Chapter 75: Until the end (First part)

Life is ironic.

I became aware of this simple truth many years ago, but I never thought my own life would reflect it so perfectly.

I spent weeks risking my life and using every bit of strength I could to reach this Advanced town just one day earlier.

And now, I was desperately trying to run away from the same town as fast as my exhausted body allowed me to.

This situation would have probably made me smile in ridicule if not for the seriousness of our current predicament.

For long minutes, I forced my body to move forward with my determination fuelled by the violent explosions happening not so far behind us.

I thought the white circle in the sky, symbol of the Lost magic responsible for all this devastation, was completely gone after its initial confrontation with the mysterious rainbow, but the numerous explosions that followed showed me how wrong I was.

I single glance above my shoulder toward the sky overlooking the Advanced town was enough to notice that the situation was even worse than before.

The white circle didn’t disappear between each explosion anymore. It continued to stubbornly paint a small part of the threatening dark clouds. It became simply impossible to miss just like it was impossible to ignore the imposing, almost tangible, rainbow intercepting each flash of white light.

I had no idea what had created this strange magical rainbow that shielded the city so many times already. I could only hope that it would continue long enough to give us enough time to rejoin Alianelle and Jazor near the giant tree towering the closest forest of the Advanced town.

Fortunately, this time my prayers were answered.

It took us ten minutes to finally reach the meeting place.

The relief I felt when I finally saw Jazor and Alianelle waiting for us unharmed was difficult to describe.

“Dad!”

Alianelle’s voice betrayed the same emotion while she ran as fast as she could to her father. Paul simply opened his arms to welcome an embrace probably filled with conflicted emotions.

“Sorry… I’m so sorry…”

Tears were flowing out of their respective eyes while words of apology continued to flow out of Paul’s mouth.

This heartwarming scene was happening just a few steps away from me and was possible only because of my almost desperate efforts. However, I didn’t let my eyes wander for more than a few seconds on it.

The appearance of Jazor with his axe and clothes covered with blood and various fluids of different colors was much more important in my eyes. Just as important and disturbing as the corpses of various, mostly unknown, species on the ground around him that completed this picture.

However, before I could open my mouth to ask about it, a distant noise reached us and also put a forced end to Alianelle and Paul reunion.

I didn’t need to close my eyes to feel what was coming, neither did I have the time to do that.

The distinctive noise of hooves reached us just a few seconds before its surprisingly fast owner appeared from the forest behind Jazor.

The creature looked like a dark horse. Much more than any of the Preel or other similar creatures I ever saw in fact. The only massive difference with the original and harmless specie of my old world was the long mane and hooves covered with an ominous green fire masking a large part of its muscular figure.

The strange and devastating green trail followed behind the mysterious creature until Jazor ran toward it with its axe raised.

With surprising power and agility, the creature was cleanly beheaded and violently crashed on the ground before I could even gather my mana to intercept it.

“Ahhh”

Alianelle wasn’t able to prevent a brief frightened scream from escaping her mouth in front of this sudden bloody spectacle. However, contrary to my expectation for a girl as innocent as her, she quickly closed her mouth and calmed down.

"We need to get the hell out of here. Now!” Exclaimed Jazor.

None of us contested Jazor’s hurried words after his bloody execution.

We were quite far away from the town but something was wrong. I was too focused on the explosions happening behind us at an hectic rhythm to clearly think about it before. However, I couldn’t deny this strange feeling anymore.

“Sillath, you’re bleeding!” Finally exclaimed Alianelle without hiding the worry in her voice when she turned her attention back to me.

“It’s nothing.” I quickly dismissed her concern and asked Jazor the only question that truly mattered in our situation.

“Have you recovered enough to use your magic on the three of us?”

“Yeah, I’m good to go. Probably not for long but everywhere will still be better than here...”

None of us doubted his words, not even Paul as I already explained to him Jazor’s ability to carry people with him underground.

I was probably not the only one who noticed his unusual worried voice whereas we were supposed to be almost out of the woods. However, none of us chose to ask why the strongest among us suddenly showed such concern.

This thought continued to plague my mind while we reached Jazor to let him use his magic.

The same sensation, albeit slower to form, invaded us as our feet slowly started to sink or maybe fuse with the ground.

The slow process continued for long seconds until I finally realized what was wrong.

The ambient mana surrounding us was different.

