Chapter Twenty-Six

“Makani!” yells Tori, fabricating a string of ice shards.

Using Tempest Gale, Makani sends the ice shards tearing through the air at the oncoming rebels, piercing them and sending them flying over one side of the island. From Makani’s blind spot, a rebel fires a bullet at her. Activating snapshot, Tori stops the bullet midair and uses one shuriken to slash through it while using the other to freeze the man up to his shoulders. Quickly following that up with a thick gust of wind from Makani, the man is also sent flying over the side of the island.

Spotting some rebels who squeaked past them, Makani relays, “Tori, rebels are heading for the castle!”

“Neuro rush me!” shouts Tori, and Makani amplifies her.

Channeling iris into her feet at lightning-fast speed, Tori leaps into the air to the Skylands above them, her eyes speaking a turquoise hue. Spinning her shurikens in her hand and sharply inhaling a chilly breath, Tori throws her shurikens and uses psychic brawn to freeze as many rebels as possible.

Reeling her shurikens back to her hands, she lands beside Makani a moment later and instructs, “You can stop now.”

Deactivating neuro rush, Makani groans in agony as she takes a knee.

“You okay?” asks Tori.

“I'm sorry... I'm always holding you guys back,” laments Makani, watching as some rebels continue on to the castle.

Perplexed, Tori replies, “What are you talking about?”

“I'm the weakest link. It's obvious I was partnered with you to balance the teams out, and I'm still dragging you down,” says Makani. “If I was better at using neuro rush, you wouldn't have let any of those rebels get away just now.”

“You're wrong. I intentionally let some go.”

“What? Why?” asks Makani, confused.

“The castle guards know we won't be able to cover all the Skylands. If they're not strong enough to beat a couple of stragglers, they shouldn't be castle guards,” replies Tori.

“But still–”

“Listen,” says Tori, looking at Makani. “I don't know where this is coming from, but I wanted to be your partner because you're strong. You have amazing control over abilities that are very challenging to use. Also, your abilities complement my fighting style the best, and your resilience supports your strength. There is no such thing as a 'weakest link' in our group. Now get up; we got some more company.”

Reinvigorated, Makani rises back to her feet, and as the next wave of rebels arrives at their Skyland, Makani says, “Thanks, I needed that.”

***

Blending into his oasis realm, Joey uses the oasis water to create a whirlpool, knocking out several rebels. His crozier flickering, Joey clicks his tongue.

Sweating bullets, Ayden finds Joey, and they go back-to-back.

“I hate to admit it… but I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”

“Same here,” replies Joey, deactivating his realm. “We should reposition.”

An injured Mako soldier then falls close by, and an armed rebel fires a rifle shot at the two friends. As Joey uses his crozier to block the bullet, Ayden swiftly casts one of his ruby gem fists at the rebel, knocking the rebel out.

“You’re not dying,” says Joey, Ayden glancing at him. “Not until you’ve seen your kids again.”

After locking eyes with each other, Ayden nods.

Kneeling beside the Mako soldier, Joey asks, “What’s your name?”

Panting and bleeding from her left arm, the soldier replies, “Shamra. Yours?”

“Joey.”

“Ayden.”

“You… you two are part of the Scouts, right?”

Joey nods, and a loud message is broadcast over the radio handset Shamra is wearing on her chest, “Every available soldier, reposition yourselves in the Skylands at once! The Halos Avian has wiped out most of the rebel forces in the Groundlands and Midlands, but the rest of the Scouts are being overwhelmed! Gain control of the Skylands and protect the castle at all costs!”

Ayden wipes some dirt off his shoulder, “Please? Overwhelmed? We’re fine.”

“Guess Mateo had plans of his own. Ayden, let’s go regroup with Tori and Makani.”

Huffing in agreement, Ayden spawns a gem fist and wraps it around Shamra’s wounded arm to stop the bleeding.

“Go rest at the castle, Shamra. Leave the rest to us.”

Bowing her head, Shamra says, “For saving me, I’m eternally grateful. Good luck, Scouts. May Nevis be with you.”

After parting ways with Shamra, Ayden and Joey make their way toward the meeting spot.

After a short break, the two friends return to fighting, knocking off any rebel that climbs onto their Skyland. As they’re doing so, Makani and Tori finally arrive.

“You hurt?” asks Joey, deactivating Camo Flush.

