He looked back at the girl and nodded a simple thank you, her face immediately filled with the previous grit and determination she wore, she yelled, "It is expensive! I bought it in Everlight for a handful of platinum marks."
Arthur readied himself, resuming his Tempest of Shadow form, he held the orb and threw it at Ling Wei, then dashed forward holding his sword low, suddenly beside him a light formed, growing limbs, a head, steel armor, it grew a sword and stuck close to Arthur's back, it had the same height and definition as Arthur, swaying with pale ethereal light.
The Vestige moved in perfect synchronization with him, its blade catching the dim light as they advanced together. Ling Wei's eyes widened slightly, the first crack in his composure, he had not expected this, he had not anticipated that a mere Awakened would possess something of this caliber. Arthur felt the presence of the Vestige at his side, a cold reassurance that he was not alone in this fight, and for the first time since the battle began, he allowed himself to believe that he might just survive.
Ling Wei ducked a slash from Arthur, he threw his spear and braced himself, shedding a thick coating of shards that seemed like condensed fate essence, it appeared as if he had resumed a martial art stance, he threw a controlled fist with a slight yell, the attack was so powerful and so immensely destructive that Arthur felt if he did not duck in time his head would be blown to bits, luckily a blue white ethereal figure stepped in and deflected the fist with its sword, the Vestige clone broke to bits and pieces, left with only one arm, it seemed that one punch was all it took for the Vestige to be heavily damaged as it appeared to resonate with a lower stage individual.
Arthur immediately rose from the ground with no hesitation, he swung his sword upward, imbuing it with ambient fate essence like he always did, this was no technique nor any innate trait he wielded, just a wild slash, immediately Ling Wei the Enlightened enemy fell back holding his face, Arthur had managed to drag a slice across the cheek up to the upper nose, seeing that he could not help but manage a faint breath of relief, he had damaged an Enlightened, someone of the same caliber as Lyssandra the Sky Sundered Saint.
Ling Wei touched his face, saw the blood, and looked back at Arthur, "Dragon's Wrath," he announced, a humongous dragon summoned once more, its energy and scales glowing more gold than before, Arthur saw it while holding his sword, he saw closing ships as well rushing in, the rest of the fleet had caught up and the situation seemed grimmer than ever, still he focused on the only person before him.
"You dare to shed blood among the Agent of the Dao Mandate," Ling Wei intoned, his voice carrying the weight of ancient proverbs and formal decree, "a blade that draws the blood of the heavenly ordained shall find itself broken against the bones of its wielder."
He gestured his arm forward as if to command an attack and summoned the spear he had wielded before, he moved with the dragon, Arthur braced himself immediately, planting his feet, this was going to hurt, really really bad.
The mythological dragon flew low to the floor while Ling Wei dashed beneath it, he seemed to carry some kind of weapon with an enchantment, Arthur immediately summoned the cloned Vestige and ran beside it, the Vestige got carried in its maw by the dragon, Arthur moved anyway, feeling the intense resonance of the dragon beside him like he had just narrowly avoided death.
But what was in front of him did not seem like salvation either. He stopped, his instincts flaring, something was wrong, he assumed a defensive position, feeling something deeply off.
It was a flash, so fast that he barely registered it.
Ling Wei moved with brutal precision, a spear existed in Arthur's back.
He did not realize it until he looked down.
He threw up a mouthful of blood.
"You fought well, Vexian soldier," Ling Wei said, his voice carrying a note of genuine respect beneath the formal cadence.
A voice rang in his head.
[Your Vestige has been destroyed]
Arthur stared at him, he took his head where the helm of feathers were and jabbed his finger through his own eye, blood made its way down Ling Wei's face, he let go of the spear, Arthur stood wobbling, his feet barely holding him, the spear exiting his back, he had lost a lot of blood.
The dragon resurfaced from the water focusing on him, the man screamed clutching his head, Arthur had imbued the remainder of his fate essence into his glove fingers and stabbed him in his eyes, but the worst was not the man in front of him, but that the Vestige had been destroyed and that he was now in front of a dragon.
Arthur smiled, a broken, crumbling smile, barely holding together as he faced the massive creature.
He threw the chain.
The pale white links left his hand like a serpent striking, wrapping around Ling Wei's throat before the Enlightened could react, and Arthur felt the world tilt as the man's power flickered, the oppressive aura that had been pressing down on him since the fight began suddenly faltered, the chain was doing something, disrupting something, it was not just a weapon, it was a tool designed to sever the flow of fate essence itself. It was the chain that lucid had given him earlier. They held despite all this time.
Then the water took him.
He plunged beneath the surface, the cold shock of it forcing what little air remained from his lungs, the chain was still in his hand, still wrapped around Ling Wei's throat, but the Enlightened was fighting back, his hands clawing at the links, his eyes blazing with fury, Arthur held on, even as his vision began to darken, even as his lungs burned for air, he held on because letting go meant dying and dying meant failing and failing was not an option.
He drifted down.
The weight of his armor pulled him deeper, the darkness of the water closed in around him like a shroud, his thoughts began to slow, his consciousness fraying at the edges as oxygen starvation took hold. He thought about Elara, about the queen who had been everything to him once, about the path she was walking now, a path that would lead to destruction and suffering and he could not stop her, he had never been able to stop her, not when she was a princess and not now when she was a queen, he thought about Materna, the empire that had taken everything from him, his family, his friends, his future, and how they would continue to take and take because he was not good enough, not worthy enough.
He was not good enough to guide anyone.
The thought was bitter, cold, settling into his chest like ice, even Lucid, who had thrown him into this rift with talk of leveling up, even he had believed in something Arthur could not quite grasp, this was supposed to be a growth opportunity, a chance to become stronger, but all Arthur had become was a liability, a burden, a man who could not even protect a ship full of strangers from people who had been trained to do nothing but destroy.
He who led armies.
He who conquered.
He who dared to stand against her conquest.
He who survived the empire's wrath.
Was drowning to a mere Enlightened of the Shenzhou fleet.
His grip on the chain loosened.
Ling Wei was still alive, he could feel the man struggling above him, could see the shape of him through the murky water, still fighting, still defiant, and Arthur was going to die here, at the bottom of the sea, with nothing to show for it but a few cuts on an Enlightened's face and a handful of memories that would fade when his body was consumed by the tide.
He closed his eyes.
Something moved past him.
It was fast, faster than anything he had seen in the water, a shape that cut through the darkness with purpose and power, he felt the displacement of the water around him, felt the force of its passage, and then something grabbed him, arms wrapping around his chest, pulling him upward with a strength that seemed impossible.
He opened his eyes.
There was light above him, pale and diffuse, filtering through the storm-torn surface, and he was moving toward it, being carried, being saved, he could not see who or what had him, could barely process the sensation of being pulled through the water at speed, but he felt something, a presence, a warmth that cut through the cold of the sea.
The enemy was nowhere to be seen.
The water shifted around them as whatever had taken him punished away the threats with brutal force, Ling Wei was gone, the dragon was gone, all that remained was the sensation of movement and the fading edges of his consciousness.
Arms wrapped around him, gentle but strong, and they were swimming upward, toward the light, toward the surface, toward something that might be survival.
Arthur's last thought before the darkness took him was that he had been wrong, that maybe he was not as alone as he had believed, that even in the depths of hopelessness, there was always something, someone, willing to reach out and have faith in you.