The exit from the jungle onto the black sand beach was like stepping out of a tomb and into a blast furnace.
The supernatural twilight of the Isle of Whispers had been shattered. In its place was a sky that burned with the angry, pulsating violet of a bruised cosmos.
Elara Vance shielded her eyes, her breath catching in her throat. She had seen weird things in the last week. She had seen vampires in flannel, immortals surfing on swords, and a spirit dragon made of river sludge.
But this? This was war.
Hanging in the sky above the Azure Archipelago was a fleet. Not a fleet of wooden ships bobbing on the waves, but an armada of massive, iron-clad junks floating in the air. They were held aloft by spinning rotors of glowing jade and sails that caught the magical currents of the atmosphere.
There were dozens of them. Their hulls were painted in the gold and white of the Heavenly Court, but they were scarred with the soot of industry. Cannons—massive, bronze-mouthed maws—protruded from every port, aiming downward.
And at the center of the formation, eclipsing the sun, was the flagship. The Thunderhead. It was a floating fortress, crackling with arcs of electricity that danced along its rigging like St. Elmo's fire on steroids.
"By the ancestors," Li Wusheng whispered, stepping onto the sand beside Elara. "She brought the 7th Sky Division. This is excessive force. This is planetary bombardment."
Aldren Valcour adjusted his straw hat, though the shade it provided was negligible against the glare of the lightning. "She really wants you dead, Elara. I'm almost flattered by the budget she's spending."
"She doesn't want me dead," Elara said, her stomach twisting into a cold knot. "She wants me captured. She wants to burn the island to ash so there's nowhere left to hide."
The Dragon King, Ao Guang, walked past them. He didn't look at the sky with fear. He looked at it with the mild annoyance of a man who found a wasp nest in his gazebo.
He stopped at the water's edge. The waves lapped at his boots, turning from turquoise to a deep, ominous indigo as they touched him.
"General Lei has no manners," Ao Guang rumbled. His voice didn't echo; it simply existed, heavy and absolute, drowning out the distant thunder. "She brings fire to a water fight."
"Can you stop them?" Elara asked, gripping her belaying pin. The sheer scale of the fleet made her feel insignificant. Like an ant watching a boot descend.
The Dragon King turned his pearl eyes toward her. He smiled, revealing rows of serrated teeth.
"Little Key," he purred. "I am the Ocean. They are merely guests in my sky."
Part I: The Bombardment
High above, on the deck of the Thunderhead, General Lei stood with her hands clasped behind her back. The wind whipped her robes, but she stood as immovable as a statue.
"Target the jungle," she commanded. "Burn the canopy. Flush them onto the beach."
"General," a lieutenant hesitated. "The Dragon King is on the shore."
"Ao Guang is a relic," Lei scoffed. "He hoards pearls and plays politics. He has not fought a real war in a millennium. Fire."
The order was relayed.
The sky erupted.
Dozens of cannons fired simultaneously. They didn't fire cannonballs; they fired concentrated spheres of spiritual plasma. Purple fire rained down on the Isle of Whispers.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The jungle behind Elara exploded. Ancient trees were vaporized instantly. The ground shook so violently that Aldren fell to his knees.
"We're sitting ducks!" Aldren yelled over the roar. "We need cover!"
"Stand fast," Li Wusheng ordered, drawing the Void Sword. He plunged the blade into the black sand. "Winter Barrier!"
A dome of translucent ice erupted from the sand, shielding the three of them. A plasma bolt slammed into the ice, cracking it, filling the dome with blinding violet light.
"My barrier won't hold against a sustained barrage!" Li gritted his teeth, sweat pouring down his face.
Outside the dome, the Dragon King didn't flinch. A plasma bolt struck him directly in the chest.
It didn't burn him. It splashed against his scales like water against a rock, dissipating harmlessly.
Ao Guang sighed. He reached down and dipped his hand into the ocean.
"Rise," he whispered.
Part II: The Awakening of the Deep
The ocean receded.
