I rolled across the ground, ears ringing and stinging in way too many spots on my body. Still, I got to my feet pretty quickly.
It was wild to see the devastation just those two shots had wrought. Everything around in a radius of at least thirty feet was alight with strange bluish-white fire. The weirdest thing about them was that the flas were slowing down, slowly freezing and solidifying.
The fires were turning into crystalline, glassy structures.
“Get down, Ross!”
I heeded Hamsik’s warning without a single thought. My body slamd to the ground almost of its own accord. Hamsik was right. Whoever was firing at us from a distance was powerful. I could feel my condition getting worse even as all I did was breathe in the strange, sparking smoke from the lingering flas.
No more oversized arrows fired in. Not that I’d have been able to see through the smoke and the dust. But I figured I’d have at least heard them coming.
I tried to spot who was firing and from where. Ignition Charge created my artificial sprite, which I sent off to hunt down the source of the arrows. Creeping flas distracted . I sent out threads of Sacrifice to take care of them, relying on Overclaim to force ownership onto an Aspect that was clearly not mine.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Opposing Cast of 1 Onyx-ranked Aspect. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward: Damage of next opposing cast is reduced by 3.5x. Essence of cast elent now easily obtainable. ]
My heart stuttered. Onyx-ranked. I had known the wielder of an Aspect like this had to be strong, but Onyx was crazy. Whatever fleeting thoughts of fighting back had infiltrated my brain now started disappearing.
Forget fighting back, at this distance, the best I could do was survive.
My earlier wish materialized a second later. I didn’t know why I was being targeted just then but hadn’t been a few monts ago, when I had surely presented a much better target.
I quickly got up to use Reflexive Mana again, but there was no need. The battlefield glowed. Sothing else was going on, an aura appearing at the back like the arrival of an iceberg about to sink a cruise liner. I blinked against the growing radiance. This light… I had seen it before. Back when the Blight Swarm had invaded, pillars of this exact energy had covered Zairgon.
The sa occurred here. Several columns of the bright energy erupted out of the ground, towering into the sky in less than a second.
My distant assassin’s arrow crashed into one of the pillars, setting off a detonation that made my eardrums vibrate painfully. I was pelted by more shrapnel as well, though it wasn’t those sa, sharp glasslike bits so I wasn’t too hurt.
What caught my attention for real, though, was the fact that the pillar in front of had been obliterated.
Onyx-ranked… That was what the Weave had said when I had used Sacrifice on those glassy fires. And yet, it was matching the power of a Jade-ranked Councillor. Right. Looked like I’d need to upgrade the shooter from powerful to fatally dangerous.
More of the huge arrows fired in. For just a second, the dust cleared. I gasped. A teor shower of arrows blanketed the whole sky ahead of us. It was crazy. I might have been able to co up with so sort of desperate defence against that volley, but the Councillor’s defence was much surer.
Though, as with the first column of solid light, all the others got destroyed too. I lowered my head and clamped my hands over my ears. The series of detonations pounded into my head like soone was setting off grenades right next to my ear.
I knew I needed to keep an eye out, to remain alert in case I needed to do sothing to save myself. It was always possible that the Councillor’s defence wasn’t surefire.
But with the way everything was obliterated around , I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to do much.
It took way too long for the barrage to end. My body was a ss of wounds and torn robes. The area around was even worse. Broken, cratered, filled with fire and the hardened version of whatever that Aspect was, with even the air once again hurting my lungs like I was inhaling broken glass.
But the barrage had stopped. Thanks to the Councillor standing several yards in front of .
I got to my feet. Every muscle was still tense. I couldn’t stop my eyes form darting around, trying to see if I was in any further danger.
A quick look confird Hamsik was still alive. Good.
“You’re fine now,” the Councillor said.
I noted that she was the Rakshasa woman whose body was mostly translucent. It would have been nice if it had been Se-Vigilance or Wargrog, or maybe even Lassikhio. Essentially, it would have been nice if it had been soone I knew.
Nevertheless, I was grateful.
“Thank you,” I said. “If you hadn’t arrived in ti, Councillor, then I’m not sure we’d have survived.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. There is no point in considering pointless hypotheticals. The deed is done. It is ti we muster the right reaction.”
