Chapter 460 (1/2)
Chapter 460
Chapter 457: Collisions
CHUL ASCLEPIUS
I sank back against the wall, breathing heavily and enjoying the feel of sweat pouring down ranite, and the resounding noise of our training was still ringing in my ears
Bairon leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees, sweat dripping from his nose, each breath laborious Twenty feet to his left, the little one, Mica, threw herself on her back, huffing and puffing Only Varay stood straight, her arhtfully
“This was better, yes?” I asked, going back through inThis was unlike the technical training I had done with the Vritra-blooded one, Cylrit; the Lances had pushed me to ith my body differently, and I had strained them to the peak of their capabilities—at least without threatening their lives “Arthur’s guidance about using what littleto make sense, I believe”
Bairon let out a scoff that didn’t disguise his contented grin as he sank down to one knee, leaning on the cri technique…was that Arthur? Seerinned The hu sreat effect, an unlooked for boon incompanion My body required the mana output of a full-blooded asura to maintain itself, butto its full potency
“Your control is iaze flicked to the dull metal bracer onI had forgotten about keeping up ood But you all are ress as well?”
Mica slaainst her sternum three times “I sure hope so My core aches A h, so…I’m not really sure”
“Yes,” Varay answered, stretching her arht Our exertions are beginning to pay dividends”
Bairon stood and wiped sweat from his brow “What do the artifacts say, Elasses ca one corner of the cavern She gave her fellow hued “There has definitely been refineh to see, but the enhanced speed of youris still too fast for the equiprades Maybe if I had more time, but…”
Mica snorted and rolled over onto her side, propping her head up on one hand “Yeah yeah yeah, you scientists and your big secret project Remember when the Lances were treated like we actually hed and hed up her curly hair with one hand, then straightened her glasses “S-sorry, it’s just…”
“I have heard that Wren Kain can be a harsh tasketic than before, darker even “Do not let the titan grind you to dust under the heel of his drive for progress”
Her brows shot up as she gave me a startled look “Oh, uh, thanks…yeah, I…won't?”
“When is Gideon going to explain what he is up to, anyway? It’s not like I haven’t sensed those ht in” Mica’s eyes narrowed at Eeneral, I should be in the know”
E over her pale features “I don't think I’d want to say even if I could”
“Gideon and the asura have their reasons for secrecy,” Varay said sternly “Don’t harass the girl It isn’t her choice, and she will do well not to speak of what’s happening down there”
“Wait!” Mica bolted upright “You know, don’t you! Why do you get to know?” Her glare shi+fted to Bairon He gave her a shrug, resting his spear across his shoulders, and she gasped “You too? What the hell, you guys?” Finally, her glare settled firmly on me “Don’t tell me that everyone here knows except for ht and cracked ainst the three Lances “No, Lady Earthborn I have little interest in the ood weapons, but I already have one of those” I gestured to Bairon’s spear “Though not perhaps so refined an implement of destruction as your spear, Bairon Wykes You should listen to it ht like an asura More than once, you ainst your weapon and not with it”
The hu the cri with the spear, as I have been for uidance you speak of, only…” He shook his head, then gave me a suspicious look “You sometimes don’t speak like a man, Chul You speak as if—”
Mica snorted, interrupting hi toe to toe with one guy, and he seeether It’s like Arthur all over again”
Bairon turned in exasperation to Varay “Surely you see it?”
Varay’s piercing eyes lingered on htly “Are you okay, Chul?”
