Chapter twenty one

The armies were useless in the air. The MWS forces were pushing everyone back easily. There was no order to the countries fighting, everything was too sudden.

All of the metal vessel users had their equips on, and were fighting as hard as they could. Magicians and the magi were right with them, casting defencive spells and using their borgs as the dungeon capturer shields. "There's got to be at least a thousand of them!" Neah shouted at no one in particular.

"Neah-san! They're pushing us back!" Aladdin shouted from several feet away.

"I know!" She called back. "We just need to get in their time, then we'll retreat!"

"Oh, that's all?" Judar yelled.

"Shut up and watch out!" Neah jumped in front of her relative and used her borg to block an attack. She gave him a glare before going after more soldiers. Her mind was racing with ways to get out of this. Her hands were shaking, and she could barely hold her staff. Although she was busy fighting, she could already tell their numbers were thinning. How is this happening already?!

"Extreme Magic:.."

Neah gasped and jumped away as she heard someone activate their Extreme Magic, "Woah! Wait! Already?!" She knew they were in dire need of power, but she wasn't sure using their trump card this early was a good idea.

It was Sinbad casting the magic, in his full Baal djinn equip, "Bararaq Inqerad-Saiqa!" A huge ray of blue lightning was cast from his sword at the MWS soldiers. It took everything the soldiers had to fend it off, but it still managed to push them back into the portal.

Neah gawked at the damage and laughed, "Alright! Let's go!" She flew towards the portal.

"Neah! Look out!" Yamraiha jumped in front of her and pushed the magi aside. The magician had no time to activate her borg, and was struck by a red lightning.

"Yam!" Neah went to fly after her, but stopped in confusion. The MWS soldier wasn't killing her, instead he grabbed her and placed handcuffs engraved with strange symbols on the magician's wrists. Then he aimed a gun-like weapon at Yamraiha. He pulled the trigger and the magician disappeared. "What the hell...?" The soldier turned to her and smiled.

"Neah, come on!" She heard someone shout, but she wasn't sure who it was.

"You're that magi, aren't you? Special orders for you," The man flew over to her.

Neah found herself staring at his feet, wondering how he was flying if he didn't use magic. The sound of the MWS man cocking his weird gun dragged her from her thoughts and she shot lightning at him, "Ramz!" The man failed to avoid the attack and took it directly, his entire body shuddering from the charge. Whatever he was using to fly failed and he plummeted to the salt water below.

Neah looked around to see that the lines were being pushed farther and farther into the portal. She flew quickly to catch up to them, and screamed as she passed through the portal.

She was falling, her magic no longer working. As she fell, she saw that everyone around her, MWS and her own allies, were also falling. What the hell is this?! She began hitting her staff on her opposite hand, "Come on, come on! Work! Why aren't you working?!" Neah braced her hands in front of her and shut her eyes as she neared the ground, "Asfal Riih!!"

The sound of wind filled her ears, but nothing else. There was no pain, just the sound of wind and her panting. Neah opened her eyes and looked to see a tornado of wind holding her up just a few feet above the ground. She exhaled deeply and dispelled the magic, jumping to the concrete floor.

Several bodies surrounded her, most of them MWS soldiers, but a few were soldiers from Sindria, Kou, and Reim. Still breathing hard, Neah searched for everyone else, "Guys?" The area she was in looked abandoned. None of the buildings looked like they had been used in months. Did they evacuate everyone before attacking? She was sure she was still in the Kou District- the name of the area in Rakuen she lived and went to school in. It looked the same, just...quiet. Too quiet.

"Neah, there you are! We're over here!" She saw Sinbad in the distance, his djinn equip deactivated.

Neah ran over and stopped where the remaining forces were left, "Hey! What the hell happened? When we got through the portal I couldn't use my magic!"

"Neither could we," Kouen said, standing cross armed beside Sinbad. The main leaders were gathered around a makeshift table with one of Neah's maps on it.

"We believe it was a spell MWS cast on the portal," Koumei told her.

"It was affecting them too, though," Neah frowned. "Maybe it was a problem with the magic? Dantalion's power isn't supposed to work like that, it's supposed to be a one-way trip."

"In any case, we need to organize ourselves," Kouen changed the subject, "MWS has retreated for now, but they'll be back, and in larger numbers."

Muu Alexius walked up and stood beside Neah, a dark expression on his face. "Did you finish the headcount? Is everyone here?" Sinbad asked him.

"No," Muu shook his head depressingly, "We're missing a lot of...of everyone."

~