Syrene shot a blast of Chain Lightning, evaporating a wave of minions, before turning to Elzio, a sad smile on her face.

“Good work with those two,” she said. “Let’s just hope they don’t talk to each other about what you made Jenna’s doppel say. If Alyssa learns that was manipulation—”

“That’s why I sent Jenna after my doppel.” Elzio bit his lip. Alyssa and Erlin would be respawning soon, and Elzio wasn’t sure what would happen when they did. Neither had any ability to physically attack the other. They could, at most, restrain each other, grab onto each other, grapple, wrestle. Erlin had more physical strength, but he couldn’t damage Alyssa. They could shout, yell, curse at each other. Follow each other around the map. Go to the Southern Road to try to convince Gyrao to either of their sides. Try to find Jenna. Nolath. Argue their points.

Whatever would happen, it would be chaos. And as the first structure in the Northern Road began to crumble, Elzio knew that this carefully constructed chaos would be their ticket to win.

“I’m going to start whittling away the second structure,” Syrene said as she ushered her minions forward. She had amassed quite a force, since the enemy minions didn’t last a second against her. “I can outpush Gyrao in the south, but if Erlin goes down there, the two will outpush me, and even if Alyssa remains a turncoat, she can’t stop them. Take my doppel down there, keep the waves from crashing into the tower.”

“You won’t need it up here?” he asked.

She smiled, powering up another chain lightning and evaporating the next wave of enemy minions. Without opposition, her own mounting wave bore down on the structure.

“No. We don’t need this to be a race. Jenna will keep Nolath engaged. Gyrao and Erlin have to pick a wave. We’ll free push the other. We’ve got this, Elzio.” Her eyes shifted red, and her magma spell began creeping up the structure.

“All right, your point is well made. First things first, though.” He dissolved the high-level Syrene doppel. “I’m going to go pick up your second artifact from Carlin. It should be done by now, and you’ll be able to take on all three remaining enemy heroes with it. Then I’ll take on the Southern Road.” He hesitated. “If you see Alyssa, tell her to meet me on the southern forest path.”

Syrene raised an eyebrow before nodding and turning her burning eyes back on the tower.

Elzio turned from the lane, thoughts spinning. Beyond empowering Syrene, the other thing this detour did was buy him time to fully restock his mana. Between the experience he’d gained over the course of the battle and Carlin’s mana artifact, Elzio could summon multiple high-level doppelgangers once his pool was full. If Alyssa never showed up, it wasn’t a huge issue, he would just summon a powerful Syrene doppel.

But if Alyssa did make an appearance, all the better. Physical-attack-based heroes were better against structures. A level 6 doppelganger of an Archer would crush the structure faster than a level 6 doppel of a Mage.

Still, it remained just a possibility, reliant on Alssya’s actions. It was just a potential course of action, one that occupied his thoughts as he picked up the new artifact and began bringing it back up to Syrene. It was just one possible strategy… until he almost ran head onto Alyssa in the path. The only thing saving them from colliding was her deftness, as she jumped away from him.

“Erlin got away from me,” she said, panting. “I… I don’t know what I can do here. I can’t just go to the Southern Road to stop him, I can’t. I asked your teammate, she said to meet you on this path.”

Elzio smiled, even as his stomach twisted at the look of earnestness on her face. They were fighting towards her death, and they both knew that, but Elzio didn’t like the feeling of guilt it gave him.

“You can’t fight him, no.” He pulled up a level 3 doppel of himself and equipped it with the artifact. “Bring that to Syrene,” he ordered the copy. Then he looked back at Alyssa. “But I can make a version of you that can.”

By the time Elzio and Alyssa got to the Southern Road, he was at full mana again. At his side, Alyssa had a grim but determined look on her face. On the road, both Erlin and Gyrao were already at the second structure, throwing their full strength at it. The gate was starting to crack, but this was as far as they would get.

Elzio closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before summoning a level 6 doppel of Alyssa. He sent it into the lane behind Gyrao and Erlin, taking out the enemy minions that spawned, and cutting the heroes off from the source at a rapid pace. At Elzio’s signal, Alyssa nodded and entered the route, in front of the team. She fired two shots at her once allies, ensuring they fired wide. If they landed and did no damage, the two would immediately know she was real. It was essential she keep up the pretense as long as possible.

The enemy heroes predictably dodged both shots before turning towards her, casting an ability each. Both men were melee classes with only a few ranged skills, which Alssya dodged easily with her high agility.

She began charging up a Piercing Bolt, which both enemies reacted to in complete opposite ways. Gyrao retreated, backing down the lane towards where the doppel was farming their minions. Erlin, enraged, charged forward, sword empowered, ready to strike. The spell on his sword was Leeching Drain, an ability that drained hit points from the target to the caster.

“Erlin!” Gyrao shouted, turning to see his teammate running the opposite direction. “You don’t have the minions to absorb tower shots.”

“Don’t need them,” he snarled, blade glowing purple.

