Cloudy Sky: The Unlucky Thirteen

39 - Portal to the Fifth World

Scorpio

A burst of water washes over me quickly. For a moment, I splutter, submerged in water, before hands grip my wrists and pull me onto what feels like warm dry land. "You're welcome for the bath," remarks Taurus's voice. Opening my eyes carefully, I realize that I'm lying on my stomach on the shore of a river that I vaguely remember, running through it at night ... it isn't the river near Lonely Star, is it?

My ears are ringing from the screech of the monster, but the ringing is gradually fading. As I slowly get to my feet and look through the thin cover of trees, I see a gaping hole placed in the middle of a length of upturned earth and pieces of debris. "What did Pisces do?" I ask. "We're back in Galaxus!"

A geyser of water shoots up from the river and drops Sagittaria unceremoniously into it. She's limp and doesn't move, and Taurus hurries to carefully drag her onto the bank. Her hands have red burns all over them. Taurus shakes his head, mumbling to himself, "There was fire all over her, but she's not dead and she doesn't even have first–degree burns —"

Gemi is the last to be dropped through the geyser before Pisces himself appears. I glance at everyone, sitting on the bank sopping wet and dazed. Twelve. There's twelve of us in total.

One of us is missing. "I thought you guys had Nia already?" Gemi asks. "Where did she go?"

My heart jumps. "What do you mean, I thought you were watching your twin?"

"I didn't see Nia," Pisces says in an exhausted voice. I see how Aquaria casts a genuinely concerned look at him, rising from where she sits with her legs crossed, moving over to where Pisces has collapsed on the ground. Her face is bleeding, but I doubt she notices. Her lips are especially bloody.

"Did we leave her behind?" I jump to my feet, even though my legs feel as if they're going to give out any time now. No, Nia can't be. She's fine. "We have to go back —"

Pisces gives me a dead look, "I teleport through water, as you can tell. There is no water around there that I know well enough to envision. As you can also probably tell, there is no way I'm making a portal to anywhere right now."

Why do I care so much about Nia, anyway? I've always felt as if the eccentric Nia is ... relatable, I suppose. Even though she's Sagittaria's apprentice. She also saved me once. But Nia is gone.

I sit down, unaware of doing it until my legs are no longer struggling to support me. Dimly, I hear Caprice. "I'm betting that thing was not Miasma. It was probably Corrupted."

"That means Corrupted are practically unbeatable," says Gemi glumly. We all quiet for a few minutes as it soaks in that Nia is gone. I close my eyes, trying to clear my mind of thoughts. It's not a wayward thought, though, that creeps into my mind.

We're not invincible. We can die. We didn't. "I'm alive," Aquaria grins sheepishly, "and I know it was a bad decision but —" She steps forward slightly as rain pounds down outside. Carina crosses her arms, adopting her well–known fight me look. It was her idea, as usual.