Free Web NovelChapter 56: 056. The Beginnings Of Horror [III]
She landed gracefully on the cobblestones, the wind runes on her boots absorbing the impact flawlessly rendering her landing entirely silent.
The shattered, lifeless remains of the Nested Gargoyle rained down around her, clattering harmlessly against the stone plaza.
The immediate vicinity fell into a stunned breathless silence.
The panicked citizens, Lyra, and the butler stared at the Snakekin guard in absolute awe.
She had moved faster than the Guild Mages and she had also dispatched a high-tier abyssal variant with nothing but raw physical speed and two pieces of steel.
Mandy slowly lowered his arms from around Kala with his whole body trembling violently.
He looked at the shattered black glass at his feet, realizing exactly how close he had come to having his spine severed.
"E-Eternia..." Mandy gasped with his voice barely a whisper. "You... you saved my life."
Eternia ignored him completely.
She stood perfectly upright with the dark blood of the gargoyle slowly dripping from her curved blades.
She turned her back to the shelter entrance, ignoring the roaring crowd and the shouting guards.
Eternia lifted her chin, her golden eyes locking onto the distant, violently flashing horizon.
The Aegis barrier above them continued to groan. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
The muffled, continuous explosions of high-tier magic shook the ground beneath her boots.
The sky beyond the dome was completely choked with smoke and the necrotic fire of the wyverns.
The frontline was a literal depiction of hell... an apocalyptic meat grinder consuming hundreds of lives by the minute.
Her Master was out there.
He was fighting in the absolute epicenter of that nightmare, facing down the horrors of the Abyss without her by his side to watch his blind spots.
Eternia tightened her grip on her daggers until her knuckles turned a stark bone-white.
’Do not die... Master...’ Eternia pleaded silently. ’Butcher them all... Burn them to ash and come back to me...’
"Eternia!" Lyra shouted, grabbing the Snakekin’s shoulder and violently pulling her out of her trance.
The Sub-Heroine pointed her glowing sword toward the bunker doors. "The guard is signaling! They are sealing the doors in two minutes! We have to move now!"
Eternia blinked, forcing the terrifying images of the battlefield out of her mind.
She turned around and locked her golden eyes onto Mandy.
"Mandy, let’s move.... If you stop walking again, I will drag you by your hair."
Mandy didn’t need to be told twice.
He scooped Kala up into his arms, abandoning all pretense of dignity, and sprinted directly toward the gaping steel doors of the underground shelter.
Lyra followed closely behind him, her masterwork sword raised, ready to strike down any panicked citizen who tried to pull the child away.
Eternia fell in line behind them, acting as their impenetrable rear guard.
She slipped into the heavy reinforced bunker just as the massive, foot-thick steel doors began to slowly grind shut.
The heavy locking mechanisms slammed into place.
CLANG!
That completely sealing them off from the chaotic burning streets above.
Eternia stood in the dim suffocatingly tight underground hallway.
The muffled, distant explosions of the war raging above were barely audible through the thick layers of enchanted stone and earth.
She had fulfilled her orders.. She had ensured the survival of the assets her Master valued...
Now, all she could do was wait in the dark, clutching her daggers, and trust that the terrifying man she served was currently dismantling the Demon King’s army piece by bloody piece.
...
The outer wall of Astelvern Town resembled a butcher’s block.
The sounds of slaughter echoed across the reinforced stone battlements, drowning out the blaring sirens from inside the town.
The heavy scent of fresh blood mixed with the suffocating stench of burning corpses filled the air.
Down in the mud of the plains, completely illuminated by the erratic, flashing bursts of elemental magic... the frontline vanguard of the town’s defenders fought a desperate and entirely hopeless battle.
Astrid stood at the apex of the inner wall, safely positioned just inside the glowing golden-blue Aegis barrier.
’What in the hell is this...’ Astrid thought while she gripped her heavy, imposing magical staff with both hands... her knuckles had turned stark white against the enchanted wood.
The wind whipped her golden hair wildly around her face.
Her striking blue eyes tracked the catastrophic collapse of the human formations below.
The defenders were drowning... The black tsunami of the abyssal monster tide rolled over the hardened vanguards, crushing seasoned adventurers under an endless churning sea of claws and fangs.
Armored Orcs battered through shield walls with rusted cleavers.
