Arc 4: What families entail
A boy that ran forward, his parents pulling him forward. His fathers memory is always looking behind. Smiling with a chipped tooth, his black hair rushing behind him, and an Island of friends.
{I can't look back. I can't feel fear. I have to go, just go go go, don't think just RUN!}
A teen running through a courtyard overwhelmed with grief, and even more rage. A man, shielded in Dragon stone, charging forward in a country turned battlefield.
{This is what you've been fighting for your entire life! Not those Pirates! They'll fuel so much rage, but I can push it away, just long enough to know they're alright!}
Eruptions of both force and fire, earth and water. Across the streets from thousands of fleeing civilians screaming and running in mass. From villages and towns clumped together within the clearings and spirit forests. From the cities now all are summoned to war. Most toward the Capital, the only safe haven to be found. The rest finally leave after so much torment. And that man, Edward, ran toward the Capital with them. Not to the Gravestone pirates in the Collisieum, but where he thinks he'd find those closest to him. The heart of the conflict.
Edward {I wonder if you're all really looking after me, because if you're not, there's nobody alive who could save me now. Why does it feel…so scary, but so freeing?}
The mud was running, the world shaking, but it wasn't raining. It did begin to snow, sprinkling over the fires. The hate. Then there were the Spirit Beasts, flying, running, roaring in packs over the Capitals. The Mid-tiers leaping and lunging forward with whatever strength or affect they had, lured by all the mana and chaos. While other packs fled in mass from fear, like various species of Spirit Birds flocking past the snow, away from the hell. He looked forward and saw trees, ones bursting with flame and water crystals, slashed through a few flame wolves chopping toward his neck, swung through the skulls of some Warriors, before hitting a clearing in Athens and repeating the process. Road, look, feel the countries panic, see the many cities surrounded by thick walls. Similar to most of the cities in this world. Walls barley, just barley holding in the horror, while the once white thick stone burst open from flames or pure force.
Edward {I can prove I'm ready. That I'm strong enough to save them, and that I'm strong enough to avenge the others. I'm not losing sight of you Moro, I promise. You just have to wait a second longer, and my wrath will be targeted back toward the Pirates. At full force for missing this chance!}
He ran hard. He ran fiercely. His body still bangaded and screams after his hard battle against one hundred fifty Demi-humans, healing as fast as Gray with his Helsing body, healing slowly right this second. But he accumulated injuries just as slowly. Pushing himself back to the brink. However all he had was his mission, and the Capital far ahead. Out the bushes, out of the forest, and into the air to fall into a short path currently occupied by charging Warriors.
"SHIT!"
They shot before Edward finished landing. Arrows snapped, weak balls of fire fizzling away, while his Dragon stone sword crashed through their wagon. Five Warriors; One was cut in half, another's chest torn open, a third kicked so hard in the stomach he broke against the dirt as he bounced across, a fourth had his skull crashed through, and the last was pulled by the armor off his Spirit Horse.
Edward: "WHERE'S LEO!?"
"Cretan! I think! We're heading to the Capital, please please don't kill me -
Edward: "AND WHERE'S THE GOLDENWIND!? KYOJIN OR THE ELF!? WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WALGONIA SET A BOUNTY ON!?"
"I don't know! Please just go please please!"
A man in his twenties, shaven, bare faced, and broken into tears. The others didn't get a chance. Edward didn't even know their names. But he just acted. For a moment he knew what he did, what he had been doing, before he threw the Warrior back and stole the Spirit Horse. Thinking of his mother and how she taught him to ride them when he was five, away from the bloody crevasse in the woods, out toward the Capital.
Edward {I don't know what I should do, how I should think, but I have a mission. And I'll complete it. Please, just wait for me, be safe, I need you all to be. To know I didn't let you die.}
He aimed forward, gritting his teeth, and allowed the Warriors Spirit to spike. The horse ran along with it, off and on. He had left around the time Rosemary and Soku started heading up the stairs, getting closer and closer as everybody broke and broke. The nearby Coliseum city was shaking, as the Gravestone Pirates clashed fist claws and teeth with blades and magic from the Red Arrows. The largest group of Red Arrows together in Athens, since they were without a massive pillar of strength like the others, allowing them to easily group up and take on the somewhat experienced pirates. Even with the Red Arrows all around, but fueled by hatred, the need to live, and wealth. While the Red Arrows roared and gave more than everything they had, as they were fueled by what felt like the world itself. Or maybe just Athens. As they were both just as strong. A country so small, so young compared to the others, and yet its power may have shined higher than any, and it might go out flashier on top of that.
