The Breached Gates of Helidor [End]

[The Bhalian Empire]

[-Continued From- ]

The moment the barrier fell, the battlefield erupted into chaos. A storm of war horns and clashing steel rang through the frozen air as the B’halian forces surged forward, a relentless tide of soldiers spilling into the once-protected streets of Helidor. The city, a bastion of light and prosperity, now stood bare beneath the ominous shadow of its invaders.

Jack strode at the helm of the assault, his ivory hair billowing in the frigid wind, bare feet crunching against the frost-covered ruins of the gate. Behind him, thirty thousand B’halian warriors advanced in tight formations, banners held high, armor glinting beneath the pale sky. Some rode upon war beasts—hulking creatures bred for carnage—while others carried enchanted weapons that had yet to taste the spoils of battle.

His forces were divided into three primary battalions. The Joro Vanguard took the lead, their frontline composed of elite troops wielding enchanted halberds, and reinforced shields. They rode of the back of deadly steady, led by Qalen. The Vulqin Salamanders moved in calculated waves, their hands wreathed in emerald flames as they prepared to unleash destruction upon Helidor’s defenders. And above, the Avian Cyrs—aerial assassins and sharpshooters—slipped in and out of the darkened clouds, already seeking vantage points to eliminate key targets before they could rally resistance.

Jack himself remained unfazed by the grandeur of the invasion. His pale eyes swept over the city’s inner walls, scanning for desperate defenders.

He expected to see the Knights of Helidor, clad in their signature armor, moving with disciplined urgency–dragging wounded comrades from the collapsing gates while archers rushed to their perches along the remaining watchtowers. But they were absent. No, instead the opulent streets of the Kingdom were vacant entirely. A ghost town, void of any sign of life or resistance.

“Lame..” Jack muttered, tilting his head. “With all the stories I've heard, this is the best they could do?”

A messenger clad in B’halian officer garb rode up beside him, his face masked beneath his helmet.

“Commander, the vanguard requests orders. Do we push straight to the palace, or do we burn them out street by street?”

Jack took a moment to respond. His gaze was still scouring the evacuated Kingdom, curious as to where his enemy could have tucked tail and ran to. He knew the Primal Fang didn't die protecting an empty Kingdom.. and then he saw it. Or rather, he felt it.

Tucked in the mountain top, the Headquarters of the Gilded Fang Guild caught his icy gaze. He could sense the same energy that constructed thay incredibly powerful barrier radiating from its walls, though only faintly. The sight instantly returned his devilish smirk.

“Don't bother.. The place is empty.” Jack responded, ice crackling at his fingertips as he flexed his hand in the direction of Guild's HQ. “Someone was smart enough to evacuate the weaklings before the party started.”

“Which means they'll probably send another half assed champion to die in their honor. Boring.. Where's the army of human fools, ready to die for their temporary convictions?!” He said, raking his fingers through his hair, exhaling a plume of frost.

“Ugh.. I don't know why I expected this to be fun. If they fail to confront us within the next fifteen minutes, then I'll just blow up their little sanctuary and we can go home.” He said, folding his arms in disappointment. “Until then, hold position.. Drink some water or whatever it is mortals do.”

The messenger saluted and rode off, his commands swiftly relayed through the ranks.

Then, Jack raised his hand. The temperature dropped sharply, a deep frost spreading from his palm across the broken cobblestone. A frozen mist slithered through the air, creeping past the ruined gate and into the streets of Helidor, a harbinger of the devastation to come.

With a casual flick of his wrist, Jack sent forth a surge of glacial magic, and from the mist, jagged pillars of ice erupted, spearing through buildings and barricades alike. Screams rang out as those who were unable to evacuate were caught in the sudden frost. In a flash,limbs turned to brittle shards before they could even draw their swords.

The invasion had begun in earnest.

And Helidor would not survive the night.

[Kilik]

As they stormed the hollowed streets of Helidor Kilik took her time arriving. Her body gleamed as a fresh set of scales replaced the tarnished ones and those sacrificed in her illusion earlier. As far as her physical went she was right as rain. Nissagro Seadra possesses an incredible healing factor thanks to "Sidra de Seadra". Their bodies produce a film that invigorates cells, encouraging growth and development, it allows the Seadras to recover quickly from most injuries and rejuvenate living cells by coming into contact with them. This bodily fluid was the main reason they were pursued by poachers and one of the greatest impacts of the Chianti Classico and advent that nearly brought her people to extinction.

But now, the tables were turned. As she trekked her squad caught up with her, most notably Hethra. She was never too far away from Kilik in the event her healing factor proved effective. It was rare, but the Sylvan's ability to restore and even transfer naten far outshined what Kilik herself was capable of. Though the Primal Fang proved to be a powerful opponent ultimately she didn't need to use her trump card, something that would've wiped her reserves out instantly. Though Hethra was at her side, the other members of her squad fell back a few feet, she had not just impacted the trust of the B'halian fleet as a whole, but them individually, after just gaining it.

