The group kept making their way deeper and deeper through the tunnel. Everyone was still keeping vigilant for any signs of the church of the deep or the seaborn. To the surprise of everyone they hadn't encountered any enemies yet, but everyone in Ch'en's group knew that could change at a moment's notice.
While Yua was grateful that she hadn't been involved in any fighting as of yet, or hadn't succumbed to any of the future Skadi's tricks, the white-haired lung was wondering how the fighting on the surface was going on, "How do you think everyone else is doing fighting the seaborn? Do you think they are doing okay? I'm really worried about everyone on the surface." The white-haired lung spoke out loud to everyone else in the group.
"I wish I could tell you that everyone is fine, Yua. But I can't. I am worried too. But we have to remember our mission. We need to defeat Skadi. If we fail to beat her, then the seaborn will destroy everything in their path. You of all people should know this, you have seen the destruction that they bring first-hand. As cold as it sounds to say this, you cannot let your focus slip off Skadi. She is the reason why we are here, you cannot think about everyone else fighting on the surface right now." Gladiia was the one who replied to Yua.
While Yua did think it was callous for the aegir leader to tell her to concentrate on only Skadi, the white-haired lung couldn't argue with Gladiia. Yua knew that Gladiia was right. Terra would be destroyed if they didn't put a stop to the future aegir, the white-haired lung didn't want this timeline to be destroyed just like her own future. Yua did have one question regarding Skadi and decided to ask Gladiia, "Gladiia, about Skadi, how did she become the vessel for Ishar-Mla? Can you tell me why?"
"The seaborn, led by Ishar-Mla itself were attacking our home. Every single abyssal hunter was dispatched to fight them. I had never seen such a monstrosity before in my life, and I hope I never have to again. We lost so many of our comrades that day...I lost a lot of my friends to that beast. We fought as hard as we could, fought so many seaborn, too many lives were lost. Eventually, after all of our sacrifices, we cornered that monster. But Ishar-Mla didn't go quietly. Even as we wounded it, it still had the strength to kill many abyssal hunters. But Skadi, she was the one who struck the final blow. She brought Ishar-Mla down...or so we thought. As I later found out, the soul of Ishar-Mla is dormant in our Skadi. It still lives on inside her. But I'd imagine, the Skadi from your timeline has somehow taken control of its power by taking over our Skadi." Gladiia explained Skadi's situation to the white-haired lung.
Yua could tell that Gladiia didn't like talking about the battle involving Ishar-Mla and the abyssal hunters. The white-haired lung could hear the aegir leaders' tone of voice completely shift. Yua could then see Specter and Ulpianus looking at her, the lung realised she had opened up some old wounds for the three abyssal hunters by the looks on the faces of Specter and Ulpianus...
Ch'en had also been listening to the story, the blue-haired lung became very intrigued when her future daughter asked Gladiia about Skadi, "So Skadi brought that thing down. Now its soul is dormant inside of her. But the Skadi from Yua's timeline has control of its power. This is very concerning. Even if we beat the other Skadi here...what if the Ishar-Mla from this timeline takes control of this Skadi? We may have to fight her again. And I don't think Ulpianus will have the heart to fight her for a second time, he's already reluctant enough as it is. If we survive, the doctor will need to know about all of this. We need a plan in place if Ishar-Mla takes over Skadi one day..." Ch'en grimly thought to herself.
The blue-haired lung knew that a potential battle could occur again in the future if the seaborn god awoke one day. Ch'en was certain that the doctor could think of a contingency plan if the worst came to pass. Everyone who was here just needed to survive the upcoming battle and overcome their enemy. Terra's future was at stake, they could not afford to lose this fight...
On the surface, the battle against the seaborn was starting to turn for the worst. Rhodes Island, the army of Laterano, and the Iberians were starting to be overwhelmed and pushed back by the seaborn. All three groups were beginning to take heavy losses, they were in a fighting retreat. Many of the wounded brave defenders who were heavily injured decided to stay behind and give their lives so they could buy their comrades some time to retreat. Many of the badly injured knew that they would only slow their allies down if they tried to evacuate as well, that would only cost more lives if their colleagues tried evacuating them as well from the fight.
In the command centre of Rhodes Island, Kal'tsit could see the situation rapidly deteriorating before her eyes on the feed being broadcast to her by the drones. The ancient feline could see many people being slaughtered by the seaborn. Kal'tsit herself ordered every Rhodes Island operator who was able to, to retreat back towards the landship and regroup. Her plan was to gather up all of the operators that were left and launch a counterattack once they had re-joined with both Laterano's army and the remnants of the Iberian military. They would then begin a second push against the seaborn once everyone had regrouped.
