The three girls finally arrived at the clearing on the other side of the lake, the sandy beach looking almost a trademark from much of their previous conflicts. There, they found three others waiting for them, almost dozing off casually as the night’s silence threatened their consciousness.

“Liyuzhe, Fhyernx, snap out of it, they finally showed up. Sryine, you disappoint me, I really expected you a whole lot sooner.” “Ah, so I heard. But really, who could resist the chance to go for a nice night stroll through nostalgia. Did you know I used to do the same thing frequently in the past? Come on, don’t tell me you weren’t also enjoying the night.” Ieqyisa was glaring daggers for Sryine having wasted so much of her time, leaving Sryine feeling even more satisfied than she thought she would be. Riyxia really did have the best idea, this was a perfect way to start the confrontation.

“See Fhyernx, there wasn’t anything to worry about. Anyway, if we’re done, let’s get this game started, shall we.” “Oh right, so is this when you sick your beasts upon us and hound us into another weakened state? Much like how your augmented beasts had tried earlier?” “Ah, you’re referring to how much waste was caused by playing all my beasts at once, a field you three had managed to so generously wipe clean with a few easy maneuvers. Yes, I know, it was very foolish of me, I don’t plan on making the same mistake twice.” “Ah, so instead, you’re going to carefully place your beasts on the field, maximizing the effectiveness of their presence directly?” “Exactly. Games like this care strongly about the numbers, and when you have an armada this large.. carefully making use of each option is important to overall success.” As to demonstrate the situation, Liyuzhe indicated several beasts that had prowled out from the very lake itself. Ieqyisa then opened another portal at the other side, which several more beasts came out from in a pincer movement. Fhyernx called down a transportation vehicle to lift them safely out of the way while the flame ignited in the beasts present. Of course, the numbers were small, that was because they were being prepared to control the flow of beasts, to call upon precise strikes in a strategic display.

“It was a quote Khyzae was fond of saying. In a game of minds, a strategic leader never…” “...plays their entire hand at once.” Liyuzhe jumped at Riyxia completing the remainder of the quote without warning. Riyxia’s sly grin also gave her even more reason for concern, but none of that compared to the shock at what occurred when Riyxia indicated behind her. “Really, you make it sound like you’re the only one here with an armada to worry about, that you are only facing three girls. Liyuzhe, how very foolish of you to underestimate me so greatly.” Walking from the woods behind Riyxia blinked a series of eyes stepping forward from the trees, hundreds.. no.. thousands of eyes. Sryine and Vwyx spun around too in surprise, bearing witness to the woods behind them shimmering in a blanket beyond. From the shadows of the trees, the first few ersatz stepped forwards, all linked by Riyxia’s spectre. Riyxia had promised her father she would not walk alone that night as the only ersatz, and she hadn’t. Continuing to draw upon the flame on her back, the flow of the flame from the fragment running unceasingly, Riyxia commanded far more than her original estimate of 800 dolls. More so, these weren’t just some simple dolls, every single one of them were life-like creations, designed to be like any other person, and all the elements that included. Beyond anything else, that included the presence of blood trademark to the gift, even if only artificially imbued. None of them flowed with their own blood, each case was based upon her own system, like a vent of her own flame. Containing her essence, containing her will, containing her gift, containing her flame, the foremost among them brought their augmentation to bear and rushed towards the beasts, Riyxia herself stepping back to avoid herself getting involved as well. In that instant, 8 beasts were unmade by the gift, their flames consumed, leaving Riyxia to get even stronger.

“Blast it Khyzae, that’s not fair. Hells, why are you always a few steps ahead?” “I told you, someone has to protect you from yourself. It really was only fair, after all, you already have an army of your own design, so I decided to bring my own.” Liyuzhe was furious, directing for several other beasts to be dropped on Riyxia. Quite literally too, the gates opened above them, the beast however not even surviving to reach the ground as several more ersatz took to the field. Sryine and Vwyx started wondering why exactly they were even there. Sryine could finally tell why they really had to walk that entire journey.. it would have been quite a large army to have brought with them otherwise. Vwyx now understood that the presence she had felt behind them hadn’t just been her imagination, even if hiding the presence of so many ersatz was itself an unreasonable feat. Actually, why exactly had she not noticed anything sooner? Riyxia’s spectre was gone from her, she hadn’t had any such trademark shimmer the entire time. Behind them should have been an unmissable blanket.. but in the faint haze of the existing flame it appears she had failed to notice. More astounding, her comset had provided no other advantage either, not while she had been so transfixed on the lake instead of her surroundings. Actually, this incredible use of the flame probably explained why Riyxia’s own comset had so suddenly failed, it had simply overloaded. Sryine meanwhile could tell just how much strain this much demand of the flame would have put on Riyxia, even with her arm as it was.. the whole thing would have been staggering.

