i.
The Nimbuscleaver

Bron knew that time was of the essence. Every second counted; every moment adding to the crescendo in Bron's chest as it slipped away.

With a whoosh, the Nimbuscleaver broke through the black cloud layers shrouding the base of Riverrise and plunged into the clear sky above, bathed in the pink light of breaking dawn, only just visible through the looming shadow of the Mother Storm and the cascading raindrops.

The only landmark amidst the sea of clouds was the Great Phraxtower, which was now beginning to sway alarmingly. Here and there, viaducts and arches crumbled, elaborate glister machinery fell and smashed, and white-robed Phraxguardians were pitched off balconies, screaming and flailing as they tumbled through the electric, torrential downpour into the clouds below. The tower was definitely going to topple spectacularly…but unless they did something within the next few minutes, it would still remain standing long enough for the Mother Storm's mighty discharge to pass through it.

"Hurry, Bron!" shouted Raziel, gazing up at the underside of the atmospheric behemoth, in which streaks of vapor and forks of lightning were beginning to coil and gather, as if caught in a whirlpool. "Keep the flight-rock as cool as you can without losing control!"

"Aye-aye!" called Bron, his chest now pounding. He slackened his efforts on the bellows a bit, but he did not dare use the cooling-rods. As more and more of the Phraxguardians' High Sky turbines short-circuited, the air became increasingly unstable, slowly reverting back to its naturally frigid, turbulent state, helped along by the howling gale-force winds of the Mother Storm. Anything sudden changes to the flight-rock's temperature could be disastrous.

At last, the top of the Great Phraxtower came into view, situated directly below the screaming vortex of rain and lightning. "VARTOLIUS XAX!" bellowed Bron, his voice lost to the squalling wind, "THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS!"

ii.
The top of the Great Phraxtower

A mere fraction of a second before Vartolius Xax could fire his glistergun at Celestia's heart, the dictator was knocked off his feet. The whole room was pitching back and forth, furniture and apparatuses sliding everywhere, books toppling from shelves, stacks of papers flying everywhere. For one moment, Durix, Celestia, and Leris could see a look of abject terror upon his face.

Then, his expression changed, and he let out a bone-chilling cackle of laughter.

"You think you have beaten me?" he roared, pointing out towards the roiling wall of clouds outside the balcony. "It matters not! The Mother Storm will strike in a matter of moments, and the Great Phraxtower will remain standing long enough to receive her sacred discharge!"

Staggering to his feet, Vartolius Xax shoved Celestia and Durix towards the far wall and strode to the balcony, the wild laughter still twisting his face. He seized the tether securing the Typhoonblaster to the balcony. "I shall watch from afar, aboard the final vestige of your worthless First Age of Flight, as you infidels become the first to be blown away by the winds of purification!"

Leris tried to get up, but collapsed again, unable to put any weight on her wounded leg. Durix and Celestia sprinted forwards, but flew back again and slammed against the wall as the tower swayed back in their direction. Vartolius Xax merely clutched the balustrade, now positively screaming with triumphant laughter.

And then, a dark shadow swooped down from above and knocked Vartolius Xax flying back into the chamber.

"Bron!" Celestia screamed, hurling herself forwards onto the balcony and seizing him. "I knew you'd come back for us!" she said…then kissed him hard on the mouth. After a few seconds, during which Bron was only vaguely aware of what was happening, he wrenched himself free of her and said, "Not now, Celestia. We're seconds away from the end of the Edgeworld!"

Celestia backed off, but seemed quite unabashed. Bron gave his head an experimental shake, then shot a look back into the chamber at Vartolius Xax. The dictator seemed slightly dazed, but was quickly regaining his senses.

"Celestia! Leris!" bellowed Durix, emerging from the balcony and pointing into the sky. "It's Raziel!"

The Nimbuscleaver loomed out of the nebulous, swirling air, a dark shape heading directly for the side of the Great Phraxtower. As the ship flew past the Typhoonblaster, Raziel sprinted away from the controls and leapt from the helm, flying over the abyss before coming to land on the helm of the other ship, grunting as she made contact with the floor. "Come on!" she screamed, beckoning frantically to the other four. "On board! NOW!"

