Juna ascended beside Hajin toward the stolen sky heart, beating her wings against the thin upper air as the city fell beneath them past drifting ash and fractured light.
Suspended three thousand feet above Ouro, the stolen sky heart looked like a grotesque mechanical eye wrapped in churning copper coils.
Six armored steam carriages dangled beneath the core, venting superheated steam into the cloud deck as their auxiliary mana condensers hummed in discord.
Four Concord loyalist sky-riders circled the convoy on mechanical gliders, leveling pneumatic harpoon launchers toward the rising defenders.
"Break their escort before they establish crossfire!" he commanded, his five celestial rings expanding into spinning shields of violet flame.
Two steel harpoons whistled through the clouds, their barbed tips trailing crackling electric wires intended to ground celestial wings.
