NOVEL NEXT Chapter 177: Recall
Hera drew a final arrow, pulled back the string on her bow, then loosed. The hard light projectile flashed through the trees. Twisting between trunks as it hunted the figure with smokey wings. She felt it when the arrow landed, then she triggered one of her core skills, vanishing in a flash of white light, and appearing above the man. His body was pinned to the ground, his limbs twitching, his wings singeing the air as they dissolved.
Her soul ached, and her arms trembled, but she couldn’t stop yet. She drew the sword at her hip and severed the man’s head, slumping to her knees a moment later. She knelt on the forest floor for over a minute, heaving lungfuls of air as white motes painfully flaked off her arms and shoulders. She reached for a small vial tucked into a pouch at her belt, and popped the healing pill into her mouth. Then, as the pill got to work mending her body Hera stood. She walked back the way she had come, gradually increasing her speed to a jog, then a full run as she did so. On her way, Hera passed three amethyst clad corpses, the hard light arrows that had felled them still embedded into their bodies.
She didn’t stop for them, instead she leapt up a nearby tree, gaining as much elevation as she could to scout her surroundings. Boats drifted away from the shore, and many more lay wrecked on the sandy beaches of Lutum. A group of over a hundred raised their weapons as the enemy retreated, their numbers were comprised of Academy guard and combat track students that had joined together to resist the invaders. Hera sighed in relief, then turned her attention to the parts of campus she could see. It took more effort than she would have liked to activate her perception skill, and when she finally managed her vision briefly went dark and her soul twinged in pain.
All over the island battles were being won, though not without great cost. They had been unprepared for the attack, but of course they had. Nobody had expected the republic to have been able to manage the feat, not striking so deep into the Empire. This was such a waste, both of lives and resources. What exactly had the invading forces hoped to achieve? Holding the archipelago would have been impossible, and Blades, despite their power, were by their nature replaceable. Had they just wanted to kill as many students as possible? Were the empire’s high society, visiting for the quadriad, the real target?
Hera didn’t know. And it left her feeling empty. She glanced towards the part of Lutum where the fighting was still ongoing. Zane was there, or he should be, and no matter how unreliable the man acted, there were few people she had ever met who could truly match him in combat. She strained to see more, but so far into the forest surrounding the campus it was impossible to tell just what the situation was. She sighed, mentally reaching for another arrow. She could rest when this was over.
A streak of amber light flew up into the sky from where the portal hub was, it circled overhead for several seconds, then flew with incredible speed towards the west. Hera blinked, then swore.
The source of that skill could only be one person.
===
“You idiot! Do you know what you have done?” Vevosis screamed, his hands gripping the collar of Zane’s coat. “Do you know what you’ve cost me? What you’ve cost us? That was a treasure worth more than kingdoms, and you let it get away!”
“Treasure? You lying sack of shit, you said he was a threat!” Zane replied, slapping away the Spire Head’s hands and stepping back. Behind the two men, the Academy guards Vevosis had brought were engaging the last of the invaders. Finally doing their actual jobs, he would need to check the record of their employment, their allegiances seemed misaligned to say the least.
“It is both, in more ways than you could comprehend. It’s heading towards Pellus, with luck we can still intercept before it slips away.”
Zane tsk’d, then glanced towards the portal hub. Students were streaming outside, and with every second more and more guards arrived from the other islands. “What about the two kids that he left with, who were they?”
“I have my suspicions… How about you go save them? Surely that is within your power”
“You’re a slimy son of a bitch, you know that?” Zane snapped, then he sprinted for the portal arch. “And this conversation isn’t over. Your actions here will be hotly discussed over the next few days!”
“Capture the monster and all will be revealed. Trust me, Zane.”
The second Blade spat to the side, then swung his sword. He vanished into the portal hub, already heading for Pellus, determined to intercept Leif and at least salvage something from this horrible situation.
===
Roy floated in a world of amber and gold. Gravity seemed to have no sway on his body, but at the same time he didn’t feel completely real. He raised his hands, and they were partially translucent, each digit shimmering, glowing with amber light. It was odd, but he didn’t feel any pain or discomfort. If anything, it felt like all his worries had drifted away.
