Chapter Twenty-Six: Sudden
death
The Invincible flew onwards over the sea towards the Mist Continent, going slower than normal to keep pace with the rag tag armada of airships behind it. I stood at the control station, monitoring the status of various key positions on the ship, especially the main cannon.
Garland had made a few modifications to this ship and it had taken me a while to change things back to the way they should be, but the one thing I didn’t change back was the main cannon. Garland may have been a fool with his sights set too high but he had upgraded the energy cannon of the Invincible considerably. Now it was able to utilise the destructive power of spells which were cast into it, not only that, but the ship itself held a number of spells which could be used in a automatic charge of the energy cannon.
All in all, the Invincible was a formidable weapon and I intended to make full use of its destructive abilities.
Yugami stood next to me, her eyes watching the night clouds drift by, as I looked at her I was unable to see any trace of emotion in those eyes, it was almost as though she had become like one of those genomes I had tortured…and for a fleeting moment I felt a hint of guilt for what I had done to them.
But they didn’t know any better, they didn’t know anything…genomes are tools…and like it or not, Yugami is a tool. Use her. My mind reminded me.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the main viewer.
I stopped looking at her and returned my gaze to the controls.
“We’re going to show the inhabitants of the Mist Continent how powerful a force they are facing.”
“I thought you did that when you stole the Hildagarde.”
I shook my head while checking the engine status…it looked normal, everything looked normal for that matter but I kept checking, it all depended on this ship…
“I gave them a fleeting glance…now I’m going to smash the message in with unrelenting force.”
“I see.” She replied
I chuckled and smiled gently, thinking of what lay ahead.
“I doubt very much you do Yugami…I doubt very much you do.”
The mixture of thieves and nobles reminded me slightly of Ankh Morpork as we entered the gates of Treno. It was nice to be in a city like Ankh Morpork but without the smell…it made me feel a little less out of touch with the world around me. I didn’t fully understand all that was happening, and to be honest I was surprised that Thunderchild had managed to adapt to this strange and wonderful world.
“So…where’s this Auction house?” I asked as I took in my surroundings.
“Just over there I believe.” Said Reiganna quietly, pointing towards a large marble building on the other side of Treno.
“Are you alright?” I asked her, she seemed troubled by something.
She frowned and nodded.
“I’ve just got a strange feeling something horrible is going to happen…”
“Do you think Fury’s involved?”
She shrugged and began walking down the staircase to the left of the entrance to the city.
“I don’t know, but whatever the cause we’re running out of time, we have to get this message across immediately or the first indication many people will have of Fury’s attack will be their last.”
With Reigannas dire warning in our ears we hurried onwards down towards the Auction House.
I was shaken…very shaken, at what I had seen during that battle over the Forgotten Continent. Almost the entire Lindblum battle fleet…gone…over one thousand men…gone.
We had docked at Lindblum palace as soon as we had returned and sent messengers to Treno, Alexandria and Burmecia. Heaven knows where Fury could strike next.
Alexandria’s airships were our last hope now, I had asked for General Beatrix’s company as soon as possible and had received word she was on her way.
Pacing backwards and forwards in the command centre, a small room underneath the palace which had been built after the eidolon attack on Lindblum three years ago. In front of me was a map of all known Gaia and important locations on it, Zidane had been most helpful in providing the information behind this map during his travels around the four continents.
Small green markers on the map marked the suspected locations of Alexandrias battleships, few as there were they were advanced and well defended ships. Currently five were on station near Alexandria, two were still at Dali, intelligence reports indicated that at least one of those two had engine problems, one was on patrol over the sea between the Forgotten Continent and the Mist Continent, another was patrolling the Outer Continent and the last of the ten Alexandrian battleships was escorting the Red Rose with General Beatrix to Lindblum.
All in all, the tactical situation didn’t look good.
Our fleet of fifty airships was now reduced to a meagre twenty, which in combination with Alexandria’s fleet gave us some thirty warships to defend ourselves with.
If fifty couldn’t do it, what chance does thirty have? I bitterly thought to myself.
“Alexandrian airship seven has failed to report in on schedule.” Came a report from the other side of the room, I looked up at the person who had reported it and rubbed my moustache.
“What ship is that?” I asked
The young ensign pointed to the green marker between the Mist and Forgotten Continents and I felt my stomach go cold.
