[Ashborn-B1] 68. The Nightmare (Patreon)

LXVIII

The Nightmare

Ashwing spun so her belly was aimed at the wall and cut through the hall sideways. Near transparent columns of energy brushed over my head, then continued down the length of the hall behind me.

The screams and cries were so fierce I didn’t need to turn my head to guess what happened.

Off to the side, the shadow of the leviathan—that’s what I was calling it as I couldn’t identify it—swam past. Yes. It was swimming through the frost and what could only be an abyss underneath it. Just looking at the thing made me shiver to my toes. Without Skul to aid my sight, its attacks were nigh invisible. That wouldn’t have been too bad if it couldn’t attack from any direction. The origins of its beams didn’t follow any logic or reason; they didn’t even shoot from its body.

I steered Ashwing into a steep ascent. Being up higher wouldn’t get us out of range of its attacks. However, the beast was not concerned with me in particular and would choose to strike where it could do the most damage. That made us a tertiary target at best.

Which meant more room to dodge.

“Wait! Take me up, too!” I heard Ren yell. Fire burst from under his feet and launched him into the sky. His gauntlet wrapped around Ashwing’s feet.

“Huh?!” I shouted. “Flee yourself! Get off me!”

“No, please! I feel safer with youuuu…!”

His voice echoed as Ashwing swerved and tried to shake him off. Ren didn’t let go.

‘This fucking guy!’

I screamed and focused my efforts on powering Ashwing’s agility. I couldn’t very well slam him into the walls to force him to let go.

“You’re my saviouuuurr!” He called, his voice again trailing when Ashwing spun around another

“Shut up! Make yourself useful and propel us!”

He aimed and fired a blast from each foot. My frown vanished a heartbeat later. We were actually going faster than when I’d been flying myself.

“Ren, I take everything back! Good job! Keep going like that!”

The density of the essence luring us was growing thicker and thicker, which meant we were closing in on the shrine. We’d just need to hold out for a bit longer—

Heavy tremors and explosions made me turn. Had the beast switched up its attack pattern?

I blinked and used one of my chicks to get a better view.

Talons dug into the ice for grip, then launched with enough force to crater the walls beneath them. Each time the feathered demon with hundreds of eyes leapt, the walls shook.

“Fuck,” I said.

Gaje running was not a problem. However, I didn’t for a second think that he wouldn’t try something if he caught up to me. Actually, the situation even worse. The whole point of retreating to the chamber was that our armies would be too significant for Gaje to contest. Now, those crucial armies were being devastated by the shrine guardian.

‘Aurille may not even be there yet.’

If I burst into the chamber ahead of the Dargonflight and Dawnflames with Gaje on my heels…

“Ren,” I yelled. “If you have any extra power, use it now!”

He cast a look over his shoulder before slamming essence through his veins. The fires gushing from his feet doubled in size. We accelerated so much I had trouble steering Ashwing away from another stray swipe about to cleave us in two.

‘We’ll make it.’

Despite what I said, the shrine was massive. As long as we stayed high in the sky, Gaje shouldn’t be able to reach us. I’d meditate on Ashwing’s back while she soared through the sky and rejuvenate my essence reservoirs. And if Gaje decided to hit the rest of our army while I was recouping…well, sometimes you had to play the long game, right?

Counter forces from our flight slammed into my face and threatened to dismount me. The forces increased even more when Ashwing twirled and curved between two columns. I almost bit my tongue.

Parts of the wall exploded. At first I thought it was Gaje, but he was still behind us (though catching up). Instead cavities had appeared in the walls. Thousands of them. They looked like the mouth of a volcano.

“What the hell?” I said.

The mouths contracted, then erupted with a whistle that rose above the screams and shouts coming from below.

Thousands of projectiles whirred past.

“Hold on!” I screamed.

Ashwing dove, pirouetted, and fired her cutters. Her performance was amazing. But it wasn’t enough. Dozens of the frost bullets slammed into her side. She recoiled but she kept flying. None of the bullets hit me. Ren was spared by virtue of his armour.

‘The damage isn’t horrible.’

The attacks were numerous and quick, but they lacked a punch. Ashwing’s skill would be able to heal her through it.

But a second and third volley would be problematic.

I spread my senses. The shrine wasn’t far—

The sensation of an ice cold finger touching the centre of my neck made my whip around. My gaze whirled across the hall. Where was Gaje? I couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Ren,” I whirled back. “Be careful…” I trailed off.

