Chương 38: Episode 35: Oh, Well

The seven of them sprinted through a sky burned orange by war. They climbed a jagged green hill, sharp rock formations jutting out like nature had tried to build weapons of its own. The whole place felt like a mountain that had gone feral, swallowed under swirling storm clouds ready to break. They ran uphill at full speed. None of them really knew where they were going. Above them, alien Uragas screeched through the air, cannon-tipped wings slicing the sky like living war machines.

"THE CELESTIANITE PRINCESS?!" Olsen shouted, eyes snapping to Starla. Her hair whipped wildly behind her as she ran.

"Don't worry! I'll explain later, just RUN!" So they did. They pushed higher up the slope as the sun crept through the horizon. The sky filled with black-winged alien birds, scattered like ink stains, buzzing with lethal intent. Then Starla stopped. A sharp growl echoed from somewhere beyond the hill. Everyone froze. Heads shifted. Eyes scanned. Silence tightened like a rope. Over the ridge, something moved. A Lunaranite. Not a soldier. Not trained.

One of the wild, summoned beasts—twisted constructs fueled by Power Gems, all instinct and violence. Starla pointed fast.

"Behind that rock. Now." They dropped into cover behind a jagged stone outcrop. Some crouched low. Some stayed standing too tense to even notice. Breathing went quiet. Fingers pressed to lips. The growls multiplied. One. Two. Then more. Prince whispered, "There's more?" Olsen didn't even look at him.

"NO SHIT THERE'S MORE. WE'RE IN AN APOCALYPSE." Archie raised a brow.

"Why in the living fireballs is the hottest princess here with us?" Starla shot him a glare so sharp it could've cut steel, but before she could respond, Demaurion tensed at the growls, and Ella grabbed him just in time to steady him. Then came the sound. A talon scraping stone. Slow. Deliberate. Their hearts hit overdrive. A Lunaranite's head slowly slid around the rock, scanning the open air. Not looking at them. Just searching. Silence held. No one moved. Not even breath.

The beast turned—"SUCK ON THIS EXPLOSION!" Archie launched himself forward. His fists ignited mid-air, slamming into the creature's face in a burst of flame and impact. The beast flew back in a fiery detonation. Archie landed, brushing smoke off his shoulders like it was nothing. Hands on hips.

"Wasn't that bad. Where were you guys while I was carrying?"

"IDIOT!" Ella snapped, pointing uphill.

"DO YOU NOT SEE THAT FLOCK?!" Archie looked up. Thirty Lunaranites. Armed. Screeching. Charging.

"Oh," he said.

"Shit." The hill erupted. Archie got hit first, tackling into one of them and rolling down the slope in a chaotic blur of fists and fire like a burning tumbleweed. Above him, the others jumped in. Olsen swung his hammer and launched one Lunaranite clean off the hill before spinning into another. Demaurion whipped his trident in sharp, brutal arcs, cutting through enemies with controlled fury. Ella fired compressed sand bursts that exploded into choking dust clouds, blinding anything that got too close.

From above, streaks of gold and cyan dropped like falling stars. Starla. She hit the battlefield midair, tearing through enemies with radiant precision. Archie slammed his opponent into the ground with a body drop that cracked the earth beneath them. A shockwave followed, ending it instantly. The fight turned into full chaos. Fire. Ice. Sand. Lightning. Screams. More Lunaranites surged over the ridge. Claws. Spears. Tail-whips. All closing in. Then Archie shot upward again.

"YO, FOCUS UP!" he yelled. He formed a glowing orange explosive in his hands and hurled it into the crowd. It rolled across the ground like a beeping cylinder of death. Everyone paused just long enough to think they were safe. Then it veered. Hit a rock. Bounced upward. Smacked Archie in the head. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. And rolled straight back toward them. The beeping sped up. Olsen tried to stop it with his hammer.

"Ah—AH—IT BURNS IT BURNS IT BURNS—" Ella grabbed at it in panic.

"IT'S NOT STOPPING—ARCHIE!" Archie's grin dropped instantly.

"…oh fu—" BOOOOOOM. The explosion launched all of them backward in a wave of fire and dirt, scattering weapons and pride across the hillside. Olsen groaned, rolling onto his back.

"Archie… I swear sometimes I think you're one bad decision away from a special education class." Silent Eli just stared at the sky like he was reconsidering reality itself. Demaurion, scorched and furious, stabbed his trident into the ground.

