Projecting the influence of the Void Domain forward, Wu then looked towards Lera who kept the communication Cast in her hand.

“What was it that you call it…spherical coordinates?” Lera asked, holding the Cast way behind her and out of the areas of Void Domain so it could still function as intended, though in its place, she casted a shield over her hands to stop it from burning.

“You got it.” Wu smiled, sitting in place as they waited for the efforts of the other two excavation teams.

“We beat ya ass, Ver!” Fatera’s voice came through, “First to the finish!”

“That’s not fair. It’s a shorter distance straight down than to the side.” Ver protested.

“So you are both ready?” Wu asked, and the affirmative responses came back right away.

“We are also in position to keep everything held together.” Lily’s voice came from above, “Whatever this is, surely it can’t be more difficult than your stupid roller coaster project.”

“Haha!” Wu let out a loud chuckle before massaging Lera’s shoulders lightly. She nodded back, and they both moved their hands towards the hot soft soil, pushing it down to reveal the core of the floating island, “We are going in now. Expect the blast to…come really soon.”

“Be careful.” Lily said.

“Don’t die.” Ver said.

“Nah, he won’t.” Fatera added.

“Ready?” Wu said as Lera packed the communication Cast back into her pocket, and he swept the Void Domain to the area behind them too. His own Cast was able to keep out most of the intense heat from the Wave itself. Typically, the dark aura can extend from his body for at least tens of meters, but due to the sheer intensity of the core, the Void Domain actually was only able to hold its form for about two meters or so.

The detached gemstone didn’t help much either, though Wu had pasted it back into its place, hoping that it will at least hold on for now.

Against truly terrifying powers, even the Void Domain had its limits. Containing both of them in the sanctuary of no Wave flow, Wu and Lera then moved forward and sat at the edge of the tunnel, looking at the glowing crystals that were distinctively Fuel Rocks from way back.

Perhaps the founder of the Academy discovered this massive reserve of Fuel Rocks, and simply created Casts to extract Wave from it in order to power the Academy, or it was moved here from somewhere else entirely. However, it had been evident that Fuel Rocks were at least used by others from way back when.

“There.” Lera pointed to sets of patterns stemming from the base of the literal mountain of Fuel Rock crystals, “The original Cast lines. If we go there and prevent any flow of the Wave into it, that should force the rest of them to pour through the tunnels and out.”

“Then…here we go.” Wu said, sliding forward down the gentle slope as Wave rushed through the tunnels the moment they moved out of the way with their Void Domain. However, until they truly made it to the Cast lines, the initial blasts were nothing more like stream water in comparison.

Using Lera’s Anti-Void Domain, she was able to sever the Cast lines embedded here, and that opened the flood gates as massive beams of blue blasts tore through the interior of the tunnels, widening it as it went before splitting up at the two excavations created by Ver and Fatera.

“Here it comes.” Fatera sensed the rush of power originating from deep inside the island, and she moved out of the way in a hurry right as the blast shot out from the massive holes they dug.

The entire island rocked in response to the blasts being fired off, and large cracks started forming all over the islands as the individual Wave users up on the surface immediately activated their powers to keep everything together.

Casters had been formulating the simplest of structure Casts, basic tensioning Casts that aimed to pull everything together with the best they can, but the imagery of the earth literally being squashed by the force of gravity and the blasts seemed straight out of an apocalyptic painting.

“ARGHHH!” Lily and Matty, both in their Fire Mecha forms literally held pieces of the Academy together with the Wave cables that stemmed from the tension Structure Casts. However, even with both of them at their maximum strengths, the island had already built up too much speed to slow down that easily.

“Here.” Fatera’s voice came from beside them, and the bald girl with caramel skin marched with her Dominance of the Demon active, massive Wave gloves from her fingers latching onto the ground.

“We..cannot…let anything…come loose…” Ver said, emerging as the Kraken before she threw out her tendrils along the outer edge of the floating islands and let each individual tendrils dig deep into the earth like roots of the trees which were in fact the last things keeping the island together.

In the meanwhile, within the core, the blasts of Wave started becoming more and more fierce as Wu and Lera conjured a Void Domain along the other edge of the fuel rocks reserve, guiding everything through the tunnel like air rushing out of the neck of a balloon.

“We are slowing…but it’s not enough…” Ver said, opening up a tiny portal through the scale of the Kraken that Wu held, “We need more power!”

“How much more?” Wu asked, and Ver glanced down even as she strained to hold the chunks of earth together. The outlines of the city were starting to approach them quicker and quicker, and the individual buildings’ shapes started coming into view.

“Give it everything we got!” Ver shouted when suddenly, rapid rifts in the local Wave emerged from the directions of the port city, and Ver’s entire body started shivering as the Kraken’s harsh voice ripped through her mind.

“WATCH OUT!”

All of the Kraken’s tendrils were severed by the Kraken itself before it took over Ver’s body and swallowed her up with a purple Whirlpool. That happened the instant before a massive beam of the Wave slammed into the side of the artificial island, tearing through the layers of tension Casts that were made by the Casters above.

“What?! What’s going on?!” Fatera looked around when the earth underneath their feet started crumbling before it finally gave in.

“We are under attack!” Lily shouted, reaching out with her hands and catching a few of the other free-falling students before they had to conjure up their own shields to protect themselves from her flames.

“By who?!” Yuna asked, leaping from one falling rock to another as Braka and Shin followed her closely, but another blast slipped straight through the entire island, missing the three of them by mere inches.

“By the Ethereal Realm!” Ver’s emerged from a portal beside them, “Everyone! Get out of here! They…they have activated the Revolutionary Manuscript!”

