Phantom - Chapter 09

The Second Battle of Ferris was fully underway.

As the bombardments from the ship continued to batter Ferris, Phantom planes and helicopters had flown over the grounds, attacking the grounds and deploying soldiers, tanks, mechs and heavy infantry across the site. Within minutes, the entire island was under attack and Imperial was also being assaulted by a large Phantom force, preventing reinforcements from the mainland from lending their assistance.

Without power, Ferris’s defences were crippled.

Their mechs, air-to-ground turrets, vehicles and communications were all inoperable and, combined with Phantom’s continuous bombardments from their ships, the constant airstrikes by their bombers and fighters, and hundreds of soldiers, mechs and vehicles being airdropped onto the island, the situation on Ferris was incredibly bad.

Guardians, students and Lares’s security forces across the site were battling Phantom’s forces, desperately trying to defend their homes. With every second that passed, people were being killed, a thought which would normally shake Eric to his very core but, right now, he had a goal in his heart which he needed to get done.

Lares, please be safe!

Eric was in his Armour and was running along the ground, not confident in his flying skills and also because he was sure that, even if he did take flight, he would be shot out of the air immediately by the dozens of planes and helicopters, something he couldn’t afford to deal with them right now.

A handful of Phantom soldiers and mages had surrounded another student who was bloody and bleeding on the floor, her arm badly burnt and her face drenched in blood.

“Damn it!” Eric yelled, summoning Oblivion and rushing to her side.

He cut the gun-slingers in half and fired three separate blasts at the mages, crushing their chests and killing them. A nearby helicopter turned its attention to Eric and, in a fit of rage, he sent energy into his sword before throwing it with all of his might at the helicopter.

It cut the aircraft in half and it exploded, crashing hard into the ground as two useless chunks of burning metal.

“Are you okay?” Eric yelled and the girl nodded quickly, tears pouring from her eyes.

He could only imagine how terrified she must have been. She curled up into a ball on the ground and screamed her lungs out.

Eric scooped her up into his arms and ran as fast as he could, hoping to find a teacher nearby.

He soon found Sapphire.

“Eric!” She yelled, beckoning him over. “Who’s she?”

“No idea,” Eric said, placing her in Sapphire’s arms. “Could you take care of her for me please?”

“I’ll do what I can, but I’m needed elsewhere. What about you?”

“I need to find my uncle.”

Sapphire closed her eyes and nodded. “The barracks was hit in the first barrage but I saw Lares outside of there before it was destroyed. Knowing Lares, he’s probably somewhere with a lot of students, so try the leisure area.”

“Leisure area? Okay, thank you.”

Eric ran towards the leisure area, leaving Sapphire with a crying girl in her arms.

I know I’m needed elsewhere, but I can’t just leave her like this, She thought, cursing her own actions.

She turned on her heel and found a nearby light mage and a group of professional Guardians that she left the girl with, before returning to the fight.

***

A hundred Phantom soldiers attacked Kasmine relentlessly, each of them hitting her with different weapons.

Magic, bullets, arrows, missiles, explosives, swords, and daggers were all thrown at her, but they bounced off her pink aura uselessly.

Kasmine scowled, her teeth crunching together, and she stepped towards the soldiers, ignoring the attacks that hit her.

“I don’t think I’ve been this angry in a long time,” She muttered, hatred and rage dripping off every syllable. The group of soldiers increased their attacks and she growled. “You take out our defences, then you attacked the school, and then you had the nerve to harm and kill my students.”

She glared at them, her eyes burning brightly. “I hope you didn’t think you would get away with it.”

A thin, plain white mask made of magic appeared over her face with bright pink eyes. She planted her left heel forward, brought her left hand to her side, placed her middle and index fingers together, and then swiped out in front of her. She brought her hand down to her right side and all of the Phantom soldiers around her dropped down dead.

They had been cut cleanly in half and their blood spat viciously onto the ground.

Harbinger stepped out from the building behind her, his spear in his hands, and waited for her orders.

“Kill every single enemy that tries to get close to this building,” Kasmine ordered, to which Harbinger nodded.

She marched over the corpses of the soldiers, blood staining her perfect white skin and clean high heels, and she spat.

“I will never, ever forgive you for this, Michael,” Kasmine muttered. “I will kill you and every last person that tries to harm my students.”

***

Osiris swung his staff into the side of a Phantom soldier’s head, cracking his helmet. The man cried out in agony and collapsed to one side, a bolt of lightning jumping from him into three nearby soldiers. Osiris then spun his staff around and shot a bolt of lightning at a faraway group; it smashed into the closest one and then sent four more strikes into those next to him.

Osiris’s team were having good results against the Phantom forces as well and, after only two minutes of fighting, they had cleared out the large Phantom force that had held the area around the bridge and train station. Two helicopters swooped in low and fired at them, but Grannus raised his barrier to block the shots. Xantico roared and fired a powerful inferno at them, but they flew out of the way of them.

