I no longer saw or heard what happened around me, encased in this frail body that could only withstand so much. This was worse than any rearranging of my bones. Any wound. Any ritual.
To protect is to endure, whispered in my thoughts, taking some of the strain away.
The blood finally, mercifully seeped between the stones’ fractures.
I distantly felt Elysia drawing closer to me as my body tipped to the side, barely conscious.
I couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief as my power pushed harder against the Crimson Dam’s rocks. The blood particles I’dso carefully gathered and guided began to vibrate, chipping away at the fissures the water had spent eons creating.
But this movement was faster.
Unnatural.
Something the people of this land had never imagined would be possible–or that someone would ever dare to do.
No runes in this world could protect the barrier now.
It hadn’t been struck by a human hand or weapon, but by the very essence of life.
Blood.
It was always blood.
The first crack in the dam’s mortar echoed through me like the rattle of death.
I fell to my knees with a groan, barely clinging to consciousness. Two sets or arms, one stronger than the other, steadied me before I toppled from the embankment into the groaning river below.
Zandyr’s magic raced through my veins, trying his best to stabilize them before they burst.
My Brothers and Sisters protected my body.
But my mind…it was cradled by Allie. She held on tightly, stubbornly, refusing to let the pressure tear it apart.
Despite my best efforts, she’d burrowed through my defenses. Her essence was there, soothing me back to reality.
You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive, chanted in my mind.
A thunder resounded upstream.
No.
An explosion.
No again.
A deafening roar, unlike any I’d ever heard.
Through the dark spots dancing before my eyes, I saw the full force of the river rushing toward us.
With my power, I’d shattered the Crimson Dam. Finally free after eons, the Obsidian swelled in one big wave that shadowed the forest.
Heading straight for us.
The Serpent army erupted into chaos.
The tainted soldiers rushed through the currents, the curse more powerful than their survival instincts, veins swelling grotesquely on their necks and faces.
The others screamed and ran the other way, Kleonos riding in front of them all.
