Pointedly, many of the Beast Emperors on the Land did move, into all those areas outside the greatly reduced Human holdings. Land Emperors who had not been seen by Humans in centuries and more were soon seen at isolated areas along the shorelines, looking out to sea, many of them within visible or shouting distances of one another. Imperial Avians were seen all over the skies of the coasts, gliding through the clouds, watching and waiting.

Nobody was stupid enough to bug the Emperors who were obviously on guard against the seas, and reports of frantic movements of sea Tribes, obviously fleeing something, soon came in snatches and whispers from all over the world. There were multiple yet scattered attempts by some Tribes to flee to the land, obviously pursued by something in the water... but if they weren’t slamming into the very ready Human littoral defenses, this time they often ran right into a Land Emperor or three, and the result was pre-ordained.

I did a lot of work on the Ice portion of the North Pole Spindle Pyramids during this time, as Leviathan was often roving about everywhere. Whale tribes were also being attacked haphazardly, most often by simply being in the way of conflicts spilling out through the deeps, and many of them relocated their breeding females and calves to Leviathan’s new realm at the North Pole.

There were intrusions into Leviathan’s domain, Aquatic Emperors of various Tribes seeking anywhere they could hide, and finding absolutely none where the Whale Emperors were. Perhaps they simply wanted to sate some long-nursed grudges.

They also weren’t expecting a True Emperor of the Land Tribes to be there, watching and waiting for them!

Thousands of powerful Aquatics ended up impaled on towers of icy blades, lifted out of the water and helpless against the assaults from Wolves, Bears, Caribou, Wolverines, Foxes, and even Seals and Sea Lions who had quite enough of the arrogance of Aquatics, all of them not minding teaching the sea-dwellers a lethal lesson.

When I wasn’t working the Spindle, I was Bringing Down the Moon and Stars to heal those wounded in the fighting, a benefit the Sea Tribes just did not have.

And, naturally enough, there was a lot of fighting to do.

-----

I watched from high in the sky, Eagle Eyes magnifying the view forward as I followed the conflict on the horizon.

Walls of water smashed into one another with the slamming of wet thunder. Finned and scaled forms were writhing through the waves and the winds interchangeably, chasing and being chased. Great serpentine forms hundreds of feet long were interlacing with one another, liquid Dragonfire was spraying through the waters, and Fish, Serpents, and Fin-men were embroiled in a nasty conflict that showed no signs of ending.

A Coralost Retaining Wall of Salt-seed Tempered Stone was holding the rampant Water Magic at bay, dissolving it as it touched the barrier. Other Earth Seeds contributed to its strength and rigidity, and seven widely-spaced Elemental Star Formations of Earth Mages were Meditating on those walls, pouring power into them and repairing them as they creaked against the weight of the ocean’s unrest.

The waves still came through, but the bay had been completely emptied out for a mile or more, the natural waters pushed out into the sea by my Floodbreaker spell and a Saltstone Formation that was continually forcing massive amounts of water away and off to the sides, dealing with all the overflow continually. The native mages of the city were in yet more Seven Stars Formations, pooling their energies to keep the destructive flooding contained and redirected, even turning it against the incoming waves.

In the air to the south of the city, flames burned and ice glittered high in the sky as Ice and Fire Phoenix Emperors glided about leisurely, letting the Aquatics know what was going to happen if they made landfall there. There were hundreds of lesser Avians in the sky beneath them, and the gathering of Fire and Ice servants of the pair down on the land coated the forests in glimmers of waiting fire and ice.

The Abyssal Deeps Sea Serpent Tribe wasn’t going to find any succor there.

To the north, the sky was crackling and beating with its own deadly rhythm, pulses of Lightning generating ominous rumbles of Thunder. Weaving through it all were hundreds more Avians, with the great figure of Thunderbird Emperor occasionally visible as a heart-stopping shadow in the clouds.

The Emperors would abide by their word and not defend Human territories until the time was up, but those areas they were flying over had been abandoned by Humans during the constant littoral fighting, with the recalcitrant and stubborn finding themselves inside the bellies of Finmen and other Aquatics when they unsurprisingly couldn’t hold against the repeated assaults and numbers of their enemies.

The Americans of the Northwest were independent-minded and often scornful of centralized efforts, and if they’d clung to those beliefs during The Great Flood, they’d generally paid for it with their lives. Whole stretches of the coasts were now entirely depopulated of Humans and their livestock and creatures. Sometimes the buildings were demolished, other times just ignored, but miles and miles of coastal territories were utterly empty of the Humans who’d once lived upon them.

The Aquatics were constantly spilling into the area covered by the city’s Wards below, the lethal scale of the conflict staining the waters pink, the smell of guts and innards filling the air as readily as inhuman calls and cries of fury and pain and death rang through the waters.

The attacking forces were only coming into the area of the Wards below me by accident, pushed there by the mounting melee spilling over into their coverage area. Hitting the fields of magic that protected all Human cities instantly weakened all of the Aquatics significantly, assaulting them with Bane-like magic that sapped their strength, magic, and defenses. It didn’t matter what side was fighting, they were all suddenly incredible vulnerable, especially if they came near the Saltstone Breakwall and the Salted Earth Magic there started breaking down their Water Magic.