“We’re too late…he’s coming.” I muttered
I sat in the command chair of the Red Rose, feeling the ship shudder and groan around me, I had many times considered sending this ship to be cut up, but the sentimental value and the fact that it had been built for Queen Brahne especially, meant I had reconsidered. After all, Queen Garnets sentimentality to her foster-mother would have meant any order I had given for the ship to be cut up would have been countered by her.
“General?” asked a voice from my right, I turned towards the communications station and nodded.
“Yes?”
“We’ve lost contact with the Leviathan, she was due to report in thirty minutes ago.”
I raised an eyebrow but wasn’t too surprised, communications between airships were sporadic at most, many times before we had ‘lost’ airships only to find they had had a routine fault which had prevented them from reporting in.
“What’s the nearest ship to their position?” I asked
The woman at the mapping table scanned her charts and cursed under her breath.
“Us.”
“Very well, Helm set us on an intercept course to the Leviathan’s last position, communications, notify Lindblum of our change in plans and contact the Odin, we’ll need her continued escort.”
As my orders were carried out I had to wonder if the strange events recently, the loss of the Invincible, the discovery of Kuja, the emergence of Fury, were linked somehow.
Sighing and shaking my head I dismissed the thought, however tempting it would be to let myself drift along that line of thinking.
We approached our target of Treno, I opened a communications channel to the other two waves of airships and cleared my throat before speaking.
“This is Invincible to attack wings two and three, we’ve reached waypoint one, proceed to your designated targets and good luck. Tonight we will strike fear into our enemies.”
I then gently throttled back the engines of the Invincible, allowing the three attack wings to move ahead of us, the plan called for the Invincible to arrive shortly after the main attack had begun.
“They know we’re coming.” Muttered Kitiara, referring to the Alexandrian airship we had destroyed a short while ago.
“Your point being?” I retorted
She sighed and crossed her arms
“They’ll send more airships.”
I laughed and shrugged.
“Let them come…if they want death I’m sure I can deliver that unto them.”
She shook her head and walked away.
Hearing whispers behind me I turned around and saw Xola and Nagy conversing, I walked over to them and stood in front of the force field, crossing my arms and facing them with a sneer.
“Scared? You should be…” I said
Nagy faced me with an equal sneer.
“We’re not scared…we know who you are.”
I shook my head and laughed
“My dear fools…you know nothing of me. Nothing of anything….and soon you’ll know only fear and pain.”
“We know what you are Fury…a twisted mirror of a great man.” Said Xola
I raised an eyebrow
“I really should punish you for saying that…but I really cannot be bothered, not now…not while my plan is unfolding…soon you will witness darkness settling over the fair lands of Gaia.”
Xola snorted
“You speak and yet nothing happens, Fury you’re nothing but words.”
I looked at Xola for a moment and then started laughing, and couldn’t stop, how stupid was she? How blind?
“You stupid, stupid mortal fool. Look around you Xola, you are imprisoned in a force field from which you cannot escape, on the most powerful ship this planet has ever seen, following a fleet of specially altered ships. Soon enough you will see my words become reality.”
“Approaching Treno sir, the first wave has begun its attack.” Said Ilvian
I turned and smiling, resumed my position at the control panel.
“Now watch…as I control the fate of hundreds.”
A heavy explosion shook the ground around us, looking behind me I saw a fireball rise up into the sky.
“What the hell?” asked Snikity as we stopped to look at the fire.
“An accident?” asked Mizrah
That feeling of tragedy continued unabated, in fact now it seemed stronger than before.
Before I could answer there was another explosion further away, and then another, and another.
“No accident!” I shouted over the din of the explosions.
Above the noise of the explosions I heard something else, looking up into the sky which now flashed with the fire of explosions I saw the underside of an airship passing low overhead, a green flash blossomed from the back of it and a small green dot of light dropped into the opposite street.
The next thing I knew I was picking myself up out of a pile of rubble and wiping blood out of my eyes.
The houses either side of me were completely flattened and bricks and rubble were everywhere, I stood up and looked around for Snikity and Mizrah, Mizrah was standing nearby digging someone out of the rubble, as she succeeded I saw it was Snikity she was helping.
“Come on! We have to get to the auction house!” I yelled, and grabbing both of them I ran forward up the staircase and into the tower.
Running forward along the wall with water either side I took a quick moment to look at the city behind us, many areas were on fire now, the glow being reflected on the underside of the airships which made repeated passes. Another green ball of light fell in the water a few meters away, the explosion shook the wall we were standing on and covered us in water and made part of the wall behind us fall down, taking some nobles with it.
A mass of people had gathered in the street ahead, I saw an airship alter its bombing run deliberately to bomb that street, a couple of burning bodies fell into the water nearby as the green ball of light massacred the panicking people.
