Kallen
Wearing the Golden armor felt undeniably wrong to Kallen. Knowing that when the battle against the Awakened Titan was over, he would hold the power to do anything he wanted with no repercussions was a dangerous thing.
He was thankful that it alleviated his flaw, but after the battle, fallout be damned; no one could question him. No limits, and no rivals. On the Forgotten Shore, he had the kind of power that stripped away the need for justification, for societal customs and rules and morality.
And that was a terrifying thing.
There wouldn't be a soul left who could challenge him. Not anymore. The only man who could, had worn the same armor, fallen for the same folly.
Kallen remembered detesting that man. But now, standing where he once stood, wrapped in that same impossible strength, he finally understood. The temptation was real and easy. It was the kind of thing you could never truly prepare yourself for. Because power didn't shout its intentions. It whispered. It tempted. It spoke in your voice, made your excuses, and dressed your atrocities in the silken lie of the greater good.
He wouldn't go as far as Gunlaug. Kallen had told himself that a dozen times. A hundred even.
He needed it to protect his sister.
To kill the dragon.
To aid in the siege of the crimson spire.
To slay the terror that dwelled there.
To kill Nephis…
He should shatter it the moment he made it back to the waking world. Or give it to Seren. Or lock it away, anything.
But he wouldn't. He would keep it; it was tailor made to compliment him. His aspect and his flaw.
And when the moment came, when the choice was his and his alone, he wouldn't hesitate. He wanted the armor. That unnerved him more than anything else.
In the meantime, Kallen sent Seishan away into the outer settlement. She had trouble controlling her impulses when she was around blood. It wouldn't do for her to be anywhere near the slaughter that was about to come.
Of those he called to the castle just moments earlier, Caster made it first. Kallen let the helmet of his armor flow down off of his head. The metal that covered his hand receded as well as he placed it on Caster's shoulder and transferred the tome Memory that held the order from Ki Song herself.
Kallen had added an extra line at the bottom that would read: "If you would like my help killing Nehpis, wait until after the guardian of the Crimson Spire is dead."
He tightened his grip on the Legacy's shoulder and leaned in close, whispering in his ear. "Read that in your soul sea."
Kallen stepped back and observed the Han-Li Scion.
Caster nodded.
"Like I said before, I've fought this Titan… I think you'll be best suited on the ground, searching for wounded and bringing them to Nephis."
"Okay."
Kallen's former Hunter Lyss arrived soon after, flanked by Jaric. The two of them were stunned in silence, and so Kallen spoke.
"Jaric, you're gonna be on the ground with Effie, you two will be our ballistas."
Jaric stared at Kallen, silent. Then he gave a fierce nod.
"Is there really a Titan headed here?" Lyss asked.
Kallen looked at her. He hadn't brought her here for any tactical reason… he merely had something to tell her. But that thing was caught in his throat.
Then Nephis burst through the doors, followed by Effie, Cassie, Seren, and Kai.
The five of them held their chins high.
Nephis stepped forward, taking the lead of her cohort. The guards in the perimeter looked uncomfortable standing there.
But Kallen looked at Seren. He stared into her beautiful indigo eyes, so similar to his own. For a fraction of a second, the mask of the indomitable warrior king he needed to be slipped. It revealed the brother who'd worried and stressed and fought to get her where she was today. Then it was gone, and in its place was cold determination.
"Good, you're here," he said, but his eyes lingered on his sister longer than necessary. The commanding tone sounded strange in his own ears. "We don't have much time."
"What are your orders?" Nephis asked.
Orders. The word sat odd between them. Kallen had never given Nephis orders before.
"I'd like the battle to take place in three phases. I'll take Seren's Echo—my Echo, the Elder Gargoyle—and try to meet it outside the city. It has these scales that can be controlled like drones and detonated at will. If we let it close, it could carpet bomb the city in its search for me.
"Gunlaug had a guy who can repair echoes, and I've already spoken to him. I'll hit the Titan with everything I have, try to expend as many of its scales as I can before it reaches the city. My armor should probably hold for a while… but up against a Titan, even a Transcendent Echo won't last forever.
"Once I've done enough damage—or taken enough, I'll retreat for repairs. That's when Sleepers with buffing aspects will come in. Kai…"
Kai raised his chin.
"I'll need you to help me fight that thing."
"I—got it."
"I can't fly. Fighting that dragon will require me to keep the Gargoyle echo alive, but I would also like you hovering lower, firing arrows, and remaining in position to catch me should I fall."
Kai nodded.
