TU21. D'Arcane
A few moments earlier…
"The fire demon's here! We're under attack! We are under attack!" a bald cyclops shouted, running as fast as his thick legs could carry his boulder of a body. His heavy sandals thudded against the hearth's stone floor like a drum.
Marcus, who had been completely absorbed in a discussion with his vessel-building crew, craned his neck. He watched the sheer panic widen the cyclops's eyes.
The low murmur of the forge faded, instantly replaced by the news of the attack.
Pulling the edge of Marcus's sleeve taut, the cyclops stared at him unblinking. "Marcus! The fire demon—she's here for us! Oh, she’s gonna burn us all!" His words spat out so fast that Marcus had to ask him to repeat them a second time.
When the Forgemaster grasped the gravity of the situation, "Bring me the warhammer!" he bellowed at one of the smiths.
With practised swiftness, a multi-armed Hekaton held out the long, sturdy bludgeoning weapon. The Forgemaster nodded at the giant with grim gratitude.
"Where is she?" Marcus asked the bald cyclops, clutching the hammer's handle tightly.
"She's at the square, sire!" The cyclops lingered, his hands interlaced in front of his massive chest in a desperate plea.
"Hades's hell!" Marcus cursed under his breath. He turned back to his crew. "Focus on the flight capabilities now! If a ship can go up, you leave with whoever you can fit aboard."
"But—what about you?" one of his crew members asked, his face paling.
The grim reality spread quickly through the forge. This was completely unprecedented. None of them had expected the slave enforcers to regroup and strike as soon as the next day.
"My life equals yours, and everyone else's here," Marcus declared, his voice rich and thick with authority. "Go on without me if I don't make the flight. Move now! That's an order!"
He had to shove them off. Everyone shifted into gear, moving like clockwork. They rushed off, tools and blowtorches still clutched in their hands.
The fire, female demon… could it be? His mind raced, but his legs kept shuffling.
The moment Marcus stormed out of the forge, an earth-shattering explosion erupted with a loud boom, and a thick cloud of flame and smoke rose high into the air.
He spun toward the central square. The hiss escaped his lips, "Damn it!" He bared his teeth, exasperation etched across his face, and his fists gripped the metal handle of his hammer even tighter.
Fleeing souls rushed toward the muster point by the incomplete battlecruisers. Marcus surged in the opposite direction, forcing his path against the chaotic crowd.
Screams and wailing laced the narrow streets.
He had only one thought. He needed to protect his people from whatever had caused that explosion. His dark eye glinted against the dissipating embers. His heart leapt; a part of him had never truly prepared for such sudden destruction. Putting one foot forward, Marcus broke into a heavy run.
"Run to the airships! To the airships now!"
A dark feather drifted down, brushing past his nose as a massive, dark shape clouded the daylight.
Marcus’s jaw hung open. He glanced up at the monstrosity.
A hellish, high-pitched shriek tore from its open jaw. The creature’s glowing red eyes fixated on the lone, muscular cyclops.
Marcus snarled with fierce intensity, baring his teeth in defiance. His burly arms raised the warhammer into a guard position as the monster made its descent.
"Stop! Stop! It's me—Daphia!"
The familiar voice jolted him out of his battle-ready daze. The robed youth slid off the griffin's back and plummeted toward the stone street, but just before she hit, the ground burst into a field of soft grass to cushion her fall.
"She's an ally, Marcus!" Daphia raised her palms, pointing to the beast. "This is Aurora's mount. Ventiff."
But their reunion was short-lived when a massive shockwave suddenly rocked the thick slab of stone underfoot. Daphia lost her balance, her hands grasping at empty air.
"Careful!" Marcus caught her in his oversized palm.
"What was that?" The forest nymph spun abruptly toward the source. "Oh no!" she shouted at the two combatants engaging in a fierce battle above.
High in the sky, Aurora soared upward while a relentless foe pursued her.
The flaming figure became a blur of motion as Empusa furiously flapped her wings to close the distance.
"Phoros!" Aurora roared, crossing her palms to intercept the attack.
"Watch out!" Marcus snapped.
He shielded Daphia's body with his own just before a sky-breaking sound erupted across the basin. The distant Drakon mountains shook, sending loose rocks sliding down their jagged faces.
Marcus waited until he felt the shockwave ripple past their bodies before taking a peek.
Aurora had been flung even higher into the open sky, barely keeping up with her counter-spells.
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Ventiff let out a guttural shriek but made no move to fly off and join the fray.
"By Zeus's beard! She needs my help!" Marcus was already moving, but Daphia's hands locked onto his wrist, using all her weight to hold him back.
"No, you can't! The supreme demoness is too powerful!"
"But—" Marcus looked down at Daphia's pleading eyes, and then back at the aerial combat. Even the Astral Empress was struggling to land a single counterattack.
"Marcus! There are still people left to save, your people—they need you!" Daphia argued, her feet digging into the temporary grass bed. "You must get to the battlecruisers now!"
Her soft voice broke through the turmoil, a voice of pure reason amidst the chaos.
Frozen. Then Marcus finally nodded. "Aye, let's do just that," he rasped.
Together, they took off in haste.
***
As Aurora free-fell from the incredible height, her silver hair whipped around her, her dark armour flapped wildly in the gale.
Amidst the blur of motion, she sought out her elusive foe.
But the strange, shifting flocks behind the Drakon mountainscape weren't Empusa alone. It was her horde of winged minions, catching up to launch a decisive assault.
"I am your foe, but your heart is elsewhere," a mocking tone rang out.
