Rivers of the Night-Chapter 854: NO!
'Dammit,' Ameridia cursed, and Kenton, along with Bamby, seemed to realize the problem at the same time as well.
Their heads all turned at the same time, and the latter two moved. They rushed toward the cascade of darkness, a humanoid barely shaped from fog and soot. But…
Their bodies passed right through it.
"WHERE?!" Kenton roared in fury. "This is your fault!"
Bamby didn't say a single thing, looking from the quickly dispersing darkness and then toward the surroundings.
Dark Mana was very good at many things, but the things that it was excellent at weren't normally among the many things people thought of when considering the Mana.
For example, it could help one teleport… kind of. But the method was far more involved than it would usually be with Spatial Mana, and far more difficult to execute on a large scale as well.
Granted, Space Mana was also very difficult to control. But that was a separate matter.
Theron and the demon… they were just… gone.
The lack of life was because they had disappeared, vanishing as though they had never been there. But the Mana in the air was so volatile and so much was going on that no one had noticed.
If not for Ameridia, who knew how long it would have taken for the two to notice?
This wasn't entirely Ameridia's fault. She was just as surprised as any one of them. It was just that as much of an argument as Kenton and Bamby seemed to be having, they weren't fools. They knew who the biggest threat here was, so they had been paying attention to Ameridia more than anyone else.
If Ameridia chose to deal with them, then they would have to be prepared.
They didn't fear her. They all had the same cultivation level. But right now, they were technically in enemy territory.
Bamby and Kenton were only part human. The former had a strong Fire Dragon bloodline within him, and the latter had a strong Kitsune bloodline within him.
That was all to say that…
They came from the other side of the Gate.
If the humans on this side learned of this, they could find themselves hunted by the entire world. That was something they preferred not to have to deal with if they didn't have to.
But now, the prey they had come here for was just… gone.
BANG. BANG.
Kenton and Bamby both shot into the skies. They instantly rose up so high their hair brushed against the clouds, but they were paying far more attention to the far-off distance, scanning the lands as far as the eye could see.
Bamby's crimson eyes turned to slits, and then they narrowed to be thinner than even needles before explosively expanding. It was like the distance between himself and the location he was focusing on had shrunk considerably until it was barely a few feet in front of him.
'That far?' Bamby's heart skipped a beat.
He was in shock. They weren't even on the planet anymore; they were soaring off through the starry skies.
He stomped a foot without a word to Kenton, but Kenton knew better than to leave this matter to Bamby. Hot on his heels, he kept up stride for stride, not letting the Fire Dragon make any distance between them.
…
"Should we go after them?" Messo asked.
Ultimately, Theron was a huge part of their original plans. But now Bamby and Kenton had thrown a wrench into that, not to mention whatever had happened to Ameridia.
Ameridia took a deep breath and then looked toward Lyra. Guilt flashed in her eyes, but then her gaze became unprecedentedly firm.
"We'll have to apologize to the girl."
Messo looked at Lyra and hesitated as well. But then her eyes also became firm.
Lyra was not yet at her inflection point.
**
Theron tried to open his eyes, but they had been welded shut by the caking and drying of his own blood. He had forgotten that he had been blinded by a strike of a sword.
What he didn't really understand was why he was still alive. After he heard Kenton mention the Dagger Call Platform by name, he realized that he was dealing with something far beyond his means.
Summoning it would have been meaningless at that point. In fact, summoning it would have probably meant losing it.
Theron preferred to die and not let Kenton have what he wanted than to lose his only family heirlooms to a man who filled his heart with disgust.
He had given it everything he had, and it seemed that even he had limits. He could only improve so much; cleverness in battle could only go so far; he didn't have an infinite amount of blood to bleed, as much as he wanted to.
Was this death? It didn't feel like it. Unless this was hell, the pain was too great, and he could feel himself shuttling through the depths of space.
He could tell because the void was different.
Something warm, something familiar was wrapping around him. But it somehow also felt so very foreign.
'Ayame?'
He wanted to speak, but maybe because he had lost too much blood, his throat felt like sandpaper.
This was truly the peak of irony. He was a Water Mancer who was completely dehydrated. His little sister Bobo would have laughed her little head off at something like that. Then she'd show him a floating ice crystal in her little palm, making fun of him for not being able to do the same while wiggling her fat little fingers.
'Bobo…'
The black fog wrapped around Theron tighter, but it couldn't stop the sudden flash of cold Theron sensed.
It wasn't just one flash, it was two.
They were being pursued.
Wait, that meant that they were running.
Ayame was saving him? How was she using Dark Mana? Wasn't she a Flux Mancer?
Confusion colored Theron's features. He didn't understand.
'I… I…'
A powerful pressure descended. A third one.
This one was so strong that Theron's senses were torn apart and then fell into darkness.
"NO!"
Kenton's voice roared from a distance.
