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Readers who enjoy the premise of a strong main character like Ei will definitely like my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Essos
Braavos
Ei gave the signal. Thunder's Call was the first ship to leave the docks of Braavos. Pentos awaited them, and hopefully, with the city's fall, this war would come to a quick end. She did not wish for a prolonged one.
It would just lead to more suffering.
Her divine presence protected the fleet from R'hllor's influence, which got more intense as they approached Pentos. She could see that the situation in the city was chaotic, but piercing through the veil required more power than her sailors would be able to withstand.
They all would see the city soon at any rate.
The sailors and the soldiers were in an excellent mood. The victory in the Narrow Sea and rescuing Braavos, followed by the celebrations, had boosted morale. It would be of great help to them in the days to come.
She was discussing battle plans on the bridge when alarms began to ring. She felt the issue before she saw it. Magic had come alight beneath the waves. Magic that felt similar.
"Your Excellency, monsters are springing out of the sea. Human-shaped with fish characteristics."
She nodded. Kage, Sasayuri, and Chiyo followed her to the deck. Sailors had already taken position, shooting any monster in sight. The sailor's report did not do justice to their hideousness. A thin torso with a bloated stomach, webbed, clawed hands, fins on arms and spine, and a face only an anglerfish could love. Their green and gray scales were slimy and brimming with magic.
Magic that she had witnessed in her battle against Thalkor.
She approached the railing, firing small electric bolts at the monsters. One leaped out of the sea. The bolt left a hole in its head, and it fell down, releasing a black, putrid fluid that stank the sea.
She wrinkled her nose.
Another latched onto the hull, climbing. Two bolts tore its arms off, followed by a larger one that incinerated it. Chiyo's sword glowed with electricity. Her swing released a crescent wave, slicing the monsters in half, cauterizing the flesh to prevent the bleeding.
Sasayuri pulled the string back, calculating the best angle. Shadows darted back and forth beneath the sea. When three monsters leaped out, her charged shot left ashes behind. It fell to the sea, electrifying a small area. Several more bodies floated up, smoking.
The sound of the rifles firing in coordination was followed by the surrounding part of the sea to darken more with the cursed ichor of the monsters.
The ease with which the creatures of the depths fell lulled the men into a sense of safety. Ei, though, could see something far more dangerous was lurking below. The water rose in three spots above the ships before the surface tension broke. Three serpentine heads, each connected to a single body beneath the waves, roared, spraying salty seawater over the ships.
Even the hundred-meter length of Thunder's Call was short compared to these beasts.
The cannons fired without a delay. The crew was trained better than to just gape at the monster. The sharp whine, followed by the electro-orbs impacting the creature, did nothing. The energy harmlessly dissipated in the water through the long necks.
Kage appeared above the middle head, right as it was rearing to attack. She brought her naginata down, severing the head off with brute force. The fallen head simply dissolved into water and was absorbed back by the neck.
The wound bulged.
The head quickly reformed itself, turning around with its maw open. Kage simply flew higher, out of its reach.
Chiyo and Sasayuri destroyed the other two heads, disrupting their attack for a short while.
"Admiral, order all the cannons to stop," she said. Searching for a clear spot in the sea, she leaped and dove in. Once beneath the waves, she flew to the main body of the monster.
Her target was the blue orb surrounded by two spinning crescent-shaped rings on each side. She simply went inside the body and ripped the artifact off. Shooting towards the surface, she looked down at the monster as it struggled to keep its form. So far away from the source of its power, it was me.
She crushed the orb in her palm. The monster stilled for a beat and dissolved back into the sea. With the orb gone, the rings turned into dust, fleeting in the sea wind.
The crawlers, the ones that were alive, fell dead, disintegrating to nothingness.
—
Pentos
If R'hllor's influence was uncomfortably warm winds before, it was an inferno in Pentos. She could feel it latch on every citizen in the city like a parasite. Whatever he had done to the people, they did not even attempt to sail the small fleet from the docks.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Your Excellency, the ships are empty. There aren't any defenders on the docks either."
"This smells like a trap."
"Sink one ship close to the docks."
Admiral Stanford saluted. He activated the internal communication system, ordering the gunners to fire at a target he had chosen. The massive barrels moved, firing at the largest ship in the dock.
