7 From a Bell Calling:

"So then what happened?" Epsilon asked from the infirmary bed, fascinated.

Lyra, now quite a bit more frazzled than she had been when she left the room an hour ago, responded immediately.

"Well, after he invited me in for tea, I explained the situation and, well, that was that. All really quite… pleasant, what I simply cannot understand, or accept, is why in the world a being of pure lightning and magic would take two sugars! The liquid just fell straight through it, and in the name of all that Is normal and sane, why did it even have a tea-set in the first place?"

Epsilon shrugged helplessly "I haven't the foggiest. Speaking of Fog, how exactly did you find the cask of… what as the name of the drink again?"

Lyra nodded to the small wooden barrel that now sat on the healer's desk.

"Sweet-dreams."

Epsilon shivered "I don't care how good it tastes, the after-effects are vile. Anyway, how did you manage to find it in the fog?"

Lyra snapped her fingers "Is that what it's called? Fog? Well, after explaining the predicament to my newest acquaintance, he was only too happy to help. To be honest, I think he must get bored up there.

I mean, he told me he got sealed away with that silly bell for more than a hundred and fifty years."

"A hundred and fifty ... What did it do all that time and moreover, did he tell you what that bell was?"

Lyra nodded.

"That bell is known as the Doom Ringer. Or… I don't know how to translate the words from lightning, but I guess the 'Ding-a-ling of doom' was what he seemed to call it informally- if held by a powerful enough mage, everyone who hears the chime is immediately struck by a bolt of lightning.

Since that includes the ringer, it basically means unless you're lightning-proof, the thing's literally an instrument for suicide attacks."

Epsilon rubbed his chin thoughtfully "We're going to have to deal with that. I'll be ready for combat once the good doctor does his tests, but first, we're really going to need to work out what to do about the guild enchanters.

It would hurt this town to have the payment stolen before they arrive, yet if we wait until after the bell is theirs, they may consider it worth the twenty four hour downtime to use a gate return to the council.

What's worse is that once they know I'm here, they might take a stab at me and injure the town in the process. Although this place will get buggered either way."

Lyra didn't understand his conclusion, and said so.

Epsilon bit his thumb, considering his response.

"Thing is, only guild enchanters have the knowhow to legitimately mobilize a whole island. Meaning that the only ones who can see things like remote shut-off or sabotage spells are the ones who planted them during construction. A mobile island is hellishly difficult to control, damage, hunt… unless you had a hand in building it in the first place."

Lyra had nothing. What could she say? When she'd just learned that the ultimate goal of this town, one they'd been working towards for decades, still wouldn't leave them truly free.

"There's something you should know about magicians; although we come in every spectrum and shade, almost all types share a single weakness. We're fragile. We may be powerful enough to kill with a word, but with certain exceptions, every single magician has a glass jaw. We're still human- or most of us are….

However, it's time you learned how to harness your birthright."

Lyra had no idea how to deal with the sudden shift in topic.

"I'm almost certain now, that your roots lie in thunder and lightning and those alone.

If you were a true weather worker, the fog would have been nothing to you. And if you were of the wind, rain or any variant thereof, you would not have been able to commune with the kindred spirit of the elemental.

There are only two types of magician in your, that is the air group- a purely academic categorization by the way; really we're all as different as magma and magenta- that are as rare as you, a pure lightning worker. Those are mages of the Rainbow and the Hurricane.

Most who are cursed with the latter die young, but if they reach maturity… They have no lower limit to their powers and cannot control them once begun. So if you meet one who is hunted like me, go the other way.

Back to the task at hand though, not all magic is what you call 'active'; when you connect to your reservoir of power, you will imbue yourself with an ability that matches your kindred.

Everyone gets one, but for most, it simply offers a degree of passive control over concentrations of your well, let's call it your 'element' in your surroundings. Water kindred can control water, Earth can shape stone and air the winds. Pretty simple, those sorts are a dime a dozen on any street corner, although that makes them no less dangerous.

Back to the point, our elements are not so transient. Lightning does not have a form or a presence in the world for you to manipulate. Instead, you will be as of Lightning. Even now you're fast for someone without training, your own agility has been supplemented by what you might call, the leaking of untapped magic.

For someone of your age, with no training, the ability to lay a man out in one blow is atypical.

Once you've mastered the passive release of power, you'll be more than a match for most mortal combatants."

Epsilon picked up the staff from his bedside and handed it to her.

