The deck of the submarine had become a war zone wrapped in a hurricane.
Ember stood with her feet planted wide, her tattered black-and-crimson dress whipping around her thighs, her neon-pink space buns somehow defying the wind that tore at everything else. Her mismatched eyes—one icy blue, one prosthetic gold—tracked the chaos with manic joy as she pulled the trigger on her Helltide slingshot rifle.
THOOOM.
The Sparkler round streaked across the gap between the ships, meeting a cannonball mid-flight in a burst of orange and gold that lit the grey sky like a miniature sun. Fragments rained into the churning water below.
Ember grinned. "Ha! That's three dozen, Josiah! Keep count, I'm—"
The Den Den Mushi in her pocket rang.
She fumbled for it, one hand still on her slingshot, her eyes never stopping their sweep of the battlefield. The little snail's eyes were wide, its expression urgent as Galit's voice crackled through.
"Ember! Fall back! Full withdrawal! We only have a few minutes to pull this off!"
Ember's grin widened into something almost feral. "Affirmative! Time to light the candles and leave!"
She pocketed the snail, her gaze sweeping across the chaos. Atlas and Leander were still locked in their lightning-scarred duel on the hull, their movements so fast they left afterimages. Jannali and Alisa flickered in and out of visibility, the huntress's spear seeking the Cheshire woman's constantly shifting form.
Ember cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted over the roar of the mountain.
"Fall back! We're about to go! I'll cover you!"
Atlas's ears twitched. He glanced over his shoulder, his blue sapphire eyes meeting Ember's for a fraction of a second. A grin split his features—bloody, savage, satisfied.
"Finally!" He turned back to Leander, his Electro flaring brighter. "Time to go, kitty-cat. It's been fun, but—"
Leander's claws raked toward his throat. Atlas flowed around them, laughing.
Across the hull, Jannali heard the call and didn't hesitate. She drove Anhur's Whisper toward Alisa's chest in a thrust that should have ended it—but Alisa vanished, reappearing five feet away, her grin wide and infuriating.
"Leaving so soon?" Alisa called. "We were just getting—"
Jannali's boomerang caught her in the side. Not hard enough to do real damage, but enough to stagger her, to buy a moment.
"Sorry, darlin'," Jannali called, her drawl thick with amusement. "Rain check?"
She turned and ran, her feet finding purchase on the slick hull where anyone else would have slipped.
Alisa's eyes flashed amber. She started to give chase—
Ember's Sparkler round exploded at her feet.
Not close enough to hurt. Close enough to make a point.
Alisa looked up, and Ember blew her a kiss. "Stay!"
Alisa's grin twitched. Something that might have been respect flickered in her eyes. She inclined her head, just slightly, and vanished.
Ember turned her attention upward.
Bō-Zak and Esen spun through the air in their private hurricane, the Condor and the Demon locked in a battle that shook the very atmosphere. Bō-Zak's gold-flecked eyes caught Ember's signal, and he laughed—the sound bright and irreverent even over the roar of the mountain.
"We gotta go!" Ember shouted, already loading another round.
Bō-Zak cocked his head, mid-dodge, avoiding one of Esen's wind blades by inches. "And here I was just getting comfortable!"
"Tell the others! I'll cover you!"
Bō-Zak's smirk widened. He turned to Esen, who was already summoning another blast of wind, his leonine face twisted with fury.
"Well, demon-boy, this has been fun." Bō-Zak spread his wings wide. "But I've got places to be. People to see. Drinks to drink."
Esen's eyes blazed. "You aren't going ANYWHERE!"
He raised his arms, the wind gathering around him in a vortex of killing force—
Ember's round caught him square in the chest.
The explosion wasn't enough to hurt him seriously—Pazuzu's form was too durable for that. But it was enough to break his concentration, enough to stagger him, enough to give Bō-Zak the opening he needed.
The Condor's eyes flashed. He unleashed his full power—Gravity Dominion, Soul Ascendance, everything he had—in a single overwhelming wave.
Esen was thrown back, his roar of fury swallowed by the wind.
