Chapter 1219: The Looming Shadow

The battle for Roann had barely begun, and already the city looked like it had lost. Smoke crawled between the rooftops in thick, greasy ribbons, rising from fires no one bothered to extinguish. Debris and rubble were everywhere. Bodies lay where they had fallen in the streets, left rotting for weeks. There were no frantic families fleeing our coming, nor merchants driving wagons out the back alleys.

Those things belonged to people who expected there to be a tomorrow. Who cared about a tomorrow.

Men and women crowded the streets with crude swords, makeshift spears, and even shovels and pitchforks. Their faces were pale and streaked with fear, but souls burned with unnatural devotion. Others knelt amid the rubble and prayed toward the distant towers of the Divine Throne.

The sight made me sick. Not a single one of them was free of the curse.

"There must be thousands of them," Korra muttered in a dark voice.

"We must hurry to the shard," I said, tugging on Fable’s fur with some urgency.

We shot across the city, reaching for the spires of the cathedral. I grimaced as we passed over Fate’s scar, remembering the last time we tried to reach it. He hadn’t even let us get close to the shard.

"Enemy skyship inbound," Verity called.

A series of bright lights flickered in the night, and a long, sleek skyship descended from the upper cloud layer. Its mana cannons were primed and ready, releasing blasts of seventh-level magic directly at us. I raised one hand and released my mana, entwining it with my aura. A shimmering golden magic circle spun open overhead with a radius that stretched a quarter mile. The beams hit it hard and splattered like water, crawling across the surface. I gasped, my eyes glowing faintly as the power soaked into Adaptive Resistance.

"Grace, that’s you!" Korra said.

Grace shot away in a stream of crackling lightning and wind. Soldiers shouted and magical alarms rang out as the tip of her spear crashed into the protective ward around the ship. Several loosed arrows, but they were slapped away in the lashing winds. A sound like shattering glass rang out, and the barrier fragmented. Grace’s spear lodged in the ship’s side, and she unleashed a torrent of lightning. It arced across the hull, liquefying the enchanted steel and flinging it off in molten droplets. Screams followed as electricity jumped from soldier to soldier, charring their bodies black and filling the air with the stench of burned flesh.

Grace kicked off the ship, rocking it with the force of her departure. It listed sideways, gradually gaining momentum until it crashed into a market square. I winced, closing my eyes as the mana cores exploded, illuminating the city in a flash of light. That market hadn’t been empty. It was now.

The ship was the first of many. The storm ruptured as skyship after skyship descended from the clouds, already firing their beams. Some carried the massive eighth-level underbelly cannons we’d seen in Blacksand. My lips tightened, and I waved my hand, conjuring a full eighth-level sphere around us. It appeared just in time, and the beams broke across the barrier just as the first had. The mana was overwhelming, and I frantically directed it into the Aetherial Prism.

"They’re forming a perimeter around us. They intend to drive us away from the cathedral," Fyren said through the Nexus.

"It’s the arbiters," Verity said, letting me relay her words to the others. "There’s no way they could have had enough on standby, so they’re summoning more now that we’re attacking."

"Hmph, how rude. Won’t they at least let us show up to welcome them to Enusia?" Korra asked, her lips twisting in a pout.

Gayron snorted. "This is no time to whine; we’ve got all the enemies we could want. Xiviyah, what do you need to call your armies?"

"A secure position, else their ships will be able to fire on the portals."

"Then we’ll buy you some. Korra, think we can break through?"

She flashed him a toothy grin. "See if you can keep up."

Gayron answered with a slash of his sword, sending an arc of fire. It swept toward the closest ship, expanding rapidly until it completely enveloped it. The shield shattered before it, and the deck and rigging burst into flame. Two Flickers rose from the inferno, beginning to slaughter the mages and disable the cannons.

"Hey, no fair!" Korra cried, jetting off toward her own target. She summoned a massive swell of water as she accelerated, forming it into a long, serpentine dragon. She punched through the hull like a bullet, emerging out the other side. The waters flowed around her, protecting her from the ensuing blast and secondary explosions as the ship’s matrix overloaded.

"Go," Fyren said.