"The second phase will take place over the castle. God willing, it won't have too many scales left before the second phase, but don't count on it. Those things are just as powerful as military grade bombs. Normal unarmed Sleepers won't survive a direct hit."
"That's where Nephis comes in. Her Dawn Shard will empower everyone's defensive enchantments, but primarily, she'll be healing the wounded… and me should I sustain heavy injuries." Kallen looked to his sister, and added: "Seren."
She didn't respond, but her eyes grew a little wider.
"You'll stay with Nephis. Use your threads to empower her healing."
She nodded.
"While the goal of phase one is to stall and weaken the Titan, phase two's objective will be to down it through whatever means necessary. However, a downed dragon is not necessarily a dead dragon. It can still breathe fire, and it can still expel its scales, and it still radiates a dreadful field of terrible heat. If you don't have an aspect or Memory that helps you defend against heat, don't approach it."
Kallen took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. "The goal of phase three is to kill it. That's all I have, and we don't have much time."
He walked forward and reached out a hand to Seren's head. He mussed her hair, and she reached out to grab his wrist. A moment later, the spell told him that she'd transferred an Echo.
"Nephis." He looked at Changing Star. "Walk with me for a moment."
"Okay."
They left through the double doors. Outside, the castle was a buzz of confused people shuffling around, wondering if what they had heard was true.
"What is it?" Nephis asked.
Kallen met her gaze. "Make sure that Sunny is completely fresh for when the fight hits the streets."
"I will."
"I trust your judgement for the logistics down here, while I'm up there… but promise me one thing."
She tilted her head, a knowing smile playing at her lips. "I'll protect Seren. I know that's why you placed her with me."
He shook his head. "That's not what I wanted to say… you're right, but what I need you to promise me is that you don't let her figure out that her flaw is the reason I've kept her away from me and with you so far. And as helpful as she would be up there… I can't risk anything."
Nephis nodded.
"She'll probably assume that the Titan attacking is her fault—it probably is, but no one will know for sure, and I'd rather her not dwell on it."
"I know."
Kallen took a few steps forward, and turned around. "Don't expect Plan A to work, though. Something is bound to go wrong…"
"What's Plan B then?"
Kallen shook his head, an incredulous and defeated laugh playing from his lips. "There isn't one."
Beside him, the Elder Gargoyle stepped from a stream of white sparks, it's towering form standing tall in the dead of night. They left Nephis behind, walking through the strangely hushed streets of the Bright Castle.
People gawked in silent reverence as he passed them. Having an Awakened Terror at his side—one that had proven so insurmountable just a year ago should have eased his nerves. Having a divine tool in his arsenal and a transcendent echo on top of that…
None of it helped.
He continued his trek through the streets, debating on how to best use his trident: Blessing of Olympus. In hindsight, he'd been an idiot to throw lightning at the defiled Titan—who obviously had a resistance to heat.
Perhaps it had been a good idea to use the lightning when he'd knocked it out of the sky, but when they had clashed underwater, it was a dumb idea.
Besides that it wasn't very effective, it drained him significantly with every use. Two lightning strikes had essentially left him empty. He wondered how much using it to manipulate the wind would expend?
He got the feeling that Its enchantment: [Skybringer], allowed him to do just that, but he didn't know how hefty a toll it extracted. Presumably, [Gluttonous] was the reason those enchantments were so draining on him.
Perhaps if he could use [Skybringer] in short bursts, he could achieve something akin to flight, should the Elder Gargoyle go down?
Theoretically, he should already be pretty familiar with controlling wind in a supernatural sense. He was already adept with water, and air was a fluid as well. It followed similar principles: flow, pressure, resistance, it was just harder to feel and see.
But wind had no real weight to it, no body. Water pressed against him when he shaped it. Air wouldn't have a visible shape to guide, and it would be harder to hold onto.
He wouldn't know until he tried. That was the worst part about his divine tool. Maybe if he killed the dragon he'd get something a little more useful.
After a while of walking and dreading what was coming, Kallen reached the edge of the Bright Castle. He strode through the gates, seeing the silhouette of a monstrous Titan above the grey clouds.
A beam of flame tore across the sky, painting it a reddish orange hue. Kallen climbed on the back of the Elder Gargoyle, and a liquid film of Golden metal slithered over his face.
He stole a look back at the guards in front of the Castle's double doors. A small crowd of people gathered around, looking at him with varying expressions. But one thing stood out among them all: hope.
With a mental command, the Echo beat its powerful wings and took off soaring into the sky, its mighty halberd clenched indifferently.
