Chapter 452 (1/2)

Chapter 452

Chapter 450: Changes

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“Please?”

Seris was still as stone as Oludari pawed at her, his expectant, pleading face turned upward

It seehtmare No piece of reality as I had been

“I have so ers kneading at Seris’s robes “There are layers and layers and layers to the world, just waiting to be peeled back, one by one, but not if I’rona thinks he’s the only one who knows, but I’ve seen the shadows, I’ve felt the rising surface tension of a bubble ready to burst, I…”

The Sovereign choked on his ohi When the fit passed, he drooped like a wilted plant

Blinking as if waking frolanced around at the frozen crowd, then at Cylrit, and finally to me For half a second, there was a question in her eyes, one I had no clue how to answer “What do I do?” her eyes were asking, but even as they touched mine, her expression hardened into resolve as she ca

Slowly, Seris pressed her hand against Oludari’s cheek “Caln”

Oludari suddenly took two fistfuls of Seris’s robes and pulled her down a few inches “Help ons, the Lance, you…you know them! You’ve foiled him before I don’t understand how, but you have! I coain! So…so has the Lance Yes, take me to him To Arthur Leywin”

Seris firrip, then with the suddenness of a striking thundertail, slapped hin’s head snapped to the side, his blubbering cutting off sharply “H-how dare you, I…I…”

“Get yourself together,” Seris said, see more in control of herself now She held out her hand, and Oludari took it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet

The spell over the crowd broke, and e Udon rushed to his brother, helping hi dirt off his clothes, but Idir pushed hi to one of the other farmers

That far I could already feel it in the fading of their natures; they were all dead

I looked away, angry and frustrated but unsure how to channel my emotions The carelessness of the asura…

More than a few people lingered, slowly con, apparently oblivious to his current sad state

“Sovereign Please, forgive us—”

“—take us hon!”

Cylrit slashed his hand through the air, and the ra pleas went silent, and the people fell back All except for Lars Isenhaert, who rushed toward the Sovereign

Oludari’s eyes ide, and mana spilled out of hiround and sent hurtling back into the crowd, knocking down a couple of others It was enough to finally break their rapture, and they practically sta on the ground Corbett, Ector, and a wonized as one of Lars’s soldiers hurried to his side

Seris shot n somewhere more safe…for everyone” She trailed off, her focus shi+fting past me into the distance

I turned to look, and my blood ran cold

On the horizon, the Grand Mountains cut the Elenoir Wastes and the Beast Glades off froo, the snow-capped peaks had been lost in thick white fog Now, a low black cloud was racing over the h, it dipped down the steep cliffs, cascading to the flat ashlands below, and billowed toward us at great speed

“No,” Oludari moaned “No no no He knows He found htly that she winced

“Wraiths…” Seris breathed, pulling herself free of the Sovereign and taking a few halting steps so she was next to me Her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at her sides

My frayed nerves shattered Moving as if in a dreaaze swept across the panicked village, taking in all the people I had worked so hard to protect and help to thrive after the war, people I considered my friends…family, even, to use the Dicathian word

A better word than ‘blood,’them were those who had lived these lastnew skills, putting their hard-won ic to work as farmers, hunters, and craftsmen instead of soldiers…killers People like the Plainsrunner brothers, like Baldur Vassere Like the children now huddling around the golden-haired Frost girl, green with fright

I looked down at Seth, as still lying on the ground at lasses askew He, like everyone else here, would beco but coht in a battle between a Vritra Clan basilisk and a battle group of Wraiths

And there was nothing I could do to stop it

I had power, incredible erous than an unad slave…

“—yra!”

The shouting of , and I jerked spas e Discard the rest, it won’t help you now”

I stared into her eyes, wondering, not for the first tith of hers came from

I hadn’t known Scythe Seris Vritra well before the war As a wartime nomination for the position of retainer, I hadn’t been in that club prior to being sent to Dicathen But I had proven adept at getting the Dicathians to fall in line with oals for the continent

During those couple of days working alongside Seris, I had felt repeated pangs of jealousy at the relationshi+p between her and Cylrit My own Scythe, Cadell, had been cold, distant, and violent In two days, I felt like I knew more about Seris than I ever had Cadell My relationshi+p with hi th and the latitude hich the High Sovereign allowed hi as Seris said, I layered these thoughts around hted blanket, theher comforter up over her head to hide from the mana beasts under the bed…

But it worked, and I feltSeris may not have been my Scythe—abyss, she wasn’t even a Scythe any a better mentor than Cadell or any other teacher or trainer I’d had in h the ranks of power

There was no ti else before the Wraiths arrived

The cloud split into four distinct forms, and several spells rained down on us at once, aimed at Oludari

