Lament of the Fallen

The fight between the two parties was taking place in the ruins of the palace since the area was already destroyed. There was very little that could become further collateral damage. Each side had the people not involved in the fight take some distance to avoid conflicts, but almost all of the uninjured people stayed close enough to watch the fight. After all, the result would have a large impact on them as well. Even many of the injured people dragged themselves to a spot where they had at least some vision of what went on.

The immortals that had gone with the emperor were seeing the devastated palace for the first time and couldn’t hide their shocked expressions. If not for the fact that the empress had some of their allies and friends rendezvous with them to explain what had happened, many of the immortals would have assumed this was the doing of those that had attacked the palace. Even now some of the immortals blamed the empress and her allies, but the majority had another target for their anger, despite their inability to act on that emotion. If the emperor won this fight, he would have to spend a lot of time reasserting control. The majority of the imperial guard and the palace officials had died, and nearly all of them came from the same factions as these immortals. Some of those now dead had been family and serving in the guard or the palace had been seen as an honor.

The emperor led two of his generals towards the spot where his throne room had been, an auspicious location for the fight. Dee, Teresa, the empress and the Young King were already waiting there. The emperor had picked the two generals partly because they were among his most powerful subordinates, and because they were also some of his most loyal servants. The two also didn’t have family among those that had died, or so he assumed at least.

“Wife. I didn’t expect you to personally take part in a fight like this.” The emperor stated with a small smug grin. He knew she would be important to this fight. The empress was a capable mage and not too bad with a blade, so she could certainly hold her own. However, she was a strategist that liked to work by pulling the strings of others behind the scenes and wasn’t as strong as someone who dedicated themselves to combat. If he could get his hands on her, he could use the empress as a hostage. Even if the two didn’t truly care about her, they would at the very least try to avoid hurting her. Even if that failed, she would be a weak link in the opposing group.

“Oh did I forget to mention? I’m not taking part in this fight. I just came to affirm that I will abide by the results despite my personal feelings. Should you win, something I assure you will not happen, I will be at your mercy.” She was here to taunt the emperor. They had a small trap prepared, and wanted to make winning enticing enough for the emperor to take the bait.

“That’s not quite what I agreed to.” The emperor hedged, though still calm and assured of victory. Holding the empress hostage probably wouldn’t have been enough for a victory anyway, but he was curious about who the third person would be since there was no one else present. He looked towards the Young King. “I’m confident you stated she would be the third person.”

Before the Solarian could reply, Teresa laughed mocking his careful nature. “Surely the great Celestial Emperor isn’t afraid? Don’t worry; the Solarian will not be taking part as more than an impartial observer.”

“Any living being is able to take part correct? Our third member would like to retain the element of surprise.” Dee also interjected. The important part of her words was the first question, but she emphasized the latter sentence as misdirection.

“You are correct and stealth starts are allowed. I’ll allow it assuming the other party is fine with it.” The Young King replied. Unlike the emperor, he had noticed something important missing when he had returned from arranging the fight and knew what was coming. He showed no reaction though. Whether the emperor agreed or not would not change the result, but his agreement would make things easier for the other party.

With both Dee and Teresa obviously taunting him with jeering expressions, the emperor had little choice but to accept. He had to show everyone present that going against him would be folly, and trying to dodge insignificant terms like this would make him look weak instead. Besides, in his mind, anyone relying on stealth would have a really bad time against him. “Fine. It matters not. I will crush you all the same.”

As the empress and the Young King pulled away, the fighters took positions across from each other. The empress actually went to the immortals that had come with the emperor to try and turn them all to her side. Not that it would matter if they lost, but she was rather confident they would not lose. She rather intelligently used the rumors of her prophetic abilities to her advantage, as she told a story of how she had left because she had prophesized that Dee’s coming would bring fire to the Celestial Court. To rile everyone up, she kept emphasizing that she had not expected that fire to come as a result of the emperor deciding to sacrifice everyone at the palace. She carefully avoided mentioning that there would most likely be more fires, both literal and metaphorical after the emperor passed away and everyone tried to take his place.

“I’ll take the two generals.” Teresa stated simply as they waited for the signal. “I’ll handle them as quickly as possible and then come to help. Assuming you’ll still need help at that point.” She made sure the other side was able to hear her words.

Dee gave a nod in response and sent Teresa a mental message. ‘Do not worry. Ours is a two on one fight as well. We’ll be fine.’

