Chapter 36 – In Praise of Shadows

A silver shard is shot high into the sky, breaking the ethereal rainbow aura of the evanescent sky. In a hazy bliss the residents of a small town of Vermilion begin to clamor forward, eyeing the forming spectrogram above the great terrestrial firmament of the world they call Aethel. Students in metallic cream skirts with navy ties meet alongside housewives and children dressed in earthen tones step forward to look onto the sky. Some of the townspeople begin to whisper quietly, their hushed voices drowned out by the great winds that rustle through the shallow seas, hard mithril cliffsides and towering prism valleys. They walk closer to the edge of the cliff, where the great waves of Aethel's great aqua sea rise up and crash into the great rocky fortress of the Coast. One by one they reach the edge, reaching up to the spectrogram whose sound finally reaches their ears, casting a great wave of visions into the crowd of a woman wearing a smooth helmet with an emerald hexagonal prism enmeshed into her silvertine chassis. The woman, standing tall on the summit of a mithril cliff, holds a staff with a golden shard forming on its tip and circle ring at the edge, she rises it to project sound across the great divide, its echo causing a blinding burst of light to erupt from the summit, the crowd being enveloped by an ethereal rainbow aura, a rainbow aura that casts visions of her image.

 

"Souls of Aethel, your great Harmonizer has returned to invite you once more, upon this great land to find your freedom."

The residents of Aethel began to murmur and whisper at first, then turned visibly angry, booing and swearing profanity at the projection. The image of Aethel's native born Harmonizer, the woman that would come to be known as the Evanescent Star for many gems that so beloved her sermons and teachings, had come to take another great step of her vision, the vision of creating an Aethelian republic without need for bloodshed from its many regions and countries. She had come to meet with the people she had hoped to free during the last two years from White Diamond's oversight, with the intent of giving them freedom from the war that engulfed Aethel, a war with the Dominus where the majority of its residents had been dragged along, a war where the residents of Aethel fought and bled alongside their looming gem masters for their own ideologies against the freedom the Flora Church offered. They now had a chance to redefine themselves, a chance for themselves to become great she told them from the sky, to join under the Dominus and Flora's holy protection. But not if some dissident citizens of the world had their way. The liars and deceivers and serpent tongues conspiring against the light, slithering from the darkest corners of the world in praise of shadows. The besiegement of Harmonizer and the Dominus's forces upon one of gemkind's most sacred strongholds attracted no shortage of riotous clamoring among the clandestine masses that lived within its domain.

 

Some had begun to refer to her as the Beleaguer Bullshitter.

 

Many did not listen, instead seeing the Evanescent Star as just another preacher with visions that had little merit in the grand scheme of things. To them, rather being lured in by the Dominus's promises of eternal peace, in their mind they saw Harmonizer as nothing more than a lunatic.

Freedom for Gems, in the most free Gem capital in all of Orchid? The blatant absurdity wrote her off for many in Aethel's public eye, in one particular resident who was particularly outspoken about their disdain for the Emerald's knight ideas.

 

Her name was Edalyn Thunderthorne.

 

Becca pushed through the door. As she expected, another set of tunnels and long hallways, dripping with moisture and sterile white floors paved the path ahead. The weeks she and her two companions had begun exploring the Bolts were wearing on her nerves. Even n with the knowledge that they were nearing their destination to another Shard, Becca just had to question herself if they were ever going to find it. "Niiiiiiiiine!" Becca groaned. Her legs began to feel weighed down by the journey. "Want me to carry you, Xi girl?" Nine asked, Sandra still contained on her back. "Don't patronize me, when do these goddamn Bolts end? The last warp station wasn't this big!"

"Plus it had a mall!" Jack said, licking a lollypop.

She had to wonder if they were ever going to reach the end. Then a voice pierced through the darkness. "Misty, Misty are you there!" It sounded like a little boy, the three looking at each other and sighting a small beam of light shaped like a circle. They paced towards it until they emerged out a small space, which lead to a grassy purple hill. "Sunshine?! I missed thy!" Becca shouted, rolling around the grass.

 

"AAAAAAAAAAaaaah!" The blond boy shouted, fleeing as Nine burst out of the hole and stood up. "A WEREWOLF! A WEREWOLF ATE MISTY!" He rolled into a ball, Jack arriving behind Nine and Becca to see him cower. "It's okay bud. We're not gonna eat you." Jack said, raising her umbrella to the unnatural sunlight that was fractured by the ephemeral clouds shifting in and out, each refracting the photons from the nearby star into a multitude of hues much like her changing eye- color.

"This is.."

Becca cut in before Jack could comment. "Nine, do you recognize this place? Where the hell are we. This doesn't look like the Boltholes." Jack pointed a finger at the horizon, where a tall mithril spire stood, rising out of a glassy hexagonal shape over a sea. Numerous staircases went to nowhere from the ocean, many upside down and made of glass.

