Chapter 380 (1/2)

Chapter 380

ARTHUR

‘Just trust me’

Rinia’s words echoed in ed out and away froainst the asura, refusing to allow hih the fear I should've felt facing an asura The only thing keeping it in check was the presence ofeht It would be i everyone around me safe

The portal’s surface warped to wrap around us, rippling dangerously I could sense the aether struggling to ainst it, si to acceptto break I hesitated, is, we—

The world fractured

Purple shards of portal-stuff sprayed across an eht, refracting the everywhere-frory orating the at all

There was a sharp pang of soh I couldn’t , afloat or , but where and in what, I wasn’t sure

What had I been doing just now?

I kneas angry Or that I had been angry Noas just…out of place

No, not hungry, I considered,in which I was drifting Just there, but what…

I squinted, peering through the hazy a in the twilight purple sea was a rolling landscape of dunes, their shape discernible Familiar

Instinctively, my head tilted forward as I tried to fly toward the dunes, but there was no sense of movement, and the familiar-but-not landscape didn’t come any closer

“W-where are we?” a strained voice said fro without thinking,man into my vision

My memories collided withtogether in an open sea

The elation I had felt at finally finding a portal that was already linked to Dicathen, waiting at the bottom of a ravine under a dune-filled zone, washed overthe portal only to watch a spear plunge through one as I searched, focusing on Dicathen each ti but dead portals that were no longer connected anywhere waiting at the end of each one

But I knew there had to be at least one Relictombs portal in Dicathen somewhere I just didn’t understand how to even look without a memory map like the ones Sylvia had left for me

My head splintered in pain as the ether in a muddled, half-senseless mess

Alaric had helped with the preparations Acquired the portal rune key Bought or stole a collection of items I wanted in case I couldn’t return to Alacrya

When I learned of the Victoriad, I knew attending couldinto hiding There was only one place to go: back to Dicathen Home To my family Finally

And I had made it I had ht Taci, heard Rinia’s voice in ain, bringing hts full circle

I searched the pink-stained shadow of the dunes, iant spider’s web This was the last zone I’d gone through before arriving in Dicathen A huge canyon split the ground The relass and liquid fire, still lay shattered next to it

The Relicto, but this aether realm was separate—more, maybe—than the Relictoreater expanse

We must have bounced off the Relictombs and ended up in this between-space

As I stared down on the di across the dunes with i them away When the windstorm faded, the zone seemed to…reset Back exactly to the way I’d found it I could see the hydra’s for in wait for the next ascender to challenge it

What is—

The cutting pain, the sense of so is! I shoutedfor my companion’s mind He was nowhere to be felt

Our connection had been severed

I followed this thread back to those is was still there, I had sent hiain her thin fra out,to heal her

I’d needed to hold backeveryone there, including Ellie and Moe I’d felt in that moment rushed back into me as the shock wore off

I wouldn’t have to hold back here

Before I had even fully forht hand

Gnashi+ngtense, I leaned toward Taci But I didn’t move

The bewildered frown on Taci’s face had slowly rimace that mirrored my own “Where are we, Leywin? What did you do!”

Then he was on me, his crimson spear—stained yet redder with the blood ofthrough rabbed the spear’s shaft with e to kick Taci in the chest, sending hi away

His spear ripped free of the wound, leaving a bloody gash just below lobules, and despite the danger Taci posed, I couldn’t help but watch the-space

The red was quickly infused with purple as particles of aether clung to them The sharp pain ininto the wound from the atmosphere, not out fromon the at here, aether rushed into my core The atmosphere wasn’t just thick with aether—it was aether All of it Everything That devouring presence I had sensed was an endless ocean of aether eager to reabsorb the tiny fraction of it that had been shaped into the Relicto me warily, his eyes focused on my shoulder where the wound had vanished “What have you beco out a scoff, I called on the relic armor Waves of obsidian scales coalesced around ainst my skin as it reacted to the ocean of pure aether

My left hand thrust forward, paly scorched the space between us Taci flew backwards, hacking at the aether with his spear, but the blast followed hi torrent of aether eager to devour hiround to shove off of, he could fly but couldn’t use the Mirage Walk technique to reposition Still, his mobility far outstrippedin place as I very slowly drifted away froainst hi the aether blade—but still concentrating on the coiling strea fro would be opti to stand on…

My feet cauard, I lost focus on the aetheric torrent as I looked down at a sy It was perfectly sentle warmth

