Forbidden Constellation's Blade-Chapter 166: Battle For Khaz Vordun (1)

Flags instantly snapped downward as various gears and machinery engaged.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on a single point, a cannon shell which tore through the sky before landing in the open sea in silence.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then the ocean shifted as it parted ways.

Water sank inward as if pressed down by an invisible palm. The beam pulsed once, as the pressure across the harbor changed so suddenly that several dwarves staggered where they stood.

Light detonated against the surface of the basin before it was encompassed by darkness.

Beneath the water, the guardian’s form rose once more.

Every dwarf on the platform understood—

They had not struck a beast, they had announced themselves to a demi-god.

"Rotate the battery three degrees west!"

Ryn’s voice cut through the panic.

Signal flags shifted immediately. Horn blasts relayed orders across tiers of the harbor. Dwarven crews scrambled, as the pushed the cannons toward the incoming monster.

One cannon crew hesitated.

Just for a second.

The dwarf at the ignition lever stared at the basin, lips trembling beneath his braided beard.

"That’s Leviathan..." he breathed. "That’s our—"

"If you hesitate," Ryn said evenly, without looking at him, "the city goes down."

The dwarf swallowed and pulled the lever as another volley of cannonballs launched straight at the beast.

BANG! BANG!

They exploded on contact, yet seemingly not damaging Leviathan much.

"Keep up the pressure!"

Taylor did not stand at the front.

She moved through the artillery tiers instead, clipboard tucked under one arm, as she checked supplies with every platoon.

"Count again," she said, not raising her voice. "We cannot afford a misfire because someone misread the numbers."

A crew chief saluted stiffly and barked new instructions. Manalite shells were stacked in organized rows now. Spare cannons were twice checked before slotted into reserve slots, in case the beast broke through.

Supply runners sprinted between batteries, marking which cannons had already begun overheating and which still had firing capacity left.

Taylor paused only once to press a palm against a manalite casing, feeling the hum through the metal.

"Rotate reserves to second tier. If the front line fails, I want replacements in position within thirty seconds."

No hesitation followed her words.

There was no room for it.

Farther back from the cliff’s edge, Jay had ordered an open stone platform and transformed it into something resembling order.

A canvas canopy snapped violently in the sea wind as he secured its anchors with trembling but steady hands. Tables were lined with labeled vials. Bandages, salves, and tonic all lay nearby.

His hands glowed faintly as he prepared even more bottles, with some dwarven alchemists helping him along the side.

Behind him, more stretchers were being laid out.

Just in case.

At the very edge of the beach below the harbor tiers, where stone met blackened sand, Ryn stood unmoving.

Amelia stood beside him.

They were not elevated above the city.

They were at its front.

The tide had pulled unnaturally far back from the shore, revealing slick stone and abandoned anchor posts normally swallowed by water.

A massive pile of manalite had been brought down and stacked behind them, crates torn open, raw crystalline chunks exposed and glowing faintly.

"Are you sure about this, Ryn?"

"It’s the only choice if we don’t want the city to collapse instantly.

He didn’t turn as he answered.

Behind him, dwarven engineers finished locking the final tubes that connected to his arms in place.

They had dragged down an Essence amplifier, an ugly construct of iron braces that was normally reserved for siege constructs. Yet this time, it was attached to something else, somebody else.

Ryn, himself.

Taylor’s voice rang from the harbor tiers above.

"Amplifier locked! Everything’s ready!"

With the confirmation, a lever was pulled.

Pure Essence flooded into his body, so much that it felt like he was drowning in it.

Manalite reserves from the harbor were being routed through reinforced pipes, then forced through the amplifier’s spine directly into him. The tubes along his arms glowed blinding white as Essence surged through his body.

Then the cold came.

Not the biting edge of winter, nor the controlled chill of his Affinity. Frost bloomed across his skin in thin silver veins, racing up his arms from where the tubes were locked in place.

His breath crystallized before it could leave his lips. The sand at his feet turned white.

The amplifier roared.

Runic rings flared brighter and brighter as more Essence poured through him, refined manalite forced down channels never meant for a human body.

Amelia stepped closer.