 

"This is the Tuberose Coast." Jack said, raising her umbrella and pointing at the ocean. "We're in Aethel." The other two looked at one another, then her and blinked.

 

"Orchid." Jack sighed.

 

"Aethel is a planetary world in Orchid made up of a single supercontinent called Elysium, which is broken up by a large sprawling river-system, nearly a massive sea called the Pelagic Crest, our world's core which is water."

"Our?" Becca raised an eyebrow.

"My world.." Jack sighed. "Elysium connects a number of great civilizations, such as the Amaryllis Coast, the Kingsmen Creed, Vorpal Isle, Alight Principalities, and Eldergarden, where the largest gem population in Orchid resides alongside plant residents. Many great kingdoms and powers have risen from the core of the seas, they've always resisted the Domina. Aethel is an empire of light dedicated to protecting gemkind, and even has a magical forested realm that has fought time and time again with the Flora Church and their ideals." She folded her arms. "It's also where I grewup." She looked at the purple grass beneath them, picking up a daisy.

 

Becca turned to Nine. "Weren't the Boltholes located in Xi? How'd we end up here?" Nine shrugged. "They're outside the conventional space-time juncture, suppose it's possible that they can connect the Bolts to various other realms." She poked the curling boy, who screamed and then ran through the fields. "So what's the plan now?" Jack asked.

Becca checked her Analemma. "Says there's a Shard nearby."

"Well hold up Celeste." Nine looked at the exotic multicolored trees and flora that surrounded them. "Orchid is enemy territory, no? We'd be walking into the valley of death. We cannot just-"

"No, we're safe." Jack looked back at the Set. "This is Aethel. The Domina and church's influence doesn't reach here. It's a Gem paradise." She folded her arms. "Trust me, Goliath assigned someone to take this place ages ago, and has never succeeded in taking this place. No Domina ever has."

"Goliath?" Becca said.

Jack smiled. "Don't forget, I'm a Gem too." She said, folding her umbrella putting it away on her hip's sash. "This is my home."

 

In a tall white castle above the clouds, dozens of staircases and waterfalls flowing out of it, Harmonizer returned. The steam powered train went along a railway in a perpetual circle, as if circling a Halo, the track bending into a figure-8 that went into the castle itself whenever it made it's 8th rotation. The Evanescent Star with 6 white wings down onto the train before it did such and took her into the facility, the walls covered in a smooth silver mosaic. "Unbelievable wretches." She said, descending into the castle. Walking through the many levels and hallways, until she reached the main stairs going up over three balcony layers. Sitting on the Balcony, crossing her legs was a blue haired girl, on the opposite side of the stairs stood a knight-like figure floating in the air.

 

"Ramona. Paradox." Harmonizer said, looking up.

Ramona smiled at the Emerald Gem, her hand clenched in a fist. "It has been a hot minute." She snarked. "Nice little speech you gave back there. Real convincing,"

 

Ramona folded her arms. "The whole 'freedom for gemkind' again routine? Really? How many times have you tried this schtick?"

 

Paradox, the aerial knight stepped on a spiral she made and floated behind her with her hands behind her back. "You must be desperate to come up with this drivel again. Last time I checked you said you wanted to got full fascist, and all these years, and you still have the audacity to claim that you're not being a megalomaniac." Paradox spoke, as the Evanescent Star sighed.

"I haven't used lethal force, Ramona. I didn't need to, as you see." She looked out the balcony. "Many gems are dissatisfied with the state of Aethel's peace."

"They've always been dissatisfied, you're still asking them to go against their own masters who have protected them for so long."

 

"I'm trying to win their hearts and turn their spirits over to the Domina, not coerce them with violence. By the tongue, not the sword." Harmonizer said.

"How atypical of Orchid." Ramona rolled her eyes.

"Well, Aethel has always been independent sovereignty." She replied. "We do things a little differently around here."

"Right right. Not just a puppet state of Orchid's." The blue-haired girl sounded unimpressed. "But isn't dealing with that your job?" She jumped off the stairs and landed in front of Harmonizer, marching to her and pressing her finger in.

"They have no reason to be against me." She said. "We're on the same side."

"Right, because we can actually trust you?" Ramona snarked, Paradox's wings glowing behind her. "You've had over 2 years to reel Aethel in, and done jack-all but give these shitty propaganda speeches. Me and Paradox have found every god shard in Bedlam, Abyss and AU and brought those places to heel, while you still haven't been able to get your little dream to pass into reality. Why?"

The figure gently pushed Ramona a foot back to establish boundaries.

"Evasive as ever. Well? Why?" She persisted.

"I'm not just going to answer that without a good reason." Harmonizer said, being firm with Ramona. "You are Domina's servant, as I am the Domina's. We have an agreement to be partners, and to respect our mutual sovereignties."

"And I'm trying to understand your reason not to go to war with Aethel, to make a peace deal with them? To ask them for their 'surrender' when you haven't been able to do so in over two years? Tell me why, or we're going to do something about this." Ramona said, Paradox giving a cool nod.

