Chapter 414 (2/2)
“Can she do it?” I said quickly “Can she destroy asuras, defeat Kezess Indrath and the dragons? Does she have that power?”
He grunted “Not yet But ”
“And when she’s completed his mission? What plans does he have, then?” I hadn’t meant to ask this question, but I was surprised by Kiros’s transparency, andainst the inside of the shi+eld It sizzled and popped, boiling away in a n keeps his own council If he has plans for an after, he has not seen fit to share them with the rest of the Vritra Clan” The sneer sh, I’d guess the same will happen to her as happens to et put on display ormore useful, don’t they?”
I forced down a half-dozen other panicked questions that surged into my mind This is not relevant, idiot, I chastised myself
“And if she wanted to prevent such an outcorona himself…” Each as voiced carefully, h each syllable “Perhaps, if you were to be useful enough, there is a future for you outside of this cell”
Kiros was already shaking his head halfway through h the air froh Sovereign has done must have scrahtful “Perhaps, with ht have a chance Release rona’s head”
Aof mana notifiedin front of the device I had left at the entrance to this floor There was no alia, I followed the path of thethe many individual parts that made the shi+eld function Within the wall, there were a series of housing units and translated power fro alia and into the shi+eld, I forced it upstreas The force i failure of the others, and in a handful of seconds, the entire device gave a static crackle and the shi+eld vanished Kiros stared at rily froently “That you’ll help her Promise”
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“Sure, sure, I pro into an a quickly, I forced open the manacles Kiros squirmed as the spike inside his wrist shi+fted, and I shot hi look to be still Slowly, I eased the rune-covered spike free of his wrist As I did—interposing —I very quickly but carefully stabbed one of my newly created artifacts into the same wound, before it could heal over
“da That hurts,” Kiros htly sth and thickness than the spike, and as soon as it had been inserted and the spike fully rean to heal over
With the second artifact hidden in the palm of my hand, I moved around him and repeated the process on the other side, then much more quickly released thethe last of the chains, I stepped back
Kiros groaned, stretching his back and rolling his shoulders Then, with an aldown the hallway I felt myself bounce off one of the other shi+elded cells, then crumpled into a heap on the floor My vision went in and out for aviolently around Kiros’s muddled form as he stalked in my direction
In the distance behind me, a silvery halo of blurry hair peered around the corner…
“Pathetic creatures,” Kiros h Sovereign has such a perverse interest in—”
Kiros spun around, facing Cecilia, who had lifted up off the floor and was flying toward us
“Perhaps if I take Lord Indrath your heads, I’ll be allowed back into Epheotus!” Kiros shouted at her, his hands co up as if to wrap around the handle of a weapon Mana seethed and boiled all around hi into a shapelesslike a tsunaroaned as the force slahts swam in front of my eyes
Kiros snarled as even he was struck with enough force to be driven back into the wall by his own failed ic He stared down at his hands in shock, but he had very little time to wonder what had just happened before Cecilia was on him Even weakened by imprisonment and limited e hands balled into fists as he crouched and prepared to meet her head on
Every cell barrier in the hallway blinked out at once, and dozens of sets of chains struck at hi and lunging to wrap around his ars, throat, and waist, wherever they could find purchase
“No, release
Cecilia landed before hihtly to the side to see around him to me I only stared back fro no indication if I was alive or dead, although I felt certain she would sense rier she was, however, the higher likelihood of success we had
Mana surged around Kiros again, spilling out of hi the breath from me, but Cecilia was unphased His control over mana was too imprecise with my artifacts implanted directly into his wrists Every ainst the chains, and a couple even broke with the sound of shearingoff the walls and ceiling, but for every one that shattered, two more snapped out to bind hi, Nico?” Cecilia snapped, again glancing past Kiros to me I didn’t respond, and so her attentionVritra “You shouldn’t have attacked hin Kiros, I was even sorry to see what Agrona was putting you through So why?”
“A…mistake,” he choked out around the chains, which were ilow, like e “I can…see that…now Release me, and I’ll…help you kill hied on this moment
Cecilia’s expression crashed down into a confused scowl “What?”
“Together…we can kill…Agrona…”
Teeth bared, Cecilia reared back and slashed with her hand A scythe of cutting wind and white fire bit into the basilisk’s neck and chest, spinning his body half around The wound had barely left a scratch
Cecilia pulled the chains tight, but Kiros let out a low, dangerous laugh Without atteainst the chains, and another broke, then another
“You h to drain the life froirl, but I an of this land, this world Your strength is as of yet nothing next to—”
Kiros cut off with a choked gasp Mana was pouring froh a ruptured da I could not to let h
Kiros tried to speak, but he couldn’t The chains around hi in on itself, the er present
Standing, I maneuvered carefully around the web of chains that bound him until I stood at Cecilia’s side Her entire body trembled, and a trickle of blood ran froh I couldn’t see mana particles like she could, I was very aware of the way her physical body seeainst the ocean of basilisk mana Her core had no rooan Mana was bleeding frorabbed and pulled back Then, with a gasp, she had finished
I let out a breath I hadn’t knoas holding “Cecil, are you—”
Suddenly her body was lirabbed her inthe blood off her cheek She was unconscious, but her breath continued steadily, even though her heart was pounding like she’d been running for days on end
As I stared down at her, hoping this had been the right course of action, another ping warnedjust as I felt the sudden swell of hislike claws at the entire level
Spinning, I conjured blood iron spikes fro my entire mind, all my will and mana, on the task What remained of Kiros’s body nearly exploded with the hinizable, bloody ile artifacts in his wrists, releasing a slow trickle of Kiros’s captureda deadsuddenness, I was ier connected
“What is the rona snarled fro to flay the skin from my bones
My body spun around to face him, and his scarlet eyes burrowed intointo htly calmer
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I sed heavily as h that I could move, but I was at least able to blink and speak “I was talking to Kiros when Cecilia ca of treason, and in her rage she attacked hiic overwhelh that I ed to destroy him before he could do any more harm”
The tendrils ineach statement to verify its truth I held that idea very carefully, confir to myself that every word I’d just said was true
“But ere you doing down here?” Agrona asked after a long pause, and the tendrils dug deeper “Why did you threaten those assigned to this level?”
I was suddenly grateful that e to squiraze “I was afraid I wanted to know…I had to ask, if she could really do it Do the things you expect of her, defeat the other asura clans”
Agrona’s thin brows rose in surprise Then his gaze shi+fted to the ruined corpse behind me “Well? Do you have your answer?”
I tried to nod but couldn’t “I—I do, High Sovereign”
I sagged in on ht and very heavy, but it was ht rona bent low and eased Cecilia’s prone for her like a child As he turned his back on me, he asked, “Did she drink froh him, past hiined I was looking into a neorld, a different one In that alternative version of this world, she hadn’t I could see it So clearly Iwith every fiber of rona hum the corner, he glanced behind him and past me to the corpse, where he no doubt saw the last bits of Kiros’s