My fingers dug into my temple as a sudden pressure pinched inside ht That’s all I—”
Inside h a thick door, dulled by distance and ive this intrusion into your thoughts I have need of you i and return to the Hearth at once Be wary on your journey The Beast Glades are not safe’
As the htly, trying to knock loose the discoripped me—not for myself, but for those I had left in the Hearth Were they under attack? There was no way to know except to leave Vildorial and return hoo” I looked between the Lances but settled on Varay “Tell the Leywins—Eleanor and Lady Alice”
She frowned “Of course, but…”
The three Lances were all looking at me with concern, but I did not explain further, instead hurrying from the cavern, which ell away fro to reach the surface froave oing out Less than twenty ht desert sun that hovered over the Darvish dunes
I didn’t stop to take in the scene but lifted up off the ground and pointedat speed toward the mountains
I had not expected Mordain to call me back from my quest In truth, I hadn’t been sure he would want ood ness to “turn the other cheek” as he put it, no matter what insult was offered I, on the other hand, knew that so force Soiven
Even as a child who did not yet understand what I was, my fiery teh traveling with Arthur and fighting back against Agrona was exactly what I wanted, I still wasn’t fully certain that it had been allowed because I wished it…or siot rid of me
This doesn't hts within the vice of o And when I a myself to devastate our ene and tiring It took little ht once it had been achieved, as I only needed to maintain the balance between myself and the atmosphere aroundGrowing up beneath the ground, I hadn’t practiced often
It ith a grateful breath of cold air that I crested the Grand Mountains and dipped down into the Beast Glades Finally, I slipped free of the unconature so that I appeared huons Here, it was nature, which would ward off the native beasts
Home was close
CECILIA
The air was thick with the buzz of insects and the haunting susurration of sos oozed up froround And, worst of all, the rift—the connection between the asuran homeland of Epheotus and the Beast Glades of Dicathen—was still hidden froht,my senses It had been days already…days spent in the dank depths of the worst the Beast Glades had to offer with no corona’s Wraiths and only a few inter better thanon how everything else shook out, Nico’s success would still decide exactly how the next leg of this ould play out
The elderwood guardian stirred within me suddenly, and I immediately sobered The beast’s will had beenon me like a tension held just beneath ely silent, the presence of her destroyed hohts
I had expected her to givein Dicathen was a risk, but it never should have taken so long But our search was complicated by a nuroup in Etistin had caused a cascading failure of plans that was still rippling around me, and I had to believe that Oludari had purposely chosen that ons Combined with my continued inability to discover the exact location of the rift, it was difficult not to grow frustrated with thisto find the point where so , but the transmission of mana between Dicathen and Epheotus was trereat that it sent echoes of itself all over eastern Dicathen, and, to make matters worse, there also seeic and shrouding spells in place throughout the Beast Glades, which I could neither explain nor breach—yet
Closing ers Focus, I scoldedposition before drifting to the ground “No, I don’t need to focus I need a break”
Conjuring a bed of soft soil and woven plant fibers, I lay down and closedto doze as I waited for Nico and the Wraiths to return
I sensed Nico’s eons he was searching so over the treetops with his escort of Wraiths to prevent attacks by the largest of Dicathen’sThe Wraiths kept their distance, setting up aa fire to heat their food while Nico ca anyof all this is starting to beco eons he’d searched “The tether between Epheotus and our world, the dragon patrols, the teleportation gates…it all needs to coht, otherwise all the pieces collapse individually”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped, then looked away froainst Grey, there had been a queasy tension between us “I’y “I know I shouldn’t focus on the negative Perhata’s group took out a dragon, we knohere Oludari is, and so far the wider operation in Dicathen seeot ti in the distance, an unusual movement within thethe distraction of my features
“Cecil?” Nico asked “What is it?”
“I’nature was similar to a mana beast’s, but it was too concentrated, and it ht for any of the more powerful beasts I was fa the mana Deep within my core, a familiar aspect resonated
“A phoenix!” I exclaiuised somehow, more like a mana beast than an asura, but I’m certain it’s a phoenix Ittoward the Wraiths, I gestured to one of the battle groups “You five, withup into the lower, thinner bows of the canopy, I sped off in the direction of thefast, flying just over the treetops As we moved south and west to intercept, I carefully shrouded even the most minor distortion of the Wraiths’ mana