Lucian tore through the thick curtain of water, burst above the sea, and hurtled toward the South American Rainforest.
Hang on. Don't you dare die.
He gritted his teeth fiercely inwardly. Having regained a little clarity, he immediately used his mind to suppress his emotions, but he was more anxious about the battle in the rainforest than the reduction in his strength boost.
JARVIS's electronic voice came urgently and rapidly. "Sir, you don't have much time left."
Lucian pushed his speed to the limit, the air exploding beside him in an unbroken series of thunderous cracks.
Deep beneath the cold sea, amid a heap of shattered coral and rock, Ikaris braced himself against a broken rock wall and struggled to straighten up.
His blue-and-gold battle suit was in tatters, and a large section of his chest had caved in deeply. His body's self-repair was still working doggedly, but it could not heal these injuries anytime soon. Every breath carried bloody froth.
But light kindled in his eyes again.
"He suddenly flew away?"
Ikaris wiped the blood from his chin and looked up at the vacuum channel cutting through the sea overhead.
With the mad-dog ferocity Lucian had shown earlier, he was certainly not someone who would back down easily. The only explanation was that Lucian's mortal companions could no longer hold out and had called for help.
"Gilgamesh and the others pulled it off."
Ikaris murmured to himself, the corners of his mouth curving upward and pulling at the wounds on his cheeks. The pain made his eyelids twitch.
He could not let Lucian get there so easily. Once that monster returned to the main battlefield, all their gains would be completely overturned within minutes.
"Sersi is still waiting for me..."
Ikaris took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the stabbing