The battle for the Solaris begins with a total solar eclipse.
We're all flying upward in formation, and my jaw falls slack as I gaze up at the awe inspiring cosmic darkness. The lone black eye, impossibly huge, glares down upon us with a blazing corona of orange and yellow, dyeing the clouds a darker shade of gray as everything loses its vibrance and saturation. I cannot fathom how something like this could happen with such perfect timing until I remember who I'm carrying on my back.
Umbra giggles. "She blinded me. Now I've blinded her."
I stick close with my squadron, blurting out, "What does that even mean?"
"She cannot see us. The moon is obstructing her view of the lower Heavens. The light may be shining, but we are effectively dancing in the dark, my love. All the better for quietly stifling these paltry and insignificant embers in our way. The Cathedral you destroyed will fall once and for all, as will every single one of her meager soldiers who dares defend it, and she will not be able to witness the unprecedented devastation we reave upon these infernal clouds."
I huff a quick breath, catching sight of the shadows diving from on high, coming right for us. "Paltry? Insignificant? Meager? Hells, Umbsy, that's a little out of touch, isn't it? We're about to fight nearly every Fable, Radiant, Valorant, and Lesser Legend in the Heavens all at once."
"Yes. We are." She grumbles a low sound. "Damn you, Bast. You're right. Intentionally withholding myself from stepping in risks the lives of my people. I will protect the five of you and every other Wretch under my wings."
Hells. She's joining the fight.
"Ha-hah!" Alabaster blares, twisting a sharp corkscrew as we continue to climb. "Let no soul be without the will-breaking primal fear of death! You pious, fanatical fucking drakes! Shock and awe! The Goddess of the Dark flies with us!"
"I love you, Crimsy," Umbra soothes, kissing my neck. "You've never witnessed my true might. It will be ugly. I want you to know, sincerely, the depths of the power I wield. Solely for the purposes of understanding the extent to which I am capable of protecting you. I pray that you won't think any less of me…"
"Never," I exhale, watching the enemy draw closer and closer. "I could never. I love you. Please. Protect us, Umbra. Please. I believe in you."
"Then watch closely. For me."
She hooks her talons into the serrations of my spine to leap off my back then vanishes into a cloud of black ink-like smoke, just the same as when Graves dashes through shadow. We all continue flying higher, leaving the stain of midnight paint behind to emulsify with torpor. The enemy is incoming. Fast. They have the advantage of diving from above. In this initial clash, they're going to hit us much harder than the inverse. Though I know Umbra will be here very soon, I careen a little more to my right to hide behind Alabaster.
The titanic dragons are falling.
I'm able to make out their details now.
I can see their wings. Their faces.
Then, their eyes.
They close the distance in a heartbeat.
They're going to hit us before I can blink.
Red wine and midnight. Blood and obsidian. A beast of impossible proportions rips the sky in half as it passes us from below. The primordial dragon makes Nyth look like a fucking doll. Her rose petal wings extend from horizon to horizon. Her tail drags on for leagues and fathoms. Her individual dorsal plates are bigger than I am. As the Goddess of the Dark takes to the eclipsed sky, I remember the time she told me that she could become so massive that she could crush all of Avi in one set of claws.
Shock and awe. Shock and awe.
No, that doesn't even describe it.
I can hardly comprehend what I'm seeing.
The heavenly draconids who were diving toward us are caught completely unsuspecting. When her wings collide with them, they vanish. Their bodies pass through the webbing and come out the other side as nothing more than a thick rain of red rose petals fluttering from above.
They're gone.
The titans, the wyverns, the quetzals, all of them.
They're just fucking gone.
As if they never existed in the first place.
"Hells," I whisper to myself, flapping my wings to maintain altitude. All of us have come to a stop in our advance, which is no longer even remotely necessary. The enemy is no more. There's simply nobody left to fight. "She's… She's incredible…"
Nobody else says anything. Even Haunt looks just as slackjawed as I feel. I'm half expecting cheers or praise or some kind of revelous excitement that the battle is won, but the Heavens are quiet, save for the wind. The petals fall like bloodied snow all around us, twisting and turning in the breeze as they drift down toward Avi.
One of them lands right on my nose.
I don't know what to do. So I go after her.
It's like an ant trying to catch up to a horse. Thankfully, she circles back around and slips through more black smoke to come out the other side at a much more reasonable size, though still magnitudes larger than me. I'm not sure how she knows where I am, but she dives straight toward me. When we reach each other, we invert and twist so that we're face to face, wings out to stop our momentum as we curl inward as if we're forming our own corona ring.
"Hello," she purrs, pumping her rosy wings to keep her level with me. The sleek, slender, and agile red dragon before me uses the same sharp whisper Umbra always speaks with, and there's a curl to her milky white eyes reminiscent of a smile. "Are you afraid of me now?"
"I don't know." Landing atop her head and splaying myself out to get comfortable, I snicker, "Should I be? Do you want me to be?"
"Perhaps just enough to be thrilling…"
"In that case, I'm very afraid of you."
"Excellent." She titters some more, turning to her head. "There's more to come. That was only the first wave, and Aurora is fighting against me as we speak. Stay close. Very close. Promise me, Crimson."
"I promise, Umbra. I'm not going anywhere. Only ever far enough to protect you, if necessary."
"Oh? You, such a tiny thing, are going to protect me?"
"Yes! Aggressively!"
"Very well then, my little hero. I feel safer already." With that, she dives a short distance and we rejoin the others. "Haunt, sound the order to find cover and stay in formation. We're holding this position in case of a second wave. Not for long. If nothing comes, we'll attempt to bait them out."
"Understood," the mighty white-yellow kirin says with a lowered head. "And what then?"
"Then?" Umbra growls a low sound. "Then we confront the rest. Rather than requesting their surrender, this time we will be demanding it."
"They may be afraid of you now."
"And I will make use of their fear."
The silence hangs like a guillotine.
Haunt turns to give the orders without another word.
I don't suspect Aurora would extend the same mercy.
My Goddess is good indeed.
This fight is far from over. It's merely a break in the rain. Umbra may have erased the vanguard, but something tells me we've yet to face the worst of what the lower Heavens have in store for us. If a second wave comes, I expect it will be with the full brunt of their forces crashing against us all at once. And Umbra's power is undeniable, but without knowing the full extent of it, I'm not so certain it will be quite as smooth and effortless the second time around.
As she circles above our forces, I begin to wonder.
How many more will have to die before this is over?
I can only pray our losses on this side are minimal.
And yet that simple thought rings as nothing short of naive.