The Great Phraxtower began to swing the other way, tilting towards the Typhoonblaster. As one, Bron and Celestia leapt onto the deck, and Durix followed closely behind, holding Leris in a fireman's carry. With one swift slash of her cutlass, Raziel severed the tether, and as Bron heated the flight-rock, Raziel pulled down on three of the bone-handled flight levers at once. The Typhoonblaster shot away from the balcony of the swaying tower like a leadwood bullet from a phraxmusket.

iii.
The Typhoonblaster

The five of them looked back at the Nimbuscleaver, flying uncontrollably forwards. Then…

SMASH!

As the sleek sky pirate ship smashed into smithereens against the side of the Great Phraxtower, the structure was knocked backward wildly, now swaying five times as furiously. Suddenly, from far below, a chain of explosions started to grow louder and louder.

"The stormphrax," whispered Bron.

The very same chain reaction that had destroyed the Support Tunnel was now making its way up the side of the tower. As more and more phraxlamps were destroyed, more and more of the phraxcrystals either detonated or became tremendously heavy, dragging the walls down with it.

The lower floors started to crumple like an empty tinwood bottle. Pieces of the walls shot outward, exposing gaps from which the brilliant flashes of exploding phraxcrystals were revealed. The destruction continued upwards, heading straight for the private chambers of Vartolius Xax.

iv.
The top of the Great Phraxtower

Vartolius Xax staggered to his feet, swayed unsteadily, and looked around. It was time to end this battle.

But…where were those fools? And where was their sky ship?

As the truth dawned on the dictator, the sounds of explosions on lower floors began to grow louder and louder. In addition to the swaying, the room was now seized by violent tremors. Cracks snaked their way up the walls. Pieces of the tiled ceiling rained down. A vast chunk of wall near Vartolius Xax was expelled outwards with tremendous force, exposing the gleaming, shimmering layer of phraxcrystals behind it.

Vartolius Xax threw back his head and bellowed, a guttural scream of rage which seemed almost to intensify the juddering of the room. The explosions were growing deafening, and the shaking was worsening. Vartolius Xax wheeled around…just as the exposed phraxcrystals erupted.

The entire room was filled with the brilliant flash of ten thousand lightning bolts as the stormphrax released its energy. Everything within vanished in a tremendous fireball. And as the top of the Great Phraxtower was blasted into a million pieces, a dark shape was spat out of the great conflagration like a woodsap pip. The charred, broken, lifeless body of Vartolius Xax, Glorious Leader of the Deepwoods and Most High Phraxguardian of Riverrise, sailed up into the air, hung suspended for a moment in the pouring rain, and then fell, gathering speed, and finally fading away into the dark clouds, far, far below.

v.
The Typhoonblaster

"Look! Look! The Great Phraxtower's toppling! It's going down!" yelled Durix, jumping up and down and pointing up at the tower. At last, succumbing to the pull of gravity, the Great Phraxtower began to fall backwards, towards the Empty Range. In eerie silence, the mighty structure twisted free of its moorings and fell…down, down, down…

Finally, with an echoing crash, it disappeared completely into the darkness beyond Riverrise.

The Mother Storm began to descend through the sky, approaching the freshly-revealed waters of the Riverrise spring. The eyes of everyone aboard the Typhoonblaster followed the mighty maelstrom as she came to rest just above the pool.

"Vartolius Xax was right about one thing," said Leris, her eyes wide. "The event we are witnessing is indeed sacred."

The swirling vortex at the center of the Mother Storm was growing brighter, faster, more furious…and then, at that instant, the discharge was released.

With an earsplitting roar, the Mother Storm ejected a solid stream of water, coiled lightning, and an unidentifiable, luminous, multicolored glow. Tendrils of light shot forth from the place that the column had struck. Even from their distant viewing point, Bron felt his hair stand on end as a wave of energy swept over him. For several moments, everything was obscured by the white glare of the eruption. Then, the noise and light slowly subsided. The strange colorful glow remained, however.

Raziel adjusted the flight-levers, and the Typhoonblaster swerved, making a course for the top of the Riverrise Mountain. And as they drew closer, Bron recognized the glow for what it was.

Glisters. Millions upon millions of glisters.