Chapter 436 (2/2)
Darrin—noticingit open A handful of the older students spilled to the ground Behind them, Aphene and Briar had the decency to at least pretend to be sorry
“Really now,” Darrin chided, shaking his head “What are you, a bunch of wild anion”
“Professor Grey will need help if he’s going to help Scythe Seris Vritra” Bold as always, Briar didn’t flinch under the coht—”
“Which is exactly what you were sent here not to do, correct?” Darrin said softly I saw then just how rew in the face of Briar’s defiance “Now go on, all of you”
With the door closed and protected once again, our conversation continued for so to allow h they the left behind, especially Chul
In the end, though, it was the Relicto the Compass, I dislocated the two halves and activated the ascension portion As I’d seen it do rated and formed an opaque portal above the half-sphere I knew i
The portal itself was distorted, the light spilling out fro unnaturally I stepped quickly aside to avoid touching the clutching rays of viscous light, only then catching sight ofat the portal as if a trance, and it al toward her
“You okay?” I asked,with the desire to cancel out the portal
Sylvie nodded, her hand coht that was si for her “I’m fine, it’s just…there’s some kind resonance betweenthrough the at Sylvie and the ascension portal
“Sylvie,” I warned, a vague, disefor permission “It feels…comfortable”
My fists clenched at e to hold her back I tried to consider the situation rationally, but I had no basis fora decision The portal should simply push her back, like what had happened with Taci and Aldir, but Sylvie could be different Alternatively, the Co if that was a good or bad thing
All I could do in the end was trust her I nodded Her fingertips brushed the edges of the opaque oval, and she stepped through, vanishi+ng into the Relictoh the portal after her
“Change of plans,” I snapped “Chul, go with her”
He grinned, conjured his weapon, and leaped in Caera set her jaw in deterwith or not I nodded and waved her toward the portal There was a faint pop and Boo appeared next to her, his bulk overturning an end table “Oops, sorry,” Ellie said before striding into the portal, followed closely by Boo
“No one else will be able to enter the portal after I go through,” I explained to Darrin, “but don’t let anyone tamper with the artifact”
“It’ll be locked in this room No one will enter, I can prohted the overturned table “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”
“Nothing pleasant, I’ to leave er than I already had, I strode through the portal
And stepped into…so indescribable
Furious violet pressure locked ed, andrapidly and then not at all I couldn’t see, hear, or think clearly I wasn’t even sure if I’d arrived in the Relictoh the crush of aether, distorted and halting
Along with his voice ca on the other side of the portal Sylvie, her body stiff and falling like she was having so a half step toward her Then, an explosion of aether, cois into little more than a wisp trapped inside viscous aetheric tar
Activating Realmheart, I sensed for the others They were there, immobile, frozen, but otherwise they didn’t appear to be har asto forcebetween ave way, and I was able to inch forward One step, then another, deeper into the ht foot bu down—slowly, as I had to be careful now to push out only enough aether to keep froain—I reached for Sylvie
The air between us cleared, the a force
Sylvie was on the ground, her eyes open but rolled so far back in her head that only the whites showed Her body was rigid and ently When she didn’t respond, I shook harder
She didn’t react
“Sylvie!”
Sylv, can you hear me?
