Chương 64: Chapter 63
"So... son...?"
Ethan's eyebrows rose as he brought his hands to his head with a distant, unfocused look. Accompanied by excruciating pain, clear images flashed through his mind like distant memories from a time when he couldn't even speak.
His expression of pain and the continuous curling of his body drew immediate attention from those around him, with Clovis being the first to overcome hesitation and lift his head to reach out to him. However, as his lips parted and his fingers tightened around the strands of hair under his palms, the mana in the surrounding area became heavy and rigid, as if an incalculable weight was being placed on his shoulders.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!"
Hye's piercing scream echoed throughout the kingdom, creating a mana storm powerful enough to push away even the newly arrived flying beasts and bringing with it such crushing pressure that it prevented anyone from lifting a single finger.
As they struggled against the storm, their bodies gradually succumbed to the pressure enveloping them, leading everyone, including the bridges, slowly but surely toward the precipice beneath their feet.
"Hey, do something! Are you blind?! The bridges are giving way!"
"Are you crazy?! And how do you expect us to do anything?! It's practically impossible to even keep our wings active; how could we use anything else in this state?"
Clicking his tongue, Aiden clenched his teeth as he was forced to shield his face with his arms, trying to prevent the strong wind from obscuring his vision. His eyes never once strayed from the one using her own body to protect the children on the bridge.
As the bridge parts continued to fall before his eyes, the idea of descending toward them arose in his mind. But, faster than his decision-making, someone passed by his side, free-falling toward the seemingly bottomless precipice.
"Landric!" exclaimed the elf with long crimson hair, struggling to keep her head up on the only griffin that had gone beyond the wall. Under her command, the creature tried to advance by flapping its wings, but no matter how much effort it made, all it could do was resist being continuously pushed back.
"What the hell are you waiting for? Damn it, Alain, do something about this now!"
"Hey, hey, are you an idiot? It's a rhetorical question, Eneuawg, so don't answer."
"You..."
"Remember who we're facing... do you want to die? If so, don't try to take me or my home with you, got it?"
"And what about Landric?"
"Oh, please, it's just a little fall, he'll be back soon."
"Easy for you to say, you have wings!"
"Oh, right... I forgot about that..."
Struggling to lift his hands, Alain didn't stop but took a moment to give a small smile.
"But even so, I don't think he's upset about it; on the contrary, he probably jumped with a smile. Look, it seems like he beat Bors again. Haha!"
"Shut up."
Clicking his tongue, the man who seemed slightly less affected by Ethan's pressure than the others silently observed the darkness of the precipice while remaining on his knees.
"Alright, alright, I'm not here anymore... Now..."
Trembling, his hands stopped in mid-air, parallel to each other, and after taking a deep breath, Alain clapped them together, dispersing the unstable mana-infused wind blowing around him.
"...could you help me a bit?"
Changing the direction of their wingbeats, the white eagles turned toward Ethan. Raising their arms to shield themselves, Aiden, Clovis, Carlos, and Riley focused on maintaining their ability to see their surroundings. However, while the winds behind the eagles seemed to have subsided, a powerful tornado continued to form in the place where they stood, near Ethan.
"Huh? I thought I was the crazy one?"
"Humph! Calm down, I'm not finished yet, I'll fix this."
As they flapped their wings, those on the white eagles raised their hands, directing them toward where the angelic beings stood. Then, the tornado rose, reaching the sky and opening in all directions, dispersing the wind along with the remaining dark clouds.
"Look at those eyes... Galaaz certainly didn't like that at all..."
"..."
"You... That was intentional, wasn't it?"
"Humph! Ridiculous! Of course not..."
Lowering his head and placing his hands back on the eagle, Alain once again bowed before Ethan, trying to suppress the laughter on his lips. The gazes from above were evident, creating such intense pressure that if the one emitting it wished, even his intention could cut him.
"It was necessary, you know..."
"How old are you, huh? A few decades?"
Shaking his head, Eneuawg briefly observed the depths of the precipice and then turned his gaze to Ethan, whose mana storm continued to be generated and dispersed intensely in the sky.
"Don't you think it's time to grow up a bit?"
"No? Maybe in a few more years, who knows... 200 seems like a good number, what do you think?"
"If you do something similar to what you did in 35 in Keraunos, I don't think you'll get that far."
A small smile began to form on his face, but as he lifted his head, Bors glared at Alain, causing a powerful electric current to run through his body. With the pressure from the blades above and the lightning targeting him from below, what choice did he have but to keep his gaze fixed on the darkness of the abyss below?
"See? It seems even 100 years is too much time for you right now..."
As the unstable mana explosion ceased, instinctively, everyone turned their gaze to Ethan. However, along with the warmth in their chests and the fading of even the slightest fear in their minds, their position was soon reminded by a presence so comforting and peaceful, yet terrifying and unique, making them return to their previous stance.
"Father..."
Small hands appeared before his eyes, yes... like extensions of his own body reaching out toward the radiant smile ahead. Briefly shaking his head, the vision changed, returning to the kingdom's surroundings. As the images constantly shifted, Ethan silently descended toward the central bridge where, with a leap, Landric emerged from the abyss and knelt with a dagger in his hands.
Small, glowing beings surrounded him, flying happily around the beautiful and grand forest that enveloped him, a place where winged beings could be found in every corner. Despite the strange size of his body due to the significant difference in the proportions of his limbs, he felt no discomfort. After all, at every moment, as those golden locks swayed in the wind and he found himself under the radiant smile, a warm embrace enveloped him completely.
Passing through the towering trees that opened a path to a vast field, a shining circle appeared before his eyes, and just before it, creating an apparent walkway, two rows of men with six members each bowed to one another.
Passing through the circle produced an image he had seen many times before, with stars dancing around him and being caught by his small hands. As the man carrying him in his arms turned his face, finally, for the first time in years, his beautiful face could be seen, and causing an almost involuntary and natural movement of his lips, his words could be heard and, at last, understood.
"...Seren..."
"Yes..."
For some reason, the voice from the dagger had completely changed. No longer the one in his memories but more beautiful and full of tenderness, even the tears of the one wielding it could be heard trying to be held back. A voice that, for some reason, even though he had never heard it before, immediately brought tears to Ethan's eyes.
"...My little star..."
***************
Well, I only have one thing to say: I regret not having written a script before and will probably regret it even more for not having written one in the past few days. It's, let's say, easy to think and write a story even without a script in hand when you already have it in your mind, but when the number of stories circulating in your head reaches seven, it becomes a bit more complicated...
I couldn't remember the abilities I had thought of for this story and even less the rest of the power system, which, yes, was mostly stored only in my memory. Over the past few days, I read much of what I had written and transcribed what I remembered of the power system while completing what I didn't remember with the things I read. Now this shouldn't happen again, well, unless what I wrote about the power system gets deleted by the App I use for writing, and yes, that has happened... but at least the App support resolved it a few days later, so everything should be fine, I guess...
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