NOVEL NEXT Chapter 424: Meeting Ghost And Gravity Once More
A thunderous crack split the air, followed by a concussive boom that sent vibrations racing through the ground. Ren's instincts screamed at him.
"Move!" He bellowed, shoving Lilith and Thorn back as the entire front of the building erupted in flame and stone.
The explosion ripped the air apart. Masonry split, massive chunks of stone and steel raining down as the once mighty tower groaned like a dying beast. Walls collapsed inward, glass shattered outward, and a tidal wave of dust and rubble burst into the streets.
Ren grabbed Lilith's hand with one and Thorn's shoulder with the other, hauling them back into a sprint.
They dashed clear of the collapse just as the building caved in on itself, thundering into ruin.
The street disappeared beneath a choking haze of dust, screams of soldiers and civilians swallowed in the chaos as bodies were buried alive.
Coughing, Ren pulled the edge of his cloak over his mouth, his green eyes narrowed into slits against the grit.
"Damn it," he spat, trying to see through the roiling haze. "That was our best chance."
Thorn hacked violently, pounding his chest with his fist. "So much for the roof idea."
Lilith's knives hovered protectively at her sides, her eyes narrowed. "Ren. Look."
Ren squinted through the haze.
For a moment, he saw only smoke, drifting ash, and the faint outlines of soldiers fighting through the mess.
But then… there! Just barely visible through the broken haze, a silhouette of another tall structure in the distance. It stood sturdy amidst the chaos, though flames licked at its edges.
"That one." Ren said quickly, pointing through the carnage. "If we can get up there, we'll still have a view."
Without waiting for argument, he charged forward, dragging them with him.
The streets were hell. Corpses sprawled across broken cobblestones, many crushed beneath chunks of fallen rubble.
Carthage soldiers clashed with Death's invaders in bloody knots of steel and fire, the air echoing with shouts, screams, and desperate prayers drowned in gore.
Ren cut through it all, moving like an arrow. A soldier leapt from his blindside, sword arcing.
Ren blocked with his own, twisted, and slammed the hilt into the man's throat. The soldier gagged, blood spurting as Ren finished him with a slash across the chest.
"Keep moving!" Ren barked.
Thorn was a hammer beside him, bone arm smashing into bodies, cracking skulls and shattering armor.
He plowed through three Carthage spearmen in one swing, bones and flesh spraying across the alley wall. His teeth were bared in a feral snarl, his rage making him unstoppable.
Lilith darted in and out, her knives reflecting the sun overhead even in the haze. She hurled them past Ren's ear, and two soldiers dropped before they even realized they were under attack. A flick of her fingers recalled the knives, carving through throats on the return.
Every street they turned to was already covered in blood. Everywhere they stepped, all they could see was red. But that wasn't any reason to stop.
And then, the haze shifted.
For just a moment, the smoke and ash cleared ahead of them, revealing two figures standing in the center of the road.
Ren's boots screeched against stone as he came to a stop. Thorn nearly collided into him.
Two cloaked figures, with their masks gone, and katana hilts visible at their sides. Their familiar posture could not be mistakened for anyone else.
They were the two surviving eastern mercenaries they'd faced in the district office. The Silent Choir's remnants.
Lilith's knives snapped into her palms in a flash. Her eyes glowed, a storm of rage bubbling to the surface.
Ren's jaw tightened. He remembered the way their presence had choked the district office.
Thorn, however, just sighed and lifted a hand lazily in greeting. "Hi."
The mercenaries didn't move. They didn't speak. Their eyes glowed faintly in the haze as the battlefield's chaos roared around them.
Ren adjusted his grip on his blades, vines twitching at his forearms like restless snakes. "Stay sharp. This won't be like before."
The street was silent between them, even as screams and steel echoed in the distance.
For the first time in what seemed like hours, the chaos around them seemed to fade away. Dust swirled down the ruined street, muffling the screams of war beyond.
Ren's green eyes narrowed, swords in hand, as the two mercenaries stepped forward in eerie unison.
Then the man raised his palm.
The weight of the world slammed down. The cobblestones beneath Ren, Lilith, and Thorn cracked under the sudden pressure, their knees almost buckling.
"Gravity." Ren hissed, gritting his teeth, vines tightening around his arms to keep his stance solid.
At the same moment, the woman moved. Her katana flashed, and an instant later, a ghostly image of her repeated the exact strike, forcing Lilith to twist aside as two blades slashed through the air where her chest had been.
"Focus!" Ren barked, lunging forward towards the man, slicing upwards, but the mercenary twisted his gravity as he swung, pulling himself sideways along the wall like it was the floor.
Ren's blade cut air, sparks flying as the mercenary's counter kick hurled him skidding back.
Thorn thundered forward to meet him, charges in his body shifting with a snap. He poured everything into speed, closing the gap in an instant, bone arm swinging in a devastating arc.
The mercenary braced, gravity compressing around him in a shield that cracked the street.
Thorn's attack rattled against the shield, sending tremors rippling through the stones, but the man remained standing, a grim smile pasted on his face.
Lilith was everywhere. Her knives sang as she launched them, her Pull resonance snapping them back at impossible angles.
The female mercenary met her head-on, katana flashing, her attacks doubled with those ghostly echoes.
Each time Lilith ducked one blade, a second came immediately after. Cuts began to line her tunic, shallow but burning, the mercenary's echoes dancing around her like phantoms.
"Ren!" Lilith shouted, twisting as one echo slashed her shoulder. Blood splattered across the cobblestones.
Ren darted in, intercepting the woman with a furious Push that blasted her back several paces, her boots screeching against the stone.
But before Ren could press, the man's gravity slammed him down, crushing him into the ground with bone-snapping force.
Ren's body cracked, but vines erupted from his armor, latching into the stone, forcing him up. His regeneration tore him back to life in a bloody surge.
He spat out dust, fury flashing in his eyes.
"Is that all you've got?!" He roared, charging again.