"Now you're getting it, just like your mother," Yrix scoffed, waving her hand through the muddied air.
A Psionic cascade enveloped Lunae's vines, shattering them at the cost of the protective dome that had so effortlessly shielded Yrix from danger. But Lunae knew a restraint when she saw one. The Arch-Flayer was free.
So what? She was planning to kill her face to face anyway. Challenge was just opportunity disguised as hindrance.
Fuck you," Lunae snarled before charging forward.
Without her shell, Yrix still had a fresh ambience to fuel all manner of techniques. The many talents her students had learned were at her disposal. From Lila's mad dash to Rena's mist, she alone was the master of the deck.
Lunae met Yrix with her scythe, catching the Arch-Flayer's heel as it shimmered with electricity. Her insides were pounding with the anticipation and hunger of battle. But through her bloodlust, the princess had what it took to anticipate Yrix's next move.
She remembered well that cocky Psion from the Crimson Forest. But Omizen was a joke compared to Yrix. Her lightning was a sickly purple, far swifter and certainly less predictable. Only a mother's blessing could match the flurry of voltaic rage that shot forth from the Arch-Flayer's every move.
"Nngh!" Lunae spat, using her tail to deflect Yrix from behind.
"Good!" Yrix taunted. "Imagine the strength you'd wield if you had simply honed this power before."
Her words came at little expense to her skill. Yrix was no mere jester. Every verbal jab had an objective. And it was working.
"Imagine if you'd shut up for once!" Lunae extended the length of her scythe, bringing it down upon the Arch-Flayer as the sky itself split in two, revealing a sea of stars. "Yrix!"
The crescent moon, Lunae's namesake, had taken hold of her scythe, molding it with uncanny resemblance. Yet the ocean blue of her heritage clashed with the girl's crimson form. She was trapped in a state of imbalance, relying on nothing more than perseverance to push through the pain.
"Lunae," Sonera gazed up at the wound in the sky, amazed at her partner's strength.
Still, Yrix moved through the torrent easily, swimming through the air with her levitating prowess. It was as if she had hopped right out of the pages from Lila's childhood - wielding powers beyond the explanation of science. Not even the crescent slash from Lunae's fit of rage could connect with the evasive blur that was Yrix.
"So dramatic," the Arch-Flayer quipped, summoning her bow.
A ring of particles hovered above her arrow tip, resembling an entire rainbow of elements. Lunae stared with genuine disbelief before the prismatic splendor turned sour with Yrix's signature purple. It was then the princess realized the depth of her teacher's prowess.
Yrix could somehow conjure the entire spectrum of Psionic power in her own personal grasp. Such talent was something not even the Infestare had shown Lunae before.
But how?
Yrix was just a Psion. She was only an alien from a planet far away. But the respect she had earned from Lovatte was evidently no mere tale. Lunae should have known better.
"Dodge this." Yrix released her bowstring, sending her arrow towards Lunae that tore the sky apart with similar splendor. "Your Highness."
Lunae flew to the side, testing the arrow's flight with a grim expression. It was just as she expected. Yrix's ill-omened projectile could trace her every move no matter where she ran. Its crackling tip practically frothed with ice, the likes of which Lunae knew she could not endure.
"Damn," Lunae's tail coiled around her leg. Her fear was apparent. "But if she thinks I'll run-."
The princess dropped her scythe in defiance. She had decided on a desperate gambit. Just before the arrow could reach Lunae's flesh, a crimson portal appeared at the cusp of her palms, sucking in the air around it.
"Nngh!" She gasped, struggling to contain the energy as the arrow entered her rift.
Lunae could not possibly hold it there forever. Summoning another portal, she released the arrow behind Yrix in hopes that it would mindlessly track its original target. And sure enough, the Arch-Flayer was caught in its path.
Yrix clenched her fist. Another dose of invisible magic, as Lunae understood it, was once more set against her hopes and prayers. The sound of shattered glass then suddenly reverberated around the mindscape as Yrix's arrow exploded into a terrible array of light.