Damona raised her vines from the ground and they wrapped around the helicopter closest to the ground and, with a mighty pull, she tore off its blades. The helicopter spun out of control, still firing its machineguns and missiles, and crashed into the ground, skidding to a stop after thirty metres.

Gunshots echoed past Osiris’s head and Damona raised a wooden wall to defend them.

“Lazarus!” Ogmios yelled, holding out his joint hands.

Lazarus leapt into his palms and, with Ogmios’s help, he launched high into the air, over the barricade and he began to cut through the Phantom reinforcements. Void poked around the barricade and conjured a blackhole next to the helicopter, crushing it and sucking it into it. It exploded and Void closed his blackhole, allowing the shrapnel to land harmlessly on the ground.

“They really don’t want us to control this place, do they?” Void muttered, flicking his wrist.

“Osiris, I don’t know how long we can hold them back,” Damona said; her breath was already starting to sound laboured.

“Should I try and get reinforcements?” Kala asked.

Osiris shook his head. “I know you feel like a spare part right now, but I do not want you doing anything reckless and stupid.”

Dejected and upset that he knew exactly what she was thinking, Kala lowered her head and nodded. Chronous went to comfort her and Osiris knew that they were probably both feeling useless.

“She has a point though,” Grannus chipped in. “If we don’t get backup, we’ll-”

Magical attacks and gunshots flew at them, but Damona and Grannus were quick enough to raise barriers to defend them and the others. There were eight ten foot tall mechs marching with them which were essentially mobile artillery batteries, firing high calibre shots at them but, against Grannus’s God Weapon, they were useless.

“Xantico!” Osiris yelled.

However, she didn’t need to do anything.

Axisam landed in the middle of the Phantom reinforcements and sent her dragon to cut through their ranks to her left, whilst she kicked up the concrete on her right, sending the soldiers flying through the air. She then leapt up into the air and kicked one mech in the side, crushing the metal beneath her toes and knocking it over. Axisam then redeployed her dragon and sent it to smash through four more mechs, before she landed and then leapt from one mech to another, smashing them to pieces.

By the time she had finished jumping onto the remaining three mechs, all of the other Phantom reinforcements had been eliminated.

Osiris couldn’t help but chuckle at the spectacle.

“You really are something else, you know?” He said as she ran over to them.

“What can I say? I’m great at wrecking shit,” Axisam boasted, a gigantic grin on her face. She let out a small, satisfied sigh and stretched her arms above her head. “So, what’s the situation here?”

“We’ve taken this section from Phantom and, well.” Osiris looked to the ground where just under fifty members of the Guardians, students and guards lay dead. “We had heavy losses.”

Axisam grimaced and clicked her tongue. “And they keep tryin’ to take it back, huh? You guys have been handlin’ shit like that by yourselves?”

“Barely,” Damona chipped in, resting on Grannus’s shoulder. “We need help if we’re going to hold here.”

“Where are your team?” Void asked.

“Helping rescue trapped students in the village,” Axisam answered. “They don’t feel like fighting right now, so it’s the best thing they can do right now.”

“I see,” Osiris said. “Regardless, that does not change the fact that Phantom want to control this place and thus we need to.”

Axisam looked to the bridge and scowled. “Not sure if that’ll be possible.”

Slowly marching across the bridge was a gigantic mass of a man wearing a bulky mech suit that looked like a steampunk golem. It was about ten metres tall and incredibly thick and heavy looking all over, even at its joints, and it was so heavy that it cracked the ground just from the pilot simply walking at a normal pace.

When Kavachin saw the God team and Axisam waiting for him, he let out a low laugh and grinned beneath his helmet.

“So, the small fry have gathered, huh?” He purred, his right arm transforming into a gigantic Gatling gun. “I hope you’re prepared.”

Even as the terrifying mech lumbered closer to her teammates, Xantico’s attention was focused elsewhere.

About fifty metres away from them, someone was being surrounded and overwhelmed by a small battalion of Phantom soldiers.

With a click of her tongue, Xantico rushed to their side.

***

A missile hit Izellah in the chest, sending her flying and crashing into the ground.

She got up onto her knees and thrust her sword at her attackers, the vines from her sword extended and zoomed at the Phantom soldiers, but they only hit two of them. The rest unleashed a volley of bullets and magical bolts at Izellah, sending her tumbling and knocking her back onto the ground.

The armour on her back and chest was cracked and broken, her body was bruised and battered, and she was bleeding from several deep wounds. She tried to push herself back up but she was already exhausted. Even though she knew that, if she didn’t get back up, the students she had tried to save would be killed.

Damn it! Izellah cursed, trying to push through her pain and stand back up, even as the Phantom soldiers continued their attacks.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Rose Knight?” Xantico screamed, unleashing an intense flame on the attackers.

The flames surrounded Izellah, shielding her from their attacks, before it spewed out around her, burning the surviving soldiers. Xantico emerged from the flames and they looped around the two girls, shielding them from the Phantom forces for the time being.

“Why the hell are you on the ground looking so pathetic?” Xantico demanded, forcing Izellah to her feet and steadying her roughly. “What? You can defeat me but you can’t handle a group of small fries?”

