Two forms broke from the storming clouds above the battlefield. One form was the color of the darkest night, the countless scales that covered its massive body were bigger than even Aranea’s body. Wings the size of several buildings covered the body, creating a small tornado of air with each mighty flap. As the figure passed through the shields, his wings flapped, revealing the body that was covered by them. Each of the four massive limbs ended with a three-fingered clawed hand, each claw looked like it could rend even a tank asunder with a passing touch. The thick, serpentine neck supported the square-shaped head. The mouth of the wyrm opened in a mocking smile, and canny purple eyes gazed upon the battlefield, locating the positions of his allies. The body of the wyrm was sturdy, even the scales could not hide the massive muscles. A weird mechanical communicator was over the head of the wyrm, going around the ears and near the mouth. The gorgeous being's long and round tail pushed the Soultaker forces aside as the wyrm lowered himself before the eastern mountain range, briefly looking around.
The second form was the color of the brightest lapis lazuli. Blue scales covered the slender body, which almost shone with the inner blue light. The head of the blue wyrm was long, narrow, and flat; the nose and jaws extended way forward, and the eyes were almost in the middle of the skull. Blue light gleamed from the newcomer's eyes as he arrogantly observed resistance forces before him as the wyrm lowered itself before the western mountain range. Massive, beautiful wings, looking almost too big for such a slender body, slammed the air with force, forcing the regulators in front of the wyrm off their feet. The long and thin tail ended up with a cruel-looking claw. Claws on the hands and legs of blue wyrms were carefully tripped, giving the man an almost elegant look. Golden bracelets covered in jewelry were on the neck and hand of the blue wyrm, elegant-looking mechanical communicator was on his ear.
Aranea gasped in surprise. She saw pictures, of course. She saw videos too. And yet, seeing two wyrms in person… It was the first time she had ever met...
I am wrong. She understood the moment the black wyrm turned his head toward her. Light from his eyes fell on her. And in the next moment, purple light filled her consciousness, ripping her away from this cruel battlefield, away from her own body, pulling her toward the never-ending void in which only a ball of purple light existed alongside her. She heard no sound, no noise, the purple ball hovered before her silently.
Hello again, child. Are you feeling any better now? Should I unlock your potential? The being spoke in her head. Aranea somehow knew that he was joking, yet she wanted nothing more than to cower or grovel. This being, this person... Even now, when he was fighting by her side, she felt nothing but fear when she looked at... him. And she only ever met Scorpio when she was almost dying. A sense of warmth filled her mind, when the wyrm tried to calm her down, sensing her distress. The purple light in Aranea's mind felt genuine confusion at her fear, and the intruder was perplexed by her reaction, unsure how to proceed. This frightened the wolf hag even more, and she fell to her knees before the purple, screaming incoherently, hating herself for this embarrassment and fear.
Someone, a very familiar and reliable presence, gave Aranea a painful bonk on the head, and the wolf hag calmed herself, looking around and seeing nothing but the darkest void. The purple light retreated from her mind, unwilling to cause more harm. Aranea blinked, and the world came back. She was standing still, just like a moment before. Ofelia clearly did not hear her wordless screams, and when Aranea turned back to Janine, the warlord looked at her with suspicion. Aranea noticed that just a moment ago the warlord was frowning from pain, yet now there was a hint of... something else behind her amber eyes, embers of something purple. The warlord allowed Aranea to keep on treating her wounds with utter calm. The black wyrm spoke to both of them at the same time, despite the fact that not even a half-minute had passed in the real world.
The black wyrm known as Scorpio, one of the two chief strategists of the Third Army, and the wielder of power known as the "Wordplay" turned his head toward the battle above the eastern mountain range. He spoke something, but his mighty voice was muffled by the sounds of battle around him. And yet, orbs of lightning came into being around the head of Scorpio. Arcs of lighting were unleashed from within the orbs, hitting the forces of Soultakers atop the mountain, turning soldiers of the enemy into scorched bags of meat. The tall man with the sword spear appeared behind Scorpio, looking almost like a bug when compared to such a massive body. The man smiled and made a casual swing, aiming the blade in-between the scales on the massive neck. In the next moment, his face changed into a mask of concern, seeing how his blade bit the empty air. Scorpio said something and disappeared in the air, allowing the spear to hit empty air while the body of the man began to fall. The enemy champion looked around in confusion, while the orbs were slowly disappearing from the air. Even through the cameras of the soldiers on the slope of the mountain, Aranea still saw how the man's eyes widened in shock, when a massive shadow appeared behind him, covering him in darkness, while Scorpio reappeared behind the enemy champion.
