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Dimas reached the clouds and stopped. He saw more electricity crackling within that dark fog, brewing up another bolt.

This was the first objective. His troops didn’t need the added distraction of a lightning storm, and the underground units would no doubt appreciate a break from the rain while they worked.

He gathered his power into his hand and punched a hole straight up through the clouds. Then his gravity bomb went off. Space bubbled and distorted as gravitic force gathered and then suddenly reversed outward, sending a visible shock wave horizontally through the sky and dispersing all clouds for at least a kilometer in each direction.

Sunlight poured through the opening, lighting up the city below and making its many domed buildings glisten. He could see the rain still falling like a curtain all around the hole he’d made.

The spectacle signaled the beginning of the assault for his comrades.

He released the orb of gravity around himself and plummeted into freefall, straight back down toward Marshrock’s looming form. When he drew near enough, he pulled up and soared around the castle’s upper reaches for a clearer view of its exterior.

‘Can you sense the Elroy children?’ said Dimas.

‘No,’ said Iziol. ‘Melchor empowered the rock with his soul. I can’t tell where anyone inside it is.’

‘What if I make a hole?’

‘It’d have to be a pretty big hole. Bigger than you’d be able to make, most likely. There’s a reason Marshrock isn’t just a pile of rubble after all these years.’

A part of Dimas wondered about that, but another part knew that this was not the time to be putting his pride to the test. ‘Not a big hole, then. Many small ones.’

‘That might work. You are going to piss off a lot of people, though.’

‘That is the job, is it not?’

‘So it is. But do be careful.’

He swooped down lower, just above a suspended extension on the western side. He mustered a gravitational bubble around his right hand. It pulsated, and he knew it was ready. He drew up close to the protruding tower and slammed his fist through it with force enough to make the entire extension crumble.

He’d been prepared to catch any hapless personnel that had been inside and take them hostage, but none had been there. Instead, he saw that the corridor that led into the rock had already been sealed off.

‘I know I said small, but you’ll have to do better than that,’ said Iziol.

Dimas hovered there a moment. ‘...Very well, then.’