Wind soared past his ears. His hair was pressed backward as they shot through the sky, and before long, Kallen felt doubt creeping.
He craned his neck, watching the colossal beast in the sky. He wanted to flee. To take Seren and run, but he couldn't, despite the tremor in his legs.
Then, something snuck past that fear and blessed him. His Golden Trident—Olympus for short. It was once more begging to be unleashed on the world.
In a rain of white sparks, Kallen summoned the Memory. It coalesced in his hand, blending into his armor as though they were an extension of each other.
A feeling of superiority rushed through him, but he held it down, clamping against the sensation as he and his Gargoyle soared through the sky.
They were maybe a dozen seconds out when the dragon noticed them. The Elder Gargoyle was easily the size of a two story house, maybe taller, but even it was dwarfed by the size of the Titan.
When the clouds parted and the Wyrm in the sky noticed them, a dreadful flame began to build through its body.
"Don't slow down," Kallen ordered. His Awakened Terror was practically fireproof. And what better way to test out his new armor than to dive straight through hell?
A towering billow of flame poured from the Titan's mouth, racing for Kallen in a devilish display of immolation.
He didn't waver. Kallen didn't blink as the fire consumed him, no more unpleasant than stepping outside in the middle of a hot Summer.
It would end up unbearable if he would have bathed in it for any decent length of time. But he wouldn't. The Gargoyle powered through the inferno, muscles underneath its skin rippling as it brought its halberd back, and barreled straight into the dragon.
Kallen jumped off at the last moment, the Gilded Warden—his golden armor—clinging on as he fell through the open sky.
The Titan and the Terror tumbled through the open sky. Several explosions popped below Kallen as the Dragon's scales detonated.
Wind clawed, whipping past him as clouds fell around in a gray blur. the Gilded Warden tightened her coils around his torso and legs, her shrill keening in his mind, syncing with Olympus's silent hum.
Below, the dragon and the Gargoyle spun in a death roll. Wings thrashed. The sky tore with the sound of thunder, not born from a storm, but from scale meeting steel. Each impact sending pulses of force rippling outward, scattering clouds like ripples in a pond.
Kallen held an open hand out as he plummeted, gathering moisture in his palm by the gallon. Soon, the size became too much to handle with his meager control, and he swiped his arm down. Thousands of small bullets of rainwater crashed down at the Dragon's exposed underbelly.
They hissed and dissolved against its skin, but not before drawing a small trickle of blood.
Kallen twisted in mid-air and hurled Olympus
The trident left his hand in a streak of churning gold, cutting wind as the brawl broke through the clouds. It nearly struck the wing of the Titan, but several scales detached from its side and detonated, throwing it off course.
Too fast.
The Wyrm—somehow fresh and healed from their first meeting months ago—batted Kallen's gargoyle out of the way with one of its four legs, and it twisted upright, its face incandescent with rage.
It reared back its neck. Flame coiled behind its fangs. Its one good eye, the size of Kallen's head, locked onto him mid-fall. And then the sky screamed.
A sonic boom tore the air as the Elder Gargoyle returned, battered, bleeding, but not broken. It dove into the dragon's back left leg with its halberd like a damned comet. The Titan lurched from the impact, the flame it had been preparing, sputtering and licking its jowls instead of exploding outward.
Kallen seized the moment. The liquid metal of his armor formed an impressive javelin. Momentum stalled as he hit terminal velocity.
He landed on the thrashing Titan's backside, his boots hissing against the heat. He didn't wait, hoisting the javelin, and thrusting it in a gap between the scales. Knowing what would happen next, he dismissed the Elder Gargoyle, as several chains of scales running along the Titan's back detonated.
Kallen didn't even hear his own pained scream.
The Transcendent Echo's defenses failed down the length of his feet and legs. An enormous tail cracked toward him. It hit with the force of a warhead. The scales along its length all exploded, and the world vanished.
One moment he had stood atop the Titan, molten scales bursting beneath his feet. The next, he was gone, a smear of gold hurtling through the sky.
Air became wall. His armor screamed as the force bent around his limbs. Something felt both warm and cold on his stomach and his insides lurched, crushed sideways in a single moment of sickening acceleration.
Clouds shredded past him. The castle loomed.
A/n: I'm gonna have to drop back to a once a week upload schedule. Uni started back up again and it's much more demanding this time around, so I apologize for the inconvenience! Also, book 1 of this will be ending on chapter 56, but I only have a few chapters of the second one worked out, so hopefully this new schedule allows me to plan for the next one a bit better.