Chapter 380 (2/2)

The asura scoffed and pulled me in close, the spear wrapped around my back to pin me to him, my arms trapped between us

Taci’s head pulled back, then the horn-plate over his eyes slae of my nose with a crunch Stars exploded in my vision, then winked into black-purple striations of pain as Taci headbuttted ain I feltcollided with us fro away from each other

Before I could , I crashed into the side of a dune, the coarse golden sands singdohatever

Still reeling from Taci’s last strike, it took real effort to push outith a nova of aether, destroying the dune I had sunk into I found Taci waiting forzone met the void

The once endless sand sea now seemed little more than an island in the purple void The shell was visible froer vibrant blue by a dusky blue-purple with bright cracks running through it The canyon containing the hydra and exit portal had already dissolved, leaving only this patch of dunes and the frame of the zone’s entrance portal, which stood in a valley at the very center

darow pale

That portal seemed like the only way out of this place And the zone was rapidly collapsing around it I wasn’t sure ould happen when the entire zone was gone, but I kneouldn’t be good

Small platforms appeared at will as I stepped up into the air toward Taci

There wasn’t much ti through it with me

“Youus to this point,” I said, buying myself a second to think

Taci scoffed, a sound like stones shattering “You have nothing to do withencounter, and killing you will bring a certain redeside you as a child, you have not stoppedas my lord commanded”

“Haven’t I?” I quirked a brow at hi wryly “You don’t knohere you are, or how to leave Kill me or not, my family and friends are safe from you You’re trapped here, Taci Forever”

Taci’s mouth bent down into a deep frown “That’s a lie You’re just trying to save yourself, because you know you can’t defeat me”

I snorted derisively “I’ll ad of you as Gods But the truth is, you’re just a frightened child, and Lord Indrath is a short-sighted coward”

Taci’s spear flashed, and I Burst Stepped to the top of a neighboring dune The hill I’d left behind burst in a shower of sand, cut coed, then again and again, each strike carving away at what little was left of the zone

I activated God Step

Inside the zone,every point to every other burned bright to side the zone, the points shi+fting and fading as I held them in my mind

I stepped into theht in front of Taci

His inhu his spear up to defend as a blade appeared inhim to move his spear to catch the blow, but let the blade dissolve at the lastto strike him in the chest

The spear caolden scales shi+fted again, see hiht in every direction

My knee drove into his lower back,down on the base of his neck, and I God Stepped again, appearing just behind the arc of his spear Aether rushed intoin a burst as I struck hi rabbing two of his arms as I drove my elbow up into his chin and pushed off the back of his knee with one foot Using thewith the subtle shi+fts h the air, conjuring an aether blade and swinging it up under his arout of the zone’s limited atmosphere and into the aetheric space that surrounded it

A vertical wall forh force to crack it

I jerked around, looking for Taci He was staring at his right side, where all three of his arms drifted beside hi out of the severed joints and limbs

But past him, I saas left of the zone The portal fraolden sand spilling fro into purple aether particles

Pushi+ng against the cracked platfor for the island,it before it collapsed completely The djinn projection’s words returned toto wrap itself aroundrabbedoverTaci behindonto lanced offwith aether as it absorbed the impacts and turned the blade aside

I slashed at his wrists, and he flailed backwards to avoid losing anyback toward the portal, I rushed forward again, flying through the aether like I had wings

The island shrank before my eyes Fifteen feet wide, ten feet Aether rushed into ht feet Infusing the Compass with both aether and will, I twisted it into two Five feet of land re distorted around the edges, the aether struggling to hold its for on the Compass and the chamber where I’d found Ellie and Mom, I slowed despite every iloithin the sandstone frah the portal

I saw Virion kneeling beside Rinia, tears on his face Mother was casting spells over my sister, her eyes dry, her face determined My heart skipped a beat as I took in the redness of Ellie’s cheeks, the rising and falling of her chest She was alive

And sitting directly in front of the portal was Regis, concern etched into his lupine features, the fire of his round left on either side of the portal as I hurtled toward it

A streak of red pierced the portal frame Sandstone exploded outward, and the purple-tintedrippled, faded, and popped with a sound like boiling tar I landed in the wreckage an instant later Around me, the last of the island dissolved, then the remains of the portal frame, and finally the last few shards of hard aether shell that had contained the zone

We were stranded in the void, nothing but the two of us as far as I could see

“You’re staying here withthe severed stumps across his body

As I watched, the horns receded back into Taci’s head, the rest of his body reverting to his original shape an instant later He looked pale and weak as he listed to the side,an ar with mana to bind the wound And still, soance