I hurled out a barrier of void wind to block a gout of black fire, the collateral dae of which was set to overtake not only Seris, Cylrit, and et away

The Wraith’s soulfire ate through the fabric of my shi+eld, but a second barrier appeared withinthe soulfire to roll har across three freshly built houses and engulfing theled with the flaround in theup a spray of dark ash and throwing those nearest to the ground, including Corbett and Ector The other hit Oludari squarely but deflected off hisinto a distant tree, splitting it in two and causing the dry leaves to burn like sowood and roaring flae ofinto the air and conjuring shi+elds over the screarabbed Seth and pulled hied upward, a field of blood iron spikes stabbing through as the Wraiths struck from every direction at once

Oludari clenched his fists, and the blood iron shattered with an ear-splitting shriek His face was taut with panic and desperation, his intent cascading through the village like a hurricane

A shadow linted off carved blades as they cut toward the Sovereign His hand snapped up, catching the sword, and with a jerk of his closed fist, he shattered it His bleeding hand knifed outward, releasing a wide crescent of soulfire that only barely ain

There was a lull

Oludari glared into the sky, where the four Wraiths encircled the village at a distance, their killing intent like four raging bonfires closing in on us The Sovereign gri his hand as blood seeped froreen tendrils discolored his pale flesh around the wound

“Poison,” I whispered tohis surroundings, looking for a way out His deht Gri, he shot up into the sky pastwith mana as the monster hidden within the huer than before, the beating of his wings so fierce it knocked h to take iant whip, and a Wraith dipped beneath it His jaws snapped, closing just short of a retreating shape in the sky The third Wraith cae of Oludari’s distraction to land on the basilisk’s back with twin blades of black ice glealeaes as they sheared across the base of an enorlass, and the basilisk roared and spun in the air, sending the Wraith flying off

Fat droplets of dark blood rained down on the encampment below

As Oludari thrashed and roared, a black web knit itself into the air right in front of him, thin filaments of blood iron affixed to points of condensed shadow The basilisk tried to veer away, but too late, and crashed at full speed into the webbing

His bulk drove hi the construct, but even froashes left all over his serpentine face and body The blood iron net caught in Oludari’s wings and jaing back and forth with every htning converged on theOludari’s transfor the metal and into the hundreds of little wounds, the two spells working together to bypass the Sovereign’s protective layer offro the n down

The blood weeping fro away the blood iron and black ice, and sealing the wounds On the ground, everywhere a drop of fla nearby

A blackrapidly to absorb asblood as possible, Seris’s nullificationit away before it could spread any further

Still, half the village was already a conflagration

The streets were full of running people now, going every direction in their confusion, leaderless and rudderless as each was left to fend for themselves

Contradictory orders were shouted with a dozen disparate voices, helpless nobles wailed for their guards and attendants, and through it all were easily discernible the keening of the wounded and dying as Vritra soulfire coursed through their blood

The only leader worth her salt was the Frost girl, who had taken the group of children in her care and was leading them toward the Beast Glades and away fro free of the enthralln battle these Wraiths, I pummeled the dry, hard soil beloith a wave of sonic vibration, siround as it softened, the ash ray slurry atop asentire houses where I could sense no natures

Above, Oludari closed on a Wraith, his jaws opening to unleash a torrent of black flames

The Wraith launched upward over the fire, spun, and plunged down atop the speeding basilisk, dozens of knives conjured fro down around him

Those that didn’t strike Oludari puh still s and people beneath theround, blood running freely froh the neck and head twisting at random as soulfire continued to spill from his jaws Below, another house went up in flames, then another The wind kicked up by the battle sent sparks drifting all the way to the Beast Glades, and I could already see little lines of s had happened so quickly; people were still picking the strike Ector stumbled away from the crater, his hand pressed to his ear, his eyes unfocused So exploded Almost as if in slow ed shard of broken blood iron piercing his chest His body turound when it landed, and by the time it stopped, I kneas dead

The faces of the crowd blurred, the details lost aout of black flaen burned fros Another was buried as a house collapsed just as they ran past it, the outer wall sing theures were pouring out into the flat gray eust of wind pushed the fla villagers, giving the theh the chaos, hoping to find souidance or direction, but what I saw instead wrapped an icy fist aroundSeris up, his arm around her waist as she continued to channel her void spell, one ar theand un as many stray attacks as she could

But…she had arrived in Dicathen weakened by her long trials in the Relictombs I had known that But I hadn’t—I sa—really understood it

She hadn’t shown anyone the truth, keeping the face she presented to the world stoic and capable But a lifeti front didn’t correct an overstrained core And her unique void wind technique took a significant amount of mana to channel, so e of backlash countering such powerful spells