Silence.
Rose felt cold. She looked around her. She could see and feel the fortress continuing to sink around her, but something had quieted the noises that had previously surrounded her. The sudden calm set her even more on edge.
"We're locked out!" someone called behind her. Rose could make out almost everyone around her: Rick, Chase, Mason, Nadine, Layla, Circire, Hecata, Hollingsworth, Reuben, and Jane. She made out Paralee, Cara, Micheli and a few more nameless Daemons near the rear, along with a group of Vexors Rose didn't recognize, although she spotted Official Xavier among them.
"Father!" Hecata shouted, and ran forward, embracing an elderly man standing with the Daemons. Rose was suddenly reminded of a little girl being picked up by her strong father.
"Hecata," Elphias said, gripping his daughter tightly.
"I thought I'd never see you again," Hecata whispered.
"Times are changing," Elphias responded solemnly.
Rose waited for eyes to adjust to the darkness of the Arctic night, and took in her surroundings. They had approached a courtyard which was partly open to the outdoor night. The purpose for this, Rose saw, was that the majority of the stone ceiling had caved in, littering the floors of the chamber. They were on the left hand side of the giant courtyard, atop on of the two magnificent staircases which led down to the main court, which was once flat but now rocky with relief due to the broken chunks of stone scattered all over the enclosure. At the edge of the forum, a balcony overlooked the roaring seas below. The balcony was originally made of a huge curved glass window connected to the roof, but the destruction had left only broken shards of thick glass in its place.
"Let's move down," Circire commanded. "We might be able to reach the ships from that balcony."
The makeshift army sprinted down the giant staircase. As she raced down, Rose felt a surge of energy race through her entire body as well. Something about the way the moved, the warriors escaping into the night, made her feel as if this is what she was longing for all along: whether she be a Zarrius or a Vexor, here, all people of the Council were fighting together, as one. Somehow, this was the way they were meant to be, not separated but together as one people.
"Hurry! Go!" Hollingsworth called from behind Rose, but out of a nowhere, an earth-shattering quake roared from within the island as the Celeste sunk deeper into the sea, knocking them all to their knees.
Rick tried to yell, but no words escaped his mouth. From above them, the storm clouds assembled in the night sky.
"OH MY- !" Paralee screamed behind them, and pointed forward. There, in between them and the balcony, thick jets of black smoke exploded all in front of them. After a few seconds, the dark fumes began to materialize into human figures, and at the head of their menagerie, a tall woman with darkened blue eyes in a flowing, onyx dress, brandishing a black wand.
"Attack her!" Jane shouted. "NOW!"
"Wait, no!" Rick shouted, for behind Celestia, more people began to appear. Elyzia and Eliza were among them, along with Isisia. More and more men and women kept Appearing as if from thin air, the cursed Liebeauxs resurrected from the Underworld.
Celestia smiled grotesquely, and stepped to the side, revealing a woman behind her. The woman's blond hair and bright eyes made her stick out from the others around her. Her intense green eyes glowed among the countless blue irises that surrounded her. Ariel Contreras' green eyes was so bright they seemed to be almost golden, similar to an eerie lemon-lime hue. But it was the woman that Ariel held from a dagger and vice-grip that caught the Council's attention.
Ariadne.
For a moment, the courtyard schism was held in a tense stalemate. Celestia let out a malicious cackle.
"Well, look who's come to see the show!" she said. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?"
"Let her go!" Rick shouted.
"Well of course! Just a simple trade- hand over the Prime Witch, and you get your mother back!"
"I'll go," Circire said proudly.
"Have you lost your mind? They won't kill her!" Hecata said.
"Trust me," Circire said. Grabbing her mother's wrist, she whispered in her ear- "Summon them."
Hecata wore a shocked expression on her face as her daughter crossed the barrier between light and dark, walking slowly towards her great-great-grandmother. Celestia approached her.
"We always knew this day, would come, didn't we? You set up some futile attempts to dissuade me, and let me admit that I was surprised at some of them. But at last the moment has arrived."
"Let her go," Circire commanded.
Celestia erupted in a cacophony of horrible laughter once more. "Kneel before me."
"Let her go."
"I said, kneel!" Celestia pointed her wand at Circire's waist, and the Prime Witch was reluctantly brought to her knees.
Hecata closed her eyes and outstretched her hands.
"At last," Celestia whispered, slowly reaching for the silver circlet upon Circire's head.
Hecata bellowed an incantation, and immediately, blazing white beams of light shot out from the storm clouds above and hit the courtyard, materializing into human figures just as Celestia and her followers did, only this time, it was the Liebeauxs who stood with the Council that Appeared, not the traitors who put their faith in Celestia's false promises.
Celestia whipped her head around, a look of intense fury on her face. Staring at the new men and women, alive again, she grabbed Circire's circlet and screamed into the night.