After seeing both sides were ready, the Young King gave the starting signal. The two generals and Teresa all flew high into the air as if agreeing that they would handle their own fight separately. The emperor had given the two an order to delay Teresa to the best of their ability while he took care of Dee, so the split suited both groups just fine. As the three reached a height where they were mostly out of sight, the two generals suddenly turned towards her without any sign of hostility. “Madame Teresa. We have a request.” One of them stated. It was hard to tell the two apart because their armors made them look identical, even though they were likely members of completely different races.

“And what would that request be?” Teresa asked in slight surprise.

“The emperor has ordered us to delay you to the best of our ability, and we can’t go against his orders. However, we have no desire to fight you. As long as you don’t try to go back and interfere, we can simply stay here without fighting.” The same general stated.

Teresa’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “And why exactly would you do this?”

“One of the palace servants…she and I…were close.” The general stated through audibly gritted teeth. “She was not among the survivors. Besides, no matter how the other fights ends, this way is better for us.”

Teresa looked at the other general. Surprisingly a female voice came in reply to the unvoiced question. “One of the hostages is my sister. The empress’ allies among the immortals that came along with us said that she was among the last ones to be saved, but that she is alive. Apparently, someone from your side died saving her and some other hostages.”

“Nyx.” Teresa said with a sigh. “Her name was Nyx, and I’d be careful about mentioning her when Dee is close enough to hear. Alright. We can just stay here. I’m just about to break through to rank thirteen anyway, so I might as well do so while we wait. This was a rather unpleasant interruption anyway.”

The two generals looked at Teresa in surprise. “I know I was the one who suggested this but…you don’t seem to be in a hurry to rush to help your friend.” The male general stated.

“I’m not. Dee can handle this, and she’d prefer it this way anyway. I was going to back her up just in case, but this works just as well.” Teresa stated simply.

Back on the ground Dee and the emperor didn’t seem to be in a hurry to start and waited until the other fighters were out of sight. As soon as they were though, two Domains suddenly flared out and collided in the middle. The two Domains struggled against each other, trying to gain supremacy. Dee knew that this was the result of two competing Domains coming into contact. If their Domains had been entirely different, they would not have collided in this way. Dee’s Domain was very slowly gaining ground.

“It does indeed seem that your Domain is even more dominating than mine.” The emperor stated, seeming unperturbed. He was also slightly wrong. Dee’s Domain gaining ground was actually due to her totem being much more powerful. However, neither of them was using their totem fully yet, which is why the effect was still marginal.

“How does it feel to finally meet someone that stands above you?” Dee asked in a taunting tone.

“I’ve spent too much time with the Solarians to truly care. You can’t compare.” The emperor shot back, not showing that he was actually quite irked by her words. He didn’t mind a rank thirteen Solarian standing above him, but a young woman like Dee? That vexed him more than was reasonable. “Still, I suppose we should finally start. I suppose your mysterious third member will wait for an opportune moment. I’ll have to provide them with plenty of opportunities.”

Suddenly two identical figures stood where the emperor had been standing earlier, and Dee could finally sense the power of an Authority radiating from him. The other figure was somewhat hollow inside, but Dee could sense that it was not any weaker. Both of the emperors dashed at Dee, flanking her on both sides. They were wielding an identical medium length straight sword in their hands that seemed to be very light and flexible, something that was proven to be true as they flashed towards her with impressive speed.

“Of course the Celestial Emperor would be in possession of an Authority.” Dee grumbled while activating Lumen’s blessing to its full effect. Even without being suppressed by Dee’s Domain, the emperor seemed to move somewhat slower than her, though the fact that she was essentially fighting two on one countered that somewhat. A blade of ki flew towards Dee, while the armor of light appeared around her as if on instinct. Even with the armor of light in place, instead of taking the seemingly harmless strike head-on, she decided to erect a shield of psionic energy in front of the attack just to test things out. She had learned a while ago that attacks that seemed simple at first glance often were anything but.

Her instincts served her well, as the blade of ki passed straight through the psionic defense as if the shield wasn’t there. Dee barely had time to dodge, and her dodge brought her into contact with the other image of the emperor flanking her. The sword of the emperor met a blade created from psionic energy. This time the weapon made of the psionic power held, although Dee did notice a small drain on her power. Before she had much time to think, the first clone attacked her again. The attacks of the flexible sword seemed to twist and bend around her weapons, but her own skills with the blade allowed her to parry those blows away harmlessly.

The coordination between the two emperors was perfect, and even with her four hands Dee was pushed hard and was forced to use her tails as improvised weapons to buy some space. She quickly realized that not all of the emperor’s attacks could bypass her defenses as perfectly as the first strike had. It still forced her to tread carefully, as a seemingly harmless attack could suddenly turn into something much more serious almost instantly. The rules that governed that power seemed to be somewhat particular as those attacks penetrated any defensive measures, but could be countered with a sufficiently powerful attack made by Dee. Many of the emperor’s attacks were met by a flying blade of psionic energy, destroying both and forcing the emperor to give her some space to avoid the resulting explosions.

