The cool breeze ran through Chihiro's hair and caressed her cheeks as she leaned against the ship's rails. Beside her, Tree Rex shuddered as that same chilly breeze hit him. The wilikin hummed their songs in the distance as they sailed the ship through vast seas of endless sky and puffy clouds that rained snow down like, well, rain, onto the chain of snow-coated islands below them. Around them, their songs mixed with idle chat from the rest of their crew.

Thumpback regaled tales of past fishing trips to several wilikin children who stowed away onboard and Ermit, who listened with only half an ear as he shot glares at the clouds that passed by. Swarm laid on his back beside Thumpback as he counted the snowflakes that fell from the clouds. Eye shuddered and hopped over to where Eruptor sat on the ground as the wind chills passed by. Cynder, Whirlwind, and Terrafin joined as well while they held their hands and paws out. Not that Eruptor was pleased with this, judging by the scowl he shot Eye.

"Do I look like a campfire to you?" Eruptor scoffed as he crossed his arms. The warm light from his lava veins provided him with an equally-warm glow, and the frown on his face gave it a bit of an angry edge.

"Hush it, Eruptor," Cynder snarled as she glared right back at him. "This ship doesn't have any heating, and it's freezing cold around here!"

Eruptor and Cynder both shot glares at each other, but Chihiro only giggled as she witnessed the whole thing. Seems like things were getting pretty chilly! She'd have to whip up some coats and scarves for everyone soon. For now, she glazed over the masses of peach, pink, and blue skies coated with falling snowflakes that glistened like diamonds in the night. She wasn't sure when they'd find this robot, for all the islands they passed were practically identical, and she did need something to pass the time.

Chihiro hopped up to Tree Rex and leaned against his leg. Chills shot through her body from the cool temperature of his legs, but their fuzzy, mossy textures were pleasant enough that she didn't entirely mind.

"Hey, Tree Rex!" Chihiro called. Tree Rex perked up and leaned down at her with a brow raised, and she giggled as she spun around and sat down. "I've been wondering about something."

"What might that be, Chihiro?" Tree Rex asked as he gently nuzzled her head with his finger.

Chihiro giggled, grasped Tree Rex's finger and swung from it like a tree branch. "Ever since you all came here, I've been meaning to ask" — Chihiro came to a stop and dropped down as she shoved her hands in her pockets — "what really happened during your final battle with that Arkilles dude?" Chihiro coughed into her hand and turned away from Tree Rex's piqued gaze. "Of course, I want to know entirely for historical accuracy reason!" Chihiro chuckled, and that wide grin of hers returned to her face as she turned back and punched the air. "Was that battle really as big and fancy as all the books say?"

Tree Rex himself chuckled in response, but Thumpback jumped in and leaned against Tree Rex before he opened his mouth.

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to regale you. I do love a good story and all!" Thumpback remarked as he stroked his chin. He cleared his throat, and crossed his legs so Chihiro could climb up on his knee and sit oh-so-attentively, eyes wide and all. "Thanks to our allies within, so to speak, we were able to locate the capital of the Arkeyan empire itself, Arkus. We all traveled long and far to stop him, fighting so many of their forces along the way, and soon we faced with the lowest of the low: Arkilles himself."

§

"We'll see about that!" Arkilles cried! His eyes glowed in tandem with the bright power core that resided in his fist, a piercing glare hot as the oppressive sun itself and held with the fury of a king. "After all, I have the power of the entire Arkeyan Empire in my palm!"

Arkilles swung his mighty fist down on the ground, and the earth splintered underneath the weight of his bearings! The ground cracked and crumbled away; it became broken and torn as those who laid on the ground fled with all the strength they carried in their bodies. The world around turned red, red, so red that it brought to mind blood from the wounds of a slain army, and the pounding screech of their alarms rang in all ears, the true sign of a dying battle.

