“Then let’s try it... Whether you’re man, demon, or god, I’ll see my goal through—if it’s the only way to save her.” Medith stared at a sky that roared and an earth that shivered, iron resolve burning in her eyes.

...

Oct 19.

Boom... Medith jolted awake to a low, growling thunder. “Mm...” She pushed herself up, heavy as wet cloth; lightning had raged all night, and Phiby had clung so hard her waist felt ready to snap.

“Ah... up! Up!” Medith ripped the blankets off the girls and slapped them awake. “What is—ah~ mm~” Sais blinked toward the window, bleary as dawn mist.

“Gods!” Sais saw the view outside and went pale. “Move! Move! Change, all of you!” Medith flew into her clothes, then shoved the door open and sprinted out.

...

The moment she stepped outside, a blast nearly picked her up and tossed her. She yanked her longsword free and braced against the gale, then froze at the sight ahead: water everywhere in the streets; a Cyclone hurling bean-big raindrops that hammered the ground and lifted the flood inch by inch.

Roofs had been ripped off by the Cyclone; commoners were trapped inside, danger hanging like a blade. Haidra and a squad of guards, buried in heavy armor, fought the wind and rain to rescue and evacuate people.

“Commander—what’s going on—” The girls hit the stairs and felt the knife-edge wind at the main gate. They rushed to the threshold. An azure gaze flared as one of them reached to steer the Cyclone’s flow. Sais saw it and lashed out with a kick, booting them back. “You trying to die?! You dare touch a gale like this? You’ll be shredded in a blink!”

Rage and fear sharpened Sais’s face; the girls hadn’t understood, but her look chilled their impulse. Rain slicked Medith’s face and armor. Her brow knotted. She felt it too—the wrongness in the wind.

“You—where’s Marquis Powell?” Medith slammed the door shut and grabbed a maid. The maid shook, small in the storm’s shadow. “I... I... My lord’s been evacuating since before dawn. He told us not to step outside...”

Medith let out a breath. “Milia, Iling, Phiby—work with the kingdom’s guards and clear the civilians. Sais, with me to support Haidra. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Yes!” The girls took off like loosed arrows, their figures blurring into the rain.

Thud-thud-thud—. Medith and Sais sprinted through ankle-deep water. At first, Medith skimmed the surface with Wind Magic, light as a leaf, but a minute later weakness flooded her, cold gnawed her bones.

“Idiot! Stop casting! In this weather we can’t control the wind. Even Her Majesty the Queen could only stare at a storm like this!” Sais caught up from behind. She’d expected it and had been wading the whole way.

Medith bit down a curse. “Damn it! Damn this magic! It’s finicky to use and it bows to the weather!” She leaned into the gale and drove forward. Her dislike of magic ticked up another notch.

If she had her old body, she’d be there already. Twenty hard minutes later, they reached the city wall where Haidra’s group held fast.

...

“Quick! Hold the line! Hold the line!”

“This way! Follow the guards!”

“Lady Haidra—the levee’s about to break—”

They reached the parapet and saw a sight to brand the soul: a vast sea, horizon swallowed, heaving like a sleeping beast. Thick thunder-serpents flashed across a blackened sky. The scene was sublime and suffocating. Before nature’s absolute power, humans and sprites alike were dust on the wind.

“So this is... the world...” The sea filled Medith’s eyes. She had never imagined a river this wide—she didn’t even have a word for sea.

Bean-sized drops pummeled the surface. Clear waters lay under a lid of cloud, dark as a dead sea and cold with dread. Boom—splash—. The sea rode high, and floods slammed the shore in hungry bursts.

“What... what’s happening?!” Medith wiped her face and tried to force her eyes open. The next sheet of rain drowned them again. Haidra seized Medith and Sais and dragged them into the tower.

Kailon was there, sweating through his brow, barking orders along the wall and shoring up the gate.

Medith and Sais were soaked through. Sais, who wore little to start with, now had wet cloth clinging; her outline was stark as ink on silk. Haidra snapped an order, and moments later two white suits of battle armor arrived. Sais didn’t complain this time. She and Medith buckled in and stepped back out.

“What’s the situation now?” Medith strapped on the Royal Capital plate of the Eastern Nation. It set off a bold, wind-born grace.

Haidra took off her helm and poured water out. “The weather flipped last night. Rain all night. Howling wind. Even our walls reinforced with [Impado] can’t stand this Cyclone. The sea keeps rising. The weather’s vicious. I fear the [Wall of Life] won’t hold...

I need your help. You’re Wind Sprites, aren’t you? See if—”

“Sorry. Our magic is almost dead. In wind and rain like this, our power gets crushed to the limit...” Medith said. The Eastern Nation is attuned to Wind Magic; its theory and habits skew to the Wind Sprite lineage. If purebred Wind Sprite elites are throttled this hard, what hope for their “imitation” kind?

“I figured.” Haidra’s jaw set. “Our fortifications are weaker, but the bones are good. If we live through this storm, we can fix the rest—”

Boom—. The gate and wall roared. The tower shook like a struck bell. It stilled after a long breath, leaving wreckage scattered like fallen leaves.

They rushed back to the battlements. Medith peered through her visor at the distant line. A swell was rolling in, fast as a charging herd.

It came closer, grew larger. It felt like the whole sea flipping over. In under ten minutes it became a two-meter wall of water. It didn’t look fierce, but Haidra blanched. “Open the gate! Open it! Pull everyone outside back—now—”

“But—Lady Haidra—the gate’s locked and reinforced!”

“Then drop ladders!”

“Drop the—” Seconds later, silver-white ladders thrust down like ramps. The guards scrambled up the wall in a frantic stream.

“Raise the Guardian—” Haidra spoke, and a hundred meters out along the bank, the ground surged. A ten-meter silver wall rose, scored with dense, crawling sigils.

At the same time, the wave hit the shallows. Boom—crash—wuuu—. The two-meter swell reared past twenty. The breaker met the shore wall and smashed downward.

Rumble—. Wall and earth cried together, like a Meteor striking.

Crack-crack... The city wall couldn’t bear it. Horrid fissures crawled across the stone.