Silence.
No one moved from the small circle that had formed—the circle that had once held the Pirate King, but no longer. In less than a moment, he had vanished, and there had been nothing they could do. In his place was the bloody corpse of a fallen pirate.
The soldiers slowly lowered their weapons, uncertainty plaguing their features. Red couldn't blame them. Just as fast as the battle had started, it was already over. The Pirate King had come and gone, taking Zara with him. Red clenched his fists as he dropped his gun back into his jacket.
Silas growled, "Damn it all. Just when we almost had him."
He was right, of course, but the Pirate King had almost just had them as well. That was what made his sudden disappearance all the more aggravating. They had been at a disadvantage, and all of them had fought through it by the skin of their teeth.
The hopeless situation had turned around into one of victory. Only it really wasn't victory because the villain who perpetuated it all escaped. In the end, all of the fighting had been pointless if their goal went beyond simple survival.
"All of you, back to your stations, move it. After this failed attack, I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the pirates strike any minute. Without Zara, we need to be prepared when they do," Silas commanded, his tone gruff as he tried to hide his own outrage at the Pirate King's escape.
The soldiers shifted uncomfortably and slowly began moving away towards their various duties. Most of them seemed to walk in a haze, clearly wanting to know more about what had just happened. There wasn't time, however, and Red suspected that Silas was correct. Now that the Pirate King had failed, they would do whatever it took to support the gearborn.
With the soldiers gone, Silas finally glanced down at his wounded side. It was in bad shape after all the attacks, and he desperately needed it treated so it could heal in time for the next fight.
He turned to do just that, but as he did so, everyone remaining froze. A flash of purple light suddenly whisked in front of them. Vizim flinched so badly that he nearly fell over. Red had his gun out before he knew what was happening.
"Hold," Derrin and Silas said simultaneously.
Red did as he stared at the strange ball of glowing purple light before them. If it hadn't appeared directly in front of them, he would have likely missed it completely. The purple mist hovered in the shape of a massive eye as it turned between the four of them. It seemed to give Red's shockblaster a brief glance before turning away.
"What is that thing?" Vizim managed.
"This is Iris," Silas said, narrowing his eyes. "She's Zara's summon."
Red could sense the man's unease flowing off him in waves. He understood the man's concerns. If Zara's summon was here, alone, then something was likely wrong.
Iris seemed to tilt slightly, as if confirming this. Then it began to blink. Red was confused at first. The blinking seemed to be some sort of strange pattern that he didn't understand or wasn't able to read. After a moment, the eye stopped, and Silas nodded as if he understood.
"What did she say?" Red asked, "And how do you know what she's saying in the first place?"
Silas scowled, and it was Derrin who responded, "She is talking through code. Each sea has its own pattern, but the general idea is that each series of blinks represents a letter. It's difficult to transfer large messages, but short ones are easy enough."
"But what did she say?" Vizim repeated his earlier question.
Iris was already blinking again as she began relaying her next message.
"She said," Derrin took a moment, "She said that the gearborn has captured Zara but is still alive, but barely."
Red ground his teeth at those words. Just like that, their most powerful ally was gone and out of the fight. Red had experienced firsthand what the gearborn prisons were like. They wouldn't make the same mistake with Zara as they had with him. She would be shackled in mist suppressants to prevent her from regenerating her mist. If that wasn't the only thing they were doing, she'd be a treasure trove of information that the gearborn could not pass up.
Derrin continued as Iris finished blinking again, "She says that there are many strong gearborn, including one that was much stronger than Zara was."
Silas shook his head. "With Zara out of commission, we could certainly use your assistance. Any support you offer could be…"
Iris shook herself and began rapidly blinking again.
"She says she can't stray too far from Zara, or her spirit will begin to fade. With Zara suppressed, she is already using far too much of herself to simply get this far away. None of that matters now, though, because the fort is going to be attacked. We need to evacuate before the attack comes so that they can all survive what is to come."
"We can defend against whatever those traitorous pirates throw our way. Nothing they have tried broke through this fort, and nothing they try will," Silas growled confidently.
"Not pirates that will be attacking… Gearborn are planning to destroy the entire fort without…" Derrin froze his translation midway through as he registered the words himself.
Silas took a step back in rage? Fear? Red wasn't sure.
It didn't matter because he was already running.
There wasn't time. If the gearborn were attacking, they needed to get the shields activated immediately. If they attacked before that happened, everything would be over…and they'd all likely be dead.
As he ran, the smell of electricity suddenly hit him like a battering ram, nearly causing him to stumble. The strength of the tingle was so strong it made him want to keel over and hold his head.
But he didn't stop.
He couldn't stop, or everyone was going to die.
