Chapter 45:  11:16– A Countdown to Third Death [12:44pm]

Mir POV

We were falling fast. Hurtling downwards, and I knew at this rate even before the lions and the leopards and the tigers, the fall would kill us. But I had fallen before and survived.

I closed my eyes and tried to envision it. I already had the feeling, my heart leaping and twisting and turning. All I needed was to imagine it. Round, circular platforms. Strong winds.

There.

I opened my eyes and felt something akin to solid ground beneath my body.

“M-mir!” Seungho’s voice came from my right. I turned to see him panting hard, hands pressed to the ground as if he could barely believe what was happening. I almost couldn’t either. The scale of what I had created was like that of the ring of earth shards I had first made. Platforms of the wind barrier were all that held up Seungho, Thunder and I. Not the small little shield I had made earlier but large surface areas that was enough to support the three of our sprawled bodies.

It was exhausting.

Almost immediately I felt a sudden drain on my body. It was like my very energy was being out. My limbs trembled and sweat its way down my temple.

“Mir?” Seungho crawled over, terror evident in his eyes. Despite that he gripped my shoulders, this time full of fear and worry, but fear and worry for me! His hands tried to steady me. I leaned against him, breathing harshly as I tried to maintain the wind platforms. “Speak to me Mir!”

But I couldn’t. My mouth opened, but it was dry and small cracked sounds were all that were able to come out.

“Mir!”

“I-“ I can’t hold this up, was what I wanted to say. But I had to. I didn’t need to look down to know there were several hundreds of meters left for us to fall from, but what other choice did I have?

“Mir?” He was shaking me now. Don’t shake me hyung! I wanted to whimper. I couldn’t concentrate, and my hold was letting up. I couldn’t control these powers. Not powers discovered only an hour ago and controlled solely by emotion and imagination.

My head was clouding over, the pain and the stress building up like a thunder cloud, heavy and thick and ready to let loose havoc.

“Hy…ung…”

“Don’t give up Mir,” a voice cut through the clouds. And then suddenly the weight felt lighter. The vice bands that had constricted themselves around my throat, around my wrists and my waist and arms, those restraints were gone and all of a sudden I could breath. I looked up, eyes blurry with tears and there stood Thunder.

He didn’t look like how Seungho looked, on hands and feet and clinging tightly to me. How one over a hundred feet high in the air and balancing on tiny, unsteady platforms of wind should look like.  He stood up straight as fear was a four lettered word he had never heard of before. His eyes were bright and his mouth a set, grim line of determination. 

“Stand up Mir,” he ordered and I rose shakily on one knee, Seungho supporting me.

“What…did you do?” I rasped.

Thunder looked down at me and held out one hand. “I only did what you did,” he answered simply as I took his hand. He pulled me up, somehow suddenly so strong and so bright thAT I wondered where this Thunder had come from. He was such an enigma, one second a frightened boy trapped in a cage of thorns and the next a sun shining brighter than any light.

“You can control these powers as well?” Seungho said quietly. I could almost hear his brain clicking and whirring, trying to accept the fact that these powers were not solely the Ringmaster and mine. 

“I think so,” Thunder ducked his head. “Not too well since I’m just following Mir’s lead.”

“What do you mean?” Seungho sounded puzzled. As the only one who couldn't use powers - or hadn't tapped into the ability yet, I couldn't tell as of now - he couldn't begin to comprehend how these powers worked. It was like weaving a pattern or drawing a picture. If the guiding lines were already drawn then envisioning what you wanted became unimaginably easier. 

“I’m just adding another layer of the shield to Mir’s,” Thunder tried to explain, brow furrowed with the effort of both speaking and wielding the strange powers we had suddenly chanced upon for the first time. “Mir’s doing most of the work. I’m just like a second person pushing him upright so he doesn’t fall.”

“That’s amazing Thunder,” I managed. “But how did you know you could use these powers?”

“The same way you did Mir,” Thunder grunted. “A little heart-stopping moment and then I realized you couldn’t hold us up. So I tried to copy what you did, and boom.”

Still…

A shudder of a pain ran its way through my bloodstream. Without realizing it I had let out a gasp of pain.

“Mir!” Seungho was at my side again. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t hold this up hyung,” Thunder huffed. His hands were clenched tightly and I could see the lines of pain etch their way across his face. He too couldn’t control this power well. “We need to get out of here quickly.”

“H-how?” I panted. We were still floating in mid-air with no ladder nearby.

“Can you move this wind platform?” Seungho asked suddenly.

“W-what?”

“Move it,” Seungho repeated himself. “Can you propel us upwards or sideways?”

“I…” Could I?

“Try it Mir,” Thunder spoke. Effort was clearing taking its toll as his voice wobbled. “Imagine the tornado again. But this time it’s below us and blowing us upwards. I’ll do the same.”

“Okay,” I breathed and closed my eyes. We had no other alternative. Through the pain and the heat of Seungho’s grip on my shoulder, holding me up, I tried to envision it. The swirling of winds, circular and powerful. A gale propelling us higher and higher and-

-we suddenly rocketed upwards. It was so violently fast that we were all forced to our hands and knees, gripping and slipping for purchase as the winds Thunder and I imagined guided us upwards. The thought of what we would do when we reached the top did not even occur to me.

Platforms and rope ladders flash by as we rose. I caught a glimpse of eyes in the shadows, long grey metal contraptions and large, round, spiked objects. I shuddered to think that we would have had to encounter these traps if we had continued to climb via the ladders. Evidently the crumbling platform must have been a trap as well. The Ringmaster was not one to underestimate.

A clawing feeling began to clutch its hands around my heart again and I knew it was the feeling of me reaching my limits. I couldn’t hold up these winds forever, and neither could Thunder. But we had to. We had to reach the top and complete level 4 and, and, and-

I felt my limbs give way beneath me and black stars danced in my vision. A numbing sensation overcame my body and the last thing I could feel before the world went black was the impression that we were rising and falling again. Like children on a trampoline. Only this time I knew that if we fell, we would not rise again...