The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 459

Chapter 457: Collisions

CHUL ASCLEPIUS

I sank back against the wall, breathing heavily and enjoying the feel of sweat pouring down my face. The cavern smelled of ozone and crushed granite, 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 arms crossed as she eyed me thoughtfully.

“This was better, yes?” I asked, going back through in my mind each stage of our sparring. This was unlike the technical training I had done with the Vritra-blooded one, Cylrit; the Lances had pushed me to work with 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 little mana I have in the best way is starting to 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 crimson asuran-made spear he wielded. “That spell layering technique…was that Arthur? Seems like…something he’d come up with.”

I grinned. The human was right; Arthur was quite good at utilizing small amounts of energy to great effect, an unlooked for boon in my traveling companion. My body required the mana output of a full-blooded asura to maintain itself, but my djinn father’s blood had prevented my core from growing to its full potency.

“Your control is improving,” Varay said, watching me closely. Her gaze flicked to the dull metal bracer on my wrist.

I shifted uncomfortably, realizing I had forgotten about keeping up my appearance as a mere human. “Ah, yeah, this has been good. But you all are making progress as well?”

Mica slammed a closed fist against her sternum three times. “I sure hope so. My core aches. Am I the only one? I think it’s…growing clearer. Purifying more. It’s been a long time though, so…I’m not really sure.”

“Yes,” Varay answered, stretching her arms over her head. “I feel it as well. Arthur was right. Our exertions are beginning to pay dividends.”

Bairon stood and wiped sweat from his brow. “What do the artifacts say, Emily?”

A small human in glasses came out from behind a barrier shrouding one corner of the cavern. She gave her fellow human a pained smile and shrugged. “There has definitely been refinement of your cores, that’s easy enough to see, but the enhanced speed of your mana activation and channeling is still too fast for the equipment to make an accurate reading, even with the upgrades. 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 mattered?” She sighed and mumbled, “Mica remembers.”

Emily roughed 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 taskmaster,” I said, recognizing that the girl seemed less energetic 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 mana beasts he had brought in.” Mica’s eyes narrowed at Emily. “For reals. I’m a general, I should be in the know.”

Emily’s gaze settled on the floor, a shadow passing 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 shifted 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 me?”

Pushing away from the wall, I stood straight and cracked my neck, already feeling refreshed from the rousing spar against the three Lances. “No, Lady Earthborn. I have little interest in the machinations of the titan. They make good 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 more closely. It seeks to guide you, to teach you to fight like an asura. More than once, you missed an opportunity to land a blow because you fight against your weapon and not with it.”

The human ran a hand along the shaft, considering the crimson steel. “I am fighting with the spear, as I have been for months. But your words make a kind of sense. I can feel the guidance 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 him. “You just don’t want to admit that we’ve been training toe to toe with one guy, and he seems to be as strong as the three of us together. It’s like Arthur all over again.”

Bairon turned in exasperation to Varay. “Surely you see it?”

Varay’s piercing eyes lingered on me as I turned away. She frowned slightly. “Are you okay, Chul?”

My fingers dug into my temple as a sudden pressure pinched inside my head. “Yes, I…you three pushed me harder than I thought. That’s all. I—”

Inside my skull, I heard Mordain’s voice as if through a thick door, dulled by distance and my own poor ability to receive it. ‘Chul, forgive this intrusion into your thoughts. I have need of you immediately. Leave what you are doing and return to the Hearth at once. Be wary on your journey. The Beast Glades are not safe.’

As the message faded, I straightened and shook my head slightly, trying to knock loose the discomfort. Fear gripped 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 home.

“I must go.” 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 was well away from where people lived. Still, it didn’t take me long to reach the surface from the outer tunnels. None of the dwarven patrol stations gave me pause, being more concerned with anyone coming in than going out. Less than twenty minutes had passed before I was standing beneath the bright desert sun that hovered over the Darvish dunes.

I didn’t stop to take in the scene but lifted up off the ground and pointed myself eastward, flying at 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 me to return. He was a kind man, a good man, but I had never understood his willingness to “turn the other cheek” as he put it, no matter what insult was offered. I, on the other hand, knew that sometimes the only right answer was overwhelming force. Some crimes could never be made up for and should never be forgiven.

Even as a child who did not yet understand what I was, my fiery temperament had made me stand out from the others. Although 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 simply because it got rid of me.

This doesn't matter, I reminded myself, crushing the unwelcome thoughts within the vice of my will. Mordain needs me, and I will go. And when I am done, I will return and resume preparing myself to devastate our enemies, even if Mordain will not.

The flight was long and tiring. It took little mana to sustain flight once it had been achieved, as I only needed to maintain the balance between myself and the atmosphere around me, but it did require a level of focus that I found grating. Growing up beneath the ground, I hadn’t practiced often.

