Before the roar ever faded, they were flying off toward the blockade. The Chimera poured forward, projectiles of wind, lightning, and water meeting the godslaves that crossed their path. Winds whipped as they crossed the skies. Felix, on the back of Pit, flew just behind them, marshalling the elements within his chest. Sonata of Dominance rolled through his core space, singing a wild song.

“Knights!” Roland shouted above the wind. “Release!”

The Dragoons launched their manifested Spears, many of which were wreathed in additional elemental effects. The Chimera’s Skills and spells followed close behind. A volley of thunderous might struck a ward a dozen feet in front of the lead ship’s prow, but it did nothing more than ripple with the impact.

A barrier. And it’s goddamn strong.

A deep whine cut above the wind, and on the deck of countless ships Manacannons adjusted their aim as their barrels filled with a heavy radiance.

They fired.

Sonata of Dominance is level 137!

Felix hardened the air with his Sonata, meeting countless beams head-on. They seared against his shaping, boiling the water in the air instantly before exploding.

Sonata of Dominance is level 138!

His control was tested, strained by the superheated air trying to escape in every direction before the beams themselves refracted into diffuse rays. With a bright trill from Thalgrym, the Chimera ranks split, the Guardian Beasts flying in every direction as they sought to reduce the Hierocracy's aim. Felix wouldn’t be able to cover them all, now.

“Stay outta their sights!” Pit shouted. “Bring the chaos!”

Then we go on the offense.

Him and his Companion didn’t change direction. The gilded flagship was before them, larger than all the rest by an order of magnitude. Felix could see Kodal standing on the deck, armor gleaming and ranks of Inquisitors surrounding him. He was protected by layers upon layers, ward, ship, and zealots. He met Felix’s gaze and grinned.

“Fire on the four-winged demon.”

Kodal’s order was drowned out only by the deep-throated whine of a massive Manacannon. In a fraction of a second, it fired—along with a half dozen others.

Felix reached out a hand. Empyrean Embrace!

The golden light vanished into his channels, radiating visibly from beneath his skin. Felix marshaled it immediately, sending it back with the strains of his Sonata—alongside a metric shit ton of his own Mana.

Harder. Sharper. Brighter. Intensify!

The shaped beam burst from his hands, turned to liquid light that carved across the blockade ward. Ripples spread, distorting Felix’s view of the Hierei as he poured more magic on. It flexed, a portion of it bucking as Pit joined his attack with Tempest Fugit, the ice spears exploding upon impact.

The barrier held firm.

The ships fired again and Pit rolled through the cannon fire, avoiding it with an Agility few could match. But more than just a few fire on him now—at least thirty sent their cannons his way. Dodging was impossible.

Sonata of—

“Chaos Beckons!”

Debris rose from below—a thousand pounds of masonry limned in purple-gold light, forming a curved shell around Felix and Pit. The cannons turned it to slag, but the magic held out for a few moments longer, just enough time for Pit to wing his way out.

“Took you long enough!” Pit shouted.

Elowen dropped from above, her robes whipping in the breeze as purple and gold radiance rolled across her body like the trail of a comet. “I have been busy with these. Order Departs!” She gestured, and crushed godslaved minions launched past her and into the wards like fleshy missiles. The corpses exploded as they hit, forcing several Inquisitors to fall back in surprise.

Pit made a face as he swung around. “Gross.”

leave none of them alive!

Flame cried as Atar blazed past as well. The fires that raged in the city below swirled upward, pulled into the mage’s orbit before absorbing into his bones. Atar was a full-on skeleton now, his charred bones radiating white fire like a fallen star. He raged, the heat of his flames evaporating the godslave minions within a hundred feet of himself.

“I’m on it,” Atar said, eyes blazing. Stars of the Sovereign rotated around him, spinning like blades, slicing through those beyond his heat haze. The wards distorted, the intense white Stars leaving trails that spread in rainbow sparks. “They can’t hit what they can’t see! Alister!”