The ships immediately closed in on us, but Fable was quicker. He darted past, but they fired on us, catching his flank with an eight-level being. I sucked in a breath, my ward shivering as it struggled to contain that much power.

"Celestial Grace," I said through gritted teeth.

The eighth-level spell entwined with my aura, drawing absorbed mana directly from it before it could reach my soul. Our entire party brightened, and Fable put on a burst of speed, tearing through their line.

Fyren and R’lissea followed us through the gap, both taking advantage of the surge of power I’d given them to widen the hole. R’lissea’s vines sprouted from a noble’s garden far below, snagging the ship and dragging it to the ground. Fyren simply lashed out with his sword, leaving a shallow gash in the side of the hull. White flames leaped from his blade, rapidly spreading across the vessel. Everywhere they touched, matter disintegrated, turning into white dust, and then dissipating entirely.

I stared in awe as we blitzed past, watching the threads of fate unravel. He wasn’t destroying them as Fate had; no, his power teased them apart, returning them to raw elements. It left no hole behind, no instability in the dimensional wall. Such control was...unfathomable. Had fate even been that clean when she’d shown me how to manipulate elements in Oblivion?

"There’s the cathedral!" R’lissea cried, pointing with her staff.

The cathedral of Roann was on the city edge across from the Divine Throne, outmatched in grandeur and splendor only by the royal palace, whose towers broke the skyline beside it. Skyships hovered close over both, and thousands of soldiers were dug in around them. They’d demolished the buildings and used the rubble to create additional layers of makeshift fortifications that bristled with spears, ballistae, and mana cannons.

We landed in a market square a few blocks from the cathedral, just out of range of their weaponry. I slid off Fable’s arm, landing with a jolt, and gathered my bearings. Enslaved Radians flocked toward us, screaming war cries in the name of their gods, but I raised my staff, entwining a Liberate into my aura. It flowed out in a tide of starlight, sweeping over them like ocean waves. The dark ribbons of the Heart Crest melted away, and the screams and shouts died as throats suddenly closed in terror.

"To me!" I cried, channeling my power into Haven.

Seven rifts swirled open around the market, and Fatesworn poured out. Bethiv emerged from the one closest to me, already shouting orders. Rubble and buildings collapsed toward us, drawn by the earth magic of our mages, forming walls and towers in the blink of an eye. The Nightwatch took their positions, readying bows, while the soldiers spread out, grabbed the terrified Radians, and pulled them back into Haven. There was no other choice for now, and though I’d been opposed to it, the remnants had pushed to save them, rather than leave them in the city to die.

In a matter of seconds, the Fatesworn had established a fortified position. R’lissea reinforced it with several dozen elementals, placing them in the mouths of the roads and alleys opening into the market. Her life magic pulsed in tune with my stars, soothing the heart and mending the flesh of the wounded and weary.

"Lady Xiviyah, we’re ready to begin the invasion," Commander Bethiv called.

I nodded and tapped my staff on the ground. Three massive gates, each over a hundred feet across, opened in the sky. There was a violent tug on my soul as my mana plummeted, but I endured it, paying the price through the Aetherial Prism instead of my own soul.

Shining prows broke through the swirling gold as Fatesworn skyships emerged from haven’s docks. The skyknights brought them about, rapidly clearing the airspace to allow more while training their mana cannons on the closest threat. We were almost a mile from the cathedral, but the first released blistering lances of light to the horizon. The detonations shook the earth, and multiple clouds of fire and ash rose in mushroom shapes on the fringes of the church defenses. Several grounded cannons returned fire, but the beams fizzled before reaching their shields.

"Good, we still hold the advantage," Bethiv said, nodding to himself. "My Lady, we should expect them to mobilize. They’ll know they can’t survive a sustained bombardment. You’d best begin your preparations."

"That’s right, we’ll defend you," R’lissea said, clutching her staff tightly. "Just...hurry, alright?"

"And when Fate comes, we’ll buy you enough time," Verity said.

"Thank you, everyone," I said, looking around the circle of familiar faces. "Please, continue to call on my power, even as I cast. Anywhere my aura touches, I shall fight beside you."

Verity placed a hand on my shoulder. "We’ll be fine, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a ghost. Please, hurry. I can already sense him stirring. It won’t be long before he finds us."