“First ship, ready to fire Jio Graze!”
Leaks flew between each of the four ships of the Sky Fortress Azetta as they approached the Sun of Destruction.
“Second ship, likewise!”
“Third ship, all cannons ready!”
They were now deploying the strategy once used by the creation magic artist, Farris Noin: Firing enough Jio Graze into the sky of destruction to create a path of flames to fly through. The Sky Fortress Azetta was being worn away as it ascended, but the damage was less than ten percent—it wouldn’t affect their flight.
“If we can keep this up...” Rouche mumbled while glaring at the solar eclipse.
“Scary, scary. Don’t voice such terrifying things out loud, carrier of wind. Things only go smoothly when the enemy wants it to,” Eldmed tutted brightly. “Incidentally, Hero Kanon—by your estimation, how close do we need to be for you to stop the eclipse without fail?”
“Just getting close wouldn’t be enough,” Lay replied immediately. “All of my magic power needs to be in these swords. I must focus on nothing but slicing that sun.”
“Bwa ha ha! An absurd condition to mention this late in the game! In other words, what you’re saying is that we have to carry you all the way up to the sun, since you won’t be able to fly?”
“That’s right.”
Lay intended on pouring his entire body into cutting the solar eclipse, and that included the magic he would have otherwise used to maintain Fless. Of course, he would have no anti-magic wards or barriers to protect himself either. If the rays of the black sun touched him, none of his seven sources would save him from perishing.
“Bwa ha ha! It’ll be raining honorable deaths today. You’ll be betting everything on a single strike. Interesting. Just like a hero should! All or nothing, sink or swim, do or die—I would expect nothing less!”
“Incoming magic attack from below! The spell formula is a barrier!”
A report came from the third ship.
“There it is, the humans have joined the game. Let’s see how they fare—if they can last even a few seconds, we may be able to use them as a path.”
A blast of water emitting holy light shot up from below. The water shot past the Sky Fortress Azetta and moved straight towards the Sun of Destruction. And it wasn’t only one blast—it was eighteen shots total, all made of holy water. The versatile shots surrounded the target and formed the long-distance barrier spell Leiacanetts. The spell would create a barrier that twinkled like the stars, with the power to suppress and seal the magic power of the target within.
Leiacanetts shot into the airspace controlled by the Sun of Destruction and continued for a while, but it never reached its target. The order of destruction stopped its advance, and eventually, the barrier lost momentum. The eighteen shots of holy water activated the spell circle on the spot, forming a barrier. But that barrier only lasted for a brief moment before the holy water evaporated.
“Bwa ha ha. What kind of barrier melts away like that? Truly wings of wax! If they can’t even last a second, they won’t be able to serve as a path.”
“And with that, they can still claim the Leiacanetts spell contributed to bringing down the sun. As always, Gairadite only uses their wisdom for needless matters,” Rouche spat bitterly.
“Don’t dismiss them so easily, carrier of wind. Take another look.”
Leiacanetts created water vapor in the airspace after evaporating. Lay, still standing on top of the fourth ship, spotted a shadow within that vapor. He grabbed it as the ships flew through the water vapor to find it was a top hat—one of the Conflagration King’s. Upon closer inspection, there were another nine top hats flying through the sky of destruction.
“I, Eldmed, the Conflagration King, order you in the name of the Heavenly Father: be born, ten keepers of reason.”
Confetti and streamers burst out of the top hats, followed by winged female centaurs and male giants with large shields on their back. They were Reize Na Ile and Zeo La Opt—Keepers of Sky and Protection, respectively—and there were five of each, making a total of ten.
“Bwa ha ha. Even wings of wax can approach the sun until they melt.”
The Zeo La Opt climbed on the backs of the Reize Na Ile and held their shields out in front to create a barrier as the Keepers of Sky charged forward.
“Follow behind them.”
At Eldmed’s instruction, the four ships positioned themselves behind the shields of the Keepers and ascended further.
“A second Leiacanetts incoming!” the third ship reported from the back of the formation.
Blasts of water shot through the sky of destruction once again, with more top hats flying through the air after the barrier evaporated. But before the top hats could create more Keepers, arrows flew out of nowhere to shoot them down and burn them to ashes.
“See? There they are.”
Angels of shadow had appeared before them. They were the Keepers of Destruction, Eguz De Rafan. They had probably thought we assumed there would be no Eguz De Rafan if the Goddess of Destruction was gone, and had hidden the Keepers to make us believe that.
“Keep firing.”
Gairadite continued firing Leiacanetts in succession, sending more top hats soaring through the air and purposely making themselves targets for the shadow angels to shoot at. The Conflagration King hadn’t expected the same trick to work twice, and so the shadow angels were now shooting down regular top hats that couldn’t create Keepers.
Not even the Conflagration King was capable of putting enough magic power to create a Keeper in all the hats. But what he could do was force the enemy to target them—and split their forces.
“Aim all cannons forward. The shields are about to be destroyed.”
The shadow angels used the black sun’s rays as arrowheads for their arrows, shooting a wave of black arrows that destroyed the shield of the Keepers of Protection and pierced through the wings of the Keepers of Sky. With all of them being Keepers, their power was equal across the board, but the Keepers of Destruction currently had two advantages: the favor of the Sun of Destruction, and most importantly, the advantage of numbers. Under the barrage of black sun arrows, all the shields guarding the Sky Fortress Azetta were erased.
“Fire.”
“Commencing fire—Jio Graze!”
Under Nigitt, Devidra, and Rouche’s command, every cannon of the Sky Fortress Azetta cast a roaring, jet-black sun that trailed light like a meteor zooming across the sky. Over two hundred jet-black suns exploded, one after another, creating a path of flames to the Sun of Destruction.
“We are the wall! Stand your ground until the very end!” Nigitt yelled.
His ship was battered by unrelenting attacks from the shadow angels, crumbling right before everyone’s eyes. But evading was impossible; if he stepped out of the line of fire, Lay, having rendered himself fully defenseless, would face the full brunt of the enemy’s attack.