Jun and Mortician appeared in flashes of electricity. We all shared a look, and I filled them in while we waited for Acasiana. It was a longer story than I thought it was–from backing up Annette, to destroying the crystals, to the intervention of the Keratilys and the revelation that Endra was infecting people far beyond Rainbow Basin’s walls. And I topped it all off with another huge revelation that Keratily had been masquerading as Moricla, then carefully admitted how we’d managed to seal Keratily off for… not-quite-good.

“Wow. That’s… a lot.” Jun said slowly. “All we’ve been doing is constantly fighting. Okeria reports in now and again telling us our evacuations are going well, but it’s just been one enemy after the other for the last few hours.”

Mortician nodded in agreement. “Yes. The simple fact that we may have to continue fighting like this for days–potentially weeks, even–brings us no joy. Though it is far more enjoyable to engage in combat when we can sufficiently defend ourselves.”

They raised both of their arms and flexed, then posed like a bodybuilder would. It probably would’ve been more impressive if I could’ve seen anything through their armor.

“Yeah, not worrying about someone accidentally blowing your head off in the middle of battle is nice.” I agreed seriously. “So what actually changed? Did your resilience go up a lot?”

“Technically, yes. Though it is more accurate to say that our body’s makeup has become more resilient and powerful, and that that has translated to an increase in the related stat.” Mortician confirmed. “Though we gained little in terms of speed, battery, or recovery–merely an effective increase of a single stat point for each. Which could just as easily be attributed to our book growing more powerful rather than our body changing.”

I nodded, then leaned around Mortician to see Acasiana running down the hall towards us. Her armor glinted with rainbow accents in the light of the facility, and it felt so much more right than the dusty ruins she’d been trapped in for so long.

I tossed her the communicator, and she caught it with a nod of thanks. “Do I just press it onto my armor?”

“Yes, you do.” Mortician replied for me. “It will function even when your armor has not been summoned thanks to one of Okeria’s functions. And hello again! It has not been that long since we last met, but it is quite nice to see you outside of that hazard! Welcome to the… family? Organization? Whatever it is, welcome to it!”

Acasiana laughed and pressed the communicator to her forearm. “Thank you, Mortician. It’s nice to be a part of something bigger than myself for once.”

“It’ll be nice having someone else powerful around.” Jun added. “Okeria’s strong and all, but he’s a little too important to put on the frontlines. And wayyy too fragile.”

“He does give off that kind of vibe, doesn’t he?” Acasiana glanced over towards where we’d come from, then shook her arm and leaned down over it. {Do I just–nevermind, I figured it out. Are we all ready, or are there more preparations before we can go take my masterpiece back from some dictator with an ego ten times the size of his hazard tolerance?}

That was one way to put it. I looked to Jun and Mortician to see if they had anything they needed to do, but they both just looked back at me expectantly. It didn’t seem like they’d just come from hours of fighting, which was a good sign that I had strong allies with me. And one dangerously competent fragile little flower at the command post.

I tapped my teleportation anchor and brought up my map. “There’s an anchor close-ish to Viri’s location. We teleport there, then follow the beacon to find her and fight our way to Scalovera’s med bay. Jun–you’re our heavy artillery. Mortician–you’re frontline support now that you’re durable and have a little bit higher core master. Acasiana–I don’t really know where to put you, so just do what you do and I’ll know for next time.”

Everyone nodded, but Acasiana was the only one that spoke.

“What about you? Should I expect more of what you did in the hazard?”

“Don’t know why you’d expect anything else, but yeah.” I confirmed and summoned my weapon on my thigh. “If you have to go for the kill, try to do it in a way that doesn’t give them a chance to report back to Scalovera. Endra will know when one of hers dies, so we just have to hope that she isn’t actively talking to Scalovera at every waking moment. Anyone have any questions?”

Nobody said anything. It was my turn to nod, and I smacked my anchor to get it started. If everything went well, we’d be rid of Scalovera before the end of the day. Maybe it wouldn’t end the war, but it would get rid of Endra’s legal hold on the city.

I just had to hope that mattered.

“Be ready.” I told everyone as electricity took all of us. “See you in the blink of an eye.”

A parasite-riddled corpse that was once someone’s loved one fell lifeless at my feet. I gestured for Jun to ready her weapon just in case the outline I saw through the wall wasn’t Viri, then motioned for Acasiana and Mortician to stand back.

{We’re right next to your beacon, Viri. Are you standing with it?}

The outline perked right up and looked around eagerly. {Yeah, it’s me! Where are you? Did Okeria make you invisible?}

I nodded and signaled that we could move. Jun lowered her gun but kept it at the ready, and Mortician clipped their book to their thigh with a metallic chain that looked new while Acasiana and I stepped around the dim corner.

