The Storm King

Without the power of the lance keeping the mountains aloft, the enormous landmasses began to plummet to the earth. Kavad’s Lance itself shook terribly as the magic around it dissipated; the wind died down, the currents bridging the islands together were quelled, and the bolts of lightning that flashed about the dissolving clouds became rarer and rarer.

Leon, his eyes widening in alarm, leaped from the summit of the mountain back to the platform where the rest of his party was waiting on him.

“Get off the mountain!” he shouted.

“No!” Grandin responded. “The air is dangerous!”

“And staying on this mountain as it falls is better?!” Leon shot back.

Grandin grimaced, but Leon was far more concerned with the falling floating islands. Kavad’s Lance was tall, but it wasn’t floating that far off the ground compared to the islands, and the depression beneath it was likely deep enough to mostly cushion its fall. Many of the islands weren’t so well-positioned, however, and would fall upon the city below if nothing was done.

A large part of Leon felt responsible. This was something he should’ve considered, but all he was thinking about was Artorion. He wanted to get out there and mitigate the consequences as much as possible.

In the brief silence, Leon growled to Grandin, “Stay on the mountain, then. We’re falling. All of the other flying mountains are falling. I’m going to help as much as I can.”

Without another word, Leon hurled himself off the mountain without regard for the possible threats that would follow him. His friends and family followed closely in his wake, and the Tempest Knights after them. He was somewhat amused to see Anzu following, too, not taking Aladir’s opinion into account despite the injured man’s protests. With Anzu carrying Aladir off, Grandin had no choice but to follow, too.

As the clouds dissipated, many flying creatures were revealed in the sky. Flying serpents, birds, insects larger than horses, and more, all suddenly without cover and starting to panic. The sky became a mess of activity as all of these revealed creatures scrambled into motion. Blood was shed as these creatures in their panic clashed with each other.

Further down the mountain, the hundreds of people on the mountain had their own choices to make. Leon saw many take to the skies as he and his party had, but only about half in total. Others seemed intent on riding out this disaster where they were. Further out in the floating islands, however, the few people who were out there almost unanimously jumped off and began flying under their own power when it became clear what was happening.

Leon himself called upon his power as he plummeted away from Kavad’s Lance. Magic poured from him like an ocean might pour through a broken dam or levee. Laced throughout his magic was origin power, amplifying his power beyond what just his magic might’ve been capable of.

The clouds and currents that held up the mountains were brought roaring back as Leon’s power settled around them—not immediately halting the islands that threatened the city, but certainly slowing most of them down. Thankfully, Leon only had to worry about the western side of Kavad’s Lance, as that was where the people lived.

Dozens of islands were in the sky above Lancefoot, but most of them were no larger than a city block, and with Leon’s power, their downfall was fairly easily arrested. With little more than a gesture, Leon hurled them away, to fall into the ocean to the north or the less populated regions in the south and southeast.

Far more concerning were the five massive floating islands that would fall upon the city if he failed to stop them, each one large enough to kill hundreds if not thousands of people. Entire districts were cast in shadow as they descended to the earth, clouds streaming behind them as Leon’s power enveloped them in his attempt to halt their downward trajectories.

Beside him, Leon could feel the stronger members of his party adding their strength to his. Valeria and Maia’s powers were the only ones worth noting, however, as even a tenth-tier mage would struggle to hold a single one of the five larger islands aloft, without taking distance into account.

Still, Leon strained and shouted as his magic sank into the nearest and smallest of these five islands. Its weight seemed to drag him down even faster despite only holding onto it with his magic.

He flexed that magic like fingers, digging into the stone, slowing it down by no small amount. If he were closer and had nothing else to focus on, he might’ve been able to hold it up without much problem, but the other islands…

He grimaced as the farthest island from him hit the ground, and all of Lancefoot shook. Dozens of buildings were crushed beneath its gigantic weight, and the air was filled with the sound of screaming.

With a mighty shout, Leon pushed, and the island began to fragment under the pressure. Boulders broke away, followed by trees closer to the edge of the island. But the island moved southward, and when it cleared the city, Leon retracted his power and let it fall. As far as he could tell, no one would be harmed by it hitting the earth anymore.

With that, he turned his attention back to the other three massive islands he was desperately trying to hold in the air. They still fell, but their descent was noticeably slowed, which only slowed further as more and more mages added their power to Leon’s.

From Kavad’s Lance, the two other eleventh-tier mages that had been on the mountain made their appearance. One of them, a rather skinny and utterly disinterested man, didn’t even try to help, choosing instead to fly away amidst this disaster. The other, a mage of roughly masculine shape covered head-to-toe in shining plate, wasted not a second in reaching out with his magic to help.

