Inexorable Chaos

“[Divine Tool]”, the very name conjures in Thallum’s mind notions of irresistible might. Yet he wears the Gauntlet of Elemental Authority, a [Divine] creation by Mimir himself, and can barely hold his own against Coeus, Elemental Titan of Air. He reaches out, actively fighting Coeus for control of the air over the battlefield. He feeds mana into his gauntlet and the gauntlet seizes the air, but then Coeus regains control, and then loses it to him again. The titan’s control of the air within a couple hundred yards of its core is too strong for the gauntlet to usurp, but he can still keep the elemental from using its large scale abilities.

“Donovan! I can’t suppress this thing forever!”

The [Warfare General] leaps at the elusive core, Excalibur poised and ready to strike. He swings but his sword is pushed back by a hot gust of air. Excalibur’s anti-magic disperses the blast, but Coeus’ core gets blown away.

On its retreat, Coeus compresses and releases bullets of supercompressed air dense enough to puncture steel with ease, but Donovan blocks them with Excalibur The sword’s enchantment glows brightly, scattering the mana in its vicinity and the bullets wink out with a puff.

Excalibur is the [Legendary] flamberge forged by [Golem Archking] Arthur specifically to destroy rogue golems. It works by not only disrupting mana near it, but by also severing any and all connections to it. Whether it be a [Mages] spell or an enchanted item, the sword can make it permanently inert.

Unfortunately, the strength of Excalibur is also its greatest weakness. Since the sword's mere presence is enough to dismantle nearby spells and enchantments, its wielder must fight without anything that requires the use of mana.

Growling in frustration, Donovan aims Excalibur at the swiftly moving core.”[Blade Form: Extension], [Rampaging Berserker Stance], [Sword Art: Bladestorm].”

Veins swell across Donovan's muscles and scalp. The whites of his eyes go red and his body temperature rises till his sweat steams. He tightens his grip on Excalibur’s hilt as the flamberge triples in length. He test swings the mighty blade and the air stills as several hundred phantom slashes blow away the surrounding mana.

Satisfied, Donovan roars and rushes forward while swinging rapidly, ripping up everything in the vicinity.

Coeus is forced to create even greater distance. It alternately tries to crush or explode Donovan with rapid fluctuations in pressure, but the man is nigh immune to anything created with magic. Bolts of lighting crack and flash around the [Warfare General], but without mana to guide the currents’ path, they strike trees instead. Kept low by the chaos of fire and ice overhead, the nimble titan can only just dodge the rampaging [Genera]l.

While Donovan occupies the titan, the forest conjured by Sylvia continues to grow larger and taller, already visible over the walls of Camelot. On the fringes, the Aesir attempt to dismantle her magic with fire and skills, but the covering fire from Camelot’s walls and the unrelenting assault by the regenerating golems keep them from progress.

With a final burst of mana, Sylvia caps the [Arboretum] made with her domain, completely cutting off the insides with the outside.

Just as she finishes, she feels a potent Pulse of mana surge through the battlefield, quickly followed by two more. She looks for a source and when she finds it, a chill runs through her bones. Three Titan cores, damaged but alive, are leaking mana from another plane like a lure. She feels reality shudder everywhere as portals open up all over the battlefield. From the portals stream forth Fire, Water, and Earth elementals, from young all the way to elder. None are as potent as the Titans, but each is a dangerous force on its own, and now quantity is added to their quality.

Her dread becomes real when the fuselade from the wall stops. She turns around to look. The defenders on the wall have turned their weapons inward.

________________________________________

“PROTECT THE CIVILIANS!” Franky roars as his longsword of light cuts an earth elemental in half. With a flick of his wrist, he creates and throws a blade of light that severs a flame elemental's core. When he turns around, he sees Serena blast a water elemental with freezing mist. The elemental, to its credit, is surviving longer than its brethren as it sits atop a fountain of water, but that only stalls the inevitable. Eventually, the freezing mist freezes the elemental completely into ice.

“[Ice Maiden]” Sarena flicks her staff and the coffin of ice drives hundreds of frozen spikes into the elemental’s core.

“Sarena, do you know how the elementals are getting into the city?” Franky asks.