"Ma'am, If I may..."

Kilik responded with silence. Hethra would take a leap of faith and use it as permission to speak freely.

"Was there truly no other way to deal with that opponent?"

"...."

Kilik stopped abruptly which gave Hathra cause to also pause. There was a tinge of timidity in her voice, but stern inquiry as well.

"We came here with the strength of 100,000 members....reduced to less than half that in an instant."

Kilik's eye scurried across the ground Hethra's emotions infiltrated her consciousness. Her feelings, trepidation, and concerns tingling Kilik's skin like a myriad of alarms. Her line of sight traveled to her periphal where Hethra stood.

"I warned them, did I not?"

Kilik's tone was cold, callous, and without feeling, and though this was just a hoax to keep her consciousness unburdened by the weight of her actions she could not release the hold on her pride just yet. Not when they were still walking knee-deep in war. They didn't need to vocalize their disdain for her action, their fear of her power, and the uncertainty of what her continued presence would spell for B'halia. She could sift through the ribbons of their feelings for herself.

"You know...the Mazokou with but an utterance can reduce entire kingdoms to dust, they possess awe-inspiring power that could bring total destruction whenever they go...but they understand something...that I would encourage you to learn captain."

Kilik's eyes zipped over to Hethra like the lashing of a whip. Yet Hethra did not give pause any further, nor did she flinched an ounce. This needed to be said.

"And just what would that be?"

Hethra's own eyes narrowed.

"That to do so would also mean eradicating the people who they are charged with leading. Power alone does not make a King...or queen...what point is there in ruling a kingdom of the dead?"

But to regret her choices, to her would be to dishonor the lives of the fallen. She had to move forward.

"I am not seeking to be anyone's ruler, nor their goddess..."

"But are you seeking to truly be thier ally? Comrade? When we accompanied you on the excursion to the Emerald Groves you showed your ability to fight with integrity...is it because we are not your blood that the lives of B'halian soldiers mean so little to you? Would you have the same callousness if the Zenith decided they no longer served a purpose and destroyed them?"

"...."

"You are very powerful Kilik, after today there won't be a single person on either side of this war that won't be aware of that. But remember, you will have to return to B'halia, and if you want it to ever begin to feel like home, then you need to start acting like it and treating those who entrust themselves to you as they matter... We can handle losing people to the enemy, but having to watch our backs for one who would swear they are a comrade. That...even I don't know if I can stomach..."

"Hethra..."

With a casual flick of his wrist, Jack sent forth a surge of glacial magic, and from the mist, jagged pillars of ice erupted, spearing through buildings and barricades alike. Screams rang out as those who were unable to evacuate were caught in the sudden frost. In a flash,limbs turned to brittle shards before they could even draw their swords.

Her sense regained focus, she noted what Hethra was saying, and she was not entirely wrong. It was not that the lives of the soldiers meant nothing, it was that she yearned for victory, needed it. This road was one paved with the lives of many, but the young Slyvan's speech was not without its merits. Though she refused to lament over those who fell, even she could recognize the futility in a war fought with its commanders recklessly slaying on both sides. Her magic was vast, but her knowledge and experience in war were not. Maybe she needs to be a solo unit? Perhaps there was still much more training she needed before she could aspire for Delion's seat. One is a more efficient method of exerting her magic. For now, she contiued on her blade drawn preparing herself for the next encounter.

[Zolgarious Gilden]

Upon the canvas of the darkened skies did a single stroke of burning light emerge, its creation carving through the bleak clouds like the stroke of an immolated paintbrush. The air above Helidor shimmered, not with not only a rapidly evolving heat but with raw, untamed magic. The B'halian Empire's sleek, crimson airships, bristling with energy weapons, momentarily faltered. For a heartbeat, even the relentless drone of their anti-gravity engines seemed to quiet, replaced by a collective gasp. They were about to witness the impossible. The stroke of crimson spilled open like the maw of a red dragon forcing a tear in the sky and from this gaping rip in space-time the unveiling of an iridescent brightness dwarfing like a living supernova. From the other side of it emerged Aurelia, Queen of Illustalla, the Eternal Sun, the bearer of the Dawn-Flame. She was an ancient being, her face etched with the wisdom and battle hardened poise of countless centuries, yet her eyes blazed with an imperious fire. Her long, crimson hair flowed around her like liquid starlight, and the Dawn-Flame, a swirling vortex of incandescent energy, crackled around her form, radiating heat that warped the very air forcing upon them the gal of an unyielding thirst.

"Fools!"

Her voice, amplified by magic, boomed across the battlefield, silencing even the screams of the wounded.

"Did you truly believe you could defile this realm with your pitiful contraptions? Witness true power, the glory of Illustalla!"