Shadow Beasts phased through defensive spear-lines, severing hamstrings and throats in a fluid terrifying synchronized assault.
Astrid channeled a massive, concentrated surge of dense purple twilight mana into her core and the air around her immediately grew heavy, vibrating with the oppressive gravity of an A-rank mage preparing to enter a warzone.
She bent her knees, calculating the exact trajectory required to drop directly into the densest cluster of Dire-Trolls currently shattering the eastern flank.
However a sharp rushing sound of displaced air caught her attention.
A figure clad in the sleek dark leather armor of the Twilight Guild’s scouting division plummeted from the sky, landing heavily on the stone battlement right beside Astrid.
The young female scout hit the ground rolling, utilizing her momentum to bleed off the impact and immediately snapped to attention.
She was panting heavily with her face flushed red from severe mana exhaustion.
"Vice Guild Leader!" the scout gasped, clutching a small velvet-wrapped package tightly to her chest.
Astrid halted her mana circulation, turning her intense glowing blue eyes toward her subordinate.
"Report. Has the western gate fallen?"
"The western gate holds, ma’am," the scout answered, stepping forward urgently.
She thrust her hands out, presenting the small velvet package directly to Astrid.
"I carry a priority delivery... I was intercepted on the lower plaza by a man with black hair and crimson eyes... He possessed an overwhelmingly terrifying aura. He commanded me to deliver this item directly to you before you engaged the enemy."
Astrid’s heart executed a violent leap against her ribs.
Ren...
She reached out, pulling the velvet fabric away.
Resting in the center of the scout’s palm was a breathtakingly beautiful glowing silver necklace.
The delicate chain was forged from pure enchanted mithril holding a teardrop-shaped gemstone that pulsed with a warm profoundly protective holy light.
"He gave me very specific instructions, Vice Guild Leader..." the young scout continued with her cheeks flushing a sudden vibrant shade of pink. "He told me to give this to ’his beloved.’ He ordered you to wear it tightly around your neck and, under absolutely no circumstances, let it go."
Astrid stared at the glowing pendant.
A massive rush of heat exploded across her face, burning all the way to the tips of her ears.
The grim terrifying reality of the apocalyptic monster tide completely vanished for a singular crystalline second.
Her entire world narrowed down to the small piece of enchanted jewelry resting in the scout’s hand.
He had sought out a messenger in the middle of a chaotic screaming evacuation specifically to ensure her safety and he had publicly claimed her as his beloved to her own guild members.
"I understand," Astrid said, her voice dropping into a breathless deeply moved whisper.
She took the necklace with her fingers brushing the warm vibrating gemstone.
She unclasped the mithril chain and secured it tightly around her own throat.
The moment the metal clasped shut... a soothing impenetrable warmth cascaded over her skin, forming an invisible layer of supreme magical protection that she couldn’t see.
Astrid looked out over the burning plains as her blue eyes shone with a renewed determination.
She wondered exactly where in that massive sprawling battlefield the handsome man was fighting.
Astrid gripped her magical staff, the purple twilight mana flaring to life with double its previous intensity.
"Fall back to the inner reserves," Astrid commanded the scout with a confident smile stretching across her face. "Tell the Guild Master I am taking the eastern flank."
Astrid stepped off the edge of the towering stone wall.
She plummeted toward the churning sea of monsters, entirely abandoning the safety of the Aegis barrier.
Down in the thick, churning mud of the eastern flank... the human resistance was breathing its last ragged gasps.
A lone swordsman, clad in heavily dented steel plate armor, stumbled backward over the mutilated corpse of his squad leader.
His helmet was gone and his face was caked in a thick layer of freezing mud and dark corrosive monster blood.
He gripped a chipped heavily notched broadsword with both hands with his arms shaking violently from severe lactic acid buildup and mind-shattering terror.
He was completely surrounded.
The rest of his vanguard unit had been butchered.
He stood entirely alone in a small pocket of space, boxed in by a shifting wall of snarling Armored Orcs and hissing Shadow Beasts.
The wall of lesser monsters parted...
A towering twenty-foot-tall Dire-Troll stepped heavily into the clearing.
The beast was an absolute nightmare of corrupted anatomy with thick jagged bone plates protruding from its sickly green skin acting as natural armor.