The door slammed open as Red rushed inside the most important building in the entire fort. He hadn't been inside since Zara had shown him and Vizim how everything worked. There had been no need to investigate it further, and there had never been any reason to activate what was housed within.
Until today.
Red didn't know how much time he had, if any. The smell of electricity was already so overpowering it made him want to pass out. He knew that whenever it hit, it would only be moments before destruction arrived. It had seemed so long since that smell had signified Ayjax's arrival and rescue from the gearborn. Now it signaled the opposite.
The room he entered was enormous and dug deep into the center of the fort. The building curled around in a circle, leading to the massive device in the center. It was similar in make to Vizim's own shielding device. Except, it was also nothing like what Vizim had manufactured.
While Vizim's device had been powerful and ingenious even, it was also very patchwork. He was constantly having to fix things that he hadn't accounted for when he was newer to engineering. In the end, that meant that most of Vizim's creation looked unprofessional, to say the least.
That wasn't meant as an insult to Vizim, though. It was actually much the opposite. The simple fact that something so makeshift had been crafted by a beginner and functioned was incredible.
This device was not makeshift, and it was not unprofessional. Everything about it spoke volumes to the minds that had gone into the creation of the device. A sleek black cylinder was housed in the center of massive glowing wires. All of this circulated the room to help dissipate the sheer load that would come from activating the machine.
Unlike Vizim's design, which focused heavily on cooling, this machine was designed to never face that problem. There was so much power and so much space for that power to travel that it shouldn't have needed to face an issue like Vizim's had.
With so much more space in an open fort like on Rim, the designers could afford to spread the machine out instead of jam-packing it all in a central chamber in the base of a ship.
Red didn't take more than a moment before he simply leaped over the side of the railing leading to the cylinder. He slammed into the floor with a thunk and began rushing towards the machine to activate it.
At the same time, the ground shook, and he was thrown bodily across the room. It felt like being aboard Cairen's ship all over again. Except this time, he was on solid ground.
There wasn't time for him to laze about unconsciously on the floor either. He didn't want to keep moving even as the ground rocked beneath him. The smell of electricity had momentarily faded upon entering the building, but now it was up in full force again. The smell stung his nose and throat, making him gasp for air.
Reaching across the room as the ground thundered, Red slammed down on the lever on the wall. The device didn't require as much activation to get it up and running as Vizim's. One simple flick and it would begin activation.
The activation couldn't come fast enough. Red wobbled as the ground rocked again. For the first time, he heard the sounds of shattering buildings, even through the sounds of machines firing up.
The door crashed open a moment later, and Vizim came stumbling inside. He gasped as he tried to catch his breath, but there was nothing he could do anyway.
The cylinder hummed with power, and then a wave of light exploded outwards. It passed through Red first, who was standing closest. A moment later, it hit Vizim, causing him to stumble back in surprise. From there, the wave disappeared beyond the building.
They were safe… for the moment at least.
Even as the shield bubble expanded, Red could already see numerous cores activating along the walls. They were all turning on to siphon their power into the massive machine as necessary. Already, nearly a third of them were on to simply get the shield to cover the entire fort. But more were flashing on fast.
"It's on?" Vizim gasped, stating the obvious.
"I don't know how long it's going to hold," Red said as he finally felt the smell of electricity begin to fade.
His gaze was firmly locked on the slowly draining cores. Each passing moment, another of the myriad cores blinked to life as its energy was drained away. Already, the first cores that had been activated were dying out; their energy was totally drained away.
Each of the cores was worth an incredible amount of money. The simple operation of the shield bubble was likely costing the Valencian military thousands each passing second. Red turned and began dragging himself back up the stairs. He paused for a moment as he eyed the machine.
It would be the last time he saw it; he knew that with certainty. Whatever bombardment their enemies were currently doing, it was draining away the power much too quickly. Red didn't know how long it would be before the shield failed, but it couldn't be more than five minutes. There was no more time.
"Vizim, we need to go at once…"
He paused as a fluttering of purple appeared in the door. Iris hovered there, studying the machine. She only paid Red and Vizim a passing glance before vanishing the same way she had come. Red wondered whether the strange eye spirit could still transfer any information to Zara. If she could, then their chances of success increased significantly.
Vizim gasped as he tried to speak.
"Success, right…" he muttered to himself.
As they spoke, the very fort around them was crumbling. The most important location on the island… besides whatever mystery lay beneath was being lost. Any chances of success seemed to be crumbling with the fort.
Pulling Vizim to his feet, the pair rushed out the door into the smoke and rubble beyond. There was little to no time before the enemy bombardment began again, and when it did, everything here would be gone.