The Battle of Alexander at Issus

“Liar,” Before he could finish his sentence, I’d already spat in Thien's face. “If there was a way back you would have told us a long time ago! We've too much of a pain for you for a while now!”

“Ah, it’s because that opportunity wasn’t open yet. You see, sending someone back isn't easy, even for me. The timing must be right, and most importantly, I’d need all of the gems to do so,” He held up the brown crystal again. “Lilly did me a grand favor and took care of Eastol’s king before I could intervene. Now with all ten kings dead, the impossible suddenly has become… achievable.”

“Don’t take mmmph!” Thien sent another bit of string, gagging Lilly before she could say another world. “I’d rather not, but for your sake that pest of an assassin would get sent back as well. It would be like almost nothing happened.”

“And you expect us to believe you?”

“Believe me, don’t believe me—it’s your choice, not mine.” Thien shrugged. “Time works differently between our two planets. Barely a week has passed back on Earth since your untimely arrival here. You could go back to your normal, peaceful life, without any danger of you getting summoned to this place ever again. And as a bonus, both of you would keep your newfound powers!”

“What’s the catch?” Thien wasn’t the kind of man to tell us everything. There had to be something he was hiding.

“Well, the mechanism that would send you back has its limitations. Only you two would get to leave. I’m afraid your cat eared friend would be left behind.”

There it was. I glanced back at Aila. Her eyes were solidly focused on Thien, not saying a word. Judging just from her face alone, she seemed indifferent—and though Thien had clearly believed her act, there was no way it’d work with me. I could see the twitching of her ears, the softness to her tail as she unconsciously twirled its end.

“No deal.” I had barely needed to think it over. Maybe a month ago, maybe after I had just found Lilly, but now leaving without Aila felt impossible.

I walked over to Aila and wrapped her hand in mine. “We’re partners, I wouldn’t leave her for the world.”

“Rin…” I saw a single tear fall down her face. She steadied her breathing and turned toward Thien with a determination I’d never fathomed coming from Aila. “Cut it with these empty promises! We’re going to take you down! No pretty words will save you now.”

“Very well.” Thien said, not letting a single drop of emotion creep into his voice. “May the realm of souls claim you two with a vengeance.”

He snapped his fingers, stained glass flew like bullets all around us, and water began to pour into the room just like back in Gallai’s castle.

With that, our last fight had officially begun.

Aila leaped up, teleporting into the air. Her footsteps smashed stone and paint alike as she spiraled up the wall.

We’d talked about the last few fights while getting ready for this one. Thien’s usual fighting style had several quirks—he loved to trap his opponents and make them squeal. He was like a hunter, as long as he had his prey in sight there was no beating him.

But we had never seen what would happen if the tables were turned.

I followed her up, turning my light into sharp claws that broke through the stone like butter.

The royal chambers here had the same tower shape as in Gallai, with the ceiling up nearly two hundred feet from us. Water couldn't fill in that fast.

“What now?” As I stuck my feet into the stone, Aila teleported next to me. “We’ve just bought ourselves time!”
“We need to use the water!” I screamed, looking toward Lilly.

Our eyes met as she gave me a confident nod. We’d seen the same thing. “Aila, go and use your new blade! Draw him to the center of the room!”

She gave me a thumbs up, launching herself down toward the floor.

I followed her soon after. The cool air flickered through my hair as I let light cover my entire body. Power surged through me as if I’d just been plugged into a massive battery. I could feel the fire alight in my stomach, bigger than ever before and begging, screaming to be released.

Seth, Francis, Richard—through all of them, I’d been able to hone this power of mine. I could remember the days where five minutes would have me exhausted and panting on the floor. Now though, those days were long gone.

“Pests!” A typhoon of water shot up from Thien. I pulled back my hand as droplets turned to steam. Pain, agony, none of it mattered anymore. This was a fight to the death, and we would come out on top.

With a scream I punched through the water.

Bubbles burst around my ear as we met. Rushing water boiled every inch of my skin as the mere water pressure threatened to toss me into the sky.

It was like facing a cannonball head on as I dove deeper and deeper. Every drop felt like a bullet, every splash like shrapnel. Yet my light continued on.

“You should have taken my deal!” Thien screamed, summoning another torrent that sprouted from the wall. “It was your last chance. My new world will result in a better tomorrow for everyone! Why sacrifice yourself to stop prosperity?”
“Prosperity through the sacrifice of millions!” Thien's second stream hit me like a truck.

I flew back, slamming into the castle wall. Blood poured from my mouth as I spat out a stray tooth. My arms ached, blood staining my clothes, yet I refused to give in. “Aila, now!”

“Bye bye!” With Thien distracted, Aila unsheathed her sword.

A boom rattled the ceiling as her blade touched fresh air. Its mirage turned the nearby water to smoke as she started her descent.

Thien sent stream after stream yet her blade cut through them like putty. “You little–”

SLAM

Aila let her blade fly toward his chest. Thien leaped back, the trails of his coat catching the tip of her blade.

“You’ll have to try harder than that!”
“Too late!” Aila grinned. “We're not that stupid.”

