The first thing I heard the next morning were the voices of the goblin creatures. Iris made a murmured groan from where she slept. "Do those goblins ever stop talking?"
I sat up, not caring about the soreness I felt. "I guess not."
"Want to leave?" Iris got up and walked to the other side of the room, though I was still facing away. "I know somewhere from which we can see the Knight of Void's castle!"
"See it?" I got up with excitement. "I'd storm it! The Knight's creatures are invading my Kingdom."
Ash's voice was coated in the same kind of predatory hunger as if she had just seen her favorite food appear, or was about to go to town on a wounded enemy. I spun, fully armed, and walked towards the door. Iris joined me: out the door, up the stairs, and into the room to the long table. The goblins and their King were already eating breakfast, though how they could tell what meal it was remained beyond me. Iris and I walked along each side of the table and took some meat from the serving plate on the way past, earning only a disapproving look from the goblins' King. Having had a substantial meal, we left the goblins' house and Iris took off into a run towards the nearby floating rocks. as she was much more trained for this. She didn't even stop at the edge, jumping to yet another floating rock, leaving me to follow. I quickly conjured my icy wings, glided past her and landed in a stand.
"How did you do that?" The palm of Ash's left hand glowed in the darkness. I threw a bolt of ice into the air, causing it to hit the ground somewhere on the same rock.
"Magic."
Ash gave a disappointed laugh. Together, we retraced my steps from yesterday to deliver the Cauldron, the castle becoming more and more visible with each step. We were too high up at this point to see what was going on in Redhelm, but all I could imagine were the creatures from the Void descending on my people. Iris put her hand on my shoulder, pointing. "Look. Over there," she whispered, pointing to a space in the sky.
A solitary six-finned Astral turtle floated by through the Void. It was about six feet wide, with a single set of large fins on its sides, and four smaller fins on the diagonals between its head and tail. Its skin was purple, as were many of the creatures that lived here, but its shell was a dull gradient of every colour I could see, and played with the light like a curved mirror.
I sat down to watch, hands resting at my sides, seeing more of them gather. They lazily swam through the air as easily as conventional turtles swim through water, circling each other and other rocks as if trying to look at everything from all angles. I felt a warmth as if in the sun, and a light pressure on one hand. A buzzing sound cut any pleasant thought out of my head. Iris stood beside me, her dark red clothing moving in the sudden wind gusts. I wheeled around, quickly rising to my knee, seeing the most intimidating-looking creature I had ever imagined.
Its bug-like drone exoskeleton housed two great wings that propelled it through the Void's dark sky. The most prominent parts of this creature were its two scythes, stained in blood. I made a sweeping motion, drawing Draketail. Iris held her axe in both hands, and her eyes lit up with fire. The drone flew towards us, scythes raised to strike down. I held my sword to one side, slashing across myself to parry its downward strikes. The drone slashed down with an angry buzz. Draketail was too light to stand up to these heavier bug scythes. One hit too wide and missed, the other striking the side my chest, causing me to cough and fall. The drone opened its scythe arms, about to draw me into its sharp ugly mouth. A ball of flame arced over my head like a ball intended for sports. It exploded on the drone's face, slowing it down and pushing it back. Iris shouted something incoherent from behind me, ran around to my side and struck upward with her axe. With her free hand glowing with fire, she thrust upwards again and again into the drone's underside. It crackled, flames dancing on its shell, absence of further strikes allowing me to recover.
"Cusano."
Ash watched in awe as the green strands of light entered my wound, sealing it shut. I thrust upwards with Draketail, impaling the damaged drone and hearing its shell crack open. I kicked it off the rock, letting it fall into the Void below.
"We'll be able to go a lot farther and more safely with the green ribbons," Iris commented on my last spell.
"I'm not sure what they're called, but they've saved my life many times over."
I looked behind me. Seeing no wounds on my travelling companion, I sat back down, at the edge of the rock, peering out to see the Astral turtles parting ways.
"You think we can catch a ride on one of those?" Iris had an ambitious gleam in her eye. Feeling a rush of an unknown force, I broke from my usual logic.
"Let's do this!" I looked below, seeing an Astral turtle about to pass horizontally under the floating rock we were on. Iris lowered herself down to the edge, and slid forward and jumped. The turtle flew right under her, its five foot shell span being difficult to land on. I jumped next, icy wings carrying me the short flight, onto the creature with wings that shouldn't even be able to fly. I lowered my angle and grabbed onto the turtle's silvery grey shell. Wooden containers were hooked onto the underside of this creature, securely hanging from ropes tied around its middle. I paid this no mind, pulling myself onto it with barely enough room for Iris and me to fit. I watched our flying path from the back of the Astral turtle. I could feel Iris holding my arm as I tried to remain stable.
