April stared at the gaping hole by the entrance of the Ice Capital. It was at least ten fairies across—big enough to transport the artillery inside. She needed at least half of the troops with her to capture more floors.

Initially, she didn't think the Sovereign's newly developed weapons could crack the ice, let alone penetrate walls made of purely that. Kymalin had fired the signal meaning the banshee had succeeded in luring most of the ice sprite army out. As agreed, April would give the banshee at least five minutes to clear the area of her men. Then, she would rain hell.

They ensured that there was no one in Diven. That's what April had been doing the past few days. She figured that if Kymalin and Marin would spend days warring down below, then she could at least evacuate the people that would probably get caught in the fire zone.

She and a part of the Sovereign's army that weren't out in Carleon stood on the plains of Diven, now barren and quiet with no people around. The platoon did good work in setting the artillery up since April couldn't figure out the entire calculations involved in making sure the bullets would hit where she intended it.

When she did give the order to fire, she wasn't prepared for the booming sound it emitted. Even now, as she stared at the seemingly endless chute that glared at her, her ears still rang with the residue of the explosion. It's like her ears could start bleeding any time later. She shook her head. That's not her problem now.

Kymalin stepped out of the shadows a few distance from April, took one look at the hole, and whistled. "You think someone is alive after that?" she asked.

April's head swam at the notion but she pursed her lips to make sure she was frowning and not grimacing. "They better be. Otherwise, we'd have nothing to show the Heiress and the Sovereign. Work on getting the Virtakios and I will work on getting June out of there."

Kymalin grinned as April pushed past the banshee. "Don't think about it too much," Kymalin advised.

April turned to regard the banshee's words. "What do you mean?"

"The killing. The carnage. The lives lost," Kymalin's nonchalant grin began to irk April. "Don't think about them especially during battle. They will only slow you down. Focus on your goal and get out as fast as you can. Inflict the most damage on the enemy and get out."

As much as Kymalin annoyed April, she had to admit that the banshee had a point. Tons, in fact. April gave Kymalin a brief nod. That's as much as an acknowledgement from her that Kymalin was going to get.

Her knees shook when she stepped forward. It took all in her to continue walking. She couldn't succumb to that feeling. Never. Whatever was swirling in her gut and what was pounding in her head were nothing. If she couldn't handle the sight of a few deaths, how would she be able to handle being High Queen?

Even her mother, Nevrin, had to use June to kill her enemies. She used her own son to assassinate everyone who contradicts her rule. If April were to rise above the previous High Queen's reign, if April wanted to fix this island, she would have to be tougher than that. She would have to call for sacrifice more than her mother did.

April would have to do things that she would morally regret just so she could do the greater good. A few lives lost on both sides were just the price in making the island great again. April would not falter.

Kymalin sounded like she was giving April pointers on how to wage war. It's true that this was April's first time and Kymalin probably had been in enough battles to look death in the eye, but April had read enough books about warfare and strategy to last her a lifetime. She should be good.

April threw the flap of her tent back and strode where her sword and the rest of her armor were stashed. Her lips pressed into a hard line as she began putting them on.

She would not falter.

April told herself this over and over as she strapped her sword to her belt, as she made more metal feathers which she stuck back into her wings, and as she buckled her boots. She would not allow herself to falter.

"Soldiers, brace your weapons!" she yelled at the assembled platoon of men and women, from fairies to humans to half-bloods, as she emerged from her tent. "Our goal is to capture the city and to get the Ice Capital's people to surrender. Show no mercy. Fire those weapons like you're the one in charge because soon, you will be. This will be the day we take the Ice Capital for ourselves!"

A cheer went forth from the assembled crowd, filling April's veins with warmth she couldn't get anywhere else.

"Descend!" April ordered.

Heavy footsteps made by boots slammed in dissonant rhythms against the ground. Gears clunked. Metal crunched. Safety locks clicked open. April spread her wings and flapped them to lift herself off the ground. She took a deep breath as she let her wings take her higher and directly above the endless hole. Then, she launched downward.

The wind tore the stray locks off her face, driving the tail of her braid back. She titled the launcher and rested the metal bar against her shoulders. She had practiced this several times. She should be good.

Her eye peered through a small circle installed at the launcher's barrel. Her finger curled by the trigger. The long snout of the launcher indicated that it would come out of the barrel the moment she set it off.

She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her aim was set. Her finger squeezed the trigger. The bullet as long as a fairy arm shot out of the barrel, whistling for the first solid wall it would encounter.

Not long after, a loud explosion rocked the very cavern. April spread her wings to slow her fall and to catch the wind to float backward. Smoke blew at her in thick plumes. The smell of the powder the Sovereign uses in all her explosives was thick in April's nose. Over the course of the training sessions and the days she spent on camp, she had gotten used to it. That didn't mean she liked it though.

That's the first warning shot.

Was the platoon finished setting up the artillery somewhere on the hundredth floor? They better be.

April dove forward, counting the number of ledges stuck to the earthen wall. Those ledges represent a floor. With Kymalin and Marin's assault, they were able to capture at least seventy floors so April just had to destroy that to have clear access to the central throne room. If she ever made it to the throne room, she could use the last of the Sovereign's most powerful explosives to penetrate up to the two-hundredth floor. It'd be a sure victory from there.

