Precipice
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The wagon shook violently from the shockwave created by the inn’s partial implosion.
Just before Jytte’s arrow struck, Myra dove through one of the many cavities in the walls, pulling me along in the process and summoning the newts to our position with a strange, whistling call. My body tumbled brusquely through the arched flaps of the vehicle, and I barely had time to brace myself before the shockwave erupted just moments later.
Apparently, I’d been thrown.
What little resistance I had to offer barely made any difference as the sudden surge of wind sent me tumbling inside the wagon bed. Once the tremors subsided, I sprang back to my feet and quickly scaled over the wagon’s sideboard.
Plumes of dust slowly wafted over from the wreckage, but it wasn’t to the point where my vision was obstructed.
“Myra?” Strolling forward, I called the Faeries name a few times before my eyes caught site of a bright twinkle lingering beyond a thick dust cloud.
“We’re over here! I caught Jytte!”
Following the slight pitch in that familiar voice led me to the heart of the destruction. A mountain of rubble stood before me in a somewhat unceremonious pile making it seem as if some unseen force had torn down the building in a fit of rage and abandoned the ruins without a second thought.
Myra slowly began floating down from her airborne position and at her side was a large sphere of water containing Jytte’s partially submerged body. Everything below her shoulders was covered but she still grinned cheekily despite the pain surfacing on her face.
“I had to get a little rough with you just now Liam.” Myra said sheepishly. “There was just too much going on at the end there.”
‘It’s fine, you saved me and it was my idea anyway.”
“Well, that is true, who would have thought that you’d think up something so crazy?”
“It was worth trying out. If Jytte could make her arrows heavier and faster at the same time then hitting Nephthys with that might have stopped her from healing again.”
“I’m not talking about that! I meant the part of the plan where you asked Jytte to try and bring down the entire building!” Myra yelled frantically with a somewhat skeptical stare in her eyes.
She inched closer towards me bit by bit, mumbling a string of words that each seemed to be doused in a mix of her astonishment and disbelief.
Before long, her tiny hand had already grappled onto my cheek. She tugged on my face rhythmically while spewing a few steely assertions that just barely remained within the realm of a normal sentence.
“That. Was. Reeeallly. Close.” She said, blinking a few times to deepen the surge of emotions in her voice.
“O-Okay I got it. Next time let's try something a little safer.” I replied gingerly. Turning my face away to escape the determined glare in her eyes.
“Next time?” Stunned, she repeated my words absentmindedly. After staring at my face for a while, she sighed away the thought and giggled as if the very notion was absurd.
“I give up. You’re not old enough for me to knock some sense into you, so you’ll get a pass this time. Good work Liam.”
All of a sudden, her stance had changed from one of frantic disbelief to one of a firm approval. She drifted closer to rustle the thin bangs hanging over my forehead, then flashed me a warm smile.
After what happened just now seeing this kind of expression on her face had somewhat helped to ease the tension.
“Umm....you two...A little help over here?”
Our companion, who was still submerged by the floating orb cautiously piped up.
One snap from the small Faeries fingers was all it took to dispel the floating orb. It splashed to the ground on command, leaving not even so much as a damp spot on her body. Jytte stumbled forward for a while before ultimately tipping over onto my body.
I somehow managed to stop her from outright falling by acting as a human cane, but holding up her armored body without the use of mana for more than ten seconds seemed impossible.
“That was a little reckless Jytte but I’m glad we pulled it off.”” Myra stated in a low tone, staring at us somewhat apologetically.
“Heh...Don’t mention it....”
For such a small creature, Myra was certainly good at masking her emotions. Whether it was a side effect of being a raider or something else; I couldn’t tell.
Not even needing to chant this time, she extended her palm towards Jytte and willed the moisture in the air to take action.
The space around Jytte’s missing appendage was swiftly bombarded by a subtle shroud of fog that once again formed a thin layer of frost over the wound. She shrieked a bit, but not as much as last time.