The claw of Scorpio moved with surprising speed for such a large body. The wyrm's hit only speared the empty air, the man's form disappeared into nothingness the moment the massive shadow fell on him. This time he was gone for good, never to return to this battlefield. But this short distraction allowed some Soultakers to jump away from the eastern mountain range, escaping using jetpacks. Scorpio looked at the battlefield before him, saying a single word that created an explosion of fire in the midst of several enemy tanks, throwing them aside like a bunch of cardboard boxes, blackening the metal of their armor, sending the people within cartwheeling off their seats, breaking bones, and potentially killing the crew. The attack of Soultakers finally stopped, with the new enemy appearing and their leader gone, the troops began to retreat. The black wyrm did nothing to stop them, instead motioning to allied troops to treat the wounds of both friends and foes.
Ivar slowly spread his wings, arrogantly surveying the situation around him. His hands were crossed on his chest, the jewelry on his body was gleaming slightly in the dark. Blue eyes seemingly count the number of enemy soldiers below him. His wings moved. It was a simple twitch, he elegantly moved his wings the way an ordinary person would shrug his shoulders. But this mere gesture caused a pool of water to appear above him. The water was calmly floating in the air, the pool of water was wider than even Murzaliev's body. Drops of water shot from the pool, guided by the blue wyrm's will, crushing the enemy soldiers in front of the blue wyrm. Upon hitting, the water bullet enveloped a person whole, covering him from head to toe. Once fully covered in a cocoon of water, the body of a victim was crushed by immense pressure, along with any armor on the poor soul, reducing bodies, clothes, and even armor to a single bloody red ball within the hovering water.
This was the result of "Oceandeep," Ivar's power. Some enemies were able to escape the water before it completely covered them, but the constant rain from above still completely covered them with the second drop, leaving them with no chance of survival. Ivar cared little to help the allied forces, convinced that they were competent enough to survive on their own. His power was ignoring the allies, even when hit by his water, they remained unharmed. Ivar was only interested in killing enemies. He gestured with his right wing, and a thin line of water appeared amidst the confused ranks of Bento tribe members. Water was scarce in the Ravaged Lands. To see it come into reality so easily was unusual, even for cyborgs. No one of them was really afraid of water, and for this brief confusion they had paid with their lives. The line of water sliced several dozen cyborgs into pieces with a single motion, the pressure of the water was high enough to tear through even the strongest metal. Ivar saw the crawling enemy cyborgs, lifted his scaled brow, and prepared to fling the water bullets to finish them off. Before he could do so, he cocked his head, listening to someone's voice on his communicator. With a sigh, he allowed the wounded foes to live, turning his attention to the rest. Enemy forces started their retreat, but Ivar had no intention of letting them go so easily. The pool of water above the blue wyrm was growing bigger and bigger, sending more and more water bullets at the people before him.
The metal behemoth finally turned its rage on two new enemies. Countless batteries unleashed rows of projectiles into the back of Scorpio, only for him to say something and disappear from view. The shells slammed into the eastern mountain range, creating new hollow spaces inside the mountains, collapsing tunnels within, and trapping soldiers within. Forces on top of the mountain range felt massive tremors underneath them, while the batteries of the titanic machine were busy hollowing up the mountain. The assault lasted barely a moment before the machine stopped its wrath, yet entrances underneath mountains were now covered with countless fallen pieces of stone. Holes bigger than any city block were now being created in the middle of the eastern mountain range. The stones, and even entire cliffs, began to fall slowly, creating avalanches and forcing soldiers to begin evacuating, going so far as to abandon some of their artillery vehicles. Scorpio reappeared above the metal behemoth but made no attempt to attack it, only drawing its attention away from the allies.
Shells that were sent toward Ivar were met with a wall of water as the blue wyrm raised a single arm in front of himself. Two claws snapped, willing water into existence. The wide and tall wall of water reached all the way to the ground, shielding the western mountain range from the fury of the enemy's assault. Submerged shells were compressed into tiny steel balls while rockets and missiles exploded within the water prison. Ivar made no attempt to hide or retreat, he kept his distance from the machine, but aside from that, he was content to sit in front of the positions of his allies, wielding his power with casual ease. No shell bypassed him, no wound was on his magnificent body, no projectile reached his allies while he was here.
