"Weren't you the one talking about cat and mouse?" Ignis said as he watched Sophie flee. "Why is the cat running away now?"
"Desperate mice bite cats," Anby replied dryly.
Sophie felt a spike of alarm. Her psy-shield—which had been impervious before—had shattered in a single strike. What happened? Could it be that golden light surrounding the giant? Had he also been granted power from some mysterious source? Her master had never shown such a possibility in any of His prophecies or visions.
The half-cat, half-bird abomination hesitated. When she had received her blessing, the Great One had shown her countless visions—dazzling futures where every path ended in her glorious victory. But now this sudden turn, this unpredictable strength from her enemy, broke every pattern she'd foreseen. It was… unsettling.
She felt her master's mocking laughter echo faintly through her mind.
Trying to recover her composure, Sophie raised another psy-shield. It was weak, but it was all she had left. Her three eyes locked on Ignis—who hadn't realized she was now behind him.
Her feathered arm swept outward, conjuring two crystal mirrors that floated beside her. A barrage of pink and blue energy bolts fired straight toward the giant.
Ignis heard the sound and turned. The golden barrier flared once more, and the missiles disintegrated into a rain of harmless sparks.
He quickly realized that whenever he intentionally braced himself for psychic impact, the golden shield would respond.
So that's how it works… The Emperor's blessing, huh? A divine slap-shield.
Still, each time the barrier took a hit, the burning on his face intensified. It clearly had limits—he couldn't rely on it indefinitely.
"I'll draw her attention. You look for an opening," Ignis ordered curtly.
He charged forward, igniting his flamethrower. Streams of roaring fire engulfed Sophie's barrier. Though the flames couldn't penetrate it, they filled her vision, distorting her focus.
To fortify herself, Sophie conjured jagged Tzeentchian crystals behind the barrier—glittering spikes laced with malicious hexes, forming a deadly wall.
Ignis kept circling her, flame roaring nonstop. He knew it wouldn't break the barrier, but the roaring blaze and blinding light masked his movements.
After several loops, he maintained the flame with his left arm, while his right fist shone with that same Emperor-given radiance.
Once again, the psy-shield shattered like glass. Ignis broke through—appearing behind Sophie.
She was surrounded by a field of crystalline shards, refracting violet sparks from her unstable magic—almost beautiful, in a warped, nightmarish way.
Ignis saw the malice radiating from each crystal. He wrapped both fists in golden light and began smashing a path through.
The crystals shattered like brittle ice. Sophie's eyes widened. Her last defense was crumbling before raw, blessed power. She raised her hand, summoning another storm of warp missiles.
Caught mid-swing, Ignis couldn't shift to defense in time. He veered aside, sprinting to evade the glowing projectiles. As he ran, his flamethrower roared again—a torrent of incandescent fire surging toward the half-cat, half-bird witch.
Sophie hastily threw up a thin barrier, blocking the worst of the blaze. With a snarl, she slashed her claw through the air—tearing open another short-range portal in the unstable Hollow.
Ignis could only watch as she stepped backward into it, vanishing with a mocking smirk.
The portal flared again—and the moment Sophie reappeared, she heard the grinding vrrrrr of a chainsaw sword.
Anby was already upon her, the bloodstained blade aimed straight at her head.
The Tzeentchian creature barely had time to throw up a defensive field. The chain teeth screeched against it, spraying violet sparks.
Anby refused to retreat. She triggered her electric pack—the chainsaw blade surged with blue lightning, its discharge clashing violently with Sophie's psychic barrier.
Boom!
The explosion tore through both energies. The emergency shield shattered, but Anby's swing was thrown off-course. The blade tore away only feathers and a strip of skin.
The pain snapped Sophie out of her stupor. She retaliated with a psychic shockwave that sent Anby hurtling backward, followed by a flurry of warp missiles.
The white-haired girl twisted midair, barely avoiding a crash landing. As she hit the ground, she rolled and flipped backward in rapid succession, dodging the incoming projectiles that exploded harmlessly against the floor.
But the moment Sophie repelled her, Ignis was already closing in—his crackling gauntlet, larger than her entire torso, swinging straight for her face.
She slammed a pulse of psychic force into the ground, using the recoil to launch herself back. Ignis staggered slightly, nearly losing balance.
Her chest tightened from the backlash, but it was better than having her skull crushed. In midair, she waved her hand—four crystal mirrors appeared around Ignis.
From front and back spewed Tzeentch's pink fire; from left and right came streams of psychic missiles.
The strain was immense. Sophie's head pounded—even for a blessed servant, her mind could only channel so much of the Warp.
Ignis, however, once again ignited his golden shield. Charging through the barrage, he smashed one mirror to shards and burst free.
The psychic shockwave from the destruction made Sophie's mind reel. She tried to steady herself midair with psychic force, but the moment she landed—the Salamander was upon her again.
With no time to think, she poured every ounce of power into one last shield.
Ignis's golden fists slammed into it, sparks of gold and pink-blue flaring as the energies tore into each other.
Then Ignis felt it—a spike of pain behind his eyes. His vision dimmed, his mind fraying. The shield was drawing power from his own psychic reserves—of which he had almost none.
He pulled back, gasping.
He couldn't win a war of attrition against a servant of Tzeentch. He needed a break in the pattern.
