"Can I see?" Ikaris approached Sol after he had suddenly left the meeting they were having in preparation for the coming armada and gone to the very tip of the great ship, closing his eyes and resting his hands on a singular railing that went all across the front separating the screen to the outside from the hull.
"Come." Sol without looking at his wife took her hand and led her to stand before him, leaning onto her and hugging her from behind while she too closed her eyes and began smiling.
"What are they doing?" Jun asked, although she had already been given a minor role she still opted to follow Dina who was a mage like herself with a lot of similarities to her as well.
"Couldn't it just be that they're enjoying a nice moment together?" Dina raised a brow at her but the woman stared back defiantly. "Come on, Master and Ikaris have always shown their affection for each other publicly." She stated and Jun slightly narrowed her eyes again.
"Their minds are nowhere near here." Jun retorted causing Arla to chuckle.
"She is indeed a mage after all, Dina." She rested her hand on Jun's arm and smiled at her. "Today is Talia's first day in school, she was not allowed to go before because she had no control over her power and a single tantrum could potentially cause destruction on a massive scale, she is a dangerous child," She explained.
"Talia Vestic...?" Jun asked, but to nobody but herself, thinking how had she managed to stay alive it would have been her and not Ikaris who bore his children. "Their daughter."
"Correct." Dr'ul answered from behind them. "Sol has the ability to watch every event happening across his collective simultaneously, although he doesn't make a habit of it he pays regular visits to his little girl in the spirit, their connection makes it possible for them to play and chat as if he were really there."
"Wow..."
"You will have to get used to it, Lady Jun." Arla huffed closing her eyes with a smile as well and releasing a long sigh. "He truly is someone you can no longer reach or recogn-"
"What?" Dr'ul sprang to alertness when Arla as well as several other people in her line of sight suddenly vanished and Sol released Ikaris staring off in the Void.
At the same time alarms began going off across the ship from one end to the other while Sol's allies began converging in line behind him.
"Sovereign," Xie walked up to him and Ikaris standing at his side with his fists balled. "Will you take part this time?" He asked, watching his Master's mood sour when a wormhole started opening up across the system from them.
"I will, how else can I set an example?" Sol asked slowly raising his right hand with his fingers all pointing upwards. "Alpha."
[The mana cannons are fully charged and ready to deploy]. She answered his call with an announcement across the ship. [All personnel standby]
"It's time at last." Yu grasped tightly onto her spear and clenched her teeth while her fingers, forearms and cheeks glossed over with small crimson scale patterns and her eyes became golden, at her side, Dr'ul's hair lit aflame and Cecelia at Dr'ul's side balled her fists with a shout causing the multitudes behind them to erupt in a loud roar that shook the very vessel they occupied.
"Jun, you are staying inside, on the chance that someone makes it to the inside of the ship it is your role along with the others to eliminate them with any extreme measure you can think of." Dina ordered her as she began walking towards the front with the others.
Her hair that had been a deep brown with hints of purple reflecting through suddenly ignited with pink light as she unshackled the mana within her body standing next to Ikaris who's eyes blazed crimson while her hair had changed to pure white reflecting hostility towards the Emporium they now faced.
[I don't know what kind of a speech you all expected to hear, but listen closely, everyone]. Sol spoke through the system in everyone's head. [I don't usually make fancy promises or display unnecessary acts of grandeur, what I can say is that we are all here because we have a common enemy we must band against, they have oppressed you long enough, they have chased us long enough; today is the day the Emporium and its allies will come to truly fear and resent us].
Sol lowered his hovering hand and the ship hummed as a cannon the size of a city emerged from the top and bottom of the ship, another on the left and one more on the right each unleashing a blast of pure white mana that slowly converged into one massive beam quadrupling in size and colliding into a shield just as another great vessel started emerging from the wormhole before them.
"Prepare yourselves, everyone, steel your hearts and sharpen your minds, this is our first step towards our Grand Collective free of the tyranny of the Grand Emporium!" Sol watched as the initial attack was completely deflected raising his hand and clasping his fist seizing control of the dispersing mana anc causing it to form an unstable ball of energy that he again directed downwards leaving the enemies stunned as their ship tilted, tearing into two halves from the different energies pushing and pulling at it.
[Give them hell.]
***
Hair like oceanic jade and eyes of amber, pale skin with lips a lighter shade of the same jade turned down into a frown; she showed no fear nor did she show any panic even as they began tilting, even as some of her crew were sucked into the vacuum she remained in place with her gaze locked on the singular titan of a Vessel that had attacked them.
She was wearing a purely white uniform exempt of any medals or decorations, the blouse of which was short sleeved and neatly cropped above her navel, gloves that folded at her elbows with gold trims and buttons with the only finger exposed being the thumb.
She wore a skirt rather than pants which stopped mid-thigh and gave way to white stockings that continued from her thighs downwards ending with standard boots, all accentuated by a long golden cape that draped over her shoulders with rounded shoulder boards flowing down her arms and back, stopping at her ankles with white edges.
"Ma'am," A man stood at the front of the broken ship holding on to the rail next to him while the woman he had addressed stood unfazed with her arms folded, staring at Sol's ship while her ship continued tilting to the side. "The ship is compromised, should we-"
"I answered the call because that creepy bastard has never asked for anything or revealed his location like this before and even his Excellence was curious, but I was at the very least expecting him to have survived a little longer, it has only been about five hours since we set out and I even rushed to assemble you all; my finest, yet this useless freak has already lost to the enemy and been killed!"
She cut the man off with a hateful glare. "Lieutenant, tell the others to come, we will make an example of this pitiable attempt by Sol Vestic, I want his head to deliver to his Excellence." She adjusted her General's Cap with the sole emblem of the Emporer that had gone crooked, staring down her nose with a slight smirk as her eyes lit up with mana. "This child's rampage ends today."
"Right away!" The man saluted, regaining his composure and walking off to the side and out of her view. She stood there a moment longer, staring at her reflection on the screen before a flash of gold caught her attention, it was Sol having pinpointed her and taken the initiative after sensing her mana amongst the chaos of several other wormholes opening up simultaneously.
Unable to hide her excitement the Third General, Rasha Silva, tore through her barrier in a mad race towards Sol.
"After aeons of boredom, an enemy worth my time appears at last!"