Max had used the beetle to fly back to the pad, but it only made it halfway.

He didn't think he could fly up to the Ĉielarko because it was so far, and he was too tired, but he had enough energy to fly himself back to the ascension pad. The operator was disgusted because Max was red in the face, wet, shaking, his clothes cut and his face bruised.

"Lemme on," he mumbled.

"I'm only going up to get people down."

"I'm doing the same thing too."

The operator doubted it from his state of distress, but he was dressed in the Ĉielarko Knights outfit and didn't argue. He let Max get on, and the pad went back up to rescue people.

"Rarely anyone has returned to help people," the operator said. "That woman you told me about came back to get someone."

"You let her," Max shouted.

He shrugged.

"She wasn't the only one that went back to help people. Some of the maids came back too. Wonderful women."

"Oh."

Max was quiet because his mind was connecting the dots of the entire night. The cyborg Weaver changed her face to look like his while she killed the people near the dam and tried to kill him, which explains why Sir Alta thought he killed them. The odd behavior of the maids recently.

Max called Tiffany.

"Aetheria, call Tiffany."

"Yes sir!"

A little chime rang until Tiffany answered the call. She was hiding behind a bush in the courtyard and it was difficult to hear her with the sound of bullets and screaming in the background.

"I have a problem," Tiffany said.

"I'm coming."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay..."

Max sighed, the call ended, and the ride to the top was silent and awkward. The closer they got to the top, the louder the screams and sound of warfare became. The operator couldn't stop the pad once it started moving so he couldn't turn back to avoid the oncoming battle. When they landed at the gate a rush of people tried to get on, and Max pushed through the crowd to find Tiffany.

He ran down the road leading to the estate and called the other knights to help.

Max called the First Squad hoping they saw the cyborgs shape-shifting while fighting them, but none picked up. The Second Squad evacuated the Nobli on the surrounding floating islands, and the Third Squad left with the Emporer's family. Max tried the Fourth Squad and someone answered, Sir Tomo.

"Optima, they're asking for you," Tomo shouted. "They came for you."

"Why?"

"They're crazy! Just get them out of here. I can't do-"

The feed cut and Max ran faster, passing a few people going in the opposite direction. When he arrived at the courtyard gates, they were broken and bent over. Metallic body parts were strewn across the lawn. The air smelled of chemicals and bodies, blood was seeping into the cracks of the white and grey cobblestones.

He turned to leave and find a side entrance but saw one of the impersonators far away, near the other side of the courtyard.

Visto.

He unsheathed his sword, took a fighting stance, and used the air behind him to propel him through the courtyard. Max looked like he was skating on the cobblestones the way he moved, catching them off guard, using the wind to propel himself through them. He tried aiming high for the heads, but when they moved too fast out of the way, he swiveled to the side and cut off one of their limbs.

Coolant, blood, and various colored fluids covered his sword while he skated across the courtyard. As he came closer to Visto, he had one more left to kill.

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"My Lord, why do you hurt us," one of the maids asked. "We came here to save you!"

He hesitated for a split second. He recognized her.

Ana.

The maid that took care of the Emporer's son. Sometimes he thought about taking her someplace nice. Her big brown eyes, freckles, and long braided hair made him stop and stare.

All it took was a split second.

She stuck her leg out.

It extended from the knee, her robotic leg elongating making it impossible for him to dodge it in time. He tripped, rolling over the hard stone, onto the grass, and into a bush. He smacked into a tree and heaved, trying to catch his breath. Max's body had been through enough today and he was not being kind enough to it. Groggily he opened his eyes and saw who he returned for.

Tiffany.

"Found you," he mumbled.

"Quiet," she told him. "Don't push yourself anymore."

She used the end of her dress to clean the fluids off his face and he mumbled incoherently, still wanting to fight even when his body couldn't move.

"I'm taking us home," she said. "Okay?"

"Mhmmmffmm."

She smacked his face repeatedly so he wouldn't get a concussion and never wake up. Tiffany's head popped up over the bushes and she was looking for an escape route when the ground rumbled.

"Oh," Max said. "Ish goin' down."

Everyone in the courtyard paused.

Like the world was frozen in time when all of Ĉielarko Castle had a small earthquake.

