Chapter 479 - Chained Beast

The feeling of danger keeps increasing until it feels nearly physical, like I can touch it, sense it on my skin. It makes the hair on the back of my head stand and goosebumps cover my forearms. That feeling is akin to crawling into the cave of a beast, moving in on your knees and pulling yourself ahead. Knowing you should stop and run, yet you continue, ignoring scraped skin from your knees and palms and the trail of blood you leave behind.

As the fights become dangerous, we push just like that, the wounds collecting even on my body and acid often dripping from the ceiling, something even The Witch is incapable of stopping.

Rotlings become twice as big, doubling their number of legs and the size of their mouths. Just a few seconds is enough for them to tear huge chunks of flesh, and their coordination becomes better.

In the midst of it all, Lily moves like a whirlpool. Her swings, though amateurish, are swift and precise, crashing into the monsters. As dozens of them close in on her, targeting our last healer, her new skill envelops her body.

[Disintegration Mantle] rests on her shoulders, flowing down to her knees. It shifts in the air as if it has a will of its own or as if strong winds move it, yet it remains firmly within her control.

Its color is gradient gray, darker around her shoulders and becoming lighter at the bottom, where it resembles smoke more than anything. Any monster that touches it gets disintegrated, no attack capable of passing through as she rolls into groups of monsters without any worry, swinging that bone ax of hers.

There are signs of her using it for attacks as well, with it shifting and moving. Though she's still exploring the skill, even in its slightly weaker form, nothing down here can withstand it, a fact clearly reflected in the expressions of the other expedition members.

My mind is also clear and sharp, the dangers surrounding us shaping it to be that way as I use kinetic energy to move, avoid the Rotlings, or throw them away, while finishing them with compressed javelins, boosted by that same kinetic energy.

Any monster that comes closer is welcomed by the weapon made from manablock I compressed to the point of nearly destabilizing and keep changing shape of—from spear to sword, to claymore, to ax.

Yet, I still hold myself back, knowing the worst is yet to come.

Fighting through waves of monsters, we reach a dead end of the tunnel, and the Witch closes it off, soon after vapor and acid smash against the wall she put up. Not waiting, she and two more members mold the stone, creating a way for us. We head through with hurried steps, rough breathing filling the tunnel.

I notice burns on my forearm, droplets of acid I was unable to avoid. As we’ve seen before, it heals much slower than it should.

(We are close, Nat. I can feel her connection strengthening,) Dennis gestures at the Witch, who now has an absent, painful expression on her face.

Then we stop.

“Where is that creature?” the thylarin woman whispers to herself, slowly turning around as her face clears up and she asks louder, shouting at me. “Where is that creature!?”

Biscuit is not here, having left during the previous fight with a simple message to me.

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.

At that moment, while we wait for another monster attack, the atmosphere changes quickly. Some mana from that crown seeps into the air, the pressure nearly palpable, just a taste of the mana she has been collecting for 10 years reaching toward us.

“Where. Is. That. Creature,” she asks, each word pushing through her teeth.

My domain expands around us as I weave my mana, using just my body and reservoir to fight against her pressure, Lily and the twins catching their breath.

Mana Wavelength Iris glows in the dark tunnel, reading and observing the mana filling the air, while I continue compressing, strengthening, and weaving my domain, forcing her to release more of her mana. It reaches a point where, unlike my group within my domain, those around her begin to suffer as the emotional thylarin woman’s control starts to slip.

Noticing that, she immediately stops, her face twisting in pain as she seems to listen to something.

“Sword,” she orders in a raspy voice, and Mais vanishes, reappearing by my side with two of his swords slashing at me while two of his arms reach for the shortsword at my waist.

At the same time, dozens of hands made from compressed stone explode all around me, reaching toward me and that sword.

With a stomp, I release the kinetic energy I was collecting, the modified vibrations destroying the stone arms and throwing Mais to the side making him use his own kinetic energy to stop and rush again.

Lily appears by his side, her hair shortening, and her ax swings toward his head, forcing him to dodge the gray mantle floating around her as well as the ax.

The thylarin man curses and tries to blast her away, but the attack is halted by the mantle, and then her axe collides with his sword. He stops it effortlessly, absorbing the kinetic energy from the strike and channeling it to fuel his own movement.

Lily lets go of the ax and moves incredibly quickly as well, her muscles tearing and healing at the same time.

Mais tries to avoid her, but even with all the kinetic energy, he is too slow in comparison to Lily giving it her all, and she crashes against him.

Rock bursts beneath her feet, stone spikes and arms reaching to slow her down, but Lily ignores the wounds, the mantle swirling around her body. Half of her face turns to bone and flesh, one arm nearly torn off, as Mais drives a hole through her body, fueled by kinetic energy.

Lily pushes through it all and, with an incredibly swift punch, sends a burst of gray mana through Mais’s chest, evaporating half of it. His body drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Pressure on my domain intensifies, attempts to tear it apart. Earth shakes, and rock under us moves like waves, twisting, swirling, trying to compress on us.

Reaching through Ley Lines, I connect to all of us, and even though The Witch tries to stop us, I teleport us away, to the place where we were a few minutes ago.

“Follow me,” I say quickly, and three of them quickly fall behind me.

“Won’t we fight her?” Aaron asks hurriedly, joining by my side.

“It would cost too much mana, and it might be what the prisoner wants. At this moment, it seems to be after my sword, and for some reason, it doesn’t like Biscuit… wait.”

We all stop, and as the monsters flood the tunnel, I draw on half of my kinetic reserves, adjusting its frequency and releasing it in a single surge through the tunnel without harming the walls.

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 328]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 309]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 316]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 333]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 323]

…

[Lvl 292 > Lvl 293]

Level up, so annoying.

