Cassie felt every bone in her body break, the sharp splinters piercing her flesh and protruding from the torn skin in a torrent of blood.
A few seconds in the past — or rather, in the present — she threw her body to the ground, rolling across the broken runic circle. Then, with a roaring howl, an enormous cannonball impacted the ground hundreds of ters away, pulverizing dozens of Mordret's vessels into bloody mist.
Sending a cloud of shattered obsidian into the air, it bounced forward and flashed through the space where Cassie had stood a second ago before crashing into the wall of the Ebony Tower and disintegrating into a fierce conflagration of light, heat, and tal shrapnel.
The shockwave washed over her like a phantom of the Crushing, making Cassie groan.
Throughout all of this, Mordret remained motionless.
He did not even blink when the cannonball shot past him, the wind raised by its passing making his hair dance. He ignored the explosion and the shockwave, as well, enduring their blows without moving a muscle.
The defenses of the Ebony Island were slowly failing, but he seemingly remained unperturbed. His attention was dedicated fully to the great battle raging all around them instead.
On the neighboring islands, the great armies of humanity were entangled in a ferocious fight against the vessels pouring out of the reflections. On the Night Garden, Nightwalker and his Saints were pushing the incarnations of the King of Nothing back — their own power might not have been enough to repel his rciless assault, but the titanic ship was helping them.
The vessels of Mordret were being slowly swallowed by the decks of the Night Garden, drowning in the living wood as their flesh dissolved and beca sustenance for the ancient hull.
The battle in the Sky Above and the Sky Below had reached a stalemate, both forces eradicating each other with chillingly ruthless determination.
Cassie imagined that it was not easy, to be dying a hundred deaths every heartbeat... she would know, after all, having experienced a myriad of deaths in the past due to her Aspect.
The vessels of Mordret were being cut down, torn apart, burned, crushed, digested alive by the living wood of the Night Garden... the pain he silently endured must have felt like an ocean, and yet Mordret did not seem to pay it any attention.
He had discarded the mask of a human he usually wore, revealing his true, cold, and unfeeling self.
..On the Ivory Island, everything was dead, and only Asterion stood on the edge amidst the corpses, looking down with a faint smile. The bloodshed below reflected in his golden eyes, making it seem as if divine blood was flowing like a river.
The cataclysmic battle was vast and complex, consisting of nurous moving parts. All of them affected each other, creating an intricate and fragile balance — a harrowing order hidden beneath a deep sea of chaos and carnage.
The outco of the battle could not be determined yet, but if the scales of any of these parts shifted dramatically in favor of one side, the rest of them would co falling down like a house of cards.
By now, it was already clear that the decisive elent of the battle — and of the bloody war between the Mirror Domain and the Hunger Domain — was the furious clashes raging on the seven heavenly chains.
There, the forces of humanity were pushing Mordret back, and were then pushed back in turn. The seven Reflections stalled the reinforcents from advancing, rampaging among the soldiers of humanity on the far islands, while on the chains themselves, the strongest champions of humanity were slaughtering the detestable vessels of the King of Nothing in scores.
And yet, none of them was able to win a decisive advantage and reach the Ebony Island, or even advance far up the swaying, groaning chains...
Except for Morgan, who was getting closer and closer to the end of the chain she had been sent to conquer despite all the powerful vessels Mordret had thrown at her.
The vast river of liquid tal had turned into a gargantuan, ever-changing beast whose body seed to be made both of flowing steel and innurable razor-sharp blades. It tore through Mordret's vessels like a walking embodint of the concept of severance, leaving the vast expanse of the chain behind it slick with blood.
When Mordret attacked the Blade Beast, its body rippled and flowed in an unpredictable way, bypassing the attackers and then turning into a whirlwind of blades once again to massacre them.
Morgan's advance seed unstoppable... now that Mordret was spread thin fighting innurable other battles, at least.
She was already on the threshold of reaching the Ebony Island, having carved a bloody path through the mass of vessels. Behind her, those of them who had avoided the blade were entangled in a chaotic lee with the Awakened soldiers and Saints who followed Morgan.
She had forged forward, pushing far ahead of her troops to save them from becoming collateral losses in the fight against the strongest vessels of the King of Nothing. And now, no more than a few dozen ters separated her from the obsidian shores of the Ebony Island.
If Morgan gained a foothold there, the scales of the battle would tip irrevocably in favor of the Hunger Domain.
Cassie rose from the ground, turning to face the direction where Morgan had assud her human form, lunging forward to cut down the last vessels of Mordret that stood between her and her goal.
It was then that an awful, chilling groan drowned out the cacophonous clamor of battle, and the whole island shuddered, throwing Cassie back down.
'No...'
Far behind Morgan, a link of the chain she had conquered bent, then gave in and began to co undone. She froze for a mont and then glanced back, where a litany of screams rose above the breaking chain.
The heavenly chain snapped.
Cassie sensed it — a mont of hesitation that stopped Morgan in her tracks, even though it had only lasted a split second. Morgan glanced at the breaking chain, then at the shore of the Ebony Island, which was so maddeningly close.
A vicious bloodlust shone in her vermillion eyes, and a cold smile twisted her lips. ..Then, with a curse, Morgan turned back and beca a river of liquid tal once more.
She rushed back across the snapping chain at astonishing speed, circling it like a flood of steel.
And then, reaching the broken link, Morgan threw herself in the air.
The swirling mass of liquid tal breached the rapidly widening gap between the broken ends of the chain...
And then connected them.
Having caught both ends, Morgan twisted her vast body into a flowing steel ring, bearing the unfathomable weight of the celestial chain to prevent her soldiers from plumting into the Sky Below.
"Retreat! Retreat, you fools, damn you!"
Her voice resounded from the chain itself, carried by the vibrations in its endless tal. It was as if the world itself was speaking, commanding the soldiers to rush back across the great chasm of the Tear. And so, they did.
Standing in the shadow of the Ebony Tower, Mordret smiled faintly and then pulled his vessels back, as well.
Soon, the seventh heavenly chain turned utterly empty.
It was then that Asterion sighed lightly... And finally stepped off the edge of the Ivory Island.
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