(Cyrus Pov)
Standing face to face with what looked like the queen moth, my stomach sank. Sensing the core of the astral behemoth, I could tell it was much stronger than its fallen kin. It was still at the starspawn level, but it seemed dangerously close to crossing the threshold into the voidborn rank. The moth queen quickly rose into the air, using its ability to manipulate light around it—and vanished.
A sudden force struck me from the side, sending me hurtling into a nearby tree. My ears rang, and my vision blurred. I hadn't expected the moth to be this much faster than the others, especially considering it was triple their size. Even though I couldn't see it clearly, I could hear its massive wings flapping as it darted through the air.
Focusing on the sound and the erratic fluctuations of cosmic energy in the area, I tried to predict the queen's next move. "I'm glad I held back on using my ability earlier," I muttered. "I'd already be dead if I hadn't." Bracing myself, I reinforced my body with cosmic energy. As my vision began to clear, I noticed a glint of light in my peripheral vision—something shining faintly against the night sky, like moonlight peeking through the trees. The light grew rapidly, and before I could react, it was less than half a meter from my face.
With no time to dodge, I threw up my arms to brace for impact, hoping the layer of cosmic energy surrounding me would absorb most of the blow. The collision knocked the wind out of me, and I gasped for air as I was flung backward into a boulder. Pain exploded in my chest as I felt one of my ribs crack. The skin on my arms burned, peeling away from the heat of the attack. "Did it penetrate my cosmic barrier?" I thought, coughing up blood. "Does the queen have a higher-quality cosmic energy than me, even though we're in the same stage? How is that possible?"
"I need to find a way to clip its wings," I murmured, grimacing as each breath sent sharp stabs of pain through my chest. Before I could process another thought, another beam of aurora light barreled toward me. This time, I managed to dodge, but twisting my torso to evade the attack sent waves of agony through my body. "Focus, Cy," I whispered to myself, biting back a groan.
Dodging several more attacks, I began to notice a pattern. The queen became stationary whenever it charged its beam, taking a few seconds to gather energy before firing. After each attack, there was an eight-second window before it could fire again. "So that's why you cloak yourself," I muttered. "It gives you the time you need to prepare your attacks. I see why you are the queen of this colony. Clever… for a starspawn."
A plan began to take shape in my mind. "Dad wouldn't like this," I said with a dry chuckle, steeling myself for what was about to come.
I took a deep breath and waited for the queen's next attack. The eight seconds had passed, and then the beam hurtled toward me once again. Timing it perfectly, I imbued cosmic energy into my legs and leaped into the air. Using a nearby tree as a launching pad, I propelled myself horizontally toward the source of the attack. Sensing the queen's presence through the flow of cosmic energy I could tell she was still in the area. Heading toward the aurora moth I augmented my body with a layer of cosmic energy preparing myself for what was coming next.
In the blink of an eye, my momentum was abruptly halted. Pain erupted in my abdomen, sharp and searing. I glanced down to see the queen's pincers piercing through me, my feet dangling helplessly in the air as blood dripped onto the ground below. Gritting my teeth, I channeled cosmic energy into my astral tattoo and activated my ability, disrupting the queen's cloaking field. Desperation drove me as I grabbed hold of her wings and began tearing them apart, ignoring the agony that tore through my body.
We plummeted toward the ground, and I twisted my body mid-fall so that the queen would take the brunt of the impact. The landing rattled me, but the queen suffered far more, though her pincers were driven deeper into my flesh. Screaming in pain, I wrenched them free from my stomach just as the queen began to stir. I activated my ability once more, pouring all my remaining strength into it. Imposing an increased force on the queen, I unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes, shattering her exoskeleton piece by piece.
When my ability faded, the queen's body was in ruin. A gaping chasm had replaced her once-imposing underbelly. Her head twitched weakly, the last vestiges of life draining from her. Not wanting to look at her any longer, I severed her head with what little cosmic energy I had left. "I really hate bugs," I muttered, sighing as I ripped out the queen's celestial core and collapsed onto the ground beside her lifeless body.
I didn't stay down for long. I couldn't afford to. I had to get back to my camp. I absorbed half the cores from the aurora moths, replenishing my own energy reserves. With my core restored, the healing process began, mending my wounds slowly but surely. It took several trips to transport all the cores back to my hiding spot, but I managed it.
As I finally allowed myself a moment of rest. Wrapping myself up in my sleeping bag I sat by the river and watched the water flow calmly downstream, unbound and unyielding. It moved with a will of its own, never stopping, no matter what. "I need to be the same," I thought. No matter how slow or fast I progress, I must keep moving forward. That's what my father would do, and I know he's counting on me to step up now.