Chapter 92: Arc 6: Angel Fall (3)

Like any Authority, Yume’s ability over angelic creation was dangerous in its nuance.

He could assign the angel with almost any aspect of Mana and physical parameters possible. He could even imbue his creation with unique Divinity. The only limit was the Lord of Heaven’s creativity and the material at hand.

Normally, getting a sample of Divinity — the corpse of a Divine being — was nigh impossible. Divine entities needed the incubation of conceptual power and ample planetary will to be created. Etaceh had tried her hand at this project, and she considered it unfeasible. The most egregious flaw was time. She was confident she could make an artificial planetary will and gather conceptual power with at least twenty years of research.

Just because she was smart to create a Divine creature didn’t mean she had a time in the decade to do the deed. It was a sore point for Etaceh because she fully believed her rivals with brains like Sophia and Anastasia would already have a Divine Beast at their beck and call by now. Mad as she was, Etaceh could take the solace that few Lords possessed the intellect to create a Divinity. Certainly, her neighbor of Borbonsi and Maximus couldn’t.

But it appeared Etaceh’s estimation was way off the mark.

…

In the burning wreckage of Hecate. A muscular thing walked through the flames. Pavement and man-made structure blackened and rotted with each step it took. From the flickering images Etaceh received, she believed the creature to be male—a very androgynous male with lush golden hairs. 

The creature was hardened in its body, crafted like steel. Golden accessories — bangles, belts and braids — glittered in the sun. A white tunic wrapped around the shapely waist. With the face of the grandest artistry, this humanoid beauty would seduce any gender at first glance. Perfect feature to shame the golden ratio aside, there was one flaw to rouse suspicion in any onlookers; the blindfolded eyes. The creature continued its trek through the flames. Golden shoes clinked amid the smoking gravel and flames, heralding the monster march of domination.

Etaceh didn’t know what it was, but the energy signature arising from it proved its Divinity. She did the proper thing and launched every available automaton down on it.

The army of machines began its attack. Lethal mystic burst and explosive shell dropped on the androgynous creature with enough numbers to cover every inch of the eyes. Unperturbed and unmoved, a crimson lightning lanced out of the creature, flashing through the shelling.

The volley of attack ignited midair.

In return, spheres of Black Mana rose behind the creature and launched toward the automaton army like a cannonball. The barrages of Slaughters combed through waves after waves of automata. Refusing to let up the pressure of violence, the Divine beings raised its hand and summoned the swallowing sphere of Black Mana, crushing everything else confronting it like a blackhole.

More automatons, the endless armies of machines, came to the fray. They were met with the same fate as ants in a flood. Through waves of flames, the rising of the volatile earth, and the light of White Magic, the robotic armies were swept like ants. Flames licked across the city that was torn in half, spilling innards of rocks, pipes, and cables. It was the image of Etaceh worst nightmare. 

In a twist of karmic justice, the unfeeling Golem was destroyed. Just like they annihilated the resistance in Eleanor, Maximus’s messenger showed no mercy to the machine army. Within thirty minutes since the barrier broke, all that remained are scrap metals cleansed through the fire of the Divine creatures and the army of Angel at its calling. 

Such was the might of the Seraphim, Maximus’ greatest Angel, born from the incubation of the Archangel Authority across generations. With three different Manas on top of Maximus’ favor of White, the Seraphim was dubbed Trina, and it was here to remove Hecate from the face of the Eastern. 

The swarm of Angels floating above, and the Seraphim waiting below turned toward the towering Magic Tower standing at the city center.

With a step, Trina grew the giant sacred tree, sending it to attack the Magic Tower like the stretching arm of the devil.

…

Etaceh didn’t need to look at the coming arm to understand her major base was finished.

With over 95% of the flying fortress destroyed, her main base was unsalvageable. This entire development caught her by surprises. It never occurred to her she might be cornered before making it to Maximus, but she wasn’t unprepared.

There was a protocol to deal with this.

In the unlikely chance that Hecate was overrun, Etaceh designed the Magic Tower for a clean getaway. The 34 generators powering Hecate were integrated directly beneath the base of her tower with a quick disengaging system. Etaceh could detach her most important asset the moment things turned south. Even better, the Magic Tower was more than meets the eyes.

Before the vegetation could bring down the Lord of Mechanical Magic, the towering building shuddered and hissed. Its crystalline wings formed into steering fins. Countless internal combustion engines aligned.

With the flip of a lever, the Magic Tower launched from the razed city like a rocket shooting to the moon. No. The building was a rocket through and through. Etaceh, obeying her awesome but impractical design-sense, designed her main headquarters into a flight-capable rocket-ship from the inception. Like the missile, heading to start a war, the Magic Tower flew away from the wreckage, accelerating toward a hypersonic speed.

