CHAPTER 45 - CAVERN
LUKE HODGES
Loud sounds of beating and knocking reflected in my mind and ears like some replay audio.
Being on the max volume that my head could ever produce, driving me insane.
I yelled, or perhaps not, I never could've known. My contact with the outside world was… unknown to me. Where I was… I didn't know where I was.
It was all the same familiar place that Earth was but different, like a different country or state that I haven't been to. Everything around me spinned like I was the center of the universe. The sun radiated a warm feeling to my skin as I walked down this path next to a giant lake. On my right was a forest, green and possibly even going toe-to-toe with the tree of Elenoir but I highly doubt it.
I continued to walk towards what seemed to be the end of the horizon. Along my walk I spotted many animals from my old life along with those from Dicathen. Squirrels, beatles, ducks, gooses, the mana beast looking cat, which surprisingly was scared of me more than I was of him.
Dicathen…huh. I was doing something in that place, yet what was it? I…don't remember anything at all aside from…
"Well that's weird, I-I swear I've been t-there before… f-fighting mana b–"
My mouth halted against me. I wasn't able to say the word I wanted to say. I don't recall the word either.
The sun setting down brought me a sense of anxiety. I needed to go home… Where was my home again?
Desperation entered my body and corrupted my mind.
Leave! Now!
Those words popped into my mind and without a second thought I ran, as fast as I could and far away as I could. The animals I'd pass would fly away the same direction I was running, on the other hand, the animals that didn't fly or couldn't went the opposite direction.
My understanding of what was going on kept on being in a blank state. All I had to know was to get away from the place I was originally before it caught me…
Eventually, after leaving the lake, I headed towards the city which wasn't far from the lake with the sunset.
A multitude of people and cars swarmed my vision, buildings alike. Everything was different from Earth and Dicathen. My earth was a little less advanced in technology than this one. Yet, mine was more advanced than Dicathen's.
The sound of engines and the people's voices overwhelmed my ears but my mind wasn't, instead I felt happy that I'd arrived at this place. Now my main objective was to find my home… a place to stay.
Yet, the longer I lingered around this city, the more confusing and suspicious things became. I bumped into a couple of people and yet there was no reaction and they kept on walking as if nothing had happened.
"What is going on here?"
CADELL
"Why let the boy go?" I finally asked. The question that had been eating my mind ever since we left the Lesser's continent.
His Lordship took a moment to answer, his eyes not turning or even meeting mine by instead looking at the outside of Taegrin Caelum and into the city of Cardigan.
After a while of waiting patiently, the lord answered. "What do you think of the boy, Cadell?"
I frowned, not at his statement but rather at the thought of a mere lesser boy giving interest to Lord Argona. "His is nothing more than a lesser, his talents don't stand out unlike the Reincarnated King. Yet, both will be no threat."
"Cold response Cadell, however, you only see what the boy was born into. Unlike King Grey, this lesser has knowledge of things we do here in Alacrya. 'He' knows about me and most importantly, he knows about Ji-Ae."
"He knows about the aether machine?" My voice was laced with surprise and starleness. One question remained on my mind, "How does a human boy know?"
Agrona didn't give me an answer right away, he only looked outside the balcony with thoughts in his mind like always, his lordship had a plan.
"Milord if I may, give me the task of killing the boy. He knows too much and thus must die."
"Dead men tell no tales," When he said that, he turned to me, his right hand lifted but not fully. His palm was opened and in it was an orb of pure mana. Agrona instantly let out a smile that was menacing. "Don't worry, Cadell. I've already taken measures so that he doesn't get to live."
ARTHUR LEYWIN
"N-No way…" Samantha's face drained of color as she slumped in resignation.
The positive thing was that the mist had already been cleared and was being absorbed into the huge waves of vines, clearing our limited view.
The vines continued to hungrily consume the mist, we were all finally able to see what exactly it was we had been going up against.
Standing more than twenty meters tall, high above our heads was a colossal mana beast. With a humanoid structure that oddly resembled a centaur, it towered over us like a massive building.
While it seemed to be made up completely of densely packed and intertwined vines, the top half of its body was that of an armored man holding a drill-like lance that came to a menacing point just over our heads. Its lower body was that of a horse, but rather than legs, its limbs consisted of the countless vines we had been battling against. Two green eyes peered down at us, filled with unbridled enmity.
Staring mindlessly up at the imposing figure, I swallowed hard. For the last hour, the seven of us had been literally battling against the toes of this mana beast.
"I-I've read about a monster that looked something like this," Samantha stuttered in horror, sinking to her knees in complete resignation. "I think th-that's an S-class mana beast called the e-elderwood guardian!"
"It can't be, right? What the hell would an S class mana beast be doing here?" Reginald almost dropped his giant hammer as he peered up at the elderwood guardian in dread, and with good reason too. An S class mana beast meant that it was going on parr with an SS class adventurer or at least ten S class adventurers.