The thousands of volcano mouths had vanished, and an absolute darkness had taken their place. The darkness spread below me, too, leaving us flying in a void.

I bit my teeth. ‘We were too slow.’

This was one of Gaje’s abilities. His powers were related to dreams. Was he making me hallucinate? If so, I was in even more trouble. Just because I couldn’t see the outside world didn’t mean it didn’t exist there.

“Ren,” I said. “Are you ready?”

He’d not disappeared like the rest of the world. He didn’t answer my question, though.

I glanced down. “Ren?”

His jets were dying. ‘What’s going on?’

“Mo…” I heard him mumble.

“Ren?” I asked again.

Since he was no longer propelling himself, his body hung limp in Ashwing’s claw, and he swayed. I locked eyes with him as he spun towards me. His pupils were…dilated.

“Mother…” he mumbled. “Don’t send me away…” He sniffed, then screamed: “I’m sorry!” And began swinging while screamed and began swinging while firing blasts from his feet again, which made her almost topple.

“Ren! Snap out of it, you idiot!”

A too sharp curve almost threw me off my summon, but I managed to hang on by grabbing a fistful of feathers, which nearly ripped out of Ashwing’s skin. The summon cried out and glared at me.

Meanwhile, Ren continued crying and professing his apologies to his mother.

“Ren…!” I grunted.

His erratic movements were becoming too much—

“Mother, I’m coming back!” he flopped out of Ashwing’s grip and hurled towards the ground. Without using any of his abilities.

‘Damn it.’ We were pretty high up. Was he going to survive that fall?

I ordered Ashwing to dive.

The summon cried out against it (who wanted to hold on to a maniac like him?) but she descended.

Her wings cut the sky as we reached top speed.

“I got…you!” Right as Ashwing locked her foot around Ren, I fired a branch into the shadows to our left. The branch shot through the darkness and speared into something hard.

‘So it’s just an illusion.’

The branch pulled taut and helped Ashwing turn her nosedive around.

“No!” Ren yelled. “I’m going to get killed! Please, let me go!”

“Shut up!” I made Ashwing fly close to the edge of the illusion and dragged Ren across the wall. “I’ll seriously drop you if you don’t wake up!”

I don’t know why I wasn’t affected, but this illusion wasn’t meant to hurt us, just slow us down. How far behind us was Gaje now?

“Au, auu, auuuu! Sto—stoooop! I’m out of iiiiiit!”

To be sure, I held him there for another heartbeat before pulling away. “You better be! What happened? Did he attack your mind?”

“I don’t know. One second we were flying, the other second I was back home, suffering through my mother’s tirades…” He inspected his surroundings. “What’s up with this void?”

“Gaje’s technique,” I said. “Can you fire those jets again?”

“On it.”

Our speed increased again.

My forehead scrunched up. This was strange. With how long we’d spent in this illusion, he should already be close. Why hasn’t he attacked?

The darkness shattered around us like glass, clattered to the ground, and the normal world returned.

I whirled around. A massive serpent slithered through, caring not for who it smashed into and sent reeling. Erri was standing on its head. More snakes curved around her arms and launched. One of them managed to snatch Gaje’s leg and sent him crashing.

‘Erri…’ She must’ve realised Gaje’s plan. While she likely wanted nothing more than to see me dead, she also understood that if Gaje killed me now, there was one less potential ‘ally’ to help fend him off afterwards.

Some of her elites were going after Gaje, too.

Behind the Dragonflight, Raven was leading the flight from the guardian. His black fog shrouded the majority of the fleeing army. The other disciples fired their arts to destroy the mouths attached to the walls before they fired.

There was no sign of Kiran anywhere, but knowing him, he was already at the shrine.

‘Should I turn around?’

Fighting here was dangerous, yet Gaje’s rush to intercept me meant he was alone…

But I wasn’t going to risk it, so run away it was.

‘But if I kill or injure Gaje, that lessens the reasons for Erri to work with me.’

The moment I settled on getting the fuck out of here by any means possible, another deep, terrible tremor passed through the foundation of the shrine.

I caught a glimmer of the guardian’s shadow passing through the walls. Where before the volcanoes had exploded, they now poured. Liquids the colour of frost flowed out of the mouths like water from a glass.

