He flew to the highest spot on the battle platform and stood upright, arms crossed, observing the war theater spread all around him. Warned by Arcolant's fate, Captain Riley had managed to raise impressive resistance, recalling all field units and concentrating them in one spot. Landcruisers and tanks had dug themselves around the cosmodrome, creating a fortified barrier. ACUs patrolled around the city's perimeter, their large, lumbering forms ready to turn into deadly machines of destruction at a moment's notice. Spread in a strategic grid, the Radiant Knights kept themselves aloft, primed for battle. Kryoon's dome was charged with some sort of protective field, glowing with a faint blue aura.
Airo hoped there was enough veronite and serefi to go around for a protracted combat, otherwise all these defensive measures were meaningless. He asked Yeoman Cloud to check the data. They were barely covered; still, a battle of attrition wouldn't be good, as the Revenant could replenish their losses with every life they take.
The transport shuttles flew without pause, taking passengers from the cosmodrome and carrying them to the H'raal sphereships waiting high above. The worst part of this scenario was the fact the alien fleet wouldn't fight at full strength. Each loading or loaded sphereship had to stay away from the action, since the H'raal couldn't afford to risk combat engagements while their already packed-to-capacity sphereships were further crowded with masses of half-panicked civilians. Which meant the longer this battle continued, the less orbital support the defensive forces would have, while the Revenant would have more opportunity to wear them down.
Airo sighed. He had done what he could. The rest now lay within the will of the Great Cosmos.
And his own hands, when he got to Ferrtau.
He ignored the occasional chatter of the commlink's command channel, clearing his mind of all thoughts. He let tranquility fill his being, waking his warrior spirit. He stood ready, watching the horizon, and waited.
Hours passed. The twin suns advanced across the sky. The warpstorm continued to twist local vicinity. The Reality Vortex loomed far distant, threatening as ever. The evacuation continued with all haste, with nearly a third of all refugees safely aboard already.
Then the Revenant came.
They shimmered on the horizon, rushing toward the city with tremendous speed, swelling and surging, like a giant wave of golden light. As soon as he saw them, Airo leapt and flew upward, until he soared high above the battlefield. He examined the approaching Revenant. Their faint energy signatures and the warpstorm's interference made it impossible for sensors to provide accurate numbers, yet combined telemetry estimated there were around a hundred thousand enemy units present. It was an army.
The Revenant crashed into the first line of defensive forces, and the battle began. The battle platforms opened with a barrage of heavy projectiles made from veronite, hammering the Revenant's center. The apparitions cast their deadly energy rays, yet thanks to the serefi protection the armored frames of the platforms withstood the attacks. Thousands of Revenant went into the air, attempting to storm the battle platforms, but the Radiant Knights descended upon them, repelling their charge. The Knights split into two groups, one remaining to guard the platforms, while the other went to keep the airspace around the cosmodrome safe.
Down on the ground the clash was furious and bloody. Much of the Consortium forces were engaged point-blank with the enemy, and only the serefi fields prevented them from being utterly overwhelmed. The Revenant kept pressing relentlessly, more and more apparitions joining the fray as their army pushed forward.
Airo stayed above the raging action, carefully searching for Ferrtau. Below, the battle was like a strategy game, units and squads moving, firing, and taking casualties, the illusion enhanced by the AR overlay which displayed status data when focused on a particular detachment. Yet the difference was that events were real, not part of some simulation.
Things were going badly for the defensive forces. Without warning, a great golden comet fell from the sky, smashing thousands of Revenant into non-existence, while a cyan-purple lightning storm simultaneously devastated their front ranks.
Airo glanced back and saw Magus standing at the top of the central battle platform, his hands wreathed in an effulgent glow, his purple eyes blazing, while Zuckeroff was kneeling next to him, picking off Revenant with his sniper rifle. Airo's expression soured, returning his attention to the horizon; the old man truly had incredible power, yet Airo couldn't fathom why he hadn't used it earlier. Something wasn't right, and Airo for the aeonth time realized he was playing in a game where he was seven centuries behind developments.
And then he saw what he was looking for, and all thoughts left his mind.
Ferrtau was levitating in the distance. He was surrounded by a golden halo, soaring above the Revenant, like a sun orbited by an ocean of smaller stars. Ferrtau was swiftly approaching the city, and his manner seemed determined and distant as before, when he and Airo had first met at Dragon Retreat.
