Waves of light rolled over Monika and Zacharie in a manner that was slightly uncomfortable, even for light cultivators. Cuah’arn wasn’t attempting to intimidate them, but was simply riled up.

“Are you certain?” Monika asked.

Brilliant feathers ruffled, “You think I am not capable?”

“... I simply thought you would wish to rest after the attack,” Monika explained.

“Rest I have had enough of,” Cuah’arn stated. “And indeed, taking extra time would undermine the purpose. Our retaliation must be swift and decisive. Furthermore, our role in this war is to eradicate the supply lines of the Molten Sea. Now is the time when it is not only easily accomplished but the easiest to justify.”

Zacharie had little to say, as he was still getting used to the fact that Cuah’arn was actually completely recovered, and had been for some years. He’d been aware of rumors of her flying about, but for a spirit beast that wasn’t necessarily impossible while injured. He had suspected that the Tenebach clan was helping somehow, but he hadn’t thought the goal had been accomplished upon his first visit. Then again, that also explained why the Tomb had been overflowing with light element as of late. He presumed it had been part of the efforts to complete her recovery, but it was actually an aftereffect.

-----

The Golden Tomb Guardians marched forth, along with their allies in the region. The Righteous Flame League could not justify their attack, but had they been successful then the situation would have been difficult to predict. But the Golden Tomb Guardians didn’t have to consider the loyalty of their allies in a situation where they were crippled, but instead they came out of the attack appearing stronger than before. That wasn’t technically the case, as they had their own casualties, but Cuah’arn being a public part of their power instead of unknown or merely a rumor was a great shift. No doubt other sects would now be envious of their power. To avoid anyone getting funny ideas, they had to properly show what would happen to their enemies while getting the most positive feelings possible from the Sunfields.

The flying figure of Cuah’arn was a good step. From a distance, she would inspire more awe than fear. During the day she was almost a second sun, and at night she more than rivaled the moon. As was her intention, they made a great show of her, having her fly close to the large cities on their route.

They appeared to move without any sense of urgency. Though the Righteous Flame League might do their best to fortify their sect, information about their utter defeat would arrive not far ahead of the retaliatory armies. And though they might have Molten Sea members at their sect making them more dangerous, that would actually make the other goals easier. That would be fewer they needed to hunt down later.

After one week of travel, they arrived outside the sect. Their presence was not unnoticed, but Cuah’arn made certain that no one could miss them. She flew around the Righteous Flame League’s lands in a wide circle, announcing them.

“Villainous Flame League! One weak past you attempted to enslave me, a being of pure light. Your tenets are false, less valuable than rubbish found in the bottom of a cesspool! You have no righteousness except that which you falsely proclaim. But more than just your attempts to rob the innocent and slay the pure, you openly work with outside invaders. Until today, of course, because after today your blight of false light and scorched impurity shall be removed from the world.”

Zacharie looked over at Monika. “So… does that mean we’re attacking immediately?”

“I would assume so,” Monika said. “Come then, let us keep moving.”

Nobody from the Golden Tomb Guardians hesitated, and their allies only faltered briefly. After all, they didn’t want to disappoint a spirit beast at the Ascending Soul Phase and accidentally incur her wrath.

Even as they began to approach the main gates of the sect, Cuah’arn circled overhead. Then, she flew between the sect and the sun. Instead of a shadow in her place, the light only intensified. At first it seemed as if it was mere posturing and there would be no attack, but the front gates began to smoke, then catch on fire. A moment later, the metal girdings began to glow red hot before bubbling and melting away.

The process was only slowed temporarily when panicked Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators forcefully took control of their formations, stopping the attack. They didn’t have time to consider why the effects weren’t blocked by the formation in the first place. They could only react.

That was when the sounds of cracking and popping began. Along their walls, a trail of glowing red and scarred black stones began to shatter as the internal stresses became too great. The trail of the destruction could be seen as a spot of bright light, yet with few of the signs of supernatural light or heat. The barriers were shifted to block the beam of light, visible only on the surface the light was focused on. But the beam whipped over to the other side of the gate, and the opposite walls- and its defenders.

Eventually, the barrier was fortified all across the front edge- and the top of the dome, since Cuah’arn seemed to have no trouble focusing the beam behind the walls on their internal buildings. But eventually they finished the task, and the beams could no longer pierce through. It seemed that they had entered a stalemate. The approaching forces of the Golden Tomb Guardians and their allies would no doubt break it, but they were resisting Cuah’arn.

And that was when the skies went dark. Instead of merely channeling the light coming from behind her and around her, Cuah’arn gathered all of the sunlight in the skies and focused it like a giant lens onto the front gates. And then when those fell apart, on the guardhouse above, melting away the stone, cutting a meter wide swath through the stone in less than a minute. No amount of focusing the formation barriers was sufficient to withstand the attack, and by the time the forces had arrived a clear line had been burnt all the way to the center of the sect.

