[Ashborn-B1] 92. Useful (Patreon)

XCII

Useful

The head rolled to stop in front of my feet. Kayle’s locks spread in the grass like cascading waterfalls. Her eyes weren’t closed but may as well have been. The golden hue had seeped out of her pupils so all of the colour was gone. Stuck to her cheek, was a single, red petal.

I kept her gaze for a heartbeat. “First Raven, now you…”

Their losses…a piece inside me jerked and twisted at the thought of it. It wasn’t rage nor sadness, but something else.

“Don’t worry,” Maya laughed. Trails of red liquid slipped past the side of her temples as she sauntered back into view. “You’ll be joining them soon.”

My gaze pulled away from the disgraced Dawnflame heiress towards the last of the pillars. It was still ablaze, but the fires were dimming. Very faintly, I caught sparks, flashes, and black smudges moving on top of red ones.

“I suppose we should’ve stationed more people there,” I said.

Aedan shook her head. “It wouldn’t have mattered. Your lovely healer tried to pull a fast one over you and it backfired.”

“A fast one?” I asked.

Aedan pointed a slender, veiled finger towards the central pillar.

I followed her pointer…and swallowed a sigh. “Greed truly is the most dangerous sin.” One I knew everything about.

Maya huffed. “We going to let her monologue or kill her?”

“For once,” Raiden said, “I agree with her for once. We still need to take care of that big guy after this, so we should be efficient. Also—” Lightning burst around his frame. “I don’t know what, but she’s preparing something.”

Aedan’s head tilted as she appreciated me one more time. “She does seem unworried.”

By now, the Black Fangs had taken care of the Dawnflames who hadn’t fled for the central pillar.

I crouched in the middle of my sentence and plucked the lone petal from Kayle’s face. The remnant of the flower dissipated into smoke between my fingers. Dying at the hands of an Immortal never lead to a clean death. Was she currently suffering inside the realm of their god…and would Ray be with her?

A chill I had suppressed for the last day or so touched my neck and slipped down the curve of my back. With a deep exhale, I extended a palm towards Kayle’s head. The roots gently poked out the earth and wrapped her like they’d done Raven.

Gaje’s hundred eyes trained on my hand. Of course, he’d be the first to notice something was off.

I looked up into Aedan’s eyes. “Because my preparations are already finished.”

Behind me, a massive cylinder exited the ground and formed into the shape of a trunk.

I rose to my full height. “I was worried at first because of the distance we’d covered. I cannot control my constructs over large distances yet, you see.”

Gaje blinked with multiple eyes at once. “You called your underground roots here in such a short span of time?”

The ends of my hair twirled as I shook my head. “That was the original plan. Then I realised there’s another source closeby.” I nudged my chin in the direction of the nearby pillar. The structure wasn’t that far away from us. “Once I tapped into the leyline, distance stopped being an issue.”

The entire underground network was connected. I could already sense the other roots—they were perhaps minutes away from reaching me.

I cupped the side of my neck and stretched a stiff muscle. The trunk kept growing and the first branches began to grow. Though I knew it’d be a tree, I had no idea what kind. Would it become one of the lesser trees or the cindertree? Would it become any one of them at all? What even would be its purpose? I didn’t know. But already, my connection with the plant was strengthening. I could sense it like I did the other trees in my garden.

“Well,” I stretched the last aching muscle. “Shall we get to it like the woman requested?”

Saber and Skul stepped up, eyeing the competition, drool sliding past their teeth. I patted both on the head and smiled at the onlookers.

It was time—

An explosion rocked the world. I fell and propped myself up on Skul’s side to keep from falling. The ground was crying in pain, tremors shot up from my soles into my forehead.

The wave of cold which followed the shockwave told me what’d happened without seeing it.

‘I suppose he’s finally done.’

Had the king’s attack destroyed—

My thoughts stopped and spun on the incoming danger. Pillars carved through the ground at the twitch of my finger. Gaje cut through them as if they didn’t exist. Then he was in front of me.

My heartrate increased to keep up with what was happening. ‘Using my roots should be fine,’ the thought flicked through me. Unlike before, I wasn’t directly connected to the wood, so I wasn’t in danger of being hit by the aftershock.

