As if the individual towers of the Revolutionary Manuscript rose up from the ground and smoke trails decorated the Ethereal realm skyline, the memories of that day came flooding back into Rache’s head. He glanced towards Rote with wide eyes as the beams of light curved through the air before becoming smaller and thinner as it followed a projectile trajectory and started heading towards the mansion.

“Rote…what’s this…” Rache asked, his body stiffening up as the flashes of memories came flooding back into his mind. He felt his heart pounding as everything spun into vertigo, “What…what are you doing.”

“The ultimatum, my love.” Rote smiled before reaching a hand towards Rache. He took it habitually before Rote pressed his finger upon Rache’s right eye, forcibly activating his Manifests as the Cerberus roared into existence right next to them, “The forty houses will either submit to our deal or be destroyed right here and right now.”

“But all of them…they are going to die. Those people have nothing to do with my vengeance.” Rache’s eyes blinked rapidly, and he looked around in a panic when Rote pulled him close and surrounded him with his warmth.

“But they have everything to do with our power. And if they are stubborn, they shall pay the price for it.” Rote said, looking up as the beams of light struck against a blue dome around the mansion with an earth-shaking boom as shock waves ripped out from the point of impact, “Surely you don't really care about those slimey old men? Surely you are ready to rebuild the realm to your desires? To our desires?”

"..."

"Hold onto me." Rote instructed.

Rache nodded and grasped onto Rote’s shirt even tighter as yet another light struck against the shields and sounded like the cracking of thunder.

“It’s going to be okay…this time it’s different because I will be by your side.” Rote said, caressing Rache’s blue hair as he slowly started to relax. Then, he hopped onto the back of the Cerberus before whispering in his ear, “Let’s get out of here before things actually go crazy.”

“No you won’t!” Wu shouted, unleashing another barrage of shots as Ver chased after them. The guards from House Konig were about to intervene before their leader’s panicking voices drew them back into the mansion. When faced with the choice of self-preservation and pursuit, those old heads will always choose the latter.

“Stark!” Ver looked down into her armor-covered wrist as a single piece of the Kraken’s shell stuck in between Stark’s collar transmitted her voice straight through.

“Please stay calm! Everything is under control!” The moderator from House Konig said as streams of dust rained down from above and the delegates from each and every one of the houses started to chatter at the same time.

“Ver? What the hell is going on out there?” Stark asked when Ver relayed everything that had happened so far with them.

Then, a projection Cast in the middle of the main hall was suddenly activated as the moderator hastily tried to deactivate it. However, as the Cast symbols in front of him refused to respond to his commands, he realized that it was a Cast that’s been imprinted deep into the structre of the conference room itself and set to activate according to a timer.

A towering figure of Rote appeared in the middle of the room, and he carried a confident smile while wearing his white and red cloak.

“You were given your chance, and yet you refused your chance at salvation.” Rote said, “PORA so graciously offered you a diplomatic and economic route to take for the future of this realm, yet you abandoned such measures in hopes of manhandling our goodwill. And now, karma has arrived, and you will be all replaced sooner or later.”

“Rache? What’s the meaning of…” Charles Fisher spun around, only to see neither Rache nor Rote there.

“The country-level defensive Casts all across the Ethereal realm have now been activated. In a matter of minutes, you will witness the full force of the weapons that you could have had for a price you could have easily afforded.” Rote continued, “They say that human nature does not change, and nothing has indeed changed in the past thousand years. As you approach your next reincarnation, I pray for your salvation.”

Then, Rote bowed forward as the projection Cast came to a close. Stark rose up from his seat as the entire building started to shake once more with the arrival of the attack. The shield’s integrity had slowly started to deteriorate as more and more shots from the rest of Ethereal realm started to land, and it wasn’t long before the first pierced through the shields with about fifty percent of its original strength remaining and detonating against the structure of the mansion.

Instantly, the top of the mansion was blown off, and all of the guards and heads of houses raised their arms into the air, activating their Wave abilities and deflecting the falling debris immediately.

“Get…get me out of here!” One overweight head of house rushed out from the side door before pushing aside the rest of the delegates. His assistant reached forward with a cast as a chariot was formed instantly before they hurried on and blasted a hole out of the window. As they launched themselves away from the mansion and exited the radius of the shield, a focused beam rapidly changed its directions and vaporized the chariot on the spot.

“SHIT!” The other groups gasped when the mansion’s top level had become completely flattened by the barrage of shots as the layers of rocks and stones threatened to crush all those underneath despite the Casts held out by the Wave users. Instantly, the Channelers and Casters from rivaling houses banded together to hold up the cracking ceiling as the heads of houses pushed past one another to run out onto the courtyard.

