Through the smoldering smoke & flash heated steam, the form remained, only this time with a few slight alterings. And… It roared with a fury as if laughing in the face of death, in spite of the gods, and to the horror of the mortals.
Once more a pressurized wave of sound expanded outward in a spherical pattern, leaving nothing untouched by it, destroying the magical barrier completely… in an effort to restrict the fear's effects, everyone shouted out war cries of their own, it was the only way to survive this time. The fairy force began to fall one by one, unconscious, bleeding out of their ears.
At the same time, Ottar, Finn, and the rest of the Tsugunai's remaining forces saw it… There was a single, massive crystal contained within was a naked body, the naked body of… It was clear at that moment, there was no longer any hope of victory over this monster, Finn gave a nod to everyone…
They fled, carrying with them, all of their unconscious allies with them. Slowly they met up with other groups who'd still been scattered throughout the corridors; several members were clearly not in any kind of condition to do anything. It was in a moment like this everyone had a small regret, they should have brought Heith with them. However, at this very moment, she was currently pregnant, meaning Freya was unwilling to risk her condition in any way… the short of it was that some of these members had in fact passed on to their next life. Yet still they brought their bodies out of the ruins, Ottar showing why he was their captain.
Upon exiting the ruins, the damage Antares' new strength gave him was nothing short of insanity… it took a moment for everyone to understand what had happened just now.
"DAMN IT!" Allen finally shouted with a pained anger.
"The hell was that!?" A few others expressed their confusion and horror.
"Enough! Riveria, wake everyone up, as many as you can. Grer, you and your brothers will stay here to guard the exit. Kill any monsters that manage to escape." Finn ordered, struggling to keep himself awake as well. "The rest of us will return to the Tsugunai, receive healing, and updates. Gareth, and Hedin will get yours first, and then come back to replace the Gullivers and Riveria."
"We're retreating?" A weak, trembling, and sorrow filled voice just asked. The sheer grit it took to wake up after that, went to prove she had definitely earned her level 3 status.
"Yes, we have to regroup for now. Antares was beyond what we expected, and even with everything we had at our disposal, it still wasn't enough to defeat him. Now that he has the full power of a goddess to draw upon…" Finn explained, and quickly everyone but those ordered to stay on guard left for the Tsugunai.
"This is bad, the forest is completely scarred." Riveria spoke with an odd degree of anger in her tone, paired with an equally terrifying expression.
"Listen, we aren't going to let a single one of those monsters through the exit." Grer said making sure it was clear what their purpose was. "I may not like following Finn's orders, but it's better than letting those shits out of the ruins."
"Finn made the right order…" Riveria muttered, clenching her staff as something shifted from deep within herself. "Antares will pay for this!" She shouted in a primal shout to the heavens, the fury of a burned forest burned away all of her reservations and well mannerisms, having opened up deep wounds from a war long ago, the one which took her people's homeland away from them. It was then she saw it, up in the sky… "What is that? Another moon?"
"What are you looking at?" Grer asked, he and the brothers looked up to see another moon in the sky, though… "That is not Shurry's moon, and the real moon is over there… FINN! WHATEVER YOU PLAN ON DOING, DO IT QUICKLY!"
Aboard the Tsugunai, a few seconds after everyone had escaped from the ruins, Freya had been sitting on the deck, kicking her feet up, drinking a glass of wine, while she used her eyes to watch the fight as much as she could. Her semi-relaxed state was rudely interrupted by Loki shouting something Freya didn't care to listen to until…
"In the sky! Freya, tell me you're not seeing that!"
Freya looked up, and… "Fine, I don't see it."
"Damn it Freya! What happened to Artemis, she's not stupid enough to pull this shit."
"It's unclear, but perhaps, Antares managed to absorb her somehow?"
Finn and the others arrived on the Tsugunai's deck right as Freya had explained her theory. Their conditions clearly pathetic, each looking like they could collapse at any moment.
"Heith, heal them now." Freya said without hesitation.
"Yes, my Lady." Heith answered with a powerful golden wrap of light, using the power of miracles to heal even the most severe of injuries. "Still shy of his healing magic…" She scowled, and started to think about what to do to improve it further.
There were still a few of Freya familia's weaker members who never healed up, their souls were gone. Something that Freya could already see prior to the healing magic, but it became real for everyone else who had been holding out the faintest of hopes…
"Lady Freya, Lady Loki, update Gareth and Hedin's statuses first. We need to replace the Gulliver brothers and Riveria, quickly. I had them stay behind since they were in the best condition of everyone."
"Gareth, get over here." Loki said, and began updating Gareth's status, quickly of course, but even with everything that had happened, his level up was still yet to be seen, he was just shy of it.
Freya performed an update on Hedin, who also had a similar issue with his status refusing to allow him to level up.
"Go now and make me proud." Freya whispered into Hedin's ear, with a gentle blow.
Gareth and Hedin left the Tsugunai once more, soon being replaced with an utterly exhausted group of five who needed help getting back onto the ship.
"Finn, tell me, what happened in there." Loki demanded, as she started updating everyone else's status, at least the ones that she could, when she saw Finn gulp, she realized it immediately. "Antares absorbed Artemis…" Finn nodded, and Loki's eyes went wide, then looked at Freya.
"Seems there isn't any choice but to rely on him now."
…