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It had been a good few minutes since they’d taken their clash above the clouds, voluntarily or not, and while Leon was doing well, he couldn’t spare even a moment to appreciate his survival thus far.

He ducked downward and a bolt of golden lightning split the air where his head once was, and he fell into a pitch-black storm cloud. He spread his power throughout it, but Sunlit barreled right in, howling like a man possessed. The cloud split before him, and in response, Leon swung his blade and sent a wave of black fire to meet him.

Sunlit cleaved through, though the fire ate away at the edges of his blade.

With an idea taking root in his head, Leon switched tactics and charged at Sunlit. He didn’t doubt that Sunlit would win every head-to-head clash they had, but he needed to find some way to weaken the Emperor if he were to escape. Sunlit met his charge with a ferocious overhead swing of his sword, and Leon brought his up to meet it. The two blades met in a terrific explosion that sent Leon flying backward while Sunlit barely moved, but while countless arcs of golden lightning rolled over Leon’s armor, Sunlit’s sword was enveloped in black fire.

With a roar of anger, Sunlit charged again, and Leon, while the tau pearl’s healing magic soothed his pains, saw that Sunlit’s blade was starting to blacken.

Leon surged backward, creating a bit of distance, and took a moment to build up some black fire. As the Sunlit Emperor drew close, Leon thrust his blade toward him, letting loose with a river of fire that formed into a serpentine dragon that looked much like Maia’s, if quite a bit smaller than what she usually conjured.

With a cry of frustration and disgust, Sunlit cut through the dragon with ease, but the black fire clung to his weapon and armor, slowing the Emperor down when he realized that it wasn’t going to extinguish itself on its own.

Magic pulsed outward from Sunlit, forcibly putting out the flames. His armor was looking much the worse for wear, though, and his blade looked like it was one good clash away from shattering entirely.

“YOOUUUU!!!” Sunlit screeched as he charged again.

Leon, his initial mind-bending anger from their meeting now cooled, fell back again. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up, but he still had some tricks up his sleeve, and while he was more than ready to continue with black fire, he also wanted to show the Sunlit Emperor exactly what power he was missing.

Before that, though, he shouted into his soul realm, [XAPHAN!]

[About time,] the demon of flame responded. [I’m ready.]

With that guarantee, Leon slowed slightly, and Sunlit was upon him. The Emperor brought his blade down upon Leon, a dozen massive lightning bolts speeding along in his wake, and Leon met the attack with all the power he could muster.

Lightning and black fire exploded outward as their blades met. Golden lightning pierced the surface of Leon’s fire but vanished within. Leon’s fire reached out for Sunlit but didn’t make it that far past his blade.

But it was far enough, and Leon heard the sound of cracking metal.

Without a word, he threw open his soul realm and a massive fiery arm reached through, striking the Sunlit Emperor and sending him hurtling backward. Leon was pleased to see that his blade had shattered about two inches from the hilt, leaving little more than blackened metal behind.

Xaphan emerged from Leon’s soul realm to hover at his side, and Sunlit righted himself in the air.

For the first time since their fight began, Sunlit didn’t immediately charge. Instead, he took in the sight of his broken weapon, his battered and blackened armor, and the readiness of Leon and Xaphan, and seemed to take a more defensive posture.

“Well,” he said, his voice carrying despite lightning arcing all around them, “this is surprising. I wasn’t aware you had a contract with a demon, let alone one that would allow him to manifest on this plane.”

“I’m full of surprises,” Leon retorted.

“So I’m coming to understand,” Sunlit said. Addressing Xaphan, he shouted, “Demon! Whatever that boy is giving you, I’ll double! Slaves? Sacrifices? That doesn’t matter! If you switch sides, you can have it all!”

“Spare me, human,” Xaphan crackled.

Sunlit replied, his voice indicating he wore a scowl on his helmeted face, “That’s fine. I can handle you both. I have my own surprises…”

He conjured a bracelet on his left wrist and aimed his left fist at Xaphan. The bracelet wasn’t particularly ostentatious, being little more than a band of shiny black metal, but Leon felt a spike of strange magic explode out of it.