But he was wrong. As he entered the range of the structure, the last of his minion wave died, leaving only Erlin and Alyssa under the tower. Technically, Alyssa could have been targeted by the gate’s cannons, but structures always defaulted to hitting the higher health target, so it locked onto Erlin. Two blasts hit him as he ran towards Alyssa, reducing his hit points to half of their max. He raised his sword high, leaping in the air as his ability triggered.

Alyssa didn’t move. She just watched him bear down and slam the ability directly into her with a strangled cry.

The Leeching Drain triggered… and did nothing as the attack glanced off his allied hero.

Erlin’s eyes grew huge as he stared at the full health Alyssa.

“You… you traitor!” His voice shook with rage. “Turncoat! Double-crossing piece of—” Another shot hit him hard, and he staggered from the blow.

“Erlin get out!” Gyrao’s shout was desperate. He was making solid headway against Alyssa’s doppel, but he’d been distracted by Erlin’s misplay and took a Stunning Shot to the back as he looked over his shoulder.

“It’s just not right,” Alyssa said. “I’m sorry.” With tears in her eyes, she began fleeing back up the lane, leaving the dying Erlin alone under tower.

Against all better judgment, Erlin took several steps towards her, before another shot hit and he realized how close to death he was. His lips parted, and his eyes darted around the road, looking for the fasted way to escape the tower range. As the tower began charging up another attack, Erlin began to sprint back down the lane.

Elzio stepped out from the stealth of underbrush just as Erlin escaped the tower aggro, reduced to fewer than 50 hit points.

When Erlin saw Elzio, he gripped his sword, eyes narrowing.

But Elzio knew Erlin would never reach him. Instead, Elzio reached out and pulled a mid-level doppel of Erlin into being. It would be necessary to summon the copy before defeating Erlin.

Erlin, realizing how badly he’d been played, charged forward, learning very little from his past litany of mistakes.

Before Erlin even reached Elzio, Elzio fired off a basic attack. The energy bolt wouldn’t have even killed a minion, but Erlin’s health points had dropped beneath that of a simple construct. The small attack hit him dead on in the chest. He froze for a fraction of a second and dissolved.

Elzio didn’t give himself time to celebrate. That would come later. They couldn’t get cocky. So he sent the newfound Erlin doppel into the woods to find Jenna and the Elzio doppel. Jenna had found Nolath but Elzio’s doppel, still running from them, was too far away for Elzio to hear what they were saying. It was clear, however, that Nolath was distracted from the fights on his map, his vision tunneled on the doppel.

Now it was time to shake up that dynamic by sending the Erlin doppel to them. Elzio needed Nolath to stay occupied.

Back in the Southern Lane, Gyrao had defeated the Alyssa clone but had taken substantial damage to do so. The actual Alyssa had retreated away from the tower, leaving it open for Gyrao to mount his attack.

Elzio wasn’t too concerned. Syrene had made good use of the last few minutes to crack the Northern Road, and was almost through the final structure and into the base itself.

Gyrao’s eyes darted around, looking from the tower to a spot nearer to him, likely checking his map. Elzio could see his frantic thoughts, written on his face plain as words: Jenna and Nolath were running aimlessly through the jungle. Alyssa was standing nearby, doing nothing. Erlin was dead. Syrene was about to push into their base. Gyrao couldn’t outpush her. His allies were either distracted or traitors.

Another second passed, and for a moment, Elzio thought Gyrao was going to continue pushing down the Southern Road. But after a wordless cry of frustration, he fled the lane. Either he was going to find Jenna and Nolath to get help for the base, or he was going directly to the base to try to stop Syrene. Either way, he wouldn’t have the time or manpower to act.

There wasn’t anything left in the Southern Road for Elzio. There wasn’t anything left for anyone. With the Northern route ready to break any moment, even a straight race would result in a victory for Echo’s team.

“Find Jenna and Nolath,” he told Alyssa. “The Erlin doppel will be with them. Cause as much confusion as you can. Delay them from responding to Syrene. Jenna’s keeping Nolath occupied, but it’s only going to take a few seconds for him to check his map and realize how badly things have gone.”

Alyssa nodded, saluting. Then the stoic look on her face wavered for a moment. “You’re going north?”

“I am. Two Syrenes will break through the base faster than even Gyrao and Erlin could respond to, but it’ll be important for me to get there before Erlin respawns.” Elzio hesitated, debating saying more. “I don’t think I’ll see you again. We don’t have a lot of time, so I can’t make this long, but thank you. Thank you so much. Everyone will remember you as someone who fought not for a nexus, not for glory, not for a leader, but for the people. That’s just not something you see enough of.”

She smiled shakily and bowed her head. “Thank you. For risking it all to help us.” Then the smile was gone, the shakiness was gone, and a moment later, so was Alyssa.

—

Gyrao wasn’t in the base by the time Elzio got there. Given he’d left a few seconds before Elzio had, he should have beat him there, but he didn’t. The Erlin clone had been sent to spy on the traveling group. It was through the doppel that Elzio could see Gyrao appear, frantic and disheveled and shouting about Syrene in the base.

