Aether coursed through my body, igniting my channels with liquid fire before coalescing into the deep well of my core. Despite my thoughts being elsewhere and the fact that I'd done this countless times before, the feeling was still intoxicating. This profound and elusive power that not even asuras could fully control was inside me, waiting to be unleashed.
'I think we got it,' Regis sent as we finished piecing together our memories. Sylvia's last message hadn't shown the four djinn ruins, but they did show the zones that led to them. Only, it took time for both of us to recall the details clearly enough for the Compass to get us there.
Yeah, I answered simply, visualizing the image of narrow earthen tunnels winding like a maze of giant wormholes in every direction.
I pried my eyes open to be greeted by the chitinous corpse of the giant millipede, which I was sitting on top of while siphoning its aether.
With my core mostly replenished and our destination set, I dropped to the ground just in time to see Caera getting up from her brother's improvised memorial. The whites of her eyes had turned red from crying, but her gaze had hardened, her jaw set firmly with resolve.
No words were exchanged, only a simple nod before we moved on.
The exit portal was hours from the den, and the rest of the journey through the empty zone was uneventful. We moved quickly and in silence. Regis stayed inside my body, regaining his strength after the use of Destruction. His control over the ability had strengthened significantly since he'd last used it, but I could feel the toll it took on him.
"You should get some rest before we go through," I said as we finally reached the exit. "It's been a while since you slept."
"I'm okay," she replied, casting a glance behind her. Though she didn't say it, I knew that she was ready to get out of this zone.
Focusing on the image of those winding tunnels, I activated the Compass, and Caera stepped through. The zone beyond was thick with dust that hung in the air, making it difficult to see what we were walking into, and all I could make out of Caera was a dark silhouette.
'Arthur,' Regis barked inside me just as two more silhouettes appeared on either side of her.
Stay inside for now, I ordered, focusing on the dull red light glinting off their weapons.
The shining portal evaporated behind me as I stepped through, my eyes immediately searching for Caera and her attackers.
Caera's red blade flashed in the thick dust, ringing against her attacker's weapon. Deep-throated shouts filled the small space, and a glowing spear thrust out of the obscuring dust. I grabbed it just before it would have struck Caera in the back. The manreinforced steel haft screeched as I ripped the spearhead from its shaft and hurled it back at the wielder. The jagged tip pierced the attacker's chest, and his dim shadow was lifted off the ground and slammed into the bare dirt wall.
The dust began to settle, revealing another man—large and caked in dirt and clay—hacking and slashing at Ceara with a serrated, frozen scimitar, and two Strikers flanking a narrow earthen tunnel that led out of the small room we were in.
God Step brought me behind them, amethyst lightning arcing across my skin. The first died instantly as my aether-clad hand struck the back of his neck, breaking his spine despite his chain gorget. I backhanded the second as he began to activate one of the runes displayed along his spine, sending him flying into the tunnel wall. He landed on his own spear, impaling himself through his bare biceps.
He hissed out a curse before rolling over and tugging futilely at the spear, his spell forgotten.
Caera's opponent growled in bestial rage as their blades clashed, a sound that cut off in wet gurgling as her sword plunged through his chest.
I dug my heel into the last mage's bloody wound, ignoring his desperate attempt at defending himself with a shroud of fire.
"Why did you attack us?" I asked evenly, leaning down to meet his eye.
"Kage's o-orders!" the man yelled out, his dirt-caked face contorted in pain. "Please, we're just doing what we were told!"
I tilted my head, raising a brow. "Am I supposed to be familiar with that name?"
"Our leader," he panted, his panicked eyes trained on the blood gushing from his wound. "Any…anyone who steps through that portal belongs to him."
Caera had knelt down to check on the man I'd impaled with his own spearhead, but now she stood up and leveled a fierce glare at the surviving ascender. "Why would any ascender 'belong' to him?"
My ears picked up the faint sounds of footsteps approaching. Lifting my foot off his bloody arm, I took a step back.
The mage was panting, his eyes losing focus. Gauging by the bloody mud pooled beneath him, he didn't have much longer. "The relic needs blood," he said. "So we…we—"
A stone spike erupted from the floor and impaled him through the chest, spraying blood across Caera's face.
I spun to see a dozen more ascenders huddled together farther down the tunnel. One man stood at the forefront of the group. He was as dirty as the rest of them, but under the layers of filth, I could see a network of scars criss-crossing his face, arms, and hands. His hair was a fine stubble that looked like it had been shaved with a dagger instead of a razor, and a knotted blond beard covered his face. He wore a mismatched suit of armor that looked like it had been scavenged from a dozen different sources.
"Would you care to tell us what the hell is happening in this zone?" Caera asked as she calmly wiped the blood off her face with a handkerchief.
"Hell is the appropriate word," the scarred ascender drawled, grinning. He was missing more than one tooth, and those that remained were filed to sharp points. "You've reached the very bowels of the Relictombs, where ascenders come to die."
Caera took a confident step forward, her dark blue hair fluttering as she leveled her thin blade to the man's throat. The ascender matched it, a small crater forming beneath his feet as he stepped forward and pressed his neck against the tip of Caera's blade.
"Cheers to that." Kage raised the mug to Caera as he waggled his brows lewdly.
Rat hurriedly escorted me out.. Despite the prospects of a new relic and encountering another djinn, my thoughts went errantly to Kage, considering how best to deal with him after all this was over.
Chapter end
Report
|
Donate
Oh o, this user has not set a donation button.
|