The Breach of the Core

The dragon of chitin and obsidian cleaved the sky with a contained fury; its wings beat with the force of a hurricane that dragged along the scent of burnt caramel.

(SHHHHHHHHHHH-VUMMM...!!)

On its back, Shija was barely a speck of existence: a three-year-old boy whose fingers, now small and soft, sank desperately between the plates of the beast's biological armor.

"Ugh... h-huuu...!!"

The wind tried to tear him away, battering his small body with the pressure of a physical tide, but the emerald tattoos on his skin pulsed with a rhythmic glow, granting him a gripping strength that defied his new infant anatomy.

(It is a stroke of luck that I can still channel the qi through these!)

Every muscle in Shija’s body screamed under the tension, but his gaze remained fixed on the architectural colossus rising before them.

{We are entering the core's airspace!}

As they seemed to draw closer and closer to the mansion, it appeared to rise as a challenge to reason itself.

(By its appearance, it looks similar to the lairs where my master said she exterminated vampires in her youth...)

It was a structure of dark and suffocating elegance, with black stone spires piercing the cotton candy clouds and wrought-iron balconies twisting in intricate spirals, so detailed and complex they seemed to vibrate with an ancient obsession.

(In this state, I can barely feel myself gathering ki... Besides, the energy current in this place is chaotic! My perception of the energy flow has deteriorated more and more... At this rate...)

As Shija sank into his thoughts, he was in turn watched by the crystal gargoyles on the slate roofs, which were not statues, but silent sentinels observing from a time that no longer moved forward.

(I am just being a burden...!)

But despite perceiving the vitality of the gargoyles, Shija remained focused, centering his strength and analyzing what he was still capable of doing in his current state.

(SHRRRRRR-IIIINNNNGGGG!!)

However, at the same time, while Shija took account of the situation, trying to hold on despite the friction in his weakness...

{...Finally... I have it...}

The doll, in parallel, reached her answer.

(Vvvvrou-shhhhh-krkkk!!)

The space around the building behaved like a wounded animal; it folded over itself, contracted in impossible angles, and expanded in thousandths of a second, creating an abyss of non-existent distance.

{After days, I have finally figured it out!}

Following the dragon's joyful proclamation, Shija saw at that moment how entire clouds disappeared into an invisible fold only to reappear kilometers behind, while the horizon fractured into overlapping fragments, being shattered like shards of glass in reality.

(HUM-PULSE... CLACK!!!)

With a sudden movement, the dragon adjusted the angle of its wings. It did not aim for the main gates, but toward an apparent void where the air seemed to creak like breaking glass with every wingbeat as she gathered momentum.

{I have found the rift! We are going to cross the infinite!}

Days had passed since Shija lost consciousness, days in which the dragon never stopped flying, tracing erratic orbits, retreating when space compressed and accelerating when reality gave way.

(Vrrrruuuu-OOOOMMM!! SHHHH-RRRR-ACK!! ZIIII-ZAP!!)

Thanks to that, the doll had been calculating the "heartbeat" of that defense, searching for the hidden pattern behind the randomness of the dimensional rifts.

(SHRRRRRR-IIIINNNNGGGG!!!)

And it was thanks to those continuous efforts that, after overcoming the first barrier that kept the rest of the consciousnesses away from the mansion, the "beast" dove headlong, accelerating toward their shared objective.

"¡¿?!"

However, unfortunately...

{Here they come...}

The air, which until that moment had been saturated with the sweetness of chocolate and vanilla, suddenly became dense, charged with a static that made the emerald tattoos on Shija’s skin emit a painful hum.

(This presence!!)

In the center of his chest, Shija felt a pang of absolute cold.

{Of course, nothing is ever that easy... Right...?}

It wasn't a physical pain, but a flow of pure despair filtering through the folds of space; a tide of anguish so ancient and deep that it made every fiber of his infantile essence crawl.

"What is that?!"

His instinct, forged in a thousand battles, reacted before his mind: his small muscles tensed and his guard went up instinctively, perceiving that the spatial labyrinth was not the only defense of that place.

(SHHHHHHHHH-RRRRRRR!!!)

Beneath the majestic Victorian structure, the crystallized rock that supported the mansion began to undergo a ghastly transformation.

{That is...}

As if the stone itself were bleeding its own darkness, a viscous and dense substance began to secrete from the deepest cracks of the floating crag.

{An extreme reaction of denial... Erupting.}

It was a liquid of absolute black, darker than night, with the heavy and oily consistency of boiling tar.

(GLOOP... SPLASH... GLOO-GURGLE!!)

At first, they were heavy drops falling into the void, but in a matter of seconds, the leakage turned into an uncontrollable torrent.

"What does that mean?!"

The dark tar sprouted from the foundations, sliding down the rock walls with a terrifying parsimony, forming cascades of liquid shadows that plunged toward the abyss.

{Simple... Basically... WE ARE BEING REJECTED!!}

The substance did not just fall; it seemed to devour the light in its path.

(FSSSHHHHH-OOOOOOM!!!)

The glow of the cotton candy clouds was extinguished when the vapors of that astral tar brushed against them.

"¡¡!!"

In turn, to Shija’s horror, the black waterfalls grew in volume, enveloping the mansion's base in a veil of corrupt matter that undulated with a will of its own, as if the suffering Shija perceived had taken on a physical and viscous form.

"It comes from... inside..."

The purity of the pastel sky was being stained by an incessant discharge of blackness that transformed the mansion's base into a nightmare of dark fluids.

