The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 382

Chapter 382

A/N: Hi, hey, hello, it’s TurtleMe. Many of you have been waiting patiently and eagerly for the arrival of Volume 10. During these past two weeks of writing the first few chapters, I really had to think about how I wanted to start this volume and where I wanted to pick up. It took some deliberation but I decided that it will start off almost exactly where we left off. I say almost because I decided to write a prologue for this volume in order to step back even further and actually start just a little before where we left off, but in a different perspective. This chapter was definitely bit of a challenge but I hope you enjoy, and welcome to the start of our journey into Volume 10 of TBATE! Thanks for sticking through with me this far!

Volume 10 – Prologue

ALICE LEYWIN

Time slowed and the very air around me turned viscous as the asura’s spear so effortlessly passed through Ellie’s body.

The asura’s heavy hand released me and the screams that had gone mute behind the ringing in my ears exploded as I watched Ellie’s body crumple to the ground.

I choked back sobs. “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. I’m right here. I’ve got you, and I’m going to take away the pain, sweetheart, Ellie. I’m going to take care of you.”

My hands pressed into the wound in Ellie’s side, ineffective in staunching the flow of blood that came out in spurts with each beat of her weakening heart. Mana rushed out of my core and through my channels, jumping from my hands to the deep wound as visible light, but I choked on the incantation in my panic, the magic flashing in and out.

But Ellie was smiling. She was smiling, her eyes closed, her face tinted a light purple. She wasn’t breathing…my baby girl was dying.

The asura’s killing intent was suffocating. It swelled just above me, and I knew what was going to happen. A sob shook my entire body, and the healing spell faltered again.

I pictured Reynold’s face, imagined him giving me that nonchalant smile and running his hands through my hair and along the back of my neck. His features shifted like wet clay, becoming Arthur’s. But even in my mind, in my memories, Arthur was covered in blood, his face half-hidden and stained black and crimson as he dragged himself back to me from some distant, deadly threat…

My eyes refocused on Ellie. She looked so much like him, now, lying on the ground covered in her own life’s blood…

I closed my eyes to the sight and waited for the spear to fall, for the asura to send Ellie and me to her brother and father…

“Regis, help my sister.”

My head snapped up. The purple light, I realized belatedly, was issuing from a shimmering portal that had come to life inside the portal frame. The words came from a figure silhouetted by the amethyst glow. I made out only his sharp features, bright hair, and golden eyes before he was moving.

Something else came toward me…toward Ellie. Help my sister. What did those words mean?

What could they possibly mean?

A wisp of shadow and energy flew into Ellie’s body, but nothing happened, nothing changed.

I nearly slapped myself. My hands pressed hard against Ellie’s side and I began chanting again. There were other words—and fighting—but I pressed it out of my awareness, focusing entirely on the healing magic. The incantation spilled out of me, as did mana, filling the hole that pierced entirely through my baby girl.

But there was something else, too.

An emitter’s magic touched something else, something just beyond the reach of my awareness that no one had ever been able to explain to me before. Mana alone couldn’t heal wounds like Ellie’s, but my spells drew it in, encouraged it, showed it what I wanted.

Like a guiding hand, the wisp of energy drew my magic along, feeding it with this external power, strengthening it. I felt…strong, powerful in a way I could hardly remember anymore. Muscles and bones began to fuse, veins and nerves knit back together, then—

The room spun wildly beneath my feet, sudden pain and confusion wiping all thought from my mind.

I blinked hard against a sickening ringing in my ears and suppressed the bile creeping up the back of my throat. My skull ached. I looked around, trying to get my bearings; I was lying on my back at the foot of the benchlike stairs, beneath the edge of the dais. I could just see Ellie’s arm dangling off the side of it.

The asura and the man with golden eyes clashed, their movements so fast I couldn’t follow.

I tried to move, to stand, but my head swam dizzily and I nearly retched. Someone took me by the elbow, tried to pull me to my feet. The world seemed to tilt, and there was an ear-splitting crack from above. I fell into myself, curling into a ball as the shadow of the stone ceiling descended on me.

Dust swallowed me, but a jagged, burning purple light cut through it. Uncurling, I looked up.

A huge mana beast towered over me, a large chunk of stone propped up on its back. Its wolfish body was wreathed with dark purple fire, and its glowing eyes met mine with obvious intent and intelligence.

Someone cursed from my side, a deeper voice gave a pained grunt from the steps at my back. I wanted to help them, but…

Scrambling on my hands and knees, I dragged myself free of the collapsed rubble and up the side of the dais. Ellie had been sent sprawling by whatever blast had knocked me off my feet, and she lay twisted awkwardly, her wound stretched open and furiously pumping out blood.

Nearly right in front of me, I watched the asura and the stranger struggle before vanishing into the portal. Stranger? some distant corner of my mind wondered. The words “Help my sister” echoed in my mind yet again.

“Ellie!” I rolled her over, pressed my blood-stained hands to her wound. Saving her was all that mattered.