Free Web NovelChapter 306: Hunting the Heralds (2)
Syra stepped from the shade of a nearby pillar and held a condensed blade of darkness inches from Ethan’s cheek.
"You ruined a continent," Syra whispered. "And now your kingdoms are dust."
Ethan scrambled backward and dragged his chained legs across the dirt. "Stay away! We are Heralds! We..." His voice trailed off as he looked around at the ruins of Tarnstead.
Syra grabbed Lucas by the collar and lifted him entirely off the ground.
"Aethelgard is a graveyard," Syra announced. "Tarnstead belongs to the Spiral. You have nowhere left to hide. The Sovereign remembers the void, and he remembers the twenty-eight cowards who sacrificed the twenty-ninth student to save themselves."
The blood drained from Lucas’s face instantly. His mouth hung open as he stared at the assassin. Isabella stopped struggling and stared with wide, terrified eyes.
"Red," Isabella choked out. Her voice cracked. "No. We killed him. The Royal Mage tore his soul apart."
"He built a civilization out of the abyss to return the favor," Syra replied. She dropped Lucas onto the dirt. "Just like how he was used as fuel, you are just the fuel for his reclamation."
Olivia vomited onto the sandstone. Ethan curled into a fetal position and shivered uncontrollably as the reality of their situation broke his mind completely.
Up in the sanctuary, Rubedo watched the projection with absolute indifference.
Glitch tilted its head and let out a satisfied purr down in the plaza. The stolen magic digested inside the anomaly to isolate the hijacked human essence from the arcane power.
Two brilliant streaks of pure white light launched from the courtyard below. The energy shot upward through the atmosphere and pierced the sanctuary hull. The light slammed directly into Rubedo’s chest.
[ SOUL INTEGRATION COMPLETE. FRAGMENTS RECLAIMED: 8 / 14 ]
[ HOST SYSTEM AUTHORITY ELEVATED. ]
[ ASSIMILATING RETAINED ELEMENTAL DATA FROM DEVOURED HERALDS... ]
[ NEW SYSTEM PATH UNLOCKED: ABSOLUTE KINETIC-SPATIAL AUTHORITY (PASSIVE/ACTIVE). ]
[ DESCRIPTION: HOST CAN FREELY MANIPULATE KINETIC BARRIERS AND SPATIAL RADAR FREQUENCIES WITHIN THE SOVEREIGN TERRITORY. ]
[ NEW SYSTEM PATH UNLOCKED: METAL-TOXIN PROTOCOL (ACTIVE). ]
[ DESCRIPTION: HOST CAN INSTANTLY SHAPE ELEMENTAL METALS AND GENERATE HIGHLY CONCENTRATED CORROSIVE MISTS. ]
Rubedo flexed his fingers over the console. A spark of blue kinetic energy arched across his knuckles. The bright light faded into a wisp of green mist. He stared at the telemetry data cascading down his primary monitor.
Every Earthling his vanguard captured handed him another weapon to wield against the surviving anomalies.
He was simply getting back what was stolen from him, and he was getting it back 100x fold.
Meanwhile, Hawl and Gulag were busy hunting the other team of the heralds.
Hawl stepped through the crumbling brick archway and splashed into the ankle-deep sludge of the filtration chamber. Gulag walked right behind him and cracked her knuckles. Four Earthlings backed away toward the rusted iron grates at the far end of the room.
Liam raised a glowing silver broadsword while Maya gripped a wooden staff radiating bright yellow light.
"Keep them away from the runoff pipes." Cole pointed toward the exit. He and Jenna stood behind the fighters and chanted a defensive incantation to summon a dome of translucent energy.
Liam charged across the sludge and brought the silver blade down toward Hawl’s neck. Hawl sidestepped the strike to drive his fist into Liam’s ribcage.
"Watch your flanks!" Maya unleashed a volley of burning yellow projectiles from her staff. Gulag slammed her palms flat against the wet brick wall to summon a slab of dark bedrock.
The stone erupted from the floor and intercepted the magical barrage. The yellow projectiles impacted the rock and exploded into harmless sparks.
Gulag ripped the stone slab from its foundation and hurled it directly at the translucent energy dome. The rock collided with the barrier and fractured the magical shield into dozens of glowing shards. freewebnσvel.cøm
Hawl channeled crackling blue lightning down into his boots. The electrical current surged through the stagnant sludge and illuminated the entire chamber.
"He broke the ward!" Jenna took a step backward. Hawl sprinted across the room at incredible speeds to bypass the broken barrier. He appeared directly in front of Cole before the caster could conjure another shield. He drove his right fist straight into Cole’s knee to strike bone.
The localized petrification effect activated immediately on impact. Cole’s kneecap transmuted into brittle limestone and shattered under his own weight. He collapsed onto the floor with a loud scream. Hawl pivoted smoothly and delivered a swift hook to Jenna’s elbow joint.
"My arm is completely dead." Jenna dropped her spellbook into the sludge as her limb turned to gray stone from the elbow down. Liam scrambled back to his feet and lunged at Hawl from behind. Hawl ducked under the swinging broadsword and delivered an uppercut to Liam’s left knee.
The joint calcified instantly to send Liam tumbling into the wall. Maya backed into the corner and prepared to unleash a massive blast of yellow magic from her staff.
Gulag closed the distance and ripped the wooden weapon right out of her hands. She snapped the staff over her knee and tossed the broken pieces aside.
"Sit down." Gulag shoved Maya backward until she tripped over Cole’s fallen body and hit the ground.
The four Earthlings writhed in the toxic sludge with their limbs crippled by the transmuting strikes.
Gulag stepped into the center of the group and punched the foundational bedrock beneath the water.
Amber light flooded the chamber as massive veins of obsidian shot upward from the floor. Thick bands of black stone wrapped securely around the torsos of Liam, Maya, Cole, and Jenna.
They clamped them completely flat against the ruined bricks to end the fight. Hawl stood over Liam and his team and crossed his arms.
"This was easy. I was told they held the powers greater than the apex creations of gods, but now that I have fought them, all I experienced was... utter disappointment.," Hawl muttered.
"Indeed," Gulag nodded. "The previous heralds I fought at least gave a challenge."
Hawl glanced at Gulag. "Do you think we were given a weak team of heralds?"
Gulag pondered for a while and nodded. "It is possible. Iron-Scale does that all the time."
Rubedo watched them and let out a chuckle.
"It’s not that the heralds are weak, but these guys have just become too strong."
