Chapter 53: Aerial Escape
The lucid specimen charged back into the chaos. His corrupted form disappeared into the mass of bodies and blood.
"Listen up." Marcus addressed the group. "I’ll clear a path to the ley line chamber. You plant the explosives Fast there’s no time to waste."
"What about you?" Liz asked.
I’ll make sure nothing follows you down."
Marcus materialized Dagon and moved before anyone could argue. Malachar followed, his massive blade already carving through the air.
The remaining Ashfang soldiers were scattered throughout the lab with more pouring in from outside, fighting specimens or trying to regroup. Marcus cut through them with cold efficiency.
Dagon struck with surgical precision—throats, armor gaps, exposed flesh.
[+18 CURRENCY][+18 CURRENCY][+22 CURRENCY]
Malachar’s greatsword swept in wide arcs, clearing space. Within two minutes, the path to the stairs was open.
"GO!" Marcus called back.
The group descended. Marcus and Malachar held the entrance, killing anything that tried to follow.
Three levels down took four minutes. The ley line chamber door stood open—massive, reinforced, covered in fading Keeper seals.
Inside, the anchor pulsed with corrupted energy. Not a device. A person. A woman suspended in crystalline matrices, tubes and wires fused to her flesh. Her eyes were closed but something about her felt like she was conscious,trapped and suffering in that state.
Vera approached slowly with a pale face. "A Corrupted Keeper. They’re using her as a living anchor."
"Can we free her?" Liz asked.
"Not without killing her." Vera’s voice broke. "She’s too far gone. The corruption and ley line energy are all that’s keeping her alive."
The Keeper’s eyes opened. Milky white. Corrupted. But aware.
Her lips moved without sound.
Vera understood. "She’s asking us to end it."
Marcus looked at the explosives Dain was already setting. "Plant them around the anchor points.
When this goes off, the ley line will collapse inward while the whole fortress comes down."
They worked quickly. Tobin helped despite his wounds, placing charges at structural weak points. Dain handled the fuses—five-minute timers once activated.
"That’s all of them," Dain reported. "Ready to activate on your word."
"Not yet." Marcus turned toward the stairs. "We need an exit first. The fortress will collapse in minutes once these blow."
They ascended back to the main level. The lab was quieter now—most specimens and soldiers dead or fled. The chaos was gradually burning itself out.
Marcus navigated through corridors of carnage, heading north. His gut told him that was the right direction.
They emerged onto an open-air platform and noticed they’d found a wyvern stable.
Eight massive beasts chained to posts, each one the size of a horse with leathery wings spanning twenty feet. They were agitated, snarling at the scent of blood and corruption.
"So these exist in this world too," Marcus observed. He’d seen similar creatures in his previous life, though never this large.
"Can we fly them?" Liz stared at the nearest wyvern with obvious nervousness.
"Only one way to find out." Dain moved toward the largest beast. "We need to move fast—"
Arrows whistled through the air.
Marcus dove left. One arrow struck stone where he’d been standing. Another hit a wyvern, which roared in fury.
On the upper platforms, Ashfang archers were taking position. Twenty of them, maybe more. Reinforcements from another section of the fortress.
"Seems they’re not done yet." Marcus grabbed the
nearest wyvern’s reins. "Everyone mount up! We leave now!"
Vera helped Tobin onto a wyvern. Dain took another. Liz climbed onto the one beside Marcus.
More arrows. One grazed Marcus’s shoulder. Another struck his wyvern in the leg.
"How do we pilot these?!" Liz called out.
"Just say ’up’ and hold on!" Dain kicked his wyvern into motion.
The beast leaped off the platform, wings spreading.
Marcus did the same. "UP!"
His wyvern launched into open air. The sudden drop made his stomach lurch before the wings caught wind and they rose.
Liz’s arms locked around his waist. "I hate this! I hate flying!"
"You’ll get used to it!"
Vera’s wyvern followed, then Tobin’s. All four beasts airborne now, gaining altitude.
Arrows continued to fly. Most missed. One struck Vera’s wyvern in the wing membrane. The beast screamed but kept flying.
They pulled away from the fortress, distance opening.
Marcus looked back at the stable platform. Empty now except for—
Vera.
She was still there. Standing at the edge, facing the approaching archers.
"VERA!" Marcus shouted. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
The Keeper looked up at them. Even from this distance, Marcus could see her expression. Resolved. Peaceful.
