"You will witness what true heroes are, and that is to wield unshakable power" Augusta said, as she prepared for her final attack, but from behind her a cracking sound was heard, she turned her head slightly, only to see Rover thrown to the side and embedded in the rock face of the mountain.
Suddenly a suction force made her stagger, she quickly embedded her great sword into the ground, but she was slowly dragged away.
Augusta looked back to see the False Sovereign Core broken in half, but it did not relieve her.
Right behind Tacet Core, like a broken mirror, a desert wasteland with nothing in sight could be seen, but it did not stay that way. The wasteland changed to a dark void, and again it changed to a snowy plain. It continued changing, showing other landscapes, the sea, the forests, some cities in the distance, but everything was changing quickly.
She saw it for what it was, a defeat, a defeat for her, Septimont, Iuno and hers sacrifice, a defeat at the gates of victory. Her mouth tasted bitter.
She didn't know where that fissure could take her, but it wouldn't help her at all. The false sovereign was still there in front of her, but he didn't seem defeated, with his arms like swords and his legs embedded in the earth, holding firmly.
To Augusta, he seemed victorious.
If she were taken from here now, perhaps there would be no Septimont later.
"Ephor! Your Excellency! Lady Augusta!" she heard the call of her gladiators.
She looked away from the False Sovereign towards the road her people were coming along, with Avidius at their head, and only now did she realize the state of her surroundings.
Even though the suction was strong for her, she could still endure it, but for those around her, it was devastating.
Everything in front of the Pilum Terracaelus was being sucked in, the stones on the ground, the loose rocks, and the wall that separated Fabianum from the place where they were, was cracking.
That was what her warriors had seen and had rushed to come to her aid.
"…fools…" her heart warmed for their help, but the situation was precarious, they too were struggling to hold on and not be absorbed.
Avidius was one of the first to act, seeing the false sovereign holding on firmly, he took his spear surrounded by golden light and ran towards the false sovereign with the others.
"Gladiators! Forward! Attack!" he shouted.
"For Septimont!" the others shouted.
The sight of her warriors running at full speed towards them caused Augusta to act as well.
"Looks like it's over for you, false divinity" she said, causing the False Sovereign to let out a loud grunt.
"Faithless Augusta!" the false sovereign shouted, "mortals should not rebel against divinity!".
"Ha! I've always said that Raguna's divinity never boarded the ship", Augusta laughed and mocked the False Sovereign, as she watched her warriors approach.
'My Lady, let us help you' Augusta heard, the souls of the ancient Septimontians fallen by the dark tide.
Energy filled her with strength, she stood up, still firmly holding her great sword, and prepared to finish off the False Sovereign.
"Now!" she shouted, causing the gladiators to launch their attacks towards the False Sovereign, Avidius's spear was the fastest to arrive, causing the False Sovereign to remove his sword arms from the ground, turn around and block the spear.
But the force of the spear and the other attacks momentarily lifted him off the ground, causing him to be carried towards the fissure.
"I will not fall to faithless mortals! Graaa!" the False Sovereign shouted, causing pitch-black tendrils to sprout from the dark tide on the ground and hold him in the air.
Augusta raised her golden-gleaming great sword, this was her chance. She quickly threw a small magnetized sword forward, then she appeared in a blink of an eye, positioning herself directly in front of the False Sovereign.
"Aaaaa!" she shouted, releasing a beam of electromagnetic energy from her sword, the blow was accurate, the false deity was lost from her sight for a moment, and then when the beam was absorbed by the fissure she saw the miserable figure of the False Sovereign.
Barely half of his body hung from a tendril attached to his remaining arm.
"No…grrraa…", the False Sovereign growled, "if… I…cannot…take…the…place…that…corresponds…to…me…you…won't…do…it…either… Augusta" his broken words sounded like a sentence.
A dark light shone from his helmet, then the place where hers comrades stood shook.
"No!" Augusta cried, as she watched the ground crack. They staggered, their weapons wrenched from the ground as small tendrils sprouted from it, then they began to be pulled towards the fissure that sucked everything in.
"Your Excellency! Help!" some shouted.
Augusta rushed towards them, thinking quickly, she released the blades that formed her great sword and directed them as close as possible towards each of them.
Then she, using her power, propelled herself towards her nearest sword, a gladiator dressed in full armor, spear and shield, quickly grabbed it, passed her a magnetized sword and then quickly continued towards the next one.
Augusta was so fast that in the blink of an eye she had reached almost all of her companions, except for Avidius, who had been the first to be lifted into the fissure.
She appeared on hers sword closest to him, but…
"Avidius!" she shouted at him, despite how close they were, he had already risen several meters from the ground.
"Your Excellency!" shouted Avidius, trying to bring his spear towards her so she could hold it, but it was too far away.
Augusta was preparing to throw a magnetized sword at him when the ground beneath her feet exploded from the dark tide, propelling her into the air. It wasn't just the ground beneath Augusta, it also pushed her companions higher into the fissure.
"If… I fall…you…will…do it…with…me… Augusta! HAHAHA!" the false sovereign shouted as his core was absorbed by the fissure along with him, but the dark tide had risen even further leaving the area full of it, with no rocks in sight, one last difficulty left by him.
"Damn you!" she growled, but quickly refocused.
She threw a magnet sword to Avidius, who nodded to receive it.
"Warriors! Hold my swords firmly!" ordered Augusta, seeing that everyone was doing so, she connected with the Avidius first, being the closest to the fissure, she took him by the arm when she appeared next to him, then she moved on to the next and the next, once she reached the furthest one, all of them were hanging from one of their companions' limbs.
Then Augusta, with all her strength, threw another sword towards a distant rock wall.
It moved away, but did not reach the rock wall and was dragged by the suction force of the fissure towards it, joining with her sword again.
"No…" she whispered with resignation, that had been her only chance.
"Your Excellency" she heard Avidius say, "you did what you could" he said, as they were lifted into the fissure.
Augusta turned her face towards them, seeing that there was no hatred in them for not being able to save them, resignation perhaps, but not hatred.
"You warriors…" Augusta murmured, the same feeling of camaraderie she had felt when they had appeared to help.
"Thank you" she told them.
"To you, Your Excellency" said Avidius.
"It has been an honor to fight by your side, Ephor" said another gladiator.
"There has been no better leader than you, my lady" said another gladiator.
Everyone offered her words of support.
She closed her eyes for a moment, formed a smile, and said to them.
"The honor has been mine to have led such faithful warriors".
Now, at peace with the situation, they just waited, with proud smiles on their faces.
"Augusta!" she heard from where Rover had been expelled, it was far away, farther than where she had tried to take her warriors, there was no way she could help them.
So she decided to only ask her for one favor.
"Take care of Septimont for me, my friend!" she shouted to Rover, who could only remain still as a statue.
'It was my fault', She had overused the power of the Imperator, she had literally divided the space of reality.
"It's my fault".
She thought, as she watched Augusta and her warriors being sucked into the spatial rift, which only now seemed to be healing.
"Augusta!!!" Rover's scream was the last thing she heard before she was greeted by silence and then the grunts of pain from her and her companions.
Their surroundings changed from different landscapes to different ones every moment until one remained.
Her vision began to blur when she finally hit the rocky, sandy ground. The air was dry and hot, 'a desert' she thought.
Before looking up at the night sky and realizing something very serious.
'I don't recognize those stars' she thought before her strength left her, and she fell asleep next to all her companions.