Explanations had proven more than just challenging once Riyxia had spotted them, but Sryine had heard enough to get the basic idea of what was going on. What as of yet remained a bigger problem was how to deal with the situation left to them.

“You know, I don’t think this is working.. It’s just making her mad.. or more mad.. madder?” “Shut up, please, I don’t care, it’s not like we’ve got any other ideas to work with, and right now I think this is better than dying. Besides, aren’t you the one here losing her sanity?” “Oh right, good point. It doesn’t madder.. matter anyway, fighting with ourselves would be crazy when we’re already fighting among ourselves. Honestly though, crazy is one thing, but let’s not be stupid. Running around like fools all day would be just foolish, we need to instead figure out how to be the ones doing the fooling and turn everything around on her.” “If you’ve actually got an idea, I’m all ears. Until then, shut up!” Sryine giggled as she otherwise complied with Vwyx’s uncompromising demands. It was surprising just how much of a truce the two of them had found themselves in when left exposed to an overdominant flame that conflicted to the will of their natural selves. It was like each side of themself had taken a moment to plead to the other for help, only to realize that the other could do nothing without help. This left the weirdest feeling for Sryine, like she had totally gone insane.. but with her own will remaining intact. She was thus pondering careful plans and ideas, laughing at her own cleverness. The best of both worlds.. and still really awkward. Vwyx was in a very similar position, being very distant and dismissive, stern and uncompromising, a feeling of being devoid of emotion while still actually fully concerned about the situation and the state of her friends.

Sryine suddenly found herself off balance, the world spinning around her as her sense of balance was destroyed. It really didn’t help that she was already mentally off balance too, that just made her even more dizzy. Sryine fell to the ground as an ersatz came down on her hard with a drop kick to the spine. She could feel her back tearing apart by the blow, assisted by Riyxia’s attempt to unmake her in the process. The flame within however tempered her, trying to resist this considerable influence. Even so, she wasn’t strong enough to block such out completely, the whole thing tearing upon her in the process. Vwyx rushed to Sryine’s aid, creating cloth bandages from metal shards rapidly over Sryine to provide some aspect of support. It was the best she could do without the healing process they had grown used to. In the process of providing such support, Vwyx left herself wide open to an attack, an opportunity Riyxia capitalized upon. The sharp punch pierced right through Vwyx’s shoulder blade, completely dislocating her right arm. This was really bad, the threat of the flame they faced was beyond what they could handle. Riyxia herself stepped forward, a mantle of purple flame blazing over her body like she was a demon out of some nightmare. Sryine coughed a faint pained chuckle at the irony, even her grimmest illusions were never as real as the actual demon that they currently faced. Vwyx clutched her broken arm with her unbroken one, thankful that she was being deprived of the pain even if it did nothing for her feelings of dread. As the haze of the flame generated from the conflict and the injuries started to turn the room itself black, the heat of the room grew steadily stronger. To Sryine and Vwyx, it was as if the very flame they had grown to depend on had suddenly betrayed them, turned against them, and was overwhelming them.

A sudden rumble of the room agreed with such an assessment, as instruments of the room finally detected ambient heat above acceptable limits. A siren broke out through the room as the emergency water cooling system finally came to life. Panels everywhere split open as a high pressure force of ice-water was propelled into the room at a massive speed in equally massive quantities. Sryine rushed to protect herself with a wind bubble before she was suddenly completely submerged. Vwyx made use of another gravity grenade to throw her into the air, avoiding the cold by remaining within the heat in the upper section of the room. Neither of them were in a very good situation with this sudden complication, as Vwyx was suddenly aware just how unstable the above platforms actually were. Sryine meanwhile was having trouble moving, but was at this point fully underwater, leaving all of her concentration simply to keep her wind bubble active. Dread set upon them both as they realized just how vulnerable they actually were to this environment. However, moments later, they both realized that there was no follow up attack to come afterwards. Riyxia had stood her grounds in defiance of the water threat, bringing the compounded strength of her flame to bear. Celesi water however still had enough strength to compete with her, and an equally mighty flame stands no chance against the might of its equal in water. Thousands of ersatz were water blasted across the room, crushed into walls and pillars with a torrent of remorseless water. Eventually, Riyxia was forced to withdraw as well, the pain of a few ersatz crushed completely beneath the waters still washing over her.

