Chapter 169: Prologue to the End (1)

2 wings suddenly grew out of Quint's back, creating a gale of wind in their wake as brown feathers fluttered through the air. The large, long wings spread around Clyde and Quint, giving them the miraculous hope to reach the unreachable.

"Now, fly!" Clyde passionately yelled once again.

Quint began flapping his wings as he picked Clyde up and held him facing upwards, the movement of the wings causing a vengeful gust, which alerted the soldiers that were walking away from the 2, also alerting Galo and Roki, who turned around in a panic.

"The fuck?! Hey, after them you green bastard! Don't let 'em catch up with Luther!" Roki tapped Galo on the shoulder, who tried his hardest to ignore his red-haired comrade. "What are you doing? Turn around!" Roki continued.

"Our top priority is the second curse. Don't get preoccupied," he replied, his answer greatly irritating Roki.

As Quint and Clyde began lifting off from the ground, Roki grit his teeth and took out his hammer again, opting to catch up with them himself using his sound-based Spring. However, as Clyde noticed Roki swinging his hammer, he whispered something to Quint.

"Break the sound barrier," he said, to which Quint put his Spring on maximum output, combined with Clyde's Spring, and exploded off the ground as Roki's hammer thwacked.

The sonic boom made from their departure could be heard across the entire cavern, the impact of the sound so severe that it broke most of the still in-tact windows, shattering them into a million pieces as the Rangers flew through the very same hole that the invaders had used to get in.

As the 2 flew away, the hole closed back up, and the water refilled the empty space in the gulf above.

"They… Outsped sound?"

"That doesn't matter right now, Roki," Galo refocused him, then flew above the battlefield. "All troops, drop what you're doing and head to the northeastern corner of the cavern! This is an order from the top!" Galo announced with a commanding voice that carried through the death filled atmosphere of the cavern, the reserved man having a surprisingly powerful voice.

Chloe and Shuna broke off from their fight as they heard the command, Shuna putting her rapier back into her weapon ring then taking off.

"That's the end of our battle then, princess. I commend you for lasting this long," she waved, then jumped out of one of the windows, then dashed to the northeast of the cavern, leaving the ruined room and the exhausted princess.

Chloe dropped to her knees and returned her sword to her weapon ring, then held her arm in pain as she looked around the room. She heard Rein's room door from behind her open, then came Emria and Saphrilla rushing to her side, with worried expressions riddled on their faces.

"Are you okay, Chloe?" Emria fretted as Saphrilla inspected her wounds.

"I'm okay… We need to get to the northeast… and help them," she uttered while regaining her breath, then struggling to stand as she set her sights for the door.

The fight between Jona and Sho was also interrupted as Jona retracted his drills and sighed in boredom, then faced the east since they were already in the north.

"Guess that's it then. Honestly, you kinda disappointed me, Sho Econ," Jona left him with those words and took off, the threat upon the civilians finally gone.

Sho, panting laboriously, deactivated his Spring and dissipated the fire around him, causing his wounds to become apparent as he bled from his arms and legs, feeling the wounds from earlier in the day affect his combat prowess.

Wallace brought down the dome of earth he had on the civilians, who all stood there dumbfounded, most of their anger dissipated after seeing the fight unfold through the small cracks in the dome that Wallace provided.

Lillia quickly rushed to Sho with worry, who was waddling in weakness, about to fall over. Reggie walked to his side and put Sho's arm around his shoulders, helping him up.

"You should've let me help you, dumbass," Reggie scoffed, to which Sho apologized.

"Sorry… I guess my pride got in the way this time."

Wallace created a pedestal for him to stand on and faced the group of civillians with a furrowed expression.

"Listen up! The enemy forces are all concentrated in 1 place now! Take the west exit and find refuge in Econica!" Wallace commanded, to which the civilians took issue, complaining about having to go to Econica.

Wallace stomped his foot again, this time with more vigor and furioustiy than ever before.

"For those who have a problem with this course of action, stay here and I'll kill you myself because you'd be as good as dead anyway. If not then get a move on!" He yelled with great conviction, scaring the civilians straight as they all stood up and scurried to the western exit, the tunnel leading up to the Econican region above.

"Lillia, you should go with them…" Sho uttered, to which she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why?" She asked, with her question dumbfounding Sho.

"W-well because it's dangerous down here? Why else?" Sho responded with a question.

"And it's not dangerous up there? I'd think it's safer down here, with you guys than up there by myself. And you're not the boss of me anyways," she replied in a smart, and condescending tone, which made Sho drop his face down in annoyance.

"Fine, whatever. Just stay close to me," he gave up, his eyebrow twitching in irritation as Wallace joined them.

"We should head to the research facility at once. I may be able to get in contact with lady Julianne with one of the power-boosting devices on my tablet. Though our top priority should be protecting our students, Raxo and Core," Wallace's words were responsible, dignified, and calm despite their situation.

"Pfft, you guys need all of these people just to capture little old me, huh? Well then, color me flattered..."