Winds had started to pick up at alarming speeds all over the planet, while large chasms and crevices cracked open, filling up to the brim with lava. Continuous series of disasters rampaged all over the world, as tectonic plates crashed into each other and slowed down to a halt. Rennaya's temperature rose at a rapid rate, as every volcano on the planet erupted and placed the surface in an irreversible state.
Akio had completely sealed the Rennaya's fate. He looked up at the ashe-colored sky, wondering if he had done enough. "My sons... Hopefully, we will meet again soon."
His heart, connected via iko to Rennaya's core, stopped, simultaneously signalling the detonation. The Elder's body, lifeless, an empty husk, began to crumble apart like clay but was soon engulfed in a blazing fire and light as the world around them began to collapse. With multiple series of earthquakes and eruptions, all preparing for the last.
Mado and Atlas, struggled to cut down their restraints, tying them to the dying planet. After another second of futile attempts, they both looked at each other, in despair. The same thoughts crossed both of their minds at the same time and without a word, they nodded, then proceeded to free each other, with beams of ice, freezing the ominous hands holding them down. In less than a second of being free, they both teleported, instantly going their separate ways.
On Galaico's island...
Calypso had just arrived, smirking as she walked up to her brother's body-less head on the beachside the uninhabited island, which, he fortunately landed on. However, confused and regretting his decisions more than ever, the island was now on fire and beginning to fall apart. Lava streamed all over the island, closing in on him.
"I thought, you would have been washed away by the waves by now." She teased.
The prince scoffed. "Please, stop with the remarks already. I'm not in the mood."
She picked her brother's head up, and hugged him, making him suffocate a little. "Aww, is poor little Gali, in a bad mood? I'll make you feel better."
Galaico was losing his patience, but he decided to keep calm, for there was no telling what his sister would do to him. "You're... Hurting.... Me."
She smiled and raised him to eye level. "Hahaha, oops, my bad. Let's get you a new body, as soon as possible."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and rise, violently. Calypso glanced around, confused. "What's going on?"
Galaico spoke up earnestly. "I've been dreading the worst, but I've been sensing, strange iko at work, affecting the planet, although I'm not sure, who's doing it and what they aim to do. However I can tell, this planet does not have much longer."
The princess cursed, realizing that she had been too distracted. Frantically, she threw her senses all over, realizing what he was talking about. Then jumped up immediately, and leaped into the sky, just in time as the planet began to explode. The island they were standing on, had erupted upwards, along with waves of ocean water, then lava and debris from continental plates.
Calypso flew, as fast as she could, trying to escape to the sky. The atmosphere had begun to leak and started dissipating, making, it hard for them to breathe. She reinforced herself with iko, then yelled out, cursing her powerlessness, as the blast closed in, and was about to overtake them, with fatal speed.
In the nick of time, Atlas appeared before his children. They cried out in relief and despair at the same time. But more relieved as he grabbed hold of them, shifting into third gear. Then, teleported out as fast as he could, aiming for the Pandora. As the blast, continued to destroy ships of allies, and enemies alike, all around them.
Mado was facing a much similar situation, as he tried to escape the explosion at his top speed, teleporting when he had the energy. However, his side effects were taking over, hindering him at the worst moment.
The blast scarred his back, and his life began flashing before his eyes. He was close to the Alzora, the Kirosian command ship, but would not have the strength to reach it.
"So this is how I die." He chuckled to himself, as he was thrown off by a delayed shockwave and watched, the fire reach for him in the stratosphere. However, appearing, out of nowhere, Rael manifested riding a large, black dragon.
"Brother!" He yelled, while the dragon, grabbed hold of him, just as the blast engulfed them whole. However, at the same time, cracks appeared all over their vicinity, allowing them to teleport away in the nick of time.
Seven minutes before Rennaya's destruction...
The Hashin carrying the Novas met up en route and made their way together to the new coordinates. Expecting to meet up with their comrades, Thirteen and Nine. However, his life force was nowhere to be found. Instead, they were met with forces of Ceria and Kiros engaged in deadly combat. With occasional drones crashing in from overhead.
They felt their mission difficulty, had just skyrocketed. Some of them wished to go back and join Akio and Roku. However, they were devout to their orders and would stop at nothing to succeed.