Lunae covered her eyes with a pair of wings, unable to gaze upon the brilliant display of color. When she ventured a look, the princess was horrified to find Yrix in possession of a glowing shard. What remained of the arrow had been reformed.
"Cute." The Arch Flayer shot Lunae a quick glare.
She twirled about her shattered star with energy anew, encasing it in the fell shape of a flail. Lunae could only grimace before Yrix took flight with weapon in hand. Their fight, as it were, was only just getting started.
"All things end, my love, even us."
Sonera's eyes quivered, overwhelmed by the stimulus around her. She could sense Lila and Ivy, far away in their distant struggle. She had already suffered the nearby devastation of her heart against her greatest struggle, their every step sending tremors through the fragile assassin. It was too much. Sonera was drowning.
Ever since she waded through her battle against the twins, it was one disaster after the next. Suffering calamity after calamity, her body and mind had reached their limits. Sonera was lost.
Lunae's sacrifice had broken what was left of her reservations. Even as the ground around her shook, Sonera resented that girl nearly as much as she loved her. The assassin longed for a conclusion.
An end.
She had every faith that Lunae could face Yrix.
But for how long?
It was always up to her.
No more.
Sonera struggled to lift herself off the ground. But to no avail. She was far too broken for another heroic ascension. That card had been well overplayed.
It wasn't about sacrifice. Not anymore. She made a promise. It was about winning. But Sonera was no help at all in that regard.
"What can I do?" She muttered to herself.
The answer was a question, and a simple one at that. Could Sonera handle a bargain with a nightmare, she knew not. But her options were fast approaching zero.
Look Within.
The assassin gritted her teeth. If Lunae lost, she was the last line of defense. The least she could do was start the conversation.
A real conversation.
No more hiding from the twisted elephant in the room.
"Neirohpen." Her tongue dried up just saying its name. "I…need your help."
Oh?
"We're done with games." Sonera's voice became softer as she spoke. "Just tell me what to do."
I agree.
You have been made victim.
In endless perpetuity.
There is a solution.
Join us.
The world around Sonera went blank. She swam in the void. There was no longer a question of rise or drown, for the frail girl had become that which so many had feared.
"Will you help me?"
I have always helped you.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Lila!"
The Earthling dangled in the air. She had never faced her own abilities before, not in a real fight, at least. The Mimic had her by the throat in more ways than one.
"Shit!" Lila squirmed.
Interestingly, her defiance had bought her a moment of ponderous hesitation from the Mimic. Its power to evolve meant far more than a simple bump in its ability to wage war. Like Ivy, the monster had changed.
"She…w-will…remember you," its claw squeezed tighter.
Ivy watched helplessly as Lila's visor began to crack. The Earthling kicked and kicked with her boots, but not even its propellant could free her. She was trapped.
"W-we…will…remember you," the Mimic spoke softly in a feminine tone. "Be free."
Its words of benevolence meant little in regard to Lila's survival. But for what it was worth, the primal frenzy of the Mimic was gone. It seemed to like the Earthling. Or at least that was how Ivy saw things behind a mess of tears.
Lila coughed up a bit of blood, staring into the black pit of the Mimic's soulless eyes. She had been down there before. Its endless maw was not at all unlike the nightmare of Neirophen faced by her family.
Yet her answer was, once more, so very different. Sonera lived in the dark. She was the storm. But Lila was something else entirely. The strange Earthling was the anomaly.
Just a girl.
Quirky.
Silly.
A bit autistic.
Far from special.
"N-not," Lila grunted in between labored breaths, thinking of her partner and the world they shared. "Not if I have anything to say about it…and I…" A well of Psionic energy flickered in her magenta colored eyes. "Do!"
Ivy flew back, blinded by a sea of what appeared to be fireflies as the hangar became awash with Lila's signature hue. But in all that chaos, her senses had picked up on something peculiar.
The scent of their shared mindscape.
Hazelnut.