"Concentrate, attempt to create in your mind, the feeling of drawing out a measure of your-self, what you imagine as making up the you in you.

Take that, concentrate it and focus it within the head of the staff."

Lyra tried to focus, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing seemed to happen.

How had she lit it the first time? It had sparked when she first picked it up.

She had been angry. Really, Really angry.

She closed her eyes and let the events flow through her mind, then once her rage was nicely bubbling away, tried to draw on her 'self' again.

CRACK-A-BOOM!

The noise of the lightning bolt in the tiny room was almost physical.

Lyra opened her eyes. Above Epsilon, the wall was incandescent and releasing white, acrid smoke.

"LESS power! Just, wind it back, in the name of the Balefire dragon!"

Lyra was looking at the head of the staff, wide eyed.

"Is that normal?"

Epsilon whacked his ears a few times.

"No! No! Definitely not normal! I asked you to draw out a little power, not dump your entire reserve!"

Lyra drew back.

"But, I don't feel like it's all gone. Actually… It feels easier. Like I know what to reach for, how to hold it, if I just-"

The staff crackled and then threw out three thick bolts in quick succession.

Instead of earthing, the lightning bounced around the room, smashing through the furniture as it went.

Lyra tried to call the magic back to her, but it only worked for a moment, before it ran wild again. Epsilon was doing something on the bed, but he wasn't going to help without his magic.

She did this and she would clean it up.

"Get. Over. Here!" She growled through gritted teeth.

The lightning was pulled, as though on strings, back towards Lyra.

"You Will OBEY!"

Lyra redoubled her efforts. The lightning bolts began to circle her, bouncing like playful kittens.

Epsilon shook his head "You can't. It's one of the first things we learned in-"

Lyra closed her eyes, she needed to focus. To focus! How could she expect to have simply willed it back in! When you worked wool, wood or stone, you didn't use your hands. You used more of the material that you were working! To take back lightning she couldn't use simple force, she needed to use more lighting!

She touched her center, it was even easier this time, she imagined herself pulling out a rope, a lasso of lightning, one that whipped from the staves rounded head and constricted itself like a sand-snake around the stray bolts, absorbing each one in turn and then recoiling back into the staff.

"-class. You shouldn't be able to do that. Magic released is magic unleashed. You're… wait, have I, did… Why the hell didn't I actually try doing that myself years back!"

Lyra wasn't listening, she was too busy staring into the heart of the staves curved head, watching the lightning dance.

It was so simple, so elegant and so very, very.... "Pretty."

Epsilon sighed and gave a weary smile "I used to do the same thing with candles."

"But the fact remains that we must-" His voice was overwhelmed by the low thrum of the alarm-call.

Lyra snapped out of her trance.

"Pirates?"

Epsilon shrugged "No idea. Something's up at any rate. I should go loo-"

As he tried to rise, Lyra pushed him back down to the bed with one hand.

"No. I'll go look."

"You don't even know any spells yet!" He protested, struggling to rise.

"What do you call ten seconds ago?"

"Inefficient, although I won't be able to tell for certain until after we contract, as a beginner, you can't…"

He ceased struggling and instead scrubbed his face with both hands.

"What am I saying? I'm trying to force you to think the way they taught me when you just disproved one of the fundamental principles of guild dogma!

I'm going to have to rethink everything I currently take for granted! How in the world could I have been so foolish, to believe what they told me, even as I thought myself clever for playing them at their own game, I couldn't even figure that they might have other methods- Ow!" His monologue was cut short when Lyra gave him a sharp tap on the head with his own staff.

"What's done is done, stop crying and start rectifying! So some things you know aren't true. You know that you know- and we both know that you knowing what you know means that the council lost.

Even better, they don't know it yet."

Lyra wasn't actually sure that what she said made sense, but it seemed to work.

"So stop worrying for now and let me take care of this."

"R…r..right."

Lyra stepped out into the corridor and tried to make her way up to the surface. Let's see, was it RLRRSLDLU or RLRSRLULS? She decided to try the first and if it looked like she was getting lost, she'd just knock on the nearest door and ask for directions.

Although that might not work so well if piratical elements had landed on the island.

Lyra arrived at the double-doors of the town hall, in time to see the group of pirates coercing the assembled townsfolk.

"What's going on here exactly, didn't you fellows hear who was staying here?"

One of the pirates turned.

She recognized him.

"Captain. What brought you back here?"

