[Skill Activation: Voces Magicae - Knights Templar]

A crusade of white spiritual knights soared from Kashan’s tome. One after another as though he was raising a graveyard’s worth of souls. They were cavalrymen wielding lances that could pierce the sun, walking armor that could not be deterred like a certain Constellation, expert swordsmen of the West, using their afterlife to fell a threat greater than infidels.

Kashan gazed upwards at the army he had brought from the spiritual lands and witnessed their weapons burying far into the flesh of the Diminutive Cosmic Beast. They had no fear and willingly tasked themselves to bring their mythical metal deep into the cosmic creature, aiming to spill both human blood and otherworldly ichor.

At least a hundred heeded the call.

He stood staidly on the breaking road, feeling the cold shadow casted by the massive yet somehow ‘Diminutive’ Cosmic Beast, as artillery fire accompanied the [Templars] and other similar devices.

The Beast cried a soprano whine and caused the high-ranker to twist his expression awfully, a hand clutched over his ear. The foreigner produced a light-devouring gas. Jolting across his body, Kashan felt spiritual connections severing one-by-one and sometimes in whole clumps. The [Templars] were falling to the gas but fought to their blade-rest. Any projectiles caught in the gas, like artillery shells or bullets or anything magical really, were neutralized. Detonated before they could even reach it.

Quickly the toxic fumes fell, and Kashan didn’t want to know what it’d do to the human body.

“Emerge,” he said quietly.

[Skill Activation: Voces Magicae - Anemoi Boreas]

Rising from the tome once more, a god of wind emerged. He was Boreas, a stern marblesque man who had wings on his back and on his feet, and his expression was angrily coiled like an industrial spring ready to snap. He lifted himself to the approaching gas with his billowing cloak flapping unnaturally.

And he inhaled.

A vortex was created from his lips, sucking in the noxious air without fail. His body turned paler, green with sick, but Boreas continued until the hazard disappeared and the Cosmic Beast’s terror was negated.

Kashan anxiously rubbed the rings on his fingers, mentally calculating how much mana he had left before things truly got dire.

Once again he faced the gigantic threat darkening the skies like storm clouds, and from far away there was a call of thunder as violent as a summer’s vengeance. Lightning crackled amongst the particulates in the air and its owner’s blood-cry was the louder.

[Honor Exhibition: Celestial Lightning]

[Skill Activation: Fulmination Form]

This was different than Pereyra or Tewfik; unstoppable pieces of shit who wouldn’t stay down and took everything you threw at them. The Diminutive Cosmic Beast was something she could kill. She wasn’t afraid of getting conceptually cut at the waist or blasted by lasers,; thus, she had turned her body into lightning through the temporary transformation skill known as [Fulmination Form].

God, it was painful. She was being boiled alive by her own magic but she’d live. She had used this skill before. It’d mean a couple weeks of rest but the boost in power was needed.

Blitzing above the Cosmic Beast, she brought down her [Beryl-Blitz] and summoned forth a lightning bolt as though sent by Zeus himself. Her ears popped, her arms screamed, her blood bubbling, but almost nothing could halt her lightning’s advance.

Like a sharp spear, the bolt ripped through the outer layer of flesh, sized straight through into the bloody mush underneath and out the other end. A branching blue tree followed after, most of the trunks stuck within the body itself.

The Cosmic Beast roared and quickly changed shape to protect itself. It ignored the artillery from the other Ordoians and solely gave the Empress of Lightning the attention she wanted. Good, look here you piece of shit! Focus on me and only me! I'm the one you want!

It lurched out like a snake, surrounding the Slayer in a dark cosmic expanse. If she didn't know any better then she would've guessed that she got eaten by a large creature (not the first time that happened), trapped in its stomach ready to be digested.

Distantly Levin saw tendrils slithering towards her but she refused to give it an inch. She twirled in the air violently, viciously, channeling lightning to bat the tendrils away like little flies, charged on and hacked and slashed at the air, sending bolts flying. Slash after slash, the Diminutive Beast whined and she drew a satisfying gash, a brief opening.

Blasting forward, she flew out. A few tendrils managed to get her, and she felt cold air horribly stinging at her legs and waist.

She didn’t want to look down else she’d panic, and panicking was no good.

Instincts told her something was coming. Looking over her shoulder, it was tentacles. Levin gritted her teeth and heavily swung around in the air, thrusting her greatsword forward.

A beam of lightning shot from the tip of the [Beryl-Blitz], evaporating the imminent bristle. Then more came from the sides. Gripping the burning hilt with both hands, she powered through and swinged her signature around in a whirlwind of storm, scorching them to a bark then watching them fade away.