It wasn't a tide going out. It was a massive, sudden inhalation. The water pulled back from the shore for half a mile, revealing coral reefs, flopping fish, and ancient shipwrecks.
"Where is the water going?" Elara gasped, pressing her hands against the cold interior of the ice dome.
"He is gathering it," Li said, his eyes wide. "He is condensing the ocean."
Out in the deep water, miles from shore, a wall of water began to form. But it wasn't a wave. It was a shape.
It rose higher and higher, dwarfing the Sky Ships. It was a construct of water, hard as diamond, shaped by the will of a god.
It was a hand. A massive, liquid hand, with fingers that scraped the clouds.
"Sky Ships are delicate things," the Dragon King murmured, making a crushing motion with his own hand on the beach.
The giant water hand mirrored him. It crashed down on the flank of the formation.
It swatted three Sky Ships out of the air like they were flies.
CRUNCH.
The sound of twisting metal and shattering jade rotors echoed across the archipelago. The ships crumpled, their engines exploding, and they fell into the abyss of the exposed sea floor.
"Impossible," General Lei whispered from her deck. "He controls the surface tension?"
"I control the depth," Ao Guang's voice boomed across the water, amplified by the waves.
He raised his other hand.
From the exposed reef, massive spears of coral shot upward. They grew at supernatural speeds, piercing the hulls of the lower-flying ships. The ships were skewered like kebabs, held fast as the coral continued to grow, dragging them down.
It was chaos. The orderly formation of the Heavenly Fleet broke instantly. Ships swerved to avoid the water-hand and the coral spears, colliding with each other.
"They are panicking," Aldren laughed, watching through the ice. "Look at them scatter! It's beautiful!"
"It's not over," Elara warned. She pointed at the Thunderhead.
General Lei was not retreating. She was descending.
The flagship lowered its altitude, dropping below the cloud cover. Its lightning cannons were charging, glowing with a brightness that turned the world white.
"She's targeting the King," Li said. "She's going to try to execute him."
"Can he take it?" Elara asked.
"He is a god of the sea," Li said. "But lightning is the one element that travels through water. It is his natural weakness."
Part III: The Beachhead Skirmish
While the titans fought in the distance, the battle came to the beach.
Drop pods—sleek, iron spheres—were launched from the lower decks of the Thunderhead. They slammed into the black sand around the ice dome, throwing up clouds of debris.
The pods hissed open.
Out stepped the Storm Troopers. Not the clumsy Shades from the mountain, but elite celestial infantry. They wore armor of white jade and carried spears tipped with lightning.
"They're here for us," Aldren growled. "While the King is busy playing with his bathwater."
"Li, drop the barrier," Elara said. "If they hit the ice with lightning, we cook inside."
"Agreed," Li said. "On three. One. Two. Three!"
The ice dome shattered outward, turning into a cloud of razor-sharp shards that momentarily blinded the approaching troopers.
"Attack!" Elara yelled.
They moved as a unit now. No hesitation. No bickering.
Aldren took the left flank. He didn't have his vampire strength fully back, but he had momentum. He slid across the sand, sweeping the legs of the first trooper. As the soldier fell, Aldren grabbed the lightning spear and used it to impale the second trooper.
"Shocking!" Aldren quipped, dodging a thrust.
Li Wusheng took the right. He moved with the fluidity of the ocean itself. He didn't block; he redirected. He caught a spear thrust with the flat of his Void Sword, spun past the attacker, and delivered a palm strike to the trooper's chest plate.
CRACK.
The jade armor shattered, and the trooper was launched backward into the surf.
Elara took the center. She didn't have super speed or martial arts. She had a belaying pin and the Keystone.
A trooper charged her, spear raised.
Elara didn't flinch. She felt the flow of the battle. She remembered the dice.
Trip.
She focused the Keystone on the sand beneath the trooper's feet. The sand turned to quicksand for a split second.
The trooper stumbled, his foot sinking.
