Chrysalis



It's not easy to create and conceal something like a gravity bomb. The raw mana I pour into the damn thing, and its generally unstructured form, don't exactly lead to a stable, easily hidden spell.

The gravity bomb has always been a weird bit of magic. I first discovered this technique, and mana compression, when I blasted a croca beast directly in the face with a ball of pure mana. It's probably possible to do something similar to a gravity bomb with any sort of mana, a fire bomb, a water bomb, a lava bomb, or whatever.

It's not like I'm utilising some fancy, gravity only spell-form, all I'm doing is taking a huge chunk of mana and packing it into a dense ball before letting it rip.

But for some reason, I can't imagine any other type of mana working nearly as well as my special, purple, crushing magic. Once I compact it, smush it together, the mana itself takes over, sucking in everything it can get, compacting by itself, just like a black hole.

And when I release it, the bomb emits that terrifying pull, consuming the air, stirring up the wind and eating even the light. I can't possibly imagine any other mana type could come close to the devastation of this spell!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLL!

The bomb screams through the air, creating a vortex of twisting wind as it goes. This one is dense, with a ton of mana packed into it and empowered by the Altar. I didn't hold back even a little when preparing it, and now that this delectable dish has been served, I hope that these three demons manage to enjoy it.

By the by, am I shifting forward by any chance?

I shift my body to look down and, sure enough, my legs are being dragged forward, carving their own little furrows in the ground. In the distance, the bomb continues to fly away from me, and the more I look, the more I realise that I can't really see it properly. The thing is sucking in so much light, I can't even see the edges of it anymore, it's more like a… dark blob, a void, that moves through the air, rocketing toward the target.

So… this thing is pulling me forward… even though it hasn't expanded yet….

Oh… my… Gandalf….

[Duck for cover! Run! Dig! This is a code purple! CODE PURPLE!]

So saying, I spin myself around and throw my massive ant frame forward with all my strength. The moment I hit the deck, I start digging into it, face-hands flying as I rip through the rock, moulding it with earth mana as I go.

Tiny jumps in beside me and starts tearing into the ground with his thick fingers, a look of cold determination on his face, for once. It wasn't easy to impress on the big ape just how serious a code purple is, but I eventually explained that it would crush all his muscles to nothing and he nearly fainted on the spot.

[Invidia, are you down here?!]

[Yesssss.]

He doesn't sound happy about it, but I'm glad. In just a few seconds, it's not like we can dig far, but anything is better than leaving ourselves uncovered. I dumped as much gravity mana into this as I could while still concealing the spell. With Invidia helping to hide the mass of power, the bomb absorbed so much mana it had become a pure black sphere, rotating within me like a cold and indifferent beast.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWLLLLLL!!!!!

I turn around, my head poking out of the hole we dug just in time to see the bomb zipping over the final metres. The wind has been whipped into an absolute frenzy, to the point the bomb appears to be the centre of a newly formed hurricane. The winds are so fast, I swear I see larvae being lifted up into the air by their force, carried away to goodness knows where, or, most unfortunately, thrown toward the centre of the mess.

I don't even know what the three demons have done in response to my opening gambit, the chaos caused by the bomb is so total, it's impossible to pay attention to anything else.

When it reaches its destination, the bomb flickers for a moment, and I dig my claws as deep into the rock as I can.

Here it comes….

In a flash, the bomb expands, manifesting itself as a slowly rotating void, like the eye of an all-devouring god.

Then it expands again.

My eyes almost boggle out of my head at the size of the thing. This is double the size of my previous biggest bomb…. DOUBLE!

I'm way too close for this! Every damn time, the thing that gets the closest to killing me is my own damn magic!

As the gravity bomb reaches its full size, the most terrifying pull I've ever experienced takes hold, and everything goes wrong. The ground cracks and splits, the air screams, lava boils up, only to be dragged into the void.

Light is gone, sound is gone.

In the vicinity of the spell, everything is gone.

Holy moly. What have I created? I'm not sure if I'm more horrified or terrified, as that sickening dragging sensation is working its deadly magic on me as well! I've been rather impressed with my new body, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that my mass has gone up rather significantly in my last evolution. The Gravity Compressed Diamond is so dense only Tiny can compete with it.

It's great stuff, but it doesn't exactly help when I'm trying to avoid being dragged into a miniature black hole.

[Master Grip (IV) has reached level 11]

Now that helps. Precious Grip, save me now!

The scene in front of my many-lensed eyes is a nightmare. The ground is being ripped up, the light is disappearing and the air is being dragged in so fast I can't hear anything except the high-pitched scream. If the wind speed picks up any more, then I'm going to lose an antenna!

I really should have tested a full strength Gravity Bomb before I let one rip…. How many times am I going to fall for this?!

With a mighty bellow, Tiny thrusts his hands forward and buries his fingers deep into the stone below. Must be nice having unbreakable bones! Now if only he had those bones on the outside….

Invidia is protected by clinging to the big ape and Crinis is stuck to me. Al… I'm not sure where Al wound up, I hope he can keep himself far enough away.

Holding tight, I pour every ounce of strength I can muster into holding my ground in the face of the thing that I created.

With a little luck, even those tier eight demons wouldn't have managed to survive it.