Welcome to the War [Chapter XIII]

[Ayen]

"Ayen!"

“Run, Lori... Get out of here!”

Soldier A was indeed knocked back by Saturn's first swing, but was able to catch the Silence Glaive in the follow-up swing and sent a kick to the Soldier of Silence's stomach to force her back while pulling the polearm out of her hands.

"Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you?"

Soldier B shrugged.

“I just carry out the orders. You'll have to ask the General when you see him.”

Soldier B reached out for Lori but Ayen pushed her away out of the soldier's reach and tackled the man to the ground before proceeding to punch him repeatedly in the face.

“Run!” he repeated to Lori, looking at her for a brief moment before going back to punching the soldier in the face.

[Yuna]

Yuna managed to evade the energy beam and then pulled up, flying straight for the five missiles that was coming her way. She sent a flare to the sky above, causing the missiles to chase after it before continuing forward, ramming Valefor into the Vtol with a Sonic Wing to knock the jet off its course.

[Hotaru]

The Silence Glaive dematerialized in Soldier A's hands and then rematerialized in hers. Ribbons of violet shot out from a small orb of light at the end of the polearm, wrapping around and squeezing the soldier in a single instance while draining his strength to make him weaker as she pushed forward with a thrust aimed for the soldier's heart.

[Queen Lori]

Run, Lori... Get out of here! "I can't. I can't leave you."

I just carry out the orders. You'll have to ask the General when you see him. Lori wouldn't even have time to scream as Ayen pushed her away and then jumped the soldier. Telling her to run Lori could only look around with a lost look on her face. Where were she supposed to go? "I can't." She physically couldn't. Not knowing what else to do, Lori put herself in front of the recovering children and watched as Ayen and Saturn tried to fight off the soldiers that had came for her.

[Silver Eyes]

Jenna raised her finger against her lips at Rowen, hunkered down, and began to sneak along the hallway close to the walls. Thanks to the white mage's potions, they were successful in climbing on board unseen and unaffected by the blimp's shielding--it was a close call since they were on a time limit.

"I'm out of reagents for those so if we have to suddenly get off, I'll throw up shields and levitations. I should be able to summon more in about thirty minutes."

Jenna looked over her shoulder and responded telepathically: "Conserve your energy. If this Vulture is as powerful as they say he is, he won't leave this place unguarded. He'll have the best of the best. The elite. Whatever terms the people of this realm use. Don't hesitate to kill, and don't hesitate to use your more powerful spells."

Rowen nodded and followed his elder sister. They managed to get past a few rooms when their sharp hearing picked up the sound of footfalls. The Huntress snapped back a closed fist, stopping it just above her shoulder, and drew an arrow from the quiver. In their stealthed position, the average eye wouldn't spot them right away

Her fingers pulled back the string, and her gold eyes narrowed at the targets: two guards. She let the arrow go, and it silently shot through their vital organs--their deaths were quick and painless.

"Okay, let's g-"

There was a mild explosion, a door flew off the hinges, and four of these came running in:

"...never mind. Hide. Now." Jenna whispered. The siblings hid behind large pieces of furniture, again activating their stealth abilities --which only made them difficult to spot--and held perfectly still so as not to alert the newcomers of their positions.

"Intruder alert. Weapon: Arrow. Time of death: Twenty-point-five seconds ago. Estimated time of departure from scene: 15-point-two seconds. They are nearby. Activating defense mechanisms."

Rowen and Jenna looked at each other, and when they looked back, the furniture they were hiding behind were suddenly vaporized. Or something. They weren't even sure what had hit their hiding spots in the first place.

"Threat detected. Activating combat mode."

"Light help us."

The siblings assumed defensive stances. This wasn't going to be easy...

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

"Impressive good sir, impressive."

McCall continued to hold his cannon at the ready position, but he lifted his left hand up and removed his helmet allowing it to fall backwards getting caught by the chain that connected it to his breast plate. He gripped his weapon and grounded his feet.

"By the power invested in me, I now pronounce you, dead on arrival!"

The area turned dark as the raw energy gathered, "The spirit of those left dead, reckon the OBLIVION! EXIST!" The pentagram around Arix's feet would follow him no matter where he ran. The same pentagram appeared before the barrel and it was linked together at a center point.

That center point was Arix's chest, his heart, his soul. The Cannon was auto aiming now as it fired the most devastating and massive blast of energy in the war yet. It shattered the buildings left and right of him, it was like a small nuclear blast was fired out the tip of his cannon.