The captain grinned.

"We brought a little help this time Missy…. Not to mention that we know that your master, couldn't harm a grounded cloud-rat right now.

We're here for the bell and the reward!

And once the guild arrives, we'll be taking them too."

Lyra raised her borrowed stave.

"And that will help you when I zap you, how?"

The captain let out a deep laugh that spread through the entire buccaneer group.

"Well missy, do you seriously expect me to believe, that you went from knowing no spells, to being strong enough to stun a man in less than half a day."

Lyra answered by gathering herself in the staves head.

The air around her began to crackle with pent up energy.

The pirate captain it seemed, was no fool.

"Alright, I be puttin' down my sword now. Miss, I'm not fool enough to go up against a mage head to head. Everyone else, best be putting down your weapons- the air here is abuzz with lighting."

For the second time in a day, Lyra watched the group of pirates disarm.

As they straightened out though, she found herself struck with an inescapable predicament. If she allowed the townspeople to go to the pirates to tie them up, then she would no longer be able to attack the pirates for fear of shocking her allies. If she simply let the pirates stand, she couldn't find out more about the situation.

Actually, there was a good place to start.

"Why did you think that you could come back? What made you change your mind?"

The pirate captain began to laugh heartily.

"You don't seem to understand the predicament you're in, young magister.

You're bright, piece it together. We we're a scout. A dozen ships of the skyline are in position above us and our scout is set down in the lake. We're taking over this island and it's only a matter of time before Epsilon and the Exsecror Albricans Crepundia is ours!"

Lyra finally twigged "Of course! You have a traitor aboard! Why didn't I think of it before? Hell, ah shoulda figured that one out the moment you boys dropped in with the heavies this morning!

So, who's the informant?"

None of the pirates answered. Instead, there was a change of expression on several. They weren't looking at her, they were looking at something behind her and they looked- Hopeful!

Lyra willed her body sideways, trying to avoid the attack that was surely inbound.

The world warped and she found herself bouncing off the far wall, winded.

"Ow? What… Did I just…" She focused just enough to watch as the crossbow-bolt meant for her flew into one of the buccaneers, punching into his chest with a dull thwack.

Lyra got up shakily and thought of how the lightning had existed earlier, bouncing around the room.

Perhaps she could keep it in bolt form, prevent it from returning to the earth, but on purpose.

She raised the stave and poured her mind into the wood of its head.

She envisaged lassos of bound lightning, seeking out her foes and hog-tying them in chains of blinding incandescence.

The energy came forth once again. Drawing it out wasn't so much the problem as keeping it in!

It was like she was using a spigot to tap into a desert-cities dam.

The lightning arced from the staff and wound its way around the assembled buccaneers, binding them all together in chains of white firelight.

She wasn't going to let it rule her though. Her power had begun to crackle within her, as though it knew what it would be used for and was trying to take that form before it had even been released.

"Tair! Khalet! Vendra!" The voice rang around the hollow cavern, the syllables spat with such intense vitriol that the townsfolk rushing to the discarded cutlasses and crystal-locks stopped in their tracks.

A dull red glow began to pulse around the discarded weapons.

Lyra looked towards the double doors and saw him.

He was in the outfit of a Pirate mage, but his was a bright red and every square inch of him was covered in belts and bandoleers of knives.

"Surrender, Disciple of Epsilon the Red, or watch these townsfolk be destroyed."

As he spoke, the weapons on the floor had risen up and pointed at the people who had been so eager to wield them.

Lyra breathed in deeply and counted off in her mind. This time she needed the lightning to bounce from target to target, not just to radiate from her staff.

If one wasn't enough then two, if two wasn't enough then three!

She let the stave slip downwards and bounce once on the floor. The head lit and in the same instant, three Arks of blue white lightning zapped through the room, melting the insides of the crystal-locks and slicing through the blades.

The last bolt was directed at the mage himself, punching straight through his torso.

The figure began to glow red.

"You have just doomed yourself!

Prepare for oblivion at the hands of the Battlemage, Sagittarius the Crimson!"

Lyra held up a hand as the townsfolk scrambled.

"Hold up. Sagittarius the crimson?"

"Aye?"

Lyra leaned on her borrowed staff.

"Aren't you basically ripping off the name of Epsilon the Red?"

"For that, once we're done here, I will turn your spine into a coathanger."

Lyra spun the staff in her hands like a baton and leveled it at the knife-man, sending out a single thick bolt.