“Will…this save our city?” The head of the Port city’s ruling family asked as Mus and Mila turned around with their hands holding the massive red book, the activation Cast of the Ethereal Realm’s head of houses in hand, alongside the key from Principal Khan and a piece of rock from the day of Wu’s arrival at the Pinnacle Research Institute.

“If it were strong enough to combat against the demonic forces, then it should blow apart the majority of the islands.” Mus said, looking up, “Tell your people to shelter up still. Things might get…stormy.”

Looking up at the island that was being blown into countless pieces as more and more beams of light ripped through its soil, Mus couldn’t help but appreciate the true size of the Academy from this point of view. The defensive Casts may not be able to fully pulverize every single piece of the islands, but it will do well to destroy the majority of the major fragments.

As for the remaining pieces and the casualties it might cause, he could just blame it on the true culprits of this event, Principal Khan, and the Union, as they failed to control their own artificial island. If not for Mus and Mila activating the country-level defensive Casts, the entire Port city would have been completely decimated.

A perfect work of propaganda, actually.

“DAMN IT! WE WERE JUST SLOWING ENOUGH!” Ver cursed, her entire body covered in the scales of the Kraken as she knocked aside one of the massive incoming beams. However, her efforts were futile as that only drew the focus of more follow-up shots before Lily snatched her out of the way.

“Wu! You need to get them out!” Lily shouted, “At this rate, the core will-”

Explode.

And what’s what it did. Eventually, the massive blasts found their way through the layers of earth, through the excavated columns that Fatera and Ver had made, through the tunnel that Wez had made, and straight into the core of the Academy, the reserve of Fuel Rocks.

Everything turned bright around Wu and Lera, giving them no time to react. However, by then, Wu had already been pumping out his Void Domain at the maximum output as Lera felt like her body was being ripped apart from the inside. However, she clung to Wu’s body, using the sensations of their touch to keep her grounded.

Then, the blastwave of the explosion sent them flying straight out of the core’s chamber. Unconsciously, Lera took over with the generation of Void Domain as they hugged each other tightly and screamed, surfing the blast wave until it sent them flying high up into the air, way above the level of the island that’s splintering apart.

“No…no…” Wu ground his teeth together and latched onto Lera’s body as the explosions continued going off underneath their bodies, the bright flashes of light and massive release of energy completely dwarfing the radiance of the sun itself, “What’s happening…”

“I…I don’t know…” Lera said, their upward momentum slowly fading just as the explosions had finished eviscerating the majority of the islands, instead turning it into countless tiny pieces of rock and rubble before it rained down onto the port city down below.

There were massive towers made from structural Casts down at the ground level which were activated by the Revolutionary Manuscript, and they blasted away at all of the individual pieces, a few of the beams accidentally identifying the chariots as targets and killing the unlucky students immediately.

“GET ON!” Matty shouted, his massive eagle manifest swirling in between the raining debris as he scooped up any and all of the surviving students that he saw right as Lily glided around in her Fire mecha form trying to do the same.

“And…we are falling.” Wu said, as a sizzling sound came from his chest before he looked down to see his Void suit completely destroyed in the process. The skin over his chest burned, and the usually warm gemstone felt…strangely cold in this instance. He tried activating the blasts underneath his feet to try to slow his fall, but there was no response.

After trying to literally contain the Wave from a Fuel Rock reservoir far bigger than Fuel Rock Prime itself, Wu had exhausted every last ounce of power in the One-Shotter.

But at the very least, Lera will have enough Wave to conjure up a chariot, right? Wu looked at her, who’s face was burnt in the process as her grip was weak.

“I…I can’t…” Lera cried, her voice cracking, “I…can’t…there’s nothing…there’s nothing…I…didn’t control my Wave at all…I used…I used everything…I thought…”

“It’s okay.” Wu comforted her, his hands finding the back of her head as he flipped around to be the one facing down as the ocean’s surface rapidly approached the two of them. Massive beams of lights shot right by their body, disintegrating the giant pieces of rubble that would have slammed into them from above, “So…that’s what the Revolutionary Manuscript can do…”

“They…they have gotten all that they wanted…” Lera said, her eyes closed as she tried to draw out what remained of her Wave, but nothing but weakness filled her body, “At the end of the day…we couldn’t do anything…”

“Maybe…Maybe not.” Wu sighed, leaning in closer to speak directly into Lera’s ears as the sound of wind rushing by them became louder and louder, “I am sorry…I am a uselss Savior at the end of the day…”

“And I am a useless Guardian…”

“That’s nonsense.” Wu said, “We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you didn’t shield me with your own Void Domain. It really did come full circle, didn’t it?”

“So…I suppose our last conversation is just us falling to our deaths?” Lera asked, trying to smile as Wu leaned back slightly to look at her face. Behind her, the first of the debris had already clashed into the Wave, splattering upon impact as columns of water shot up into the air.

“Lera. I…just want you to know this.” Wu said, caressing her dirty face as she smiled and locked onto him with her beautiful grey eyes, “I would have wanted this whole adventure to go any other way, but I would not do it with anyone else. I…wanted to spend…the rest of my life with you. I love you so much, to the point that…”

Wu swallowed hard as the wind ripped away from his tears, “I wish I could have done more for you, but…all I have done so far is fail and fail again…if we meet again in our next life, I will become someone strong enough for you…strong enough to marry you and live the rest of my life without any fears or regrets…”

“You don’t have to wait until the next life.” Lera pulled him in, and their lips locked as the vapor of the ocean down below brushed against their bodies.