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

fingers stretched into the ominous void and probed the space meticulously, feeling around for what I knew existed until I finally found purchase. Immediately, I clenched my fist and yanked hard, and my whole body lurched forward. The world blinked away, then back again, and I was suddenly in a different space. My hand was wrapped around the throat of the running guard, whose eyes looked into mine with surprised terror. He let out a single, sharp scream before my flames filled his mouth and eyes, silencing him forever.

With my path now clear, I turned to face the men who would soon be the Dominion. An ancient, unstoppable rage blurred the line between my consciousness and the dark presence in my head, and my chest vibrated with a bestial roar as I launched myself towards the group in a headlong assault. The man holding the dog dropped the chain and let the beast loose towards me, and the rest of the group raised their weapons in anticipation. “SUFFER,” I screamed with a hundred echoed voices.

The sword I had left behind appeared in my hand just in time to lop the head from the charging beast. Dark, tainted blood burst from the stump of its neck as it toppled sideways to the ground at the feet of its master; his utter shock at the ease with which it died gave me ample time to spin and drive my sword into his chest. An odd sensation passed through me as the effortless fighting continued: while I knew the men had yet to fully transform into Thralls, the presence I felt from them was different from what I had experienced in Hedaat. I had lacked the precise Detection then that I used now, but my memory of the Dominion’s soldiers was unmistakably different from the soldiers before me.

The thought lingered for a moment, then faded behind my rising fury; I was far too enthralled with the one-sided slaughter I inflicted upon the men to care. Every kill sent my spirit soaring, driving me inexorably forward into more reckless attacks. YES, I thought in tandem with the presence. YES, MORE, MORE! Before I knew it, the plaza had grown still, and I scanned hungrily for more targets to kill.

My burning aura rose and fell in sync with my heaving chest as I turned to the statehouse. THE LEADERS NOW, the presence insisted, and I began to move towards the steps eagerly.

Yes, I thought back, the leaders. We have to move quickly, before—My legs locked in place as a small pinpoint of light pierced the darkness suffusing my mind. Lia. Lia’s in there. We can’t.

The presence growled at me. The leaders. The Conduit. The Dominion. They all need to DIE. My body shook as I struggled to hold myself back from my planned path of destruction. WE WILL HAVE RETRIBUTION.

No. Not while Lia is there. I won’t put her in danger like that. I managed to take a single step and turn away from the statehouse. I can’t let her see me like this. The blazing fire enveloping my body began to dim, and saturation began to return to my grayscale vision.

YOU WILL NOT DENY US. THERE WILL BE MORE DEATH TONIGHT: THE LEADERS, THE CONDUIT, THE PRIESTESS, ALL OF THEM. The presence was screaming with a hungry desperation, now suddenly pushed onto the defensive as I regained more and more control over my body. WE WILL KILL EVERY LAST PERSON IN THIS CITY TO—

“Enough!” I shouted at myself. With strengthened resolve, I threw my sword to the ground at my feet. The flames surrounding the blade snuffed out immediately, and the blackened metal slowly began to shift back to its natural blue. “This goes no further! I’m not your puppet anymore.”

WE ARE ONE. YOU CANNOT DENY WHO WE ARE.

“I still have a promise to keep.” All at once, the black fire smoked and disappeared. I could feel the malicious energy drain out of my body, receding back to the hand from which it had originally spread. Initially, it was the greatest relief I had ever felt as the dissolving pain of the void dissipated, but alarms quickly began to blare in my head as I transitioned from one pain to another.

Every sensation my body had been suppressing during my rage returned at once, and I fell to my knees and retched bile onto the painted plaza stones. Each movement I made felt like I was trapped in a pool of molasses, and my head swam in a thick fog. As I knelt on all fours spitting up the remnants of Marin’s sandwich, I attempted to take stock of myself. Pain...tired...dizzy...so, so tired. When the realization finally came, I fell onto my side and took a shaky, unsteady breath. My mana...it’s all gone.

The implication of the idea was astounding. I hadn’t tapped out my mana since my encounter with Jack in the dungeon, and my reserves had increased exponentially through all of the constant training with Lia. If I’m already bordering on empty after just a few minutes of fighting, I’m definitely going into withdrawals. Worse than my episode this afternoon. I was still puzzled by where the energy had gone; the fuel for the dark flames had been distinctly different from mana.

You never fail to entertain, Elden. That was quite a show.Amaya’s voice returned to me, speaking softly inside my head. I found a momentary comfort in it, until I remembered that Amaya wasn’t the source. A heavy wave of fatigue swept through my body, and I helplessly tipped over onto my back. I guess you didn’t need my help after all.

“Go away,” I moaned, raising a hand to my painfully throbbing temple. Another round of sickness hit me, and I barely had time to roll onto one arm to vomit before I choked on it. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow and curled into a fetal position. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Me? I’m not doing anything, she pouted indignantly,