Moving at a hundred and fifty kilometers a second, the lightning split, branching out into five medium lines of unconfined electrical force.

In an instant, the single bolt struck the figure in the chest and all four limbs at once.

The figure began to laugh, apparently un-phased by the attack.

"My-turn." He yelled gleefully as his entire body began to glow a dull red.

"Kendra, Kindred, Vendra, Mordred!"

Lyra willed herself away as the man's body exploded into an expanding sphere of knives.

Her vision warped and she bounced off the ceiling of the cavern.

In the instant she appeared, she saw she was still in range of the knifesposion.

She tried again, willing herself to move to inside the sphere.

She bounced off the ground with bruising force, but now she was inside the expanding sphere.

Sagittarius was nowhere to be seen.

"Come out, Come out, wherever you are!" She yelled, swinging the stave in all directions.

"I'm Right- HERE!" The voice came from behind her and as she swung to face it, she saw that like silvery fish, the knives where wheeling about in the air and speeding back in towards her.

Lyra glanced up and saw the 'Bridge'. She willed herself to it and stepped forward.

The world stretched and then- her right foot was standing on the edge of the circular stone bridge and her left hug out over the edge.

She let herself topple forward before she fell off, picking herself up off the ground in an instant and stepped towards the center podium. Three more Pirate mages stepped from the corridor to the bridge.

"Oh Come ON! How the hell did you find your way up here, I needed a goddanm guide!"

The Knives on the other side of the room, rushed back towards the bridge.

The mages at the door leveled their own skull and blade style staves at Lyra who concentrated more power in her own staff and willed herself forward again.

"Kahlet!" "Ignis Flagro!" "Gelo Frustro!"

The spells of Edge, Fire and Ice were spoken at the exact moment Lyra stepped behind the mage trio .

She raised her stave and let her power flow to the head, before swinging in a narrow arc, knocking the trio in front of her over with a single lightning reinforced blow to their skulls.

The knives swarmed together on the other side of the platform, resolving into a humanoid figure.

"At last, the Instrument of Doom!"

"No!" Lyra's voice crackled like a storm elemental.

She reached for the bell and watched in amazement as her forearm dissolved into a beam of coruscating blue lightning.

The lightning snapped out, turning back into her hand when it hit the bell. The lightning connection between arm and hand contracted, pulling the hand with the bell back to her and resolving it together as cleanly as if it had never happened.

She looked at the bell.

"Heh. See-Ya!" She turned on the spot and stepped down the stairs. Behind her, a thousand clattering clinks of knife on stone, told her that Sagittarius had missed.

"You cannot escape! You cannot run! I am indestructible!" The voice echoed In the corridor as the knives swarmed after her. Lyra would reach a straight section and then step to the end of it.

Blinking out of the transport warp to skid around the next turn, even as the knife-shoal swarmed centimeter's behind her.

She stepped again to a fork and found herself face to face with a family, standing on the right side.

A glance over her shoulder confirmed that the knives were still filling all of the corridor she'd just come from. "Go! Run, It's after me!" she yelled, wheeling to face the knife cloud.

"I'll just kill them as well! Either you run, or they die!"

Lyra thought of Epsilon, who'd been ready to stand down the arch-magister of the waters because she'd helped him.

She stood firm, gathering all the power she could.

The knives rushed forward and- She was knocked aside. The knives slammed into the wall instead, while Lyra beat at her apron, which had just caught fire.

Espilon was in the left corridor, wrists together, hands splayed.

"Ignis."

A tiny puff of flame shot from his palms.

The Knife-swarm laughed maliciously.

"A basic spell? You might as well have waved a candle at me! My blades are all silver coated steel! You couldn't melt butter with that flame! Now DIE!"

The swarm converged on Epsilon, who closed his eyes.

"Pro Perpetua Ignis!"

The flame came again, this time a constant stream of fire bled from Epsilons hands, which he began to wave, seemingly at random.

The knives bore down on him.

Those that hit the first puff, vaporized on contact with the flames.

The rest seemed to shudder and try to slow down, but it was too late. They hit the flames and instantly turned to metal vapor.

"People, don't go down this corridor, it's not save to breathe on the other side of the fire!"

Lyra got up and gestured for the family to depart.

She looked down the corridor and stepped to the end, ending up about half an inch from the wall

.

"Woa-haghh! When did you learn that one?" Epsilon had pressed himself flat against the side of the wall.

