No

No


Chapter 171

Thane’s POV

There seemed to be some sort of magic laced in the wall to trigger a blast if the formation inside the wall was disturbed, and that was exactly what happened. A blast went off and it so loud and bright that even as I had my hands up in front of me to shield my face, I was sent flying backwards through the air. 

The force was strong as it sent me knocking through rows upon rows of those creepy wax figures like they were bowling balls. I finally came to a stop with my head spinning and my ears ringing from the sudden explosion. 

‘’Just fucking great!!’’ I cursed under my breath as the zombie like sounds of the wax figures soon began to mumble and groan around the entire cave. The blast had woken them all up from their deep slumber, and I could hear the sound of thousands of feet shuffling toward me in the dark. ‘’Dammn!’’

I didn't waste another second as I hurriedly got to my feet with a hop with my survival instincts screaming at me to move. My shadows immediately rushed to the ground to create a barrier around me and that seemed to be the best move right now to keep them at bay. 

The dark black wall filled with shadow immediately covered me like a protective shell. I quickly moved back towards the cave wall fast while still keeping my hands up to keep the cocoon steady and strong as the wax-like figures outside started throwing themselves against it. 

I could hear the wet, heavy thuds as they hit and banged at the barrier, desperate to get to the meat inside.

I got to the wall again and the cocoon stopped moving. My heart was thudding and my breath was coming out in short gasps, and I knew I had to drop the barrier soon as large cracks were already forming in the shadow covering wall around me across the surface from the constant hammering of those wax shadow figures and i knew it was going to shatter any second, and I didn't want to be caught off guard when the whole thing finally gave way.

As soon as I dropped the barrier, the wax shadow figures were on me in the next second. They moved with a terrifying speed that caught me off guard. I braced myself as my shadow tendrils burst out of my body in a violent blast, sending the closest wax figures flying back into the darkness. 

But even as that first line was blasted off, the gap was filled up almost instantly with more of them. It was like trying to hold back a flood with a single strand of broom because for every one I knocked down, three more took its place.

My shadow tendrils kept bursting out of my body in all directions, taking down wax figure after wax figure. I was penetrating their heads, their chests, everywhere, trying to find a way to actually kill them. 

But nothing seemed to be working as they just kept knitting themselves back together and coming for me like I hadn't even touched them. I even tried calling unto their shadows, trying to rip and merge it with mine, but that too wasn't working. 

It just behaved exactly the same as that strange shadow I had seen on the walkway when we first arrived from the vampire realm. All it did was melt the palm of my hand like a strong acid, and I had to drop the connection immediately before it ate through my bone.

I couldn't control this specific type of shadow, which just means that this army had a very high chance of being the army belonging to the other powerful shadow user that was still unknown to us.

Seeing as nothing seemed to be working on the offense, I decided to focus my mind on digging through the thick wall of the cave. It was already thinned out from the explosion of seconds ago, giving me a starting point. 

Now, half of my mind was focused on digging through the rock like a drill, and the other half was focused on getting the shadows off of me. But the latter didn't seem to be going well at all. I was taking hits too bad and even with my fast healing abilities, I was still bleeding out faster than my body could keep up with.

These motherfucking shadow wax figures could shape-shift their limbs into swords, hammers, and arrows in the blink of an eye as I had them all sticking into my body as I bled out.

It wasn't helping that my flesh was literally being melted off by their touch and every movement was pure agony as my muscles stripped away from the bone. I was losing too much blood, and my vision was starting to blur at the edges.

Thankfully, the wall of the cave finally gave way to a tiny opening. It was just a pin of light, but it was more than enough for me. Without even wasting another second or looking back I dissolved my entire body into shadows and went swooping through the tiny gap like air, squeezing through the opening and onto the outside, finally escaping the cave and that shadow army.

‘’Fuck!!!’’ I growled in pain as I tumbled onto the grass outside, my body hitting the dirt hard after that narrow escape. I could feel the cold breeze hitting my skin, and it was so different from the stuffy heat inside that cave. It was welcoming, but I didn't have time to enjoy the fresh air.

I immediately pushed myself up and rushed to my feet even as I felt my body screaming while it tried to repair itself. My bones were snapping back into place with sickening, wet pops and my charred tissue was stitching itself back together and knitting over the raw spots where the shadow-acid had eaten through my skin. 

My eyes snapped back to the small opening I had just squeezed out of, hearing the muffled, zombie-like sounds of that shadow army still growling and scratching at the rocks from the inside. It seemed like they weren't able to come out or leave the confinement of the volcano base for some reason. 

Since they were shadows, they should have been able to just flow out after me, but I didn't want to dwell on all that right now. This whole thing was just a distraction to delay me and I needed to get back to the city and to Ruby before it was too late.

With that thought burning in my mind, my shadows came bursting out of my back like black tendrils, quickly forming into massive wings that cast a large, dark shadow on the ground beneath me. In the next second, I bent my knees and went propelling straight into the air with enough speed to kick up a large cloud of dust in my qwake.

My wings flapped as fast as they possibly could, pushing me higher and higher until the ground was just a blurry mess of green and brown. My eyes sharpened and narrowing against the wind as the cold, harsh air of the night slapped me in the face.

I had no idea how long I had been trapped inside that cave under the volcano, but all I could hope for was that my wife was fine. 

But just in that second my heart thudded in my chest and I felt a sharp, agonizing prang of pain shoot through my soul, which was followed immediately by my breath seizing up in my throat. 

I stumbled in the air, my wings giving out for a split second as I plummeted toward the trees, but I was quick to catch myself and steady my wings again and then, that sensation went dead silent. That was when the real panic and pain rose like a wildfire in my chest at the realization of what that silence meant.

‘’Ruby!!!!’’ I roared her name into the empty night. This sensation was coming right from my wife… she was in grave danger, and the connection between us was screaming that she was fading out.

Nothing else seemed to matter in that moment. My heart hardened and turned as cold as steel, and I went shooting through the night like a black streak of lightning. I went passing through the high, lush trees of the city outskirts with the branches snapping and leaves swirling in my wake as I headed straight for the city center. The city lights soon came into view from afar, blinking like tiny, distant stars that got brighter and larger the closer I approached.

As I flew fast past the city skyscrapers and headed for the hotel, windows shattered from the sides of the skyscrapers due to the sonic boom of how fast I was going with the glass raining down on the streets below.

Humans screamed in fear with some ducking for cover as I tore through the sky above them. Cars tumbled over on the roads from the sheer force of the wind I was creating, and a thick layer of frost spread through the line I had just passed through, freezing the air as i pased. 

But all of that felt cold to me as even my own blood seemed to have been chilled up in my chest, turning to ice as the hotel space finally came into view.

The building was now a crumbling chaos of stone that looked like it had been hit by a bomb. Even though my breathing had seized up for a while now, I felt my heart drop all the way down to my feet just as I landed on the floor. 

I stood there in the middle of the debris, my wings retracting into my back as I stared at the place where I had left her.