They pushed forward, to the thousands of prisoners trying not to be slaughtered in the heart of the ruins of the Coliseum. The Red Arrows in Panzer acted to destroy, to destabilize instead. Panzer was now a home for warriors and Elities only, other than the many blacksmiths and few civilians who had mostly left or hidden by this point. Raylice was doing a good job sending out insane strikes, leaving multiple blocks in the relatively small city completely flatted into stone and wooden piles all around the flipped streets. Even if her job was to kill the many Red Arrows, and Garly leading her through the city instead. For Cretan, the act was to remove the Warriors. To take a hold of anything, in case everywhere else failed. The last bastion that was taken from them just a few weeks earlier. Held harshly by a large number of Warriors and Elites who were preparing to clear the many Red Arrows still within the city, and three top Elites all trying to kill Leo right this second. And then there was the Tower of Athens; Edwards destination, a complete deathtrap, the most dangerous place in the country. Not because of Athens, but because Arthur Williams was there.
Raylice is strong enough to kill him, and she definitely could with ease at one point in her life. Lincoln could still do it easily. Leo was about half, maybe more of Arthur's strength. And Kioshi almost killed him with a single stray strike when she was heavily weakened, distracted, and desperate. But right now, Arthur was the strongest player on the battlefield, because he was one of the smartest as well. Once the Dragon Army's leader in Valatroctius, currently the strongest Lower Pillar in the Sect. Outside of this madness and rage, completely in his own head above it all, with a legion below and above stronger than him and far stronger than Athens. The upper floors were carved with battle. The resistance to his decaying black flames. Right now he laughed and laughed, his hand pointed toward a disheveled Toll desperately grasping her arm. Black, broken, fading into the air as ash from the shoulder down.
Arthur: "I must hear too many tales of the other continents, or I'm just too used to Walgonia, cause compared to them you guys seem like a breeze."
Her hair waved over her long, bruised face. One eye swollen, what felt like an entire body broken and bleeding through destroyed armor, and the other staring at the combusting mana against Arthur's palm. The mana in the air burst into flames like small explosions, becoming an almost instant burst. His usual quick fire blast, dense enough to eat away at most weaker people instantly. Or heavily injured people like Toll.
Toll: "I WILL NOT LET YOU MOCK ATHENS -
But with a harsh wave of her only arm she took hold of the air, throwing it aside for the flames to follow. While she moved the rest away with a hefty slam of her hoof.
Toll: "AND DON'T BE STUPID ENOUGH TO THINK I'M ANYTHING COMPARED TO THE LEGENDS OF THIS ONCE GREAT LAND, MY ONCE BEAUTIFUL HOME!"
Arthur: "That's what they all say, just stop whining and get this over with fast, don't make me enjoy this. Because it'll be hell for you."
He gave one final grin before thrusting his arms forward to send out another torrent of flames, compressed into a stronger denser continuous stream. As expected Toll flickered, and appeared through the sky. The flames crashed against the stone walls, through the windows, and came back toward her back like a wave of water. Forcing her to spin and spin, carrying as much force as she could in the short distance between it all, and giving a bicycle kick strong enough to send it all back. Her eyes blank, blood splurging around her, and a wave of air pressure; it was Athens' will at its strongest, fighting even harder at the brink of death than her first strike. The crumbling middle section of the tower was sent crashing down even more, leaving a few of the floors all slamming down a few more floors. Arthur created a sphere of black flames for defense. Only to erupt it and send burning debris all around the pile right below his feet, where Toll punched out of.
Arthur: "I heard of you, the strongest person Athens had left, right? Physically? Y'know since all the people who actually mattered left. Still not bad, you should have left when you could have. Maybe you could have done more. Too bad. I almost don't wanna burn you."
Toll: "I…can't believe you call yourself a king!?"
Flames poured out of his feet for him to sit mid-air. Acting and posing like some child, even as more stone crashed all around, along with a waterfall of Warriors,Elites, and servants breaking themselves from the fall.
Arthur: "Saga made me King of Walgonia, but I just do what I want to do, and whatever I think I should do. That's how everybody should live shouldn't they!?"