Then they started to run.

Ĉielarko Castle was slowly sinking, meeting its demise after thousands of years.

It had only been in the air for the past a hundred and twenty, its ascension controversial, long, expensive, and arduous.

It's destruction would be effortless.

Max was trying to keep it together because he knew if he panicked then Tiffany would panic even more making the situation worse. With a sigh, he bid his fancy, heavy, imperial jacket goodbye, and slowly took it off. He struggled to remove his boots, and Tiffany tried stopping him, but he protested.

"I'm gonna fly us out of here," he said. "It's the only way out.

"I don't think we're going to make it to the descension pad," Tiffany said.

"Don't say that," Max laughed nervously. "Please."

He hugged her close and she gripped his arms with all her strength. They shot up into the air, and he was going for speed instead of safety, so the force started to make their eyes tear. The closer they got to the loading deck, the more Max started to bob and weave through the air, too weak to keep going.

Tiffany kept smacking his face to stay awake, but it wasn't working. He had become weaker not only from the fighting but the change in environment.

"The generator broke and there's less electricity," Max moaned. "I'm so tired now..."

"Wait a minute! The anti-gravity generator broke," Tiffany shouted.

"Yes, that's the problem!"

"No, I'm stronger now! Let me take over."

"Are you sure," Max asked. "You're not experienced."

"I'm not listening to a man with a concussion, get down!"

Max gave in.

"It would be my honor to be rescued by M'Lady," Max mumbled.

Tiffany started slowly floating them downwards, down to loading deck with the pad, but there were few people left. It was mostly the Ĉielarko knights, three operators, and some of the older employees at the estate. They landed roughly on a patch of grass because Tiffany was not experienced, but they had made it.

Her eyes flashed orange and she picked up Max, much to the audience's surprise. She carried him over to the loading dock and set him down without breaking a sweat.

"How long until the next trip," Tiffany asked them.

"Does it matter," Sir Alta replied. "The generator is broken. It's not coming back up for us. We're hoping someone will help."

Sir Alta scratched his grey beard and glared at the peko he despised so much. He was a mess on the ground, gazing up at the three moons and trying not to enter Elysium too early. Sir Alta tried to make the closest thing possible to an apology.

"Optima. I made a mistake. The attackers changed shape and...one of them must have taken the face of you," Sir Alta said. "I saw one take the face of myself..."

"Apology accepted," Max replied.

Sir Alta was not going to spend the last moments of his life arguing with a dying man and turned to look at the sparkling lights in the distance of Fadeno. They waited and waited, but no rescue ship came, and all accepted their fate except Tiffany. She propped Max up from the ground to sit him up and whispered in his ear.

"I need you to pretend to use your powers while I do it," she whispered. "I got away with carrying you earlier but I don't think I can explain what I'm going to do next."

"Anything that saves us," Max replied.

Tiffany ran away into a cluster of trees and returned in a few minutes with the biggest leaves and sticks she could find. She put one in Max's hand, but put her hand on top and instructed him to go along with it.

The leaf grew and grew, and it was soon roughly the size of one of the pads that would leave the loading docks. Sir Alta said nothing and finally approved of the evil magic because now it was used to save his life and others. Everyone stood around it, asking what the plan was, and Max's tired brain strained, trying to remember the plan.

"We're gonna ship it," Max shouted.

Tiffany shook her head no.

"I mean it's a flying...ship! Yes!"

The rest of the leaves grew and wound, making the shape of a boat they could all fit in, even with a sail. The sticks became thick enough to hold the frame together. None of them thought it was Tiffany that was doing it, because none of them understood how Weavers borrowed their powers from nature.

Max said a bunch of nonsense words and wiggled his fingers and it was sadly believable.

When the ship was complete, it set off into the sky, and everyone held their breath, hoping that the do-it-yourself boat would hold together. Tiffany gripped the bottom of the mast and focused on moving closer to Fadeno. At first, the boat seemed to float a little in the air, bobbing up and down, and it dropped a few feet.

Everyone screamed, and she tried again for a smoother transition.

The boat slowly sailed down to Fadeno, and the glistening lights looked like the doors to Elysium.

It was beautiful and ominous at the same time, foretelling coming destruction.