Part Two: Jade Tides
Harpstring Moon
Chapter Seventeen: Death of a Titan
After the death of Demeter and the defeat of her forces at Arianrhod the Holy Church State goes quiet. The leaders of the three powers of the Fodlan Coalition meet to decide what their next course of action will be. Upon Finn's request Johan sends troops to help secure the Meritocracy's southern border but the Empire shifts to focus its energy on the Abyssal Congregation. Seeing potential disaster Finn pledges that if the Holy Church State tries to take revenge that the Emerald Shark Squadron would come to defend Abyss.
"The southern generals will be happy to hear that the Kingdom is supplying us with troops specifically to defend our southern border!" Finn announced happily.
"That is a relief." Malosi let out a breath.
"How is Abyss holding?" Lawe asked.
"Abyss is devoting all of their strength to defending their western border. That actually leads me into our next order of business." Finn said.
"I'm assuming that would not include taking the fight to the Empire?" Olaga said.
"No, we need to defend our allies. I'm assuming that Abyss is asking for our help." Atamai chimed in.
"Not quite. The Abyssal Congregation has asked if we would come to defend their southern border if the Holy Church State decides to attack." Finn told them.
"We would be going head to head with the Holy Army again? Why don't they just join the Coalition?" Hukai asked.
"Historically the people of the Church are very prideful. I'm sure they wouldn't be very happy with that arrangement." Penina explained.
"Regardless I have sent messengers to Rhea and other high ranking members of the Church in an effort to try to sway them to our side." Finn told his old classmates. "But odds are we will be confronting them very soon."
"Why don't we just invade their area?" Kai asked.
"Because that would mean ruining any talks of peacefully ending this." Fetu told him. "Right?"
"Yeah. Rhea would never go for that." Malosi agreed.
"Have you talked to the Alliance at all? Maybe they would be willing to join the Coalition and help defend Abyss." Penina suggested.
"I've reached out but it seems that at the moment they have their own issues with Almyra. Leon has assured me that he would take it under consideration though." Finn told them all.
"At the very least we seem to be collecting national relics." Keola joked.
"Yes, they are wonderful aren't they?" Oceania smiled cruelly.
"We did recover Demeter's Pata and Akemi's Joyeuse but I don't see that as a good thing. It means that we are the ones killing leaders." Fiafia frowned.
"I must agree. All it does is put a target on our back." Atamai looked at his mother inquisitively.
"Then you all might not like the gift I received from Johan at the last meeting." Finn said as he pulled Gungnir out and placed it on the table.
"He gave you his relic?" Atamai asked.
"He said that it was a sign of his trust. I couldn't refuse it, it would have offended his pride." Finn sighed.
"Interesting as this is, I feel we must talk about the last thing. The thing that is on all of our minds." Atamai said.
"Yeah, Those Who Slither in the Dark emerged again." Hukai said. "And this time they killed Demeter, which did not put us in a good light."
"That mage was using Catherine's body like a puppet. She probably convinced Demeter to stay and fight. I don't understand why they would do this?" Fetu shook his head.
"The first time they showed up it was to attack our Professor, and the second time it was to kill Demeter and get the Coalition in trouble." Penina recalled. "Both times their actions would have affected the Meritocracy."
"Are you suggesting that they are coming after us? But why?" Kai asked.
"I don't know. But I think we are missing something, some endgame or piece of the puzzle isn't clear yet. Until then I don't know if we can worry about them too much." Penina told her friends.
"We have so many enemies. How are we going to handle them all?" Keola said.
"We just have to do it together. The Kingdom and Abyssal Congregation will assist us when the time comes. Right now just prepare for anything and be ready to suddenly ride to confront the Holy Army." Finn told his friends.
"Maybe we should join the Fodlan Coalition. We can't hope to defeat all three of those nations but if we join them then at least we have access to the Western Church." Seteth told a pacing Rhea.
"No! They killed Demeter. Blaming her death on a long dead organization is not going to fool me. I will have my revenge for my lost daughter." Rhea yelled.
"Rhea this is madness! We can't hope to beat them." Seteth pleaded.
"Seteth! You would not be saying this if it was Flayn who had fallen. You know what this is like!" Rhea growled.
"I just want you not to do anything rash." Seteth said in a low voice.
"You may be right about that much. But I can't just let her go unavenged. I will do this myself." Rhea was no longer talking to Seteth but herself.