We were near a forest, a place richer in mana than the vast plain we just crossed.

However, this wasn’t about the mana being richer.

My ability to sense mana was much stronger than before, but it was still a new power to me. Maybe that’s why I didn’t immediately realize why I felt so restless while we were crossing the vast plain separating the Advanced town from our meeting point.

The mana was different, there was no doubt about it.

Not just denser.

It was fiercer.

Wilder.

I closed my eyes and spread my senses to confirm my suspicion.

“Jazor!!!”

With a scream, I immediately snapped my eyes open and released a dense burst of mana. Jazor’s fragile magic was immediately cancelled and propelled us several feet away from one another in a violent reaction.

My wind magic prevented me from crashing on the ground, but none of my friends had the same chance.

Their impact on the hard soil made a loud noise, but none of them had the time to complain or wonder why I did this.

A deafening rumbling noise, immediately followed by a tremor difficult to resist, prevented their questions to leave their mouths.

A familiar giant worm-like monster emerged from the ground with its mouth wide open where we were standing just a second earlier.

Its giant mouth filled with several rows of deadly fangs closed while crushing the dirt and rocks it swallowed along the way. I could only watch the monster quickly rise while its giant brown body covered with hard scales wriggled several feet above us.

Jazor who already stood up with his axe in his hands had a serious expression while Alianelle and Paul both watched with fear on their face this horror of nature in front of their eyes.

I wished I could say that my face was devoid of any kind of fear.

However, that would be a lie.

I already faced this creature and now knew its name.

It was a Krath.

The same kind that nearly killed me a little more than a month ago.

Even if the creature was at least ten times smaller than the one who swallowed half a forest before Jazor’s timely intervention, I didn’t have much confidence about my chances against it, especially with someone as defenseless as Paul not far from me.

Not to mention the fact that I already used way more mana than what I was comfortable with.

The creature turned its head repeatedly left and right while another tremor, much stronger than before, reached us.

The kind of tremor strong enough to completely cover the distant noise of repeated explosions still coming from the town.

The kind able to inspire fear even in someone as strong as Jazor.

However, it wasn’t coming underground this time.

With a pale face, Jazor and Alianelle both turned their heads above their shoulder toward the dark forest behind them.

Paul and I were separated from them on the other side of this monster, with our eyes glued beyond the darkness of the distant forest in front us.

The darkness was quickly swallowed by a distant but growing green light while numerous angry screeches started to reach us. Jazor was much more experienced than I was, so he probably understood even faster than me that whatever was coming was just as bad as the monster towering above the forest with its length.

The Krath separating us finally turned its monstrous head toward Jazor as if he recognized him as a greater threat.

With its giant mouth wide open, the long body started to awkwardly twitch in a disturbing and familiar movement.

I felt my heart skip a beat as I recognized this attack.

*Bam*

The largest earthball I could muster crashed into the back of the creature’s head and made it turn its monstrous open maw toward me in anger.

Jazor was strong, but not enough to deal with both threats at the same time while protecting Alianelle especially in his current state.

With a grateful look on his face, Jazor turned his back on us and the Krath to face the entrance of the forest.

I didn’t have the leisure to see what he was doing to stop what was coming toward us at high speed, but I wasn’t able to ignore the massive amount of mana he was gathering.

“Stay back, Paul!” I screamed while taking a step forward.

I trusted Jazor.

He will be able to deal with whatever is coming.

He will protect Alianelle and open a way for us to escape.

But only if I could prevent this monster from attacking him from behind.

I couldn’t back out.

Otherwise none of us would survive.

I steeled my determination while the threatening creature let out an earth-shattering roar toward us strong and frightening enough to make Paul fall on his back.

Did I have to use this magic?

If I did, maybe I would be able to kill this monster.

However, I quickly dismiss this crazy idea.

I wasn’t optimistic enough to think this monster would be the only obstacle on our way.

It was too soon to bet everything on this untested trump card.

I made up my mind and, with a violent stomp of my foot on the ground, I released my wind magic to propel myself above the ground.

The Krath lunged forward to swallow me whole, but another impulse of one of my feet on the air itself let me fly out of reach of the creature.

It took him a few seconds to find me again on the right side of its head.

This was enough to confirm my thoughts.