The infernal orchestra made by the countless weapons of the steel behemoth caused even the ears of Aranea to bleed, she could only imagine what the wounded people around the plains felt, that with being thrown into the air with each step of the machine and sent flying away from the shockwaves produced by the batteries of the horrible idol of destruction. Ofelia motioned with her hand when she noticed blood coming from Aranea's ears. Whatever she did, it reduced the sounds all around the wolf hag to a barely audible noise, the wolf hag herself felt the soothing cold breeze of the Core Lands against the skin of her face.
"Wyrms. You finally dare to show your faces on the battlefield?!" The voice boomed across the battlefield when the figure of King appeared above the behemoth of steel. Some of the machine's projectors were producing holographic images of the enemy leader, showing him standing calmly and confidently on top of the machine. Even when magnified by hologram, King was still a child in comparison to his massive steel monstrosity, "You allowed your people to die in vain, and for what? So you could swoop up in the blaze of glory and defeat us? Was this your hope? Do you really believe that your shield can protect you?" King asked in a mocking voice and gestured with his hand forward, pointing at the defensive positions.
Energy was unleashed from towers built on the towering mechanism. Arcs of electricity crashed into the water wall of Ivar and pierced it, circling around the blue wyrm, moving toward the shield station. There was no explosion or sound, but the shield that was protecting the entire Reclamation Army positions suddenly vanished, leaving the entire area undefended for whatever was hidden behind the enemy's smoke screen and wide open for the monster of steel to feast. The shield station was still standing, Aranea could see it on her radar and through the cameras of the wolfkins from Valerye's pack, yet the shield generator itself was no longer working. Smoke slowly crept its way inside the area formerly guarded by the energy shield, covering the battlefield in darkness, throttling out even the beams of light coming from above the battlefield.
"What good are your efforts against the might of the past? The might, that now serves our will?" King continued talking, and his voice was instilling confidence in the shaken spirits of his troops across the battlefield. "You attempted to obstruct our path to the shield. We cleaved our way in. You tried to safeguard your shield. We demolished it, nonetheless. You tried to protect your pass. We wiped out your forces in our path. You. Have. Lost! The least you can do now, is die as atonement for the deaths of your soldiers!"
The energy weaponry of the massive machine was unleashing barrage after barrage of beams, evaporating away the water wall of Ivar as if it were nothing, forcing the blue wyrm to dart away to save himself from harm. Other weapons concentrated their fire on Scorpio, causing the black wyrm to disappear from sight again, teleporting across the battlefield as fast as he could while the weapons of the enemy were busy locking on him. The behemoth resumed its thunderous march toward the mountain pass.
What are we going to do against this? Aranea thought, taking a step back against her will, and grabbing Janine, ready to flee with her warlord. It was shameful to admit that she was scared. And yet, seeing this mountain of steel moving towards her, realizing just how insignificant and useless she was in the grand scale of things…
Jekaterina's body leaped into the air, recovering her lost half at an even faster rate. Ofelia gasped in surprise as the soultakers' leader reformed her body, hair reappeared on the bald side of her head, the empty eye gained focus again, and both hands grasped the deadly scythe. Ofelia gestured, but Jekaterina was already moving. The weird power of the new ally only sliced some flesh from the back of the enemy, and while Jekaterina was circling around Ofelia, the eyes of the enemy leader were locked on the hands of the new ally of Aranea. Twice more, Ofelia gestured with her hands, slicing some tiny amount of flesh from the body of the enemy, and twice Jekaterina lightly tapped her own leg with the shaft of her weapon. The wounded flesh healed itself with irritating speed.
"Watch out! She is learning your intervals..." Aranea screamed upon understanding why Jekaterina kept her distance. Trice more she allowed herself to be hit, touching her leg with the scythe, before she was certain that she had figured out the trick behind the power of Ofelia. Making one large leap, Jekaterina dodged the fourth attack entirely and charged at the floating woman. The Reaper of Lies made an arc in the air, closing its blade on the lean neck of Ofelia, intending to slice away her head. Aranea grabbed her ally, pushing her floating body backward. The blade moved after them, closing in with each moment. The enemy predicted this possibility. Jekaterina was simply too fast for Aranea to hope and dodge.
