The sword clattered onto the ground as Solera stood up, his hands trembling. In thirty seconds, perhaps a minute at most… Qiao had died. Pinot had died. And he… he had just brutally murdered three adults! Bending down, he vomited again. A sickly stench covered the entire corridor, a mix of bile and gore.

Far away, he could hear sounds of screaming and swords clashing.

Gasping, Solera stood back up. There was no time to think about anything other than what was right in front of him. With some difficulty, he retrieved his Bloodsand sword and sheathed it.

Chip had deserted them, taking the rope with him. How would he and Guinness get away?

After a moment of thought, he turned to look at the corpses of the four Airborne. Didn’t they have wings?

Solera coughed out some more blood as he limped to the nearest corpse. His power crystal jingled when he bent down. Solera flipped over the body of the man he had punched to death before realizing.

He didn’t use his power crystal!

Solera’s face grew ugly beyond measure. If he had died here without using the power crystal, then his soul would never rest in the afterlife.

Working only with his uninjured hand, Solera unfastened the wings on the man’s back and strapped them onto his own. Guinness got his own pair of wings from the female Airborne. Taking several deep breaths, Solera led the two of them up the flight of stairs.

His power crystal was in his mouth, ready to be used at any time. The moment he channeled power through it, all the power inside the crystal would instantly flood into his body, allowing him to greatly increase his speed and strength for an instant.

Nobody was on this flight of stairs, but Solera could hear many footsteps on the lower levels. The Airborne were doing a sweep of the entire fortress! Luckily, this meant Solera and Guinness were able to sneak through unnoticed.

Acrid smoke poured out of the assembly hall. Seeing this, Solera blanched.

What happened to all the other students? Merlot, Cassady, Cesar, even Neko from Peat city. Solera didn’t want to know, but he needed to know.

Three of the masked controllers lay in the center of the assembly hall. The charred and mutilated bodies of children lay everywhere. Next to where Solera had been sitting, he saw the burnt corpse of a lanky boy, his spectacles melting away on the ground. Merlot.

Three charred bodies lay atop each other, their dresses blackened by smoke. Blood poured out from a single sword gash that had gone straight through all three. Ada. Verdeca. Savi, a girl from Peat city.

Tears trickled down Solera’s cheek. He had saved himself, but they hadn’t. So many people here were unfamiliar to him… but so many weren’t! Not once in his life had he ever thought about the possibility of Merlot or Pinot or Cassady dying, but their remains were right in front of him. Their stench assaulted his nostrils. Pinot’s death rattle replayed itself over and over and over in his mind.

Guinness tugged on Solera’s shoulder. Solera blinked, regaining control of himself. Footsteps were approaching from the staircases below! Guinness supported Solera as the two staggered into a side corridor which would lead to an auxiliary branch sprouting off of one of the four main branches.

At the entrance to the auxiliary branch, there were three Airborne talking. The moment Solera and Guinness appeared into view, one of them shouted. All three lifted up their gauntlets, their faces cold.

Solera’s glowing green sword slashed straight through all three Airborne and carved a line in the wall, as if it was air. Their bodies thudded onto the ground, all cut in twain.

The power crystal fell out of Solera’s mouth as he lifted up his right hand, astonished. His whole body was encased in a verdant glow, and he felt a comfortable feeling coursing throughout the channels in his body. A sound like the skittering of cockroaches emitted from his ribs and his hand as the broken bones mended and the skin regrew.

Green power leaked out of him like water from a sponge. Inside his head, his Lake roared as it overflowed. Solera’s exhaustion instantly disappeared. Not only was he rejuvenated, he felt better than ever before.

The power crystal, which had been a faint green, was now translucent. The leaf within it could be seen, glistening with the same lush green color that was pouring out of his body. The power crystal had been emptied, and could not be used again.

