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“Take her,” Jack ordered, placing Colette’s unconscious body on a gurney where Helena’s team of Black Rose knights were there to receive her and several white haired nobles who lay unconscious.
Jack climbed atop a ruined gun emplacement, surveying the battlefield.
“Is that all sir?” Captain Helena Belfusa asked, standing beside Jack with Jessica as allied MECHFrames walked by.
Jessica stood in awe of the destruction, Jack's attack carving a path of destruction through the Roland defenses. It wasn't enough to bring in Skirita's airships and send their air fleet, but it was still impressive, allowing Selfian soldiers to flood the trenches with MECHFrames moving into positions.
Jack looked down at the silver bars in his hand, a captain’s insignia stripped from Colette's collar.
He cast them to the side, throwing away the emblems into the mud as his eyes took in the hellscape before him.
Jack could hear their cries of anguish, pain, and rage. The wounded and angry alike bellowing their lives into the sky amidst the rounds of lead.
“Don’t lose yourself, Jack,” Sahaqiel cautioned, hovering beside Jack and embracing him. “You are a good man.”
The more I fight the more I feel as though I’m just a pawn Sara. A puppet being masterminded by the High Table with my loved ones as collateral. I’m tired of being a pawn. I’m tired of being used.
In the sky, the Roland airforce stayed back, hovering closer to the city just shy of the city shield, perhaps weary of Jack's display of power.
This is my chance to make a statement. Jack narrowed his eyes at the massive airship.
“Oh. I like this.” Lilith snickered, her hunger rising up from within Jack.
“Tell Admiral Skirita that all members of the Light familia are to be captured not killed. Anyone who violates this order will answer to me,” Jack said, sweeping his gaze across the battlefield swarming with gunfire.
Helena furrowed her brow, the officer apprehensive of Jack's order. “Sir, what your asking is-”
“I'm well aware of the blowback. Consider it a standing order from your King, Captain,” Jack said, stepping off of the smoldering cannon to stand face-to-face with the blonde officer. “I want them brought in. Alive. But if it comes to it, and you're left with no recourse, do what you have to do.”
Jessica and Helena shared a look, one of subjects guessing at what their liege was up to.
“Sir, you should rest. After a display like that, you must be tired,” Jessica coaxed, attempting to bring Jack away from the front lines.
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“I’m not,” Jack replied, staring at the tattoos on his hands that were glowing slightly before he took out a gunblade from his storage device. “The Roland defensive line is broken. Go with the Captain and secure the prisoners, in return I will give Selfia victory.”
And like that Jack was off, flying into the air and leaving little room for doubt or discussion as the silver-winged angel took off towards the Roland Air Force.
****
“Commandant!” Hertz barked, the observer turning to the RIN: Bloodhound’s Captain. “Scanners are picking up a mage officer! Closing fast!”
At five-six with greying hair, Commandant Gareth Chalky glared at his monitor, the display showing a singular man soaring through the air above the flak cannons that couldn't reach him.
Silver wings? Shit, it’s the same one from the report!
“Deploy interceptors and have the marines on standby to repel boarders!” Chalky snapped, a sensation of unease welling up within as he tracked the awakened.
One awakened charging an airship? Madness. Suicide under normal circumstances, but he had seen the anti-army skill firing off in an area that shouldn’t have been stable for him to do so and watched as thousands of his compatriots were swept away by a raging storm.
This awakened was dangerous.
Chalky grinned his teeth, images of the first war playing in his mind as he recounted a run in with a certain burning devil.
“Sir?” An officer from a nearby console said, his tone incredulous.
“You heard me! Do it now! If this mage officer is coming at us, it's for a damn good reason!” Hertz replied as a transpo screen of their launch bay appeared beside him, displaying two squads of mechframes readying their flight gear.
Chalky turned his attention to the view before him, the blue-uniformed mage officer floating roughly sixty yards from their bow.
“XO, do we have a targeting solution?”
“Forward cannon is locked, starboard CIWs are loaded, gunners waiting on your command sir,” Hertz replied.
“Fire at will,” Chalky ordered calmly before the floor beneath him suddenly groaned.
“What the hell?” An officer let out, mirroring Chalky’s thoughts as his view of the outside world seemed to shift.
“Navigation!” Chalky barked.
“Sir! We’re listing! We’re moving off station! Sensors are picking up massive wind turbulence!”
Chalky’s head snapped towards the man in the distance before his eyes shifted to the monitor focused on the mage.
He was floating there, eyes closed, hand outstretched toward them. Chalky turned his attention to the screen showing the launch bay, the mechs within moving frantically to stabilize themselves as engineers ran.
“Reverse engines! Fire up propellers to counteract the f-”
Suddenly the air ship lurched, knocking Chalky and his staff to the side as the groaning intensified. “-Fire! Fire! Fire everything we have at that bastard right now!”
****
Jack cocked his head sideways, gritting his teeth with Sahaqiel hovering behind him, instructing him as she did her best to divert the storm of gunfire and heavy rounds aimed in his direction.
“You are getting so much closer now. Feel the flow of the wind and direct it, coax it. Gently guide it as you visualize what you wish for.”
Jack closed his eyes, the deafening booms around him mute to his ears as the world peeled away and he gave his body over to wind.
Was this what being a true mage felt like? Was this what being free was?
Jack could sense the pull and push of mana, the energy in the air like a full balloon just waiting to pop. Every waking moment he could feel himself grow stronger, more attuned with the world and able to call upon the natural forces. And now, he was about to call upon those same forces to bring down a hundred-and-sixty-yard air destroyer down upon a city.
Slowly, Jack opened his glowing gold eyes, embracing the power as the vessel, still firing its one-twenty millimeter guns at him careened into the city wall and exploded.