"Whatever you do, be safe." Seteth said but it was in vain.
"Sothis?" Maira called out to her friend. "Are you there?"
"Yes. It is rare that you call me. What do you need?" Sothis asked.
"I was just wondering what you knew about Those Who Slither in the Dark." Maira told her.
"They are a bitter race who will stop at nothing to conquer Fodlan. They primarily do it by working in the shadows and taking control of important figures and guiding leaders to suit their needs." Sothis informed Maira.
"That's how my dad described them. How do you tell if someone has been mimicked?" Maira asked.
"Their behavior will slightly change, so will their goals. They will say things that guide people to their answer." Sothis said.
"Do you think there could be some in Kapena?" Maira asked.
"None of your students but there is someone that I am suspicious of." Sothis said.
"Who?" Maira was concerned.
"It is just a hunch. Nothing I should worry you about yet." Sothis told her. "Don't worry, when I am sure I will tell you."
"Hey Hukai, do you have a minute?" Keola asked Hukai.
"Oh no! No you don't! I refuse to be dragged into one of you and Malosi's fights!" Hukai started to walk away but Keola stopped him.
"This isn't about that I promise. Finn just asked me to look into something in my territory and I was wondering if you could come with me. Maira will be coming with us too." Keola offered.
"What does Finn need you to do?" Hukai asked.
"Well there is a charity organization that is asking for funding. Apparently they are trying to open a public school to give all children equal access to education. Finn just wants to make sure everything is solid there before he throws his support behind it." Keola told him.
"That sounds right up your alley. But why me?"
"There have been rumors of some higher ranked officials pushing back. They don't want their kids' futures to be jeopardized by the peasants." Keola explained.
"Oh, there might be a fight involved! You should have led with that kid. I would love to join you."
"Wonderful! We will depart pretty soon." Keola left to go get ready.
"As you can see we have enough funding to teach all kids basic reading, writing, and algebra. We can also handle some science and magic but we just don't have the money for anything beyond the basics." The headmaster led Keola, Hukai, and Maira through the halls of the soon to be school.
"How many students can you teach?" Hukai asked.
"Well, we have the room to hold 40 classes for those at the bottom of the ranking system in the area. But our hope is to have schools like this across the Meritocracy." the headmaster told them.
"That is quite the goal Headmaster. After anything that I have seen I can certainly give a positive report to the Supreme Leader."
"Really! Thank you General Wame. This means so much to me." the headmaster was on the verge of tears.
"Honestly if you hadn't already started I would've been trying to do the same things that you are doing here. If you want more schools like this, Wame territory is completely open for you." Keola offered.
"Now that is more than generous."
Just then Keola, Hukai, and Maira heard the screaming of small children from the courtyard.
"What is that?" Maira asked.
"I didn't think they would actually attack." The headmaster started to panic. "Some nobles started to threaten to burn this place to the ground."
"Not on my watch!" Hukai yelled and ran off.
"We will keep this place safe." Keola agreed and ran off with Maira to confront the nobles.
Maira, Hukai, and Keola stood guard in front of the school until the Emerald Shark Squadron was in position to attack from behind. When they were, they held nothing back. They attacked as Maira and Hukai split up to go save groups of kids and left Keola to take on the enemy commander.
Hukai had his apukohai rise into the air and crash down on one of four soldiers. As he came down he jumped off the creature as it came down and started to eat one of the soldiers. Hukai landed in front of a group of kids and unsheathed his sword. The soldiers all charged Hukai together but Hukai was very strong. He deflected one of their lances so it would hit another and then threw his sword into the chest of the farthest soldier.
"Close your eyes kiddos." Hukai said as he kicked a soldier in the head and rolled away to grab the sword out of the dead soldier's chest. When one of the soldiers threw his lance at Hukai Hukai caught it and swung it, cutting the throat of the weaponless soldier wide open. The final soldier came rushing at him but Hukai deflected the blade and rushed in. He grabbed the soldier's head and twisted it, snapping his neck and killing him.
"Thank you, scary man." one of the kids said.
"No problem. Come on, let's get you inside." Hukai led the kids inside the school where he met up with Maira who had also gathered some kids.
"Why are you doing this?" Keola cried as he confronted the enemy commander. He had a knife held to one of the children's throats.
"These people are worthless. They aren't good enough to become part of the Meritocracy's elite. My children are better, they come from better." the commander yelled.
