Chapter 315 – Last Stands (Part 2)

Chapter 315 – Last Stands (Part 2)

An eerie silence clung to the woods. Plumes of mist swirled over dead bodies and fallen birches, seemingly fleeing the raven-haired woman.

Kai stood frozen in her crimson gaze. Heartbeats and Hallowed Intuition drummed in his head. Desperation and fear. He should run, yet it felt pointless.

We’re so fucked…

His long-bladed spear was no more useful than a stick. There was no escaping, not from a green individual. The primordial terror of a mouse looking up the fangs of a basilisk rushed through him.

“Who are you?” His voice came out strangled, surprised he managed to speak at all. A silly question, the best his blank mind could conjure.

Think. We must get away.

Blood-color lips curved into a smile. “Don’t you know already?” she said with a velvety voice. The trim of her black dress fluttered.“You’ve been snooping into my affairs for a while.”

She was the death of any hope for victory.

“I…” Kai gulped, taking a step back—the cold air heavy in his lungs. Rain’s presence moved with him. He prayed the siren had a solution, but didn’t dare turn his attention to ask.

“You’re the praetor,” he muttered when the silence stretched too long.

The name mentioned by the cultists with fear and reverence; the title of the man aboard the Intrepid. Why couldn’t there be just one of those monsters?

“Abyssi Praetor is indeed one of my names.” The woman walked over a cultist’s corpse as if it were part of the sparse terrain. “I like smart boys. Just call me Aela. Formalities are so stuffy in casual settings.”

“I—yes…” Kai wet his lips. His mind stuttered to process her words. What in the world had she said? He inched back bit by bit, scared to run and scared of the shortening distance between them.

Was there anywhere he could run? Mana Observer brushed the shore of the island, over a hundred meters back. Could he reach it? Would this psycho bitch be slower in the water? Was getting devoured by a lake monster preferable?

Say something dammit!

“You—What do you want from us?”

Something smarter, idiot brain!

Kai cleared his throat. “You must have abducted over a hundred people. What are you trying to create?” Mutilated bodies, ink and jagged runes flashed in his mind. The variety of horrors he glimpsed in the sealed chambers was staggering.

Say anything. Buy time.

“Human beings can’t carry enchantments on their bodies.” He tried assuming an academic cadence, as if his words were more than theories pieced together in the moment. “Even if you somehow manage to align the flows. Static runes conflict with the changing mana in our channels. Either the victim dies or they destroy the engraving. It’s senseless.”

Aela halted her walk, eyes narrowing.

Fuck. Did I push the bullshit too far?

Instead of anger, her face lit up like a person finding one more chocolate in a supposedly empty bag. “Aren’t you full of surprises? You’ve studied Dissonance Theory.”

Uh… What?

Kai nodded tersely. “Just the broad strokes. It’s basic knowledge.”

“Well, it certainly should be,” she said, laying her fingers on a fallen trunk. The wood cracked and splintered as she shoved it out of her path. “The injection of foreign mana into human bodies is such an understudied field of research. There is so much potential hidden in our flesh. If you just squeeze it out.”

Her hand closed on empty air with an ecstatic smile. “You needn’t worry. I’ll show you what we’ve achieved. All our progress.” She licked her lips. “You are the perfect materials to display my research. Young, healthy test subjects react best to the engraving. And at Yellow… Mhmm… You’ll be surprised how much your bodies can adapt.”

Crazy bitch.

His skin crawled under her gaze. Kai jerked to create more distance when his heel caught on a root, making him fall backwards. He landed on his tailbone and elbows—the pain barely registered.

“Careful.” Rain’s outstretched hand pulled him to his feet, voice low and tense.

Kai gulped and rubbed his sweaty palms on his shirt. He picked up the silver spear, glad to have something to hold. Perhaps he should have kept his mouth shut. Their slow retreat brought them eighty meters from the shores, still too far when a madwoman watched you as if you were her favorite treat.

“Don’t be scared,” Aela raised a hand to cover a laugh as she stalked toward them. “I’ll personally see you reach your full potential. Let me show you the Abyssal shores. You won’t regret it, Mat.”