“No, you?” replies Tori.

“‘Course not,” says Ayden.

Wiping some sweat off her face, Makani says, “We got surrounded and had to fall back. Took down a few on the way here, but we need some rest.”

“Rest now, Ayden and I already had our breather. We’ll cover you for the time being.”

Looking at the sun and realizing it's late afternoon, Tori asks, “Have you seen Mateo yet?”

Ayden replies, “No, but we heard a little while ago that Mateo is taking out the rebels from below. Seems like he’s flanking them where they least expected, and it’s working. The Amlovos have been much slower making their way up the Skylands since we found out.”

Tori nods, “Alright, not bad. Buys us all time.”

“Yeah, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off,” says Joey. “Keep your eyes and ears open, be ready to fight at any moment.”

***

In a past hideout, Deniz watches the uprising unfold on dozens of screens before him. Seated in a chair beside him is Raven, who can track visuals with engineered flying iris drones. Switching his point of focus from one screen to the next, Deniz grows increasingly irritated as the Amlovos' progress comes to a halt.

“Deniz, the Avian has now defeated all of our stationed forces in the Midlands,” calmly informs Raven.

“I can see that,” says Deniz, dragging his hand down his face. “Get me a view of Mateo immediately.”

Touching her temple with two fingers, Raven closes her eyes.

“Right away. Over half of our forces have already reached the Skylands. There’s no need to fret just yet.”

The screens begin flickering in and out, and after a few seconds, two screens are following me from two different angles. My blue and white wings sear through the sky like a blazing rocket, and Deniz scrambles out of his seat, “Damn it! He’s going to be in the Skylands any second!”

Scanning the rows of screens before him until he finds the Scouts, who have all four repositioned themselves on the same Skyland, he sighs in relief, “About time. Those four are ridiculously strong, especially the ice wielder. After fighting thousands of us for hours, they’ve finally been backed into a corner.”

Redirecting his focus back on me, Deniz watches as I start taking out rebels in the Skylands.

“You must be getting tired by now, though, and we still haven’t played our ace.”

Walking toward the room's exit, Raven says, “Deniz, are you sure you want to get involved now? Why not wait a little longer ‘till the Scouts are down for the count?”

Deniz replies, “At this rate, they might already be dead by the time I get there. You stay here and contact me about anything important you see.”

Exiting the room, Deniz walks down a short hallway toward the entrance of the tirika. A purple and gray trident manifests in his right hand as he mumbles to himself.

“Why Mateo? Why are you fighting for them? They’re the reason your family was torn apart. And can’t you see they’re using you? You won’t gain anything if you win. This country will stay the same, stuck in the past. And it’ll eventually fall to the other powers of the world. You and your friends could’ve joined me and been liberators, but you’ve made your choice. The people of Opuree need to be saved… this nation needs to be saved, and no one is going to stop me.”

Walking to the island's edge, Deniz taps his trident onto the ground, and the trident begins to glow.

“Seventeen ancient legacy abilities are dispersed around the world. Mateo, you were lucky to have stumbled across the shard containing the Halos Avian, but you have yet to unlock the true powers of your legacy.”

Gathering water from the ocean below and from the waterfalls descending above, the water is drawn toward Deniz like he’s a magnet. As the water surrounds Deniz’s body, it suddenly hardens and changes color, sheathing Deniz with purple and gray armor from head to toe.

With trident in hand and his eyes glowing a piercing white, a tsunami rises behind Deniz.

“As the legacy of the Siege of Kadillan, I'll make sure history rewrites itself today.”

***

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Getting back to her feet while Ayden punches another rebel off the island, Tori announces, “Alright, I’m ready.”

“About time,” says Ayden, using mineral remake to block an attack from behind before throwing another person over the edge.

Following Tori’s lead, Makani gets up too, and Joey says, “We’ll take one half. You two got the other.”

Peeking over the side of the island, Ayden says, “The rebels aren’t slowing down anymore! Mateo must’ve had to rest because we got flocks of them heading our way now!”

Smirking, Tori lightly smacks Makani on the arm, “You ready for this? Gonna be one hell of a ride.”

Makani replies as the two fist bump, “Hell yeah, let’s do this.”

As the four stand back-to-back, watching all sides of the crucial Skyland they’ve been controlling, a giant shadow is suddenly cast over the ground beneath them. Everything becomes significantly darker, and the two elemental wielders take in a terrifying sight.