"You can't just deprive them of a future because you want your own children to have one. That isn't what this nation stands for!" Keola argued. He was trying to figure out an approach but two snipers had their bows trained on him and his wyvern preventing him from making a move.
"This filth is not better than my child."
"Maybe not now, but with this school they could be."
Keola was about to make a last ditch attack but the child the enemy commander was holding sunk his teeth into his arm causing the commander to scream in pain and drop the kid and his knife. The snipers lost focus and Keola threw two hand axes simultaneously hitting both snipers in the chest. Keola sent his wyvern to protect the kids as he tackled the enemy commander. He got him to the ground and began punching him ruthlessly. When the commander had no fight left Keola took his silver axe and brought it down hard, ending the fight.
"I just finished giving Finn the full rundown of what happened here. Not only is he agreeing to generously fund this but he will be adding additional funds for you to hire security." Keola told the headmaster.
"Thank you! All three of you have done so much hard work. To thank you I have something to give you." the headmaster had a child present one of the Mea Hana Nui to the trio.
"Is this the axe Kino?" Hukai asked.
"Ah! You are familiar with Kino." the headmaster smiled.
"Vaguely, I've heard stories. It used to belong to one of my ancestors." Hukai told the man.
"All the more reason you should have it. Kino means body, it grants the user increased strength and efficiency. Only the most cunning and ruthless warriors have used this weapon, but I think it is time for protectors to get a chance." the headmaster handed Keola the axe. It was a double sided axe, the handle was made of wood and had beautiful designs, but what really drew Maira in was the shining red coral that comprised the blades of the double edged behemoth of a weapon.
"Hukai, thank you for coming with me today. I think you deserve this, especially if it used to be part of your family." Keola handed the axe to Hukai.
"Absolutely not! You are such a good man Keola. It deserves to be wielded by you, besides, swords are more of my thing anyways." Hukai winked.
"If you are sure then I accept this." Keola told the headmaster. "And again, just come talk to me after the war, I would love to spearhead a public school system."
"I can't take this anymore. Will none of my generals help to avenge your archbishop!" Rhea screamed.
"Rhea, all of us do not want to prolong this war. It has to end." Seteth tried to comfort Rhea but she wasn't listening.
"No! I will do this myself!" Rhea jumped out of the glass window and transformed into the Immaculate One and soared towards the Abyssal Congregation's southern border. She had gone mad.
"Alright everyone. The Immaculate One is here. She is hell bent on destroying all of us." Finn told his Squadron when they got to Abyss' border.
"None of the Holy Army has come to join her." Atamai noted. "Has Seteth told you anything?"
"Yes. He is willing to join the Fodlan Coalition. But that can only happen if Rhea is dead." Finn said sadly.
"Then we have no choice but to beat her." Kai said. "This is a giant step towards peace, you guys. It sucks she has to die but we don't really have a choice."
"General Namoe is right. We have to end this here!" Lawe agreed.
"What are those?" Fiafia shrieked as she looked at the horizon.
Giant white bat creatures were flying towards them accompanied by the Immaculate One. Their shrieking was hideous and unnerving.
"I don't think I want to know." Fetu said while holding back his gag reflex.
"This makes our job harder." Malosi said.
"Hoaloha, I need you to try to distract the Immaculate One while we take the bat things. Can you do that?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem." Maira told him.
"Finn, by the way, what are you wearing?" Fiafia asked him.
Finn was dressed in different armor.
"I am dressed in the Supreme Leader's armor, one reserved to ride apukohai. Oceania recently gave me control of the golden apukohai. So now I fight on fishback." Finn told his friends.
"They are approaching fast." Hukai noted. "We need to move now."
Keola and Fiafia soared into the air on their mounts and struck at one of the bats. Keola charged it head on and jumped off his wyvern onto the back of the creature. As the wyvern attacked and ripped flesh off of its large leathery wings, Keola brought Kino up high and started to hack at its back. Green blood oozed from its wounds and the creature screeched and shook to try to get Keola off but he held on. Fiafia threw a javelin into one of its three giant eyes and charged. She grabbed the javelin and pushed forward, sinking it further into its head until it went limp and started to fall out of the sky. Keola's wyvern swooped down and picked him up as soon as the bat started to fall.