Sarena shakes her head just as the answer appears above her. The elven beauty looks up, then quickly hops out of the way as a brown ball as large as she is falls to the ground where she was standing. Not a second later, the earth core cannibalizes the ground and a humanoid of dirt and cobblestones rises till it towers over the nearby homes. The [Elder Earth Elemental] steps forward.

As it tries to take another step, several kunai flash through the air and embed into the elemental’s neck. A second later, the bombs attached to them go off, ripping off the head in a shower of dirt, stone, and dust.

Jessa phases out of Franky’s shadow.

“Sorry I’m late. I ran into some problems.”

Before Franky can reply, the [Elder Earth Elemental] regenerates its head from the cement of a nearby building.

“Damn. The core is probably in its chest.” Franky concludes, “let's take this thing out, then we can assess the situation.”

“Allow me.”

All three turn their heads to a man's voice only a few feet away.

The man, wearing a tophat and holding a cane, gives the three a polite smile. He taps his hat brim with the pommel of his cane in salute, then takes the handle in his free hand and unsheathes a long, thin blade with oddly spaced holes.

You are under the effect of the Domain [Echo Chorus].

All sound based abilities are increased by 2719%

He slashes once, the three hear a whistle, and then an explosion shatters a large piece of the elemental’s chest. He slashes again and again, melodically, methodically, and soon the core is exposed.

With an elegant final swipe, the core shatters and the elemental crumbles into a small hill of dirt and rubble.

“Who-who are you?” Franky asks.

The man smiles. “I am Hannibal Dextrous, leader of the Gentlemen's Guild. My guild was sent by Aodean to retrieve anyone stranded from the defense.”

“What defense? Do you know what’s happening?”

Hannibal tilts his head, “I do not, but I know that all civilians and defenders are being herded to the center of the city for protection. Come, we must not delay. There are more lives on the line.”

Hannibal starts running to the city center without making a single sound.

“Should we follow him?” Jessa asks.

Franky nods, “Yes. It seems like Aodean is coordinating things. Let’s set off.”

_____________________

The wheels of Rathos’ cart squeak to a halt as the Chaotic Empire’s army finally gains a view of Camelot. The sight sends a chill down the [Deathflame General]’s spine.

The city is under attack, but not by them. An ever increasing swarm of elementals falling from portals in the sky.

Unsure of what he is seeing, he flexes his Aura and calls the most powerful [Mage] at his disposal.

Volpe, napping in her carriage, senses the Aura. She rolls her eyes at the rather authoritative message.

“I am not some [Soldier] you can just order around.” she growls unhappily. With a yawn, she gets out of bed and takes her sweet time getting dressed while ignoring the constant sends of Aura, and finally exits the carriage. She steps out, but instead of setting foot on the ground, her mana bears her aloft. From her high vantage, she immediately sees what has Rathos on edge.

Volpe quickly arrives at Rathos' side, all anger towards him completely forgotten.

“What are we dealing with?” he asks.

“Titans!” she seethes, “They should be dead! My ancestors made sure of that. How are they still alive?”

“What are titans?” Rathos asks.

“Things that need to be destroyed.” her eyes glow a moment. “I sense four titan cores, three are damaged. We need to find and fully destroy the cores, otherwise elementals will be able to freely enter our plane.”

“We came here to retrieve Lycans, not fight Camelot’s battles.”

“If the city falls, the Lycans go with it. I’ll take to the skies and give support. You handle the ground troops.”

Before Rathos can answer, Volpe streaks through the skies towards the city.

Cursing, Rathos quickly releases the full force of his aura.

“All Units. Forward March. Prepare For Battle.”

____________________________

“You know, your skill is bullshit. How the heck can you keep my own ship from me? It doesn't make sense.”

Velika chuckles with a grin, “That's the thing about [Sovereigns]. We always get a skill that's unfair. I’m sure you have one of your own.”

“It’s not that good,” Quasi wines, “All it does is turn any enemy killed by my empire into a loyal undead.

Velika quickly stops chuckling.

“Wait… you’re the [Necromancer] everyone is worried about?”

Quasi raises an eyebrow, “Um, maybe? I’m not worried?”

The [Harbor Mistress] shakes her head in disbelief, “Reports are saying that a demon [General] working under a [Necromancer] is rampaging across the South with an army of undead. They say that over fifty kingdoms have already fallen to him.”

