-0-0-0-0-0-
The Skies Above Medea Island, Medea Island, The Kalenic Sea
-0-0-0-0-0-
Despite the genuine danger, Kata couldn't help but laugh as she dodged and weaved past and around bolts of spellfire. The sense of freedom that flight brought; what Wave had shown her... It filled her entire being. Her wings didn't need to flap, as they were more akin to a manifestation of a permanent enchantment, one etched into her very bones. She still needed to twist and move them to turn, though. Thankfully, it took little more than a thought to make them move, giving her unparalleled maneuverability.
The Bahrain soldier on her tail didn't have it as easy. The fire magic blasting from his feet propelled him, stabilized and guided by smaller jets from his hands. She could see that, though he was obviously practiced at this, he had to focus more on flying than she did.
And she used that to her advantage. The mage had trouble turning quickly, relying on wide, arcing turns. The mage spat fireballs from his mouth since his hands were occupied. But that method meant he had an enormous weak spot: directly behind him. Kata's far more agile flight meant she could turn on a dime, which let her easily dodge and weave.
Wait. What's a dime? She shook her head. Not important. The Bahrain mage was close behind her, going full speed. Time to implement her plan. Kata rose quickly, bleeding her speed as fast as she could, and the mage blew past her. She caught a glimpse of surprise on his face as he tracked her.
She raised her hands and sped up again, now the one chasing him. Lightning spat from her fingertips, most of which the mage could dodge or bounce off a shimmering shield. Using magic like this was hard! She was far more used to aiming with a bow. She wasn't used to it.
The mage's fire jets abruptly cut out, and he fell through the sky, disappearing into a puffy cloud. Kata scanned the clouds but didn't follow him in. She had an advantage in the open air, but inside a cloud was an entirely different kettle of fish.
Kata cried out, a white-hot spike of pain digging into her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder as her flight faltered, catching sight of the Bahrain mage wielding a vicious dagger. His expression was even more so. If this was two weeks ago, she'd be dead.
But she was so much more.
She caught her fall, ethereal wings spread and hand raised to her shoulder. She hovered, facing the man who was looking confused. She removed her hand, glowing green as it was, and dismissed the healing spell. She brought the other hand around, spell already charging. The lightning bolt flashed, grazing the mage, who'd juked to the side.
He launched skyward, the flames flaring from his feet briefly turning blue. Kata followed. They ascended, trading spells as the clouds fell away around them. Soon, they were in the open sky, a sea of clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. Above them, the sun burned like an eye.
The man looked simultaneously empowered and weakened. His breathing was labored, but his fire was blue. Kata knew it was more dangerous than orange fire, but she wasn't sure why. Kata felt her reserves of Air, Fire, and Light mana soaring, which made sense to her. Striking before the mage had the chance, Light burst from Kata's eyes in coherent beams, a dozen times as powerful as that Phenoc guilder. Bertram, she thought his name was. The rays instantly crossed the distance to the mage, and the mage's cloak fell away as she blinked away. Had she finally overloaded the item's capacity?
The mage stopped ascending, and Kata soon reached him. They floated there for a moment, just staring at each other. The mage's gaze was calculating, no doubt trying to think of a way to defeat her, just as she was doing to him. All was still.
"What are you?" The Bahrain man finally spoke, breaking the silence. Kata blinked. She... understood that? She was sure she didn't learn the Bahrain language.
"The Voice of The Creator, Medea, The Dungeon of Medea Island," she replied in the same language. There was another moment of silence. "And you?"
"Izza Adar, High Archon of Fire, Advisor to the Emperor," the mage, Izza, answered. "The dungeon fights for the Phenoc?"
"The Creator fights for the Island. The land is part of Him, and He has deigned to defend the ants on his skin." Kata replied, internally surprised at how... evangelical she was being. Perhaps the Children had rubbed off on her more than she'd thought. Though, playing a character, tricking people she used to know... It was fun.
"The Emperor claims this land for the Empire, and I will carry out his will." Kata recognized the zeal in the man's voice. She'd heard the tone many times before among the Children. "If our occupation must fight the land itself, so be it."