“Is… is that the sea down below us?” Lucia asked, and her partially muffled voice made him glance up. Both his sister and Leif were floating alongside him, and both were partially constructed out of golden light. Now that Lucia had pointed it out, Roy could see the outside world zipping by around them. Clouds flew above them, and the waves of the Rien Sea churned far below.
“I thought this would be more instantaneous.” Leif said, turning away from them to watch the direction they were headed. “It will take hours to arrive at Far-Reach at this rate. Maybe a full day.” He reached out and placed ivory fingers against the wall of the skill. The confines of the golden world shifted, stretching and morphing.
Roy glanced at Lucia, and he saw the worry on his sister’s face. She was staring at the back of Leif’s head, her fingers clenching and unclenching. He touched down, then wobbled over to her, unstable on his partially ethereal legs, and reached up to grasp her hand with his own. The two siblings stood together and waited. Finally Leif sighed, then spoke.
“You still came to me. Even after what I was was revealed.”
“Yeah.” Lucia said softly. Roy nodded, though he doubted Leif noticed.
“Why?”
“We needed to save you from the bad guys.” Roy said simply, glancing up at his sister for confirmation. She smiled, and he returned the expression.
“The bad guys...” Leif repeated, then he turned. For the first time both siblings got a good look at his face. Though it was streaked with golden light, just like the rest of them, they could still make out his features.
To Roy’s eye, he looked person shaped, but more like a statue, a recreation rather than the real thing. He had eye sockets, ears and a nose. There were fine details on his brow, cheeks and chin, but it was all stiff, rigid. As if it were permanently carved to look that way.
“You have leaves on your head.” He pointed out.
“True.” Leif said, running a hand through the leaves in question.
“They’re red.”
“Also true.” The scion laughed. “They grow out quickly, so I needed to wear a hood at all times. Anyway, I will explain everything. If it makes you more comfortable, Hera knew, so did Marcus, Sieg and the others.”
They lapsed into silence as the Pellus campus rapidly came into view. Roy pressed his face up against the limits of the skill that was transporting them. “Look at all the smoke. And the boats, there are so many!”
“There are so many injured. I feel bad about leaving, even if it's illogical.” Leif said. “Lucia, I can tell that you want to say something. It’s fine, you can go ahead.”
“I… I recognised the man in red. He… he was one of the people my grandfather met with, in the lead up to the expedition.”
“Of course he was.” Leif sighed. “Do you think he was… one of the culprits?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve heard a little about his organisation. My father mentioned them to me once. They’re called Fracture, a group dedicated to fighting back against all kinds of monsters. I think… I think they helped fund the expedition, or at least supported it in some way.”
“We’re a bit too far away to ask him any questions. And just between us, I don’t plan on turning back now.”
“That’s fine. I mean… I’m glad we got away.”
Roy ran from one side of the space to the other, watching as they zipped over the largest of the Academy’s islands, then began to travel northward. He thought he could see people running around far below, from his height they looked like ants. He saw the arena, the grand building having been partially destroyed, he recognised streets they had travelled, and the small port they had first arrived at. Something glinted in the sky above the island, and he squinted, but it was hard to make out details from within the-
The air was cut, and the space twisted, golden light spinning, their elevation dropping suddenly. A man had appeared within Leif’s skill, sword drawn, white hair billowing as wind rushed into the world of amber. Leif reacted, golden arms bursting from his body to lunge for the man. He swung his sword, and Roy screamed as everything twisted, stretching, breaking.
Suddenly they were spinning, falling, in an empty void of black, streaks of infinite colour racing by, distorting the nothingness as they passed. Everything was cold, too hot, tiny and also massive. They were moving so fast, but also not at all. And time was frozen still, while also skipping ahead. Roy screamed again, but his voice didn’t produce sound. And how could it? Not in this place that lacked all meaning.
