Chapter 444 (1/2)
Chapter 444
Chapter 442: A Sword Struck
My sword, conjured of pure aether and held together by ed into the interwoven threads of aether around me
Revealed by the God Step Godrune, the network of amethyst paths connected every point to every other point around h the aetheric realm, I had learned froed when I e had sat dorht but without a clear use
Until the moment of necessity when I had no choice but to translate knowledge into action
My senses flowed through the aether, the paths, the in-between space that connected everything together
I saw Cecilia, the final vestiges of her last attack still burning the atmosphere between us, the many-armed silhouette of mana wrapped around the body she’d taken fro between us, his hand reaching for her shoulder but not daring to touch her
The aether blade plunged deeper into the lightning-bolt network of aether
I saw Draneeve, his unconscious form curled up beneath a chunk of fallen stone from the roof, his shattered mask in the rubble at his side, and Mawar, the inky shi+eld clinging to her flesh not able to hide the steady flow of blood from her hips, and Melzri in front of her, her bloodshot, blood-colored eyes slicing through the air like her blades as she moved focus from me to Sylvie’s back
The pathways drew h space itself
I saw the collection of ure in the shadows of the twisted and broken ceiling, the threads ofacross the chaers in their brains
The blade struck home, and a screa each other point The connective tissue of this world, the aetheric real in another
A beaht hovered for an instant in the air Shadows rippled, and Viessa for out of her sternu out just as sharply as it had sounded, but her mouth remained open, her silent cry somehow even worse than the banshee wail As she writhed, waves of purple hair rose up around her face like a ghostly nimbus
I pulled the blade free, and it retracted back through the aetheric paths, sliding out of her body so that she plulanced toward the source of the scream Mezlri was frozen in place, horrified and transfixed as she watched the other Scythe bounce off the cru tiles The only noise for a handful of heartbeats was the crackling of phoenix fire
Despite the bloodher hair to her head from where Chul had struck her, the pieces of Sylvie’s confused mind slid smoothly back into rhythrab Chul’s arlazed over, and he did not fight her as she jerked hi doard the an aetheric blast froed to the side, but Cecilia took the blast head on, aether rippling over the surface of the mana condensed around her With one es of the blast like smoke Still, her attention snapped back tomy companions
I let the point of round, but ripped the aetheric handle “Enough of this” I looked up froaze hard “Cecilia, come with me I’ll try to find a way to separate you and Tessia”
She scoffed, her cheeks turning bright red, her lips twisted in a disbelieving sneer “As if I could be so easily swayed—or tricked You are a liar, Grey, and a bad one”
Behind her, Nico’sdryly, then finally said, “We should hear Arthur out…his insights into aether surpass even the dragons Maybe he can—”
Cecilia cut him off “Don’t be fooled” It was Cecilia’s turn to hesitate Her eyes flicked froain “He's the one that killed me, remember?”
I couldn’t help but let out a dry, huh “Has your rona do that for you?” Speaking to Nico, I continued, unable to mask the bitterness in my tone “The hatred you have forI cherish—was based on a lie I wasn't the one who killed Cecilia She—”
“Shut up!” Cecilia screeched, the blistering emotion in her voice so raw that it stunned Nico andslowly, “it isn’t that you didn't remember…but you’ve chosen to lie to and manipulate the only man that has ever loved you—”
Like a sudden hot breath on the back of my neck, black wind slammed intofury and loss
I spared a quick glance back, squinting against the stor next to Viessa, the other Scythe’s li back and forth, her mouth half open, disbelief and horror written in every line of her face The void as spilling out of her, a physical rief
Then her eyes met mine, and she see a snarl, all that tension exploding doard as she dropped the corpse and leaped into the air, one blade gripped in both hands and trailing soul fire like a dark flag
Black wind buffetedaroundto pull me off balance Tendrils of Cecilia’sthe spell and holding it against alia imprinted halfway up her spine activate as she channeled mana into it Mana condensed from the atmosphere and into her spells Her body swelled with it, hardening and strengthening The sword blazed darker, the fla ten feet up fro deeper and harder Cold white fla from her pores as her body overloaded on houth power to rip through the clutching wind The Burst Strike delivered all its potency directly into the center ust, the soul flames puffed out like a candle Steel shrieked, and the sword exploded, sending a shrapnel of brokenacross the throne roo inside cracked and splintered
Her momentum carried her pasther broken hand and arm with the other
Mana condensed around her, scooping her up and carrying her away from me “Go,” Cecilia said “You are no more use here”
I could have stopped her, could have followed Melzri and struck her and her retainer down before she could withdraw the te whatever punishrona would deal out in response to their failure here would be worse than the quick death I could offer
As the tempus rapped Melzri, Mawar, and Viessa’s body in mana and pulled the around Cecilia, preparing to strike, but Nico fleeen us I was surprised when he turned his back to me “What did Grey mean just now?” he asked Cecilia
“It’s all in the past,” she answered, jaw tight and eyes flaring “It’s not what’s important now—or for the future!”
