(*Chuckles awkwardly whilst glancing at a calendar* I totally didn't lose motivation to work on this for months on end, what are you talking about?)

(Yeah, I'm back! This chapter was hard to get started, but once I got the ball rolling, it was smooth sailing! And fun! I had a few bumps where I got distracted by reading past chapters, but we got here in the end! Chapter 49 will (hopefully) finish the final battle, and Chapter 50 will wrap things up! Though, there might be an Epilogue too, not sure yet lol. We'll see how it goes =w=)

(I'm starting to publish things on Ao3 too! Currently, I only have a foster care fic up, but eventually there'll be more. I won't be posting this book on there though, this is WattPad exclusive :D)

(My Ao3 username is Cloudheart, so you can search that up and find me c:)

(Also I forgot to edit it and I'm too lazy to do it now so yeah lol)

(Uhhh idk what else to say, besides...)

(CW: Fighting, burns (of sorts), violence, blood, and I think that's it, lemme know if there's more-)

POV: Third Person (Though it switches a lot during the chapter)

Location: The Listener HQ

They weren't entirely prepared for what lied on the other side of the portal. Dark veins of corruption snaked through the dirt and grass of the floating islands of the Aether. The yellow leaves of the trees looked to be fading and dying. Everything looked to be fading and dying. Most frightening of all, the normally pale blue sky was a faded black color, taunting the attack team and reminding them of what they must do.

Resting on a large floating island, the Listener Headquarters loomed above them, its rooms and halls seemingly empty. But the attack team knew better than to assume things when at risk.

Turning to Iskall, Myriel signalled that it was time for the plan to be carried out. The Listener nodded and took the lead, heading off along sturdy bridges that connected the various islands. The attack team wasted no time in following him.

Except for the quiet clunking of armor, everything was quiet. So quiet it began to unnerve many of them. What was hiding behind those tall walls? Was anyone waiting to attack them?

They reached the front gate, Iskall and Sam opening it with their magic. Then, everyone hurried in, each remembering their missions as they split off into groups.

The Admins and Watchers were put together, equally in each group. Their mission was to find as many consumed Listeners as possible, and safely free them. If it wasn't possible to free them, they were to knock them out until they could be freed. In one of the groups, Hypixel and Galenthyl were put together. Briefly, some of the Readers wondered if they were going to have authority problems.

The Readers had a similar job, though they had Scar and Cub with them, since they're practically kids. It may be their HQ, but Myriel figured it was a bad idea to leave them alone.

Iskall followed the group of Players, taking the lead since he knew the place better than them. Tommy opened his mouth to object, but Phil quickly shushed him. They did not need him alerting the Listeners of their presence. That is, if they weren't already aware.

Stress's job was to be a nurse, waiting by the front gate with George for any wounded.

Finally, EX, Xisuma, Mumbo, and Sam went with Techno and the Prime Admins to find the Supreme Listener. They prayed they wouldn't have to kill them to free them.

——————————————————————

~POV CHANGE~

Boots softly clunking on the sandstone floor, I followed after Sam, my obsidian sword drawn. Sam promised to lead us down the shortest pathway to the main area, where the Supreme Listener was most likely to be, but the rest of us were on edge, since we weren't sure if Sam was leading us into a trap.

Nevertheless, we trusted him enough to follow him.

My gaze flickered left and right as we passed another hallway. No one seemed to be hiding in it, so I moved on. We had found a few consumed Listeners already, having knocked them out and attempted to free them. It didn't work, so we moved on.

When we reached the tall double doors that supposedly led to the main area, all of us had come to the same conclusion. "This was too easy," Mumbo whispered.

With a glance at the rest of us, Techno opened one of the doors, rushing in with his sword drawn. We hurried in after him, but quickly stumbled to a halt. "Ooookay-" Mumbo quietly exclaimed, staring down at the crack that dropped directly into the void. The crack was in the shape of a ring, separating the middle of the room from the rest of the building. The middle part was floating above the rest of the room; it looked like someone forcibly tore that one part from the rest of the giant island, seeing as how there were pieces of sandstone scattered around.

"Look," Xisuma said, pointing toward the top of the central island. We looked up, quickly spotting what he was pointing at. A light green bubble surrounded something just out of vision, black veins streaking through the light green magic.

After an exchanged glance, Techno, Myriel, and I spread our wings, pushing off of the ground. EX, Xisuma, Sam, and Mumbo quickly followed suit. It only took three wing beats to reach the island, landing gently on the grassy ground. As we slowly advanced toward the center, the others landed behind us, following hesitantly.