Liyuzhe took a moment to try and cool down, this was not a situation where she could afford to be irrational. Riyxia was supposed to not be Khyzae.. only the Successor.. but right now it was really hard to figure out what difference that made. This honestly felt like Liyuzhe was facing off against Khyzae, in all of the greatness and glory that involved. That was bad, because she had never beaten Khyzae in any sort of competition before.. and there had certainly been several. Riyxia had numbers, that was one thing she had to take care of. Additionally, she had to keep Riyxia on her toes, to keep her too busy to keep up. Liyuzhe still knew of an advantage to this level of.. Khyzae. Riyxia might have a lot of Khyzae to work with, but she still also had a decided flaw, she still had her own trait of caring too deeply for her friends. Such a flaw blinded her from Khyzae’s wisdom, made her vulnerable. It was a flaw she needed to take advantage of.

To that end, several sand beasts lunged out from below the three girls unexpectedly, pulling all three of them into the sand. A large collection of gates opened at the edge of the woods, the beasts emerging within standing interruption against any reinforcements from the woods. Such defense though did not last long, even if it was then just as quickly replaced. Liyuzhe knew she was keeping up with the field, but it was at the cost of her own resources, there wasn’t a single injured ersatz on the field. Technically too, such dolls were actually expendable. She wanted the three girls to stay alive, yes, but the army of dolls could fall unto dust for all she cared. That implied she had a direction to focus the full might of her strength.. such was almost a generous move on Riyxia’s part.

The three beasts under the sands fell, their flame being devoured in the process. Vwyx realized exactly what she was doing in her process, the alchemical revision of a living creature breaking down the living binds of its blood in a rush of disease and decay. She was effectively making the thing so sick that it died instantly, from an illness caused by rejecting its own self, much in the same way as a cancerous part. Effectively, she was forcing another creature to hate itself. That really sort of stung, but was exactly why she was thankful that the resulting death was immediate, even most likely painless. There were certainly far worse ways to die.. and since such beasts had been exposed to the flame, it was actually almost a mercy. Sryine ended the mind of the beast that held her, then rushed to escape the clutches of the sand. She broke free from the sand.. only to find herself underwater. She realized alarmingly that she didn’t have a gasp of air to work with, not having expected to have migrated from sand to water. In a rush, she conjured an air bubble for herself, still shaking in that moment of fear. Her fear dawned even greater when she realized the others would be facing the same situation.. just without the ability to just create an air bubble for themselves. A beast however appeared from the waters, attempting to keep her distracted.

To spite Sryine’s circumstances, she activated her acceleration, getting an account for the absence of her friends. That means she couldn’t just use her acceleration to help her friends before going back to what she was doing, which was annoying. However, it also would then imply that she was the only one she should be worried about currently in the water at that moment. Excellent, the lake was her domain alone, that was perfect. The beast confronting her.. beasts honestly after a review of the lineup being prepared for her, appeared to be quite at home in the water by their aquatic nature. Several more gates were being made ready to open the moment she went back to a regular flow of time, so nothing here would be done in a single attack. Liyuzhe did say something about being smart enough to not have such a thing set up for them, didn’t she. Even so, it was time for her own demonstration of abilities. Having already taken in more flame, she stopped trying to hide its presence, the water beginning to glow faintly the moment her acceleration ended. In the next moment, the sky unleashed its wrath. Lightning surged into the lake, electrifying everything within, the water bubble protecting Sryine making her otherwise exempt from this wrath. Portals opened, and the lightning resumed.

Vwyx actually wasn’t in any hurry to leave the sand bed, even though she felt she was supposed to be so compelled to such. Instead, she worked with the sand, reversing it to provide the air she needed to actually explore its depths. This caught the attention of several other beasts waiting in the sand, having just recently appeared there. Such beasts were perfectly at home shifting through something as soft as sand, it was no problem for them. Vwyx however knew she was the one who had the most control of these circumstances, shifting the sand into a pressured case of solid stone, crushing the beast within. She proceeded deeper into the sand, actually searching for more things to crush along her path, mostly searching for her friends in the meanwhile. Nothing, only more beasts to crush. Getting frustrated, she decided to shift the sands wide, creating a massive cavern under the sands, exposing and revealing all of the beasts hiding within. Her friends weren’t here? Tearing apart the beasts present revealed yet again more beasts, but at least it was easier when she could actually see what she was doing. It was dark, yes, but her arms were already glowing enough to provide plenty of light to work with.

Riyxia pulled herself up from the sand, the beast having been ripped apart the moment it had grabbed her, her reflexes being that prepared. She had another glowing foot though, it was again with the whole feet deal. However, alarming enough, her friends were nowhere to be found. They had actually been successfully pulled under the sand. Riyxia flustered about, wondering what she could do about this situation, when suddenly she collapsed in pain. One of the Ersatz had been struck with a rift directly, and ripped into pieces as a result. Soon after, agony poured over her again as another was vaporized with a high density particle cannon. She then screamed at the third, the agony of experiencing an antimatter implosion that rendered all traces of that ersatz to nothingness was more than just excessive. Liyuzhe was impressed, this void energy stuff in practical use was really efficient, she was starting to enjoy it. It was also really compatible with dark elemental properties, especially if such elemental properties were left to negate itself, sort of like a dark matter becoming more like dark energy. She actually always loved working with the dark elements, so this came naturally to her, even if it didn’t appeal to her own gift. Fhyernx was just happy to get permission to start using some of his good weapons, stuff classically judged too much for practical use, which was sad because their discovery of the fortress came with so many similarly good ideas. Ieqyisa however felt it was best to make the most of the progress with her gift that she had dedicated her life to mastering, knowing full well how efficient it is to rip things apart in rifts. That was how she had broken through many of Khyzae’s traps in the past, and it seemed to remain perfectly viable for this trap as well.

