Citadel of Envy

Kyrinna would barge into Shien's cell to beat him every day. When Shien tried to free his cuffs, his neck and limb collars would shock him. Kyrinna kept on fuming her rage at Shien, knowing his father killed hers during the Middle Eastern Smite. Day after day passed, and Kyrinna watched Shien in pain. Shien would pray to God as his girlfriend taught him.

Why am I not happy? Kyrinna thought as the days went by. I should be happy that Isrina and Shien are suffering for Jinhai's deed! Why do I feel sorry for him? I shouldn't be, right? I was bullied for being the quiet kid with strange ice powers. Have I become a bully myself?

"What's wrong, Kyrinna?" Azuroid tapped her back. "How can I help you?"

The Cerulean Countess said nothing but hugged her droid friend, the only friend who understood her.

***

Naivern and Dorian piloted the condor frigate toward the island Azir Citadel as Mivangeline and Oreic prayed for their team.

"We're outside the SAM radar," Dorian reported, typing into keyboard controls. "Ritom, remember your flash drive. You need it to break into a terminal for me to analyze the facility's geography."

"Chillax, Dorian. I got it right here, oops," Ritom almost dropped it. "Hehe, sorry about that."

Mivangeline wore a blue military skull mask and assembled her laser assault rifle. "Everyone has what they need?"

"Elysia's got her temper tantrum right here!" Enshiron pat Elysia's head.

"What did you just say?" The Vulpi girl growled.

"N-nothing, my lady."

The team walked outside to the carrier top of the condor. The wind blew into their faces as they looked at the purple sunset sky. Their blue owl drones groomed their feathers, waiting for them.

"Shien would've loved the owls," Mivangeline rubbed her owl's shielded head. "They're like barn owls."

"He would've," Oreic stoked his owl's chin. "Ever since he was a baby, Shien's brain goes bananas when he sees a bird."

"Shien calls every bird a cute puffy," Calice burst out laughing as the group climbed onto their owls.

"I wish Isrina would've come along. Maybe there was something else I could do to help her," Mivangeline sighed.

"We did what we could, but she made her choice to stay. It's not your fault," Oreic assured her.

"Testing headsets," Mivangeline checked with Naivern to test the new headset. "Do you copy, Naivern?"

"Loud with a forte, Commander!" Naivern bellowed into everyone's ears.

"Gee whiz, Loud Girl!" Ritom picked his ear. "Turn the volume down!"

"Sorry," She adjusted the communication system. "How about now?"

"Perfect, Naivern!" Mivangeline then turned to the group. "Let's save Shien!"

"Yeah!"

The owls soared into the sky towards Joltiarre's citadel, flying low above the water to avoid detection.

"Uh, can we fly a bit higher?" Ritom looked at the beeping red spheres underwater. "I'm having an anxiety attack being this close!"

Mivangeline shook her head. "No, if we do, the SAMs will blast us into oblivion."

"Those are surface-to-air missiles?" Nashura gulped. "Scary!"

The young adults shuddered at the long jagged rows of missiles that infested the fortress towers.

Soon, the owls landed vertically like nuthatches on the tiled walls.

"Okay, this is it," Mivangeline whispered. "Enshiron, it's time to gain control of the fortress walls."

"Affirmative, Commander," Enshiron nodded.

The Vulpi archer led Calice, Nashura, and their owls up the walls. He peeped above to observe the droid guards that patrolled the SAMs. Enshiron quietly aimed his violin bow at the farthest SAM in sight, firing a wind arrow with his sniper skill. It collided with the missile placement and exploded, causing alarms to sound and panicked droids to assess the damage.

Enshiron and the two girls snuck onto the wall's walkway. As he sniped the missile defenses to scatter the droid patrols, Calice and Nashura would hunt and dwindle their numbers. When more droids marched out of the citadel hangar with barracuda hovertanks, the owl drones joined the fight to help Enshiron and the two girls control the fortress walls.

With the SAMs wrecked, Naivern and Dorian moved the condor warship into enemy territory, bombing the tanks with talon-shaped rockets. The hangars released sailfish enforcer drones to fight against the condor. Amid the diversion, Mivangeline led Ritom, Oreic, and Elysia over the walls toward the citadel's main entrance. After Ritom and Oreic scorched droid patrols with flames, Ritom found a door computer terminal, breaking it open and cutting wires for access.

Ritom plugged the flash drive in and sent Dorian the data. "Did you get it, Dorian?"

Dorian typed into the command center keyboards as Naivern used the condor's flak cannons to destroy the sailfish drones. "Got it! I'm getting the map ready."

When Ritom cracked the metal doors open, the group looked into the white-grided hallway blaring with red alarms. A spacious junction with three passageways greeted them.

