The Storm King

Over two days, Terris’ forces grew more and more in the south. Hundreds of arks flew over the coast and dozens of enormous creatures swam in the wall of water further into the sea. Such power was not something that Leon could fight against; it was simply too much. It seemed like all the power a Despot could command had been called up by Terris. Leon wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been told that Terris emptied his territory of fighting men just to call them all here.

It enraged him, the unfairness of it. Just for being where he was, for trying to settle otherwise unclaimed land, Terris was seemingly stopping at nothing to destroy what Leon was trying to build. Not even a full year since arriving at the Nexus and Leon’s people were put so far on the back foot that now their only hope was for him to go north and scrounge up whatever resources he could find in only a month.

‘A month… to combat all of that,’ he grimly thought as he stared out at the vast fleet arraying itself against his new home. He now knew after getting a headcount that there were fewer than ten thousand people in the Artor Valley. Terris’ forces likely outnumbered his more than a hundred to one.

The Despot showed himself in the flesh several times over these couple of days. He looked none the worse for wear after the duel with Leon, though Leon only ever saw him from a distance so it was hard to be certain. He certainly didn’t see either of the two Strategoi he’d killed and injured, though, so at least some of the damage he’d done stuck.

By the morning of the third day after Nestor started work on their final play, the Diluvian fleet had enough arks to utterly drown the Artor Valley in Lancefire. The walls and towers of the valley hadn’t been completely repaired yet, let alone had their Lances reinstalled, so they were practically defenseless against such power. At any moment, Terris could order them forward and begin a bombardment that would see the entire valley leveled.

Thankfully, the Despot refrained from taking that action just yet. Leon couldn’t know why, but he was thankful for the time.

From the fleets to the south to the roof of Nestor’s lab, he turned his gaze. There, on the flat roof, the dead man, Mari, and several Raven engineers were assembling a hodgepodge of metal and glowing Lumenite. To Leon’s eyes, the thing looked like a cube-shaped mass of twisted metal, every piece of metal inscribed with runes both ancient and modern, looping around and in on itself. His eyes nearly crossed just looking at it, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Nestor was also using spatial magic on this thing, too.

Almost as eye-catching was a circular gate not far from the shield generator. The thing was three times Leon’s height in diameter, and made of rough, artless metal ripped and torn from other enchanted works, such as arks and Lances. It was at once ugly and the most beautiful thing Leon had ever seen. Not nearly as elegant as the Lumenite devices used to transport him to and from Archelion, but it was his, and that made all the difference.

This portal would function exactly twice if Nestor was to be believed. Once right after the shield went up around the Artor Valley, transporting him and a select few to the northern regions, and then once more to bring him and his group back to the valley. After that, the portal would be no more, by Nestor’s estimation. Even if the gateway itself survived, the Lumenite used in its construction would be burnt out, decayed by the magic used to activate it.

Leon sighed. The work down there was almost complete, which meant that it was almost time for him to venture out to try and find some way to save his people. After more than two days of watching the Ocean forces pile up on his doorstep, though, he wasn’t sure if it was even possible to do so. The sheer amount of power Terris assembled was simply unbeatable by anything Leon could hope to conjure. Even the Iron Needle wouldn’t help him much in this case.

Evacuating the Artor Valley for some other place was looking more and more enticing with every ark Terris called from the deep, but Leon always refrained from giving that order. This was their new home, a home he’d named after his own father. The moment he’d given it its name, he’d destroyed any possibility of ever leaving it.

So, he watched with dread as his enemy grew stronger while planning as best as he could how to handle this crisis.

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As it was now, he wasn’t sure if it was even possible. But there was nothing else for him to do except try.

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Assembled around Nestor’s lab were several dozen people—most were Leon’s chosen companions, but Anastasios, Eva, and Clear Day were there, too, along with Elise and Cassandra, who weren’t joining Leon in his endeavor. Leon’s advisors had wanted him to take more than those he’d chosen, but Leon didn’t want to deprive the valley’s defenders of too many people, not to mention he didn’t want to risk too many people with Nestor’s untested portal, so the Jaguar and the others had to make peace with their King leaving with only a small entourage.

There was a part of him that had Leon feeling almost nostalgic. Valeria, Maia, and Anzu were naturally accompanying him, as were Alix, Gaius, and their son, Felix, and Cosmo, Alcander and Sofia’s remaining son. Anna had also accepted Leon’s request to join him, though she left her family behind to keep them safe. The rest of Leon’s party was made up of two dozen Tempest Knights, including a pair of giants in ten-foot-tall steel frames who’d joined the knights’ ranks.