Someone was inside the bubble, but it was impossible to make out who it was. All we could tell was that they looked to be even taller than Techno. But no matter who it was, we had to free them.

We continued to approach, swords drawn. Sam hurried ahead of us, dragonfly wings nervously fluttering behind him. I reached out to stop him, but he was already too far ahead.

"Supreme Listener?" Sam said hesitantly.

The figure suddenly turned toward us, glowing light green eyes staring directly at Sam.

"Oops," the brunet Listener said, taking several steps away from the figure.

——————————————————————

~POV CHANGE, AND GOING BACK TO WHEN EVERYONE SPLIT UP~

My eyes flickered left and right in search of any Listeners. Besides Iskall, of course. I glanced over at Doc, who was doing the same thing I was. He noticed me looking at him, and offered a soft smile. I slightly smiled back, glad to have good friends by my side.

A crash and a yelp came from behind us, and we quickly spun around. ...Only to see Tommy standing there with a broken flower pot at his feet. We sighed in annoyance and turned to continue down the hallway. "Sorry," Tommy whispered as he hurried after us.

"Be more careful, Toms," Philza whispered. The blond nodded, saluting with his free hand. I smiled and shook my head in amusement. How Tommy wasn't completely terrified, I'd never know.

We came upon a stairwell, and Iskall gestured for us to go with him. We quickly followed, trying not to make too much noise on the sandstone stairs. We all knew it was a bad idea to let the Listeners know we were nearby, because then they'd know to hide or leave. We did not want that.

We reached the top of the stairwell, glancing around cautiously for any sign of life.

It seemed we didn't need to wait for long, as multiple Listeners came flooding out of the nearby rooms and hallways. Tommy yelped as one shot a blast of corrupted magic at him, narrowly missing him.

"Try not to die!" Iskall shouted at us, eye beginning to glow green as he ran toward the consumed Listener.

"Thanks!" I shouted sarcastically, jumping out of the way of a blast of magic and grasping at the floor with my metal arm to slow down.

I got up quickly, running at the nearest consumed Listener and smacking them across the face with my metal arm. I dodged a blast of magic, and tried to hit their head with the hilt of my sword. My timing was off, and my opponent hit my metal arm, it suddenly going limp. They knocked my sword out of my hand, eyes glowing dark green.

"Uhhhh, my arm's turned off?!" I shouted, trying to get Doc to help me.

"Just disconnect it, like I showed you!!" the creeper cyborg shouted back, mid-fight with another Listener.

"Wait what?!" exclaimed Tommy, but I was already disconnecting my metal arm and hitting my opponent on the head. They immediately crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"What the actual-" Tommy was cut off by a blast of magic hitting his dominant arm, making him drop his sword and yell in pain.

"Tommy!!" Phil shouted, trying to fend off his opponent to help the teen.

"I've got it!" I shouted, brandishing my metal arm like a weapon and running at the Listener. They shot several blasts of magic at me, but I quickly dodged, even deflecting one blast with my arm. I reached them and swung at them, hitting their chest first and then swinging at their head. This time, my timing was perfect, and they were quickly knocked unconscious.

Phil and Doc managed to knock out their opponents, leaving only the ones Iskall was fighting. ...And apparently losing against. Several burn marks were scattered across his armor, some of the blasts also having hit the exposed bits of his skin.

Doc and I rushed forward, defending Iskall from additional blasts.

"Cover me," I yelled, running forward. Iskall narrowly managed to make a wall of magic to shield me from the blasts as I ran toward them. The shield disappeared just in time for me to hit one of the Listeners in the head with my metal arm. I ducked out of the way of a blade and knocked them over long enough for Doc and Iskall to come knock the last two out.

We fell into silence, the only noise being heavy breathing and Tommy's quiet gasps of pain. We hurried over to the stairs, where Tommy was leaning against the banister with one arm tightly holding the other. Phil was knelt down beside him, trying to get him to drink a potion of healing.

"How are you?" Iskall asked, looking down at Tommy.

The blond gasped softly, then pursed his lips. "Those guys... pack a punch," he breathed out, flinching every so often.

"Drink the potion," said Doc, "We need to keep looking."

Tommy winced but obeyed, finally drinking the healing pot. The pain on his face lessened as the potion took effect, his grip loosening on his arm.

Phil offered him a hand, and he took it. "Let's go," the blond man said.

Tommy nodded, a bit more spirit dancing in his blue eyes. He grabbed his sword, and followed Iskall through the halls.