Even the golden-haired Seraphim was stunned by the incomprehensible engineering extremity. The army of Angel at his command attempted to fire at the rocket, but a dozen of sensory-jamming flares made aiming impossible.

Inside the rocketing Magic Tower, Etaceh was shoved against her throne with her cheek by the G-Force. Internally, she was hollering for her daring escape into the cloud. Had the G-force didn’t shove the word back under her throat the Prime Intelligentsia would already erupt into obscenity not like sport jock pumped on drug, adrenalin and violence.

The flying fortress called Hecate had fallen, but its master wasn’t out of the game yet.

…

Inside the Residence of Lord, Betty was flawed by her nemesis escape tactic.

She watched the familiar building go to the stratosphere with her jaw hanging and her brain empty. Her mind simply could process the concept. The scene was so absurd that the Sorceress of Athenaeum mentally scrolled through any hallucinogen she might have consumed.

With Amy’s food out of the question, and their drinking water being eliminated from suspicion, Betty  admitted under duress from reality that Etaceh built a rocket right under her nose and kept it wrapped for two years.

“Am I an idiot for not noticing?” Betty wondered aloud. “That thing is a rocket all along? Who let that bitch build a rocket right beside the castle?” She blinked. “Oh right, Spade.” She recalled her late cousin. “But how the heck did I miss the parts?”

Betty would have thrown the question at nobody for the entire afternoon if not for Caislean intervention.

The secretary of the house popped into the Sorceress’ private domain.

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“Betty,” Caislean said. “The meeting is about to start in the [Workshop].”

Betty blinked.

“What is wrong with our normal meeting room?”

“The archaic one?” Caislean closed her eyes, struggling to find the words to explain this strange circumstance. “Well, let’s say Ciel wouldn’t be able to pry himself from the lad. He mentioned something about ‘the accumulation of artifact research’ and ‘Battle-suit 2.0.”

Betty’s head perked at the suggestion.

Ciel’s artifact and the Battle-suit he invented were already legendary. They represented the peak of innovation and design Acceltra had seen. Betty scarcely believed anything could exceed those national treasure heritage of wonders Ciel crafted.

It turned out she wasn’t the only one with this opinion.

…

“Ciel wants to upgrade our suit again?” Xia said. “Can it even be upgraded at this point?”

Betty half-agreed with her sister. Surprising, or not, it was the newest member of the Residence who had the most faith in Ciel’s ability to innovate. 

“Who know?” Carolina shrugged. “I never used the Battle-suit myself, but he should know more about this subject than anyone. I believe he is the most qualified person to make the judgment. I don’t know why he has to keep us waiting outside the lab.”

Hikari nodded.

The four main fighting forces of the Residence; Hikari, Xia, Betty and Carolina were discussing the matter in the Residence's corridor, which had fully assimilated the oriental nature of the Harriett House. Aside from Carolina, who had a more occultist taste in old bricks and marbles, everyone was alright with the sandalwood and sliding wooden panels.

The conversation continued.

“Hey,” Betty turned toward Carolina. “Do you know the Magic Tower is also a rocket?”

Carolina laughed for three painful seconds before it dawned that Betty wasn’t joking.

“Are you serious? That building is a rocket?”

“She just blasted off after Maximus sent an angelic executioner after her,” Betty confirmed.

Carolina couldn’t believe it, “That is insane. How did she build a rocket right under our nose?”

“Can’t say I'm surprised,” Xia said. “Did you forget she turned the entire capital into a flying fortress while you two are living inside it?”

“Those are infrastructure projects,” Carolina argued and pointed at Betty. “She is the one who approves of it!”

“You are the one who was supposed to keep her under surveillance,” Betty threw the blame back.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that,” Carolina argued. “Those reports were verified.”

Hikari was the one who suggested the way out.

“Is it possible that Spade La Louve doctored the document?”

Silence.

“It is probably Spade,” Betty admitted.

“Yeah,” Carolina nodded and helped throw the late monarch of Curtis under the bus. “Spade did mess a lot with the paperwork, and Hunter wasn't a tech genius.”

“But how did Etaceh build that rocket with no one knowing any better?” Xia said. “Is it that easy to move a rocket part across the street?”

“That is what I am thinking,” Betty said. “Is it that easy to move the rocket engine across the street?”

Hikari provided the solution again.

“Maybe she assembled it in-house.”

It was then that the door to Ciel’s workshop exploded, jarring all four from their debate.

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