This Krath was fast but its vision was limited. That’s probably why it took so long to attack after it emerged from the ground. Its mouth was wide enough to swallow anything in its path, but it was obviously much more difficult to follow with precision something as small as me.

I had to distract it long enough for Jazor to intervene.

I was tired and wounded but I had enough strength and mana left for that.

I couldn’t be sure why my ability to handle mana was stronger than a month ago, but I was certainly grateful for that especially while I was desperately trying to avoid the brutal and sudden attacks of the creature who simply tried to crush me instead of swallowing me whole.

After a few more missed attempts, the creature started to turn its attention away from me so I had no other choice but to launch another large earthball directly to its face while coming closer.

With each missed attempt of the creature, I could hear Paul and Alianelle shock gasps of fear. Fortunately, this dangerous dance didn’t last very long even if it appeared endless for me.

Even with my head spinning from all the violent movements in the sky to escape certain death, I could easily feel that Jazor had finally completed his magic. The enormous amount of mana ready to burst out of him didn’t let any doubt about that.

With a relieved smile on my lips, I watched as he punched the ground in front of him with a violent shout.

There was no explosion or any kind of impressive manifestation after the release of his magic.

For Paul and Alianelle, it probably felt like Jazor’s magic didn’t have any effect at all.

However, even while I was manoeuvring to avoid the giant monster, I could sense it.

The violent mana released in front of him, ready to swallow anything in its path.

I didn’t have to wait long for the power of his magic to reveal its might to everyone.

The grassy ground in front of him rippled before being overturned. As if an invisible giant hand was at work, the closest trees started to topple immediately followed by the ones closest to them.

The wave continued its course unhindered. The numerous animals that emerged in mass from the woods while leaving a dense trail of green fire were all victim to his magic.

In a few seconds, half of the forest had its trees lying on the ground strangely parallel to one another while the horde of furious animals threatening to drown us was completely broken. Most of them were buried under a huge amount of rocks and earth with bloody wounds as the green flames of their bodies slowly extinguished.

A frightening silence replaced the previous thunder-like noise of the hooves of the horde running toward us. Even the Krath near me stilled in mid-air leaving me enough time to finally fix my posture and catch my breath.

Its head, dozens of times larger than my entire body, turned its attention toward the responsible for this impressive scene. I felt my blood run cold as the creature finally chose to completely ignore me while Jazor put one of his knees on the ground in a loud thud betraying his exhaustion.

With a wave of my hand, I sent another large earthball toward the creature’s head but it didn’t react this time. I wasn’t the only one who noticed this.

Alianelle, who was the closest to Jazor, hurriedly lent him her frail shoulder to lean on. After a few more tries, Jazor finally stood up, but the cost of his overpowered magic was obviously difficult for him to bear especially in his already weakened state.

I saw him stumble and almost drag Alianelle to the ground with him.

Paul was just as powerless as me in front of this scene.

Even the ice magic I fired in the meantime wasn’t strong enough to pierce the hard scales or distract the Krath from its new target. I could only watch its giant body, completely unaffected by my attacks, starting to twitch in front of Jazor’s horrified eyes.

“Don’t stay here, Jazor!”

With shaking limbs, Jazor used the handle of his axe and Alianelle’s support to stand up after my scream, but the creature didn’t intend to stop this time.

It finally opened its giant mouth and sucked the air in Jazor’s direction.

Broken trees, rocks, bodies of animals and an incredible amount of earth previously overturned by Jazor’s magic flew toward its giant open mouth before disappearing in the darkness of its throat.

“Ahh!”

Alianelle never saw the creature before and was unprepared for the sudden sucking force. She fell on her back and was dragged on the ground.

“Alianelle!!!”

“Stay where you are, Paul!” I screamed while hovering in the sky near the beast’s head.

Paul who was behind the monster stopped after my words with horror on his face as Alianelle was trying to grab with her entire strength the grass and roots near her.

Even with his axe planted on the ground, Jazor was also barely able to stay standing on his feet.

The attack of the monster continued for long unending seconds while Alianelle was slowly but surely losing her grip.

I couldn’t just jump in front of the creature’s mouth to save her or I would simply be sucked in first. My wind magic wasn’t strong enough to counter this kind of storm yet.

I needed more power.

While I was gathering as much mana as I could to power up my wind magic, I watched with incredulous eyes as Jazor was the first to let go.

“No!!!” I screamed immediately in shock.

