"My Queen, you have to go down below deck," the General yelled at the Queen. Despite the need for respect, the situation was urgent.
"What is going on!"
"My Queen, respectfully, if you don't start moving I will have to carry you!" Seeing the general in such a stance, she had to comply.
Unlike everyone else, she had retained her traditional battle dress. She felt more like a performer putting on a show than a warrior, but she had been assured that her presence as a Queen was more important to the Kingdom than another warrior.
Now she was being made to wear the modern armor. As she did, she was brought up to speed about the oncoming meteor or was it a comet. Her face changed into different shades, but all she could do was brace for impact.
The seconds felt like centuries. A part of her wished that somehow, this disaster could be avoided. That he could somehow come riding in and swooping in to the rescue. She knew this was wishful thinking, but that did not stop her nonetheless.
The inevitable happened.
It first began with a jolt of the airship, which suddenly sent the ship racing downwards. Before she knew it, she couldn't stand, and all she could do was float. Having no concept of gravity, she couldn't understand what form of sorcery this was.
What followed next was a wave of fire, reaching her even as she descended, scorching her back and hair. The suit and helmet were doing a good job protecting her, but they would soon fail.
The most memorable thing about the impact on the ground was how it took all the air in her lungs and stomach out. Her back felt weird. it wasn't pain. It just snapped, but for that reason, she couldn't feel her legs.
However, the parts that she couldn't feel felt like she was on fire. Her face was covered in bruises and wounds, her arms were dislocated and hurt like hell.
The worst part was that her entire body was covered in burns. Her life was barely hanging on by a thread. She could barely move under the mess of the burning ship above her. The little oxygen left was being consumed by the fire.
"Is this how I die?" Lady Maara asked herself as tears flowed freely from her eyes. She could do little else. Already, she was starting to gag on the smoke produced by the fires all around her.
Her life flashed before her. She saw her upbringing, being groomed to become the next great Queen of Tristan. So much for that, all told she had barely had the crown properly for more than a month.
At least she would be remembered as the monarch who unified Tristan into a kingdom. Father, I hope I made you proud. She thought as she readied herself to surrender her ghost.
Movement.
At first, she thought she imagined it, but from the corner of her eyes, she saw something crawling towards her. Her face and body were too battered that she couldn't even muster the effort to defend herself. Whatever it was, it was doing her a favor. However, stubborn as she was, she wanted to see what killed her, so she held on a little longer.
The silhouette approached and moved very close to her, but since she was in a very horrible angle, she couldn't see what it was. She felt it make contact with her.
However, something mysterious happened. For the first time since she had been on the ground, she could take in a deep breath. It was not the best due to the smoke, but at least it was better than the labored breathing she had had to do.
Similarly, she felt a form of current blowing by her. It was as if there was a hole nearby letting in air. The fire was put out, but the ensuing smoke seemed to be pumped out of the small compartment they were in. Fresh air was coming in.
"Breath, my Queen, help is on its way," a male voice was heard from the other side.
What the Queen did not know was that when she was sent underground, there was a team of mages sent to cover her ship completely from this devastating attack. They were in and around the ship.
There were several kinds of magic arrays. Like battle arrays, magical arrays could be wielded by multiple people, allowing several people to combine their power in one spell. This usually led to a pretty overpowered spell.
In this case, they had to employ a magical array to protect the ship from the oncoming destruction. However, the explosion had been so severe that the spell was instantly canceled, killing many of the mages sustaining it.
Lord Karia was one such mage. He had been on the Queen's ship as an aide, but the moment the bigwigs left, he had joined the Queen's guard. What a time to be promoted.
His promotion did not come as a fluke since one of his major qualifications was that he was a healer and was a talented Air Elementalist.
He was part of the formation that set up barriers around the Queen's ship. They had given their all, but the magic array had broken. The explosion had just been too much and too powerful.
He was barely alive. However, on seeing the condition of his ward, he crawled over to where she was and held her hand.
What the Queen did not know was that for him to heal her, he had to stop healing his heavily injured body. Since he was extremely battered, his mana levels were very low, hence the simple spell he had used to expunge smoke and put out the fire had cost him almost everything he had in the tank.
By his estimate, Lord Karia determined that he could not stop healing the Queen. Like him, the impact and the fire had been so severe they had left them both by death's door. He had been saved by the magic that was always active ready to heal him.
His admiration for the Queen grew. It was an amazing feat to hold on to one's life after such an attack. She was a powerful lady.
He could not stop healing her due to the extent of her wounds. The amount of internal injury was so extensive that he would run out of mana long before he had stabilized her. That would also mean that he too would be in danger.
It was a difficult choice to make, especially since he had no real allegiances to Tristan or this Queen. Yes, he could not deny, she was his Queen, but she had not been for long ... Trust me, a severe war was raging in his mind. Despite that, he never took his hands off her.
***
"Do you think anyone survived that?" Horror-stricken, Lady Arnea asked. She was riding a horse alongside the Commander, Manga, as they made their way to rejoin the army.
The sight of the comet descending upon their brethren was unbearable. More than a hundred ships in the honeycomb formation had gone down. More than hundreds of thousands of soldiers, both airborne and ground forces, had perished from this attack.
"We have to dig them out, move!" That was Manga's answer.
Just as they were moving, they saw what looked like a streak of light descend the mess. It seemed to tunnel through mindless of the melting kevlar and burning flames.
"That must be Lord Abu, he's going to help dig them out too," Lady Arnea explained.
***
Lady Maara could feel her body getting better and better, and the breeze that was delivering the fresh air was clearing her mind. Slowly the fog in her mind dissolved and she was able to function properly.
The jolt of pain was like an awakening. She felt alive. It ached in every part of her body, but she could feel it, which was a good sign. Although, it did not feel like it at the time.
Something felt off though. Being healed felt like a continuous itch. The faster the healing process, the harder the itch. Experienced healers could mute the pain and the itch, but that was not Lord Karia's priority at the moment, nor could he have afforded that.
Due to the extent of the healing process, she could feel the itch mixed with the pain, but soon after, the itch faded. The hand she was holding onto began to feel colder than usual.
Just as she was putting 2 and 2 together, someone tore a hole through the roof, literally, and came down to her. Seeing her almost lifeless body, he decided to stabilize her before moving her, he was a healer as well.
Just as he was about to get to work, he got an ominous feeling. Turning around, he couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so he looked up.
***
"I bet they never expected I'd have 2 city destroyers to use against them!" The Prince of Gumina nodded in satisfaction. A comet-like ball was forming above the army.