The girls all sat in rapt attention as Jianmo explained. Most of what he was saying wasn’t useful to anyone but Yoshika yet, but none of them were going to pass up the opportunity to learn from such a powerful and ancient being.

“The techniques you know rely on understanding of the world—and yourselves, to a point—in order to coax out a certain phenomenon based on the essence you wield. Magic, as you understand it, tends to be quite literal. For all its supposed flexibility, a water spell makes water, a fire spell makes fire. Simple, easy, predictable—boring. That’s the kind of understanding elementals have. The magma elemental controls magma because it is magma. It’s also got a limited mastery of fire and earth, but its specialty lies in the conflux of the two.”

Jia listened carefully, committing each word to memory. It was rare for Jianmo to take a lesson so seriously, and she wasn’t about to waste the opportunity for learning.

“Sacred arts are different. With sacred arts you aren’t mixing your understanding of the world with your intent, you are imposing your own meaning onto the world and forcing it to comply. Well, that’s how it would normally work, anyway. You haven’t got the time to learn all that, so instead you’re going to take a few shortcuts. Luckily, you’ve still got that xiantian lightning core...what?”

Jianmo trailed off as Jia, Eui, Rika, and Eunae all averted their eyes and took on various different shades of embarrassment. Jia was the first to break the silence.

“We...don’t have that anymore, actually. It was spent to power a formation that helped Rika break through to the third stage.”

The demon huffed irritably and flicked a bit of hair out of his eyes.

“Well then! I was wondering how she’d managed to survive that. I don’t hate clever little disciples like you, but that’s going to make things very complicated. We need another focus, then. Something that carries the essence of a powerful xiantian being—have you still got that flower?”

Jia frowned. She’d been saving the flower that housed the greater spirit which had spawned Heian in her dimensional ring for years. The spirit itself had lain completely dormant that entire time, trusting Jia with its entire being. It felt like it would be a breach of that trust to just use it as a resource now.

“I do...but I don’t think I’m comfortable using part of Heian for something like this. Unless the spirit itself would still be okay?”

Jianmo shook his head immediately, causing Jia’s stomach to sink.

“Nope! You need all that essence, and the spirit is the essence. It’s a shame—I didn’t hate her as a neighbor while I was sealed away. But it’s you or her, unless you’ve got another surplus of essence that’s been touched by a powerful domain?”

Jia’s eyes widened with realization—she did have another. Eui got the same idea, and in just a moment Yoshika was carefully drawing forth the Soulfire that she’d stolen from Eunae’s fragment of the Kumiho. Bit by bit, the essence emerged from her soulscape where she’d tucked it away for safe-keeping.

“What about this?”

Jianmo grinned wide.

“Oh...yes, I suspect that will do nicely.”

He glanced thoughtfully at Eunae, stroking his chin.

“Hmm, how did I fail to notice you back in that cave? How interesting. Well, anyway, Yoshika, that essence still carries an echo of the xiantian will that created it. With that as the focus, my divine essence as the fuel, and your spark as the catalyst, you’ll have your own little bootleg sacred art.”

Yoshika scowled. He made it sound so easy, but of course as usual the actual how of it defied explanation.

“Isn’t spending your divine essence going to be a problem?”

Jianmo nodded sagely.

“Mhm, you’re only going to have one shot at this, so you’d better make it count.”

“No, I mean—you’re our ‘map.’ Our main bargaining chip with the elementals. If we spend you as fuel for a technique, doesn’t that leave us in a worse position than we started?”

“Tch, so little faith! Why do you think I’ve split myself into two? Did you think my beautiful clone there was just for show? A little prank and nothing more?”

The feminine double of Jianmo did a little pirouette and bowed in response, but Yoshika just stared blankly.

“Yes, that’s exactly what we thought.”

Both of Jianmo’s copies tittered softly.

“Well, it wasn’t! So I suppose I got you twice. I’ll focus as much of the important bits into her as I can, and leave the rest for you to consume. It might leave whatever’s left of this ‘simulacrum,’ as you call it, a bit hollow, but that was always the plan.”

Kaede interjected, shaking her head in confusion.

“I don’t understand, couldn’t you just tell us where to find the tomb?”

Jianmo’s copies wagged their fingers at her in synchronization.

“Tsk tsk, nice try! I don’t hate pragmatic little princesses! If I told you, you wouldn’t need me anymore. Though, I suppose I can make an exception for my cute little disciples. I’m already banking quite a lot on them, after all.”

Jianmo’s feminine form leaned in close between Jia and Eui’s bodies, placing a hand on each head to draw them in closer. Her voice was barely a whisper, and Yoshika could feel Jianmo’s power making it so that only she could hear it.

“My master’s final resting place can be found where the bottom of the ocean converges with the highest point in the sky.”

She leaned back, a smug grin on her face while Yoshika furrowed her brows.

“Is that supposed to be some kind of riddle?”

Jianmo shook her head.

“No, I’m being very literal.”

There was a long pause before Yoshika finally spoke again.

“We’re going with Jianmo’s plan.”

Jianmo laughed sharply.

“I thought you might say that.”

A day of meditation and practice passed far more quickly than Yoshika would have liked. Each of the girls split off to focus on their own tasks, with Yoshika practicing with divine essence as much as she could. Jianmo’s copies had returned to their dormant states, now two distinct motes of divine essence—one much smaller than the other. The small one was the map, while the bigger one she played with was her silver bullet—her singular chance at actually defeating Magma and proving her worth to the elementals.

