Chapter 67: Flames of Doubt
Outside the burning walls of Aetherthorn, somewhere in the southern forest, Robert ran as if his life depended on it.
His boots pounded against a forest floor littered with scorched leaves and trembling roots, pushing southeast- toward the place where a terrifying explosion of flaming mana had erupted just moments earlier.
"Darn this beasts..." he complained under his ragged breath.
He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t care about the danger. All he could think about was one thing.
"Marissa!" he shouted, voice raw with desperation. "Where are you?!"
His chest heaved with effort, sweat streaking down his grime-covered face. He leapt from a boulder slick with ash and splashed down into a patch of thick mud, nearly losing his footing- but he didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Not now.
He didn’t fear the flames. Not the eerie screech of magic, nor the tremors shaking the very earth caused by the rampaging gigantic beast.
What he feared was losing the family he had built over the last seven years.
His eyes scanned the ground, frantic and sharp, tracking the faint imprints of a familiar foot tracks- woman’s, light and quick, unmistakably Marissa’s.
They were headed southeast, away from the heart of the destruction.
He ignored the distant thunder of battle to his left, the unmistakable roar of something massive-something ancient and angry- tearing through the woods. His gut twisted, but he forced himself to stay the course.
"Damn it," he growled, kicking through underbrush. "This whole forest is going to hell... and I don’t have the slightest clue where my wife and son are!"