38th of Season of Earth, 58th year of the 32nd cycle

  Blue skies above, jungle below, and mountains in the distance. The ruined Explorer’s Gate airship still screamed through the air at breakneck speed, but the disciples aboard no longer noticed it.

  Newt estimated their ship had descended to around half a mile above the treetops. Another five minutes, and Aura and Sharpcut would abandon ship while Newt and his sisters and brother would remain aboard, trusting their defenses.

  A sudden shriek froze his heart. The six Explorer’s Gate disciples stared out the window, silently cursing the heavens and whatever new trial they had in store for them. A giant pterosaur, larger than their airship flew straight towards them, screeching a challenge.

  The frontal collision was imminent in less than five seconds.

  Everyone summoned their defenses as a house-sized boulder of ice manifested and flew at their ship. Newt could not see the spirit beast’s realm, but the iceberg’s size meant it was at least at the fifth, possibly sixth.

  The world became a white hunk of ice, and the six screamed. The impact scattering them across the command room like dice in a cup. The ship smashed through the iceberg, then slammed into the towering quetzalcoatlus with a wingspan of over three hundred feet.

  Covered in Granite Crust, Newt felt like he was floating. Around him, the hull deformed, groaned, and shattered in slow motion, the ship tearing like a paper kite. Time sped up, Newt smashed into the blades of twisted metal, bending and sundering them. Someone smashed into his back, the impact followed by another, and then another.

  Suddenly, he was free of the ship, falling. The ground spun before him. Newt felt pressure around his waist, somebody was hugging him, and he twisted his legs, wrapping them around whoever was falling with him.

  He looked up to see who it was, but instead caught sight of the ship falling all around him in pieces. The quetzalcoatlus was also falling. Luckily, the dazed giant tumbled away from them as it continued its original trajectory.

  Peak fifth realm.

  Free of all obstacles, Newt saw the monster’s realm and shuddered. Heavens had smiled upon them. Had the pterosaur been at the sixth realm, it would have plowed through the ship and disciples alike. Even as things stood, the ship fell apart, but at least they survived.

  Newt glanced down his waist. His legs were wrapped around his eldest sister’s massive, rocky-gray torso. She had one arm wrapped around him, another around Emeraldstreak’s chest, who clung to her with both arms. With her legs, Emeraldstreak hugged Aura, her body limp and bloody.

  Newt looked around, but the insane tangle of limbs hindered his mobility, and he failed to spot Stegorock and Sharpcut.

  Newt looked down. The spinning trees were upon them. He doubled over, grabbed for Aura, but could not reach her. Emeraldstreak understood his intention. She bent, pushing Aura in the center of the group, and the three earth cultivators stretched their defenses.

  They obliterated a tree and another, shaking and spinning. Cracks formed where three different skills attempted to merge, and the shell burst as they smashed against the jungle’s soft floor. The crash punched the air out of Newt’s lungs, his muscular sister’s grip helping not one bit as his ribs squeaked under the strain. Still they held, tumbling across the soft humus.

  With a grunt, Greenbow smashed back first into a tree, and the other three piled atop her. Several moments passed before Newt’s mind cleared. He drew a breath, his lungs and ribs sore. Greenbow’s grip was slack, and he got up, checking his eldest sister’s condition first.

  She was alive, but bloodied. They all were. Most of the blood seemed to belong to Aura, who was a mess. Out cold, a realm weaker, and an element known for its fragile physique, it was a wonder she was alive.

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  “My head,” grumbled Greenbow and stood, Emeraldstreak conscious, but still prone, continued hugging Aura.

  “How is everyone?” Greenbow asked, a plum-sized lump growing on her head.

  “Bruised, but alive.” Newt laid a hand on his tender side. “Your grip is firmer than a titanoboa’s, Greenbow.”

  The woman winced while feeling the bump on the back of her head, but still flashed Newt a strained smile. “Sorry. Had to be clingy. If it’s any consolation, Em was crushing my hips the entire time to avenge you.”

  “I’m alive, and nobody was crushing me, thanks for asking.” Emeraldstreak shifted on the ground, moving so as not to disturb the unconscious Aura. She carefully laid the woman to the forest floor and checked her pulse.

