Not knowing why, how, or when… an overwhelming feeling of urgency just overcame The Red Queen.

As a Sentient, she was much more capable of keeping her emotions in check, but even then, the feeling of urgency that overcame her surpassed her coding…

Without any warning, The Red Queen pushed the Chariot to new heights of speed…

The Chariot blurred, but instead of moving to the intended coordinates, The Red Queen suddenly shifted directions as if avoiding something…

Or, in this case, leading something away…

This diversion tactic was instinctual, programmed into her Life Code by Zeel, himself…

Automatically, The Red Queen knew that she was dealing with one of Zeel's many enemies…

She accessed the database that held the list of Zeel's enemies and their ranks… she could not see the enemy as yet, but the moment she did, she would be prepared…

The sudden increase in speed caused Zil and Lara to reel back from the G-force…

They could not breathe for a couple of seconds until The Red Queen stopped as abruptly as she sped up…

Zil and Lara stumbled out of the chariot, greedily sucking air into their burning lungs…

Any normal human would have suffered internal damage thousands of times over, but thankfully, Zil and Lara were anything but normal…

They both had superhuman physiques that could barely withstand the added G-force…

"What the fuck!" Lara raged, her Draconic eyes glowing an ominous red…

Zil, who was more entuned to chaos, could detect an overwhelming pressure of someone approaching…

Before her training truly started, Alice and Elizabeth taught Zil one important thing – when to run from an enemy…

And now, that training was moments away from kicking in…

"Run…" The Red Queen whispered, a tinge of emotions in her voice "Please, run…"

"What?" Zil was stunned, especially since the coordinates that held their escape device was merely over the hill, a couple of miles ahead…

Just a couple more miles and they would be free…

She would be free to scour the worlds for her parents…

Zil inspected the land and found that it was a relatively flat-field… it was as if The Red Queen brought them here for a huge battle…

"It's too late now…" The Red Queen sighed, directing a helpless look at Zil and Lara…

Without any explanation, The Red Queen departed the console of the Chariot, and hopped back into the watch on Zil's wrist…

The pain in The Red Queen's heart was tangible, even more so because they had nearly made it – they had almost managed to escape…

Failure was more bitter when you almost succeeded…

"Something is wrong…" Lara finally noticed an anomaly, but she was unprepared for what happened next…

---CRRRAAACKKKK---

---BOOOOOOOOOOOM---

There was the loud sound of thunder…

Then intense winds blew across the field, kicking up blades of grass that whipped against Lara's and Zil's skin…

Any normal human would have been sliced to pieces by the wind pressure, but Zil and Lara stood tall and ready…

The next moment, there was a loud boom, and the ground shook slightly…

It took a couple of seconds for the environment to stabilize, but unexpectedly, Zil and Lara only now saw the cloud of brown smoke clouding half the field…

Dirt had been kicked into the air…

"We need to make it to the mountain behind, or we will die…" The Red Queen announced, warning both girls of the severity of what laid behind the smoke…

"Running away should be easy enough…" Lara voiced, but Zil remained silent…

Zil sighed "I am not so sure…" she responded, a silent tear sliding down her cheek…

For some strange reason, Zil felt the need to cry… even though she couldn't sense the opponent fully, the little she did sense warned her that she would never see her parents again…

"I-I-I ca-can't give up…" Zil whispered, more tears streaming down her face as she got into a fighting stance…

It was the tears of a girl whose dreams were close to being shattered, but desperation was a potent emotion, and hopefully, that would be enough to make a difference…

The Red Queen was surprised "You can feel it?"

"Yes…"

"Feel what?" Lara questioned, turning solemn…

"Doesn't matter…" The Red Queen responded…

A wave of purple energy suddenly pulsed across the field, clearing the smoke to reveal a faintly smiling Dena…

The moment the wave of energy passed over Zil and Lara, they slumped onto their knees in terror…

Panic became the only thing their bodies could perceive…

Panic and POWER!