He didn't speak or think like an Anarchist. Many joined because they agreed, even if they hate how the Sect acted. However it was obvious Arthur was one of the many extreme cases commonly found taking refuge in their ranks. A man with too much power, and too much time cursing the world. Trained by the strongest Absolute Fire user in the world, Cornelius Cromwell the Third, the Mad King himself for the last twenty years. One of the reasons he had such fine control over his fire, even if he didn't like to show it. Now he was charging the density of his heat mid-sentence. Then, when Toll bit down and forced another attack out of her decaying body, he ignited. Swirling a thick burst of fire into a tight charged just head, raining down a rapid fire blast of fire as it spun round and round. Of course Toll had to move. So she pinballed toward the tall stone walls and jumped in between the shattered Tower. Inhaling inhaling. Focusing, to her body, to the world around her. Like Lincoln told her years ago, like the stories of grand Demi-human fighters in the Southern Islands. To use their technique, one has to begin mastering in a land with full knowledge of it, and survive the Red Dragons might. Picking up enough pressure through her constant leaps and swipes to push the weak flames away.
Arthur: "Lame I had to fight you after you ran outta gas, this coulda been more fun! Been a while since I've had an even match in this world! Always a million times stronger or a million times weaker! But I'm more of a goldilocks guy!"
she almost reached him in a few moments, in time for Arthur to slam his hands and send a plume of darkness along with it. A full lockdown with both sides of the many broken floors engulfed completely. So Toll used her building momentum and kicked. Kicked as hard as she could. Finally exhaling as she did, to let out all her inner strength any way she could. Arthur managed to pull back a wave of tight fire to become a surprisingly dense wall, but the torrent of immense pressure paid no mind. The attack left her leg imobile, left her screaming, left her body riveting, and sent out an all encompassing blast. Throwing the building fire under her around and away, while everything in front shattered upward.
A large blast, almost like a tornado for just a second. Something that would make Lincoln impressed. Carving through the dense stone, the many sets of armor, the Warriors hanging on for dear life, the paintings of Athens history. Before all of the Black Flames went up with it to erode it all away. Arthur was sent flying through the floors not yet broken open, while Toll began to soar. Falling and falling, to an abyss of burning rubble.
Toll {Im sorry…}
She fell, fell, fell. Looking out the many holes in the wall, the shattered windows, at a fearful capital. Small skirmishes, fleeing people, and many refugees from the nearby towns and villages. The result of the war all over, coming to the heart of it all. The pillar of which was internally broken, may soon be burnt down, atop a destroyed dungeon filled with fleeing Red Arrows. The people of Athens looked up in horror, with hope bleeding into the gutters, as their great Tower continued to combust in battle. Sending out large shakes, screams, and wind force. The same paralyzing, almost childlike look of defiance. Your entire body curling, standing on end, opening up. As your entire world flips in in front of you.
Toll {If I only worked harder, used my time with Lincoln and the other Demi-humans to be better, and now I can't even protect my own people when they need me the most. Curse this damn wor…no…I curse myself, to a deserved resting I'm Eclis.}
Down and down, the black flames went with her to the bottom. They didn't stack, instead they ate away at themselves, until even the fire began to fade under her long fall. However, from the home Arthur made with his body, came a ball of blazing black fire. Arthur himself rocketed through the air with a massive smile on his face. From the hole, down the castle, and face to face with Toll in two seconds.
Arthur: "SHAME WE DIDN'T HAVE A BETTER FIGHT!"
A hefty strike across the face, accompanied by a burst of all the fire on his body. Throwing it all out like a small bomb. Toll used whatever she had left to guard, but with deep burns over her body and the ground quickly approaching, she could only survive. Her body was tough enough to resist the fire while it ate away at themselves, taking a lot of her armor with it. So many cuts, broken or fractured bones, deep burns, an entire left arm scorched away. And now dense piles of rubble smashing against her back when she hit the floor. Hardly breathing, hardly alive, and hardly conscious. Staring up with only pain keeping her awake, while Arthur began to charge the final blow.
Arthur: "Maybe I'll test something new on you, to make this moment more special."
He stood on the edge of a broken floor, summoning a massive wave of heat in an instant. Before another man at the edge a few floors up acted as well.