Xaphan immediately dodged, but the strange transparent magic caught the demon anyway, and Xaphan froze in the air. Even the fire covering his body froze in place.

“A man like me has to have contingencies for everything,” Sunlit boasted. “And after I was attacked by vampires when I was young, I invested quite heavily into anti-demon magic! As for you, Leon… You will give me what I want!”

Sunlit charged again as Leon desperately tried to understand just what Sunlit had done to Xaphan, but he didn’t have the time to study it. Instead, he was forced to bring his sword back up to block a blade of lightning that Sunlit plucked from a huge nearby cloud. His sword and the bolt met with such force that the two were blown apart again.

“Everything I’ve ever wanted is locked away in your blood!” Sunlit raged. “If I have to rip you apart skin flake by skin flake to get what I’m after, then I will!” Sunlit punched outward, thousands of thin strands of lightning reaching out from his body and enveloping Leon. These strands stuck to his armor in countless places, restricting his movements, and when he tried to raise the tau pearl’s shield, Sunlit waved his other hand, a new gauntlet appearing on it, and the shield flickered and vanished.

Panic now starting to set in, Leon called upon the very power that Sunlit so craved. He shouted in anger and frustration, and a dozen thick bolts of silver-blue lightning erupted from his body and danced around him, severing every one of Sunlit’s lightning strands.

“Yes! YES!” Sunlit screamed as he charged again. “THAT’S IT!” He raised his hand again and summoned the largest lightning bolt yet, and hurled it at Leon. Leon used every tiny bit of skill in lightning magic he possessed and just barely managed to push the bolt away, but as it sped past him, he was thrown like a leaf in the wind. As he spun away, he also saw Sunlit alter the bolt’s course, and it fell downward instead of chasing after him. It cleaved through the clouds below them, letting him see it hit the light shield covering his crashed ark. The bolt blasted a hole in the shield, but instead of pressing the advantage, the Emperor turned back to Leon. Though Leon couldn’t see his face that well through his helmet, he could imagine Sunlit giving him the most shit-eating grin that had ever graced Aeterna.

“Surren—” Sunlit began, but Leon just called upon the Thunderbird’s power and summoned the biggest lightning bolt he could from the clouds around them.

The silver-blue bolt struck the Emperor with titanic power, sending the man flying. But Leon didn’t fly after him immediately; instead, he retracted his sword and armor into his soul realm and transformed.

When Sunlit stabilized himself a moment later, he found Leon’s new Thunderbird form bearing down upon him, and it took him a moment to respond.

Leon dove at the armored man, his talons glowing with silver-blue lightning. Sunlit dodged and Leon followed.

Leon pecked, Sunlit threw himself back. Sunlit threw a lightning bolt, it slid off Leon’s feathers. Leon flapped his wings and conjured a hundred lightning bolts, Sunlit pulsed with power and all of them curved around him. Sunlit roared in anger and charged, slamming into Leon with great force, but Leon tucked, rolled, and tore Sunlit off him with his beak before Sunlit could do any real damage.

“What are you?!” Sunlit shouted as they separated.

Leon didn’t bother responding, but with a thunderous screech, his magic filled the sky. Sunlit responded in kind, and the distance between them grew as they competed for domination of the sky. The wind began to pick up and rain started to fall, and Leon could feel that in his Thunderbird form, he was starting to gain the upper hand in control over their surroundings, even if Sunlit was more powerful.

“You won’t win like this!” Sunlit shouted, his voice only audible over the howling wind thanks to his and Leon’s power. “I won’t give up! I will tear down everything and everyone you’ve ever loved! But if you surrender to me, you will guarantee their safety!”

Leon didn’t even dignify that with a reproachful glare. He just focused on seizing control over the sky and then began directing the clouds around them to surround and contain Sunlit’s power. Slowly, he started making progress, and it seemed that Sunlit realized he was starting to be put into a weaker position, and he charged.

“I will have you!” he screamed as he streaked across the sky.

