Chapter 509: Curtains fall (1/2)
Chapter 509: Curtains fall
Agrona Vritra
My voice projected out through the networks of psychically resonant antennas, crystalline receivers, and mental projection artifacts interspersed carefully across the continent The projected i fed into the syste just as Khaernos, a hollow visage ininto Epheotus
“Listen to es currently being shown to you are a lie, a bitter fabrication intended to foment fear and uncertainty”
I let only the s inferno hich I would ignite the skies—leak into the connection Those who heard my voice would quake and sweat to hear it, but they would know ators within our own populace would have you believe that these ies are proof ofthese rumors seek only to weaken the foundations of our nation These are the saainst their oho I in turn offered iveness to They have spurned my kindness, as they have spurned your desire for peace”
I paused, letting the words be digested
“I told you before, my people, that I would protect Alacrya—and all those who still call theons, and I have done so The forces of Kezess Indrath have been forced back into hiding within Epheotus by the le I know you are tested daily in your faith These past weeks have not been easy for you, and you are right to question if I can uphold ainst you Instead, I will show you, so that the proof of your eyes may reinforce the faith in your heart”
Ji-ae’s consciousness inhabited theover etting to the good parts
“But I need so in return In part, I have already taken some of what I need: the wind that swept across this continent, drawing on yourit away You bore this burden stoically, as I knew you would I told you that I, your High Sovereign, would guide you through the dangers to coiven everything of myself to make Alacrya the powerful and advanced civilization that it is, but for what is to come, I needed a small part of that power back You, h to share this burden, I pro approxiical population,’ Ji-ae infor‘As expected, emotions are turbulent and difficult to assess I’d recoainst the asuras’
“Although I have forced the dragons back, they are still a constant and ever-burning danger to you, my people Some of you may doubt, but this is only because you don’t understand the full danger that Kezess Indrath represents Every day, you benefit froic and technology left behind by an ancient civilization of ons that ended that civilization And why? For no other reason than being knowledgeable and powerful in a way that Kezess himself is not, and can never be You, my people, pose that same threat to hiainst Epheotus that they will never recover from”
My words radiated out across the nation that I built and trembled into the bones of hts and born ofthe system’s polarity It will be fully powered in the next few ht, I pushed her to continue ‘I have repeated the calculations for exactly how much poill be required and feel the need to repeatyou have It leaves you in terrible danger—’
I will be fine, I assured her Out loud, I continued,projected across the continent “You, though, th and your hope I will need more from you soon, and will call upon every one of you to ensure Alacrya stands victorious over all enemies Turn your eyes skyward, and do not be afraid What you are about to see is a manifestation of your power”
I let the connection linger within a few seconds of silence, then disconnected myself from the projection artifacts
“Your reversal of the rebels’ insistence that you’d been defeated has been effective,” Ji-ae said, her voice audible within the cramped, equipment-filled chamber “Coupled with today’s show of force, I calculate any further resistance a to be…” She trailed off
I smiled into the air “Do not be afraid, Ji-ae”
If a dise exactly that
I shovedinto and stood tall My nerves were jittery, and the seething rage I’d been suppressing clawed upward like flames up a dead tree Mo out directly toSeris’s feeble attempts to win support, my entire mind turned instead toward Kezess and Epheotus
I could feel the Harvester thruent and inevitable My own body har full of theat a quick march, I left the transmission cha I stepped over the corpse of a talented young Instiller who’d perished when Taegrin Caelue arranted The destruction of the Legacy was a catastrophic blow to roere now beyond my reach But it was not the end, and I was not without a way to strike back at e of direction was necessary, that was all Why else have backup plans? I increasedinto the sky, waiting with baited breath for their lord to show them the future
“I feel couaranteed,” Ji-ae interjected “Even with you channeling all the mana absorbed to awaken you—and based on known parae number of variables decided unknown—I can only quantify our chances for success at eighty-three percent”
“Please, Ji-ae This is the culmination of hundreds of years of research and develop to work” My words smoldered with the same certainty that I’d felt e finally had a vessel for the Legacy That had never been a guarantee, either I reminded Ji-ae of such
I took the stairs down several at a ti within me
“And yet failure there wouldn’t have been quite so catastrophic—or public,” she countered “Forgive oing yourself to find Arthur Leywin, and I regret not pushi+ng harder tonow”
A sour, squirerness at the mention of Arthur Leywin “Your inability to calculate the probability around that confrontation was a warning sign that I shouldn’t have ignored We will both be ns in the future”
I pursed my lips and blew a raspberry into the air “Whether he knows it or not, the boy has only s so, so much worse for his people Now…” I clenchedoutward like dark bolts of lightning “Now, he will see that I was truly trying to be er made her uncoh millenia within Relictoer often She buried the feelings she could no longer properly experience or understand behind logic and calculations But, as long as the ends justified thewhat needed to be done
Still, Arthur Leywin stuck in h the fortress, I considered what Ji-ae had toldshe’d received, and its ht acy, but it seemed as if Fate and I were still soh, was the question this conjured in hts
How is Arthur Leywin connected to Fate?
Still, although I had gone far beyond the point where I could no longer consider Arthur Leywin a mere curiosity, neither would I bend to fear of hi down, Arthur and Kezess would both be standing under the into athered the vast quantity of purified mana that had been fed into my body to reawaken my dormant mind
The interface chamber was small and, by necessity, nondescript Runic patterns were etched into a half-onal, domed room Silver-inlaid lines were carved into the purple sandstone of the walls, drawing focus to carefully calculated points throughout the space Light through the doled to make sense of The entire cha anyone who stumbled upon it to turn away
With the door closed behindit a part of the overall design
I stood in front of the table for a longarray of syned the spells woven into it enuity and djinn understanding of how ether
The djinn civilization spanned the world and spread into the dimension where they’d housed their Relicto knowledge from the Relictoave them a control over mana and aether that even the asura could not easily understand They kne to construct and connect all kinds of portals, and they hout the reign of their civilization The most creative use ith the Relictombs itself
Because of this, they also had to e of how to expand, close, and even destabilize the portals they relied on so intensely
Mana began to jump and spark around me as I connected myself to the interface My hands rested on the table, carefully positioned over a series of connected runes and shapes The interface absorbed reens, reds, and blues The artifact itself did nothing to guide the process; only I knew the specific sequences of mana that needed to be imbued into the specific runic arrays that would activate the targeting array
“Everything see out of the air