Highly acidic, steaming saliva dripped from its massive, tusked lower jaw, hissing as it hit the muddy earth.
In its massive, muscular right hand, the troll dragged a colossal iron club embedded with rusted spikes and the shattered armor of fallen adventurers.
The Dire-Troll locked its burning bloodshot eyes onto the lone trembling swordsman.
It let out a deafening, chest-rattling roar, raising the massive iron club high above its head.
Panic seized the swordsman’s mind, paralyzing him completely.
His legs refused to move... His mana core was entirely depleted... He dropped his heavy broadsword and the chipped steel sank into the mud.
’I’m dead...’
He squeezed his eyes shut, raising a single trembling arm over his face, bracing for the inevitable crushing impact of the descending club.
A massive concussive shockwave violently displaced the air directly above him and the swordsman opened his eyes.
A crater had formed in the mud less than two feet in front of him.
Standing perfectly upright in the center of the impact zone, bathed in a brilliant blinding aura of deep purple light was a woman with flowing golden hair.
Astrid slammed the butt of her magical staff into the muddy earth and she channeled a massive instantaneous surge of A-rank twilight mana directly into the ground beneath the towering Dire-Troll and the surrounding horde.
"Kneel..." Astrid commanded with her voice amplified by her magic echoing like thunder across the battlefield.
A field of hyper-condensed twilight gravity erupted outward and the visual effect was staggering.
The physical space around the monsters violently warped, turning the air into a deep translucent purple hue.
The sheer force of the spell struck the monster horde like a falling mountain.
The twenty-foot-tall Dire-Troll, caught mid-swing, was violently crushed downward.
Its massive bone plates instantly shattered under the extreme gravitational pressure.
The beast let out a brief, gurgling shriek before its entire skeletal structure collapsed, completely pulverizing its internal organs and flattening the colossal monster flat against the mud.
The surrounding circle of Armored Orcs and Shadow Beasts met a similar catastrophic fate.
Dozens of high-tier monsters were instantly pasted to the earth with their bodies bursting into sprays of dark corrosive blood under the weight of Astrid’s magic.
The dense crushing gravity field immediately inverted.
Astrid twisted her staff, reversing the mana polarity.
The crushed pulverized remains of the monsters, along with tons of mud, armor plating and rusted weapons were violently blasted straight up into the air, clearing a massive fifty-yard radius of empty breathable space around her.
The lone swordsman remained entirely untouched, safely situated in the calm epicenter of the spell.
He lowered his trembling arm, staring at the back of the golden-haired woman.
The pulsing purple light of her aura illuminated the dark stormy night as the warm protective glow of the silver necklace resting against her throat cast a divine halo around her silhouette.
To the exhausted traumatized swordsman, she appeared as a literal descending Goddess of War stepping onto the battlefield to deliver salvation.
"F-Fall back," Astrid ordered, glancing over her shoulder at the stunned man. "Head toward the inner gates... I will hold the line."
The swordsman snapped out of his trance.
He scrambled to his feet, abandoning his broken weapon and sprinted frantically toward the safety of the town walls while weeping tears of pure gratitude.
’I’ve been saved! I’ve been saved by a goddess!’
Astrid turned her attention back to the battlefield.
The massive flashy release of A-rank twilight mana had achieved its secondary objective perfectly.
She had successfully drawn the aggro of the most dangerous element on the battlefield.
High above the chaotic melee, the sprawling chaotic flock of flying monstrosities paused.
Hundreds of Corrupted Wyverns and Obsidian Gargoyles altered their flight paths.
Their glowing red and sickly yellow eyes locked simultaneously onto the massive blazing beacon of purple mana standing isolated in the mud.
The aerial swarm recognized a high-priority threat capable of stalling their invasion.
The sky grew substantially darker as the massive swarm congregated.
A deafening unified screech of hostility echoed through the heavy clouds.
Hundreds of flying beasts tucked their wings, entering a steep, synchronized dive aimed directly at Astrid’s position.
Torrents of necrotic, green fire began building in the throat sacks of the Wyverns, preparing to completely incinerate the isolated mage.
Astrid planted her boots firmly into the mud, securing her stance. She stared up at the descending nightmare with her expression completely devoid of fear as a fierce fire burned brightly in her striking blue eyes.
She raised her right hand high above her head, pointing her palm directly toward the center of the diving swarm.
