Ultraya: Origins

Chapter 32: Flames

28/05/4013 AD – 18:59 – Earth – Ailutarya Skies – City Outskirts

Ailutarya City barely even resembled a city: entire buildings had been reduced to ash, corpses of both Wyperians and Humans littered the scorched grounds and various vehicles were in burning pieces. Hyperzio's Mylialta flew over the streets; only the crackles of fire could be heard from below.

"Where is everyone?" Anmarina asked herself.

Hyperzio looked around the skyline. "The skies are clear, no aircraft of any class".

"H-has Ru-Flare already left?" Anmarina asked nervously.

"That doesn't make any sense though..." replied Hyperzio, desperately trying to piece everything together.

"We first learnt that Earth was under attack at around ten past two", Anmarina recalled. "Let's say, hypothetically, that Ru-Flare has been attacking this city at the same time, for the same duration; does that really give her enough time to completely wipe out this city? Sure, she could probably torch the entire place but it's not like every single thing has been burnt to a crisp; look, some buildings are even completely unscathed!"

"Wait a minute...", Hyperzio suddenly realised something. "Do you remember the reports? The Angel of Fire is 'destroying everything' and was spotted at Alton. We got to Alton at what... 6pm? Why was everything at Alton still relatively okay?"

"Maybe they thought that this place was called Alton? This place certainly has taken more damage overall", Anmarina scanned the area.

"That's true, but I think it's more likely that someone is trying at attack all of Moderrus at once", Hyperzio concluded. "Someone wanted us to go to Alton first and witness the dire situation there. I think they are trying to separate us; they knew we couldn't send everyone to deal with the Angel threat here. Their objective could be to draw us out into the open, separate from the rest of our team".

"Astute observation, General Hyperzio", came a woman's high-pitched voice. The Mylialta's left engine exploded, severing the wing from the ship, Anmarina began to fall.

"Anmarina!" Hyperzio called out. He spun the Mylialta upside-down so that the cockpit was in line with Anmarina. He smashed the eject button and blasted himself through the sky, catching Anmarina and crashing on top of a half-destroyed skyscraper. The two got up and watched as the Mylialta exploded into a fireball and crashed to the ground.

"You know that makes three, right?" Anmarina tried to joke as a way to ignore the pain.

"Huh?" Hyperzio mumbled.

"We 'tactically crashed' three of our Mylialta", Anmarina laughed. "Sollikarr is gonna be pissed".

"I admire your ability to shrug off your own incompetence so easily", the new woman's voice continued on. Hyperzio and Anmarina looked up to see Ru-Flare, arms and shins crossed, hovering above them; her large, pink Angel wings slowing her graceful decent to a crawl.

"You!" Anmarina glared at the Angel, switched to Wyperian form, and reached for her Mulria. Anmarina had reduced the number of helmet spikes to two so she wouldn't receive as many headaches. She drew the rifle, engaged her combat visor, and fired a few rounds towards her opponent. Ru-Flare pointed her open hand towards the bullets and a massive blast of flames incinerated the projectiles completely. The fiery beam continued past Anmarina and hit the exposed insides of the building. The building burst into blistering flames. Hyperzio grabbed his teammate's hand and jumped off the building; he activated his jet boots at the last second to reduce the impact of hitting the ground. Ru-Flare landed softly on the ground a few metres in front of them. Her wings folded up and vanished into particles of light, leaving two oval-shaped patches on her back.