Chapter 30: Cross Infinity

 

“Harbin! That was close, you need to aim it a little bit more to the left!” Poi’s voice came out of the grimoire, telling Harbin about the situation at the Plains of Fate.

“Got it! I’m adjusting!” Harbin yelled out. 

She motioned her hands towards the other Analysts as she kneeled down to the magic circle beneath her. As fast as she could, she changed and adjusted the circle. She tried her absolute best but found herself making a few mistakes here and there which ultimately wasted her time. She gritted her teeth as her shaky hands kept moving. Her heart won’t stop beating and her chest was heavy. She couldn’t concentrate in this situation of extreme stress.

“Wha?! What’s going on?” Poi yelled out, causing Harbin to freak out even further.

Harbin immediately went over to the grimoire. “What’s happening?!”

“Some-something is happening to Cera!” 

Harbin’s heart sank even further. ‘Please not Cera as well…’

"Cera...Cera has broken through!" Poi yelled out and the sound of cheering in the background could be heard.

Upon hearing those words, Harbin felt her knees buckled and she fell to the ground having a bout of relief.  She then stood up again.

‘No... it’s not over yet.’

“Quick, charge the next round of artillery strike! We need to secure their escape! Also, prepare for Phase four!” Harbin yelled out her orders in a hurry.

The others in the area just followed her orders without question.

 

* * * * *

 

In the distant battlefield was Cera yelling like a madman, her sanity long gone from the sudden burst of power. Blood soaked out of her eyes and magic burst out from her body. Unable to control herself, she leapt at her enemies with an unstoppable force, creating massive explosions and scorch marks on the ground. The hole she made in the enemy’s formation allowed the others from the Seventh Army to assist Klauna and Yuupiecca.

The iron boxes and Kazakiel’s men formed a line of defence while a small squad of Analyst rogues and Saboteurs went over to pick up Yuupiecca’s squad. Klauna was still in the middle of the enemy line fighting against the Alliance heroes.

“Yuupie!” Poi shouted as she finally made her way towards the iron box that broke down. She jumped on top of it before tearing the hatch away. She then looked inside and found the Analyst she was looking for lying on the floor looking dead tired, exhausted from having to keep the barrier up for a long period of time.

“...Poi?” Yuupiecca muttered.

Poi immediately dragged Yuupiecca away before embracing him in a hug. “Thank goodness...”

“That hurts dammit…” He replied back but was unable to move.

“Shut up you dummy! Come on, let’s get you out of here!” Poi said as she carried Yuupiecca in a bridal carry before running off to safety.

The other rogues and Saboteurs that were with Poi also went and picked up the rest of the Analysts within the iron box— carrying and dragging them towards safety.

“Aki!” the female Saboteur, Pringgar was there as well, calling out for her friend.

“Harbin, we’ve secured Yuupie and the others, we are moving your way right now!” Poi yelled to the grimoire.

“Wait! What about Lord Klauna and Cera?” Harbin asked.

Poi took a short moment to check the condition of the General and the Vice-General of the Seventh Army. Cera was going berserk at the humans in an uncontrollable rage, but Klauna was nowhere to be seen. Poi panicked and looked further around the battlefield to find Klauna. She scrunched her eyes and sought out every place that she could spot, but couldn’t find her. 

“I’m right here.” 

“Uwahh!” Poi yelled out, shocked at Klauna’s sudden voice.

“...Don’t... Shout…” Yuupiecca said in a half-dead voice.

“Lord Klauna!” Harbin yelled when she heard Klauna’s voice through the grimoire.

“Get the others out of here, I’ll take care of Cera. Harbin, Proceed to phase four.”

“But Lord Klauna…” 

“Go! I got this,” Klauna commanded. She then twirled her spear before jumping into the air and attempted a crash land right on the enemies. She didn’t even bother looking back at her subordinates.

Once landed, she scooped the ground once more and threw it at the enemies. The large flaming rocks crushed the poor fools. If one looks closely, they could see that the ground was marked with a scorched line— a result from Klauna's attacks.

Using her speed, Klauna blitz through the enemies, killing them with one swing after another in order to reach Cera’s location. 

Cera was currently fighting the Prince and his companions in an all-out attack. Just plain offence and destruction without caring what was happening to her. She would have been able to keep going too if it wasn’t for her newfound powers slowly slipping away from her. 

Cera's sanity slowly came back as she started to feel herself getting sluggish and heavier. Not willing to go down so easily, Cera launched one final attack towards the heroes. An attack that shattered her sword to send out shards of deadly metal towards the enemies. The sword pieces then exploded once it hits something, causing the enemy to take cover from the attack.

Cera then dropped down to the ground like a puppet that had its string cut off— fumes coming out from her body. The Prince who managed to protect himself from the attack looked at Cera with caution as he inched closer to the fainted woman. 

To finish her off.

His movement stopped when he heard his companion shouting out to him to watch his back. 

He turned around to see nothing.

“Where are you looking at? Your opponent is right here,” Klauna voice called out from his blindspot

He turned back only to see Klauna already at Cera’s location, standing over her body. Both of them were covered in a red hexagonal-shaped barrier. Somehow, Klauna had managed to reach Cera without the Prince even seeing her silhouette.

