His body moved before he could finish formulating any sort of plan, running with all his strength, along with some other soldiers who were quick to react to what was coming, toward the back of the ship.

He'd just jumped, with all the strength he could muster, across to another ship, when the shockwave hit.

The ships at the frontline took the brunt of it, all of them reduced to pieces, sliced and diced like meat to a butcher's shop. Blood flowed alongside the torn metal as they fell into the sea.

Salin couldn't believe his eyes. Such destruction, all just from the aftershock of an attack not even directed at them.

He looked up, his eyes immediately falling on the titanic emerald construct that now defended against three opponents: two Spirit lords and a very damaged Command ship.

Although the command ships were built purely for their defensive capabilities, and their utility in being able to house entire armies and serve as mobile repair stations for mildly damaged ships, that didn't mean they lacked any offensive capabilities.

A beam of tightly condensed elemental energy shot out again from the command ship, its passage bright and fiery. The titanic construct raised its forearm, taking the full brunt of the attack. It stumbled backward, clearly disoriented, its movements sloshing and disturbing the sea water, causing a massive tidal wave.

The other Spirit lords came in an instant later, a deafening explosion going out moments later as they collided with the construct. Salin was forced to go down on his stomach just to avoid the shockwaves that were sure to follow an instant later, and he was right. Some unlucky soldiers screamed out as they were flung off the ship, the sheer power of the shockwaves pulverizing them in seconds.

Heart beating heavily, Salin raised his head. The construct was now leaking green essence alongside the heavy cloud of smoke drifting off its form.

He'd begun to think it was finally done when its face slowly turned towards the command ship, and in one smooth motion, it threw its spear.

And for the second time in a few minutes, Salin was forced to run as the ship he was in was ground to metal dust. He was lucky to be alive as the ship took the majority of the attack. He wasn't without injury, though, from the look of his missing arm. And he also had the sea to worry about.

A scream involuntarily pushed out from his throat as he plummeted toward the sea, the wind whistling loudly in his ears.

With an oomph, the breath was knocked out of his lungs as his fall was instantly stopped shut.

"Hang on!"

Through disoriented eyes, Salin looked up at his savior. "Thank you." He managed to get out.

The man didn't show any signs that he'd heard him, though he adjusted his eagle sideways, bringing Salin up until he was comfortably balanced on the large eagle's back a moment later.

The explosion from the destroyed command ship yielded devastating results. A fleet of up to two hundred ships was now reduced to mere dozens, with all of them clearly taking on some kind of damage. The command ship, itself, was nowhere to be found. The only evidence of its presence was the few floating rocks jostling on the water.

Of the people who had managed to survive the fall into the sea, nothing remained of them but a sea of blood and bones. Even the monsters were not spared.

"Emperor save us," The SkyRider whispered, his voice unwittingly reaching Salin's ears. Salin also prayed, though he was doubtful anyone would come to save them.

Like an earthquake, the sky rumbled, the clouds darkening. Blood drained from his face as the sky for miles quickly took on a darkening grey color, and a sky whirlpool formed.

"Hold on!" The SkyRider said, immediately turning his eagle away from the explosive clash miles away.

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Hundreds of other survivors began hastily fleeing, some on their skyRiding companions and others on the remaining ships. No one wanted to be anywhere near that cataclysmic event any longer, even the obvious battle maniacs.

They had only gone a few miles when they felt it. Like a metallic tearing, the air was sucked away, drawn towards the dark whirlpool in the sky. Salin, luckily, was already out of its area of influence, but some others were not.

Of the seventy ships or so remaining, a drastic number lost their momentum, the air forcefully deprived of their occupants. Like a stone, they all dropped onto the sea, causing a cascade of large waves that flowed after each other.

Of the hundreds of SkyRiders that had begun the retreat, only a hundred or so survived.

Together, they all fled.

A couple of SkyShips flying at top speed alongside a few hundred SkyRiders.

The sound of exploding thunder was their only farewell.

