Chapter 458 (2/2)

So then, Tziech lied. “No, he told me. But I chose this. Its power is great. We needed it.”

“You’ve been using it this whole time.” The Thief whispered, her eyes wet.

Shrugging, Tziech said. “As I said, we needed it. Now, will you follow me?” He gestured towards the glowing beam of light that shot off into the sky, beyond a regiment of Aether Thralls.

After several moments of hesitation, the Thief nodded. But Tziech noticed how tight her hands were on the shaft of her spear. She had been taking it relatively easy, Tziech knew. Fighting to the best of her ability, of course, but not putting her life on the line. Not exhausting herself. And now, this ancient defender of the land was wracked with guilt, seeing Tziech’s own life leak away.

And for that, Tziech was sorry. But, just like he would sacrifice his own body for the greater good of this world of his, home of his monster race, he would sacrifice hers too.

Some things purposeful, some not.

Together, they moved forward and tore apart the enemies in front of them, the Thief skewering them, Tziech smashing them apart with brute force, freely using his right hand. There was no point in holding back now, the damage had been done to his body. What he lacked most at the moment was time, and any actions he could take to accomplish this goal faster…

When the enemies were clear, they stood before the band of energy, frozen for a moment by its majesty. It was blue-green, the color of coral in the clean sea. Tziech had never seen the sea, the true sea that wasn’t just a very large swamp, but immediately the color struck him of one full of life.

“Take my hand,” Tziech commanded.

“Which one?” The Thief countered with a raised eyebrow, but before he could respond she had grabbed his right one. Immediately, she shivered. “Great Progenitor, but your hand is cold.”

“Hold on tight,” Smiling in spite of himself, Tziech stepped forward. Immediately, he felt the strange energy of the pillar of light seize him, and begin twisting him. It wasn’t so much that he was moving, but that the world around him was folding in on itself, over and over, until….

They emerged from the pillar, finding themselves, as previously, on top of a low hill, but that was where the similarities end. The pillar they were next to now was a crimson red, the edges of it an angry violet color. Strange bones were arrayed nearby so that it seemed that they were standing in a graveyard, likely of a race of beings similar to the Devastator he just killed. Except for the specific bones around them formed great piles and sculptures, twisted, greying, monstrous things so that every individual bone seemed to blend together to become an undead land that surrounded them.

“Sweet oblivion,” The Thief whispered, looking up, and Tziech followed her gaze.

Floating above them were huge blue crystals, the same color as the pillar of energy in the Progenitor’s world. They seemed to be about as big as a city, and if one toppled down towards them, Tziech had no confidence in being able to survive the impact, let alone stop such a huge amount of force. Even with this right hand of his… it was completely on another scale.

As if on cue, his right hand twinged painfully, a reminder of what would happen to him. Tziech ignored it, his gaze staying upwards. Because beyond the crystals, the sky was split into a checkerboard, these jet black lines running across the sky, only showing these segmented squares of freedom.

This proved to be an incredibly apt metaphor, because as Tziech looked closer, he realized that those black lines were thick chains, crisscrossing this entire world. Around them, the world was empty, seemingly populated only by the bones, the drifting crystals, and then the huge chains binding the world. Tziech shuddered to think how large those chains must be, in order to cover all of that distance.

“Alright, let’s begin,” Tziech finally said, unsure what else they were supposed to do. He removed a small pouch from his pack and placed it upon the ground. The Thief held her spear aloft and closed her eyes, concentrating. Slowly, then with increasing speed, a strange greyness was released from the end of the spear, that fell to the ground, and began to spread out slowly. Where it touched, the color seemed to fade, and it became slightly obscure as if a thin fog was falling over everything in the world.

Then Tziech settled down to wait, wondering in what form the counterattack would arrive.