"I can beat your ass once and I WILL do it again!"

"Sorry gang," Archie muttered, shaking soot off his hair.

"We were almost winning though." Prince wiped ash off his shoulders.

"You almost deleted us from existence." Ella shook her head, ears drooping.

"Great. Now my ears are dusty."

"My wings!" Starla flapped hers, trying to fix them. Archie stretched.

"Still kinda hot tho." He immediately got slapped. The group looked out over the battlefield. The hill was littered with fallen beasts, the grass stained dark. Beyond it— Musicia. Once a city of gold and pink towers and the elegant castle of Queen Soundzwave. Now a warzone. Uragas screamed through the sky, ripping buildings apart with cannon fire. Lunaranites tore through streets like living disasters. Alien birds strafed architecture, reducing entire districts to rubble under storm-dark clouds.

Everything was collapsing. Starla's expression tightened. Then she looked upward. At the castle's highest point. A golden bridge stretched into the sky, crackling with unstable lightning, piercing the storm like a broken signal from heaven.

"We have to do something," she whispered. Prince stepped beside her.

"Princess… what exactly are we supposed to do here?" Starla stared at the destruction for a moment longer. Then she exhaled.

"Someone activated the Celestial Pillars. The Power Gems are moving." Her voice sharpened.

"If we don't stop it now, Celestia—and all of Avangard—falls." She turned fully toward them.

"It could be Incarceration. Dark Don. Dreadixz. Anyone." Her wings tightened.

"I'm Starla, Celestianite Princess. And we're stopping this war on Celestia." A beat.

"We reach the Pillars before the Power Gems do." Her eyes narrowed.

"And I already know how." At the War of Celestia Flames swallowed the ruins in rolling waves, jumping from collapsed block to collapsed block like the city had developed a second, angrier heartbeat. Smoke churned thick and suffocating, dragging the sky down with it—gray curtains swallowing fractured light as they curled through broken towers and half-collapsed streets. Everything felt submerged in ash and heat.

Dark Don stood at the center of it all, fists clenched, lunar energy crawling across his body in jagged pulses. His grin cut through the smoke—sharp, unstable, almost amused by the end of the world unfolding around him. Across from him, Jaylen burned brighter. His aura layered in cyan and gold, snapping together like two forces constantly arguing over control. His jaw was locked tight, eyes fixed forward, energy coiling around his limbs like something alive that couldn't wait any longer.

The air between them cracked. Silver. Cyan. Gold. A collision of pressure tore outward, slicing the skyline into jagged fragments of light. Buildings tilted under invisible force. Streets bent like softened metal. The entire city warped around the moment their powers touched.

"You flip quick when things heat up," Dark Don muttered, voice low, almost entertained. Jaylen didn't slow.

"Things are about to flip." They vanished into impact. BOOM. The collision detonated in layered color—silver, cyan, and gold exploding outward in expanding rings that shredded debris into spirals. The shockwave didn't just push the environment. It rewrote it, turning straight streets into warped angles and floating fragments that drifted for a moment before gravity remembered them. Jaylen reappeared behind him instantly. A knee drove into Dark Don's lunar armor.

The impact rang out like a bell forged from collapsing stone. Dark Don twisted mid-air, encasing himself in a sphere of lunar light as he dropped like a guided meteor. He hit the ground and split cracked streets into molten seams glowing beneath the ruin. Jaylen followed. A streak of cyan-gold fire cut through smoke and rubble, weaving over collapsing debris like gravity had stopped applying rules to him. He flipped mid-air and dropped into a kick. The collision hit. The city answered.

Buildings behind them shuddered—then burst outward in slow-motion fractures of gold, silver, and ash, like the entire district was disassembling itself in rhythm with their fight. Dark Don skidded back, lunar energy spiraling off his limbs in broken arcs. He struck first. Gut punch. Hook. Jab. Backhand. Each hit snapped Jaylen through layers of smoke, silver and cyan trails scattering behind him like shattered glass catching firelight.

"You're fast," Dark Don growled, appearing above him mid-fall, "but fast enough?" Jaylen didn't respond. Dream Weaver ignited in his hand—cyan and gold syncing into a single razor-edged glow. He cut through the air. Arcs of light snapped outward, carving through smoke like blades through fog. Dark Don blocked each strike, impact flashes rippling across the horizon like miniature suns breaking apart. He lunged.