My attention was captivated by the slowly approaching castle. Its walls were the pale, grey of a ghost, corners reinforced with violet metal. Openings dotted its sides, looking as if the architect had archery in mind, but any bow that could fit out that window was overshadowed by the ballistas, too large for a single human's usage, resting on the castle's top.
The Astral turtle flew around one side to what I guessed was the back of the stone castle. There, a wooden panel opened inwards, the turtle picking up speed to fly towards it. Iris and I laid down, with one hand on each side of the shell in the hope of not hitting our heads, flying through the opening without even a foot of free space. The turtle landed inside, and workers rapidly began cutting ropes from below. I saw more workers, like the ones from the goblin house where I had stayed, hauling around closed wooden boxes. The Astral turtle glided through the room, lowering itself down on a pile of straw by the door. Iris and I crept away, leaving the stone door open behind us. Through the doorway, we could hear what sounded like official talk, mostly of delivery and item counts. "They're supplying the attack on my Kingdom!" I whispered to Ash.
Outside was a mere hallway with glowing stones spaced along the walls, providing bare amounts of light; an azure wood door at the end caught our attention. My stealth not wavering, I approached it and turned the metal knob. A sharp staircase led downwards, then turned, and presented a door that opened into a room the size of a throne room. A crystal, human sized and vibrant blue in color, floated in the center of the room. Pipes connected it to the sides of the room, running along the floor and up the sides like roots of a prosperous tree. A lone Elite worker sat there, in front of a panel of levers. Iris crept up behind him, her axe poised to strike.
We froze as another door slammed open. I heard no footsteps, but saw from behind the door that someone was definitely there. His red armored boots didn't even touch the ground as he entered, floating, causing him to appear taller than he should. The cloth covering his body was the purple colour of the Beholders, as I was easily able to tell as one floated at his side.
"And how," he asked in a slow, commanding voice "is that mana supply?"
The Elite worker buckled under the weight of his words. "It's going fine, sir--"
The floating man, obviously a Knight, approached the Elite worker. "An invasion on our hands and you call this fine? You have no place here!" A duo-bladed sword floated into one of the Knight's hands, visible now that he had turned to face the worker. With his empty one raised, making a gripping motion, he picked up the Void worker whose legs dangled from the impact. The Knight's Magic shot him backwards, and he slid down the smooth wall of the room and into a hole in the floor. The Knight turned his head, leaving me frozen in fear. Iris backed up, as the Knight slowly advanced. "I would think you would recognize a proper expulsion, Ash." She gulped, trying to hold back a similar fear.
"Follow him down. The Void will have none of your traitorous magic." Directing Iris the Knight pointed one blade of his sword, guiding her to the hole in the floor that the Elite worker had fallen through. Iris peered over the edge, seeing the ground far below; a rough push from the Knight's armored boot sent her toppling down. My desire for stealth snapped like a twig. Head down, I sprinted across the room, and dove through the hole. On the way past, my eyes met the Knight's, his blank look fading into one of surprise. The second I was through, I activated my Beholder pack, and shot down even faster. Wind bit my face, catching up to the falling Ash. She reached her hand up, catching mine in mid-air, both of us pulling on the other. I swung her around, holding her to my front, as my back was taken by my backpack. I shifted my weight, wings of ice growing stronger in my determination, turning my downward fall into a forward glide.
I looked down, my heart racing. Iris could hardly breathe, holding tightly onto my arms to keep herself up. Finally, as our speed diminished, I could see the ground. We were flying over what I immediately recognized as Redhelm. Even from this high, I knew my own Kingdom well enough to see its shape. The purple creatures were descending on it, pouring in waves from the castle above me. I had no time. I altered my direction, falling much faster, barely in control. Ash's hair and my coat blew in the wind, as the Kingdom slowly became larger and larger...
I sharply stopped, realizing I was about to hit the castle. The icy wings shattered, and I knew I wouldn't have enough power to quickly conjure another set. I gently dropped Iris touching the ground myself. We were near the Redhelm castle, at least what was left of it. The Void's forces had torn holes in the roof, and while not fighting right now, more were no doubt on their way. With a sudden thought, I remembered Niko.
"Come with me," I whispered hastily to Iris running to the back corner of the castle. The steep stairs up were hardly a problem, the door even less of one as I unlocked it with a single word. Niko appeared to be resting at the side of the room, curled up in a ball inside his robe. I couldn't see his face, but it looked like he hadn't slept properly at all since I left.