"About a minute or two ago. Why'd you ask?" Lyra held back a smile at how unnerved the boy seemed at the lightning movement.

"Well, I, Just… That…"

"I'll admit, I had trouble with stopping before I hit things before, but it was pretty simple once I worked it out. This magic stuff is way easier than it looks."

"…. Somewhere, right now, an entire university full of novice mages just experienced inexplicable bouts of murderous intent."

"What?"

Epsilon shook his head, bells tinkling "You can't possibly learn anything too quickly, but I'm really beginning to wonder with you. I mean, I'd probably be hating you now if I weren't me."

Lyra twigged "It's meant to be way more difficult than I'm finding it?"

"Yes. Even with someone as awesome as me, as your teacher and even with a legendary magical artifact such as the one you're holding," Lyra looked at the staff, shocked- in the metaphorical sense of course

"would normally have about enough magic in them to shock a caterpillar to death."

Lyra smiled broadly "Wow! So, I'm actually really really good at this?"

Epsilon nodded. "Now let's go get the pirates!"

"Alright!" Lyra grabbed him by the hand "Hold on! I've got an idea!"

Lyra topped up the magic in the staff, tucked the bell into her apron and focused.

She knew where she needed to be- Above. Up-top.

She just needed a way of being able to get there while ignoring the fact that she was trapped in a labyrinthine tunnel network.

Which she had.

She focused on her goal, imagining herself as a thunderbolt, fated to strike that spot on the ground.

She leaped. In an instant the corridor, all of the corridors stretched out before her.

She followed every path, her own trail highlighted by positive streamers of electricity left by her passage. People, frozen, stood in many of the tunnels. She ignored them, looking for her goal.

Several minutes passed like this, until finally she cannoned into the stone steps of the stairway she and epsilon had first taken down.

Lyra groaned. She was going to have some serious bruising in a while. Beside her, Epsilon was getting to his feet, dazed.

"Never, Ever, Ever do that again with anyone. If I wasn't me, I'd be very dead right now."

" 'Kay." Lyra answered weakly, still lying on the stairs. Obviously turning into lightning for extended periods wasn't the best way of dealing with her inability to navigate tunnels.

"But, I must admit, we're up top. And just in time for a Surprise attack!... Glehh." His hand briefly fell to his stomach.

Lyra focused "Hey, you haven't been healed up!"

Epsilon shook his head "Old man doesn't have enough juice, told him to save it for those that need it."

Lyra tried to grab him "You can't got out there, there's an entire fleet of pirates just waiting out there to gank you! Dreamwalk out of here!"

"Just, watch me. I'm going to deal with things. A master can't be too thrifty."

Epsilon picked up his staff and walked up the stairs. Just before he reached the surface, his hand dipped into his bag, and emerged holding a trio of bottles. Each was a vibrant, almost violent primary colour. In a single swift motion his thumb emitted a short lance of flame that neatly sliced the top off all three- and he upended the lot into his mouth.

Lyra crawled up after him and watched as he walked to the center of the lake, while on all sides, pirate frigates hovered, men and mages priming weapons and whispering incantations.

"STOP! He's Mine!" Sagittarius's voice echoed from every direction.

A single figure detached from the highest ship, several hundred meters above the island. Red cape flapping, the figure fell, halting a bare foot above the ground.

"Epsilon the Red! I am Sagittarius the Crimson, Leader of the Bloodborne fleet!

Sagittarius of the Crystal orb!"

Epsilon began to snicker.

"Excuse me, but, are you sure you weren't ripping off my name? And Saggitarious of the Crystal orb? Quite frankly it makes you sound like a second-rate fortune teller."

Sagittarius began to pulse red.

Epsilon buffed his nails on his shirt and blew on them gently.

Sagittarius chanted an unpronounceable series of harsh syllables, calling forth two blood-colored circles of crimson and reaching into them with both arms.

He drew out two blades, each the color of the midnight void.

"Hold still. I'm going to dismember you."

Epsilon yawned "Oh, ass-tral blades, my barriers won't work. Goodness, whatever shall I do?"

Sagittarius charged, feet splashing across the water as he sprinted at the boy, who remained unmoving and unflinching.

Lyra watched, eye's wide. Epsilon made no move to dodge, no move to attack either.

Why wasn't he moving? He'd die!

Sagittarius lunged, stabbing epsilon through the stomach with both blades.

"Epsilon the Red? I'll make you bleed so much, your title will be a description!"