As the final hour approached, Yoshika rejoined her friends to prepare for the fight of her life. She’d made precious little progress figuring out how to combine her stolen Soulfire with Jianmo’s divine essence. She’d just have to figure it out as she went, as usual.

As she stood before the elemental, Yoshika was reminded of the moments just before she first met Jianmo. Back then, it had been over a dozen fresh young students against a single fire elemental of comparable power. It had been a slaughter. The only reason Jia’s group had survived was that they hadn’t been a threat—they’d avoided fighting at all in favor of trying to escape.

In hindsight, what Jianmo said was true. She’d thought that perhaps the fire elemental back then had been holding back, but it made sense that a being of pure fire would try to solve all of its problems with more fire. The creature before her was complex, intelligent, and extremely powerful—but lacked the creativity to apply its power as anything more than a basic manifestation of its element.

That would have to be enough. The six girls—plus Heian—had their work cut out for them, but they weren’t the scared students that they had once been. Taking the role that she’d grown so accustomed to, Yoshika laid out her strategy.

“Ja Yun, Eunae, you two will be the weakest links in this. I want you to focus on supporting us with ice magic—anything you can do to weaken the elemental’s attacks and protect the rest of us from the heat. Kaede, Rika, you’re on offense—keep it distracted. It’s powerful, but there’s only one of it and six of us. It can’t be everywhere at once. We’ll be close support, reinforcing wherever the elemental turns its attention and looking for an opportunity to use our trump card. Don’t be afraid to call out if you need assistance—we can be in two places at once. Any questions?”

Nobody responded, but Kaede’s deep frown drew Yoshika’s attention anyway.

“Kaede, is something wrong?”

She shook her head and sighed.

“Nothing worth mentioning.”

“Kaede, this is a life or death situation. If it’s bothering you, it’s important. Just tell us.”

Hayakawa grunted in acknowledgement, but still hesitated a moment before answering.

“It grates on me to be ordered around by a nominal subordinate. I’m meant to be a leader, and answering to another makes me uncomfortable. It’s stupid, just ignore me—I’ll be fine.”

She was actually blushing as she looked away, clearly embarrassed by her admission. Yoshika shook both her heads and leveled a serious gaze at her friend, meeting Kaede’s eyes with Jia’s.

“No, that makes sense. Think of it this way—we’re all equals, just like back at the academy. Right now, our survival depends on the six of us working together as a group—a single perfect unit. You have more leadership experience than we do, so if you have a better suggestion, please say so.”

Kaede nodded, setting her jaw.

“If I had an issue with the plan I’d have said so. I believe that your ability to view the field from a wider angle and multiple perspectives is more valuable than my experience, so I will defer to your expertise for battlefield command. It’s...easier if I think of you as a strategist.”

Rika snorted, which set Yoshika off laughing as well while Hayakawa’s face threatened to match the red hue of her hair. They were quickly snapped out of it by the resounding voice of the Magma elemental echoing off the walls of the throne room around them.

“It is time.”

The girls quickly fell into formation. There was no announcement to begin, no formalization of the rules of the duel—this wasn’t an exhibition match, it was a very real fight with life or death consequences. The elemental raised a hand, Yoshika sensed the power gathering around it, and then chaos erupted as the battle began in earnest.

An eruption of lava in the center of their formation forced the girls to split apart. Ja Yun and Eunae frantically began to cast spells to lower the temperature and force the molten stone to slow and harden, but it was like throwing buckets of water on a forest fire. The air grew painfully hot, and Yoshika could feel her skin prickle as her sweat began to evaporate as quickly as it could form.

Rika split into two, having spent the last day forming another qi clone. One body held back, casting spells to support her other self with shields of frost. The other rushed in as close as she could without being repelled by the intense heat of the magma elemental. With a swipe of her hand, she struck out at the elemental with blades of telekinetic energy. Each one struck with a loud ping but didn’t seem to leave any trace of damage.

Meanwhile, Hayakawa Kaede, as indomitable as ever, barely seemed to notice the temperature. She flitted gracefully between blasts of molten rock and pyroclastic ash, as light as a feather. Then she landed next to the elemental and delivered a blow that shook the very earth, aiming for the core of the elemental. The blow landed with a deafening crackle as spiderweb fractures played out across the surface of the elemental’s glassy body.

The elemental responded immediately, power surging around it, and Yoshika dove in to intervene. Focusing on Absolute Awareness as much as she could afford, she surged forward with lightning steps, carrying both bodies. Jia’s body invoked the power of her Lightning God Transformation in order to push her speed to the absolute limits, grabbing Hayakawa and pulling her away from the elemental’s imminent retaliation.

With Eui’s body, Yoshika charged a sword with as much destruction essence as she could muster and hurled it with all her might at the elemental’s core—trying to take advantage of the cracks created by Kaede’s blow. Time resumed its normal pace as a blinding flash and a painful rush of heat filled the room. Walls of ice formed in the air in front of Yoshika, Kaede, and Rika, only to be vaporized in an instant, sending the girls sprawling to the floor.

The explosion of light and heat subsided, and to Yoshika’s terror, the elemental still stood. Now free of its glass body, the magma elemental flowed rapidly towards all six girls. She’d been wrong. It could be everywhere at once.