Cutting through the sky, Faxul struck first.
Standing hidden within the head of the giant they had formed, Eloise deftly manipulated the G.o.dnet so that it deactivated as soon as he reached it. He pa.s.sed through it in one go, and after manifesting two ma.s.sive black holes beneath his talons, he thrust them forward and aimed at the eyes of the Bishop.
Seeing them all appear, the Bishop had halted her attacks to wait for the Angarians to fall upon her. The hammer was still in her hands, hanging at her side, its ma.s.sive head s.h.i.+ning brightly due to the power that had been concentrated to help it burst through the G.o.dnet. Faxul was too quick for her, though; she moved too slow to dodge his attack, so he had already flown past her by the time she raised her hand to swat him away.
Her 150-foot tall figure made it so that there was no way that anyone could miss. Eloise and the sovereigns reached her next. The main difference between their constructs before and this one was the Domination corps whom they had trained with so that they could harmoniously lend strength to this ultimate weapon, so as she directed the first attack, she saw all of their hard work bear fruit.
The glow around the giant was her handiwork. With her Path, she was empowering the giant whose face was blank as they hadn"t decided what shape it would take, but as the fire of the Phoenix and the fury of the woodcutter flew through the air, she waved her hand and made Daneel"s face appear on it.
This proved to be the best one possible, as it made the Bishop hesitate for the briefest of moments. Yet, as there seemed to be a delay between her thoughts and the movement of her ma.s.sive body, it gave them the perfect opportunity to use all their power to great effect.
As they were so close, Eloise could see that her body was made up of some kind of light-filled mist. Faxul"s black holes had disrupted everything around them, making two voids appear where her eyes had been through which the sky beyond could be seen. Their attacks had the same effect: Ca.s.sandra"s Phoenix fire burned through the mist, making large holes appear in the Bishop"s wairst, Kellor"s axe cleaved through one of her legs, Elanev"s Fighter strength warped a major portion of her other leg and Luther"s shadow-wreathed dagger plunged into her body, searching for her true form that was certainly vulnerable.
In the head of the giant, Aran stood below her, searching for a target. His Mindhunter Path needed him to have a direct line of vision to his victim, but so far, he hadn"t been able to find the Bishop"s consciousness.
Luther was unsuccessful, too, as his dagger returned to their construct after being pushed out by the glowing mist. It also began to move towards them as if it wanted to swallow them whole, but at that moment, the others came to the rescue.
"YAYAYAYAYA!"
Arafell"s scream almost sounded silly in this age, but in the age of the Empire, Eloise had read that it had the ability to strike fear across an entire battlefield. She descended from the sky with a golden blade in her hand, striking at the Bishop"s head and cutting through her neck and half her waist. She lost momentum then, but without losing a beat, she swung up and began to cut and stab everything she could find.
The elves had chosen ranged attacks. Their arrows fell from the sky, burning with fire, giving strength to Ca.s.sandra"s flames as they wreaked havoc over the mist. The G.o.ddess, led by Xuan, struck the next blow: she had chosen a mace as her weapon, and when it flew through the air, it made a whistling sound that stopped when it pummelled the mist and managed to dismember the leg that Elanev had injured.
The Sect of Hedon and the Fortress came next, their footsteps sending tremors through the ground before they leaped into the air across the barrier to reach their enemy. The Sect of Hedon had always been known for the great variation in Magic that it taught, and it kept its reputation alive by dissolving into numerous...o...b.. of light that zipped through the Bishop, churning the mist in their wake. If things were normal, Eloise would have been amused to see that they had only taken the form of the giant so that they could stand with the others, whereas in reality, the attacks were almost all individual. The only saving grace was that each of them was led by Heroes, so they were still effective.
This wasn"t the case with the giant of the Fortress. Its ten arms turned into blurs as they pounded the Bishop, making the mist swirl around them as it kept being destroyed while trying to reform. Each of their punches broke the sound barrier, making vibrations travel through the area they were in that caused even more damage, and seeing them, Eloise understood why Daneel had always held the Fortress in high regard.
Finally, Drakos flew into the fray and roared, filling them all with strength. His Dragon Fire was aimed at the Bishop"s head, and in no time, there was nothing left there except a smoking ruin.
Remembering that she was supposed to lead them, she focused her gaze on the battlefield from above, using the G.o.dnet. Her aim was to find weaknesses or threats that they needed to know about, so narrowing her eyes, she studied everything she saw.
She had had a lingering doubt whether they were doing any damage, but it left her when she saw that each attack met some opposition before breaking through. This meant that Energy was constantly being consumed to oppose their strength, but for some unknown reason, the Bishop wasn"t doing anything else, yet.
The attacks from the core and the people were busy helping the Heroes of the order, so these were all the forces that she had at hand to deal with the Bishop. She prayed that they would be enough, but she searched around furtively all the same, convinced that this card, too, must have some hidden ability that they didn"t know about.
Her guess turned out to be true when the Bishop gave up trying to maintain her humanoid form, and let the weapon devolve into the mist it had been. It happened thirty seconds after their attacks began, so by then, they had already managed to extensively damage her entire body.
The mist swirled about, obscuring their vision, and as Eloise sent a message, everyone stopped and waited to see what would happen. She had been careful to keep them all close together so that she would be unable to separate them, but this turned out to be futile as the mist became so thick that she couldn"t even see a few inches in front of her. The G.o.dnet was also helpless, as all it could see was a large ma.s.s that had swallowed them all.
It"s going to happen now. Keep watching. There will be some clue.
The only signal that she got was the sound of a sword being unsheathed.
It cut through her mind, making her heart beat faster, but for the life of her, she couldn"t see any change. Frantic, she opened her mouth to send a message to the a.s.sa.s.sins, hoping that they might have obtained information regarding just what this weapon was, but before she could say anything, she saw a pinp.r.i.c.k of yellow light spring to life just a few feet in front of her eyes.
Then, everything happened quickly. She could feel the danger that it represented, but she was too slow to do anything. The head of the giant was like a large, empty room, and near her, there was only Aran who stood there, horrified.
The tiny orb began to move towards her, and she knew that the moment it touched her, she would die.
It almost felt as if it was moving slowly, but in reality, its speed was such that no one could react. Yet, at the last moment… Aaman appeared in front of her, blocking its path with his broad shoulders.
Her first thought was that it was Daniel, but the man"s hair was grey. She heard the soft, sweet sound of a knife cutting through cloth, and a second later, Kellor collapsed.
Time seemed to go back to normal all of a sudden. Her mind worked rapidly even as her legs took her to the man who was the closest thing to a father she had ever had, and as she took him in her arms, she realized what was going on.
She opened her mouth to scream a command, but even as the words left her lips, she wondered whether she was too late.
"Retreat! She hid herself to use dimensional attacks! We have to get out of the mist! RETREAT!"