Chapter 98: Towers 3
Elania zoomed as fast as she could back to Contia.
She searched frantically for Arlois, her heart sinking when she couldn’t spot their leader. What had happened to her?
Halfway back, the Sun Emperor appeared in front of her with a flicker, causing her to jerk. She barely dodged a light spear launched at her, the searing heat grazing her cheek as it whizzed past.
Lyra appeared beside her, throwing a crescent of water that lashed out at the Sun Emperor. He batted it away with a swing of his fist, vaporizing it.
The steam shifted, transforming into a spear that flew back around to stab him in the side. He cursed before gesturing to the injury. The steam turned into plasma, melting into his body as he absorbed it.
“Go! I’ll hold him off!” Lyra shouted.
Elania nodded and turned to fly.
Lyra intercepted the Sun Emperor as he moved to attack Elania again. She struck with two geysers, the water surging towards their enemy. He countered with two sun orbs, the blazing spheres colliding with the geysers in a burst of heated water vapor.
[Power] and divinity swirled in the air, thickening it and making navigation difficult.
Elania cursed. She was forced to do a flip to avoid a projectile, the energy sizzling past her. She turned around and flew backwards, watching the clash.
Mostly so she could know when to dodge but also because of the sheer gratuitousness of the fight.
Dozens of water crescents were countered by dozens of sun orbs, a growing wall of steam filling the air above and below the two combatants.
Suddenly, all the steam was possessed by Lyra's power, shifting into a barrage of spears that hurtled towards the Sun Emperor.
He summoned a golden shield and flew backward.
The steam spears slammed into the shield and burst into popping explosions.
Elania winced, the ringing in her head disorienting. The Sun Emperor pivoted toward her and launched himself like a bullet, moving twice as fast as before.
Lyra struggled to keep up, summoning water spears and shooting them at him. They hissed as they evaporated against the heat of his wings.
Elania dragged desperately on her [Divine Power] but drew a blank on what she could do.
Her mana shards were gone.
She blinked, realizing that maybe she didn’t need one.
She tried to convert the [Divine Power] into [Power] without shoving it into a mana shard or skill first. It wrestled with her, and she felt a painful prick in the back of her head, but then it suddenly clicked.
A blue orb formed in front of her.
That was a surprise.
She accidentally released it, and a blue beam of pure [Power]-filled mana lashed forward like a laser, slamming into her target.
He tumbled, and Lyra swung a whip of water at him, snagging his ankle and yanking him backward.
Blazing wings flared out and glowed like two giant furnaces, vaporizing the water. He flipped around and clapped them together, slamming them into Lyra.
Elania felt panic rise in her chest, and she almost stopped her flight back to the city to try to help. But the two flaming wings were pried open by a growing well of water, steam spraying into the air as the liquid fought against the radiance.
Lyra’s shell of water turned into a massive dragon, expanding on itself until it was many times larger than an airship. It swung its tail, slamming into the Sun Emperor and flinging him away.
Elania turned and flew faster toward the city, searching for any sign of Arlois.
Behind her, the titanic battle between the water dragon and the Sun Emperor raged on, the violent sprays of water falling on her and the city in a torrential rainfall whenever they clashed.
As the battle traveled toward the city along with her, Elania reached an outer island. Suddenly, a giant spinning wheel of flame appeared in the sky, raining down chunks of fire on the area as the wheel beat relentlessly at the water dragon.
Elania turned. The water dragon smashed the flame orbs with its wings and released a massive gout of steam from its throat, stifling the wheel. The dragon's tail lashed out again, striking the Sun Emperor and knocking him to the ground on the island.
It beat at him, but he rolled out of danger, his solar wings slapping the attack away. The dragon roared and reached down with a clawed arm, pinning him in place. He began to beat at the claws repeatedly.
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Lyra flew forward to the side, raising her hand as a giant icicle formed in the air, glittering sapphire blue in the dying light of dusk.
The Sun Emperor roared. The water dragon roared back in his face.
Do it, Elania urged.
The blackened Sun Emperor's flagship crashed through the dragon to slam into Lyra from the side. The water dragon exploded into loose water, defeated. Horror seized Elania.
Terror gripped her.
Lyra's icicle fell uselessly to the ground as the Sun Emperor was freed.
He rose to his feet, his eyes blazing with fury. But his gaze wasn't directed at Lyra and the plummeting flagship.
He was looking straight at her.
Elania turned and flew as fast as she could toward the central spire and the Celestial Engine.
Light spears chased her, filling the air with explosions. The heat from the attacks singed her skin. She didn’t look back.
Instead, she overcharged her wings with [Power] until her feathers burned off, leaving a glittering cloud of golden motes in her wake.
She hoped Arlois or the central spire would help, but the purple lightning strike from the spire that had taken down the enemy airship never came.
Defenders pointed their turrets at her and fired, though. She dodged the shots, knowing they weren’t aiming for her but at the Sun Emperor tailing her. They were just moving so fast that it was impossible to hit either of them.
When she reached the tower, her heart sank when she saw no sign of Arlois.