"I have a reason." The Evanescent Star said. "And I'm not going to tell you until you tell me why you want to invade Aethel when it's my assignment, not yours. I have no interest in going to war with this world if you will leave them be." She held up her staff, the ring around it rotating onto its side and spinning like a halo. "And if you invade Aethel without my say, without my permission, without any notice, I'm not going to be so merciful, Ramona. Understand me?"

 

Ramona folded her arms. "So here's a suggestion-."

"And you won't give me any suggestions." The Emerald-masked woman replied. "I don't work for you."

"Then give me your shard and consign yourself." Ramona smirked.

The woman snorted. "No, and I'm not going to." She tapped the Emerald ring on her hand. "If you try to invade my world, there will be consequences."

Paradox stepped in, pushing the two woman apart. "At ease." She turned to Harmonizer. "With respect to your wish to control Aethel's fate and be the author of it's destiny, we shall not intercede or reprimand you. But in return, it would be quite a reasonable compromise to inform us, as your superiors, on your progress." Paradox spoke, her swirling helmet glowing. "And if possible, allow us to assist you in areas where it's lacking."

Harmonizer sighed, folding her arms and looking out the balcony. "Fine. Very well." She tapped the emerald at her hand and let it vanish from her ring. "But you're my to be my partners, not my supervisors or superiors." She said. "Do we have an understanding?"

 

Ramona huffed and nodded. "Fine." She said, turning and walking to the door. "And as for you," Harmonizer spun around. "The young master wants to hear the progress." The winged knight walked to the stairs, while Paradox watched her. "Yes, I have two kids. I understand. Goodbye Evanescent Star, I'll see you soon."

 

The enigma of Abyss left, leaving Harmonizer to walk upstairs to the balcony of the castle. Looking over the ridge of the mountain, she could see the bright lights of the great Tuberose coast glowing over the ocean, a glorious sight to behold for her people. She turned around as she heard footsteps. "Out of bed so soon, sweetie?"

 

Becca, Jack and Nine arrived at the Tuberose coast after a long period of time, finding a peaceful village named Vermillion. They took in the cherry blossoms and communities of gems living there alongside plants, set and other races, shops and stands on every scenic corner. The trio eventually stumbled upon a large mansion with 4 floors. Becca looked outside the terrace, odd statue of birds left on pedestals with bird-feeder satop, trying to get a grip on where they were.

"Aethel, huh." She said, with a shrug. She'd never seen a place look so, garden-y, even compared to the rest of Orchid.

"It's a world like so many others." Jack said, folding her umbrella and putting it in her bag. "A place with many different cultures and religions, gems both good and bad, a history both great and dark. Aethel's just different in some of it's particulars, it's history is very different from Orchid's." She

sighed. The mansion door creaked open.

 

"Greetings." Nine said, seeing the woman in black tailored suit with a golden frilly skirt that felt mismatched, and a red mask standing at the entrance to the mansion, a woman who seemed to have a red feathered hat that was waving as if the wind itself was inside the mansion, blowing her long mane of silver-grey hair into the breeze. She looked between them. "Are you three here to visit, or customers?" She asked. "You don't seem the type to drop off Orphans now."

"Hi there, we're actually lost." Becca said. It wasn't entirely a lie, she looked at her Analemma, the coordinates indicating it was ahead in the manor.

 

"Well my apologies, please come in." She said, stepping back. "We aren't a hotel, but we do have rooms available for guests who wish to stay in our residence. Come on in, I have to make dinner preparations." The woman said, walking past. She took off her red mask and feathered hat, placing them on a hatstand. A dozen kids ran into the room around the host's legs, all wearing various masks.

 

"W-Why are you all wearing animal masks?" Becca stuttered, her curly blonde hair going white from shock. "Hey there Strawberry. Missy, Gus, Tiff, Ruby. You're back in the pigpen I see." Their host reached down and ran through Ruby's cherryred hair, watching her leap on the counters and chase Montigue. A tiny figure crept behind the host and ran to her side. "You! You little shit!" Becca yelled, sighting the curly-haired boy from before in the fields.

The woman smiled at the scene. "Ah so you must be the Werewolf we heard so much about." She said to Nine, who had to crouch down slightly to not hit their head on the ceiling.

"Are you here to cause problems?"

"We're..." The three tried to say something, before being silenced by the little boy.

"THEY CAME FROM A WEIRD HOLE, THEM AND THEIR WEREWOLF ARE HERE TO

EAT US!" He shouted, running and biting Becca's leg. "YOU SONOFAB-" She chased after him. "SCARY! SHE'S A DEMON! GET AWAY!" She whipped him into the air and tossed him down. "TORMENTER!" The children screamed in fear.

The other kids giggled and all dogpiled on Becca's back, Ruby sitting by Nine and being about the size of her ankles.