"This is the least I can do!" Vera called back. "For atonement! I’ll hold them off—you escape!"
"NO!" Liz screamed. "VERA, GET ON A WYVERN!"
But Vera was already channeling ley line energy. Her hands glowed bright blue, a barrier forming around her position.
"GO!" Vera shouted. "Detonate the bombs when you’re clear! JUST GO!"
The archers reached her position. Arrows struck her barrier, held back by pure willpower and magic.
Marcus pulled his wyvern’s reins hard, trying to turn back.
Liz grabbed his arm. "Marcus, we can’t! If we go back, we all die!"
"She’s buying us time!" Dain called from his wyvern. "We have to use it!"
Marcus’s jaw clenched. Every instinct screamed to go back. Save her. Don’t leave anyone behind.
But Liz was right. If they returned, Vera’s sacrifice meant nothing.
"FLY HIGHER!" Marcus commanded. "We need distance before detonation!"
The wyverns climbed. Wind rushed past. The fortress grew smaller below.
Marcus tracked the distance mentally. They were maybe half a mile out now. Flying east, away from the burning chaos they’d left behind.
On the stable platform, Vera’s barrier was failing. Too many arrows. Too much pressure.
She looked up one last time. Smiled.
Then pulled something from her pocket—the detonator for the explosives.
"VERA, NO!" Liz screamed.
Vera pressed it.
Boom!!
The ley line chamber exploded first. Massive energy release. White light erupted from the fortress depths like a pillar reaching for the sky.
The crystalline matrices shattered. Corrupted power and pure ley line energy mixed in catastrophic reaction.
The entire fortress complex erupted.
Not just the chamber. Everything. Walls, towers, barracks—all of it consumed in blinding light and fire.
The shockwave hit like a physical wall.
Marcus’s wyvern tumbled sideways. He held the reins with everything he had, fighting for control.
Liz screamed, arms locked around him so tight he could barely breathe.
Dain’s wyvern spun completely around before he pulled it level.
Tobin’s beast roared in panic but stayed airborne.
The fortress below collapsed inward. Stone and fire and corruption all mixing together. In seconds, the entire structure was reduced to burning rubble.
And somewhere in that inferno, Vera had died.
"VERA!" Liz’s voice was raw with grief. Tears streaming down her face. "VERA!"
Marcus said nothing. Just focused on keeping the wyvern flying.
His own grief was a cold weight in his chest. Another name added to the list. Another person who’d stood beside him and died.
Tobin. Mikael. Vera.
Three casualties but a price to pay for the greater good.
The wyvern beneath them suddenly lurched.
The arrow wound in its leg was bleeding badly. The beast’s strength was fading, wings faltering.
"We’re losing altitude!" Marcus called to the others.
"Find somewhere to land!"
Below, forest stretched out in all directions. No clearings visible from this height.
The wyvern dropped faster. Struggling. Succumbing to its injuries.
"Hold tight !" Marcus warned Liz.
They crashed through the tree canopy. Branches whipped past. Marcus felt impacts against his arms, his back.
The wyvern hit ground hard. Tumbled. Threw both riders clear.
Marcus rolled and came up on his feet, breathing hard.
Liz landed nearby with a groan but was alive. Dain and Tobin’s wyverns touched down more controlled about a dozen meters away.
The four of them stood in a small forest clearing, battered and bleeding. Exhausted didn’t begin to cover it.
Behind them, miles away, the fortress burned. A pillar of smoke rose into the darkening sky like a funeral pyre.
Liz was still crying, silent tears streaming down her face.
Marcus approached slowly and put a hand on her shoulder. "She saved us. Her choice. We honor it by surviving."
Liz nodded but couldn’t speak.
They stood in silence, watching the distant fire consume what remained of the fortress.
Then a pop up notification by the system appeared.
QUEST UPDATE: LIBERATION OF ASHVEIL]
[OBJECTIVE 1: DESTROY ASHFANG FORTRESS - COMPLETE]
[OBJECTIVE 2: FREE ASHVEIL’S SURVIVORS - INCOMPLETE]
[OBJECTIVE 3: SEAL THE CORRUPTED LEY LINE - INCOMPLETE]
[PROGRESS: 1/3 OBJECTIVES COMPLETE]
[BONUS STATS ACQUIRED][STR: 31 → 41][SPD: 42 → 52]
At least something nice came from this.
Marcus dismissed the notification without a thought. One objective down. Two to go.
But the cost had been brutal.