Then Cuah’arn’s power settled down. Still grand and overwhelming, but somewhat more subdued. Fatigued, the Righteous Flame League hoped. And they would be partially right. But she was still more than capable of striking at their strongest cultivators from the safety of the skies, creating focused beams of light of bombarding them with sharp feathers as she flew over the forces of her allies.

Though the Righteous Flame League had the support of some Molten Sea cultivators, they had also lost a large number of their forces in the attack on the Golden Tomb Guardians, most notably Asgeirr who was primed to take over as their Sect Head. Had his mission been successful and returned them to the good graces of the Molten Sea after the debacle in Astrein, no doubt he would have held that position within the month. But instead, he was dead. And the same would happen to the current sect head, and the modest contingent of Molten Sea cultivators currently present.

-----

A trembling feeling awoke John in the middle of the night. An earthquake? Those weren’t much of an oddity, but for some reason it felt different than normal. Then he realized what the problem was. The rocking and rolling of the ship was gone. Or rather, that was what he was supposed to feel. Something akin to a quake…

He took Matayal’s hand, as he could tell she was already sensing into the waters. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening as the two of them made their way onto the deck, but from there they could see what was happening.

The crews of all the ships were reacting wildly, with good reason. To the east, the Kelp Spire Forest looked different, though why wasn’t immediately obvious. However, motion made everything clear in a few moments, and how there was a massive bow in the water. Soon enough the waters had receded to make the spires twice the length that they usually stood above the waters. Three times. This ships remained a significant distance outside of the kelp spire forest, but many of them found themselves on sloping waters, slowly riding down a slope.

Every cultivator contributed to moving the ships away from the expanding lip. Air and water cultivators were the best, creating wind in the sails or directly pushing the boats along, but nobody sat idly. If nothing else, they could naively use their spiritual energy to propel their ships to some extent, regardless of its efficiency.

“I thought we were well outside the area…” John looked at Matayal.

“Indeed. All of our information until now indicated that the breaths, if that is what they are, barely affected the sea level outside of the strict borders of the Kelp Spire Forest.”

Even as they watched, the spires trembled and the waters continued to recede. And then… everything happened in reverse. The seas rose and water flew upwards in the kelp spire forest. An immediate reversal also went counter to how they thought the leviathan worked, and every fleet was quite surprised. But each ship was already either outside of the area, or had already lost their chance. The explosion of water into the sky crashed ships, sea beasts, and spires alike into each other. The spires trembled… and some cracked. Yet they all remained more or less standing, perhaps due to the way the massive kelp wrapped around them. But not all stood tall and vertical, often sagging at odd angles and dipping deeper into the sea.

“Seems like our timeline has moved up,” Matayal said. “We will have to keep the fleets further… but that might be of little pain given we are reaching the end of our dives.”

-----

As the hour of the day didn’t matter more than the wakefulness of cultivators, their alliance gathered together to discuss their next actions. Deirdre had already shared what she learned from Sitora, so they only had to choose how they wished to act.

“I don’t think we can risk following her anymore,” Deirdre admitted. “Regardless of whether or not we trust her.”

“Certainly not with just the two of us,” Renato admitted. “So we must ask the question- does she believe she is close, so she is attempting to throw us off her trail?’

“I’m not sure if it matters,” Matayal said. “Given our options, we can only choose to focus on one or the other. Gesine is either aware of us and will likely act in a similar fashion, or she will soon. Split apart, we cannot hope to face either of them. But we are already at odds with the Molten Sea. And of the major threats, they seem like the worse option. We cannot ignore them. On the other hand… given our knowledge of both paths and how things have been explored, it is most likely that we will end up in the same area regardless. As long as we do not follow after Sitora we have the chance to work together with them, at least for a few moments. So it should come down to whether we wish to manage the final explorations alone, or continue to follow Gesine.”

“I agree it would be a risk to follow Sitora,” John said. “But the same is true for Gesine. Perhaps she would prefer to get all of us down below together before she attacks. In such a case, it would be better to go our own way. Should we ultimately encounter the others, we still have to deal with those risks. But the enmity between the two seems real. And if they are working together…” John shrugged, “We don’t stand a chance to begin with. I don’t see why they would bother to hide it this long when their combined forces are more than enough to do as they please.”

“We’ll keep the surface secure,” Steve promised.

Harta Mulyani echoed the sentiment. “We will be here to provide a safe haven from the storms. Or perhaps… a bit further away, in case the seas are inclined to act up again.”

“Whatever they are looking for, if we are able to secure it first we will be at an advantage,” Matayal said. “In the worst case, we use it as a bargaining chip with Sitora to help us defeat Gesine, and secure some promise that the Sky Islands will withdraw.”

After some further discussion, it was agreed they would use their knowledge of the various explored areas to find their own route. They at least had a general idea which areas were unexplored, and where the others had been heading. They just had to be as prepared as possible before they descended.