Atamai couldn't reach the large bat with any of his magic. The best he could do was use Hades Ω to keep it from eating him. But the spell was taxing and Atamai was starting to get really tired from the effort. Luckily Hukai had been quietly bringing his apukohai up and the bat didn't even see him. Hukai willed the apukohai forward and he plunged his sword into one of the creature's wings as he went forward. The creature started to fall down but was still very alive, at least until Atamai was there. Atamai summoned two spell glyphs and used one to summon Banshee Θ. The ground erupted with black tentacles lashing at the bat as it tried to escape. Then Atamai activated the second glyph and unleashed Dark Spikes Τ. Spikes from all directions came down into the bat's back and exploded, killing the bat.
Penina had launched herself up into the air with the spell Wind and once above a bat as it swooped down cast Fimbulvetr. A large amount of ice erupted from the ground and froze the bat down to the land. As she came down Penina slowed her descent with Wind as Kai worked on battling the creature. 'Uhane's power was coursing through Kai and he worked quickly. He was shooting the bat with arrows, he had already taken out two of its eyes and had badly damaged the wings. But the bat was ready to retaliate, it opened its mouth and let out a devastating scream, blasting outward and destroying a large boulder since Kai's horse had rushed away to avoid the blast. Penina had gotten close though and slashed the bat's throat open, stopping it from crying out again.
Lawe was attacking a bat in the air. The bat was violent and tried to knock Lawe out of the air with its wings. But Lawe and her wyvern kept their position. When the bat opened up to unleash a large attack in the air Lawe quickly summoned Kraken Κ, the tentacle reached into the creature and Lawe dived, dragging the bat down. While falling the bat lashed out with its claws and knocked Lawe out of the sky. The bat then crashed into the ground as the wyvern soared away to catch Lawe. Before the bat could cry out and send a fatal blast towards Lawe Olaga leaped upwards and kicked the bat's mouth close. Blood came spewing from the mouth since the fangs had punctured the flesh inside. As the bat flailed, Olaga pulled out an axe and lodged it into its belly, she pulled down and all of the intestines came spilling out.
Fetu was chanting behind Malosi as he attacked the bat. Fetu was focusing on maintaining Meteor to keep the bat out of the air and in a place where Malosi could attack it. Any time the bat tried to open its wings there would be holes where hot rocks had burned through them. Malosi kept up the fire, he cast Bolganonne and fire swirled around the creature before converging at its feet and swirling around as Malosi transitioned into his next spell, Ragnarok. Even more powerful because of the already intense heat the swirling fire grew and grew until everything started to melt. The bat's skin was coming off in chunks and they could smell it burning before everything exploded. The bat had been reduced to ashes.
Despite her size and strength, the Immaculate One was having a hard time with Maira. Ultimus was empowering Maira and gave her the power and speed to not only dodge attacks, but shrug them off. The Immaculate One summoned blizzards and infernos all around and yet Maira was having no problem with them. Tiring of this the Immaculate One gave a large blast directly at Maira. Maira let Ultimus act on its own, the weapon spun and deflected all of the Immaculate One's energy in every direction except for at Maira. Maira ran forward and Ultimus went at her pace. The Immaculate One shut off the blast and swiped at Maira but Maira picked up Ultimus and flipped over the claw and threw it, taking off the scaly claw. The Immaculate One screamed and lunged at Maira but Maira just split Ultimus apart and lodged one point in her chin and the other in her snout and closed her mouth. The Immaculate One opened her wings and tried to soar away but a blast of lightning struck her in the wing. It was Bolting cast by Finn. The attack left a gaping hole in the wing, leaving her unable to fly off. Maira unhooked Ultimus and refused the weapon together.
"You dare use my Mother! I should have killed you all years ago!" the Immaculate One screeched.
"My father warned me about you. So did Sothis, she tells me, even now that you must be stopped, that you have lost your way." Maira yelled at the large dragon.
"My Mother said I must be stopped?" the Immaculate One whimpered.
"My child, it pains me to see you this way. Please put her down Maira, I can watch this no more." Sothis told Maira.
"You lie, my Mother wouldn't betray me!" Rhea started to speed towards Maira.
Water flooded around her and she was brought crashing down before she could reach Maira. Finn had cast Ke Kai to slow her down then used Riptide to knock her head back exposing her neck. Maira saw this and threw Ultimus, she watched as it decapitated the Immaculate One. The battle had been won, and the Immaculate One was dead.