This is aether…

My head snapped up at a flash of movement in my peripheral vision The arip just in ti cut aimed atme off the platfor wildly through empty space, but was quickly jarred to a stop assurface

Taci was on top ofbut a red blur Each strike was a near-instant burst of e Walk sped not only hismy feet under me, I matched the asura o by Kordri, but it quickly becaone far beyondmine with brutal efficiency If not for my asuran physique, he would have outpaced me in moments

Taci vanished I letfor the aetheric pathith the God Step rune, but…there were no paths here

So ram betweenthe blow, and I was knocked forward Taci appeared in front of hand shearing apart

I felt it as the spear impacted off the twice-hardened shell of hin horror I jolted painfully when the spear’s point wracked against the ar the force to puncture co like bile inon my core

It was intact

Despite the pain of my wound, the fear drained from me, replaced with a cold fury as I slashed at his throat with the blade of rated as Tacihis hold, then snapped a jab into his chin, letting off an aetheric blast directly into his face His ar the round, spin, and send h the pain haze, I realized where ere; we’d been fighting on the side of soh, transparent shell that separated the zone from the aetheric expanse In the half-second I had to consider this, ainst the idea The dunes had see, and yet…

Taci landed onme into the shell I felt the aether pushed aside as he raised his spear, heard the creak of his teeth and jaw as he snarled down at hintowith it, the wound in round” as hard as I could while conjuring the aether blade in a reverse grip, sweeping it behind lanced off the arony

I spun, the aether blade autoht it up defensively, but Taci was fifty feet away, one hand pressed against a bloody wound in his side, half his face scorched a dark, sooty gray His chest was rising and falling rapidly, his breath hissing between gritted teeth, eyes bulging

I stretched my neck as aether healed the bruise Taci’s blow had momentarily caused “First time you’ve had to bleed for Lord Indrath’s ary shout, Taci reared back and hurled his spear atout of the purple sky I took one shallow step, letting it cut through the air less than an inch from my face

It struck the zone’s shell like a ha into it A series of cracks raced out froan to leak out and vanish into the atmosphere

Instinctively, I took the spear in my hands and jerked it free of the shell The shaft bowed into break it in two, but it was heavily reinforced withThe spear had dematerialized and reappeared in Taci’s hand

A thick strea out of the hole it had left in the shell at my feet

Spear in hand, Taci flew farther away, only co to a stop when there was a hundred feet or rel beast you’ve made of yourself, Arthur Leywin, know that it is h the void

Then he began to transforh the skin above his ears, growing out and forward until they crossed over one another in front of his eyes, then ether into a flat plate that masked the upper half of his face Two additional pairs of ar off his shi+rt and stretching inhuolden scales that shone dully in the defused purple light The wound just above his hip closed, the skin rew over it

Finally, four eyes, two on each side of his head, opened, their brilliantly white irises see to stare outward in every direction “See what a pantheon—what I—am truly capable of, lesser”

Held in four hands, the red spear swept from the side as air hissed like pistons from between the scales that lined his arms I felt the distortion in the aether as the attack was projected, and dark aetheric sparks flew froed just under the force attack Behind ash in the shell began to cave inward, the barrier itself shattering like an eggshell

A sedoff it with Burst Step again, ai the strike at his heart with one hand, the asura grabbed ht the full force of my momentum with his knee into my stomach

My ar backwards, but Taci still hadback with his spear

Using hiainst his chest, then pushed outward, again activating Burst Step

His grip broke, but h as his spear punched through my armor and crackedin the void, spinning around and shedding a thick trail of blood fro

It hurt like hell, but aether was already flooding to the wound, pulling the flesh back together, the arht of Taci struggling to regain control of his flight, as he’d been catapulted away from me by the force of Burst Step

Then ht the dune zone back intoout of a thousand cracks across the surface of its shell, a significant part of which had collapsed The dunes within were dissolving, solidblasted out into the void

My skin was suddenly damp with a cold sweat as I watched the violet plumes be reabsorbed into the athted breath,like a drum at the realization

Sylvie’s stone…

I nearly reached for it before the reality ofdown on me—an instant before Taci himself did the same

Our limbs intertwined as we hurtled like ato grapple me while the other two slammed the spear into my ribs The wide-tipped blade slid over black scales with a metallic shriek

I summoned the aether blade into one of my pinned wrists and twisted

The violently purple light swept across one of Taci’s wrists The fine golden scales shi+fted, changing angles to deflect the blow; h