“What is it?” yells Joey, not wanting to look away from the rebels racing toward them.

Activating orasi, Tori takes in the sight of a black gemcore, her anxiousness clouding her ability to determine its stage.

“It’s… a Kadil wielder,” answers Tori.

Blocking out the sun, an articulate blending glow of purple and gray looms high before the Scouts, the silhouette of a gigantic helmet taking shape. Running over to the edge of the Skyland, Tori is staggered by just how enormous this creature is. Appearing as a knight, the gathered water offers mobility for the knight's colossal figure, a glowing trident held in its hand.

“I– I can’t even see its legs!” shouts Tori, only able to see as far down as the knight's waist.

A loud grumble exudes as the knight’s face tilts down, staring directly at the Scouts.

“Go… everyone get back!” fearfully yells Joey, and all the Scouts reposition themselves as far away as possible while keeping their distance from the rebels behind them. “Makani, use your wind to keep the rebels off us!”

“O-On it!” shouts Makani, her head flipping back and forth between the massive knight and the rebels as she casts an intense draft of wind from her palms.

In a thundering deep voice, the knight says, “Hello, Scouts of Soulbell. My name is Deniz, and I am the leader of the Amlovos. I am giving you one chance.”

Stamping his trident into the ocean far below, the waterfalls flowing down from the nearby Skylands travel toward Deniz, gathering into four spheres that start rapidly spinning and turning purple. Unable to keep her focus, Makani’s intense draft of wind falters in strength, and the Amlovos rebels slowly but surely storm the Skyland behind the Scouts, multiplying in numbers and eliminating any chance of an easy escape.

“Join me,” utters Deniz. “Or die.”

Standing side by side and caught in a spellbinding daze of terror, the Scouts are incapable of replying to Deniz's offer.

Ten seconds pass before Deniz says, “Very well.”

The four gyrating purple water spheres suddenly launch lethal frozen spears at the Scouts. Tori and Joey snap out of their lapse of indecisiveness.

Activating psycho brawn, Tori shifts the trajectory of all four spears to fly toward the rebels behind them. Joey follows that act up by activating hazard shift, a desert terrain manifesting as handfuls of rebels are skewered off the edge. Tapping his crozier on the ground, Joey sends waves of sand at the remaining rebels who are still resisting Makani’s wind, forcing them all off the island.

“Something’s coming!” yells Ayden, the Scouts turning around to see Deniz preparing for his next attack.

Glimmering purple water swirls around Deniz’s trident from the ground up, dispersing itself above the trident's head into four more congregated spheres, making eight in total. Suddenly, eight violent torrents of water shoot forth, surging through the air at frightening speeds, and sounds similar to cannon fire echo in the sky.

“I can’t snapshot this!”

“On it!” shouts Joey, erecting a massive sand wall in front of them to block the attack.

“Everybody back!” yells Tori, the purple torrents slamming into the sand wall.

Joey grunts as he burrows his hands into the sand, “It’s not going to hold–”

Rupturing through the sand wall, Deniz’s attacks gush through, piercing into the ground where the Scouts were just standing. But it isn’t over. Deniz’s trident sparks a violet glow, and the torrents collect into one to create a massive wall racing toward the vulnerable Scouts.

With their iris almost fully drained and an army of rebels hungry for blood below, the Scouts creep back against the island's edge. Swallowing up the sand in its path, the nightmarish purple tsunami barrels toward the Scouts, a knight's sharpened gaze looming in the background.

“Sorry kids,” whispers Ayden, his eyes softening as he touches his necklace.

Activating her cloud charm, Makani puts up her barrier, a last-ditch act toward survival.

Only able to stare as their impending fate rushes toward them, the tsunami slams into the Scouts at breakneck speed. Whistling serrated ice shards begin cutting at each Scout's defended skin, rapidly chipping away at their iris reserves. With blood spritzing off each of their wounded bodies, the ground beneath them breaks, the island fracturing apart as Deniz’s liquid attack transforms into a vicious hailstorm. Falling through the air, drops of blood rain down on the rebels below, each Scout desperately trying to endure the violent thrashing of sharp icicles piercing their skin. Suddenly, Tori and Joey notice a flash of light out of the corner of their eyes.

