Chapter 456 (2/2)

Even as I accepted ainst ! The crack was so tight I scraped constantly against the walls, but the current was once again flowing, pullingspeed A few, desperate seconds passed, then the walls widened before vanishi+ng I opened my eyes

Murky water surrounded ht, and I swam toward it, my movements wild, no ithal left to cast a spell to speed my ascent It seemed so far, and I felt certain that I would still drown, that I couldn’t possibly make it such a distance

My head burst from the water and into open air, and I took the most painful breath of my life

So wildly, I flailed to keep ures rushed about in hurriedhands took hold of round I collapsed into soft soil, heedless of the asp for breath

There were voices, several, all around me, but I couldn’t process their words

A shadow passed overwas blurry, and it was loud So loud…

The ht, searching e of ariver Tons of stone and dirt have collapsed into it fro the floas in the valley at the base of thein on itself, the cacophonous grinding of stone on stone loud enough to make me ill

But it was above that, far above, where on dominated the sky The battle-scarred monstrosity had bone-white scales and vibrantly purple eyes that I could see even froh tattered and worn, stretched so wide that their beating cleared the dust froht and al white one, flew at his flank, staying in forht—keeping pace through the air, flying like he had wings

The three reaking havoc ainal three dragons that had arrived in search of the Sovereign I quickly counted seven Wraiths, though it was difficult to keep track of them as they flitted about faster than onthe Wraiths’ spells or batting they from his mouth

The humanoid asura didn’t attack but seeon, countering any spell that came even close to her I couldn’t be certain what the black dragon was doing, only that her ely

I had only seconds to take everything in before the figure crouching next to asp burst fro rider, who had worked for Vanessy Glory throughout the as bloated and discolored all down his left side His skin was reen, and open sores wept thick yellow fluid Before the Wraiths had first arrived, Tanner and his blade wing had been struck by a spell and knocked fro at him noas even more surprised to find him alive

“Nice to see you too, Lady Helstea,” he said with a sorief and relief “How’d you get…you know, nevermind We need to move”

As he said “we,” I focused on the other people standing around

There were at least twenty people hunkered on the river’s edge, all staring at me I immediately saw Rose-Ellen, the boisterous beast tamer who had teased Jarrod at every opportunity, and her stoic bond, a large birdlike nored my pleas to help the elders was there, as was his family, and—

I nearly burst into tears as I saw the couple with the baby that I had helped escape the mountain And I felt a sudden spark of hope and pride when I saw that the boy I’d rescued remained with them

“It’s a few ain,” Tanner explained, offering et farther away from the mountain You can see how far soears of ain, and I realized that, below all this stone and dirt not so far from where we stood, I could feel the bursts of rabbed Tanner, and he winced “Not north West, deeper into the marshes, as far from the battle as possible”

Tanner looked uncertainly past round shook— obsidian lance at least forty feet high thrust out of the base of the h the air above us before crashi+ng down unseen in the valley beyond Just behind the spike, a shadowy figure sped out of the resulting hole at impossible speed

Perhata, who clutched her side, her face twisted in a grimace of pain and fear, didn’t make for the battle above, but veered south and flew at all possible speed The air in front of her crackled with a, and Arthur appeared as if froy roared fro a barrage of deadly spikes back at hi in front of her, this tiy

Perhata screae as an armor of hundreds of sht Arthur’s wrist while blocking his blade with her upper arm The two remained suspended for an instant before Arthur’s blade reversed, the sword end shrinking as a blade grew from the other end of the handle and drove into Perhata’s sternuy impacted the blackArthur back and sendingin every direction Even as they fell, though, they were swar on each other to for in the air where Perhata had been, but the Wraith was no longer there Instead, Arthur was surrounded by several dozen armored forms, each one identically molded out of hundreds of tiny black spikes Even as Arthur’s gaze swept across the in a different direction