Behind her, a breathtaking spectacle unfolded. The Hi-No-Tori, Aurelia's guard, a small but elite force of 10,000 poured from the rift, a flock of magnificent avian warriors. Their feathers shimmered with every hue of flame, from the soft blush of dawn to the furious crimson of a raging inferno. They moved in perfect formation, their cries echoing like the crackling of a bonfire, before leveling a united assault on the B'halian Empire's avian wing, mechanically clad birds of prey armed with terrifying energy cannons.

The air crackled. Then, the sky erupted.

The Hi-No-Tori unleashed a wave of pure, concentrated fire. A coordinated strike so precise, so devastating, that it devoured the Empire's shields, incinerated the armored plating, and melted the metallic birds into slag. The assault was swift, merciless, and absolute. In a single, cataclysmic burst, half of the B'halian Empire's aerial forces were reduced to burning wreckage, plummeting from the sky like dying stars crashing into the Jo’ro infantry.

Meanwhile, Aurelia had a different target in mind.

Down below, amidst the ruins of a once proud Helidorian metropolis, she spotted him. Jack, his skin a chilling blue, his eyes like chips of glacial ice. He was the architect of the Empire's devastating ice storm, the blizzard that had crippled the city's defenses. His hands, wreathed in frost, were even now summoning another chilling wave.

"So, you are the one responsible for this… mess,"

Aurelia said, her voice dripping with disdain. The Dawn-Flame pulsed around her, intensifying the heat.

"A Frost Elv? I heard your kind of were...snuffed out. You dare deface Helidor with your frozen squalor?"

Aurelia didn't wait for a response. With a flick of her wrist, she unleashed the Dawn-Flame. The ground trembled. The air shimmered. And then, a storm of fire erupted. Not just ordinary fire, but a mystical inferno that consumed everything in its path. It was a swirling vortex of pure, unadulterated magic, a force of creation and destruction intertwined. Ice crumbled and, evaporated leaving barely an iota of mist to remain, metal melted, and the very fabric of reality seemed to bend before the sheer power of Aurelia's blaze sought to engulf him, and whatever infantry that might be behind him in a searing baptism of pure, unbidden power.

Aurelia hovered above the inferno, her eyes narrowed, her expression a mixture of satisfaction and… boredom.

"Such a waste of talent,"

She murmured, her voice barely audible above the roar of the flames.

"If only you had chosen to serve one of my empires and not these spiteful barbarities. I could have taught you true power, true artistry. Ah well, your loss."

She paused, smoothing a wrinkle from her exquisitely embroidered robes. A fleeting expression of vanity flickered across her face. "They will sing songs of this day," she thought to herself, a smile playing on her lips. "Of how Aurelia, Queen of Illustalla, descended from the heavens and single-handedly saved Helidor. And they will be right. After all, who else could have done it with such… panache?"

The war was far from over. The B'halian Empire was vast and powerful. But with the arrival of Aurelia and her Hi-No-Tori, the tide had irrevocably turned. Helidor now had a champion, a blazing star in the encroaching darkness. A champion, perhaps, a little too aware of her own brilliance, a little too fond of the spotlight, but undeniably powerful. And that, for now, was enough.

—————————————————
The air in the city crackled with arcane energy. Aurelia, a whirlwind of scarlet blaze and defiant roars, hammered against the B’halian lines. Her flame magic scorched the earth, buying the more subtle swordsman precious seconds he needed.

He moved with a disturbing quiet, a shadow amongst shadows. Where Aurelia was flame, he was the suffocating silence before the storm. Soldiers, their faces contorted in fear, didn't see him until it was too late. One moment they were alive, steel clashing, the next, their eyes glazed over, their bodies collapsing like puppets with severed strings. Squads, carefully crafted formations of B’halian warriors, melted away like snow in a furnace by Illustalla's blaze whilst several of the Salamander elvs found their innards splatters on the earth, the soil aflame with their blood.

The source of their demise was the long, black katana strapped to his back. Its sheath was a chaotic tapestry of bone talismans, dried herbs, and glowing, intricate runes. They pulsed faintly, whispering a silent struggle against the power contained within. Even sealed, the blade radiated a chilling aura, a void that sucked the hope from the hearts of those nearby. It was a weapon forged for the unseen wars, the battles fought in the realms beyond mortal comprehension, and its presence here promised utter devastation.

Noctila, "the Black," was known throughout Helidor, and whispered in hushed tones of the realms enemies far and near. He was their silent nightmare, the unseen hand that plucked those who threatened the city from existence. Bound to his cursed blade, a paradox of protection and decimation he cleaved through squadrons with unparalleled finesse. He came across the squad headed by the one who killed Kamari, the primal fang.

“Fangs don’t abandon fangs…”

Was his long thought as he prepared to avenge his comrades death. The primal fang was an arrogant brat but he had risked his life more time than either of them could count. His body became wrapped in an opaque blackness that snaked around him like a mist. Like a fading echo did his presence dissipate once more and with speed heard only in legends did he strike down half her squad. Penetrating their tight defenses ,burrowing past their senses. He went to strike at the girl with green eyes seeking to wipe out the leaders line of personal defense leaving only her and he to face each other.