To all of their efforts, a dozen tenth-tier mages and many more eighth and ninth-tier mages did what they could.

‘It’s not enough,’ Leon realized. The islands weren’t going to clear the city. The best they could do was hope that anyone beneath them had the time to get out of the way. The smallest of these remaining three islands soon hit the ground, once more seemingly shaking all of the Nexus with the force of its landing. The ground split open from the force, swallowing people and buildings whole.

With only two more islands to desperately try and hold aloft, the mages were able to better concentrate their power.

“THAT ONE!” the armored eleventh-tier mage boomed, his voice reaching from one corner of the city to the other. He pointed to the next largest island, which would be the next to hit the ground. “PUSH NORTH!”

While keeping his hold on the largest island, Leon added what power he could to the communal effort to push the other northward. A lot of distance was gained as dozens of incredibly powerful mages worked together, but it wasn’t quite enough, and the island crashed half in the ocean, and half over the city. The damage was relatively little, but Leon knew for a fact that there were people beneath the enormous island when it crashed, and the force of its landing, even slowed as it had been, caused further damage; enormous cracks opened in the earth, into which more people fell, and given where the island hit, the ocean rushed in. ŗＡNőΒЁṣ

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Leon averted his gaze, shame burning brightly within him.

The largest of these islands—which also happened to be the island upon which the monster they’d hunted had laired—became the epicenter of all the power of the mages attempting to save Lancefoot. The island slowed in the air, but its descent was interminable and unstoppable. By the whims of luck, the island had drifted over the most densely populated part of the city following Leon’s party’s departure, and the people attempting to escape its shadow clogged the streets.

Within the screaming masses, people were crushed and trampled; parents threw people out of the way as they tried to lead their children to safety, while those thrown often responded violently. Fights broke out in the streets, and above them, the titanic mass of stone and earth bore down on them.

When it finally hit, the island was moving slowly enough that it didn’t crash with the force of a meteor, but its weight was so great that even the most heavily fortified buildings beneath it were crushed like paper. The city was once again rocked by its impact, and dust and debris were thrown through the streets. Buildings not even hit were shaken to collapse, further adding to the damage and casualty list.

But it was as gentle an impact as Leon could’ve hoped for. The ground beneath the city wasn’t shattered, somewhat limiting the death toll compared to the other impacts.

And then the magic within the island detonated. The spatial magic within the caves ripped the grounded island apart with violence that took Leon aback. Beams of light, ripples of darkness, and bolts of lightning disintegrated stone and shot through the city, obliterating all they touched. Thousands of people were killed, and thousands more were injured. The city was broken, and where minutes before had been hundreds of thousands of people going about their lives, now only death and misery remained.

Leon surveyed all of this with an inscrutable look, hardly even noticing the other islands around Kavad’s Lance hitting the ground. Even when the Lance itself fell, he hardly noticed. The only saving grave he could see was that his initial estimation that the Lance’s fall wouldn’t cause much damage proved accurate.

But Lancefoot had still been devastated. He’d taken the object that had held these islands in the air, and thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people paid the price with their lives.

The party around Leon was quiet, the scale of destruction hard to process even when looking right at it. But after a couple minutes, Leon frowned and began to descend. With so much power in the air from the mages attempting to stall the fall of those islands, the monsters in the sky had scattered, though many others were not so wise.

From the relatively intact fallen islands, Leon could see monsters of all kinds pouring into the city. The same with the Lance, with the denizens of that gargantuan floating island fleeing in terror from their crashed home. The city’s people, before they had a real chance to get organized, were beset by these creatures.

Thankfully, most were weak enough that the city’s mages were fairly easily able to either kill them or ward them off, but given the destruction, many other people were caught without protectors as the monsters flooded through the streets.

With a scowl, Leon summoned bolts from the blue to try and kill as many of these monsters as he could. Other strong mages in the air did likewise, using their power to cover the city’s people as best as they could and to secure the crash sites of all of these formerly floating islands.

And yet, throughout it all, the death toll continued to rise.

---

“We thank you for the support you have shown us in this trying time,” a haggard and rather defeated-looking Pilos said to Leon. His estate had been damaged in the Mountainfall, as the event was already known barely a day after the fact, but Pilos still offered Leon hospitality.

During that day, Leon had done his best to provide what support he could. He and his party used their power to heal the wounded, extract people from beneath collapsed buildings, reinforce damaged structures so that they wouldn’t injure anyone else, and fight against monsters as they appeared.

Grandin and Aladir, meanwhile, separated from them soon after they returned to the city. Leon hadn’t kept track of them, focusing instead on doing what he could for the city’s people, but he thought it wouldn’t be long before talk spread throughout the city not only of his claiming of the lance at the top of the mountain, but also of how all of the floating mountains fell immediately afterward.