Even with that, Dee couldn’t protect herself perfectly. When she parried a sword blow, the already parried sword sent out a small blade of ki at her, close enough to make it impossible to dodge completely. She had received several small wounds, but luckily it seemed the emperor didn’t have a way to hinder her regeneration effectively. She wasn’t completely on the receiving end either. She had managed to land several attacks on the two emperors attacking her, but with even less effect.

Every time she attacked the hollow copy of the emperor, the attack passed harmlessly through him. Even a burst of her black flames had passed through the hollow copy as if it wasn’t there, even though usually those flames would at least devour the power sustaining the copy. The hollow clone was still solid though, as it had successfully kicked her once, and she had returned the favor, though it felt as if kicking something soft that just bent under her foot. On the other hand, if she attacked the copy of the emperor that was not hollow, that copy suddenly swapped places with the other one, so that now the one taking the attack was the hollow one once again.

Even with all that, it was not the emperor’s ability with the blade that kept the fight even. After all, she was much faster than the emperor, and she was also clearly stronger, even if she didn’t get to leverage that strength against her hollow opponent. The problem was that sometimes the two copies of the emperor were not satisfied with just attacking her physically. While one of them struck at her, the other one would pull back a bit to cast quick spells. And the spells the emperor cast were extremely annoying.

The first few spells had been largely ineffective. The first one had been a powerful spell with a lot of mana behind it that Dee recognized as being the high ranking death spell ‘Soul Quench’, which attacked the target's soul directly in an attempt to force it out of the body it was in. That spell had luckily had zero effect thanks to Dee’s resistances and totem. That spell had been followed by a beam of golden light from the light element, but Dee had resisted that as well as the following two spells thanks to her own resistances and Croestia.

Unfortunately, the emperor had chanced upon two spells that were actually working well. One was a high ranking spell that destroyed any powers used by the enemy, which the emperor used to destroy the psionic blades Dee used to defend herself. The first time that had happened the vanishing blade in her hand had left Dee wide open to an attack by the other copy, which had earned Dee a large gash in her abdomen. Luckily the claws and scales that had appeared on her now empty hand had been enough to stop further damage. The other spell was similar in that it stopped Dee from using her abilities for a short time, draining all the power in the area, which stopped her from using her own holy spells to her advantage.

Suddenly Dee sent out a swarm of psionic attacks at the two emperors, forcing him to take some distance. She had allowed herself to get locked into this close combat because she needed to confirm a few things before enacting her plan. The empress had been able to warn her of the emperor’s ability to make a clone of himself, but even the empress didn’t know all of the emperor’s abilities. No doubt he had several trump cards still hidden, but that would not matter if things went according to plan. She had managed to find out what she needed.

“What, already pulling back? We were just getting started.” The emperor taunted. In truth, he had been really annoyed by his inability to strike at Dee. Normally his combination of physical abilities, ability to bypass defenses, and his spells that would be enough to overwhelm most enemies, but Dee was able to avoid nearly everything thanks to her speed and resistances. She also rendered the ability that was usually his biggest advantage, his Domain, completely irrelevant. He would have to rely on his artifacts or his final Authority to gain victory if this kept up. He had really wanted to keep his final Authority a secret in case he needed to ever face the Solarians in battle.

“No, I simply found out what I needed. By the way, in case you were hoping on relying on your third copy to escape if you run into trouble, then you can forget it. Your dear wife gave her own contribution to the fight already.” Dee replied with sly look while giving a small signal.

The emperor could actually form three clones, along with his real body, with the Authority he was using, but making each one took some time. One had been destroyed by Teresa as the Solarians destroyed the palace, an extravagant use of a clone, but he had considered the delay and the opportunity to taunt his opponents worth it. He could always make a new one after this. The clones seemed invulnerable, but could actually be destroyed with a powerful enough attack. They were only invulnerable to attacks below a certain threshold. Ironically, Dee’s black flames actually required too little power to count by the metrics of this Authority. The last clone had been hidden in a secret place for centuries. As he could move between the clones at will, that one served as an emergency escape in case he ever faced an impossible situation. It was always slumbering to save power and allow it to be materialized constantly.

The empress was not able to find out everything about the emperor’s powers and plans, but the location of that clone was something she had managed find out. The emperor suddenly felt the connection to that clone get severed. He grimaced. “No matter. I will not need a way to escape from you. I can always create a new one later on. I think it’s about time to bring this to an end.” The emperor pulled out one of his most powerful artifacts, a simple looking wand.

