Chapter 470 (2/2)
Farther down the road, the front line of the Dicathians had been cornered into a knot, now surrounded by our people The Alacryans who exited the collapsed tunnel were dispersing out into the city with only token opposition
“Please, listen toin e And your mission here is already complete, father Arthur isn’t here, I swear it on my life”
As the word “father” left my lips, Corbett’s expression softened “I…of course I see” He glanced around at the periroups who had hesitated to move forithout him, all members and servants of the Denoir blood “Men! Fall back to the portal Fall back! Our quarry isn’t in the city”
I suppressed a surprised save lowered around at the battle still unfolding above and below us on the highway, a big hammer clutched in thite-knuckled fists
“If I can reach Lyra Dreide, I can—”
A bolt of black and blue flaainst a quickly conjured shi+eld only inches away I feltWith hardly any mana to protecttraarts
Corbett had been driven to his knees, while Arian hadhimself between my blood and the attacker, but then he hesitated
There was a glint of flickering silver wire, too fast for a shi+eld to for warrior looked down at the blood spilling over his chest in confusion, then one hand pressed against his neck Realization hit hiround, followed quickly by his knees as he collapsed
“No…” I breathed out, the effort sending a sharp pain through round, I followed the line of Taegen’s dead-eyed stare to one a little ray since the last I’d seen hie Unlike Corbett, Justus wore ornate armor and carried a beautiful sword at his hip A sliver-thin filament of silver wire orbited around hi?” Lenora snapped, causing Arian to pull her back and shi+ft his footing to ensure he was in front of her “Explain yourself, Justus! Give us one reason not to—”
Another blue-black ball of fire leapt at the it all My focus seemed to fade in and out as I searched for the Caster, and when I found her, I could hardly believe what I was seeing
Aunt Melitta was holding another flame in her hand The expression of purest hatred on her face would have been enough to take in with
“Melitta?” Corbett said in disbelief He scanned theme to do the same They were Denoir soldiers, and several members of our extended blood
“Don’t you dare speak to hlord Denoir,” she snarled, her voice like a scythe through the noise of coround “You’ve destroyed us, you and that witch, Seris”
“What’s happened?” Corbett asked, his voice dark with dread
Tears leaked from Melitta’s eyes, and her entire body clenched like a fist I thought she was going to throw another fireball, but instead the tension burst out of her in a choked yell “Arden is dead, you bastard! And Colm…Arlo…my husband and children, dead Because of you Because you chose to fight against a God”
Corbett paled The Denoir blood had always been aggressively political and the relationshi+ps between blood ht with tension, but Corbett and Arden had always remained steadfastly loyal to one another
And the little ones Colm…Arlo… “Who would harm children?” I asked, butfrom the battle both above and below us
“The hblood Denoir,” Justus said, coiling the silver wire tightly “But I will reclai you and all your traitorous unna Arthur Leywin to the High Sovereign” He slashed with his hands, and the silver fila up and spells exploded froed, and suddenly a third front to the battle erupted, except this one was Alacryan against Alacryan, blood against blood
A shockwave knocked ain, and I feltto a stop I reached for my new spellform, and flames danced across my skin, but the effect eak, and the effort conjured a screa pain frohway for Lyra If she stepped in, the fighting would have to stop—but there had been a surge of dwarven troops frohway They had nearly reached the tunnel still issuing Alacryan soldiers, and she was occupied fending theht between Seris, Cylrit, and Bairon had h I could still feel the waves of their power crashi+ng against one another in the distance, Seris or Cylrit could not help me either
Slowly, I stood Corbett was locked in battle with Justus, while Lenora fended off spells froed with two Denoir Strikers, and soldiers on both sides fought and died all around the as it slid from its sheath, two of the silver shards ejected froan to orbit around me, and I strode forith a calnized as one of Justus’s personal guards charged at ain, I i more forcefully this tiround toward the woman The s into several burning silhouettes identical in shape torapidly between the different apparitions My blade hissed as it cut the air, and she whirled and brought up her axe, catching the blow At the same time, a lance of black fire burned into the woman’s calf from one of my orbitals She screamed and went down on one knee, and I kicked her in the chest, sending her sprawling
“Stop this!” I shouted, trying to imbue my voice with command “Lay down your arms and listen”
“We’ve listened to you tooher fla As her fireball launched towarddark e out of the way, and one of their own soldiers was engulfed unexpectedly
Then blood sprayed the ground, and Corbett fell, a long, snaking gash down his leg
Justus didn’t wait to savor his victory but turned his attention onto me “You are just as culpable as your adoptive father, you selfish, traitorous girl” Even as he spoke, his silver as flashi+ng toward me