“I…” Izellah said, regaining her balance.

“You’re out here fighting for something, right? Well, right now, my goal is to protect our school. Past that.” She let go of Izellah and stepped back. “It’s to defeat you. Now.” Xantico held out her hand and glared at Izellah. “What are you going to do?”

“I…” Izellah whispered, gripping her sword and shield more tightly. She then sternly looked back into Xantico’s eyes. “I’ll keep fighting. And.” She took Xantico’s hand and squeezed it hard. “I won’t lose to your determination.”

“Why?” Xantico grinned back. “Is it because it’s not a good reason for fighting?”

“No, it’s a good reason. It’s just that I won’t lose to you.”

They smiled at one another, separated their hands, and Xantico’s flames dropped.

“Now, let’s do this!” Xantico cried.

“Of course!” Izellah cried back.

***

Lich and the other members of the Necronomicon were decimating Phantom’s forces in the city.

No matter how many men, or how many powerful attacks they unleashed at them, the Necromancers didn’t struggle to overpower them and continued on with their massacre. The spirits and skeletons that they had summoned assisted in helping the police and local forces fighting back the enemy and evacuating civilians from the area.

Lich was currently marching behind one of his most impressive spirits; a fifty foot tall black knight with a battle axe that was taller than the spirit itself. It slowly marched down the street, cracking the concrete beneath it as walked, and it would occasionally swipe down at the ground, killing Phantom soldiers.

Lich let out a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong, Master?” Mara asked, floating down next to him. She summoned two black runes and fired two solid beams from them into a group of Phantom soldiers.

“I’m just disappointed,” He mumbled, sighing again. He flicked his wrist to the left and sixteen men went flying. “Michael has spent the best part of twenty years building Phantom up and this is all he can manage?”

Mara titled her head. “Maybe the strong ones are at the school?”

“Probably.” Lich effortlessly pointed his finger forward and blew up a Phantom transport helicopter. He sighed again. “Did I set my expectations too high?”

“Should I go and find the strong ones and bring them to you?” She asked.

“No, don’t bother.”

Lich looked towards the school and narrowed his eyes.

If anything happens to Lares or Eric, I’ll never forgive you, Michael.

***

After slipping past the ongoing battle in and around the training area, Ajax, Jasmine and Evony had made it to their lockers.

Half of the room was covered in debris caused by an artillery strike but, thankfully, their lockers were outside of the blast zone.

Jasmine threw open her locker and quickly snapped her armour and weapons to herself, checking that they were all definitely loaded and still able to fire. Evony opened her locker, slung her quiver over her back, grabbed her bow, and put on her leather bracer. Ajax had created a spare bracelet for his mech in the event that something happened to the original, but it wasn’t working.

“Damn it!” He cried, throwing his spare bracelet onto the ground. “The EMP knocked this one out, too.”

“Do you have any way of getting just your weapons?” Evony asked, jogging over to him.

They all flinched when a loud boom sounded not too far from where they were.

“No,” Ajax replied. “The suit’s designed to store and deploy the weapons when I need them but, to deploy them, the damn thing has to be activated first!”

“Maybe you should find somewhere to hide then?”

“No!” His hand clenched into a fist. “I can’t just sit somewhere and cower while something like this is happening.”

“Want a gun?” Jasmine offered, one of her machineguns in her hand.

Ajax shook his head. “I’ve never used one before.”

“In that case.” Jasmine deployed her knives and pulled them out of her gauntlets, bringing with them about a metre of golden steel with them. “Take these.”

She thrusted them into Ajax’s hands and he saw what she was getting at.

“They might not be the most ideal substitute for your spear, but at least you’ll know how to use them,” Jasmine said. “Regardless.” She gave him her machinegun as well. “Just point and squeeze the trigger. Once its out of bullets, throw it away.”

“Are you sure you won’t need it more?” Ajax asked.

Jasmine smiled back. “What are you, an idiot?” She began to walk away from him. “You were seriously planning on going into a war zone with just two flimsy spears?”

Ajax grinned and nodded. “Got it. I’ll see you guys once this is all over!”

Ajax left first, sprinting out of the building.

“What should we do?” Jasmine asked Evony as the girl knocked an arrow against her bow.

“No offense, but I don’t think you’d last too long on the ground,” Evony said through a faint smile. “Head up to a high place and snipe the bastards.”

“That sounds good. Make sure Connor and the others are okay.”

“Will do. Stay safe, Jasmine.”

“You too, Evony.”

They ran back out into the battlefield.

***

When Spike had finally reached the student village and found Eric’s house, he found it to be in ruins.

“Kid!” Spike cried, dashing over to the rubble but he let out a small sigh of relief as he drew close. “He’s alive.”

If he had recently died, I would’ve been able to sense it, Spike thought, reassuring himself.

He heard a fierce battle raging in the middle of the village and dashed to see who was fighting in it.

Spike knew what kind of person Eric was and there wasn’t anyway that, if someone was in trouble nearby, he would ignore it.

