Chapter 45 Chapter 45 - In the Darkest Hour (1/2)
CHAPTER 45
IN THE DARKEST HOUR
The thunderous roar and the following sweep roused Lino's basic instincts from their sleep. He felt blood in his body boil as his Qi began circulating throughout him like a crazed river. Air around him warped, bizarrely wound as his feet began leaving deep-caving imprints on the stone beneath them. He felt his breathing hasten, his senses heighten, the fabric of his very being contract back into singularity with a solitary purpose: survive. He knew he stood no chance of winning if he gets caught; he'd be dead and broken before he could work a word in. He hardly believed in miracles, in divine intervention that would come to his rescue, as he'd only ever trusted himself, as it was still the case. The remaining part of his sanity fought to tooth and nail not to throw Freya off his shoulder just to increase his speed by a single unit, while the rest of him was focused on ducking into the alleyways and bounding rooftops, occasionally glancing backwards only to see a looming shadow foregrounding the nightscape of the sky.
His legs kicked up a storm of stones and rocks and roof tiles, founding a cascading shower of desecration in an arc behind him. He heard Freya scream something into his ear, yet his mind didn't register it; it felt as if every inch of his brain was working overtime to think of a solution. Every moment he'd spent reading up maps and checking out Umbra Capital with his own eyes was being re-examined ceaselessly, trying to conjure up an escape plan. However, no matter on what answer he arrived, he found it hopeless. The shadow was already catching up, and he was already going his fastest without breaking himself completely apart. Just as he was about to leap off his feet onto a roof, he felt alarms go off inside his head and instead burst toward right, blowing apart the building and arriving on the other end. A moment later, dark, cylindrical beam flattened the roof he was about to bound and everything surrounding it, turning it all into gray ash, blown apart further by the ensuing storm. Lino himself was blown backward through the sky, his right arm bearing the brunt of it all as he tried to shield Freya. The latter screamed out in fear, closing her eyes and burying her head into Lino's chest while he grit his teeth and endured the burning sensation on his forearm. Looking down, he saw worm-like creatures crawling atop his skin, black in hue, trying to dig their way in. He circulated Qi as they burst out in blaze, scalding off within seconds. Landing nearly half a mile away, he took the course toward the eastern gate as the shadow in the sky began following him again.
Looking left and right, he saw absolutely no avenue of retreat; it felt as if an iron cage was closing up on him, as if chains were slowly wrapping around his feet and as if his mind was slowly being worn off. Sweat had long since permeated every inch of his skin, but he hardly noticed.
”There's no point in running away,” a raspy voice reached his ears from the sky, causing his heart to skip a fear. Illusion! Fucking shit, are all these fuckers good at this?! Lino shook his head and ignored the voice as well as the images it conjured up in his mind. ”You're just prolonging the inevitable.”
”Not if you let me go!” he screamed at the sky without turning around.
”You know I can't do that,” the voice added, a trace of amusement in it. ”You have taken something you shouldn't have. He... he really cares about her, I'm afraid. Far more than anything else.”
”Like I give a fucking shit...” Lino grumbled in his jaw, still speeding ahead as quickly as he could.
”You ought to. Isn't he why you came to this city? To look for who opened up the portal?”
”...” Lino did his best to ignore the voice, but, as though without rhyme or reason, it began to wear on his mind and even his body. ”You cowardly piece of shit. Purity Realm fuck using tricks to wear down a Core Realm kid... I'd be ashamed if I were you.”
”Anything to grant a certain victory. It's the creed worthwhile of following.” the voice replied.
”...” Lino finally felt his legs give out as he came to a halt, panting and trying to catch a breath. A moment later, he heard a pair of feet land behind him; turning around, he spotted a man enrobed entirely in black, with only the green of his eyes showing.
”Don't play a hero,” the man suddenly said. ”On the grounds that you've endured so far, and had entertained me for a while, if you let her go, I will do the same for you. You could still live out your days peacefully.”
”...” Lino looked deeply into the man's eyes and saw nothing but honesty; he'd truly let him go were he to release Freya. Alas, that was not something Lino could do. ”It's funny,” Lino said, chuckling. ”Recount over ninety percent of my life, and I'd say 'yes' to your proposal in a heartbeat.”
”... not now?”
”I want to. Heh, I really do. Truth be told, I barely know her,” Lino said. ”But... I feel that if I give her to you here... the rest of my life will turn out the same. I will always make compromises, take the easy way out. I will always end up sacrificing others for myself.”
”That's reasonable. Self-interest is hardly ever a wrong choice.” the man said.
”... maybe. No, heh, definitely. After all, the whole of the world is ruled by self-absorbed people. Anyone who really matters is self-absorbed, I'd learned. It's a way to succeed, I'd realized.” Lino said, taking a deep breath as he finally managed to relax and calm down. ”But...”
”... but you can't be someone like that, you're trying to say?” the man added after Lino went silent for a moment.
”I'd hardly call myself a good person,” Lino said, looking up at the sky. ”But, she doesn't deserve this. This city didn't deserve this.”
”That's not on us.”
”The hell it isn't!!” Lino screamed out. ”Your war with Cultivators, whatever the fuck you guys have been doing since the fucking dawn of time, what the fuck's that got to do with the innocent people?!! What's any of it have to do with people who just want to live out their lives and die a peaceful death?!! You come to the fucking edge of the world because there are no cultivators, and why?! So you can... what? Kill without restraint? Control without restraint?! Execute your 'grand fucking plans' without someone prying in? Hah... what's it matter anyway, at the end of the day? You'll kill me, take her back to that sick fuck, and go on as if nothing had happened. Eventually, there will be no innocent person living in this city... in this kingdom. And, to you, that will be considered a victory. It's an empty one. What have you won? Grand devils managed to take over almost entirely non-cultivator Kingdom. Ha ha ha, it's the joke of the fucking century. Good job.”