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Chapter 136: The Sound of Thunder
writer:Monsoon117      update:2022-07-21 16:42
  People mentioned that they didn’t understand Amara’s motivations or character very well. I took the time to elaborate on it this chapter and set up a fun next few chapters. Hope you guys enjoy.

  Panic swelled in my chest, but I stomped it out. I tapped my forehead with a loose fist, wondering what to do. As I wondered, another message popped up.

  I kept thumping my head for a minute before sighing. Over the last month, I researched common traits about Breakers. They cleansed high class bounties across a planet when they arrived. Anything that was around level 3,000 and unknown fell into that category. I fell into those requirements.

  To protect myself, I stood up and walked over towards Yawm. Reminding him about the breakers and what not was a good idea. I reached his room, finding Yawm behind his desk. Along the back wall, he stood with a hunched back between two tall bookshelves. Yawm pressed a hand onto a vine growing through the floor.

  He stood up straight, turned towards me,

  “Did you sense them as well?”


  I raised an eyebrow, “Who exactly?”


  Yawm rubbed his hands together, “An excellent question, isn’t it? Something came here. Many of the fauna here discovered a blinding flash of light in the sky yesterday night. The trees and grass know nothing of the light, but I have an idea.”


  Yawm stepped up, walking past his desk in a few strides,

  “Atmospheric entry. A shuttle arrived here, one big enough for more than a few people mind you.”


  Yawm raised a finger, “After that, they disappeared from the view of this planet’s plant life. Now why would they go through such lengths for stealth? The answer’s rather obvious, isn’t it?”


  I nodded, “Yeah, they’re probably after us.”


  Yawm gripped his fists, “And they know where we are. Considering I relax within a gargantuan rift, they’ve discovered my location. When they come here, I’ll sense their entry.”


  Yawm spread out his hands, “But I won’t know their exact location. We’ll need to work together for that.”


  I frowned, pointing at my chest, “You want me to find them?”


  Yawm looked around, “Well, uhm, yes.” He raised a hand at me, “You discovered the Old One’s plot to slowly destroy our minds. In my eyes, you’ve proven that your senses are well beyond keen. They’re tremendous.”


  Yawm clamped the hand pointing at me into a fist, “And once we find them, we’ll disintegrate them into a fine vapor.”


  Yawm laughed, excitement leaking into his voice. His hands shook a bit like lightning coursed through his veins.

  He raised hands, “We’ll show them what they’ve come to fight. Here is a storm, and we will show them this storm’s lightning.”


  His exhilaration was infectious. I banged my fists together,

  “And they’ll hear the sound of our thunder.”


  Yawm walked up and smacked my back, “Your words are vigor. Let’s go and show them a battle.”


  We walked towards the doors leading outside the room. Yawm raised a hand, pushing them aside. The bolt of the door snapped, slamming the doors outwards. The doors crashed against the walls, Yawm’s heels pounding against the floor. He walked up towards Amara’s room.

  He knocked onto the doorway,

  “Do you have time to discuss something?”


  Amara’s voice muffled through the doorway,

  “I don’t have a choice but to join your hunt, do I?”


  Yawm laughed, “Of course you do.” Yawm tapped his chin, “Though remaining by yourself here does leave you vulnerable. Considering that both Daniel and I are far more effective in combat than you, I advise you join us.”


  Amara opened the door, leaving one hand raised towards us. The eye on her palm stared at Yawm with a narrowed eye,

  “If you’ve decided it, then I’ll follow.”


  He turned towards me, “Let’s come up with a plan of action.”


  I shrugged, “I can sit behind you and CC the enemy with gravity and telekinesis. While I pin them down, you can blow them away.”


  Yawm laughed, “I doubt it’ll work out that easily, but we’ll work with that as the foundation for our plans. Let’s discuss it as we walk.”


  I frowned, “Where are we going exactly?”


  Yawm’s footsteps shook the building, “Towards my world tree. Within it carries a few advantages we could use.”


  We paced towards the edge of his ice palace, talking about refinements on our strategy. Yawm’s greatest strength was his long range combat. His antimatter explosions, singularity bs, and all his other shenanigans destroyed people from afar. Considering he and I owned extreme regeneration, wearing an enemy down was inevitable.

  If they did come at us, I channeled my mana and slowed them down. Once they reached us, we would show them our teeth as Amara put it. We swam through the lake, pacing up a root of the world tree. As we did, the discussion slowed. Once it stopped, I turned toward Amara.

  She glanced around with her hands, inspecting our surroundings. To my knowledge, Amara stayed in her room 99% of the time. Seeing the outside world for the first time engrossed her. With a bit of curiosity spurring me, I sent her a message.

  I imagined a day where the eldritch and sentients could…coexist. Perhaps there will still be conflict, but it won’t be an ongoing war at all times. Unlike Yawm, I believe there’s nothing wrong with the eldritch. I am proud of my lineage. I am proud that we eldritch survive, even as we’re thrown into another dimension.

