Chapter 37
The tarmac was silent for a solid minute, everyone still as statues, their eyes locked on Cinder and Molly. The former had ignored the entirety of Molly's boasts and the arrival of the Fae army, and had locked her eye not on the Winter Lady, but on the red-cloaked girl that stood beside Harry. Cinder's gaze was intense but unreadable. Ruby returned her gaze with a glare of her own, the anger in her silver eyes practically glowing. The Grimm were a restless wave of black that was slowly growing more anxious by the second; it would not take much to push them over the edge.
The army of Fae, as a counterpoint, were calm and unaffected by the horde of bestial nightmares. They remained in formation and patiently awaited the command of their Winter Lady. Who had grown annoyed by Cinder's complete lack of attention.
Molly folded her arms and cleared her throat. Cinder's eye swiveled from Ruby to Molly, noticing her for the first time. Molly frowned and said, "Well, what's it gonna be? Run while you're ahead, or stay and take what's coming to you. Your choice, Cinder."
She stared at Molly as though she had grown a second head. Perhaps the idea of mercy was a foreign concept to her, or perhaps she deemed Molly a fool for offering a choice at all. Regardless, Cinder did not voice her thoughts on the matter, but her actions spoke for themselves. She looked at Molly, then at the Fae soldiers before her, then behind her at the portal she'd emerged from, and finally looked back at Ruby. Cinder set her jaw, and clenched her fist.
Overhead, the clouds grew darker, and lightning flashed in brilliant webs across the sky. Wind began to stir across the tarmac, a harsh fall gust that twisted the ash and smoke of battle into miniature vortexes. Cinder's eye ignited with fresh power, and…
The ground where she stood detonated, the air before her exploded, and Molly's shield flared to life in front of her. The Winter Lady and Fall Maiden collided in a brief explosion of raw magical power, incinerating the ground beneath their feet and scorching the air around them. It was impossible to tell exactly what happened next, but one moment they were both on the ground, and the next, the two women went screaming skyward into the clouds, where a fresh bout of thunder boomed, with no lightning to forewarn its arrival.
The tense silence that had consumed the tarmac lasted for a minute longer… and then, all hell broke loose.
A lone Beowolf let loose a howl, and was quickly joined by the hundreds of identical beings that surrounded it. Spurred by this, the horde began a sudden surge forward as one single whole, threatening to flow over the Fae lines with ease. Until, that is, they ran face first into rows of rapidly forming stakes of ice. The Grimm had no time to react, and the first line was skewered by ice sharper than glass and harder than steel, cutting their shadowy hides to ribbons. Their comrades slammed into their bodies, the sheer mass of the horde impaling the next line and the next on the angled spires of ice.
Grimm howled in agony and frustration as they were pinned in place and killed by their own momentum. More of the living shadows simply clambered over their decaying bodies and crashed against the Fae battle lines. Spears and swords flickered past heavy shields, cutting Grimm down with ease. In a more open engagement, the Grimm would have simply barreled over the Fae, engulfing them in an instant. But they were pinned against the airport terminal and surrounded on all sides, unable to bring their claws and fangs to bear.
For the moment, the Fae lines held strong, and were quickly reinforced by powerful magics. Miniature blizzards of razor sharp ice ripped across the field, tearing into Grimm hides. Those strong enough to resist it found their limbs slowly frozen to the earth beneath their feet, where spires of ice would arise and skewer them in place.
The Grimm had no natural resistance to magic, and the Fae seemed well aware of this. They unleashed their full arcane might upon the monsters, while using their own physical strength to pin them in place. It was a bloody slaughter, dozens of Grimm dying by the second…
And hundreds more pouring out of the portal to take their place. The Fae wouldn't last forever, but they didn't have to. They only had to buy everyone else time. Time that was being wasted by gawking.
Harry tore his gaze away from the spectacle of battle, and hooked a finger in Ruby's hood before she even made it two steps towards the battleline, "Hold on there, little red riding hood. Trust me when I say you don't want to get involved in that mess."
Ruby turned back with a face full of annoyance and opened her mouth, but Harry cut her off, "I know what you and your friends can do. But if you go charging in, the Fae won't bother pulling their punches if you get in their way. You want to risk getting a face full of magic for trying to help?"
Her mouth shut with an audible 'Clop!'. That was good, she was smart enough to listen. Harry released her hood and said, "It's Ruby, right?"
She nodded.