Sryine’s eyes lit up in understanding. Riyxia was currently superior to them with the flame, she had a strong advantage over them with the flame, but not once had she had any opportunity to invest in working with any of the flame’s weaknesses, instead she had left that to her friends to deal with. The water.. it was her only advantage over Riyxia, the only thing she had to defend herself with. She needed to turn her weakness into her strength, she needed her flame to trust in her ability to do so as well. First, she needed a way to stand, but she remained too dizzy, her head couldn’t see anything straight. Oh of course, the dizziness was all simply in her mind, and if she was left with the illusion that things were not spinning.. Sryine got up and stumbled again, of course her visual coordination couldn’t completely compensate when she was basically clouding things over with an illusion. Making use of the wall nearby, she followed along it scaling upwards with her bubble, the winds fighting against the whirling rage of the water. She tried to manipulate the water to calm down.. but it did not listen. Wait, why was her influence over the water so much less than it was before? It left her with her challenges, but they weren’t at a loss yet. If water did not listen, there was another way to bring weakness upon the flame, she needed to reach Vwyx. Finally reaching the surface, floating upon the water with a drift of the wind, Sryine called out as loudly as she could.

“Vwyx, don’t just depend on the raw might of the flame, turn Riyxia’s own flame against her. Teach her the weakness of the flame!” Sryine’s voice was pulled by a sharp wind, ensuring it would cross over the distance required. The sharp wind brought with it a sharp chill, making Vwyx shiver. Cold, of course, this flood of water was not just strictly water elemental, it was also filled with frost elemental, an element that the air above was quickly brimming with. Normally, that should be reason for concern, her own flame being ever so vulnerable in these circumstances. However, there was someone who didn’t even know to compensate for such a chill, who thought that frost brought no real threat to the flame. Vwyx would have to take this opportunity to show Riyxia just how wrong she really was. Vwyx quickly found Riyxia, who was currently completely distracted by the threat presented by the water. Of course, the water was a problem, even Riyxia’s spectre would struggle with waters this dangerous. Vwyx primed another grenade, throwing wide above Riyxia, exploding in the air far above the target. Vwyx had played with several gravity grenades, but there was another she had gotten fairly good with.. even while being neglected. Mist grenades. Infusing the explosion with the frost element, drawing further upon all of the frost around her, Vwyx saturated the open air with the will of the frost. This effect spread down upon Riyxia, covering her. Riyxia tried to move, but found her own movement dramatically reduced, the chill of the air making the exposed flame flicker as it quickly got weaker. Riyxia tried to flee the area, only to find Vwyx ready with a follow up strike, a second grenade that made use of just how dark the room had gotten suddenly at that moment. Shadows stretched wide, obscuring everything, leaving Riyxia to run headlong into a pillar instead. She had no idea where to go now, the darkness around her competing against her flame with the help of the frost.

Left completely open, Vwyx was ready with a third grenade, her trademark favourite. Gravity surged around Riyxia, the might of the darkness present making such forces even stronger, the platform she was standing on completely incapable of dealing with the additional force.. as was the one below it, and the one below that. Riyxia was thrown directly into the water with considerable speed, leaving Vwyx to grin slightly. See, this is why she felt validated by her belief that heights were dangerous.. even if that implied that it was all her fault that such heights might be dangerous. This combination left Riyxia in a bad situation, the water below her threatening to take everything from her in an aquatic surge of water elements, the air above her threatening the same using frost and darkness. Any dispute for the worst-case was cleared up however when Sryine unleashed a lightning surge through the waters, electrifying many of the ersatz still inside. Her face went pale when she considered what she had done, forgetting in that moment just how much taking out the other ersatz would affect Riyxia’s own health. They were trying to stop her, but they needed to not kill her in the process. Stopping her though wasn’t going to be easy. Sryine and Vwyx had recovered when rendered unconscious.. but Riyxia’s spectre never sleeps. Instead, they would have to find another way to restore her control.

Riyxia meanwhile realized that there was becoming too much of a liability of having targets spread out from her, against two enemies it would be far more efficient to keep numbers low. Riyxia drew the links of the unwanted ersatz back into her.. which also had the effect of drawing in the flame contained by those ersatz along with it. All of this flame went to one particular ersatz, the one which was then obviously host to the spectre. This ersatz however shone like a beacon, making Riyxia’s actual body look like a faint candle in comparison. The ersatz in question had her hair in a bun.. clasped up with a crescent moon hairpin. There was no idea what color her hair might have been originally, it was a blaze of purple at the moment. The pure black of her outfit was further decorated by the depth of purple her body generated naturally. Every ounce of her skin was purple, with lines and patches of skin being somehow even more a vibrant violet, the saturation of flame within having exceeded simply a full dispersal. Her eyes carried this violet as well, a blaze of piercing gaze like some kind of dark goddess of destruction, the aptitude of such a significant concentration of the flame being unquestionably world-changing.