Elara stepped in and swung the iron pin with a batter's mechanics.
CLANG.
She hit him in the helmet. He went down like a sack of potatoes.
"Nice swing, Captain!" Aldren shouted, ripping the helmet off another trooper and biting him. He recoiled immediately. "Ugh! They taste like ozone! Spicy blood!"
"Focus!" Li yelled. "More pods landing!"
Another wave of pods slammed down. Twelve more troopers.
They were outnumbered.
"We need an exit!" Elara shouted, looking around. The jungle was burning. The ocean was a war zone.
The Dragon King was still standing at the water's edge, holding off the Thunderhead. He was summoning whirlpools now, dragging the wreckage of the fallen ships into a vortex.
"Ao Guang!" Elara screamed, running toward him. "We need a path!"
The Dragon King didn't turn. He was focused on holding back a massive beam of lightning from the flagship with a shield of compressed water.
"Busy!" the King grunted.
"You promised to save us!" Elara yelled, whacking a trooper who tried to intercept her.
"I am saving you!" The King roared. "I am sinking the fleet!"
"We're going to die on the beach before you sink them!"
The Thunderhead fired its main cannon again. A beam of pure violet light slammed into the Dragon King's water shield. The steam explosion was deafening. The King slid back a foot, his heels digging trenches in the sand.
"Fine!" the King snarled.
He stomped his foot.
The black sand beneath Elara, Li, and Aldren liquefied.
"Wait, what—" Aldren started.
The ground opened up. It wasn't a hole; it was a chute. A tunnel of slick, wet sand that spiraled down into the darkness of the island's crust.
"Go!" the King commanded. "The Under-Road leads to the far side of the island. Take the Banshee and go!"
"We can't leave you!" Elara yelled.
"I am a Dragon!" Ao Guang laughed, a terrifying sound. "I do not need help from a mammal! GO!"
He waved his hand. A wave of sand crashed over them, pushing them into the chute.
They fell.
Part IV: The Under-Road
Sliding down a magical sand chute in pitch darkness is an experience Elara would not recommend on Yelp.
They tumbled through the earth, twisting and turning. It smelled of sulfur and old bones.
"I am getting sand in places that should remain sand-free!" Aldren screamed echoing in the dark.
"Protect your head!" Li instructed calmly, though his voice was vibrating from the slide.
After what felt like a mile of falling, they were spat out into a cavern. They landed in a pool of water (again).
Elara surfaced, sputtering. "I am so tired of being wet. I just want to be dry. For one hour."
They dragged themselves onto a stone ledge. They were in a sea cave on the opposite side of the island. Sunlight—dim and filtered through smoke—poured in from the cave mouth.
Bobbing in the water, untouched by the battle, was the Iron Banshee.
"The ship!" Aldren cheered. "It's safe!"
"The King moved it," Li realized. "He must have transported it through the currents while we were fighting. He honored the deal."
They scrambled aboard.
"Get us out of here," Elara ordered, running to the helm. "Li, check the engine. Aldren, sails!"
"On it!" Aldren hauled on the rigging. The red sails unfurled, catching the wind.
Li poured his Qi into the jade console. The engine roared to life.
The Iron Banshee shot out of the cave mouth and into the open ocean.
Elara looked back.
The Isle of Whispers was burning. Smoke columns rose miles into the air.
Above the island, the battle raged. The Thunderhead was locked in combat with the Dragon King.
As they watched, Ao Guang summoned his masterpiece.
From the depths of the ocean, tentacles rose. Not water tentacles. Real tentacles.
The Kraken.
It was colossal. A beast of nightmares. It wrapped its massive limbs around the Thunderhead. The Sky Ship groaned, its metal hull buckling. Lightning arced wildly as the beast dragged the fortress down toward the water.
"He summoned the Deep One," Li whispered in awe. "That creates a tsunami. We need to brace!"
"Full speed!" Elara spun the wheel. "Turn into the wave!"