"Come on," Harry waved a hand away from the Fae battlelines, "We're going to meet up with your friends, then we'll figure out where you guys can lay down the smack. Sound good?"
A mischievous grin spread over Ruby's face, "Yeah, sounds good."
Harry returned the grin, and the two strode away from the Fae to Marcone's forces. Time was limited, so Harry broke into a jog, Ruby keeping pace at his side. The rest of her team hadn't left since the fighting broke out, and almost seemed oblivious to the wall of Grimm bearing down on them. Their attention, especially the redhead's, was all on Hendricks, who still refused to let them pass towards Pyrrha.
The redhead, Nora, was ranting at Hendricks, who remained stoic under the verbal assault "-And after I break your legs, I'm going to take this hammer and shove it right up your-"
"Whoa kay, hold up," Harry interrupted, getting between her and Hendricks. The big man's lips twitched up in amusement, the first sign of emotion from him since the fighting broke out.
Harry let out an exasperated sigh, "We're all on the same side here, let's not go throwing threats around willy-nilly, okay?"
Nora scowled, "And just who are you?"
"Harry Dresden. I'm the one who's been keeping your friend out of trouble." He glanced over his shoulder at Pyrrha. Gard was still hunched over her, working methodically while Marcone and another Einherjar assisted her.
"You're the one Pyrrha was talking about," the blonde, Jaune, said.
Harry looked back at the teens, "Yeah, that's me."
"Well, can you get us through then?" asked Jaune. His voice was strained, and he kept shifting his weight from one foot to another.
Harry took a deep breath, "That depends. Do any of you know how to treat a stab wound in the middle of a battlefield?" Only the clash of battle, and blank stares answered his question. "That's what I thought. When Gard is done, I'll talk to her, but right now, the best thing you all can do to help Pyrrha, is to help the rest of us."
He pointed toward the Fae battlelines with his staff, "They can hold the line for a few minutes if we're lucky, but there aren't enough Fae to hold back that horde. Our best option is to close the portal. We close it, everything that crossed over will get dragged back to your world. It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best we got."
Nora reached behind her back and revealed what appeared to be a chrome grenade launcher with a pink canister case. A large grin spread over her face as she said, "Then let's get to smashing!"
"We can't just charge in, Nora," Ruby interrupted. "Those people - what did you call them, Fae? They attack everything with magic, and I guess they don't care if we're in the way or not."
Nora visibly deflated at that, and folded her arms in a pout.
The blonde haired youth who had to be this Jaune that Pyrrha was so fixated on, frowned and looked towards the battlelines, "It can't be that bad, can it?"
"Depends on whether or not you like the idea of having your blood frozen in your veins," Harry replied. "Or being caught in a glass blizzard, or impaled on icicles. If none of that is an issue, then sure, it's not that bad."
On cue, a towering tornado of razor-sharp sleet whipped across the Grimm horde, cutting them to tiny pieces that quickly evaporated into the air. Jaune's eyes went big, and he swallowed, "Oh… point taken."
It was hard for Harry not to sigh in frustration. The presence of these kids was both a blessing and a curse. If they could fight like Pyrrha, turning the tide would be that much easier. But Molly hadn't told Harry that she could or that she would do this. The plan had been simple enough, lure Cinder and her cronies out into the open, then ambush her with the best warriors Molly could bring, and let his former apprentice herself put a stop to Cinder. That had seemed simple enough, but things had spiraled out of control fast. Pyrrha was out of the fight for one, and for two, these Fae, while strong, were just foot soldiers. Harry had hoped that Molly would bring those with a little more oomph. Fae like his godmother, they would have made mincemeat of this mindless horde, and Molly had to have a few powerful Fae under her control right?
There was obviously more to this than met the eye; Harry would have words with his former apprentice when this was all over. But until then, he would have to find a job for Pyrrha's friends that wouldn't end in them being skewered by the Winter Sidhe.
"Jaune, right?" Harry asked, and the blonde nodded. "How fast are you guys, and are you at least as strong as Pyrrha?"
"Oh, we can be fast, but no one's as strong as Pyrrha."
Harry glanced skyward at the stormclouds swirling overhead. Thunder without lightning filled the air, flashes of light lit up the clouds, and a frigid northern wind had blown across the airport.