Beauregard: "STOP IT DAMMIT! DON'T DESTROY THE ENTIRE TOWER! DON'T KILL EVERYBODY HERE!"
Arthur: "EH!? I'm doing more than you ever have in fifteen minutes!"
Arthur looked up at Beauregard, shaking face. One so mad it looked like he was gonna cry. But then he saw Ceasar walking up beside him, triggering a deep smile.
Arthur: "You know the deal. You took it right?"
Arthur stood taller, forcing Beauregard back, his eyes panicky jotting between Caesar and Arthur. Caesar quickly seeped into the shattered tower, past the fire and stone through a stairwell. Leaving Devil and Devil to shout atop Toll's shattered body. The only life around being the remnants of Dragon Stone armor filled with ash, the only thing to survive Arthur's fire after the Elities, Warriors, and servants got caught in the cross fire.
Arthur: "Either you take Control of Athens, or Athens ends. And you don't have much time to decide. If the Red Arrows claim or attempt to claim victory, you all still lose."
Toll's ear flickered. At what she could barely hear of Arthur's words, and the powerful steps rushing behind. Arthur felt it too, but didn't act, just smiling and letting Beauregard watch. Until Arthur's entire body shocked itself with surprise.
Rosemary {I WON'T LET THIS BE YOUR END! I WON'T LET ANOTHER HERO DIE ON MY WATCH!}
Her mind and Arthur's mind raced with the same memories. Of Kioshis last stand, of Musashi's sudden appearance to save their lives. Of how easily Ophelia got burnt away. Fueling Arthur's bloodlust, seeing something he actually feels something for. Rosemary was instead pushed farther than she could manage, to survive the horrific fear within of the Dragon above her, and what she's risking. The other Warriors and Elities were arriving from around the tower, a good number still near the dungeon fighting Red Arrows, and a mass already broken or dead. Yet Rosemary moved faster than them all, bursting forward with the Fourth Stage all throughout her body.
Arthur: "FINALY!!!"
Arthur lifted his hand with a massive plume of dark fire. Sending it down in an instant, while even smaller eruptions within worked to speed its descent. Still Rosemary moved slightly faster, kicking off the ground to grab Toll, spinning against the broken floor to get the large Toll on her back, and blasted back toward the stairwell she entered from.
Toll: "...kid?"
Rosemary moved and moved without a single conative thought. The smell of Toll's burnt flesh, the terrifying sight of her body, the sick feeling in her gut she got from seeing her destroyed arm, nothing more than texture to the orchestra of battle. Sounds of shaking, of screams, of battle and magic under, behind and beside. Through the walls and floors, through the country. And right behind her, as the Dragons roar followed Arthurs piling fire. He didn't chase, he just let Beauregard watch as he did exactly as Beauregard asked. Nothing. So Beauregard could watch his grip on Athens slip instantly.
Arthur: "I'd like to go get her, and her friends. Nice to not have to give out a bounty, especially after you tried to scam me. Not telling me they're here, and still working with me? Dirty Beauregard, really dirty."
Beauregard was forced onto his knees gripping his legs. Even if Athens was stronger than the Red Arrows, had more people, had more ground, resources, everything, it seemed like the battle really could go either way. The King was unable to lift a finger. Most rulers and lords of the land in this world weren't fighters, but nobles. However a lot of those noble families came to be because they survived the constant wars with that strength, along with the accumulated wealth and territory. Especially for Athens, where the King was generally the strongest person in the country. But Beauregard was weaker than the average Warrior in every way. Left with the tools and weapons of Athens past strongest, unable to use them at all without destroying himself.
Beauregard {If I'm going to lose either way…maybe it is better to die, and leave the Athens I want here. NO! If I die they'll do it wrong, they'll make their own Athens! Nobody under me truly sides with me! Calgary just wants money, Ursa fame, and Crevasse is just some bounty hunter! A Dirty Elf that could never rule my home! DAMMIT DAMMIT WHAT DO I DO!?}
Under his breakdown Arthur sent out a stream of thick, wide fire, continuously building down the stairwell as Rosemary ran like hell.