It is only for an instant, but the fleeting sight offers them hope.

Exiting velocity pulse, I burst toward the Skyland that has just broken apart, red specks hanging still in the air and flashing purple streaks darting past my falling friends. Circulating iris from my legs into my hands, I blast an inferno of heavenly flames to create a massive, spherical firewall around my friends.

As the hailstorm crashes into my blue and white flames from all sides, my firewall rejects the laws of nature. It holds firm, repelling the hail with elasticity. Some hail bounces back toward Deniz, cutting some of the armor along his neck. Backing up my defense with a counterattack, I roar while casting a wave of fire toward Deniz’s head to block his view. With that serving as cover, I dissipate my flame sphere into a smokescreen. Activating velocity pulse, I transport each of my friends to an empty Skyland closer to the castle. The five of us tumble to the grassy ground as velocity pulse runs out. Successfully creating some distance from Deniz, I begin coughing.

“You always like to make an entrance, don’t you?” says Joey, grimacing from his injuries.

With blue embers sparking off my body, I say through heavy breaths, “What? No thank you?”

Quickly getting some of my wind back as a pulse restores, I sit up and make sure we are safe.

Next to me, Joey asks, “You gonna share how the hell you just did that?”

Stretching out my shoulder, I reply, “I’ve picked up a few new tricks today. Do you all mind waiting to be healed? I’ve already expended a lot of iris.”

“We’ll be fine,” says Ayden. “Remember we still heal pretty fast, and these are just scrapes.”

“Yeah, but if we were any weaker, we would’ve gotten killed in a heartbeat,” says Joey, activating orasi and noticing that my heavenly flames gemcore has broken into the advanced stage.

Giving me a nod, Joey looks over at Deniz, who is trying to locate where we have gone.

“He’s getting bigger. It won’t take long until he finds us, but I think we have a few minutes.”

Falling back onto the ground and staring at the sky, I catch my breath and wait for my third pulse to recover.

Getting kicked in the side by a foot strengthened with iris, I wince in pain, “Hey, what was–”

“That’s for being a dumbass earlier without telling us,” says Makani from the back, Tori nodding with arms folded beside me.

“Sorry, I had to know more about Deniz, so I went to talk with Conall.”

Joey cocks a brow, “You know Deniz?”

All three parts of my wrist tattoo now glowing, I reply, “Yeah, met him a few years ago at a service. It’d take too long to explain everything, but he told me to meet him yesterday after we talked with the clovers. He told me all about how the clovers killed my father and poisoned my mom. He was trying to pull me to their side, told me that if anybody should rule this country, it ought to be him.”

Joey asks, “He told you that, and you still didn’t join him? Why didn’t you?”

“Because… I figured out from our talk that the rebels killed Kavi. I don’t know if it was by Deniz’s order, but if he’s the leader of the Amlovos… Kavi’s blood is on his hands. And I’m pretty sure Deniz killed my mom yesterday, so f*ck that guy. He can rot in hell.”

“Tell me about it,” chuckles Ayden. “But how are we supposed to beat him? He’s massive, and he just keeps growing. Not to mention our iris reserves are pretty damn low.”

“With that trident, he can control water and harden it into steel or evaporate it into mist. I swooped down earlier to better see where his feet were, and his entire body was covered in steel armor from the ocean’s floor up. It's also shrouded in mist, and he keeps growing in size because he's sucking in more water from the ocean.”

“Sounds easy enough,” says Tori.

“What?” voices Ayden.

“Doesn’t matter how big he is if we take out his foundation,” explains Tori. “Deniz is still a person, and with that size, it isn’t possible to control every region of that form at the same efficiency. If we attack him at multiple locations at once, his trident will be slow to react.”

Joey gets an idea, “I see what you’re saying. Tori, you and Makani head down to the Groundlands. Your abilities are far more suited for that mission. Go now. Ayden, Mateo, and I will go help the castle guards.”

As Tori and Makani depart, Ayden asks, “You sure they can handle it?”

“No, but it’s like Tori said earlier,” replies Joey. “Their two elemental abilities pair well together. Her ice and Makani’s wind can freeze Deniz from the ocean up. This is our best course of action.”

I walk over to the edge, “Deniz will keep growing until he’s positive he can take out the castle with just one attack. He’s looking to end this uprising quickly by killing the Clover Trine.”

