Unbound

"Broken grace…”

Vess couldn’t tear her eyes off of the Supreme Elemental.

It dominated the battlefield, its presence goading the Dwarven armies to greater heights as the Legion quailed. Lava geysers scoured the jungle, decimating entire battalions before they could escape. Wards burst, overwhelmed by the sheer weight of fire and earth Mana, and the Dwarves advanced.

The lines were breaking.

All was not lost, however.

Already, her commanders were moving. Harn, Evie, and all the rest were getting the Legionnaires out of the way, taking on the Dwarves where they would cause the most impact. Silver axes and cold chains beat the Ironclads back, while explosive charges rerouted the seeping lava through impromptu trenches.

All of it was beyond Vess’ calculations. She hadn’t anticipated the Rimefang Holds joining the fight, and Volantris was too much for any of them to face. Yet that didn’t change her goal.

Vess set her jaw. No matter the enemies before them, great or small, there was still only one pathway to victory.

It seems we must show our hand, Yin.

Her Companion roared into the blood-dyed night. “Stormlord’s Legion! Advance!”

Volantris stomped its crab-like leg down, silencing Yin’s roar. The earth jumped, nearly throwing Vess from her feet, as crimson light spilled through cracks in its limb.

A stream of Dawnbreath speared out of the jungle, carving across the Elemental’s leg and forcing it to pull back. Yin ascended, his Body gleaming like the rising sun—and he wasn’t alone. Chimeras soared in his wake, throwing their Skills against the stone-crusted mountain, while Spears fired from the Dragoons on their backs. Weapon and spell tore into the volcano’s side, cutting against the Ironclads, Golems, and Elementals that took shelter there. They died to Spear and storm.

Dawnbreath reaped its due as well, carving deep lines into the volcano's side. The Supreme Elemental did not so much as shudder at the injury. Dwarfed by the volcano’s size, they were nothing more than insects. Its wretched lava face didn’t so much as glance their way, leaving them to the Dwarves that swarmed its surface.

Yet, given time, even insects could take down a Dragon.

"Core Manifestation!" Ondine called from among the Chimera, her multi-colored wings spreading wide. "Queen's Distortion!"

Lines of incandescent power speared out of the woman and into a pair of Guardian Beasts that had flown around the Elemental. The lines continued, carrying through them and into another pair, then again, and again—until the entire volcano was surrounded by a circle of cold radiance.

Ondine reached out. “Level Twenty: Break!”

Beneath Volcantris, the world cracked.

The barrier between the Corporeal and Void split like layers of glass, one after the other under a dark, textureless black spread out into the unnatural night. Ondine’s power skewered its edges, defining its shape around the Supreme Elemental as the trees and flowing lava vanished. The ground itself gave way, dropping first one then another leg of the Elemental into the black.

Refutation! Hold, Bedrock!

The volcano’s mighty Will clashed against Ondine’s Core Manifestation. It sparked against the incandescent lines and the Chimera who held them. Fire followed, bursts of liquid heat that consumed three wyverns before they fell. The lines snapped, and the Void sealed off.

Ondine screamed, her own flight arrested as her Manifestation recoiled like a tensioned cable. She dropped from the sky.

“We have you!” Thalgrym swooped into the princess’ path, and Vess’ father snatched her from the air, hugging her close as the heavens blackened with smoke.

None Of You Are Him!

Lava jettisoned in every direction, great waterfalls that poured from the Elemental’s rim and flowed off its six immense legs.

Devourer Of My Kin!

Bring Me The Fiend!

The Supreme Elemental took a single step and crushed the Legion’s forces. Frost Giants hurled ice in its way, but it all melted instantaneously before they evaporated themselves. Skill after Skill proved fruitless to defend against the creature's might, until it crashed into headlong into chitin barriers backed by purple-gold telekinesis.

“Sound the retreat!” Vess commanded, her Spears killing the Dwarves around her. They were no threat, not compared to Volcantris. “Get them out of there!”

The walls held. They clung to the Elemental’s legs, crawling up them and anchoring to its joints with spikes that drove into its rough stone. Somewhere, Beef was struggling mightily, because Vess could hear a ragged gasp as the Elemental broke through it anyway. Elowen’s telekinetic backup or no, the walls fell—but it had given their people time enough to flee.

The Supreme Elemental couldn’t be defeated. Not like this.