Rosemary {I've got to get back to Gray! I can't leave, I can't just burst outta wall! I can't leave anybody behind dammit! First Soku, then I should see Julius, then take Gray and escape through the dungeon! Just go go go! After wasting so much time trapped in that cell, I can do something for once! I can save them! All of them!}
Control control. Hold the torrent of burning pressure that was the Fourth Stage. Almost crawling wall to wall like a pinball down the stairs. Smashing over and through small groups of Warriors before fire came bursting behind. Always following her, always getting closer, while she rocketed like a Golden flare away. The soul light in the consuming darkness. Toll was thrown all around, aching in pain every second, but she held on to Rosemary, to her life with all she had, while Rosemary did everything else.
Rosemary {WHERE IS -
Her eyes lit up past her absolute concentration for a second to find Soku surrounded by some defeated Warriors. She barely reacted before she was already being thrown into action by Rosemary.
Rosemary: "GO! ARTHUR'S FIRE IS RIGHT BEHIND US! TO THE DUNGEON, TO GRAY! THE TUNNELS ARE THE ONLY WAY WE CAN SAFELY ESCAPE!"
But that dungeon was almost empty of Red Arrows. Most of them are already gone, the rest still coming from the small skirmishes on the stairwells, past Julius and Gray's unconscious body.
Time moved so quickly it felt like a dream. The sun was going to rise soon, Edward had been traveling for a while, and the battles for the other cities were reaching their peaks. And even if it wasn't over, they wouldn't be able to recover the mass loss of forces on either side before this war ended. Its top Pillars on all sides mortally wounded or in for a long recovery. Crevasse's stone body was cracking, but everything considered he was doing pretty well for himself. Crushing Red Arrow skulls over and over while they struggled to defend. A few Demi-humans landed some mighty blows enough to stun and temporarily break through. Soon to fall anyway. The Gravestone Pirates held their ground, the Warriors and Elites held their ground, but the mass amount of Red Arrows was never ending. All moving toward the heart of the city, what has become the largest prison in Athens.
Panzer was destroying itself from the inside out, the battle soon to come to an end. But for the Red Arrows leader? The city of Cretan, once the heart of the Red Arrows and their largest standing territory? It was in the air for how long it would last. It just depended on if Leo Valentine had the will power, the might, and the resilience to push forward with all the vectors, and survive to tell the tale. Like a true Valentine would. The closest thing Athens had to a Helsing, Cromwell, or Voria after the original tribes left.
Kacy: "Stay back now won't you!?"
Her Mark was surging with pain, her left arm completely limp, but she still summoned large forces of flames and wind to rain down against Cretan. Taking puffs of her pipe in between. Even if her attacks surrounded the middle of the long city, it had stretched pretty far. Large boulders blocking streets or sitting in houses, flames spreading all around, against the many fighters and civilians down below. The docks rushed with small and slightly large ships to escape, as the many Dragon Stone Gates trapped them inside.
And Leo flew right under the core. His armor and skin slashed by arrows struggling to get past his thick veil of lightning. Under the snow he jumped building to building to circle the large towers, toward the largest. To escape the wind clad Olivia he broke into the office, forced to swing his spear and expel a vast surge of electricity. Against, around, through all the Warriors and the Elites guarding what had recently become their main base in the city. They were lifted, scorched, boiled, and thrown against each other into the thick white stone wall behind them. Through the few columns passing all the way up the tower, some through the wall itself.
Leo {I've wasted so much time on this, I need to help my Red Arrows, I have to finish them as fast as possible!}
Filled with an almost rage like drive, he expelled a burst of lighting large enough to burn him before he pulled it all back in around himself. For that second, he had enough charge to shoot through multiple floors. His spear aimed upward to break all the dense stone before coming out like a meteor on the very top of the office. The building itself got slightly shorter as it went up around the few other towers, while the top was flat, it had stone walls around it like a room with open doorways, and a roof where Kacy stood. The Spirit mana in the air was mostly used up, her body was giving out, her mana was basically nothing, her Mark felt like it was sizzling away, and there was Leo Valantine roaring with lightning.
Kacy: "FUC -
Kacy was instantly met with a mighty jab across the face. It sent out a powerful electric burst of force around them, cracking the stone along with her bones, before sliding to the edge of the tower. Her head jumbled and crashed with waves, while her face bore blood with her burned body. Bearguards strongest magical fighter, the strongest Mark left in Athens, quite the strong mark at that. And after it all it only took him one good punch to take her down, before a volley of Arrows rose from the edge. Drawing away from Kacy as fast as she was defeated.