A red line crashed between Jekaterina and the state's soldiers, stopping the weapon from nearly touching Ofelia's skin, and the Soultakers' leader flew back with a crushed chest while Valerye Foulsnout stood up. Her landing made a crater in the ground, sending tremors strong enough that they pushed even the wolf hag onto her knee. Jekaterina stopped her momentum by slamming the shaft of her weapon into the ground, the broken bones in her body were already fixing their position with loud cracks, ruined muscles reknotted themselves, the skin became pristine and clear once more before Aranea’s very eyes.
Foulsnout briefly glanced around. Her breathing was hard, and not even her helmet muted her painted groans as she inhaled air. Her armor was broken in many places, wires were sparkling with electricity, and the elastic muscles of her power armor were severed in many places from her fight with Chort. She was carrying a dead weight on her body at this point. The claws that were installed on her wrists slid onto her paws, the warlord was not taking any chances anymore.
"Wolf hag. Keep this idiot safe. Janine. Retreat and treat your wounds already." Valerye said in a tired voice, her commanding tone gone, her voice raspy once more, each sentence was accompanied by a loud inhale. The composure that she gained for a brief time during her battle with Chort was clearly no longer with her.
Jekaterina and Foulsnout charged at each other at the same time. The claws of Foulsnout pierced the eyes of Jekaterina, while the blade of the scythe sliced diagonally across the right shoulder of Valerye, going all the way to her left side. And yet none fell. Aranea was confused for a moment and then understood as images of both fighters disappeared. These were but the afterimages, not even the eyes of the wolf hag could trace the movements of these opponents, when they went all out. Foulsnout was fighting for her life, Jekaterina wanted to finish off her opponent for good this time.
Howling wind and sound hit all sides of the two opponents, as they were locked in a fierce fight, moving at the very limits of their bodies. Each slash of Jekaterina was blocked, but not even the monstrous power of Valerye could bend the weapon of her foe. Blood crashed against the armor of Aranea, and she wondered briefly, whose blood it was. She could only see the blur and sparks. Sometimes she could see traces of the shapes, but nothing concrete.
This is your ceiling. A voice at the back of her mind whispered, and Aranea blinked, returning to the black void of her mind, to the raging dark water that was slamming against stone cliffs. Something that the black wyrm did to her caused a response in her body. Ravager\Aranea was standing before her, amber eyes glowing in the utter darkness. And yet the being was deadly calm, hands crossed on her chest: "Still alive? When will we finally be punished for what we did?" The creature demanded to know. Aranea's memories of childhood hit her, forcing her to remember the broken promise to her mother and father again and again. "We did it." The monster said.
"We will be punished in due time," Aranea hissed through her fangs, struggling to flee this place. "I must stay alive for now, in order to..."
"Then you need power," Ravager\Aranea slammed her foot into the cliff before Aranea, sending some stones falling into the water. She spread her hands, causing an image of Valerye fighting against Jekaterina to appear. "You can’t even see them. You can’t even touch them. Weak we are. Because you are the one who is holding us back. Take it, my power and your rage, bend them to your will, and wield me as you see fit. Or fail to control me and succumb to rage, abandoning your dreams," The eyes of the beast were seemingly piercing the very soul of Aranea, and yet she pushed against her, forcing chains to reappear in her mind—chains that crashed into Ravager\Aranea, piercing her flesh and muscles, reaching all the way to her bones, and binding the beast to rocks in this ruined place. This was Aranea's mind, and this place obeyed only her will, not the will of some crazed beast. "Tch. If you think you can intimidate us, then you are a fool. Pain and solitude are the least we deserve."
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"I need power," Aranea admitted with despair and pain in her voice, finally admitting defeat and looking into the burning eyes of the Ravager\Aranea matched the calm rage in them with her own fury. The beast made no attempt to break free," But… You took away my mother. Your rage poisoned this entire Tribe. It is your fault, everything is your fault. I don’t need you," Ravager\Aranea only smirked as Aranea looked at the storm clouds above, remembering the other place in her mind. She called to the other two inhabitants of her mind, admitting her defeat in utter honestly. "I need your help. I must become stronger."
"Then help is what you will get," The familiar male voice responded, "What we can give, we will provide."
