Sera

Back on Faust, Tiramisu was leading hundreds of night elven warriors in pushing the metal balls made of the reapers’ remains into a new pit that had appeared within the ground. Flames were raging in the depths, burning so hot that the elves couldn’t even go all the way and had to leave the last hundred metres to the now-sweating ogre.

The forge seemed to swallow with every ball rolled in, melting it completely before throwing out a large portion as slag. Only a small amount of silver essence remained, and that was sent to another smaller forge deeper within. In that one, the ember essence that could withstand even the flames of destruction started to vapourize, pulsing energy into the system and powering the seven giant crystals. The city’s barrier grew even sturdier, capable of withstanding the increased number of attackers.

The seven crystals combined powers into a single white beam of energy, sending it straight into one of the reaper beasts. The mountainous figure was pierced through cleanly, forming a terrifying hole that was almost a hundred metres wide.

In the depths of the other beast, Richard was blasting out dark red fireballs that hit the squirming lumps of flesh within. The ball shone with a blinding radiance and exploded with a shockwave that blasted everything within a kilometre apart, leaving only ash behind. Core-melting explosions were even more effective than the flames of destruction here, their initial might far exceeding the long-term effects of the blue flames.

Unfortunately, his analysis of the alter world wasn’t at a point where he could create black holes yet. He could have destroyed these beasts with only one black hole each, but no matter how much power he put into it the explosions had limits and could only take out a small section. These beasts were of a similar design to the reaper starships, made of many scattered sectors without a central core. The only way to completely kill these things was to destroy them sector by sector.

Faust was the best way to deal with these kinds of massive weapons of war. Richard’s followers supported the Rainbow of the Moons in withstanding the assault, rushing out after every counter-attack to grab the remains and toss them into the forge. The ember essence turned Faust into a formidable war machine, the crystals taking out swathes of opponent every few seconds.

However, there were simply too many reapers, and their constant bombardment was difficult to bear. They had already figured out that the floating islands were all defensive nodes, and were focusing fire on one at a time to take them out. A shrill cry rang out in the void as the one beast that wasn’t being attacked shuddered, sending a metallic block that was ten metres wide shooting towards the city. The enormous bullet caused an earth-shattering explosion as it struck one of the islands, destroying it completely while also halving two of its neighbours. The entire fortress was pushed thousands of kilometres away with force, and in the control room Nasia groaned as one of her armour pieces split into two.

“This useless idiot!” she grumbled as she quickly adjusted her attack to a point in the void, piercing a hole into the beast and disabling it for a moment.

One of the giant beasts scrunched up, countless holes erupting on its body and spewing blue or red flames. Richard flew out from one of them, looking back at the writhing beasts with a trace of exhaustion in his eyes. It quickly lit aflame everywhere, allowing him to heave a sigh of relief. He had been forced to burn down almost the entire body before he could get rid of it.

However, he didn’t even get a second breath as another beast shot its corrosive light towards him. Cursing under his breath, he activated his blue flames once more and entered the depths of his body.

Richard quickly burrowed through the maze of flesh and metal, alternating between the core-melting explosion and the flames of destruction. His three faces were being used to their fullest as they bombarded the internals of the enemy.

“RICHARD!” Nasia suddenly roared in his mind, so loud that he blacked out for a moment, “Could you go any slower? How long does it take to deal with a lump of rotten flesh?”

“This thing is a damn mountain range! I can only take out one peak at a time!” Richard replied. Both his flaming attacks were rare spells with terrifying effects, but these beasts were just impossibly large.

"Your city only has six islands left. Do you want them to be gone as well?!"

"Well, I welcome any suggestions for how to speed up!"

"Think of how Sharon would do it!"

"She’d just blow the thing up with portals. You think I can do that? I’m not a primal celestial!"

"But you’re a Lord of Space, aren’t you? Wait no, you’re even a Lord of Time now. Whatever, can’t you collapse anything? How about some black holes?"

“Nope, I can’t do that here!”

The two continued to bicker, but Richard eventually destroyed the second beast. When he moved on to the third, the result of the battle had already been set. Without their backup, the reaper fleet simply couldn’t breach Faust’s defences. The fortress itself still had more than enough energy to support its crystal cannons, and swept through the remainder of the fleet with ease. His followers continued to collect the reapers’ remains for energy, allowing the city to function endlessly.

Once the final beast was turned to ash, the space all around was filled with scattered remains. Nasia manoeuvred Faust around to collect the remnants, but Richard couldn’t care as he quickly flew to the distant landmass with the astral screen.

The astral screen was a near-perfect barrier, hiding the situation within from any attempts at probing. Richard hesitated when he arrived before it, afraid that he still wouldn’t find Sharon behind, but he eventually smiled wryly and crossed through. On the other side was an empty space with hundreds of lightning orbs floating around, with a stone platform at the centre where Sharon was sleeping soundly just like in the Deepblue.

New orbs appeared regularly, occupying a random space and holding in place. The small space had an astonishing amount of energy within, and Sharon’s body itself seemed to hold a storm that was slowly seeping out.

However, this alone wasn’t enough to stop the reapers. Richard didn’t hurry to try and wake Sharon, his gaze instead sweeping across the landmass as he looked for the other existence he felt within.

“Are you looking for me?” a soft voice rang out in his mind.

Richard was stunned by the traces of youth in that voice, but he calmed himself down and nodded, “Yes, I’d be very happy if you could come out.”

"I’m here..." a small silhouette appeared before him, revealing a girl who looked to be about seven or eight. There were already traces of beauty in her young face, but that was only to be expected of someone who looked like a childhood version of Sharon herself. Richard also saw some of his own features as well.

The girl didn’t have normal human hair, instead possessing dozens of dark blue tentacles that stretched down to her shoulders. He shivered at the sight, but he smiled and squatted down in front of her before staring into her azure eyes, “What’s your name, and why are you here?”

The girl’s gaze was as clear as water, and that alone dissipated all of Richard’s worries in an instant. She smiled wide, her eyes glued to the Book of Eternity at his waist, “Sera, I’m here to protect Mom.”