Empusa matched Aurora's descent, her teasing red eyes sparing a cruel glance. "The Tartarian slaves shall know nothing but pain, dread, and sorrow. So they never dare to contest us again!"
"When you take away their hope, they'd rather die than do your dirty work, demon!"
Her insult struck home. Empusa's visage twisted into an incredibly ugly scowl.
"One million!" Empusa screamed with sheer ecstasy.
A whirling white mist wrapped around the demoness. Her wings fluttered sharply, the violent motion propelling her forward. Her glowing red eyes smeared into a pair of streaking lines.
Aurora focused. She let her mind drift into a state of flow. Her body relaxed entirely, allowing the roaring wind to pass over her. Time sliced into fractions, allowing her to monitor every micro-movement of her flying foe.
"I shall have your pretty corpse!" Empusa darted forward, vicious claws extended.
An orb of condensed flame formed between Aurora's two fingers. She held her breath and fired.
Empusa shifted into a blur. Her speed far exceeded Aurora's comprehension.
The fiery beam cleaved through empty air, while Empusa's claws struck true, hurling her into the whirlwind. Aurora's dark shoulder armour shattered. Metal bits spilled and spiralled away, revealing the raw, red skin beneath.
"Heh!" The demoness let out a scornful smirk.
But that exact expression mirrored on Aurora's face a second later.
Her missed beam crashed into the front line of the winged Helltides, incinerating them instantly. Their curses and agonising wails echoed from kilometres away.
"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" Empusa's face twisted into a mask of pure fury. Her eyes burned like the scorching Helios on the hottest summer day.
"Ten million!" Empusa hissed.
Sucking in the mist, the demoness launched a devastating, piercing kick. Despite Aurora erecting a perfectly timed Phoros shield, the demon's hoof shattered the barrier and slammed directly into Aurora's torso. A deafening shockwave tore the sky in half.
The titan-like impact threw Aurora like a ragdoll toward the nearby granite mountain range.
She restrained a grunt, squeezing her eyes shut as the world became a dizzying blur.
Like a falling star, Aurora crashed into the peak, taking an entire section of the mountain range down with her. Smoke and dust violently spilled into the sky, darkening it like a storm cloud. Nearby peaks collapsed into the massive crater her impact had created.
The sky turned blindingly white.
A massive globe of immense energy coalesced above Empusa's raised palm. The mythical hum of pure magic vibrated the very air, a sound so profound that everyone within hundreds of kilometres could sense it.
"Return to ashes, mortal!" Empusa shrieked. "Aetherion!" She hurled the globe forward. It gained terrifying momentum before converging on the collapsed piles of granite.
Flash after flash threatened to bleach the sky white. An explosion bloomed, completely atomising the entire western ridge. The wind rushed inward to fill the massive pressure void.
Apocalyptic doomsday had come knocking. Yet, in the midst of utter destruction, a shimmering arcane barrier persevered.
"How stubborn!" Empusa scowled with disdain. She landed near, but her advancement halted at the sight of a tall figure looming in the back. "It's Death… Thanatos." She murmured.
Heartbeat.
His dark silhouette soon faded into the background. Because this was never his battle to fight.
Silver hair gleamed with an iridescent light. Aurora's gaze sparked with a brilliant glow, shining like a nebula. Though her radiance was never dimmer, her breath came in ragged heaves.
The cost of survival was clear. Her dark armour was completely totalled, broken beyond recognition, the remaining metal scraps barely clinging to her body.
As the barrier dissipated, her knee collapsed.
Aurora's eyes remained locked on her nemesis, tracking the disapproving wail echoing ever closer.
That glare even fuelled the fury.
"How dare you? How dare you?!" Empusa's mouth opened impossibly wide.
Seven limbs launched a cruel barrage of strikes. Claws swiped, hooves kicked, wings thrashed, and legs whipped in a relentless frenzy.
Aurora could barely stifle low grunts from behind her defence.
She held her Thanatos-spatha loosely. Her wrists and arms gyrated, expertly fueling the momentum from one clash and channelling it seamlessly into the next.
Empusa was indeed faster than ever, yet she couldn't penetrate Aurora's masterful dance of the guardian.
Parrying, dodging, ducking, and fading away, the Empress employed every technique in her arsenal — the vast accumulation of skill that made her the undisputed warrior across seven continents.
The Empress knew that soon, the demoness would tire out much faster than she would. Her mastery didn't just lie in her powerful magic, but in her magical economy. And D'Arcane was always the most costly of them all.
"FIGHT ME!" the demoness growled, arching her sharp claws directly at Aurora's face.
A thread of silver drifted away like a feather.
Aurora pivoted her foot with the flow of the attack. Her weapon cleaved upward, slicing from the demon's chest to her left shoulder.
The demoness howled, watching her own blood paint the air.
Though the mysterious mist healed her physical wound in a matter of seconds, it couldn't heal her dismay. Her jagged teeth bared, frothing with madness. It was a stark contrast to Aurora, who remained utterly unbothered.
"One. Hundred—" Empusa let out a wail at the top of her lungs. "Millions!"
As if the heavens themselves had been torn open, a thick beam of condensed light poured down into the demoness. The resulting whirlwind pushed Aurora backward, despite her boots being planted securely in the ashes.
Powerful wings spread outward, revealing the flaming aura surrounding Empusa's head, its writhing edges reaching tens of metres across her shoulders.
"You will pay for this! You will pay for this! You will pay for this, you damn bitch!"
"I heard you the first time," Aurora drawled. Grinned.
She raised her blade until it was parallel with her collarbones, poised and graceful. Her knee coiled in suspension. She was ready for the final showdown.
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