  A minute or two passed before a message popped up.

  As our conversation lulled as we reached the end of the world tree’s vast root. While reaching the end of the wooden path, I turned around, checking out the view. Below us, the lake’s edge peeked out from the world tree. The eldritch in the lake swam and snapped at each other, schools of fish swimming near the surface.

  The angle of light hit the lake just right, giving it a pleasing shimmer on the surface. Around us, a dense jungle grew. A bit farther from the lake, and the cityscape took over. A trashed city, greenery growing from every crack, reached out into the distance. Skyscrapers with busted windows and cracks like bruises dotted the horizon.

  Past the skyscrapers, floating islands dotted the skyline. Even further behind, a grey cloud loomed. The contrasting view took my breath away. I was in another world after all, and seeing it from a different angle reminded me how extraordinary it was.

  I turned back around, finding the world tree above. The runic carvings covered the center trunk. I turned towards Yawm and asked,

  “What’s all this for exactly?”


  Yawm walked up to the tree, placing his hand on it,

  “Whenever I teleport from world to world, an immensity of mana is required.”


  The runes glowed a bright green along the light brown bark of the tree trunk,

  “So much so that dispersing the mana exhausts me for a period of time. I enter a stasis for a while within the world tree, gathering my strength again. These runic carvings serve as protection and as a gateway into the minds of a world’s life.”


  Yawm closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the tree,

  “The protection runes stem from deals with Etorhma. The other runes are ancient marking passed down by the porytians. Using them, I ask for energy from the plants. Some give, some do not. On a world with dense life on it like this, my recovery time is short. On less enlivened worlds, it takes a tremendous amount of time to heal.”


  After that, Yawm stayed silent for a few minutes. Right as I got bored, he lifted his head, nodding with gusto,

  “Ah yes. They’re here.”


  I turned towards Yawm,

  “So what are we going to do?”


  Yawm reached out a hand towards Amara,

  “Would you mind if I took your hand?”


  He spoke to her as if talking to a lady. If Amara blushed, I couldn’t really tell. Her pale complexion shifted a slight tinge of purple at least. He grasped her small hand, his thumb and index finger grabbing her palm. He lifted her hand against the world tree.

  “The world tree will embrace you now.”


  Amara lifted her other hand towards him,

  “What? Why?”


  Yawm raised an eye and narrowed the other, “To protect you from the battle of course.”


  Amara moved her hand between us both, “I didn’t agree to this.”


  Yawm patted her shoulder, “Why do you think I told you after I started the process.”


  He pushed her towards the world tree. She sunk into the bark, her body falling into the enormous trunk.

  Amara howled, saliva spatting from her mouth, “No! I will not be imprisoned again. I would rather die.”


  Yawm waved away her concern, “You’ll be fine.”


  Amara pushed with her hands, fighting the pull of the world tree. She sunk in, hissing her words like a viper,

  “And what if you die and I am trapped here eternity?”


  Yawm raised a fist, “It’s simple really. I won’t lose.”


  Amara fought before only one arm and her head remained out of the world tree. Her eye darted around in her palm, tears of frustration pouring from it. She closed her eye, one tear falling down on the world tree. Before the tree swallowed her, I walked up.

  I grabbed her hand, grasping her hand like a sideways handshake. From a pocket in my armor, I pressed the ring I made for her into her palm. Up till now, I never got the chance to give it to her. This was my golden opportunity.

  “Hey, Amara. You’re going to be fine, alright?”


  “I…I will be.”


  I walked with her arm as she sunk in, only letting go of her hand as the tree consumed it. She gripped the ring as I let go of her hand. With all the drama of the situation, it disguised me giving her the ring. Finally.

  It turns out that handing someone a ring under the eye of an all seeing, paranoid monster is pretty damn difficult. Even if this was a golden chance though, Amara still got shit on.

  With that in mind, I turned towards Yawm,

  “Man…That was mean as fuck.”


  Yawm rolled his eyes, “It’s better than her getting in the way of our combat, isn’t it?”


  I shook my head, “I don’t know. Did you really need to do all that?”


  Yawm nodded, “When you see the breakers, you’ll understand why she was a liability. True cruelty would be leaving her at the mercy of the coming monsters.”


  I frowned, but his point made sense. I wanted to live more than I wanted Amara’s feelings to remain unscathed. I sighed while Yawm rolled his shoulders. He lifted a hand, cracking his knuckles. Deep, bursting sounds snapped from his fingers, like someone snapping bars of metal.

  Yawm cracked his neck next, and he spread out his arms,

  “Who’d have guessed. Two groups arrived at the same time.”


  Yawm turned from one side of the rift to the next,

  “I wonder which of them we’ll hunt down first?”