Chapter 350: Wargod city

Riding the back of the serpent, it became near impossible for anyone to stop Aren and the group from making it to the gates. The awakened who could chase gave everything that they had to catch them and attacked, but with Athena and Zero handling the defense, it was very difficult to even come close.

Soon the gate came into view. Normally they would just shut the gate, but it was extremely difficult to shut a gate, and most times when it was done, it was permanent, meaning that the gate would never open again. The government could not risk something like that happening.

"Aren, they are gaining on us," Zero said as she created more spatial bombs and hurled them behind her. Each one slammed into the ground with a massive explosion and managed to push a few people back.

Aren locked his eyes on the gate.

"Fine then, everyone get close to me. I’m getting us to the gate, but it might not be pretty."

"Huh? What the hell do you mean?" Aiden asked.

"Just get yourself close to me!" Aren yelled.

They all did as he said and got closer to him. He wrapped them with shadow tendrils and, without another word, hurled all of them into the air.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" they all screamed as they cut through the air. The attacks of all the awakened were passing right over their heads nonstop. One hit, and it would be enough to stop them.

Aren gritted his teeth and used shadow tendrils. He blocked every attack that came their way until they finally made it to the ground. He hit the floor hard, bang, and rolled to a stop.

"Urghhhh," Aiden groaned like an old man, but Aren grabbed him and pulled him up.

"Now is not the time to find your inner old man," he said, and then they ran, running as fast as they could, and before any other attack could reach them, they leaped through the gates and were transported back to the Domain.

They fell out of the gate on the other side, and the moment they looked up, they knew they had come back to trouble because right there, they were in the bronze section of the Wargod City.

"Shit," Aiden cursed when he saw this.

Aren rose to his feet as well. He shook his head slowly. "Of all places to throw us back, it can use the mouth of the dragon," Aren said, and then slowly twisted his shoulder until he heard a pop.

"I’m guessing we are not leaving," Aiden said.

"We definitely are not." Zero stepped up and stood beside Aren. She pressed her fist against her palm, and a very eager look formed on her face. "I think it’s time we face the fuckers that have chosen to make our lives a living hell."

Athena walked up as well. "It’s time we bring chaos."

"Damn, you guys are hyped," Aiden said as he pulled his sword. "I like that. Let’s have more of that."

They looked at each other.

They took their first step, and immediately they saw tons of city guards coming out, all with their weapons drawn.

"Halt, Shadow!"

The guard’s order died somewhere in his throat the moment Aren’s smile surfaced from beneath the mask. He could not see the smile, yet he felt it.

It had been a long time since that smile had come out properly. Not the calm, easy kind. This one was cynical, edged, the kind of smile that promised nothing good for whoever was unlucky enough to be standing across from it.

Shadow tendrils erupted from the ground beneath his feet before anyone could react, lashing out fast, latching onto two guards, and hurling them in opposite directions, one thrown hard enough that the impact alone settled the matter upon landing.

"Let’s go," Aren said.

Aiden moved first. He’d been itching for a real fight through all the running, and now that the moment had finally come, he wasn’t holding back. He leapt into the air, a blue aura igniting around his body, the same light bleeding into his blade until it glowed bright enough to cut through the dim light of the square.

"Have some of this!" he roared, his voice thunderous, and brought the sword down.

A few guards tried to block. It didn’t matter.

BOOM

The explosion of force sent them flying in every direction. Aiden landed cleanly, grinning wide.

"Come get some," he yelled.

A guard rushed him from the flank, spear thrusting fast. Aiden parried it aside with practiced ease and answered with a clean slash through the man’s chest, armor and all, blood gushing out as he moved on without breaking stride. Finesse and brutality in equal measure, no mercy in a single motion. In seconds he’d cut down four more, their blood painting his blade for exactly as long as it took the blue light to burn it away to nothing.

Zero moved next.

She conjured a series of spatial platforms in rapid succession, leaping between them, running across the air itself as she rained spatial bombs down on the guards below. Each one detonated with brutal force, bodies thrown, limbs scattered, the destruction total and immediate.

Aren glanced toward Athena.

She caught his look and smiled back.

"I never thought I’d have this much fun causing chaos," she said.

"That’s what you’re made for," he replied, knowing exactly what that meant.

She turned back to the crowd, and her third eye opened behind her, chaos energy spilling outward in a wave that slammed into the guards trying to hold the line, tearing through them in seconds.

The square turned dark fast, blood soaking into the stone, the four of them carving a path of pure devastation through what had been, only moments earlier, a coordinated ambush meant to trap them.

It hadn’t trapped anything.

Aren pushed forward through the chaos his group was creating, his eyes locked on the distant silhouette of the floating palace rising above the city skyline.

He was going to reach it.

He was going to find every single person who’d had a hand in taking his family.

And he was going to make every one of them regret it.