"I can think of at least one person." he muttered bitterly, then shook his head. "Right, well then, I'm going to need the four of you to find a-"
A tiny trumpet interrupted Harry's sentence, and everyone turned toward the source. Hundreds of tiny firefly-like lights whizzed through the air towards Harry, swirling around Team RNJR for a moment, before quickly assembling in a loose formation overhead. Toot-toot, in all his hammy glory, dropped from the flock of Wild Fae, and perched himself atop Ruby's head.
"Ruby," Nora said slowly, "Don't move. There is an adorable tiny man standing on your head."
Ruby froze in place and strained her eyes toward the top of her head to catch a glimpse of said tiny man. Toot-toot puffed out his chest and glared at Nora. Harry groaned and snapped his fingers before the Fae went off on a rant about how he was not adorable, but a fierce and deadly warrior of the Za-Lord Guard.
"Toot, let it go," Harry ordered.
His chest deflated a little and he looked at Harry with a forlorn expression, "But, my lord!" he squeaked.
"No buts. I have an important mission for you, Major-General, and I need you at your best for it."
That got his attention, and Toot-toot went rigid with attention. Nora broke out into a fit of giggles, and Toot's eye twitched. "What… is your order, my lord?"
Harry pointed toward the battlelines, "Behind the Winter Court battlelines and the horde of Grimm, is a portal that's letting them through. If we destroy it, the Grimm go away, but we need to find a way to it. That's where you and the Za-Lord's guard come in. Find a path around the battle that we can sneak our people around, then come back and let me know. Understood?"
Toot clicked his heels together and gave a thematic salute, "Understood my lord! It shall be done!" His wings ignited in a flurry of motion, and he darted into the sky, trailing hundreds of his brothers-in-arms behind him.
"...Does anyone else understand what we just saw?" Jaune asked.
"I presume it was Dresden finding yet another way to get us out of this mess he dragged us into, yes?" Marcone seemingly materialized from nowhere besides Harry, causing team RNJR to jump in surprise.
Harry just sighed and glanced at Marcone, "How's Pyrrha?"
"The girl will live." Marcone confirmed. Harry felt a weight lift from his shoulders, only for the mob boss' next words to ruthlessly crush that spark of relief, "But not if she remains here. We are preparing to move the wounded and deceased, including her."
Marcone nodded at RNJR, "The help of the children will be… appreciated."
"We're on it," Jaune said, without a moment's hesitation.
The four rushed past Hendricks and Marcone to Pyrrha's side. Gard had just finished applying a fresh layer of gauze around her midsection, and a collapsible stretcher lay at her side. Pyrrha's face was pale and tired, but her eyes lit up when she saw her friends. She tried to sit up, but Gard put a firm hand on her shoulder and kept her on the ground.
"Limit your movement. We don't want you to reopen the wound."
Pyrrha didn't argue with Gard, and relaxed her body. She smiled up at her friends instead as they surrounded her. Her hand found Jaunes and gripped it tightly. "You came. I didn't expect …"
"Your friend Molly got ahold of us," he explained. "We weren't going to let you do this alone, not again."
"Yeah, we're a team, remember?" Nora said.
Pyrrha smiled her thanks. Gard cleared her throat and said, "If you are her 'team' then, perhaps you can help me move her onto the stretcher."
They did so, and Harry watched as Pyrrha was carefully moved from the ground onto the stretcher and strapped in place, never releasing Jaune's hand. Gard struggled to her feet and took a limping step back. Harry hadn't noticed it before, but the woman held herself with great care, hunched over and carefully holding her sides with one arm while limping back and forth.
Harry strode forward before she tried leaning over to lift up one half of the stretcher and whispered, "How bad?"
Gard glared at him from the corner of her eye, then let out a resigned sigh, "The boy is a coward and a snake. He did not expect me to fight as I did. He tried to flee, and I cornered him. He fought ferociously."
"That doesn't answer my question."
She sighed again, "Broken ribs, maybe. Fractured femur. Internal bleeding. I have suffered worse."
Harry knew from personal experience that Gard was not just putting on a brave face. This woman had fought off a small army of fallen angels after they had ripped open her stomach. She'd fight to her last dying breath, and while a few Denarians might not be able to take her down, a Huntsman might.
"I've got the stretcher," Harry told her. "Go with Hendricks and the others to the van."
"Dresden," Gard started to growl.
"Hello!" Nora yelled, catching their attention, "Are you two just gonna keep yapping, or are you gonna actually help? Because-"
A trio of wavering screams rose through the air, cutting Nora off. Harry whirled back towards the battlelines, where he saw three black shapes take to the skies.