[The Bhalian Empire]

The sky was a churning sea of fire. Where once the B'halian aerial divisions– the Cyr had reigned supreme, Aurelia’s Hi-No-Tori had torn through them like razors through parchment. The avian warriors, wreathed in celestial flame, struck with surgical precision, rending through formations, peeling back armor like the brittle husks of charred wood. Charred feathers and scorched metal descended like hail.

The sky was a churning sea of fire. Where once the B'halian aerial divisions—the Cyr—had reigned supreme, Aurelia’s Hi-No-Tori now carved through them like razors through parchment. Celestial flames wreathed the avian warriors as they struck with surgical precision, tearing through formations, peeling back armor like brittle husks of charred wood. Scorched metal and burning feathers rained from above, the remnants of what had been an unstoppable advance.

And below, the devastation was no less severe.

Aurelia’s inferno devoured the battlefield with merciless fury, swallowing war machines whole. The massive siege engines, designed to tear through fortified cities, found themselves utterly unprepared for a force that cared nothing for steel and stone. Armor plating glowed white-hot before liquefying into molten slag, while ammunition caches detonated in violent succession, shockwaves ripping through the ranks of the Empire’s infantry. The ground quaked under the force of the explosion, the battlefield itself coming apart beneath their feet.

And yet, the B’halian Empire had not risen to power without facing its share of calamity.

At the forefront of the ground assault, the J’oro Elvs were the first to respond. Masters of earth-based Shinjutsu, they wielded the battlefield itself as both weapon and shield. Their connection to stone and mineral ran deeper than blood—it was ancestral, an unbroken lineage of command over the world beneath them.

As the firestorm advanced, the J’oro generals—Qalen among them—thrust their hands into the scorched earth. The land answered.

The battlefield convulsed, then erupted. Towering spires of pure diamond shot up in massive arcs, forming an unbreakable barricade between Aurelia’s inferno and the heart of the B’halian forces. The crystalline walls refracted the raging fire, scattering it into fragmented embers before it could reach the legions behind them.

Qalen pressed a finger to the communicator in his ear, his voice a sharp bark over the chaos.

“Mobilize the Vulqin Salamanders to the front lines—NOW! Before we all burn alive!”

Horn blasts cut through the battlefield—deep, resonant, unwavering. Orders rippled through the ranks like a well-conducted orchestra, and within moments, the earth itself seemed to tremble with the weight of what came next.

From the sea of the Bhalian infantry emerged the Vulqin Salamanders. Thousands of jade-colored titans, their bodies sculpted by eons of volcanic fury, now strode forth like elemental gods of war. Eight feet tall and broad as siege engines, their molten veins pulsed beneath thick, dense hide.

Unlike the B’halian soldiers scrambling to avoid Aurelia’s firestorm, the Vulqin welcomed the flames.

With each breath, they drank the inferno, inhaling fire and heat as if it were sustenance. They pulled the divine blaze from the vortex, allowing it course through their bodies– availing them with renewed power. Even the Hi-No-Tori, beings of raw fire, energy and Naten, were not exempt of being devoured.

–––

Beyond the diamond barriers, outside the safety of the J’oro’s fortifications, one figure stood alone.

Jack.

Unmoving.

Unbothered.

Stray tendrils of Aurelia’s divine vortex lashed toward him, molten ribbons seeking to engulf him in the same fate that had befallen so many others. The ground beneath his feet cracked, the very air howled with heat.

Yet Jack didn’t flinch.

He simply raised a hand. A sound like glass fracturing rippled across the battlefield upon impact with the flames. From his palm surged an unfathomable void—not mere cold, but an absence that devoured heat within a twenty foot perimeter of him.

A single breath curled into frost as the last wisps of fire withered at his feet.

Jack rolled his neck, flexing his fingers as his smirk deepened. Behind him, the Vulqin held the line, their hulking forms absorbing what remained of Aurelia’s onslaught. The B’halian ranks, though momentarily shaken, did not break.

Jack’s icy blue gaze locked onto Aurelia.

“Gotta admit,” he murmured, his tone caught between mockery and genuine disappointment. “I was expecting a bit more.”

Silence fell. His soldiers—some still catching their breath, others gripping their weapons with white-knuckled determination—waited.

Jack smirked. “All that grandstanding, all that fire… and yet, here I stand. Not even a tan.”

He watched Aurelia, radiant in all her divine fury, but Jack was already bored.

His fingers traced an idle pattern in the frozen air. “You people here sure do talk a lot.” Then suddenly, his voice, once playful, turned frigid cold.

“Buuut.. I’m tired of talking.”

Jack placed a finger to his communicator.

“Qalen—order all infantry aside from the Vulqin to fall back. Form a perimeter.. or something. Just make sure you all activate your respirator shields.”

Then, without another word, Jack performed a single Ava.

