Chapter 769: Release It

Alex looked past his barrier. He could see her ice holding across the junction, with a pale line pressing down on it from above.

"Stay there."

He stepped back from the yard and lowered the rune beside the formation. The strand followed, cracking the edge of the barrier in his hand.

Alex kept his other hand away from the organ.

The light woman watched him withdraw. Her fingers relaxed, and the pressure stopped increasing.

Alex let the broken edge of his barrier fall apart and took a shallow breath. His right side hurt when he tried to fill his lungs more deeply.

"She wants it intact," he told Mingyue. "I can get it out without carrying the whole yard with it."

"Then keep control of the support. Don’t hand it over while our people are still caught."

Alex nodded, though she was looking toward the road now.

Alex waited for the next pulse from the organ, then placed a small rune beside the crossing beneath it.

The red line caught the edge of his power, and the veins on the flesh brightened.

He withdrew at once. The new rune broke in his hand, and the glow settled back to its earlier strength.

Even that small amount of power had fed the organ, just as the Imperial attack had. A gentler flow wouldn’t make the same path safe.

"Vesa, I need to check the support beneath it."

"Master is still listening. Tell us what you see."

Alex described the slab under the flesh, the red marks on its surface, and the way the veins stretched when Lolth pulled upward.

"The feed is on the upper face," Vesa said. "Can you reach the stone from underneath?"

Alucard’s faint voice followed hers.

"The outer apparatus isn’t part of her daughter. Carry that while you separate it. Leave the flesh alone."

The fleet’s bombardment had exposed a narrow gap beneath the slab. Alex could place a barrier there without connecting it to the red line on top.

He lowered a broad rune into that gap.

The barrier formed against the underside of the slab and took its weight. Above it, the organ continued its slow pulse.

Alex watched the veins. This time, they didn’t brighten.

He raised the support a little farther. The broken stone lifted with the remaining marks still on its surface, and the flesh stayed suspended over it by the existing arrangement.

The light woman’s thread tightened, lifting the top of the organ faster than the slab beneath it. Alex raised his support to keep a swollen vein from stretching across the red line.

"Wait."

Her eyes followed his hand.

"Then work faster."

The pale thread lowered a short distance. She had seen the strain as clearly as he had. It was his hand she was testing.

Beyond her, another thread dragged a firing ship away from the yard. Alex brought the stone and flesh level while her attention moved between the vessel and his runes.

If he damaged her daughter’s remains, the runes around his hand weren’t going to save him. He lifted the stone and flesh together.

The outer formation pulled against the slab. Red lines rose from the paving, revealing where the support under the organ joined the wider apparatus around the yard.

His Cognitive Matrix followed the exposed joins. He could break the outer marks while leaving the smaller arrangement on the slab intact. The organ would remain supported while he worked on the narrow attachment closest to its veins.

Alex drew a line of runes along the broken edge of the stone, then released the joins he had marked.

Red light flashed beneath the slab.

The barrier around the yard sagged, and green smoke rolled toward the opening in the warehouse wall.

Alex raised another boundary across that gap before the haze reached Dorian’s fighters. The added strain pulled at his injured left shoulder, and the slab dipped on its support.

He pressed his right hand beneath his left wrist to steady it.

Pain stabbed through his right side as he leaned forward. He kept the barrier beneath the slab level until the flesh stopped moving above it.

"King?" Vesa called.

"The outer lines are loose. There’s one join left."

He looked toward the street.

Dorian’s fighters had met another group of red-eyed bodies at the wall. One attacker reached the broken window before a sword dragged it away from Alex’s side.

Mingyue’s ice was still holding at the junction.

Neither of them could leave their position to finish this for him.

Alex braced his elbow against the broken wall and examined the last attachment. It ran from the arrangement on the slab to the outer ring, passing close enough to a swollen vein that a careless cut could split both.

The organ pulsed without drawing strength from his support. He had a way to finish the separation now, but Lolth’s thread still touched the flesh. She had allowed every step because it brought her closer to taking what she wanted.

Once he released it, there would be nothing left between her and the wounded except the same tired people who had failed to stop her web.

He kept the slab inside the boundary. Moving the active lure toward the patients would only carry her attention with it.

The light woman descended until she stood on the other side of his runes. Her gaze moved over the partly separated organ, following the veins he had kept intact.

Beyond the yard, Mingyue’s ice cracked beneath the next thread. She reinforced it before it reached the road. Alex felt the effort through their bond and tightened his shaking grip beneath the slab.

Alex looked at the light woman.

"I can release it," he said. "First, we need to talk."

The light woman looked from Alex’s face to his shaking hand.

"Release it."

The thread touching the organ tightened. Alex felt the slab rise against his support and raised his left hand with it, keeping the remaining attachment from pulling across the swollen veins.

"The people caught in your web come down first."

Her gaze returned to him.

For a moment, the flesh between them was the only thing moving. Its slow pulse stirred the green haze inside the boundary.

"Your people?" she asked.

"The living people you’ve caught here. Withdraw the strands you brought to Proxima, and I’ll release the remains."

"The power within them is also mine."