"Please, I need you to hear me." Jace crouched down next to Joash as he spoke. His voice and throat were likely heavily damaged by Jace’s electrical attack earlier that damaged Joash’s internal body.
"Joash the Flame, I can hear you. What do you wish to say for your final words before I finish you off?" Jace asked as the longsword turned into a gladius again. He readied it to kill the bodyguard of Elder Joza who had seemingly decided he wanted to die by Jace’s hand or kill him and many others in the pursuit of death.
"Jace the Gladiator, I must tell you a few things. The first of which is the origins of the hammers. There are several that were given to various great warriors, but from time guarding Elder Joza I learned many secrets. Among them was the fact that the hammers were never meant to be weapons. They were made to forge weapons, ships, and fortresses. They are meant to be things of creation not destruction. But the Elders manipulated the facts because they fear that people will revere the ancestors more than they revered them. Please let the hammer be used for creation and not destruction, I never could but I hope you humans might." Joash pleaded as he coughed a few times afterwards. His limbs were bleeding profusely from his wounds.
"I can do as much, if they were truly used for creation I already have an idea of who to give the hammer to." Jace told the dying Tacole as he glanced at the Hammer of Flames. Only she would be appropriate to use the hammer for creation. She would likely enjoy the prospect and complexity of using it for creation. "Was that all?"
"No," Joash began violently coughing, "the Elders are planning to destroy planets if they fail to hold it. They have a bomb from the age of the ancestors that could do it. They tested it on one of Yati’s moons."
Jace raised an eyebrow in surprise. But he also felt a twinge of annoyance, "thank you. Your words have probably saved many lives."
Joash nodded and then leaned his head back, accepting his impending death. Jace with a rapid and quick motion, decapitated the enemy bodyguard. Jace then stood up after a moment and walked to the Hammer of Flames. He dematerialized the gladius in his hand and picked up the Hammer. Using a single hand to pull it up and rest it on his shoulder as he walked with a light jog toward the staircase entrance which was just about the only portion of this floor that had not been completely demolished.
"Umm... we are going to need immediate pickup on the roof. I do not know what is going on but the entire building is shaking." Uti spoke over the open squad channel trying to get the Venture’s attention.
"Shaking? We felt it shaking slightly but I figured that it was Spectre Jace continuing to cause damage on the Eighth floor." The voice was not completely familiar to him but Jace believed that was Nila speaking. They were two floors down on the sixth floor.
As he climbed the stairs to the roof he cut in. "Myself and Joash the Flame completely destroyed the Eighth floor while we fought. The damage was too extensive. There is a good chance it will collapse. But it is leaning in one direction so I do not think you have to worry on the lower floors. But Uti and I do need to get off the roof before it collapses. Venture, what is the status of our pick up?"
"It is on its way. We were waiting for the assault on the Elder’s Plateau to begin before we sent them in. But now that the assault has begun we can do so without the heavy weapons managing to shoot them down. They are about a minute away. Spectre Jace, has Joash the Flame been slain?" He could hear the voice of the Venture’s communication officer asking, Jace was not familiar with the officer’s voice. But for him to interact instead of Isaiah likely meant that the General was busy.
"Affirmative, I have his hammer as proof. Willingly given during his final moments before death." Jace informed the communication officer. Enforcing the idea that the Hammer of Flames was now his property even if he had already decided he was going to give it away.
Jace arrived at the roof staircase entrance and went through the door. The roof was sloped with four pillars that acted as towers in each corner of the building. Jace took a moment to look around before moving in the direction where Uti was standing with Elder Joza.
As he approached the Elder made a facial expression that Jace could not clearly ascertain. But it was clear he was not happy. "Elder Joza, do not worry your transport to the Venture will arrive soon." Jace told the man as he approached. At the same time he could see a Victorium transport closing in on their location.
The ground at this point felt like it was violently shaking. Which was why both Joza and Uti had stayed clear of the edge of the roof. So it was not surprising when they both yelped in surprise as they felt the ground sink and they floated above the ground for a moment before falling again.
"That was all of the support pillars on the eighth floor collapsing." Jace told them as they pulled themselves up. The Victorium transport was almost to them at this point.
"There was supposed to be an emergency system that activated to shield the pillars in the event of catastrophic damage." Joza explained as he stood again this time leaning one way since the roof was now slanted.
"Yeah... those are not going to be activated anytime soon." Jace concluded as he walked toward the edge of the roof. The Victorium transport arrived and opened up a side door to reveal a few soldiers. Jace picked up the Elder with one hand and tossed him inside to the soldiers who grabbed him.
Jace then looked at Uti, but he was already jumping on board the transport. The transport. Jace then jumped onto it as well. Then as it began pulling away and the side door began closing he watched as the roof completely slid off to one side. Falling apart in disarray from a single floor’s complete destruction.