"But think about what you are doing," The female voice whispered, sounding seemingly from the raging waters below the cliffs. Ravager\Aranea snarled as something rose in the air across her, she made an attempt to break free and attack someone near her. But she was sealed by the chains, unable to move. The strange presence around her transformed into mists that lowered themselves on the ripped wound, stopping the flow of blood. Torn flesh around the chains started to heal. Ravager\Aranea roared with hatred and rage at this humiliation. "Is she really at fault? Is anyone truly at fault here? Rejecting yourself will only lead to disappointment in the future. Whatever mistakes and sins you think you have committed, to move forward, you have to accept yourself and learn from them."
"She won’t get it," The male voice responded, now it was heard from the mist that surrounded the beast, hiding the speaker from the eyes of Aranea, "Not now anyway. As a result, you will only receive a morsel, a drop of what you could have received from us. To truly unseal your power, you will have to accept yourself, fully and truly."
Aranea refused to even humor their words with a response. The wolf hag remembered well enough how she lost control once and what happened to her mother. She could see well enough what the lingering shadow of Ravager was doing with the Wolf Tribe. The power of the Wolf Tribe in her can rot for all she cares. Who cares if she will never reach the peak of her power? She will find another way forward!
Aranea broke free from the prison of her mind, returning to reality. Not even a moment had passed in real time, Valerye and Jekaterina were still locked in furious combat. The Reaper of Lies tried to slice the warlord in two, only for the warlord to sidestep the attack to the left and punch with her right hand. The claws missed the shoulder of Jekaterina, who took the blunt of the damage from the enemy palm on her shoulder, diffusing the horrible force of the blow by spinning to the right and slashing again as she turned around, forcing Valerye to dodge. The wolf hag felt no change in her body. She was still the same size she had been, she hadn't gained any new muscles, nothing... And then realization and understanding hit her.
She could see. She could see the movements of Valerye and Jekaterina clearly now. The same movements that looked like a blur to her before were now crystal clear to her. Every parry and hit, every feint and dodge, every slash and kick, she was able to see them all! Jekaterina made an overhead slash, and Foulsnout dodged to the right, her left hand grabbed the shaft of the Reaper of Lies. Jekaterina let go of her scythe, both hands struck like spears, aiming for the neck of the warlord. The right hand of Soultaker was broken by the quick counterpunch of Valerye. Jekaterina's wrist was almost ripped open, and her hand had turned into jelly from the smallest punch from Foulsnout. Yet the left hand of Soultaker reached the neck of her enemy, slamming fingers in a thrust-like motion in the middle of the neck, causing Valerye to cough and let go of the enemy weapon. The fingers of Soultaker shattered from such a powerful thrust, yet Valerye also felt this attack. While the warlord was still struggling with previous damage, Jekaterina's right hand was already healed, her palm closed at the shaft of her trusted scythe, and she made an upward, diagonal slice with her weapon, aiming to finish off Valerye.
Valerye dove, narrowly avoiding the weapon. Still coughing, she stood up, grabbing the left shoulder of Jekaterina with her left hand, holding the enemy in place. Her right fist shot up above her head. Not a single trace of worry was on Soultaker's face, when she looked up. The fist moved down, smashing the face of Soultaker into a bloody pulp, breaking bones and reaching all the way to the brain. The force behind the blow sent Jekaterina's body deep underground, creating a crack in the road of melted stone and broken glass. Blood was pouring up from this crack in the ground, eventually stopping and hissing as the fluid evaporated due to the overheated road surface.
"You two better stop, he is…" Ofelia started talking.
"Shhhh…." Valerye barely whispered, planting her legs wide, putting her right arm before herself, her left arm lifted in a block before her face.
The ground beneath her exploded, and the scythe struck forward. With her left hand, Valerye blocked the blade, but it slipped from her claws, leaving a long slash across her hand. The right hand struck forward, aiming for the face of the rising Jekaterina, only to be blocked by the shaft of the Reaper of Lies. Soultaker was thrown back several steps by the force of the blow, but she landed on both legs with no visible damage. Both opponents were prepared to charge at each other again.
"Stop it, already!" Ofelia disappeared in the air near Aranea, reappearing between two fighters, her hands lifted in the air. "Valerye, stand down! Miss Jekaterina, pardon for the rude treatment, but the fight is over."
"Really?" Jekaterina asked skeptically, nodding toward the plains, where sounds of battle were raging and the behemoth was employing its impressive array of weaponry in an attempt to kill the wyrms. Smoke now filled the battlefield, covering the entire plains in darkness.
