Ara leapt backward, narrowly avoiding a swing of the scorpion's pincers as the last of the bindings wrapped around the last claw.
"Pull!" the Caluso cried, pulling the beast back and up on its hind legs.
Not waiting for a better time to strike, Ara drove a spear into the monster's metaphorical throat. Black oil splattered everywhere as sparks began to ignite the machine's inner electronics. She rolled out as quickly as she could, avoiding its thrashing legs before the machine exploded in a large plume of smoke.
She gasped, falling to her knees as exhaustion caught up with her.
Despite adding another kill to her name, it seemed as if more of the mechanical monstrosities had joined the fray. In response, the Caluso's formations had loosened, spreading out to avoid multiple casualties from the scorpion's laser attacks and sweeping strikes, but the opportunity to strike at its weak point proved difficult even for the most experienced of fighters.
"It is only a matter of time before they fall," the fox-demon dwelling within her warned. "As it stands, Karis need only bide her time."
Setting her sights on her brother, she watched as the former demon lieutenant carved off a scorpion's pincer before driving his sword into the side. His demonically enhanced weapon made quick work of the simple steel plates.
If only she still had hers, as well. Ara clenched her teeth and willed herself back to her feet. "As long as my brother still lives, I will continue fighting! His plan will not fail! Lend me your aid once more, Eun!"
The fox spirit sighed in her head. "I might as well be fighting these machines myself with how often you've called for my aid."
She felt her body begin to move on its own. Detaching her thoughts from her body, she allowed the demon to take control. White tails whipped wildly behind her as she felt her body accelerate to its next target. Taking a discarded spear, Ara raced to the nearest scorpion who had just broken free from binding the Caluso had used in an attempt to tie it down. As she passed a fallen warrior, she briefly palmed the warrior's chest, discreetly drawing the individual's soul before shaping it and hurling it at the scorpion in the form of a soul orb.
The orb burst as it impacted the machine's side in a compact, but powerful explosion that knocked it off balance. Ara quickly slid under the beast planting the spear at its power supply before emerging on the other side just as it fell back in its depowered state.
In that instant, she felt a sensation like electricity as every hair on her body stood on end. Raising her weapon defensively, she caught the blade of the Maximus just in time to divert it far enough from her head to only leave a deep cut on her cheek.
Her spear was split in two as she stumbled back, given only a moment to realize she was staring madness in the face as Elsword was already halfway through his followup swing.
She spun, her tails obscuring his vision as his blade sang harmlessly through tangles of white tails before she countered with an open palm strike to his chest, knocking him back and giving herself some breathing space to gather her bearings.
Ara only had time to realize her face was cut before she was back on the defensive. With no weapon to fight with, the best she could do was evade his attacks. But he wasn't like Chung. Chung's strikes were predictable–easily broadcasted and wide. Elsword's attacks were quick, erratic, and had a frightening intent to kill that made each near-miss that much more harrowing.
Eun resumed control. Ara's movements accelerated. The grace in her step returned as the two souls willed their shared body effortlessly around each of Elsword's strikes.
An opening revealed itself at the end of a wild, frustrated swing.
Eun dove for the kill.
Ara did not.
The body faltered. In that moment of indecision, Elsword recovered, shouldering the foreigner back before lunging with a well-aimed thrust.
Adrenaline kicked in for both souls, and Ara's body bent backwards, the edge of the blade slicing a deep groove up along her belly as she rolled into a sudden arm-bar.
His reaction was swift as he blocked the maneuver, pushing her off of him and resetting their positions once more.
"We must end this one," Eun urged. "We cannot hesitate."
Ara did not have time to consider her options. Before Eun even finished communicating their thoughts, Elsword had redoubled his efforts.
He was faster this time. His stance had changed. He was adapting faster than his opponent could keep up. His wild, relentless attacks were gone–replaced only by precision and a calm hidden beneath each calculated strike.
It was his battle focus. She had seen it before. The best in Elsword always revealed itself the longer the fight drew, the more he learned of his opponent. Injury and exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on the foreigner.