——————————————————————

~POV CHANGE~

George paced back and forth, hands fidgeting nervously.

I ignored him, focusing on healing the Watcher in front of me. He'd gotten wounded enough that he was sent to me to be healed. The Admin that brought him was wounded as well, but George was skilled enough in magic that he could sort her out.

The Watcher flinched violently, trying to pull away. I just pulled him back. "Stay still, Gorekth, or this is never going to heal properly," I sternly said, not looking away from the wound as I healed it.

He grumbled under his breath, but obeyed, occasionally flinching.

I soon finished, and gave him the all clear.

George stopped pacing to face them. "Start taking unconscious Listeners to the Admin HQ to be detained until they can be freed," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the female Admin said with a nod.

Gorekth narrowed his eyes a bit, but nodded as well. "Yes sir," he said, a bit more subdued.

I rose to my feet, watching them run off to carry out George's orders.

Speaking of, the man immediately started pacing again, causing me to let out a sigh. "Are you seriously going to keep on pacing?" I asked, glancing over at him.

He stopped walking, looking up at me. "Everyone's out there, fighting, while we're here, sitting around," he said, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.

"We aren't sitting around, and we should be glad we haven't had to heal that many people yet," I responded.

He sighed, beginning to pace again. "I just... I just worry," he admitted, pausing again.

I sighed softly. "I know... I worry too, for all of them," I said a bit quieter than before.

The brunet nervously rubbed his arm, lips pursed. He walked over to the wall by the door, leaning against it. "I hope we don't have any casualties," he said, staring up at the ceiling.

I went over to stand by him, crossing my arms. "I hope so too," I agreed softly.

——————————————————————

~POV CHANGE~

I glanced over at Cub, a frown on my face. "Cub, do you think this will end fine?" I asked softly, even though I knew the Readers couldn't actually hear me.

My friend looked over at me, and answered, "Of course it will."

"How do you know?"

He hesitated, holding my gaze. "Because it has to," he said in a softer tone.

My frown deepened a bit, and I faced forward again. He glanced over at the Readers, a frown on his bearded face. "I can't believe the Primes are letting kids get involved," he said.

"From what I heard, they insisted, and they're as strong as most Listeners, so we need them on our side," I replied, glancing over at them as well. A lot of them were signing to each other, seemingly trying to pass the time somehow.

Cub let out a soft sigh. "I guess so," was all he answered with.

The ground beneath us suddenly began to shake, and we began to stumble. "Woahhhh!" I exclaimed in surprise as I reached out to the wall for support. Cub came to stand by me until the ground stopped shaking. "What was that?" I asked, looking around.

Two of the Readers, one with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes, and the other with wavy brown hair, brown eyes, purple hoodie. black jean, and black converse shoes—I was pretty sure Iskall called the first one Millie at some point, and the other Aysseagul, but I couldn't be sure—grabbed our arms and pulled them back down the hallway. The other Readers gestured for us to follow, and began to run down the hall.

"Uhhhh-" I said, stumbling along.

"Guess we follow them," Cub said.

"Guess so," I agreed, and we both began to run after Millie and Asseagul.

The ground shaking definitely wasn't a good thing, if the Readers' reactions were anything to go off of.

We kept following them, reaching the front hall and watching as the Readers gestured for Stress and George to come. Though confused, they followed us down the center hallway, the one that the Primes went down.

Now that we weren't bothering to be sneaky, we quickly reached the main area, where the tall double doors were partially ajar. We hurried inside, immediately stumbling to a halt when we saw the floating island in the middle of the room. And... Oh. Oh no.

——————————————————————

~POV CHANGE~

Tommy yelped as the ground began to shake, reaching out for something to hold onto. It soon stopped, and we seemed to be safe.

Tommy suddenly swore loudly when another flower pot fell off a pedestal at his feet, but we elected to ignore him in favor of the ground literally quaking mere moments before.

I glanced at the others, and took off down the hallway, letting my practically glowing floodplain cicada wings come out as dread settled in my gut. Tommy exclaimed something about my wings, but I ignored him, focusing on finding what made the ground shake.

I turned a corner, one that led out onto a balcony inside the building. I stumbled to a stop, grasping onto the railing. "Oh no..." I said, staring down at the giant room. The others came to a stop beside me, looking down to see what I was staring at.

Tommy cursed in shock.

There was one big glowing bubble, light green with black veins streaking through it, in the center of the island, surrounded by 7 bubbles, familiar figures trapped inside them. However, two of the bubbles were flickering, and those were the only two that didn't have black veins starting to streak through them.

