The Eternal Imperium

Chapter 20: A for The Almighty

Winter watched on monitors upon the bridge of her warship, The Ice VII. The second-largest warship within the Eternal Imperium's fleet. Only right behind the flagship of the fleet, The Weeping Willow.

Solider: "Commander, we are approaching the city. Still no contact from any of our forces within the city."

Winter: "There had better be a good reason for the lack of communication. The city's lights are on, so the city is still intact."

Through the bridge's windows, she could see the city's lights beneath the ship as it sat above the clouds. As the soldiers began the procedure to halt the ship over the city, a hologram of Whitely appeared next to Winter.

Winter: "How about you, Whitley? Any outgoing communications?"

Whitley: "Nope. The only communications I can detect are the ones you are sending."

Winter: "Then anything else? At all?"

Whitley: "Nothing. But that's the problem. I have all my satellites over this city, and I can't get any readings. No heat signatures. Life signs. Electrical activity. Nothing. And yet...there are lights."

Winter: "Hmm...strange."

She looked down at the mechanical marvel that had been grafted onto her arm. Designed specifically for her, it contained and allowed her to utilize all four of the Seasonal Maidens powers. Initially, their power was divided between four young girls, but Kreel managed to engineer something that could bypass that restriction. At this moment, she was the most powerful person on the planet, besides Kreel.

Inspecting her gauntlet, she could feel the energies mixing with one another. Each was unique. But they all had a way of communicating. A sort of awareness that could be communicated to its user.

And at this moment, all four energies communicated in unison.

"Beware!"

Winter instinctively surrounded herself with cold flames that shielded her. At that moment, the city's lights shot upward like spears from a phalanx. Piercing through the ship's hull and out the other side onto the top deck.

Like burning javelins, they cut clean through the powerful warship with ease. Alarms blared as even more pillar-like Spears of light then impaled the ship. Each was a hook that buried itself deep into the guts of the mighty ship. And with inhuman ferocity, the ship was yanked downward. Each spear pulled the ship with such strength and uncaring ferocity that each yank caused the ship to rip itself apart.

The Ice VII would never reach the ground in one piece as the four to five chunks of what was left of the ship fell from the heavens like stars crashing from the horizon. As they plummeted into the city below, the explosive payload the warship carried detonated. Thousands upon thousands of tons of Dust ignited at once to create an explosion that showed through the night and into the sky.

In the distance, watching the explosions shine in the night, were Yhwach and Haschwalth. Both had stoic expressions. Haschwalth watched as the city he grew up in was practically destroyed, and yet he felt no emotion. No pity. Nothing. This lack of emotion would've have bothered weaker men, but Haschwalth was stronger than when he was before. Now, he had cut out the memories he had with this city. To him now, this city was nothing more than just a random city. They watched as the fires of the destroyed ship blazed into the night sky.

Yhwach: "Head down to the crash site. Eliminate any who survived."

Haschwalth: "What of the Maidens?"

Yhwach: "I shall entertain myself with them. Now go. Let my will be done." Hachwalth only nods as he disappears into his own shadow.

Down at the wreckage, a foaming sphere explodes, pushing all the debris away from it. At its epicenter stands Winter. A look of anger and vengeance covered her expression. Checking her scroll, she saw that her communication capabilities had been blocked. Looking around, she sees the spear-like towers of light that brought her ship to the ground.