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

door, but my hand paused as I grabbed the door handle. I looked over my shoulder to give them each a final nod of confidence. “Ready?”

“Ready,” they answered in unison.

“Alright then,” I said as I pulled open the door. “Let’s go.”

***

13. THE STORM

The sea of civilians was an overwhelming mess of multicolored lights in my head as we stepped down onto the street. Having never used Detection in such a large crowd of people before, I had underestimated the immense volume of information that would need to be processed to make use of the ability. Luckily, pairing it with my Combat Acceleration enhancement provided my brain enough power to parse the data in real time, and the world snapped into crisp focus around me all at once.

I took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the scene before us. Each person among the crowd had a unique mana signature, differing in color, feel, and intensity: An elderly gentleman with a serene, tidal blue aura brushed past my arm, following close behind an austere young woman with a fuschia energy that flickered like a dying neon light.  Having never been awakened before, their auras were dim, especially compared to Lia’s expanded mana reserves that shone brilliantly to my right and Val’s shield directly ahead of me. Even so, the sight awoke a sense of fascination within me; I had made so many breakthroughs since arriving in Kaldan, but had yet to find a time of peace in which I could study them more thoroughly.

Lia seemed to be struggling as we began to make our way through the crowd, her gait oddly stiff as the Detection ability consumed the whole of her focus. I reached out towards her consciousness beside me and impressed the sensation of Combat Acceleration on her mind. A moment later I saw the enhancement flare to life in her aura, and her step returned to a normal pace. “Don’t use too much of your mana,” I whispered, leaning down to her ear. “I can keep us covered if you need to take a break.”

Our trip was uneventful at its outset; we were just another group of strangers among the throng of civilians running their nightly errands, and the Company and Unbound soldiers were absent on the main thoroughfare. However, our cover ran out completely after our second turn as Val led us into an area that was marked as off-limits to Attetsian civilians. Communication became pivotal as our quest continued.

“Are we taking the next right?”

“Yes.”

“Double time to the corner, three guards entering the street behind us in...nine seconds.”

“Is our path guarded ahead?”

“Two men standing watch three hundred feet up, but they’re facing the wrong way. There’s an alley we can take to avoid them.”

“Understood.”

The following hour was a non-stop push through the guarded streets of the Noble’s district. Our path was often erratic, full of backtracking, winding side streets, and hushed movements, but we successfully remained undetected throughout the ordeal. I let out a hard sigh when Val finally informed us we had reached the Council district, and that our target was less than a mile away.

I found the statehouse with Detection long before we had a clear line of sight. My stomach dropped when the image appeared in my mind; a large semicircle plaza opened up where all of the main roads converged, and it was packed shoulder to shoulder with guards. I reached out and stopped Val as I scanned further ahead through the crowd. “Wait. Something is happening in the main plaza up ahead. Some sort of gathering. I don’t know what they’re—”

The words caught in my throat as the rest of the courtyard came into view. While the outside edges of the crowd were made up of Unbound and Company men, the center of the group glowed with a distorted purple energy that made my skin crawl. The gathering stood before a tall wooden stage that sat empty apart from a single podium at its center. Beyond that, a wide stone staircase led up to our final target: the statehouse. “The Unbound, the Company, the Dominion...they’re all there,” I whispered. “It looks like they’re waiting for something.”

“We should get closer. I still cannot see anything,” Val responded.

I scanned the area surrounding the plaza, then motioned for the group to follow as I carefully moved ahead. A ransacked one-story building stood at the corner of the plaza closest to the statehouse, with its windows smashed open and the door knocked off of its hinges. The entrance to the building faced onto a side street opposite the mass of guards, and a row of shattered windows overlooked the plaza, making it a perfect vantage point to observe the gathering. It was easy enough to sneak inside; the sun had completely set which provided us ample shadows to hide in, but beyond that, the streets between us and the crowd of guards were empty, most likely abandoned to attend whatever event was about to begin.

After one final sweep through with Detection, we crept into the building and moved to the far wall, crouching just below the line of chest-high windows. I lowered myself gently to the ground, sitting with my back against the wall, and motioned to Lia and Val to do the same. “We’ll have to wait for...whatever this is to finish before we look for our entrance,” I whispered, barely loud enough to hear myself.

Lia tugged at my arm. “Look,” she murmured, not motioning towards anything—at least, not with her hands. I felt her mana rush over me in a thin band, running consistently in one direction. With my own energy I followed her out through the crowd, over the stage, and up the wide staircase to the front door of the statehouse, which was now open. Three figures stood at the entrance to the building, surveying the large crowd before them.

The man leading the group was dressed in a garish fur coat that dragged along the ground behind him, and an equally