RETIRED TRANSMIGRATION: The Shadow Loss Chronicles

DIVE

For a moment, Avery thought that he had been caught in an updraft akin to a tornado which was powerful enough to force his body against the steady pull of gravity. However, after a quick analysis, he saw the truth and discarded that idea for two reasons.

One of said reasons is that the wind pressure he felt never once increased which is needed for an updraft powerful enough to counteract the force of gravity on him. In fact, the wind pressure he felt all over his body stopped momentarily and became a cool breeze when he reached and experienced the point of maximum height.

It was when he started falling upward that the wind gradually came back, however this time, in the opposite direction as his body started moving along the path of the gravitational stream.

The second reason for the change of thought was in alignment with the first which is that he felt the wind pushing against him as he fell upward. This went against any possibility of an updraft being the reason why he was now "ascending" rather than plummeting to the earth.

With the wind not being the reason, Avery who was skeptical at first, like he always is, quickly realized the truth as, while he experienced the bewildering sensation of defying gravity's conventional pull downward and instead rising skyward, he still found himself subject to the same feeling of being drawn, albeit in a direction dictated by the stream's flow.

This meant that, despite his upward trajectory, Avery still perceived himself as falling or being drawn toward a specific gravitational focal point, which no longer appeared to be the Earth below. This peculiar dynamic eliminated any notion of soaring or flying, concepts that seemed utterly inconceivable in their own right.

Due to the distribution of weight between his upper and lower body, Avery's orientation shifted from a horizontal, parallel alignment with the Earth— typically a natural posture for someone plummeting from the sky and seeking to reduce their descent speed— to a vertical position, with his head aimed toward the expanse of clouds above.

Suddenly, Avery found himself involuntarily flailing his arms and kicking his legs. Although the gravitational forces and his innate sense of orientation insisted that he was in a state of free fall, Avery's eyes vehemently contradicted this notion. Consequently, his body responded with disoriented movements, a stark contrast to how composed he was while plummeting to the ground below.

Avery was still trying to come to terms with what this strange sensation of falling upward was about when he got close enough to hear the spiraling hooded figure yelling in complaint of his predicament, capturing Avery's attention without meaning to.

Seeing the hooded figure in that state and now having a slightly better understanding of the craziness that is the gravitational stream allowed Avery to see the hooded figure situation for what it was. He was caught in between a conjuncture of gravitational streams that suspended him in one spot and caused him to spin uncontrollably.

This was the principle of how tornadoes are formed. Winds flowing in different and opposite directions collide and create a spinning body of air and dust and since the hooded figure fell into that focal point he became the body that spun.

This is what Avery deduced, simultaneously letting go of one rule of physics he is attuned to, which is that gravity pulls things down, and then applying another principle, which is the concept of how tornadoes are formed and a smirk unknowingly crept onto his face.

Seeing and hearing the hooded figure in pain and discomfort was a feeling he would always appreciate. Why wouldn't he after everything the both of them had gone through back at Mayfair?

But then, just as quickly as the smirk came so did it disappear.

Avery became serious because he had something pending which was finding a way of catching the canister falling in the opposite direction that he was.

In terms of altitude levels, the canister was between the spiraling hooded figure and an upward plummeting Avery, getting further away from the suspended and spiraling hooded figure and closer to Avery.

Unfortunately, the path between Avery's and the canister's opposite plummet wasn't connected, hence why the canister was falling in the opposite and correct direction. It would have been caught in the same upward gravitational stream that Avery was in if they were on the same path.

With each passing second, more meters were covered between Avery and the canister which resulted in him becoming desperate, knowing that he had a limited time and distance of action that would allow him to get the canister.

Avery's instinct kicked in and he managed to control himself in the upward gravitational stream. His eyes accepted the new direction of his fall and his flailing stopped.

Seeing the canister getting closer, an idea popped into Avery's head to use the upward gravitational stream to his advantage, and at this point, he was almost completely taken over by the symptoms of the Shadow Loss Fever.