Except, Eric wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

He saw Connor and a few other members of Eric’s team engaging the Phantom forces and helping evacuate the students who were either too scared or too wounded, or both, to fight. They were holding their own quite well against the Phantom forces, and they even managed to dispatch several of their walking mech platforms but, without someone properly leading them, they wouldn’t be able to hold out forever.

As much as it angered Spike, he had to leave them to it.

His orders were to focus solely on keeping Eric Agrim alive at any cost, not his friends, and, if Eric wasn’t fighting with them, then Spike had no reason to help them.

If Eric Agrim dies, know that you will suffer a fate far worse than last time.

Lich’s words which made Spike shiver echoed in his head.

Protecting Eric Agrim’s life was his master’s highest priority and Spike had to do it at any cost.

Even if it meant leaving Eric’s friends to die.

***

Phantom had three warships in the bay, two battleships and an aircraft carrier, all of which were covered in soldiers and launching constant attacks on Ferris. Another barrage of artillery shot from the guns at the school and six more fighter jets flew off the carrier, launching missiles at the school.

The longer they were left alone, the more damage would be done to Ferris.

Dead Eye had planned on taking the boats from the docks to head to the battleships to reach them, but the docks had been completely destroyed by artillery and, given how far out into the bay they were, they had no way of reaching them by normal means.

“Now what do we do?” Fayre yelled, clicking her tongue.

“If you’re that impatient, you could swim,” Khan suggested and Fayre glared at him.

“You and Mystical could fly over,” Paladin suggested.

“We wouldn’t be able to take down an entire ship of Phantom soldiers,” Dead Eye calmly said. “Even if we could, we’d be shot down the moment we tried to fly at them.”

“Beta, what’s the range on your-?”

“Nowhere near enough,” Beta said.

“So, what do we do?”

“You could ask for help,” The Merchant said, appearing behind Dead Eye.

Dead Eye narrowed his eye. “You.”

“Huh? What’s with that reaction?” The Merchant asked, sounding a bit disappointed. “Well, whatever.”

“Um, who are you?” Mystical politely asked.

“I am the Merchant and I’m a member of the Guardians. With my help, I can get you guys onto the aircraft carrier.”

“And then what?” Alpha demanded.

“That’s up to you,” The Merchant replied.

“How do we get there?” Dead Eye asked.

“With this.”

The Merchant held out his left and in his palm was a stone with completely smooth edges. It was just smaller than his palm and it rested on his skin with a Yin and Yang symbol painted over it and it glowed a faint cream colour.

“What’s that?” Fayre asked.

“The Janus God Armour’s weapon, ‘Recall’,” The Merchant answered. “It grants its wielder the ability to teleport themselves and others to any location that the user has been to.”

“You’ve been on that ship then?” Mystical wondered.

“Yes. So, what do you say?”

***

Connor’s chains wrapped around the concrete, the spikes on the end digging into it firmly. With a groan, Connor slowly lifted it off of the trapped student, eliciting from them a small scream, but they were happy to see the concrete off of their destroyed leg.

“Damn,” Connor whispered.

He dismissed his chains and helped support the boy onto his working foot and they slowly shuffled towards Elthia who had almost finished healing one of his teammates. Unlike the boy Connor was carrying, the one Elthia was attending to had simply had a bad wound to the head.

“Nearly done?” He asked, gently placing the boy on his shoulders next to Elthia.

“…Almost…” She replied through grit teeth. She finished, flicked her wrists and, with a few drops of sweat on her brow, moved onto healing the other student. “I don’t know if I can do more than stop the bleeding.”

An explosion boomed down the end of the street.

“In this situation, that’s more than we could ask for,” Connor said, patting her on the shoulder.

Down the end of the street, Kiara and Kaida were busy fighting off the Phantom forces with the other students who could still fight and they were holding them off. Kiara spun on her heel, saw Connor looking at them and flew over to him.

“What’s up?” She asked, landing and firing two more black balls down to the far end of the street, killing two other Phantom soldiers.

“We’ve just got one more to heal before we need to move,” Connor told her. “You still good?”

Kiara smiled and nodded. “Just don’t ask to do the impossible.”

“…Done!” Elthia cried, almost falling onto her back but she caught herself. Through laboured breaths, she asked, “Where now?”

Loud screams and cries came from the street over, loud enough to catch everyone’s attention even among the chaotic sounds of the battle. Without saying a word, Connor and the others ran towards those screams, even as people were running towards them, chains following close behind them.

The chains impaled themselves through the student’s hearts, lifting them high up into the air and leaving them to slowly die.

Elthia gasped, covering her mouth, and Kaida cursed under her breath but, regardless, they kept on running. They turned the corner onto the next street in the village and found a cloaked figure, surrounded by over thirty corpses, all of whom had large, bloody wounds in their chests. Standing before the cloaked figure, exhausted and broken, covered in blood, was Ashar.

Ashar heard them approach from behind and turned to meet them.

As he did, nine chains flew through his body.

One through the back of his skull, two through his arms, two through his legs, two through his lungs, one through the centre of his spine, and one through his heart.