“How do you feel?” I probed, staring at her ice coated arm from up close.
“I’ll manage, don’t worry. This is just par for the course at this point.” Her attempt at giving an assuring reply was far from perfect. Nobody here was going to believe what she just said.
That much was obvious from the expression forming on Myra’s face.
“Act tough all you want but you’re nowhere close to being in top form right now. I did the same thing for your severed arm and tossed it in the wagon earlier, so we need to hurry back to the others.” Myra pushed strongly, barely managing to suppress the surfacing squeal in her tone.
“Liam it looks like I’ll need your help for a little while longer. Using my enchantments like that....really takes a toll on my body, it’s not something I can do all that often.”
“I don’t mind, I’ll help you.”
“Thanks...”
Her hot, wheezing breaths brushed past my ears as we walked forward. Although she was trying to hide it, her body’s limit were becoming clearer with every step.
“We should get as far away from here.....as soon as we can. That woman....I don’t think my last arrow finished her off.” Jytte mumbled as we trotted forward at a rather frantic pace.
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“What!? You mean she’s not dead for good!?” Myra exclaimed somewhat fearfully.
“No, I don’t think so. Just before my last arrow hit, she used those vibrating blades to slice her own body in two. My aim was already off after losing an arm, but that one move completely diverted he shot. At best, it probably grazed her mana core but I don’t think that was enough to completely destroy it.”
Myra’s wings shuddered, and her head slowly creaked back to gaze at the pile of debris we were leaving behind.
“Shouldn’t we finish her off then?” The Faerie inquired adamantly.
“I’d love to, but that was my last shot. I don’t think I’ll be any good in a fight from here on out. It’s best we just use this opportunity to retreat.”
“But-”
“It’s fine Myra.” I assured her with a subtle wink.
She gave me a blank stare before finally catching on to the meaning behind my gesture.
“Oh right! You said something about seeing her mana core a while ago. So? What’s it look like?” She asked bluntly, kicking up a thunder-like series of flaps with her wings in the process.
“She definitely got hit.” I replied calmly to the creature less than an inch away from my face.
“But, just like Jytte said it doesn’t look like it was a direct hit. Her core is damaged though so that should be enough to stop her regeneration for now. It’s going to be a lot harder for her to escape from under all that rubbl-”
“Leaving so soon?”
The air stiffened.
Through our physical contact, I’m almost certain that the twitch I just felt on my shoulder came from the shudder that just jolted up Jytte’s spine.
Instantly, our heads whipped back towards the wreckage in succession, but there was nobody there. That thick, poison like pressure was coming from the site of the wreckage — Beneath it to be exact— Where a supposedly undead creature was currently trapped.
“I never expected things to turn out this way. Vidar probably won’t take this too well since I messed up, but-”
A hint of somberness mingled with those muffled words, however, there was no time to process the implications of her tone, because in the next instant a bone chilling howl that seemingly spanned miles swept across the streets of Fallon, leaving nothing but a suffocating pressure in the air.
It wasn’t instantaneous; rather, the effects lingered for a few seconds as the sound continued to build—thumping and churning as though the world itself was suffering.
Jytte’s body reacted on pure instinct, forcing her hairs into an upright position as a ferocious fit of shivers began breaking out all over her body.
“Jytte...that’s....” Myra gasped, silently struggling to find her words.
“Yeah; Its here.”
Although I had no primal instincts to guide my senses, I was the only one here capable of experiencing its true grandeur. My eyes blinked twice before omitting my surroundings. Even though I could clearly feel it, I still wanted to confirm the situation with my own two eyes.
A large, dark cloud hung ominously over in the direction of the Brimwell. It represented something otherworldly — A presence that shouldn’t be here.
My eyes remained fixed on the dark spot but there really was no need to stare so intently. From the moment I felt that sudden shift in the air just now I knew exactly what it was.
Another irregular had been summoned.