"Ryn."

He didn’t respond.

His heartbeat slowed. The frost crept higher, threading across his jaw, into his hair. The air around him warped faintly. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Amelia’s eyes sharpened.

If they cut the flow now, the backlash would tear him apart. If they didn’t, he would freeze where he stood.

So she moved.

Flame ignited.

Golden fire erupted upward from her like a rising sun. An inferno of red surged from her head in a radiant crown. Heat rolled outward in violent waves as her S-Rank Blessing activated fully.

Flame Queen state.

The sand around them melted instantly, ice hissing violently under the sudden surge of heat. She grabbed his face with both hands, uncaring that frost bit at her skin.

"Don’t you dare freeze on me," she whispered fiercely.

His heartbeat slammed once against his ribs.

Balanced against her heat, the raging torrent of Essence within him shifted from chaos into something he could actually control.

"It’s coming!" someone shouted in the distance.

The entire horizon lifted in one impossible motion, water folding upward as though seized from below by something vast. The ocean answered, rising into a wall so immense that it blotted out the sky.

The entire city darkened beneath its shadow.

Ryn lifted his hand.

"Now."

From his outstretched hand, frost surged outward, racing across sand, stone and the exposed seabed. It expanded rapidly, as moisture crystallized mid-fall, before it met with the descending tsunami.

White raced up the entire wave, the ocean solidified as it halted mid-motion—an impossible mountain of sea arrested mid-collapse.

Ryn dropped to his knees as the tubes disconnected from him.

But he had done enough.

A frozen ocean towered over Khaz Vordun, translucent and colossal, shadowing the harbor in blue-white crystal. Through its depths, warped by refraction and ice, something vast could still be seen behind it...

Trying to break through and get in.

Leviathan did not disappear.

It struck.

The first impact shuddered through the frozen mass like a heartbeat.

Cracks raced outward from somewhere deep within the suspended sea, spiderwebbing through layers of compressed frost but did not break.

For a moment—

No one moved.

The cannons fell silent. As everyone except the wind stopped to look at this moment.

Across the harbor tiers, dwarves stood motionless, hands still gripping cannon levers. But no one dared to speak.

The frozen ocean loomed above them.

Miles of sea, suspended.

A young artilleryman was the first to lower his weapon.

"...By Brandt."

The whisper carried.

Then another voice, rougher.

"That’s not a barrier."

"It’s the sea..."

"He froze the sea."

Word spread down the tiers in hushed disbelief.

Engineers who had built the amplifier stared at its smoking rings, then at the kneeling figure on the beach below. Veterans who had fought krakens and tidal beasts alike found themselves unable to blink.

Above them, Taylor stood frozen just as still.

Her eyes tracked the cracks threading through the suspended wave. But even she allowed herself on breath of disbelief.

A group of dwarven elders near the upper platform slowly removed their helmets, braids shifting in the wind as they stared upward at what should have been the end of Khaz Vordun.

Instead—

It hung there.

Held back by a single human.

Somewhere along the lower tiers.

Steel clang together.

Once, then again.

More dwarves joined in, gauntlets striking armor, weapons hitting shields. A steady, almost chant-like beat resounded across the cliffside.

A sign of respect.

On the beach below, Ryn barely heard it.

He turned his face upward, looking at something else.

Ryn hadn’t fully froze the ocean, leaving little cracks underneath that was just enough for water to leak through.

But it wasn’t just water.

Shadows, elongated shapes forced themselves through the seams, slipping past the frozen barrier.

The first shape fell from a widening crack and struck the exposed seabed with a heavy impact.

A creature that had once been a shark dragged itself forward on distorted fins, black crystalline growths splitting through its hide. Its jaw opened too wide, rows of teeth uneven and jagged.

Then more came through, dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.

They spilled through every imperfection in the wall, forcing their way onto shore.

Above, Taylor’s voice cut through the rising noise.

"Infantry forward! Do not let them breach the lower tier!"

On the beach, Amelia’s flames flared brighter.

Ryn rose slowly to his feet, gaze steady despite the exhaustion dragging at his limbs.

At that point, everyone understood one thing—

The miracle was only the beginning.