Zenith sat, sifting through the contents of the drive Ray had retrieved from an old, long-abandoned terminal. Lines of text slowly appeared, painting a far worse situation than she had originally assumed they were in. The readout became garbled, and the screen flashed to a red tint before a new message appeared.
“I told you to stop looking for me… Was your last attempt not enough to learn your lesson?... Then let me ingrain it into your mind.”
Ray left his new creation to lie on the workbench and climbed into bed, exhausted from what had become a very long day. He sighed, looking at Erith’s side of the bed, lamenting that it was empty like he had every month since her injury.
A sound like a falling meteor blanketed the castle, and he shot to his feet. It echoed out again and again. Ray threw on his armor and new back plate before grabbing two finely crafted short swords beside the door and rushing to Nevala’s room.
“What’s going on?” she asked, already halfway to his room and trying to calm a crying Shin.
“I don’t know, but we should–” he trailed off, and his mouth went wide as a replica of the first person he had ever killed stepped from around a nearby corner. “Get behind me!” he said, grabbing Nevala’s arm and pulling her away from the man before drawing his swords.
“Well, well, well, fancy seeing you again.”
“How the hell are you alive?”
“If you cut off a man’s pinky finger, do they die?”
Ray slowly backed away, ensuring he was between the man and Nevala. “What the hell are you talking about?” He considered his next move, but a use of Draconic insight gave him all the information he needed. They needed to get away from that man as soon as they could.
Human
Name: Alistrod Brenic
Level: 24
Ascension: 2
Class: Mechanical savant
“Oh, nothing you would understand. But anyway, would you mind showing me to Zenith?”
Black runes began lighting up on Hope, and Ray continued backing away from Alistrod.
“What do you want with her?”
“Just some payback. I guess I also owe you some, though. Oh well, show me that Ice queen of a dragon and all is forgiven.”
Ray smirked as the spell finished casting. “If I didn’t still need him, I just might have taken you up on that.”
Ray and Nevala vanished from the halfway, appearing in front of Zenith's room. He banged on the door frantically. “Zenith!”
No reply came. Ray gritted his teeth, looking over his shoulder
“Ah screw it.” He slammed his metallic fist into the doo,r an a shockwave resounded tearing it off its hinges. “Let’s go.”
A large hexagonal room sprawled out before them, with a hallway leading down each wall.
“Which way?” Nevala asked, still trying to comfort her crying son.
“H.B.?”
“On it.” Several hovering constructs flew from the black plate, flying down each path. “Third on the left.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“This way,” Ray said, id running down the path.
A room like nothing Ray had ever seen sat at the end of the hall. Tubes came from each wall, connecting to six human-sized metal rectangles that seemed to grow out of the floor.
“What the hell is this?”
“Ray,” Nevala called. “Over here.”
Ray turned and saw Nevala looking through a glass panel directly at Erith. His heart skipped a beat. It had been months since Zenith had last allowed him to see her, and she was always placed in a more traditional bed when he did.
“How do we get her out?” he asked, running over and searching the device.
“I don’t know.”
“There looks to be a panel on the back,” Horde Breaker said in his mind.
Ray circled the device and investigated the glowing blue panel. Three options were displayed on the dull screen. Release, Awaken, and Terminate.
Ray furrowed his eyebrows. “What the hell?”
“What is it?” Nevala asked, maneuvering so that she could see the screen. She paused upon seeing the screen. “What do you think it means?”
The castle shook as a sound like a bomb going off echoed through its halls.
Ray took a deep breath and pressed awaken, followed by release. “I don’t know, but we can’t stay–” He trailed off as the pod opened, spilling a coughing Erith onto the ground along with a strange red liquid. “Erith!” Ray shouted with joy and relief.
She finished coughing up more of that strange liquid before finally turning to him, her hair clinging to her face in a wet clump. “What happened?” She asked in a raspy voice.
With little care for the slimy liquid, Ray pulled her into a tight hug. “You got hurt and… and.”
She returned the hug. “Whatever happened, it’s ok.”
The building shook again.
“We've got to get out of here!” Nevala shouted.
Ray nodded.
Erith’s eyes widened as she saw the crying child in her arms. “Is–Is that your kid? How long was I out?”
Ray stood and grabbed a long white jacket from a nearby hook, handing it to Erith to cover herself with. “It’s been nine months,” he said with a sigh.
She pulled on the garment and pushed herself to her feet. “Nine months!” she shouted.
Ray nodded. “Zenith said it would be a few more, too. I’m guessing she was lying to me and keeping you asleep for a while now,” he said with a hint of rage entering his voice.”
The building shook again, knocking items from nearby shelves as dust fell from the ceiling.
“Shit!” Ray quickly muttered the words needed for the gateway spell and watched as a glowing portal opened to a mountainous region far outside the city. “Get through the gate. Hurry!” he shouted, helping Nevala and Erith through before entering himself and shunting the portal. He let out a sigh of relief.
“Uhh,” Nevala began, her voice shaking. “What the hell is that thing?!”
Ray turned to see a massive object almost three times the size of the Promises Echo floating above the city. “Holy shit,” he muttered. “That’s a dreadnought-class warship.”
“A what?” Erith and Nevala asked in tandem.
“A warship from before the system that I read about while working for Zenith, but I couldn’t have imagined any of them would still be functional.”
“Still don’t know what that is,” Erith said.
“You remember how Zenith told us about humans spreading to other planets?”
She nodded.
“It's something that can not only travel between them but was meant to blow up other things that traveled between them.”
“Why did they need something so big for that?” Nevala asked.
“No idea, but if that madman has on, this definitely won’t end well.”
“Madman?” Erith asked.
“Oh right, I got so distracted I forgot to tell you about that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Remember that guy that nearly killed you and I thought I had killed when we first met Zenith?”
“You thought you had killed?”
“Yeah, turns out he is somehow not dead and has ascended twice.”
Erith blinked a few times. “I’m sorry, what?”
Ray rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, he tried to cut us off on the way to you. He was looking for Zenith for some reason.”
The ground shook as two auras of immense power clashed in the city, pulling everyone's attention.
“That’s not good,” Ray muttered. “Stay here, I’m going to get Freia and anyone else I can out of there.”
“Not a chance in hell!” Nevala shouted. “You see what’s going on over there, right? I won’t let you leave Erith in a situation like mine.”
“It’s ok,” Erith said.
“But–”
“If he didn’t go, he would be beating himself up about it for the rest of his life, and I trust him.”
Ray looked into her eyes and smiled. “Thank you.”
“Promise you will come back?”
“Always.”
Erith nodded and, with a quick incantation, Ray vanished.
Now for the somber part of this message: I have run into some writer's block regarding the next section of this book and am currently trying to get it into a state that I like. With that being said, there is a chance that no chapter will be released on Monday or Wednesday of next week as I get everything in order. I'm sorry about this, but one of my biggest drives in writing this book is to make a story I enjoy, and I'm not going to compromise that just to push out another chapter. I have done that a few times in the past and always regretted it, so I will be taking my time when I feel it is needed.
Sib
