The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 213

Chapter 213

Chapter 213: Enemy Territory III

CIRCE MILVIEW

Alacryan

I ran. It seemed all I had been doing these days was running through this cursed forest. Low-hanging branches scraped my cheeks and arms while thorny shrubs tore through my clothes and legs.

I sprinted in the direction my magic guided me. Without it, I was blind. Even if there was a moon tonight, I doubted its pale rays would be able to penetrate the dense canopy and fog above.

Every so often, I would see flashes of light from Maeve’s magic behind me, illuminating the trees and casting eerie shadows on the forest ground.

Maeve. Cole. Please make it out safely, I prayed to Vritra without breaking stride.

I continued to run, making sure to lift my knees high and step with my heel first while kicking off with the ball of my feet. This was the best way to run in the uneven terrain filled with broken branches and knotted roots.

Running until the magical flashes of battle were barely visible, I skidded to a stop and crouched beside a thick shrub. The thorns and prickly leaves pressing against me gave me comfort from the open. I covered my mouth as I gasped for breath, afraid that I’d be heard.

Paranoia had long since set in, filling my mind with endless doubts and hopelessness. Choking back sobs, I tried to calm myself.

You’re okay, Circe. You’re doing great. I wiped away at the stream of tears that didn’t stop flowing.

I have to survive. For my brother. For Seth. I recited this over and over. It was my mantra. It was what was keeping me going.

After finally catching my breath, I ignited my crest. Immediately, I could sense the location of the closest three-point array I had formed. Unfortunately, it was farther away than I hoped.

Unable to even curse aloud, I grit my teeth in frustration. With this much distance between the rest of the arrays, just using mana wasn’t enough.

Digging a small hole in the soft ground with my hand, I bit down on my thumb until blood was drawn. Carefully, I let my blood drip into the hole while instilling the mana from my crest.

It was by pure luck that I had found out that using my blood as a medium for mana would amplify the effects of the array. Perhaps finding out why might even one day evolve my crest into an emblem.

After my mana-infused blood had seeped into the small hole I had made, I covered it up and moved onto a nearby tree.

Taking out the small knife that Fane had practically forced me to keep, I began carving a small hole underneath a low branch.

I was about to put my bleeding thumb up against the hole when a sharp snap made me whirl around. I held the knife with both hands, pointing it toward the source of the sound as I activated my first crest.

My senses expanded, covering a twenty-yard radius, only to sense that it was just a small forest critter. I lowered my knife, frustrated at my own pathetic self. I was trembling, my back up against the tree, with tears in my eyes.

All I wanted was to curl up and cry, but unfortunately, I didn’t have such luxury. Not if I wanted to live.

I knew that the noise had been caused by an animal but I couldn’t focus. I was wasting time, but for some odd reason, I really didn’t want someone to kill me from behind. It was odd to think, but I’d rather look at my killer as I died.

After several minutes trickled by, I let out a sigh and turned back to my task.

If someone was here, they would’ve killed me already, I said to myself. It wasn’t a very comforting thought, but it was true.

I was a sentry. Widely respected and valuable but severely defenseless compared to strikers like Fane, casters like Maeve, and even shields like Cole.

After the second point had been finished, I moved to the final tree to finish the three-point array. I knew that using blood as a medium for the array would take its toll, but I was still surprised by how weak I felt after the final point had been finished. Despite the brisk winter air that seemed even colder within this fog, I was sweating and my knees were close to giving out.

Got to move. Almost there, I said to my legs. Without bothering to mask my mana trail, I moved on to the next point.

Fortunately, with the three-point array imprint that I had just finished, I wouldn’t have to use my blood again. I just needed to make sure I didn’t set the next imprint too far away.

I managed a half-jog while panting. I didn’t think it was possible, but the forest seemed to be getting even darker. The low hanging branches snagged at my tattered clothes. Without the strength to just shrug them off, I had to stop and pull off the branches, costing me precious time.

I stumbled more times than I could count on the roots and tree limbs that seemed to be growing more in numbers, but I finally made it.

This location should be okay.

Falling forward on my knees, I got to work once more. Igniting my crest, I began trickling mana into the first point of the array when something crashed into me from the side.

Without even the chance to be surprised, I was suddenly looking at Fane, who was on top of me. Fane wasn’t looking at me, but out in the distance—his face contorted into a fearsome scowl. It was dark but even then I could make out how bloody he was.

“Can you run?” he asked, pulling me up to my feet. His eyes were still surveying our surroundings, searching for something.

“I think so,” I stuttered, my gaze shifting down at a glimmering arrow buried in the ground... right where I used to be.

Fane ignited his emblem. His entire body glowed and visible gusts of wind surrounded him, lifting him off his feet. In his hand was a spear, its length about twice my height with a sharp point that spun like a drill, sending gales around us. “Then run. I’ll hold them off.”

Without even the chance to greet my teammate, I turned and ran. I didn’t know who the ‘him’ that Fane was referring to was but from the way he had immediately ignited his emblem to its full power, I knew he couldn’t be good.

It wasn’t long before I could hear the echoes of battle behind me. The ground shook and the trees seemed to shudder in sorrow and pain for their brethren caught in the fight. More than once I was almost blown off my feet by the gales but even then, I resisted the temptation to look behind me. I could only pray to Vritra that Fane would be okay. <br>

Again, I ran. I continued to run in this forsaken forest until my legs felt like lead. Every step seemed harder and harder to make, as if I was wading in a pool of tar.

No matter how desperately I wanted to keep moving, my body had had enough. Barely able to lift my feet off the ground, my toes got caught on a gnarled root.

I toppled forward and I soon tasted the dirt and foliage of the forest in my mouth.

Fane’s silver chestplate kept me on the ground like an anchor. Giving up on the thought of getting back up, I rolled to my side and ignited my crest. With the distance I had gone, I knew it was safer to strengthen the array with blood.

The wound on my thumb had already scabbed over, but as I wiped my mouth of the dirt, I was able to make out a streak of red.

What my sleep-deprived and crazed brain conceived as ‘fortunate’ was the fact that the fall to my face had torn open a wound on my lip.

Perhaps the most unladylike action I had performed in my entire life, I spat a mouthful of blood on the ground and dipped my fingers in it to imbue mana.

If I can’t run, I might as well create one more imprint for the army waiting. Maybe this will be close enough for them. Maybe they’ll still save Seth.

The crest on my back began burning—a telltale sign that I was overexerting myself. It didn’t matter. My legs couldn’t even carry my weight. I was prepared to die.

“Idiot! Didn’t I tell you to keep running?” I never thought Fane’s rough voice would sound so pleasant, but I was wrong.

I spotted Fane’s figure rushing toward me with a sphere of wind surrounding him. Without stopping, he picked me up by the chestplate and held me under his armpit. That’s when I saw it.

“Fane. Y-Your arm!” I huffed, wide-eyed.