Astrid began gathering ambient mana from the surrounding environment at a furious, almost terrifying pace pulling the raw energy into her palm through overwhelming force of will.
Large intricate purple magical circles materialized in the air around her raised hand.
They spun rapidly, overlapping and locking together in increasingly complex geometric patterns.
The spell matrix demanded an astronomical amount of power, forcefully drawing heat energy directly from the atmosphere to fuel the construct.
The temperature in her immediate vicinity plummeted instantly.
Frost rapidly crystallized across the mud and the surrounding corpses, freezing the humid air into a thick swirling mist.
This was her signature technique.
It was the spell that had earned her a reputation across the Adventurer Town of Galen that she hadn’t gotten to use Last time...
Twilight Beam!
The spell charged toward critical mass in a matter of seconds.
The overlapping purple magic circles glowed with a blinding, searing intensity illuminating the entire eastern flank.
The diving swarm of Wyverns and Gargoyles closed the distance rapidly, entirely committed to their attack trajectory, roaring as they prepared to unleash their necrotic fire.
Astrid’s lips curled into a confident smirk that she had gotten from Ren.
She dropped her hand, aiming the stacked magical circles directly at the thickest cluster of descending monsters.
"Eradicate..." Astrid whispered.
A concentrated blinding lance of pure highly destructive twilight-element mana erupted from the outermost magic circle.
The beam was perfectly cylindrical, charged with a terrifying high-frequency vibration that audibly tore the air molecules apart.
The first Twilight Beam struck the lead Corrupted Wyvern dead center in its chest.
The destructive purple mana effortlessly bypassed the beast’s dense, necrotic scales, punching a clean, massive hole completely through the monster’s torso.
The Wyvern was instantly incinerated from the inside out, its massive body turning to ash before it could even register the impact.
Astrid didn’t stop... She utilized her mana control to continuously feed the matrix.
The magical circles spun wildly, acting as a rapid-fire arcane battery. A second, third, and fourth concentrated lance of destructive twilight mana shot upward in blistering succession.
The beams acted like massive purple anti-aircraft artillery.
They carved through the diving swarm with catastrophic efficiency. Obsidian Gargoyles shattered into fine dust upon contact... Corrupted Wyverns were bisected, their bodies exploding into bursts of green fire and ash as the twilight mana cleanly severed their wings and heads...
Astrid swept her arm across the sky, dragging the continuous rapid-fire volley of Twilight Beams through the dense cloud of monsters.
The sky above the eastern flank turned into a blinding purple light show of absolute destruction.
The deafening roar of the spell drowned out the shrieks of the dying beasts.
Severed limbs, shattered stone, and burning ash rained down across the battlefield, entirely clearing the airspace above her position in a matter of seconds.
The surviving human defenders, scattered across the mud and fighting for their lives, paused to look up at the incredible display of overwhelming firepower.
A massive cheer rippled across the vanguard lines as the morale of the exhausted adventurers spiked dramatically.
The Vice Guild Leader had taken the field, and she was casually erasing the Demon King’s vanguard.
Astrid lowered her arm, the glowing purple magic circles dissipating into the freezing air.
She took a deep breath, regulating her mana core after the massive output.
’That was a lot... but I have more in the tank...’
She tightened her grip on her staff with her eyes scanning the churning sea of monsters remaining on the ground.
The aerial swarm was dealt with, but the main body of the horde was still advancing.
A thunderous, earth-shattering roar pulled her attention directly to the front.
Carving a brutal path through the lesser monsters, violently shoving Armored Orcs aside, was a massive, heavily armored Dread-Minotaur.
It stood twelve feet tall, its muscular body covered in thick, dark steel plating.
It gripped an incredibly massive, blood-stained iron greataxe with both hands.
This was one of Malakor’s personal lieutenants, ready to implement the plan...
The Dread-Minotaur locked its burning red eyes onto Astrid, letting out a furious bellow that sprayed thick saliva across its chest plate.
"RAHHH!!!"
It stomped forward with the ground shaking beneath its hooves preparing to engage the Twilight Witch in direct combat.
Astrid spun her staff smoothly, bringing the heavy enchanted wood into a balanced two-handed guard.
Her golden hair whipped around her shoulders as she fully unleashed her A-rank aura, accepting the challenge.
’Come then... Let’s fight.’
