Chapter 174 - Mother Earths Embrace (1/2)

Chapter 174: Mother Earth's Embrace

The figure walked with a confident gait, his lanky arms messily wrapped in black bandages dangling by his side. He had a slight hunch, which made him look a bit shorter than he actually was, but he still stood well over seven feet. Even before he had walked close enough for me to make out his face, I already knew who he was.

How could I forget the retainer that had killed the lance I replaced?

“Uto,” I said calmly despite my raging insides.

His dark lips split into a sinister smile. “Hello, boy wonder.”

“Retainer Uto,” Olfred greeted with an unnaturally stiff bow.

I restrained my urge to let out a scoff at the lance. Despite the turn of events, I was actually relieved the retainer that had come was Uto. Unlike Cylrit or any other Vritra, his motive was obvious.

Uto ignored the dwarven lance as he crept closer to me with outstretched arms. “You can’t imagine how excited I am to have you here.”

“Really?” I smirked, playing along. “I was actually expecting a different retainer.”

I could see Olfred react out of the corner of my eye.

“Oh?” Uto dipped his head so his gaze was level with mine. His pale grey nose was practically touching mine. “You seem to know a bit more than I thought you would.”

With Realmheart still active, I could clearly make out his aura, the brilliant nimbus of power crackling and popping chaotically like his very nature. But even without it, I could feel the pressure in the air around him. A palpable tension that was squeezing the air out of my lungs.

‘The two humans,’ Sylvie reminded from within my cloak.

The two subordinates of the petrified Sebastian were in a fit of spasms as they stared wide-eyed at Uto. They didn’t know who he was; their bodies were only able to feel the might of the being in front of them.

“Let’s take our fight elsewhere,” I said simply, turning my gaze back to the Vritra.

Uto tilted his head. “Fight? Why do you think that a lesser like you is worth my time at all?”

“Because you’re here,” I answered, losing my patience. “If all you wanted to do was kill me or capture me quickly, then I’m sure Olfred with a few of your soldiers would have sufficed.”

The retainer didn’t answer, his gaze looking… unamused.

Suddenly, he burst out into a fit of laughter. “I can see why so many of you try so hard to keep your motives hidden. For times like these when it should be a surprise.”

He turned around and made a dismissive gesture. “Lead the way.”

“Retainer Uto!” Olfred blurted. “Lord Rahdeas’ instructions were to deal with this one cleanly to minimize chances of—”

The lance didn’t even get the chance to finish as he let out a nasally scream in pain. A black spike had shot up from the ground beneath Olfred, skewer the lance’s nose.

“Do you think I give a lesser’s ass about what your traitorous master thinks is the best course of action?” Uto spat, looking over his shoulder before he continued walking toward the door.

I checked up on the two subordinates. They were unconscious but still breathing. As I made my way toward the entrance I had come in from, I checked on as many of the slaves as I could. Most of them were out cold and the ones that were conscious were probably in a state no better off than the ones that weren’t. I took one last look at Olfred, who had erected a stone pillar below his feet to get high enough to dislodge his nose from the black spike.

Despite my suspicions, this short trip had been filled with a faint hope that my doubts weren’t true. Now that they were, it was difficult to wrap my head around the emotions manifesting inside me. I was never good at it in my previous life, and I thought I had gotten a little better in this life, but apparently not quite enough.

I broke one of the three beads that Aya had given me, activating its effect before tossing it into the large trapdoor by the entrance. Olfred’s eyes grew wide as he saw this, knowing exactly what it meant.

OLFRED WAREND

I cursed, berating myself for the turn of events. To think she would be nearby. There was no time.

Rubbing my punctured nose that had already begun to heal, I descended into the ground. The earth obeyed, parting beneath me to make a path to the floor underneath the building that served as a cover.

I dropped to the underground floor below, causing several of the soldiers around to shout in surprise.

The underground level I had made was vastly larger than the prison structure above it. Here, thousands of soldiers were able to rest on standby.

“Evacuate the premises immediately,” I ordered, my voice echoing off the large chamber walls.

A mixture of responses. The Alacryan Soldiers glanced at one another while others blatantly ignored my command. Both they and I were fighting for the same cause, but because this was the continent where I had been born, they saw me as a traitor unfit to lead them despite the gap in power and experience.

I repeated my order once more, this time causing the earth around us to quake. We had no time.

Soldiers began slowly filing toward the stairs leading back up to the surface. I helped them by erecting a few more staircases, but when the light artifacts hung all around the walls started to burst one by one, I knew it was too late.

I cursed, erecting a dozen magma knights around me, but the chamber had darkened to a near pitch-black state.

Yells of confusion from the soldiers bounced off the walls that once served as protection and cover. Now I feared these men were in a prison.

I shrouded myself in a protective barrier of mana while sending out pulses throughout the underground chamber in hopes of locating her.

“Come out, Aya. There will be another Vritra—a scythe—coming soon. If you flee now, I can ensure that you’ll make it out alive.” I tried reasoning with her. I felt no remorse for these soldiers of foreign descent, but they were part of a bigger plan and time was running out. If Aya escaped and was able to notify the asura—Aldir—of my betrayal, it would be easy for him to simply kill me just by invoking the artifact I was bound by, but at this point though, I might prefer that over what she might do here.

“So caring.”

Her whisper brushed against my ear—as if she was right beside me.

My magma knight promptly lashed out with its sword. A burning arc of lava launched in the direction of Aya’s whisper only for it to crash into the far wall. The attack scattered into glowing sparks upon impact, lighting up the darkened room for just a second. That’s when I noticed it.

Mist.

The entire underground chamber was submerged in a thick layer of swirling mist that almost seemed to have a mind of its own. And within this mist, chaos ensued.

Sporadic flashes of spells lit up the vast chamber as the soldiers began retaliating against the intruder, but even those became less frequent as Aya got to work.

“I have to thank you for trapping this many Alacryans in one place,” she whispered again, this time beside my other ear. “It makes my job much simpler.”

“Enough with your tricks and illusions!” I roared. “Come out and fight me face to face! Have you no shame as a lance?”

“Shame?” Aya’s voice echoed in unison from at least twelve different locations at once. “It’s a matter of common sense, dear. Why would I throw away one of the few advantages I have?”

There was a levity in her words that came off as arrogant in this situation. She was always like that. No ounce of seriousness in her ever-present facade.

“You leave me no choice,” I replied through gritted teeth. “Getting rid of a lance will at least make up for my error.”

I slammed my palm down into the ground, creating chasms all around the floor and walls of the chamber that lit up a fiery red. The temperature within my newly created domain rose drastically, while the glowing magma spilling out from chasms brightened the underground expanse.

The mist that filled the area was slowly evaporating while my senses became sharp. Aya’s spell worked much like the mist present in the Forest of Elshire, except it also served as an anchor for her to freely and near-instantly traverse.

Despite the increasing amounts of fire and earth mana surrounding me, it didn’t look good. My first instinct would’ve been to escape into an open space where I could at least escape from the mist, but that would mean abandoning the thousand or so soldiers trapped here. I was tempted to just raise the entire underground chamber to the surface, but that would mean destroying the building above us. I would not shed innocent blood, especially that of my own kind.

I scanned my surroundings. Much of what I could make out was obscured by the mist but the earth told me how many were at least on their feet and how many lay either dead or incapacitated. In this short time, more than a fourth had already fallen.