“I neverabout Cecilia’s or Nico’s actions made sense to me Nico had apparently made himself a weapon for an evil tyrant purely to revive his dead love, but then he had allowed her to be turned into a weapon as well—a fate identical to that of her last life, which she had killed herself on my blade to escape In return, she hadn’t even told hi his hatred of me to continue to fuel this confrontation
He had reached out to me, hadn’t he? Sent me Sylvia’s mana core as a token and a plea so I would help Cecilia—how, I had no idea—but he’d made no effort to stem the violence of this confrontation
“Liar I watched as your blade went through her, Grey!” he yelled, bobbing up and down in the air, the itation
Cecilia slashed her hand in the air, and I dodged as iant scythe blade “This isn’t even about what happened on Earth! Nico, Agrona wants Grey’s core That’s it! Grey doesn’texactly what you want, don’t you see?”
Before Nico could respond, the ed Thousands of fist-sized chunks of rubble juh above our heads In an instant, they were burning bright orange, heated fro before it happened
shi+eld yourself! I sent to Sylvie
The dark sky was alight with ten thousand new stars Then the stars began to fall
Burningand burst against the floor all around me The throne roolow of a thousand burning projectiles streaking the air
I sensedof mana around Sylvie and Chul as the first of the ed back frolanced off my shoulder, then slipped into the woven paths of God Step to avoid a cluster of the projectiles
The palace was cru from the concussive blast of the s
The beating of wings sent gusts of wind billowing through the palace, carrying away the dust in large swirls and revealing a towering silhouette
Dark scales reflected starlight and huge golden eyes glowered around at the wreckage Sylvie’s graceful draconic neck lifted high toward the heavens, and she bared rows of fangs like swords A long, serpentine tail shi+fted through the rubble, sending broken stone cascading into the ave a shake of her neck and wings, dislodging the e in her scales
Chul stepped out froon in as had revealed the full devastation of Cecilia’s spell The entire center of the structure had been leveled; the throne rooround
I felt a shi+ft in the aether around me The relic arain feel it tether tothat tether, I conjured the arazed down atovernervously
I held his dark eyes “How do you expect me to help someone who doesn’t want it?” I asked, unconvinced he would respond “Or was your e?” Cecilia snapped, looking sharply back over her shoulder at Nico “What e?”
I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t told her, but I seized on the opportunity to keep theift and asked me to help you He said I ‘owed you a life’ Because you never told hier burning just below the surface “You killed yourself on my blade, Cecilia! Do you even remeaze the memory of that moment, and I knew she remembered all too well
“W-what?” Nico choked out
Cecilia turned her back on ers stopped just short of touching him “It’s more coainst you, Cecilia,” I cut in, unable to mask the frustration and bitterness in my voice “You made me kill you because you knew there wasn’t any other way out, not for you, not for Nico You died to protect hi my fists so hard that the bones ached “da to justify what you’re doing for Agrona—”
“Enough!” Cecilia screahout the ruined palace, growing louder and louder with each reverberation The few remnants of structure around us collapsed My hands clapped to ht, Chul leaned on his weapon, his arms wrapped around his head, his teeth bared like an aniainst the punishi+ng volu breath, I reached for the mana with my aether Thethe overpowering force of Cecilia’s focus I broke it, and the noise faded away, leaving an echo ringing in my ears
Cecilia had already turned back to Nico “I’rona’s influence, and that soht happen if I told you”
“It’s true?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper “Grey didn’t—”
She shook her head, her body tense, her li inward like she wanted to curl up into the fetal position
Nico pulled away, aghast “But I saw…”
“I’m sorry,” Cecilia repeated quietly She waited for ahirona?”
Nico dragged his hands down his face “Whatever he’d done to inflate e and bury the talents of my previous life leaked out of my core when Grey pierced it at the Victoriad” His voice was flat, totally devoid of emotion “But I knehat he’d done to your ht you were still…” He hung his head, his staff dangling limply at his side “I’rossed in one another, their worlds having shrunk to the few feet around themselves in any direction A cold, distant part ofGrey that I had resurrected to survive nized the opportunity A quick thrust of ht there Whatever Agrona planned for the Legacythem both doould end that threat, and possibly the war
After all, I hadn’t discovered sohthow to separate Tessia and Cecilia Tess was a warrior, no stranger to risking her life in the field of coeons beneath the Beast Glades, in the forests of Elenoir, in the city streets against Nico and Cadell…
She would understand She would forgive iveto strike out at Viessa instead of Cecilia when the opportunity had presented itself Did I really think I was prepared to end Tessia’s life alongside Cecilia’s?
“How can you be so certain?” Nico asked, his voice raising in frustration and drawing my attention back to them “Because I don’t know anymore”
After a beat of hesitation, Cecilia took Nico’s hands in her own “Those are just the words of that awful Scythe sticking in your head If Agrona can reincarnate us fro us into this world and make us powerful with only the resources he has noouldn’t he be able to send us back with all the power of Epheotus at his disposal?”
There was a pause, and she dropped his hands, turning to look at on’s core? To ask Grey for help? You…want us to turn against Agrona?”
Nico’s pale face went even whiter “No, of course not—”
“Grey can’t help us!” she shouted, her voiceresonance of her last sonic attack “We’ve given everything to this, Nico, to Agrona And we’re so close! Don’t let Grey irl back He’d kill et to her, you knoould”