Olivia: "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
Leo waved his hands around in a quick motion to create a small dome of bright yellow lighting, only to send it out indiscriminately. Pushing away the many arrows and keeping the Wind coated Warrior away. Oliva ran and ran, holding out her wand, while Ena created a small power seal of earth on the ground. Like a mouth it opened, chomping down all around to force him a bit lower through the stone before he was forced to clash with Olivia. With his back toward the ground and his face staring up at the snowing sky he instantly jerked around to counter blade with spear. Again, side, low, side, back up step step step parry parry thrust, and she went into the air before kicking back off his face. Using the wind to send him back, send herself back, and repel herself off the collapsing stone right against his spear once again.
Her skin was tearing open. Her eyes are going dead with energy. Her face without care. Just will, pressure, and whatever mana she had left all blowing out. Without the strength necessary to let Leo breathe for even a second.
Olivia: "EL-GISNAI!"
As a massive influx of wind tore into her blade it shattered, compressed, before fading away within an even larger blade of wind. It expanded, it stretched, and it burst right through the stone above right before she brought it down. The weight was unbelievable, the sickness she felt from the rest of her mana vanishing was unbearable, but the idea of having to retreat from Cretan was so so much worse. Even if she was strong, even if she had minor noble standing, she was a woman in Athens. Not just Athens, but Bearguards changed and shifted Athens. Were prejudice and hatred reins, were only your blessings at birth could carry you through. If the attack erupted the top of the building would have surely been blown off. Leo was blown away, or left with heavy injuries if he took it head on. So he didn't. He took her down instead. A finger gun, albeit he didn't really know it was a finger fun exactly, but he still made one with two fingers. Throwing out as much lightning as he could around his body, flowing it all toward the contact of his finger. Condensing the storm of power, before letting it all out as a focused shot. Roaring like a true lightning bolt, moving like one, curving before snapping through Olivia. His control with his Mark at levels of an Absolute Affinity of Lightning. The only one in existence, since Lightning wasn't an affinity you could be born with. And every Mark of providence was different, even if it's just slightly.
The lighting flickered brighter than ever before, his Mark screaming out with tight thick shocks of pain, however it was enough. It was enough to blast against Olivia, to spread through her and the enormous blade of wind, to knock her out in an instant. Past the dense and blessed armor, past her body and through Cretan. Before everything was forced off the top of the tower like half a small landslide, off into the abyss of the air. Her arms flung all around while her body drizzled blood over her many, many deep burns. Unable to feel anything at all. Falling down to constant hell, along with all the fire and magma brought by Kacy.
Olivia {...You're kidding…right…? Great Dragon?}
Leo managed to see her for a second before Ena came swinging through the streets with a chain attached higher up. Snagging Olivia with Kacy already around her back, before heading down toward a handful of wagons filled with Warriors and Elites. Mostly injured, all leaving. The outer walls were forced open, the gates unlocked, and while the Warriors and Red Arrows were even. Beginning to finally force them all away. It was their will, the fear, the need to survive. The fact they all cared about their own needs, instead of the battle. A bad thing, not at all, but bad to win a war? This kind of war? Definitely.
Leo {We…we're winning! We're actually pushing them back!}
A smile on his beaten face formed against the warzone, the destroyed landscape, the crushed city of Cretan like it was in perfect condition. Before looking behind him, past the small towers and walls, past the trees and grass. At the tall tower in the far, far distance. The Capitals Tower. Where so much of his hopes lay. The rest with Garly as she faced Raylice.
Frank: "I smell Red Arrows!"
He sounded drunk, with an Elixir pouring down his throat. He was hardly awake, covered in bruises, holding a dislocated arm given to him by Toll. Yet he had his arms ready, his veins bursting with a greenish glow, his skin peeling away due to the fire mana he was taking in. Ready for action and accompanied by some Elities. The Warriors on the castle were decimated, so many of its forces now bodies in the dungeon, bodies spread throughout the tower, or burned to ash by getting near Arthur's attacks. The Capital itself was now the safest place for the Warriors over all, but the Tower had taken a massive blow to some of its strongest ranks, even if none were Top stand outs. Just people strong enough to hold on and keep going.
Frank: "Eh?"
