The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 471

Chapter 471

Chapter 469: Hunted

ELEANOR LEYWIN

“Is that a person?” A shiver ran down my spine as I realized what I was seeing. “There's no mana coming from them, yet they're releasing such a strong aura. But how…?”

“So, this is Gideon’s secret project,” Caera said beside me, the words thick in her mouth.

I shot the young woman with the short golden hair a worried look. “We need to get you all to a healer.” Hesitant, still not quite sure what these Alacryans were thinking, I added, “It…looks like the battle is turning.”

The lizard-person-thing was so fast that it had already reached the highway, leaping twenty feet in the air to clear a little pastry shop and land on the embankment right in front of several groups of Alacryans who had reached the lowest levels.

The Alacryans began to throw spells, but the many streaks of orange, green, and red mostly bounced off the gray scales. The thing—soldier? Suit? I couldn’t make up my mind what to call it—spun, swiping away two Strikers with a single blow of its tail and showing us its back, which had a framework of some kind of metal fixed right into the flesh, scales, meat, and bone. Any gaps in the steel and flesh were covered by more of the transparent mana barrier.

A second of the human-piloted mana beast suits reached the battle. This one had thick bleached-gray fur, missing in tufts. The arms were powerfully built and supported with more metal, and armor plates were inset into its flesh across its broad chest and ribs. Tusks protruded to each side of the pilot’s face, where the mana beast’s wide jaw would have been. It cleared a ten foot jump with ease, soaring past a Striker to crush and gore a Shield.

More of the strange, somewhat grotesque, things came out, and soon a small army was sweeping the Alacryans from the streets. I probably should have felt relief, or even glory at the victory, but really all I felt was a faint queasiness, which moved into my head and made me dizzy.

Searching inside, I realized I’d depleted more of my mana than I’d first thought. Within my body, five spheres of mana burned brightly, each one sitting at a primary intersection of my mana channels. I reached for one of these spheres, which I had painstakingly gathered and stored within myself. When my consciousness touched one, it melted away into pure mana, which then rushed through my channels and into my core, revitalizing me.

My grip on Caera tightened. “Come on, we need to find Mom. Boo’s with her, hopefully still at the Earthborn Institute where I left her. We’re almost there.”

“But my guardian…” Caera looked over her shoulder, back in the direction she’d originally appeared.

In turn, I shot a pointed look at the rest of our group: the two Alacryan boys carrying the unconscious girl with the short golden hair, Mayla, and Caera herself, who could barely stand even with the mana I’d given her. I knew I could condense mana into a kind of litter to carry her friend, but it was already going to be a difficult journey. “We’ll have to send someone when we reach the institute.”

Caera reluctantly nodded, and I started moving away cautiously, leading the group of Alacryans toward shelter and, hopefully, my mom.

We hadn’t gone far when one of the pilots, this one in a silver-furred mana beast much like a bear, its torso open but shrouded with the transparent barrier, its insides supported by a structure of bluish metal, charged up to us. Thankfully he recognized me—although I wasn’t sure how he could see with the rune-covered cloth across his eyes—and quickly accepted that I had taken the group of wounded, tired young Alacryans prisoners before moving off again.

We made it to the level of the Earthborn Institute not far from its gates, and I was surprised to see them shut. Still supporting the majority of Caera’s weight, I shouted up at the guards. “Hey! Open up, I have wounded prisoners who need to reach the emitter, Alice Leywin!”

A dwarf with a trimmed black beard and flat, crooked nose peered out of an arrow slit, his helm scraping the sides of the narrow opening. “The Earthborn Institute is in lockdown, Eleanor! I can’t unseal the doors until Lord Carnelian himself releases the hold!”

I gaped up at the guard, whose name was Bolgermud. “Is my mom still there?”

He blanched. “I’ve heard her yelling even through the inner doors. I believe it was her intention to join the fighting, or at least get out there to utilize her skills as a healer, but she was caught within when Lord Earthborn locked the palace down.”

I turned around to look at my “prisoners.” Although their curse hadn’t been set off by their “defeat,” I couldn’t be confident that they weren’t still a threat, or that they themselves weren’t in danger.

My eyes slid off them to where more of the mana beast pilots were fighting in the distance, pushing the Alacryans back and hunting them through the city. Perhaps it didn’t matter; Gideon’s secret project seemed to have been a success, and although the battle hadn’t been won yet, it wouldn’t take too long now. Still, I couldn’t seem to release the knot that had formed in my stomach.

“Is there somewhere else we can go?” Mayla asked, her voice small. “Enola needs help. She’s…”

“There’ll be an emitter or two up in Lodenhold,” I answered, knowing I didn’t sound entirely confident. “We might be able to reach the palace, if the fighting isn’t too bad…”

“Seris,” Caera said, her voice raspy with pain and fatigue. “We should find Seris. Or Lyra. They need to…know everything. They can end the fighting.”