I turned to the others, commanding, "Get to safety." I turned and launched myself over the banister, my wings rapidly beating and catching the air. I zoomed toward the center of the island, eye beginning to glow as I prepared a protection spell.

I dropped a foot off the ground, landing smoothly on the grass. "Let them go, Supreme!!" I shouted, glaring into the bubble.

"Or what?" came a mildly deep voice, this time with a British accent, through the bubble, echoing a bit. "You'll kill me?" He chuckled. "Oh, I'd love to see you try, Iskall."

"I'm not the only one here," I responded, hands beginning to glow as well. Light pulsed from the center bubble, making the ground shake a bit, but I stood still, unaffected by it.

"Oh, I know you're not, but it's not like it matters," he mused.

I narrowed my glowing eye and took a cautious step forward. "Why are you doing this?" I called, trying to ignore the wind that just began to swirl around the room.

A few seconds of silence passed. "Why am I doing this?" the Supreme responded, sounding like I just told a joke. "Oh please, you know why! You were a part of this!"

I began to chuckle. "Now I know you're lying. I would never participate in anything that caused people to get hurt."

He started chuckling, it slowly turning into a full on laugh. "Oh, Iskall, you're so naive! And you're older than me! I can't believe this!"

"I'm not the one who turned the Admins and Watchers against each other."

The figure fell still, head bowing slightly. I could faintly see the outline of the Supreme's curly hair. "You know as well as I do that that was not my doing." The amusement was gone from his voice, replaced with some sort of... guilt? He was consumed, why would he feel guilty?

"Did you know about it?" I asked.

"...Not when it started, no."

"You're the Supreme Listener, and you had no idea what your people were doing?" I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Sometimes I wonder how you made it to the top."

The figure took a sudden step forward, still inside the center bubble. "Do not test me, exiled. You have no idea what it has taken for me to rule a group of people who kept disappearing off the grid." he snapped, glowing eyes flaring brighter in his anger.

"Then why are you here, hurting other people instead of watching over your own?!" I exclaimed, taking another step forward.

"Because it's the only way to protect them!" he shouted.

The sound of shattering came from behind me, and I turned to see Grian and Mumbo dropping to the ground. "That took way too long," Mumbo said. Grian hummed in agreement, glaring past me through his black bandana.

"Oh, you're free." the Supreme Listener said.

"Yeah, no thanks to you," Mumbo retorted.

Grian turned to Mumbo, gesturing to the other bubbles. "Right," Mumbo said, eyes beginning to glow red. He turned to the other bubbles, using all of his effort to break them. Grian walked to my side, likely glaring at the Supreme Listener.

"Prime Admin," the figure mused.

Grian tilted his head forward, saying nothing.

"Nothing to say? What about... to this?" The figure snapped his fingers, and the remaining 5 bubbles began to tremble and shrink.

Grian spun around, running forward. He shot Myriel's bubble with silver and gold magic, shattering it. She slowed her fall with magic, and hit the ground running. She shot magic at one of the bubbles, it happening to be Xisuma's. He dropped down, rolling with the impact. Mumbo shot at Sam's bubble, while Xisuma freed EX and Grian freed Techno.

I turned to look at the figure, a smug look on my face. "There will be no deaths today," I stated victoriously.

Suddenly, cackling erupted from the figure, throwing his head back. My smile faded slightly, my eye narrowing. The Supreme exclaimed, laughter still in his voice, "Oh, that was always part of the plan!"

"What-" I started.

Light pulsed from the central bubble, only this time it was much more powerful. The ground shook much more than it did the first time, cracks appearing everywhere in the building. "You're destroying your own home!" I shouted, readying my wings.

"Oh please!" laughed the Supreme. "This place can easily be rebuilt!!"

Suddenly, the magic holding up the island apparently gave out, and it dropped. I let out a yell, wings beating rapidly as I tried to catch air. But I wasn't fast enough. The island fell straight through the hole it made, rapidly approaching the void.

(WC: 3347)

(A/N: Nice cliffhanger, huh? We're getting into the home stretch now! No clue how soon the next chapter will come, but my motivation for this story is finally coming back (yeah, after over half a year or something like that). Either way, it'll come! Eventually! And after that, possibly a rewrite to fix all the horrible continuity errors! :D This will stay up though, I see it as a testimony to how much one's writing can improve in the span of a year c:)

(Leave a vote if you enjoyed, You are valid, and stay safe!)

<3