"Yes, really!" Ofelia almost screamed, desperately gesturing up, "He is coming! The duel is about to start! Listen, if the duel won’t start in five minutes, you can take my head."
"I concede my defeat," Valerye said, visibly relaxing, "I have no way to put you down for good."
Jekaterina took a long glance at Ofelia, then slammed the shaft of her scythe into the ground:
"This fight will be considered to be a draw. Go help your comrade."
On the battlefield, both Scorpio and Ivar were doing their best to stay alive. The mighty weapons of the steel behemoth made the forces of the state surrender ground and run for their lives. Only the wyrms remained on the field. Ivar's left shoulder was covered with bruises from the hit that managed to land on his body. A piece of Scorpio’s tail was missing.
"After your deaths, your bodies will be stuffed and paraded in every city, for everyone to see the fate of those who dared to challenge us, in our land! Summon your leader, so I can crush him myself!" King was speaking with passion, igniting the burning fire of hope in his followers. "Your armies have fallen, your hopes are in tatters, the chance of your victory is…"
"Enough." A single word cut through the speech of the King, and the light from heaven above became even brighter.
A golden body pushed through the thick clouds of darkness above the battlefield. It was as if a new sun had descended from the skies. Scales of gold covered the enormous body. Light shone from them, piercing the darkness of smoke around the wyrm. The wings, two massive wings bigger than Ivar or Scorpio, made a single flap with all their might, forcing smoke to move away, lifting the veil of darkness around the battlefield, and revealing the skies above once more. The elegant head with golden eyes fixed on the massive behemoth before him rose to the heavens on a long, serpentine neck. The body has slowly begun to descend upon the plains, and soldiers of the resistance have screamed in terror. Despite this, the wyrm has let them retreat, only lowering himself to the ground when enemy forces have fled far enough. The massive, hill-sized claws did not pierce the ground, yet cracks appeared around the golden legs. A cheap-looking communicator, bigger than a house, was installed near the left ear of the wyrm. His every move posed an apocalyptic threat, this being could have leveled a stone house simply by exhaling air. The sheer wingspan of the commander allowed him to protect both positions of the Reclamation Army on the western and eastern mountain ranges. The commander had two long, curved horns on his head.
Light hit all sides from Wyrm Lord. It was a soft, warm light. When it fell on Aranea, she felt a strange feeling. It was as if someone was standing near her, telling her that everything was going to be fine. She wanted to fall on her knees and worship this magnificence before her. And yet, this strange light made her stop. Somehow, before she even spoke with the commander, she knew that he wanted to be surrounded by friends, not by worshippers. Even enemies were affected. The fear that first fell upon them was slowly creeping away. They started to retreat in order, instead of running away in horror, somehow assured and knowing that this being would not hurt those who chose to retreat.
The smoke was blown away, and Aranea saw what was happening behind the steel behemoth. Rows of armored vehicles were moving toward the battlefield. They were still some distance away, but should they arrive, the tide of battle would undoubtedly be shifted once more...
"You asked for the enemy leader, here I am," Wyrm Lord said, looking at the metal behemoth. King's hologram has turned to look at the golden wyrm. The wings spread to cover soldiers on the eastern and western mountain ranges, the commander's back guarded the pass, his long tail rested on the ground, the hands were folded. "Shall we parley?"
"Parley with you? "You are merely a rodent, unworthy of my attention," King sneered, waving his hand dismissively and commanding the Wyrm Lord to vanish from his sight. "I asked for the leader of the Reclaimers, not some glorified lieutenant."
"If I am the rodent, then you are the parasite, nestled in the rotten corpse of the Old World," Wyrm Lord’s voice was calm, nothing like the booming voice of the King. And yet almost everyone could hear his deep, assured voice. "People of the Resistance! Enough of this meaningless slaughter! Lay down your arms and let us all live together! By now you can see what we bring to you, surely you can see how we can improve your lives! Are you afraid that we will force our leaders upon you? We will allow your own people to keep their positions…"
"Enough with your messianic delusions, snake," King’s voice also became calm. A threat could be heard behind each word of King, tall as Wyrm Lord was—even his mighty body was smaller than the steel behemoth from the Old World before him. "We bent this land to our will, we clawed and claimed this land for ourselves by our might! We live upon it, we will change it in time as we see fit! We will not let some superpowered freak to lord over us. We have no need for your "restoration". We deny you. By our might, we refuse you."
