章節 127: Felix Megistus - Chapter Thirteen and a Half
I pocketed the marble, feeling its cold weight settle in my palm. Over my shoulder, I saw Liora and Guy panting to keep up.
"Keep your heads down and wait for me inside the last door." I ordered, my voice calm but urgent.
"And what's behind it?" Guy asked.
"The way out," I said.
They began to fast walk down the hall, I turned to face the nearest imprisoned entity. I slid the door open with a hiss.
In the center, hunched over a pile of shed husks, the combination of human and praying mantis. Its elongated limbs ended in razor-sharp claws, and its eyes gleamed with an unnatural intelligence.
The creature turned its head towards me, its mandibles clicking together, releasing a shrill, grating rhythm that set my teeth on edge.
Without hesitation, I unleashed a torrent of white-hot fire, the flames roaring towards the beast in a searing wave. But to my dismay, the creature walked through the flames unscathed, its exoskeleton glowing faintly where the fire had touched but showing no signs of damage.
"Oh." I muttered.
The monstrosity lunged at me with terrifying speed, its claws slicing through the air with a high-pitched whistle. I barely had time to dodge, the claws grazing my arm as I twisted away. I couldn't compel him—not something that might still possess a vestige of semblance of free will.
"Shatter" I commanded the floor, dodging another strike.
The stonework persevered.
"How much Orichalcum did these guys make?"
I summoned a burst of raw, untamed energy, enough to remove a mountain blocking the setting sun. I directed it not at the creature itself, but at the ground beneath it. The floor cracked and buckled, sending the creature tumbling off balance, its claws scrabbling for purchase on the shifting surface.
I spun just in time to dodge another claw, letting it slam into the wall with a deafening clang. Sparks flew as the metal dented under the impact. A siren blared to life, echoing through the facility with a shrill, relentless wail.
Damn. The ants are coming. Then, a tingle rushed down my spine.
I conjured a trail of light behind me, anchoring it in the air as I moved. I weaved and evaded around the creature, slowly encircling it with the glowing wall. The creature did not realize the trap until far too set.
"Much more quiet now-"
A siren screech interrupted me.
"Right. Agents." I needed to act fast.
I passed the void and the unobservable one. I could hear the heavy footfalls of the agents approaching, their weapons ready to tear through anything in their path.
I rotated on my heel to see a cacophony of muzzle flashes.
"Time to play."
I conjured a barrier, a shimmering wall of energy that separated me from the hail of bullets. The first salvo crumpled to the ground on the agent's side of the shield. They chucked their magazines and reloaded new sets. The next set of bullets ate away at my protection with every impulse.
"Lovely," I muttered, feeling the strain as I poured more energy into strengthening the sorcery.
I needed a new card to play, a trump card to win the hand. My thoughts raced back to the ordinary man trapped within an Orichalcum cell. However, to draw that particular card would require more power than I had ever exerted.
The barrier held for a moment longer, each antimagic bullet that struck it sending ripples of weakness through the energy field. I could feel the strain, the way the protective shield was buckling under the relentless assault. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I pushed more power into the barrier, but I knew it was a losing battle.
My hands moved in quick, precise motions, tracing arcane symbols in the air. I whispered the incantation under my breath, each word heavy with power. The air around me thickened as the new spell took hold, the energy crackling with intensity.
The barrier shimmered, then flared bright, burning with a cold, blue light. The agents hesitated, their advance faltering as the new magic surged into place. The agents met with a blast of intangible force that pinned them to the back wall with sickening thuds.
"Bind"
The wall beneath the agents twisted to form cuffs around the wrists and ankles of each of them.
Reinforcements hustled down the way, I let them begin firing before obstructing the trajectories with another barrier of sorcery.
With a deep breath, I pressed my hands against the wall, feeling the cold, unyielding metal beneath my fingertips. I closed my eyes, drawing on every ounce of power I possessed. I pushed, forcing my will through the layers of reality, absolving this plane of another chunk of unrustable metal.
The strain was immediate and intense, a pressure building in my skull as I fought to move the orichalcum. My vision blurred, and I felt the warmth of blood trickling down my cheeks, earlobes, and philtrum. I had to push through. The walls resisted, like a colossal weight pressing back against me, but I kept going, even as my body screamed in protest.
"Come on…," I growled through clenched teeth, feeling the barrier inch forward, millimeter by agonizing millimeter. The pain was unbearable, a white-hot spike of agony driving through my brain, but I refused to give in.
The agents broke through my wall and I managed to gather enough force to move them into the cell with the mantis, withdrawing my will from containing it.
Gunfire argued against high-pitched screeches while I became nauseas from constricting every fiber of my body to support my effort.
Finally, with one last, desperate shove, I felt the wall shift. The orichalcum cell began to fade, slipping out of this plane of existence. I barely registered the triumphant shout from the agents as they thought they had me cornered.
But then, just as my strength gave out and I felt the darkness closing in, the walls of the cell disappeared entirely. The golden man vanished from the cot in a flash, reappearing beside me just in time to prevent me from falling.
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