The Cosmic Beast was killable with her hands, but it wouldn’t make it easy. This was a challenge she could overcome.

There was a heat as warm as day, something that Levin hadn’t felt in a long time. Actual sunlight. Briefly she glanced over and scowled, not giving the Bastard any moment more of her thoughts. For everything she was criticized of, they were nothing compared to what he had done.

[Skill Activation: Prominence Sunfire]

Prominence’s hands were bright with the power of the sun; the special element that he had cultivated for himself. He dashed across the rooftops, creating thick ropes of sunfire and embedding them into the concrete. They lashed at the Diminutive Cosmic Beast and got stuck inside. Penetrated deep and stayed there.

Faster, he propelled himself using [Prominence Sunfire] and within seconds he had conjured a few dozen. He didn’t know how strong the Cosmic Beast was but in its pathetic state, surely it wasn’t stronger than countless of his specialized chains.

“Now!” he roared at the top of his lungs but his command was dwarfed by the following rampage of intense fire. The Ordoians with him began to unload everything they had into the Beast, missile after missile, bolt after bolt.

Prominence clapped his hands together and pumped sunfire blasts. The Beast squirmed and whined like a bratty child needing to be punished, twisting against its restraints. A few broke immediately while the others bent and groaned. They wouldn’t hold forever.

Dammit all. Damn Alexander, too.

Launching himself high into the sky, he hovered fifteen feet above the Beast. A pleasurable heat flushed across his body. His arms began to brilliantly glow, running down his hands and into his fingertips. His veins illuminated, the mana bright and powerful and superior.

Prominence bellowed and released a massive sunfire attack half the size of the Cosmic Beast itself. It slammed directly on top of its ‘head’ and a visible shockwave pummeled through the block, pushing away loose bricks and detritus.

The Beast’s whines only got louder, but its cry of pains were being replaced by anger.

His teeth locked together tightly.

“Prominence!” called the voice in his ear. It was Alexander. “It’s getting awfully close to the—!”

“I know it is!” he shouted back. “Don’t nag in my ear like some bureaucrat! Focus on subjugating the Miracle while I’m going to do the mission you gave me!”

“Tch. Don’t get yourself killed for stupid reasons.” Though I’d love to spit on your grave once you finally get what’s coming.

Alexander sighed and looked around the command center. Sage had already left, leaving him with her team. They seemingly understood her absence and worked double-time to acquire accurate information they needed.

He checked the map.

Everyone was in position, now.

“Alpha Team,” he began, “ready?”

Victor was the first to respond, “Ready. We’re at the Heart of Flares and Devoy’s itchin’.”

“Bravo Team.”

Forest Master called in, “We are at Pillar Dawns waiting for your command.”

“Charlie.”

Uprise was next, though she was out-of-breath. “Yup! Just give us the go-ahead!”

“Delta, you’re last.”

“We’re the first to arrive,” Evenfall said with a chuckle. “I thought Creekwood would be the hardest.”

“Yeah yeah, shut up. Echo, how’s the Superweapon?”

Blackviper answered, “We loaded in another shell and have the Miracle’s coordinates locked in.”

“Great. Everyone, wait on my signal,” Alexander ordered, taking a nice and heavy breath for himself. This was it. Somehow, by the will of God, everyone made it to their destinations. It was time to make the dream work. “Foxtrot, all teams are crystal. We will sever the Miracle’s connection to the Four Pillars and collapse the demesne. Prepare yourselves.”

Seraph hummed uneasily on the other end. “On your mark, Conqueror.”

“Here we go,” Firebrand muttered to her. Look at him. Usually he’d get fired up before a big fight, but now he was reserved. She didn’t know if that was a good thing but she knew he could be relied on regardless.

Seraph took these last seconds to account for everyone once again: Monarch, Silverhonor and Mystic. Master Jin Junjie had left to aid his son in slaying Ikeya and Prominence was called in to stop the Cosmic Beast’s advance in Vesper.

So it was just them: the leaders of the front-line against the Miracle.

The area had been filled with so much chatter before, discussing defensive measures and reciting last words if anyone were to die here—not on her watch—but now it was dead quiet. Everyone was watching the Miracle sleep within its octahedron shell, being fed the energy from the Four Pillars.

The moment came. Conqueror spoke these words: “Execute.”

Simultaneously the largest of the four energy trails faded. Nothing changed. Nothing changed at all. A defeated whimper came from everyone.

Firebrand cursed under his breath. “It didn’t work.”