“Then it’s time we get back in the battle. The castle guards have their hands full,” says Joey.

“You two go. I have an idea,” I say, using orasi.

Joey’s expression hardens, “You’re not sacrificing yourself to buy us time, are you?”

“No, I can take him.”

There’s a brief pause before Joey says, “We’ve come this far. Don’t die on us now.”

“As if I’m gonna go down before you two,” I reply with a smirk, my wings spreading. “See ya around.”

As I fly off, Joey turns to Ayden.

“Now it's time for us to do our job. You ready?”

Standing at Joey’s side, crimson gems spread up Ayden’s arms, “You won’t ever catch me complaining about getting to use these powers. Although, I don’t know how much longer I can fight.”

“We’ll fight until Mateo wins. Even if it costs me my life, I want to see him prevail.”

***

“Raven, where is he?” asks Deniz, still trying to locate me among the skylands.

Flying out from behind a Skyland, I cast five fireballs in rapid succession. Water branches out from Deniz's purple spheres to block my attack, and feeling like a fly compared to a human, I engulf myself with heavenly flames. A blazing thin blue and white armor encases my body from neck to toe, an ignited winged helmet forming around my head.

“I haven’t been able to fight a Kadil wielder yet,” I say, discerning that Deniz is also an advanced wielder. “Let’s get this over with.”

***

Arriving at the base of Deniz’s colossal figure, Tori manifests her ice shurikens and uses psychic brawn to line them up in front of Makani.

With frost coming off her fingertips, Tori’s shurikens start spinning as she instructs, “I’m gathering my ice toward the center of each shuriken. I need you to channel all the iris you can into casting one powerful and concentrated torrent of wind, got it?”

“Got it!”

As Makani circulates iris toward her mouth, Tori explains, “Once everything is frozen over, I’ll cut off the water Deniz is using to maintain his form!”

Nodding, Makani takes in a very long, deep breath. After gathering enough energy, she puffs out a focused whirlwind of tempest gale at the center of Tori’s shurikens. Sparking her eyes while Makani’s wind funnels into her shurikens, a massive cloud of ice like a blizzard rapidly travels toward Deniz.

***

Bursting myself forward with flames under the soles of my feet to dodge the surges of water being hurled at me, I throw both arms out in front of me once I have an opening and blast a massive sizzling fireball at each of Deniz’s eyes.

Using his revolving water spheres, Deniz blocks my attack with water again, as I hoped he would. The water turns into steam, and Deniz’s vision becomes limited for a short period. As the steam clears, I’m once again out of his sight line. Flying above him, I land on top of his helmet and press both my hands down against his hardened figure.

Let’s see if this works…

Keeping iris circulated into my hands, I start melting through the steel material on his head. A circle of space begins to radiate, the size large enough to where I can enter his body once I melt through. Keeping orasi active, I notice iris channel toward his helmet, and a dagger of ice hisses out of the hole I just melted. Dodging in time, the blade scrapes against my blazing armor, leaving a tiny, insignificant mark.

Guess not…

Flying behind him, I send a blistering whip of fire toward his neck, scorching the steel armor protecting him, only for two ice spears to be shot at me from the closest water spheres. Following their path, I catch both daggers, infuse them with flames, and trigger velocity pulse. Bursting myself forward, I drive both spears into the area I have just damaged, and the spears pierce through his armor.

Channeling iris through the spears, I ignite the weakened area with flames, wanting to do as much internal damage as possible. Three torrents of whipping water lash at me, and I fly out of the way. The purple whips slash into his neck, weakening the area even more.

Why did he use an attack that could damage himself? He could’ve just forced me away like before…

Just then, his body starts sinking, a thunderous growl bellowing from below.

The hell is going on now?!

Flying down beneath the clouds to the Midlands, I spot that Tori and Makani were successful in their task. They have frozen Deniz up to the ankles, restricting his control over the ocean water he uses to fight. With massive amounts of water plunging back into the ocean, tremors rippled worldwide as real tsunamis started heading in every imaginable direction.

Flying back up toward the castle, Deniz’s gigantic knight form and trident are gone. Arriving at the same height as Deniz, he’s still fortified with purple and gray armor. Using his now human-sized trident to maintain a small pad of water to stand on, he keeps himself hovering in the air.

Sliding the ring off my finger, I initiate my next attack.