Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 227: Book 3: Chapter 78: Match-Up

Read chapter 227 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 3: Chapter 78: Match-Up Chapter 78: Match-Up [Time Remaining: 600 Days, 00 Hours, 12 Minutes] The mountain ridge was still smothered with old smoke, making the sight line a bit obscured, but not entirely so. From their vantage at its peak, the broken village below lay like a forgotten child’s toy. Roofs had been burned black, while splintered carts were half buried in ash, and the remains of Andreia was a still smoking carcass across the treeline. Beyond that, the mountain hollows where the hive’s many beasts collected like bacteria in a wound in the earth. The day had bled into late afternoon by now, and the proverbial hourglass the Queen had given them ticked down the same predictable way an injury would heal, slowly, and painfully. Alex stood with his shoulders squared against the wind. Around him the mixed-force of fighter looked like a hodge-podge of bodies. Urhara banners were to one side, and hastily made Worldstrider standards waved on the other. Everyone’s faces were hard, splotted with dirt and grime from the work done throughout the sleepless night. On the ridgeline to his right, a few salvaged cannons crouched in their carriages like sleeping beasts. Various rune-smiths checked fuses on the machines and tied talismans in tight knots while healers murmured prayers over bubbling pots. The plan they had argued over the night before had come to life, and now that the time had finally come, anxiety and worry sat in Alex’s gut like a ball of lead. No one spoke as they stood on the battle lines. They all simply waited. When the Original Queen stepped from the trees she didn’t move like an animal or beast. Her movements flowed lithely, the forest foliage clearing before her as if the world parted for one of its one. Her presence changed the mood instantly, the air shifting colder and thicker at once. Up close the details of the Queen’s visage were worse than memory had painted in Alex’s mind. The crown of horns on her head, the near-human face, the feathered hair, and chitin plating catching the sunlight like glass. Her eyes found Alex and held him with an intimacy that made his skin crawl. “You decided to squander my gift,” she said smoothly, with no hint of pleasantry. She spoke human syllables laid over a predator’s tone. Alex walked forward to meet her halfway in the large field. The ridgeline was a thin thing between two worlds, so meeting her there kept his back to his people, and kept his vision on the battlefield clear. “Running away was never an option,” he said. “Not after Sarson and Rynel. You know that.” The Queen’s lips curved in a way that was almost a smile, almost. “I had hoped your human attachments would not be so strong. But alas… I will say this: their bodies have been set aside, uneaten so far. In the unlikely chance you triumph today, you may recover them.” The words caught him off guard. He hadn’t expected the Queen to have such understanding of human sentiments. Even if she did, he didn't think she'd act on them. His throat tightened in a way that was part relief and part nausea at the news. He had thought she would meet him with contempt and gloating. He had not expected that small mercy at all. “If by any chance we do win,” he asked, because there was a terrible need to put all the grotesque possible futures into words, “is there a specific way you would like your offspring’s remains handled?” The Queen’s mandibles quivered. Alex could not tell if the motion was amusement, or genuine feelings. Of all the possibilities, none felt safe to him. “No,” she said finally. “If we perish here, burn it all. Put every body to the fire.” “Okay.” The answer was a mortuary’s agreement. Alex didn’t know what else to say. For a brief second they simply looked at each other, two predators acknowledging the rules of the hunt. There was no more negotiation to be had. Alex nodded once, curtly, and turned away. He didn't expect her to strike at him, even with his back turned. Predators that grand had theatre in t