His eyes began to glow. And for a moment, they searched the corners of his eyes for Kilik's presence. But that was only for a moment. She could take care of herself.. and he believed that the Nissagro would survive what was to come.

So long as they weren't air breathers..

[Kilik]

Kilik’s eyes widened as the very air became singed with the molten flesh of her fellow soldiers. By the masses they were reduced from proud warriors to smoldering memories, experts from the pages of history no longer definable. Jack and a number of platoon members were engulfed in a blazing torrent of flames that was swiftly countered with the Jo’ro exceptional use of the earth . Calling on their ki they erected a barrier of crystal that stabbed off the hellish conflagration. However this was not the only threat.

By the droves salamander fell as they consumed the flaming Queen henchmen their restored vigor Pauling in comparison to the swift registration that carved murals of death in their carves becoming little more than minced cadavers. Half of her own squad gone with barely a whisper of the origin of this macabre assault.

“Fangs don’t abandon fangs…”

But a drop of malice, a single note of bloodlust was the only indication of the foe before her that prompted Kilik to turn. A glint of light reflecting of a singular point the only physical notation of Noct’s presence and by reflex her body ignited with adrenaline with her right hand she countered the blade strike whilst using her left to form a single Ava that would will the scales on her back to create a tail that would fling Hethra out of the way narrow saving her.

“Shit…”

She grunted under the strain of his ohycal power. Was this guy even human? If it wasn’t for her ability to sense the emotions around her they would’ve all be dead just like the others. To think a power like this existed in the hands of mortal men. Kilik parried his strike mustering her dramatic strength to force him back her eyes now trained.

“Hethra, get out of here!”

Hethra who had summoned vines to help cushion the blow of being tossed back stared for a moment, so close to death watching the bodies of her comrades fall like shattered stones around her.

“I…”

Kilik eyes did not leave the man clad in black for a moment but Hethra could fully feel her leaders intention. That when Qalen’s voice came through the communication giving Jacks warning. Kilik activating her respirator shield. It formed a bubble around her head that was transient in form. Kilik nanoscales followed the shape of the bubble, congealing it into a mask that would keep her breathing.

“I can’t worry about protecting you and dealing with this guy. I’ll be fine. You have your orders!”

She would have normally held the priority of saving the wounded. But as Kilik observed the change in the moisture of the environment from scalding to cold she could perceive that Jack was about to unleash a haymaker of his mid own. In the fleeting moments she had she began preparing her own Ki never loosing sight of Noct but not rushing into attacking him. She could tell, even now that he would be her deadliest foe yet.

[Fate I]

The battlefield writhed in chaos—blood, steel, and fire coiling together in a symphony of destruction. Molten ribbons still licked at the air, the acrid scent of scorched earth mingling with the iron tang of spilled blood. The land itself trembled beneath the weight of warring titans, and at the heart of the carnage stood Kilik—a living monolith of the Empire’s brutal ambition.

Her deeds upon the battlefield had already woven her a legend, whispered or cursed by those who witnessed her wrath.

Even those who had never laid eyes upon her knew her name.

And yet, they did not fear her.. They couldn't afford to.

From the smoldering wreckage—where the embers of Aurelia’s celestial wrath still pulsed—nearly five dozen warriors emerged. They did not march in formation, nor did they bear the gilded insignias of highborn legions.

There were no banners to announce their arrival, no fanfare to herald their charge. They moved as creatures of the night, slipping between the lingering shadows of ruin, their footfalls silent, their intent unmistakable. They were the hunters of the Gilded Fangs Den—men and women, elvs and humans who owed their survival to Erigor, warriors who had already chosen to lay down their lives for his cause.

At the vanguard, two figures led the charge.

Aja.

Her feline eyes gleamed in the flickering light of battle, pupils slitted like a prowling predator’s, the stripes upon her skin shifting with every poised movement. She was not merely a sorceress—she was something older, something primal. The blood of a Warg coursed through her veins, lending a lethal grace to her every motion, and it showed in every calculated movement.

Beside her was Cyrus, The Polymorph. His form was a thing in flux, caught between man and beast, sinew shifting as if the very air struggled to decide what he truly was. Even as he ran alongside Aja, his outline distorted, rippling between states—sometimes solid, sometimes a whisper of motion, a warrior forever on the edge of transformation. His silver eyes flicked toward his companion, unreadable, then locked onto the enemy ahead.

No command was needed.

As one, the hunters struck.

Their attack was not the clash of soldiers—it was the whisper of fangs in the dark, the sudden flash of steel before the wound. They fell upon Kilik’s soldiers like specters, slipping through the chaos with the precision of seasoned predators. They were not reinforcements meant to hold the line.

They were hunters.

Aja’s voice rang out over the carnage, a clarion call to those who stood at her back.

“Together! Use their confusion! Strike at their necks! Show them the Fangs of Helidor! Show them what happens to anyone that threaten our home!”