The first thing I did was help Hamsik get back to his feet. He had been hit hard. Thankfully, with his half-Scarseeker body, he was recovering fast. Still. It hurt to look at how his arm had been blown apart, how he was stooping as he dragged in a still-regenerating foot.
“That asshole,” I muttered as I went up to assist Hamsik. “That long-distance fire let the bastards get away.”
Hamsik grunted in pain. “I don’t know if killing them would have accomplished anything anyway.”
“They were attacking us, Hamsik.”
“I’m aware, Ross. Killing them would have temporarily stopped the imdiate danger we were in, sure. But did you consider the consequences? One Claderov noble is already dead. How do you think they would react when more of them fell by our hands? And this ti, the proof would have been undisputable.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I frowned at him. “They were trying to kill us. They were trying to kill you. I wasn’t going to take that lying down.”
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“You don’t have to. But killing them would undoubtedly have worsened relations and brought down even more trouble. It’d be better if we were grateful that we didn’t end up murdering the Claderovians.”
It was my turn to grumble. He made sense. Obviously. Yet at the sa ti, I couldn’t stop a part of myself from feeling like if Claderov didn’t want their lords to die, it ought to keep them on a tighter leash.
The Councillor returned shortly. “You two can relax for now. Do not think for a mont that you will be allowed to escalate this any further.”
“Escalate?” I was getting a little mad at people treating the criminal scum of Claderov with kid gloves. “Those bastards almost killed us. How are we going to answer that, Councillor?”
“Not with violence. Not imdiately. But rest assured, Claderov will answer for this trendous overreach.”
“Is this not a declaration of war, Councillor?” Hamsik asked. “They attacked nobles out in the open. They used their Aspects violently on Zairgon grounds. Clearly, they had no compunction about being seen.”
I nodded vigorously, which jostled Hamsik in my grasp, eliciting a gasp of pain and annoyance. “Sorry,” I told them before turning back to the Councillor. “They even continued fighting when they saw you taking the field, Councillor.”
“Please, have patience. This will be investigated. Claderov will answer.”
We weren’t going to get anything more specific from the Councillor. Not even anything about the potential suspects of who could have perpetrated this cri. I cursed.
It was hard, but I managed to rewire my brain to take stock of the situation at Kalnislaw estate. Yerenc and the workers were coming out of their hiding spots, looking mightily alard.
“I’m glad you all stayed inside,” I said to them. “Your safety is important.”
With the battle finally over, the Weave decided to pop up with too many notifications that made my eyes goggle a bit.
[ Rank Up!
Your Thauma and Fervour Attribute have risen by one Rank.
Your Illumination, Sacrifice, and Gravity Aspects have risen by one Rank.
Your Path of the Auric Hierophant has risen by one Rank
Thauma: Gold VII
Fervour: Opal I
Illumination: Gold IV
Sacrifice: Opal I
Gravity: Opal I
Path of the Auric Hierophant is evolving... ]
Opal in multiple Aspects and an Attribute too. I’d have to consider a new round of Affixes and an Augntation too. But the biggest thing that had my eyes going wide was at the very end.
My Path of the Auric Hierophant was evolving…
I felt it too. A slow burgeoning of energy unfurling within like a flower opening up, spreading glowing petals at the encroach of morning. It was like my soul was expanding sohow. I was reminded of that error way back inside the Nether Vein, when there had been a forceful evolution. One that had failed.
Well, it wasn’t going to fail now. I was finally at the right rank. I had finally worked hard and accumulated the power I needed to transcend beyond my old stage.
From what I rembered, the energy that was supposed to have ranked up my Path into its evolved form had instead been directed to my second mana core. Now, that mana core was going on overdrive. It always did whenever I got a breakthrough.
Especially because there was no choice for when I should use the Ascension Charge this ti.
I’d need to see if I could use it on my evolving Path.
The only thing that remained was figuring out when and how I’d get my Path evolved. I recalled just how long I’d had to wait to get Path of Burning Starlight to Path of Starforged Firmant. I really wanted to avoid that sort of extended evolution.
But I had no idea how to accelerate it, no idea what conditions I needed to fulfil to finish up the evolution. I never did for these things.
