Chapter 89: Temporary Act [1]

"HEY!" Augustus’s roar came from somewhere behind the sound of Flamestone’s legs on bedrock. "Where the hell do you think you’re GOING—"

The spider dropped its weight into Augustus’s path, razor legs digging into the frozen dirt, unyielding. Augustus’s blade rang off its armored shell as Flamestone held the line with everything it had.

Alden kept walking.

Roselle reached him first, sprinting across the snow with Nicholas behind her and Leon somewhere behind both of them. Her eyes went straight to Seris and her voice came out quiet and shaky. "Is she—"

"Breathing," Alden said. "She’s alive."

Roselle’s exhale lasted a long time.

The golden dragon descended from the overcast sky and landed with a ground-shaking impact twenty meters away, scattering snow in every direction. Alden looked at the three of them.

"I need a favor." His voice was strong, not because he was trying to show off, but simply because he had to be heard. "Take her back to the academy. Use the dragon, it’s faster than the mountain roads." He reached into his coat and produced a small glass vial — dense crimson liquid inside. He held it out to Roselle. "Give her this when she wakes up. She hasn’t fed in nearly a week. This will start her recovery."

Roselle took the vial carefully. Nicholas and Leon both stared at it. Neither asked how he’d known. Neither asked when he’d prepared it.

"Alden." Leon stepped forward, eyes on the black smoke still curling around Alden’s shoulders. "What is all that?"

Alden ignored the question entirely. "Go. All of you, take her and don’t split up."

"What about you?" Leon’s voice cracked slightly.

Alden looked at him.

"Nicholas." He turned to the protagonist he’d spent a year writing. "You know what happens when the academy finds out what she is right? The council. The noble factions. They’ll try to pin this on her."

Nicholas’s expression went serious in the specific way it went serious when he’d already decided something. "I know."

"Don’t let them," Alden said simply. "Please protect her. Don’t let anyone touch her."

A beat of silence.

Nicholas nodded once. "I will, she’s my senior." He paused. "Just make sure you come back."

Alden gave a short nod.

He watched them carry Seris up the dragon’s tail and settle her carefully between them. He watched until they were secure. The dragon unfurled its wings.

WHOOSH.

TWOOOM.

It tore through the clouds. Roselle looked back once. Leon raised a hand. Nicholas kept his eyes on Alden until the golden shape disappeared into the grey sky.

Alden stood alone in the snow.

He watched the empty sky for a moment.

Then he turned back.

BOOM.

Flamestone hit the ground few meters away, skidding hard, one leg at a wrong angle. It pushed itself up on shaking legs, clicking softly like a tired creature that had given every last bit of its strength and had no fight left in it.

Alden walked past it. "You’ve done enough. I’ve got it from here."

The spider clicked once more and went still.

Augustus was already pulling himself out of a crater, his royal uniform shredded, his body a map of deep gashes, his face unrecognizable from the lazy crown prince the academy had known. His eyes were wide and bloodshot and burning with something that had left rational thought somewhere far behind.

Then his severed arm began to move.

Black and red strands of flesh crawled over the stump. Muscles grew back together, and bones snapped into place. Within seconds, new skin grew back to cover the whole arm.

Augustus held up his fully restored hand and stared at it.

Then he started laughing.

Not a real laugh. Something that had come uncoupled from anything like control.

"HAHAHAHA! DID YOU SEE THAT?!" He pointed the new arm directly at Alden, his grin tearing at the edges of his face. "YOU CUT MY ARM OFF AND IT GREW BACK!" He slammed his fist against his chest. "I AM INVINCIBLE! Nobody in this world can kill me anymore! Come on, COME ON! FIGHT ME—"

His expression turned venomous.

"Or maybe I’ll just hunt down your bloodsucker friend instead." His voice dropped into a hiss. "Track her down. Kill her in front of you. Tear her apart piece by piece until there’s nothing left—"

Alden stopped.

His hands closed slowly at his sides. His nails pressed into his palms until skin broke.

He stood there while Augustus kept talking and heard none of the words — heard instead Seris’s voice from the fountain, quiet and real I fell for you. Felt the warmth of her arms around his neck that night in the infirmary. Saw her face in the snow just now, the bruise Augustus had put there, the blood Augustus had drawn.

Years of her family telling her she shouldn’t exist.

That smile she forced on every time the past came for her.

Thank you, Alden.

One word that had done more damage to the walls he’d built than anything else in this world.

A heavy tightness had stayed in Alden’s chest ever since he came to this world. It had been there through every fight and every time he tried to stay away from the characters he wrote. Now, it finally gave up and disappeared.

The black smoke exploded.

It exploded outward from every part of his body, shooting off his back, shoulders, and arms. The air around him turned dark, but it was not caused by a simple shadow. The snow under his boots shook. The sound in the air changed, and the pressure shifted.

Alden raised his head.

His eyes looked wrong. They had turned a bright, glowing red, just like back at the council meeting when he almost fought Nathan.

The system spoke before he could.

[DING!]

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[ALERT]

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[Emotional Threshold Exceeded.]

[Emotional overflow detected.]

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A second window opened directly in front of him, red-edged, pulsing.

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[Temporary Act VI Access Granted]

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[ACT VI — #######]

[Access Status: PARTIALLY UNLOCKED]

[Warning: Triggered by abnormal emotional response.]

[Duration: UNKNOWN]

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