Chapter 312: The Eighth.
"It seems the resistance might become a problem in the future," Sol stood at the edge of a destroyed section of the outpost staring in the air at the floating debris left behind by the fight between Ikaris's growing forces and the Emporium.
"I assume the same, I have refrained from telling the others that the Resistance already belongs to the Emporium; in light of the fact that several of them are already among us I am trying to prevent chaos and internal conflicts, this is a matter that could cause mistrust so only those amongst my retainers and closest allies have been made privy," Ikaris answered, standing at his side with her arm hooked around his.
"It is already troublesome; the others might get the wrong Idea if I suddenly attack the Resistance which they have seen as heroes in my absence, but they have been collecting and feeding Vatui and Goslayer refugees to the Emporium for a very long time now."
"Then, if nobody tries to contact you in the next day's time I will act in your stead, I know where all of them are, I can wipe them out in a single night, you don't need to have the blood of your people on your hands," Sol suggested but she shook her head.
"A lot of them have no Idea that the leader they are so devoted to is under the Emporium's thumb, no matter what course of action we take, the innocent will get caught in the crossfire, in that sense; maybe telling them why I would attack might be the right course of action."
"Then I leave the decision in your hands, Ikaris," Sol smiled and pet her head causing what resembled a purring sound to come from her throat as she rested her cheek agaist his shoulder. "Whatever you decide, I will support your choice."
"Thank you."
"There are a total of ten who wish to join you this time, the others would love nothing more than to disappear and never be seen by the emporium again," Dina interrupted them with information from conducting a concensus amongst those they had rescued from the outpost. Master, Ikaris, what will you do about that Godslayer from earlier?" She asked, standing next to Ikaris and looking at Sol.
"For the next day we will do nothing at all," Ikaris answered. "I will make a decision after the time I set has run out," She rested her hand on Dina's cheek with a soft and endearing smile. "You will return with Sol today, make sure you take rest."
"Okay," Dina smiled in return and looked around at the others conversing away from them. "Arla seems in her element the most when she is in a warring surrounding, doesn't she?" She stared at the elf in queston who glanced from Keele to her and smiled, unaware that she had been raised as a topic.
"I feel kind of bad for her, she didn't want to get involved in another war but as long as she is around us then she won't be free of some kind of conflict or another, even on earth she somehow got mixed up in our mess."
"She has already accepted that conflict is unavoidable, she told me herself that she will arise whenever a situation demands her take action, I don't want to sound full of myself, but we; all of us, her included, are special, and special people attract dangerous curcumstances all the time," Sol raised his brow.
"She enjoys the periods of peace and cherishes every waking moment of them, even when we were on Central Province, she told me that she enjoyed the experience of manual labour for the first time, but Arla has a deep love for battle that she can't escape, she smiles when she finds new ways to make her enemies shudder, she laughs when she masters new magic, she is hardwired as a warrior, so don't feel bad for her, she has her likes and dislikes as we all do."
"Well," Dina lowered her gaze in thought, thinking how Arla had no qualms throwing someone off a bridge and killing them on the first night that she arrived on earth, and she had gone as far as declaring that she had no moral compass, stating that if Sol one day became evil she would still follow him, even to hell; she would remain at his side indefinitely, which meant something as simple as fighting a war for him was well within her spectrum of possibilities.
"I see..." Dina nodded and looked at the elf again. "Yeah, she isn't letting it bother her so I'll let it be."
"Ikaris," Sol looked up from their conversation to the dark skies. "Do you want to handle them or should I?" He asked, making mention of an emporium ship that had suddenly appeared in the outer regions of the solar system they were in.
"Master," Alpha appeared at his side, and afterwards the others in Ikaris's party began gathering towards them. "They made no mention of coming this way in any messages, and their ships were aimed in another direction while they moved, this was unscripted."
"Unscripted, or planned?" Sol looked down at her with an amused smirk seeing the expression of shock on her face. "Alpha I think you need to up your game, the Emporium managed to outsmart you this time." He chuckled.
