The Orange Queen was narrowing in on their position. She could feel Vector's soaring Aura but it was only a vague feeling. Then, she turned.
Misozi called out, it was time to go.
Bursting out of the cave, they flew directly away from the Queen, they were making a run for it. She was unable to keep up with Misozi's speed even at eighty percent.
When Misozi had flown for nearly forty minutes straight, the Queen was still chasing after them. It did not appear that she would let them go. The Plan was simple, at least, at first. It was suppose to have been vector leading her away and rejoin them at the end. Now, he was frozen inside of his cabin and the fight was at their doorstep.
Mursayade watched Misozi's energy levels plummet down to half during their escape. She threw a few stones into her fuel reserves. "He's still not out, we should keep with the plan. I'll have to do it.." She didn't sound too confident in her words.
Misozi understood that the plan was less likely to succeed, running more calculations she tried to give an estimate on Vector's power levels but her readings were not precise due to an abundance of interference from the Ice. The best she could do was to calculate the energy present in the room.
A sort of picture, much like a heat map appeared on the HUD.
It was glowing with multiple colors that were going from green to purple to black and then back to white with intensity, it was only a pinprick of white but it was more than just white. The readout for the room showed it moving like a heartbeat across the insides of the ice. This white heart beating was slow and barely registered, if not for the heart retracting they would have thought it to be just a blob on the screen.
Vira and Mursayade had to work with the change of plans. Misozi could fly herself and with Vector aboard, she couldn't just stay idle. If Misozi stuck around, she would become a target and it was extremely important not to interrupt Vector's breakthrough.
"I will set up a formation, it can hopefully join our power together and then we can break out of this place just like how we entered. We've all gotten stronger, I refuse to believe we're incapable of doing it ourselves." Kuzunoha wanted to shout but she managed to keep herself calm while she spoke.
"I hope it's more than just a belief too." Vira tapped her finger on the bulkhead door control. "We have to hope she'll follow Vector's aura but, if she follows us.. we might be screwed."
"It was always a chance. Lets go." Kuzunoha and Mursayade followed behind Vira as she exited the ship and flew directly toward the portal.
After a few minutes, they realized that the Orange Queen wasn't following them, she was still wildly chasing after the ship. The Three of them flew at their fastest speed while Misozi led the Queen further away. She had been told to turn back toward their direction in an hour and match their arrival time.
The Calculation had to be somewhat precise, the girls could fly fairly fast but their arrival and setting up the formation would be separate matters. A delay in either would cost the group dearly, they flew at their fastest.
From a great height and distance, the City's edge and smoldering orange-colored crater was easy to see. Trails of what looked like smoke wafted into the air.
Vira and Mursayade worked to keep the spawned creatures away, more than a dozen were still idling near the portal. The moment that the trio landed, they were swarming to their position.
Kuzunoha thew out a large handful of totems for the formation but as it was coming together one of the beasts was able to crash into her back.
Vira saw the straggler and threw a spear. It pierced the creature's skull and it popped into a puddle but another creature was coming out of it almost as quickly.
"KUZUNOHA!" The formation failed and exploded, sending the spirit stone and totems in random directions. Vira was yelling and a feeling washed over her, fear.
Mursayade saw Vira crouching over Kuzunoha and the other Creatures were closing in.
"GET UP!" Vira yelled again.
Kuzunoha struggled to her feet, "No..." She realized that she was surrounded.
Vira yelled again and her eyes went black. "NOOO!" A burst of black light mixed with a blood red color swept out from around her body, Vira's wing's spread and broke apart. Red metallic bones replaced them and her power was continuing to augment.
The Wings were considerably heavier and rigid when they stabbed into the stonework. She knew that it had worked for Wu Hai and refused to be anything less than his equal, her headway continued and she poured her energy into Vira's hands. "Kuzunoha, keep them off of me." A beam spun out of her hands and struck the dimensional membrane.
Kuzunoha spread her wings and began taking the creatures out with arrows. She stood behind Vira and helped Mursayade hold back the attacking beasts. Once one fell, it was only a matter of time before another reformed. They had to endure until Vector and Misozi arrived and the creature themselves would respawn after only ten seconds.
Vira sensed the core in her body pulse. She was trying to pierce the veil herself, her wings were spread and rooted her into the stone. She was forcing out of all her strength, it was working. She only required a little more time to force the portal open.
Keeping the creatures at bay was easier said than done, Mursayade was killing them as fast as she could but more were arriving and it was eating up the time between their respawns. There were simply too many on their way.
Misozi was only a bit further away, a white pulse came from inside the cabin where Vector was cultivating. The Ice was creating havoc inside the ship, controls were iced over and the puppets were frozen solid. Misozi came crashing down into the courtyard hard, the ship skipped toward the portal.
The ground near their landing sight had even frozen and the ice slowed her skid to a stop.