The three of them, began to rise to a higher altitude together, turning their cloaks invisible, to avoid the drones and aircrafts flying overhead, from seeing them. Yet, they underestimated the advancements of Cerian tech, as several aircrafts, spotted them with hi-tech radars. Then, began tailing them, firing away, and giving away their location.
The Hashin tried to outmaneuver and lose them. Three raised pebbles into the sky, lodging them in their exhausts and engines, crashing a couple of them into the ground. Seven shot ice pikes at the remaining, as Twenty-one made sure the way forward was clear.
However, they could not outrun, the speed of the Cerian aircrafts, as more joined in to stop them, on Alcra's orders. Three spoke up, as over one hundred jets and drones tailed them, firing an onslaught, of bullets, missiles, and laser fire. "We won't be able to shake them!"
Hordes of Kaycers, screeched the sky, numbering thousands and raced towards them, for their next meal. Several generals of the Kirosian army wondered what was going on high above them, and ordered anti-artillery to begin shooting all of them down.
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Three continued. "You must make sure, they get out of here safely. It's his last order. Seven, hold on to our allies and let Twenty-one clear the way."
Both of them glanced back at him, their throats going dry, as Seven caught, the domes he threw at her. "No! Stick with us!"
Three shook his head, as a massive Kirosian ship spotted them from overhead, and began launching missiles. They were being bombarded from all sides, and only Three's titanium barriers protected them as the others fired back.
"This is the only way... I've treasured our time together, my comrades." He concluded as he clasped, his hands together, crossing three fingers over each other and the middle, index, and thumbs pressed, facing each other. "Forbidden Art, Kaze's Ritual."
With him as the epicentre, a large mountain instantaneously rose up beneath him. Then as the tips touched his toes, high up in the air, a massive volcanic explosion incinerated their assailants, and many soldiers fighting below, as the colossal mushroom cloud, blocked out the sky.
"Three!!" Seven yelled, screaming at the top of her lungs, while the winds pushed the two Hashin, further into the sky. They heard roars, shaking them back to their senses and wondered where it was coming from. Then suddenly, there was a loud gunshot, from a little over 2 kilometres away, with a bullet whizzing right through Twenty-one's left arm.
"Ahk!" He gritted his teeth, while holding his wound, and quickly produced a stone dome, around them, reinforcing it with iko.
"There's no way, a normal bullet, could have harmed you!" Seven, cried out, quickly coming to his aid, and frosting over his wound. She was now, holding on to all four of the domes, carrying Tobi and the Novas.
Twenty-one grunted as she sealed his wound. "No it has to be him, Jurgun, a Dai Hito they call the Sniper King. So he's most likely not nearby. Keep your guard up."
They heard another, roar, shaking them down to their bones. Then suddenly, Twenty-one pushed Seven back, while breaking the dome, open in half and sending her and the allies up with all of his might. Just as an emerald green dragon, chomped through the remaining and grabbed him by his left arm, as it soared past, with incredible speed.
Twenty-one, couldn't believe they existed, but he knew this wasn't the time to be shocked. He concentrated a beam, into his motionless left arm, lodged in the dragon's teeth. "Forbidden Art, Beast Mercy."
It was difficult for him to move, at the speed and winds, the dragon was producing, however, in moments, it began to plunge, down, as lava coursed through its innards, burning it from the inside out. He was finally able to free himself before crashing as his arm had burned off. He cauterized the stub and looked to the sky, hoping Seven was alright, as another loud, but saddened roar ripped through the sky.
Twenty-one cursed. This was the worst-case scenario. Immediately, he took to the sky racing for Seven, as she looked back hoping to see him okay. Only to see jaws, fading in and out of reality, then manifested the full picture of a violet dragon, about to swallow her comerade whole.
"Watch out!" She called back to him.
He couldn't hear her, but seeing her panicked expression made him look back, then instinctively speed up, igniting small rocks under his feet, to rocket faster and escape its jaws, on time.
It roared once more in frustration, and then phenomenally, its scales began to ripple and shimmer in a wave, from its tail to its throat, and out of its mouth as a large sphere of purple fire, began to take shape. A core of violet magma kept it stable, as it gained more heat, supporting the inferno.