It exploded with far more force than the electro orbs should have caused. Half of the mast shot up to the sky and broke through the deck of a nearby ship, triggering a secondary explosion.
"Ships are packed with explosives."
Ei reached for the communicator, pressing on the red button. "All ships, fire free. Sink the enemy fleet."
The ships of the Royal Navy repositioned for maximum efficiency. When they fired as one, the sky over the enemy fleet was painted purple. The ensuing symphony of orange and purple set the docks on fire.
The guns fell silent quickly. The enemy fleet was naught but sinking wrecks and burning planks floating on water.
She gave the order to advance. The warmachines would be offloaded first. They were sturdy enough to walk through enemy traps. Under the protection of the battleships, the troop carriers closed in on the docks.
The bay doors opened.
A mechanical bridge was extended over the water into the stone parts of the dock, and the first warmachine drove forward. The sound of an explosion was accompanied by a cannon ball striking the heavy armor.
It left a small dent, spinning inside the indentation for a second, and fell on the ground, rolling away. The warmachine's turret bore down on where the fire had come from after a beat of silence. The purple electro orb struck the second floor of an inn. The explosion shattered the windows, setting the entire structure on fire.
The machine moved once again, on the lookout for further ambushes. It wasn't alone for long, as more warmachines followed, clearing the way for the infantry. The enemy had moved cannons to the upper floors of buildings, creating a network of traps.
The warmachine suffered dents that would need repairs, but it had prevented the loss of troops.
—
"Where are the civilians?" Chiyo asked. Except for the defenders, the city appeared to be abandoned.
"I do not know," Ei replied. "R'hllor's presence is too much to pierce through without harming the soldiers."
She turned to her general. "Sasayuri, send search teams. See if we can find any sign of the civilians."
"At once."
—
"How exactly are you not sweating like us?" Lothar muttered, wiping the sweat gathering on his forehead. Even in summer, his home in the old town was never this warm.
Anders grinned at his comrades. "This is nothing compared to Dorne. PT in desert heat could make even a pig sweat."
"Lucky you," Olyvar drawled. Fieldmaster Adder gave the signal, and he turned the handle, pushing the door open. Anders, Lothar, and Raymont pointed and raised their rifles, seeking hostiles.
Moving slowly towards the living room, they all freeze for a second.
"Fuck," Lothar cursed, taking a step back. His stomach churned at the charred corpses that were still somehow twitching on their knees.
"By the kitsune's will," Mathis said, grabbing the purple three-comma and white fox pins on his jacket.
"Fieldmaster, what do we do?" Anders asked, turning to his superior.
Raymont raised his rifle, shooting the child first, and then the parents. "We leave and report this. Move, now."
—
The tengu's wings fluttered. "Ei, it doesn't look good. We are getting constant reports of civilians burned inside out, but still somehow alive."
"Have they been put out of their misery?"
"Yes, the soldiers shot them in mercy."
"What do we do now?" Chiyo asked. The city had hundreds of thousands. If they all suffered the same fate, it was a massacre on a scale rarely seen.
"If there aren't any civilians, then there is no need to hold Pentos. This is a ghost city, no use to the enemy."
"I do not think the soldiers will want to stay here either."
"Send the most mentally prepared units. Have them clear the houses. We couldn't save them, but at least we can grant them the mercy of death."
—
The mercy of Pentos would be a grim record in the history books. When the Royal Navy docked in the capital of the Valyrian Empire, all they found was a pocket of resistance and burnt living corpses.
The estimated numbers were nowhere near the known total population of the city, leaving hopes that the rest of the civilians had somehow survived.
—
With no enemy to be fought in Pentos, the Royal Navy set sail once more. The Temple of the Lord of Light lay on Volantis. Whether Maegor Targaryen was there or not did not matter. Her target was the one who had enabled all this butchery.
Her blade would cleave R'hllor into a thousand pieces for his deeds.
The men's morale had taken a beating, and for that, Ei decided to give a speech.
She pressed the red button, gathering herself.
"I do not like war. All the suffering, chaos, naught, and death are not worth the fleeting glory. Yet, to protect ourselves and protect our families waiting for us at home, we must fight."
"We did not seek this war; Targaryens and R'hllor did. However, we will be the ones to finish it. Not only for the safety of the Kingdom, but also to put an end to these horrific acts."
"Fight, not for me, but for the people you cherish."
