The Longest Day (VIII)

Ava obediently followed behind the towering figure with its heavy tread.

At such close range, she focused on the details of Guk's armor. Before the battle, the suit had been specially modified.

After years of fighting, the armor had become an ancient work of art, its immense heritage owing to the combined efforts of armorers and Weirdboyz.

It was covered in runic emblems, some adorned with silver, gold leaf, or bright red enamel.

The shoulder plates on either side were deeply engraved with warding sigils shaped like Gork's grinning face.

Besides a gleaming metal cloak, Guk bore countless skulls, charms, trophies, and pendants.

With a click, the hatch opened completely.

They stepped out of the Stormbird's shadow and into the blinding firelight of the firestorm.

Ahead, flute-like gun towers riddled with grooves rose amid the high walls, their sides extending into numerous platforms. Large numbers of rotorcraft rested on the open ground beyond the ramparts.

Most of these gun towers and the grander neighboring structures were engulfed in roaring flames, their wall-like heat pressing down upon them.

Blazing flames surged up along the edges of the fortress walls, climbing toward the top of the impact zone as though being drawn upward through a chimney.

Driven onward by some unknown source, the firestorm continued to swell and rise. Ever-whiter masses of flame spat out vast clouds of burning fire and scorched ash, pouring into the fortress like a blizzard.

Ava realized that many of those pillars of fire were broader than some of the cities she had lived in.

Her mind could barely comprehend such a scale.

"Why... does destruction truly please you?"

Reaching out, she found herself focusing instead on the drifting sparks before her. Those points of light so close at hand seemed as immense as the distant clouds