Chapter 18: War front

Clover had devised a plan before we had arrived, and it was a simple one, defend the kingdom while a small attack party goes for Onyx. Camps were set up as no signs of attack came from Onyx or his troops,

“ It seems hes waiting for the sun to rise before laying siege on the kingdom,” says Winter,

“ Aurum is it possible for you to mobilize the Treasure kingdoms army?” Winter asks Aurum, who upon being asked looked rather embarrassed, “ Due to the damage caused by the Treasure kingdoms army back during the eclipsed treasure war, my grandmother was forced to dismantle what remained of it on part of the treaty signed between the three kingdoms. So the only real fighting force the kingdom had was my grandmother and now, me. So I guess you already have my kingdoms army,” Cass turns aside to cover his face, I assume to try and cover the fact that he is on the verge of laughing which warranted Aurum to throw whatever was near her at him, before this could escalate any further Winter apologies and concludes the meeting. In the end a plan was discussed, everyone was sent back to rest up before the coming battle, I obviously couldn’t sleep. I lay there as I await sleep to overtake me, the next time I come to is with the alarms blaring and the sound of people running around me, it seemed I had slept and fortunately woken in time for the battle. By the time I had made it out the fighting had already started, abyss soldiers clashing with Luminos soldiers painted the field in front of me, I make my way to Cass who had been standing not too far ahead cutting down any abyssal that tries to make a run for the castle, “It seems everything is going well so far, no sign of Onyx or his champions though,” Cass reports, after carefully scanning the field I was able to spot the Clover, Winter, and the other Commander, they had positioned themselves in spots and acted as rally points, they were to make sure nothing escaped past them. The battle had started not long ago but it was clear that Onyx would not come out on his own, we would need to drag him out or go looking for him, the best we could do for now was to cut down and defend. It had already reached mid day and both sides seemed to have sustained a handful of casualties, thanks to Aurum and Clover the bigger enemies posed no problem, thanks to their magic and skill they were able to cut them down with ease, spikes of ice and metal littered the left half of the battle, off to the far right lightning can be partially seen sparking through the hordes of enemies, from what Cass had told me last night that was Councilman Akira, in terms of strength she ranked 4th out of the seven. Despite cutting down numerous abyssals, it doesn’t look any have fallen, the sun would set as the two parties retreat to rest. Despite being slaves to Onyx there bodies still need regular rest, otherwise we’d be screwed. I make my way to Winters tent where the others had gathered to discuss what had happened and the plan for tomorrow, “ Onyx seemed to have deployed his entire army here cause I cut down like a hundred and they seemed to replace them in an instant,” Cass says, the others had similar experiences, our plan was to remain on defense and push back against the abyssal, Aurum reported that the new Shadow Queen would be sending reinforcements to aid in the battle, the meeting ended there. The next day started the same as the last, with the help of the shadow army we continued to push back against abyssals with the only difference being their numbers were a lot smaller than yesterdays, something was wrong I just couldn’t tell why, “ They have some kind of plan I just can’t figure out what,” Aurum says joining me, she had cut through the abyssals to reach me, leaving a straight line that went through the enemy allowing some Luminos soldiers to push further, however their plan would be made obvious to everyone when the sky is ripped open and a loud hum echoes the field, followed by a giant dark green structure materializing itself into the sky, I had no idea what that was but Aurum probably did considering how she looks horrified at the mere sight of it. The thing touches down a little west of Onyx’s castle, it was made up of the same material as the time cave and the spear, the bottom half of the thing opens up and pitch black humanoid creatures emerge from it… it was a ship of Chaos…these things might be on the same level as the emissary, maybe even stronger. Aurum makes a bee line to the front line before anyone else can make contact with the chaos minions and erects a spike wall of a goldish white metal to keep them back for now, she would then turn her focus onto ship itself, thrusting her hands into air the pure light greatsword emerges from the ground and is thrusted at the ship only to get stopped mid air by an invisible barrier. Cass had gone in from around the spike wall and began cutting down the chaos minions, darting from one spot to the next his azure blade would shred anything that stood in his way, Aurum would join him after resubmerging the greatsword, “ Maintain your positions, Cass and Queen Aurum will handle the chaos minions everyone else focus on keeping the abyssal from the city!” Winter orders over the comms, he was also yelling so loud that practically everyone heard him, I cut my way to where the minions of