.

Turning away from the ruins of the other cube, Kothar leaped from one piece of the crumbling cube to the next. The collapse had slowed, as the empty spaces within the cube had been filled, and Kothar easily made his way to the foot of the enormous pile of rubble and portions of the intricate structure that were slowly sinking down,

Kothar continued to walk away from the sinking monument, looking back every now and then to keep watch for the mantis, hopefully it had been crushed in the collapse, but Kothar knew that that was simply wishful thinking.

If not for his recent power up on Atla, Kothar would have had a one way ticket to the mantis' jagged embrace. It's ridiculous speed, physical durability and regeneration made for a tough opponent, and the constant screeching that it made was uncomfortable to day the least.

Now far from any stray rubble and debris, Kothar settled down against the remnants of a wall, wrapping himself in his cloak and sitting down on the heavy layer of dust and dirt on the ground.

He sat in his silence, along with Silane, and the pair of them watched the slow collapse of the cube. 

The collapse was almost, almost beautiful, the slow sliding and falling of all of the irregularly shaped portions of the cube, and as they fell hints of the original inscriptions would reveal themselves.

A massive cloud of dust blossomed up into the sky from the rubble, adding to the perpetual haze that hung in the air. The dust hung over the cube, high in the sky like a dry and motionless thundercloud. There wasn't even the slightest hint of a breeze in the air, this was a truly dead world.

Even as the rubble settled, there was not even the slightest hint of the mantis, it seemed as if the creature had truly been crushed, or more likely, it had left by a Pebble portal.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kothar came to his feet, brushing the dirt and dust off of himself, the collapse had slowed to a point where he could barely see even the faintest trace of movement. 

The cube had stood for eons, even as the civilization that built it collapsed all around it, and now it too had fallen.

It was time to leave.

"Pebble, open portal to designated home plane." Kothar spoke into the device, a hint of anger in his voice, he knew that the fact that he ran into the mantis was not by coincidence. 

The introductory information he had read had made him more than aware of the Pebble's ability to communicate between planes, and the device had sent him into the claws of the waiting mantis.

For what reason, Kothar didn't know, but he would find out.