"Ara!" she heard her brother call. At the corner of her eyes, she could see Ran locked in combat against two more of the mechanical beasts. He wouldn't last long against them. She had to-
Her momentary lapse in concentration was all he needed.
His blade found flesh. With a quick thrust that Eun just barely willed her shared body away from, the sharpened edge struck her thigh.
Ara reacted in kind, landing a powerful kick to the knight's head with her one good leg, landing and turning to flee.
Yet as she turned, she found herself surrounded with stone. He had backed her into a corner. Before she would allow herself to be trapped, and before her body could fully recognize the excruciating pain, she surged up the wall, vaulting high and beyond his reach.
Or so she thought.
Elsword rolled, turning to face behind him as blue El had coalesced at the hilt of the Maximus. All he had to do was wait and let gravity pull her right into his trap. "Armageddon…"
Ara's eyes widened.
"... Blade!"
Glowing magical energies shot outwards, expanding the blade's reach several times over, long enough to completely pierce through the intended target.
There was a loud clang.
Ara felt nothing.
She rolled to a stop, turning to see Chung. His armor emitted a faint blue aura as he stood over Elsword. His destroyer had directed the magical blade's tip harmlessly into the ground.
"Chung!" Ara gasped, uncertain where the Hamelian's allegiances rested.
The young king looked back at her, nodding his head and ushering her to go.
Rising on shaking legs as injury and exhaustion was beginning to take its toll, she slipped away to rejoin her brother. Elsword watched as Ara gathered herself, a mix of anger and indignation burning in his eyes as Chung set himself between Elsword and his fleeing opponent.
"Why… are you doing this?" the red-head glowered.
Chung stood his ground, looking down on the knight as he muttered his reply. "I should be asking you the same thing."
Elsword exhaled in deep-seated frustration. "I warned you."
His sword reverted back to its normal state, freeing itself from the ground before he turned it on his friend.
Chung parried the strike, leaving Elsword wide open for a swift and devastating counter that never came. With no reply on his opponent's end, the Lord Knight regained his poise and began his attack anew.
Again and again he swung his blade, seeking an opening in his opponent's guard. Chung gave him none, stepping back and away as he subtly guided Elsword away from the heart of the battle raging around them.
Chung felt a strange tinge of nostalgia as they clashed. He could see the next strike coming in the way Elsword's body shifted. He knew his fighting style and was surprised to see the basics still applied after all these years of real combat experience. Chung could practically hear Raven yelling at him from a safe distance, urging the Hamelian to stop defending and fight back.
He used to refuse, saying he couldn't for fear of hurting Elsword. He remembered Elsword saying he could take it.
With a precisely timed parry, Chung deflected the blade, catching Elsword completely off guard and wide open for a counter.
Chung took it, swinging the cannon with just enough force to - hopefully - not break bone.
Elsword flew through a long tent and hit the ground, rolling to a stop several meters away. He struggled to breath as he clutched at his abdomen. Leaning on his sword, the Lord Knight tried to find his legs as Chung stepped inside.
"Els, please get a hold of yourself! I don't want to fight you," Chung pleaded.
The redhead slowly shook his head as he rose to his knees. His grip on his weapon tightened, causing his opponent to take a wary step back.
"Then you shouldn't have gotten in my way."
Elsword leapt into the attack, forcing Chung back on the defensive.
His attack pattern had changed. No longer aiming for vitals, Elsword was now trying to break his stance. He aimed for arms, legs, anything to whittle and chip away at his friend's ability to defend himself. He feigned strikes and attacked at odd angles, making himself much harder to predict.
Again, Chung found himself in the past. It was as if history was repeating itself.
He could practically hear Raven berating him. Chung's refusal to change his stances would be the end of him.
And just like back then, here he was, refusing to step out of the defensive.
Chung couldn't let this continue. He had to fight back. Timing another parry, Chung found himself hitting nothing but air.
Elsword had feigned the strike and slid back. It was only then that Chung realized the truth. Having to focus on this new attack pattern, Elsword had pulled Chung's attention from the real threat as magical energies could be seen gathering at the hilt of the knight's weapon.