Arthur flashed to one retreating figure, conjured a blade, and sliced it in half The spikes splashed apart, falling to the ground below like deadly hail There was no flesh beneath theures spread out across the sky, a couple dipped lower, flying directly toward our weary group Beside an to run, splashi+ng into the water or sprinting along its shore

I could only watch until Tanner’s arm wrapped aroundme, but it was already too late Tanner spun a himself between me and the of his tense body, sa the spikes see with such monstrous mana…

But my eyes were drawn to Arthur in the distance

He was falling through the air as if sinking down through water, his eyes closed, his expression focused, thoughtful, alolden flash, and his blade blurred in a sweeping cut

A bright bea sideways and bisecting the arround in front of us and churning the soft soil to mulch

Similar violet flashes appeared all across the battlefield, and a dozen other retreating for back across the air in front of Arthur, and I saw this time as the blade itself seemed to vanish, and a few more of the conjured suits of armor collapsed as they were simultaneously struck all across the sky

But so over the mountains and across the lowland marshes And none of the for body of Perhata

Arthur’s expression tightened with frustration just before he vanished froround so breath, I tentatively put weight onit with et everyone out of here”

SYLVIE LEYWIN

Despite everything, I felt a spike of relief as Arthur’s weight pressed down on my back, the pulse of aether released by his use of God Step rippling againstthe Wraiths to separate us Windso toattacks

My link with Arthur toldable to see his face

‘Go after her’

Which one? I asked, still sensing the re in different directions

Forced to dip down to the right, I avoided a jet of greenish-black mana and breathed out a bolt of pure mana back at the caster

Arthur didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to There was no way to know, and no reason to chase an empty suit of armor halfway across Dicathen when there were several Wraiths right in front of us, even if that meant this one escaped

But I didn’t offer my bond any words of advice or coestures Until the battle ended, I knew Arthur needed the ar fury that he had wrapped hihts were quiet as he guarded over Oludari Vritra below the mountain

I sensed Arthur’s intention before he acted His weight left my body, and he appeared midair thirty feet in front of a Wraith Aether condensed in his fist, for into being, each one a physical representation of the apoplectic rage boiling barely contained below the surface of his co swords all lashed out sihtly different points

At the same time, his primary aether sword, the one in his hand, thrust forward The Wraith predictably dodged the handful of flying swords, putting hih the aetheric pathways and into his line of retreat Even for a Wraith, there was no tih his shoulder, heart, and core before blinking away a half second later

Gravity had barely started to pull Arthur earthward before he was on ain, his cold fury unabated by the calculated death

Arthur’s arrival on the battlefield finally broke the re, and all six of them split off and attempted to retreat in different directions

“Get those three!” Charon thundered, banking sharply left and giving chase “Windso ere doing exactly what the eneue, but Charon was already speeding away, and Arthur’s focus was entirely on our targets I let his fury guideat top speed One was heading south, the other two southeast over theaway as they focused all their energy on shrouding the the spell I’d been sloeaving since our arrival

‘Now,’ Arthur ordered, and I pressed outith the tentative new aether art I had been trying to learn

The air rippled in a nova around h the at except Arthur and I—began to slow Inlike three flies trapped in clear amber

Arthur and I dropped suddenly, and I took a deep breath as I res The spell took allof my heart—seeain Instead, he stood and conjured his weapon I felt myself shi+ver at the intensity of his focus He carefully adjusted his stance, his forle of his blade

I knew I could only hold the spell a few seconds total Already, the aether was fightingto be bound in this way But I didn’t hurry hih

So complete was his focus that I couldn’t help but be drawn into it with hi on his back, and the aetheric pathways lit up in our vision, painting the sky with jagged a their skin, past clouds of poisonoussoulflame auras, into the points between armor and skin—that’s where Arthur focused

His concentration clicked into place, and the blade slashed fro into the aetheric pathways, first one, then a second and third, all within the space of the blade’s near-instant ish, oozing Wraiths flashed with violet light

My spell released, and I wobbled back and forth, struggling to keep us in the air

Three streaks of bright blood sprayed across the horizon ahead of us