To the south, there were occasional firefalls and meteors falling from the sky, or miles of icy thorn hedges erupting from the waters with Aquatics impaled upon them. To the north, Lightning was chopping down in silver-violet flashes, and those who got too close to the Land died... or fish-eating Avians swooped down, plucked them from the waters, and got themselves a snack.

The Human defenses were a little more varied, but that was where I was at this time.

I had Wavesight and Hazesight going, so the waters were as clear as glass, the combatants flitting and writhing around in them as visible as if they were flying in the clear sky; none of the blood, meat, and muck stirred up by the fighting was interfering with my targeting at all.

I contented myself with Greater Shard volleys against the little things, Aqueous Spells cutting through the waters with no loss in power, and I popped them without a care for their immersion in their home Element as I did so.

I was also painting the Commanders and up for the attention of the Mages and Archmages working together about me, who could put their own magic to use as they received their targets.

If the Nobles came, then the Archmages worked with the other three Sages in attendance to punish them for intruding in Human territory.

There had only been one Emperor so far, a Low-Emperor Saberfinman, wounded by draconic jaws and fleeing to the one area it had felt it might be able to dominate.

I had stopped spreading purity via vivic explosions on the weak and focused all my power on it as it came shooting through the waters towards the Breakwall, its gleaming sword-nose ready to punch right through the Saltstone and allow it some time to recuperate in the empty areas beyond that would flood with its coming.

I hit its head from the side with over one hundred and fifty Greater Shards, all the bells and whistles on them.

Rune Seals bloomed in the sea and sky, Lightning connected Heaven and Earth. A terrible Song of Loss rode every beat of Thunderous impact as Frost and Fire, Earthsalt and Lovelorn Wind, the pure punching power of Thunderheart Lightning, and the Blessings of the Phoenixes took my Shards to a level of power that likely only the highest Sages of legend could match.

Each impact was like an artillery cannon slamming unerringly into the side of the armored head of the Saberfinman Emperor, directly around its dark and lidless eye. Desiccating power tore at its carapace with every single impact, its nigh-impervious hide fracturing off as disintegrating powder, while Force and Thunder carried right through, Divine and Primal energies ignored any Elemental Resistance it had, and the rest just brought the power.

I was backing each Casting with a full Sage amount of Mana, 2401 Mana at Tier-Six Stars for base x8 damage. Firefrost Luan Seeds contributed another x20 in tandem that was multiplied by the Phoenix Blessing at x4.25 for x85; and my Earth-Lightning-Air Seeds adding in another x18, x22.5, and x21, with a 61.5; and Force and Thunder adding in another 22.5 for x169.

All doubled with the Desiccation of a Saltseed against Water. Times 338 damage greater than a ‘normal’ Sage Spell, multiplied by eight by the Tier of my Stars.

I was a Low Emperor-equivalent Sage, and when combined with the +19 Spell Penetration I had skipping Tiers, I was totally hitting as hard as any ‘base’ High Emperor attack with the force of my Attack, x 2704.

Two Tiers of damage was normally x1600, so my interlinked, interwoven, resonating, and stacking multipliers, when fed with the full amount of Sage Mana and a Caster Level in excess of 100, were combining to give me the most terrifying direct damage assault on the planet.

The Saberfinman Emperor was hundreds of feet long, but the impacts to the side of its head did not care. Its head was smashed aside as dozens of craters were pounded into its scales, and its eye blew away from four direct hits by Shards blazing like new stars as they streaked in unerringly to their target.

As the head went, so went the body.

Its charge turned, and the two-hundred-foot length of its nose-sword, which had torn through dragonscale and bone in the bloody fighting out there, ran along the edge of the stone instead of punching through the great length of the Saltstone, gouging a huge path in it as the Saberfinman Emperor’s charge was forced aside and diverted.

More Seals between Heaven and Earth flared, and the Mick brought down twenty Thunderbolts at once.

That unstoppable nose-sword, which could threaten even a True Emperor if its owner charged, was struck by twenty Desiccating Heaven-and-Earth Thunderbolts squeezed into a razor-thin area of space by Void Magic, the whole weight of the sky behind them as they came down.

The CRACK as that nose-sword shattered under sheering pressure and Water-devouring Earth magic was deafening. As the Saberfinman Emperor’s body slammed into the Breakwall and sent every human within hundreds of feet who could not get off the ground flying like toys from the shockwave of impact, over half the length of its vaunted nose-sword was left buried in the Saltstone barrier.

Its cry of agony as the combination of all those attacks seemed to hit it at the same time was ear-splitting, sending the flying Humans still nearby tumbling from the sheer force of it. Still, the area was seething with hostile Earth Magic, draining its Water Magic at a precipitous rate, and this close to the Saltstone, it had to feel like it was floating in a void of emptiness that was just leeching away its power every second. Just touching the Saltstone had left a massive rash across its sides as scales puffed up, flaked, and crumbled away.

The noseblade was the center of its power. Hammer-and-chiseled in half by Void Magic and Lightning, its power was instantly cut sharply.

I flitted out seaward for my next attack, and this time the Shards came in from the sea.

Their impacts were cannon shells in rhythmic layers, driving the Saberfinman Emperor’s massive bulk over on its side at the extremely rapid follow-up attack, so fast it had no time to get up any additional defenses or really recover from the previous salvos.

It was sent sprawling onto and across the Saltstone. The water on its body dried up in an instant, its flesh hissing and drying as the Saltstone leeched its power and forced the water away.