Maybe observing the changes would help. Because there were changes, even before the evolution was complete. The unfurling feeling got intense, almost making feel like I needed to put so effort into holding myself together before I just dissolved into aether or sothing.
“Ross,” Hamsik said. “Are you paying attention?”
I shook my head. Right. This was far from the ti to consider Weave things. “Sorry, got distracted.”
On paying more attention to what was going on, I found that guards were arriving onto the scene. Revayne was here already, as was Commander Trikurag. A part of was hoping they’d have apprehended the Claderovians, as Hamsik had called them, but I didn’t see any sign of the surviving duo. Crap. They must have escaped.
“Can we take statents from you two?” Revayne asked once she had finished directing her squad and co over.
“Statents?” I asked. “This isn’t a cri, Revayne. Like Hamsik said, this was an act of war.”
“Regardless, we need to establish facts, and collecting testimony is one of the most important ways of doing so. Whatever chaos or war or anything else that we might now be embroiled in, when it all cos to an end, we will need to settle things on a civilized footing. Yes, even if we co to blows. And when that ti cos, these statents will be invaluable.”
I still felt way too mad at the audacity of the Claderovians to attack not only Zairgon, but . That said, I was starting to see the sense behind Revayne’s actions. Well, Zairgon’s actions. This was likely a policy set down by the Councillors ages ago.
As Hamsik and I gave our corresponding statents, I kept getting distracted by the way my Path Evolution was making the world around change. I had no other way of thinking about it.
Colours were growing sharper and more defined, like my eyesight was upgrading into a higher contrast setting. Slls hit harder. My skin tingled with oversensitivity, as even the slight changes in air pressure started to beco tangible. Shit, how intense would simple touches feel now?
There was also a separate kind of change I wasn’t sure I wanted to contemplate just then. A new sense was birthing in my mind. It reminded of perception-related abilities, whether they were Aspects, Attributes, or whatever. Like I could sense people around , sohow.
My Path Evolution was literally making grow a sixth sense. That felt insane. I felt like I needed to tell that to soone, but the fear of sounding crazy stopped .
Then again, from the perspective of soone from Earth, everything here was crazy, so.
I didn’t get to finish giving my entire testimony to Revayne. Not that I needed to. All I was doing was giving her a blow-by-blow account of the fight I had experienced. She said it was important, that even small details could be trendously useful down the line, so I didn’t hold anything back.
But before I was done, a few of the Scarthrall farmhands who helped with the vineyards ca hurrying over. The worry etched on their faces made forget all about my little interview.
“What’s wrong?” I asked before they even reached .
“Cultist Ross,” the leader said. He wasn’t winded, just hesitating because clearly, he was the bearer of bad news. “We can’t find them.”
My heartrate spiked. Beside , Hamsik tensed as well.
“You don’t an Vandre, do you?” I asked.
“And the others,” Hamsik said. “That Uralivanth woman and her children. You can’t find any of them?”
All the gathered Scarthralls shook their heads in unison, looking increasingly distraught.
“We found signs of fighting at the west end of the estate, near the guesthouse,” the oldest Scarthrall said. He swallowed. “I think they got taken.”
That was absurd. Maddening. Enraging. And confusing too.
“Why would they be taken?” I asked. “Why didn’t we hear anything?”
I was flustered. Anger was starting to beco a close companion that refused to leave my side, and now, it grew as strong as a demon possessing whole. If what the Scarthralls said was true…
There was no point in blabbering in confused outrage. We all—even Revayne, following quickly behind —headed over to the guest wing of Kalnislaw estate.
My heart sank when I arrived.
There were indeed signs of struggle. The door hung broken on its hinges. The interior of the guest house was all ssed up and torn. There was too much blood. Way too much. There was even a morbid trail of it leading outside before ending abruptly.
We spent sothing like two whole hours shouting Vandre’s na, looking in every possible location all over Kalnislaw estate, and even scouring the temple and a good chunk of Rings Two and Four to see where he could have gone. Vandre was nowhere to be seen. No one had seen him. No one had heard a peep about the missing woman and children either.
It was official. Vandre had been taken by Claderov.
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