But Frank had led a large force together as he ran from Toll and Arthur. Behind him Soku and Rosemary shook the Tower running away, but with so many tall floors, so many Warriors in the way, they just couldn't reach him. As Frank took around a hundred or so soldiers back into the Dungeon, where all the Red Arrows escaped to. Where Julius and Gray remained, and where Rosemary and Soku were heading. And yet, Julius was gone. With Gray on his back charging through the tunnels the second he sensed their power.
Gray: ".... -
Gray moved his head against Julius' stern back, shaking with each rapid step Julius took through the drain tunnels. With so many Red Arrows ahead, behind, and still coming, all he could do was run. And then he felt Gray breathe. Forcing him to stop and stand in the small pool of water beneath his feet and simply listen. His eyes still closed, his smile still present, but behind it all, he was thinking. Not like he always did. He was thinking that maybe, he was making the wrong choice for once. Leave Gray, leave him. He's broken, he's kinda heavy. He could be useless when he wakes up, he could just explode himself again, he could get in the way of Julius surviving. He had the same face when his brothers were torched, he had the same face through the beatings. Right now his body was whittling down, he was starving, and now he was fighting the urge to turn around. Why? Why would he do such a thing? Fight to the death, no, past death like Toll. Run away from your life long mission at the chance of reaching a hand toward your friends like Edward. Fighting the same losing battle for four years with a confident roar like Leo. Stand with so much strength as a weakling and still push on like you're better like Bearguard. He was Julius. Julius Cromwell. You're born alone, crying, confused, and you die that way. It's how long you last, how much you understand, how much you change in between. That's life for the pink haired prince.
And then he changed his face to one of true confusion. His eyes still closed, but his demeanor finally dropped. Even if it was just for a few seconds, it seemed like an eternity to somebody seemingly so far detached from it all. Simply holding Gray's bruised, bandaged, quivering arm for an answer.
Julius: "To run, to save Kyojin and myself for a chance. Or let him leave, and run back to save the others. Which would result in an absolute victory? Which would end well at all?"
The most obvious answer was the easiest one. To leave Athens, and go back to Valatroctius. His life forever changed in a night even if he didn't care, thrown into the position as prince. And two months with people he's never met? How could that change anything? How could it change the obvious?
Julius {Mhp.}
Then he saw the ring they gave him. Walgonia's crest, the only crest, the only color aligned with any country of Saga. Not the Purple and silver of Ravoria, not the Red, Gold, and Black of Valatroctius, nor the Blue, white, and light silver of Walgonia. Julius, the Monocle of Alfheilm still over his right eye (as it's impossible to use another person's weapon of Alfheilm without permission), and that damn ring.
Julius {They saved me at the Capital, they showed me Walgonia's secret Leviathan Camp, and Rosemary allowed me to be freed and escape captivity. If I want to be absolved of any true debt, I must act, then I will be free to decide without any burdens once again. And I must not return to Valatroctius a failure.}
The tunnels shook from the last of the soldiers' strength. Flames, water, small bursts of ice, upturning stone in small waves between the thick crowd. Frank Will led with his fists like a hulking beast, leaping to crush multiple Red Arrows while coating them in the fire mana he was taking in. Sending out strikes strong enough to pass through the average human Red Arrow, and take down the average Demi-human. The mix of Elixirs boosted everything, but every second he got a bit heavier. Slower. Angerier. Sweatier. Slugging and struggling, but getting stronger and stronger, before guzzling another Elixir to give him a flash of stamina. One of the last vials he had, glowing a bright white before that same color flared within his veins. Overpowered and mixed within the strange green, red, and blue mix under a powerful aura of defensive, offensive, reactive affects, and sheer fire power.
Right about to be at the dungeon was Rosemary, about to enter the dungeon's second massive battle of the night. But the fourth stage was finally too much, and left her slamming into the white stone wall lining the wide staircase. Against a painting of Mount Yelira, sliding down to her knees while Soku slid against the carpet in front of her.
Soku: "We can't stop now! I hear battle, so we have to push through it, out the drain! This time I'll make sure you follow!"
Rosemary: "I…I can't!"
Soku tried to lift the Toll of Rosemary, but she was far too heavy, and Soku's wounds were finally becoming too much. The injuries, the constant movement, and the blood loss had her insanely light headed. But Rosemary had been struggling for weeks in this hell, under Calgary, under this new Athens. Starved, beaten, almost killed, and now her muscles felt like they were gonna melt if she activated her stages again.
