***
"Uhhggg! How many more staircases are there?!" Complaining aloud Kimaris face planted onto the floor with a groan. "This is the fiftieth floor already! We've been walking for an hour now!"
"Let take a break here." Panting his lungs out Heru grabbed onto the railing near him. "Clara, how much more of this do we have to deal with?"
"Only five more floors." Riding atop Sifo Ren's shoulder Clara looked relaxed compared to almost everyone else, just like the witch in my arms. "If it wasn't for the firewalls being so needlessly complex i could of turned on the elevator system before the shut down. Why is its network so slippery just for a spaceship harbour?"
"Hah~!!" Slowly coming up behind us. The fire cloud mercenaries in their sweaty bodies sat down all together once they saw we had stopped walking for the moment. "We can rest. Thank finally."
Tugging at the bead necklace around my neck, the witch i held in my arms spoke up. "Enjoying yourself, Wukong?"
"How could i not be." I grumbled. "While Strife gets to have fun outside I'm busy carrying someone who cant even lift her legs without help."
"Aw. How cute." Poking under my chin Sathuna teased. "If your still so energetic keep on going to the top of the tower. Right about now Strife must have already arrived."
Infuriated by that declaration I immediately lugged Sathuna over my shoulder and started running up the staircase. "I wont be outdone by some apple loving wangliang!"
"Eh? Where are you two going?" Kimaris yelled seeing me run off carrying Sathuna.
"Wukong still seems fine so we'll wait for you up there. Toodeloo~." Vanishing up the stairwell with me Sathuna gave a final fancy wave before disappearing.
Jumping up between the gaps of the staircase I grabbed and swung my entire body upwards while Sathuna's puppet body rested atop my shoulder. "Your always doing this! Your always getting under my nails, Strife! I won't let you win!"
Sighing Sathuna crossed her arms. "You know Strife does not care for your useless competition with him, Wukong."
"So?! Its a mans job to push himself no matter what!" Jumping up the second to last stairwell i landed on the steps and started running up the staircase normally.
"I'm sure there are some idiots who would agree with an idiots statement."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing you would like, monkey. Press on."
Kicking down the door i arrived on the roof first seeing Strife was nowhere in sight and immediately celebrated. "Hahah! I'm faster! Ahahah!"
"Hm? I thought you guys were still five floors down?" Freezing up, i hesitantly turned around seeing Thorn in his massive bird size gripping a salmon-like fish with wings in his talons. "What took you so long to get up here?"
Freeing herself Sathuna slid off my shoulder and fixed her dress and veil. "The elevator was barred from our use unfortunately. While Clara's ship is being brought up by the conveyor belt we had to take the stairs to arrive up here."
"No wonder you didn't fly. Air defences on this thing and the people on the ground floor are making it difficult even for me to fly."
Bush! Dush! Dush!!
Multiple clouds of fire exploded beyond the towers walls making Thorn and Sathuna walk over to the edge and look over the side. "The princess is having fun at least-!"
Flying through Thorn's neck one of Strife's [fragarach spear] shot past, puncturing the side of an aircraft before devouring it with a black hole. Vanishing its entirety.
"I had that!" I yelled up to the oversized black chicken.
"It wasn't me, dumbass!" Thorn barked back at me in his 12-foot long size, looking almost like a black phoenix in his enlarged raven form with the silver flames emanating from his ghostly black feathers and the long peacock tail hovering in the air behind him.
Clicking my tongue once the staring contest ended i got curious and looked over the side. Watching Strife rip apart the war-machines of
Pressing his hand against what looked like a longe range artillery cannon, Strife immediately made it explode before twisting around and launching a tsunami of slushy silver water out from his shadow to drown the army surrounding him.
At one battalion a time Strife drowned his blasted attackers who could only cry for help from their exalted who were also busy being killed by Strife.
"Say, Wūyā shǔ, why aren't you helping that maniac out?" As i asked a bolt of amber lighting fired out from Strife's arm destroying five different vehicles at once.
"I got bored of eating small fry's." Thorn stated boringly. "Where the fuck is everyone else? I want to leave this dust-ball before an insane homunculus is put on my list of problems to solve."
We were too far away to hear it but Strife was probably being enveloped in the madness of his powers laughing like crazy as he took the blood of his enemies out of their bodies. Thorn's concern was granted but he could at least act like he cared a bit.
"Ah, right on time everyone." Clapping her hands together Sathuna skipped away from the wall and greeted the others who just arrived. "By the looks of it Clara, your ship is already loaded in the catapult. Do a final check and we'll leave."
The others spotted me and Thorn together but before Clara could ask anything she got carried off by Sifo Ren towards the ship that was locked in place right before the vertical cannon aimed up directly at the sky and the pyramid ship in the way. "Ah - wait!"
"Thorn, dearest!" Raising her voice back at us Sathuna gave the oversized crow a request. "That star-cruiser will make departure a little difficult. Please move it aside if you could."
Looking at Sathuna apathetically Thorn yawned through his beak. "Will i get anything if i do?"
Thinking for a second Sathuna danced around in place while pushing the exhausted others towards Clara's ship. "I'll convince Strife to take you to the beauty planet Maom in
"Done." In a blaze of silver fire the lusty bird ascended to the yellow sky faster than any high end spaceship ever could before vanishing into the atmosphere.
Disgusted slightly by what I heard I complained aloud. "Does that sky rat only have women's thighs on his mind?"
"He's an admirer to all women of allurement." Obviously pretending to blush under her veil Sathuna ambled next to me. "While he may not be able to properly fool around he's content just viewing the meals on display. But he's bound to get some of that perverse nature from his master.
