Free Web NovelChapter 419: locate the Spectrum base
The silence that followed Eleanor’s fall was heavy. Klein remained motionless on the edge of the broken ledge, his fingers still clawing at the cold and sterile rock. His eyes, usually so calm and calculating, were fixed on the gaping darkness of the depths where the silhouette of the dark elf had just disappeared.
’Eleanor...’ he thought, a brutal contraction tightening his heart. However, despite the shock, a spark of lucidity remained in him. He knew Eleanor.
’She is strong,’ he murmured to himself internally to calm the trembling of his hands. ’If anyone can survive such a fall in Tenebris, it’s her. She won’t let herself be killed so easily.
A hand rested on his shoulder, abruptly pulling him from his dark thoughts. He turned and faced Amaera Castillon. The vice-director was watching him. Her marble face was stained with basaltic dust, but her ice aura still pulsed with a frightening regularity.
"Klein? Can you hear me?" she asked, her voice clear. "She is gone. We must continue."
Klein took a deep breath, forcing his features to resume the mask of nonchalant neutrality he usually wore. He could not let Amaera see how much Eleanor’s loss affected him.
"I know," he replied in a neutral voice.
"We should get going," declared Klein, taking the initiative to cut short the interrogation. "We have already lost enough time here." freewebnovel.cσ๓
"You are right," conceded Amaera while adjusting her clothes that seemed strangely clean despite the surrounding chaos.
They resumed their walk, venturing deeper into the desolate landscape of Tenebris. The ground beneath their boots was nothing but a succession of vitrified rocks and gray ashes. Each step raised clouds of dust that stung the eyes and irritated the throat.
However, the tranquility was short-lived. They had barely covered a few kilometers when a series of guttural howls tore through the heavy air.
"Blood Wyverns," announced Amaera while raising her right hand, already surrounded by a halo of bluish mana.
Three winged silhouettes dove from the sulfur clouds. Their scarlet scales shone with a malevolent gleam, and their jaws dripping with acid opened onto rows of sharp fangs.
Klein did not waste a moment. He drew his katana, feeling the aura roar immediately under his skin.
< Art : Sundering Eclipse - Premier Mouvement : Crescent Moon >.
He did not seek brute force. With a fluid movement of his wrist, he projected a gray aura blade that cleanly severed the wing of the first Wyvern. The creature let out a shrill cry before crashing heavily onto the basaltic ground. Without waiting, Klein used a quick < Dash > to find himself under the second beast.
He pivoted on his heels, the metal of his blade absorbing the faint light of Tenebris. With an upward strike, he opened its belly, releasing a rain of black and viscous blood that evaporated almost instantly upon contact with the burning ground.
Meanwhile, Amaera handled the third Wyvern with surgical efficiency.
< Elemental Magic : Ice - Prison de Givre >
Translucent ice chains burst from the ground, wrapping around the neck and limbs of the aerial monster. Under the pressure of absolute cold, the Wyvern’s scales shattered like glass. Amaera closed her fist, and the creature was instantly crushed in a sinister cracking of bones and ice.
The fight had lasted only a few seconds. Klein sheathed his katana, observing the remains of the monsters with feigned indifference.
"They are getting more and more aggressive," he noted while wiping a drop of blood from his cheek.
"The demonic mana saturates the air and drives the creatures mad. The further we advance, the more frequent the encounters will be." She explained.
They continued their progression, but the respite was once again short-lived. Tenebris allowed no pause. As they crossed a plain of slag, a pack of Obsidian Golems emerged from the earth itself. These black stone giants, three meters tall, advanced with a heavy but implacable slowness.
"I’ll take care of the ones on the left," launched Klein while propelling himself forward.
He concentrated his aura in his legs, using < Aura Repulsion > under his boots to increase his impact speed. He collided with the first Golem with the force of a cannonball. His black blade struck a joint, where the stone was the thinnest.
< Sharp Cut >
The monster’s massive arm detached in a crash of rubble. Klein did not stop there. He followed up with a series of circular blows, using < Fluid Sword > to deflect the heavy counterattacks of the colossi. Each movement was calculated, each attack targeted a vital point.
On her side, Amaera was at the center of a true blizzard. She spun on herself, her long blue hair whipping the air, while ice spears several meters long rained down on the Golems.
< Magic : Blizzard de Ronces >
The ice spikes sank into the black rock, creating radial fissures that made the monsters’ bodies explode. The power she released was such that the ground around her was covered with a layer of permanent frost, defying the volcanic heat of the continent.
Klein finished off the last Golem with a punch charged with aura directly into its central core. The stone shattered into pieces, and silence returned once again to the devastated plain. He straightened up, breathing slightly hard, feeling the endurance of his body being put to the test by < Aura Farming > which worked continuously to regenerate his muscle fibers.
He glanced at Amaera. She seemed perfectly serene, not a strand of her hair disturbed. But he perceived a slight glimmer of fatigue in the depths of her gray eyes.
"You are holding up?" he asked with a hint of provocation to lighten the atmosphere.
She looked at him with feigned disdain. "Take care of your own survival, Klein. We have only covered a third of the way to the heart of the rift."
They resumed their walk, aware that every meter gained brought them closer either to the discovery they sought or to a deadly trap. The sky of Tenebris darkened even more, the purple clouds tinting with an inky black. The reconnaissance continued, bloody and exhausting.