Edalyn gently tugged the kid from Becca's angry grip. "You came from the Boltholes did you? Then you must be from Xi, or perhaps another world. Are you here for my services?" She asked, stroking the young boy's hair. "If you want me to cast any spells on her or give her any rituals or any nonsense that'll have you paying me a lot more than any of these people could get from my residence, then you're in the wrong place." She said. "I'm not that gal anymore."

 

"Hm? Then what gal are you?" Jack asked, sitting on her rocking chair. "I'm the caretaker of this establishment." The woman said, turning to Jack. "And the landlord." She tapped a red jeweled ring on her finger. "The Lakewood Lady Thunderthorne of Tuberose." She picked up a small cane with a golden owl on the end. "Like you, I come far from here, as a rifter."

"A rifter?" Nine asked.

"Ooh!" Jack perked up. "She's from, the other Aethel.

"Another Aethel?" Becca turned her gaze, trying to pull off the crowd of children running amok, pulling on her fluffy blond strands and climbing over her still.

"They call it where Harvest where I'm from." Edalyn smirked. "In my time here, I've had so many adventures with many of my friends, I've traveled across the world, through war and peace, I've seen great things come and go and return. My world, well, I've tried to put that all behind me." She looked up at a white cape on the wall with a facemask behind glass. Under was a gold plated plaque

that read 'Mystic Rider.'"

"So, you're from Xi or what?" Becca asked.

"Not quite! Well.." Jack flipped herself upside down on the chair, playing with her Umbrella. "At some point in Aethel's history, regions, locations and entire people starting getting switched up with another place, a different world. Those who came from this world often replaced people who looked just like them, but were obviously different people. They called them Rifters." She rolled upside down on the chair, her eyes glowing a deep violet. "Though what came of their world or what happens in the other place, is anyone's guess."

 

Edalyn smirked, walking over to Jack's chair and patting her on the shoulder. "Yes, I am from a distant world far beyond this one. It's so loud there, and so peaceful here. Everything is just the opposite. I try not to think of it much." She pulled a roast out of the oven and put out plates for the kids, who began to help themselves before turning back to the three guests. "But I know that you and your friends are here for some reason, you're not tourists. You've been looking at that little watch since you got here, so? What's your story?" She looked at Becca.

"M..me?" Becca said. "I'm looking for-”

 

"We're looking for a shard that contains pieces of her companions soul, Lady Thunderthorne.

We would be grateful if you could assist us." Nine said bluntly.

 

"A, shard?" Eda gave pause.

"Yes mam. It contains part of her soul, and in some instances part of her power. It's a relic from her scattered remains, though she didn't think it would become something so powerful, or so sacred as some people think it to be."

"Oooohh! Say no more. You're here for THAT shard? Wow this world's so small, I guess everything that happens in the world's connected. Ohhh, Mocha. Could you bring that toy you found from the attic?" A tiny girl with creme-brown hair perked from the kitchen, running upstairs and bringing down a bucket of sticky toys, before pulling a shining gold shard out of a case, its glitter swirling inside.

"Ah yes, that one. It's a bit of an antique, you know, or so I'm told." Edalyn took it out and offered it freely to Becca, who took it from the woman.

 

"Uh, thank you." Becca said. "We'll see ourselves out then." She turned to leave, but Edalyn waved her over. "Why the rush? Sorry I had to fix kiddydinner, let me get some wine from the cellar and I'll cookup some meat and bread. We can have a nice meal together." She offered. "I get it, I do, you're on a quest to retrieve some relic, but a good conversation and great company doesn't hurt the soul, does it?" Becca took a look at her Analemma. "I guess we have time." She shrugged, heading to the dining room as the children swarmed her and the woman, Jack and Nine following behind.

 

The three soon headed to the mahogany table and sat down. When Becca looked up just a few angles, there was a thunder racing inside of her heart. Framed in glass and gold was a picture of a young blond girl with a soft and beautiful face, recognizable to her even now. She wore a green dress, with little white puffs along the collar and arm holes. A delicate red ribbon tied her hair together, holding back the blond curls that covered her face. A large tome of magic sat on her meek lap. Her gaze seemed to follow her wherever she turned, in the background a lush green forest reached out with soft green-tinted branches and white flowers. In the left corner of the picture was a small and simple inscription: “With love, Malaise Mannerly. Come back soon, I'll be waiting~” A woman who looked slightly like Eda, but with whiter, sheeny silver hair than Eda's mid-greys sat behind her, the

girl sitting on her lap.

Beyond all reason, Becca and Jack were stunned into silence. For a moment, it was as if no one was breathing and the room had lost a degree of heat. Eda came back with bottles of wine. Their heads swiveled towards her, and their mouths opened slightly.

"That's-"

"MOM!?!" Jack cried.

 

"I'll take some milk." Nine said.