Raven's words echoed in his head. "If you allow your opponent to read your next move-"
With a mighty swing, a wave of rending wind fanned outward, destroying the tent walls and buffeting Chung's cannon as he braced to absorb the brunt of the gale.
Before Chung realized it, Elsword had already rolled past him, tackling the young king at his side and pinning him to the ground. Immediately after, the cold tip of his blade found its place against Chung's neck.
"... then you've already lost," Elsword said through barred teeth, echoing their instructor's words.
Crimson eyes filled with seething conviction bore into cyan–a blazing fire storm crashing against the sea.
There was a clear, distinct pause in Elsword's follow through. Despite what Nerin had said–despite how everyone else believed Elsword was a lost cause–Chung had to try.
"What–" Chung choked, feeling as if any word spoken would cause the blade to puncture skin, "What would Aisha think of you?"
Elsword drew in a sharp breath. Hatred and abhorrence flashed in his eyes at the mere sound of her name. The grip on his blade tightened. Chung shut his eyes, bracing himself for, hopefully, a swift end.
Steel stabbed dirt, mere centimeters from Chung's throat. No matter how much Elsword wanted to finish the job, something much more powerful stayed his blade. He clutched at his head, stumbling to his feet as he fought the demons screaming in his head. Grief, frustration, and guilt poured out of him in a loud, mournful cry.
Chung sat up, clutching at his neck and looking up at Elsword. The knight stumbled backwards dazed and confused, before turning his back to his friend. The screaming slowly subsided until the knight simply stared out past the destroyed canvas walls of the long tent towards the eerily quiet El Stone's plaza.
It was only when Chung turned his gaze to the battlefield that the truth became apparent: the Caluso had lost.
More than a dozen of the large Nasod Scorpions had piled into the plaza. Bodies lay lifeless underneath their metallic claws. Any survivors willing to fight back were cornered and picked apart by the machines. Those who surrendered, mainly children and a few of the weaker fighters, were corralled together and forced to sit at the base of the El Stone's altar.
Flanked on all sides by four of the machines, Ran and Ara stood back-to-back, unable to move without the risk of being torn to shreds.
Karu was alive. Bloody and beaten, the chieftain struggled in the grip of one of the large machines as it bound him with a dense steel cable that extended from its tail. Having subdued the leader of the Caluso people, it threw the chieftain on its back before turning its eyes upward to a low flying Sander loading platform.
The scorpion took to the air, landing on the platform with the VIP in tow and was shuttled away. More of the platforms could be seen approaching. One by one, the machines simply left the area, leaving the surviving Caluso as well as the Fahrmann allies stunned and confused.
"They're… retreating?" Chung whispered. "Why?"
Elsword's eyes followed the distant platform that carried the chieftain. He turned to Chung, his face shrouded by an eerie yellow light that darkened the skies behind him. "We got who we came for."
In that instant, Chung could feel the air around him crackle with energy. Every hair in his body stood on end before the blast of a second Earth Cracker cannon fired on its intended target:
The El Crystal.
The bright yellow beam struck the mystical stone. Heat and electricity exploded outward, laying waste to the immediate area around the altar. Those caught far enough away were sent flying. Those directly under the crystal were not as lucky. Everyone was turned to ash. Even the machines caught too close to the blast zone melted.
For a moment, a magical barrier held, repelling the power of the cannon, deflecting it in hundreds of other directions, creating more collateral damage than any bombardment could achieve.
But it was only for a moment. The barrier was quickly overwhelmed. With nothing defending the stone, the powerful beam punched straight through the heart of the stone, melting through and leaving nothing but a hot, hollow ring.
At that moment, the very air around Chung seemed to stop. A peculiar quality began to fill his nostrils. Like a combination of dust and rust. Then the stone–the hollow husk of what used to be the source of the wind element–shattered. The sound of breaking glass seemed to echo in Chung's head as the millions of shards scattered onto the burning plaza below.
"What have they done…" Chung whispered, absolute shock fading just enough for him to speak.
Elsword didn't answer, but the absence of surprise was enough to convince the king that he had known this would happen. The knight strode over to him, looking down at him melancholically as he took the Maximus blade. He didn't strike him down but simply turned to leave. A low-flying platform carrying a scorpion appeared overhead, and a rope ladder was lowered for him.
