Cladia’s voice was bright. “Well done! He was my last Archlord before you showed up.”
“He needs a break.”
“He’ll sleep when he’s dead. Which would have been about now, without you.”
Mercy’s hands tightened on Suu, which hissed its eagerness. “Let’s go faster.”
“Too risky. A reasonable pace and we can hang on until your friends lend us support.” The Sage’s voice was strained, and Mercy could feel her spirit spreading all over the battlefield. She was making a rational decision, but Cladia Arelius was surely feeling more desperate than anyone else.
Her people needed help.
And something whispered to Mercy that she could help them. She could push further. She could shine more brightly.
“How about an unreasonable pace?”
The Sage let out a breath. “Hold for instructions.”
Mercy killed a few seconds by launching arrows into some cloudships. The shots were stopped by aura barriers, but at least that would deplete the madra powering the scripts.
“All right, Akura. I can’t move you too fast with a gentle touch. You’ll have to let me know when you’re hitting your limits.”
Mercy leaned forward. “I’ll try to find them!”
She shot off, propelled by wind aura and Strings of Shadow, and the Sage of a Thousand Eyes guided her. Mercy passed through formations in a flicker of darkness, disrupting them for long enough that a coordinated volley of Striker techniques from Arelius artists landed. She disrupted pockets of resistance, destroyed key weapons, and blunted attacks heading for vulnerable positions.
To her, it was a blur of speed. She pushed herself faster and faster, until the Sage had to give her one-word commands backed with illustrations from the floating eyes.
As Mercy fought, more eyes gathered around her as the Sage’s directions became more complex. She passed over the battle like the fall of night, changing everything.
And as she did, she gathered more and more eyes.
Until she finally ran out of madra. She stopped, panting and eyes spinning, as the banners of House Shen retreated.
Around her, the eyes of the Oracle Sage were gathered so thick that they burned like a sunrise.
The communication construct in her ear cracked and fell apart, but Cladia Arelius appeared at her side anyway. “I saw that we were gathering to meet one of Eithan’s students, but…well, speaking honestly, I didn’t think it would be you.”
Mercy was leaning heavily on Suu in its staff form, but she waved a black-clad hand. “You could have done it without me.”
“Three Archlords, fourteen Overlords, thirty-two Underlords, and about a thousand Golds,” Cladia recited.
“Are those the losses?”
“That’s how many more sacred artists House Shen had than we did. Not counting…” the Oracle Sage pointed to the battle between Sages and Heralds, which still raged in the sky. “Add a Herald to that list. Now, they’re the ones retreating.” Cladia bowed to Mercy at the waist. “Thank you. For the lives of my family.”
Mercy’s face heated, but she still felt the thrill of the battle. “It feels good,” she admitted.
“It should.” Blue eyes met Mercy’s, and the Sage gave a gentle smile. “You remind me of your mother.”
Mercy stiffened.
“Not as she is now. That would not be a compliment. But as she was, long ago. If that woman had looked into the future and seen that she would have a daughter like you, she would have bragged to no end.”
Mercy’s eyes misted, and she wiped them with the back of her hand.
“Now,” the Oracle Sage continued, “let’s finish this battle.”
15
For Yushi, the battle had started as an annoyance and was rapidly becoming downright frightening.
The forces of House Shen she had brought here at great expense were being driven off behind her back by the guidance of the Oracle Sage. Always, the Sage of a Thousand Eyes was an annoying opponent, but she had a clear weakness: straightforward combat. Many ordinary Archlords could match her one-for-one.
She was dangerous as an advisor and a tactical coordinator, so the more of her attention she had to waste defending herself, the more useless she became.
Yushi and Calling Storms together were able to keep her in check, and they had been about to destroy the remaining powers of House Arelius with minimal losses.
Even when Yerin and Ziel had showed up, she’d thought there was little to worry about. They were young and new to their advancements, so eventually they would lose to their more experienced counterparts. Likewise, House Shen was stronger in every way than House Arelius, even with the presence of the Oracle Sage.
The first problem had been the Akura girl. With a combat-capable Archlady to work as her hands and feet, Cladia had become a much more dangerous opponent. They had turned the battle on the ground much more than Yushi had expected.
Even so, that wouldn’t have been enough. It would pressure them a bit, but Yushi and the Storm Sage could impact the battle while fighting.
Or that should have been the case.
Yerin’s strength was out of the ordinary, even for Heralds, but her Moonlight Bridge was exhausted and Yushi was quick. Yerin should have been simple enough to drive away.
If not for those sword-strikes that drained color from the world.
They carried a depth of authority that frightened Yushi, despite Yerin not being a Sage. Every black-and-white slash from Yerin seemed to carry a decree from Fate.
It would definitely land.
And it would absolutely kill.
If Yerin had perfected such a technique, Yushi would have been dead already, but the idea of someone Yerin’s age mastering such a profound technique was laughable. Even so, Yushi was feeling more pressure than she ever thought possible.
Yerin’s attacks felt like they came from a Herald centuries old.
Yushi needed the Storm Sage’s backup, and at first, she expected that he was playing around. As was his tendency.
Ziel, after all, had advanced even more recently than Yerin. His authority was clearly unstable, and his core was empty or close to it.
But the Storm Sage’s frustration was transforming to blind fury in real time.
Ziel was too strong.
In terms of physical strength alone, he was a match for a newly advanced Herald. What had happened? Had Lindon figured out how to feed the man a Dreadgod?
And even without madra, Ziel could operate his Divine Treasure to some degree. Whenever the Sage was about to catch him, he surrounded himself with rings of silver runes.
Reality twisted around him, and he slipped aside. With the acceleration of his time script, he couldn’t be caught, and locking the Storm Sage in place for a moment was a guaranteed way to kill him.
Calling Storms could regenerate even from total destruction, but of course there was a limit to the Divine Treasure that allowed it. Not even Monarchs had truly unrestricted regeneration.
What Yushi and Calling Storms had expected to be a quick battle was turning into a drawn-out grind with their lives on the line. That had never been part of their calculation.
The tide of battle turning against their forces only sped up their deadline.
As she felt House Shen beginning to retreat, Yushi sent a coded message to the Storm Sage telling him to flee.
It pained her pride, but this battlefield wasn’t worth throwing their lives away. And if the Sage of a Thousand Eyes freed herself to join the battle, it would turn from a slog into an execution.
Calling Storms didn’t respond, but Yushi didn’t wait for him. She flared her wings and dashed away. If he died because he was too enraged to retreat, that was on his own head.
As she shot for the nearest Shen cloudship, she felt a warning in her spirit. A lance of light madra blasted at her, and she managed to twist her head aside at the last second.
Yushi glared at the source of the Striker technique.
Cladia Arelius gave her a distant, vague smile. More balls of light were forming around her.