Three shells flew to the ground from his chest piece.

---

The VTOL wreckage hit the ground showering the town in fire. The main wreckage would destroy buildings, but the shrapnel would shower roof tops. Slowly but surely a fire would be set to the town.

Aside from this, those in the air were out of harms way for the moment.

---

Chambers was locked and loaded. The first shot was fired where he stood creating a large light shield, he turned the corner to have beams smash into the shield but it allowed him to move from that pillar and back into the castle where the door would take much of the fire power.

Soundly he fired the next shot around the corner hitting one sorry bastard square in the chest piece. Sure, he was armored to the teeth like everyone else, but the shot literally pulled the man inside out crashing in on himself in a vortex.

Then suddenly he exploded, his armor, weapon, body, blood, everything showered the other power armor troops. They all took a hefty bit of damage.

"My last infinity shot... Well, here goes nothing."

He locked two more shells into place and stepped around the door.

[.:Amilia:.]

It was amazing how much power this man had. He was using a shell form of sorcerery to enhance and overpower his normal magic. Or maybe it was to contain his true power? Arix wasn't sure, he didn't have much room to think as he was rooted and tracked by the next shot.

"Double Judgment mother fucker!"

Both of his swords crossed and slashed just as the Oblivion shot fired off. It hit square in the middle but then Arix followed it up launching several more of the same attack behind it holding the blast at bay by constantly fueling his own with his energy.

[Yuna]

Yuna frowned down at the wreckage as that wasn't the result she was hoping for. What good would saving the town be if there was nothing left of it when this fight was over? Spotting another generator nearby, the High Summoner quickly flew over to it. Wanting to end this conflict soon before there was nothing remaining of the city to save. If the others weren't busy dealing with the Isafaro soldiers then maybe together they would be able to put out the fire that was spreading throughout the city. Taking out the generator with another powerful energy blast by Valefor, Yuna attempted to prolong the spread of fire with the use of Valefor wings and speed as she did with the orphanage before searching for the next generator. How many of these things were left?

[Ayen]

Vulture saw eight of his generators being taken offline. Four of which was taken down directly while the other four were from the explosions that went off from earlier. It would seem that despite the collateral damage caused by the silver-haired male recklessness sealing the city they found a way to get most of the people out. No matter, Vulture never planned to kill everyone. It did him little good to have no people to rule over after he conquered everything, but now that there were little to nobody left. It didn't matter if they burned the whole place to the ground. Isafaro possessed the technology to rebuild everything in a matter of hours.

The bridge of the blimp began flashing red as they were alerted by a breach as the cyborgs were sent after the cause of the disturbances. Already it appeared the intruders had bit off more than they could chew with the state of a line cyborgs created by Isafaro Research. It was a shame his perfected model could not be here by his side, but he had another matter to attend to back in Isafaro. Vulture stayed in his chair, confident that his forces would win this fight but already prepared to retreat as any good leader would be.

---

“What are you trying to do, gift wrap me?” asked Soldier A.

Soldier A broke out of the ribbons after they tied around him, not allowing them time to weaken his strength as he dived right in to their source, Saturn, his arms crossed in an X-shape formation as he cut that small gap between them quickly and launched a right hand for the Senshi's jaw.

Soldier B kicked Ayen off of him and jumped up to his feet. Ayen was quick to his own and came in with another punch only to have his arm blocked by Soldier B and twisted to his back as he groaned, being brought down to one knee and looking at Lori with a pained expression on his face.

“Try!”

“Don't bother. There's no way out of the city.”

Tunnels, Ayen said to Lori mentally. There's a set of tunnels below the city you can escape through. Just follow the wreckage. Hurry!

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

"This is fun!"

McCall continued to fire, another shell popped out of place before the blasting slowed to a halt. No damage to his target, his second strongest shot and his target still stood unscathed, he was impressed. "Guess I'll have to use the illegal spell. Micky will frown at me for having to kill you with this, but he'll never know just how powerful you were."

McCall steadied the cannon. "I call upon the maker of death itself, REAP MY FOE! EXIST! The shot fired, it was pure black, the pentagram around McCalls feet was bright red, 3 more shells fired from his chest leaving him with only 3 left plus his reserve shots on his cannon.

The Reaper shot was a single shot it was black in color and extremely deadly to what ever it touched.

---

He had the drop on the targets, they were all barely recovering from what had just hit them, all of them bleeding or badly bruised from the explosion.