She didn’t respond
Mycontrolled by her in some kind of spell or e the phenomenon She was unconscious, but the aether felt like her, neither of which ered by so to expel the aetheric storht rip Ellie or Caera to pieces in between the opposing forces I could try to cancel it, but without understanding as happening or why, I was afraid to inhibit Sylvie in any way
Still, I knew I had to do so my senses, which required a forceful effort on h the spell’s effect like wores of the cloud
My pulse quickened at what I discovered
The stor on itself with the atmospheric aether of the zone Sylvie didn’t have an aether core and so had no purified aether of her own to utilize Like all dragons, she could only influence the aether around her If I could force the aether back inward, containing it so the rest of us without cutting her off from it
Only, I saw a proble allSylvie’s unconscious spell, I wouldn’t be able to help the others clear the zone But Sylvie had no natural way to contain so much aether, no ability to draw in and store the aether like I did
Except I did have a way to manipulate aether outside offor the tether toit onto round my teeth and attempted to physically remove it, but unlike normal armor, there was no way to do so
‘Maybe I could help, if I could ht
If we could just…yeah, thatnext to Sylvie, I opened the floodgates of an pouring out of me, sih the cloud, doing nothing to disrupt the spell but blending in with the at the ee of the cloud and the density of the atmospheric aether, and I tried toIt took a ht the two forces were nearly in balance, I took control
Each purple particle of my purified aether latched onto a particle of what made up Sylvie’s spell I couldn’t hope to individually control each mote, but the aether responded to is within the storm, I stilled the aether around him, then opened a sort of tunnel between us He ithout of the cloud and into roused,off the effects of the spell
No time After
The basis of our idea was the sais and I had utilized when I i our cois flowed into the ar his incorporeal state Then I released the ar himself to be pulled between aetheric states
The ar incorporeal as well, but did not entirely vanish However the djinn had crafted the relic, they had never accounted for it bringing along another aetheric foris fleard Syvlie, the shadowy ared with hied at the thread betweento
Instead, the shadowy essence of the half-su, I reached out with rab onto the aris pulled at it, trying to draw the ar ht clear in hts slip away, focusing entirely on the armor and that simple idea
Time seemed frozen
In a jittery, sped up fashi+on, the ar to fit Sylvie’s body while hardening into its corporeal state around her I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding
My mind went back to the aether I’d released into the atmosphere, each particle bonded with those of Sylvie’s spell
The at toit into But as the djinn projection had explained, hter control and a er bond with the purified aether I overpowered Sylvie’s influence
The spell’s area of influence was forced inward toward Sylvie herself I could feel the edges of the stor purple haze faded from the air Bit by bit, it was all contained within Sylvie using the relic ar battle cry exploded just beside me as Chul reared back, his weapon held at the ready as his head jerked this way and that in search of an enemy
Someone else heaved, and I turned just in tiround not far from where Sylvie lay Caera wrapped an arm around her and pulled Ellie’s hair out of her face,
‘Hah, it worked I didn’t expect that,’ Regis thought as he drifted free of Sylvie’s body He transfor around his neck
I cupped Sylvie’s face in ns of injury, backlash, or e, but she seemed physically unharmed Now that the spell had been contained, it was clear that this effect was being projected by Sylvie herself and wasn’t an attack by the Relictooing to have to stay focused on it to keep her spell froain,” I explained to the others
“Pah, what here could threaten aze followed his, fully taking in our surroundings for the first time
We had been deposited on a narrow patch of flat, barren ground in the rew up out of calm, clear water Giant roots occasionally rose above the surface like winding highways,the limbs above
There was no sky, only the constantly cliether to create the i or end to the forest canopy Despite the lack of sun or sky, the forest was lit with cool, sourceless light
“Is—is Sylvie okay,” Ellie asked weakly, struggling to stand straight as she wiped her ed her with his broad forehead “Why does she look like that?”
Sylvie was still rigid, her eyes rolled back into her head I tried shaking her again, then lifted her up into a sitting position Her muscles were so taut it was difficult to move her “Hey, Sylv…Sylvie?”
When there was no response, I closed my eyes and projected my voice directly into her mind Sylvie, can you hear me?
My constant connection with her
The others weren’t silently waiting for ive orders Caera had already activated the artifact bracer she’d claimed from the Spear Beaks’ treasure Multiple silver spikes fleard, so the top of the water
Chul had leaped froround to a nearby root that stuck up fifteen feet above the water’s surface With one hand on a tree the size of an old Earth skyscraper, he searched our surroundings
“We need toSylvie and laying her carefully across Boo’s broad back “Maybe this state is only teet her out of the Relictoer here any longer than necessary”
Ellie juave ot her, Arthur”
“Grey,” Caera said softly, her eyes flickering open and closed rapidly as she focused on whatever input was co from her drones “We’re not alone”