A barricade of stakes burst around me. In a show of agility, the Nightmare flipped in the air over the top of the spikes.

I frowned. ‘This is still trouble.’

I could defend myself and keep him at bay, but that was just wasting time. I needed to get back—Aurille was likely out there working on a plan to stop the king or fighting Erri. Either way, she could use help.

There was only a single skill in my arsenal that could probably pierce that technique of his.

Maybe one more, depending on what Skul unlocked.

‘There’s no choice.’

A pillar shot out of the ground under my feet and carried me backwards, well out of the way of Gaje’s strike.

Saber and Skul roared. Their shouts carried so much force now that the leylines were feeding into us that some of the Black Fangs collapsed to their knees and cupped their ears.

My footing vanished from below me. Eyes wide, I looked down. Gaje shouldn’t have been that quick—

Aedan’s morningstar punched through the wood. Part of her veil parted to reveal a smile as my pillar fell back down.

‘Crazy bastard—’

“Now, I’ve got you!”

Maya appeared in the corner of my sight. I don’t know how she managed to slip past Skul and Saber, but her claws gleamed, eager to get a taste of my blood.

I refrained from deadpanning. “Thanks for coming to me.”

Another pillar burst from the section I was falling with. It became a second platform of sorts that I could use as footing. I stepped an inch to the side so her claw passed by the tip of my nose. Then I grabbed her neck.

My eyes flicked to lock onto those of Raiden. The look in my eyes must’ve been dead.

Horror dawned on his face. “Maya!” his scream echoed into the sky.

“First one,” I whispered.

The root launched out my palm and exited through the side of her throat. I held her close as we tumbled. The whipping winds cut off her gurgles. Slowly, the fire in her eyes died.

My shard roared to life, so I dropped her into a gate and turned back to the battle happening below.

Saber had rushed up the base of the pillar to put distance between him and the Black Fangs. Aedan chased after him and planted a nasty swing on his cheeks. Some of the spikes attached to her flail broke his hide, but his shroud blocked most of the damage. Gaje caught Skul’s snout in one hand and flattened his free talon into a point. He swiped to cut off Skul’s head.

A bundle of roots wrapped his arm before he could finish the motion, killing his momentum enough so he barely drew a line of liquid fire from the balekin’s neck. One of Skul’s guardians rushed to its master’s side and forced the Nightmare to let go.

The bottom of my robe fluttered in the updraft. I considered calling in a flametalon to soften my landing, when the infant tree on the ground pulsed. Its canopy spread and dozens of arms extended to wrap around me and break my fall. The tree gently put me down on one of the thickest of the branches, which was wide enough for me to stand on comfortably.

“Thank you,” I whispered, rubbing the bark.

The tree pulsed.

A notification popped into my view, but I suppressed it to focus on the battle. Saber lunged for Aedan’s throat. He was quick, but the Black Fang was slippery. She ducked underneath him and whirled to retaliate when he was off-centre.

‘He cannot win that.’

Skul couldn’t win against Gaje either.

My senses hurled inside the garden towards the cindertree. More pieces of cinder, looking like fireflies, were scattered through the garden than ever before, and the trunk of the tree had never looked haler.

A peculiar gale from my rear made me turn around…and gasp. Where there’d been nothing but a sea of fire before was now a path leading to another section of barren land.

When—

I pressed down on the thought. ‘Later.’

I turned back to the cindertree and extended my arm. The tree, ever knowing what I was planning without me saying a thing, lowered its arm enough so I could comfortably reach the branch. The fruit snapped from its stem with glee.

It fit in my palm despite how big it looked from below. Yet it quivered in my palm with the screams of however many souls had gone into its creation. I glanced left. Maya had already been strung from Saber’s tree like a marionette.

Sealing off my mind, I returned from the garden to find myself standing on the tree with the fruit in my hands.

It was at that moment that the sky overhead darkened and flashed at the same time. Blasts of lightning slammed into the same spot as if attracted by a beacon.

Raiden’s form was wreathed in so much thunder I could barely make out his face beneath the thunder. Lines contorted his expression beyond what was humanly possible.

I wondered if he could hear her screaming like I did?

“Don’t worry,” I whispered, meeting his gaze. “I’ll put her to good use.”

Then I held out my hand and called Skul back.