The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 423

The noise and turmoil of combat filled my senses as I watched each of my companions carefully. Whining squeals of pain erupted from the horde of scurrying monsters, while Boo voiced his battle fury in a roar that shook the mana that made up this platform. Mica and Lyra shouted at each other in turn as they worked side by side to hold off the surge.

Although Ellie herself was quiet, she made the most noise of all.

Three explosions rocked the small platform as Ellie jumped backwards, away from the scything claws of a three-armed monster. Her attacker, and three more of the grotesque manifestations that had only been halfway on the platform, vanished in a flash of white light. When the light faded, Boo was standing between her and the source of the blast.

It had happened so fast I had to replay it in my mind, slower and more deliberate this time. As she dodged inward, away from the edge, she had dropped three globes of softly glowing mana. Tucking into a roll, she then immediately sent a pulse of mana through the tether connecting her to the spheres, causing them to erupt one after the other. The contained power was enough that she cleared that corner of the platform of enemies.

In almost the same breath, she sent a ripple of mana through the air to Boo. I recognized this as a command trigger for him to teleport. As Mica had rightly pointed out, relying on emotional outbursts to trigger the guardian bear’s teleportation wasn’t an effective battle strategy, so Ellie had been practicing its control over the last few runs. At the command, Boo had disappeared from behind her and reappeared in front of her, shielding her from some of the force.

This had happened in less than a second. But Ellie didn’t pause to catch her breath, because each monster we killed was instantly replaced by another in an endless cycle of conjuration and destruction.

Mica’s huge hammer spun around with the grace of a baton-twirler, crashing through groups of enemies at a time. I could feel the gravitational force of the hammer even from across the platform as it pulled monsters into its path only to pulverize them an instant later. With Realmheart active, I could both see and feel the careful balancing act of mana usage, with Mica actively engaging in Mana Rotation while simultaneously ensuring the efficiency of each spell she cast.

Although Mana Rotation had been instrumental in breaking the binding on her core, it was difficult for her to practice or utilize. All this fighting, though, had proven the perfect training ground. In just the short time we’d been training in this zone, her ability to conserve mana had increased several-fold.

Void wind shields appeared and disappeared in flashes like black lightning, warding off any creeping horror that got close to the others long enough for a stone spike, mana arrow, or hammer blow to fell it. As a retainer, Lyra hadn’t been trained in one specific role like a normal soldier, but she was a natural Shield. Her abilities took time to come out, but I saw them more clearly as her teamwork with the others improved. But she didn’t constrain herself to just defensive spells: scythes of cutting air-attribute mana and bursts of sonic force flew out from her in such quick succession. She hardly seemed to aim at all, and yet every strike found its mark.

Regis darted back and forth across the platform, driving like a wedge through any knot of monsters that lasted more than a couple of seconds, but like me, he held back his full power. He acted as a failsafe, preventing the others from getting overwhelmed as the front line while I studied their progress.

As I watched the shadowy wolf prowl outside the arc of Mica’s hammer, he suddenly spun, lashing his tail like a whip. The flames of his mane raced along his spine to the tail, flaring like a torch, and a lash of aetheric fire cut across two monsters that had jumped on Boo, sending them sprawling. Boo, in turn, pounced, ripping them limb from limb.

‘And they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ he thought to me, sensing my interest. ‘It’s got a ways to go before it’s as good as transforming into a winged, Destruction-breathing wolf-dragon, but it’s useful.’

“We must be doing something right,” Mica grunted as she unleashed a spray of stone shards from her hammer, slicing through several monsters before Lyra finished them with a sub-audible sonic blast, momentarily clearing the platform of enemies. “The general is smiling.”

I shook my head, realizing it was true. “Just pay attention—”

As I spoke, an abomination with skeletal wings instead of arms manifested above us, diving toward me like an overgrown bat.

I waited until it was nearly on me, then my fist blurred, and the monster’s chest burst apart, leaving a gaping hole all the way through it. The long, shriveled limbs cracked like dry sticks as it tumbled across the platform before finally dissolving into nothing.

I winced, shaking out my arm, which ached painfully from my knuckles to my shoulder.

Noticing that the platform had gone silent, I looked up to see my companions regarding me with confusion and shock.

“Were you able to catch what happened?” Lyra asked Mica.

“No, and I didn’t even blink,” Mica scoffed, her eyes tracking from my hand up to my face. “What in the molten-rock hell was that?”

“Something I’ve been working on. Just an idea,” I answered, but by then a new wave of the aberrant horrors were surging onto the platform.

Ellie, whose eagle eyes had been focused on the void instead of me, raced past, planting a series of disc-shaped mana objects as she ducked between the claws of newly forming monsters. When one fell toward her from above, Boo teleported beside her, knocking her out of the way as he caught the thing out of the air. His jaws closed over its eyeless face, and it dissolved into nothing. An instant later, Boo teleported again, shifting position only a few feet, and all the mana discs Ellie had laid down exploded one after the other. Pieces of several monsters flew in every direction before melting away.

I inspected their performance for a few more minutes, but it was becoming increasingly clear that they were a match for this zone. We had reached the end of what it could provide. “I think that’s enough,” I said aloud. “It’s time to move on.”

