Chương 121: Chapter 120- The Final Attempts

"... I just don't see how this is any different?"" It just is, now stand clear." Elias, Astra, and Tia were gathered off to one side of the cavern as Astra attempted something she had only done in a small scale prior. Any time they had tried to scour the runes from the surface of the chamber, when the next pulse came they would re-write themselves the energy powering the magic carving new grooves, and fresh blood spilling from the nearby channels.

Eli and Tia stood watch at her back as Astra closed her eyes and concentrated, fiery orbs coalescing in her hands. Now that the others had gone, the breakneck pace of the past few days weighed on him, his limbs heavy and leaden as his head swam with exhaustion. It had only been a scant few days since he had woken from his evolution and between the battles at Whittenburg and the Estate, not to mention all the travel in between, it had been days since they had last gotten more than an hour or two of rest at a time.

As he stood feeling dead on his feet, his eyes propped open solely by his wariness of their perilous situation, and no small amount of fading adrenaline, Elias found himself impressed by Astra yet again. The long days and nights wore on her as well, but without the tether between them, he would have been hard pressed to tell how tired she was as she carried herself with poise and grace despite the waves of exhaustion washing over her.

He could feel the massive amount of effort and focus that was now required for something he had only seen her do a few times so far, but the exhaustion of running for days with little rest required her to spend minutes where seconds had sufficed before. A small smile grew on his lips as he could feel her emotions occasionally fade and flag, only for a swell of resolve and determination to buoy up and focus her thoughts once more.

The orbs gathering above her palms grew in size as energy was added, the aspected mana pooling into growing spheres. With a sharp spike of focus from Astra they would then collapse, the energy crushing down and condensing as the color shifted higher in the spectrum from a deep crimson to a brighter orange.

Eli watched silently as she sent them through each cycle in turn, marveling not only at the sheer focus required to keep building the density of each orb, but now that he had some small taste of the effort required, he was even more stunned at just how insanely fast she had done it the few times in battle so far. There's no way it's a system Skill either, they don't usually work like that. No wonder everyone talks about how talented she is.

Elias and Tia kept a wary eye on their surroundings, despite there having been no disturbances in the past few hours. The silence of the cavern was only broken by the faint dripping sounds, the occasional crackling of a pulse shifting stone, the low hum of the orbs Astra was condensing, and the odd grunt or two of concentration as she worked on their next attempt to stop the ritual.

The hum built to a low whine and, over the course of a few minutes, as the color shifted through reds, oranges, yellows, a brilliant white, and then an azure blue the sound shifted into the hissing roar of blow torch. When viewed through Elias's [Mana Sense], Astra's arms were awash in a river of brilliant scarlet, burning bright with an incandescence that blurred the image of her form through the haze.

With a final shout of effort, Astra slammed her palms together and, instead of the concentrated conical blow torch she cast in the passageway, a wide low carpet of azure blue flames burst forth. The low wide sheet of blazing hot energy swept outwards scouring the ground of the cavern, the rippling wave rushing across the ground, sublimating pools of blood, scouring clean runes, and severing stalagmites from their bases.

A crackling boom rushed across the room as Astra slumped backwards gasping for breath as Eli caught her in his arms. As her weight fell upon him, a wave of exhaustion hit him, and they both rode downwards, crashing into the ground with a weighty bump that was eerily missing the loud clatter it should normally have due to the silencing enchantments on their armor. Eli crashed hard into the ground with Astra on his lap, cushioning her fall.

He swept a hand across her brow, sweeping the errant hairs from her sweat plastered face as she heaved for breath and gazed across the cavern, her emotions across the tether needy and desperate for hope as she took in all she had wrought. The surface of the cavern had been scoured clean. Only a few spots of blood remained, mostly around the gathered buckets in the various piles the harvesters had left it in, and few etchings remained in the stone besides.

Only the deepest of channels and reservoirs remained, the rest lost to history as if a massive flood had washed the remnants away. Astra slumped back into Eli's chest with a satisfied sigh and, over the next few moments, her breath slowly steadied after the heavy bout of exertion. Tia chirped in his ear, and Astra chuckled a weak laugh as he translated. I TOLD you Sister-Astra's fire is the best, and can kill anything!

You should ask her about ravens, I think those black feathers are probably a lot like charcoal and would not take much to light. We should try…. Elias smiled as he muttered out Tia's inane ramblings into Astra's ear, the ripple of mirth down the tether in response to its own reward. He held out little hope for a full resolution, but as the wave of apprehension spread through the other end of the tether his eyes were drawn once more to the center of the cavern.

A rippling crack was heard and, after a moment, a cloud of dust rose in the air as a layer of stone was sublimated and the center of the ritual was visible once more. Every. Single. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Rune. Complete. A low string of very unladylike swears uttered from Eli's lap as Astra caught sight of the same event, and they both watched as one again the ritual traced itself outwards.