They were large, each individually the size of a Clydesdale horse and covered in thick matted fur. They had leonine bodies that rippled with muscle and a pair of large ebony wings that effortlessly propelled them through the air. They had equine necks lined with slabs of bone that ended in a stark white beak and two sets of burning crimson eyes.
These Griffon-like Grimm winged through the air high above the battlelines, passing through spears of ice and winter winds that the Fae threw at them. They screeched again, and began flying towards Harry and company with deadly purpose. It would've been suicidal to attack anyone over the battlelines of course, but no one had to lift a finger.
Half a dozen womanly figures darted into air towards the Griffons, propelled by gossamer wings sharp as glass. The Griffons screeched a challenge as they were assaulted by the Sylphs, who latched onto the Grimm with their talons and steered them past the humans over the hill left in the wake of the initial assault. They quickly vanished from sight…
And several small explosions echoed from over the hill, followed by pillars of smoke and more screeching. A piece of debris came flying from the smoke, falling in an arc towards Harry. He jumped to the side as a smoldering bumper impaled itself into the tarmac with a 'Crack!' while its end wobbled back and forth for several seconds.
"...So I guess the trucks are out." Harry deadpanned. There had been time for Anastasia to be evacuated from the airport, but this was yet another in a long list of growing setbacks.
"We can take shelter under one of the terminals," Marcone suggested. "It will provide adequate cover until we can evacuate the wounded."
"Yeah, right up until Cinder and her cronies bring it crashing down on us," Harry shot back.
Marcone raised a single brow. "If you have a better suggestion Dresden, please, elaborate."
Harry grumbled under his breath, "Fine, terminal it is… criminal jackass."
Marcone did not say anything, but the small upturn at the edge of his lips gave away his pleasure at Harry's grumpiness. The wizard did his best to ignore it, and turned back to team RNJR, "Okay, kids. Once you've got Pyrrha where she needs to be, come back here and meet with me. I'm going to be working with the Wardens to set up some nasty surprises for the Grimm once they start breaking that line. Got it?"
They nodded, their faces stern and understanding of the situation. Harry sighed, "Good." and walked off. Gard was the one who organized the careful transportation of the wounded and 'deceased' to the terminal. Even with her injuries, her iron will refused to crack and no one argued with her. Most of Marcone's forces, for the moment, withdrew their support from the Wardens to move the injured, but with the Fae absorbing the Grimm assault, their presence was not missed.
Jaune and Ren took either side of Pyrrha's stretcher and carefully marched with her toward the terminal, Nora and Ruby standing sentinel to her left and right. Pyrrha took the lull in insanity to let her head roll back and her eyes start to close. She was exhausted, and though she hated to admit it, there was nothing she could do to contribute to the fighting, until her Aura recovered. But her friends could replace her in the meantime, they would have to.
As Pyrrha drifted in and out of consciousness, Ren sent Jaune a knowing look. The blonde glanced toward the battle line again. A vicious roar accompanied the sound of half a dozen Fae shouting in surprise as they were sent flying through the air. An Ursa Major, its bony hide bristling with spikes, knocked them aside with contemptuous ease and forced its massive bulk through the fae arrayed against it. Its bloody eyes swiveled across the tarmac toward the small convoy of injured and it bellowed a challenge.
Ruby and Nora readied their weapons, but it was a wasted effort. A massive creature, a Troll that towered head and shoulders over the Ursa and sporting slabs of grey muscular skin that were armored in Fae metals, appeared seemingly from nowhere to meet the bear-Grimm head on. The two clashed in a shower of sparks and shattered bone, but the Trolls greater mass stunned the Ursa Major long enough for the Troll to get one hand around ts skull and another around one of its legs and heave the bear over its head, before slamming it to the ground hard enough to shake it. The Troll grabbed the Ursa's head in two meaty fists, planted its pillar like foot on the small of its back, and heaved until something snapped and the Ursa's head came free.
The Troll raised its macabre trophy high and bellowed a challenge at the Grimm. Then it went stampeding into the waiting wall of fur and fang once more, and the battle line quickly closed shut.
"...What in the world did we just watch?" Jaune asked, exchanging a look with Ren.
"It would appear that these… Fae, have the Grimm under control, for the moment." was his reply.
Nora hefted her grenade launcher and said, "Well, the sooner we can join in, the better. I wanna get this out of the way so we can bring Pyrrha home."
