Khan was strangely calmer than ever. Metal boulders were falling everywhere, and even the floor under his feet had crumbled, leaving him with an unstable foothold. However, his mind was at peace. He almost felt at home.
The coldness caused by the meeting with the Nak's hand and the mess in the environment fused to bring Khan's mindset to the next level. Nothing escaped his senses, and his thoughts reached incredible levels of sharpness. He began to exist only to overcome that catastrophe, which gave him power beyond reason.
The whole hidden lab transformed into a rain of metal boulders, and the same went for a significant chunk of the intermediate floor. An unfathomable weight fell through the fourth asteroid, spreading the destruction past the range of the hand's spell. The lower levels suffered an absurd amount of damage, and Khan stood at the very center of that mess.
Khan didn't stop in a random spot before. He had been able to sense the cracks traced by the hand's mana, so he had chosen a place that would provide a relatively spacious foothold.
The sensitivity to mana didn't betray Khan. After everything crumbled, he found himself on a two meters wide chunk of metal. The makeshift platform was only one of the many boulders among that metal rain, and he could stand comfortably on it.
Khan didn't need to focus on a single aspect of his senses to get the best out of it. His eyes darted left and right while his sensitivity added details to his inspection. Everything worked at full power, providing a multicolored and detailed understanding of the situation.
Boulders filled every corner of Khan's vision. Some were as big as houses while others couldn't even fit a child. The area was also dark since most artificial lights were among the rubble. The scene could make anyone despair, but Khan saw it as nothing more than an amusement park.
That wasn't Khan's first time using falling boulders as footholds. He had never faced such an ugly situation, but he had also improved a lot. He could almost walk on mana now. He would mock himself to no end if he couldn't do the same with metal.
The landing wasn't an issue. Khan could easily vanquish his momentum once a surface that could resist the metal rain revealed itself. Yet, he couldn't simply jump out when he had an entire floor falling with him.
The crumbled ceiling and the higher areas affected by the hand's spell didn't leave any safe spots. The rubble would squash Khan if he tried to run away after the landing. He needed to climb through the rain to ensure his survival.
Blasting the rubbles open with a series of spells was an option. Khan had the power to create a passage above him that would allow him to avoid moving altogether.
However, Khan couldn't pinpoint the hand's exact location among that mess. The latter had even depleted most of its mana during its last attack. It could be right above him, and he wouldn't know it, so using spells sounded too dangerous.
Differently from Khan, Rodney didn't retain a shred of calm. Everything under him had crumbled, so his body rotated and spun freely. His eyes even added fuel to his panic since they kept catching glimpses of the metal cage ready to submerge him.
Rodney knew that he was falling to his death. He had been lucky enough to avoid a direct impact with any surface, but something able to withstand that incredible weight was bound to arrive, and his life would end at that point.
Accepting death wasn't Rodney's style, especially after his awakening on Nitis. He wanted to find ways to survive, but his spells couldn't do anything against the metal mountain ready to squash him. His element was also ill-suited against that sheer and brute weight, and the lack of footholds added insult to the injury.
Eventually, Rodney's back hit a boulder, and his survival instincts roared for him to get a grip on it. He somehow succeeded in clinging himself to that chunk of metal, but he found himself upside-down, in the same horrible situation as before.
Still, the boulder prevented Rodney from spinning freely and allowed him to get a good look at the situation. The area was mostly dark, but random glows managed to enter the metal rain and send reflections on the various surfaces.
Some might find beauty in that desperate scene, but Rodney wasn't the type to waste time in those thoughts. He only wanted to survive, but that seemed impossible. His strength began to abandon him as he realized how doomed it was, but that changed when he caught a glimpse of Khan.
The dim area didn't let Rodney see every detail, but he knew to have found Khan when the faint reflections highlighted his figure. Khan was only a few meters above him, but his stance radiated a completely different vibe.
Rodney's panic went silent when he saw Khan calmly jumping upward. The latter flew among the rubble and lightly stepped on various boulders to use them as steps. He climbed through the rain while making it look extremely natural and easy.
