The Birthdeath Star, in all its immense stature, hadn't been released without any mercy. Ouroboras had packed all of his Godhood within it, after all, so it was to be expected that even the mighty earthen dome couldn't contain its impact. The sound that came about right before the explosion was that of a low frequency hum that quickly rose to a deafeningly high one.
"Shit!" Ed shouted.
"We gotta move!" Lem turned around to run.
The dome that housed the fighters had exploded spectacularly, releasing the debris all across the island. A catastrophic event of this size could easily spell the end for any one of the people of the island that were unlucky enough to have been caught by a random falling rock. That being the case, these two were only a couple of meters away from the epicenter. They ran for their lives, but everyone could tell their chances of getting out of this unscathed were slim.
"Kid, watch out!" Ed grabbed him, hoping to at least shield the boy as much as he could from the massive piece of the dome barreling towards them.
"Wait, let go, you idiot...!"
The two fought over whose idea would yield higher chances of survival, yet as they bickered, the piece of land only drew closer. Just a few seconds before they were wiped out, the sound of a sword getting unsheathed quelled their worries.
"Huh?" Ed pried open his Eye to find out why he wasn't dead yet, "You...!?"
"Hmm, still prone to making dumb decisions, I see." Jorgen replied, having finished slicing up the giant stone debris and sheathed his sword back into its scabbard, "Edward, it's been a while."
"Jorgen!" He ran to him, only to get pushed back.
"Leave that for later. Boys!" The General called forth his comrades, "Slice 'em!"
One after another, Ed had gradually begun to take notice of all the other Generals in the vicinity as well. It was like a fever dream, to see his old allies standing there in front of them, each one slicing hundreds of tiny fragments of rubble so as to minimise the damage to the island. The effects were only noticed locally, but it's better than nothing, of course.
"See that! Told ya' it was Ed!" Max waved, "Hi, Ed~!"
"That kid really did only grow up physically." Aaron smirked, "The hell were you trying to do, hugging Lem and all that? Don't tell me you're still suicidal!"
"A-Ah, no..." Ed muttered.
"Hell yeah he is! I wanted to run, but he kept trying to have us tank the damned boulders!" Lem loudly gave his complaints.
"Don't be too hard on him, Lem." Pierre stood beside them, comforting Ed as he did, "He wanted to protect you. It's the thought that counts."
Be that as it may, it would have killed both of them had the Generals not shown up in time. Regardless, with the Generals' sword mastery and a few of Pierre's incredibly precise AFP shots, the debris falling from the sky around them had been successfully dodged. This was, however, not the end as far as Ed was concerned.
"Where are the Gods?" He looked around, "And Meil, just what the hell got into him?"
"So they already made it before us, huh? Seriously, what did they even call us here for if they were just gonna end up doing everything themselves?" Aaron groaned.
"To save idiots that can't defend themselves, I assume." Max shrugged.
The dig at Ed wasn't meant to be offensive. Just a lighthearted joke, but the butt of said joke wasn't all that happy about it nonetheless. Right now, Ed had almost died a bystander, losing not only his life but also ending Lem's all because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wouldn't have been granted a moment to say his goodbyes, talk to Anna, or Lune, or anyone. In his Eyes, this failure to gauge the situation was already a large blemish on his life.
"...Wait, those girls." Ed recalled, frantically searching around for them.
"Girls? There're other people nearby?" Jorgen raised an Eyebrow.
"Two tanned girls, they were with the old man, but I think they don't have much skin in the game." Ed continued, "They might still be around here somewhere!"
Just then, a screech echoed throughout the area. It belonged to Shillianna, the usually bubbly girl with a psychotic undertone. Wailing as if in an immense amount of pain, she had called out desperately for help. The men ran to the source of the scream only to look on at the horrid image before them.
"Sheila...! Sheila, get up!" She begged and begged, dearly holding up her friend's head as her body from the waist down remained firmly pressed beneath the large chunk of rubble, "Sheila, please!"
"Crap..." Lem clicked his tongue, "What the hell are the Gods doing?"
"...You!" Shillianna pointed one of her knives at them, tears flowing out like a river, "You killed her! Sheila's dead because of you!"
"No, we didn't-" Ed tried to calm her down, only for Aaron to step in between them.
"You sided with the enemy." He put his face up to hers to grin smugly, "What did you expect?"
She could have sliced his neck right then and there. After all, it was right in front of her. But her hand was hesitant. Shivering, it ultimately led to her dropping the knife on accident. In her shaky state, she failed to realize she had another knife strapped to her hip, so she slowly ducked to reach for the one she dropped. Aaron kicked it aside, prompting her to fall to the ground in tears.
"Sniffle, Sheila..." She whimpered, "She... She pushed me aside right b-before... Oough...!"
"...See, that's what you should've done." Lem offhandedly kept picking on Ed.
"Fuck off, kid!"
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Taking the poor survivor girl safely away from the scene, they had her calm down before the Generals went to go inspect the dome personally. With such a large explosion, you'd expect nothing to be left of the ones inside, but you can never be too sure with Gods and immortal men. Meanwhile, another group of heroes rushed towards Lem and Ed.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"You guys!" Nelly shouted.
"What the hell happened? We heard an explosion and ran as fast as we could!" Cecily added.