"And Elesis?" Elsword asked the pilot, who replied with a thumbs up. Nodding, the knight grasped the ladder. "This is where we part ways, Chung. I have a sister to bury."
The platform began its ascent, leaving the king to pick up after himself in the ruins of the plaza. Was this really it? After all of that, Elsword was just going to leave? Chung simply could not understand him. Hundreds upon thousands of questions piled in his throat that he found it hard to breathe.
It was only when the redhead was completely beyond his reach that the king finally found his voice and he mustered what he could into a singular cry for his friend running and reaching out after him as the craft flew away. The sound of retreating platforms faded until there was nothing but the soft crackle of nearby burning ruins of what once was the Caluso's capital city.
Helpless to do anything, Chung slumped to his knees, the weight of complete and utter defeat pressing down on his shoulders. The Capital City had fallen. The El Stone of Wind was destroyed. All of the Caluso had been wiped out. Everyone fighting in the Plaza had either been pulled apart by the mechanical monsters or reduced to ash from the beam. This included women and children. Ara and Ran wouldn't have stood a chance standing so close to the ground zero, either. There really was nothing left. The only exceptions were the Chieftain and…
Chung jumped to his feet as a glimmer of hope returned upon realization. "Nerin!"
Eve flagged the dozens of empty platforms that flew overhead. Large enough to carry several passengers in an open bed, the Nasod had no idea what use these air vessels had in the front lines.
"Mistress! They're here!" Moby whistled, flying high enough to grab the attention of a run-down cargo shuttle as it rattled by.
The vessel–a rust bucket in dire need of maintenance–landed near Eve and Elesis's body. Rose hopped out of the driver seat, rushing to Elesis's side.
"Sorry I couldn't get here any faster… this was the only ship available and–" Rose slowed to a stop, putting a hand over her mouth as she looked over the Blazing Heart.
"She is not dead," Eve reassured. "Not yet anyways. Vapor said so."
"So, the alchemist can help?"
"No. But she gave us time."
"Time…?"
Eve quickly relayed Vapor's words. A new heart. A doctor who can transplant said heart. A sterile environment to perform said operation.
Rose took in the words, and Eve could see the blonde mentally race for a solution. "Right… let's… let's load her onboard. We aren't finding any of that here."
They carried the body. Eve noted how stiff Elesis's limbs were due to the crystallization in her veins. It was like moving a heavy mannequin.
After setting Elesis down on the ship's loading bay, Rose knelt at the Blazing Heart's side. She was quiet for a long moment, looking over the crystalized body before brushing the strands of hair away from her face. The blonde closed her eyes, her lips mouthing a silent apology.
"You are not at fault for what happened to her," Eve reassured her.
"I am," Rose said with a shake of her head. "She was set on staying back in Sander… and I convinced her to go for her brother's sake… I didn't want to see her abandon her family…"
Although Eve didn't know much of Rose's past, the Nasod could feel a deep sense of regret hanging over the blonde's shoulders. Eve placed a hand on Rose's. "Then apologize to her when she wakes up."
Rose processed Eve's words. After a moment, she nodded and moved with renewed purpose. She hopped back into the driver seat and started the engine. "You're right! Let's get her out of here. We'll figure this out!"
The skies seemed to darken Rose as she spooled up the engine. Still long from sunset, Eve found it strange as a dark haze ebbed in and out of reality around the entire ship. It was as if some unseen force was draping a blanket over the entire area, yet she could still feel the sun's rays. Fearing it was her vision starting to fail her, this thought was quickly dispelled by Zero's words.
"He's watching us again," Rose's robotic partner commented, glancing around him at their surroundings.
Rose continued to spool an engine that seemingly refused to start, muttering under her breath as she did so, "He can watch us all he wants. I'm getting Elesis home if it's the last thing I do."
"Watch what you say out loud, boss!"
The dark veil vanished, and the ship shuddered to life. It took to the air, and Eve noted how Rose was actively ignoring Eve's questioning glance. This was the second time something like this happened. The first was at the hotel lobby. Eve was questioning Rose about how she stole what appeared to be Eve's blueprints when the same, dark veil seemed to swallow the room.