With a single clawed hand, she carved an Ava into the air. The battlefield hummed in response, and the darkness itself seemed to stir—shadows slithered like living things, curling around the enemy ranks, ensnaring them in writhing tendrils of ink-black oblivion. Terror took root before steel could.

Meanwhile, Cyrus vanished.

One moment, he was beside Aja. The next, he was everywhere. A flicker of movement. A blur in the periphery. By the time his enemies saw him, it was too late. His arms twisted, elongating, his flesh hardening into monstrous mallets slick with corrosive ichor. Acid met flesh. Screams followed. Where he struck, bodies withered—bone softened, armor corroded, warriors crumbled like statues left too long in the rain.

And all the while, his path remained clear.

A beeline for Kilik.

"You’re mine!”

They had come to lend their strength to the Nocturnal Fang. They had come because Kamari had fallen. No matter how powerful Kilik was, they could not stand idle. They were not merely warriors. They were a family. A Guild. And they would do whatever it took to give Noct the opening he needed.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Thunder erupted from the clouds, a loud lightless bass that trailed away into the melodic riff that Axel invoked from the electricity that he had supplemented into the atmosphere. The charged particles in the clouds hummed in tune with the ninjas notes until a song of fortification, strength, and unity excited his very blood cells. It took quite a minute of meditation and mediation of voltage to even harmonize the volatile propagation of the biome’s electrical charge below. Truly a wholly different test of his militant tactics, anticipating the beat of attacks and the rhythm of an entire battlefront by the level of charge and mitigation rate that had to be achieved before inevitable failures, through the propagation of the charges of every human heartbeat fighting or otherwise with a machine that threatened to explode itself upon his back should he be distracted from conducting its overloads.

The song itself strummed along the only chords that wouldn’t overstimulate the device but reverberated through its particles creating bonds that allowed the charging voltage to flow freely. Meanwhile his acoustics engineer was putting the finishing touches on the lightning rod mines that he and Axel’s clone placed all around the city. Even allowing him a clearer picture of the situation when it got caught in the breach of the gate and even though Axel did not know the Primal Fang like the others his heart went out to those that did. For it was at this moment that he was the utmost thankful for Kyra, the voltage built in the clouds like the veins of a leaf pulsing in count with his song, fading into obscurity until the next chord switch.

Sitting atop his board above the clouds Axel was in a completely different zone, propped up on his knee the ninja formed an entire book of hand signs even while strumming the strings of guitar, a creative peak. Arcs of seemingly violent voltage leaping from the machinery on his back like it was singing with him, Axel could not give spare any thoughts to what he must have looked like. It wasn’t until the amperage pulsed with his very heartbeat did the trance like awareness of his music, and an unknown light in his eyes, left him, tears replacing them slowly.

”Lightning Release: Kyra’s Fallen Leaf”

Striking the last note flashed the lightning from the clouds, but unlike the natural, it fell slowly, the crackling image of his favorite leaf drifted down as he rocked on his last riff like rolling thunder. His song literally carrying the lightning down, instead of striking anyone, to bolster his brethren with it’s energy, as well as activating every lightning rod in the perimeter of the city with its charge forming a virtual handicap cage match with home field advantage.

Human blood being the harmonizing factor here was the biggest bonus facing the phenomenally racist army that they did, it meant no benefit for them and took little research to conclude. Still he did not mean to leave out his inhuman allies, which was the largest reason for the beautiful battlecry, anyone that was able to be unified by the human call of his battle cry would be overcharged with the electrical energy the generator was propagating from their body. This rendered the machine from a battery to a conduit that led straight to the bypass circuit that was his technique laid upon the city of Helidor. This arbiter also managed the favor of disarming the generator from exploding but came with a pleasant surprise, if not an unpleasant sensation, Axel could feel every charge not harmonized with the generator inside of the boundary of the city. Like a compass going haywire, his mind raced as his senses of the generator went crazy, the opposing forces vying his attention, the untested technique showing its consequences. Positive and negative charges pushing and pulling at his own energy before he let go of the generators influence, losing sight completely.

[Zolgarious Gilden]

Aurelia smug face contorted into a grimace as she watched Hi-No-Tori be consumed by the enemy as if they were mere flickers of a campfire, their life force gone like a light switch. To then out of the corner of her eye witness her blaze being thwarted by a defiance of Crystal. The song of the earth roared valiantly to protect the sniveling frost elv as he connived either the very air dropping his essences trickling upon it. He was congregating power, power that it would be up to her to match.

“My my, I suppose I’ll have to put a bit more…intention into this one.”

In that moment her wings began to glow brightly their tips inscribing her flame upon the space in front of her as if it was a canvas. Noct had arrived and with his coming the departing of of one life after the other a legion of severed limbs and bloody Caracas left in his wake. The girl with the almost lilac hair, one of their other commanding officers had managed to to block a strike from nots blade. That she was able to sense him at all was a feat in and of itself. His anger must have been making him sloppy.