Khan had sensed Rodney's gaze but didn't care enough to address it. His thoughts had transformed into sparks that exploded with ideas and paths whenever the rain of boulders changed. His mind contained the layout of that chaotic environment, and he used it to avoid dead ends.
Step after step, Khan climbed through the rain. Each move had a precise purpose and direction. Each jump led him closer to the top of the mess, but the hand continued to escape his senses.
A sense of freedom enveloped Khan. The boulders couldn't offer endless footholds, but they created an environment where he could ignore gravity. He fell only when he wanted to fall. He was one with the rain but also the sole being who could bend it to his will.
Rodney soon lost track of Khan due to the many boulders hindering his sight. Yet, seeing Khan turning certain death into nothing more than footholds brought a new wave of power to Rodney's body. Khan had actually inspired him. Rodney wouldn't give up just yet.
The heavy rubble eventually crashed on the surface between the intermediate floor and Lower Level 2, and the latter didn't even try to withstand its weight. The metal ceiling bent and shattered, adding power to the rain and sending everything to the grey floor.
Light shone among the rain. Lower Level 2 had better artificial illumination, but that only gave Khan, Rodney, and any bystander a better sight of the catastrophe.
The ceiling was short, so the rubble only took a second to reach the floor and make it suffer a terrible fate. Holes opened on the grey layer as giant boulders pierced it. Lower Lever 2 never stood a chance, and the many secret passages under it also crumbled to add weight to the catastrophe.
The rain never managed to slow down permanently since its spreading destruction added weight to its overall structure, and the situation worsened once the path to Lower Level 3 opened. A long fall separated the boulders from the array of streets, which was bound to push their speed to disastrous levels.
Khan reached the top of the rain only to widen his eyes in terror at the sight of the dome. He couldn't keep track of everything during his climb, but that scene confirmed his arrival at Lower Level 3, which increased the amount of trouble he was in.
The dome probably was sturdy enough to withstand all those boulders, but Lower Level 3 had a structural flaw. The gate at its bottom might break during the disaster and leave no barriers between the fourth asteroid and space.
If the gate fell, most of the fourth asteroid would end up in space, which meant certain death. Khan couldn't do anything to avoid that, but he could strive to reach areas outside of that catastrophe.
Sadly for Khan, he had reached the end of the rain. He was out of boulders to use as footholds. He could only watch as the giant hole in the ceiling grew distant, without offering anything that might bring him into safe areas.
Khan didn't give up just yet. He didn't have solutions, but he could still try a few things. He knew he could walk on mana as long as it reached a certain density, and he hoped that his request would be enough to get him out of that disaster.
"Create a path," Khan asked while sending a whiff of his mana into the environment.
The synthetic mana listened to Khan's request and accumulated above him to create three irregular platforms. Of course, he had to use his sensitivity to see them, and they looked anything but stable, but they were the best he could accomplish for now.
Khan jumped toward the first platform, hoping that he could step on it. He even prepared another request for the synthetic mana. However, a pulling force suddenly affected his body, disturbing his trajectory and removing the invisible steps.
The rain continued to fall, so Khan found himself floating mid-air, without any foothold. A single jump seemed to have doomed him, but he couldn't focus on that detail for now. He was more worried about the complete absence of synthetic mana in the area.
Khan steeled his resolve and summoned his mana. His body began to spin on its own, and he waited until he faced the broken ceiling to launch a purple-red needle.
The spell didn't go far. It exploded when Khan was still in its range, but he had already crossed his arms and activated the [Blood Shield]. The small detonation pushed him downward, slamming him back on the boulders and granting him footholds again.
Khan ignored the pain and straightened his position to inspect the area, and what he was looking for quickly touched his sensitivity. The Nak's hand was also above the rain, and the mana it had absorbed made it impossible to miss.
The hand was quite far away from Khan, but he could reach it relatively quickly with his speed. Nevertheless, the boulders hit the array of streets at that point, and the rain condensed for an instant, making him lose his balance and eventual initiative.
Khan was torn between two threats now. The Nak's hand shone with an unfathomable amount of mana, and the heavy rubble pierced the streets to continue its descent toward the gate. The situation didn't offer any right decision, so he let go of any restraint and let his urges take over.