Soku: "Too many people have died or almost died for us to stop because we might feel some pain! Look at Toll, look at her arm!"
Her Mark surged as she threw her arm forward, sending out a shotgun-like torrent of wind that further cut her right arm. Shredding the sleeve of the already torn coat, before shredding a wall of black fire heading down the steps. Just a small wall she pushed away though, and they didn't feel Arthur. It seemed for some reason he left them alone. Smiling out at a collapsing Athens, thinking of how fun it will be when they eventually try and take back Walgonia from him after this battle ends.
Soku: "Sitting here is death anyway!"
Rosemary had tears of pain, of rage swelling, but they disappeared the second she felt something disgusting. An aura of thick corruption, of dense mana, of something dangerous. Feeling some footsteps calm enough to have them both instantly on edge. A powerful Warrior? Arthur? A member of the Sect with him? Or just a smiling man with a smile on his face and his hands in his pockets.
Caesar: "Come on, we didn't go all day!"
All of the commotion forced Rosemary to stand, along with the small back up of Spartans with Cesar. But Toll needed to be held by Caesar and Soku if she wanted to move. Even if they looked like they were dying, pulling her down the last few flights, becoming a dense dark stone in a moment, before a few Warriors charged with their blades drawn. Where Rosemary entered the third second stage to do a standing long jump right over their heads. Soku immediately kicked a burst of wind toward their legs to throw them off, setting up Rosemary. Leaping off the wall she landed against, forced two of her fingers into the fourth stage, and let off a pressurized shock that sent them all slamming into the stone. Taking two of her fingers with it, red cut and broken. Before she clenched that fist and continued leading the charge down the last set of stairs, at the broken open dungeon filled with even more Warriors. And saw one pink haired prince proudly jumping, sliding, and smiling while his stolen rapier slipped through the vents and throats of any soldier ahead. Her mind is solely on one thing: Where is Gray, and if he's here, how could I have left him to die.
Caesar: "There you guys are!"
Some of the last Spartans still alive in the Tower arrived behind them, mostly Demi-human in their torn white robes. One holding Peter in their large paw.
"We found this kid trying to hide from some Elites."
Peter: "We made it! Now we're Gray!?"
Soku: "You were supposed to stay behind!"
Peter: "I didn't want to just sit around and watch!"
Rosemary: "You're right! So we have to move, now!"
Her face, her body, her will, powered by adrenaline and the need to save Gray. Causing everybody to focus, from fear and need, before the strongest stood proudly. Her fists raised, her legs spread, and her stages ready to flare.
Rosemary: "GO!"
They were ready. But Gray? Gray had been handed off by Julius to a group of Spartans and Red Arrows. Completely unconscious, moving through the tunnels into the sewers, strangely away from the Red Arrows base. Gray didn't know what was happening, and the Cloak was suppressed, but somebody within took enough interest to turn her ear.
Azalea: "Isn't that interesting…I guess even I didn't know everything about Prometheus' plans."
Gray's body was thrown against the stone. Laying under small shots of magic, roars of Demi-humans, and constant loss of life. Red Arrows, Spartans, and something else within them. Using blades, claws, anything, to tear through them before they could even turn around. Hit, stabbed, thrown from the back, before small bursts of magic pushed them further. It ended with bodies spooled through the old sewers, sliding against the thick sludge for water. The only surviving members being to ones who caused it, muttering out a single line before yet another monster took charge.
"We finally got you."
He had chosen to go into the sewers because that's where the Red Arrows seemed to take refuge. In Cretans mining tunnels, in any tunnels, but he found somebody he was indeed looking for. But not at all what he was expecting. Still he slaughtered the few people standing with ease before they even got a word out, so he could take his friend to real safety, unknowingly leaving all of his other ones to what may be certain death.
Edward: "Come on Gray, I'll get you outta here, I've saved one of you at least!"
Edward had arrived, the battle for the Tower was past its Climax and into the encore, and the battles for Athens cities were soon to end. The Warriors and Elites were slowly retreating back to the Capital from Cretan, the Coliseum city's hold of prisoners was soon to be broken through, and if the battle of Panzer continued for even a day longer it would be flattened. Athens was so, so close to its end. But every living soul inside was gonna push that due date forward until nobody was left. Until Athens was nothing but burnt rubble. Pushing toward the unknown, fully confident in one thing. Their ideals.