For the briefest of moments, Leon wondered at the value of trying to keep quiet. The barracks were stirring, they had perhaps a few seconds to try and silence everyone inside. There were thousands of Sunlit soldiers stationed at the fortress, and seizing the Thunderbird destroyer intact would be nearly impossible if the entire garrison were roused and alerted to their presence.

On the other hand, they’d gotten close, and as far as he knew, there wasn’t a single ninth-tier Sunlit mage at the fortress.

He only had that split second to weigh their options, and in the end, he decided that stealth had served its purpose. There were many soldiers in the barracks, and silencing them all without alerting anyone else was, he judged, impossible.

Leon glanced over his shoulder, the only visual sign that his people were there being the light distortion created by those covering his people who’d lost their own invisibility, yet he knew they were there thanks to the enchantments in his helmet tracking his retainers even through their stealth enchantments.

[Stealth is no longer a priority,] Leon silently stated with the aid of darkness magic. [Kill them all.]

His people sprang into action without a moment’s hesitation, but none moved faster than Red. In a moment, her human form practically exploded as she assumed her wyvern form, her body becoming visible again as her armor was pulled back into her soul realm. With the ferocity and mercilessness that Leon had come to expect from her, the enormous ninth-tier wyvern smashed her way through the buildings around them as she grew and then bathed the barracks building in yellow-hot flame. The hastily constructed building only possessed what enchantments it needed to keep itself upright and to see to the comfort of its residents, it simply couldn’t stand against Red’s fire. Under her breath, it melted almost instantly, and the hundreds of Sunlit soldiers inside became ash on the wind.

While Red kept her fire breath contained enough to not harm anyone outside of the barracks building, the magic that spilled off of it was intense enough that just about all of Leon’s party lost their invisibility.

“Move!” Leon shouted as alarms went off around the fortress. Without the need to accommodate stealth, they moved much faster than they just had been. And they needed that speed, as Leon could see the fortress waking up like a kicked ant hill. Thousands of soldiers were springing out of their beds and donning their armor while the night shift guards were already assembling. Inner and outer gates were closing and locking, and the wards in the inner walls grew stronger as additional enchantments were activated.

Leon led the way, charging through the streets and cutting through the Sunlit soldiers who noticed and tried to stop them. With their cover blown, their only recourse was extreme and highly aggressive violence, and he spared not a single spark of power as he charged at the next gatehouse.

The guards at the gatehouse had already slammed the gate’s portcullis shut, but even with its powerful enchantments, Leon didn’t hesitate for a moment. He fell upon the guards like a lightning bolt, his retainers and knights at his back. The guards on the ground were swept aside like they weren’t even there, while the guards on the walls above were swiftly eliminated with accurate blasts from thunder wood bows.

But that didn’t solve the problem of the gate. Fortunately, Leon had his own personal master key. He extended a hand and poured all of his power and concentration into summoning the destructive power of the Great Black Dragon. Black fire erupted from his fingers and engulfed the enchanted iron bars of the portcullis.

Under the heat and pressure of that fire backed by the power of a nearly-tenth-tier mage, enchantments shattered and iron liquified. In moments, Leon burst through the remains of the portcullis and, with only a few swings of his sword, cleaved through the handful of guards on the other side, who were too busy losing their minds in terror to put up much of a fight.

And with that, only one gatehouse remained between Leon and the Thunderbird ark.

Wasting not a second, Leon led his people through the streets. Their progress was hampered by the waking fortress, though, and more and more soldiers streamed out of the buildings and formed up in squares and blocked streets. However, once they were through the gatehouse and beyond the walls’ wards, Red took off and bathed much of the fortress’ district in fire. Maia also peeled off and summoned a few water dragons to rampage through the streets. With their power, nothing could stand in their way, and the soldiers of the fortress fell by the dozen.

With this cover, Leon barreled through the fortress’ defenses. The men and metal stood little chance against them, the soldiers putting up about as much of a fight as they could but doing little. Leon was like a hurricane, crashing through them with little regard for their attempts to resist, hardly slowing down. Behind him, his retainers and knights continued to cover the ark crew and clean up those Sunlit soldiers in Leon’s wake that he didn’t bother finishing off.

In the distance, his blood chilled as he saw one of the Sunlit arks take off. It was much smaller than the Thunderbird ark, but it still had a pair of Imperial Lances that could prove dangerous.

Leon reached into the air with his magic power, intending to interdict that ark as they surged through the streets. However, the defenses of the fortress were now in full effect, and the wards formed a dome of magic around the fortress that prevented him from summoning storm clouds and raining lightning down upon that ark. He felt like he could penetrate those defenses to do just that, but it would’ve required dedicated concentration and long minutes of work, which simply wasn’t worth it in this case.

He simply watched as the ark lifted off and climbed into the sky.

Unfortunately, the fortress’ five other arks were all rushing to take off in its wake. All were fairly small, yet all still represented significant threats with their Lances, especially if they managed to lift off and maintained their distance.