Salin never looked back.

***

Keilan stepped onto the cobblestones of the castle, tired. He quickly made his way toward the internal teleportation platform.

The castle, although prohibiting any external teleportation in, couldn't very well leave its thousands of workers to suffer through the stairways. So a teleportation network was created, an internal one, adhered to by everyone, Spirit lord or not.

He sighed. The recent battle, though brief, had taken much from him. His soul well was almost drained and his mental strength was strained. In essence, he needed some sleep.

It had been a long time since he'd had any urge to sleep, but since he'd just come back from a battle against two spirit lords and a full on fleet, alone, he needed the sleep.

He waved at the guards standing at the teleportation platform. "Fifth floor. War room section."

"Yes, Spirit lord." The guards bowed, immediately slotting a stone key into a depression made on the large twin teleportation pillars. As soon as the stone key was slotted in, the twin pillars hummed to life, a purple-black film immediately appearing in between.

Thanking the guards, Keilan didn't waste time and stepped into the portal. There was a brief instant when he was exposed to something grand and unimaginable. An endless sea of dark clouds and purple-roiling skies. And then like a light switch, he was instantly brought back, stepping out of another platform inside the castle. He didn't know what they place was, and the hundreds of surveys conducted into its discovery had yielded nothing. No one short of Spirit lord had even experienced it.

He took a deep breath, acknowledging the guards with a nod, and then he carried on.

The palace was humming with activity, even more than usual. At first, he thought it was because of the war escalation as the Empire pushed back, but as he moved deeper, he frowned. Something else was going on.

Luckily, he would get his answer soon enough.

The two powerful Monarch realm wielders standing guard at the Council entrance nodded in acknowledgment as he approached. He nodded back. Others would have fumed at the lack of obvious supplication from the guards, but he wasn't so vain as to get angry that he wasn't been kowtowed too. Besides, the guards were meant to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. They couldn't very well be doing their jobs if they were all busy bowing to every spirit lord that passed by, would they?

The Council room was gloomy as he stepped inside. Fenore looked worried, but calm, as always. Brunos was studying a large map on the oval table, a large jug of beer in his hands. Danor, unsurprisingly, looked the most nervous, judging by his clear fidgeting. Menoe, present now that the Cults were allowed to participate in the war, was calm as ever. And his brother...Keilan sighed as he walked in, swiftly reaching Damien and greeting him with a knock on the head.

"Owe!" Damien glared. "What did you do that for?"

"An awakening. Your attention was clearly elsewhere."

His brother clearly wanted to say something, as he briefly opened his mouth, but luckily, he closed it back, turning away. "He's here, tell him."

"Tell me what?"

Fenore's second in command, Helera, approached him, handing him a paper.

Keilan frowned, scanning everyone, before he turned his attention back to the paper. It was a report. So he read.

Despite his mental capacity to instantly comprehend any book in a few seconds, he still took his time in reading the report again and again until he had already read it five more times before he raised his head.

"What is this?"

"What does it look like?" Damien replied. "The Ren Nest has decided to act."

Keilan sighed, ignoring Damien as his brother's eyes scrutinized him for his next words. "Blaming ourselves won't accomplish anything. What response do we have?"

"Nothing, yet," Fenore answered.

Keilan nodded, turning to Menoe. "What's your take on this? I assume you already have one."

The woman gave him a motherly smile filled with pride, and Keilan struggled to hold himself back from smiling in return. This was a War Council after all. "Unlike other creatures, the only thing dragons respond well to is force. They have challenged us, thinking themselves the ones with the upper hand. What we need is a clapback, a powerful one. And I don't mean all of us attacking in force, I meant just a few of us going after them."

"Wouldn't that just make them more angry?" Danor said.

"Not if they're overwhelmingly dominated. Dragons only fight back if they have a chance of winning. Show them that they're powerless before you, and they will instantly back down."

"Seriously," Damien said. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." Menoe smiled.