Eda seemed confused and turned back to the framed picture, where she served wine in translucent glasses as she looked on, pouring a small cold cup of milk for Nine to lick from the table. "Oh, her?" She had gone back to her seat with the bottle, and turned towards Jack and Becca. "That girl is.. The girl who always knew she was going to be someone big. And was, in my opinion. I didn't make her that way, but her life was.. 'always' this way. Gifted, but troubled." There was a saddened look on Eda's face.

 

"Where did you find that girl?" Becca asked, sweat dripping down her cheek.

"I, I didn't exactly." Eda said, looking at the picture now, as if redirecting her poigant feelings to the portrait. "She was the adopted daughter of the previous, well 'me' that lived here before I was Rifted. Apparently she was also her gifted apprentice, when I arrived she'd been raising Astrid her whole life, apparently the girl was really attached to her. But when I got the whole switcharoo, I wasn't able to teach her anymore magic, and I lied to try to keep her from knowing the truth why. I'm sure she must've eventually figured the truth out, no two people can be a substitute for each other. It's not like I'm special, and she clearly had a lot of love and attachment for the other Eda. It didn't help I began living two lives."

Becca took a swirl of her glass, too uneasy to take more than an uncomfortable sip. The questions that swirled in her head and mind were so many. But still, they hadn't put her at ease. "How did you live two lives?" The drink went down bitter and slow, as if refusing to depart her from her sobriety.

 

"After I got here, I tried to raise her, I really did. There were alot of other orphans too that saw the other Eda as a mother and well, I didn't really want to do it at first." She smiled. "But, this crazy preacher began going around this town. Trying to recruit people, for some sort of war or something, especially kids. Child soldiers! She wouldn't take no for an answer. The Domina's soldiers also arrived oft trying to hunt this person, and this preacher and their forces would clash, it was really dangerous for the kids here. I had to dawn my old costume from back in Harvest and moonlit as the Mystic Rider. I couldn't let either side go around hurting people. Many more orphans were made in the, little clashes and fucked up battles that went on, and before I knew it I had alot more guests around here." She ran her hands through Ruby's hair, Eda's gaze shifting to the table quiet for a moment.

 

"I wanted to raise them all, but there were just so many. And the other Eda who raised Astrid was an exceptional mage, I couldn't do anything to fill the void for her so.. at some point Astrid just ran off. I'm not sure where she went, but eventually I heard she was the Domina's consul." Eda shrugged. "She was a gifted girl. Emotional, but I knew she'd go somewhere big. Not necessarily the best but.." she smiled, a little tear welling in her eye. "I'm glad she was born here. We're in this world together after all."

 

Becca and Jack looked up to the girl in the photo, it was hard not to. She seemed so young and carefree but the magic book in her lap and the pensive look in her eye gave away her intelligence.

"I didn't know Astrid came from a place like this.." Becca said.

 

Eda sighed. She looked at the portrait one more time, her throat tight.

"I hope she's.. ok.. She was such an innocent girl." Jack looked away and mumbled a 'mum'. The room felt stuffy, the silence was almost unbearable.

Nine slurped the last of her dish, placing the bowl back down.

 

There was a loud tremble that shook her bowl, the entire floor shaking. The group looked up, and saw Jacks hands quivering, looking at something in the window behind Nine. A looming shadow like a massive bird had perched in moutains beyond the window sill. Becca got up in a hurry and ran outside Jack following after her. Nine pushed through the doorway with a squeeze and picked up both girls, putting them on her shoulders to get a good view. The creature seemed oddly geometrical, yet towered over the hills and tops as if it were a living skyscraper made of crystal. "What the hell is that? Some kind of bird?" She looked up to the sky, and was awestruck by its size.

Jack began calling out. "Eda! What's going on?!"

"It's a Gulch Gularx. They've been drilling back there for awhile now. The Domina's ships always accompany it I didn't think there would be any more trouble today."

 

"Miss Thunderthorne, Miss Thunderthorne!" A little girl with blue drills and a velvet dress ran by to the woman's knees. "Misty and me were playing out there, and she fell in some sort of weird cave! I'm scared Misty will be stuck out there where that giant bird is!"

"W-what?!" Eda exclaimed.

Eda had an angry look in her eye, and ran out the door and down the mountainpath to see the large crystaline bird, a golden ship following close behind. Jack leapt in front and pushed her back. "Easy there ma'am. Go tell the kits to hunker down, we'll go investigate it."

"Says who?" Becca said angry.

Eda's eyes were narrowed and angry, but she nodded. "Right. If you're not back in thirty, I'm riding out there myself. Thirty. Minutes" She glared at the group, then turned back, kids in tow.

Becca and Jack, on Nine's back held on tightly while the Akura unit launched herself like a missile with each leap, heading towards the direction of the strange crystalline beast.

