Chapter 772: Manifestation

The thread on the soldier’s chest lifted first.

His body dropped against the broken wall. The two fighters beneath him caught his shoulders and legs, then carried him clear before a loose piece of stone followed him down.

Alex lowered the slab a little, letting Lolth’s thread take more of the organ’s weight. The flesh remained above the stone, its swollen veins shifting as the small formation beneath it loosened.

Mingyue kept her sword beside the support.

"Don’t release that edge yet."

Alex followed her gaze.

A pale strand still ran across the warehouse opening, low enough to touch anyone who tried to carry the soldier back through it.

He stopped lowering his hand.

The light woman looked from him to the opening. The strand rose from the broken wall.

Dorian waved the carriers through. The soldier’s right arm hung loose, but his left hand closed around the sleeve of the man holding him.

"He’s alive," Vesa said. "Selene has someone checking the others."

Alex eased another part of the support away.

Lolth was taking the weight through her thread. The marks on the slab no longer joined the surrounding paving, and Alex left them intact while he waited to hear from the other streets.

The light woman kept one hand beneath the flesh.

Outside the yard, pale lines began rising from the streets.

They peeled away from broken roofs and the corners of buildings. Some carried fragments of stone with them until the pieces broke loose and fell back into the ruins.

Mingyue turned her other sword toward the road.

A sheet of ice caught the debris above Dorian’s fighters. It cracked under the largest piece, sending smaller stones rolling down its slanted surface instead of into the men beneath.

Her left arm shook as she lowered the blade. Alex wanted to take over, but he couldn’t leave the slab yet. That would finish his part of the exchange before they knew who was still caught.

"Vesa, the street behind us?"

"Clear near the junction. Two people are still attached beyond the low buildings."

Alex held the support steady.

The light woman drew the organ upward. The remaining formation marks on the slab brightened as the distance between stone and flesh increased.

"Two behind the patients," Alex said. "Release them."

Her eyes moved toward the buildings.

One pale line rose into view, followed by another farther away.

Alex waited for Vesa’s answer. From here, he couldn’t tell whether the threads had released their captives or were lifting them out of sight.

"Both down," she said. "One is breathing. Selene has dragged him clear and gone back for the other."

Alex looked at the light woman.

"The other one?"

"The body was already empty."

Alex kept his hand raised. Lolth could wait while Selene checked the body.

Vesa spoke again.

"Selene can’t find a heartbeat. The body has been drained. The other person is still alive, but badly weakened."

Alex’s jaw tightened. He had asked for the living people she had caught. Some had already been lost while the fight continued, and withdrawing the web could not give back what it had taken from them.

"Get the survivor away from the falling strands," he said.

The light woman watched him without speaking.

Alex lowered the slab again.

The organ rose clear of the last red line above its surface. The line stretched thin between flesh and stone, then separated as he released the small supporting mark beneath it.

No blood spilled from the vein. Lolth’s thread held the flesh, with her light hand beneath it. The organ kept its slow pulse. Its power had not passed into Alex or the slab.

He still held the boundary around them.

"Above us," Mingyue said.

Alex looked toward the Imperial ships.

The vessel nearest the yard dropped when the strand under its bow came away. Its engines flared, checking the fall before its full weight could crash onto the lower ship beside it.

Their damaged outer panels scraped together.

One panel broke loose and fell toward the edge of the yard. Alex bent the outer part of his barrier to turn it into the ruined warehouse, keeping the slab supported with his left hand.

The impact tore through the empty roof.

Mingyue stepped closer to the organ. Her right sword stayed level, holding the small stretch of space between it and Alex’s boundary.

She watched Lolth’s hand. If the light woman tried to pass through the boundary before the last local threads came away, Mingyue would have to stop her at that opening. Alex could feel through their bond that she had little strength left for such a strike.

He did not tell her to move back. There was nowhere safer for her to stand while he still held the other side.

More strands detached from the hulls.

The ships’ engines brightened unevenly. One turned its damaged side toward the others as they struggled to regain spacing above the buildings.

None of that meant the soldiers aboard had stopped being enemies.

Alex kept his attention on the pale lines rather than the guns beneath them.

"Vesa?"

"The lines through our position are lifting. Dorian has the last man down on this side. Selene hasn’t found another living person still attached near the patients. The fighters on the outer streets are reporting."

Alex waited through the next report. From the west, two people had fallen with a section of roof; both were clear of the threads. The eastern squad could see the hulls turning freely above the road. Dorian’s fighters watched the gaps between buildings while Selene sent carriers toward the people brought down outside the treatment area.

"No attached person in sight from the perimeter," Vesa said. "The strands are withdrawing above them."

A white strand pulled free of the paving beside Alex’s foot and rose past his leg without touching him.

He followed it upward until it joined the lines withdrawing above the yard. The pressure against his outer boundary weakened, and the space Mingyue held between her swords stopped pulling out of shape.

"The ones I can see have released," she said.

Alex lowered the empty slab onto the paving, then opened a gap at the top of his boundary. Lolth lifted the organ through it.

Mingyue moved her blade with the edge of Alex’s barrier, keeping the gap only wide enough for the flesh and the light woman holding it.

The pale manifestation rose from the yard.

Alex watched the organ leave the green haze. It still carried the same red glow, and its veins swelled beneath Lolth’s hand as she drew it toward the white thread above.

He closed the upper gap after the organ passed through it, sealing the smoke inside again. Then he let the separate runes that had supported the slab break apart.

None of his support remained attached to the organ.

Lolth paused above the broken wall and looked down at the two of them.

Alex kept one hand ready beside his barrier. Mingyue’s swords stayed raised.

The light woman turned away. Her body thinned along the thread until she and the flesh she carried passed into the larger web above the city.

The other manifestation near the ships faded soon afterward.

Alex looked higher.