Chapter 391 (2/2)
The air had turned into a jelly-like acid sludge that sucked me in and absorbed the momentugled to keep it back, but the caustic substance was attacking every inch of me simultaneously My eyes burned and the relic armor trembled as the acid ate away at its structure
Although I couldn't see through the sludge, with Realmheart active I could sense the locations of the five enemies, and even their Decay-typethe aetheric pathways Focusing through the pain, I inited God Step, reappearing just behind Blaise
With uncanny quickness, the bald Wraith diverted the streais, who three of the others had pushed back against one curved wall, and into a shi+eld between us At the same time, I formed a sword and slashed across his side Aether shi+vered against soulfire My blade jolted with the force of the two opposing powers, then sank through his shi+eld and slashed across his throat
Blaise tried to shout but only gurgled up blood His cloudy red eyes squinted into an agonized snarl, then black rapped him up and yanked him away from me
Claws of the sarabbed for my wrists I released the blade and pushed aether intoauntlets of aloves, so an to ache
The wind scrabbled to get a hold, but was unable to grasp the aether
Sensing eted toward auntleted hand, releasing the pent-up aether in a wide, curving arc to eat away the barrage of pursuing spellfire
A pained, enraged howl punctuated the sound of fire burning the air, black spikes erupting fro
Across the chais A hot wind, like the leading edge of a charging inferno, flash-dried the sweat beading my brow, and all the active spells in the vicinity were burned away like dry leaves
"Valeska!" Ulrike shouted, her drawling voice pierced through with a spike of uncontained fear
In an instant, I took in the chais was on the far side of the rooh in several places by blue-black barbs of solid lightning The stone around him had been carved away by Destruction for twenty feet in every direction, and the balconies above hi open, thick ropes of saliva dangling froht eyes were entirely focused on his prey
On the floor just beyond the ruins, Valeska was dragging herself aith one ar a thick shi+eld of wind between her and Regis Parts of her black hair and the ends of her horns had been burned away, and her face was covered in ugly blisters One leg wastwenty feet off the ground, a boertips down on Regis Some burned away in Destruction before they reached hi no effort to defend himself
Ifiok was on a balcony behinduseless at his side, and the flesh of his neck was broken open and oozing His re as he conjured dozens of black spikes froh the roo just around his allies as they targeted both Regis and me
Blaise had relocated to just outside the series of arched frames that opened into the cha soulfire, fingertips pressed to his throat Purple-tinged soulfire flaether, while clouds of conjured flaled to envelopseveral long tentacles of dark green acidic liquid that had boiled up froranite tiles The wound in his side had healed, and even his armor seemed to have mended itself One of his tentacles wrapped around Valeska's waist and helped pull her ahile two others began harrying Regis, going for his neck and legs
Meanwhile, three h the air and spraying acidic sli God Step, I maneuvered out of the ain ih the air towardfuriously at the caustic tentacles when I reappeared standing over Valeska An aetheric blade for down, and I thrust at her core She let out a piercing cry that cut off suddenly as she was jerked away by the tentacle around her torso My blade carved a sranite beneath her
A huge iron spikeht the momentum of the spike and let it propeltentacles Spinning, I deflected a burst of lightning that had ricocheted off Regis, then landed just in front of hi hidown on us
'Move,' Regis's deep, half- within hima within the caldera of a volcano, and it was about to rupture
Ju spike and Burst Stepped after Valeska, ranite tiles of the floor in a straight line toward her and Richmal
Behindeverything it touched ButValeska She see the them when necessary Without her, the rest would be exposed
Rich meup at the same time as the chah his spell and slammed into him shoulder first
He was hurled off his feet to crash against the chamber's outer wall, and all his spells flickered out for just a moment
Valeska had pushed herself up to one knee after Richrievous wounds, she was still casting, surrounding herself with a buffeting force while cutting at ed those I couldn't block with an aether-wrapped fist, then, when I was nearly on her, invoked God Step
Ju my firearm as I punched down at the side of her head from my new position There was a crunch of bone aswent dark
Black wings rapped aroundme this way and that With h the spell, shredding it But by the tiain, Valeska had already been whisked away
Resu at the back of his undefended neck A blue-black blur flew ath both rune-covered armor and flesh
"Blaise, send Valeska back," Richmal's resonant baritone rumbled as he pulled hiled hair was matted to his head and stained red-brown
Ulrike slid to a stop ten feet froushi+ng fro, which appeared to be nearly severed at the knee She supported herself on her towering shi+eld, which rested between us, and leveled a conjured spear at one
A bestial howl shook the cavern, and Regis leapt in froround
Dozens of sickly green darts flew frois's side I watched as the dark green h his bloodstreah my channels as I siphoned aether from my core, down my arm, and into the palm of my hand, where it built up until the pressure forced it to explode outward, bathing the cavern in violet light and engulfing Riche of blue-black static disrupted the air around Regis He roared, breathing out a gout of Destruction, but the static buzzed around and away frouillotine above him At the sahtning bolt in her hand
The staticflesh, bone, and even aether My coe, slope-backed torso cas, the front struggling to balance as he lunged aardly after his prey
Regis's barely-contained rage and need to unleash Destruction crashed into ainst his survival instinct and a desperate edge of existential uncertainty
A razor-sharp knife of panic slashed atspectacle as I struggled to process Regis's inner conflict alongsidefrom the shadows above me just before a spear-thin spike thrust out from the nearest column and drove atthe blow to the side of my armored head where the horns sprouted out The spike shattered, and a foot-long shard twisted in the air and drove into my cheek I felt it scrape bone as it deflected doard to push out the base of my skull
The force of the i coluainst the jagged butt of the spike where it poked out of round shattered beneath e Dozens of black iron spikes interlocked over the pool to create a sharp-edged do th as it attackeds seized, and I felt my heart stutter
The iron doht, and hundreds of bolts of electricity began to crash back and forth between it and the pool of sludge My body locked up My mind went numb from the shock as the ooze continued to eat away at my armor When I reached for God Step, I couldn't sense it I couldn't feel anything at all past the pain ofevery nerve in my entire body
"Nohile he's pinned! Valeska, report to the High Sovereign, inform him—"
My ears popped and stars burst behind an to spasm as I pushed back at the spikes, but to little effect I lost all sense of Rich at one another Although I couldn't understand what they said, the desperation in their voices was clear
Blue-black particles of deviant lightning mana flashed and popped as they impacted the areenGray-brown deviant earth ainst the purple barrier
Through a gap in the spikes, I saw Regis, or as left of him My companion had been reduced to little e of Ulrike's , his consciousness receding with each passing moment as more and more of his aetheric essence was exhausted just to keep his feeble form
I reached for him, tried to pull him to , couldn't escape the spell burning hi
Time seemed to slow, almost like when I'd been able to use Static Void, before Suddenly, I could feel the weight of all thatwith my aether, see the way the particles bent and rippled and jumped as one, the shapes of the individual spells, how they were for that held theether in a shape formed by the will of the caster, while the aether both contained the mana and determined its natural behavior, but also , the two forces fitting together like light and shadow I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before
My hand quivered as I reached into the turht and darkness—ether, simultaneously in coordination and opposition And, in between theht and shadow
My fingers twitched The curtain shi+fted Aether wrapped aroundspikes pinningout in the air aroundthe the what mana was allowed to do
A web of electricity july, tendrils reaching out towardreabsorbed into the whole, unable to strike farther than what they aether allowed
The pool of acid parted, separating, pulling away fros shook with the effort of enforcing h the aether, the one was the physical force of their confidence and their brash expressions
Instead, I saide red eyes aray faces turned pale with fear