The demesne did not shatter. It should’ve. Conqueror’s reasoning was correct: a demesne of this magnitude needed an absurd amount of mana to even function for more than a few minutes. By disconnecting the main energy source, the Pillars, then reasonably it should’ve collapsed within seconds.

Seconds!

Seraph bit her lip as her mind flickered between theories—

[SLAYER SYSTEM ALERT]

Greater cosmic energy detected.

Firebrand straightened his back and searched. “Is Kreutz here? Where’s that motherfucker—?!”

An awful creaking noise bore into their hearts. Like the condemning sound of an old prison gate slamming shut. An old torture machine whirring back to life after years of inactivity. It didn’t come from Kreutz. It didn’t come from Ikeya either. And everybody knew this as their necks slowly turned to face the Miracle.

It made that sound.

“Seraph?!” Conqueror rang in her ears. “What’s going on over there?! The demesne should’ve been taken care of—!”

“Prominence was right,” she quietly answered. “The demesne does not follow the same rules as ours. It doesn’t need the energy to sustain its phenomena. By the merits of the Lesser Miracle, that limitation does not exist. Conqueror, Wonder needed the Four Pillars…”

[SLAYER SYSTEM ALERT]

The Lesser Miracle, Wonder, has awoken.

“...For itself.”

The octahedron had unfolded into a mesmerizing flower. It had actinomorphic symmetry, meaning it was radially symmetrical. The petals came in several rows forming a tight perimeter around the abyss-black center. The color was uniform. A deep hypnotizing blue that contained entire swirling galaxies within each individual petal. Although this was a moment of war, it couldn’t be seen as anything but beautiful. It was the most alien thing that Sera had seen in her life. Perfectly Wonder levitated in the air, the petal-rows spinning in both directions. The whites of its outer shell were curved inwards slightly.

Suddenly the rows began to spin faster.

Alarmingly fast and caused everyone on field to organize together, shouting over the nightmarish high-pitched whine that it was making. The defensive measures were activated. Layers of barriers. Physical constructs projecting shields. Maledictions attempting to tie the Comet’s power down as much as possible.

But the dark core glowed.

A bluish-white beam came. It powered through every defense they’d prepared. Breaking all of them near-instantly like flimsy pieces of paper. The beam eviscerated the street that Wonder was facing, destroying and killing everything there, continuing on and on. Sera didn’t know where the laser would stop.

It didn’t.

It continued until it hit the Ordo Outbreak Barrier before fizzling out.

[EXPEDITION STATUS]

HEAVY CASUALTIES TAKEN

Seraph couldn’t read the names before Wonder charged another beam. She screamed at Firebrand and flapped her [Wings of Seraphim], flying high into the air as an explosive burst of fire followed her.

Wonder swiveled around as the beam fired. The heat eviscerated and lobbed caps off of buildings, causing roofs to collapse in on themselves, crushing and killing anyone unluckily caught on top. The System dinged rapidly. The beam continued for kilometers at a downwards angle, destroying every edifice in its path and deeper. Pipes burst and holes made.

Something groaned. It was metal.

The Galipot Building, a skyscraper. Wonder had cleanly cut it in half. It was going to fall on top of everybody. That meant the Comet too. Seraph had instinctively thought to manipulate the collapse to damage it but she didn’t have the time—it’d devastate her people more.

“Firebrand!” she cried out as the Galipot shadowed the supernova night.

[Skill Activation: Pyre Revolution Spirit - Third Stage]

Firebrand had ascended to the [Third Stage] of his [Flame Avatar Body]. The [First Stage] temporarily imbued fire throughout his flesh, the [Second Stage] focused on his viscera and mana nervous system. Then, the [Third] was the start of his spiritual transformation into the Nemesis he had absorbed: Phoenix-Ifrit.

Unlike [Cerulean Inferno Merge] which covered his body in blue flames, this stage returned to the typical crimson color. Yet it was brighter, more prominent, alive.

Thrusting his arms out, the falling half of the Galipot Building was burned by fire hotter than anything mankind could create through non-magical means. Barring weapons of mass destruction. In one second, a building that had costed one billion US dollars turned into ash. Anything inside was gone, and probably bodies too knowing the thousands that worked there at the time of outbreak.

Small rocks and ash rained down.

“—Seraph, are we clear for bombardment?!” Conqueror’s voice finally came through after the ruckus.

“Negative!” she responded. “Send for reinforcements!”

“What little we have left, sure!”

What little Foxtrot had left too. Sera took tallies of the remaining forces. None of the high-rankers such as Monarch and Silverhonor were killed—thank the Lord—but it was safe to say that at least half of Foxtrot Team had been immobilized. Either from the lasers or the other collapsed buildings.