Seeing him withdraw, Sophie felt a flicker of relief. One more push and she might have broken, but now… she had time.
She prayed desperately. The air shimmered with laughter—the mocking tone of her god. But still, He answered.
Cold power flooded her mind. Her exhaustion faded, replaced with feverish confidence.
Then Anby leapt again, striking from behind—feathers and blood still clinging to her blade. Sophie didn't even turn. She flicked her hand, and a blast of psychic energy sent the girl crashing through debris.
"My master has given me new power!" she screeched.
A phantom book appeared in her hand—heavy and ancient, bound in something that looked disturbingly like skin. Its cover bore Tzeentch's sigil wrought from gold and gemstones, with a writhing blue eye in the center.
Unaware, her body twisted further. The feline traits vanished; her head morphed fully into a bird's, though she still oddly retained her ears. Her arms became wings, feathers of gold and blue gleaming wickedly. Eyes—so many eyes—bloomed across her flesh, blinking from her chest, back, thighs, and wings.
Ignis grimaced. The damned blue blob actually gave her a relic.
"Burn him! Offer his soul to me!" whispered the voice of Tzeentch, curling through her mind. "Then open the portal. My kin shall descend. You will rule this place, and all shall belong to you."
"Yes, my master!" Sophie shrieked, laughter scraping the air like nails on glass.
She spread her wings, blazing with warpflame, and began to chant from the book.
The storm of sorcery that erupted was overwhelming. Ignis sprinted for cover, relying on the golden shield only when he couldn't dodge. Even so, each brush of warp energy sent dizziness flooding through his skull.
"Hahaha! Everything is unfolding exactly as I planned!" the warped bird-woman howled. "You'll never reclaim the seal! No one will ever know I embezzled those funds!"
Ignis blinked. She did all this… over embezzlement?
Sophie ranted on, her laughter turning shrill.
"Victor was such a fool! All I had to say was that I loved him—that I wanted to see him—and he came running, no questions asked. Men are so easy to fool!"
"And Kevin? I just had others hint that he could find Proxies or Hollow Raiders through the Inter-Knot to recover the seal—and he really believed it! So naïve!"
"I told him I could help him find it, lured him into the Hollow, and used the Ethereal—or my own hand—to kill him. Perfect!"
Ignis and Anby could only scramble for cover as her power escalated with every boast.
"Heh, even though he hired two Hollow Raiders, they warned me in advance. I hid the seal in the stadium and paid Ironhammer Security to guard it. Even had them bring their fancy mech for good measure!"
"I also planted tons of explosives as insurance! Everything—all of it—according to plan!"
A dozen mirrors appeared, spewing every color of Tzeentch's chaos. Ignis grit his teeth, raised his shield, and smashed through several to break free.
"Too bad," she hissed. "I didn't expect you two to be this strong… or Kevin to trust you so much."
"Even the swarm of Ethereals couldn't stop you. Now I understand why my master wants you dead, Ignis. You're too dangerous—too unpredictable."
She sneered. "I thought Iron Hammer's forces would be enough—a full squad, heavy weapons, even a mech. Yet their commander hesitated instead of killing you outright. Useless!"
Crystalline spikes erupted from the floor like spears, thrusting toward Ignis. His golden shield deflected them, but his mental strength was fading fast.
"Even the mech you dismantled... incredible," Sophie muttered. "Still, all of it only served to drain your strength. Everything… as planned."
She cackled again—that shrill, grating laughter. "Everything is part of the plan! Once you're gone, no one will know about the embezzlement! The secret dies with you!"
"Fool," Ignis growled, voice trembling with fury. "Your plan went wrong from the very beginning."
Sophie froze. "What did you say?"
"Wasn't your goal money?" Ignis barked, stepping forward. "Do you even have any left? Hiring Ironhammer Security isn't cheap—a full squad, heavy arms, two strike teams, and a mech!"
"I don't know how much Vision Corporation paid you, but judging from Kevin's state, it can't have been much." He sneered. "You used all your stolen money to hire them, didn't you?"
"Even if you kill us—what's left for you? Vision's core members are dead. No one left to exploit. What's your next move, Miss Sophie?"
"You schemed, betrayed, and killed for this—and what did you gain? You lost the man who loved you. You lost your friends. You lost your future source of income. You even spent the stolen cash. Is that part of your plan too?"
Ignis's golden fists slammed against her shield with every word.
"Shut up! Shut up!" Sophie's voice cracked, panic flooding in. He'd hit the mark. It was all true.
Her grand design had been a farce from the start. She could've simply killed Kevin and Victor and vanished. Why had she dragged this into such madness?
Tzeentch's laughter echoed again—cold, cruel, mocking.
The god's gaze withdrew. He had seen enough. The play was over, the clown's downfall complete.
Sophie felt her power drain away, her master's favor fading. The book dissolved into smoke, as though it had never existed—only the grotesque feathers on her body remained as proof.
She looked up—and saw Ignis's golden fist descending.
In her final moment, she remembered a shy young Victor confessing his love, dreaming of a future together.
Maybe… once, she had loved him too. Even when she killed him, his eyes had been filled with sorrow—not hatred.
Boom.
The avian monstrosity burst into a cloud of blood and feathers. Ignis incinerated the remains with a final surge of holy flame.