Quasi nods, “Nice, I guess that explains why I leveled from a [King] to an [Emperor]. I knew I picked the right guy. Though, I’m not sure about a demon [General] bit. Or bits. Rathos was pretty human, last I remember. I doubt anyone would call him a demon unless he was wearing my Edgelord armor. Now that armor has some badass demonic aesthetics, especially with the red lightning and ghastly evil looking cape.”

He chuckles at the memory. Then he turns to ShadeHaven sitting in drydock with a fresh bit of polish. Granted, the polish doesn't change the creepy aesthetics of a ship and narwhal having a baby.

“So, when do I regain control of my ship?” Quasi asks.

Velika smiles. She taps her wooden cane and the trestles holding the ShadeHaven start to tilt. The ship lists, then slides down the trestles and splashes into the water. For a perilous moment, Quasi thinks his ship is in peril, then it rights itself and bobs gently by the quay.

With her cane, Velika bops the gaping Quasi on his head.

“There, it’s all yours.”

The connection between Quasi and Shadehaven is fully restored.

He shakes his head, “Damn, feels like I just regained a limb or something.”

“My liege,” Testudo arrives in a hurry, “Jessica said that you are leaving immediately. Is something the matter?”

“Yeah, about that. The dwarf [King] kinda wants me out of his kingdom as soon as possible, and I kinda need to deliver this anyways.” Quasi reaches into his robe and pulls out an adamantine reinforced chalice.

Testudo and Velika frown. “Isn’t that the king's favorite cup?”

Quasi sighs, “Yea, it is, and he’s not too happy about having to give it to me, nor is he happy about me sleeping with his [Artifact Keeper].”

Velika grins, “So Amethyst finally got some dick.”

He rubs the sides of his head, “That damn woman tricked me into sleeping with her, only to conveniently remember that the stupid sippy cup was in Hreidmars possession the entire time.”

“Hehehe,” Velika snickers. “Well, I hope you put a child in her, rare as halfbreeds are, that woman needs to change some diapers instead of playing with artifacts.”

“Yea, let's hope not. I’ve already got an army of children… and probably wives” Quasi scratches his smooth chin. “And I’m probably going to have to create several more armies of them.”

He notices Jessica walking up the ramp to ShadeHaven.

“So long as I survive,” he adds. “Anyway, it looks like it's time for me to head out. Testudo, this is where we part.” Quasi holds out a hand.

Testudo takes the hand and shakes it with a grin, “I’m sure we won't part for too long. Who else is going to supply you with the highest quality bean.”

The two let go of each other's hands and Quasi strides unto the ShadeHaven’s deck. He stops next to Jessica, who gives him a pouty look of a woman who has a feeling about something. Not sure what, but he can tell it is something negative.

“Ready to depart, Jess?” he asks and she slowly nods.

“Perfect.”

Quasi flexes his mana and commands ShadeHaven to move. The ship moves like a shark above water. It accelerates out of the cavern and into the moonlit sky.

“Alright, I’m going to try something new. If all goes well, we should be able to get to Camelot pretty quickly.”

“What are you going to do?” she asks.

Quasi grins.

“Just watch.”

With a thought, the ship's mana churns aggressively, spreading quickly throughout the ship. A violet light encapsulates the Shadehaven, which causes the ship to counter its weight in gravity and rise above the ocean. The ship rises ten, twenty, and finally thirty meters above the ocean.

With another thought, the ship turns and reorients itself towards the direction of Camelot.

“Alright, let's hope this works.” He says with a grin.

He raises a hand and points in front of the ship. “[Wings of Transport], [Perfect Execution], [Wormhole].”

A burst of mana releases from Shadehavens crystal horn. The mana, gravitic in nature, flows in front of the ship. Violet energy churns in a circular motion, creating a spell more complex and mana hungry than anything Quasi has cast to date. Without ShadeHaven to supply the cost, the spell would be impossible.

A moment passes and a twisting, curving, portal opens up in front of them.

“I-is that safe?” Jessica asks warily.

Quasi keeps grinning.

“We’re about to find out. ShadeHaven, full speed ahead.” he yells with a burst of aura and a maddened grin.

The ship enters the portal and everything goes dark.