Marcus and Alcander were being left behind to assist the Jaguar in running the defense of the valley, as were Elise and Cassandra—the latter two would also essentially represent Leon in any matters that required his attention while he was gone. Anshu was needed on Bolt in Shadow, and Red was reluctant to part with her mate for such an extended time.

Looking at his assembled party, Leon said, “This is the last moment you have to back down and join those defending the valley. If you have any reservations about joining me on this mission, then I encourage you to stay here.”

He wasn’t expecting anyone to back out now, and he wasn’t surprised; everyone stayed with him.

“Good,” he said, his lips twitching upward. “I won’t make any long speeches now. We have to acquire the resources we need to defend our home. Everyone is counting on us. Let’s not let them down.”

Discipline was maintained, but Leon could see the determination and agreement in everyone’s eyes.

Turning to the three other post-Apotheosis mages in his camp, Leon asked, “Are you ready? This will be a hard few weeks…”

“Don’t worry about us, Leon!” Anastasios good-naturedly exclaimed. “We’ll keep this barrier of yours up and running! Have no doubt about that!”

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“We’ll patiently await your return,” Eva added with a confident grin.

Clear Day didn’t say anything, but he stoically nodded, showing nothing but confidence in their plan, regardless of how he may have felt inside—though, Leon supposed that was the same for everyone. When he looked around, he saw nothing but readiness and confidence, despite the odds they were facing, and the complete lack of a plan he had for exactly how and where to acquire their needed resources. It was understandable if his people had their doubts, he certainly did. But not a single one was showing. ṛ

He nodded in acknowledgment. “We’ll try and make this brief, then, and be back before you know it.”

Nestor then stepped forward, Mari and the Ravens who’d helped him to assemble their new bits of enchanted machinery at his side. “Please assume your positions,” he requested in a tone that made it clear he was not making a request.

Around the house-sized cube of twisted metal pipes and plates and beams were three raised platforms, complex enchantments linking the plates to the cube. Clear Day, Eva, and Anastasios each climbed onto one of these plates and sat down in large runic circles in the center of the plates. Runes spiraling out from each of these circles began to glow, and Nestor said to Leon, “We’re only waiting on you. Whenever you’re ready…”

Leon nodded again, and took one brief look around his valley, and then at his enemy to the south. As soon as his eyes fell upon the Diluvian fleet, however, he noticed that they were starting to move outside of the patrol patterns they’d been in for the last few days—they fanned out over the southern plains, two columns moving east and west to encircle the valley once again. Terris himself hovered outside of his palace ark, smiling with the smugness of a man who thought he’d already won.

‘No time left to waste,’ Leon thought as he drew Iron Pride and flew to the top of the cube. There, he saw a slot for his blade, and without hesitation, he plunged his weapon into the cube. At almost the same time, alarms started blaring across the valley in response to the movements of the Ocean fleet.

Leon stood with his hand wrapped tightly around the hilt of his weapon for a moment before the enchantments in the magical device activated. Lightning surged around it, golden bolts arcing to and from the hilt of Iron Pride. Leon willed the Iron Needle to cooperate, and then released his weapon and backed away, unconcerned with the deadly bolts of lightning arcing around him.

He’d only taken a couple of steps back when a bolt of green lightning erupted from his weapon and into the clouds above. There, it spread through the clouds in all directions. More lightning then followed, gold in color, as the power of the Iron Needle filled the device.

A translucent film of golden light then coalesced around the cube-shaped shield generator, which held for a moment, and then shot outward at the speed of a Lance bolt. In mere seconds, the Artor Valley, the mountains that formed it, and the misty veil that protected it, were all ensconced behind a perfect dome of golden light. Lightning bolts poured out of the top of the device and into the dome in a never-ending stream of magical power.

“Give it a few more seconds…” Nestor called out as he monitored the device with a nearby control console. “You three, begin channeling your power into the enchantments below you!”

Clear Day, Anastasios, and Eva did just that, using their power to supplement the power of the Iron Needle. As the seconds ticked by, their power quickly supplanted the Iron Needle as the main power source for the shield, while at the same time, the shield generator began to shake from the strain. Leon could feel magic barely moving as it was supposed to, how the magic was practically rebelling against being used like this and understood better than Nestor could’ve ever explained why he could only get one guaranteed month to work. Despite being active for barely half a minute, the shield generator was already almost tearing itself apart.

