As the beam swung toward her, she flew away at her fastest and into the air. The beam stopped cutting into the advancing forces and traced her movements in the air. Mursayade and Vira came to her side, the three of them flew together.
"We can't just fly around, we have to do something. The Sutrali can't withstand that attack!" Mursayade grabbed at Vira's waist, she pulled her from the beam attack that was about to graze back.
"They've joined their power." Kuzunoha twisted the group around and then they dove toward the ground.
"If they can do it, so can we!" Mursayade looked at the both of them. "GIVE ME YOUR HANDS!" Vira and Kuzunoha each grabbed onto one of Mursayade's hands. Forcing their energies into her, Mursayade yelled out into the battlefield and a beam of light cut through the night sky, it lit the entire battlefield once more but the light was so bright that it wasn't dissipating.
As Vira and Kuzunoha towed Mursayade around, she was acting as a turret. Bright bolts of light impacted the fire beat repeatedly and began to drive it back. Each time they collided, there was a burst of energy that sent the beam back further.
"Its working!" Vira poured more of her energy into the transfer of power.
Vector saw the attacks and moved to take advantage of the situation. The three household deities were targeting the girls but the girls were successfully holding pushing back. As Vector drew closer, he caught one of their attentions and the beam was still being pushed back.
He pulled the Crusher blade from his back and hacked it down between the group, all he had to do was separate them and then the whole battle would change.
There was no intended protocol for what the deities were suppose to do, they had come to defend the stronghold, noticing that they were about to suffer at the hands of those they viewed as flies, all three of them had second thoughts and then the crusher blade came down between them.
"I've lost communications with Graire," Puyai called out, then, he saw the three deities being forcefully separated. Vector had cleaved the arm from one of the three and the other two had scattered in that moment.
The bolts coming down from the girls continued and without the combined beam impeding its path, the bolts found their way to the battlefield. Their repeated impacts caught the deity by surprise and he was pounded repeatedly into the stonework.
Vector dodged the initial blast, the crusher blade rotated ninety degrees and he spun with all of his body weight, "JUST DIE!"
Watching the edge of the blade cutting into the Deity was exhilarating and Vector's heart was pounding, he could feel the flesh as it was torn and severed. Tendons and muscle separated from bone and blood was thrown out of the wound with force.
There was finally a moment of advancement, the two who had been able to avoid Vector's strike had been separated. Puyai stabbed a spear into the ground, his body morphed. His chest expanded and wriggled.
Puyai grew rather furry, he shed his robes and grabbed at the spear, pulling it back and using its spring action to shoot him into the sky. His tail dragged the spear from the ground once he had launched himself toward the closest of the Deities. As he flew through the skies toward his target, Puyai gave off a roar that signaled the soldiers below.
The Sutrali Warriors below were roaring with Puyai, their moral brought everyone else's
Vector had seriously maimed his opponent and managed to frighten the other two to a distance and Puyai was coming down upon the Deity to Vector's rear.
Kuzunoha and Vira were safe but they were nearly depleted of energy and chose to stick with helping the ground forces in the advancement.
Once the Deities could be taken care, the allied forces could begin their way into the depths of the fortress and find their missing people.
The Sutrali charged forward, though the castle above ground had been leveled, there were still many soldiers that had escaped the devastation. The fortress was still densely populated and they were pissed off. The Sutrali pushed forward like a troop of angry primates and tore the soldiers apart.
The light had been cut off again, the bright flashes of explosions had dimmed and only the feint lights of energy pulses in the clash of battle showed who was winning and who was dying.
"Trifling Insects!" The furthest Deity had watched one of his brothers die and nearly died himself, the surviving other was being pinned against the ground. He turned on a dime and struck out with his saber.
A cutting wind tore across the space between he and Vector, Vector blocked it with the crusher and was pushed back, he stumbled over the spirit stone of the dead deity.
More streaks of orange ripples flushed out from the saber and struck wildly into the crowd of Sutrali, "I will not be trivialized!" The Saber wielding deity flashed from his position and reappeared above Vector with his saber pointed down.
Mursayade had come down and caught both of his arms. With her free hands, she stabbed at his heart from both sides. "Get away from my husband!" The spears crossed each other and as she leapt away, his core was shattered. The Saber fell from his hands and his body turned to stone, collapsing on itself.
"Hey, Blue Monkey! You done over there or what?" Landing atop Vector, Mursayade wrapped her legs around him pinned him to the ground.
Puyai looked back at her and with Mursayade's burning flames, he could see a steam rise between the two of them. "I am last?" he sent another attack out, "we're going investigate.."
There was a sharp cry from the sky, a number of white lights smashed into Puyai's opponent and he tumbled back repeatedly under every strike.
"I could have taken care of that." Puyai seemed annoyed, he had even transformed for the occasion.
Kuzunoha and Vira landed next to them and collected the thee stones. "These are ours." Vira passed on to Mursayade and smiled.