What the hell is going on here? I wondered, beginning to feel a slight sense of panic myself.
“Reiganna!!” I heard someone shout and I brought myself back to the here and now, Alex was running towards me, an explosion behind her threw her onto her front and knocked us backwards.
Picking myself back up again I walked over to her in time to help her up.
“What’s going on?” She asked
“I don’t know…but I think it’s Fury!” I shouted
“Who?”
“The guy you saw on the edge of Evil Forest!”
She nodded and looked up as another airship droned overhead, dropping a bomb into a tower and demolishing it in one hit.
As Alex was looking up I saw the colour drain from her face and her mouth and eyes open wide in abject horror.
“It’s the Invincible!!” she cried
I gasped at the destruction being waged on the city of Treno on the main viewer in front of me. Continual bombing passes by Fury’s airships had left over three quarters of the city on fire as we arrived, and Fury had left the bridge smiling, Kitiara and Domino had followed him.
“What’s he doing?” I asked
Zidane hung his head low and sighed
“Destroying Treno.” He replied
Fury laughed as he fiddled with the buttons on the panel in front of us. I was impressed by the red…almost blood-like glow of the Invincibles cannon in front of us, it had a powerful feeling to it, almost as though it could level continents in one blow.
“Come watch this you two,” he said “You’ll never have seen something like this before.”
“I have.” Said Domino but she said no more, Fury glanced at her but didn’t make a comment.
I walked forward and deliberately stood closely next to Fury, putting my arm on his shoulder, he snorted and shrugged it off. Silently cursing I chose just to stand closely next to him.
I increased the power to the main cannon as much as I could, and then I increased it some more. Every readout on the panel went into the red but I didn’t care, the more powerful the blast the better in my opinion and I continued to charge the cannon, using the auto-spell caster to send waves of Firaga and Ultima into the cannon which pulsed a brighter shade of red with every spell cast.
“Caution…automatic spell caster failure in progress.” Droned the computer, I hit the readouts a couple of times but they refused to move from their positions in the red.
So, I moved from the panel and towards the edge of the cannon, standing on the platform which poked slightly out into the bright red.
Very well, I thought I shall have to do this
manually.
“Firaga!!” I called, flinging my arms into the air and creating a large fireball which was promptly sucked into the red glow.
“Thundaga!!” A electric bolt was pulled into the cannon which glowed brighter.
“Ultima!!”
“Blizzaga!!”
Now Yugami joined in, throwing Thundaga and Blizzaga spells into the cannon.
Kitiara’s POV
I watched the two of them flinging spells into the cannon and a sense of
jealousy overcame me, watching them with the power I didn’t have…or did I?
“Firaga!” I yelled, and was extremely surprised when a ball of flames erupted from between my hands and spiralled into the cannon. I felt giddy for a moment as unexplored power beckoned to me.
“Thundaga!” The feeling of the lightning leaving my body felt indescribable, an incredible wave of ecstasy which swept right through me, leaving me wanting more and more.
“Blizzaga!”
“This is it!” yelled Fury “Keep going…we’re almost there!!”
Alex had gone as white as a sheet when the Invincible arrived, and I couldn’t blame her, this ship was like no other I had seen on Gaia, the blue metal reflected the glow of the fires burning around us and the red glow of a strange orifice underneath it seemed to threaten us.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” yelled Reiganna, for a moment I couldn’t see why she was concerned, then I noticed the bombing runs had stopped.
Perhaps the Invincible scared the attackers off? I thought and then I remembered that the last time this ship had been seen was with Thunderchild…who was now Fury…
“The Gargant Roo is down in Doctor Tots tower!” yelled Alex.
Even before Reiganna could reply, Alex was running towards a tower which had been largely undamaged by the air raid. Leaping over damaged parts of the path as we ran towards the tower I risked the occasional look back at the Invincible which seemed to have stopped in the centre of Treno. Aside from the screams of injured people, and the crackling of flames around us, it was remarkably quiet.
I had a feeling that was about to change.
We reached the tower just as a strange noise began to emit from the Invincible, a sort of chiming noise which grew in volume and pitch.
I looked out through a hole in the side of the tower and saw a strange circle of symbols rotating in the sky under the red orifice of the Invincible.
“Shit, it’s powering up for it’s main attack!!” yelled Alex as she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the ladder into an underground cavern. Reiganna was the only one absent as we reached the bottom.
