Chapter 588: Trap
As time resumed, the air displaced by Borealis’s massive form surged around us, whirling in eddies that smashed against my wards. Screams rose from the city below, where we seemed to teleport to just a few hundred feet above a bustling market. With every beat of the ice demon’s wings, gales tossed stalls and people in all directions. Frigid snow whipped with the winds, covering the rooves and streets in a thin layer of frost.
The air shuddered, and slowly, trembling, I turned my gaze up, and my eyes grew wide. The sky had vanished, swallowed by a raging ocean of brilliant white light. In the heartbeat I’d looked at the city, the lances had collided with the Grand Aegis. Waves of energy scoured the golden membrane, but the only hint of instability was a series of ripples spreading across the shield where the lances had initially impacted. The explosions spread like water on a plate, only flickering out as they neared the edge of the Grand Aegis, nearly a mile in diameter.
The storm of mana ruptured as the shockwaves finally surpassed the initial explosion, sweeping past the rim of the Grand Aegis and crashing into the mountains on either side of the breach. The earth shook violently as the peaks broke beneath the onslaught, sending avalanches of shattered earth and stone cascading down the slopes. The wards on the city walls flared as the avalanches crashed into them, barely holding under the force of millions of pounds of rubble.
The earthquake continued for another few seconds, toppling buildings shaken by Borealis’s winds. There was destruction, suffering, and chaos everywhere I looked, but I slumped back, resting my head on R’lissea’s chest. Her heart beat against my ear, swift and erratic as mine own.
"It worked," she said, tightening her grip on my waist.
"But why?" I mumbled, my eyes fluttering in an effort to remain open. "Why did they fire on their own city?"
She hesitated, chewing on her lip. "I...did they know?"
My tail curled tighter around her waist. "Know?"
"That we would save them?" Her voice trembled. "That we would be here?"