A direct hit sent Jaylen tumbling—but he corrected mid-spin, planting himself against the air as if it had weight, blade sparking as he reoriented.

"You're gonna have to do better," Jaylen shouted, launching forward again. One slash. Two. Three. Each strike left glowing ribbons suspended in the air for half a heartbeat before collapsing into sparks. He flipped over Dark Don, fist igniting with condensed energy. Impact. Dark Don spun out and slammed into the ground hard enough to make the entire block buckle. Concrete and dust erupted upward like a delayed explosion. Dark Don rose immediately. Now furious.

"VICIOUS LUNAR!" He blurred forward. The fight stopped being readable. It became weather. Fists. Knees. Elbows. Kicks. Too fast to track cleanly—only flashes of motion, impact points, and shockwaves registering after the fact. Jaylen blocked where he could, blade screaming against lunar pressure, sparks tearing off in violent fragments. Dark Don rotated through him, caught Jaylen mid-guard, and smashed him downward. The ground cracked outward in concentric fractures. Jaylen bounced. Recovered. Got hit again.

And again. And again. Every impact rewrote the battlefield slightly—streets folding, angles shifting, debris lifting for fractions of a second before gravity corrected like it was embarrassed it had failed. Jaylen forced space with a rising slash, cutting through lunar pressure like tearing fabric. Teleport. He reappeared behind Dark Don. Backhand. Dark Don staggered. Jaylen shot upward in a spiral of cyan-gold light, gathering momentum above the ruined skyline.

"DREAM'S DESCEND!" He dropped. The strike hit like a falling star. BOOOOM. Dark Don crashed through layers of broken city, shockwaves bending streets into warped curves as smoke swallowed the impact zone. Then— A second flash. Jaylen raised his hand mid-air.

"BRIGHTENING HEAVENS!" A beam erupted outward—cyan and gold spiraling together into a piercing column that carved through smoke and lit the entire skyline like forced daylight punching through ash. Dark Don answered instantly. Both fists rose. Energy collided mid-air. The explosion didn't expand. It twisted—warping clouds into spiraling rings that hung above the city like broken halos. Half a second of silence. Then movement again. Both rising. Both still fighting.

Dark Don stomped the air, lunar force spiraling around him as debris lifted and orbited like the battlefield itself had entered his gravity field. Jaylen tightened his grip on Dream Weaver. The blade hummed higher, sharper, syncing with his pulse like it had learned his rhythm. They launched. Two living projectiles. BOOM. Mid-air collision shattered the sound barrier. The world cracked in response. Buildings tilted at wrong angles. The sky flickered black and white.

Debris hung suspended for a heartbeat like physics forgot its job. They spun through the air exchanging strikes at impossible speed. Slash. Counter. Impact. Reposition. Strike again. Dream Weaver carved cyan-gold arcs through smoke, each one detonating into bursts of light. A blade-infused blast shoved Dark Don backward. He recovered instantly. Closed distance. Then pressure.

A brutal sequence of strikes slammed into Jaylen's guard—chest, ribs, jaw, gut—each hit forcing him lower through the air until he was driven back into the ruined city below. Jaylen swept upward with a counter-slash, cutting through lunar aura like mist tearing apart. He grabbed Dark Don mid-motion. Spun. And hurled him across the city. Dark Don twisted mid-fall. Teleported. Appeared above. A kick drove Jaylen straight down. The impact shredded streets outward in a circular blast. Jaylen hit. Rolled.

Forced himself halfway up— Got hit again. Uppercut. Overhand. Another strike that folded him into the ground like the earth was trying to close over him. Dark Don spun through him like a weapon, launching Jaylen into the last standing structure in the district. A massive Celestianite transport tower. Impact. The building detonated inward. Steel, concrete, and glass exploded outward in long shimmering fragments, turning the air into a storm of debris and light. Jaylen tumbled through it all. Falling. Rolling.

Barely moving. Dream Weaver slipped from his hand and clattered across broken stone. He landed on his side. Still. Blood mixing with ash. For the first time, the battlefield quieted. Smoke drifted. Fire cracked softly in the distance. A twitch. His fingers moved. Cyan-gold light flickered weakly along Dream Weaver's blade. Still calling him back. Not done yet.