Sweat dripped from Ellie’s nose as she nodded in agreement.

We wasted no time shifting into our well-practiced procedure of moving from one platform to the next. It took a few minutes, but the tension had eased from the process. Ellie and I worked together fluidly, having honed the process to a rapidfire exchange. Learning to wield the tethered blade felt like trying to teach myself to write calligraphy with my off hand, and I wasn’t sure how viable it would be outside of this place, but the skill had proven essential for clearing the zone.

I stayed on the platform after Ellie and Boo went through the door, focused on nothing but me and the endless stream of enemies. Their claws raked against the relic armor, teeth gnashing and the occasional barbed tail stabbing like a spear, but they couldn’t touch me as I moved fluidly between their attacks, lashing out with fist, foot, and blade, always in the eye of the storm of monsters.

It was like a kind of meditation, almost peaceful after everything that had happened to us here.

I practiced my new technique a couple more times, but each strike left my limbs momentarily stunned and opened me up to attacks from other monsters. Still, it was a foundation.

The flow of attackers never ended, but after a minute or two, I was satisfied. Activating Burst Step, I crossed to the door and pulled myself into it with aether, focused on the very last platform, and began to cross.

***

My eyelids felt like lead as they struggled open. I couldn’t immediately make out my surroundings; my vision was sleep-stained and blurry. I blinked several times to try and clear it. A moan came from somewhere nearby, and I shifted to one side.

The tip of my nose touched something soft, and my sight, which had just started to come into focus, went blurry again. Warm breath blew across my face, and I pulled back slightly, still trying to get a feeling for my body.

Mica was lying next to me, so close that our noses had touched when I turned. There was a poorly suppressed smirk on her face, and she raised one brow. “I always knew you’d try something like this one day.”

Feeling myself flush, I tried to sit up, but the sudden motion made my head spin, and I had to close my eyes again. “What’s wrong with my body…”

“Uh, I’m starving…” Ellie said from right next to me. “How long were we in there? I feel like my stomach has half eaten me.”

Boo answered with a low, despondent rumble, communicating clearly that he felt the same way.

The rush of vertigo passed, and I was able to open my eyes again and stand. Mica had pushed herself up onto her elbows and was looking around. Lyra was curled in a ball on Mica’s other side, cradling her head, her face hidden behind a curtain of flame-red hair. Ellie had crawled from my side to Boo, shoving her face into his thick fur.

We were in a short, low-ceilinged hallway. It was plain white and unadorned, except for a series of flat, black rectangles along the walls, identical to the doorways we had used to navigate the previous zone. Our bodies had been left to lie on the stone floor while our minds were trapped.

“Is everyone all right? Any other side effects?” Of dying over and over again? I asked, purposefully not speaking the last words out loud.

“My head feels as though it might crack in two like an egg and give birth to something horrible,” Lyra mumbled from within the cocoon of her hair and arms.

“Maybe she’s been infested,” Mica said, wrinkling her nose at the Alacryan. “One of those ugly things is going to crawl out of her brain. We should put her down now before—”

Lyra unfolded and jolted up into a sitting position, glowering at Mica. “That won’t be necessary, thank you. I believe I am just dehydrated.”

Standing, I approached one of the doors. It was smooth and reflective enough that I could just see my mirrored image on the surface, but I sensed no aether or, via Realmheart, mana within it. When I pressed a hand to the door, it was smooth and cool, but it didn’t react. I could only shrug and turn away, looking instead for the zone’s exit portal.

At the far end of the hallway, a jet-black arch contrasted against the bare white stone. No portal was visible inside of the arch at first, but when I took a few steps toward it, the air distorted, and an opaque, oily portal shimmered into existence.

“Wake your bodies up. Eat, drink,” I suggested, glancing over my shoulder at the others. “After that last ruin, I no longer feel confident about what we’ll find in this one.”

My companions didn’t need to hear this twice, as they were all famished and parched. There was some chatter as they dragged out their rations, but only the sound of ravenous chewing—and the occasional creak of a stiff joint—as they devoured several days worth of traveling food in one sitting.

Meanwhile, I let the wheels of my mind turn, considering what might await us in the fourth djinn ruin. This, though, was more frustrating than helpful, as I could only hope that the last keystone was still in place, and its djinn guardian active.

‘What insight do you think the fourth keystone will contain?’ Regis mused, drifting around my core. ‘Let’s see…Aroa’s Requiem is aevum, right? The ability to turn back the ravages of time on an object. And Realmheart lets you see mana particles, which helps build an understanding of how mana—and aether, actually—works. So what’s the connection?’

I shrugged, then stretched my neck from side to side in response to the stiffness in my muscles. Honestly, I don’t see how the two fit together, or how either ability leads to an understanding of Fate. We’ve spent so much time in the Relictombs following Sylvia’s message, but we’re no closer to understanding why.

When my companions had finished gorging, they joined me one by one in front of the portal.

Black crystal shards were scattered around the space, crunching beneath our feet. What remained of the door itself was an uneven, jagged mess, with clusters of crystals stabbing out of the smooth black surface. Every few seconds they would pulse, sending a little ripple through all the individual shards, like a heartbeat. _{freewebnσvel.cѳm}