"Incoming!" Rose shouted, pulling Eve back into the present. The pilot maneuvered the ship out of the way as it nearly collided with another air platform as it made its return trip with a giant mechanical scorpion on board.
"Large energy flux detected," Remy reported.
"What's that?!" Moby cried, drawing their eyes to a blinding yellow light in the distance.
Eve had to squint at the light, noting the Sanderian airships giving a wide berth to the source. She could feel the air around her beginning to crackle with energy before realizing what she was looking at.
"Rose!" She cried, pointing over the ship's starboard, "Move! This way! Now!"
Without question, the pilot slammed the control stick to the right, veering the ship out of the way just as an Earth-Breaker Beam surged past, superheating and melting a small section of the ship's lower left plates.
Eve gripped at the ship's guard rails with one hand and clung to Elesis's body to keep it from rolling off the edge.
"Are you alright?!" Rose called, sticking her head out of the driver's seat to check on her passengers.
"Yes!" Eve called back.
"Right! Hang on!" Rose shouted, guiding the ship back to the left as over a dozen platforms carrying more of the metal beasts zoomed past them.
"What the hells is going on?!" Rose cried, steadying the ship.
Looking back over her shoulder at the beam's path, Eve's eyes widened. The El Stone was gone.
One last platform flew by. Onboard was Elsword, who saw Eve with his sister. He regarded her with a nod and signaled for them to head back to the rest of the fleet.
But where was Chung?
Realizing the implications, Eve ran to the bow of the ship, staring out towards where the El Stone once stood.
"Moby. Remy."
"Yes, mistress?" her drones responded in unison.
"Can you ping Chung's location?"
"Located," Remy reported. "He's on the move."
Eve turned to her black drone.
Without a word, the black drone chirped happily in response, "Will do, mistress!"
As he flew off, Zero could be heard grumbling behind her. "Ah shit. How much you wanna bet she's going to ask us to save her boyfriend?"
Eve pouted. Not letting his comment deter her, she turned on her heel and strode over to the pilot's seat. "I have a favor to ask."
He hadn't memorized the layout of the city enough to know where he was. The ruined landscape wasn't helping, either. All Chung knew was the general direction he had to travel and that he had to hurry.
As he ran, he could feel the ground slowly begin to list. An ear-splitting crack ripped through the air around him, and the whole island shuddered as he witnessed an entire segment sink from view behind the line of destroyed homes.
The island was beginning to crumble.
This spurred Chung forward, and before long, he found himself in a familiar square riddled with Sander and Caluso corpses.
"Nerin! Anduran! Edwin!" he called, finding the collapsed community kitchen and crawling under the arches in search of the family.
They weren't there.
At the entrance lay a fresh corpse of a Sander soldier. Nerin had lost her saber but judging by the deep cuts across his body, someone used Slicing Gale.
"Good job, Anduran," Chung whispered.
They couldn't have gone far with Nerin and a newborn in tow. But where? The island shuddered again, followed by another loud crack. He was running out of time! But even if he found them, where would he take them?
"The gliders!" he exclaimed out loud. Their initial plan was to sneak to the southern edge of the island. If Nerin were to leave this place, that was where she would be heading.
Chung exited the kitchen, taking off southward to where he expected to run into the others.
Another tremor. Stronger, this time. The ground gave way underneath him, and the young king leapt forward as the earth literally split into two. He slammed against the edge of the newly formed fissure as the square he was in mere moments ago peeled upward and away behind him. He clawed for a solid hold against the destroyed street as the weight of his cannon threatened to pull him down.
He heard frantic whistling behind him, and before he realized it, he found his support underneath his feet.
With a strained whirr, he was helped back onto solid ground, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief before turning to his saviors.
"It's good to see you, Moby, Remy."
The drones chirped happily before directing his attention to a single ship amidst multiple shattered segments of floating island. Eve was there, waving him down and directing Rose to his location.
Chung shook his head, pointing further southward. He shouted at the top of his lungs. "Nerin! Find Nerin!"