April positioned the launcher by her shoulder again. She pulled the trigger. The explosion that ensued later indicated that she got lucky and penetrated at least two more floors.

That's two warning shots.

She drifted downwards, her wings providing her enough safety that should something fail, she would be able to escape. She could fly away at any time she wanted to. Good. Last warning. She peered at the circle by the barrel again and narrowed her eyes. She clicked the trigger. Explosion. Ice shattered. Smoke.

She coughed. These recent plumes were thicker and smelled worse. April would have to reload the bullets later when she meets up with the rest of the artillery. Right now, she should focus on the one thing she's good at.

She extended her hands. That's three warning shots and no one came out to surrender. It's time for destruction.

"Soldiers!" she yelled to the shadows around her. "Fire!"

The shadows swirled around April. Soldiers dressed in black, skin-tight leathers and black cloaks emerged, bearing the same launchers she had. There were at least sixty of them. They know what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.

Break the ice surfaces. Floor after floor.

April glanced at the walls again. This was the seventieth floor. Any further means that they would encounter retaliation soon. No matter. Even magic would not stand against explosives. Not when they're made of dwarven metal.

The first of the soldiers fired their first bullets. Then, the rain started. More explosions rocked the cavern. Debris broke free of the earthen walls, hissing as they fell into the oblivion below.

Bullets whistled and whizzed as they shot out of their barrels and slammed into surfaces that they found. Some went farther than others while others hit something instantly. How many floors has it been?

Eighty. Ninety. A hundred. They need more. April gritted her teeth as she called her magic to the surface. Nobody knew how long she had been working at this spell, developing and perfecting it over the years she had been cooped in the castle atop the Floating City.

This was the only time she got to test this on a scale this big. Here's to luck, then.

Here's to victory too.

The soldiers fired their last bullets. The last of the explosions rang from the bottomless cavern. April inhaled the last of the pluming smoke. It's time.

She closed her eyes as her magic crackled to the surface. She took a deep breath and started chanting. The words themselves were not remarkable on their own but that's the challenge in composing spells. Every word used would contribute to certain qualities of the rysteme spell. Use one word off and the caster was doomed.

Let April hope it would work on ice walls just as well as it worked on ajilte and dummies.

She opened her eyes as the last of the spell's words leaped out of her mouth. Magic responded to her words and flew out of her extended hands in the form of two huge pillars of wind. The soldiers had been warned beforehand to leave as soon as they saw April chanting.

The wind whistled for ice in giant spears. April gritted her teeth as she directed it down and into the darkness beyond. The wind howled in her ears, the sound of ice on ice cracking and shattering lost in the wild wind song. She grunted as she hurtled down, pushing the spell further. The spell broke more floors and she had lost count.

Her wings strained against her spell as the force of it attempted to send her upward. She extended her arms, fighting the oncoming groan pulsing at the base of her throat. Just a little more. A few more floors.

More floors crumbled at contact with her spell. April was pretty sure she had been hearing Keiju screams of panic for a while now but she couldn't be sure. She squeezed her eyes shut as the ice shards from the floors she exploded started blowing up enough to reach her face.

She focused her spell into one hand as she gripped her sword, readying for her entrance. She had been hearing voices. That meant she's close to the highest floor the ice sprites could defend. Good.

Then, she saw the light. Rather, the cavern glowed, giving April a perfect view of the floors she had destroyed. On them were at least a hundred ice sprites, all waiting with their weapons drawn. Oh, they wouldn't stand a chance.

April leaned to one side, giving her hand a longer length. The huge gust of wind from her hand slammed into the bright wall. Ice cracked at the pressure of it. Then, it shattered. April's spell pushed through the hole and slammed into the surface beneath the ice sprites. Crack. Shatter. The ice sprite screams faded as they fell to the adjacent floor underneath them. April gritted her teeth. "Julkisa," she chanted. Her spell died with a flourishing gust that whipped around her softly. Her boots tapped lightly on the still intact ice ceiling.

"Soldiers," she said in a modulated tone. Most of them were just hiding in the shadows and could hear her. "Advance."

Hundreds of the members of the platoon stepped out of their spells and regarded the hole in the floor. April gave a curt nod before entering it as well. She didn't care if people followed her or not. She drew her sword as she descended farther down into the intact floor. What floor was judging from the grim faces of the ice sprites that survived the bombings, it's deeper than they imagined April would reach.

Something flickered at the corner of her eye and she slashed her sword at a strange contraption that looked like a bunch of knotted ropes with hooks attached to at least three ends. What a weird concept. Did it have a use?

She faced the ice sprites huddled on one spot by the wall. "What floor is this?" she asked.

No one answered. Of course.

April drew a flintlock from her belt and pointed it at the first soldier she saw. She pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was sharp in her ears. The ice sprite was dead even before he reached the ground. Ice shards mixed with warm blood on the floor.

April grinned at the soldiers who froze at the sight. "Now, what floor is this?"