Vwyx had no idea what happened. For a moment, she was watching Riyxia choose ice over water, again underestimating the threat of the cold.. and the next she was suddenly embedded into the wall after going through a couple of pillars. The gift wasn’t even used on her, to affect her reflexes or anything, that was all just brutal speed and strength, a thirst for life and blood. Sryine had finally gotten out of the water.. to then find herself just as suddenly embedded into the ceiling. Cuts from the solid metal sliced into them, creating even further injury as their blood poured free. Sryine naturally simply fell onto one of the platforms below, struggling to her feet despite hardly having anything together.. the pain being remorseless. A few drops of her blood hit the platform.. and the whole thing buckled by the flame, dropping her even further below. Sryine became faintly aware as to what was going on, thanks to a subtle clarity in her thoughts. The platforms could not endure her blood at all, the flame was everything against her. Sryine started to take great strides in ensuring her blood did not reach the platform she stood upon, everything being precarious as a result. To add to her stability, Sryine actually used a cushion of air to walk upon over the platforms. She could consider doing the same with basic air, but without having things providing her coordination physically, that was bound to have her trip and fall again.

Riyxia however was fully in recognition of the advantage brought to her by the flame. She too was injured, but her flame was so concentrated that the flame she gave off in blood was being consumed the moment it was released. Willfully hampering that influence, she tossed a couple of drops of living inferno in Sryine’s direction, melting through the pillar beside her and throwing her backwards and downwards several levels. Sryine wasn’t sure what was causing her head to spin more, the tumbling, or the fact that Riyxia’s blood incinerated a solid metal pillar. That really wasn’t some light heat, that was flame strong enough to surpass high quality stone elemental, something her own imbued blood would only discolor in the process. She was worried about the potential danger.. until she noticed a few drops had connected with her actual body in the process, to no effect. Of course, they were all resistant to each other’s astral flame, even the higher concentration didn’t impact that. Sryine took command of the drops of blood offered to her, ready to weaponize it in return.. to no effect. So.. in much the same way, even her own gift wasn’t enough to influence Riyxia’s own flame, even as blood droplets. The flame resisted the flame, equal qualities of flame having no power or control over each other.

Vwyx was becoming quickly aware of how dangerous her own situation had become, knowing she too was also bleeding. A speck of blood landed, and she fell. She worked frantically, searching for a way to suppress the problem, to avoid falling further, her fear blinding her. Her frantic attempts to avoid spilling blood resulted in precarious movement that tipped her over the side and had her fall despite her efforts and without affecting the metal of the platform. Riyxia, even in her rage, was interested in how much her two enemies were just almost fully capable of destroying themselves. The one, skilled with fear, was weakened by her own injury. The other, skill with pain, was absorbed by her own terror. She applied her gift to both, improving upon their sensory abilities as it would apply to each weakness. Vwyx suddenly felt a huge rush of vertigo, like the distance of her height had been rendered in all the more clarity. Sryine felt her adrenaline increase while her nerves became even more receptive to contact. Vwyx tumbled at last straight into the water, the churning depths below her seeming ever the more intimidating as she tried to grasp to a pillar using her only functional arm. Sryine felt the bite of the cold in the air, the nerves of her skin growing tense in the chill to add to the problem of a mind numbing degree of pain from her existing wounds, especially along her back. Riyxia had just effectively not only exposed them to the feelings only controlled by the other, she had increased problems from elements they were vulnerable to that only the other had practiced working with.

Sryine quickly started to realize that the feeling of her flame was becoming fleeting, her flame struggling to endure the cold itself while also keeping her healthy. She had already endured a lot, this problem was sapping her even faster. Even by simply feeling drained, she was finding it difficult to command enough heat to stay warm, causing a cyclic reaction. The depth of cold had been increasing as well, the effects of Vwyx’s mist grenade having compounded with the room’s increasing attempt at decreasing temperature. Flakes of frost started to fall from above, like tiny white stars twinkling in the darkness of a night’s sky. Vwyx meanwhile was finding that even though the water level had stopped rising, the water current was still going strong. Finding herself attacked abruptly resulted in her being forced to let go and flow with the current. She needed a better way to float with the water.. so called upon some wood made from discarded stone and metal to float around with. She noticed this sudden passage of speed also had her attacked less.. but with her improved depth of vision it simply made her get even more dizzy. Sryine noticed Vwyx though, the floating wood being used in conjunction with the water reminded her of exactly what she still lacked in her current environment. Taking advantage of the sudden opportunity, Sryine simply slipped over the edge and willfully fell into the water, somehow still avoiding being noticed. She needed to reach Vwyx somehow, pool their resources, come up with the ultimate combination of the elements to deal with the threat of the flame presented to them. However, with the cold making her feel so tired, keeping track of Vwyx was all too impossible.

Riyxia however hadn’t lost track of either Vwyx or Sryine in the water, she had gotten distracted because of the frost. The presence of falling sparkles reminded her so much of the stars, having her suddenly hesitate at that moment.