His sense of self was barely hanging by a thread and that thread was the singular focus of getting to the canister. Fortunately, that goal is also what the outcome of succumbing to the Shadow Loss Fever results in.

Both he and the disfigured being he is soon to become as a result of the Shadow Loss Fever had the same goal and that resulted in a level of focus Avery never thought was humanly possible.

Unlike before, this unification of both goals meant that his body acted in alignment with his commands and Avery used his limbs to adjust the angle of his upward plummet. He dove with a trajectory aimed at colliding with the canister and that would have worked if not for one problem.

Avery was in a gravitational stream which for the sake of visualization is like a pipe submerged in a steady-flowing ocean and this pipe was pumping liquid in the direction opposite to the ocean's current.

If there's a leak in said pipe then the escaping liquid would flow into the ocean and adopt the direction of the current in a matter of time. This is what happened with Avery when while diving, his body got to and then slightly exceeded the edge of the upward gravitational stream.

A third of Avery's body which was his right arm and leg went out of the upward gravitational stream. Immediately, they fell under the effect of the world's gravitational pull and this resulted in Avery's upward diving speed gradually reducing.

'Huh? I slow?' Avery thought incoherently when he noticed his deceleration. Sadly, the deed had been done as his current trajectory and where the canister was to meet at a certain point was no longer possible.

The conflicting gravitational pulls also resulted in Avery being spun and because most of his body was within the upward gravitational stream, he was forced back into the stream rather than being knocked out.

Avery spun twice before he was able to control himself but that had a negative effect as the vertical distance between Avery and the canister became even shorter.

('Fuck!') Avery cursed when he regained control. He oriented himself into a flat surface that opposed the wind, thereby slowing his upward plummeting velocity so that he could reduce how quickly he approached the canister and make up for the little mishap from before.

Once done and he had gotten the angle he wanted, Avery adjusted into a diving orientation once more and then tried going for another attempt. This time, making sure to escape the gravitational stream fast enough to also escape the force of the world's gravitational pull causing him to spin for a second time.

Just as Avery was about to dive through the edge of the upward gravitational stream, from above he heard the hooded figure exclaim which drew his attention. He saw that his adversary had found a way to escape the conjuncture of gravitational streams and was falling towards earth.

The hooded figure had been watching Avery while trapped and he was waiting for this exact moment of freedom, which once achieved, he dove straight for the canister, reaching terminal velocity quickly.

Once again, Avery had a contender for the canister, but regardless, he wasn't going to give up. Avery tightened his limbs, making his body as streamlined as possible and then he shot right through the edge of the upward gravitational stream.

Once out, Avery opened his body and went straight for the canister, stretching his hand while the hooded figure was right behind it, stretching his hand too.

Being the closer one between the two, Avery thought he would get his target first. Unfortunately, there was something Avery didn't account for which could have been attributed to his Shadow Loss fever-affected mind not having that much scope of thought.

This was the fact that now that he was out of the upward gravitational stream, the pulling force of the world's natural gravity would slow him down until he reached maximum height then he would start falling downward just like the canister and the hooded figure.

This miscalculation made Avery to momentarily stop in the air, centimeters before reaching the point he wanted then he started free-falling toward earth once again.

Slowing and stopping resulted in him getting passed by the canister which was moving faster than he was because it was at terminal velocity and he wasn't yet. His speed towards earth would increasingly get faster until he eventually gets to a terminal velocity where no gains could be made.

Avery, whose body was a flat surface that opposed the wind after reaching maximum height was now starting to reorient himself so that his head would point to earth. He was going to dive which is the only way to achieve terminal velocity, but before he could, like a speeding bullet, the hooded figure flew past him and went straight for the canister.

("No!") Avery yelled when he saw this and then, acting quickly he finalized his diving orientation and raced down. He wasn't going to let the hooded figure get one on him again. Also, that response wasn't a choice as the Shadow Loss Fever was pushing him too.