Ashar’s lifeless corpse was thrown to one side, crumpling to the ground.

“…What…?” Kiara whispered shakily, paralysed by what she had seen.

Connor summoned his axe, spun it around a few times, and stood firmly before the cloaked being.

“We can’t take him,” Kaida said, her voice and entire body shaking.

“I know,” Connor said, glaring at the cloaked man. “But we can hold him off while the others run away from here!”

***

“Don’t let him pass!” The captain cried.

On his order, the twenty Guardians and students unleashed their strongest attacks at Michael, all of which failed to even scratch his Armour.

Michael had already killed thirty people before here and all of them had gone all out at him and yet, even after seeing their friends and comrades get so easily slaughtered, they still fought.

Admirable, but this is futile, Michael thought, his blade drenched in deep crimson.

His wings expanded and he shot hundreds of blue diamonds at them, shredding the soldiers to pieces. They dropped to the ground into an ocean of blood, limbs and organs, and Michael simply strolled through them, not bothering to even glance at them.

While there was still the threat of being targeted by Kasmine or the other stronger members of the Guardians, Michael was reluctant to fly through the skies above Ferris, even though Phantom controlled them.

“If I don’t speed up, reinforcements will arrive before I get the Stone,” He mumbled.

In order to buy himself additional time to properly achieve his mission, Michael had organised simultaneous terror strikes in every capital city of the countries of Europe excluding Lamia, and he had sent teams to infiltrate and attack five other major cities in England as well. Even if their communications were cut, Michael knew that Kasmine would have had fail safes installed to contact their allies for help.

Even with all of the preparations he had made, Michael had, at best, half an hour before reinforcements arrived.

He kicked off the air and began to fly close to the streets, soaring through the streets to the vault building. If he flew too high, Kasmine would spot him instantly and come to kill him, meaning that he had to stay close to the ground.

I need to hurry before the Grand General gets here.

***

The cloaked man watched on from a distance, a faint smile on his lips.

He could see the battle raging in all of its glory and he was keen to see what would come of it.

“Honestly, Michael, you wasted your one wish,” He said. “Had you wished for our military support, you might have stood a chance.”

Even though Michael had built up a large and impressive military force for Phantom, it was never going to be enough to attack Ferris and succeed at stealing the Death Stone from the vault. If Michael had requested it, then the Brotherhood would have provided him with more than enough power to achieve his goal.

“I guess in the end the Archangel Michael didn’t amount to much,” The man noted, turning away from the fight.

“A shame.”

***

Kalaraja couldn’t help but smile when he saw that the mighty doors to the Ferris vault building were sealed tight, the two gigantic mechs beside it inactive, and a dozen Guardian corpses outside of it and even more belonging to Phantom soldiers.

“Ooh, this looks like fun,” He purred.

He dug his claws into the doors, tore a large hole in them, giggled and pranced inside.

“Hello!” He yelled for as long as he could as loud as he could.

He was greeted by a hail of thousands of bullets and magical bolts, all of which bounced off him, crumpling to the ground and none of it damaging him in the slightest. Kalaraja grinned when he heard someone shout about how their attacks weren’t working.

Kalaraja drew a small circle of black magic in the air in front of him and then waited. He put his fingers all flat against one another, turning his hand into a point, and he aimed at the black circle. He then thrust his arm deep inside the circle and suddenly the attacks stopped.

He let out a soft giggle and looked around the room. All of the people inside, even those who hadn’t attacked him, had an arm sticking out of their chest, black circles hovering behind them all. He snickered and removed his arm from the circle, a resounding thump echoing throughout the building.

“Shinigami aren’t that easy to kill,” He said. “Now then.” He skipped towards the long corridor leading to the vault.

***

Ajax had ‘borrowed’ one of the vault’s emergency bicycles that they had lying there in case there was ever a time in which the cars to the vault stopped working. He had been petrified when he had heard the sounds of an intense fight behind him, echoing behind him as he rode to the vault’s entrance.

Are Phantom attacking here again? If they are, I need to bring Ace and Alexis up to fight them.

When the sounds had died out, Ajax had no clue as to whether or not they had won or if they had all been killed.

If it was the later, it was all the more reason to get Alexis and Ace as far away from here as possible.

He reached the vault’s door and saw them both standing guard, both in their battle attire, and they both were surprised to see Ajax there.

“Ajax?” Alexis asked.

“What are you doing here?” Ace added.

“Looking for you two,” He replied, leaping out of the car. “We need to head topside.”

“What? Why?”

“Are you seriously asking that?” Ajax cried. “The schools under attack and the student village was bombed.”

“Seriously?” Alexis cried. “How bad was it?”

“I’m not too sure; my team’s house is gone but my team’s all alive.”

“And my guys?”

“I have no idea. I’m sorry.”

Alexis’s face twisted and she dug her nails into her arm, biting her lip.

“Why are you guys down here defending the door anyway?” Ajax demanded. “You should be up there fighting.”

“We’re defending the vault,” Ace protested. “If someone gets into this thing, it’ll go from a battle to a global crisis!”