“A…ACCOMPANY ME!” One old man grabbed onto the arms of a younger Channeler as he held up a cracking stone column with his Wave lines. However, the young man slapped his hand off him before gesturing for everyone to move swiftly and quickly.

“Ver! It’s chaos in here. You should try to get out with your Kraken.” Stark said as the two senior advisers behind him looked pale like paper, “I…don’t think we can make it out of here…”

“You giving up already?” Ver shot back as the Kraken’s shell in Stark’s hands vibrated so quickly that it nearly caused him to drop it, “If we go after Rache and Rote, we may be able to shut off those tower Casts!”

“What do you want us to do?” Stark asked.

“Survive.” Ver said, glancing at Lera who had already conjured up a chariot Cast before she leaped on, “We will save you. Your job is to survive until then.”

"Understood. Just be careful out there..." Stark said, "Those beams had already knocked out one house."

“Wa..wait!” The diplomats from the other houses that finally flooded into the garden reached their hands out toward Lera and Wu as their chariot rose up into the air, “Are you looking to die like those idiots?!”

"Don't worry." Ver said both to the diplomats and Stark, "The lost girl of Vaughan is here to save the day!"

As they moved out from what remained of the shield Cast and started pursuing Rote and Rache that’s riding away on the Cerberus, a beam of light immediately sensed their presence in the Wave before it curved downward and threatened to pierce them from above.

Ver reached a hand upward and another forward, creating two floating Whirlpools in the air before the beam was shot straight through the one above and emerged in the one in front, redirecting the shot at the enemy. The jaws of the delegates dropped, and they looked at each other with the exact same thought, wondering why someone like that isn’t from their house.

“EVERYONE! Listen up.” Stark said, stepping out from the upper level before he tried to draw attention of the rest of the houses despite the mess of panic underneath, “Ver will stop PORA and his plans, we just need to buy enough time here in order for them to do so!”

“And who the hell are you?!” A woman from the 2nd ranked House Angolia scorned, “Who are you to tell us what to do?”

“I am Stark Vaughan, the head of House Vaughan, and a Sky Guardian Corp reserve.” Stark said, pointing straight back at the woman, “And right now, I am your best hope at staying alive.”

“House Vaughan is barely staying afloat, and you expect us to listen to you?” The short man from the 5th ranked House Raukis questionned when Stark stared him down and made him shut up with his pressure alone.

“Everyone needs to group up into a single pack.” Stark said, “Then, layer up the shields. Reinforce one another, and create one that far exceeds the strengths of what House Konig has and what you can do individually. Right now, the target is the entirety of the mansion, and if we make ourselves as small a target as possible while layering the strongest of shields, we may be able to buy enough time!”

“You are just going to make us turtle up and be cooked alive together!” The head from 16th ranked House Militar shouted when Stark smiled lightly and gestured back at him.

“Only if the great House of Militar is too weak to maintain a mere shield Cast.” Stark taunted, “If the weakness of your house was the reason that the rest of the Ethereal realm is no more, then you will forever be remembered in history as the one guilty for our downfall!"

“Under the pretense of no other options…his plan is sensible.” The moderator from House Konig said at last, “We shall follow your plan, Stark Vaugahn. However, I have also alerted the forces of the House of Konig to track them those traitors.”

Once the man from the number 1 ranked house had spoken, the voices of objection became a lot quieter.

Then, with simultaneous efforts from the Casters all around, countless shield Casts of different colors, strengths, and characteristics started layering up directly on top of the main group as the heads of houses sat bundled up together like a bunch of kids during lunch break. The mansion’s own shields had some regenerative capabilities, but it will soon wear out under the repeated pounding of Rote's attack.

And then, the beams of light will land down and vaporize the rest of the building first. However, with the shields that they have put together, they should be able to prevail for a long while.

Holding onto the Kraken’s shell, Stark then looked in the direction of Ver and Rote during their pursuit.

“How…do we know that they will not just run away from here and leave us to die?” The head of House Grega said, “That girl attacked our house!”

“Because that’s our only option.” Stark said, “Even if we can get out of here, PORA still would have had full control of every single defensive turret Cast in the whole of the realm! Our realm! If we do not stand strong together right here, it will simply cease to exist. There's also always the alternative of you taking a walk outside and drawing away one of the shots?”

The head of House of Grega cursed under his breath and shut up, and the air was filled with only an eerie silence as the gruop waited for the total and utter destruction of the Konig mansion, with Charles and Darren Fisher sweating profusely about how the House of Fisher could possible survive to a new day.

Now that I have done what I needed to do… Stark wondered, will you be able to do what you needed to do?