Apart from Nelly and Cecily, Lune and Issei were also there, with Shaid lagging behind a bit to make sure Anna didn't get lost. Having finally all been assembled at one point, they felt there were many topics that needed to be addressed.
"This girl, she's...?" Anna looked at Shillianna.
Her Eyes were soulless. A mere window into the void, so to speak, and her face was pale. In her mind, the only sentence that kept repeating was "This is it". Her friends are dead or something similar to that, Olya isn't there to save her and she was captured by the enemies. No doubt, whatever future awaited her now wasn't going to be pretty.
"...A bystander that got caught in the scuffle." Ed explained calmly, "Her friend got killed by the debris."
"Oh no, poor girl!" Anna hugged her, the warmth of her enveloping embrace bringing the grieving girl to tears.
Shillianna had felt like she had just lost everything. Her island was a mess, her group of close friends completely split up, Shillianna was dead... Simply put, she didn't feel like even breathing anymore. It just wasn't fun. But these people, though they were the cause for all her sorrow, they were also the ones that refused to blame her back. Sheila killed their friend, yet Edward still refused to out her as part of the enemy team. The girl named Anna hugged her tightly, despite seeing the sharp knife Shillianna had on her hip. These were trusting people, she thought, and trusting people cannot be anyone's enemy. This was the first time Shillianna felt the true horrors of battle. Maturing is a scary process, but also the most poignant.
"Nelly?" Lem's Eyes shot wide open, "Nelly! You're safe!"
"Never you mind that." She dodged the touching moment to ask something far more important, "Where's Meil?"
"Hmph." Lem crossed his arms, "Dead, I guess. Or maybe alive, who even knows anymore."
"Quit joking and tell me what happened!" She began to hit him for being so heartless.
"Nelly." Ed sighed.
"...No..." Lune realized from just that.
"Wait, we're still not sure yet." He corrected himself, "Well, he WAS dead, but I used the Books to revive him. Still, the man that got up, how do I even begin to describe it... It wasn't Meil."
"What do you mean?" Issei tilted his head.
"He looked totally different. Like he transformed into someone else entirely." Lem elaborated, "He also had some crazy Godlike powers."
"Godlike..." Shaid parroted the words in a lost mutter.
"So is that the reason behind the explosion, then?" Issei asked the two boys.
"Yeah, I think so." Ed nodded, "But why are you guys here? Didn't you say you wanted to wait until the Gods finished their fight with Olya?"
"Shaid said we should follow after you." Lune chuckled, "Well, I guess it didn't matter in the end, since you guys did everything before we even made it here."
"So, this is it?" Anna asked, "Is it over?"
From over yonder, the Generals had hollered to the group that they found Meil. He was alive, though unconscious. Victoriously, everyone began to shout and cheer, but as everyone was distracted, the figure of the old man reconstructed once more.
"Alright, you guys carry him back, I'll-" Pierre instructed the Generals, only to get bludgeoned on the back of the head with a hard piece of rubble, "Unf!"
"Brother!" Jorgen let go of Meil to run to him, but fell to the ground as well.
"Jorgen? Pierre!?" The remaining Generals looked around frantically in a panic, "What happene-OOF!"
One by one, they all fell to the old man. Ouroboras' Birthdeath Star was incredibly powerful, wiping out quite literally every atom inside the dome, but it was not enough to get rid of the Seventh World Wonder. Not even close. To make matters worse, it appears the time it takes the Gods to revive is longer than what it takes for Olya, though it is entirely possible that he once again just "Commanded" himself to speed the recovery process up.
"Crap, we gotta-!" Lune hopped to action, only to get pulled back by Shaid.
"No use jumping in without a plan, amigo."
"Dude, he's gonna kill them!" Lem shouted, "I'm with Nel's dad on this one."
"...Listen, I got a plan, but you're gonna need to listen to me." Shaid sighed, ultimately letting them fight, "Hand me the Books."
"What? No." Ed took a step back.
"Trust me, amigo. I'll help support them from down here." He explained.
"I can do that as well." Ed continued.
"Uncle, gimme the Book, I'll help too." Nelly put her hand out.
Without hesitation, he handed her the Brown Book and with a solemn nod, prepared to write down anything at a moment's notice.
"I'm going in as well." Cecily raised her hand.
"Eh? Ma'am, not to sound rude, but..." Lem furrowed his Eyebrows, "Can you fight?"
"Psh, she's better than me." Lune chuckled, "But no. You're staying here, dear."
"What the hell was even the point of me coming here in the first place, then?" She complained, "Lune, nothing's gonna happen. I'm fine!"
"Nothing to do with that." Lune turned to Shaid, nodding with a wry smirk, "I just got a plan, that's all."
Suspicious of the two men that strangely got along way too well for such a short amount of time knowing each other, the group gave in to their demands and let just Lune and Lem continue on towards Olya. The final hour is upon us.
"Over here. Took ya' long enough." Olya flagged them down, "Don't suppose you're willing to let me take Shaid and go, right?"
"With a psycho like you? We wouldn't let a fly go with you." Lem retorted.
"I agree that you and him need to talk things out, but as for us..." Lune merely smiled, "I think I've grown tired of negotiating. Sometimes it's best to settle things with good ol' fashioned fisticuffs!"