Redoubling his efforts, Leon kept his momentum going. Soon enough, he was at the final gate, and while the wards were stronger here, they still proved themselves inadequate; he was through in a matter of seconds, fresh blood wetting his blade courtesy of the gatehouse guards who, in contrast to the guards at the previous gatehouse, put up a greater, if still ineffectual, fight.

“Get to the ark!” Leon shouted as he noticed dozens more Sunlit personnel swarming around the arkpads. A second ark was already powering up and preparing to lift off, and the Thunderbird ark wasn’t too far behind if the number of people he saw running up its ramps was any indication.

So, with Maia and Red at his sides and the rest of his people at his back, Leon focused on a singular goal: reach the Thunderbird ark before it could take off. Anything in his way was expendable, anyone in his way was an enemy.

He felt excitement for the battle and the challenge presented, anger at the audacity of the Sunlit Emperor to resist the heir of the Thunderbird Clan with the Clan’s own arks, fear at having his prize taken from him when it was so close, and a number of other emotions competing for his attention. He used all of it as fuel for his black fire, which wreathed his body and, though he didn’t realize it, caused his bright gold eyes to darken slightly. With such power at his command, nothing stood in his way for long. Sunlit soldiers, the barricades they erected in his path, and the fortress’ internal defenses stood no chance.

The fortress had formidable defenses, though. Beams of light shot out of crystal balls that hung in the air, the stones beneath their feet sprang upward as spikes and grasping hands, fire and water erupted from the buildings around them, and the omnipresent shadows formed tendrils that tried to ensnare them. None of it worked, but all of it was annoying.

However, what passed beyond annoying and into the downright offensive were the lightning bolts that someone in the enchantment control room, wherever it was, called down upon Leon’s party. It was easy enough for him to take control over the bolts, redirecting them into the surrounding buildings or their own troops, but the simple fact that they tried at all was almost as much of an affront as their use of the Thunderbird Clan ark.

For all they tried, though, Leon and his people cut clean through the Sunlit defenses and emerged in the fortress’ main yard, where its arkpads had been constructed. It was a large space, as it ought to be, directly adjacent to the enormous keep. But Leon had no eyes for the keep, only for what he was already starting to consider as ‘his’ ark.

He didn’t slow down as he charged into the yard, he only moved with greater purpose. He could feel the magic power around the ark flaring and flexing, indicating that its engines were coming online. Two more of its escort arks had already lifted off, leaving only one last Imperial ark still on the ground.

That changed as one of Maia’s water dragons crashed down upon it, wrapping itself around the small ark and squeezing it like a snake around its prey. The ark was crushed in moments.

The ramp up into the Thunderbird ark began to lift off, but Leon hastily switched to lightning magic from black fire and his speed shot up. Time seemed to slow as lightning flooded his body. He could see all the magic that was being flung into his path in a desperate attempt to stop him, and all of the magic that his people responded with. He could see and hear all the Imperials being cut down in the yard as his people continued their mad dash to their goal. And he could see the terrified faces of the Sunlit soldiers in the ark doing their utmost to get the Thunderbird ark sealed before he reached them.

He reached them first. The ramp had only risen a few feet off the ground, so it was easy enough for him to simply leap right into it. The Sunlit soldiers met a swift and painless end as his lightning struck them hard enough to flash-vaporize the flesh off their bones.

At this point, Leon was familiar enough with his Clan’s control schemes to get the ramp to lower again, allowing his people to start streaming up. The airlock chamber at the top didn’t have much room, but Leon only had to get the door open, which he didn’t think would present that much of a problem.

He slammed his fist into the runic circle that controlled the door. He half-expected it to flash red or otherwise indicate that it was locked and that he couldn’t get through. What he didn’t expect—though he wasn’t quite sure why he didn’t, other than simply assuming the worst and not even considering the best—was the runic circle zapping his armored hand with a tiny bolt of lightning that his armor’s defenses did nothing to stop.

But that lightning wasn’t the least bit harmful; instead, the runic circle flashed gold and then vanished. The door slid into the wall only a moment later, allowing Leon’s people past the airlock and into the ark itself.

Leon allowed himself only the tiniest moment of satisfaction before springing into action. The ark’s crew—Leon struggled not to think of them as piratical hijackers—had formed their strongest mages into a defensive formation on the other side of the airlock. Now that they were inside the ark, Leon couldn’t allow himself to go as wild as he’d been in the fortress, but as he charged into their formation, he still hit them like the fiercest of squalls, his sword and his lightning bringing them naught but death.

In less than a minute, it was all over. Leon stood covered in blood, upon the deck of one of his Clan’s arks. He allowed himself just one more moment to revel in the feeling before turning to his followers, most of whom looked just as bloodied as he did, though he was gratified to see that he hadn’t lost a single one of them and that there were only a few that needed magical healing so far.

“Let’s get to work!” Leon shouted. “Engines! Bridge! Power! You know what to do, so get to it!”

