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

“Oh, screw Daeron!” she yelled, stomping her foot. “He got all caught up in that stupid Unbound nonsense, so I kicked him out. Besides, it’s my store! I made it!” Based on the way Marin bounced between emotions so quickly, Val’s apparent lack of emotions suddenly made more sense. “I can’t believe I moved down here for him.”

“The Unbound? That’s the local faction of rebels, right?” I asked, trying to piece together the scattered information we had so far. “Why do they call themselves that?”

“I don’t know, some Strategist guy from that mercenary company came up with it when he organized them all together. They’re just people that didn’t like the way the Council ran the city.” Marin waved a hand dismissively. “I served everybody at my store, from nobles to farmhands, and I saw how things really were. It wasn’t great in Attetsia before, but it wasn’t bad enough to start stealing stuff and killing people, either!”

“Do you know why the Unbound and the Company kept everybody here in the city? The farms are all abandoned out in the country, but all of the houses up in the city are still full.” Even though all of the information pointed to a typical worker’s revolt, my lingering feeling of dread wouldn’t fade away.

“I have no idea. We’re only allowed outside at certain times, and we can only go to specific places to buy food and other supplies,” she answered, shaking her head. “The Company told me that they would be my sole customers from now on. I thought it would be great to supply such a large organization, but they only pay half for everything! Bunch of thugs.” Marin crossed her arms and pouted. “I hardly have anything left to sell, what with the gates and the harbor closed for ‘Company business’, whatever that means.”

“Do you know where the leaders of the Company are now?” Val asked, joining the rest of us near the door.

“Well, they’ve got their whole fleet filling up the harbor, so they could be on one of the ships. The Council district is all locked down, too.” Marin put a finger to her lips and thought for a moment. “If I had to guess, that’s where they are. They probably took over the statehouse after they overthrew the Council. Plus, they have the building guarded with a bunch of men and those...those, uhm, things.”

My stomach flipped, and I felt my face go pale. “What do you mean, ‘those things’?”

“Well, they’re like…” Marin made a few hand gestures that did little to clear up her lack of explanation. “They’re like dogs, but bigger and the wrong color. Some of the guards with them are like that, too: big muscles, weird purple color around their eyes.

Although it was quite cool in the store, I felt sweat start to bead on my forehead as my heart attempted to escape my chest. They’re here.

“I guess that means the stories those refugees told about monsters were true, huh?” Lia asked, looking up at me. “Lux? Are you okay?” She took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

For a brief moment my vision went black, replaced by a memory from my time in Hedaat. I was in the narrow stone hallways of Jaren’s lab, staring through the dim light at a lumbering shadow. A hand with pale, elongated fingers curled around the corner, followed quickly by two glowing purple eyes. The sight activated a primal part of my brain and sent adrenaline coursing through my veins, setting me on to a singular purpose: kill.

The vision faded as quickly as it had appeared, and I was back in the store once again, though I now held my sword tightly in my hand. Marin jumped behind Val in alarm, and Lia watched me with concern. While I knew it had just been a memory, the sense of danger still lingered in my mind, so I scanned out with Detection to confirm my suspicion.

Two men in Company garb stood at the side of our wagon, rummaging through the sparse supplies left in the back, while a third approached the door. One of the men at the wagon had an aura I had never seen before; his mana seemed to be pulsing wildly, as though he were exerting himself in a life or death situation, even though he was idly picking through a storage crate. “Someone’s coming,” I whispered as I shifted to one side of the door.

There was a loud knock at the door a moment later, followed by a loud, gruff yell. “Marin! Marin, you got our supplies?”

“You know I don't!” she shouted back. “I told you the last time you asked, I won’t get more supplies until you open the gates again!”

“Stop holding out on us! The supply wagon is parked right outside your shop,” the guard said as the door began to open. “We’ll dock your pay if you don’t—” His voice gave out as I grabbed him by the throat and swung him against the wall behind me. He kicked impotently and scrabbled at the iron grip I held on his throat until I bashed him into the wall a second time, which knocked him unconscious.

I dropped the guard and turned back to the group at the entrance to the shop; Marin stood frozen with her mouth agape, while Lia and Val drew their weapons. “Stay here,” I rasped, gripping my sword in both hands as I moved to the doorway. The two guards left outside were approaching the building as I appeared in the exit. A wave of pure rage washed over me when I saw the man with the strange mana for the first time; he had a faint purple glow around his irises, and a dark violet scarring snaking its way out his eyes and across his face.

“NO!” I bellowed, launching down from the small stoop at the store’s entrance. My shoulder connected with the sternum of the normal looking guard and drove him down against the