Airo flared the jetpack attached to his power armor and rushed straight at his archenemy. In less than a minute, he crossed the battlefield, coming a mere hundred meters away from his target. Ferrtau noticed him and smiled grimly.
"Ah, so I have finally drawn out the Order from hiding," Ferrtau said, his voice clearly audible over the thunderous din. "Now it all ends h–"
Airo didn't stop to listen. He charged at full thrust, focusing his will, and summoned the starblade in his double-handed grip, pointing it straight at Ferrtau.
There was a flash, and Airo was shoved back by a crushing force, spinning uncontrollably, his power armor blaring with warnings. He swiftly re-oriented himself, channeling the starblade's powers, and faced Ferrtau, blade held ready.
"So, Magus gave you his starblade," Ferrtau said. He made an unsheathing motion with his hand and a glorious sun-sword of his own appeared in his grip. "This ought to make things interesting," he added, and rushed at Airo.
Airo parried Ferrtau's flurry and made a sharp riposte. The Lightbringer easily avoided the strike, whirling aside. They made several more exchanges, their starblades clashing with basso thrums which seemed to resonate straight into Airo's soul. Airo swung straightforward, careful not to overextend himself, and dodged Ferrtau's counterattack with a sideways dash. He kept the anger inside him under control, and studied his opponent. He realized Ferrtau was doing the same, not yet committing his full might, wary of Airo revealing some other unexpected advantage.
And for some reason, Airo realized, Ferrtau was also stifling a deep anger.
"I have to admit, your efforts are admirable, yet ultimately futile," Ferrtau shouted, momentarily disengaging from the duel. He drifted away, making a sweeping gesture at the battle around them. "The Radiant Knights, too – valiant and perseverant down to the last one, yet so very misguided." Ferrtau lifted his gaze and his emerald eyes were full with contempt and fanatical conviction. "End this charade, Airo. You have lost. Give me Veralla and I may still allow you Ascension. Where is she?"
Airo flew in a slow circle around Ferrtau, trying to figure out a way to penetrate his guard. Even armed with the starblade, he felt his old enemy was invincible, especially when Ferrtau had a starblade of his own. If Magus and all the Radiant Knights concentrated their power, Airo could then probably take Ferrtau down.
He checked how the overall battle went. In the skies above the cosmodrome dragons spewed firebreath against hordes of Revenant, protecting the transport shuttles. Much higher, the still unloaded H'raal sphereships blasted the Revenant army with their devastating DEI cannons. Down, on the barren wastes around the city, towering mechs swung their huge actuators, crushing swathes among the enemy lines. Tanks and soldiers waged ceaseless battle, their veronite and serefi fields depleting rapidly. Faced with all that fierce resistance the Revenant still advanced, relentless, merciless, endless, reaving hundreds, even thousands of casualties among the defenders.
There was no one to help him.
"Where is Veralla?" Ferrtau repeated, his tone menacing.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Airo retracted his helmet, removing with it all of the surrounding chaos. No distractions. No commlinks. No status reports. Only him and Ferrtau. One warrior against another, each fighting for their own ideals. Airo had no doubts, but for one question in his mind: to stall, or to take his revenge?
He decided it was time to face his past.
"You want Veralla?" he taunted. "Then perhaps you should have been around when her dying mother sought desperately for someone to take care of her unhatched child."
"I know it was you!" Ferrtau shouted, his anger lashing out in a tangible wave of force. "YOU killed Kalessia!"
"I did not," Airo replied bitterly, whirling his starblade to deflect the force wave. "It was the Reality Vortex and your dumb monsters who killed her."
"Do not lie, you bloody MURDERER!" Ferrtau screamed, his face twisting with rage. "Give me Veralla, and I may yet show you mercy!"
Airo set his jaw and tightened his grip around the starblade. "First Zenassa, then Kalessia, and now you want to kill Veralla," he said, putting all his hate and anger into the words. "You are nothing more than a deusforsaken blackguard, Lightbringer."
"So says the righteous Dragonslayer," Ferrtau snarled viciously. He lifted his weapon. "Out of my way."
"No."
They both charged.
