Pyre Academy

Airships stood ready outside the city of Raryst, huge laser cannons lined the Steppe, facing south toward where the Imperium would make their advance. Hundreds of students and even Crystalliam Knights stood on the field. The ground began to shake, something was coming.

A colossal pegasus like beast flew over the mountains to the south, in its wake, was lightning and electrical storms.

Rychard stood in the command post in Pyre Academy.

"By god, that is Indra... the Celestial Guardian of Imperistia" He gasped.

Indra roared and fired lightning at the array of airships, causing all of them to immediately lose power.

The cannons fired a barrage of shots at Indra, and while it was hurt by some blasts, it dispatched of the cannons with ease.

"Activate the golem" Rychard shouted across the command centre, a technician nodded and plugged one of the droids into a VR simulation device. From the volcano crawled a huge burning eagle. The Golem, a synthetic guardian flew across the skies toward Indra.

Indra fired electricity, but it had no effect. The Golem flew directly into Indra, knocking it to the ground. As it was pinned down, hundreds of Crystalliam Knights charged at the Guardian and swiftly dispatched of it, the students cheered, but their joy was short-lived, as the full might of the Imperium's forces became clear, hundreds of airships and military vehicles made their approach from across the Steppe.

The Golem dove at the airships, destroying twenty or so, but as it finished its attack, it was fired upon by the remaining airships and exploded into flames. The droid back in the command centre screamed and blood trailed from underneath the VR headset, the technician backed away.

"She's dead..." He gasped.

Rychard took a deep breath, keenly feeling the loss of the girl, but he had to focus on saving the rest. The forces engaged on the battlefield below, Rychard sighed as he watched young students putting their life on the line. How could this be for the greater good? Sending the young to die so he could carry on.

Skylar's face appeared on a nearby monitor.

"Rychard, I know what you must be feeling right now. I just want to assure you, this is the only way" She sighed.

"If you say so, mother" Rychard sighed. He dialed into a console in front of him, and a huge cannon emerged from the grounds of Pyre Academy, and began firing a torrent of fire balls at the airships, they tried to fire back, but a huge burning energy field surrounded the city and the Academy.

Instead, the airships focused their fire on the students and knights below. Rychard bashed his hand against the console. The fighting ensued for another two hours, with each side wearing each other down, until only a few remained.

"The project will be online imminently" Skylar's voice rang out across the empty Academy. Rychard sighed and looked at the destruction below. Then, in the distance he saw it.

Two airships from both Pyre and Imperistia were blown out of the sky by a speeding black airship. It was The Black Vulture, arrived outside the Academy, stopping just before the fire barrier, the Crystalliam cannons charged and disabled the shield and shorted out the generators.

The Black Vulture went to land on the Academy grounds.

Sebastien was hiding out in the common room, to avoid being dragged into the fighting. He saw on the couch watching the chaos unfold below, when he heard Skylar's voice ring out.

"Project?" He said to himself, he stood up and turned around to see Abyssia walking toward him.

"Well... this I didn't expect..." He said, Abyssia shot a blast of dark energy, which broke the glamour immediately. Sebastien transformed back into Lumina.

"What are you doing here?!" Abyssia shouted.

"I came for the child" Lumina responded.

"Keep away from her" Abyssia roared.

"Try and sto..." Lumina began.

"Project Fallen Angel is about to commence, please evacuate the Academy. Repeat. Project Fallen Angel is about to commence, please evacuate the Academy" An automated voice echoed across the Academy.

"Fallen Angel?" Abyssia asked.

"If they intend to evacuate the Academy..." Lumina began.

"The Crystal!" Abyssia realized.

"Do you know where it is?" Lumina asked.

"I used to be in charge here, remember?" Abyssia nodded, she headed off toward the courtyard, with Lumina in tow, when the arrived Abyssia approached the fountain.

"So where is the temple?" Lumina shrugged.

"Watch" Abyssia said, she raised her hand and fired a blast of dark energy into the fountain, the water and lava ceased flowing, and below the lava was a deep hole, with a ladder leading down.

"Very good" Lumina smirked, the two of them jumped down into the dark hole.

When they reached the bottom, they were in the centre of the temple, a huge machine was attached to the crystal, with a long stream of wires that led to a bed, on the bed was Roisin, in a long red dress. Stood behind a console was Skylar.

"No!" Abyssia roared, she charged at Skylar, but was blocked by a dense energy field, which was powered by the crystal. She began the process, energy from the crystal flowed into Roisin.

"You can't do this! She isn't strong enough!" Abyssia cried. Lumina watched Abyssia.

"I told you, it's mankind, they do nothing but take, no matter the consequences" She sighed.

Across the other side of the room, behind Skylar. Dex, Anya and Wes ran in. Dex looked at Roisin.

"What are you doing to her?!" Dex shouted, he ran over to Roisin and went to remove the wires.

"Don't touch those, the process cannot be stopped, she will die" Skylar shouted. Dex ran over to Skylar and punched her in the jaw, she fell backwards down the stairs, and broke her neck.

Dex looked down at Skylar and tears fell from his eyes.

"They're just killers" Lumina added. Dex ignored her and ran back over to Roisin, he kissed her lips.

"The process is now complete, Fallen Angel is now ready" The automated voice said, the barrier behind Dex fell, Roisin opened her eyes and looked into Dex's.

"Dex...?" Roisin asked.

"Roisin! You're awak..." Dex began, blood poured from his mouth.

"No!" Anya shouted. Dex looked down, to see himself impaled on a blade of pure light.

"I..." He looked at Roisin, who had a look of pure shock on her face, his blood splattered across her red dress. "I love you" Dex said, before collapsing on top of Roisin, lifeless.

Silence rang out across the room, Lumina pulled the blade from Dex's back.