You know, in movies, there is always a common theme involved in armageddon plots, lightning, thunderstorms, birds freaking out, and mass migrating. Still, as Brenden and I picked up the pace of our run, literally tearing muscles in our legs with every step, I had to admit, those movie directors were pretty damn spot on for fogies who’ve never experienced a second of life in the origin timeline.
Overhead, the sky was black as night, even though it was only a little before 1 pm; varying dark-colored bolts of lightning streaked through the sky, and a strange wind tore through the air as the Inscription Draven had created began to wake up and work its magic.
Several miles ahead of us, I easily spotted a growing green and reddish light rising up from the ground as it expanded the entire horizon, or at least as far as our eyes could see.
Panning my eyes around and turning my head while running, I was able to see a seemingly wide stretching wall of light forming as it rose to the sky with no end apparent.
’I guess this is a win for SherDocKin.’
"SHUT UP AND RUN FASTER, WE CAN’T BE CAUGHT IN THIS DAMN MAGIC CIRCLE!" Brenden yelled at me; he was clearly frightened…well, I suppose I could be blamed for that, considering I had spent the bulk of our trek explaining all the possible bad shit that could happen, given I had no idea what kind of inscription we were working with.
Fortunately for him, I recognized the color of the light, and it was enough to narrow down things, if only a bit.
’Good news or bad news, little brother,’
’Fuck I don’t care what kind of news it is; TELL ME IT’S NOT THE GIANT SPAGHETTI MONSTER SPIDER THING THAT EATS ONLY TESTICLES!’
’No shot, can’t help you there because the mixture of Green and Red light indicates it’s a summoning circle of some type; Green is generally associated with something of the undead variety, whereas Red would be like the transference we experience when breaking an Instance Token.’
RUMMMBLLLEEE
’Annnnnd, now my inference is 1000 percent correct.’
’FUCK FUCK FUCK, GREAT, NOW WE HAVE EARTHQUAKES TOO! WHAT’S NEXT, HURRICANES?’ Brenden howled while dashing around falling trees and other obstacles.
’Uh…probably tor…’ Right as I was about to say Tornados, a massive funnel cloud spun up overhead, causing my brother and I to break away from each other, with him running northeast and me northwest.
’Actually, Tornado’s not Hurricanes, but I suppose that cat is out of the bag now…’
(Nexus, WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY TORNADOS COULD SPAWN!!! ALSO, PLEASSSSE FUCKING TELL ME WE CAN CLEAR THROUGH THAT LIGHT BECAUSE IF NOT, WE ARE TOTALLY FUCKED!)
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
(Nexus, Marek, do you read me? There’s a massive wall of light that stops right at the border; where are you two?) Speaking with a calm tone, as if he didn’t suspect for even a second we weren’t fine, my father’s voice came over the earpiece right after Brenden’s little freakout.
’Ah, I guess he didn’t get that last message; he must have stepped out of my range. HUUUP’ Jumping over a building as it collapsed onto the ground in front of me, I dodged the Tornado as it touched down and arrived right at the edge of the inscription.
Spinning around, I put the light wall to my back and observed everything I could from a distance.
Given my limited altitude, it was extremely difficult to come to any conclusions thanks to everything being a bunch of solid light, and for a moment, I couldn’t help but wish I had a talent that would allow me to fly…wait….
(Marek, get over here now and use some smelling salts to wake up that annoying fucker you’ve been carrying around.) I had already come up with multiple backup plans given the event we didn’t make it across the border before the empowerment stage began, one of which, the most viable, involved Sonnasitc’s Talent.
Not even 5 seconds later, Brenden appeared covered in sweat, panting heavily, and visibly freaked out; oh yeah, can’t forget the important part here: half his right arm was burned to a crisp.
On the plus side, it was healing at a visible rate, which indicated that my brother had downed a potion or two. However, it still didn’t help with the pain, yet that was to be expected since that massive wall of light rising steadily not even 5 feet behind me was the equivalent of a photon lazer.
Super hot, super powerful, and would incinerate anything it came in contact with, all thanks to the colossal amount of energy it was manipulating.
"I guess you tried touching the inscription; burns like a fucker, right? Wake numbnuts up with those smelling salts you always have on hand for your little workouts. We need his Talent." I stated before going back to trying to make sense of the inscription with my limited field of view.
"I really hope you have an exit strategy because there is no way we can pass through this wall of light," a third voice, that of a young girl, interrupted as she jogged over to meet us.
It was, of course, Piniki who had, at some point after separating from me, woken up and demanded to be put down so she could run alongside Brenden.
Her arrival a few seconds after him was a result of my brother abusing his Talent to increase his speed for a short burst, and from the nasty bruises I could see through his heavily damaged boots, I knew he had gone WAY beyond his physical limits.
SMACK, SMACK, SMACK,
"SONAS WAKE THE FUCK UP BRO, WE NEED YOUR HELP!"
"…."
"…."
"didn’t you tell him to…"
"Yep, use smelling salts; oh well, now that guy gets a nice headache to accompany the mental trauma he earned today."
"You really are a sick puppy in disguise, aren’t you…" giving me the stink eye, Piniki took a step back as if she didn’t want to be associated with me in any shape or form.
’More than you will ever understand, lady,’ I thought while shaking my head and glancing over my shoulder at Brenden as he continued to beat the hell out of his buddy’s face.
"Hardly, just a realist. Sonnasitc is soft, very much so, which in most situations isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Still, given his track record of being captain Good-Guy, I expect that leaving behind millions of innocents will weigh heavily on his conscious, thus, earned mental trauma."