Act 4: Fallen Heaven - Chapter 627: Escort Mission

Act 4: Fallen Heaven - Chapter 627: Escort Mission

Atop the volcano, with the clouds of ash and soot rising behind him, Carcoatl sat on the edge of the mouth, his black robes unmoved by the cold winds of the high sky and the hot exhausts of the earth. In the long history of snail-kin, he only enjoyed this height as he looked over the lands, all under his care, its people going about their daily lives. Funnily, from this perspective, everyone else seemed so slow, moving like snails. A dark breeze moved his robes slightly. His ugly smile fell, the enjoyment gone as a raspy sigh echoed from his black lips. Squarmo's sight showed the enemy had arrived.

"Carcoatl. Do you intend on going against the Primal Council?" The voice of another Primaere, containing the voices of all beings, resounded through the sky, audible only to him. The clouds, the black volcano, the blue sky, they all were stripped of their colors and turned gray. Carcoatl snorted once and dispersed the bleak gray, allowing the world's colors to return. The voice responded louder, "Thousands of years ago, you chose not to intervene. Back off."

"Thousands of years ago, I was not the Primaere I am now. The years may go by, and the name may be forgotten, but somehow the will lives on." Carcoatl said, gasping out the last few words. "I'm old. You're old, too, Kerak. Back then, I was too weak back then, and you were just a pawn." Receiving no response, Carcoatl stood, his hunch not a bother for him to balance on the edge. "I am leaving."

"I can't let you go. Isaac's heir is a sensitive matter that even you alone can't take the reins of." Kerak still refused to show himself.

"Stop prattling on. You're still recovering, aren't you? Looking at the Threads is a risky endeavor. What price did you pay to look in mine?" Carcoatl probed. A cursory glance at a Thread was fine, but to delve deeply into a person's Threads required a huge draw of vitality, an act for which Trigem Primaeres, like him and Kerak, suffered severe consequences. Since the Ancient of Metal masked Oscar's Threads, the vultures of the Primal Council surely had to glimpse into his Threads. "Kerak, you tried to look into his Threads, didn't you? Tell me, what did you see?"

The air shuddered, and Carcoatl stretched his lips into a smile that many would avert their eyes from. "Nothing. Yet he lives. Don't you fear what could manipulate the Threads? It could only be–"

"That's enough," Kerak warned.Upstodatee from n(0)/ve/lbIn/.(co/m

Carcoatl didn't care and spoke, "the Ancients or them. I often wonder what side the others of the council are on."

"...we are our own. If our interests align with one or the other, so be it, but we are the masters of Talos. Their time is past."

"But now, the so-called masters are at each others' throats over a boy." Carcoatl coughed and spat out on the volcano's slope. He was tired. He sat back down and stared into the distance, smirking at the empty air, knowing someone was there, a laughable attempt to hide from his senses. "Now that two of you have come out, I must stay." He dusted the soot off his robes and rubbed the large lump on his back, content with keeping the two Primaeres here, entrusting the rest to the others.

.......

"Haha. Like the Forest Heart Clan, you use the Triheaven Elysium now." Squarmo laughed. "Very well. However, per the old laws set forth for the rights of the minority, if we succeed in escaping you, there is no more pursuing him. If you believe in tradition, you will agree."

"Very well. That is the law. Then, feel free to fight to your last breath." Julius snapped his fingers, and the Divine Enforcer vanished, but Squarmo caught him in the air, a few feet from the airship, and tossed him back up. As the two King Exalts fought, their battle thundering across the sky, invisible to all, the main force of the Triheaven Elysium marched down, dozens of Marshal Exalts and Naim.

"Form up!" Demon bellowed, turtling along with Marcus, Kragg, and Santen. Hector and Helen, their two Greater Marshal Exalts, took the helm since they were the only ones to combat the enemy's more powerful foes. However, Demon knew it was hopeless. Rusk Continent was too far away for Squarmo's plan to work. The Bicrown King Exalt, Naim, reached her hand out, no manner of spell or attack deterring her power, simply crushing all opposition in her way. His mind raced faster than his cold heart could beat, funneling through all the options, but none offered a solution against her.

Her power hoisted his body up, an invisible grasp of Ein clenching on his armor, parts breaking off like brittle clay. She smiled and tried to raise her hand when a black feather stabbed into it, the veins around it turning black. Groaning, she let go of him and retreated, pulling the feather out. She squeezed on her arm, repelling the black poison and expelling it from her body, parts of it landing on an unfortunate few who screamed in anguish, their bodies rotting before his eyes.

'So that's how it is.' Demon remarked as the screeches of crows sounded in the distance. Led by Yatscrows, a small flock of giant crows dove toward them, ramming into the enemy. One, in particular, a crow with four wings, cawed loudest and slashed all four into different foes, sending them out of the way.

'Ruvin!' Erden leaped outside, reentered his true form, and roared in the beast tongue. The four-winged crow was Ruvin, the friend from the Lands of Zeret.

'Erden!' Ruvin cawed in cheers. 'I thought we could settle our fight from the Pools of Ascension, but you have drifted far behind.' His feathers spread everywhere, throwing the enemy into disarray as they swarmed them. He lifted his proud beak, showing up to Erden. He was a Greater Marshal Exalt. Riding the crows, several large gorillas lunged for their nearest target, bashing their fists into them.

But why did they come? Demon wondered.

"By the order of the Phoenix Primaere Solara, you are to stand down. Leave, or else this will be your graveyard, humans." A beautiful woman with black hair and black eyes, wearing a dress of black feathers, too low to cover her shoulders and too short to cover most of her thighs, lifted her chin at Naim, clearly looking down on her. "While I despise them, I, Ness, the mother of crows, will not allow you to take them."

'Rejoice. For the Lands of Zeret have come to help!' Ruvin perched on the airship. Demon finally found the way out.