The sword cut, and the sky returned, but it was no longer evening. Night had fallen in an instant, and dark clouds drifted overhead and the sea wind howled in outrage as they dropped. Roy couldn’t see what happened next, but amber light rippled, flowing out to engulf them once again. He fell against a barrier of gold, and once again his body felt light, immaterial. He turned, eye’s wide. Lucia was on the other side of the golden world, both Leif and the swordsman standing between them. Seawater sprayed as they dipped down again, and they zipped passed a dark shape that ominously loomed up over them.
More shadowy shapes passed, and lights twinkled somewhere off in the distance.
“Stop fighting, cancel the skill and come with me! We’ll sort this all out, but I can’t let you leave.” The white haired man, Zane, shouted.
“There are children here, what are you doing?” Leif replied, an arm Roy hadn’t seen get severed already growing back at a visible pace.
“They’ll be safe, I’ll protect them, whatever happens.”
“I don’t trust that. I can’t, let us go.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear you say that. Perhaps once the council hears how you acted during the battle.”
“Roy! Get over here!” Lucia screamed. He scrambled towards her, reaching out. The sword cut upwards, and at the same moment it was met with an amber clad fist. The teleportation skill was severed, tearing into two pieces as it destabilised. One half held three people, and it collapsed, bursting like a bubble. The second half remained, and it didn’t stop moving. Roy yelled his sister’s name as he was carried away. He kept screaming even after the lights twinkling in the distance had disappeared.
His voice broke, and his little fists ached from punching the amber wall that kept him in place. He slumped down and stared at his hands, his body trembling in terror. He was alone. Lucia was gone, Leif was gone, the white haired man had taken them away. He stared blankly at the night wreathed world as he flew north, then west. Heading back to the home he barely remembered. Alone.
===
Leif hit the water with a thunderous crash, and his entire world was surrounded by darkness. Immediately he began to sink, the depths swallowing him even as he thrashed around to try and stop his inevitable descent. His body was dense, and while that made him physically powerful, it was the opposite kind of body he needed at the moment. He felt the power of [The Amber Path] flying away, and saw through the water the shimmering gold of the skill as it continued on its path. To his side he sensed Lucia, but he couldn’t detect Zane, the Blade was nowhere to be seen.
“Lucia, swim to the surface.” He telepathically sent, while at the same time trying to reassure and calm her with his aura. He felt her react to his words, but with no way to hear a reply he sunk in silence, spreading amber motes of light into the water around him in an effort to see. He sensed the moment she broke the surface, felt the residual relief washing over her, only for it to be replaced by another spike of panic. But he was too far away to help her, hells, he could barely help himself.
He drifted downwards for over a minute, completely helpless. Things moved in the water around him, and he could sense their flickering vitality. Small and quick, likely fish instead of some overwhelmingly powerful sea monster. Suddenly his feet hit sand, and a cloud of sediment burst up around him.
Out of oxygen his body was already deteriorating, and a trickle of vitality was being expended with every passing moment to restore him. He had time, several minutes, perhaps more if he fed on the life-force of the creatures flitting around him. Leif pushed more power into [Amber Aegis], trying to ignore the flicker of pain that shot through his soul. The sea floor bloomed into light all around him, the golden motes reflecting off startled fish, their scales twinkling in the darkness.
Water pushed down against his senses, and physical pressure weighed upon him. But he had seen the lights in the distance as [The Amber Path] had carried him and the others, and if his guess was correct, it was likely a settlement of some sort, probably Kartinth. He could no longer detect Lucia, but he started walking in the direction he hoped she had gone. His teleportation skill was now on ‘cool-down’, or at least the long distance recall part of it was. The skill description said it could be up to a year before he could reactivate it, though the amount depended on distance travelled. Hopefully it wouldn’t be that long.
He mentally opened his system notifications, quickly re-reading the one about his previous skill options for [Adept of Self-Restoration]. Unless drowning was an ailment, the first choice was out of the question, the second, [Delay the End] felt almost identical to what the name suggested, and [Life Orbs] gave off the impression of a technique, likely one that would allow him to utilise vitality in a new way. He didn’t have much choice at the moment, death was closing in, so only a single option made sense.