“Remove your sword!” Nestor ordered as the humming and banging noises the generator was making grew louder and louder.

Leon complied, darting forward and taking Iron Pride’s handle. The golden lightning pouring from the device, through the sword, and into the brilliant dome above didn’t affect him at all, nor did it cease when he drew Iron Pride from the slot and retreated again. Instead, the lightning started to pour from several Aurichalcum rods poking out of the top of the device.

Leon flew back down to Nestor and asked, “How’s it loo—”

The device clanged and shuddered as the dome flashed.

It seemed the Ocean arks were opening fire on the dome, hoping to overwhelm it. The first shots came from the south, and Leon could see Terris now glaring northward, all traces of smug satisfaction erased from his expression. Ice and stone exploded as the Ocean arks fired all they had on the dome, and Leon couldn’t help but marvel at the unique display. He could only marvel more when jets of superheated steam washed over it, adding additional stress.

“… The shield is holding!” Nestor declared. “Keep up the power, you three! The shield is working, but it will only continue working so long as you supply the power!”

Immersed in doing just that, Anastasios, Eva, and Clear Day remained silent, their eyes closed, their focus absolute.

“To the portal!” Leon ordered his party, and they lined up in front of the circular gate. This one wouldn’t need a kick from the Iron Needle, but if anything, that almost made Leon more nervous. It could only activate twice, and if it failed once, then that might mean he could leave, but never return. If it failed twice…

“Charge is buildin’” Mari called out from a control console to the side of the gate. Sure enough, long copper wires wrapped around much of the gate’s exterior began to glow red hot as magic power passed through them, reaching several large blocks of heavily enchanted Aurichalcum. Lightning flashed within the gate, and Lumenite began to brilliantly glow.

After several agonizingly long seconds, a film of gold Lumenite filled the gate. It almost looked like a vertical pool of golden water, before the Lumenite shuddered and a golden beam shot from the gate and arced over the mountains. This beam passed right through the light shield like it wasn’t even there, arcing far to the north.

In several seconds, the beam reached its destination, a hilltop not too far from the outskirts of Shatufan, where a small welcoming party was already waiting for Leon. Once it did, the film of Lumenite in the gate darkened, the core of the ‘pool’ turning dark blue, and then a moment later, resolved into the image of the hilltop, acting almost like a window to the place, thousands of miles away.

“Go!” Nestor shouted. “GO!”

Leon strode forward, calling over his shoulder, “With me!”

He passed the threshold of the gate without hesitation, feeling little more than a mild static shock pass over his body as, in the course of a single step, he passed from Nestor’s roof to the hilltop without so much as a break in stride. Leon kept walking, though, not wanting to block his party behind him as they, too, streamed through the gate.

Icarius and Penelope, along with four other members of their ‘new Heaven’s Eye’, amounted to the entire group waiting for him.

“Spectacular…” Leon heard Icarius state.

He glanced over his shoulder and couldn’t help but agree with the statement. Rather than the window back to the Artor Valley, all he saw was a beam of light extending southward, from which his people were practically spontaneously appearing.

It only took a matter of seconds for his entire party to get through the portal, and as soon as they did, the beam of light connecting them to the Artor Valley dissipated without much fanfare.

And like that, Leon was cut off from his people in Artorion. He could only hope that the shield was strong enough to keep the Diluvian arks at bay, for if it couldn’t, he was no longer in any position to quickly reinforce them.

It was now just him, his chosen party, and those few that Icarius had managed to recruit in the few months he’d been gone from the city.

Leon took a long, steadying breath as he processed the situation. Then, he turned to Icarius and asked, “Shatufan, then?”

Hardly batting an eye at Leon’s eschewing of pleasantries, the former Director of Heaven’s Eye responded, “Yes. It remains the only place outside of Despot Archelaus’ domain where Aurichalcum can be found.”

Leon nodded, casting his gaze to the northwest, where the city lay. “We’re burning time; let’s get to work.”

A chorus of agreement from the rest of the party followed, and Leon took flight, his people right behind him. To Shatufan they flew, every one of them conscious of the fact that the shield protecting Artorion was still being bombarded by Terris’ forces.

The same thought entered all of their minds at some point.

‘Even if we succeed, Artorion may still be destroyed…’