"Fine.." Vector picked Mursayade up and off his lap.
"We still have to investigate the depths of this place, if it doesn't contain the right equipment then we've only fought a senseless battle." Puyai reminded everyone why there were there. Toppling a kingdom was not the plan, destroying their harvesting facilities was the mission.
Vector nodded and spread his wings, Kuzunoha deactivated the formation that had been keeping the light out. Outside, hundreds of spirit stones littered the ground. When the light hit them, there was a glittering effect and it helped to boost morale. The veil had been lifted, and not because of their defeat.
"Into the tunnels." Puyai pointed toward an exposed portion of the castle basement. There were bloodstains on the stones that led down, the further they ventured in, the more blood they found until it was nearly a pool they were forced to tramp through.
"This wreaks." Vira plugged her nose.
"Here's a bit of education for you, what happens when you cut off body parts? You bleed. What happens when you cut bodies apart all day? You get a lot of blood." He shook his head, "I'm not done. What happens if you do this to thousands of people a day? A River of blood?"
Mursayade's face turned green when she smelled the rot, she nearly vomited. "Are those children?"
"They were." Puyai spoke a brief prayer and incantation, then, the bodies that littered the cell burst into dust, they didn't even have a spirit stone remaining. "This is the atrocity.. If you're drained of spirit, you don't even have a chance at reincarnation. Your whole existence is wiped, stolen and processed for someone else."
After locating a locked door that had been kicked down there was portal, it drew energy inside. Vector sealed the door with Ice before any real harm came, he turned to Puyai, "Please be more careful and what the hell was that?"
The group had seen portals before, even portals to hell. The portal that they had narrowly escaped being pulled into was gray and it gave off the feeling of doom. Only the stray discharge of the ripples had cued Vector to react, they had already been sucked into one space.
There was a roar from the other side of the doorway, the Ice was shattered under the vibrations.
"What?!" Vector watched it shatter.
"..!" Kuzunoha grabbed Vira and Mursayade in time to avoid its outstretched grasp.
"..." Vira watched a bone hand that dripped with blood reach out of the room through the portal. "What is that $#!^"
It grabbed onto Vector and squeezed, He felt a blackness and pain. Blood started to run over his body and he was being pulled backward and toward the portal.
A Small red twist of fire came out from his robes and bit down onto the bone hand, a purple light spread out from the wound and instincts took over. The hand released Vector and flew through the portal back to where it had come from.
"RUN!" Vector grabbed at his chest, he could feel several broken ribs and coughed up blood.
"What just happened?" Mursayade grabbed Vector's shoulder and helped him escape the dungeon. "Explain it to me like I'm dumb Old man!" She was furiously yelling at Puyai while Vector struggled to breathe.
"That is a portal to another plane, a dangerous one. I wasn't sure of its existence but I had suspected as much, but not there." Puyai ran at his fastest to keep up. "We haven't finished clearing the space below but at least I know why we can't contact Graire."
Mursayade flew with Vector back to meet with Noyuki. "Martin, he bit it." Vector coughed up some more blood and passed out. "Vector?" She shook him slightly after laying him down. "We're not disposable scouts!"
Mursayade stood up and a strange fire swept out around her, she could feel the spirit stones that laid on the battlefield. They lifted themselves from the ground and flew toward her, spinning quickly atop her head. "Screw it." Tossing the stone she had gotten from the Deity, the energy more than tripled.
A formation spun around them and the energy was thrown onto them at the focal point. Bathed in the light of the formation she held him tightly and absorbed as much energy as she could. Then, while he was being affected by the transmission, she poured her own energies into him.
Noyuki fumbled through her storage ring, she wondered what she could possibly take out that would be of use. Vector was still cringing in pain, there was obviously more than just broken bones. Contact with the hand had drained him, he was hanging on by a thread.
Kuzunoha tossed her deity stone into the formation and it blurred into a hyperactive state.
Vira did the same, "You better not die on us, I was just starting to like you.." She poured her energies into the formation afterward."
Puyai felt a pull at his chest, there was even a layer of ice that was creeping across his chest, he didn't know what to say and had never seen such devotion to a fellow soldier. "If he is this important to you, then I too shall help." Puyai laid down his saber and pulled off his necklace. At the end of the chain, a core was pulsing. "Its been crying out to me since we met, fighting destiny, it was never for me anyway."
"What do you mean? What is that?" Kuzunoha watched with uneasy eyes as the energy storm around them had intensified. There was a weather phenomena happening around them from the rapid release of energy into the area.
"An Ancient Beast once roamed the northern reaches of Sutrali territory, Its name was Ste'Dugen. The greatest of the Ice Dragons and the Guardian that saved our people." Puyai opened his hand and the core flung itself toward Vector's body.
'Shit' Mursayade had seen the results once before, she took off Vectors rings and scrambled to take off his armor. She got his rings off and had parts of his armor disassembled in less than three seconds but he was already growing rapidly. "Back away!"