===
Delay the End
Aspects: Enhancement (Body)* (Life)*
Increases the efficacy of all healing skills the closer to death the user is.
Reduces physical damage taken the more injured the individual’s body is.
===
Immediately he felt the gradual drain of his vitality slow, the potency of each drop sustaining him more and more. But even with the new skill, his time was rapidly running out. The amount of healing he required only seemed to increase with every minute, and despite now having several skills that all worked to increase his durability, he wouldn’t make it, that much was obvious.
Leif was one level away from reaching level twenty five in [Scion of Aeons], but he had only just gained two levels in the class, relying on the chance he could gain that final level, and hope that whatever skills it may offer him could somehow save him from his situation was a poor thread to tie his life to. But he had other options, surely there was a way out. Something caught his attention above him, and Leif looked up. A shadow was carving through the water’s surface, and to either side were several more.
They were boats. And boats were made out of wood.
Furthermore, Leif suspected he knew who the owners of the vessels were, and there would be no love lost if he broke one or two. Or several. He pushed everything he had into his physical strength, flooded his legs with vitality, braced himself to jump with a dozen arms all ready to push at the same time. He leapt, shooting upwards, mentally reaching out for the hull of the nearest ship with [Wood Manipulation].
He didn’t make it on the first attempt, and moving so much, so quickly, seemed to quickly burn out the fuse that was the time he had until suffocation claimed him. He landed back on the seafloor, his descent doing little to settle the storm of sediment raging around him. The shadow he had aimed for was too far away now, but another was hot on its heels. Leif prepared himself, then reached for the last compressed wooden sphere he had in his storage ring. It appeared in his hand, and immediately fell through his fingers, tugged downwards. It hit the sand with a dull thud.
Leif planted a foot on the sphere, then flooded it with his remaining vitality. The sphere exploded, and Leif blasted upwards, controlling his ascent with [Wood Manipulation] as twisting and writing branches carried him upwards. This time his momentum was greater, and with a wrench he tugged at the ship above him. It ripped apart, the hull splitting in two as Leif’s will forced it to descend, what had once been tempered wood flowed down towards him, reaching as if it were a hand trying to pluck him from the sea.
He let it, then climbed the stalk with every limb he had available, pulling more and more of the ship apart as he gained elevation. Barrels and crates fell all around him, their contents spilling out into the gloom to be lost forever. The first sailors were pulled down along with their ship, weighed down by their armour and weapons. Several lashed out in fear with skills that lit the sea a plethora of vibrant colours, but their lives were snuffed out as amber limbs snaked out to pluck their vitality.
The boat crumpled in on itself, groaning and bucking as its purpose was reshaped in the most violent and dramatic fashion possible. Then it burst like an egg, and Leif erupted back up onto the surface. All around him were shouts and cries, torches were being lit on nearby vessels, the shadowy shapes of the republic ships were revealed like a veil being lifted. His fingers dug into the remains of the ship below him, then with a roar he used what was left of its wooden carcass to bridge the gap to the next vessel. The platform he created speared into the upper deck, shaking the entire ship with the impact. Men fell back, and Leif leapt aboard, scattering the crew with a forest of amber limbs, forcing the deck to stab upwards to impale a dozen soldiers all at once.
He sensed several intents, sharp and dangerous, lock onto him from several directions, and he tensed. Then another ship exploded into a shower of splinters, having been carved straight through with a single swing of a blade. Zane licked his lips, then waved awkwardly, a waterlogged Lucia draped over one shoulder. She was trying to twist out of his grip, but he held her in place with little difficulty.
“So…” He called. “Sorry about that!”
“Is that Kartinth?” Leif yelled back.
“Uh, probably. I’m not sure what exactly happened.”
“Forget it.” Leif snapped. “What’s more important to you, me or an invasion fleet?”
“Admittedly, a fleet of ships trying to invade my home is the priority. Shall we, uh, take care of business?”