Vira was panicking, the portal was opening but she couldn't maintain it. "ITS OPEN!" She yelled, intent on escaping. If she was unable to maintain the force of her attack, they could all die. Her power increased and a white streak ran through her hair. Vira screamed and forced out the last of her power, "NOW!"
Mursayade grabbed Kuzunoha and threw her into the portal. Vira was still holding it open but Misozi and Vector were still grounded.
The ship doors had not even opened and the Queen was approaching the City with a furious gaggle of her beasts. "..." Mursayade wanted to scream but at that moment, the door of the ship came open.
Vector walked out, his first stop caused the courtyard to freeze. 'Hoo' He let out a long breath, it crystallized the air and bit of it fell down from his face. 'So this is what it feels like?' Vector played with his hand for a second, when the beasts were moving in his direction, he gave a cold glare and froze them all in place. None of them crumbled, he didn't want them to reform.
Misozi was still inactive and crashed, Vector shrank her down and grabbed her with both hands. Mursayade and Vira were still working to keep the portal open but it was failing. He shot toward them and threw Misozi through the portal, then, he grabbed both of them. With all of his energy, he threw them both into the portal and watched it close.
"I can't risk it.. I can't risk losing you." He spoke to himself, all alone in the courtyard.
The Orange Queen was about to hit the City, her momentum alone was enough to trample the forests and landscape outside on the ground. There was no telling what the City would even look like when she impacted it.
Vector flew into the air, preparing to flee. Since the girls were far away and safe enough, he was okay with it. 'To die for the sake of others, it is a fate I can smile upon.' He had done it, their plan was a success, they had escaped. Vector found himself in a momentary lapse of judgment and it ate up some of this time to flee the area. He chose to fight back after the momentarily loss of prospective, flew above the City to escape and began firing at her from above.
Solid beams of ice crashed into her from time to time, the Orange Queen had the ability to liquefy. The battle was at a stalemate, he was having trouble freezing her and she couldn't make it into the sky to kill Vector. Still, they never once let up on their attacks at each other.
'Is this the limit of my power?' Vector had been throwing everything at her, there was nothing left in his arsenal.
There was no sense in throwing his hammer or lobbing explosives, the trail of goop that the Orange queen had left was where she was able to recover herself. Each time he beat her back she previous spot would allow her to rise again.
'I have to beat her back?' Vector grimaced, by his quick analysis of the situation, the only way to defeat her was to push her back along her path but the beasts were an issue too. It was quite a lot for him to imagine fighting and a lot of energy he wasn't sure that he had in the tank. Breaking through was a big deal for him and though his tattoo was moving and flowing across his skin, he still didn't quite understand it. Vector was forced to dodge a few lumps of goo, it gave her a footing and she rushed forward, lunging into the air and throwing again. Her shots were getting more accurate, her aim was getting so good that one of her shots clipped Vector.
Falling into the forest, he slipped through the trees. Their trunks did little to stop the flow of fluid as it washed into the thicket. Vector found the strength to dodge but the Orange Queen was closing in. Crashing down had been a harder hit than he expected, he felt like his body was on fire.
The Orange fluid had been splashed on his wings. His frost was able stop the reaction but the damage was done and would take time to repair, it ground away at his nerves.
A Vibration, more like a wave came washing over the region. It was like a gong, a bell and a chime all at once, then, there was an explosion.
The Orange Queen looked up.
A communication stone lit up on Vector's shoulder while he was still running. Slapping it, he watched a black and white painted figure emerge from a black dot in front of the Orange Queen.
"Back off bitch." The black and white figure spoke and spread a set of bone wings.
Another figure stepped out he was dressed in white. His wings were made of bone and there was a white sun on his forehead.
"Who are you?" The Orange Queen's body stopped moving, there was a pair of very strong individuals in front of her and the one behind them had already given her trouble. 'Bitch?'
"That's my friend," they spoke in unison and shared a tone of contempt.
"Don't Interfere!" Orange fluid surrounded her then exploded, washing out into the forest to surround them all.
Vector was stunned. He wasn't sure what he was seeing, it all seemed very strange to him but he was more than grateful having been saved. The pair in front of him were impossible. One of them was Zao, but he was dressed strange. The other was a woman, she shared a similar appearance, at least what he was able to see from behind, most of her features matched Wu Hai's.
Vector's slightly stunned body tensed when the flood surrounded them and began to wash in.
A formation began to layer around them both, it spread out. Wu Hai turned around and helped Vector to his feet. "I got their message."
"Who are you?" Vector turned to the girl and asked.
"I Am Zao!" Her aura rose and she flickered out of the shield, arriving more than a kilometer in the air above the forest battleground. A dense energy charged in her hands, it was black and white in color but swam and mixed together but never intermingled, forcefully repelled by each other they dove in a knotwork.