Just like Kal'tsit, the various officers in the command centre had also given their subordinates the order to retreat and regroup. Their orders were frantic and sounded panicked, they too knew they were losing too many personnel against the vicious sea monsters. The various officers hoped that enough of their men would be able to escape and return to the landship for a second attack. Every officer had their eyes on the feed as they were barking their orders. They too, could see the seaborn mercilessly ripping through their subordinates. Many were secretly losing hope that they wouldn't have enough personnel left to be able to launch a counter offensive should they be able to get back to the landship. The idea of fleeing Iberia entirely was beginning to creep into the minds of some officers...
Kal'tsit too, was beginning to have that thought. The ancient feline was starting to find the idea of escaping Iberia tempting whilst looking on at the battle. Kal'tsit wanted to give the order to everyone on the ground to get back to the landship and get of Iberia to live to fight another day, to save who she could. However, one thing was stopping the ancient feline from giving such an order.
Ch'en and her group hadn't been seen since they had mysteriously vanished sometime ago after their battle on the island that the group had headed too. Kal'tsit didn't know if they were still alive. With the amount of seaborn that had also disappeared on the same island, Kal'tsit was losing hope that the blue-haired lung or any of the others had survived. They surely couldn't survive against such a large number of these sea monsters, "If Ch'en and the others aren't the ones who emerge from wherever they disappeared, then this battle is lost. Terra is lost. You are our only hope, Ch'en. Please do not fail. For everyone's sake, for Terra...for Theresa..."
Kal'tsit knew that if this battle was lost, her chance of travelling back in time and saving Theresa was gone as well...forever. The ancient feline would never see her long lost friend again if the blue-haired lung failed. Kal'tsit was never one for religion, but deep down inside, the ancient feline was praying for the success of Ch'en and her group in their victory...
"If there are any gods, please...don't let Ch'en fail! You can't let her fail...please!" Kal'tsit was watching and waiting with baited breath, praying that Ch'en and the others would succeed in their mission...
After some more time descending deeper and deeper into the tunnel, the group soon realised that they were not going down anymore. The ground underneath their feet was more even to walk on. "We must be getting closer now, prepare yourselves everybody. Who knows what Skadi has prepared for us." Ulpianus warned the rest of the group. Everyone else had their hands close to their weapons, ready to react at the first sign of trouble or enemies. The group kept walking and walking forward, they kept walking until they could see the tunnel around them begin to expand.
They carried on their path until they entered into a huge chamber. The chamber kept getting bigger and bigger the more they carried on walking. Eventually, to the shock of everyone, a huge majestic structure suddenly came into view. "What in the world?! This is Ishar-Mla's temple?! How?! How did the church of the deep build this?! And so far beneath the sea as well?! This shouldn't be possible!!" Yua exclaimed to the rest of the group.
The white-haired lung was stunned as she saw the structure in front of her. Never in her life had Yua seen such a building before. Many others in the group were just as in shock and awe as Yua. To them, such a feat should not be possible. "You would be surprised what the church of the deep is willing to do for Ishar-Mla's favour, Yua. The will of these zealots knows no bounds, they will do anything to please Ishar-Mla. And remember, this has more than likely been here for countless years, built by the cults very first followers. Even I must admit, it's impressive even for them." Ulpianus explained the building to the lung. While the aegir man hated the church of the deep with a passion, even he had to admit that the will the cult had to complete such a feat was truly impressive.
Even though the building in front of them was incredibly majestic, everyone knew that truly unspeakable horrors must have taken place within its walls. Many vile and cruel acts must have been performed here, acts that more than likely would have even disturbed many tyrants and dictators of Terra's past, "All in the name of a God, a God that knows nothing but destruction." The white-haired lung bitterly thought to herself. Yua didn't want to imagine what had taken place here in the past, the very thought nearly made the white-haired lung feel sick to her stomach.
"We need to move quickly. We have to find Skadi. The longer we are here, more people that will be dying on the surface. Let's go." Irene didn't want to wait around any longer. The liberi didn't want anymore of her fellow countrymen to die. They had to find the future aegir as soon as possible to prevent anymore deaths. Everyone pushed on towards the temple with Ulpianus leading the group. As they got closer however, a blast of magic began flying towards the group. "Everyone! Take cover!" The aegir man screamed at his allies.
Everyone else took cover where they could to avoid being hit. The blast of magic flew past everyone and hit the cavern wall behind them. Ulpianus looked towards the direction where the attack came from, the aegir man could see many people rapidly exiting the temple. "It's the church of the deep! Not doubt they are here to stop us from reaching Skadi! To arms!" Ulpianus bellowed out to everyone. The rest of the group had their weapons at the ready. W, Amiya, Shirayuki, Andreana, Mostima, and Fiammetta all began to launch their respective attacks to give cover to their allies.