She pivoted in the air, pulling on her [Divine Power] to charge another attack. She compressed the energy into an exponential lump in the air, this time focusing on maintaining control of the orb.
The Sun Emperor flared his massive solar wings, one of them clipping a tower and crushing right through it. Masonry spilled from the top of the building as it crumbled under the impact.
Elania focused on her mana orb, refusing to let it slip early this time. She made a tiny hole in the orb’s shell, releasing a narrow laser beam at the Sun Emperor.
He dodged, but she opened another hole in the orb and shot at him again, the energy crackling through the air as it sought its target.
It missed, too.
That was okay.
She pulled the beams back to curve around through the air and back into the orb.
Crescents of blue began to fill the air, forming deadly wires of [Power] as the Sun Emperor dodged and weaved.
His annoyance finally burst and he raised his sword to slice the air, sending a golden arc of sunlight at her.
Elania spread her hands, causing the orb to turn into a vertical panel. The sunlight sparked and cackled as it hit barrier while the rest of the strike passed behind her and struck the spire.
The attack hit the Celestial Engine chamber. She couldn’t spare it more than a second of panic as the Sun Emperor darted in.
She waved her hand, and the mana orb stabbed him in the side, exploding spikes running through his leg, but his hand reached her throat, and he jetted forward, slamming her into the central spire.
There was an explosion as a defensive field flared, causing them to separate.
The Sun Emperor hit the barrier, and Elania hurtled into the Celestial Engine chamber, bouncing on the ornate marbled floor, leaving a bloody trail as she skidded to a stop.
Elania looked up. The Celestial Engine astrolabe was still there, turning. The barrier around the room flared red and spider-webbed as the Sun Emperor pounded on it with his fists.
Elania struggled to her feet, her body aching from the impact. She wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, her eyes locked on the Sun Emperor as he finally broke through the barrier.
The astrolabe continued to turn behind her, its gentle clicking a stark contrast to the violence unfolding in the chamber.
The Sun Emperor stepped through the shattered barrier, his eyes blazing with fury.
Elania watched with growing unease as the he turned his attention to the Celestial Engine, opening his arms wide in a gesture of reverence.
“Ah, how wonderful to finally have a second Celestial Engine in my grasp,” he said.
Elania glanced around the chamber, searching for anything she could use to fight him.
Her heart sank as she checked her [HUD].
[Divine Power: 23,385/60,000]
The Sun Emperor chuckled, turning to face her with a condescending smile.
“Don’t worry, little bird,” he said, his tone mockingly reassuring. “Once I rip the concept seed from your mother’s little toy, I will take the ultimate step toward full divinity. And being magnanimous, I can forgive my impertinent children’s transgressions.”
Elania glared at him, her resolve hardening. “You can’t have the engine,” she declared. “The city needs it, and I won’t let you have it.”
The Sun Emperor sighed, a golden glowing sword of yellow energy slowly forming in his hand.
Elania took a deep breath, slipping her last elemental speed loader into her revolver. The weight of her [Regalia] was small comfort.
“You have a horrible mouth on you,” the Sun Emperor tsked, his eyes narrowing. “I’m going to mark you well enough so you remember not to wag your tongue so much.”
He launched forward, cleaving the distance between them.
Elania raised her revolver and fired before he could reach her.
A gout of ice erupted from the barrel, encasing him in a frozen prison. It was short-lived as he shattered the ice with a flex of his power.
Elania fired again, a lightning bolt slamming into his body and arcing off the shattering ice. He jerked from the impact but swung his sword, absorbing the crackling energy.
He moved to charge at her again, his wings expanding to maintain his balance.
Desperation clutched at her, and she fired a third time, a mist of acid blanketing the area. He jumped over it, but Elania pointed her revolver up at him, firing a fourth shot.
A black dart shot out, nailing his wing. The dissolution orb began to whirl around the wound, and he cursed at her, his face contorted with rage.
It didn’t work how she wanted it to.
He spun along with the dissolution magic, but his form glowed with an intense, blinding light. Her magic popped and failed, the dissolution deleted by sheer power and will.
Elania raised her revolver and fired again, but the wave of fire stopped halfway to him and shot back at her, forcing her to curl her wings for protection.
The blast hit her in the face anyway, scorching her skin and ripping a pained cry from her throat.
She swung her wing and went to aim at him again, but he slapped her across the face, sending her flying to the floor with a sickening thump.
Disoriented, she tried to recover, but the Sun Emperor’s foot slammed down on her shoulder, pinning her in place.
He held his golden sword up, ready to deliver the coup de grâce.
"I have decided to get rid of you," he sneered, his eyes gleaming with malice.
As he went to stab her, a bullet slammed into his helmet, knocking him aside.
He growled and turned toward the source of the shot, only for a second bullet to hit him in the head, shattering his golden helmet. He ripped the remnants off, his face contorted with rage.
"Puny mortal, you dare?" he roared, charging toward the shooter.
Elania rolled to her side. Yolani stood there, reloading her weapon, determination and fear mingling on her face.
"NO!" Elania shouted, her hand outstretched.