Suddenly, the ground lit up and a pillar of red light appeared from the cracks in the ground. More specifically, the lines that Klauna had made during her battle; when she scooped the ground to throw at the enemy. The Prince looked at the ground below and saw that the lines formed a lemniscate, with Klauna in the middle of the two lines that intersect with each other. The lemniscate symbol was so big that it almost covered a quarter of the Alliance army that was present at the location.

It glowed brighter and brighter until the humans around could no longer see—  forced to cover their eyes from the bright light. There was an eerie screeching sound that came out from the ground, out from the lines. The Prince knew that Klauna was going to do something big and shouted towards his companions. They then threw a few long-range attacks towards Klauna who he assumed was casting the spell. 

She wasn’t. 

Technically she did, but not currently. The spell had long been casted. Ever since they started fighting, ever since the iron box broke down. All she needed to do was to let it out. And let out she did. With two words, she called out the name of the grade eight skill. A skill that is strong but requires a tedious and meticulous setup. Her strongest arsenal.

 “Cross Infinity.”

It was as if the sun burst out of the ground. The bright red light in the shape of a lemniscate shot right up to the skies, clearing the clouds above. Medica and the Succours who were high up in the skies had to dodge away and fly to safety from the shockwaves of the attack.

Down below, the large wave of heat burned and charred any humans that were unfortunate enough to be near the pillar of red light. Even worse was the people who were in the zone. A division of dwarves, a race who were known to be able to withstand high temperatures, burned to a crisp. Their screams of pain mixed within the large roaring sound of the fire.

A good ten seconds passed before the pillar of light faded into nothing. Klauna picked Cera up by her shoulders and started leaping away into the safety of her army. Once close enough, she transitioned Cera into a bridal carry and jumped high into the air before landing on the top one of the iron boxes that was retreating from the battlefield. 

After making sure that they were safe, Klauna laid Cera down on the iron box before kneeling down herself to catch her breath. She felt very exhausted and no amount of breathing could lift her fatigue— the signs of mana exhaustion. Powerful she may be, almighty she is not. There were limits to what she could do. She hasn’t done a grade eight skill in a long time as well.

“...”

She took a moment to rest before standing back up again. She then looked back towards the Plains of Fate. Thousands of slaughtered individuals burned to ashes in a line forming a lemniscate. Yet, there were tens of thousands more. A good chunk of the Alliance rallied themselves quickly and gave chase after the retreating Seventh Army, wanting to rout the Ak’hims.

Their pursuit, however, were significantly slowed by the bombs being dropped by Medica and her squads from the skies. Regardless, they were not deterred and they continued chasing after the Seventh Army. Klauna then looked towards their retreat path and saw that the rest of the demon army was safely running to the planned retreat point. Towards the forward operating base where Harbin was currently at.

Klauna opened the hatch to the iron box that she was on and tried to find the leader of the crew that was piloting the vehicle. 

“Sladar,” Klauna called out once she identified the leader of the crew.

“Ye-yes! Anything, Lord General?” Sladar replied, nervous about having to talk to the overwhelmingly strong general.

“Get this thing moving faster. I don’t want a repeat to happen again.” 

“Roger!” Sladar responded and he nodded to the other Analysts in the box.

Just as she ordered, the vehicle moved faster. Seeing this, the other boxes also picked up speed and started moving faster. The soldiers who were on foot let out words of complaints as they had to sprint to catch up to the iron boxes. It got even worse when they reached the small hill and had to sprint upwards.

But then again, nothing beats dying.

The humans, thinking that victory has already been achieved, saw this and picked up their pace, chasing the Ak’hims as they retreated. They wanted to get as much glory as they could. Following the Ak’hims, they chased them right into the hills, running up the elevated ground.

Again, the fools walked right into another one of Klauna’s traps.

Phase four was very much similar to phase one. Similar in that the whole plan involves luring the enemies into a single collective area that makes it easy for the Seventh Army to kill them all in one fell swoop.

A large red beam of light shone right down to the group of all the soldiers chasing after the Ak’hims. At first, it was just a large beam that annihilated everyone that was unfortunate enough to be in the light. The light then started to converge into a small pillar, glowing brighter and smaller until the radius of the pillar was no larger than a single strand. It was then that the spell culminated in a big bang.

Klauna watched as the winds from a very large explosion ruffled her hair. The explosion landed directly on the enemy and left a mushroom-shaped smoke cloud. It was another grade eight spell, a more straightforward but effective one. This time a joint cast between Harbin and the hundreds of spell casters back at the forward operating base. Though, they would have already left the area by now.

A part of Klauna felt sorry for the number of people the Seventh Army and herself had slain today. They probably have families of their own and people they care about.

The only thing she could grant them is swift death.

Battle of Fate, results
Ak'hims            : 10822 soldiers remaining. Mostly injured. 
Seventh Army : 1535 remaining. Several injured.
Alliance            : 32578 soldiers remaining.

Total death count:
Ak’hims            : 20193 Dead.
Seventh Army : 43 Dead.
Alliance            : 66312 Dead.