 

They reached the peak of the hill, the top of the mountains, the view below was amazing. It was a wide plataeu with strange pink, shiny rocks everywhere that seemed like miniature versions of the holy plateau in Gaia within the continent of Everfell. In the middle of the valley was a crystalline blue pit, and in the air crystal, geometrical shapes could be seen floating in the sky like a set of giant children's toys levitated in the air.

A massive crystaline bird was hovering above the scene, seemingly glistening. Jack whistled as it flew by, its oversized silver beak smashing into the blue pit repeatedly like a woodpecker searching for food.

"Stupid bird, what's it trying to do?" Becca asked.

"Eda said drilling." Nine explained. "If we're to find the girl, we should stop that first." She paid special attention to the hexagon-shaped gem atop its head. "There, that should be its weakspot. Get on there, I'll distract it."

"W-what? How?" Becca clamored. She picked up both girls and with a scream from the two, launched them as one does a football high at its forehead.

 

Nine, meanwhile, landed behind the creature and began firing arcs of energy from their claws

at the base. The birds attention turned to her, and so Jack began to take out their crowbar and smash at the hexagon atop. The bird began to screech, and with a thundering noise, rockets shot out from the top of its head as it began to float upward. Nine turned around and fired a series of claw blasts, sending the crystaline bird flapping its wings and soaring into the sky. She clutched the base of one of its legs and with all her strength, attempted to wrangle it down. Jack was soon able to break apart the pentagonal gem, the entire entity starting to shatter and crumble from the head down as like a castle of Jenga falling one tile at a time.

 

Nine leapt back, the creature falling apart behind her until it sprinkled into a glittering rain of shards into the pit below. Soon Jack and Becca glided together while the former held up her parasol, the two landed onto the plateau's rocks. "Wow.." Becca mumbled as she walked over towards the blue pit. She peered down, it was.. quite the mess, but she could see a crack near the bottom where some kind of statuesque hand was reaching out. "Misty?" Nine called out. "Misty are you down there?"

The three were interrupted when the roaring engines of the Glisterreign, a Golden Scorpion- class ship soon approached, its shadow casting far overhead in the sky. Out from the door sprung forth a white haired woman with a control pad for the ship. She looked around as if she'd misplaced something, picked up her emerald-helmet and slipped it on. With a few taps on her pad, the ship's railgun cannons began to warm-up.

 

Becca panicked. "Shit, they're still coming here after we destroyed their bird?!" The ship had begun to descend, its descent like a massive locust.

"That can't be good, right?" Becca asked.

 

"Stand aside and worry not." Nine said, their tall form pushing forward as her head bent down. The Set concentrated, tats on her muscular arms beginning to glow. Their hands clasping together, claws gripping an imagined spear. "Fleabags will learn to flee." They slowly dragged their hands apart, a long rod of electricity solidifying and lengthening between their grip. When even their tail was glowing at full mast, the Set's eyes turned pure white and they knew the charge was complete. With Olympic skill, Nine's claws held onto the beam as the ship's railguns slowed, turning the energy stream in their hands into a massive red and white thunderbolted spear as they launched it far at the target, piercing through its haul at vast speeds and sending the ship crashing down in a hail of red sparks.

The ship crashed into the rocks, its wreckage burning, it's cannons going off in the air. "The hell did you do that?" Becca asked.

"Magic, right? It's not hard." Nine replied.

"Magic? You don't.. you're not a.. mage tho?" "I am capable of much." Nine replied.

 

A young girl about the age of seven crawled out of the hole with mud in her green, ragged dress. She was pale and tired, her arms and legs so skinny, her face gaunt. "I was playing and got t- trapped down that hole.." She said, pointing to the pit she'd just crawled out of. "There's a ton of weird ruins down there."

"You're, Misty?" Becca asked.

 

Suddenly the group heard some strange noises, they turned around. Three figures left from

where the ship had crashed. The young girl ran off behind the Set lady's feet, the three staring at the group emerging.

 

The emerald helmet, rosary and wraith of roses around their neck Becca recognized all from the Bedlam fiasco, but of the two figures that emerged one she'd never seen before. A woman with blue stylish hair and a mallet Becca remembered attacking the crystal gems before, and a woman in silver armor whose helmet seemed to swirl like a faceless whirlpool in the center, wings around her backside was unknown to her.

 

Becca flinched. The air felt tense. Harmonizer floated eerily through the air, hands behind their back. "Do our lord's bidding. Wipe them out." She said without hesitation.

 

"Not gonna happen." Becca replied, cranking her metal arm in preparation for a rumble.

Harmonizer took notice of her, then Jack. She briefly tapped something on her pad, then looked back. "Jack.. the Lord said you'd betrayed us, such a shame for a Gem to go back on their liberator."

 

"Lord my ass." Jack replied, with a confident smile. "Think you have anything better than I got?" Her umbrella morphed into its crowbar form, glowing with rainbow power.

 

The woman in the silvery armor, Paradox turned invisible, fading out like the cheshire cat. "Becca, do you know how much the Dominus has talked of you?" She said, her voice a

chilling whisper, like a haunting of a soul.