The mental state that Khan had managed to appreciate properly only on the battlefield returned to show its new depths. Khan transformed into a puppet ruled by his urges and shot at top speed toward the hand.
The boulders shook as they separated once again, but Khan adjusted his steps to those tremors to keep sprinting at full speed. His face burnt due to the friction generated by his acceleration, but he pressed on, adding even more power to his advance.
The Nak's hand quickly grew close. The clash with Khan was bound to happen in a few short seconds, but a deafening noise suddenly came out of the dome, and the pale-blue light of its surface began to flash with scarlet shades.
Both Khan and the hand suffered under that noise. It was too loud, but it only brought positive news. Khan couldn't see it, but some safety measures had activated, and a series of metal layers had come out of the gate's edges to seal it.
The alarm rang to no end, and the rain hit the bottom of the dome when Khan managed to ignore it. A force ready to break his legs and squash him climbed through the boulders as they fell on each other, and he noticed that in time to perform his evasive maneuver.
Khan jumped, putting as much power as possible into his gesture to disperse the momentum accumulated during the fall. Meanwhile, the rubble completely crashed on the dome and transformed into a tall and unstable metal mountain.
Somehow, the dome endured the crash and sheer weight of the rubble, allowing Khan to land safely on top of the metal mountain. Still, he wasn't alone there. The Nak's hand was also floating nearby.
Khan didn't have the time to sigh in relief. He raised his knife and prepared himself for the second round with the hand, but he wasn't the only one wanting a piece of that alien threat.
The rubble had covered a fifth of Lower Level 3. The celebrations had left it almost empty, but some crews still existed, and many had survived the catastrophe.
Multiple ships rose from the surviving streets and descended toward the metal mountain to surround Khan and the Nak's hand. In less than a minute, Khan found seventeen vehicles floating around him.
Warnings couldn't work in that situation, and the Nak's hand acted before Khan could even snap out of his peculiar mental state to develop a plan. The azure halo intensified, and lightning-like flares shot in every direction.
The hand had far more mana now. It was safe to assume that most of the energy between Lower Levels 2 and 3 had entered its flesh. The alien body part might not have completely absorbed it, but the superior power of its lightning bolts showed that it had used it.
Khan jumped backward, deciding to fall through the mountain instead of facing the attacks, but the ships didn't have his agility. The lightning bolts hit every vehicle and pierced them before continuing to fly toward the dome. Some also reached the streets, spreading even more destruction.
Most ships exploded on the spot, while a few released black fumes as they fell uncontrollably toward the streets, dome, or metal mountain. Another short pulling force also followed, draining the engines of the mana they had produced.
The metal mountain kept Khan safe, and he regained his footing fast enough to run through the rubble and point his eyes at the hand again. However, he discovered that the alien body part had already escaped his reach. It had begun to float toward the hole in the ceiling since it felt mana coming from it.
Khan's thoughts ran wildly. The intermediate floor was right under Lower Level 1. An opening might have appeared during the destruction, which would explain the presence of synthetic mana even after two attacks from the hand.
Still, that also explained the hand's next destination. It wanted to reach the city, and Khan couldn't even imagine how strong the alien body part would become if it absorbed all the mana there. He had to stop it or at least warn everyone about the imminent threat, but he had to find a way to the surface first.
Khan glanced at the array of streets. Panic had spread among the surviving crews, but that played in his favor. The disaster had made most workers abandon their posts, which left a few ships unprotected.
The plan formed on its own at that point. Khan sprinted through the rubble to reach an area that could bring him to the streets. Yet, a familiar presence suddenly entered his senses' range and forced him to stop to look at its source.
Khan turned only to see Rodney walking out of a narrow hole in the metal mountain. Heavy boulders floated around him and rotated to create simple shields, and blood flowed out of his nose non-stop.
Rodney seemed able to sense something since he also turned to look at Khan, and a broad smile immediately appeared on his face. A trace of insanity invaded his eyes as a laugh escaped his mouth.
"I'm in your debt once again," Rodney laughed. "So, are we going after that thing or not?"