chaos were at. Cass and Aurum were cutting down an endless swarm of these things and yet they just keep coming, and any attack made against the structure itself would be bounced off against its seemingly indestructible shield, “ This would be a lot easier if we could just sever the ascenders connection to these things!” Aurum yelled while cutting down anything in her line of sight. Some of the minions were able to slip past Cass and Aurum I cut down, these things have around half the strength of the emissary, but they were easier to deal with. Cass plants his sword into the ground and leans on it as he eyes the structure like he was admiring it, “ I have a method of taking it out, but it’ll hurt,” he announces as the other council member joins us, Akira, even though she was on the other side of the field, Cass gives her a slight nod and she seemed to have understood as she nods back. Akira pulls me back a bit to give Cass more space, around him were symbols that would strike anything that got to close to it with a bluish white lightning, in that time Cass would summon the veridiant only this time it crawled all the way up and onto his chest, he sways to the side before regaining his footing, staying within in the circle, and in that instant he swiped his hand across the structure ripping out all the space his hand had passed over, negating the shield and successful cutting the ascender off, and in that same instance a strong bolt of lightning struck Cass and when it was over the veridiant was no longer attached to him. Akira helps Cass back to the tents as the second day is drawn to an end, Aurum and I stayed back to clean up the rest of the minions while everyone else made their way back. The moon was bright and visible by the time we had finished, I head back to Winters tent to hear what the others had to say about the events that unfolded today, “ The voidless ascender has made its intentions clear after what happened today, after all these years it decides to declare war now means we have to prepare for threats beyond Onyx. Tomorrow we end this, be ready,” Winter commands, Cass wasn’t here for that meeting, he was most likely resting. I too would rest, this time Im able to fall asleep and have strange dreams, yay. Only this time I was only placed in one of the many locations, the endless sea and this time a bright sky, whoever this was wasn’t me, their right arm had a similar gauntlet as the emperors only this guy had two and one had a faint purple glow in between the lines, almost as if the persons hand had turned that shade of purple, above the water the hazy image of a person appears as they dip their arm into the depths, reaching out to save whoever I am, but before they can reach I awaken. The third day had begun with our side being pushed back thanks to the sudden appearance of the Chaos factions yesterday, we had lost more people than we realized, regardless Cass and Aurum were working harder to keep their side from falling, “Everything is ready, get in position so we may proceed,” granny orders, the second part of the plan was ready, I make my way toward Onyx’s castle grounds cutting down anything that gets in my way. The enemy density between me and the castle was ridiculous, who knew Onyx had so many troops lying in wait! Cass had managed to catch up to while I had barely made any distance, fortunately we had Cass and his affinity, he was able to cut down tens of abyssals in an instant, off to the left rows of ice spikes burst from the ground piercing and freezing the surrounding abyssals, Clover was drawing closer to the castle. “ Are you sure your ok? You seemed to have used a bit of energy yesterday?” I ask Cass, he was using his affinity so casually as if he hadn’t just cut through a super powerful entities ship yesterday, “ Im fine, a little rest was all I needed, “ he claims, “ but the only way to get through would be one large attack to wipe out a majority of these guys, maybe a combined attack would do, “ Cass explains, a combined attack is when two affinities are pooled together to form one attack, depending on the affinities it can be deadly, in our case it would be combining void energy and darkness. In order to get the most out of this attack we pushed deeper into the enemy horde, ignoring the cuts inflicted we reach a good spot to begin, creating a combined attack was simple, we had to pool our energies into one center. In a matter of seconds we had formed a sphere of energy, and without thinking much about what exactly to do with it, released it, in the form of a killer shockwave covering a good distance, splitting all the abyssals caught in it in half. Now the way forward was clear we were able to step onto the castle grounds, once everyone had made it Cass informs granny and the entire castle is encased in a wall of light, nothing on the outer side of the barrier was able to enter. Forming in the sky was a large magic circle, capturing the entire area, in an instant the area outside is engulfed in light and when it subsides the scenery of war was no longer there, replaced with the vast emptiness of space, looming in behind the castle is NEST, granny had transported the entire castle, including its grounds, back to its original positioning, to prevent any of the soldiers from interrupting. All we had to do was find Onyx, and end the war.