Chapter 141: The Sky Fell
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The invisible pressure kept crushing them all.
Then a cracking sound echoed out. One that made Arthur slowly look upward and see the rocky ceiling above the city was beginning to form fractures. It wasn’t just one but hundreds of them were spreading outward from a single point like glass.
Every eye followed them, and nobody understood.
Another crack.
Then another.
The entire cavern ceiling began fracturing.
Near the breach, one Goblin tried speaking but nothing came out. His throat refused to move. It felt as though invisible fingers were squeezing everyone’s neck.
Sun forced himself to swallow. "What," he managed.
Even Kong couldn’t screech.
His entire body trembled violently, every strand of fur standing on end, his pupils shrinking until they were almost invisible. He instinctively reached for Sun, then stopped. Something inside him screamed.
Run.
Run.
RUN.
His claws dug into the stone beneath his feet so hard that cracks spread across the wall. He wanted to protect Sun. He wanted to protect everyone. But his instincts were stronger. Every part of him believed staying here meant death.
Sun had never seen Kong like this. Not during the Beast Siege. Not against when the town-sized boulder came crashing down. And not even when they had to take on the Titan Boulder Ape Chief.
This fearless monkey was now shivering in fright.
This time... He couldn’t even remember Sun was there.
Mithra’s hand tightened around Kusa. She had never felt fear like this.
Far across Dawn...
Vedas’s breathing was uneven, his golden fingers slowly tightening around his sword. "...Again."
His body refused to move.
It felt so similar to what happened to him in the past. It was like when he was on the way to the Pathfinder Academy. He recalled that familiar feeling of being so small that the thing above could crush him as if he was an ant.
Then Vedas slowly closed his eyes.
One breath.
Then another.
When they opened again, the fear remained.
The city simply watched and waited.
Then, craaaaaaaaack!!
One enormous section of the cavern ceiling collapsed. It struck another. Then another like a mountain collapsing into another mountain. The fractures spread faster and faster, until the entire cavern ceiling gave way.
CRAAAAAAAAAAASH!!
Entire cliffs broke apart and mountains of stone fell together.
The sky itself had collapsed.
The city erupted into panic, except nobody could move, their instincts completely locking their bodies in place.
The Goblins could only watch death fall.
One Goblin mother instinctively reached toward her child.
Her hand stopped halfway.
Tears streamed down her face as she couldn’t even pull her own child closer. She could only watch the mountain descend.
...
Arthur’s body moved before he even thought. He jumped. His feet left the ground.
Arthur froze for half a heartbeat. "I..."
He turned to see Leon was already running, and then he glanced across toward the City Wall and could vaguely make out Mithra sprinting across the rooftops.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "The pressure... It only affected the Beasts and not us humans." Which meant only he and the others could destroy the falling rubble before it hurt the Goblins around them.
Above the city, Athy had completely lost control. Her wings beat wildly, not to fight but to flee, and she shot toward the broken ceiling without even realizing it.
"No!"
Arthur immediately chased after her. Leon understood instantly, golden flames erupting beneath his feet.
[Dragon Dash].
Arthur caught Athy’s tiny body.
But then she struggled and she kicked, even pecking at him. Her entire body shook uncontrollably.
"No! No..." The normally calm owl couldn’t even think, her instincts shattered.
Leon landed beside Arthur and, without a word, gently placed both hands over Athy’s wings, keeping her from hurting herself.
Arthur held her tightly against his chest. "It’s okay. You’re safe. You’ve got us."
For several long seconds, Athy couldn’t hear him. Then her trembling slowly weakened, and she buried her face into Arthur’s shirt.
Still shaking.
Still terrified.
But no longer trying to escape.
Arthur gently stroked the feathers on top of her helmet. "...It’s alright." He smiled. "You already saved everyone once today. You don’t have to carry everything alone."
"Arthur... Is that really fine?"
"Of course." He gently rested Athy down and caressed her head beneath her golden helmet. "Stay here, everything will be fine."
Athy nodded weakly.
Arthur then rushed out and launched upward.
[Armor Piercing].
Entire boulders exploded. Leon activated [Dragon Dash], golden fire tearing through falling mountains of rock.
Arthur noticed something below. The golden barriers Vedas had created still protected the civilians huddled beneath them, and he sighed with relief. Then he realized buildings scattered throughout districts he couldn’t see from here still held thousands of Goblins. He didn’t know which ones.
He couldn’t save everyone.
