The cannon I destroyed wasn't the last to fall. Still more burst into flames or froze over as the defenders of Revaliir struck back with renewed vigor. Soon, airships were flooding reinforcements onto the platform; no longer waylaid by arcane missiles. Despite this victory, however, the strength of the tide remained unchanged.
Many automatons were downed during the initial assaults, but, no matter how much damage was inflicted, they just kept coming back. Even blasting off the legs of one soldier merely caused them to crawl toward their opponent. The situation cast an image reminiscent of a necromancer's stronghold: especially since these creatures seemed to turn death on its head. They were intelligent, able to adapt to the magics that were being used against them, and they were merciless in their advance. This outside menace was truly terrifying in nature, and it came as no surprise when the first group of adventurers to arrive was completely wiped out.
When the screams of those poor men and women echoed out, reaching the ears of Katerina and her party, a new voice projected out over the entire battlefield. The specter that spoke had clearly been human at one time, but his tone was now twisted into a haunting reflection of its former self. Every word felt cold and lifeless, as if his speech could have been a weapon in itself.
"Lucky creatures," the automaton phantom uttered without showing form or face. "At long last, you have found the tranquility of death. I was like you once: clinging to life and blind to the truth. When I uncovered the truth, I too shuddered and paled with fear. Deep in this sanctum, I was remade. Here, my brethren slumbered for eons, while the living grew like weeds in worlds like yours. My Lady knew this day would come: the day when a new world would come closer. She made plans for us all. We would purge that world, and cleanse it of the blight of the living. So come, poor victims of life. We will grant you tranquility in our great Tarishitar. Revaliir will be a tomb world once more, and the Goddess of Death will rule anew."
The platform glowed green once the specter finished his monologue, casting fear and doubt among the ranks of mortals. The energy within that light seemed to give the automatons new life, causing them to repair any damage they had suffered thus far. Although the cannons did not come back with this spell, the platform now appeared as if there had been no invasion at all. Even the scars in the ground disappeared, leaving almost no evidence of an attack.
I knew at that point that our frontal assault wasn't working. Mortal might just wasn't enough so long as the automatons still had their primary energy source available to them. They would keep repairing themselves so long as that remained, nullifying any damage we inflicted. In order to get any headway, we needed to hit the center of the platform hard and fast.
Unfortunately, I realized almost instantaneously that such an action would be impossible without extreme losses of life on the part of Revaliir. There was only one course of action I could take that would prevent such a horrid outcome, and I flew low to commit it despite what after-effects it would have on my person. SAI, whom my asleep self called Kino, recognized the decision, even if she still questioned its logic.
"Are you really going to summon it here," she asked? "The damage to the tower will be immense and delay our departure."
Scoffing at SAI's words, I simply opened fire with the Shadow Fox on the charred earth below the platform. Anyone paying attention would think I was crazily digging trenches at a time like this, but my companion knew full well what the end result of the excavation would be. She knew the answer to her question already, but still thought to ask.
"Delay my departure, you mean. You'll still be here when Skadi arrives." Carving out a symbol that the Storm Wolf above would recognize, my seemingly aimless digging was finally beginning to take shape. An arcane circle specific to my realm gradually appeared underneath the floating platform, and it thrummed with power upon completion. "Serena can wait a few months longer. Her greatest strength is patience, after all. The Day of Reckoning can wait." And so I stopped speaking to SAI, turning my attention to Moliira and her dragon instead. My telepathy was swift in that moment, necessarily so since the spell I was casting was already draining my power in mass. ~I'd move out of the way if I were you, Moliira.~
Divine energy flooded from the ground in that instant, bringing with it a swirling vortex of chaos. Through the gate, a tower's apex appeared, sundering reality and connecting two realms that should never meet. Himitsu no Koa rose from the abyss like a monstrous spire of gothic architecture, projecting itself upward and into the bowels of the floating fortress. After several tremors within the area, the tip of that holy structure emerged on the upper level of the metal Tarishitar. The remains of an enormous sphere decorated its top like a twisted ornament: marking the end of the platform's central, power source.
Therefore, with one fell stroke, I had expended all my energy to bring my temple to the war torn area of Bakulaw – or at least part of it. Himitsu no Koa was never meant to exist in the mortal plane like I had forced it to be, let alone be used as a weapon; but the invading automatons left me with little choice. In exchange for forcing myself to flee from battle, I took out the remaining turrets and the resurrection abilities of the platform. Everything related to the invaders lacked a power source now, and so even the island itself started to slide down the spire. Eventually friction stopped it, but the magic that kept the monstrosity afloat was now gone.
Wiping out the rest of the automatons, however, was now up to the adventurers. I was very weak after trying to use such a great amount of force in Parvpora, so much so that a cold sweat was already breaking out over my entire body. I desperately needed to rest, and so I directed my Shadow Fox down into the vortex that surrounded the tower.
"Let's go home, SAI," I said in a tired voice while disappearing from Bakulaw. "Or at least to our home away from home."