  “She’s alive.”

  Aura’s face was swelling, blue and purple invading the pink flesh. Blood flowed from her broken nose and a number of lacerations on her body. Emeraldstreak started stripping her, and Newt spun on his heel.

  “I’ll keep watch.”

  The jungle was dead silent, holding its breath following the sudden spell of violence. Under normal circumstances, smaller pterosaurs would have scattered into the sky, fleeing the scene. But with the fifth realm apex predator around, they remained where they were, making themselves invisible.

  The rainforest floor was cluttered with ferns, rotting logs, and two boulders. Thick ropes of vines hung from the trees, obstructing everything outside three dozen yards. Brightly colored bloom formed a stark contrast with the dim, ominous atmosphere, the flowers’ scents mixing with the musk of the earth and rot of the logs.

  The silence pressed down on the four survivors, broken only by the cloth rustling behind Newt and the sharp whine of the mosquitoes.

  “Three broken ribs,” Emeraldstreak said. “She’s bleeding from a wound on her head, probably a concussion. Her spine is fine, but she broke a leg.”

  Newt listened to the other minor details about their fragile fellow disciple’s state.

  “We’ll have to take care of her for a while.” Greenbow remained as chivalrous as ever, despite their miserable situation. “But we’re alive, and that’s all that matters right now.”

  Newt agreed to an extent. Plenty of other things mattered, especially in their situation.

  “Any suggestions on what we should do? How deep in the jungle are we?” The questions they had decided to ignore until they survived the crash reared their ugly heads. Survival, return trip, Newt’s deadline, for he was certain the next summer solstice would send another pillar of divine flame, and if he had nobody to protect him, he would die.

  The questions which loomed over everyone’s hearts were those nobody would voice. What of the sect? Did the Explorer’s Gate survive the invasion, or is the sect finished? How many had died, and how many managed to leave unscathed? What of Obi and Jas and Rose? Elder Alabaster, Elder Flameax, Woodhopper?

  Those and countless other questions assailed Newt, threatening to overwhelm him. His stomach was churning, doubts and fears clawing at his heart.

  “First, we need to check the nearby wreckage for weapons or anything else we might find useful. It would be best if we could find the parcels we prepared.”

  While waiting for the inevitable crash, the group had gathered and safely wrapped all weapons and provisions they found in a bunch of smaller packages, and kept them locked away in the captain’s quarter. Having loose weapons flying around with people in the room seemed a recipe for disaster, which Stegorock had pointed out, so the weapons had their separate chamber. They had each carried a small package of food and trinkets, but nobody knew what happened to them after the collision with the titanic quetzalcoatlus.

  Newt agreed with Greenbow, finding some supplies would improve their situation by a wide margin, but a clear problem stood in their way. The collision and their airship’s explosion scattered the dozen packages over hundreds of square miles of jungle. Let alone small parcels, even finding larger pieces of the airship would prove difficult, if not impossible.

  Newt turned around. Emeraldstreak had covered Aura and bandaged her head.

  “I’m not certain we can find the wreckage.” Newt said, since Emerald chose not to speak. “What do we have in our pockets?”

  Newt checked his, and withdrew a handful of mush. “I have a mashed up apple, mixed with three strips of jerky, a crushed bottle, and the fasting pills are gone, broken.”

  He shook his hand, shaking off the mush mixed with jerky and porcelain.

  “String and rope I stuffed in my other pocket are fine, but now that we’re here, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with them. It seemed like a good idea to take them, but it feels stupid now.”

  Others did the same inventory check as Newt. Only he was foolish enough to keep a bottle together with his food, and while others also only had mush, theirs remained edible. Greenbow pulled out a carefully wrapped, hand-sized package from her other pocket. The sound of broken glass rubbing and scraping against each other told them about the fate of the most important item they had salvaged.

  Greenbow unwrapped it, revealing a shattered compass. The group checked Aura’s pockets, but all they had to show between the four of them were three handfuls of edible mush, and several handfuls of once useful items, countless times more fragile than cultivators’ bodies.