“Oh, you’re just around the corner. That makes a lot more sense.” Viri said and brushed off her lap as she stood. “You were super quiet killing all those people. Not like me. I can’t really do my thing quietly.”

The mangled bodies at her feet painted a pretty visceral picture of how her fight had gone. They were simple kills, but when I actually stopped to think what she’d managed to do, I couldn’t help but thank whoever had trained her so terribly before us. She’d simply shrunk their armor, but not them. And big heads couldn’t fit inside grape-sized helmets.

“Someone finally taught you how to fight, huh.” I muttered in disgusted awe of how efficient the kills had been. There were barely any signs of a struggle. “Which one of them was it?”

“Thorn.” Viri answered instantly. “He said he wasn’t really feeling merciful after what happened to him, and now that I know what’s going on, I’m super glad I got picked up by you guys. Living like these guys, with these… things… inside of me…”

She gently nudged a corpse and shuddered at the writhing parasites that hadn’t quite died yet.

“That’s the entire reason we’re fighting here. So Endra doesn’t turn our entire species into this.” Jun gestured at the corpse for emphasis. “Oh, just in case you didn’t know, we’ve got orders not to kill Scalovera or any of his higher-ups right away. Thorn wants to torture them for information.”

I turned at that with a frown. “Did he use those words exactly?”

Jun shrugged. “I omitted a lot of filler and a whole lot of curses, but yeah. He holds a hundred times more of a grudge than he shows.”

“I guess I don’t blame him.” I sighed and snapped my fingers, then gestured down the dimly lit tunnel. {Five scouts. Four meandering, and one sprinting up to check out the noise. None of them are powerful enough to be anyone we’re looking for. Take off a limb or two first to check for parasites.}

Acasiana nodded and stepped forward. {Good call. Mind if I take this one? I’ve been itching to see how much weaker leaving the hazard made me.}

I waved her on. {Yell if you need help. And try not to die.}

Viri tapped me on the shoulder as Acasiana meandered down the tunnel. “So… did I miss something, or is she new?”

{She’s new. Well, new to us.} I chuckled. {And use the communicators from now on. No point making any more noise than we have to.}

“Right!” Viri paused. {I mean, right! Sorry.}

Jun checked her gun and nodded to me. I gestured for her to move up and watch Acasiana’s back just in case while I observed with my oil-powered function. She slowly followed, barrier function at the ready in one hand with her gun pointed down the tunnel in the other.

We waited quietly for the fighting to start. I hoped against hope that Acasiana wasn’t going to be extremely reckless thanks to the fact that she had a rewind button, doubly so now that she actually had to worry about running out of battery when she used it. She held out two fingers, and one of the orbs over her shoulders rolled down her arm and into her palm. I held my breath as the orb seemed to shatter into a thousand pieces.

The foremost scout stopped dead in their tracks and screamed. They were too far back to see her, so they must’ve had some kind of vision function active. All the others twitched, then stopped as if waiting for orders.

The shards of Acasiana’s orb dug deep into the first one. A strangled gurgle escaped them as light overtook their body, and Acasiana clenched her hand into a fist. Suddenly and without warning, a much larger orb appeared in the same place as their torso. Their arms splattered to the ground. Their legs from the waist down crumpled. And everything else was simply… gone.

{Abyss take me.} Jun muttered as all the others were suddenly afflicted with the same… instant death. {I thought she only had two of those orbs. But… drown me, she’s got like fifteen.}

I nodded silently as all the orbs showed up on my visor. They were all dense like miniature suns, and whatever they were, they didn’t feel like items. They were just masses of destroyed things manipulated by whatever function she was using. And they were so filled with battery that I couldn’t understand how Acasiana had the reserves to not topple over from using so much.

{Well, that wasn’t much of a challenge.} Acasiana noted with… disappointment? {They didn’t even have the wherewithal to try and use a defensive function. Is everyone really this weak now?}

{Kind of, yeah.} Viri squeaked. {I mean, Thorn told me anyone with control over their armor wouldn’t get crushed, but I crushed everyone just fine.}

{Peace will do that.} I said with forced calm and made my way into the tunnel. There wasn’t much blood. Or signs of a struggle. Just the reminders of how efficiently Acasiana had just killed five people.

Acasiana watched me as I went by, then fell in step behind me. Viri shrunk and scrambled up my shoulder, then perched herself there as comfortable as can be. I made a little harness out of petal-scales for her, and she strapped herself in without a second thought.

Mortician took their book out and started mumbling to themselves. Their armor took on a slightly more green tint, and we followed the trail of Viri’s beacon until it ended. Jun stuck her head out and registered the three guards that I pointed out, then quietly aimed her gun at the closest one while Acasiana readied a single orb in case Jun missed. I knew she wouldn’t, but it never hurt to have a backup plan.

I lowered my fingers and shifted my weapon. The crack of Jun’s gun signaled the start of our siege.