Chapter 204: Beasts vs Giants [1]

Constantine was looking at the pendant in his hand. The one with a photograph inside it. He had been looking at it without looking away for a while now.

Silence sat between them.

Aetherion Der Veyne finally spoke. His expression was unusually quiet. "It’s a shame about that young boy." All six arms were still. "To lose a promising Spire like him. I couldn’t even attend his funeral as the leader of the Veyne Assembly." A pause. "I had to spend that day reinforcing the dimensional barrier with additional layers."

Leonidas shook his head. "Don’t blame yourself Aetherion. We were all in the same position."

His gaze shifted toward Aurora. "Speaking of which Aurora. I never got the chance to discuss what happened during the tournament."

The three orbs revolving behind the Celestial Lord slowed slightly.

Leonidas continued. "I don’t think you should hold a grudge against Alden."

"Why shouldn’t I." Aurora’s response came without any hesitation at all. "Not after what he turned us into."

Leonidas looked at her. "You still remember that?"

"I’ll never forget it."

Aurora rose from her seat. The three orbs kept revolving. "If we’re finished adding the new layers to the dimensional barrier can we please return from this conference?"

Leonidas shook his head. "Honestly..." He glanced toward Constantine. "Are you not going to say anything Constantine?"

Silence.

Constantine stood with his gaze on the photograph inside the open pendant. Still looking at it.

Aetherion turned toward him. "Constantine?"

Only then did the Windsky Lord move. He closed the pendant gently and lowered his hand.

"Nothing."

His expression gave nothing else away.

The four Supreme Lords stood in silence for a moment longer.

Then one by one their figures dissolved from the chamber and the room was empty.

____

Back on the battlefield Alden finally got his legs under him.

His chest still ached where Nivara’s knee had hit it. He straightened and winced and then raised his head.

He went completely still.

Three colossal beasts towered over the battlefield. Their shadows stretched across the ground and swallowed the soldiers and structures beneath them whole. The nearest one’s eye alone was larger than Alden’s entire body.

The horse reared onto its hind legs first.

Its horn caught the light. Its front hooves came down and the moment they hit the ground hundreds of slender steel rods erupted from the space around its body and hung there for exactly one second.

Then they came down.

SHWOOOOOSH! SHWOOOOOSH! SHWOOOOOSH!

The rods tore through the air like a metal storm and the soldiers below scattered in every direction.

Some threw themselves behind shattered buildings. Some raised their shields. It didn’t matter. The rods punched through stone and dissolved defensive barriers and drove themselves into the earth deep enough that the impacts sent chunks of rock flying sideways. The ground became a field of jagged steel and the horse was already galloping forward to do it again.

The three-eyed serpent moved at the same time.

Its scales caught the light with a sickly wet sheen as its jaws opened and a torrent of venomous fluid erupted from its throat. The liquid spread wide and hit the battlefield in a broad arc that ate through stone and metal wherever it landed. The earth hissed and bubbled. Barriers dissolved on contact. Soldiers who barely got clear watched their armor melt off their bodies as the serpent swung its head toward the next group and spat again. Three eyes tracking three different directions simultaneously.

The turtle didn’t need to do anything complicated.

THOOM.

One foot came down.

The ground shook hard enough to knock people off their balance thirty meters away.

THOOM.

Another foot. A defensive tower collapsed under it and became rubble in about a second. The creature’s shell was overlapping plates of armor that looked like fortified walls laid side by side and its head moved with an unhurried weight that said it already knew nothing here was going to seriously inconvenience it. Buildings folded as it passed. Barricades disappeared beneath its feet.

Alden stared at all three of them.

"For the sake of... Why can’t I get a single moment of peace?"

He clicked his tongue. First Nivara’s knee in his chest. Now three walking disasters the size of small mountains. His gaze moved across their bodies measuring what he could see.

’They’re bigger than my Soul Beasts.’

He paused.

’Wait, why am I even comparing them. They’re practically giants.’

He dragged a hand down his face. He seriously considered lying back down and pretending to be dead for a few minutes. The screaming soldiers around him made that option difficult.

Whatever.

He exhaled slowly. Trying is better than standing here.

If he didn’t move people would die. The monsters were tearing through the field fast enough that waiting around to think of a perfect plan wasn’t an option.

Movement across the field caught his eye. A familiar white haired figure was supporting a wounded soldier under one arm and moving him away from the chaos while watching the destruction behind them.

Seris.

"Keep moving!" she told the soldier sharply. "Get to the next sector and don’t look back. Find the others and follow their instructions!"

The soldier nodded and stumbled away toward safety. Seris watched until he was actually going in the right direction. Then she turned and spotted Alden.

Her expression changed as she crossed to him quickly. "Alden! Are you okay?"

Alden looked at her. "You’re still here?"

She stopped. She stared at him like he had just said something spectacularly stupid. "What do you mean I’m still here?"

"I thought you said you wouldn’t be on the battlefield."

"And?"

"And yet here you are. On the battlefield."

Seris’s eyebrow twitched. "You absolute dumbhead!" She hit him on the arm. "There are no people from my side for the human army to fight right now so the least I can do is help evacuate the wounded, can’t I?!"

"I see..." Alden blinked. Then he rubbed the spot. "All right. My bad."

He turned back toward the monsters.

’Good. One less thing to worry about.’

His expression went serious.

’Open my beasts tab.’

╔═══════════════╗

? SOUL BEASTS ?

╚═══════════════╝

〔 GOLDEN DRAGON 〕

Rank: S

〔 FLAMESTONE 〕

Rank: A+

〔 GLACIUS 〕

Rank: A

〔 PYRION 〕

Rank: B

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alden took a deep breath.

’Summon them all.’