RETIRED TRANSMIGRATION: The Shadow Loss Chronicles

EXPLOSION

The hooded figure looked at the spinning earth getting closer and he knew that the situation was as bad as it could get. If he does nothing then death is certain, and so, he looked at a mindless Avery and desperation kicked in.

Thinking quickly, the hooded figure put their tumbling into his control— as much as he could anyway. He added more force, increasing how fast they tumbled while also altering their bodies' trajectory until they managed to get back to the edge of the upward gravitational stream.

*Two hundred and eighty meters… Two hundred and sixty meters… Two hundred and forty meters…*

Being at a point where both gravitational forces acting on their bodies went in opposite directions increased the speed at which they tumbled but also slowed down their descent by half. They rode a fine line of almost being pushed in or out of the upward gravitational stream but the hooded figure wasn't going to leave it to chance.

*Two hundred meters… One hundred and eighty meters… One hundred and…*

"Ah!" The hooded figure yelled as he used all his energy to push Avery's body which because Avery's grip was so strong it ended up forcing his legs to spread out while he, the hooded figure, stretched his arms out.

This made both of their limbs to get pushed by the winds in two opposing directions and the air in pressure forced them both into the upward gravitational stream, slowing their descent until they stopped at maximum height and then started falling upward.

*One hundred and fifty-five meters… increasing*

Everything was so tense because of the level of challenge Avery had given, that for a moment, the hooded figure thought he was going to fail, but surprisingly, things went according to plan, barely.

The hooded figure panted a little then sighed to gather himself. He silently appreciated his momentary safety which unfortunately didn't take long as he felt Avery pulling on his hood and trying to climb his body to get to the canister.

"Merry tan grief" the hooded figure grumbled then said with an angry tone as he looked down at the mindless Avery who continued trying to reach for the canister.

The hooded figure looked at his hooded sweater which Avery seemed to like so much with the way he grabbed onto it. He reached for the zipper by his neck and then ran it down, unsealing himself from the clothing.

Quickly, the hooded figure let go of the canister which continued to fall upward in front of him then he removed the opened hooded sweater from his body and then used it to cover Avery.

For the first time, the hooded figure's none blurry identity was revealed. Avery however couldn't see what he looked like, courtesy of the black hooded sweater he struggled with which blocked his view of everything around him.

The no longer hooded figure whose silver hair tousled in the wind and covered his set of green and blue eyes twitched his nose at Avery.

"Door kin Perry box," The silver-haired adversary said, swiping the spinning canister from the air. He stepped on the sweater on Avery's body and then used him as a platform to push himself ahead.

Their distance from ground level kept increasing and as the mindless Avery struggled to get the hooded sweater from his body and head so that he could see, the silver-haired adversary looked around for signs of another gravitational stream.

The sky was filled with gravitational streams leading in different directions. Some were like the one they were in, opposite from normal downward gravity. Some were diagonal and leading in either upward or downward directions, and some horizontal and parallel to the ground.

The silver-haired adversary was looking for one of those parallel streams and he had managed to see one when Avery, by accident, finally got the hooded sweater from his body, allowing him to see once more.

("Ah!") Avery mouthed, the only sound he could make aside from the crackling ones he does unconsciously, and the silver-haired adversary who was way ahead of him looked down and smirked in victory.

Avery stretched his hand to the canister and the silver-haired adversary used the canister to salute him goodbye. He planned to exit the upward gravitational stream when he got high enough so that he could properly dive into his target parallel gravitational stream, but suddenly, he heard a very loud growl.

"??" The silver-haired adversary wore a questioning look as he realized that the sound came from behind him which since Avery was below him it couldn't have been the mindless retired boxer.

Wondering what could have made that sound, the silver-haired adversary turned around and then looked up a bit which is where he saw an elephant-sized creature being transported by a parallel gravitational stream.

His eyes widened when he realized what species of creature it was. He panicked, but before he could do anything, the creature chucked a mouthful of mucus at him which ended up pouring on his body and the canister

The creature roared, opening its mouth and taking its head in the direction of the silver-haired adversary— acting like it wanted to eat him.

Reflexively, the silver-haired adversary pulled the mucus-covered canister to his stomach and then brought his limbs around it— acting as a meat shield.

For the first time, he looked fearful which he didn't have to be because the parallel gravitational stream the creature was in and the upward gravitational stream he and Avery were in didn't connect.

The creature was quickly carried away, growling as it fell sideways towards the horizon until it disappeared which would have been good, if sadly, the deed hadn't already been done.

With widened eyes, the silver-haired adversary stopped folding his limbs in on himself and the canister and brought the device to his face.

"Piece, piece, piece, piece!" The silver-haired adversary repeated frantically as he tried to clean the mucus off the canister. Although most came off, nothing he did could have prevented what was about to happen.

The canister started to crumple in on itself like he was being squeezed from all sides. The lines of iron that ran all over the canister started tightening, causing the entire device to break apart.

"Piece!" The silver-haired adversary yelled once more when he couldn't do anything to stop what was happening and if that wasn't bad enough, Avery whom he had forgotten about appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the deflating canister.

The silver-haired adversary grabbed the device too, both of them struggling for possession as the condition of the canister worsened.

It got to a point that the shape of the canister was so terrible and deformed that the silver-haired adversary let go and started diving away. He planned on leaving the upward gravitational stream without the device, which made the mindless Avery think he had become successful in his goal.

Avery who had no brain power to operate the nearly destroyed canister, hit the device with all his strength. Just as the silver-haired adversary had gotten close enough for his hair to stick out the edge of the upward gravitational stream, Avery delivered one final hit and the canister exploded.

The force of the explosion forced both Avery and the silver-haired adversary to be pushed out of the upward gravitational stream, both of them sustaining injuries on the parts of their bodies that faced the explosion, and because Avery was the closest his injuries were extremely severe to fatal.

Both an unconscious Avery and a hurt silver-haired adversary fell to earth, this time being too weak to do anything about their fate.

Fate, however, hadn't given up on either of them.

Avery who was at death's door, because of how serious his injuries were, and the silver-haired adversary who was barely hanging on to consciousness, fell into two different parallel gravitational streams that took them in opposite directions.

Avery to the East, the silver-haired adversary to the West. Their battle, forced to take place another day— that's if they survive. As for the remnant of the exploded canister, it fell into the same parallel gravitational stream as the silver-haired adversary, following behind to unknown destinations.