Solera couldn’t put his disbelief into words! Power crystals had never been known to heal the user; power was just power, it was up to the user to channel it! Besides, his sword had carved straight through the siehnti wall as if it hadn’t even existed. No explosive device could budge Fortress Hickory, no blade had scratched Fortress Hickory. Even Chip’s Crumble disc, which had melted through armor, had not been able to dissolve the floor by even a little bit.

A loud explosion rumbled up above, shaking Solera out of his thoughts again. Solera and Guinness were in an open-air branch, albeit one tucked away from all the fighting. Still, they could see everything that was going on.

Chasers shot through the air, one whizzing after the other through the maze of twisting branches. These chasers had the same disc shape as the flying bombs; only, instead of delivering an explosive, the outer rings were equipped with blades. They were used by controllers as homing swords, and had no vision modules.

Lightning and flying darts whirled out from one of the few branches left to the soldiers of Eden. The cannon fired, emitting a beam that annihilated four Airborne that had not taken cover.

Another Airborne flew up past the branch, chucking a small ball into the branch before taking cover behind another. Another explosion rang out. The cannon’s muzzle blew apart, falling down the fortress.

Instantly, the branch was swarmed with Airborne flying into the branch. Their combined efforts created an inferno that incinerated the Edenese soldiers within that branch.

Solera immediately gave his wings an experimental flap. They seemed to be working fine. He motioned to Guinness as he prepared to jump off the branch. Guinness shook his head, his face pale.

Solera’s eyes bugged. Could it be that Guinness was afraid of heights?

Guinness pointed to his wings. “Don’t know channel.”

Solera groaned inwardly. How the hell could someone not know how to channel power? That was simply impossible! It was an inborn skill that even babies could do.

Another explosion from another branch sent shrapnel raining down the fortress. Cursing, Solera grabbed Guinness by the shoulders and jumped off the branch, his wings flapping as forcefully as he could.

Solera and Guinness smashed into the ground. The wings had slowed their fall, preventing anything more than bruises. Immediately, Solera dragged Guinness behind the nearest building.

From here, Solera could see a bit more of what was going on. The exploded husk of a Colossus sent smoke wafting through the air above the branch it had been guarding. The other Colossus was completely unharmed, but lay prone on its branch, two arms dangling off the side. Its controller, Solera realized, had been killed.

But where were the enemy controllers, who were clearly controlling the chasers flying through the air? After a bit of scanning, Solera found them on the other side of the fortress. A giant dirt dome, made of dirt shields carried by Airborne shieldbearers, hovered in the sky near the fortress. Through the cracks between the dirt shields, helmeted heads peered at the battle. The lack of vision modules on the chasers meant they had to look for themselves, but these Airborne had an eagle-eye view. Not having vision modules wasn’t really a disadvantage.

The burnt body of a mosquito smashed into the ground nearby, next to the bodies of numerous Airborne. Its stinger glinted with blood and something Solera didn’t want to identify. A few more mosquitoes were swarming around one of the last branches. Captain Selim was still alive!

Captain Peng’s voice could be heard as well, shouting orders to the remaining soldiers. The chasers had formed a cloud around them, so Solera couldn’t see clearly. As Solera watched, a line of chasers whirled through the sky, shooting towards the cloud, which split apart to let them pass.

Loud, screeching sounds of metal tearing apart pierced Solera’s eardrums as the chasers smashed into their target, again and again and again. The bottom of the chaser cloud broke apart as the shredded corpse of a huge grasshopper fell down to the ground.

A flash lit up out of the corner of Solera’s eyes. He turned to look at the dirt dome in midair, which had transformed into an explosion of flame.

The building they were hiding behind shook as the shockwave hit them. Stone flew everywhere around Solera and Guinness, although the two of them were sheltered by the building.

A dirt cloud formed in the air where the enemy controllers had been. Every single one of them had perished!

The chasers toppled out of the sky, all at the same time. Clattering noises were emitted as they collided with the hard, siehnti branches and each other. A small hill formed on the ground as the chasers fell upon each other.

Solera stared at the branches, his face hopeful again. The enemy controllers had died. Could it be possible that Eden could still win? Did he and Guinness still have to run?