Epsilon opened his eyes and looked straight at Sagittarius.

"Did you really think that would work?" His words carried not the slightest hint of tension or surprise.

The man gagged and pulled his sword free. This time, he slashed at epsilons left hand, slicing through his arm at the elbow.

"That actually stung, a little. Excuse me, I have to ask, what is the point of this, again?"

Sagittarius's eyes widened behind the slit in his head-wrap.

"Is that it? Are you finished?"

"What? Why aren't you… How?"

Epsilon let his staff fall, tapping the water and sending ripples out across the still lake.

"I am the eternal flame. I am Epsilon the Red! I AM FIRE!"

Even as he spoke, flames licked around his arm and new hand formed in the place of the old one.

Heat shimmered around his frail frame and Saggitarius began to back away, shielding his eyes.

Epsilons features disappeared behind a mask of white fire, and his stave was shaking uncontrollably, while above, in the sky, a gigantic magic circle, as wide as the entire island, spun into existence over the fleet.

"I AM FIRE! I AM REBIRTH! I CANNOT BE CUT BY MORTAL SWORDS!"

Epsilons voice boomed, sending shockwaves out from the center of the lake.

"FEAR MY WRATH!"

The circle began to open, the air around it warping with the immense force of dimensional disruption.

"COME FORTH SPRIT OF THE BAELFIRE! COME FORTH DRAGON OF THE FIREY LAKE AND CONFER THY INCANDESCENT RAGE UNTO MY ENEMIES!"

Lyra watched as a grand spirit of the fire realm began to cross the barrier between dimensions, setting the air humming and the island trembling with it's passage.

Sagittarius didn't miss a beat.

"No! I'm not going to let you complete that summon!" he drew out a white crystal orb, about the size of a closed fist and held it out in front of himself like a shield.

With a flick of the wrist, Epsilon called up a gout of flame from his staff, directing it straight at his enemy's device.

The flame roiled toward Sagittarius and then, quite abruptly, began to elongate, twisting an spiraling into a spaghetti thick strand of blazing magic that disappeared into the surface of the ball.

"Crystalus, Creptio, Cremo!"

Epsilon was bathed in grey from the crystals heart.

"The Nihili Sphere consumes all magic, fighting it is an exercise in futility!"

Above, the gate snapped shut and began to dissipate as the connection with Epsilon was severed.

Epsilon growled and in his voice, the crackle of forest fires and the roar of volcanoes could be heard.

"We will See if it can take what I have to give!" Epsilon directed his staff at the orb and sent a stream of concentrated energy at the orb. Sagittarius stared as the grey crystal began to shake in his hands.

"I will Not submit!" Epsilon was sweating now, but he ramped up the beam, causing the stream of magic to thicken beyond the width of the crystal.

"You can't, wait, time out, stop!" Sagittarius seemed to be talking as much to the orb as to Epsilon.

"Fine by me." Epsilon said, narrowing the beam to a pinpoint.

The orb exploded, pieces sinking into the lake.

The once swirling grey stone, glittered with inner fire.

Epsilon sank to his knees, spent.

Sagittarius clutched at his wounded arm, perforated by shards of glittering fiery crystal.

"What are you all waiting for? Kill him now! Shoot him while he's weak!"

"OI!"

Sagittarius turned and saw Lyra, Doom-bell in hand.

The woman drew breath for a mighty shout.

"A RING-A-DING DING! YOU ARROGENT SON OF A BITCH!" She pulled out the muffler from the bell and rung it.

The tinkling chime had an unworldly quality to it. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Sagittarius roared in anger, even as Lyra put her hands together and Stepped, skipping across the lake, grabbing Epsilon and then Jumping away toward the side of the Mountain Island.

Sagittarius watched as above, Dark clouds roiled into existence.

"No. No. No. NO, NO, NOOOOO!

The lightning descended, the bright celestial lances roared with the doom of every single man and woman who heard the bell.

The storm struck, Lightning punching through man and ship alike, a hail of incandescent bolts that shattered wood and seared metal. The pirate fleet descended in flames, all but a few of its crew dying, disfigured and dead.

The townsfolk who heard the infernal toll resound throughout their tunnels were protected by the rock of the island and the lake as even bolts as strong as these could not pierce past the rock of the upper passages. The townsfolk, assembled in the town hall simply clapped their hands to their ears as the deafening maelstrom of lightning thundered above.