Kata reached out to The Creator, asking for aid. She felt His will brush her mind and was sent the state of the battle below, what he wished to convey to the enemy, and a feeling that... he approved of her capability? As He pulled away, Kata felt... pleased? She shook her head. "The battle below goes poorly for your forces. We have retaken the beach and forced your army to retreat." The man's eyes went wide, and she let him look down at the sheet of clouds below, broken by pockets of blue. The Island wasn't visible, but that didn't matter. "The Creator offers a ceasefire for twenty hours; until this time tomorrow. Relay this to your superior; your war general, admiral, whatever rank your leader is.
"Trust me. You won't survive The Creator's Full Attention."
-0-0-0-0-0-
The Central Tower, The Fortified Mansion, Medea Island
-0-0-0-0-0-
When the group of monsters had emerged from the dungeon before every guilder on the Island, she'd rushed down to the beach expecting there to be a slaughter. When she'd agreed to allow the dungeon to have Voice and its bodyguards on the surface, Layla had thought Medea would take longer to select its representative. Her best-case scenario was a post-invasion reveal. The guilders would have seen the dungeon defending them and be more inclined to trust. This, The monsters turning up out of the blue with no warning?
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
That was her worst case. The fact that the guilders didn't immediately attack and the Voice managed to talk them down long enough to point the blame at her was... a relief and incredibly vexing. There was now minimal chance that they'd be attacked since it was widely known they had permission to be here. But in the same sentence, the monster revealed that Layla had met and bargained with the dungeon.
The monster had been unapologetic on their walk to the Guild Hall. Layla was unsurprised when the Voice moved through the Hall as if she knew the layout and was familiar with it. She'd known the dungeon had been spying on them for a while. The manaless rat was only a confirmation that it was actively countering her ability.
A few hours later, the Invasion fleet had been detected, and things started moving quickly.
From her position on the tallest tower in Lord Medean's fortified mansion, she had an unobstructed view of the invasion and the dungeon's... defenses. On the horizon, she could see an enormous monster assaulting the fleet, swiftly joined by something very long and snake-like. Then, the Seagulls proved they were under the dungeon's control. Something long suspected and now confirmed. The octopus-like monster that defended the harbor was almost more terrifying to think about. It'd been there for who knows how long. At any point, it could have attacked, cut off their fresh water supply, and blockaded the port. They lived only due to Medea's mercy. They lived on the Island only because it didn't want to kick them off.
The fact the octopus monster- a Kraken, the Voice provided, accomplished little compared to the other two was little consolation.
With the initial defenses swept aside, the small fleet that'd gathered fell quickly; the sheer difference in numbers was overwhelming. It was one thing to read a number of ships on a report and another entirely to see those numbers in reality, right in front of you. The assault on Obsidian Beach went well for the defenders initially. The militia, interspersed with Guilders, mowed through the invaders like a scythe through wheat. Even when Bahrain's guilders arrived, the quality of the Phenoc Guilders was evident to all. Layla realized the invader's quantity was slowly overcoming the defender's quality as the battle continued.
The addition of the Voice and her bodyguards to the field turned the tide once again, but the Bahrain were quick to respond with their own powerful soldiers. As the only one who could keep track of the fight in the clouds, Layla was the sole witness to the speed and ferocity of the battle. Soon enough, they disappeared beyond even her manasight, too high in the sky to see through the currents of mana.
The fight on the beach, however... Well. Though they'd taken horrific losses, the defenders had won. Most of the militia had been slaughtered, too weak to ever hold against the powerful Bahrain soldiers and mages. Even proximity to the battles between the monsters and Bahrain guilders proved fatal. Said fights were far more even than Layla had expected, the monsters proving stronger and more skilled than she'd thought possible.
Most were terribly injured, and one died, but they gave as good as they got. The Bahrain retreated as their most potent soldiers fell, one after another. Most were retrieved before the monsters could finish the job, but the two that died were enough to shatter the invader's morale. The fight in the sky ended, with both combatants emerging from the clouds under their own power. The fire mage flew off to the navy, and the Voice made a beeline right for Layla herself. The invading navy retreated, anchoring offshore, as the Voice approached.
The monster flapped those incredibly wasteful wings, throwing mana everywhere as she stopped and dropped to the wooden floor of the battlements. Ignoring the Lord and his retinue, she addressed Layla first. "The Creator has offered a ceasefire until tomorrow," she informed the humans, ruffling several feathers among the council.
