Chapter 128: Last Ancient Variant Faction
Recognizing the danger, Uhtred instantly willed his core to act, trying to cycle his cosmic essence through his body to cleanse any foreign energy.
He could feel his internal pathways responding, his sub-cores began to thrum with power, preparing to cast any spell he wanted... but a bizarre, discordant layer materialized inside his body.
A heavy lag suddenly appeared between his mental intentions and the actual movement of his cosmic essence, entirely severing his rapid spell-casting connection.
Uhtred went into high alert immediately. He knew with absolute certainty now that he was truly under attack.
He fiercely commanded his muscles to move, attempting to spring off the stone bed, but his limbs completely refused to respond.
A strange, invisible spell had completely immobilized his entire body, locking every single muscle into a state of total paralysis.
Desperately, Uhtred tried to move his head to even look at the corners of the tent and scan his surroundings with his eyes since his perception was failing him, but his neck was frozen solid too, and he was forced to stare at the dark ceiling above.
Still, he strained his vision, and right at the edge of his periphery, he spotted a silhouette moving silently through the shadows of the room.
The closer they got, the more Uhtred felt sluggish, and immediately, he knew that the source of the weird spell clouding his mind and dulling his body was this mysterious intruder.
The figure moved with complete silence, walking along the edges of the tent till they came up to the head of the bed behind Uhtred’s head, entering into his blindspot.
The sudden inability to even track the movements of the intruder made the situation more tense for Uhtred. He strained his eyes upward, but the intruder remained out of sight behind his head like a ghost.
For several seconds, the intruder did nothing and simply made Uhtred wait in tension, as if they were teasing him on purpose.
Then suddenly, a voice broke the silence, speaking in a deeply ancient, heavy, guttural tongue.
Uhtred’s translation device immediately began deciphering the words, but because his mind was clouded in a mental fog, he could barely even piece together what was being translated. Out of everything, he only picked up stray strands of the words "...impossible" and "...abomination."
As the mysterious entity stood silently behind him, keeping him trapped in intense suspense, Uhtred’s sluggish mind desperately fought through the fog to piece the clues together. He analyzed the cadence of the guttural language.
This intruder was certainly not a human ascender. This was an ancient variant. But intuitively, he could tell that this was not a Neanderthal or even a Homo erectus.
A separate faction... Uhtred realized, his thoughts crawling. The third strain... The last variant lineage that hasn’t revealed itself yet...
Throughout the entire silent encounter, Uhtred had absolutely no way of identifying any fine details of the intruder, but he was somehow certain of his deduction.
Finally, the intruder moved, leaning their upper body directly over the bed to look straight down into his eyes.
In that brief second, just as Uhtred’s vision continued to swirl terribly, the luminescent orb on the table caught the intruder’s features, providing him with a blurry glimpse of their face.
It was distinctly female. Her facial structure was broad, archaic, and ancient, completely lined with intricate, shamanic markings etched deep into her skin with dried, dark blood.
As Uhtred stared into her eyes, he was immediately filled with a deep feeling of despair. The feeling took hold in his heart, and thoughts about whether this was where he was going to die began to flood his mind.
However, before he could fall deep into the feeling, from somewhere deep within him a raw, violent burst of adrenaline shot through his veins, forcing a bit of clarity that broke whatever spell was clouding his mind with despair.
Uhtred completely refused to give up. He was the number one ranker on the planet! He was the universal of deviants! He would not die lying flat on his back in a dark tent!
With a fierce animalistic roar inside his mind, he forced his consciousness to bypass the discordant lag in his pathways, brutally urging his cosmic essence to flood his muscles through sheer force of will.
He fought like a mad man to force the severed link between his intentions and the essence surging through his body back together as much as he could.
And against the odds, the paralysis that had taken hold of him began to weaken slightly. Uhtred’s right hand trembled and actually managed to rise up a fraction of an inch off the bed.
A clear look of surprise crossed the ancient variant woman’s archaic face.
Uhtred didn’t stop. He poured every single drop of his willpower into the movement, causing his trembling fingers to slide along the bed, shifting closer and closer toward the handle of his star-metal battle-axe resting right next to him.
Seeing the paralyzed human somehow reaching for his weapon, an even deeper look of profound shock and bewilderment contorted the ancient variant’s shamanic features.
By this point, Uhtred’s sight was rapidly failing him. The more he urged his will, the more the edges of his vision began to turn black as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.
The face of the ancient variant in his view had turned to nothing but a blurry mass. But even through the fading sight, he could easily tell that she was completely paralyzed by her own hesitation.
She was locked in shock, leaving Uhtred to mentally question why the hell she hadn’t made a lethal move yet. She had bypassed every sentry, infiltrated his tent, and successfully incapacitated him, yet she was hesitating to strike the final blow...?
Just as she continued to be locked in whatever hesitant trance had taken hold of her, the leather flap of the tent was violently torn open.
Another figure burst into the room with explosive force, shocking both Uhtred and the ancient variant woman.
The shamanic female ancient variant instantly spun around, her mouth opening as she exploded into a loud, frantic cacophony of ancient words.
Uhtred’s translation device automatically deciphered her words, but he was so far gone that he couldn’t even hear a single thing.
The frantic, deafening sound of his own blood rushing through his ears in a mix of survival urgency and pure anger completely drowned out everything.
As he was locked in his own internal battle, a separate, violent battle was taking place right within the confines of the tent.
The newcomer and the ancient variant woman were locked in brutal exchanges of spells, shattering the stone furniture and destroying the entire tent in the span of a few seconds.
Uhtred’s eyelids fluttered weakly as the shock waves of their battle washed over the bed, his consciousness slipping deeper and deeper into the dark void.
With one final, desperate effort to keep his eyes open, his fading vision caught a single, blurry glimpse of the newcomer who had intervened.
The figure possessed long hair, and their silhouette matched that of a normal, modern human man.
But right before Uhtred could try to process their identity, his vision completely cut to black, and he slipped fully into unconsciousness, blacking out entirely.