Remembering the presence of the two powerful Alacryans, who were my brother’s ally’s, I searched for the signs of their battle only to realize that I could no longer sense it. Activating the first phase of my beast will, I drew on the senses of a guardian beast and scanned the city. Following the signs of where the powerful mages had clashed, I sensed the distant but muted mana signatures of white core mages.

“Lance Bairon has driven them into some of the side tunnels.” I pointed. “There, where that barrier is completely shattered.”

Caera had closed her eyes and was frowning with concentration. “I can barely sense anything. I’m too weak.”

Nerves gripped me like the claws of the mechanized mana beasts now battling the Alacryan invaders all across the city, but I shook them off. My own life, and the lives of those following me, relied on me keeping a level head.

Since there was no point in begging Bolgermud, I instead inspected the smooth stone walls of the Earthborn Institute’s outer courtyard. They were twenty feet high at least, with no grooves or imperfections for getting a handhold. There was no way I could get Caera or the injured girl over. There were the newly installed bunkers, but we’d have to go all the way through the city to reach them. And even if we did, would there be any emitters there? Enola needed help immediately.

“We have to do something,” the boy with the dark skin—Valen, I thought they’d called him— said, tense as a drawn bow. “We can’t just stand here and wait for one side or the other to decide to attack us.”

“No one is going to attack you—” I started, but my words turned into a yelp as dark fire suddenly rained from the air, splashing against the Earthborn Institute’s outer walls. I threw up a barrier of bright white mana around us, and Seth conjured a barrier beneath mine. “What the…”

I felt the fire burning through my mana like it was alive inside my mana veins.

“Soulfire,” Caera gasped. She was frantically searching the cavern for the spell’s source. “But who…?”

I gritted my teeth so hard they hurt, giving every ounce of my concentration to holding the barrier in place. The black flames—soulfire—kept burning through in small patches even as I absorbed a second of the mana reservoirs, and it was only due to Seth’s secondary barrier that we weren’t engulfed. It was the most powerful spell I’d ever felt, and it wasn’t even targeted toward us; the flames were raining down over half of Vildorial.

On a level below us, I watched as the gray fur of an upright thorned growler, which was supported by a complex exoskeletal structure of the bluish steel and mechanical parts I couldn’t describe, dissolved beneath the flames. The translucent barriers of mana shrouding the pilot within fizzled away, and then the flames ate into the pilot too. The suit and pilot collapsed, neither moving again.

Suddenly the fiery rain faded, and I released the shield with a gasp. There were several explosions all at once, and three of the stone-shrouded passageways out of the city burst inward with a hail of rock and dust. Soldiers in the black and crimson of Alacrya began to pour through in groups of three and four.

I gaped at Caera and the others, but I could tell from their expressions that they were just as surprised as I was.

The soldiers piloting the mana beasts suits began to turn away from the route of the first Alacryans and back toward the new arrivals, but even I could see that they were struggling to organize. This fresh wave of enemies was more organized and dedicated to the fight, and they showed no inclination to break free of the defense and into the city, instead taking the fight directly to any Dicathians they saw.

The closest of the breached tunnels was only a level below us, and already the Alacryans were spilling up the road. We would be trapped with our backs against the massive iron gates, and there was no way we’d reach the bunkers now.

“We need to head back up, toward the palace,” I said, finally deciding on a course. “If we avoid the highway, we can probably stay away from the advancing forces and the worst of the fighting until we’re almost there.” As I spoke, I reached out for Boo, mentally calling him. Knowing Mom was safe inside the Earthborn Institute gave me the confidence to summon him away from her, and the big guardian bear appeared beside me with a faint pop.

I scratched him between the eyes. “Thanks, big guy.”

He rumbled, then his small dark eyes landed dangerously on the others aside from Caera. They backed away nervously.

I turned to lead them back up the cavern, but three Alacryan battle groups had already broken away and were quickly marching toward us. Behind them, two of the mana beast machines slammed into the front lines of the larger force.

“You're my prisoners, and your mission in this city is over. If you try to escape, I’ll have no choice but to kill you,” I said, trying to add a level of fierceness to my voice that I didn’t feel.

Caera suddenly took me roughly by the arm and began marching in the direction of the other Alacryans.

“What are you doing?” I hissed nervously. Boo rumbled, bristling.

She shot me a glare. “Just play along,” she said from the corner of her mouth. The sudden hostility didn’t extend to her tone of voice.

I steadied my breathing, trusting her completely.

“You there, who is in command of this force?” Caera yelled when the Alacryan soldiers were still fifty feet or more away. “There is no sign of our target here. Report to your commander; we’re falling back.”

A short, thick woman who could have been mistaken for a dwarf eyed Caera’s horns. “A Vritra-blooded among the rebels and traitors? That’s a surprise. And a damned shame. No mind, though. I’ve got my orders and you’ve got yours. Do your bloody job or the High Sovereign will light you up like a candle, isn’t that right?”