He couldn’t do much about that, nor did he feel that inclined to do so. It was his fault, as far as he was concerned, though he wasn’t entirely sure he would’ve done anything differently. He supposed he would have to wait and see how Terris’ siege ended to finalize how he viewed this whole affair, though in the moment, he felt rather terrible.

Order was still being restored within the city, Lancefoot’s Azadan and their various guard details running well into overtime dealing with the problems they now faced. Had he more time, Leon would’ve stayed to try and clean up after himself as much as he could, but he now had less than eleven days until the shield protecting Artorion started running the risk of collapse. He had to move on.

“There’s no need to thank us,” Leon stated, the irony almost burning a hole in his writhing stomach. “We are neighbors, if somewhat distant. We ought to help each other, shouldn’t we?”

“Few hold such views in these chaotic times,” Pilos exhaustedly said. “Should you ever wish to return to my city, King Leon, you will find my doors open. You are a friend to us.”

Leon bitterly smiled, and with a word of thanks for the hospitality, he led his party to leave the city behind. They had one more stop to make before heading home: the castle of the Seventh Iron Order to the west.

As they flew westward, the damage of the Mountainfall was plain for Leon’s party to see. Broken streets, uncollected bodies, and mass pyres surrounded by wailing citizens were everywhere.

“What will happen now?” Gaius quietly asked Leon as they passed from flying over the city to its western hinterland. Leon intended to hug the coast for a time, but the land would arc northward in a few hundred miles, and the most direct route to the Seventh Iron Order at that point would take them over the Paleholt, a large forest that lay to the west of Lancefoot.

Knowing what Gaius was asking about, Leon replied, “Artorion comes first. Once we save our city, we’ll see what we can do to help Lancefoot. Until then… our resources are limited, and we can’t spare that much.”

“Such a price,” Gaius said, “and borne by others. We’d better win this war, then, else all of this will have been a tragic waste.”

Leon nodded in agreement. First Shatufan, now Lancefoot. Both cities weighed on his mind.

He sighed deeply, and as if sensing what was going through his head, the Thunderbird said from his soul realm, [The path to glory is paved with bones. You claimed to want to return our Clan to greatness, Leon. You’ll ruin many more cities before then. You’ll spill rivers of blood. The Aesii will be filled with dead in numbers beyond counting. This is the price that must be paid. Do not now balk at what you’ve set out to do.]

[I’ll do what must be done,] Leon responded. [Do not take my current mood as proof that I won’t. But…] He sighed again. [Am I not allowed to brood over such things?]

[Brood as you wish; it is your right as a King to be affected by the decisions you’ve made. What concerns me is whether or not this will make you second-guess yourself in a time when hesitation will mean defeat.]

A scowl crossed Leon’s face. [My people are more important to me than others. And because I’m stronger than those in Lancefoot, what I think is more important than what they think. That’s how the world works. That’s what you, and Xaphan, and so many others have constantly repeated to me. You may be right, but it doesn’t make the survivors in that city cry fewer tears. I will take this as a learning experience. Such mistakes, such tragedies… I can’t let happen again.]

[No one’s perfect,] the Thunderbird stated. [As I said: you’ll spill far more blood than this, intentionally and otherwise, to return our Clan to our deserved place. Steel yourself to this fact.]

Leon scoffed. [That’s it, then? This was necessary? Think no more about it? About what is done to save Artorion?]

[Mourn as you will,] the Thunderbird testily replied. [Brood as you will. But I find bleeding hearts tiresome.]

[This isn’t that, Ancestor. As I said: I will do what must be done. But I will never be so unaffected by the consequences my actions have on others. I can’t ever allow myself to be. A good King is decisive, but not callous.]

He heard the Thunderbird click her beak, but she offered no words of argument. He was tempted to glance into his soul realm to see what she was doing, but he chose not to. He didn’t want to see the derision or the condescension in her eyes. He just focused on the path ahead, and after several minutes, it was clear that their brief exchange was over.

As Lancefoot vanished behind them, Leon vowed to return to the city and make it as right as he could.

For the time being, however, he allowed himself to brood over the city’s fate for only a short while longer before he turned his attention to the task ahead of him. He’d acquired an artifact of immense power that would aid in Artorion’s defense, and he’d acquired the seed and branch of the Stormborn Oak, which he hoped would see to Artorion’s more long-term defense.

Each was good enough on their own, but he still lacked allies willing to fight against the Ocean Lords alongside him. He hoped that the Seventh Iron Order would prove to be just the ally he needed…

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