Airo channeled the starblade, bidding it to awaken his latent timeshift ability. Opposite of him, Ferrtau also began to timeshift. The world slowed down to a crawl, and then stopped altogether. Reality plunged into a red haze. Dragons, war machines, soldiers, and Revenant became statues, their weapons flung and aimed at one another, projectiles and beams frozen in mid-air. The warpstorm twisted and writhed, its surreal nature forming a giant web of blue-black lattices across the battlefield, where spacetime itself unraveled.
Evenly matched in their supernatural speed, Airo and Ferrtau clashed furiously. Their starblades met with resounding clink, nanonova flares bursting forth from the points of impact. They blazed across the sky, twin comets entangled in a series of onslaughts. Ferrtau flashed straight at Airo, moving like a living beam. Airo dodged, his reaction equally fast, and lanced back in retaliation. Ferrtau parried, the impact exploding the air around, and then flashed again, making another assault, to which Airo responded in kind. They criss-crossed the whole battlefield, dashing for hundreds of meters, each trying to outmaneuver the other, the two starblades erupting when their masters brought them into contact. Though he was engulfed by bloodlust, Airo was mindful to not pass through the strange web-like lattice that was the warpstorm. He concentrated all his skill and ability on fighting Ferrtau, yet he wasn't used to such a fantastic way of dueling.
Ferrtau, on the other hand, was in his element. He dashed around with ease, coming at all kinds of angles, his attacks not pausing even for an instant. Airo, while filled with rage and determination, realized he was one mistake away from losing the fight. He couldn't break through Ferrtau's defence, for he was the weaker combatant in terms of absolute power.
And Ferrtau knew that.
He pressed Airo by casting a volley of energy lances, without ceasing his constant assault. Airo barely evaded or deflected the deadly rays, his defences already strained to the limit. He tried to timeshift further, invoking his own advantage, but then Ferrtau pointed a hand at him. Airo momentarily blacked out, his mind suddenly drowned in a sensory overload. He dashed aside blindly, panicked to not let his guard down – and flew right into the warpstorm's blue-black boundaries.
For one long second, his very core was torn to shreds. He was submerged into a maelstrom of raw chaos, everything and everywhere merging into one endless wave of possibilities. Staring at this infinite kaleidoscope, his mind unraveled, replaced by ever-growing universes of information and entropy. Then there was a glimmer of light, and he reached out on reflex. It was the starblade.
Airo regained his consciousness, emerging on the other side of the warpstorm node, just in time to see Ferrtau closing on him in the blink of an eye. Airo instantly raised the starblade and Ferrtau slammed into him with the force of a falling star. They hurtled at supersonic speed and crashed into Kryoon City's protective dome. Pain flared across Airo's whole body, and then again as he and Ferrtau exited from the other side of the dome. Fighting through the haze of agony, he twisted and shoved Ferrtau away, and swung the starblade, creating a wave of hyper-hot plasma, which detonated in the direction of his opponent. Ferrtau snarled as the fiery explosion engulfed him. Airo used the precious few seconds he won to catch his breath, drawing power from the starblade to heal his injuries.
Ferrtau emerged from the plasma explosion, full of fury. "Where is Veralla?" he repeated with cold, murderous voice.
"This ends today, Ferrtau," Airo replied, holding the starblade high over his shoulder. He prepared to overcharge his timeshift even further, adjusting his grip for a swift, decisive blow.
Ferrtau suddenly stilled, overcome by a terrible revelation. He looked around the battlefield, as if seeing it for the first time. "She is not here," he uttered, his expression unsettled.
Airo willed the starblade to timeshift him and lunged, faster than ever.
Ferrtau was even quicker.
He parried Airo's strike and knocked him away within the same motion. "She is not here," he repeated in shock, his body enveloped in a blue haze, as he also kept timeshifting. "She is not here!"
Airo barely recovered before Ferrtau dashed at him in rage. "She is not here!" he shouted, slashing, his starblade elongating and widening, becoming a wall of light. "Give me Veralla!"
Airo tumbled away to evade the impossibly large blade and mimicked the attack, swinging at Ferrtau from dozens of meters. The speed of battle hadn't faltered one bit, and now the two of them strafed and zig-zagged, their flurries of blows enhanced by the absurd proportions of their weapons. Airo was still disoriented by his contact with the warpstorm, and always a tiny moment behind every new tactic Ferrtau used. Yet he didn't waver and faced his opponent with all the skill and bravery he had, determined to win – and to kill Ferrtau.