With no presences around, we rush forward.

“Huh, she seems to track us somehow.” Sensing movement in the rock surrounding us I activate our anchors again before the walls crash onto us and teleport us to another place.

Right away, I use Ley Lines and throw them in multiple directions as far as I can.

“What are you…” Dennis begins, but I filter out his voice.

How did she find us? I erased any way she could track the Ley Line even if she could sense it. I also didn’t feel any large-range scans and was prepared to counter them, so how?

Quickly, I activate my eyes again, observing Lily, Dennis, and Aaron. I look very carefully and deeply yet find no mark. It’s the same when I check myself. There seems to be no thread, no connection, no foreign mana, no skill I could sense.

Once again, I feel movement in the walls and, annoyed, switch my stance, absorbing the enormous kinetic energy of moving walls and making them stop in place before they squash us.

How does she do it?

Ignoring the immense pressure, I do the scans again, this time slower and look deeper. Lily, Dennis, Twins. Nothing. Myself. Nothing.

I grab the line and teleport us again.

More monsters pop into the tunnel, and I release all the kinetic energy I absorbed, it moving like a flash before surprised monsters can even react.

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 319]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 326]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 341]

[You have defeated Rotling - lvl 333]

…

“How much did you [Sacrifice]?” I turn to Lily.

“Just some hair, I still have plenty in store.”

“Good, you two?”

“No problem here.”

“A lot left.”

They barely finish, and I start absorbing the movement of the walls around us, this time expanding even further.

“I think she marked the sword. She’s clearly after it, so it makes sense, but I can’t feel the way she did it, and my attempts to remove the mark failed.”

“We can just leave and return after she’s gone,” Lily shrugs it off.

“Certain corgi would be left behind.”

“Oh, right. Where did he even go?”

“No idea. Anyway, we have a minute. I might use the sword, so let’s do additional preparations.”

“Fuck, when you use it you better keep that thing as far from us as possible.” Even though he curses, Dennis touches my right arm. He and Aaron connect their calculative abilities, and [Connection] activates at its full power.

What we are about to do isn’t necessary—I can use the sword without it—but we have prepared protocols that will help me use the weapon to a bigger extent and with lesser backlash.

[Connection] weaves a stronger link between me and the weapon, in theory making the way it affects the surrounding area weaker if I will it so, while putting more pressure on me. It’s an exchange for more control.

After they are done, Lily places a healing mark on the back of the forearm bone of my right arm, the kind that is connected to her with the help of the twins. It requires more mana, lasts shorter, but is much more effective.

Knowing about my tendency to lose limbs, there is a necklace around my neck with a small pendant made out of her bone and coated in a mix of metals to strengthen the effects.

These preparations take barely a minute, but at my limit, I use Ley Lines and teleport us again, deploying a modified version of Sneaky Mode I concentrate around the weapon, just in case.

Not needing to follow the Witch anymore, I head toward that presence I feel far away, no more monsters in our way, but the density of molten metal and acid rivers through the walls increases to the degree where I can barely sense any rock in between.

***

POV The Witch, Melel

“Melel, please, hurry.”

“I… my head, it hurts so much.”

“It’s our connection, it’s getting stronger the closer you are.”

“It hurts so much. I feel like dying.”

“Yes, my dear child, you will die soon. Your mind won’t be able to resist much longer if this continues. Hurry.”

“I…”

“Please hurry, Melel, I’m scared.”

“I…”

“They are already so close. Please. Save me.”

“I… I don’t want to die.”

“Please, help me, my dear child. It hurts.”

“Who… who are you?”

“SAVE ME, MELEL.”

“…I… I’m on my way.”

***

POV Nathaniel

I teleport us across the molten river, we jump over streams of green acid to enter the perfectly spherical cave.

The walls are smooth, as well as the floor, with dozens of gutters leading from the center toward the edges. Through these gutters, acid flows, collected in the middle and sent to the edge to be circulated around. The full force of disruption generated by molten rivers is stronger here. The field generates constant pressure, threatening to take control over your skills. And it’s so strong even though most of it is concentrated in the middle at the being chained there. Well, what remains of it.

A skeleton of a monster as big as a smaller building lays there, glowing golden chains tied to the bones in four places, anchored to the plate with a metallic shine that covers the entirety of the floor. There are two more chains as well that are broken, their pieces lying near the skeleton.

The bones of the skeleton are brilliantly white where they can be seen, but most of them are covered in dark red blood and the tiniest pieces of flesh that keep moving as the skeleton tries to regenerate.

But it can’t.

A constant, dense rain of green acid falls from the ceiling, dissolving the regenerated parts.

When an eye nearly forms, acid eats it; when a hint of flesh appears on long bones, acid is there as well.

A constant fight of regenerative abilities and the terrifying green acid, with disruption strengthened and delivered by the golden chains, not allowing the being to regenerate.

More than a prison, this looks like torture yet the being is still alive.

Looking at the chains, I recall their durability from the pieces we found in the smithy, and a plan begins to take shape in my mind.

For a moment, I glance at the sword on my waist. Whether I rely on items or not, it could come in handy this time.

Fracture (Mid Arcane) - The shortsword is capable of devouring mana from everything around it. The moment it connects with an object or being, it disintegrates material, unravels mana and connections, leaving nothing behind. The weapon flickers with instability, damaging anything it touches, including the user. Fracture grows stronger as it feeds, but its insatiable hunger also turns inward, siphoning power from its wielder. With each encounter, the weapon becomes more powerful, yet its defective structure strains under the immense energy it consumes, becoming increasingly unstable. The longer it is wielded, the more it seems to break apart, its power twisting and spiraling out of control, threatening both itself and its user with destruction.

***

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