Aziraphale slammed into the wall, the impact detonating through, blasting him straight through in a cascade of shattered debris. But he didn't stay down. Not for long. With a furious bellow, he lunged forward, horns lowered, spearing into Ko's side like a living war beast.
The collision was thunderous.
The force ripped them both from their footing, bodies twisting through the storm's fury before they crashed onto moss-slick stone. They skidded, tumbled—momentum carrying them across the treacherous ground until it crumbled beneath them.
Then the world vanished.
The edge gave way, and they fell.
Wrenched apart mid-descent, the storm howled around them, rain lashing their skin as gravity seized them in its merciless grip. They plummeted, spiraling in opposite directions, and then— the river took them.
The rapids hit like a hammer, an unrelenting, frothing force of white-water fury. The current snatched Ko, dragging him under, a relentless vice that hurled him against jagged rocks, ripping him through a gauntlet of branches and debris. The world became a blur of chaos—roaring water, flashing lightning, the gnashing teeth of nature itself.
Then—impact.
His ribs exploded with pain as he slammed into a massive rock, jutting from the river like the broken fang of some ancient beast. The force knocked the 'air' from his lungs, sent his vision sparking with static. But something shifted.
The current split here.
A pocket of stillness swirled behind the stone, a brief moment of calm in the madness. And beyond, beneath the looming cliff— a cave.
Dark. Gaping. Waiting.
Aziraphale