Yin! Wake them!

I am trying! They sleep like the dead!

Vess turned, her Spears clearing the Corrupted away from her once again. They burst into showers of black ichor, but it wasn’t enough to hide her target.

Sixth Imperator Ar’Vahn. Puppet of Marzul.

Gabby was close, but she was fighting against a pile of Elementals that weighed down her every movement. They clung to her like parasites, their mighty Mana slamming into her golden plates with relentless force. Vess blanched. Had she been in the same situation, she would have perished long ago.

“Draconic Legacy!”

Focusing, she drew only upon the speed of her Skill—and its wings. Lifelike wings sprouted from her shoulders, and Vess blurred forward. Ten of her Spears followed, crashing into the Elementals around Gabby and sinking to the hilt.

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“Break!”

Her Spears shattered, the storm of energy within them unfurling into electrical explosions. They tore through ten of Gabby’s foes, and the woman roared as the weight was reduced. Vess grinned as she passed, confident the woman would handle the rest herself.

She had other business.

“Cataclysm Array!” Vess’ Spears reappeared, but this time they joined into three separate Spears. Each was twice the size of a normal Spear, slower to fly but that didn’t matter. The first hit the ranks of Corrupted around Ar’Vahn, killing four at once, while the second and third struck the Imperator’s Elemental mount.

“Break!”

They exploded again. The Corrupted vanished beneath a deluge of lightning, and the mount screeched like stone tumbling down a mountain, a hole the size of a wagon wheel torn through its chest. It fell back, bucking Ar’Vahn off before it collapsed.

The Dwarf stumbled, rolling to his feet, as more of that black ichor bled from between the plates of his orichalcum armor. He swung his hammer, the ghostly fire clearing the remains of his mount as Vess landed a dozen strides away.

Marzul laughed through his teeth. "I'm pleasantly surprised to see that you survived."

“No you are not.” Vess rushed in, glaive thrusting for the Dwarf’s chest.

Ar’Vahn batted the strike away with his burning hammer before closing the distance. Twice more, the Imperator puppet attacked, his movements clean and quick despite the ichor that flung from every swing. Vess danced back, her footwork struggling to maintain distance.

“You haven’t even risen to Grandmaster yet.” Ar’Vahn sneered at her, but it was Marzul behind those eyes. “What makes you think you can face me now?”

The hammer snaked out, attempting to hook the back of her leg with its rear spike. Vess kicked back, dodging even as her Spears dropped from above.

Ar’Vahn shouted, caught off guard by the rain of weaponry, and jerked to a sudden stop. The Spears sparked against his orichalcum armor, unable to penetrate, but they fenced him in and prevented movement.

“Break!”

When the lightning cleared, Vess’ scowl deepened. Though the ground had been chewed away, Ar’Vahn stood practically unharmed beneath a shell of Divine darkness.

“How nostalgic,” Marzul crooned through him. “This reminds me of when you scurried behind your Omen Door. Protected by the System itself. Hah!” The Dwarf’s teeth were stained black now. “Now it is you who cannot break through.”

Vess adjusted her grip on her glaive. “The Omen Door barely stopped you. What makes you think I cannot do the same?”

Ar’Vahn started walking, his short legs pacing in a circle that Vess matched. “Such intensity in those eyes. You want to murder me, don’t you?” Ar’Vahn laughed. “When you fled into your Door, I was a Paragon at the cusp of greatness. You were nothing. You’re still nothing.”

Ar’Vahn zipped forward, nothing more than an afterimage of shadow as his hammer smashed against Vess' shoulder. Ghostly flame burned her, bypassing her armor in a bloom of deadly heat, before the puppet hit her in the gut. Vess folded but threw herself forward into a roll, dodging free of the Dwarf’s lesser reach.

“Break!”

More Spears exploded around the Dwarf. Not to damage, but to blind. The Imperator screamed in frustration as he clawed through the storm.

Vess met him with her glaive. It flashed forward ceaselessly, fending off blows that aimed to take off her head or legs, as much as seeking out Ar’Vahn’s. Sparks and ichor flew, a midnight ooze lit by the clash of arcanite blade and ghostflame. She burned her Agility and Strength with every strike, her footwork twisting her around the Dwarf at range, constantly maintaining distance that the puppet tried to close. She struck him dozens of times, but the Dwarf never slowed. Shadow patched up any piece of itself that became visibly wounded.