The Thunderhead hit the water.
The impact created a wave fifty feet high. It radiated outward, a wall of destruction.
"Here it comes!" Aldren yelled, tying himself to the mast with a rope. "Hold on!"
Elara gripped the wheel. She channeled Valeriana.
Ride it. Don't fight it.
The Iron Banshee hit the wave. It climbed the wall of water, going almost vertical.
"We're going to flip!" Li shouted.
"No we're not!" Elara screamed. "Pivot!"
She slammed the rudder hard to port at the crest of the wave. The ship surfed down the other side, crashing into the trough with a bone-jarring thud.
They survived.
They sped away, riding the shockwaves of the battle, leaving the Isle of Whispers behind.
Part V: The Cost of a Soul
Hours later, the sun was setting. The sky was a bruised purple, reflecting the violence of the day.
The Iron Banshee drifted in calm waters, miles away from the destruction.
Elara sat on the quarterdeck, staring at the horizon. She was exhausted, bruised, and covered in sand.
Aldren walked up to her, holding a bottle of rum. He looked shaken.
"The fleet is gone," Aldren said quietly. "I saw the wreckage. The Dragon King destroyed them all."
"And Lei?" Elara asked.
"She escaped," Li Wusheng said, joining them. He looked somber. "I felt her signal vanish. She teleported away before the flagship sank. She will return to the Heavenly Court to report this."
"So we started a war," Elara said. "Between the Ocean and the Sky."
"Yes," Li nodded. "The balance is shattered."
Elara looked at her hands. The hands that had commanded the dice. The hands that had signaled the Dragon King.
"I made a deal," Elara whispered. "One favor. Bound to the Dragon Court."
"It is a heavy price," Li said. "Ao Guang is not evil, but he is... transactional. He will call upon you when you least expect it. And the task will not be easy."
"I know," Elara said. "But we're alive. And Li is healed."
She looked at Li. He smiled, a genuine, warm smile that reached his eyes.
"I am," Li said. "Thanks to you."
Aldren sat down beside them. He took a swig of rum and passed it to Elara.
"So," Aldren said, looking at the stars beginning to appear. "We are fugitives from Heaven. We owe a debt to the Ocean. And we are currently sailing a stolen pirate ship to nowhere."
"Not nowhere," Elara said. She stood up. She felt something shifting in her mind. A new memory. Not Valeriana. Someone else.
She closed her eyes.
She smelled... old paper. Ink. Dust.
She saw a mountain. Not Li's mountain. A different one. Covered in snow and silence.
"The Library of Ages," Elara whispered.
Aldren and Li looked at her.
"What?" Aldren asked.
"Life Number 18," Elara said, opening her eyes. "I was a scholar. An archivist. I spent my life looking for a way to break the Curse."
"Did you find it?" Li asked intently.
"I found a map," Elara said. "To the Weaver's Loom."
Aldren dropped the rum bottle. It rolled across the deck.
"The Loom?" Aldren gasped. "The device that writes fate? It's a myth."
"It's real," Elara said. "I found the map. But I died before I could follow it. I hid it."
"Where?" Li asked.
"In a tomb," Elara said. "In the Desert of Silhouette. In the West."
She looked at the horizon, pointing the ship toward the setting sun.
"We're done running," Elara declared. "We're going to find that map. And then we're going to find the Weaver. And we're going to rewrite the story."
Aldren stood up. He grinned, his fangs glinting in the moonlight.
"A heist," Aldren said. "In a tomb. In the desert. I hate sand. But I love a heist."
Li Wusheng stood up. He placed his hand on the hilt of his Void Sword.
"The Desert of Silhouette is dangerous," Li warned. "It is the land of ghosts and illusions."
"Good," Elara said, taking the wheel. "I'm getting pretty good at dealing with ghosts."
She spun the wheel. The Iron Banshee turned West.
"Next stop," Elara said. "The desert."
The Pirate Arc was over. The Tomb Raider Arc had begun.