Overhead, stormclouds swirled, dark and angry, crackling with lightning. Thunder continued its endless cacophony, assaulting the ears of those below. But it was obvious that the thunder was not natural in origin. Though they could not see it, many on the tarmac below knew what was happening in the sky's above. The Fall Maiden and Winter Lady were unleashing the full might of their abilities, bending nature to their will in an effort to overwhelm the other. For the moment, they seemed evenly matched, and their stalemate began to spill into the battles below.
RNJR had just reached the terminal, when a bolt of lightning streaked through the air and struck a jagged piece of metal embedded in the ground, just half a dozen feet away from Ruby. She screamed and jumped back, pulling a colossal red rifle from within her cloak, before realizing what happened, and sheepishly lowering it. The rain began to fall a moment later, first in a faint drizzle, but quickly growing into a suffocating downpour.
Jaune glanced up, shielding his eyes with one hand, and frowned, "We need to hurry."
No one needed to be told twice. They rushed to the terminal while rain soaked through their clothing. Ruby used her cloak to shield Pyrrha as they ran, and their little group quickly found shelter under the terminal, along with the other members of Marcones forces.
Many of the men, those who had not been killed in Mercury's initial assault, had been injured in some way. Most were getting by fine and tending to their injuries, but a few were in more critical condition. Wrecked vehicles and debris were being moved to protect against the rain, and several men had set up makeshift medical tents already. Gard was among them, and when she saw team RNJR, she gestured them over to her.
They complied, and gently set Pyrrha down upon reaching Gard. She knelt down, wincing as she did, and placed a hand against Pyrrha's forehead. One eye shot open at the touch, but Pyrrha calmed when she saw her friends, and drifted off again.
"She doesn't have a fever, which is good." Gard informed them. "But, we can't leave her here either. Your kind may be more resistant to injury than most, but we need to move her and the other wounded off the tarmac."
Jaune folded his arms, "What can we do to help?"
Gard swept her tired eyes over the many injured, the dead, and the few who were unharmed, establishing a perimeter around the makeshift infirmary in case of Grimm. It would be useless if Mercury returned though, and many more would be slaughtered. Her gaze briefly fell onto a ruined trolley, and flicked back to the teens, "Until Dresden finds a path to the portal, we'll need transport. Find a working vehicle, and we can move your companion to safety."
"On it," Ruby said, already moving with the others out into the rain.
They didn't get more than five feet, before the ground in front of them exploded, showering them with mud and concrete dust. A creep the size of a small car pried itself free of the ground, and opened its massive jaw in a blood-curdling scream, signaling dozens more, smaller creeps to pour out of the tunnel. The einherjar began to raise their weapons, a gesture too slow to matter. By the time they had sighted the creature, Ruby had sprung into action.
She was a blur of red, swinging around the creatures left flank and leaping onto its back, her oversized rifle in hand. With but a press of a switch, the rifle transformed, unraveling into a crimson scythe, blade gleaming in the dim light. Ruby caught the curve of the weapon on the inside of the creep's maw as it screamed, and pulled. There was only a moment of resistance before its upper jaw was severed from the rest of its body, and it fell to the ground dead.
Ruby back-flipped off the corpse, and spun as she landed, swinging her scythe in an arc that cut through the soft flesh of the younger and weaker creeps with ease, cutting their numbers in half. All of this occurred in the span of a few seconds, leaving the remaining creeps to be gunned down before they could even cross under the terminal.
As the last Grimm fell, the ground beneath Ruby's began to shake, and clawed hands burst from it in a geyser of gravel. Ruby yelped and jumped backwards ,avoiding the reaching, grasping claws that tore at her cloak and skirt. A slash of her scythe disarmed them, inciting a furious howl from beneath the concrete.
The rest of the ground gave way, and Beowolves began prying themselves free, the new breed that Harry had encountered. Taller, stockier, and clearly more intelligent, they were an obvious improvement over the lankier and more feral beasts that Ruby was used to dealing with.
Their sense of perception however, was as poor as ever. They did not see Nora, or her hammer, coming. With a smack, a boom, and a badaboom, three wolves found themselves smashed, crushed, and flung across the battlefield. Nora hefted her hammer over her shoulder, stood at Ruby's side, and grinned wildly.
"This is where the fun starts, right?"
Jaune and Ren caught up with the two girls, and stood on either side of them. Yet more Beowolves pried themselves free of the ground while Creeps followed close on their tails. Jaune reached for his scabbard and pulled it from his belt, letting it expand into an ivory and gold shield. He pulled an equally stark blade from its center, and stood his ground.