"Moby, you need to find Nerin. She's with three kids. You have to look for them. Remy, you need to tell Eve to follow Moby!"
The drones hesitated, whistling as they looked from Chung to his mistress.
Another shudder. Chung felt lighter. From where he stood, it looked as if everything above him were beginning to float upwards.
They were starting to fall.
"Don't worry about me! Just go!"
The drones split up. Remy rushed back to Eve while Moby took to the air, scouring the general direction Chung pointed him in. The young king sprinted after the drone, vaulting over obstacles while keeping an eye for any sign of the family.
Remy reached her location first, and after some deliberating between those onboard, Chung could see the ship change course southward.
He saw Moby dive downward. Rushing to the general location, he spotted Nerin along a long stretch of paved road, wailing baby in one arm, limping as fast as she could with Anduran supporting her on her shoulder. Edwin stood on the defensive as the drone whistled frantically at them to follow. Of course, neither of them trusted the strange machine, and it wasn't until Chung arrived did they all realize who they were talking to.
"This is Moby?!" Edwin gawped.
"Chung…" Nerin gasped, clearly at her limit as Anduran struggled to keep her on her feet. "What is… the plan?"
"The plan is getting all of us off this island," the Hamilian said. "I have a ship waiting to pick us up. We just need to wait for them to–"
Just then, a slab of floating island came crashing down behind them, causing the entire segment they stood on to tilt.
Searching for Eve's ship, he spotted it hovering just over the edge closest to them, trying to keep leveled as the land mass tilted ever higher.
"There! Run that way! Go!" Chung yelled.
The five moved as quickly as they could with Chung pushing them up an ever steeper climb.
Anduran was the first to lose her footing. Slipping on loose cobblestone, she began to slide back, stopping only when Chung was there to stop her. Edwin was next, falling to his knees in fear as an avalanche of rocks and debris began to cascade around them. His refusal to move only caused the gravel to shift under his weight causing him to dangerously begin stumbling backwards.
Chung caught the boy, pushing both Anduran and Edwin firmly against the ground to keep them from sliding any further. He took stock of the situation, looking up at the increasingly steeper climb ahead of them. Edwin was refusing to move, and Anduran couldn't find a foothold. They weren't going to make it.
"Chung!" Nerin yelled through the crashing rocks around them. She didn't have the strength to make the climb and had resigned to simply resting on a narrow signpost for the time being. "Help Anduran and Edwin first."
Chung shook his head. "I'm not leaving you and the baby behind!"
"Go." Nerin ordered. "We shall wait here. Hurry."
Chung gritted his teeth, turning from the mother. He rushed forward, picking up Anduran and Edwin on either arm as he raced uphill to the waiting craft.
Turning his eyes skyward as he climbed, he ignored the weight in his gut as he spotted the larger segments of the remaining floating island colliding high above them. The ear-deafening crash shook loose another wave of rooted buildings, bringing the young king's upward charge to a screeching halt. Without much time to think, he rooted the destroyer into the incline, holding Anduran and Edwin under his weapon as wood and rocks smashed against his cannon.
He held fast, digging his heels into the ground and creating a wide enough pocket to shield Nerin and her newborn from the onslaught. He could feel his arms and legs beginning to fail him under an increasingly crushing weight. His feet were beginning to slide. Again and again, the seemingly endless tide of rolling debris pummeled his weapon.
Anduran and Edwin screamed as they desperately added their strength against the avalanche that threatened to sweep them away. Not far below, he could hear the newborn wail against her mother as Nerin shielded her from harm.
Refusing to let further harm come to the family, Chung felt a surge of strength fill him as his father's guardian stone ignited in a fiery bluish glow. Stamina returned to his legs, and the crushing weight that bore down upon him all but faded. To Anduran and Edwin's shock and awe, Chung pushed onward.
Meter by meter, he climbed, shrugging off layers of rock as he, slowly but surely, bulldozed his way upwards.
"Drop the ladder!" he could hear Rose call.
A blessing to Chung's ears.
Eve tossed a rope ladder over the side, and Chung allowed the two children to climb up on his shoulders while Eve assisted them on board.