“I’ve done my job,” Caera insisted, holding herself firmly, her presence commanding despite her fatigue. “The signal needs to be sent. Lance Arthur Leywin isn’t in—”

“Wait a second,” the woman interrupted, her focus settling on me. Her eyes flicked between me and Boo, then went wide. “You’ve captured one of our targets. How’d you do that then?” Instead of waiting for an answer, she looked at the man next to her, a wire-thin mage wearing dark battlerobes with crimson pauldrons and blood-red chain lining peeking through. “That’s her, isn’t it? The sister? She’s even got the bear, like they said.”

I felt my eyes widening before I could stop myself. “What?”

“It is!” the woman said, practically shouting. “Hand her over. We’ll deliver her to Scythe Melzri directly.”

Caera glanced at me, caught wrong-footed. I gave the smallest of nods.

Spinning, I ripped my arm free of her grip, unslung my bow from my shoulder, drew, and fired at the enemy soldier’s throat before her brows even finished rising.

A shield of green-tinged wind enveloped my target as the thin man cast a spell, and my arrow burst against it.

Caera lunged forward, her hands sprouting black flames. At the same time, she melted away into several ghostly copies of herself, each one drawn in gray fire. The stout woman was bringing up her gauntleted fists to defend herself, but Caera reappeared right in front of her, and her flame-wreathed hand pierced the shield and wrapped around the woman’s throat.

The black fire didn’t burn the woman’s flesh. Instead, it almost looked like it was being drawn into her pores.

The soldier let out a choked gasp. One gauntleted fist slammed into Caera’s chest. Blue hair waved like a flag as Caera was tossed backwards, a secondary shield appearing far too late to help dampen the blow as Seth struggled to react in time.

Caera hit the ground hard, her breath rushing out in a pained gasp.

I dodged away from a blast of concussive sound, threw out three small discs of condensed mana, tucked into a roll, and came back up to my feet with an arrow of golden light against the string of my bow. Caera struggled to stand as the arrow struck her in the chest. It melted against her body and wrapped around her, giving her a protective layer of pure mana.

The stout Alacryan soldier was already on the ground, black fire dancing from her mouth, nose, and eyes. I could feel the mana burning in her flesh.

Boo let out a resounding roar and charged.

The Shield cursed and started to fall back. “Melzri wants the girl alive if possible, but don’t hesitate to kill her if necessary.”

Several of the other Alacryans surged forward, weapons drawn and spells prepared. The discs of mana exploded, sending the two remaining Strikers and one Caster flying as the Shields struggled to react. Boo pounced on the fallen Caster, who was only saved by a gleaming shield of black stone that formed a dome over them.

A winged creature flashed by overhead, diving into the chaos and tossing the remaining Alacryans aside. The dragons! I thought, my heart in my throat.

But it wasn’t a dragon. Nor was it a beast; at least, not entirely.

The mechanical mana beast form stood at least nine feet tall and looked kind of like a lithe griffon standing on its hind legs. Steel-gray feathered wings opened out to its sides like scythes, and as it spun the feathers sliced through a barrier of gusting wind and then the thin Shield behind it. The form wielded a huge glowing orange sword in one taloned foreclaw, which it brought down on a reeling Striker. The big Alacryan seemed infantile next to the huge machine, and his mana-imbued blade like a child’s toy.

Steel sparked, and the Striker’s arm gave way a moment before glowing hot steel parted his flesh from shoulder to hip.

A sparkling ball of lightning glanced off the gray feathers and flew harmlessly away. One wing came around to block a steaming ball of black ice and metal spikes. As the machine spun, I saw through the transparent mana sheathing where the beast’s throat used to be to the woman within. Although her eyes were covered by the same rune-etched band of silk I’d seen on the other pilots, I still recognized her: Claire Bladeheart.

I’d seen her around the labs while working with Gideon and Emily to test my spellform. I didn’t know her, but I knew about her, especially how her core had been destroyed years ago, during the attack on Xyrus Academy that caused Arthur to be arrested by the Lances. But watching her move now, I wouldn’t have guessed that she had no magic of her own; she fought like a silver core augmenter.

With the talons of her free claw, she ripped open an enemy Caster, then did a kind of mid-air pirouette. At the conclusion of the spin, several feathers launched from her wings like arrows. A few pinged off the two barriers being conjured by the enemy Shields, but more struck home, dropping three of the enemy mages in a single strike.

A woman wrapped in conjured stone-and-metal armor and spikes threw herself on Claire’s back and pummeled spiked fists into the mana barrier covering parts of her exposed lower back, which could be seen through a mesh of mechanical braces.

Shaking off the horrified awe of the fight, I sent an arrow of pure mana through the last Striker’s eye. She went limp and slumped off Claire, who proceeded to wade through the remaining Alacryans with brutal efficiency.

When the last Shield fell and the dome of obsidian collapsed, Boo’s jaws closed over the final mage’s skull with a wet crunch, then he returned to my side, sniffing the air warily as he regarded Claire.

She, in turn, was scanning our surroundings. Apparently deciding it was safe enough for the moment, she turned the griffon’s beaked face toward me.