Chapter 306 (1/2)

Chapter 306

I gulped down ait wash downback up

Beside me, Caera winced as she sed down the crystal clear liquid flowing into the waterfall nearbyI continued to survey our surroundings, careful to e hadn’t followed us

“I don’t think they’ll try and confront us again,” Caera said casually, walking over to me“It would be obvious to even the children how outainst you”

“You held your own pretty well back there” I raisedthe Alacryan noble“It seeer since we arrived in this zone”

“It’s such a rare occurrence for you to co her eyes“It’s a sha”

“I didn’t mean for it to come out that way,” I responded, suddenly flustered“My apologies”

“Apology accepted” A faint srab the portal piece before any other trouble shows upIt’s been too peaceful out here and it’s ree face of the mountain peak“We’re nearly there”

The two of us made our way over to the other side of the wide streaer cavesTaking the lead, I squeezed through the entrance, which was just barely wide enough for ive me a hand?”

I turned back to see Caera stuck e her upper body

“You’re lucky Regis isn’t here,” I said with a s her free

Even with Three Steps’ ht direction, it still took the better half of an hour to navigate the winding tunnel, which branched off several tilittering boulder that signified the final split and started counting twenty-eight short paces before I started digging with my hands

Hidden in a layer of black sand was a thin slab of white stone about four inches wide and eight inches long

“Only three left,” Caera said with a deep breath

I stored the portal piece in my dimension rune“One step closer”

Suddenly, a dull throb radiated fro me to buckle forward

“Grey!”

“It’s…fine,” I grunted, standing back up“It’s Regis againI don’t knohat’s happening to hi in on whatever he’s been trying to do”

The “pulses”, which had started just the day before, had grown steadily strongerLuckily, they wereto worry about hts, I turned to Caera who had been staring at o”

The two of us walked silently on the powdery snow, having already traveled quite a few miles from the mountain where we had located the Shados’ portal piece

We were headed roughly in the direction of the Spear Beaks’ village, hoping to obtain their piece of the puzzle and get more inforly give us this infor it out of the Three Steps’down, I focused on the dried-fruit toy that Three Steps had given me, which I had pulled out to keepto no end, I knew thatthis children’s trinket would be the first step in creating my own aether construct

I coalesced aether around er into the s to squeeze violet aura through the tip of er and into the inside of the fruitI only served to push the fruit away as a dull purple bulge for as hard as I could on the sthen and narrow the tip of the aetheric aura surrounding er, but I was only able to push it out a fraction of an inch more before it became painful

I was reminded of the Aether Cannon ability I had coh the snow and tried to use that as a basisExcept, once enough aether gathered at a central point, it burst out, taking the toy along with it

“Pfft”

I turned to see Caera watchingto keep froh to shoot it out of your own hands?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I gru a few paces to where the toy had landed“This toy is just proving to be e than I expected”

“Shados spendinto account their innate aptitude for this ability”

I picked up the dried fruit and gave it a shake before turning back to Caera“So?”

“So…” Caera walked up to ently pushi+ng it down“You’re not going to get this in the span of a few hours, especially when half of your brain is busy figuring out what to do next”

“Did you gain wisdoside your horns?” I scoffed

“That’s discrimination,” Caera pouted“And no, I didn’tPeople just tend to grow up rather fast when their childhood is difficult”

I couldn’t help but agree as I thought back to my childhoods, both as Grey and as Arthur“My joke was rather insensitiveSorry”

“Docloser toward me“I’ve always hidden them from everyone except my mentor, and she has horns as well”

I stepped away“They don’t look odd on youIt’s just that I haven’t exactly had a positive experience with people who have horns”

Caera raised a brow, her piercing scarlet eyes growing even more curious“What sort of experiences—” Caera stopped and shook her head“Never ued as I am to know more about you, I’d rather you tell me once you feel more co the dried-fruit toy back intointo the distance“What is that?”

Caera turned to examine the horizon

“It looks like another storhtIt did look like a storm, except there weren’t any clouds in the skyAbove us, the glacier blue expanse was still painted with the aurora colors over the endless range of round, the snoas kicked up, swirling as if in the midst of a blizzardBut the real proble fast

~

My vision shi+fted into a blaze of violet trails as I instinctively prepared to use God Step, but I heldin any sort of natural for, almost as if it were alive

A part of ht be an eneerous obstacle we’d faced in this zone had been the weather, and that wasn’t soainst

Deciding to confront whatever was approaching us rather than waste aether God Stepping only for it to follow after us, I pulled Caera close

“Brace yourself!” I said, shrouding myself in aether as Caera did the sa my heels into the snow and prepared for i over us, the blizzard encircled our locationOnce it was close enough, I couldin the snow-cloud, and I realized what this s,” I hostly creature made of snow and ice suspended in a tornado of aether broke free from the blizzard and rushed toward usIt reminded me of the malevolent phanto had token possession of the land itself, coolem, a shapeless ind of conscious aether

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of identical aether beasts made up the stor ed forward to h the snow and aether, but it only rippled like water and swirled back together as I passed through it

A thin ar in three icy claws slashed at h its body, its claws h they left no physical wound, a line of cold fire burned in my sideAether flooded from my core to heal the perceived wound