"I-Isn't that Kriol?" Brald had a crazed expression on his face as he began laughing madly at the giant mana beast. He had already lost his arm and he was worn out from the fighting. This was probably the last straw for the veteran adventurer.
"We have to run." Jasmine Yanked my hand, gesturing me to run back in the direction of the door we had come from.
"What about them?" I called out, my eyes glued to the elderwood guardian.
She remained silent, tugging harder for me to move.
I knew that rationally, it made the most sense to get away from here as fast as possible. Hell, I wasn't even close to any of them, and I certainly wasn't chummy with Lucas. But it wouldn't be right to betray their trust in me as their leader.
At that moment, I felt my skin burn and watched as my runes ignited a bright color of golden right through my clothes. I fell to my knees upon feeling such burns on my whole body. Jasmine yelled my name in concern and tried to pull me up but my strength wasn't coming back. It felt like it was being taken away… no some strength was being pushed against mine.
"W-What the hell?" Mustering the strength to let those words out, I was faced with another problem. The Elderwood Guardian.
Suddenly, the Elderwood Guardian thrusted his giant drill lance at us, creating a gale of wind just from its movement.
[Earthen Shield]
Elijah conjured a flat wall of earth from the ground, angled slightly so that the force of the drill would be parried away from us.
A thunderous explosion resounded from the impact as the beast's lance shattered the thick, earthen slab.
Picking up his hammer, Reginald charged forward, seizing the opportunity that Elijah had created. His giant warhammer glowed a brilliant yellow as he roared out in a desperate resolve. "Go back to the damn hole you crawled out from, you oversized tree! Impact Barrage!"
The giant hammer began vibrating fiercely in his hands as he unleashed his attack down at the elderwood guardian's lance.
It felt like a warship had just fired a massive storm of cannons as the whole cavern shook. The sheer force of Reginald's spell had reduced the beast's weapon to shreds.
Just as he was about to land on the ground, the broken vines that made up the lance whirled like tentacles and surrounded him. "GAAAH! HELPP!! NOOOO!"
The tendrils that had once formed the giant lance swirled around to mold back into its original shape, eating up Reginald in the process. The gruesome sound of bones snapping resounded from within the weapon as the tendrils continued to intertwine, slithering around each other like pythons to complete the shape of the lance.
Samantha, who had been preparing a spell to our left, lurched forward and heaved what little food she had consumed since coming down here as the sound of Reginald's body being ground filled the cavern.
Damn it all.
The lance formed back into its original shape, with the addition of Reginald's body and weapon inside it. Looking up, I could see that the elderwood guardian didn;t have a mouth but just from the look in its eyes, I felt like it was gloating, refreshed by the fact that it had caught one more insect that had been bugging him.
I grabbed Samantha, who had been petrified from shock, and lifted her up on my shoulders. "Jasmine! Grab Brald and let's run! Lucas, Elijah! You have to try and block any incoming attacks until we can make it out of here!"
Jasmine picked up the one-armed adventurer who was still laughing psychotically and we looked back to see that the elderwood guardian was looking directly at us.
"We need to move!" I barked, hurrying everyone. However, just as I willed mana into my body, a blast of fire hit me square in the chest, sending me flying back as Samantha tumbled off to the side.
While my body, reinforced with mana and from the assimilation of Sylvia's Dragon Will, prevented me from sustaining serious injuries, my breath had been knocked out from the almost point-blank spell cast by Lucas, the only one possibly capable of doing this.
Furious and baffled by the sudden betrayal, I had to practically peel my eyes away from the blond brat that was already running away to look for Jasmine. She had been knocked back much farther from the spell and was unconscious, but she didn't seem to be dead.
"What the hell are you doing?" Elijah cried out for the first time, pointing his staff at Lucas who was already almost at the entrance of the cave.
"You think I'd risk my life to help all of you escape? Be honored that you'll be the valiant heroes that stalled the beast enough for me to escape! I'll tell everyone all about your courageous deeds!" he scoffed, turning back just to shoot me an arrogant smirk before conjuring a smokescreen.
Another deafening crash reverberated as the ground split around us from the force of the elderwood guardian stabbing its lance where Lucas had just been. The smokescreen subsided, but Lucas was already gone, the pathway where we had entered was covered in debris from the crystals on top of the cavern.
Elijah cursed, holding his glasses in place as the cavern continued to tremble from the force of the beast's attack. The endless vines that made up the mana beast's limbs managed to climb out of the crater left from Elijah's spell and approach us.
Again, like my luck had run out, another crash came through, behind the elderwood guardian, the wall on the side revealed a hole big enough for a person to be launched from there.
At first I thought it was another S class mana beast but then came the scream of agony and rage. I was convinced at that moment, it was another human being.