The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 334

Chapter 334: Last Mercy

My gaze shifted from the woman in the orange armor to the ring of ascenders around her closing in on us. Their hardened expressions, posture, gait—everything about them reinforced my impression that the Granbehls had made a significant investment to orchestrate this last ditch effort.

Stopping in front of Darrin, our female assailant placed a hand on the golden aura restraining him. “Sorry you got wrapped up in this, Ordin. I know I speak for all these men when I say that you’ve earned our respect over the years.”

“Well, then you could let us go,” Darrin ventured, the charm in his voice ruined by the muffling of the golden force field.

The woman shook her head, eyeing us seriously. “No, I’m afraid not.”

I watched the mercenaries, their hands gripped firmly around their weapons despite their advantages. My eyes turned to where we had crossed over to this floor. A steady stream of ascenders should have been headed in both directions, but no one new came through the portal from the second level, and the street leading out into the first level was empty as well.

“Still scheming for a way out of this?” The woman asked with a raised brow. “I admire your composure, but it’s no use.”

“Scheming?” I echoed, raising a brow. “Is that what it looked like I was doing?”

“Superstar here thinks he’s invincible after being let loose,” one of the men standing nearest to her said with a chortle. His red hair had been shaved down on the sides, and scars marked his face, the sides of his head, and the bare skin of his arms.

Apparently, even the most professional of mercenaries weren’t immune to the disease of a swelled head because another man—this one a much rounder axe-wielder—leaned forward lazily against his weapon.

“That’s a top tier force cage, moron,” he said with a smirk. “The thing about these expensive ones is that, while they cost as much as a Relictombs estate, they drain your own mana to use against you, reinforcing the barrier.”

“So by all means,” the scarred redhead sneered, giving his shoulders a little shake, “struggle all you wish.”

The orange-armored woman let out a snicker and the mercenaries behind her saw that as a signal to cackle in amusement.

So when the supposedly unbreakable golden barrier of mana shattered around me, their expressions couldn’t have changed any faster.

‘Puahaha! Look at their faces!’ Regis guffawed, practically rolling on his back within me.

“Th-that’s impossible...” the woman stammered, her tanned skin a shade paler.

“I’ve been told that a lot,” I replied casually, dusting the golden shards of solidified mana off my shoulder.

Recovering quickly from her disbelief, the woman in orange let out a guttural roar as she flashed forward, twin sabers appearing in her hands, blazing in a golden red fire.

My form blurred as I used Burst Step to close the distance between us, catching her off guard. I kicked her knees and slammed her face-first into the ground with a quick strike to the back of her neck.

By the time the rest of the mercenaries snapped out of their shock and terror, their leader was already under my foot.

My gaze swept across the twenty some men and women in cold apathy. I had given the Granbehls enough chances.

Regis, kill the rest, I thought.

A shadowy wolf engulfed in violet flames burst forth, eliciting a storm of curses and yelps of surprise. Being the hardened mercenaries that they were, however, our opponents reacted with practiced efficiency, glowing mantles of all different elements erupting around them. Mana shields flickered to life as well, bathing the platform with colorful light.

I took a moment to glance back at Alaric and Darrin, whose dumbfounded expressions indicated that they were still processing what exactly was going on. While the idea of freeing them for additional help crossed my mind, it didn’t seem necessary...and I wanted them to get a glimpse of just what sort of person they were actually helping.

Shrouding myself in a layer of aether, I focused on my opponents, ready to meet their barrage of spells.

Regis struck like a meteor, spraying blood wherever his dark claws and fangs went, but after killing a few of their comrades, our attackers were able to encircle him with mana shields while their Casters bombarded him with spells.

The scarred ascender with burning red hair was the first to approach me, rushing forward with a giant warhammer in hand, creating a depression on the ground with each mana-infused step.

“Screw taking you alive!” he roared. “Die!”

With bloodshot eyes filled with vengeance, the Striker swung his blackened steel hammer that seemed to pulsate.

I dug my heels into the ground, directing a burst of aether from my core through my arm and into my fist while keeping a steady flow throughout the rest of my body to keep myself stable.

My bare fist collided with the face of his metal hammer, creating a shockwave of force that ripped through the air.

The mercenaries nearby were blasted off their feet, slammed by the kinetic energy while the redhead’s hammer shattered just like the force cage they tried to trap me in.

Before my wide-eyed opponent could recover, I followed up with an aether-clad punch to his chest that made sure he never would.

Meanwhile, Regis had his jaws trained on the round axe-wielder’s head. His agonizing scream turned into a gut-wrenching crunch as my companion snapped his mouth shut before moving on to his next victim.

While protective panels of mana were able to deter the shadowy wolf for a moment, Regis’s claws were infused with destruction, slowly disintegrating whatever the mercenaries could conjure.

All around me, the mercenaries scrambled chaotically, perhaps now realizing how outmatched they were.

A Striker came from my left, hefting a huge sword surrounded by a sharp torrent of wind, but I sidestepped the unwieldy weapon easily, ignoring the scratches from its cutting aura. As the blade struck the ground, I snapped out a forward kick against the flat edge. There was a rending of metal as the serrated blade tore free from its handle and went skittering across the ground into the distance.

The Striker had just a moment to stare dumbfounded at his broken weapon before my second kick took him in the side, sending him crashing through the wall of one of the surrounding buildings.

Spinning, I dodged a crackling arc of electricity that left a trail of shattered earth in its path.

The robed caster let out a manic laugh as he moved his arm, controlling the stream of voltaic mana back at me.

With another series of aetheric bursts channeled through my body, I Burst Step past the caster, my bloodied arm ripping a hole through his stomach.

His laughter dissolved into a hysteric scream as he looked down at his fatal wound.

As the ascender slumped, blood leaking from his mouth, I held his body and spun, using it as a shield to catch a series of ice spikes that flew toward me. I felt that man’s body shake as the spikes impacted, then he went still in my grip.

I let the corpse fall to the ground.

Flicking the blood off my arm, I scanned the battlefield; one of the mercenaries had made a break for the portal. A powerful gale of wind blurred his form, and he was just a single step away from escaping, one arm already inside the glowing window of the portal.

The world shifted as my perception stretched and the currents of aether appeared around me. Letting the threads of spatium feed information to me, I was able to find the route that led me to the escapee.

Then I took a step.

Tendrils of violet lightning crackled around me as my vision shifted to just behind the wind mage. Grabbing him by the back of his armored collar, I jerked him toward me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

Despite my gentle smile, the ascender’s face twisted into one of horror.

“H-how...” he croaked before his skull was slammed into the ground.

Feeling the absence of the rich aetheric atmosphere of the deeper Relictombs zones, I noted the drop in my reserves from that single God Step and knew I couldn’t be careless about wasting aether.