Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (hardest books to read txt) 📕

cuts on my forehead and cheeks were gone without a trace. I gave myself a small nod and turned to leave, but paused at the mirror. “Don’t. Forget. And for fuck’s sake, don’t put down the sword!”

As I strode down the narrow stone passageways of the lab, I went through a quick mental checklist of my current status. There was a sharp pain in my stomach, no doubt caused by a lack of food over the past three days. Even with the combat enhancements, my mind still experienced periods of cloudiness; whether it was due to lack of sleep, dangerously low mana levels, or my deteriorated mental state, I couldn’t say. The rest of my body was surprisingly intact, having sustained no major injuries in the fighting thus far.

I dispatched three more Thralls on my trip through the corridors. The narrow walls created a combat arena where only a single Thrall could engage me at any given time, regardless of their numbers, which put me at a severe advantage. When I arrived at the central chamber I found the door smashed off its hinges lying in the corridor, dented and bloody. The scene inside the room was much the same; every wall was scratched and covered in blood from where the Thralls had apparently attempted to smash their way through to deeper sections of the lab.

The chamber was sparsely furnished, containing just a wooden desk and chair at the far wall and a small metal table with a matching chair in the center. The tabletop was bare aside from a small, circular notch on the surface by the chair and a fancy border around the edge. I made my way to the center chair to sit, but took pause when I heard growls emanating from the doorway on the opposite side of the room. I pulled another orb from my bandolier with an exasperated sigh, this time filling it with a sinister blue liquid. When the silver bodies of two Thralls crept into sight from the dark hallway before me, I hurled the orb through the entrance towards them.

Brilliant blue fire erupted at the point of impact against the first Thrall’s chest, engulfing it in liquid flame. The fire grew quickly, spreading to the second thrall as it tried desperately to push past its writhing comrade. They both flailed their way into the room and fell to the ground just before they reached the metal table. I shook my head dismissively as I took my seat and pulled two more orbs from the bandolier. I filled them both with the same blue liquid, pausing after the first one when I was hit with a rush of vertigo. I set them both down on the table along with the needle and waited for the next enemies to arrive.

While I sat in anxious silence, I traced my hand around the edge of the table, following the intricate patterns carved into the face. Although it looked like a random series of lines designed to add aesthetic value to the tabletop, each symbol was a tiny Alderean rune akin to the runes on my blade, all arranged in a precise order. I breathed a sigh of relief as I read through the runes for the thousandth time. “It’s almost over.”

My meditations were interrupted by a disturbance at the entrance. I could hear a large pack of Thralls scrambling their way towards me, but this time they were accompanied by a much heavier set of footfalls. I gripped my sword tighter in anticipation and picked up the first orb from the table. At the first sign of movement I lobbed it forward, catching the vanguard unaware. When the remaining Thralls crashed into the roadblock of their flailing ally, I threw the second orb, spreading the conflagration to the entire group.

A menacing bellow thundered out from the hallway. “ENOUGH,” the voice commanded. In response to the word, the pack of Thralls stood upright, suddenly unaffected by the flames consuming them. Their eyes were more intense than I had seen before, their purple light now overpowering the blue of the flames. The fire gradually subsided, leaving the Thralls horribly burned and melted, but they showed no signs of suffering from the injuries. They walked into the room single file and lined up against the back wall with an unprecedented level of control.

A massive figure filled the doorway as the source of the pounding footsteps reached my chamber. The beast must have been over seven feet tall, and was forced to stoop to enter the room. The skin on its lower half was a similar slate color to the Thralls, but it shifted in hue near the waist to a sickly purple, which darkened as it grew closer to the head. While it was clearly a distended human form like the Thralls behind it, the new creature rippled with muscle in clear contrast to their usual slender forms. Its eyes shone with brilliant purple light, although they still seemed to have traditional human irises and pupils, which scanned the room with clear, directed purpose.

Though I had never seen anything like the beast before me, there was something familiar about it. A brief moment of concentration brought the attached memory to the forefront of my hazy mind. The recollection shocked me momentarily, but I regained my composure quickly and addressed the figure. “Councilor Gorat, it has certainly been a long time. I hardly recognized you; did you do something different with your hair?”

The beast approached the table and knelt down at the opposite edge, lowering itself down to a more reasonable height. “Ah. You knew this body, it seems,” it said, speaking with multiple voices at once. I recognized the nasally tone of the Hedaat councilor I once knew among the mix, but the choir of voices behind it were clearly not all human in origin. “It serves as the Conduit for the Dominion now.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of your little club, although I’m not sure exactly why you’re