The Empire's Manaships also drew level. A blue-cloaked Alister stood on the lead ship, manning one of the three ballista that populated the deck. “Kinetic Shockstorm!”

A series of five bolts ripped forward, clashing into the blockade and fouling the enemy cannonshot. The Guardian Beasts spun around, Sylphaen, Korvaa, and Dragoons on their backs sending their Skills into the same points again and again, their precision as uncanny as their flying abilities. Felix was proud to see them work, even as the enemy's counter fire took more of his people down.

As Pit brought them back in a loop toward the flagship, he allowed himself a moment to think. Vess was still missing, as were Beef and Archie. Had they found the Lizard? And where was Gabby? He shook the concern from his Mind. He couldn't spare the bandwidth worrying about them for more than a moment. Either they would be fine, or they wouldn't. All he could do now was advance.

Wait. What the hell is that?

The Hierocratic fleet began to glow. New arrays formed across their hulls, the sigaldry forming a uniform circuit that crossed from corsair to galleon. The blockade boiled with power, but that wasn’t what caught Felix’s attention.

It sounds…distorted. Heinous.

With a foul noise, a net of light expanded outward from the prow of every ship at once. Felix recoiled. The thing was suffused with a metallic blue that chased across the golden net, flickering alongside a sickening bronze and a chill ebon.

Of course it’s the gods’ influence.

In a rush, the net billowed outward. It hit a line of Chimeras first—and sliced instantly through their protections. They and their riders screamed, some set ablaze, some frozen, while others found their flesh putrefying and many more were simply knocked out of the sky directly.

“Evade it!” Roland shouted above the din of war. “Do not engage!”

The Guardian Beasts fled, and Felix's ships began immediate evasive maneuvers. Many were too close. They wouldn’t be able to avoid the net.

Faster, Pit!

They jolted forward before the words echoed across their bond.

Already ahead of you!

Ouranic Dominion surged in his Companion, howling in a silent crescendo that sounded like a thousand storm-fed gales rushing past Felix's ears. The two of them soared forward, angling toward the bulging center of the net as it approached the slowest of his ships. Those frantically banked away from its expansion.

"Don't touch it, buddy!"

Pit angled his wings and tucked his legs as they flew closer. Felix reached out.

Empyrean Embrace!

Ethereal teeth snapped over the nearest portion of the net, ripping pieces of it away. It burned going down into his Mana Gate, the mix of Divine influences souring against his channels like battery acid.

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Pieces of the net vanished, but it reconstituted itself. Fast. Too fast, in fact.

Empyrean Embrace!

He ripped another chunk free, and the same thing happened again. That sourness increased into a bitter bile that rose in the back of his throat and coated his core space. Felix was getting little power from each bite, as if the opposing flavors of Divinity were spoiling against one another. Rot and force and shadow and light all broke each other apart before anything of worth could be gleaned. Destructive to everything, even itself.

Ceaseless, whining cries punctuated by basso roars filled the air as the enemy fired upon Felix’s people without pause. Beams of golden light cut through the net, leaving it unharmed as they scoured lines across the hulls of his fleeing ships. Several caught flame, and a number of Guardian Beasts fell from the sky, their wings shredded and burnt. His forces were rapidly dwindling.

We need to distract them, Pit! Release everything you have!

His Companion screeched, and silver moonlight dropped from above, blasting into the net. The force of the attack dissolved pieces of it before continuing onward into the barrier itself. The ward shook, rainbow ripples expanding from the points of contact.

Empyrean Embrace!

Felix’s hunger snapped at the barriers again and again, stealing pieces of it only for it to regrow faster than the net. He could tell the source, however; it surged from the flagship’s rounded belly. If he could reach that vessel, then Felix could break the barrier.

Wait a second. Felix grinned. Sonata of Dominance!