"The prison area holding Shien and the Vulpi is on the west tower," Dorian reported as Mivangeline and Elysia shot two droids down.

"How are the Thresher movements?" Mivangeline stepped on a droid's head.

"Jesus Christ, the place is crawling with them," Dorian looked at the radiation clouds. "One is passing from the left passageway of your location."

"We wait for it to pass," Mivangeline told her group.

The four saw a little rat running from the left hallway in vain as a red cloud sped through the poor creature. It zapped the rat into ash and bones.

"What the heck was that?" Elysia cringed.

"That was a Thresher Cloud," Mivangeline then checked with Dorian. "You said west tower?"

"Correct. Head left, and I'll guide you," Dorian assured them.

Mivangeline, Ritom, Elysia, and Master Oreic ran through the dangerous labyrinth of Thresher Clouds, busting through crusader droid patrols. Oreic and Ritom burnt past the Federation forces with fire while Mivangeline and Elysia shot down the cameras and sentry turrets. The four listened carefully to Dorian's instructions for survival.

"That's a dead end. Turn right!"

"Go back! A Thresher is passing there."

"Not that way! They'll box you in!"

"Grr! It isn't fair the clouds cook us and not the droids!" Elysia slashed a droid in half with her machete.

"Uh, guys?" Naivern yelled into their headsets. "We detected a small eagle craft landing behind the citadel walls."

"What? Who are they?" Mivangeline fired her assault rifle at the droids.

"Two people are running out of the craft. One is holding a sniper rifle, and the other has a tuning fork- Oh, my God!" Naivern gasped. "Enshiron! Calice! Nash! You got to stop them!"

***

The chaos happened while Joltiarre dragged an irritated Shien by the hair through the halls to her lab, where she conducted cruel experiments on Vulpi. Kyrinna and Azuroid guarded Joltiarre with the White Death while the explosions angered the High Visionary.

"Who the hell is attacking us?" Joltiarre roared as she checked her tablet to assess the security footage. "Would somebody shut the goddamn alarms off?"

She gnashed her teeth when she saw a skull-masked Mivangeline and Elysia blackening her cameras into static with her assault rifle. "So, that witch wants to save her boyfriend, huh?"

Mivange? Shien saw the footage. The gang is here to save me? God heard my prayer! Thanks be to God.

"White Death with me! I'm going to make sure Mivangeline suffers a painful death!" Joltiarre spat at the royal guards and pushed Shien into Kyrinna. "You and Azuroid take him to my lab."

Kyrinna nodded, holding Shien by the arm as she and Azuroid ran to the lab.

"Let me go! I want to see my friends!" Shien struggled from her grip.

The Countess said nothing but kept running. She and Azuroid stopped at an empty balcony, waiting for a Thresher Cloud to pass.

"Ow! Stupid ice queen!" Shien growled when Kyrinna turned him around. "What do you want? Another stress relief? Are you ever satisfied?"

The eight-foot Azuroid held a fist at Shien.

Kyrinna tapped her bodyguard droid, signaling him to stop. She looked around until she decided it was safe and slashed an icicle claw downward. The Countess cut Shien's neck collar and limb shackles off. Shien looked at his free hands and legs, stretching them after days of brutal confinement.

"You freed me?" Shien massaged his arms. "Why?"

Kyrinna didn't answer but shrugged, unable to communicate in English. After an awkward silence, the Countess pulled Shien down as a triple-bullet salvo breezed past his hair.

"Crap!" Xneong roared in frustration from afar.

"Iku!" Azuroid pushed Kyrinna and Shien behind him as he fired his cryogenic rifle back at the sniper.

Azuroid protected them as the Korean High Envoy ran across the walls.

"Why are those two with him?" Xneong reloaded his triple-barreled rifle. "What a pain in the ass!"

Enshiron snuck behind him and aimed his violin bow but didn't know Xneong's head contained a back camera implant. The camera beeped, alerting Xneong to face his rifle behind him without looking back. When he fired, Enshiron jerked his head barely in time as the three bullets brazed his Vulpi ear. Enshiron ran behind a ruined SAM unit while Xneong hid behind a pile of metal crates. Both snipers took turns exchanging fire and taking cover in deadly combat.

Calice and Nashura intercepted Thalamoid within the exploding courtyard where the condor bombed the droid army. Nashura slashed against her tuning fork scythe while Calice launched lightning in Thalamoid's face. Uninterested in the girls, Thalamoid scratched her tuning fork to stun them with a painful scratching frequency in their ears. She ran off, pummeling crusader droids down with palm strikes.

"Knock! Knock! Little Shien!" Thalamoid rampaged into the citadel. "Your tiny head will soon be off that neck, and Isrina will be mine!"