?Alex, I hope you know what you?re doing,? Midna said, floating alongside the armored rebel.
?He?s had this coming,? Alex replied coldly.
Somehow, it had started raining. Strangely, the clouds grouped around the citadel only, leaving the rest of the city untouched. Raindrops pattered and bounced off Alex?s smooth outer shell. Thunder echoed through the ominous skies, and lightning illuminated the landscape, causing Alex to appear as a dark silhouette when the bolts played through the clouds. An ill wind was blowing.
?At least they were nice enough to leave the door open,? Midna muttered, noticing the citadel?s primary drawbridge was lowered, and the portcullis raised. Alex heard the clattering of equipment and shuffling feet behind him. When he turned around, he laid eyes on an expansive legion of rebels, following him.
Sergeant Sven of the Asgarnian Guard stepped forward. ?Alex, we want you to know that we?ve got your back. This is your city, too. It?s about time we got it back.?
?Thank you, Sven. That means a lot.?
?I understand you have some unfinished business with the current ruler, Damien Roth. You go on ahead. I?ll lead the teams to attack the weapon.?
?Did you ever find out what it was for?? Alex asked.
?Unfortunately, yes. They?ve converted the emitter systems to project a huge wave of Borderworld energy. We?ve observed the energy levels in this system, and we?ve measured them to be at least ten times as powerful as the initial shield spire explosion. If this weapon is activated, a fifty-mile radius will be saturated in Borderworld energy. The dimensional instability of this weapon is unimaginable. If it doesn?t wipe Asgarnia off the map, it would forever lock it into the Borderworld.?
Upon hearing this, Alex?s blood ran cold. The thought of the city he and his allies had fought so hard to protect being annihilated was too much. The emitter had to be stopped.
?You have your objective, Sergeant,? Alex ordered.
Sven turned to his vast ranks and addressed them,
?Listen up. We?re about to make a last-ditch attack directly on the Kandarinian citadel. Hopefully our vast numbers will be enough to overwhelm them. It is important that you all understand that some of you may not survive this. Should this be the case, the citizens of Asgarnia, and those of Terian, greatly appreciate your sacrifice. Should you survive, you?ll be rewarded with a prize greater than any medal. Now, who?s with me?!?
The ranks cheered thunderously, rivaling that of the thunder booming above.
?Prepare yourselves,? Sven continued, ?for this is our judgment day!?
A soldier reported to Damien.
?Sir, the rebels are preparing to attack!?
?I see. Lieutenant, gather your men. Do whatever you can to repulse them. Protect the Borderworld emitter at all costs. And should you see a black-armored rebel, hold your fire.?
?Sir??
?I want to have the pleasure of destroying him myself.?
?Yes SIR!?
The Kandie lieutenant reached his platoon.
?Listen up, men! The rebels are coming! PREPARE YOURSELVES!?
?ATTACK!!!? cried Sven, motioning the ranks forward.
The massive army flooded over the immense bridge connecting good and evil. In a thunderous wave the wrought iron gates of the citadel warped and bent out of shape, finally rocketing off their chains. Almost immediately Kandies and rebels engaged each other indiscriminately. Soon bodies on both sides began dropping, surviving soldiers paying them no mind. The crackling of energy weapons and the whooshing and ringing of spearguns and shotguns filled the air with a deafening cacophony. Through the smoke and blood, Alex had managed to force himself into a side passage, which lead directly to the shield chamber.
?This isn?t a war, it?s a slaughter!? Midna cried as Alex roadie-ran through the tight catacombs.
?It should be right up ahead,? Alex called as he bashed down a grate, revealing the massive emitter some twenty meters across an enormous chasm between it and the catwalk Alex was standing on. Even here, the rebels coursed through the doors and windows like leaking high-pressure pipes, erasing any Kandies they could find.
?So what do we do?? Midna asked as a rebel fell to his death immediately in front of Alex, making a sickening sound of shattered bones. Nothing could be done to help him.
?Sven said we had to overcharge the weapon,? Alex replied. ?The surplus magic energy would cause it to shut down.?
?But how do we do that? Your magic abilities are locked!?
?The energy rifles emit a small amount of magical energy with each discharge, we?ll have to use it.?
High-tension cables launched onto the emitter, and soon rebels rappelled from the ceiling and affixed themselves to the weapon?s armored hide. One rebel knocked an access plate off, the resulting gush of heat causing him to lose his grip and fall. The opened port revealed a blinding magical furnace deep within the weapon?s core. Huge plumes of dark smoke choked from vents on the side of the massive cylindrical weapon and its spherical center. A voice came over the citadel?s klaxon.
?Attention. Borderworld emitter is now charging. Eight minutes until firing.?
Alex now had to work quickly. In eight minutes Asgarnia would be wiped from the face of Gaian unless he did something. A rebel ran up to him.
?Sir! You?ll have to board the weapon in order to disable it! Here, take my clawshots and grapple your way to the weapon?s core! Hurry, you don?t have much--?