“And if I’m not cautious the very same could happen to me”

She thought as the ancient language of the nameless one became woven in flame creating a litany of dancing glyphs around her. It was then that the other hunters struck true perfect, she thought, as they could hopefully hide her just enough time to do what needed to be done.

”Lightning Release: Kyra’s Fallen Leaf”

Striking the last note flashed the lightning from the clouds, but unlike the natural, it fell slowly, the crackling image of his favorite leaf drifted down as he rocked on his last riff like rolling thunder. His song literally carrying the lightning down, instead of striking anyone, to bolster his brethren with it’s energy, as well as activating every lightning rod in the perimeter of the city with its charge forming a virtual handicap cage match with home field advantage.

Ila myriad of leaf like lightning cracked upon them, her first instinct was to defend but seeing that it was the young man from the briefing earlier she was sure it was a boon instead. As the lightning leaves touched Aurelia their essence embellished her being inspiring within her a charged vigor that would hasten her casting. This arbiter that should have taken time to knead together found itself sculpted with incredible precision and speed. The legion of script plumed within the palm of the Hi-No-Tori Queen’s hand creating a blistering greatsword of the Dawn Flame. Aurelia’s eyes glinted with a sparkling cadence as she entered a stance. It was solid, firm and unyielding she grit her teeth and mustered all that she had into her next strike.

“Sacred Magic…”

The air vibrated with the burning intensity of soon to erupt volcano as the greatsword flared becoming a beacon of passion and smoldering dedication to the protection of this realm. Her magic echoed her sincerity and earnest fervor to see the realm of Helidor thrive for eon to come. The light within the hearts of those who admired the hunters burned brightly. Aurelia would stake her very life on seeing that those light continued to burn! Several leaves fell upon the sword melding Axel electrify song with the mystic hums of the nameless one creating a sonnet of like that of a blazing storm. It crackled with the roar of flame and the Schroeder with the cry of lightning.

“INFALLIBLE PIERCING!!”

The blistering blade of churning celestial flames as thrust forward discharging a compressed beam of condensed light that with astonishing speed accosted jack and those who formed the barrier of crystal before him. In the face of this arbiter the crystal was little more than twinkling earth as the lightning enabled the force to cleave through it like a knife through warm butter engulfing them in a scathing trail of power.

—————-

“Well done…”

Noct said as his form concept lay materialized from the black surprising him. That she was able to counter him at all whilst protecting his target was quite the achievement . He might have been colored impressed if they hand’t been mortal enemies. A notion that brought a sort of coy sadness to his heart, to have to kill such a gorgeous woman was truly disheartening. But after witnessing the extent of her power, a display that had led to the death of one of their strongest hunters…well, needless to say her beauty alone would not serve as proper payment for her crimes. No, only her death, and the death of every invader here could serve as even a portion of the toll they had taken.

“But pains me as it does to draw my blade against such beauty, you have made the most gracious mistake.”

As Cyrus roared noct stepped back shifting his stance to one that Kilik had never witnessed before. His middle finger and index finger formed a Ava in stagnated Taoist tradition.

“You attacked my family….”

He began to recite a series of invocation. Scriptures that began to agitate the black blade he wielded. With each utterance the feeling of dread emanating from the weapon palpated and grew until it became an undeniable force like a pressure of gravity lightly imposing itself around them. The hundreds of sealed upon the blade began to glow and vanish one by one. He had just the plan to slay two birds with one stone. Having not forgotten the frost elv and his enterprise for a moment, should they survive Aurelia that was.

[The Bhalian Empire]

Jack's cobalt eyes, so often dulled with boredom, flickered with something between amusement and utter indifference as he watched Aurelia prepare her attack– bolstered by Axel's unseen influence. Jack could sense him, but only once he began his concert in the clouds above.

Despite his thunderous cadence, a stillness crept over the battlefield, unnatural and absolute as Jack performed a single Ava. The wind, once howling with the cries of war, fell dead. The very air seemed to shudder, heavy with an unseen force as Jack took a deep breath. Causing his eyes to flare with iridescent light.

He did not rush. He did not prepare some grand incantation.

Instead, he simply exhaled.

A long, slow breath drifted past his lips—thin, ghostly, and pale, curling outward like something alive. It did not dissipate. It did not fade. Instead, it spread.

And then the cold came.

Every living thing within its reach felt the encroaching presence of something beyond the biting chill of winter.. a cold beyond the merciless grip of a blizzard. This was something far worse– a cold that did not belong to nature. A suffocating, absolute emptiness..

This was Death.

The moisture in the air froze into a petrifying vapor as the temperature collapsed dramatically below absolute zero.

Reality itself buckled under the impossibility of it. The very concept of heat ceased to exist, and with it, life itself. The first to fall were the unarmored—warriors mid-charge, their lungs filling with air that had turned to brittle frost within them. Their screams died in their throats, choked by the crystallization of their own breath. They did not shiver. They did not even feel the cold. Their bodies simply froze from the inside out, collapsing into statues of ice before shattering like fragile glass.

