Adelle's pick slammed into another spot in the rock as she crawled behind an outcrop to hide. The further south they got, the thicker the Tainted air. Even through her scarf, Adelle could taste the rust. She had managed to move close enough to the main sphere that she could see a horizontal slit in the back that probably lead inside. But the thickness of the shell prevented her from seeing in at any angle. She would need to get either directly behind it or close enough to peer through.

She had a plan. Sort of. It was a simple one but it required her to get into the sphere-like she did with Leviathan. She could take a gamble and wait for her piece of land to align itself with the slit or rush in directly and hope she can port in before Lachesis take notice of her. Either methods were dangerous, either from being spotted or leaving too much to chance.

A glint caught the corner of her eyes and she noticed around her were dozens of floating crystals. They had no eyes, but from hanging around Marble so much, she could not help but feel like she was being watched and felt the need to respond.

“Do you know where the nearest toilet is” she asked.

The first crystal pointed its sharp edge at her and fired itself like an arrow. She had to yank her axe out of the ground and got immediately blown back by the wind as the crystal pierced into the ground she was on. She had to keep her profile low to keep her balance, legs spread and down on one knee, making it impossible to move quickly without catching the gale.

Another crystal shot at her and she smacked it away with one of her axes, albeit just barely since it still nicked her forearm, causing a cut to bleed. Worse yet, hitting the crystal away reminded her of the impact she felt when she fell off a tree once. She was not sure if she could handle repeatedly parrying the attacks. Her arm and muscles already trembled from just the first hit.

The crystals surrounded her in a circle and began spinning. They all aimed their sharp ends at her and she knew what was coming. Right before the ring closed in around her, Adelle teleported up into the air, dodging the crushing blows from the gems which smashed into each other, blasting chunks off the ground as they impacted.

But she was now in free fall, losing height and forward momentum as Exodus pulled away from her. She still could not see through the slit. As soon as she built up speed from falling, she changed her direction by porting forward towards Exodus. Like a catapult, she arced towards the sphere.

A crystal rammed her from the side, knocking her offhand axe out of hand and sending her spiralling through the air before being landed sideways against one of the travelling landmasses as if she had fallen down onto a wall. Before gravity could take her, she picked in with her remaining weapon. The impact against the wall had knocked the cap off her quiver and her arrows began falling out. She managed to grab three of the projectiles with her free hand but now dangled precariously with just half her arsenal remaining. Blood continued flowing down her arm from the earlier cut.

Crystals were beginning to gather around her for another attack. This was it. Her breath was panting hard against the inside of her scarf and she was not entirely sure she had more than 1 long-ranged teleport left in her.

The crystals attacked and she let go of her axe, falling down to the earth as most of the gems slammed or got stuck into the landmass. Five of them turned directions and followed, determined to catch up to her.

But her terminal velocity far outpaced the small objects. She twisted her body back for one last look up, aimed at the spot above the sphere she needed to be at, and focused.

She was being pulled again, forcefully towards her destination like a cart by a horse. Her chest expanded and slammed inward as she reappeared above the sphere. Her scarf caught the wind and untangled from her neck, flying off to the continent as a gift on the wind, leaving her to taste the tang of rust and metal through her exposed nose and mouth. Her feet scraped the top edge of the sphere, then, she was behind it with a quick frame to react but clean view into the cockpit. She felt her leg hit the ground and she crumbled from the momentum as pain shot up her right knee. She was in.

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“You annoying bitch” Lachesis exclaimed.

But Adelle barely heard the insult. Her head was spinning from the fracture and focus required to take in the new room. Inside the sphere, the walls were pure silver, slightly dirtied by dust and earth. A line of light ran a ring of circumference and up to the pedestal in the middle like in Leviathan.

A sliver of sword light glinted. Through adrenaline and anger, Adelle raised her axe and caught Lachesis' sword with its hook. Adelle slammed the blade to the ground and dropped her axe along with it. She then pushed through her fractured knee and tackled the Pyrerai square in the gut and pushed the two of them to the pedestal.

Adelle dropped her hand onto the panel. “KALEN”

It was the same pull as in Leviathan, but this time, she felt a weight on her back, as if she was also dragging a log through snow. The next thing she knew, she was outside, facing the metal grey sky and falling. She felt a kick against her sternum as Lachesis pushed herself away and the landmasses quickly zips by their view as the pair plummeted towards the ground and away from Exodus. A series of glittering light signalled the five crystals that were still homing in on Adelle as she unclipped her bow and loaded one of her last three arrows. She turned her body and fired a ported arrow just as Lachesis disappeared from her view and reappeared outside the sphere in an attempt to regain control. But her shot was already on its way. The arrow came from the opposite direction, riding the wind. Adelle could not hear it, but she was sure the Pyrerai had screamed in pain when the arrowhead cut across her face.

Lachesis was once again struck away from Exodus. She tumbled across the sky before disappearing again. Adelle teleported her momentum upward and fired another arrow, expecting the former to make another attempt at the sphere. But the second shot cut through thin air. As her upward speed slowed to a stop, she felt cold steel cut across her stab wound as Lachesis rocketed pass her with a dagger slash.

They were now both falling again, wounded, blood spraying rain into the sky. One of the five homing crystals blunted Adelle in the leg, sending her into a falling spiral. Before she could right herself, Lachesis rammed into her.

The two struggled, Adelle in an attempt to get her last arrow into Lachesis' skull before the latter could stab her. Then, a familiar glint flashed behind Lachesis. The Pyrerai had one hand behind Adelle's head and another pushing the dagger to her throat, held back by wrists crossed as shields.

“Just. Die. Already” Lachesis yelled over the wind.

“Okay” Adelle replied sarcastically.

Adelle cut the Pyrerai's hand with her arrow, causing the latter to release her grip and Adelle teleported. But not up above Lachesis to gain higher elevation advantage, but even closer to the ground directly below her opponent so Lachesis could see her. The Pyrerai was stunned at the incoherent plan. Adelle flipped her off as the five crystals slashed and slammed into the Pyrerai, one knocking her across the head. The world leader spun violently in the air as Adelle redirected her own velocity up with a teleport to decelerate. A cloud of dust erupted from where Lachesis' body landed, the five crystals dropping dead next to her soon after.

Once Adelle slowed to a crawl, she put in one last teleport to the ground where instead of a graceful landing, her leg finally gave in to the pain and simply fell back-first onto the gravel floor they landed on.

She was panting hard. Her head hurt from straining her powers, and she was sure she tasted blood on her tongue somewhere. Her arm and stomach were still bleeding and her leg still screamed from the fracture. But at the very least, she was alive.

“You... know..” Adelle turned to the voice of Lachesis, who lied in a pool of her own blood a few meters beside her, bones sticking out at odd angles of her body. “I fought... in the war. We died... they lived... and... kept killing... themselves..”

Adelle closed her eyes. “Well, you and I are doing the same thing, aren't we”

Lachesis did not reply. Adelle wasn't sure if she simply had no answers or was already dead, but Adelle sure as heck did not care. She just wanted to take a short nap.

Towards the south, chunks of Exodus' giant rocks and landmass began falling out of the sky as the sentient Titan slowly shuts down. But a few chunks were already on their trajectory for Citi.