A river of fire surged across the sky, the clouds boiling away at its touch. The lightning kirin was directly in its path. Despite its speed and its best attempts to escape, the range of the fire was too broad and the roaring flames slammed into it, engulfing it.

For a brief moment it struggled, the thunderous sounds of its efforts growing fainter and fainter until they were covered by the roar of the flames. Unabated, the widening cone of fire continued onwards towards the Kirin troops following behind it.

While most of them had enough time to scatter and get out of the way, a few squads too close to the centre were caught within its range and had to haunch their defences to resist. Sweat beaded their brows, evaporating almost immediately due to the heat of the flames, as they clenched their teeth and poured mana into their defensive spells.

Eventually, the power behind the river of fire was exhausted and the discs of flaming runes dimmed and then dissipated into showers of tiny sparks. The remaining fire, without a source, rippled outwards in expanding circles, burning a gigantic hole into the cloud layer, letting the noon sun shine through.

Mars slumped against the railings of his airship, breathing hard.

He felt utterly drained of emotions. Coordinating with nearly a hundred fire mages, synchronizing their attacks, and then merging them into one extremely potent whole had been taxing to say the least. Despite the assistance of the fully intact fire element mind crystal, it had pushed him to the limit of his capabilities.

Clenching his fist hard enough to leave marks of his fingers on the metallic railing, he dragged his mind out of the fog of apathy. There was no time to waste, his work still wasn’t done. Turning to Deimos, he nodded for her to begin.

Shooting him a concerned glance, she drew out a teal mind crystal out of the pouch at her side. It too was a complete crystal – one attuned to wind.

One of the sleeves of her Raiment unravelled, the sky-blue thread wrapping around the crystal under her operation. Then, pirouetting on the tip of her toe, she flung the bound crystal off the side of their airship like an oversized top, aiming for the exact centre of the ripples of fire.

Having his emotions scorched away made it extremely simple for Mars to drop into the state of the Void. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, he took a deep breath and opened them again. The world changed. The colours became more vivid and every edge sharper as his soul sight let him see more of the world.

He could see the blazing red fire mana dimming as it exhausted itself and the flames died out. He saw the air heated by the flames rising and the air from the surroundings rushing in to take its place – every movement outlined in a vivid bluish-green by the flows of the wind mana. He saw the gigantic vortex it was creating.

With a few gusts of wind, he corrected the path of the rapidly spinning mind crystal flung by Deimos and guided it to the centre of the vortex. Then, reaching out with his soul, he activated it.

Runes drawn with wind mana spewed out of the crystal in a shining spiral, like the stars of a galaxy. And as they came into contact with the vortex of wind, it seemed like life had been breathed into it.

The disorderly flows that had been cancelling each other out were smoothed out, amplifying each other instead. With each passing moment the winds grew stronger and stronger until what had been a mere gale had grown into a hurricane.

A Blade Edge Hurricane.

Its purpose fulfilled; Deimos yanked the crystal back to her hand with her string.

The spiralling column of air grew taller and broader, drawing in and swallowing the surrounding clouds like a starving beast. The more it ate, the darker it grew and the stronger its pull.

The unfortunate Kirin mages who had barely survived the deluge of fire were once again placed in dire straits as the screaming vortex threatened to suck them in and cut them into tiny pieces. Flaring their mana to full capacity, they turned to escape.

“Wind mages!” Mars yelled into his comms, “Release!”

Having already swapped positions with the fire mages and primed their spells, the wind mages aboard the cluster of airships surrounding Mars unleashed their magic. This time, Mars didn’t have the energy to merge their spells together but they were skilled enough in the Aspect of Wind to have their spells amplify the gigantic storm that was brewing.

With the help of over a hundred Blade Edge Hurricanes, the whirlwind suddenly expanded to several times its size and its bottom started moving down towards the surface of the sea.

Alarmed by the vast momentum of the spell, the Tier 5 Kirin General transformed into a streak of bright yellow lightning as she rushed to nip the threat in the bud. Suddenly, she stopped short as a large man with the ears and tail of a tiger appeared to block her path in a streak of vivid blue lightning.

He floated in front of her in utter silence with his arms crossed across his chest. Despite the howling gale blowing throughout the battlefield, the air in a large radius centred on him was ominously calm.

The Kirin General narrowed her eyes – bright yellow sparks flaring around her amber irises as her gaze flicked to the red-haired boy who had orchestrated such havoc in the battlefield.

Suddenly, she smiled brightly. “Veer Felidae?” she asked in a sickly-sweet tone, “I don’t suppose you’d be kind enough to step aside and let me go relieve your son of his head?”

The corner of Veer’s eye twitched. He didn’t bother with an answer, expanding his Domain to cover her instead.

Her smile slowly slipped off her face. Straightening up, she ran a hand through her short flaxen hair. “Ah well,” she sighed, “I guess that’s a no.” Clapping her hands together, she drew them apart, forming a cat’s cradle of yellow electricity between them. Her gaze turned sharp as she vanished on the spot in a blast of lightning. Her voice echoed out from everywhere and nowhere. “Then I’ll just have to take you out first.”

A thunderous boom that drowned out the sounds of the entire battlefield rang out as the two Tier 5s clashed for the first time in an explosion of blue and yellow sparks.

Meanwhile, the tornado had grown large enough to connect the sky and the sea beneath. It was like a gigantic column of swirling grey holding up the very vault of heaven.

Standing on the highest point of the marine palace, the corners of Isabella’s lips curved upwards as the bottom edge of the tornado touched the surface of the sea.

“Good job,” she sent using her soul to Mars, “I’ll take it from here. Now, rest.”

Mars couldn't think. He had invested every last thought into maintaining the magic. Now, he was acting on mere instinct. As the soothing voice spoke directly to his soul, he finally relaxed his grip on the spell and sank into blissful oblivion.

Deimos called out in alarm as Mars suddenly collapsed. Rushing forward she caught him and gently lowered him to the ground. Laying his head on her lap, she inspected his condition anxiously… only relaxing when she found that his breath was even and his heartbeat steady.

He was asleep.