Yes.
[We have little information on how intelligent these new Dreadgods are. Will the Titan approach us tactically? Will he be driven back when he determines that the target costs too much energy, as he would before? Or will he drive himself to exhaustion to annihilate us?]
Dross wiggled his tentacles in the air next to Lindon’s head. [On the answers to these questions will we live or die. But I believe Moongrave will survive to endure another sunrise.]
That relieved some of the tension in Lindon’s gut, but not all of it.
Mercy was, of course, in one of the better-protected positions. She wasn’t expected to fight, since—unlike the other Dreadgods—the Wandering Titan didn’t drag an army along with it. Even Abyssal Palace could only stay out of the Dreadgod’s way and pick through the wreckage afterwards.
Still, Lindon kept his spiritual perception on her. If the battle slid out of his control, he planned on grabbing Mercy and fleeing as far as he could. Pride could come too, if he was close enough, though the siblings had been separated in case one section of the wall was breached.
[Already planning to run,] Dross observed. [Perhaps this is why Malice doesn’t trust you.]
Lindon doubted that had anything to do with it at all.
He was reviewing every backup measure he had prepared when the golden sky lit up with shining veins like a sun was rising.
Then the Wandering Titan emerged from mist in the distance.
As Eithan had once put it, the Titan was known for its inevitability, not its speed. It didn’t race for its target. It wandered.
But not today.
The Dreadgod sprinted across the landscape, head down. Gold light shone through cracks in its black stone flesh, and its eyes blazed yellow. Its armored shell scraped the clouds, and its whip-like tail scraped the landscape behind it clean.
Its every step was an earthquake, and when it spotted Moongrave from dozens of miles away, it roared so that even the Golds could hear it.
Malice’s voice slipped into Lindon’s ears, and he could sense the wind aura vibrating all around the city, carrying her words to every defender.
“Here he comes,” she murmured, “but he is alone. We are together, and ours is a power he cannot hope to conquer. Behold, the Akura clan.”
In front of the city wall, purple light flashed in a column that stretched from land to sky. From that light, a crystal titan strode out to defend them from the one made of stone.
No matter how he felt about Malice, Lindon had to admit that he cheered to see her standing against the Dreadgod.
She held an arm out and the subtly curved shaft of a glacial bow appeared in her hand. Malice took an archer’s stance, pulling the string of her bow back. A dark blue arrow formed on the string, and Lindon focused his perception on it.
Not only was the arrow itself a mass of dense power carrying a devastating will, but Malice layered multiple techniques into it and onto it in a blink, so fast and smoothly that Lindon couldn’t even count them.
It looked like a shadow pouring onto the arrowhead, a darkness so deep that it warped the space around it, as well as a core of purple light shining through its center. But it felt like she’d woven sixteen intricate spiderwebs through one another in a split second.
Did you catch that? Lindon asked.
Dross’ astonishment was loud in Lindon’s thoughts. [Do you think too much of me, or do you mean to attack me with your unreasonable expectations?]
The arrow flashed out.
It tore the air. Far beneath the arrow, its passage ripped a trench into the ground. The wind kicked up into a hurricane, and the defensive scripts around Moongrave flared as they protected the defenders from the backwash of the Monarch’s attack.
Lindon focused, so he saw everything clearly. When Malice’s arrow came close to the Titan, the Dreadgod’s fist met it in midair. Gold, purple, and black madra swirled in an explosion that tore up the landscape.
The Titan’s fist was unscathed. It kept running…
…for one more step.
Then it skidded to a halt. Earth sprayed up in a wave as the Titan stopped, and the ground rumbled for miles around the protective field of Moongrave.
Malice’s fingers paused on the string of her bow. The Wandering Titan stood proudly, a warrior unafraid. Its serpentine tail slowed.
The Monarch drew back another arrow, and this time Lindon sensed panic in her power.
Malice’s cold command reached everyone. “All forces attack now!”
The launchers on the wall closest to the Titan drifted into place and unleashed lances of devastating purple force immediately. The other launchers drifted around the wall to the correct positions before they began gathering power.