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

full force, and I took a staggered step forward as I rubbed my temples. I’m really that low, huh? With a sigh, I pulled the energy back into my body and sent it back to work maintaining my already fragile physical state. Though I had only discovered the Detection ability little more than a month prior, I had clearly grown dependent on it already, much to my chagrin.

I decided on one of the two parallel halls leading straight back into the building and set off in search of Lia and Val. Due to a lack of both windows and lanterns, my path faded quickly into complete darkness, and I had to once again reassign my mana into a small ring of Detection just to keep myself from tripping on clutter. At my significantly slowed pace, it felt as though I traveled through the black hall for hours until my eyes finally saw light again. Off in the distance, a single lantern bravely fought off the shadows around it, but based on the weakness of the flickering light, it was about to burn out.

As I approached, the source of the flame’s distress came into focus: an oil lamp was lying on its side, with the glass panels surrounding it shattered. I reached down and righted the metal frame, and the fire sputtered back up to full strength, revealing another detail: The lantern’s apparent owner, a young man with messy brown hair dressed in Unbound gear, was sprawled out against the far wall with his neck snapped sideways at a grotesque angle. A thin, bloody crater running along the right side of his head was the only visible wound; it had been an instant death from a single, blunt force blow.

I held the lantern out and scanned my surroundings. The hallway branched off to the left and right a few feet ahead of me, leaving me with yet another random choice in my exploration. When I peeked around the corner, however, my decision was made for me; two more bodies came into view down the right corridor, collapsed on top of one another. Carefully, I moved to the pile and flipped the top corpse over with my boot to more closely inspect their injuries. Both men had multiple stab wounds, and the top guard was missing most of his left forearm, chopped just below the elbow with one clean cut.

The bodies continued to appear in a similar fashion as I crept down the passage, each one adding another clue as to what had happened during my fight outside. My pace increased at the sight of each crushed skull and bloodied wall in hopes that they would eventually lead me to my hale and hearty companions. The path of destruction through the statehouse became more erratic as I moved on, turning down various hallways and passing through small office rooms to avoid what looked like entrenched guard positions, which now stood empty.

A pool of blood partially obscured by a flipped conference table caught my attention as I followed the trail through a small meeting hall. There were no bodies anywhere inside the room, and I couldn’t find a single drop leading to or from the puddle. My mind began to make stories of what had transpired, each more torturous than the last; I could see Lia, a crossbow bolt protruding from her gut, being carried away by Val while writing in agony the whole way. I shook my head in an attempt to banish the scene from my mind and moved towards the open hall door.

My body froze in the doorway as I picked up the first sound I had heard since I entered the building: running feet, coming towards me. I slipped back into the room and pressed myself flat against the wall beside the door, inverting my lantern to extinguish the flame. They don’t know you’re here. Just wait it out. The scuff of leather against polished stone pounded closer and closer as I tried to quiet my breathing, and I wrapped my hand around the grip of my sword. They have no reason to come into the room. They’ll run right by.

There was a loud squeak as my approaching foe turned hard and dove into the room, barely a shadow in the already pitch black space. Before I had a chance to react, my attacker rammed me back into the wall with a headlong tackle. The blow knocked the air from my lungs, and stars danced before my eyes as I tried weakly to slip out from my pinned position. A hand reached up from the darkness and grabbed a fistful of my hair, then yanked my head forward. As I gasped for air, the familiar scent of mint filled my nose before the shadow’s lips pressed roughly against mine.

All of my tensed muscles relaxed, although it took my frazzled brain an extra second to finish processing all of the information. I returned Lia’s kiss, wrapping her tightly in my arms as overwhelming relief washed over me. All of the weight I had carried with me through the dark corridor maze dissolved away, and I smiled against her lips. “Ow,” I chuckled quietly when we finally broke apart.

She looked up at me with a mixture of emotions impossible to read through the darkness. A single, laughing sob escaped her lips before she pulled me in for another kiss full of the passion of a love thought lost. “You’re okay,” she finally managed as she pushed her forehead against my chest. “Thank the Primes you’re okay.”

“Of course I am. I promised I’d find you again,” I said softly, brushing my fingers through her hair. “Though I guess you found me instead. I say it still counts.”

“Sure,” she said with a small laugh. She took a few steps back to look me over. “What happened out there, Lux? I hardly recognized you when you showed up at the edge of my Detection. Your mana is usually so bright that it sort of