His lip curled up into a sneer, his eyes searching, digging intofor eternity in this outer real the aether to move me up to his level so I could look him in the eye “There is nothat forht you forever, Taci In fact, I don’t have to do anything at all” I looked him up and down pointedly “With no way to replenish your mana, your body will consume itself You’re already dead, and you know it”

The facade of his overbearing confidence cracked, and for an instant he was just a boy—a terrified kid asn’t ready to die

Then the spear appeared in a scarlet shi+m back”

A large aether platfor my intention, Taci did the same, his spear held down and out to his left I conjured a blade into ht hand and set n forever under the golden sun,” Taci said proudly

“Not if I can help it”

Aether flooded to every point init for Burst Step Taci’s eyes narrowed Then I was

Taci hadn’t flashed forward toto catch o of my aether blade and activated God Step There were no paths, and no time to sense for them even if there had been, but the space around h the distortion, and I appeared behind Taci, aetheric lightning wreathingthe blade of my hand with aether, I spun around and struck Taci at the base of his neck, just where it met his shoulder There was a loud crack as his body folded inward

The aether blade, which I had released while still ht it in ed it between his shoulder blades His body was turning, the spear spinning around to thrust backwards, but it slipped froers as he instead stu up at me in despair

“You want to knohat I’ve becoh his neck “Godkiller should be appropriate”

Taci coughed, spraying blood over the platform, then collapsed and went still

I dis Taci’s body to drift in the void I watched it float for a few seconds until Taci’s face turned in my direction and I met his wide, dead eyes, frozen in this lastto take joy in his death For all Taci had done, he was still just a tool for Kezess

The cri haze as the aether in my blood was reabsorbed into the atmosphere, floated nearby I plucked it out of the void and sent it intoa proper inspection would have to wait

After that, I spared Taci and his weapon no further thought, turning away from his body to examine the endless void around me

Immediately, I noticed a deviation in the atmosphere’s coloration just where the exit portal had been, like a stain on the dark sky The aether there fluctuated, rippling like water

I rushed to it, reaching out and just letting the tips ofsensation like static electricity ran upit open, holding it there for ainst the distortion, but it resisted There was a connection back to Dicathen, I could feel it, but the portal itself was gone This was more like…a scar

‘—thur You…shi+t, you better not be dead or I’ll kill you rin spread across is’s voice in is You kept the portal open How?

I practically heard hiht now though, because’—his ht—‘I can’t keep this here hts fizzled out, and I felt the distortion waver as it faded perceptibly beforeto, I conjured Sylvie’s iridescent egg from my dimension rune It arm to the touch, and practically vibrated in the presence of soher back, I knew it But—

A spike of panic surged through is’s He couldn’t hold the portal scar in place any longer

I squeezed the egg “I’ll co went back intofor it with both hands, pressing on it with all is to hearthe fabric of reality quake under ht suffuseddown hts cathened

There were no words, but ato pull others frois,down their faces

I focused on Ellie and Mom I saw the space from me to them, pictured the web of interconnected aetheric pathways linking each point between us

I activated God Step

Walls of a sped past My core lurched as reality warped around round

Slowly, like waking fro, deep dreaely collapsed Dust was heavy in the air, tinged with the copper smell of spilled blood

A warm presence drifted into my back and settled near s fro up atthe portal frame Her blood and dust stained face twitched fro pain and a distraught sadness Under it all, though, there was a hopeful glimmer

“B-brother? Is that really you?”

I felt my expression soften and my body relax “Hey, El It’s been a while”

Tears burst fro ed Ellie back, squeezing her tightly and picking her off her feet When I set her down, she looked up at rown so much There was a depth and maturity to her almond-shaped brown eyes I didn’t remember from before, and she was lean and athletic, like htly and plucked at a strand of my pale hair

Then she punched ht you were dead!”

My s, one hand patting the back of her head I looked over her to where , her eyes wide,open She seemed thin and weak, like she’d shriveled away in the months since I’d seen her But she was still my beautiful mother

I smiled at her the way Dad used to “Hi Mom I’m back”

As if the words had stolen the last of her strength, she fell to her knees, her hands going to her face as she sobbed into them

Dozens of other people stood or sat around us, all dusty and covered in blood But avedown to the person in his arms

Elder Rinia, her body stiff and obviously devoid of life She had exhausted the last of her lifeforce to bring these people here, where I could protect the in my arms

“I’m back”