'I'm sorry…'
Closing her eye's Loni prepared herself for what she had to do. Fortunately, she was a second too late, because in that moment lightning had struck.
Before, the storm's thunderous roars were not accompanied by their counterpart, but now the storm's might was here in all its chaotic glory. The first bolt that struck was not even 20 meters away from where Kai's group was. On impact it sent a monstrous shockwave out in all directions, tearing up the earth surrounding it, and knocking Loni off her feet. Sending all 3 mutated flying.
The wind was so great now it was like there was no gravity at all. Its viscous onslaught was so crazed, so malicious that the 3 were not immediately pulled into the funnel but instead were thrown around in all sorts of directions. Kai was beginning to feel like he would receive whiplash, due to all the erratic movements.
Kai could see Karma and Loni being flung about as well. He thought that Loni would be able to have some control over herself thanks to her affinity, but from the looks of it her power was completely exhausted.
He was starting to notice that an affinity was kinda like a muscle, and if used too much it could be strained.
'So thats why…'
As they were being thrown about in the sky, lightning was falling everywhere. It was as if the Gods themselves had risen from the grave to punish the three mutants. The pillars of lighting were blazing white, and looked to hold so much energy it could power Oki for a whole week. Kai's own violet lighting could not be compared.
There was so much static electricity in the air that Kai's hair was starting to stand on end. He was even getting goosebumps, but he did not know if that was from the electricity striking around him or the fact that this whole experience seemed like an apocalyptic event.
Either way things weren't looking good for this little cohort. That's when the enormous funnel that had been looming behind them finally made its move. Seemingly growing even more gigantic, the eerie funnel cloud was finally upon them. Karma and Loni were too busy setting themselves straight in the air that they didn't see the monstrosity approach.
But the demonic, ominous cloud could not go unnoticed. Now Kai knew the reason for his goosebumps was not the cold or even fear, but simply the projection of this crazed feral thing that had come to swallow them up.
It was truly a magnificent sight to behold.
Finally seeing no way out Kai and the others gave each other one last look, then surrendered themselves to the great storm.
[Welcome to the Storm's Embrace.]
'Huh? Storm's Embrace?'
At first Kai could still hear the thunderous melody from the outside, the cold still licked at his skin. He couldn't see anything, just the cold grey sight of the abyssal cloud. As he was pulled further into the funnel though the world around him started to change.
The first thing he noticed was the warm gust of wind that swept past him. Kai welcomed it happily. The cold air in the storm was so frigid, almost paralyzing. Not to mention the pelting balls of icy rain. But it was not hailing in here, it wasn't even raining. What came next shocked Kai the most though.
He could hear his companions. There was no solid ground beneath his feet and he was still being carried by the powerful wind. But there, in the distant howling wind he could hear it, the sound of a familiar voice. Karma's voice.
"What the hell? Why haven't I been torn to pieces. I for sure thought a deadly titan was hiding somewhere in here."
"K-Karma can you hear me!?"
Silence fell for a moment then a strong graveley voice resounded again.
"Kai? You're alive too, huh? Honestly, this is a let down. I don't wanna just be floating in here for the rest of my life! I thought we were gonna have to fight some things."
"Ha, I'm glad you're not hurt, but I think the reason we haven't bumped into anything is because we're still moving towards the eye."
Kai paused and thought to himself.
'Still it wouldn't make sense for there to be 'anything' in the center of the storm. People do say the eye is the safest place. Maybe we were supposed to jump into it.'
As he finished his thought another familiar voice was produced.
"Kai's right we are heading towards the eye, but we aren't safe yet there can still be debris flying through here so it important to be-"
Kai didn't hear the end of Loni's sentence though, because a large rock came flying at him out of the grey nothing. Luckily he was able to dodge it just in time.
'That was close.'
Karma spoke next.
"Right so we just have to not die before we make it to the eye, right? Sounds easy enough."
With an annoyed tone Loni responded:
"You say that like you haven't almost died multiple times now."
"Meh, whatever."
So we just need to wait until the wind current carries us to the eye, and we'll be safe? But they couldn't stay in the eye of the storm forever.
"How do you suggest we actually get out though?"
A contemplating silence hung over the cohort. They couldn't see each other but Kai had a feeling Loni was thinking something up.
" The storm can't enter another zone, so we just need to ride it until we get to the next one."
Karma cut in confused
"Zone? What do you mean Zone?"
"It's hard to explain but this fake world has its own zones to it, almost like trials. That's why we're here, to overcome them."
Kai understood Loni but he didn't really know why he was involved with these trials. But he decided now wasn't the time to get into that.
'We can figure things out later.'
"So we'll ride the storm to the next zone then what?"
"Well naturally once we reach the eye, it will try to spit us back out. That's how we'll escape. Until then we just have to let it carry us to its center."
"I see. Then why didn't you tell us this in the first place?"
"It's not like I knew from the beginning. It just sorta made sense when it happened."
Zones, trials. Kai didn't know what it all meant, or who this voice was, but it was too late to turn back now. So he trusted Loni and let the funnel cloud swallow him up in its eerie embrace.