He gritted his teeth, and then golden lines illuminated along the street beneath him, Athena’s voice echoing through them from the throne room, far across the city.
"I know where they are! Follow my instructions!"
...
Athena’s eyes darted across thousands of golden lines as every glowing point represented another life.
Another family.
Another building.
Another falling mountain.
She didn’t hesitate. "Arthur! Third Street!"
"Then another, which is two buildings to your left!"
"Another one is with the blue roof!"
Arthur didn’t even look and kept following her words.
BOOOOOOM!!
His spear shattered the falling cliff only meters above the rooftop.
"Leon!"
"Marketplace!"
"North side!"
"NOW!"
Leon disappeared.
Golden fire exploded upward, and the collapsing mountain split apart before reaching the homes below.
After that she quickly moved to Mithra and Sun at the walls.
"Mithra! Behind you!"
She turned without thinking and with one slash. An entire section of rock split cleanly in half.
Sun laughed despite everything. "Hahaha! We’ve got eyes everywhere!"
Athena ignored him. "Mithra, above Sun!" She rushed over before the blade slashed out and tore the rubble apart, and Sun chuckled before rushing to the next set of boulders.
...
As they continued taking out the rubbles.
One boulder stopped.
Arthur blinked before he glanced to see another one was stopping. Then soon thousands of mountains simply hung there without any sound or movement.
Only impossible stillness.
Arthur slowly lowered Dusk. "...That’s impossible."
Leon stopped beside him. Even Athena forgot to breathe.
Then one stone slowly rose and then another.
Soon every floating boulder began rising, slowly, back toward the sky. Nobody understood. Thousands, millions of stones began spinning, round and round, faster, faster, until an enormous hurricane made entirely of rubble appeared above the city, visible from every district at once.
Then black clouds began pouring from the massive hole in the cavern ceiling, mixing with the rubble, lightning crackling within them.
Arthur stared blankly from where he stood with Leon, far from the breach. "No," he said. "It can’t be."
The first lightning bolt fell.
Not toward the city but toward the outskirts, near where Mithra and Sun still stood frozen at the breach. Twenty Beasts instantly became ash. No corpses remained. Only black marks scorched into the earth.
Arthur’s pupils shrank and then another bolt rushed down before another district disappeared.
Leon looked confused. "Arthur?"
Arthur didn’t answer, his breathing uneven.
Athena heard it through the golden lines connecting them all. "Arthur? Are you alright?"
Arthur slowly whispered, "It’s the same."
The city and the mountains disappeared.
For one second, he wasn’t in the ancient city anymore but back on the wyvern convoy with Mithra, Vedas, and Melo, other Wyvern Convoys around them and a sea of lightning outside.
Then the image sped up.
Falling Wyverns. Screaming students. Burning carriages. That same pressure. Those same clouds.
Arthur slightly frowned as he continued staring upward. "The convoy," he said. "This is the thing that attacked us on the way to Pathfinder Academy."
Leon froze beside him. "What?"
Arthur nodded. "It’s back."
...
At the breach, Sun immediately heard Arthur’s words carried through the golden lines beneath his feet, his eyes widening. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THAT THING?!"
Mithra, standing beside him, slowly nodded. She remembered the lightning, the pressure, the destruction. "We’re in serious trouble," she said.
Sun hugged himself. "You don’t think—"
Before he finished, the pressure disappeared. Instantly.
Every Beast that was in the Beast Siege ran.
One Stonehorn Behemoth suddenly roared, not in challenge, in terror, then turned and ran. A Titan Boulder Ape shoved three Fire Lizards aside trying to escape first. Crystal Serpents abandoned their wounded. Thunderbirds slammed into one another trying to reach the broken ceiling.
Some Beasts even threw themselves against the cavern walls trying to climb.
Nothing mattered anymore. The army no longer existed. Only panic remained.
Titan Boulder Apes leaped over each other.
Crystal Serpents crushed smaller Beasts underfoot.
Fire Lizards ignored everything in their path.
Thunderbirds slammed into each other trying to escape.
The entire Beast Army had completely collapsed at the breach. Unfortunately the Goblins panicked too. Children cried and Hunters began backing away before some tried fleeing through the breach itself.
Mithra immediately rushed to block them. "No!" she shouted.
But then something enormous crashed through the breach and into the Goblins running toward it, sending them flying into the air before they landed on the ground, groaning. Mithra blinked before seeing Mephistopheles stagger forward, his wings dragging across the ground.
Every breath came in ragged gasps.
Sweat dripped from his scales.
Golden blood ran from between his claws.