"Cecelia and Dina, go," Ikaris turned to them foregoing her relaxed demeanour and going into a serious and authorative position like a switch had gone off in her head making Sol huff with an amused smile. "Alpha, I want to see everything that is happening out there, search the entire system for signs of any other ships sneaking about-"
"Wait!" Alpha grabbed Dina's arm while she was midway in a crouch preparing to take off, causing Cecelia to stop as well. "There is something off about this ship, the signature of the Godslayer that is being used as the core is stronger than usual," She looked up at Dina who looked to Ikaris since she couldn't sense anything that far away outside of her link.
"She is right, it is stronger than Rem's as well," Ikaris narrowed her eyes.
Sol wanted to take a look but he also wanted to see them acting in person, so with his usual fanfare he took Talia from Sara and sat again, conjuring a veil around himself and the baby to shield her from the night air. "Unless I am needed," Sol looked up at Ikaris who shook her head and pouted at his nonchalance and then looked outwards again.
"This reminds me a little of Arkadia," Arla stared at Sol, remembering well how he had pushed her to getting stronger when he refused to fight for the Demon Subjugation Army and left her with the other Captains and Heroes to fend for themselves.
"What do we do?" Cecelia asked, showing signs of hesitance since Alpha had warned them to be cautious.
"Dina," Ikaris looked to her right hand and without a word more the mage walked ahead of everyone and stood with her hand pointed in the direction of the ship, her eyes began glowing menacingly and her small cape began fanning when her hair ignited like pink flames.
[Mana accumulated]
"She is using that again," Keele started paying more attention, after Dina had used it against her the first time she had not seen the attack again.
"Alpha," Dina called and the system gave her the direct coordinates of the ship along with virtual guidelines that left a path she could easily follow.
[Your technique has evolved beyond the title of Cosmic, would you like to rename it?]
"I leave such tasks to you, Alpha, I am bad at naming things," Dina answered Alpha as a ring of black formed under her left eye when she utilized her Divine Chaos magic for even greater effect.
"I just want to make sure that nothing of this vessel remains, I'll blast it away with one attack!" She sunk her heels in the ground while Sol raised his hand sensing the mana she was preparing and cast a small shield over everyone that wasn't strong enough or able to utilize mana to protect themself from the inevitable kickback of her reckless attack.
[Then I choose to keep the name as it is for the sake of simplicity] Alpha replied in Dina's head as the notification popped up in her peripherals.
[Divine Tier Ability; Cosmic Scream]
It happened under the span of a single second; starting so fast and ending so abruptly that nobody outside of those who could percieve time slower than usual was able to see anything besides a flash of light, but for those who could see it was a great pillar of Divine mana compressed until it was white and released from her mouth with a scream that was inaudible, what gave away the fact that she had even done anything was the light and heat that followed, and then the sky began screaming when the atmosphere suddenly tore open in a delayed reaction to a divine beam of destruction ripping through it followed by a blast of wind so powerful it tore the very terrain it grazed across and lasted for well over a minute.
On the recieving end, the ship wasn't even made aware that there was anything incoming, her attack obliterated the entire vessel and everything in it's path for thousands of light years in distance before it slowed and dissipated.
"That..." Ikaris looked at Dina with a proud frown and a nod. "That was many times more destructive than the one I created when I fought against the Demon Prince, Dina," Ikaris commended her. "Had that hit anything resembling a planet it would have been vaporized, and you even compressed and shortened the duration to prevent the atmosphere from combusting."
"I didn't even see it," Jenifer stared at Keele who had been too shocked to speak again after her initial excitement.
"Someday I will be able to do the same..." Keele looked at her hands with bright and hopeful eyes. "Mana is amazing, LAW alone can never compare."
"And yet," Ikaris shook her head while Dina cleared her throat and stared at the rift in space as it rapidly shut.
"Yeah, Just before the ship was destroyed, someone managed to escape," Dina narrowed her eyes and stared up again.
"He didn't manage," Sol corrected her. "He outright dodged that with ease," He spoke calmly and then looked at Ikaris seriously from his seat.
"Tred carefully, you are facing the Eighth General of the Emporium."
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