My name’s not Mat. Well… kind of.

Kai retreated into the untouched woods, the white birch pillars in the mist. Weeds brushed on his ankles, wetting the frayed trim of his trousers with icy dew.

Each second Aela played with him, he closed the distance to the lake. If she thought repeating the name Caeli reported would intimidate him, it had the opposite effect.

You don’t know shit about who I am.

She might be a green monster, but she wasn’t all-knowing. And—hopefully—not all-powerful either.

He might coax a fish to swallow him if he reached the shore. Better his body rest in the stomach of a beast than with a psycho. Fate owed him that.

Rain might survive…

Even gravely injured, Kai couldn’t think of anyone better to defy expectations. And any chance was better than being captured alive.

“Let’s end this game while I’m still in a good mood.” Aela stopped smiling—her tone demanding obedience. “Come now. I promise you won’t like it if I chase you. Your friend can barely stand. And I won’t let a stupid fish ruin such precious materials.”

Dammit.

Kai stilled; Rain mimicked him behind. Hallowed Intuition hissed he wouldn’t be getting another step. Seventy meters separated them from the lake and ten from the praetor. He could reach the lake in less than four seconds, but doubted it’d be that easy.

It’s this or nothing.

He turned to grab Rain’s arm and met his gaze. “Do you trust me?”

Rain weighed him. Despite the bruised face and blood crusted on his white hair, he looked serene. “I do.”

“Then you can put these away.” Kai gestured to the silver spear and trident. Weapons would only slow them, and his spatial closet was too short.

Both arms disappeared in the siren’s shell bracelet.

Aela showed no surprise, looking pleased. “I knew you were smart boys. Now, come—”

Water motes surged up his arm. Kai flung his arm, casting a hail of ice shards and icicles. Mana flooded into his muscles, joined to the waning power of the elixirs. He threw Rain on his shoulder and stomped on the ground at full Strength to sprint.

I can do—

“Pointless.” The praetor clicked her tongue.

Before crossing the halfway mark, the wave of ice evaporated into wisps of Darkness. The ice spears and bladed streams Rain cast behind reached a meter further before also fizzling into smoke.

“And that explains what happened to my subordinates. Impressive skills for your age.” Aela mused dryly. “But you’ll regret wasting my time.”

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Her incandescent presence blazed through his senses, faster than what Mana Observer could follow.

Kai discarded casting spells and sent more mana into Body Augmentation. His legs were still extended in his first leap when Aela appeared at his back, her aura pressing down on him.

Fucking monster.

The chasm at higher grades was too wide. Kai tightened his arms around Rain and focused on the only power that could save him.

Please work.

Grasping the knowledge in his mind, Kai fixed the coordinates and channeled Space mana through the skill written in his channels.

The misty woods turned hazy, and his vision shifted with a glimmer. Kai stared at a leafy gray shrub before him, meters from his original position, away from Aela’s clutches.

He had maintained his momentum through Spatial Shift. His boot stomped on a root, luckily angled to push him in the right direction without tripping.

It worked!

The euphoric thrill washed away his fear. “Rain—”

“I’m… fine.” His cargo slapped his back, perhaps a little peeved. “Run!”

C’mon, you’ve still got your extremities.

Thank Zervathi, Spatial Shift worked with a passenger and consumed a fraction of his freeform spell in mana. Kai reoriented himself in his new position. He had blinked on a diagonal to use a tree for cover—any instant gained was valuable.

Aela stood still, her hand raised where they disappeared.

“An artifact? No, that was a spatial skill…” Her voice echoed with surprise and… delight. A laugh confirmed that deranged impression. “Truly wonderful materials!”

Stay back!

Fifty meters left to the shore and twenty to the praetor. The lead he gained evaporated when she moved.

Kai threw an arm back to cast Water Cannon. The compressed orb flew in the trajectory of her charge, hoping his initial spells had lowered her guard. It reached nearer than any attack before being devoured by an invisible force.

Dammit.

Her clawed fingers reached towards his back.

Kai was about to forcefully recast Spatial Shift when the blinding presence lost her momentum and nearly tripped on the underbrush.