“What do you think those hundreds of people are doing up there?”

“What if someone fought through them? Or snuck around them?”

Ajax snorted. “Bullshit.”

“Ajax!” Alexis cried.

“I bet you’re only down here because you’re too scared to fight up there, aren’t you?” Ajax yelled.

“What? How can you say that?” Ace yelled back. “I’m here to fight-”

“No, you’re here to hide! Look at me!” Ajax thrust out his arms to the side. “My mech’s down and I’m still trying my best to do my part! You, on the other hand, are hiding down here. You’re a coward.”

“Ajax, that’s enough!” Alexis interjected, snatching his hand.

“No, it’s not!” Ajax broke free of her grip. “You two don’t need to be here. If you want to help out and do your part, get your arses in gear and get back up there and fight! Our friends could be dying as you two are hiding down here doing nothing to help them!”

“Ajax!”

“Fine.” He stomped away from them. “You cowards can stay down here. I’m going back to help save my friends.”

“Ajax, wait,” Ace weakly said.

A vicious cackle echoed along the long corridor, causing the hairs on their bodies to raise. Ajax quickly ran back to his sister’s side just as the person who had been laughing came around the corner.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about your friends,” Kalaraja mocked, a devilish grin on his face. “After all, you’re all in a much more dangerous situation than they are.”

***

Connor leapt at Sangili, his axe wound back and overflowing with energy, and smashed it against his head.

Sangili raised a wall of chains to block the attack and then effortlessly flung Connor away at a faraway house, slamming his back into the wall. He crumpled onto the ground and struggled to get back up.

A large fiery dragon flew at Sangili, slashing madly at him, but the razor sharp claws didn’t even cut through his cloak. Two chains thrust at the dragon’s eyes, but it swooped beneath them, wrapping its tail around the cloaked figure. It tightened its grip around him, an intense heat overflowing from its scales and covered Sangili in flames.

Much to Kaida’s dismay, Sangili broke free.

Chains exploded from around his body, shredding the dragon into a thin mist, before returning beneath his cloak. Kiara fired ten black balls at Sangili, but he sent a chain covered in dark energy to swipe them out of the air, rendering them useless. The chain contorted, twisted and then sliced through the air at Kaida.

“Kaida!” Kiara screamed, flying to grab her.

She roughly grabbed her friend’s wrist and pulled her above the slice, narrowly avoiding it.

“Thanks,” Kaida said, summoning her dragon again. “Any bright ideas on how to beat this guy?”

Kiara smiled nervously. “I was going to ask you that.”

A dozen chains came flying at them and they were barely able to get out of their way. Kaida thrust her arm in front of her, sending the dragon to strike Sangili again but he obliterated her dragon with several chains. The chains then zoomed towards Kaida, but Elthia ran in front of her, raising a barrier, absorbing the impact.

Elthia bit her lip hard to stop her screaming as the barricade cracked and broke from the impact of his attacks. She lowered her barrier and panted as Kiara unleashed a hail of black beams and balls at Sangili. Sangili didn’t move to block her attacks and instead let them hit him.

He hadn’t even been scratched.

Connor ran back over to them and sent his own chains at Sangili. Sangili sent out chains to intercept Connor’s, just as the latter had hoped, and Connor’s chains wrapped around Sangili’s, holding them in place tightly.

“Cut the chains!” Connor ordered.

Kiara’s claws deployed and Kaida called her dragon again.

Just as they had moved to strike, Connor was dragged off his feet and pulled towards Sangili.

Sangili used the anchor which Connor had set up, took it over and used it to pull him towards Sangili, making him an easy kill. Connor fought back and resisted as much as he could but, against the grip of the chains, he was powerless to break free.

An open sphere of chains appeared before Connor and the boy was being slowly pulled into it and, once inside, it would crush him.

Kaida and Kiara jumped behind Connor and tore with all of their might at the chains, desperate to break him free and save him. Mere metres away from the ball, they were able to break a couple of the chains holding him and pull him away from Sangili. Sangili’s sphere collapsed and all of those chains flung at them.

They ran over to Elthia who raised a smaller, but much stronger, barrier but it shattered into pieces the moment the chains smashed into it. Elthia screamed louder than a banshee, pain flying through every nerve in her body, and she almost fell unconscious and collapsed onto the floor. Kaida went to cradle her with Connor and Kiara standing in front of them, stood ready to fight.

“We’re so far in over our heads,” Connor whispered just loud enough for Kiara to hear.

“Should we try and run?” Kiara asked as quietly back.

“You saw what happened to Ashar and the others as they ran.”

“So, we stay and fight, and die, or we run, fly, and die?” Kiara couldn’t help but snicker a little. “We’re way in the deep end.”

Connor frowned, channelling more of his magic into his axe.

Eric, please, be safe! He pleaded.

***

Damona stabbed her God weapon deep into the ground, sending hundreds of vines at Kavachin.