With thousands doing so at once, the hall flooded to the ankles within moments. ‘That’s bad.’

The disciples looked like they were wading through mud. And the water level was only rising.

I whirled back to the front. The gates of the shrine had come into view. But the halls would flood before the majority of the army made it through. One one hand, that was good. The Black Fangs and Immortals were the furthest behind, so they’d lose the most members. On the other hand, we needed our army, too. Not only to challenge this shrine, but also to tackle what would be on the floor below this one.

‘Isn’t there some way to stop this?’

There were too many mouths for me to destroy to make a dent. Neither did I have the energy to buff the Dawnflames for a final sprint…

I peered as I tried to come up with a solution. Then I locked onto the gate.

‘The gate. I just have to open the gate.’

As long as the entrance was open, the hall wouldn’t flood.

“Ren!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!” he yelled back. From his tone, he must be aware of my intentions.

Without the bullets raining down and Gaje on our heel, the path was free. By the time we reached the giant double doors, the water had reached most disciples’s knees.

We slammed against the entrance. I haphazardly looked around for a handle only to remember there was none.

‘Shit!’ How’d I forget? They could only open from the inside!

“Who closed these damn doors in the first place!” I yelled.

Ren coughed.

I whirled towards him.

“We decided it was better to close the entrance,” he said. “It stopped any enemies from making their way inside without our knowledge until Aurille showed up.”

My mouth opened and closed. That…actually made sense, so I couldn’t argue against it. But that didn’t stop us from being stuck on this side!

“Aurille!” I slammed my fists against the door. “You there? Open up!”

Disciples were now hip deep, forcing them to swim.

My locator entered my palm. Where the hell was she? The hours had already passed. She should’ve been here by now—hold on.

I looked down in horror. The entrance swung outward. Could it even open if it needed to push against that much water?

“Our geese might be cooked,” I muttered.

We were safe now, but the water level would reach us at some point. It also looked like the entire shrine was flooding, so there was nowhere to escape to.

My hand was planted on the surface of the entrance, so I felt the vibration passing through the enchantments.

‘It’s opening!’

Ashwing hurried away from the entrance so her weight didn’t push down on the door. It was by the barest fraction of an inch, but the doors were moving.

‘Come on…’

Just a crack. As long as they opened a crack, the water could escape inside, lessening the pressure.

But said crack wasn’t appearing.

My blade freed its sheathe. “Ashwing, get me back in there.”

If the gate wasn’t opening by itself, we just needed to give it a helping hand.

The steel tip jammed through the narrow slit between the double doors, and I shoved. But I couldn’t get the blade all the way in.

“Ren! Fire to the side!”

“Got it!”

His horizontal momentum would allow the blade to act as a wedge…

Though Ren fired his jets to the max, nothing happened except for my blade screaming for its life.

I grunted. ‘It’s not deep enough.’

This wasn’t doing anything. So I conjured a branch from my palm instead. There was no handhold for the branch to attach to, so I used my blade to nick a hole in the entrance. The branch slammed headfirst into the small opening, digging itself a little deeper in the process.

“Ashwing!”

The beast flapped her wings with all her might. Ren aided her as much as she could. My own palms cut open on the branch sliding through my grip.

“Come…on…”

Behind me, the desperate screams of the disciples grew garbled. Those who didn’t know how to swim were already drowning.

Hot slices of water slammed into the gate. I managed a glance. Rin speared past and slammed her trident into the entrance. “Use these!” she yelled.

She’d created a bigger hole than what I had, so I changed anchors.

Beside me, two flaming snakes dug their teeth into the walls. Another two dug their fangs into the door. Erri stood on the back of a snake floating on the water and pulled.

Between the two of us pulling with everything we had…the door still didn’t move.

‘We’re dead.’

I could hear the soft pulse echoing through the walls. The laughter of a beast not of this world, who preferred watching us die a slow death than attacking us while we were not capable of dodging.

A blur slammed against the wall beside me and droplets splashed against my feet. Dozens upon dozens of slitted eyes stared back at me, embedded in soaked feathers.

‘This fucking guy doesn’t know when to give up!’

My muscles strained as I pulled with all my might. The water level was getting too high. If I let go now, there was no chance of us opening this door. But if I didn’t…

The Nightmare’s gazes didn’t stray from mine.

Then his aura flared.