A single pulse may not have contained much energy, but given the frequency they were devastating. The first carved out a place for the center of the ritual and which appeared whole once more. A deep burgundy circle emerged, an angry violet dark red apparition that enclosed the core. Eli and Astra had long learned that trying to oppose this part of the formation was nothing but a mana sink as the rest of the ritual gathered energy from elsewhere.

After the first sudden reappearance, a second ripple only reinforced the wall, but the third spread outwards. A quiet rippling cracking came from the stone around the center as new grooves and channels were cut in the stone around it, as if by a master craftsman, but at a blinding speed. As these channels spread outwards, a grotesque veiny protrusion sprouted from the center of the ritual.

Previously this had only been seen from a single arc or a section or two, but after Astra had removed every reasonable trace of blood from the room, the ritual has created its own. From the central core a burbling and stone colored sac rippled distending in places, and at the far end of the new channels a stream of blood issued forth.

A spike of nausea echoed along the tether matched by another from Eli as the endless font of blood welled up yet again from nothing, filling the central channels and the outlying grooves, before spreading out once more under their watch. The central core may have only started as 15 feet or so across, but as the central core completed a fourth pulse sent a massive wave of energy surging outwards.

A tsunami of energy washed across the room, and as it faded many of the etchings and channels that had been removed by Astra's blast remained behind in its wake. A burgeoning upwell of despair echoed up the tether, drawing Eli's gaze downward, and what he found was something entirely new. Astra stared at the wide expanse of the cavern. Exhaustion and desperation slowly overtook the horror, as tears welled in her eyes, her stout and steadfast jawline gave a single tremble.

Elias could barely hear as a quiet mumble sounded from her lips, " … it wasn't enough…" Elias had no idea what to do next, but the last thing he was going to do was let Astra give herself over to the growing horror of their coming annihilation. Once he realized her gaze and emotions were locked on the center of the cavern, he gave her with a gentle squeeze." We're not done yet."

It took a few moments for his words to register as the waves of exhaustion clouded her mind, but after a moment, once they registered she straightened and craned her head back to look in his direction." Oh! Do you have a good idea?" Eli smirked, " No. Just the usual bad ones. Doesn't mean they won't work."

Before Astra could say another word, an excited Tiamat scrambled into her lap, chirping and squealing so quickly that neither of them could make sense of it When Astra looked over to Eli for an explanation he just rolled his eyes and left it at, " She's a fan of more explosions."

Brother. You WILL buy me more? Elias sighed heavily, Yes. Tia, I will buy you more. Frankly these are pretty shit, if we make it through this, I'll try and make you the good ones. What. Brother, there are good ones?!?! YOU WILL MAKE ME THE GOOD ONES. Elias chuckled to himself, I promise you Tia, I'll try to make you the good ones.

Astra may have been too exhausted to physically help, but she was more than able to point out the focuses for the ritual, and despite Tiamat being very upset about how many of her charges they were using, she was more interested in just how insufficient they were in her mind. Brother, tell me about the summer ones, the ones with all the colors. Elias groaned, " Tia please, I promise you all the inkfruit you want, even the green ones, if you help with this mission."

Eli did all he could to hold in his chuckling as Tia's wings speared skyward and quivered, the trembling points tracing out just how much she wanted the derivations of her favorite snack." Tia… Listen to me, this is important." Elias gave Astra a smile as he squatted down next to the edges of the ritual circle and beckoned Tia over.

Eli gazed out over the circle and the myriad clusters of clay jars amongst the scene, and as Tia descended he raised one arm to swat away one wing in a faux block as she scrambled over.. Elias gave Tia a serious look as she hopped closer and he leaned in conspiratorily, " We know that magical fire doesn't work so it has to be a mundane fire this time. This is serious, people's lives may depend on it so you need to be careful ok?" Tia rolled her eyes, I know brother, you already told me twice." Yeah yeah…

Alright I'll keep the torches coming, drop them fast, we want to see if we can get them all burning in between pulses." Elias stood back up over a small fire with an armload of oil soaked torches and, one by one, he lit them as Tia snatched them up and dropped them over every cluster of jars, igniting the small stockpiles in quick succession. Orange flames bloomed amongst the various intersections and confluences of the ritual, and Tia true to her promise worked swiftly.

Ultimately though, mundane fire had almost less effect than the magical kind. While the heat was able to burn away some of the blood and erase some of the runes, whatever power that had been fed to the ritual already was able to easily sustain it, and over the next few minutes the flames guttered out, smothering by the protective magic. Elias winced as he looked around the room, letting out a long low sigh." Ok, time for the really dumb shit I guess."