Riyxia realized that she might have actually really overplayed her hand, much in the same mistake as Liyuzhe had before.. by having provided a large number of opportune targets for Liyuzhe to work with. Being connected to every ersatz, she felt the agony of every single loss, and that provided her with a vulnerability. Remaining focused as her ersatz fell started to become more and more challenging too, hampering the abilities of her own mind and body. It did not help that she also remained concerned about the wellbeing of her friends.. effectively her sisters. This overall combination left her without any room with which to react. However, at that moment, the ground began to shake, and the air echoed with thunder, like ripples of encouragement that shook through her. Riyxia wasn’t being given the room to think, she wasn’t left with much of such luxuries at all, instead she would need to act.. to turn everything back around to her own advantage. The only thing she could depend on was her rage. Riyxia committed to it, soaking into it. Every loss then only furthered to deepen her fury. A few more ersatz fell, and a frost started to develop over the backpack, the draw of the flame being far too extreme. Her flame hungered in her fury, and she unleashed upon every beast in sight, devouring their very essence in the process. Now it wasn’t just a leg, her arms had begun to glow too. A little while later, the traces of flame spread to her face, her very eyes glowing purple in the night sky. With that, she howled like a feral animal, a predator hungry for more prey.

The sound from such a howl pierced through sand and water, being audible far beyond, as all of the other ersatz howled in kind. It was as if Riyxia was a beast herself, a pack leader of an ersatz pack, but in that the greatest of all beasts. Fhyernx raised his weapon to attempt another shot on an ersatz, only to find himself torn from the air and the helm of his suit planted into the dirt. Wait, what had happened to the barrier, why wasn’t he protected? He looked over his instruments, all of which had suddenly been overloaded, unable to defend against the ferocious might of the flame. Ieqyisa frantically warped a distance away to avoid being victim of the same, only to find her destination as safe as her point of origin. She tried to stand after the landing, but her suit was completely unresponsive. She warped out of it in time to witness Liyuzhe being sent crashing into the dirt for her own turn. Fhyernx realized that his equipment was all unusable, even though he could just replace things in an instant. However, none of the others could do that. Ieqyisa could still defend herself with her gift, but that didn’t actually leave her with many options while facing Riyxia. Worst of all, Liyuzhe.. had even less to work with. He stumbled free from his wreckage, only to find himself instantly surrounded by ersatz. He responded by calling up another weapon, only to find Riyxia pouncing on him again and destroying that too. Ieqyisa tried to defend herself from such an armada with her gift, but she had no opening, she couldn’t use her rifts in close quarters, and the ersatz were very good at hand to hand combat.

“Ieqyisa, we need an exit, now. Get us out of here.” Liyuzhe hadn’t wanted to resort to such drastic measures, but there wasn’t any other choice. It seems she might have to resort to using her trump card after all. Ieqyisa first gathered up the three of them together in an open location, then pondered a suitable destination. “Just bring us up there, there isn’t anything else to do about it. In fact, leave the gate open, we should welcome those who follow. Fhyernx, we need to provide those left behind some extra difficulties, so I’m authorizing you to send out your personal favourite. Simple beasts aren’t cutting it, we’re going to need something even more fierce.” Liyuzhe knew there was a good chance things would come to this, that she would be expected to go this far, but she really didn’t want to resort to such drastic measures. Stepping through the portal along with her other friends, she waited to receive the guests that were quick to follow. Riyxia erupted through the gate, followed by a flow of ersatz close behind her. After checking that her two companions were gone, Liyuzhe stepped forward to confront Riyxia directly.

After hearing the howls from earlier, Vwyx and Sryine both raced back up to the surface. By the time they arrived, they found everything had gone very suddenly quiet. A quick search around had them quickly find the other, but there wasn’t a single beast to be found otherwise. Additionally, there wasn’t even a single person to be found, not even any of the stray ersatz. The silence then was gradually broken by a faint whirl and a pop, quickly evolving to a gushing roar, as the lake erupted by the crash of something massive. The two rushed over to the lake to inquire upon what had just happened, just as a towering monstrosity woke from beneath the waters. Metal creaked behind the faint glow of a gigantic barrier of a weapon recovered from another era, a faint hiss erupting as its systems prepared for combat.

Neither of them were familiar with the giant mechanical siege engine that Fhyernx had recovered from the dawn of the instrumentation era. The people of that time had taken to calling it as a Colossal, an apt description at least of its foreboding presence.