The ground beneath them followed suit, splintering into a frozen wasteland as Jack’s power consumed all. The walls of Helidor—stone once ancient and unyielding—began to crack and fracture beneath the impossible frost.

And then, even fire itself succumbed.

Aurelia’s inferno—a blast meant to scorch Jack and his forces from existence—roared forward, searing a path through the battlefield. It should have melted everything in its wake. It should have incinerated all.

Instead, it stopped midair.

The flames, so full of fury, flickered once—before their motion ceased altogether. Red and gold petrified into deep blue, the roaring inferno twisted into an ice-born sculpture, frozen solid before it ever reached its target. A glacier now stood where fire had once raged, an impossible monument to Jack’s sheer, unrelenting will.

The soldiers of the Bhalian Empire had long since retreated, forming a careful perimeter around the frozen expanse. Their armor, laced with protective enchantments, their helmets sealed tight with respirators, kept them from suffering the fate of the doomed. They watched in silence, their breath fogging against their visors as Helidor itself fell into an eternal frost.

Jack clicked his tongue, a thin wisp of vapor curling from his lips. “Honestly..”

He said, watching as frozen bodies shattered around him like brittle glass. Naturally, not all of the Bhalian Soldiers were able to evacuate the perimeter.. including the Vulcan Salamanders who were doing their duty defending their unit against Aurelia's blistering onslaught. It was the way of war. But he was more interested in finding Aurelia.. or at least what managed to survive within this hellish tundra.

“..that might have been overkill.. Hey! You still alive, out there!?” He howled into the yawning frost that covered the entirety of the battlefield like a fog. Kilik was perhaps further away from the epicenter of Jack's nuke, but she and the Nocturnal Fang would be at the mercy of this cold as well.

[Kilik]

And then, even fire itself succumbed.

Aurelia’s inferno—a blast meant to scorch Jack and his forces from existence—roared forward, searing a path through the battlefield. It should have melted everything in its wake. It should have incinerated all.

Instead, it stopped midair.

The flames, so full of fury, flickered once—before their motion ceased altogether. Red and gold petrified into deep blue, the roaring inferno twisted into an ice-born sculpture, frozen solid before it ever reached its target. A glacier now stood where fire had once raged, an impossible monument to Jack’s sheer, unrelenting will.

The soldiers of the Bhalian Empire had long since retreated, forming a careful perimeter around the frozen expanse. Their armor, laced with protective enchantments, their helmets sealed tight with respirators, kept them from suffering the fate of the doomed. They watched in silence, their breath fogging against their visors as Helidor itself fell into an eternal frost.

The moment the chill touched the air Kilik could sense the horror about to be unleashed. Her eyes widened as the wispy frost consumed all it attached itself to, a conjuration able to freeze even magical flames. Kilik had severely underestimated Delion praise of the only being to be personally allowed to live by the Zennith himself. Jack's abilities proved to be beyond anything she thought imaginable. Her mind scrambled for ways to survive, the respiratory unit and functions of her armor though potent would do nothing but yield to this unrelenting frost that defied logic. All within this realm would freeze and shatter into oblivion. Fleeing wasn't an option, the hunger for vengeance in Nocts eyes screamed his intention, he fully intended to die for this land today for these hunters. The moment she turned her back he would send his blade betwixt her bones.

"Kilik...there is only one way to survive this"

Kiliks heart sank, she had resolved to use her trump card against the strongest being here, whoever ran this human hovel. However, if she wanted to live through the aftermath of whatever hellish arbitor Jack unleashed she would have to defy the bounds of reality herself, by imposing her own will on the world around her.

"Doing so will lock me in mortal combat with this one, he is strong, and a sinister darkness shrouds his soul."

"Be that as it may, you cannot hope to survive them both, you must choose the lesser of two evils. Do it now, unleash your authority!"

"Dammit"

As the frost encroached upon her Kilik form became ripe with a vibrant cheery blossom gleam, her Ki swaying around her like a myriad of ribbons before it conjoined creating a tapestry of essence. In a fluent motion almost serpentine in nature she struck her stance, the energy coalescing around her as she did so. Her eyes narrowed humming with ancient mystique as the very air rattled in anticipation of her arbitor.

"Severed Authority..."


The veil of reality shattered and her soul realm spilled out into the world. creating a vibrant beacon of pink light that cut through the darkness like a blade only to fall around her like a waterfall.

"Immortal Sanctuary of the Endless Pure Sea"

The cascade created a barrier that engulfed Noct and herself separating them from the material world. This pocket dimension served as an intermediary between Kilik's soul and the tangible realm, yet created a space removed from it rejecting all that were not invited into it. This barrier saved Kilik from being devoured by one maw of death but quite possibly had trapped her face-to-face with another, Her body surged with ancient draconic vigor as the essence of her root coursed. The water clad her body before kneading into crystal. In this realm, she was supreme and would suffer no loss.