With the two safely on board, Chung finally felt his body succumb to fatigue. The El that burned so furiously within his father's stone faded, and his legs began to buckle from over-exertion.
His job, however, was not over.
Nerin and her baby needed him. And as he stared down the near-vertical drop he had to traverse just to reach the signpost she rested on, an overwhelming sense of dread filled him as the backdrop of endless sand awaited far below.
"Heads up!" Rose shouted, veering the ship away from another torrent of rocks.
Dirt rained down on the Hamelian, temporarily blinding him, before he felt something solid strike him in the head.
He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't think.
As he fought for consciousness, he heard Eve's voice, crying his name through the turbulent ringing in his head.
He was torn back to his senses just enough to realize there was nothing but air all around him. He fumbled with his cannon's firing mechanism. He craned his head wildly around, peering through his dirt-caked eyes for any reference point before uttering a prayer to the El Lady and pulling the trigger.
As if answering his prayers, the recoil sent him sailing back to solid ground. The bladed edge of his weapon slammed haphazardly against the vertical road, bringing his fall to a rough stop.
Quickly rubbing the dirt from his eyes and taking stock of the situation, the king saw he had fallen past Nerin and was now some distance below her. He could see Rose bringing the ship around, and he waved at them to help the mother first.
Grabbing onto a nearby fence, he wrenched his cannon free and began the climb back up to meet them. Fatigue was not kind to him. Even with his raw natural strength, his body struggled to pull him up each makeshift rung.
He pushed through, ignoring his body's fading stamina as best as he could until he was just below Nerin's signpost. And being this close, Chung finally saw the state Nerin was in.
Covered in deep cuts and clumps of bloody dirt, the mother had barely managed to weather the battering of rocks and debris. She stared at her wailing babe, her mouth dribbling blood as she clung to what little strength she had while she waited for rescue.
Rose was drawing closer. They just needed to wait.
As soon as she was on board, Eve and the others could tend to her injuries.
They just needed to wait.
Without warning, the entire vertical island shook as another segment smashed against theirs. The flimsy wooden post Chung clung onto was dislodged under his weight, and he was sent crashing down several more posts before finding a solid foothold once more.
The island had begun to flip upside-down.
"Mama!" he heard Edwin cry.
Looking up, Chung saw that Nerin had lost her footing. Her arm was wrapped around the signpost, clinging weakly as Eve hung over the edge of the ladder, arm extended in an attempt to reach for her child.
Moby and Remy flew to support the mother, but her bloodied feet found no stable surface on their smooth hulls. With each attempt to find her footing, Chung could see her efforts slow… until the strength left her completely.
The Caluso mother could fight no more. The grip on the signpost loosened, and with Eve only inches away from reaching them, the mother and child slipped beyond her reach. Chung desperately stretched out to catch them, his heart sinking as he achieved little more than graze Nerin as she and her child tumbled past.
Chung watched, in wide-eyed horror, as the two slipped further from view. The Hamelian hung motionless, long after the two had vanished into the massive dust cloud below–long after the baby's cries were drowned out by Rose's approaching ship.
Eve had to slap him to bring him back to his senses, but even then, he found himself unable to find the will to move.
"Chung," Eve pleaded. "We cannot stay here. She's gone. Do not let her surviving family suffer the same fate."
Her surviving family. Of course.
Chung took the rope ladder, and Eve signaled for Rose to take them away.
Chung's eyes never left the cloud of ruin below. He could hear Edwin screaming for his mother. Even though Chung knew deep in his heart there was no way someone could survive a fall like that, he hoped and prayed, by some miracle, that she survived. On and on, the young boy wept, his words losing coherency until there was nothing but inconsolable sobs.
The remaining flight was a silent one for the rest of the passengers. As Chung climbed the ladder to join the others, he saw an air of uncertainty among all of them. Not only had the Caluso Capital fallen, but the El Crystal was destroyed along with it. Nerin and her baby's death was a cruel twist of the knife.
Chung slumped against the cargo wall, head falling forward in utter defeat as a single, persistent thought remained at the forefront of his mind: How was he going to tell Gerard?
A/N: Thank you Akina, mono, and cassie for the help with edits.