Thumpback himself snarled and glared down Arkilles, his anchor clutched tight in hands worn and calloused from many days at sea. In all his years where he rested on Skylands, he faced many formidable foes—from cloud crabs and sky-orcas, rivaling pirates, and the most massive and most powerful of the Arkeyans' armies—and yet, none of them chilled his heart the way the sight of Arkilles did. His own giant size was completely dwarfed by the massive height of Arkilles's own body, and in that moment, Thumpback wondered: was this what the common felt in the presence of a god? The utter smallness; the shrinking, humbling feeling that brought to light how, in the grand scheme of Skylands' existence, he was little more than yet another speck in existence? That in the presence of Arkilles, whose eyes cracked with lightning, lightning dyed red with the blood of those he crushed underneath his own berth, Thumpback was no more than a minor pest? That even with his powers, Thumpback was no more important than any others who resisted Arkilles’s conquest? Thumpback himself had never thought much of it, for even his own status as an Elder Elemental kept him from inflating his own importance. He fought hard to protect Skylands as all his other allies did, for the same reasons they all did: to prevent the Arkeyans' tyranny and to ensure a brighter future for all those they oppressed. But, as Thumpback stood silent, only able to gaze dumbfounded as the lights in Arkilles's eyes grew brighter, he finally came to realize just how daunting a task this was. They were all smaller, and weaker, and iller-equipped compared to Arkilles’s might…

"He's preparing a laser blast!" cried one of the magicians beside Thumpback as she thrust out her staff and spun it around. "Get back!"

A sharp wail echoed around the room, a cry like death itself, as bright hot streaks of red lasers fired right down from Arkilles's eyes and burned the room around! The cracks that formed in the ground set ablaze with fire, and melted several of the robot soldiers around, all collateral damage in the grand scheme of Arkilles's ploy to defeat the Elder Elementals! Thumpback himself got pushed out of the way by Brawl as one of these lasers crashed before him; his bones ached as he crashed into a pile of rubble left behind from the earlier battle. Bouncer and Eye swung forward in front of Thumpback as another laser carved through the marble and reduced it to rubble right before Thumpback's eyes, drowning the shouts around in an ocean of screeching, crashing, and calamity. Bouncer and Eye shots streaks of hot light from their own eyes. A pair of reds and one streak of silver intertwined as their lasers shot into the ones Arkilles himself shot, and they both pressed into each other in a battle of lights! The deep reds and cool silvers of their lights pressed against each other, a battle akin to many. A fisherman fighting for a fish's reel as the fish futilely fought for its own freedom; two beings who fought for the insurance of their own survival; leaders who waged wars for the sake of territory, resources, their own kingdoms’ survival. What did they all have in common? They all fought furiously, determined, and poignantly for their own sakes, with all their might for the things they dreamed of, they wished for, they desired! The imagery struck Thumpback's mind as he witnessed Bouncer and Eye straining, screaming, as they pushed forward and brightened their own lights. And yet, Arkilles simply shot one more blast and blew them off the surface of the area! Bouncer collapsed on a pile; parts of his chest melted away, and his circuitry exposed as he slammed against a wall and collapsed into a pile of rubble. Tree Rex gasped and lifted Bouncer from the ground, cradling his companion, his dying soldier. Bouncer coughed out sparks and oily quicksilver for blood; the flecks rained down against his broken, twisted chest while he sputtered and failed to make words.

"Augh, my eye!" Eye wailed as Brawl caught him and stroked his top. Eye's wings wrapped around his body, which burned and pulsed with a throbbing red glow. "It burns!"

One of the magicians flew up, winced as she laid her hand on Eye's body, and slowly rubbed away the coarse, burning red of his injuries. The ceiling rumbled, and all three swept away in a massive collision of rubble! Chunks of the ceiling like hellfire from above crashed down and smashed away, blocking off the armies from their enemies and burying all underneath their crushing weight. The end had come, and Thumpback’s judgment would come soon! His own body, twisting and aching with pain as he could barely seat himself upright, cried out for mercy, and he himself could only close his eyes and hope that the afterlife would be kind...

§

"Geez, Thumper, you're way too dramatic!" Swarm shouted as he flew down beside Tree Rex. "Can't you tell a single story without going into all those spiels?" Swarm gestured to where Chihiro nodded off in Thumpback's lap. "You're gonna make Chihiro fall asleep if you keep rambling like that!"

"What?" Chihiro exclaimed as she jolted her head up and whipped around. "No, nope, I totally wasn't sleeping, no, not at all!"

Thumpback's eyes turned a little wider as he pulled himself out of his story and turned to Swarm. "Then how would you put it, Swarm? As I recall, that battle lasted for ages!"

Swarm rubbed his puffed-out chest and smirked. "I'll take care of that!"