A spear rocketed through his skull before he could finish. Bleeding and lifeless, his body slumped over the guardrails and plummeted.
Alex shouldered his rifle and slid a clawshot onto each hand. A clawshot was a mechanical device that could shoot a chain out at high speed with a grappling claw on the end. It would then retract and pull Alex to whatever he shot at, providing the claw could get a solid grip.
?Hey, there he is!? a Kandie screamed as he spotted Alex.
?Alex, are you sure you can do this?? Midna asked.
?Not at all,? he replied as he cocked the clawshot and fired onto one of the handholds on the weapon?s core.
The Kandie?s spear just missing his boot, Alex was yanked hard across thin air, towards the weapon. Upon arrival, Alex clamped to the weapon?s ball-shaped core and detached the clawshot. Carefully gripping the handholds, he began to shimmy his way around to one of the weapon?s primary exhaust vents.
An off-angle spear nicked the back of his armor, causing him to lose balance. He reached for one of his clawshots and fired directly onto the grated surface of the emitter?s exhaust vents. He pulled with all of his might, and the vent tore off, sparks flying. Regaining his equilibrium, Alex reached for his rifle and brought it to bear directly into the glaring furnace within. Alex pumped a few bolts into the furnace until a white-hot jet of flame rocketed out of the vent, slightly damaging the rifle?s barrel guard. There where two more vents. But could his rifle stand up the repeated exposure to plumes of fire hotter than the sun?
It would have to, as another rebel clamped to the core soon found a spear impale him through his midsection, falling to his death. His rifle?s strap, however, had become caught around a handhold.
Not taking any chances, Alex set his rifle to overload and hurled it away from him, landing on a catwalk below. The rifle detonated, eliminating a squad of Kandies and knocking the catwalk off the wall. Alex reached for the new rifle and continued climbing. He reached up with his clawshot and ripped open the second vent. The infinitely hot gases and flames churned within, drawing ever closer to doomsday.
?Attention,? the klaxon rang out, ?Three minutes until firing.?
At the rate Alex was going, he would not be able to stop the weapon in time. He had to speed things up. He pulled his new rifle up and fired in. The weapon?s core belched white smoke for a second before launching out another flare, destroying further components.
Alex had not drawn his hands back in time, and his bound wrists are subject to the intense heat. The anti-magic binders exploded off his wrists in a shower of metallic shards. He pulled his hands back and inspected them. Once again he felt his meager magic energies return. In the thrust of the flare, Alex had been hurled from the core, his rifle falling down to the growing pile of bodies below. Alex pulled his clawshot and grabbed onto the final vent. He rocketed back up to the core and hung on. He had no weapon this time to destroy the final vent, and so he would have to rely on his own power to sabotage it.
?Attention. One minute until firing.?
Sixty precious seconds and counting. Alex quickly scrambled up and ripped the final vent from its hinges. He looked deep into the fading core that was losing power, but still was powerful enough to destroy the city.
?You don?t have long!? Midna cried. ?Hurry, before the weapon fires!?
Forty-five seconds.
Alex brought his hands up and began charging the largest fireball he could muster. A Kandie rappelled down behind him, preparing to finish him, only to be cut down by a rebel on the opposite catwalk.
Thirty seconds.
The fireball grew larger and larger, as Alex reached his hands deep into the core?s final vent. The energy within was gathering to fire.
Twenty seconds.
The citadel began to shake noticeably as an enormous set of blast doors at the top of the shield chamber, nearly two hundred meters above, slid open, and the weapon itself began to rise.
Ten seconds.
?HURRY!? Midna hollered over the deafening roar as Asgarnia?s ruined cityscape soon came into view thousands of feet below.
Five seconds.
In a wordless holler of force, Alex thrust his hands as hard as he could, the magical energies coursing deep into the core, charring it horribly. Pipes burst. Cables snapped. A final jet of flame erupted from all vents on the weapon?s spherical core, including the one Alex was in front of. He gripped his hands onto whatever surface he could as the emitter went into its death throes, and finally shut down. The raging fire subsided, the steam from the pipes stopped gushing.
One second. That was once the time until doomsday. Alex?s intervention had prevented the city?s Armageddon. The chamber stood in silence for a few moments. Both Kandie and rebel alike stood in awe of the cataclysm that had been averted.
All Alex could do was dangle hundreds of feet above death. He finally found it in him to reach for his clawshot and grapple back to the main catwalk system.
Suddenly, both the Kandies and rebels noticed that the fray had stopped. Without so much as a word between either side, the titanic battle continued once more. Alex silently opened the double doors leading up to Damien?s balcony and passed.
Midna was speechless. She had just witnessed one solitary being halt the destruction of millions. ?Alex, I??
Her words were cut short as two Kandies cracked Alex over the head with the butts of their weapons. Midna was also forced to the ground by a third Kandie.
?Damien said he wanted to see the Insurgent, right?? one Kandie asked another.
?Orders are orders,? he said.
Saying nothing more, the soldiers dragged the rebel and imp up to the throne room of the tyrannical ruler, Damien Roth.