I batted it aside, but the force of the blowthem both in a protective barrier, and no other shi+eld was nearby to protect me When the next strike came, my block was even hway
The plunging edge loomed in my periphery, and I suddenly realized my back was to a hundred-foot fall to the next level of houses
I blocked again and again, and then suddenly the silver wire had wrapped around , clattering over the stone too far away forby now and struggled to coain had her pinned down, and it was all she could do to keep herself and Corbett fro burned to ash
Justus’s cold, hate-filled eyes stabbed into hblood Denoir,” he said proudly, and his spell flashed
A thin rapier caught it, deflecting the wire and preventing it fro as if froies for the delay, my lady I should’ve come to your aid sooner”
The wire coiled and snapped at Arian like a sovereign cobra, butspeed as he blocked again and again, see more than a match for Justus
A fireball exploded directly in front of us A rapidly cast shi+eld absorbed part of the blow and kept the heat fro us, but Arian was lifted off his feet and thrown into round The road’s edge rose up and away from me as I plummeted beneath it
In pure desperation, I scra withpast, he twisted with catlike grace, wrapping his ar our bodies I realized too late what he meant to do, but he had crushed ainst his chest Mana wrapped around hihtly out to me
I shut my eyes
The darkness went red, and I understood only pain as all the air left , and I felt the contents of us This physical sensation drew my attention to my body, specifically its individual parts, all of which were now in agony
And yet the fact that I felt pain at all led to openI saas Arian Blood leaked from his mouth and pooled around his head His eyes were closed, but there was an uneven rising and falling of his chest
I experienced no sense of tiet up, needed to help hi to breathe, and through all the pain, I could al
My body is in shock, I deduced with the air of one discovering a new aspect ofled s, pain shot through my hips and back Next, I moved my ar claws of agony drove into , I pushed , onto s held ht, but they did I stuainst the wall of a carved-stone house, but I didn’t fall
Movement farther down the street I’d landed on pulled erously and ainst the wall and closedto stop When I could open theure with ash-brown hair vault over a rooftop and a white arrow of puredeep breaths, each one of which made my chest thrum with a deeply inset pain, I cleared ht was to reach her Ellie would help me Alice could heal Arian Couldn’t she?
The walk down the street seemed to take a lifetihting directly around ht of Ellie It wasn’t until I rounded the bend, clearing a row of dwarven hoain as I tried to
“Kids?” I said aloud, certain it was a hallucination or some trick of my injury
Because it looked to me as if Ellie had taken a handful of the students from Central Academy prisoner But ould they be in Vildorial?
Everything snapped into place
“Eleanor!” I gasped, stu toward her
She looked away fro a couple of halting steps towardto keep her arrow trained on the students “Caera…but what happened? Are you…” She snapped out of her stupor “We need to get you to my mom” To the students, she said, “Pick up your friend Come on, you’re prisoners of war now My mom’s an emitter—a healer”
The students seemed confused and uncertain, but as Ellie let down her bow and rushed to ht, they couardian—he needs…”
Mana rushed intoof my core Without conscious effort, theto ease the pain
I faded in and out as I sagged onto Ellie in relief, conscious only of putting one foot before the other The students and Ellie exchanged a feords, but I didn’t comprehend them We crossed paths with other Alacryans, but they looked atchase, but they looked at Ellie and left us alone as well
We took a winding, difficult path doard, avoiding the ht with combat
I could see the Earthborn Institute, and beyond it, the lower levels of the cavern, when the treh the entire cavern at once Far below, a perfectly circular hole opened up in the floor of the lowest level, barely visible toperhaps the hole was in ain, I thought it must be the shock or perhaps a concussion, but then the others began speaking as well
“Vritra’s horns, what is that?”
“Is it some kind of beast?”
“But isn’t that a person?”
“Look, there are more of them”
“Abyss take us, look how s, I looked closer The first creature to crawl out of the hole was lizardlike, though it walked on two hind legs, half again as tall as a anic co veins traced its scales, which were pale gray, as if bleached of all color The chest was covered in a thick, rune-etched plate of blue-graya anic surface, shi+elded by a gently glowing layer of transparenth it, I could barely see the concentrating face of a young man, his eyes hidden behind a rune-etched band
His aranic ray-blue metal, where more translucent mana protected the inner arms of the mana beast—I wasn’t sure what to call it Are, clawed fist was a sword too big for an unadorned to coe mana beast perfectly
“Is that a person?” Ellie asked with a shi+ver “There's noaura But how…?”
My tongue felt thick in my mouth as I spoke “So, this is Gideon’s secret project”