They wrapped tightly around his legs and chest, pulling him down into the ground as much as they could but, despite their great strength, Kavachin didn’t budge that much. Kala aimed her bracelets at his armour, hoping to move them forward in time so that they were nothing more than rust but her ability didn’t work.

Kavachin groaned as he pushed back against the vines, steadily pulling himself out of them. Osiris charged up to Kavachin and began to bash his face with his staff, sending bolts of lightning into the man. With a mighty roar, Kavachin broke free of the vines, causing Damona to scream in agony and went to punch Osiris in the head. Before the blow landed, his fist stopped moving for two seconds, allowing Osiris to retreat to a safe distance.

“You!” Kavachin cried, glaring at Chronous.

His arm transformed into a Gatling gun and he fired relentlessly at Chronous; Grannus raised Aegis to protect him.

“No you don’t!” Void yelled, spawning a large blackhole by Kavachin’s arm.

It ripped the metal off it and into its dark vortex, destroying it but the armour kept repairing itself mere milliseconds after it was broken. It forced Kavachin’s arm to one side but it didn’t destroy it. His free arm transformed into another Gatling gun and he fired at Void.

Axisam ran in from of him, raising her arms to defend her face, as she took on the full force of his attack. Osiris ran back up to Kavachin, smashing the tip of his staff into the mech’s jaw, then his cheeks, and then his temple. Kavachin swiped his arm at Osiris, but the God ducked beneath it and responded by jabbing his staff into his arm’s joint, making Kavachin hiss a little.

Kavachin’s arm transformed into a long sword and he swept at Osiris, but Osiris leapt over it, and slammed his staff with all of his might into Kavachin’s forehead. The armour had crumpled beneath the impact, but it was repaired the instant Osiris withdrew his staff.

“That’s not going to work!” Kavachin taunted.

His chest transformed and a small and wide laser cannon pushed out from it, blasting Osiris away from Kavachin. Kavachin’s right arm transformed into a gigantic laser cannon which he blasted at the ground near Grannus, sending debris flying into the side of his chest, knocking him to the ground.

“Grannus!” Chronous yelled, going to his friend’s side.

Grannus was bleeding and Chronous could feel that at least one of his ribs had been broken. With a groan, Grannus looked at him, weakly smiled, and said, “I’m fine.”

Kavachin shifted his aim to Axisam and Void who ran away from the blast, allowing Kavachin’s other arm to be freed.

As he recovered, Axisam, Osiris and his team gathered beside Grannus.

“Kala, Chronous; take care of Grannus!” Osiris ordered which they complied with instantly, picking him up and moving him to a safe place. “Void, try a bigger one to hold him down for longer. Axisam, go for the face.”

Axisam grinned. “Roger that!”

Void roared, thrust his palms out together and a blackhole three times the size of the previous one appeared behind Kavachin, dragging him backwards and tearing off his armour. Kavachin, however, was strong enough that he could keep moving even in the face of the pull of a blackhole and, slowly, he was advancing on them.

Osiris launched repeated bolts of lightning from his staff at Kavachin, each hitting uselessly against his metallic hide, but it distracted him whilst Axisam leapt into the air and fell right towards his head. With her fist wound back and covered in a golden flame, Axisam flew through the air at Kavachin and smashed her fist into the top of his skull, smashing his face into the ground and splitting open his armour.

However, just like before, it regenerated before they could do a thing.

Kavachin let out a monstrous cry and ten laser cannons appeared across his body, firing solid red beams out which almost hit Axisam. She, however, ducked beneath the blast aimed at her face and leapt away back to Void and Osiris. Kavachin pulled back against the blackhole and continued to march towards them.

Void, however, wouldn’t be able to hold him back for much longer.

The larger and more powerful Void made his blackhole, the more energy he used up which is why he tried to stick to the same sized holes in combat so that he could properly manage his Mana. He had never come across someone as strong as Kavachin who could push back so much against his attacks and, to compensate, Void had used more energy and tried to make it as powerful as possible.

As a result, Void was out of Mana and fell onto his knees, closing the blackhole.

“Shit!” Axisam cried.

Bullets landed in the side of Kavachin’s head, knocking it to the side a little, but it didn't do anything more than make Kavachin annoyed.

“Miss Yuuko!” Osiris cried.

“How bad is it?” Aria asked, running to them and keeping up her barrage, Takahiro close behind her.

“It’s no good,” Axisam said angrily. “No matter how much damage we do to him, his armour regenerates too quickly for us to land a hit on the pilot.”

“I see.” Aria had fired all of the rounds in her magazine and quickly reloaded it. “Then, we’ll just have to try focusing in on a single point and breaking our way through.”

“What about-?” Osiris tried to ask.

“For now, keep the enemy off our back. We’ll handle this.”

Without saying as much as a word to one another, Takahiro and Aria launched their plan to focus their attacks on Kavachin’s chest.

Kavachin fired his Gatling gun at them, but their armours could take the bullets. Takahiro drew the two katanas by his waist, slid beneath Kavachin’s follow-up fist, and stabbed them into his chest, eliciting a sharp scream of agony from the pilot. Aria saw where Takahiro had stabbed and quickly fired powerful bullet after powerful bullet into the same point, breaking small chunks of the armour off at a time.

