Ironwood watched as the fight continued, by all rights it should have been over by now, everything was over, he had failed and Salem had won.
He watched as Salem walked away with the relic of creation and the relic of knowledge and yet Atlas hadn't fallen.
He closed his eyes and listened to the rainfall, he could hear the sounds of the Grimm approaching, and he couldn't help but cry.
He could hear the explosions happening one after another, it was ver he had lost Humanity had lost.
"Get up!" he heard someone scream before he felt someone pull him to his feet.
When he opened his eyes he couldn't believe who it was, it was Jacques Schnee.
"We have to go, while we still have time!" Jacques said to him
"Sacred purification!" a woman screamed as a magic circle began to cover Atlas
"What's happening?" Ironwood asked Jacques
'Help finally came, that's what happened"
"There's only two of them but they're pushing the Grimm back" Jacques answered Ironwood.
They both ran up the stairs and felt their eyes widen as streams of power covered the sky and formed a massive sphere, they watched as the sphere fell upon the Grimm below.
As the sphere of energy fell, they could see the figures of the Grimm that couldn't fly out of the way being crushed underneath the power of the sphere.
They watched as the sphere made contact with the ground and were nearly blinded when it detonated.
"Schnee what's going on?!" Ironwood asked Jacques
'They're alive!" Jacques answered Ironwood
'Whos alive?" Ironwood asked Jacques
"Kazuma and Aqua, you know the two freeloaders that have been living in my house, now we have to get the engines running," Jacques said to Ironwood the desperation in his voice was clear
Ironwood looked at Jacques he was going to say something but he noticed the magic circle forming in the sky.
He watched as a waterfall suddenly poured from the magic circle forcing the Grimm that had gathered in Mantle back.
Ironwood felt his will slowly returning to him, they still had a fighting chance.
He was about to call Winter and asked her for any information she had when he noticed another stream of power gathering in the sky, the stream became a massive spear that flung itself into something that was too far to be seen by human eyes.
The explosion was nothing but a brief flash of light, then nothing everything was quiet.
"Winter answer me, what's going on?" Ironwood said to Winter, but there was no answer, he tried over and over and over again until finally, someone answered.
Ironwood let out a breath of relief when he heard Winter's voice.
"General, Kazuma, and Aqua are still fighting but they are pushing the Grimm back," Winter said to him
"What's happening?" Ironwood said to Winter
"I dot know, one moment we were being overwhelmed the next thing I know they two arrived and began" Winter stopped talking as video on her scroll suddenly became active and the two of them could see each other.
"See for yourself," Winter said to Ironwood as she turned her scroll and showed him what was happening in front of her.
Magic circles were being created in every direction and all sorts of light emerged from them, as Aqua destroyed any Grimms he could see.
Kazuma was a blur, one moment he was next to a soldier stealing dust from them the next he was using it off one or more Grimm.
Ironwood swore he saw the man absorbed the dust crystals power into himself before using the energy to attack the Grimm.
'Come on! we have to get the engines online" Jacques said to Ironwood as he pulled his arm
"We can't, there's not enough antigravity dust to keep us afloat, "Ironwood said to Jacques
'Not those engines the other ones" Jacques looked at Ironwood with eyes, and Ironwood could see the desperation the elder Schnee felt
"Kazuma used my company to build four different engines because I dared him to"
"He said that they were alternate sources of power other than dust, one was oil- another was wind and the last one was solar," Jacques said to him and ironwood began to realize what Jacques was trying to say.
'Listen, we just need to get the engines running again, there's not of stored up power so we can keep Atlas in the sky" Jacques said as he started pulling Ironwood again
All of a sudden both Ironwood and Jacques noticed several lights gathering in the distance.
"Winter what's going on?"Ironwood said to Winter
"I don't know" Winter answered Ironwood, her voice had lost all of its strength
She used the camera in her scroll and zoomed in and showed ironwood the figures of Kazuma and Aqua bathed in different lights charging towards something that shouldn't exist.
Ironwood took his eyes off his scroll and followed Jacques to the engines, he silently declared to himself that their sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.
Ironwood and Jacques had to separate as the engines were being kept in different locations, the only thing they had to do was press a button to turn the engines on.
They each managed to turn one engine on and they were alerted that the other two had been turned on by someone else, altho Jacques didn't say anything Ironwood knew who had turned the other two engines on.
However ironwood didn't say anything as he could feel Atla's stabilizing itself, as he stepped out of the building he was in, he watched as lightning bolts began to rain down from the sky, before a massive magic circle formed around Mantle and Atlas.
The invasion was over, both Mantle and Atlas had survived but at a heavy price.
"They're alive," Winter said as the image of Kazuma and Aqua could be seen through the scroll, as they struggled to walk back to Mantle, their injuries were clear and their exhaustion could be seen by everyone.
Yet the of them fell long before they could make it back.
Sometime in the past.