"Nora, Ruby, you're the front line. Keep from getting any closer to the terminal. Ren, you and I will pick up stragglers. If anything gets past us, I think the guards can handle the rest."
"Sounds good to me." Nora chuckled.
She raised her hammer, let out a bubbly laugh, and charged toward the Grimm. Ruby followed, and the two girls rained havoc on the Grimm horde. Howls and snarls of rage filled the air, followed immediately by cries of pain and surprise. Body parts flew through the air as Ruby carved a path of destruction through the Grimm.
Nora took to smashing any Grimm that tried to surround Ruby with giddy enjoyment. Her hammer reduced heads to paste, shattered torsos, and broke the backs of a dozen Beowolves. If Ruby was the surgical edge their attack, then Nora was the explosive aftershock that followed; and yet more Grimm continued to burst from the ground in streams as thick as the rain that poured around them. Strong as they were, the two girls would not have been able to halt the horde on their own.
That's where Ren and Jaune came in.
Ren was a frigid wind, cutting through Grimm without pause, ducking under blows, rolling over Ursa, and ripping apart Creeps in seconds. Though his weapons, only two small automatic pistols with sickle like blades attached vertically under their barrelss, paled in comparison to Ruby and Nora's, they still showed their effectiveness in his hands. The small rounds tore into the hides of Grimm, staggering and stunning them in time for him to sink the wicked sharp blades into their flesh and rip them apart. A Beowolf found its forearm pierced with one blade, and then severed at the elbow with the other, before losing its head a moment later.
In contrast to Ren's fluid grace, Jaune stood his ground, a cliffside standing against the inevitable crash of the tide. His shield was a battering ram, knocking Grimm back hard enough to stun even Ursa, and his sword sang with delight as he was easily able to cleave Beowolfs in two. His attacks were simple and efficient, basic combat techniques that anyone could learn. But they were well practiced, and Jaune put them to good use.
Individually, the members of Team RNJR could have put a dent in the horde, but would have inevitably fallen in the rain. Together, they stalled the tide, cutting Grimm down by the dozens. Any that managed to slip through their guard were quickly gunned down by the awaiting Einherjar that took cover under the terminal. Together, they would hold the line until they found a way to end this battle for good.
But no strategy ever survives first contact with the enemy.
It was as Ruby caught a Beowolfs head on the inward curve of her scythe, that the ground detonated behind her, showering her with yet more shattered concrete. She beheaded the Grimm and whirled towards the new hole in time for a massive black shape to slam into her.
Ruby yelped as she was carried by her momentum out of the horde and crashed against the ground. Her Aura protected her until she rolled to a stop, unharmed but dazed. She shook her head and looked at her attacker, and felt an acute sense of deja vu.
A Beringel prowled towards her, its face and chest horrifically burned. It was bigger than the last one that Ruby had seen, and smarter. It had waited for her to be in the midst of an attack before springing its trap, and had quickly dragged her out of the horde away from her friends, leaving her alone for the moment.
Ruby got to her feet, hefted her scythe, and grinned mockingly at the Beringel. The Grimm let out a monstrous roar, pounded its fists against its chest, and charged at her.
A/N: This chapter... ugh, this chapter. Most of you may or may not remember, but my original plan for the final battle was a three chapter epic that I was trying to release back to back. Needless to say, this is not the case here. The previous chapter turned out far longer than I anticipated, and chapter 37 was taking the same path. I'd either have to cut some of the fights I had planned, or simply divide the chapters up. I decided on the latter. What was going to be Chapter 37 in its entirety is now being divided into, at minimum, two chapters, at max, four. What was going to be chapter 38 may stay the same length, or I may cut it into two chapters. Regardless, I realize that from the start, I shouldn't have tried to cram the entire climax into three chapters. It creates a long, exhausting read, with no real break for the reader.
It also makes it easier for me to write, as I no longer have to dread the endless chapter like I did with chapter 36 and most of 37. I wish I had come to this conclusion sooner though, so Remnant didn't get shoved to the side for so long. But, with chapters returning to their usual length now, I hope I can churn them out a lot faster and with hopefully better quality. My editors will be picking this chapter apart again later, so expect a possible edited version to come up later.
Otherwise, I'm happy to be back to writing Remnant, and I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter for what it was. Feel free to let me know what you think, and I'll see you all next time!