As the group discussed things, explosions kept ringing out inside the building.
On closer analysis, they could probably confirm that the successive explosions were clearly growing louder, indicating that the two combatants were moving from deep inside the building toward its outer edge.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, flames and a blast of air erupted beneath the transfer platform where they stood. It felt as though the platform supporting them had been heaved upward, before it began trembling unsteadily.
They could be certain that part of it had already collapsed and fallen.
"If we die and get sent back like this, Lady Mora probably won't let us in again..."
"Why not?"
Mora's voice rang out beside them, laughter in her tone but little actual pleasure. "That guy won't stop until he's squeezed every last drop out of you. I ought to learn from him."
Long Qi groaned and cried out, half sincerely and half theatrically, "Give me a break!"
Mora ignored him, turning her gaze toward the unsupported void beyond the platform. "Ronan," his entire body burning with format fire, hovered there, the Qi Mechanism surrounding him undergoing fine, complex adjustments.
And so was his body...
Long Qi felt that some of his joints were changing far too drastically, bending, extending, and forming angles beyond human limits. But the glow of the format fire obscured them, making it hard to see clearly.
"This should be Fourth Gear."
"What?"
Long Qi had only voiced his confusion reflexively, but unexpectedly, Mora answered him. "The way his Qi Mechanism operates has already changed three times. This is the fourth. But I seriously doubt whether he's shifting gears or changing vehicles..."
Before she finished speaking, Mora's figure once again
vanished. Just as when she had first sent "Ronan" flying, she appeared where he