Elzio couldn’t blame Gyrao for prioritizing getting his team together. He didn’t know that Jenna was deliberately sabotaging communications. He hadn’t realized that Erlin shouldn’t have spawned yet, shouldn’t have already joined the group. He didn’t know Alyssa was en route to slow them down. All he knew was that he wouldn’t be able to take out Syrene. With the amount of experience and artifacts she had, they needed the whole team to take her out. So he went to find his team.

This meant that when Erlin did spawn, he found himself alone against Syrene and Elzio.

“The intent was never to hurt you,” Elzio said, as Syrene raised her hands. She called down a Lightning Blast at Erlin, one that immobilized him immediately as he left the spawn point. “It was to help.” An Energy Cage sprung to life around the enemy hero. “Your people will live to understand that. I promise.”

Syrene waved her hand, summoning a single charge Wind Wall around her. At level 1, the spell would barely deflect a basic attack, but with Carlin’s artifacts boosting her power so much, the shield would negate any ability Erlin threw at her. He only had one spell long-ranged enough to hit her from where he was trapped. Even once her stun wore off, he’d never be able to interrupt the cage in time, and with no allies nearby, he was already dead.

“Your people will live to understand why we came, and their children will live to thank us for it.” Elzio’s lips grew tight as the stun wore off and, as predicted, Erlin hurled his ranged ability at Syrene, which bounced off her Wind Wall as she turned to the turrets that protected the Ythrel Nexus. “I wish we had been able to come to an agreement beforehand, so that you too would have lived to see it. I hope, for your sake, that you do.”

Erlin screamed something unintelligible at them as the cage closed in, reducing his hit points to nothing.

Down in the woods, a fight had broken out between the parties—no one knowing who was a doppel and who was an ally. Both Jenna and Alyssa knew, but were both claiming the other was a clone. Jenna claimed Alyssa and Erlin were clones. Alyssa tried to convince Nolath that Jenna and Gyrao were. The Erlin doppel swore that both women were. Nolath and Gyrao had panicked and, after a short period of time trying to solve who was real and who was a copy, tried to flee.

Moments after turning, however, the Erlin doppel had attacked one of the girls, which again pulled the attention of Nolath and Gyrao. They seemed like good men, both very agitated at how distressed their teammates were. Behind the acts, Elzio could see the very real fear and pain in Jenna and Alyssa’s eyes. They knew how this ended.

How are your structures holding up? Elzio asked Echo.

Well. The enemy minions would normally break through the gate soon, but Syrene will destroy the last enemy structure soon, which means… Echo paused for dramatic effect, something she had learned from Elzio. I will have access to Unleashed Minions.

Despite the emotional exhaustion from the match, Elzio smiled. Good. We’re almost through this.

You have all done well, Echo said.

A shudder ran through the arena as Syrene broke through the final tower and began attacking the nexus.

“Why are we fighting among ourselves when this whole thing is about to be over?” Nolath screamed, sudden realization dawning on his face. “They’ve completely torn us apart!”

Alyssa’s shoulders slumped. “We never should have fought this, that’s why.” She fired a quick basic attack directly at Gyrao, which disappeared upon contact, proving she was an ally. “Whoever survives this, remember that. We never should have fought this.”

Jenna caught Alyssa’s eye and nodded. “I’m sorry, boys. It shouldn’t have gone like this.”

Now fully realizing what had happened, Gyrao and Nolath sprinted towards their base, utter panic on their faces. Elzio didn’t bother sending the Erlin clone after them. They’d never make it in time.

In the woods, Jenna and Alyssa sat down.

“Do you remember the first cull?” Jenna asked. “You cried every night leading up to it.” Her voice was choked. “I couldn’t believe that someone who’d always seemed as confident as you could be so scared.”

“I was surprised someone as timid as you wasn’t.” Alyssa laughed and leaned her head against Jenna’s shoulder. “It’s surreal how life has changed.”

Jenna wrapped her arm around Alssya’s shoulder, tears starting to flow freely down her face.

At this, Elzio dissolved the Erlin doppel. The girls deserved some privacy. He didn’t need to listen to them exchanging final words. Not when he’d passed the sentence.

“Elzio?”

He looked up at Syrene, who had a somber look on her face. Before her, the Ythrel nexus pulsed with barely contained energy, a single attack away from death.

“Do you want to?” she asked.

Elzio shook his head. “You did the fighting. Besides, this isn’t a victory of ego. That will come after we dissolve the corrupt council board and make sure we cleanse anyone affiliated with Deluuth.”

“Wise as always.” Syrene raised her hand, a bundle of flaming energy taking form. Just beyond her, Elzio saw the form of Gyrao and Nolath appear in the route, hundreds of feet away. Too far to do anything.

Then Syrene let loose the killing blow, and the world fell away.

~~~ Elzio Shilon: Level 10 (+1!) Mage [Echo Nexus]: Level 3 (+2!) Nexus Carlin Naryl: Level 12 (+1!) Fighter