He looked toward the sky and his pupils trembled. "...It."
He tried taking another step and his legs gave out, and the mighty dragon collapsed onto one knee. For the first time since arriving in this ancient city, Mephistopheles looked afraid.
A Goblin paused for a moment. "Even... even dragons are afraid?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody wanted to.
Mithra immediately rushed over and placed one hand against his neck. "It’s okay." She wasn’t sure whether she was comforting him or herself. Without looking away from the sky, she gently rubbed beneath one of his horns. "We’re still alive, it’s okay... We’re going to figure this out."
Sun meanwhile struggled with Kong, who desperately climbed the wall trying to escape.
He literally grabbed his tail. "KONG! STOP!"
Kong kept climbing.
Sun smacked him repeatedly. "COME BACK!"
It would have been comedic if the sky above them wasn’t tearing itself apart.
Melo landed near the breach and then froze. Her ears flattened, her paws shook, and the illusion she had been maintaining disappeared completely.
"No..." She knew this feeling and she remembered the convoy. She remembered hiding behind Vedas while the lightning swallowed the sky. For the first time since evolving, she wanted to run, her breathing becoming uneven.
Then she looked toward the Goblins.
Children crying.
Hunters shaking.
Even Kong trying to climb away.
Her lips slowly tightened. "...No. If I panic, everyone else will too."
She took one deep breath and then another. Then golden mist quietly spread from her body, and the frightened Goblins slowly began calming.
Melo herself was still shaking, but she smiled anyway. "It’s okay." "We’re all still here."
Then she rushed out in her true form, her illusion spreading. Rather than tricking enemies, she calmed allies, soft golden mist settling the trembling Goblins one by one, and the panic slowly disappeared.
Mithra slowly looked upward and she froze.
The clouds rolled.
Lightning flashed.
Then two enormous blue eyes slowly opened. They didn’t blink or move and simply looked down.
The gigantic blue eyes slowly swept across the battlefield. It wasn’t searching or even trying to judge them, it was simply watching them all. And then for one quick moment, Arthur felt those eyes stop on him, his entire body turning cold.
Then they moved on.
Arthur finally breathed again. "...It knows we’re here."
Athena gasped. "It’s—"
Lightning erupted, hundreds of bolts descending near the breach. Beasts near every exit instantly died. The remaining Beasts desperately stopped running, some sliding across the ground, others crashing into one another.
Nobody dared move toward the exits anymore.
Far away, near the district where Arthur and Leon still stood, he slowly remembered something. His face changed. "Yasha," he whispered.
Leon turned. "What?"
Arthur whispered, "It’s the same thing. The thing inside Yasha’s memories."
He recalled the moments before Yasha’s death as she shouted for the Yan Tribe to run away. She faced a terrifying thing that was covered in a storm. It was truly unbelievable the being that Yasha face so many years ago was the same one to appear over the Convoy.
Inside the throne room, Athena slowly realized it too, her voice carrying urgently through the golden lines to wherever Arthur stood. "You’re right," she said. "Why is it here?"
Arthur immediately forced himself to think. Fear later. Solutions now.
He shouted through the golden lines, his voice reaching Athena across the entire distance of the city. "Athena! Tell me! Did Halburn leave anything else?!"
Silence. One second. Two. Three.
Arthur’s fists tightened. Leon kept watching the sky beside him. Nobody breathed, anywhere in Dawn.
Finally Athena’s voice returned. "There is," she said.
Arthur’s eyes ignited. "Tell me! How?!"
Athena quickly read from the ancient text spread before her in the throne room. "We need everyone together," she said.
Arthur nodded, though she couldn’t see him. "What else?"
Another pause. Athena’s voice became uncertain. "And we need Eden."
Arthur blinked. Eden slowly peeked out from inside Arthur’s shirt, pointing at herself. "Me?"
In the throne room, Athena looked back toward the ancient text, her hands trembling. "It says Eden is the key," she said. Another pause, then she slowly finished reading. "To activate Dawn’s final defense. A defense capable of protecting the kingdom, even against Gold Rank enemies."
Silence stretched across the golden lines connecting every corner of the city.
Arthur slowly looked toward Eden. Eden blinked back at him.
The black clouds continued growing overhead, visible from every district at once, lightning illuminating the gigantic blue eyes hidden inside.
Eden slowly looked upward.
The enormous blue eyes looked back. For one impossible moment, Arthur had a terrifying feeling...
That whatever existed inside those clouds, already knew exactly who Eden was.