Which left only Alana standing
With all of his momentum built up the increasingly bleary Randidly planted his foot and readjusted his vector He made a beeline directly for her And he likely would have charged forward and tried to run her through with his right hand had not Alana extended both hands outward in a clear gesture of surrender
Although the Grim Chimera was suspicious he slowed in his charge and stopped a few meters in front of her Alana regarded Randidly with clear eyes We no longer need to fight YouÆve won
Randidly blinked slowly Just like that
Alana chuckled and extended a meaningful gaze around the surrounding area to the unconscious bodies craters burn marks and piles of shattered rock that littered the surrounding landscape If they hadnÆt moved to a wasteland probably quite a lot of the residential mountain would have been destroyed around them Then Alana chucked Yes just like that We surrender
Heh Randidly grinned Despite the fact that she had led this attack against him Randidly didnÆt believe that Alana would verbally surrender and not mean it he had truly won And then he couldnÆt help himself With the last vestiges of his image strength his whole body rippled and he was the Grim Chimera
And then he raised his head and howled He was dominant He had survived He was happy
Chapter 1488
Lucifer groaned out a hot breath and tried to sit up As soon as he made the attempt his left hand rushed up to his head as though he was trying to stem a bleeding wound A terrible splitting headache struck at him as he moved The muscles of his body tensed from the pain holding him in that hunched half sitting position waiting for that horrible motion sickness to run its course through his body Almost instinctively LuciferÆs hand that was propping his body up tightened and his fingers buzzed with the grainy sensation of dirt underneath him
But even worse than the sickness was the sensation that followed Lucifer felt strangely hollow as the sickness receded from his mind and left him aching He was adrift where he used to know solidly where he existed He squeezed his eyes shut and flexed his image to try and overcome the sensation with brute force It had worked in the past
Yet when he activated his image Lucifer paled in horror the sense of feebleness was only worse as he tried to reach for his image
The raw instinctual sensation of a cough yanked Lucifer back to the present reminding him of the predicament of his body When he opened his eyes he was surprised to find that his vision was blurry Around him were only vague blotches of color that melted into each other His head was still swimming And that was when he started to wonder if today would be the day that he died That thought wandered through his body like a determined tadpole winding its way through the confused and deserted veins and settling finally into his image The small being made slow progress but its vitality soaked outward into his person as it spread
I refuse to die today
Lucifer growled to himself and released a pulse of his image He could clearly imagine his body moving through the motions of his Lucifer Slash That familiar motion became an anchor that allowed him to open his eyes and focus to see the surroundings
The weakness was still appalling but the image did work as a focus His vision slowly settled into something usable
Lucifer was sitting up in a long line of bodies that were laid rather casually on a flat stretch of ground His head flared painfully once again but Lucifer ignored it The memory of attacking the Ghosthound without being honest about their intentions rushed back to him Wincing Lucifer raised a hand and pressed it against his temple Was this some sort of punishment
Goddamnit it why do I feel so weak Lucifer gritted his teeth while focusing on the figures that were already up from the defeated bodies They slowly resolved themselves into the figures of Kayle and Lyra who were talking quietly to each other From the tight expressions on their faces Lucifer guessed they were suffering from similar nausea He wondered if he looked that blotchy and unsettled
They both noticed when Lucifer saw them exchanged a glance and began walking over toward him But Lucifer was distracted by a large blur to his left His first instinct was that this sudden intruder a monster and he tried to leap to his feet But that leapÆ ended up being simply a whole body spasm that sent his head spinning with nausea He collapsed back down onto his back
Even worse the blur raised its head and Ancho gave Lucifer a rather unamused look Then the horse lowered his long face and resumed his gleeful ransacking of the unconscious HankÆs pockets The horse pulled out a repeater from its holster chewed on the handle experimentally then shook its head and placed the gun delicately on the ground Ancho sniffed in LuciferÆs direction but seemed largely unimpressed by the possibility of him possessing treats So the horse turned away and investigated the other unconscious individuals
While LuciferÆs spinning mind settled back down Lyra and Kayle arrived at his feet Kayle spoke first in a quite voice Are you alright
Lucifer considered the question seriously for a bit of time before licking his lips and answering I I feel physically alright But my head
Yea Lyra cut in Then she grimaced The Ghosthound he stayed long enough for me to wake up He said he took quite a bit of our Nether for having the nerve to ambush him like that Ugh he said that She raised her hand and pushed back her tawny hair irritably so that the offending strand was tucked behind her ear But he had a stupid grin on his face when he said it so I know he got something out of it
So you guys too Lucifer asked just to confirm
Kayle nodded He glanced at Lyra but she seemed to be seething with fury and in no mood for further talking So Kayle spoke again From what the Ghosthound told Lyra the phenomenon will last anywhere from two weeks to a month The motion sickness should disappear first but the sense of weakness that is what will take a while to recover
IÆll have to feel LuciferÆs eyes widened Suddenly he could understand LyraÆs fury He made a fist with his right hand raised it a few inches off the ground then brought it back down softly into the dirt it was the most aggressive display he felt he could manage at the moment And he did this to all of us this is an attack on Expira How DARE he What if we donÆt manage to recover before the First Calamity
That date is over four months away Kayle answered placidly Lyra very visible bit her lip hard enough that it bled clearly agreeing with the spirit of what Lucifer was saying But Kayle only sighed We could have challenged him directly as we did in the past It would have been another grand event and likely a wide audience for our loss Instead we did it secretly hoping to gain a significant advantage with the suddenness of the attack And to be fair I suspect he did fight us with a rather large handicap
Randidly Ghosthound sought to strengthen the planet and prepare us for the Calamity sure but more than that Kayle looked upward as he was speaking Lucifer couldnÆt help but follow his gaze The sky above was overcast painted with the soft blues of night right before dawn Which meant that they had been unconscious for perhaps ten hours The fact that Lucifer was still sore after being knocked out for that time was shocking
Kayle shrugged after his long pause He has always stressed that with the arrival of the Nexus the world is much less forgiving our actions have consequences This is the price we have to pay for seeking a genuine victory over the Ghosthound
Lucifer mulled that over for a while his anger settling like a choppy sea after the storm has passed Gradually the waves disappeared and left only salty water Dawn inched closer engaging in the slow process of illuminating the sky And strangely Lucifer stumbled across a realization that brought him quite a bit of joy He grinned around at Lyra and Kayle Heh itÆs not all bad news however So we were the ones who woke up the most quickly I suppose