His retainers began getting his knights and the ark crew organized. Most of the crew would be directed toward the engines, while the rest would be spread out amongst the rest of the ark’s critical areas. They’d be protected by the Tempest Knights, while the knights themselves would be led by their officers and Leon’s retainers. Alcander and Alix, as their commanders, got them moving quickly and efficiently.

Leon, Maia, Red, Anzu, Anshu, and a handful of knights and ark crew would be taking the bridge. They set off as soon as Alcander finished dishing out the specific orders and making sure the knights had gotten into their groups. Then he took charge of the group heading to the engines.

As he thundered through the corridors of the ark, Leon couldn’t help but marvel at the thing, even as a few more of its Sunlit crew attempted to stop him. It wasn’t anything special to look at, objectively speaking, with the corridors being little more than vaguely trapezoidal and lacking any and all adornment, being purely functional, but it still screamed ‘Thunderbird Clan’ to Leon, and so felt almost like coming home.

However, the more he inspected, the more he realized that what he was seeing wasn’t how it should be. He could sense a tremendous amount of magic power in the ark, but only a small part of that power was being used. What was more, he could feel some pulsing power that followed him, but that didn’t seem to be doing anything. He frowned, but reasoning that it didn’t seem hostile and that he had bigger things to focus on, put it out of mind for the moment.

It wasn’t long before he’d reached the bridge. He’d been quietly fearing that the ark’s internal layout would differ from Nestor’s briefing, but his distant kinsman’s knowledge proved accurate, and Leon soon found his group charging toward the largest and thickest blast doors in the ark.

Leon gathered his power and prepared to put the door’s defenses to the test, but as they rapidly approached, the door simply slid open, to Leon’s quiet astonishment and the loud terror of the Sunlit bridge crew.

Not wasting this moment, Leon charged in, his blade and blood singing in tandem as he cleaned out the squatters and asserted his Clan’s control over the ark once more.

By the end of it, Leon had to take a moment to process the sheer amount of death he’d brought in the span of not even a quarter of an hour, but he allowed himself no more than that moment. They still had to get out of there, and the Sunlit fortress wasn’t going to make that easy—for as many as Leon’s group had killed to get here, it had only been a fraction of the fortress’ garrison.

The destroyer’s bridge was considerably smaller than the other bridges that Leon had been on in the past. Instead of resembling a mountain of terraced control consoles over which the ark commander would sit, the commander’s seat was located in the center of the room around which about a dozen other control consoles were located. Additional consoles were built into small recesses along the wall, indicating that the bridge would’ve had a staff of a few dozen if the ark had a full crew complement.

Leon didn’t have that. He only had about half a dozen men and women with him who might know what they were doing. Fortunately, they were already getting to work moving bodies and analyzing what they could. Unfortunately, it looked like it was going to take some time.

After a few minutes, Leon almost demanded some kind of update from the crew as they stared at the control consoles and figured out what did what, all under Anshu’s direction, when an orb of light suddenly sprang into existence in front of Leon.

“Welcome-come, Prince,” the orb of light said in an older, but still understandable dialect of the common language. “Please Present-sent-sent ID.”

Leon had to fight the urge to jump for joy. He’d sent Gaius to the compartment where the wisps would be held, though he hadn’t expected much. It seemed that he definitely found something, though. The only downside seemed to be that this wisp appeared to be at least slightly damaged.

‘Let’s see how damaged,’ Leon thought as he procured the platinum card he’d found in the Raime archives below Argent Palace.

“Welcome, Prince D-Demetrios,” the wisp said. “Ready for o-orders.”

“All those on the bridge are friendlies,” Leon immediately said as most of the others paused what they were doing to watch what was going on. “Help them get the ark running!”

Without a word, additional balls of light appeared over the consoles and began guiding the crew into taking control of the ark.

With a wide grin, Leon watched as they settled into their seats and finished the start-up procedures that the Sunlit crew had begun. But before they could even take off, the ark was rocked by an explosion from outside.

“The other arks!” one of the crew shouted. “They’re firing at us!”

“They don’t want us to take off!” Anshu shouted. “Get us into the air and bring those weapons up!”

The crew members he specifically shouted at seemed a little out of their depth and lacked confidence, but the wisp was still there and began glowing more brightly.

“B-Bringing weapons online,” the wisp said. “Arks firing upon this vessel marked as hostiles.”

The ark began to rise into the air without the crew’s input, to Leon’s muted surprise. It seemed that this wisp had greater control over the ark than all the other wisps he’d encountered in his Clan’s arks. As the ark rose, the walls of the bridge shifted and brightened as a light enchantment activated, projecting the outside onto them. In just a few seconds, everything around the ark could be seen with great clarity, and Leon could see the three remaining Imperial arks hovering several thousand feet above the Thunderbird ark, angled so that no less than six Imperial Lances were trained upon the Thunderbird ark.

He sighed even as a grin spread across his face. They had seized the ark. Escaping with it, it seemed, was going to be another matter entirely.