Leon rolled out of the way, but Sunlit held out his hand and extended bolts of lightning out of his fingers, raking them across Leon’s feathers as he dodged. Most of his power was blocked, but Leon was thrown downward and felt the skin beneath his feathers split. His feathers turned red from blood and mana, and he had to focus to block out the pain.

Sunlit chased him, but he used wind magic to gain a bit of distance, and then, using his wings to keep himself moving, Leon shot rain back at Sunlit at such speeds that they would’ve shredded unenchanted steel. Sunlit just projected a few arcs of lightning ahead of him, vaporizing any raindrops that came too close.

With a burst of speed, Sunlit managed to close the distance, and he reached out toward Leon’s tail feathers. Leon quickly dove again, hoping to regain some space, but Sunlit followed closely, hurling a few lightning bolts that, while splashing across Leon’s feathers, still hurt and forced Leon to use more power to prevent that lightning from entering his body.

Leon sent silver-blue lightning back with every flap of his wings, but if they were doing any damage to Sunlit, he was ignoring them. Leon hoped that these bolts were; they were certainly doing damage to the remnants of the Emperor’s armor, though not doing much to his flesh beneath. As his helmet slowly cracked and fell apart, however, Leon could see that the man had some rather nasty-looking burns where he’d been hit with some black fire.

But for all his attempts to gain space, Sunlit continued closing the distance. Just as he reached out to grab Leon’s tail, however, Sunlit suddenly slammed into an invisible barrier that certainly hadn’t been there a moment ago as Leon flew through that space.

Sunlit bounced backward, shock and confusion visible through the growing holes in his helmet. Leon took the presented opportunity to regain some range and sent a couple hundred bolts of lightning back at the Emperor. Sunlit barely straightened himself out in time to punch outward and scatter Leon’s lightning bolts.

When Sunlit retaliated with more lightning of his own, however, it hit that strange barrier once again. This time, though, Sunlit didn’t even have the time to curse in confusion before Xaphan came barreling down from above, his fiery body slamming into Sunlit with stupendous force. Armor shattered and melted, Sunlit screamed, and Xaphan roared in triumph.

“For daring!” Xaphan shouted as demonfire erupted from his body.

“To touch!” Xaphan struck the Emperor with a punch that would’ve killed a sixth-tier mage instantly.

“A Lord!” Sunlit screamed in agony as his armor finally fully gave way under the strain.

“Of Flame!” Xaphan conjured a thousand bats made of fire that dove and thrashed the Emperor.

“You’ll die!” Xaphan wound up, summoning what seemed to be a new sun there on Aeterna, but before he’d even done anything with it, a massive golden lightning bolt fell from the clouds above, striking Xaphan and sending him tumbling through the air several hundred feet.

“You can’t kill me…” Sunlit declared as Xaphan’s power dissipated around him. He looked ragged with only a few blackened pieces of metal still clinging to his body, letting Leon see his badly burned body. However, he hovered proudly in the air, his aura still thick and commanding. He wasn’t yet even close to being done.

Xaphan darted away, flying up to meet Leon and present a united front against the Emperor.

[How’d you get out of that whatever thing?] Leon silently asked.

[Dead man,] Xaphan responded.

As if on cue, Nestor drifted down from the clouds, a glowing rune hovering next to him. “You fight like a barbarian,” Nestor quipped. Leon glared at the man, but Nestor quickly added, “All of you do.”

“This doesn’t matter!” Sunlit shouted. “Bring all the reinforcement you want, you aren’t leaving without my express permission!”

[Let’s kill this guy,] Xaphan said. [We can do it. Right now. Let’s go.]

Nestor grunted, and Leon clicked his beak. With them, he felt like they could do it.

Taking the lead, Leon surged toward Sunlit, silver-blue lightning filling the air around him. Xaphan took a more oblique angle, intending to flank the Emperor. Nestor stayed behind and began inscribing new runes into the air.

Sunlit, however, grinned madly and opened his arms welcomingly. The air shimmered around him, his magic radiating from him so thickly that it almost looked like he was underwater.