{Get ready!!}

But without slowing the advance, as the atmosphere became so thick that every wingbeat emitted a dull thud, as if hitting metal underwater.

"That is...!!"

Shija, crouching and shielding himself behind the spines of the beast's neck, did not turn his gaze away from the tar waterfalls.

(GLUP-SPLASH... SHRRRR-IIIII!!!)

It was from the waterfalls where the dark liquid plunged into the void that the change began...

{Here I go, "mom"}

The waterfalls didn't just plunge into the abyss; they began to churn, bubbling with a predatory ferocity.

(SHAK-SHAK-SHAK!!!)

Until finally, from the viscous and dark mass dripping from the rock, hydrodynamic forms began to detach, defying gravity.

(GRRR-AAAA-SHHH!!!)

From the liquid emerged creatures of an oily black that seemed to have been molded directly from the despair saturating the air.

{GRRRROOAAAWWWLLL!!!}

Their bodies, robust and aerodynamic, lacked scales, showing instead a surface of liquid tar that dripped constantly, leaving trails of pitch across the pastel sky.

(VROOOOOOOOOM!!)

And after a brief exchange of roars between them, the creatures—which sliced through the air with terrifying agility, moving their powerful tails to propel themselves through the chocolate currents—opened their maws, revealing rows of teeth made of solid shadow. With their eyes as simple empty slits emanating the same icy pressure Shija had felt in his visions, they launched forward in a charge.

{They are coming from everywhere! Cover my back!}

Thus, following the roar of the doll in her dragon form while the tar beasts launched their attack from the waterfalls, surrounding them in a perfect hunting formation...

(WHOOOOOSH-SNAP!!!)

The combat began as one of the sharks passed just inches from Shija, dropping a rain of dense liquid that hissed upon touching the dragon's scales.

(What speed!!)

The sound of their jaws snapping shut in the void was like the collision of two heavy stones.

(They have surrounded us...!)

There were dozens, sprouting incessantly from the mansion’s foundations, turning the airspace into a pit of hungry predators.

(KRA-SHHHH!!!)

However, moments before being struck, the dragon performed a violent roll, dodging a lateral lunge, while her chitin claws tore through one of the attackers, dissolving it into an explosion of tar that reformed in mid-air almost immediately.

"They aren't living beings...!"

Watching the scene, Shija, clinging on with his fingers, analyzed how the sharks suffered no real damage, but instead constantly reformed from the flow emanating from the mansion.

(BOOOOOOOOM!!!)

Immediately after, the pastel sky, once a refuge of sweet fragrances, was transformed into a theater of visceral war.

{GET OUT OF MY WAY!!}

The obsidian dragon roared, a frequency that made the air vibrate until it turned solid, and launched herself headlong against the pack of shadows.

(VROOOOOOOOOM!!!)

With a wingbeat that generated visible shockwaves, the beast executed a barrel roll, dodging by millimeters the open maws of three sharks that crossed her path.

(SHRRRR-ZIP-SNAP!!!)

In turn, Shija, reduced to his infant form but possessing the reflexes of a specter, clung to the dragon's back as if he were part of her armor.

"Left!"

His hands gripped the translucent spines as the world spun at a dizzying speed; he read and predicted the enemy flow, anticipating the masses of tar that projected from one of the waterfalls like a living missile.

(VUUUUUU-SHHHHHHH!!!)

In response, the dragon reacted by dodging instantly, folding her left chitin wing and letting gravity pull her into a corkscrew dive, allowing the predator to overshoot, losing part of its viscous consistency against the boreal aura protecting the mount.

{Very well...! Keep it up!!}

In the air, the doll’s maneuverability in her colossal form was unnatural.

"Right, left, diagonal!"

Under Shija’s instructions, she used the thermal air currents emanating from the hot chocolate below to propel herself upward, performing tight turns that defied inertia.

(CLANG-SPLASH!!! CLACK-SHHH!!!)

At the same time, she counterattacked using her chitin claws, slicing through the air and leaving behind trails of energy that acted as temporary barriers against the pursuing sharks...

"Ahead!!"

Suddenly, five of the black beasts coordinated, lunging from blind spots.

{HERE I GO!}

In response, the dragon fully deployed her wings, braking hard in mid-air and causing the attackers to fly past by sheer inertia.

(GLU-GURGLE-SHHH!!!)

In that second of suspension, the dragon’s tail lashed out like an obsidian whip, splitting two of the sharks in half.

(This is going badly...)

However, just as Shija feared, the black matter refused to die.

(SHAAK!!)

The tar fragments suspended themselves in the air, vibrating, and began to stretch to join together again, forming rows of teeth even before recovering their full bodies.

(SCRATCH-RRRR-ACK!!!)

The sharks climbed through the air, leaving trails of pitch that stained the immaculate Victorian walls.

"Tsk!"

Faced with the situation, Shija grit his teeth, feeling the emerald tattoos on his arms burn with renewed intensity.

(Is there nothing else I can do?!)

He observed the flow: the sharks were not born from the air, but from the waterfalls of the rock.

"Don't hit them where they are!"

There was a pulse, a rhythm in the discharge of the black liquid.

"We have to go through the core of the waterfall! If we cross the source, space will stabilize!"

So, upon hearing Shija's words, the doll in her dragon form lunged, turning into a projectile of pure obsidian.

(SHHHHH-RRR-OOM!!!)

In that way, both threw themselves directly toward the largest tar cataract, Shija holding his breath, while dozens of sharks launched into a desperate pursuit behind them, forming a tunnel of shadows and teeth that sought to devour the light before they could make contact...