"I do not need power to get to know others!" Wyrm Lord shouted back. "Here I stand, in person. Come and ask me any questions you want, and I will answer. But speak up rather than fight! You claim that you will change the Ravaged Lands in time. Maybe it is true, I concede the fact that people here are far more technologically advanced than I had expected at first. But don't all the people who live in your countries—people who toil away their entire lives with no end in sight, children who are dying right now from easily treatable diseases—have the right to live here and now? Come out into the open, King and let us negotiate a better future for all humans! I am sure that a compromise can be found. No one needs to be left behind!"
"But I am in the open, and I will waste no more time on you and your honey words, snake. Tlaltzin! End him." King gave the order.
"Just you and me, then. I challenge you, Tlaltzin of the Bento tribe. If your leader is too cowardly to show himself, let us decide the ownership of this place by having a duel between us. No one else needs to die." Wyrm Lord examined the steel machine, waiting for the response.
"Challenge accepted." The familiar voice responded, and the behemoth moved towards the opponent.
"Enough with this foolishness. Why must we cede our advantage for the sake of a meaningless duel? All forces, continue your advance!" King shouted, and Ivar charged forward and stopped in the air above the forces of Blaguna Nokto as she was about to give the command to advance. She lazily looked at the blue wyrm before herself and shrugged, calling off the attack. Ivar looked angry that his enemy denied him battle. Scorpio appeared above the forces of Soultakers. The black wyrm shook his claw and the enemies stopped their preparation to fire. Only Bento tribe armored vehicles continued to advance, but they were still far away.
"This will only lead to more deaths…" Wyrm Lord said somberly, his words drowned out by the hellish orchestra that began when the behemoth opened fire on the commander.
The shells and missiles slammed into the golden body, failing to stop Wyrm Lord from taking the first step forward. The weapons designed to ruin entire cities and annihilate armor were unleashed in full measure. The scales on Wyrm Lord's body has cracked under immense pressure, allowing his crimson blood to flow on the ground like a red rain. Even drops of blood were evaporating as a result of the enemy's ferocious assault. Smoke covered the tall, golden body as more and more shells slammed into it. Due to enemy fire exploding in close proximity to enemy forces, Wyrm Lord put his massive tail on the ground, holding himself in place as he stopped his advance. Nothing should be able to survive this, these were the weapons that left holes in mountains. And yet, as the first round of explosions stopped and smoke was forced back by a single flap of wings, Aranea saw that the commander was only covered in scratches and bruises. None of the attacks managed to leave deep wounds on his body.
Wyrm Lord inhaled deeply and spread his hands wide, making a beat with his wings. A hurricane came into being, the insane force produced by the two gigantic winds sent the new barrage splattering right back at the behemoth's shield. The enemy, engulfed in smoke and explosion, never stopped firing.
"Begone, sad toy of the old world," Wyrm Lord simply said, and lights were unleashed from scales on his body. Countless laser beams formed in the air and were sent into the machine before him. They crashed against the shield, creating a light show bright enough to dim even the natural light that was coming from Wyrm Lord. The behemoth attempted to retaliate, but its shells melted in the air and missiles exploded due to Wyrm Lord's energy onslaught. The entire plains were covered in multicolored light as a result of a struggle between two opponents, and Aranea turned away to protect her vision. This was the famous power known as "Golden Child", the power of Wyrm Lord. By collecting the sunlight and storing heat within his titanic body, the commander of the Third Army was capable of unleashing the truly destructive power of the sun's lasers.
When the energy barrage stopped, Aranea turned. While Valerie was treating Janine's wounds, Jekaterina stood calmly. Both warlords stubbornly refused to leave this place. Aranea took a nervous breath. The doomsday machine from the past endured the assault, not a single energy beam passed through its shield.
"Toy? My, the arrogance of a mere mutant. What does this make you, if you are struggling to defeat a mere toy?" King mocked his opponent, but his words were nearly drowned out by another barrage from the behemoth. This time, the machine used energy weapons as well. More wounds appeared on the hide of the Wyrm Lord, some of them deeper this time. One attack revealed a white bone on the hand of the Wyrm Lord. But while the shells hurt, the energy beams were absorbed by the scales of the Wyrm Lord. Energy was sucked inside his body, causing no harm to him. "You are much sturdier than you look," King said with approval in his voice, his gigantic figure lifted the right arm up, "But this will end even you. The shells of this weapon contain faulgnaiten gas. Even you will not survive it."