"He's the one who's going to be sorry." Becca said, stepping up. The woman's helmet began to swirl like a black mass, emanating an aura of pure hate around the woman. With a quick gesture, the mana gathered around Becca began to distort and bend away from her in an odd, twisting fashion. "What the hell?" Becca screamed as she was sucked into the motion, then found herself 50 ft high in the air falling straight down.

 

"Becca!" Jack yelled, her vision sighting her up and running towards her fall destination. The next thing Nine knew, multiple vines appeared around her limbs from the ground, Ramona running to shove her mallet into the Set's face. She drew a small bit of blood, and with a RWWWWWWWWRL, Nine ripped apart the thorny vines and grabbed Ramona's arm, tossing her like a toy aside. Harmonizer charged forward, swiping at Nine with her sword. They were fast, but not fast enough. With one swift blow, the monster's claw was stuck in the chest of the warrior, pinning her down. Paradox reappeared behind Nine, creating a swirling vortex where lava from deep underground started spraying at the Set. The Set blocked it with golden bracelets. "Unmeltable." She remarked, electricity crackling from the golden bracelets as the lava dissipated. Her tail slammed the ground like a Goliath, all 3 girls hesitated. Their enemy felt like a tiger that could devour them at any moment.

 

They shot straight in the air towards her, while the Set leapt up, flew through the air and landed hard shaking the ground behind them. "Shatter!" Paradox screamed, their hand on the ground, cracks forming a spiral that attempted to swallow the Set beneath.

 

As Jack caught Becca, she slid near the sloped blue pit and almost fell in. With one hand they grabbed the slopeside, with the other they held onto Becca's hand. A trailing blue star bright enough to shine in the day crashed through the sky, eventually landing in front of them as a jetblack- haired girl.

"J-jetti!?" Becca breathed.

"Good to see ya mousey." Jack stuck her tongue out.

 

Jetti was not amused. "You two just don't learn do you? I was asked to take care of this by the Dominus, for reasons that are none of your concern." She held up Spirit Chaser. "Code 26: Waterworks." With a spinning tidal wave, Jetti unleashed a watery fountain aimed at them that they were caught off guard by. The two were pushed down into the pit below, the water sinking them into it like a faucet. Jetti pursued the two, passing by the sculpted hand as she dived down. Down below the three encountered now-flooded ruins glowing and emitting a soft purple light. Some of the architecture looked familiar to Becca, but much of it looked very old and broken.

 

Misty hid behind a rock, watched the fight from below, Harmonizer and Ramona fighting alongside Paradox to take on a single Set. Paradox was invisible, but the swirling mass that had formed around her was able to be smelled, an odor that was like burnt cinnamon, mildew and shoe polish. The aroma gave Nine enough delay not to be sucked in. The vortexes around her were very violent, sucking everything in the air like a blackhole until Nine found herself launched afar.

Harmonizer floated past Nine and shot projectiles shaped like petals, the shots aimed at Misty.

Nine tried to get the girl out of the way but upon grabbing her, her body was already sinking into the vortex below the ground. With a quick burst of super strength, they grabbed her around her arms and destroyed the ground, leaping far up.

"You need to find somewhere better to hide. This one can not protect you here, not against all

3." She said, before numerous petals sliced into her back. The petals began to form into a petal-like ball, before it transformed into a flower that was bigger than Nine, the petals glowing like a lantern in the deep. She looked at her arms- her tattoos and enchantments were flickering on and off, she could tell that her energy was being drained into the gigantic flower. Thorns stabbed through her and poisons began seeping deep into her body, weakening her while she was drained simultaneously. A lesser Set would've swiftly been shriveled and passed out in no time. "Bad move." She said as Harmonizer floated overhead. She began to supercharge her body, overjuicing the flower until it exploded into a beam of mystic light that socked Harmonizer dead in the face. She fell to the ground unconscious after tanking the explosion.

 

Nine turned to Ramona and Paradox next. "Only us 3 now. Rock, scissors, papers anybody?"

 

Paradox leapt backwards and fired a ball of vortex at her but she dodged it with ease and the attack hit the rock behind her. Ramona tried to charge up her mallet but Nine launched her down with a stomp, the mallet shattering against the rock. Nine then grabbed the rock, breaking its surface before throwing it at Paradox, the rock striking her and sending her spiraling off into the sky. Before Ramona could get her footing Nine mauled her from behind, lifting her up like a rag on a hooked rack and squeezing, the blue-haired girl fearing she'd suffocate. Her legs kicked outwards helplessly. "Still in control.. still in control." The amber emanating releasing from her body kicked her Drive into gear, she gripped her Mallet and swung it 180 around to Nine's face, smacking her in the nose. She recoiled and let go.

"O-ow.. that hurt."

Nine remarked, rubbing her nose.