However, I quickly swallowed back my words and cancelled my wind magic ready to erupt when I noticed that Jazor intentionally let go to draw nearer Alianelle.

One of his powerful hands caught her arm before the axe in his other hand was violently planted into the ground.

The relief I felt when I saw Jazor save Alianelle was short-lived. I watched with my heart in my throat as the powerful looking axe became their only link to the ground when both of their feet finally lost their support after the creature intensified its attack.

However, neither Jazor’s grip nor the axe planted in the ground gave way. The axe stayed strangely immovable despite the growing strength of the sucking force eager to swallow them.

Large patches of earth were torn off from the ground around them, but Jazor’s axe didn’t move. It took me a few more seconds to notice the mana emitted from the axe strengthening its link with the ground.

The creature was angered by their resistance and continued its attack for even longer. Even the other specimen of this monstrous race, that was at least ten times larger, didn’t use this attack for nearly as long.

I continued to gather my mana while waiting for the moment bound to come when the Krath wouldn't be able to continue anymore.

Finally the beast stopped its mad sucking force, letting Alianelle and Jazor powerlessly fall face first on the ground.

However, just like Jazor, I knew that the truly terrifying part of its attack had yet to come.

The creature will spit out everything it absorbed in a violent whirlpool of death strong enough to destroy anything in its way.

Even with Jazor’s protection, there wasn’t any chance that Alianelle would be able to survive something like that.

I had to act before that.

That’s why, as soon as the beast stopped its attack, I rushed forward with my wind magic.

“Sillath!!!”

“Don’t stay here, idiot!”

I ignored Alianelle and Jazor’s respective screams to face the gigantic open maw of the Krath just a few feet away from me.

I couldn’t pierce its scales no matter what I did. The idea to attack inside the open mouth of the creature crossed my mind in the brief instant I faced the darkness of its void-like mouth, but I dismissed this idea just as quickly.

I didn’t have enough power to directly kill it even with this trick. I didn’t have the time for that either.

The Krath didn’t need more than a few seconds to start the second part of its attack and completely destroy me.

My wind magic powered my steps in the sky as I rushed even closer to the creature.

The Krath’s angry roar made my heart skip a beat, but I didn’t stop my course as if I wanted to enter its open maw. I avoided another of the violent turns of its massive body and finally touched the upper jaw of the monster with the tip of my fingertip.

I couldn’t directly bypass its apparently unbreakable hard scale like Jazor did when he was at his strongest neither could I simply kill it from the inside.

None of my magic gave me this ability.

However, I had my own strength.

My own magic.

All the mana I had gathered was released as soon as the feeling of the strangely hot scale of the creature was transmitted to my hand.

A violent burst of cold exploded as a huge chunk of ice was immediately created.

My journey on my own across the wilderness taught me many things and let me peek at many hidden truths of the magic of this world.

One of them was that each element had its own ability.

The strength of ice wasn’t its piercing power. Earth was better in this aspect.

No, ice didn’t have the raw power of the earth or the fluidity of water.

However, it had something else.

An unrivaled ability to seal.

So that’s what I was doing.

A translucent but solid looking chunk of ice was born around the monster’s upper jaw and spread according to my will.

My hand trapped in my own ice helped me stay close enough to continue powering up my magic and create the densest ice I could.

With my entire mana dedicated to this task, I ignored the terrifying roars of the creature and the pain of my already bleeding arm as the monster continued to wreak havoc.

A few seconds of this fierce confrontation was all it took for a dense layer of ice to completely cover the giant mouth of the monster who simply lost the ability to open or close its maw.

I didn’t have enough mana left to completely trap the creature in ice but sealing its mouth was more than enough. After everything it sucked in, there was no way it was going to be fine if I prevented it from completing its attack.

The threatening roars of the monster continued to echoe beyond the ice. I didn’t know if the hint of pain I detected in this roar was true or simply imagined but it gave me enough strength to persevere.

Persevere until its movements grew so violent and erratic that my mind failed to register everything currently happening. The lack of mana and all the blood I lost weren’t probably unrelated to this sudden weakness and haziness of my consciousness.

A violent explosion put an end to the movements of the monster while I was projected backward. My mind was too fuzzy to register anything other than that.

I could only remember covering my body with the hardest earth I could while using my wind magic in reflex before everything turned black.