"Everybody! Get behind me!" Hoshiguma shouted as she place her shield up in a defensive position. All of the close range fighters got behind the green-haired oni, Hoshiguma was going to use her shield as protection to get the others closer to the cult while the ranged fighters used their attacks to give them cover. The green-haired oni began moving forward with the rest behind her. Hoshiguma could feel the attacks hit her shield and several other attacks going over her head and also hitting the ground around her feet.
But the green-haired oni wasn't going to falter or stop, doing so would not only be fatal for her, but for her comrades as well. They would be sitting liberi's if they stopped now. More attacks kept hitting her shield, but Hoshiguma kept marching forward. She kept going until she felt another attack hit her shield, but this didn't feel like magic. This attack felt like an object had struck. Hoshiguma knew she was now in range.
Using her shield, the oni bashed whoever was in front of her and sent them flying. The other close range fighters then burst from behind Hoshiguma and began to engage the church of the deep cultists themselves. The range fighters kept up with their own attacks, now with the other group fighting the cult, the fight began to shift in the favour of Ch'en's team. More cultists poured out from the entrance but the blue-haired lung and Yua who were fighting as a pair intercepted them. Even against superior numbers, the teamwork and skill of the two lungs was too much for the cultists to deal with. And even if they weren't picked off by either Ch'en or Yua, someone else would take out whatever cultists that had managed to get past the two.
The fighting was brutal for the priests. Despite being some of the most powerful members of the church of the deep, they were simply no match for Ch'en and the rest. Ulpianus was especially vicious with the priests, the aegir man was using his full power against them. He was not holding back. These zealots were in between himself and his goal of saving who he saw as his daughter, Ulpianus showed no mercy as he cut through every priest in his sights. Specter and Gladiia joined Ulpianus in his slaughter, Gladiia was as cold as ice as she used her power to tear the priests apart. Laurentina's clothes were nearly completely crimson by the time she was finished fighting the cult. Her weapon was also heavily stained red and blood was dripping from the end of it, Specter took great pleasure in massacring the church of the deep cultists.
When the fight was finished, the cavern floor was littered with bodies that belonged to the church of the deep. The smell of iron lingered in the air, pools of blood began to form around the corpses. While Yua only killed as a last resort and detested having to do it, even the white-haired lung didn't feel any sorrow or shame for what she had to do. In her mind, these people were just as guilty as the future Skadi for the deaths of so many innocent people, both in this timeline and her own. Now that the church of the deep was out of the way, only one more person remained that stood between herself and saving the doctor...
"Skadi..."
The white-haired lung looked towards the entrance of the temple. Within those halls, the future aegir was waiting for them. Yua was so close to finally ending her nightmare, so close to finally bringing justice upon the one who had destroyed her world and killed her loved ones. They had a plan, now was the time to enact it. Yua and everyone else knew that they wouldn't get another chance to stop the future aegir. If they failed now, then Terra was sure to fall at the hands of the future aegir.
Ch'en wanted everyone to regroup before they headed inside the ancient temple. Once the others who had been providing cover had caught up with the blue-haired lung and the rest. They then all walked inside together, ready to face the future Skadi. Once inside the temple, everyone found themselves in a huge room, dotted with many monuments and wall carvings. No doubt in worship to Ishar-Mla.
What really caught everyone's attention, was a flight of stairs that had an alter at the top. Everybody could see that an individual was lying down on said alter, it didn't take long for everyone who recognised the coat that this individual was wearing to know who it was. "Father!!" Yua screamed out when the white-haired lung could see the alien man. Yua began to run up the flight of stairs, she was quickly followed by Ch'en and Amiya. When Yua reached the alter, the white-haired lung could see her father's eyes were closed. Yua didn't know if he was still alive and began to check for a pulse.
Yua put two fingers to her father's neck, the lung let out a sigh of relief when she managed to locate one. Seeing that the alien man was still alive, Yua began to shake him to try to get him to wake up, "Father! Wake up! It's me, Yua! Please father, wake up! You have to wake up! Please!" The white-haired lung shouted at the man while shaking him in an attempt to wake him up. But no matter how much Yua shouted or shook him, the alien man didn't respond to his future daughter. He was in a deep sleep.
Yua kept trying, but soon a voice that she knew well put a halt to her efforts, "The doctor will not wake up. Not while he is under my spell, Yua." The voice told the lung. Looking at where the voice came from, the white-haired lung could see an individual step out from the shadows. Yua knew exactly who this was. The white-haired lung stepped away from her father and put her sword up. Ch'en and Amiya could also see who it was and got into battle stances. The cautus had her magic ready in her hand, she was ready to attack if necessary.
From the shadows, the future Skadi stepped forward. Everyone else at the bottom of the stairs saw the future aegir, they too prepared themselves for battle.
The final battle...the battle for Terra's very future...was about to commence...