TFSAWE - Chapter 263: Save The People (Patreon)

"Outstanding!"

I called out his name desperately, but there was no response. I reached out to grab him, but my hand grasped nothing but empty air. Aslan's distant figure vanished in an instant. Where? Where did he go? As I frantically looked around, an ancient deity lashed a golden beam like a whip.

There was no sound. Only everything within the golden trail instantaneously became bathed in the same radiant hue. The upper parts of the temple buildings transformed into gold, cascading down like sand.

"Lady Lina!"

"Lina!"

When I turned around in response to the hand and voice that held onto me, Latvan and Leon stood before me, dishevelled and staring. I had no room to rejoice in their safety. I clutched both of them and pleaded.

"Aslan! Aslan!"

It felt as if those words were caught in my throat. What should I do? How can I stop Aslan? In my anxiety, as I pondered what to do, suddenly the world grew dark. When I raised my head, an enormous creature of an unprecedented size revealed itself in the sky, accompanied by a massive distortion. It resembled a lion with red fur.

"Aslan...."

There was no way my voice could have reached him amidst this chaos, yet the creature turned its head. Its blood-red eyes beheld me. In that moment, the divine light of the ancient deity aimed toward my location.

[Crack!]

With a loud noise, the ground began to shake and split. Instinctively closing my eyes, I found it strange that not a single grain of sand touched me, so I opened my eyes again. Before me, a blue barrier like a dome covered my surroundings.

"Are you alright?"

"Latvan?"

Startled by his urgent voice as he pulled me into his embrace, I regained my senses. The beams of light seemed to scrutinize the barrier created by Latvan's powers, moving a few times before fiercely descending once more. Latvan released the hand that held me and stepped forward to block my path. Sensing this, Leon held me back.

"Lina, step back!"

Latvan turned his head to confirm that Leon was holding me and then leaped outside the barrier. As if it had been waiting, the beam of light flew toward him.

Before I could scream, Latvan's sword severed the beam of light. [Thwack]
The severed beam fell to the ground, writhing violently like a snake with a severed spine before colliding with the wall of a nearby building and falling.

[Eek]

The people beneath that building screamed as they watched the beam of light. Each time it contorted, it expelled the things I had absorbed. Part of the building, tree branches, half of a painting. And half of a person.

"Leon, let go! Latvan!"

"Does it seem dangerous for Latvan? What about the person who caught Heksa?"

Leon shouted at me, clutching my arm as if in disbelief. His voice conveyed a sense of indifference, as if questioning who would be concerned about whom. It was only in Leon's composed voice that I could finally regain some composure and see Latvan. Undoubtedly, Latvan effortlessly sliced through the approaching beams of light, rendering my worries futile. The sight of the blue hues emanating from his sword confirmed that he was harnessing his powers.

As I turned to look, I noticed that the other knights who had come with Latvan were also engaged in a battle of wielding their young swords against the beams of light. However, they could barely defend themselves; the only one who could launch an attack and bring the opposition down was Latvan.

The beams of light, directed not only towards the other knights but also towards me, Leon, and everything approaching Latvan, seemed to converge and merge as soon as he severed them. They swiftly redirected towards the deity's core form. Recognizing this, Latvan swiftly evaded them and headed towards the ancient deity's body.

As he leaped forward, a trail of azure light followed. The crescent-shaped force of his powers flew straight toward the deity's body and collided with it. There was no massive explosion, but the part where Latvan's powers made contact seemed to be effortlessly sliced, as if by a sword, and the surroundings were adorned in a radiant blue.

The ancient deity let out a soundless scream as its body contorted.

"Did you see that? Now is not the time for us to worry about Latvan," Leon exclaimed, lifting his head. I, too, lifted my head and gazed in the direction of Leon's gaze.

Suddenly, in the sky, I caught sight of Aslan approaching the deity. It appeared as if the red lion opened its mouth wide and devoured the deity's body.

"Aslan!"

Feeling alarmed, as if Aslan, too, might become a part of the deity's being, I let out a startled scream, but Aslan remained unscathed. Instead, Aslan bit into the deity's body and fell to the ground just as it was.

Due to their colossal size, it appeared to be moving at an exceptionally slow pace, even though it was descending rapidly. However, the moment Aslan's body collided with the ground and the deity's body, an impact ensued, accompanied by the trembling and splitting of the earth beneath the temple.

"Save the people!"

The cries of the remaining priests and civilians who hadn't managed to escape reached our ears. As the world shook, there was no guarantee that Leon and I would remain unharmed, despite the protective barrier created by Latvan. We couldn't prevent the crumbling of the earth. Just as we thought we were about to fall, Leon and I found ourselves floating in mid-air.

Surprised, I turned to look, and Leon smiled and spoke.