He shaped fire and wind to feed it, sharpened and intensified as Felix breathed outward. It launched from his skull Gate, a beam of fire followed by punishing jets of water and lightning from his palms. Manacannons turned on him, firing after the madman on the back of the giant Chimera. He dropped low as Pit turned up the speed, evading the bolts and beams with a grace that few could match. Felix held on with his knees, his hands weaving shapings of elements around him in a constant dance to keep the ship's attention.

His Perception flared, checking his position. Closer.

Keep paying attention to me! They barrel rolled past the strikes of the flagship, its massive cannon trained on them almost continuously. He needed to be a target as big as possible, because he had noticed a detail that didn't fit.

Luckily, his friends did too.

Elowen flew forward, a cry on her lips as her power shoved into the Manaships beyond the barrier. The net still expanded, but she spun through it, her body small enough to fit. The ships beyond the barrier, immune to projectiles and damaging spells, had no such immunity to her telekinetic touch. They slammed backward, crashing into one another with enough force to splinter railings and shudder masts, but not enough to take them down.

Still, it fouled their shots, the Manacannons gone wild as the rudders turned and their orientation spun. Atar followed behind, flying in his cloud of flame, burning Stars spinning around him like a cyclone out of a nightmare. He hurled his Stars into the barrier just as the same time as force ballistas splashed into it as well. The barrier was unharmed, but the disruption tore across it, expanding in a ripple that sent blinding flashes of rainbow colors flaring across its entire face.

Felix understood. Hierei Kodal shouted something unintelligible and threatening at Felix, but he just laughed before hurling bolts of lightning into the barrier and spreading those distortions further. The point wasn't damage. The point was to blind them.

So that none of them could see the Manaship dropping from above.

A mad warrior stood on its prow, axes held wide as the ship flared with sigaldry across its prow. Harn laughed, a booming sound that was only accompanied by the sizzle spark of the stolen Hierocratic galleon slipping past the barrier. Its sigaldry acted as a key to allow it beyond the blockade, and that was all that they needed.

The ship careened into Kodal’s vessel, plowing through its decks and hull before a buckling retort crashed across their ears. Golden light bloomed into a wild inferno, as Harn’s Manacannons fired off, point-blank.

Half of the flagship exploded outright.

Kodal screamed, and this time Felix could understand. Disbelief and rage as the vessel was ripped apart. The array across the blockade flickered and broke, its centerpiece utterly destroyed—the barrier followed soon after.

Harn leapt onto Kodal, chomping at his arms the man lifted to defend himself. But the Hierei did not reach his position for being weak. Harn's axes were stopped, silver fire ineffective against the man's gilded armor. He kicked the warrior away. Harn took it straight to the chest, grunting as he fell backward, his arm snapping audibly as he fetched up against the splintered balustrade.

"You ruined it!" Kodal cried. "You filthy, monstrous man!”

The Hierei jolted forward, but paled as a screech tore at him, physically tossing him back a dozen feet. Chimeras burst through the blockade, attacking the ships directly and swooping across the deck. Kodal dodged aside, armored hands sparking against the dragging talons of savage tenku.

“Impure! Twisted beasts!”

The man’s words were cut off as a claw closed around his head. Thalgrym yanked upward as he beat at the air with his wings, and the Hierei gagged and tore at his talons.

From the saddle on Thalgrym’s back, Roland stabbed his spear at Kodal’s throat.

Light flared, turning aside the spear’s point before expanding outward. Golden radiance burned at Thalgrym’s claw and Kodal twisted, wrenching it open and breaking one of the talons in the process.

“Lance of the Rising Sun!” A spike of golden light manifested in Kodal’s hand as he fell back to the deck of the broken flagship. It rotated, spinning like a drill just beyond his hand. He wound back as if to hurl it—but found his limbs frozen by a purple radiance.

“Chaos Beckons.”

With a scream, he was yanked back and downward, smashing into the remains of the flagship and cratering the deck beside Harn.

Elowen floated down after him. “Hierei. Not so strong as I was told.”

Kodal stumbled to his feet. "A Theron. Strong, but no better than a monster." The lance had disappeared, but he was suddenly illuminated as if his skin were made of light. "You only delayed their deaths and hastened yours!"

