Walking away from Athenia hadn’t been easy this time. The hero felt a tug from Viola’s touch, her expectant gaze as she stood by the city gates with her husband and the others. A month or two more and she would give birth to Raven’s firstborn. The other women would follow in her lead, although their pregnancies would take much longer to mature.
Yet walking away from his woman and child, he couldn’t help but feel conflicted. At least halfway through the Atlarian plains, he kept wondering if he should head back, but that train of thought was shattered the moment he reached the edge of the plateau and glanced down at Elenaris’s metallic dome. A massive crater had been burnt into its exterior walls, proof of some sort of battle? Perhaps even defeat for the queen? Such were his thoughts until the flying train whistled its way into his ears.
"Looking for a boarding, sir?" Flapping his wings, the pigeon-headed ticket collector appeared in front of him, his pen tapping against the clipboard and his eyes and head jerking about randomly.
"What happened down there?" Raven asked, and thus the beastman gave him a briefing about how the queen had handled their keeper situation.
A few minutes later, the hero couldn’t help but wonder if Mono was truly alright or if something was still wrong with her. To unleash even a portion of a power capable of destroying their world was reckless beyond the most reckless thing that he’d done himself.
"Would you like a ticket now? The train will be here soon!" Asked the pigeon-headed man.
"No, I’ll make my own way down." Sprouting a pair of wings, Raven fixed his gaze on the massive hole in the metallic dome. Jumping off the cliff with only a few steps to propel him, he aimed for the opening with the wings retracted behind his shoulders.
Flying would’ve taken too long, but a fall was faster. Thus, with his trajectory set, he only opened his wings to glide or correct his trajectory; otherwise, gravity did most of the job. As soon as he was inside the dome, however, he spread his wings wide and prepared for a safe landing. Once ground had been reached, his eyes narrowed at the sight of the toppled spire before quickly turning towards the dark castle.
’I don’t have the time to talk to her, unfortunately.’ Since the situation had resolved itself, he made for the dark sand beach instead of the queen’s residence. The islands had been heard from through a proxy, but visiting them was more important than visiting a friend. Besides, with the tridents all ready and waiting at the dark sand beach, the journey back and forth would be far easier than on foot.
While he made his way towards the beach, Linkle, Darius, Aelin, and a handful of others were already waiting for him. Regalia and Reina had been called back from wherever they were before the tridents were fixed, and already one of the ships had been sent out to check on the islands leading up to Lululalia.
Evangline and her angels had cleansed the islands by themselves, and the rest of the land kingdoms seemed to be in good condition, if the Twin’s words could be trusted as is. Alas, there was still one problem. Lacking teleportation, Eclanor had been left abandoned. The construction was taking far too long, and the laborers could not toil under the desert sun while also carrying the goods from Asteradia to Eclanor through the oceanic desert.
Inktaus had tried to help, but many a time the laborers had simply gone missing since the invisible walls of the kingdom led them to believe that every direction was the right one; they just had to reach it. Needless to say, many of them never made it out of the desert. Even with the lesser god Nile’s help, the only thing recovered was their bodies.
Once it became clear that restoration was no longer possible, everyone from Eclanor was officially moved to Alliance. Melenai had taken over the city’s reins with Frazer, and the council members kept a firm hold over both their own people and those who’d surrendered to the hero after their god Oruon was subdued by the hero.
The tribe of Wolcyenya led by Ostellio, the only survivor in the confrontation against the hero’s group, however, wasn’t as lucky as he’d first expected. His arrival under Melenai’s hand went smoothly enough, with his people unharmed. But then, after days of simply being caged in a dungeon underground when he looked upon her with Gretta’s soul embedded into the cover of her ledger like some decorative stone suspended in amber, he’d finally come to see the truth.
"Your people will work until either my kingdom has been rebuilt or you’re all dead." Her command further fortified his suspicions. Branded with seals of slavery and collars around their necks, everyone but the young and families with those very young were sent to the desert to toil and rebuild what they’d destroyed themselves.
Ever so often, he and his people caught the shadow of the looming bird flying far above them. Its blazing gaze was harsher than the sun itself, but today that shadowless creature was followed by something else. True shade in the desert as the trident arrived over the kingdom of Eclanor.
Ostellio stared in awe at the bird of steel floating above him, but even the comfort of the shade didn’t last for more than a few seconds. The bird propped itself at the helm of the leading trident, its burning talons turning up the heat inside the control room where the hero was already present. Only a quick greeting and the armies had been set to march once more, and Raven was at the head of it, surrounded by Regalia, Reina, Linkle and the rest.
Staring down at the ruins of Eclanor, he was reminded of the black smoke thick enough to hide the fleet of Trident in its midst.
"A phoenix?" Flying out of Raven’s ears, Beasteria moved to the crystal glass right in front of the controls. Staring right up at the burning bird, she waved at it and smirked. "We should take it with us! I can talk to her!"
"Her?" Raven muttered.
"Yeah, her. Why? Do you know her? Did you think it’s a boy?"
"I guess Kuruon is a neutral name, so I got confused." Moving closer to the glass, Raven glanced up at the phoenix as well. "But yeah, I’m sure there’s a certain blacksmith that would appreciate it if we bring her along."
Thus, the phoenix was found once more, and thus the journey ahead resumed with full force. An army of trained soldiers, a fleet of teleporting ships, faeries, beasts, automatons, and even dragons–all stepped into the direction of war, empowered under Athenia’s torch of guidance and led by a hero who carried the magic of the world deep within his clear soul.
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