There was no grand applause, no cheers, but solemn resolve.
—
The path to Volantis included Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys.
She could not be sure whether they suffered the same fate as Pentos. There was only one way to learn. Myr was the first destination out of the three. Once one of the most advanced of the Free Cities with its arts and learning, its glamour had faded in the years following the Targaryen conquest.
Countless investments by the dragonlords had tried to recapture the glory of the golden days to varying degrees of success in each field. Regardless, Ei knew the city had progressed much from the days of the conquest.
Today, however, it appeared abandoned.
She would have ordered the fleet to turn back had they not had to investigate the city. A magical pulse originated from the center of the city. The sudden blast of air reached the fleet. Several sailors lost their caps as a result.
What was taking place in the city made them forget the headwear.
The castle in the center, composed of almost a dozen tall, white towers, rose from the ground. It stood there, floating. Before their eyes, it pulled the rest of the city to itself.
Homes, towers, walls, temples, every single building came off. The earth quaked, and the tremors shook the fleet back and forth.
Where once the vibrant city stood was a single, mountain-sized boulder.
The rays of earthly brown glow poured out of the cracks. The outer layer of the boulder exploded in a blinding show of light. Ei lowered her hand once the glare passed. Two legs and arms extended out of the boulder, and a face appeared at the top.
The white towers stood impaled on the square head, a parody of a crown. Buildings it had absorbed stood on its back, creating an armor of cement, metal, and stone. I roared, shaking the air.
Maegor, or R'hllor, she was not sure at this point, had used another artifact, desecrating the city to form this golem.
Admiral Stanford gave the order for the fleet to pull back. They could destroy the city-sized monster, eventually, but unless they were ordered to, they would not risk their ships.
Ei let her head fall forward. Her hand went to her chest, ready to pull Musou Isshin and destroy this abomination. A hand was laid on her shoulder.
"I got this," Chiyo said, giving her a pat. She began to stretch.
"Can you throw me at it?"
"Chiyo, this is unnecessary."
"You are doing everything. I feel really useless here."
"Very well," Ei conceded. She grasped the offered arm. With a spin, she launched Chiyo right at the city golem.
—
She landed on the golem's arm, crashing through several buildings before stopping. She pushed the rubble on her off, dusting herself.
The golem most likely had a core, just like the sea serpent. It glowed through the cracks that had not fused. She knew just how to get to it.
She planted her left foot forward, lowering her center of gravity. She pushed her right foot off with all her strength. The backblast left a crater, and she shot off towards the golem's head.
The world blurred.
The mismatch of buildings made navigation difficult. Rather than parkour around, she simply broke through walls. Every collision tore through stone, ripped metal apart, momentarily slowing her.
She only pushed harder.
It realized something was wrong. Smaller golems, entirely out of stone, appeared in her path. Chiyo did not draw her sword. They were either too slow to catch her or too brittle to stand in her path. She rampaged through, roaring with laughter.
A shadow blotted out the sun. The golem was bringing down its other hand on her. She could dodge it, but the shockwave would definitely catch up to her.
She grinned, running to the end of the fallen tower fused to the golem. Leaping at the very last second, she slipped through the massive gap between the rectangular, city-block-sized fingers.
And kept running.
The rebounding shockwaves traveled up the left arm. She simply outran them, still grinning. Reaching the elbow section, she drew her sword. Her vision glowed and she jumped. When she began to spin, the electric energy wrapped around her, turning her into an oni-drill.
Right above the segment where there were no buildings, a single, dark-purple beam extended out. The stone gave way to divine lightning. The entire forearm fell off, the edges of the cuts glowing orange.
The golem reared, not in pain, but at the sudden loss of magic it suffered.
Plowing through a section of the city's wall lengthwise, facing forward, Chiyo held her hands out. Her palms struck the ground, directing all the energy she had, carving a hole through the stone. She pushed herself out midway, continuing to run.
"This is so fun," she screamed to herself. All of Saiguu's little experiments had proven to be useful after all.
—
In the next chapter:
The gates were shut, and the mechanism was jammed. Chiyo wrapped her hands around the bars and pulled. The wall shook with each attempt. The metal bent, and the third pull ripped the gate four times her height off the wall.
She stumbled back and laid the gate on the side.
Inside the city, chaos reigned.
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