“Di–Agh!” Thien suddenly clutched his stomach. Crimson began to stain his coat as he fell to one knee. “What kind of magic is this!?”

“Ours!” Aila landed next to me, pointing her blade at Thien.

“A Rhyleth Fey? In what world…” Thien unsteadily got to his feet. “Francis! Just couldn’t keep your stupid womanizing hands out of this!”

Thien shot up to the sky on a jet of water. “If he wants to take things to another level this badly, I see no reason to refuse.”

With a wave of his hand, he tore off the entire top half of the tower. Bricks fell down like rain as I forced a shield of light over us. In school we always watched videos of earthquakes and the destruction they caused–this felt more dangerous than the deadliest of those.

“Aila!” My eyes shot up. With the roof gone Lilly’s cage fell like a rock.

“I got her,” Aila teleported midair and ripped open the flimsy door. “Lilly, take my hand!”

They leaped aside just as the cage crashed back to the ground. It splintered into a million pieces of iron, littering the soaked floor with bits of metal that floated like feathers on a lake.

The two girls gently landed by my side hand in hand. A bit of dust covered their clothes but other than that both of them looked fine.

“Lilly! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Aila quickly cut off the mask around Lilly’s face.

I raised an eyebrow. I could remember just days ago when Aila didn’t trust a word coming from Lilly’s mouth. It was a relief to see things had finally changed.

“Y-yeah,” In the most uncharacteristic move I had ever seen coming from Lilly, she stammered her response out while staring daggers at the floor, face completely flushed. “I’m fine.”

“You sure?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Focus, Lilly, focus,” she took a deep breath before staring daggers toward the sky. “Francis can easily beat him if they fight head to head, and Thien really doesn’t want that.”

“Then what do you think he is doing?” I asked.

“What else?” Lilly let smoke flow from her shoes. “He has the tenth gem, and conveniently we gathered the other nine gems for him all in one place.”

“You’re saying he is taking on Riverlight?” I nearly shouted. “Sure, Thien’s powerful but even he can’t do that all by himself.”

“Not the Thien you have seen,” Lilly said. “I don’t know the details but both Thien and Francis have a limit of what they can show. Something about Francis’s gifts to you two must have pushed that limit upwards.”

She leaped into the air, smashing a hole into the crumbling castle wall. “We need to get moving. The Thien we’ve fought so far was just the trial version, the real fight starts now.”

֎ ֎ ֎

With Lilly’s help we made the trip in record time. With Aila keeping up with us by teleporting on the ground, we soared like birds above the Eastol countryside.

Two trails of shadows and light followed closely behind us like clouds. I could see children point from the villages we passed over, though from up here they looked like small toys I would use as a kid.

“Shit,” Lilly said as Riverlight’s base came into view.

Enormous tendrils of water assaulted the mountain top. They weaved in and out of the stone like snakes as rocks the size of a car rained down on the path below.

“You weren't kidding when you said he stepped it up a notch,” I muttered. These new geysers were less streams and more on the scale of natural disasters. Shaped like hands, their fingertips gripped rocks and tossed them indiscriminately towards the people fleeing, men, women, and children alike.

We landed near the entrance as people kept fleeing.

“What’s going on in there?” I grabbed the shoulder of one of the passers-by. “Where is Seth?”

“W-we saw him fighting Thien in the auditorium!” The man stammered out.

“Thanks,” I turned toward the two girls, then pointed my fist toward the mountain. “Burst!”

Light flew from my palm, a beam so intense just being near it made my face burn. On the spot where it landed, a hole opened up into the second floor free from the foot traffic and falling rocks.

The three of us rocketed up toward the top as the entrance threatened to collapse. Boulders fell like raindrops all around us, a mix of crumbling walls and the base's foundation all tumbling down. One wrong step and we would be buried forever in the rubble.

Yet we stayed true to our path.

Sunlight shone down on the cave auditorium. The one luxurious stage was lit with warm orange flames, and scattered metallic chairs covering most of the floor.

Cracks ran like lightning up the walls, our footsteps completely masked by the rumbling of the mountain.

“You!” The second I spotted Thien floating midair I rocketed up toward him. There was the filthy stench of fresh blood all throughout the base, the cries of people begging to get out, all underneath the roaring waves pounding in from above.

“It's me!” My fist slammed into his skull. Thien exploded back like an arrow. Blocks of ice formed from the air, sliding the man up toward the dual suns.

And he laughed.

“All these years, suffering. Do you know what it's like to live your life shackled as the world burns around you!” Thien snapped his fingers. A dragon of water and ice formed out of the rock. Its teeth dripped a crimson, bloody red. “The gods have long masked their activities, but thanks to your patron, I no longer have to fear retribution!”

“What the hell did Francis do?” I gritted my teeth. He had to have known this would happen. There was a path, no matter how small, how improbable, that he saw for us.

“Worry about that first!” Lilly pointed toward the dragon. “This isn’t the Thien we’ve faced before.”
“Obviously!” Aila teleported up in the air. “I’ll distract the dragon, you two focus on him!”