Twenty-one looked back at Seven, giving her one last smile, as she got further and further away. "You can do this Seven."
He placed his remaining hand in front and ignited, the last rocks he had around him. They were up in the air and he wouldn't be able to summon more on time. However, he still persisted and sacrificed bits of himself, to continuously charge up his attack.
Suddenly, broken stones began dropping in his vicinity. He caught them, before they could fall any further, realizing Seven, broke apart the rest of his dome, and sent it back. They came overheated, with her help.
He smiled, knowing he wasn't alone, as the sphere grew bigger, breaking and combining together to form a miniature sun, rotating in front of his palms. Just as the violet dragon, released its flames.
He grunted, yelling out to the wind, as he poured in all of his might, for Seven, was still in range. "Forbidden Art, Star Torrent!"
The miniature sun, instantly grew four times bigger, and then cracked open, spilling a beam that collided with the violet flames of the purple dragon. He yelled at the top of his lungs, as he shifted into third gear, then slowly started to ascend to the next with his veins, flashing from orange lavaish marks to a near red and black.
The beam slowly began to eat away at the dragon's wave, however, Twenty-one was beginning to burn up, and his body, would not be able to make it. He knew the dragon had much more stamina than he could handle.
Suddenly though, there was a loud bang, keaving a hole opening up in his chest. He began to drop, not before twisting his beam, to erupt a massive explosion, engulfing the dragon and his corpse whole, as Seven yelled out to the wind once more.
Jurgun, a middle-aged looking man at an average height, but carried a stubborn expression, floated, 1 km away, holding his sniper over, his shoulder. "That's another Hashin down. Now where did the other go."
He paused to teleport as the shockwave reached his previous position. "Well, no use looking for her now. Something strange is happening, I better order the troops to retreat."
Near the stratosphere, with Seven holding onto the allies...
Frantically, she raced towards space, finally about to reach her destination. Then suddenly, she felt immense wind and pressure reverberating through the atmosphere, causing intense turbulence on her journey. Rennaya had started to self-destruct.
She looked back, seeing cracks, devastating the face of the planet, as it entered the final stage of an end of a world. She then glanced back up, as a shuttle, sent by Commander Ba'jin, appeared out of its camouflage, opening its bay doors, as Azurian soldiers beckoned her to hurry up.
They were just over a kilometre above her. However, Rennaya, could not wait, exploding at the worst possible time.
"No!" She screamed, as she instinctively threw the four domes ahead of her, using ice to maintain her trajectory, as she tried to outrun the blast. One by one the domes crashed into the shuttle, and took a few of the soldiers in, as they tried to catch them, shaking the shuttle off course, just as the last one whizzed by.
The Hashin cursed, unable to believe what had just happened. The shuttle immediately took off as the shockwave continued to throw it off balance.
She knew, she had failed her comrades, their last order to get everyone out safely. Now as the dome, drifted off into the abyss of space, she was terrified everything was in vain.
Her will prompted her to not give up, as she clasped her hands together and covered herself in iko, just as she was about to run out of air. "Forbidden Art! Limit Breaker."
Her eyes began to glow, while her hair glowed full silver, however, her skin began to burn from the planet's heat. In split seconds, she hopped off a platform of ice aiming to touch the dome, as it spun out of control, constantly being hit by the blast and debris.
She reached out to touch it. Inching as much as she could, till finally, her index finger graced it. She screamed, although she could no longer hear herself, and poured in all of her might, pushing the dome further into the abyss of space. "Forbidden Art, Complete Isolation!"
The dome, frosted over, thousands of times, filling air and maintaining heat within, while protecting, the occupant from the cold of space. Seven had often heard, that iko, could, sometimes maintain itself, even after its user's death, depending on their instructions.
She had never believed it. Seeing only explainable circumstances, however now more than ever. She was praying for it to be the case.
She trusted her comrades, to have made their domes capable to withstand space, as they have often done in training for recovery missions. However, it was all up to the victim's luck, if they would be able to survive and find a habitable planet.
Tears, rolled down her cheek, as Rennaya's gravity pulled her back in and engulfed her in its flames. She hoped, she had done enough, as she watched the dome float on. Escaping the blast and spinning, lost in space...