The metal groaned beneath their feet.
Mai and Tiffany stood side by side on the fractured hull of the Aqua flagship. Around them, smoke and orange light danced like spirits over corpses. Wind howled at this altitude. Yet neither of them moved.
From the far side of the deck, Commander Veyra rose.
She was bleeding from her temple, one arm shattered, but her synthetic marigold pulsed blue-gold light. "I underestimated you," she said, voice cracked. "But the Queen of Akwan doesn't fall alone."
She raised her hand.
The marigold ignited.
A pulse shot out from her chest — a signal. Below, something vast moved beneath the clouds.
A second ship.
No—awar fortress, rising like a mechanical beast with hundreds of cannons and wings wider than a stadium.
Mai's eyes twitched. "Another one?"
Tiffany tilted her head. "This one's mine."
She shot forward, solar energy wrapping around her in a spiral. In a blur of motion, she kicked through the air and slammed her knee into Veyra's sternum. Veyra gasped, coughed blood, tried to counter—but Tiffany flipped backward, landed on a railing, and launched another beam of golden heat.
Veyra's arm combusted.
Screaming, she dropped.
Mai followed. "You had her?"
Tiffany nodded, panting. "Light never misses. Go!"
Mai turned.
The second ship had opened fire. Cannonballs of synthetic blue energy tore through the sky. Mai flew upward, weaving through them like a comet.
Duncan, still clinging to the side of the flagship, watched her rise. "She's going too far..."
Inside the fortress ship:
Screens flickered. "Target approaching at hypersonic—wait—"
Mai crashed through the hull.
She didn't land.
She unleashed.
The Ixora flared around her in bursts of orange flames that incinerated soldiers on sight. She screamed, and the sound echoed across the control deck.
"Where's your queen now!?" she bellowed.
She began tearing the ship apart from the inside, floor by floor, corridor by corridor. Her hands glowed brighter than ever. Her feet burned trails in the steel.
But with each blast, each kill, her pupils began to shake. Her breath grew ragged. Her voice cracked.
She was... losing something.
Back at the flagship:
Tiffany stood over Veyra's broken body.
Veyra whispered, "You're all... flowers waiting to wilt."
Tiffany looked down at her, eyes glowing. "Maybe. But I'd rather bloom and burn... than rot in your cage."
She dropped her heel onto the marigold embedded in Veyra's chest.
It shattered.
Final scene:
Mai emerged from the collapsing fortress, streaked in black smoke, orange aura flickering violently.
But something was different.
She hovered in the sky.
And... she was crying.
Her tears glowed orange.
To be continued...
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