She teleported off, leaving just Lilly and I to face this new, monstrous Thien.

“Just like old times,” I let Francis’s die dance in my palm. “Never thought we would get here from a WcDonalds.”

“Neither did I, I can tell you that much,” she said, wrapping a black cloth around her palms. “For what's hopefully the last time, let's take this son of a bitch down.”

As we soared midair, Thien dared to meet us with his smug grin. “I thank–”

“Die!” Lilly blasted off as I ran across the collapsing cavern wall. Thien’s first punch came with a low hook. Lilly’s hilt caught the punch, sending blood flying from her mouth.

I drove my shoulder forward as I attacked from the rear. A streak of light trailed as he flew into range. Yet he reacted faster than I could blink. He flew a step back, my fist catching the edge of his cloak instead of anything substantial. I stared the man in the eyes. I could see my reflection in them, the fury emanating from my face as my entire body glowed a pale white.

Thien shoved Lilly aside, sending his water-soaked wrist toward me.

I flew back, watching Thien spin midair as his punch missed. “Forget it!” He spat out. “Let the waters take care of these pests!”

He flew up toward the sky like a rocket. With a snap of his fingers, the two suns’ light vanished like a thief in the night.

Water, gallons upon gallons, covered the entire auditorium. Just the spare droplets were enough to make it rain on us as we watched in helplessness. We could take on a lot, but for once, I didn’t have an answer.

I gently landed back on the auditorium floor and hastily looked around. “Shit!”

Ice covered every single exit around the room–thick, monstrous walls that seemed to go on forever through the hazy looking glass.

I launched myself toward the nearest chunk of ice. If Thien wanted to trap us, we would just break out.

BAM BAM BAM

I slammed my fist against the wall over and over, shards of light flying behind me as it shattered. Bits of ice pierced my skin, my vision a blur of punches. Yet it didn’t budge. “Lilly!”
“On it!” She joined in, adding the chorus of her shadowy fists. Yet still our efforts were in vain.

After what felt like an eternity, I collapsed onto the ground, staring up at the shimmering sky. Through the water I could vaguely make out Sarai’s twin suns, no more than specks of light now behind Thien’s massive flood.

“We can’t beat that.” Lilly stood in my shadow and pointed her dagger toward the sky. “We're trapped right now, for sure, but no way in hell I’m letting him take us down like this!” Just as she said that, we heard Thien’s voice from above.

“Goodbye,” with the madman’s last word, the water began to drop, slowly at first, then all at once.

I leaped into the air. My heart beat a million miles a minute in my chest, bits of blood fell from the thousand wounds decorating my body, yet still I held on.

Aila, Lilly, both of them were still down there! I needed a plan, something—anything.

Yet all I could do was fly further and further toward Thien.

“Francis, you better not be letting me down!” I pulled out his set of dice. “You said these could absorb my Senn! Let’s see if that's all they could absorb.”

With those parting words I hit the roaring wave with every bit of energy remaining.

Cold, that was the only word that came to mind. It was like I’d entered another world, one without light or warmth of any kind. Every bone in my body screamed in fury. It was like I was drowning in lava, sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss.

“L…” My voice faltered. All my weary eyes could make out were the hazy dice in my hand stretched out toward the sky. For the first time ever, I had no options.

Francis, you bitch. Who thought it could ever be a good idea to trust in that stupid egomaniac's words? Lilly, Aila, Seth, all of us would die and he would go on. Summoned just to die uselessly, what a wonderful life.

“Now now, I’d never let a girl that hot pass away under my watch.”

My eyes shot open. “Francis?”

“Look up!”

I listened to the mysterious, floating voice, where his dice were still clutched safely into my palm. “You better have not been screwing with us!”
I put the very last of my energy into the die.

And finally, we turned the tide.

The dice shone brighter than a lighthouse in my palms, breaking through the hazy water like a flashlight onto the night sky.

The water cleared from my lungs in an instant. The roaring sound of a tsunami bellowed around the cave as the suns suddenly sharply came into view.

“How did you do this?! What in Hell have you done?” Thien's frantic voice sounded crystal clear as the die floated midair and the water began to disappear. Second by second, the level lowered as Thien’s streams attacked the dice with everything he could throw at them, all to no avail.

BOOM

He collapsed in a heap of dust on the ground, blood pouring from his mouth.

Aila teleported in next to us, Lilly joining soon after as we stood over the man.

“Why…” His voice came out ragged. “Humanity will suffer greatly because of this…”

“There’s no use talking anymore,” Lilly placed her hand on my shoulder. “He can’t see his own flaws, much less the evil he would have caused.”

“Evil? Thien burst out laughing, blood cascading with every chuckle. “You don’t know what you've just caused, Lilly! I-I never desired to hurt the people. A few may suffer, but only for the greater good—that was the only natural course of action! East is nowhere near as merciful.”

He grasped my ankle, eyes bulging. “Just remember, all the spilled blood to come is on your hands! Yours alone…!”

With those last words, the great general of Gallai, the cosmic sailor, and the root of Sarai’s disasters, breathed his last.