One that was far more powerful than Nephthys — This was the real deal.
For the last time, Nephthys once again burst into a wicked series of snickers from beneath her makeshift prison.
“Looks like they’ve started over there. It really is a shame I won’t get to watch the carnage unfold.”
Something immediately creaked in my ears. It was the sound of Myra’s gnashing teeth, she had begun molding her mana and seemed just about ready to fire off another spell.
“I really don’t think we should just leave her here. There’s no telling what she’ll do if we let her live!”
“Agreed.....” Jytte’s supportive reply seemed somewhat hesitant at the same time.
“I get where you’re coming from but I don’t think it's a very good idea right now. Carelessly firing off spells could end up setting her free, and I doubt you have enough mana to finish her off on your own.”
Her rage had yet to subside but the Faerie clearly understood the logic at play here. Thanks to that, the mana brewing in her core seemed to have lost a great deal of its ferocity.
“Damn it...” She cursed with a click of her tongue.
“I appreciate you all thinking about me so much but don’t you have bigger things to worry about? I wonder how your comrades are faring over there, hmm? Something even more dangerous than me just showed up you know.”
Nephthys cut in sarcastically. Even though her words were being muffled by the huge heap of debris, it still couldn’t mask the overwhelming sarcasm in her tone.
Her intentions were obvious, this was a taunt.
She wanted us to leave as soon as possible so she could get to work on freeing herself. Since they had no life force, the souls being housed within her core were slowly escaping and evaporating as time passed, which was gradually weakening her by the second.
If this was allowed to go on for a few more hours then she would surely perish for good, but blissful outcomes like that tended to decline my invitations.
This woman wasn’t so foolish as to simply throw away the second chance at life she’d been given.
Myra’s gaze drifted down to the two of us. The sight of me laboring to support her limping comrade seemed enough to clarify her priorities.
She formed a scowl, tsked, and then reluctantly muttered a few words.
“Let’s go.”
I understood the sentiment all too well. The further I marched on the harder it was for me to pry my eyes from the wreckage. There it was, just beneath that pile of rubble — My role.
It was a task I should have been the one to complete.
I was the only one who could properly complete it.
The thought simmered in my mind, over and over to the point where it felt like my blood was starting to boil.
Nephthys continued taunting us as we cleared the area, but out of everything she said it was her last sentence that stuck with me the most.
“I won’t forget your faces, nor the scent of your souls. One day, after I’m free from here, I’ll find you all and devour you. Remember that Jytte, Myra and especially you Liam. I definitely won’t be forgetting your scent; hehehe......”
Myra and Jytte seemed to be making light of her threats at the moment, especially since she was currently buried under a pile of rubble, but I took those words to heart.
That woman was from Terrania back in my previous world. I don’t know how she ended up here after I sealed her in limbo, but apparently, a few centuries in there weren’t enough to cleanse her soul.
She still had that same degree of vengefulness about her.
That one prevailing trait was the sole reason she ended up locked in limbo in the first place. Even after all this time, she showed no signs of changing. I suppose this is just how it has to be sometimes, there was clearly no room for reformation here.
These two might not have thought much of it, but she was serious.
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As soon as we got back into the wagon, Myra whistled again to signal the newts. We raced through the desolate city; clanking and cutting corners, the rhythmic sound of their webbed feet against the cobblestone echoing like a heartbeat in the stillness.
She used small orbs of water to act as a sort of guiding mechanism for them since she was too small to hold the reins.
The creatures chased after the small blue orbs maniacally until we were finally back within viewing distance of the Brimwell.
As we approached, a bright azure glow became increasingly prominent around the vicinity of the turning wheel. It was still a ways up ahead but my eyes were more than capable of deducing the source.
If Jytte hadn’t fallen unconscious, she would have been the first to point it out. The source of that glow was a far cry from majestic. On the contrary, it was unsettling—the dancing light in the distance was produced by flames.
Flames that were consuming everything on Fallon’s northern end.