"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" Lara yelled hysterically…

Zil was able to adapt much better… even though she was also terrified, she quickly smacked the autopilot in the Chariot, sending the vehicle speeding forward…

The Red Queen quickly added a turbo function to the Chariot as it sped forward…

The sound barrier broke as the Chariot achieved supersonic speeds, but mere microseconds later, the Chariot collided with the body of Dena…

There was not even a struggle to determine the victor…

The Chariot was split in half, branching off to different areas of the field…

Dena stood firmly with a single hand extended in a karate chop…

It didn't take a genius to determine that a mere karate chop had dissected a futuristic Chariot moving faster than the speed of sound…

Zil and Lara opened their mouths, hoping oxygen would automatically enter their throats because they no longer had the will to breathe on their own…

Codes flickered across The Red Queen's eyes as she identified the species of Dena, and acquired a surprising result…

Not only was Dena a Telkien, but the database showed that she was one of Zeel's many lovers over the years… maybe, even one of his first lovers…

Even from a couple of miles away, The Red Queen could smell the immature essence of a Homo-Superior that lingered inside Dena's body…

It was definitely Zeel's scent…

Previously, their chances of survival were almost zero, but after a quick recalculation, The Red Queen determined that they now had a five percent chance of survival…

It was not a lot, but it was 4.999999% higher than before…

"So fucking weak…" Dena grumbled, looking at Lara and Zil…

Both girls seemed poised and ready to fight, but in Dena's eyes, they were nothing but pathetic Karmantians ready for the slaughter…

"Anyways…" Dena took a deep breath and connected her POWER to the solid foundations of the Earth beneath her feet…

It was definitely overkilling to borrow power from the solidity of the planet, but overkill was the way of all Telkiens – Do everything with overwhelming power was basically their motto…

Lara struggled to her feet, hyperventilating a bit…

Zil, Lara, and even The Red Queen could feel Dena's eyes scanning them…

In an instant, all their survival instincts were revved to one million…

Zil turned to make a run for it, clutching the watch that held The Red Queen close to her chest…

However, Lara had a completely different reaction… the Draconic Energy inside her body would never allow her to run from battle, no matter how much she wanted to…

In a fight or flight moment, the Draconic Energy would always influence someone with a weak mind to fight…

And Lara's mind was still weak from the recent recovery of her memories…

"Run… please…" Lara mumbled…

Zil's steps paused as she eyed Lara in her peripheral…

"NO!" Zil yelled, attempting to clutch Lara's hands, but Lara had already broken into a blurring sprint…

"Fuck!" The Red Queen cursed, knowing what would happen next…

The Red Queen sent a targeted pulse of electricity into Zil's nerves, forcing her body to run at its utmost limits…

They needed to get as far away from Dena as possible…

-----------------

Lara charged forward, red energy pulsing around her body as the Draconic Energy reacted to the strength of her opponent…

At that moment, the Draconic Energy inside Lara's body was almost as potent as Zeel's…

Dena took a deep breath, and quelled the purple energy pulsing around her body…

That was the difference between exceptional combatants, and Beings capable of destroying worlds – while Lara flared her energy, Dena confined her energy to the inside of her body…

Lara leaped into the air, all the red Draconic Energy concentrating around her first as she launched a punch at Dena's head…

Dena simply directed a light punch forward, meeting Lara's fist with all the nonchalance in the world…

As their first met, at the moment between life and death, the world around Lara slowed to a crawl, and she met eyes with Dena for the first time…

Dena's mouth moved, whispering what Lara could swear was "Goodbye, little ant…"

---PUFF---

---BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM---

---BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM---

-------------------------------

Zil, who was hundreds of meters away from Lara and Dena, turned to witness the moment Lara's and Dena's fists collided…

There was a moment of stillness… maybe just a nanosecond, but it felt strangely longer…

Then, as if a glitch in reality, Lara's body became a mist of blood the next instant…

And after…

The ground shook…

The Earth shattered…

Winds shot across the mountains, shredding all the trees…

The clouds above cleared…

Finally, the mightiest shockwave in the world stormed over all of London…

Zil watched helplessly as the shattered Earth engulfed her body…