"Give! Me! Veralla!" Ferrtau shouted, launching attack after attack in a whirlwind of strikes. Airo parried every one of them, his body trembling from adrenaline and tension. He grit his teeth and abandoned his reckless charges, formulating a plan instead. He concentrated on his defence and began to slowly move toward Ferrtau, closing in blow by blow, searching for an opening.
"Where is she!?" Ferrtau continued his relentless assault, each word punctuated by dozens of attacks. "Where is SHE!?!? WHERE IS SHE!!!"
"You shall never see her!" Airo shouted in kind, meeting Ferrtau's starblade at every turn in a burst of primal energy. "You shall never lay a hand on her!" He was very close now, only a short dash away from his enemy.
"I will not let you stand in my way!" Ferrtau screamed, his face distorted in wrath. "I will not let ANYONE stay in my way! I will NOT be denied! For the last time, GIVE ME VERALLA!"
"It is time to pay, Ferrtau!" Airo bellowed, and swung the starblade with all his strength and speed. The sun-sword sang through the strained spacetime continuum, aimed true at its target.
And then Ferrtau's blazing aura surged in a great wave.
"I WILL MURDER YOU ALL, WICKED DEMONS! I WILL TAKE YOUR SOULS AND END YOU! WITNESS MY POWER!!!"
The wave blasted Airo, sending him tumbling in the sky. The pressure on his senses from the timeshift suddenly vanished and the world went back into motion, the massive battle resuming with a thunderous crash. The warpstorm also returned to life, tearing and shattering the very air in thousands of crystal shards, creating a series of implosive booms.
Ferrtau's aura continued to rise and expand across the entire battlefield, then Kryoon City, then the horizon and beyond, enveloping everything in a shroud of pure, blinding light. Airo shielded his eyes from the burning glare, yet the light still pierced his vision, pierced every fibre of his being.
And then some force tore straight into his soul.
Airo screamed, yet there was no sound. There was no light. There was no continuity. Reality wasn't linear anymore.
Instead, Terra Para revealed before him like one great unbroken scene, every place, every moment, every being present in all possible variations of its existence. And at the center of it all was Ferrtau, shining like a beacon. His light impaled everyone, pulling them with terrible force, toward a radiant maelstrom of singularity which was the Lightbringer himself, his Essence seeking to unravel the Essences of others.
Ferrtau was soul reaving everyone on the planet.
Airo tried to resist this terrible unraveling force. He concentrated all of his willpower, willing himself to stay whole, to stay alive, yet Ferrtau's power was too great to defy. He struggled, seeking wildly in this unreal state of existence, and realized his soul was the brightest among all the others, carrying a light no one else possessed. The starblade. Airo focused the core of his identity toward the artifact, invoking all of the tamed sun's might and bidding it to protect him.
It worked. He felt a vast canopy spreading all over, shielding him like a cool starry evening after a blistering hot day.
The pull from Ferrtau's singularity lessened, though it didn't disappear. Yet Airo held strong and his soul didn't yield its Essence. But the other souls had no such protection and Airo watched with horror how they dissolved, thousands upon thousands, all engulfed without a trace by the Lightbringer. Desperate to save them, to save any of them, Airo willed the starblade to extend its protection. He recalled every person he knew, Radiant Knights, Consortium and Union soldiers, refugees, humans and dragons, even Te'ylna Shy, and as their images appeared in his mind, the starblade acted upon his intention, casting a ray of protective energy, giving distant souls an anchor to resist utter dissolution.
Airo kept passing names and faces through his memory, forcing himself to remember anyone he ever met on Terra Para. He held tight to the starblade, his will concentrated on nothing else but surviving and helping others survive. It lasted so for an eternity, his world reduced to memory, people, focus, and an endless, blinding maelstrom of light. He had no idea who he was anymore. He knew he only had to survive and had to keep remembering people. He had to. Survive. Had to. Remember.
Had to...
And then, something stirred in this eternal torment. Another vortex opened across the maelstrom, calm and inviting. Its tug was gentle, yet insistent, promising a safe haven. Airo gladly let himself be taken by this new force, on the brink of sanity and life. The vortex pulled him within its liberating reach, taking him away, far away from this terrible unreality.
The world became coherent once more, and Airo was teleported safely, leaving behind the desolate ruins which were now Kryoon City.