Fruitlessly rifles and swords fired hot lead and magic into the Comet. The bullets bounced right off while the magic seemed ineffective, but the shield that’d protected its slumber wasn’t present.

The one silver lining they had.

“Slayers, the objective remains the same!” Seraph said through the System. “We need to ground the Miracle and expose its vulnerabilities for the Superweapon—!”

Wonder tilted towards the night. Within its cosmic petals, the galaxies inside began to swirl. High-pitched electrical sounds followed and they spewed a typhoon of bluish-white bolts into the air. Hundreds of them sailing a few dozen meters upwards before curving back down and ready to eliminate the remaining forces in a spectacular hail.

Sera hardened herself and straightened her wings, eyes darting, analyzing the targets she had.

[Honor Exhibition: Wings of Seraphim]

The [Wings of Seraphim] provided a litany of uses from offensive to defensive purposes, and this was the latter. A thousand feathers were launched from her back, being telekinetically controlled to intercept the Miracle’s downpour and detonate each bolt in the sky, recreating the Fourth of July in Ordo.

As she devoted her full concentration into countering the Miracle, some loud voices caught her ear. From both the System and in real life, doubling up on her. She allowed herself just a small moment to tear away and loudly gasped, and if she was slightly less Christian she would’ve swore.

The attack was a distraction.

Wonder was escaping, fast. Flapping its petals like some sort of jellyfish.

They didn’t have the means to restrain it. Not the tools, not the magick, not the manpower. So all they could do was hopelessly fire away as the Comet took off, and Sera was afraid of its intentions.

Her surviving feathers were recalled back into her [Wings]. She called, “Any capable Slayers, we’re chasing after Wonder! Let’s go!”

Sera gave chase, flying after the Comet. While she had the speed for a direct one-on-one confrontation, it was an idiotic decision that’d get her killed fairly quick. Instead she paced herself a moderate distance behind with Aiden at her side.

Monarch emerged riding her [Reins of Heaven] with gritted teeth, having her [Excalibur Valfyre] drawn. Likewise Silverhonor was atop her spiritual mount as the rest followed, either airborne or keeping steady ground-level; and Mystic was here too, smoothly kneeling on one knee on top of a solid moving platform of mana.

Over a dozen Slayers recuperated themselves and joined the congregation, a few steps behind the enemy.

Some braved pot-shots. No luck. They couldn’t crack its white shell.

Somehow, someway, they had to divine a method to keep it still for long enough for Echo. And since the Wonder was on the move, Echo had to move too.

Just how in God’s name could they do this?

~~~

“I don’t want to alarm you but we’re sitting ducks here!” Evenfall said through the System. “Conqueror, please tell me you have another genius idea to get us out of this?”

“Believe me, I wish I have one!” Alexander responded as he kept an eye on the battlemap, keeping track of Wonder’s location. It was heading to Pillar Creekwood. “Right now, I’m trying to figure out what the hell this asshole’s doing. It’s not even paying attention to Foxtrot or what they’re throwing at the fucker. It’s stubbornly lasering anything in its path.”

“So it’s heading for the Pillars, y’think?” Spirit Beast Queen responded. “All the better reason for us to get the fuck out.”

“We’re already leaving,” said Fusil. “We need to be somewhere and not here.”

“Yup, I think you’re right, you two. With Ikeya and the demesne still active, destroying the Four Pillars would unleash hell on the planet.” Alexander rubbed his face, surprised at how well he was keeping calm despite everything. He wasn’t calm at all. Really, he was fucking panicking but he was tired of freaking out.

Alexander recalled the mission planning they had from earlier. When they discussed the extent of Devoy’s abilities. Before he said that he couldn’t target the demesne directly simply because he wasn’t strong enough. But now…

“Alright!” exclaimed Alexander. “We have to try brute force! We’ll put Devoy back together.”

He sent coordinates in the channel. “These are Echo Team’s coordinates; they’re moving with Wonder. Regroup there and we can bring Devoy into the equation if God likes us. Since Alpha and Charlie are shit out of luck for transport, the rest need to pick them up. You guys got that?”

Everyone affirmed in unison and went on to perform their next objective.

Alexander lowered his head and sighed. They could do this. They definitely could do this. They managed to put Pereyra and Tewfik in the grave, they could do the same for Wonder and Ikeya and Kreutz when he came along. But more and more obstacles were getting in their way.

“Conqueror,” called a voice beside him. Jackhammer. “You haven’t told ‘em?”

“No,” he replied shaking his head. “I haven’t.”

“They’ll kill you for this.”

“I know. But I trust her.” Alexander gulped to appease his dry throat. “I trust Sage.”