As I and Sathuna watched the sky, a black serpent expanded out from a small worm in space into a dauntingly massive leviathan with a pair of forwards pointing white horns. Stretching out his canine ridden jaw, the leviathan bit into the pyramid shaped star cruiser, diving into it and destroying it from the inside.
Barely half of Thorn's body in his leviathan shape was inside the ship yet that alone was enough two completely crush the spaceship that was 4-kilometres long. Just like most war-class star cruisers. Yet Thorn's true size seemed double that.
"It surprises me every time i see him in that form." Sathuna mumbled. "And yet Strife's archon body is supposed to be able to become just as big." A moment of silence followed as the explosions filled the sky from the destroyed star-cruiser. "Tell me, Wukong. Why do Kralscell's choose to be small when they could be infinite?"
"More comfortable i guess. It's nicer when my [demonic visage] is tightened down after all." Answering with whatever came to my mind first i didn't see Sathuna's sly smile before she walked off.
"Come now, Wukong. We should leave now that the last barrier is out of the way."
***
"Stop them! Stop -Ahh!!" Getting swarmed by the ink-spirits the army of regular mortals and few transcendent's quickly crumbled now that i had killed that last commander.
[skill: horizon chain, retains your mental stability]
Pulling my sword [sigrid] out of the commanders rib cage in the floor, a black horse rubbed their snout against my shoulder armour begging for my attention with a huff of it's nose steaming up the air.
"Yes, yes. You did well, Sideswipe." As i rubbed the inky horses muzzle they huffed again while stamping their hoofs in the blood covered ground. "No. I'm not getting on your back no matter how much you ask, Sideswipe."
A flash of light caught my eye and looking up I saw Thorn ripping apart one of
I'll have to guess he met up with Sathuna and she gave him a false promise again. "That bird never learns to not trust seductive women."
'My lord, do you have a moment?' Hearing Ingrik's voice in my head i wondered what had happened.
"Yeah. I'm here. Something the matter, Ingrik?"
"The zorain of silver has just sent an order for several quick fighters to head to your location to blow up the tower. Right as he and I engaged he seemed to have gotten an important report."
Shduuu~!
Hearing the distant jet roar i could catch where about the fighter squad Ingrik just mentioned would be coming from. "I hear them coming now. I'll handle it, keep the solar envoy's and Omiss with you. You'll get torn apart without air cover."
Emerging from the wreck of a war machine, a lone soldier holstered a rocket launcher over his shoulder before firing it at me.
Stepping out the way casually, I pushed Sideswipe back as well and the rocket flew right past. Exploding into the launch towers support pillar doing minimal damage.
[aspect: taken devourer -- telekinesis]
Raising my hand the soldier lifted up from the ground and screamed. Clenching my fist he was then reduced to a bloody pulp before dropping back on the floor.
Shduu~!!
The jet engines got louder as they got closer from the distance. Without the special magenta beanie I currently wore those jets would probably be deafening me right now with their engine roar.
[skill: autumn kings conquest, boosts!]
Bolting it up to the top of the split in half
At the speed they're all going, [taken devourer] will lose its telekinetic grip after a few seconds of holding them. As useful as it is as an aspect, [taken devourer] does have its limits not being able to hold anything that resists up to a certain threshold less i risk injury to my own body.
Given the toll from using my [regalius breaker] if i do that, i might not have enough aether left to escape Idaten myself.
"Since there's no quick option. Lets whittle their numbers first." An orb of black liquid condensed atop my left palm. The next moment i pushed my arm forwards and with a great trombone roar. A destructive column of [breach surge's] black-silver liquid blasted out like a raging river of plasma.
The ascending waterfall of abyssal slush shot through the air fighter's formation destroying 5 of them at once and knocking down 4 more with the force of the wind dropping them into the ground. Now only 11 remained.
[skill: autumn kings conquest, rains the stars!]
Motes of orange and silver aether shaped as neon arrows appeared in the air around me. A multi-target spell called [star parade]. Cutting my fingers through the air the neon arrows all shot forwards and sought out their prey.
[stigma: equal correlation, limits your abilities heavily]
The 11 fighter jets all immediately dispersed but two got shot down instantly. with one being encased in black ice after being struck with the silver aether bolt and the other exploding in a fury of amber lightning.
Leaving the last 9 to be hunted down by the remaining [star parades] that sought after them like heat sealing missiles.
Dancing through the air the last fighters split into three groups of three. All trying to work together to lose the seeking magical arrows with flares, timed air mines, and ascending up in the sky.
One after another the pilots had pushed their aircrafts too far and got killed in explosions of ice or lightning. Soon there were only four left.
"Hm?" Seeing the path of the lone fourth fighter as it headed straight for the [star parades] encroaching on the last full squad left - a mad idea of what they were doing came to mind. "Ha! Talk about devotion to a cause."
Flying straight on, the fourth fighter used their ship as a shield taking down the last four [star parades] in a self destructive burst of ice and lightning in the atmosphere.
Before i could begin casting another [star parade] the three pilots immediately flew overhead of me and went above the tower beginning to spiral above it.
Since they lost numbers i guess thats about the only thing they can do to stay out of my range.
'My lord,
Annoyed i started sliding down the side of the destroyed star cruiser under my feet. "Thanks for the update, Ingrik. Lead the others back to
'Do you not want the titans to get involved?'
"They can't fly without Thorn's help. The war cruisers will just rise up further in the atmosphere to stay out of reach. None of the titans have any ranged attacks after all." Reaching the bottom of the split in half ship i started running across the battlefield and witnessed my ink-spirits dematerialise back to the imaginary realm. "I cant stop everything but i can provide some cover at least."