NOVEL WEB Chapter 313: Fall Of The Sky
The sea around them churned like a collapsing storm as the sea dragons surged through it and into the hall.
And beneath its unnatural tide, Thorn fought like a demon born.
With every thrust of his lengthening and twisting sword, he speared through the eyes of the dragons he could reach, killing them before they got to him.
Unfortunately, that was only a few of them.
Most of the sea dragons spiraled toward them in jagged arcs. Their mouths spewed arcs of boiling water, their eyes burning with gold.
Thorn ducked under one that dove at him, his feet sliding across the hardened water floor. As it swept past, he flipped his sword and drove it upward through the chinks in the scales of its belly.
The dragon shrieked, but before it could retaliate, Thorn twisted the blade and it twisted, lengthening inside the dragon and cleaving its spine.
The blood rushed out like a flood, and his bone arm drank it all. His muscles tightened, and his skin flushed.
"Another!" Thorn roared, his voice feral.
Ren was at his side, his bracers glowing from all the stored kinetic energy. A dragon descended from above, jaws wide to snap Thorn in half.
"Thorn, left!"
Thorn pivoted, leaping backward as Ren pushed forward, arms crossed. The bracers unleashed a focused blast that hit the dragon square in the chest.
Its chest cavity imploded, the soul tearing free in a violent shimmer. Ren reached into the storm and absorbed it. His eyes glowed faintly purple. Another soul added to strengthen his Soulbinding.
The battlefield was chaotic, and yet they danced through it like seasoned predators. This was what they were made for. What they'd been doing together since they were eleven.
They twisted beside each other, each one knowing what the other would do before they did it. It fit like a completed Lego set of the star wars death star.
The dragons twisted in the air like snakes, their roars making the hall tremble, but Ren and Thorn moved in perfect harmony.
Thorn herded the beasts, turning their attention, baiting them with swift dodges and slashes. Ren followed up with punishing bursts of force, his bracers working like a sword and a hammer at once.
Thorn moved through the horde, killing those he could and dodging the rest in ways that forced them into lines where Ren could blast them apart.
One dragon, wounded and flailing, spun in the air, its tail lashing wildly. Thorn ducked, rolled, and slammed his sword into the tail's base. Ren followed up, pushing it with a heavy blast that flung the dragon into another.
Two dragons down. Then five. Then ten.
Ren could feel the souls stacking inside him, pushing him closer and closer to where he needed to be and flooding his body with soul energy.
Power coursed through him. He could feel it. His body growing infinitesimally stronger, his speed faster. And he wasn't alone.
A roar erupted beside him. Thorn's eyes flared bright red. The blood running through his veins surged, his muscles tightened, and his stance shifted.
A second later, Thorn stood tall. His breath steamed in the cold sea air.
"I think..." he said, panting, "I just hit Rank 4."
"Good timing." Ren said, firing a blast of soul energy, killing another wave of dragons.
Then, it happened.
A scream split the air.
Their heads snapped to where it was coming from.
Lilith.
She stood in the center of the hall, her body slowly being encased in golden roots. They crawled over her skin, wrapping tighter, tighter, until they sealed her completely in a living cocoon.
"No." Ren whispered, horror creeping through his bones.
Shing came smoothly to his feet, his cracked body glinting under the falling light. He laughed, his voice a thunderclap.
"At last!"
He placed a hand on the cocoon.
"My new body."
Then, light.
Blue light.
It pulsed from within the cocoon, and Shing's smile flickered.
"What…?"
There was a loud crack, and the cocoon exploded.
Shing's hand was vaporized in an instant, and he was sent hurtling backward.
Lilith stepped free of the wreckage, her eyes blazing, her aura a hurricane. Blue flames curled around her, her very soul energy warping the air.
"You think... you could take me?" She hissed.
She surged forward.
Ren and Thorn backed away, the shockwaves of her fury burning the air.
She crashed into Shing. Blow after blow, strike after strike, a storm of pure will.
Shing staggered. His chest caved. His face cracked. He lashed out, but she was faster. She didn't give him time to breathe.
They moved through the throne room like titans. Every collision shook the sea palace. Walls cracked. Water quaked. Lilith's blade screamed as it tore through Shing's roots.
He finally managed to dodge one of Lilith's attacks and seized the opportunity. He vanished in a blink and appeared behind Ren.
Ren's instincts screamed. He turned just in time to deflect one strike. Then a second. But the third caught him.
Shing's hand locked around his throat.
"Stop!" Shing roared.
The world froze.
Even the dragons paused.
Lilith froze mid-step.
Shing held Ren high.
"Give me your body, Lilith." He said. "Or he dies."
Lilith said nothing.
Shing's grip tightened.
Ren gasped. His vision flickered.
"I will crush his spine." Shing threatened.
Through the hand around his neck, Ren laughed.
"What?"
Ren's voice came choked but sure. "That would've worked on her once. When she was younger. But not anymore. She's not 16 anymore."
Shing blinked.
"The Penny Prince already played that card." Ren rasped. "She learned."
Lilith's eyes gleamed cold. "I'm not yours to control." she said.
Shing's grip trembled.
And then, a soul thread shot from the floor. It wrapped around Shing's leg, glowing bright.
His eyes widened. "No..."
His hand released Ren, who vanished in a blur, reappearing beside Thorn.
"What... what is this?" He growled.
Lilith stepped forward.
"I can't reap your soul," she said, "but I can chain it."
The soul thread shimmered.
Shing tried to move, but his body resisted him. He strained. Muscles bulged. The cracks widened, creeping through his body.
Lilith leapt.
Her hand speared into his chest.
Shing coughed blood, eyes wide.
"Well done." He finally chuckled. "I underestimated you."
"Die!" She whispered.
"Soon." He replied, smiling weakly. "But not without a gift."
He touched her wrist.
Agony.
Lilith screamed.
But she didn't stop.
With a final cry, she ripped his heart out.
Shing gasped, and crumbled to ash.
The pain spread all through Lilith's body, and an instant later, she collapsed.
Ren was there, catching her.
"I've got you." He whispered.
Above them, the inverted sea began to fall. Slowly at first. Then faster.
Rain became torrents. Torrents became waterfalls.
Thorn ran up.
"We need to go!"
He swung his cloak. It hardened into a platform.
Ren carried Lilith onto it. Thorn joined them.
They rose into the air, staying there as the sea crashed down behind them like the end of the world.
Shing was well and truly dead, but the Tree still lived.
Ren looked down at Lilith.
He had no idea what Shing had left with her as a gift, but he knew the World Tree was still out there. Watching him.
Now, there was another entity that knew about him but never appeared in the game.
First, it was the Three. Now, it was the World Tree.
He didn't know much about them, but in the case of the World Tree, he knew what he had to do.
His eyes flicked up to the north-eastern horizon.
"Let's get out of here."