"No," Elowen's hands flared with purple and gold Mana. "I don't think so."

With a groan of effort, she slammed them together and the Hierei’s screams turned into wet gurgles as his skull caved in. He dropped dead to the deck.

Harn laughed.

The blockade was broken.

Pit tore past, Ouranic Dominion besting even the most agile of Manaships as they slipped past the enemy fleet. His friends would have to deal with the rest, but with their defenses down, they at least had a chance now.

Beyond the blockade were the empty skies of the innermost district. Parks and mansions spread out before him, all of it twisted visibly by Divine Will. Greenery had become rotten fields and stately homes were dens of shadow and blood. Felix ignored all of it. Flying high on Pit's back, he focused instead on the hill that rose up ahead, the one that held the Shining Palace at its crown.

Pit blurred through the sky, sound vanishing as they broke past it, zooming forward to the tower that sat at the very center of the palace. Felix could see the Hierophant already, and his blood boiled, ready to end this war.

Unseen Beholder is level 141!

"Pit, stop!"

His Companion twisted his Body, obeying the command without question—it was all that saved them. But their sheer momentum could not be denied. Pit’s wings clipped against an invisible wall, one snapping with a sound like a gunshot as his leading paw was mashed. The tenku howled in pain before clenching his beak against it and pushing off the barrier to fly in a shuddering circle.

“This is getting ridiculous," Felix muttered. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Pit spat through his beak. “Healing already.”

Felix grunted. First the blockade, now this. A near-invisible barrier stood ahead of them, reaching from the ground all the way into the sky in a cylindrical dome around the Shining Palace. It completely encased his enemy…and the Unbound.

He could see them, lit by the light of an array that flickered atop En’Cridhe. He also saw a woman in white robes and silver armor, holding an alabaster staff above her head. The Kobolds and Sylphaen were bound to pillars, their faces muzzled.

With a cry of rage, Felix savaged the barrier, his claws slashing with every ounce of Strength he had. It held firm, and unlike the blockade, it did not even ripple under the force of his Body.

Empyrean Embrace!

Ethereal teeth snapped against it, but instead of pieces of power, nothing came back. It was as if it weren't there at all.

He pressed against it, Pit hovering on swirling winds as his fourth wing slowly regenerated. What the hell is this? He reached out, trying to find the edges of it, pushing his vision beyond what was obvious. Unseen Beholder!

Like the blockade, the source of the barrier had to be rooted somewhere nearby. If he could find its generating point, then he could destroy it. Yet Unseen Beholder came back empty.

Adamant Discord!

Connections sprung up all around him, a million lines of light blue—but Felix jerked back in alarm. The barrier before him was an impenetrable cylinder, all of it that same shade of blue, as if the whole thing were a connection. What does that mean? Where's the source? Where could I—?

He didn't notice the lightning.

It hit them hard, dropping from the sky like a hammer from the heavens. Felix and Pit, their senses overwhelmed by pain, dropped several hundred feet. Clenching his beak, Pit held his wings wide, catching the wind. He slowed as Ouranic Dominion marshaled beneath his Will, and he twisted to catch Felix on his back.

"The sky," Felix said, breathing heavily.

It had turned to blood.

A storm formed thick with wine-dark clouds, boiling from a point just inside the barrier itself. Directly above En’Cridhe. Lightning raced through the clouds, across them…and down at him.

Sonata of Dominance!

He met the crimson lightning with his Will and Intent. He diverted it away from Pit, but it seared into Felix regardless. It hurt like hell, damaging not just his Health, but a deeper portion of himself that he recognized. His significance.

"Vellus," he growled. "Pit, avoid the lightning!”

“My Mantle—”

“Won't handle it! Stay away!"

He recognized the Bloodstorm. A piece of Vellus’ prison brought to the Corporeal Realm somehow. Lightning surged again, falling in violent sheets toward Felix…and his people.