The folded gun behind the metal behemoth began to move, slowly rising above the shoulders and assembling itself to point at Wyrm Lord. The golden wyrm looked at this with disbelief.
"The use of faulgnaiten gas was prohibited by a treaty signed by all three nations, a treaty that prohibits the use of weapons of mass destruction in our world." The wyrm hissed, anger, true anger was in his voice for the first time, "This weapon was meant to wipe out entire cities clean of population. You dare to risk the lives of your ow…"
"Well, it is a good thing that we are not members of any of the three nations. Your stupid laws do not concern us. We burn down the world as many times as it takes to get rid of you! Witness our dedication and defecate yourself in fear!" King laughed, looking at how the folded cannon slowly finished assembling. Its barrel alone was the size of the golden wyrm's chest.
Wyrm Lord remained silent. Aranea could only see a portion of his eyes. Before he had a sad expression, he looked like a person locked in a fight that he hated. Now, however, all pity was gone from his golden eyes. Determination was the only thing that was left in the commander’s eyes. His scales glowed, tiny lights started moving toward his throat as he lifted his head toward the skies, slightly opening his jaws. A golden halo of light appeared behind Wyrm Lord, a massive disk of energy swirled behind him. The scales of the Wyrm Lord finally started to lose their bright golden color, becoming dimmer by the moment, still golden but no longer shining with an inner light. The energy still flowed toward his throat and further into his mouth. Pieces of flesh and hide were torn away each time an enemy machine fired at its foe, but the Wyrm Lord ignored the pain. His wings were shredded, there were large gaps in his once magnificent wings.
The behemoth's cannon was assembled before Wyrm Lord finished his preparations, and King made a slicing gesture. A single shell was unleashed, a metal object that should have killed the commander of the Third Army, for it contained a bioweapon capable of ending even the regenerators' lives. The head of the wyrm moved, he looked at the moving shell. His mouth opened impossibly wide, the jaws gave him an impression of the anaconda, a snake from the Old World, that was preparing to swallow a large beast whole. Only instead of swallowing something, a brilliant beam of energy left the commander's mouth. It was fast enough to intercept the attack. The beam grew even bigger after leaving his mouth, engulfing even the moving shell and vaporizing it along with the gas inside it. The beam pushed forward, coming into contact with a shield around the machine. The shield, which withstood countless beams, lasted but a moment before breaking. The beam pushed onward and came into contact with the barrel of the cannon, melting it down in a sea of steel.
Aranea noticed Jekaterina's face tensing up as Wyrm Lord shifted his head to the side, lowering the beam in a diagonal arc, bisecting the doomsday machine in two. The beam hit the armored vehicles that were hurrying to the battle, vaporizing several of them. A single metal pod was shot from the machine, and Soultaker visibly relaxed, seeing how the pod gained speed, flying up in the skies.
The upper part of the machine fell, and the image of the King disappeared from the skies on top of it. Waves of sand and dirt rose in the air, metal landed with the force of an explosion, forcing even people on mountain ranges to fall off their feet. Aranea herself was flung down. Janine only managed to stand because Valerye had grabbed her and held her steady. When shockwaves reached them, new avalanches of stone fell from the cliffs of the mountains.
The forces of the resistance started their retreat. Blaguna spoke to Ivar, but the blue wyrm ignored her, waiting for a command from Wyrm Lord.
The golden wyrm lifted its head to the skies for a brief moment, as if swallowing something. The halo behind him disappeared, and color returned to his scales. He looked down at the escaping people and noticed countless injured people scattered around the battlefield.
"This battle is over! Treat the wounds of both friends and foes alike, allow for enemy retreat," He looked at Ivar, who was disappointed, and then at Scorpio, who bowed to the Wyrm Lord. "We fed death enough today. The trial of strength is over. Save whoever you can."
He stopped for a moment, and Aranea heard a sound from behind her. Reinforcements from the state were coming. Black and Blue never fully trusted Wyrm Lord to handle the situation, and both of them were prepared for any accident. Several transport vehicles were arriving from the skies, and new reinforcements were arriving by land. Wyrm Lord suddenly looked so small to Aranea, despite his massive power, he was merely a figurehead for the army.