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

Without a thought, my sword materialized in my outstretched hand, and I pointed it at the face of the closest guard. “Let her go,” I hissed. Something about Gorat’s escort felt dangerously strange; all of the men had the same pale skin, and their eyes were glassy and featureless, glowing with a dull purple light.

“Lux,” Gorat started, holding up his hands, “this doesn’t have to come to violence.”

I lunged forward, shortening the distance between us to a few feet. “LET HER GO!” I roared. There was a sudden, strange sensation in my chest; a single stab of pain followed by an intense burn that began to radiate outwards into my extremities. My vision started to cloud, and the world took on a dark, red-tinged appearance.

“Sir, I-I’m alright!” Alda managed to squeak as she struggled against the burly guard.

“Shut up,” the man growled as he pressed the knife harder against her ivory skin, summoning a line of crimson droplets on its edge. “Gorat, you need them both?”

“I told you, we’re here for him!” Gorat whispered angrily. He turned back to me with a pleading expression. “Please, Lux, we just need to talk with you. The girl will be fine if—”

“You have THREE seconds to release her, or you all die,” I growled, clutching at my chest with my free hand. The fire had crept through my entire body, and I could feel a dark energy pulsing in my sword hand. “ONE!”

Gorat yelped in alarm and turned to the man holding Alda. “This isn’t how things were supposed to go! Let the girl go, we have no need for her.”

The guard showed no acknowledgement of the councilor’s protests; his eyes never left mine as his mouth curled into a dark smirk. “Fine,” he called out as he drew his leg up and kicked Alda hard in the back. A vibrant spray of blood gushed from her neck as the knife ripped through her flesh, and she stumbled towards me unsteadily.

“What did you DO?!” Gorat shrieked at the guard, yanking on his arm.

The large man turned and said something in reply, but I didn’t hear the words; every part of my body fell instantly numb as Alda tumbled towards me. I caught her in my arms and sank to one knee, cradling her as my mind shut down in shock. Her eyes scanned around the room vacantly until they met mine, where they locked intently. The constant pulse of blood from her neck increased as she tried to speak, but more blood came from her mouth instead of words.

“No, no, no no no,” I murmured, dropping my sword to press hard against the wound. “Alda, no, this isn’t...you aren’t…” My mind refused to accept the reality before me. “You’ll be...fine, Alda. I’ll fix it, I’ll…” Her hand reached up weakly to touch the side of my face, and I held it fiercely. Each pump of blood that flowed across my trembling hand came weaker than the last, and I watched as her eyes began to lose focus. “No, don’t go...Alda, don’t leave, please.”

Her hand fell limp against her chest, and her head sagged backwards. I threw my head back and screamed in wordless agony, and the fire in my chest returned all at once; it felt as though every inch of me was burning away, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell. My mind retreated, fleeing in search of some dark corner away from the torment where it could hide from my reality.

Somehow, I became aware that my body was moving on its own. It carefully set Alda down on the stone floor and rose to its feet, dragging me along as an unwilling passenger. “You took everything I have,” a multitude of voices spoke out from my mouth, overtones echoing in a dissonant choir. I saw wisps of smoke rising from my fingertips as my hand reached out towards the man before me. “You’ll die for that. All of you.” Black flames licked out along my arms, casting long shadows across the entryway.

Gorat shrieked in terror and dove backwards through the group of guards, scrambling on his hands and knees in the snow. The men readied their weapons and poured into the room, surrounding me on all sides. Alda’s blood burned away as the dark fire spread across my body, engulfing my entire form in dancing shadow. My vision faded to black, and the men surrounding me screamed. Before I lost consciousness, I heard a single word, repeated in a thousand voices at once.

“Suffer.”

-

When my consciousness finally returned to me, the room was still and silent. The smell of blood and smoke filled my nostrils as I came to, and the dull stone room was painted with vivid splotches of red. Although there were no signs of fire damage anywhere, every surface in the entryway was covered with a thick layer of black ash, sitting like a fresh snowfall over an open field. I sat on the floor in the center of the room with Alda’s cold, lifeless body cradled in my arms.

I had no memory of what had transpired after blacking out; where the men had gone, whose blood was splattered around the room, and how I had ended up alone were all mysteries. Every inch of my body felt entirely drained of energy, and even though I had no apparent wounds, it ached with a familiar burning sensation. The pain seemed to be radiating up from my right hand, so I held it up with a detached curiosity to find the source. Tiny black scars retreated down the length of my fingers, disappearing out my fingertips in faint wisps of smoke. A slight tremor shook my arm as the marks disappeared, and I let it drop back down into my lap.

When I looked down into Alda’s vacant, unseeing eyes, I felt wholly empty. My eyes felt puffy from crying, but I had no sadness left. There was no anger inside me, no grief, no fear; nothing but an empty