“Where’s Rei?” I asked
Alex swore and ran back to the foot of the ladder.
The hairs on my arm were standing on end as I cast my last spell into the cannon.
“Ultima-Flare!!” I yelled, performing an attack which I didn’t know was possible for me to use, the power it consumed drained my body and made the whole ship shake and groan.
This is it now I thought No turning back.
I turned to Yugami and nodded, she smiled as I gave the order.
“Fire.”
I had heard someone calling as I made for the ladder and had noticed a foot sticking out of some rubble, I ran over and began digging frantically to try and get the person out before the Invincible fired…to save at least one person from the impending massacre.
As I pulled some more debris clear I saw the face of Doctor Tot, the infamous historian of Gaia, his face covered in blood from a gash on his forehead and his arm broken badly.
“Doctor…come on, we’re got to go!!” I yelled, picking him up and putting him over my shoulder.
The noise from the Invincible suddenly cut off, leaving us in silence. I stood up and looked out of the tower to where it hovered low over the city, a menacing sight even if you knew nothing of its power. I blinked and frowned.
What the…? I thought
The Invincible fired as I reached the ladder.
After the brief silence which had followed the disappearance of the symbols in the sky around the cannon of the Invincible, a small white beam of light shone down on Treno. People in the streets stopped to look at the light, wondering what it meant, whether they were safe, or not.
A massive beam of purple light quickly followed the white and when it hit the ground the ground erupted in a massive fireball which quickly spread out in a circle around the ship.
Buildings and towers were smashed sideways and people were incinerated where they stood. Any constructions close to the initial blast zone were vaporised as were the unfortunate victims of the attack.
A shockwave ran ahead of the fireball, knocking people over and leaving them staring at the boiling mass of fire as it quickly engulfed them and their surroundings, gathering strength as it passed.
After the fireball, there was nothing left of Treno save for the broken remains of the Card tournament hall. Of Trenos several thousand inhabitants, only ashes and burnt bodies remained.
The shockwave from the attack made me lose my grip on the ladder and I fell down, flailing wildly, somehow, even with Doctor Tot in my grasp I gripped a rung and held on for dear life as everything shook wildly.
Bricks fell down past me and for a moment I worried whether the entire ladderway was going to collapse but I gripped the ladder rung even tighter and hung on for dear life.
Looking up back into Doctor Tots tower I saw a boiling mass of flames which funnelled slightly down the well in which the ladderway was placed. I screamed and began climbing quickly downwards as the flames grew closer, then they suddenly reversed course and were sucked back up to the surface, then the shaking stopped and there was silence from above.
We had watched the airships attack on Treno with morbid curiosity, the Bandits coming out of their hideout around us to see the explosions in the city near us.
The dull thumps of the impact of those strange green balls of light making the ground underneath us shake.
“What’s happening?” asked Charlie, a fellow bandit, his baby grand dragon following him.
“I don’t know…Treno’s under attack but by who or why I don’t have a clue.”
Then the airships had rejoined their original formation and headed back west as the Invincible arrived. I knew it was the Invincible from descriptions Alex had given me from her experience in Alexandria the last time the Invincible had been used in attack.
And there, unfolding in front of my eyes, the Invincible maintained a position in the centre of the city and charged up its main cannon, after a space of about three to four minutes it fired creating a huge fireball which spread quickly out into the city around it.
As fireball began to spread I saw that it wouldn’t abate by the time it reached us, turned around and began shouting out orders.
“Everyone underground!!” I yelled, pointing to the cave entrances. Charlie just stood there, staring at the approaching mass of seething flames. I grabbed him and his grand dragon and pushed them towards the nearest cave entrance. When and only when I saw that everyone I could see was underground I headed into the cave myself, turning quickly I saw the flames reach the hillside and began to come up it, but they were losing their intensity and I knew whatever attack had struck Treno wouldn’t affect us so badly, but the shockwave in front of it was enough to knock me off my feet and the heat from the flames still enough to make my back feel like it was on fire.
And then it was gone, past and as I looked backwards over my shoulder I could see nothing where Treno once stood, flames and fire flicked up into the night sky which now glowed with the amount of flames which burnt on the ground below.
I stood up and went to the cave entrance to take a closer look, I could see ruined buildings everywhere, the auction house was gone completely and the card hall badly damaged.
From a city of nobles, beggars and thieves, full of bustling trade and people…to a ruin filled burning wreck in three minutes.
I felt tears well in my eyes and I didn’t have the resistance to fight them back.
I cried as what was left of Treno burned in front of me.