It was with 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 uncomfortable cuff Wren had designed to mask my mana signature so that I appeared human even to the dragons. Here, it was more important that I project my own natural mana signature, 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 some unseen beast. A smell like rotten eggs oozed up from wet, sucking ground. And, worst of all, the rift—the connection between the asuran homeland of Epheotus and the Beast Glades of Dicathen—was still hidden from me.

It shouldn’t be this difficult, I thought, my frustration interrupting my focus.

I pulled back from the search, resting my senses. It had been days already…days spent in the dank depths of the worst the Beast Glades had to offer with no company but Agrona’s Wraiths and only a few intermittent moments with Nico.

I hope his task is going better than my own. It was, maybe, a less important role, but depending on how everything else shook out, Nico’s success would still decide exactly how the next leg of this war would play out.

The elderwood guardian stirred within me suddenly, and I immediately sobered. The beast’s will had been more active since we arrived in the Beast Glades, pressing on me like a tension held just beneath my skin. Tessia, on the other hand, had been largely silent, the presence of her destroyed homeland looming like a dark cloud over her thoughts.

I had expected her to give me trouble, considering. Being in Dicathen was a risk, but it never should have taken so long. But our search was complicated by a number of factors. Grey’s attack on the battle group 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 moment to seek shelter with the dragons. Combined with my continued inability to discover the exact location of the rift, it was difficult not to grow frustrated with this mission.

It should have been a straightforward thing to find the point where so much power was converging and condensing, but the transmission of mana between Dicathen and Epheotus was tremendous. The flow of mana was so great that it sent echoes of itself all over eastern Dicathen, and, to make matters worse, there also seemed to be several layers of powerful diffusive magic and shrouding spells in place throughout the Beast Glades, which I could neither explain nor breach—yet.

Closing my eyes, I rubbed the bridge of my nose with two fingers. Focus, I scolded myself. My eyes snapped open and I unfolded from my floating position 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 closed my eyes again, trying to doze as I waited for Nico and the Wraiths to return.

I sensed Nico’s mana signature ascend from one of the many dungeons he was searching some time later. Flying over the treetops with his escort of Wraiths to prevent attacks by the largest of Dicathen’s mana beasts, he was quick in returning. The Wraiths kept their distance, setting up a meager camp and lighting a fire to heat their food while Nico came to report on his mission.

He wasn’t having any more luck than I was.

“The timing of all this is starting to become a problem,” he said as he finished telling me all about the last couple of dungeons he’d searched. “The tether between Epheotus and our world, the dragon patrols, the teleportation gates…it all needs to come together just right, otherwise all the pieces collapse individually.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped, then looked away from him, immediately feeling guilty. Ever since our fight against Grey, there had been a queasy tension between us. “I’m sorry, I’m just…”

He waved away my apology. “I know. I shouldn’t focus on the negative. Perhata’s group took out a dragon, we know where Oludari is, and so far the wider operation in Dicathen seems to have gone unnoticed. We’ve got time. We…”

Something in the distance, an unusual movement within the mana, stole my attention, and Nico drifted off, clearly seeing the distraction of my features.

“Cecil?” Nico asked. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, frowning.

The signature was similar to a mana beast’s, but it was too concentrated, and it moved too fast and too straight for any of the more powerful beasts I was familiar with. I focused on it, searching the mana. Deep within my core, a familiar aspect resonated.

“A phoenix!” I exclaimed, unable to hide my excitement. “Its mana signature is disguised somehow, more like a mana beast than an asura, but I’m certain it’s a phoenix. It must be one of Mordain’s people…” Spinning toward the Wraiths, I gestured to one of the battle groups. “You five, with me.” _{ƒгeewёbnovel.com}

Flying up into the lower, thinner bows of the canopy, I sped off in the direction of the mana signature. It was coming from the mountains and moving fast, 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.

We flew for an hour or more before our paths converged. The Wraiths and I alighted in a tree, hiding within the deep shadows, and waited. A minute passed, and then there was the sudden rush of wind as a large man flashed past above, sending a wave of motion through the broad leaves above.

I gave a signal to the others, and we sped off in pursuit of the phoenix. Agrona would be quite pleased if this venture rewarded us with not only the location of the rift between Dicathen and Epheotus, but also that of the long-hidden refuge of Mordain and the other asura he’d led from their homes.

Finally, something goes right, I thought, carefully ignoring the prickling of Lady Dawn’s memories in the back of my head.

CHUL ASCLEPIUS

As I flew deeper over the Beast Glades and closer to the Hearth, a dozen scarlet harpies burst up from the cover of the trees to my right and scattered, their squawking slicing at my ears like razors. I stopped, frowning as they flew away. Scanning the trees below, I failed to see what had caused their unusual behavior. A coven of harpies wasn’t easily cowed; they weren’t fleeing from my passage, that much was certain.