"Ceasefire?! Whatever for!?" Lord Medean demanded, getting the Voice's attention. The man's shoulders hunched as the monster looked at him, obviously intimidated.
"The battle was a pyrrhic victory for our forces. We forced them back, but they retain the majority of their strength. We faced only a small portion of their total forces since they didn't expect to encounter such heavy resistance. The Island isn't their ultimate goal, but it is vital to their invasion. A day will give The Creator enough time to fully muster The Children and Courts." The monster looked around at the surprise and shock Layla was sure everyone else was feeling, too.
"What?" The monster continued. "Did you think My bodyguards and I were the limits of the dungeon's contribution? We are only the vanguard."
-0-0-0-0-0-
The Dungeon, Medea Island, The Kalenic Sea
-0-0-0-0-0-
It was trivial to heal Skitters and Baastet once they were brought into the dungeon, leaving only an hour later to join the cleanup on the beach. Skitters-Across-The-Sand proved helpful there, using her claws and broad back to clear the bodies quickly and efficiently. Swipes emerged from the dungeon within a few hours to claim Shimmerscale and his gear.
The guilders knew that some of my monsters came back when they died, but this undeniable example seemed to shake a few of them. More than they already were that is. If I had to judge, the general attitude of the Island's residents was... tired. Many had seen their friends, brothers, and fathers die. To see one of my Children die, then just... come back? I wasn't sure what they were thinking. The range of expressions and attitudes was too broad to narrow anything down.
As the shadows lengthened and the sun set, the first of my reinforcements reached the surface.
I gave plenty of warning this time, and no one freaked out when a column of monsters streamed from the dungeon's entrance. First, a couple hundred crabs briefly emerged, quickly scuttling below the waves. I could have let them out of one of my underwater tunnel entrances, but I wanted my allies to be aware of my monsters so they could plan around them.
I just let the fish into the ocean through the small tunnels, though. I couldn't exactly walk them through the front door, after all. I hadn't done it for the initial invasion, but if they tried again... I was pulling out all the stops.
The Kobolds emerged after sunset; The Warriors, Hunters, and Shaman connected to Respawn crystals only. Didn't want anyone to die permanently if I could avoid it. The Rats caused a bit more fuss, but their seeming docility reassured many. The rat's sheer numbers alarmed them quite a bit more. These monsters I hid in the forest since I planned to have them stream out to catch the invaders by surprise.
The Court's emergence sent more shockwaves through the crowd than I was expecting.
The Potentium golem's power boost made mere Spirits seem like beings, two entire evolutions above them: Elementals. The fact that Three 'Elementals' emerged, along with several of their more unique court members, provoked widespread disbelief. The Stone, Darkness and Metal-Fire Elementals were given a wide berth.
I wondered why they were so surprised but realized Layla must have been more sparing with information on floors yet to be widely accessed. Few made it past Mushu, and fewer still pushed through the rats. Only Platinums had made it to the Fifth so far. Golds stuck on the Ratten Warren were far more numerous.
The Drake-kin brought a wave of 'there's more of him!?' It was funny, to be honest. Mushu was like a wall to many guilders. The fact that there was an entire race of creatures like him, and he wasn't a unique existence... I saw despair in the eyes of some.
By the time the sun rose, the Lord, Layla, and myself, through Kata, had hammered out a plan. We knew they'd not stop trying since their taking of this Island had to be vital to their strategy. Its discovery and colonization were two of the primary reasons their invasion was even possible! So, we would be the rock the Bahrain would dash themselves upon.
Again and again, no matter how hard they hit us, they'd lose. We didn't have to win. We just had to not lose enough for the Phenoc Fleets to show up.
Then, as we were finishing up, a runner burst into the war room with urgent news. It'd come in on a messenger hawk I'd noticed earlier but left alone when it wasn't flying toward the invaders. I'd even stopped the Bahrain from shooting it down.
The news... threw our entire strategy out the window.
The King of the Phenoc Kingdom was dead, along with his entire family, and the kingdom was shattering into its constituents.
Well, Shit.
-0-0-0-0-0-