Chapter 106: Weeping
Valens didn’t know how he patched the end of the street with Gravitating Earth, raising a giant block of soil to block the rush of the endless horde. He adorned it with spikes to make it difficult for Shifters to climb before turning back to the scene.
Damp air burnt a painful path down his lungs. His fingers tingled. His chest heaved. But none of them was enough to silence the nostalgia that settled around his mind as he gazed at the back of that solitary figure.
There were some differences. He didn’t have his dark plates, for one. And he looked, Valens rather thought, unnaturally handsome in whoever’s skin he’d wrapped around his skeletal frame. There was even a smile on those plump, rosy lips. A haughty smile, just like how he imagined a gesture like that would look on the face of that stubborn undead.
“How?” Valens managed to mutter just then. “What—”
“Reckon we’ve already gone through this before, eh?” Nomad snickered. “You asking questions, me trying to be gentle about it. We’ve done it in that Rift, haven’t we? I’d say we focus on the trouble at hand. I need you to stay close to me while I’ll deal with this fool.”
“Stay close?”
“Uh,” Nomad grunted. “Close as you can be. This ain’t going to be the last of ‘em. Thousands are waiting for us in the Cathedral.”
“Nomad, is that you?” Celme asked from the other side of the street, squinting at him with one hand over her eyes. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Nomad scoffed at her, then turned slowly to Valens. “Bloody gods, I didn’t miss her face. How are you keeping up with this crazy woman?”
“I don’t,” Valens said. “She just appeared out of nowhere.”
“Got another one in her back, too,” Nomad said. “Looking beautiful, that one, though I seem to sense something dark in her. Tell me, is this the famous Wailborn I’ve heard about in the Underworld? There has been quite the talk about her in the Ninth Legion.”
“Oh, is there?” Valens said. “Is that what you do when you’re not out stealing shards from your Liches and making a run for it? Speaking about the latest matters of Haven’s Reach? I have to say, I didn’t appreciate it when Celme told me I’ll have a giant horde coming after me on the account that I’m somewhat of an anti-undead soon. You don’t happen to know anything related to that, do you?”