A storm of chaotic energy similar to the corridor that had protected the now destroyed shield formation around the palace swarmed towards Dee. This power was geared more towards offense and contained power shifting between all elements intent on shredding any target it touched. Any defensive abilities would be turned against the target instead. At least any defensive abilities that actually came in contact with the power.

Instead, Dee seemed to turn completely into golden energy as she moved faster than anyone could see to avoid the stream of power while striking at the clone not using the wand. Almost instinctively the emperor stabbed his weapon towards Dee but knew he was too slow to hit. Knowing that this would be the critical moment in the fight, the emperor decided to throw caution in the wind and use his final trump card. “By my Authority as the Celestial Emperor, I demand you to stop!”

Dee seemed to freeze in the motion of striking at the emperor, but only for a short moment. The Authority the emperor had used was powerful and forced the target to obey a command given. The problem was, the Authority was new and was not based on long-established legends like many others. It was purposefully created by the emperor and didn’t yet function perfectly. It had to apply whatever means possible to force the command on the target. In this case, the power of the command relied on the emperor’s Domain and the element of time to freeze Dee in place. If he had given another command, it might have used powers more effective against Dee, but this particular command was doomed for failure.

Unfortunately for the emperor, the time element of the command unraveled as soon as it came in contact with Dee’s blessing of Eternity. As the power in her totem surged, the Domain of the emperor was shattered as Dee’s own exerted dominance. The small pause had been enough for the emperor to complete his hasty strike at Dee, successfully sinking his blade into her chest. The strike missed her heart due to being so rushed, and the shattering of his Domain had stunned him for a very important moment.

Dee had actually prepared herself for taking a blow from the emperor, though not one this serious. One of the things that she had found out in their earlier fight was that while the emperor’s blade was able to penetrate defenses, the wounds it left were normal. Even though a sword through her chest was unpleasant, even a strike to the heart would not be enough to kill an immortal like her. She wasn’t quite at the point of being able to regenerate any damage done to her, but she was capable of dealing with something like this. And now she was in close enough contact to exert her power over this clone and stop it from acting.

That had been the original plan that she had been willing to take a wound for. Her hands locked around the emperor’s sword arm like vices while her power ate away at the sword still stuck in her chest. While her black flames might not be able to harm the clone, they certainly could destroy the blade. “Got you now. You forgot our third member didn’t you.”

Suddenly a shadow fell on the emperor as the Living Mountain appeared seemingly from thin air. A thick stream of liquid fire was fired from the halo surrounding the mountain. The clone the mountain had targeted was simply wiped out and the emperor was forced into the clone that Dee had just captured. He was still in a condition to struggle free if given a small chance to recover from the effects of his Domain collapsing.

Unfortunately for him, Dee was not about to allow him that chance. The emperor was forced to the ground by invisible hands and suddenly felt a great deal of pain as black objects formed into long and thin nails crucifying him to the ground while increasing the gravity around his limbs, making any movement impossible. Before he had the opportunity to try and get free, the weight of Dee’s foot landed on his back. “You said that you wanted to acquire the Living Mountain. Well, there it is. Go ahead and ask if the mountain wants to stick with you.”

“I will not be humiliated!” The emperor yelled in anger. Despite his damaged state, he wasn’t about to allow himself to be made into a spectacle. Several artifacts appeared around him with the purpose of self-destruction. With some luck, he might even survive and be able to escape. He had been forced into a situation where even a narrow chance had to be taken.

“Oh no, you won’t.” Dee said while plunging her fist into the emperor’s chest, pulling out what looked like the grey and smoky form of his soul. It would have been impossible to extract the soul of a healthy immortal, but the clawed fist plunging into the emperor’s chest had already pushed him close enough to death, even if he too could recover from the wound itself with some time. With the emperor no longer controlling the artifacts, they fell harmlessly on the ground.

Dee watched as Teresa and the two generals slowly descended from the sky as they had felt the fight coming to a conclusion. Dee frowned at the trio and suddenly slashed downwards with a sword of psionic energy she had just created. With a flourish, the blade disappeared, as did the emperor’s head that she had just severed and stored. “I’m taking this to appease all those who died back at the Five Winds community. You can do what you want with the rest.” She stated firmly, marching towards the place she had left Moirai and Razark.

The rest of what happened here would no longer be her concern. She had a week to grieve and to say goodbyes. What happened to the Celestial Court didn’t matter to her in the least. The empress could deal with that. The only thing she cared about was to see how many of the Five Winds had died. Maybe this victory would provide those surviving some comfort, even though it would be a cold comfort in comparison to all that had been lost.