As Leon drew close, Sunlit slammed his hands together, summoning so much lightning that the clouds around them were torn asunder. The thunder was so loud that a shockwave halted Leon right in his tracks and shook his internal organs, making him nauseous. The fire that Xaphan projected dissipated, and Sunlit charged.

Leon braced himself for a hit, but Sunlit sailed right over him, drawing an ornate spear from his soul realm and thrust out toward Nestor.

Nestor scribbled a rune in panic, but all the runes that he’d drawn exploded, buffeting his golem body and bathing him in lightning. The protective enchantments he’d laid upon his body were broken and his body shattered. In a moment, Nestor was rendered into little more than tens of thousands of bits of white-hot metal streaking through the air.

Sunlit didn’t take the time to gloat, but turned instead toward Xaphan, and charged again, his spear extended.

Wrath shot through Leon more intensely than before. His golden eyes darkened to a dirtier yellow-orange, and without thinking, he tucked his wings and dove to intercept the Emperor.

As he sped through the air, time seemed to slow as he focused his entire being on one goal: destroying the Sunlit Emperor. But through his otherwise all-consuming fury, he felt something glide across the surface of his mind in much the same way that Elise would run her fingers through his hair to get his attention.

Something called to him, some alien awareness that was reacting to his emotions, something he’d never felt before.

Without hesitation, Leon grasped that power with both hands, and he felt something small and metallic appear in his talons. He thrust it forward, and a bolt of terrible black lightning burst from his talons and hit the Emperor. Sunlit didn’t even scream; his body simply stopped emitting power and he fell like a marionette with its strings cut.

Leon, in shock over what just happened, pulled out of his dive. He pulled the Iron Needle—for that’s what he’d summoned, he quickly realized—back into his soul realm. The last thing he needed was to lose it in the storm that raged all around him. Sunlit vanished into the storm, falling into a pitch-black cloud.

Leon glanced at Xaphan and shouted mentally, [After him!]

Xaphan didn’t waste a moment and practically turned into a meteor as he pursued the falling Emperor. Leon, however, turned back toward Nestor. Bits of golem still fell through the air, but Leon sought out a single piece, the most hardened and protected of all components within Nestor’s body: the core within which his soul realm lay.

It didn’t take Leon long to find it, despite how small it was and how dark the storm made it—it was still mostly intact, but the container had been breached and magic was pouring out of it. Leon flew after it as fast as he could, managing to catch it just before it disappeared into the lowest layer of clouds above the battlefield.

Without hesitation, Leon pulled it into his soul realm.

[Nestor!] Leon shouted. [Dead man! Can you hear me?!]

Silence was the only response.

With a cry of frustration, Leon almost dove into his soul realm right then and there to inspect the damage, but a sudden flaring of magic power below the clouds stole his attention.

Lightning and thunder lit up the ground below, and he knew that Sunlit wasn’t dead.

But when Leon dove below the clouds, he arrived just in time to see with his own eyes Xaphan being thrown to the ground by a truly wretched-looking Sunlit Emperor. His face had half-turned black from burned flesh, his eyes blazed with golden lightning, his clothes and the remains of his armor had been completely burned away, scorching much of his body beneath, and blood seeped like red rivers through his many burns and other wounds.

As Leon pierced through the clouds, however, Sunlit turned his eyes upon him, glanced at the crashed ark that still had its shield up and that Leon’s people were surrounding, and then at the remnants of his ambushing force. All three stealth arks had been shot down, as had the four war arks. What few ground forces remained were retreating as fast as they could to the transport arks, and there were no signs of the four ninth-tier mages he’d launched this operation with.

Without a moment of hesitation, Sunlit turned around and fled, leaving the battlefield to Leon and his people.

It seemed they had won, but Leon didn’t feel any pride or triumph. His ark had been shot down, he could see a few destroyed MALLs down below, Xaphan appeared injured, and Nestor was unresponsive. Pursuing the Sunlit Emperor didn’t even register to him as an option as he dove back to his ark.

They may have won, but he needed to know how much it had cost.