Bō-Zak didn't wait to see him recover. He folded his wings and dove, shooting past Esen so close their eyes met for one frozen moment.
"Catch you later, maybe!" Bō-Zak called over his shoulder. "Or not! Depends on my schedule!"
He banked sharply, circling over Shamrock's ship, his eyes searching for—
There.
Aurélie and Elvira were still locked in combat on the deck, their blades a blur of motion. Sailors scrambled to stay out of their way, the ship's steep angle making every step a battle.
"Hey! Locust lady!" Bō-Zak's voice carried down. "Time to go! The boss is calling a retreat!"
Aurélie's compound eyes flickered toward him. She didn't hesitate.
Her wings erupted fully—four shimmering membranes that caught the wind and pushed. She launched herself backward, away from Elvira, into the air.
Elvira's eyes widened. "We are NOT finished!"
She lunged, her great sword sweeping toward Aurélie's retreating form.
Aurélie's blade flicked out, deflecting the strike with contemptuous ease. She didn't speak. She didn't need to. Her expression said everything.
She flew.
Elvira roared and gave chase, her hybrid form propelling her across the deck and into the air with terrifying speed. But Aurélie was faster—always faster—and the gap between them widened with each wingbeat.
Bō-Zak tucked and rolled, avoiding a stray Haki arc that sizzled past, and angled toward the true prize.
Marya and Shamrock.
They hung in the air above the mountain like avatars of war itself, their blades meeting and separating in explosions of force that shook the cliffs. Neither had gained the advantage. Neither would yield.
Bō-Zak approached cautiously—very cautiously—circling wide to avoid being caught in their wake.
"Hey!" he called out. "Boss! Fall back! We're about to leave!"
Marya's jaw flexed. Her golden eyes, locked on Shamrock's, flickered with something—frustration, rage, the desperate need to finish this.
Shamrock's grin widened. He saw it. He felt it.
"What's it going to be, little hawk?" His voice was soft, mocking, intimate. "Stay and play? Or scurry off with the rest of the gutter-trash?"
Marya's eyes narrowed to slits. Nisshoku trembled in her grip, the obsidian blade humming with barely contained power.
For a long, terrible moment, the world froze as if stuck in suspension.
Then Marya vanished.
She didn't announce it. Didn't signal. Didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. She simply left, her body dissolving into mist that scattered on the wind.
Shamrock's grin faltered—just for an instant. Then it returned, wider than before.
"You think you get to say when this is over?" He laughed, the sound cold and genuine. "No, little hawk. No, you don't."
He vanished after her.
Bō-Zak didn't wait to see more. He folded his wings and dove toward the submarine's deck, his body slicing through the air like a black arrow.
Below, Ember had set up a perimeter of controlled chaos. Sparkler rounds flew in every direction, not to kill, but to deter—to keep Leander and Alisa and Esen and Elvira from giving chase, to buy her people the seconds they needed.
Atlas hit the deck running, skidding on the slick metal, catching himself against a railing. Jannali was right behind him, her spear retracted, her chest heaving. Aurélie touched down with impossible grace, her wings folding, her compound eyes already shifting back to steel-gray.
Bō-Zak landed in a crouch, his condor form dissolving into his human shape, his chest heaving.
Ember glanced at him. "Where's Marya?"
Bō-Zak's head snapped up, scanning the sky.
For one terrible heartbeat, there was nothing.
Then the mist coalesced, and Marya was there—standing on the deck as if she'd never left, her face a mask of cold control, her golden eyes burning with fires she refused to show.
She looked at Ember. Nodded once.
"Go."
Ember didn't need to be told twice. She turned and ran for the hatch, the others right behind her.
Behind them, the air twisted, and Shamrock appeared on the submarine's deck, Cerberus gleaming in his hand.
He was too late. They were already inside. The hatch was closing.
But his eyes met Marya's through the shrinking gap, and he smiled.
"Run, little hawk," he murmured. "Run fast. I'll find you."
The hatch sealed.
The submarine dove into the whirlpool, forcing the power holders standing on the haul to fall back to their ship and Reverse Mountain swallowed them whole.
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