"ATTACK!"
The courtyard erupted in a battle that was like no other. Liebeauxs fighting Liebeauxs, Vexors and Daemons against the renegade Ariel- the climax of their hunt had eclipsed at the courtyard of the sinking castle, in the apex of the Arctic night.
"Come with me," Rose heard Rick say before he sprinted off to where Lightning stood, and she quickly followed him. Her vision was blurred as she followed him through the massive war around them.
Ahead, Lightning was fighting a triple duel against Helroh, Paralee, and Xavier, locked in a magical lockdown consisting of a powerful jet of green light diverging into three shining grey channels of light. Ariadne was held in suspended animation behind her. Rick sprinted full on towards Lightning, and without thinking, pounced and tackled her straight to the ground.
Rose ran towards Ariadne, where the spell Ariel had set upon her began to fade. Rose took Rick's mother in her arms as she began to awaken, and Rose set out carrying her away from the action.
"What- what is this?" Ariadne slurred her words.
Rose was unable to speak, for all her energy was exerted in carrying the woman's body. Luckily she wasn't very heavy. Rose approached the bottom of the stone staircase and laid Ariadne down upon the flat surface.
"What's going on? Where is my son?"
"Shh, it's alright," Rose said. Lightning's dagger had a cut a relatively deep cut into her neck. Rubbing the scar on her own neck that only just began to heal, Rose ripped off a sleeve of her white coat and applied pressure to Ariadne's neck.
"It's all right," Rose whispered. "I'm with you now."
The war escalated behind them. Jane and Reuben were locked against two men of Celestia's regime, one with blue eyes and one with green. Reuben, in his enemy's hesitation, bent his leg behind his foe and swung forward, letting him fall to the ground. Jane straightforward punched her enemy in the face with surprising strength, breaking his jaw.
Hollingsworth and Hecata were pitted back-to-back, unleashing as much power as they could, yet unable to move forward. Chase and Nadine were only a few feet away from them, hurling bolts of magic against Elyzia Liebeaux.
"You will never win!" Celestia's daughter said.
"LET'S SEE!" Chase shouted. Elyzia smiled, and did something unexpected: she moved her wand away from Chase and Nadine, aiming instead at a woman with her back faced towards her. The woman became stiff, and stood still.
"NO!" Nadine cried. "No-!
She sprinted forward and caught the woman before she hit the ground. Brushing away her dark hair, from her face, she saw that it was Xavier.
"No- no-"
Xavier opened her weakened eyes, which had lost their faint green glitter, and found Nadine's line of sight once more.
"Death won't- stop me," Xavier sputtered. "She is afraid of it, but it is the doorway to the next life. Be brave, Nadine Zhang."
Nadine watched as the woman began to die in her arms, but she couldn't blink away the tears that fell on Xavier's cheek.
"I see it," Xavier whispered. "it's real- it's all real."
The Vexor breathed one last time, and was no more.
Circire sent a jet of blue light to Celestia, who, caught unawares, was knocked to the ground. Circire swept down and grasped her circlet back, placing it where it belonged: upon her own head. She looked down at the dark woman, and smiled.
"Times are changing," she said, and slammed her foot into Celestia's face.
Ariel shouted a foreign incantation, and bolts of lightning began to descend upon them at her command.
"GEBIRAH!" Hollingsworth shouted. "DO SOMETHING!"
"I am a bit preoccupied at the moment!" Hecata responded.
"WE COULD USE A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER, COULDN'T WE?" Hollingsworth replied.
Hecata, scowling, concentrated on her wand, which was currently aimed at a group of Celestia's soldiers. Gathering all her strength, she hurled the jet of light erupting from the wand up to the sky, which let off a small explosion, knocking the people closest to her to their feet. In a split second, Hecata spun her arm around her head in a spiral motion and threw her whole body towards the balcony, which caused a powerful gust of wind towards the sea.
"HOLD ON!" Hecata shouted. The wind slowly grew stronger and stronger, enough to blow people off their feet and over the balcony.
Circire watched as Celestia, holding her wand out, was slowly being pulled backwards-
"No! NO!" she cried, but it was too late- Hecata's windstorm swept the dark woman across the courtyard, over the balcony, and into the sea. Everyone else in the courtyard grabbed hold of anything they could to keep from being blown away.
"Circire!" Hollingsworth bellowed, grasping a heavy piece of the broken ceiling lying on the ground. "I think it's time to depart!"
"I second that!" Hecata added.
"LET'S MOVE!" Jane shouted over the deafening wind. Everyone could sense the Celeste sinking deeper and deeper into the inky black waters.
Rose held Ariadne's face in her hands. "Ariadne! We have to go!"
The Council, one by one, began to let go as the winds died around them.