Takahiro left his blades in the suit, ducked beneath Kavachin’s sword swipe, drew the claymore on his back, and cut deep into Kavachin’s right arm. Kavachin yelled and thrashed his arms at Takahiro who skilfully weaved around them, slicing his sword through the armour again and again. As he did, Aria kept her focus entirely on the spot they had started attacking and, just as she was about to run out of bullets, Takahiro moved to the point and stabbed his claymore through it and out of the other side of the mech.

Kavachin howled, lasers deploying all across his chest, blasting Takahiro and his swords back, before angrily firing two Gatling guns at Aria. Aria spun around, revealing a silver coloured shield which absorbed the barrage when she dropped onto her knees, completely hiding herself behind cover. Kavachin clicked his tongue, transformed his left arm into a laser cannon and fired at Aria.

“Miss Yuuko!” Osiris cried.

Aria stood up just at the blast hit her.

In an instant, her legs had been vaporised.

She fell hard onto the ground, unable to support herself any longer, but she didn’t scream in pain at first, not until she saw the cauterised stumps that had replaced her legs.

“Miss Yuuko!” Axisam and Osiris shouted.

They reached her, picked her up and sat her upright against a nearby wall as Takahiro, Void and Damona engaged Kavachin to cover them.

“Ah, fuck!” Aria yelled, her shaking hands grabbing at her legs. “Shit!”

“Damn, I was too late,” An angry, sinister voice hissed.

“Sapphire…” Aria weakly said, gazing up at her friend.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t fast enough, Aria,” Sapphire said, crouching down and holding her friend’s shoulder. “I hope you can forgive me, but I had to-”

“I know.” Aria smiled bitterly. “It’s what I would’ve done.”

Sapphire frowned, closed her eyes and nodded. She glanced over her shoulder at Kavachin, her aura quickly expanding around her.

“What’s the situation?”

***

Ace and Ajax moved to Alexis’s flanks as she lowered herself close to the ground, all of their eyes fixated upon the skeletal monster before them.

Its grin grew and its aura began to grow and crackle, black sparks flying off it. Ace slowly reached into his inner jacket pocket for a particular card, Ajax twirled his spears and pointed them at the monster, and Alexis prepared herself to leap at it.

If I can use it before he attacks, we can escape, Ace thought, his fingers mere inches from the card he needed.

The moment Kalaraja had walked in, Ace knew that, even with their powers and abilities combined, they didn’t stand a chance of even damaging him.

Without Ajax’s mech and with Alexis’s ability to build upon momentum hindered due to the small area to move around in, they wouldn’t be able to escape either.

If Ace didn’t act, they would all die.

“Oi, come on,” Kalaraja groaned, tapping his foot impatiently. “If you won’t start, then I will.” He flashed them an even more sadistic smile. “And, if I start, it’ll end.”

Ace drew his card as quickly as he could, throwing it above his head. The World Card activated, covering the area around him, both Amory siblings glowing red; his magic pulsed briefly before they disappeared.

However, one of them remained.

When Ace had activated his card, Alexis had charged at Kalaraja.

She had been left behind.

***

Before Ajax could process what had happened, he found himself standing on a rooftop in Imperial, the sounds of battle and screaming resounding around them.

“What the hell just happened?” He mumbled. He spun around, searching for Alexis and Ace but he found only Ace next to him, on his knees and panting heavily. “What did you do?”

Ace took a deep breath, looked up at Ajax and grimaced, sweat and blood flowing down his face. “I’m sorry, but…” He coughed violently. “There wasn’t…any time…” His breathing became erratic again and he wiped the blood from his lips. “I used one of my cards…to teleport us…away from that…thing.”

“Where’s Alexis?” Ajax demanded, grabbing Ace’s shoulder. “Where is she?”

“Huh?” Ace checked around them and his eyes widened when he didn’t see her. “No…That’s…not possible. She…she was right…”

“Ace!” Ajax grabbed his shirt and hauled him to his feet.

“The World Card…” Ace huffed. “Teleports…those…within five metres…of me…If Alexis…misread…my…actions…”

Ace’s face twisted, before he threw up blood over Ajax and passed out.

“Shit,” Ajax cursed. He grabbed Ace, placed his arm around his shoulder and slowly dragged him to the stairs down from the roof.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Ferris in the distance being bombarded with artillery, helicopters and fighter planes flying over and attacking it, Phantom forces constantly dropping into it.

Alexis, please be alright, Ajax cried in his head, running down the stairs with Ace as fast as he could.

He was terrified for Alexis, but he knew she could take care of herself whereas Ace was dying right before his eyes.

Once he took Ace to a hospital, he would rush back to Ferris.

***

Kalaraja held Alexis’s lifeless corpse above him, letting the blood pour down her neck, over his arm and dripping onto the floor. He tightened his grasp around her throat and her head fell off her body, rolling to one side.

“Pathetic,” He mumbled, dropping her onto the ground with a violent thud that echoed around the vault.