Chambers fired his normal guns aiming for the damaged portions of armor he could see, all the same he aimed at both heavy gunners, the two shots exploded on impact throwing them backwards. One hit the wall and his battery pack exploded killing him. The other flew past the wall and slid into the street.

He expended both clips and slid back into cover as they began firing back at him now snapped out of their shock. He couldn't do an accurate head count, but he was sure he took two thirds of them in the last two assaults.

"I am a messenger from the Lord God, he says if you only hadn't killed all those innocent people then I wouldn't of been sent to punish you."

He reloaded the shells first then the clips. He heard foot steps very close to him around he corner.

[.:Amilia:.]

"Not so fast!"

He moved like the wind itself, becoming nothing but a blur as he stepped inside the range of the cannon as it fired. The strait jacket wouldn't know what hit him as Arix's shoulder pressed hard into his abdomen collapsing his stomach plate in on itself.

He dropped both swords tangling his left arm up with McCalls right arm prying it away from the cannon then delivered hard strikes to his chest plate utterly beating the last 3 shots into the steel plate not allowing them to eject for further shots.

[Yuna]

As Yuna closed in on another generator several bullets hit Valefor, causing it to pull back and move around the empty house down below they have flown to as the Vulture post nearby was going all out to protect the generator inside which told the High Summoner that they must have been running low on them. Firing a single energy beam to the ground at the center of the Vulture crew the resulting explosion from the blast caused the soldiers to fall as Yuna fired off a second energy beam right into the generator bringing eight down to seven as she took off back into the air again to find the rest.

Just hang on a little longer guys, we're almost there.

[Sparda]

Seven was reduced to six. Then five, four, three, two... and one.

Sparda was on a rampage through the Vulture's forces. Each generator that went down only restored more of his power, made him more and more unstoppable, until his bullets were flattening small buildings and the hellfire unleashed from his blade was incinerating the mutated dead down to the last cell. The soldiers hesitated, even cowered, as he tore through the streets around and amongst them, gunning and cutting down all who sought to stop him.

Things were looking worse and worse for the General. Soon enough, Sparda had deduced the location of the final generator; a heavily fortified old guardhouse near the outskirts of the city. The Dark Knight was undaunted and nearly unopposed in his approach, and even the overbearing presence of Vulture's massive blimp, holding station directly overhead, didn't sway him.

His assault was brief and overwhelming. A charged shot from Ombra, clutched in his left hand, blasted the barricaded front doors open. Through the reactionary gunfire that streamed through the breach to deter him, the demon charged in, a violet and crimson blur of movement. Amid death rattles and pained screams he ravaged the corralled defenders, cracking armour apart with gunshots and rending limbs from bodies with demonic steel - and not a single bullet or blade found him.

The final generator was found, and Sparda stepped into the large hall with his sword in a reversed grip, blood red flames engulfing the blade. With a mighty swing, he unleashed a Drive that tore the generator and the room to pieces, cracking open the machine's domed shield like it was made of wood and burning straight down its middle.

As the two wrecked halves collapsed, the final null field fell.

Sparda's power returned.

His waiting army of familiars set upon Vulture's scattered troops.

[Raal]

He felt it. The last generator going down. FINALLY!

Raal's monsters re-appeared, the psychic summoning the beasts back to existence. This included the giant tentacles that erupted from the ground. They guarded the entrance to Hallowton, smashing any soldier that came within crushing distance. More tentacles exploded upward, their writhing mass reaching skyhigh within mere moments. These were aimed at Vulture's blimp, like a Kraken to a seafaring ship.

Many more monsters of different shapes, sizes, and strengths appeared, waging open warfare against the troops stalking the streets. These realistic monsters teamed up with Sparda's familiars, making sure that the dead soldiers would not be able to mutate... ever. Raal himself was shielded by one of his monsters, the monster itself using a thick shell to protect its master. Any remaining jets flying overhead were easily matched by suicide fliers, the strange creatures having leathery wings and a worm-like face. They exploded on contact with any jet they were able to catch, causing a violet-colored explosion.

Chaos reigned.

[Hotaru]

With both hands to the center of the polearm Saturn held it up and generated an invisible wall between her and her opponent, blocking the soldier's direct attack and then coming back with a straight jab to the chest with the back of the polearm. She saw the familiars and monsters that spread throughout the city attacking the remaining Isafaro presence and grew cautious as she stayed by the heir to the throne and the children's side.