The same couldn’t be said for her.

Warning!

Your Health Has Dropped To 35%!

Warning!

Your Stamina Has Dropped To 25%!

Ghostflame beat back her glaive, nearly hurling it from her grip and driving Vess to her rear. She was flagging, but she planted the butt of her spear on the frozen ground and got a foot under herself. The war around them raged, but for the two of them, there was only their duel.

Ar’Vahn stepped forward, and Vess could almost see the shadow of Marzul standing behind the stocky Dwarf warrior. "You cannot win. I have survived far worse than you, girl." She lifted her hammer. "Greet your mother for me."

“Dawnbreath!”

Yin loosed his breath, and it kindled into a pillar of dawn’s radiance that tore across the Dwarf's form. More than that, it scorched the shadow that clutched tightly to his back. The Dwarf screamed, and Marzul echoed it, a surprised yelp that gave Vess strength enough to stand.

"You're no more than half-Divine, Ocalla.” She grinned as, over her shoulder, the world rippled. “You aren't untouchable yet."

The sky sounded with the clarion call of horns and ringing bells as one by one, sleek objects manifested out of the dark sky. Vast shapes limned in blue-white light and red-gold radiance.

Manaships.

Dozens of them, each filled to the brim with warriors from across the empire. Standards flew from the decks, ones that Vess recognized from Bos’Vaan, Sol’Thun, Andiva, and a hundred more Houses she couldn’t identify. At the prow of the flagship stood Alister, his rapier thrusting outward. A line of force speared through a column of Ironclads, crushing them to the earth.

Cannons fired, blasting away the Dwarves and cutting through the Elementals. The battlefield exploded into chaos as destruction rained from above.

"Grove Wardens, awaken!" Yin called from above the burning Dwarf puppet.

From almost a mile away came the unmistakable sounds of denotating crystal. A luminescent flock of creatures soared upward, shining like opalescent fragments of Fiendstone itself. Each one more than a match for Pit in size, they spread their wings wide, and a shroud of light cut into the darkness like the dawn. Fire poured from them, ninety-nine Grove Wardens dousing the enemy lines in Dawnfire.

Some broke away, flying low to the earth where they dropped gleaming crystals that sank deep into the loamy soil. Sprouting from them in rapid expansion were Spirit Trees, lifting twenty or thirty feet high above the battlefield and exuding a soft radiance. Legionnaires gasped, wounds healing over so long as they were near the Trees. They redoubled their attacks, tearing into Golems and Elementals, Ironclads and Corrupted.

A deep bellow sounded behind them as a dark twin joined the Grove Wardens. Fafnir, easily twice the size of her kin and covered in spiked, chitinous scales, joined in on the destruction. Her breath was a ravaging pillar of blackened-green flame, withering those it touched into ash. Major and Greater Elementals ran to intercept the draconics’ path, and Fafnir plowed through them, tearing into their hides like a hound through a haunch of meat.

"You celebrate too quickly," Marzul said from within the petering flames of Dawnfire. Shadow stretched across the Dwarf, putting out the embers where it could, but it had done damage. The orichalcum armor, already infested with half-Divine shadow, was now cracked and broken. Beneath it, Ar'Vahn's flesh had been burnt away, revealing withered muscle and bone. But still he stood, held up by threads of darkness that could not, would not burn through.

"You still cannot fight the army I have. The Supreme Elemental will tear apart your empire, leaving nothing behind.” Ar’Vahn bared blackened teeth at her. “The Fiend won't even be able to identify your bones."

"Perhaps," Vess said, leveling her spear. The sky ignited, not with the red of lava, but with a blinding white. "And perhaps not."

The radiance emanated from a single dark figure that flew from the leading ship. The light swelled as if he had swallowed a thousand stars.

"The Undying!" someone shouted from the Legion. A roar of approval and cheer rose through the ranks, driving them forward into the enemy.

Vess grinned. “We will—” She blinked.

Ar’Vahn was running. The puppet scrambled behind the closing ranks of the Corrupted, already moving southeast, toward—

“Gabby! She’s headed for the border!”

Gabby groaned as she joined Vess' side, her armor repairing itself in slow flashes of congealing light. The Titan shed an Elemental’s corpse from her shoulders.

“Not if we can stop her. Hop on.”