In the center of the room was a large box-like structure of wood and iron, about the size of a noble's bed. Its front displayed a glass panel, with triangles of wood jutting out from the sides. Tubes were attached on the underside of these triangular wings, as well as on a single front-pointing one below the main body of the unit. At the rear was a blue crystal, pipes leading from it along the back of the wings, and I suddenly realized how both crystals that I saw, worked.
"Vienna?" Niko croaked from his resting place. "I didn't think you'd make it back. I was going to go up myself, but now that you've returned, you can stop the Knight in a much more efficient creation. I should really thank Bramwell. Without his Kingdom's gold or a gem the size of this, I wouldn't have been able to get anyone up to the Void castle. Good luck!" I climbed into the fantastic creation, tying myself in with the ropes affixed on the inside. "How do I fly this machine?" I thought
My question felt rhetorical. As soon as I thought about it, the box hovered. Iris climbed in after me, holding onto my back as I guided the machine out of the hole in the roof. I saw the land below me and flew around and past the doorway of the castle.
Bramwell, sitting on the throne still, waved. "Good luck, Vienna. Kill that which threatens us. I believe in you." His words no longer felt like a command. With the greater respect and the sharing of a goal, they felt like the very encouragement they were intended to be. I tilted back, flying directly up, with swirling beams of dark blue streaking from the wings and box itself.
As we flew upwards, I saw some of the first Void islands on either side of us. I was confident that Ash's house of rebels saw me as I approached the massive island the castle was on. I saw its underside, zeroing in on the same hole that Iris and I had fallen out through.
I willed the front tube into action. A glob of lava, the same lava I had seen Vylath use, shot from the flying craft and into the Void Castle room with the glowing crystal of mana. I swerved away, feeling the pulse of heat from behind as it exploded. A Void worker cursed loudly in some language I barely remembered. The entire castle tipped to one side, sinking slowly through the Void like a stone into the mud. I leaned to one side and turned my craft back, using barely any power to keep myself afloat. I followed it down, swooping in midair. I landed, settling outside Ash's house, in front of a group of cheering goblins. Iris released me, stepping out to be with the family she knew.
"Vienna?" she whispered from closeby, as I turned my head. I felt her lips press against mine, a kiss as rewarding as it was surprising. The Goblins' King bowed his head in respect, silently telling me to move onward. I willed my ship, though this one was intended for the air, into flight again. I could see the Void Castle was falling faster now, gravity pulling it down more and more each passing second, sending it crashing into the fields outside Redhelm. I followed it down, the broken white stone contrasting with the green of the grass around it. On top of the white rubble I spotted a speck of purple. I flew closer to see it rise into the air, and by the time I figured out it had an arm, it was already pointing at me. I felt myself fly sharply down, jumping out the side as my ship hit the ground, glass-first.
The Knight of Void floated down, a dark flame burning on either end of his spinning blade. His expression of calm stoicism was replaced with one of pure hatred, the Knight slamming into me with the grip of his sword. Before I could even flinch from the blow, I felt one cut, then two, the third one a brutal upward slash that sent me flying towards my ship's glass. I reached back, looking for something to pull myself away from the Knight's advance. My hand hit something smooth… As the pain of the sword and the glass faded, I felt like I had a thousand years of sleep backing me up. Remembering, I tried a spell I had seen only briefly, in the back of Tenka's book.
"Curasano!" An incredible green light surrounded me. The glass shards forced themselves out of my back, wounds closing together like the lips of silenced subjects. I stood carefully, keeping one hand on the glowing mana crystal, the other making gestures in every direction. I flung all forms of icy projectiles, the Knight's spinning blade protecting him like a steel shield. He dove down at me, the point of his sword aimed to hit. The Knight slowed down in midair. He fell, barely catching himself, as a thick blue beam of icy slowness from my hand was almost stopping him. Slowly, centimeters at a time, did the Knight advance, and I knew that if I moved, I would run out of power.
"Fulgura!" I heard a tired voice shout. As he advanced, a bolt of lightning coming from Tenka's open hand, struck the injured Knight. He stopped, turning to float away in a sign of defeat. Bramwell stood there, watching my victory, Tenka and Niko by his sides. Kamon and Selaria were on the opposite side of me, watching in an impressed state.
"You've done it!" Bramwell stepped forward, away from the two at his sides. "Kneel, noble."
I did as told, lowering myself to one knee before my King.
He tapped my shoulder with the back of his curved sword. "Arise, Lady Vienna, Protector of Redhelm!" The crowd that had gathered cheered. I arose, new title on my head, citizens rejoicing in their damaged Kingdom. The group dispersed over time, allowing me to go home with one thought.
"I won!"