 

Upon leaping back, Ramona's eyes went wide when she looked at the flat end of her mallet. It'd cracked. Nine swiftly grabbed her, her body in a vice grip as she pinned her to the ground. She'd never seen anything this before. The two looked at each other. Ramona's face was filled with fear.

Below the plateau's chasm Jetti had been pursuing the girls at high speeds until she stopped, her face showing a grin. "Code 5: Ichor Spinneret!" Jack shouted, her umbrella shooting eerie black webbing which spun forth like a net. Jetti easily cut it apart with her scythe, Spirit Chaser already coated in arctic frost that enhanced its sharp edge and strength. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Jack barfed a multicolored beam the girl's way, Jetti easily dodging and coming down to send a pale icicle into Jack's chest, which only made her scream louder as she rolled onto the ground and crumpled in pain.

Becca ran to launch a punch with her metallic fist, Jetti dodging the arm and hopping atop it. "Code 18: Gravity Faucet." A showering deluge of cold, heavy liquid hammered the girl down and anchored her.

 

She crawled towards Jack and twitched. "This is getting ridiculous." The two slightly got up. "Yeah, she's on a way higher level than 2 years ago, this is too much." Jack replied, her umbrella fading from frost to it's normal color. She offered her hand to Becca. "We're losing our shit, time to pull together then?"

 

Becca hesitated.

"You can do this!" Jack encouraged. With a sigh, she took her hand. The two began to waltz, Jack's body glowing and oozing around Becca's as their two forms squeezed into one. Their appearances merged, Jack's slick dark exterior becoming Becca's metallic epidermis, one yellow with pink sclera, the other shifting hues with black sclera.

 

Together they floated upwards, the one set of eyes looking at Jetti's malevolent grin, then down. Jetti saw the fused figure's body begin to glow, then with a waltzing glide the two began to launch ice and rainbow lightning at the fused girl, her combined strength plowing through Jetti's attacks and swinging her crowbar like a bat at her face.

"JEEEAAAAAATTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" She screamed, her strike barely blocked by Spirit Chaser. The two felt their strength matched with each push, Jetti's blade slashing the ground, sending chunks of masonry chunks flying everywhere. The debris hit near gem statues, several large temple structures and an ornamented dome overhead decorating their battle.

 

"Voltfire!" Jetti yelled, her weapon creating a stream of heated flaming electricity that ripped through numerous temples like butter and singeing the edges of Jackbecca's hair.

Jack's umbrella began to rotate like a helicopter in her hands. "Code 8: Figure-8 Blasterbomb!" The curved end unleashed a black shockwave that Jetti couldn't dodge, sending her flying back into a wall, crashing into a waterfall she'd made from her own attack above just earlier.

 

Uptop the surface Ramona had collapsed within a ditch, her backside covered in scratches and clothes ripped apart, her breathing a hoarse struggle. She attempted to get up, and Nine picked her body up and tossed her like a football into the stratosphere with a lounging throw. After she was only left with Paradox, whose immaterial body seemed to warp every time she was struck. Nine clawed at her in front, only for her to warp behind, side-to-side or atop her.

 

"A mere Set with Writ indents in her fleece." She remarked. "What a joke."

 

"Not funny." Nine remarked, as she began to charge her clawed hand, electricity crackling from her body. With a swipe she sent 3 stripes of electricity out, going through Paradox's body and

warping behind her. Nine continued, sending her hand through the knight like she was a ghost. "It's useless." She replied.

Nine's eyes widened. From behind the two, a massive gust began to blow, occupied by a chilling, eerie noise like wind-chimes. Paradox turned around to face a monstrous figure, its eyes shone like the sun with their mask. It was.. the Mystic Rider herself, in full costume. "You assholes just cannot leave my village alone can you!" Eda screamed, a swing of her fist sending noise and translating it into pure currents of electric-charged wind and ice that shattered Paradox's invisibility, causing the knight to cry out in pain as her skin was pelted with cold blasts and electricity.

 

Propelling Eda was an entire tornado behind her. On one arm, Eda's arm was on fire, on the other her arm was chilled with ice. The currents swung around her arms like a clock in the wind. "Aaaaaaand, this." A massive crackling bolt that was a mixture of both red and white electricity, lightning and thunder shot forth from her body that crashed into Paradox like a lightning rod, causing an eerie, bright blue and black flash to shine throughout the entire valley. Paradox screamed as the entire ground began to shake around her, the figure of the Mystic Rider herself standing proud and tall, her face like a stormy sun, hair a glistening aura of fire.

 

When the storm cleared, Paradox was frozen in a huge stalagmite, the ground cratered and ripped apart around the Rider's impact. They lowered their mask for Nine. "Sup kitten." Eda pinched the back of her tight stretchy leotard riding her ass. "This thing could use a tailor, its seen better days."

Nine nodded. "Indoubtably."

 

The Sentrimate gave a loud shriek and explosion, cracking out of the ice and shivering. Instinctively wind currents began to flow around Eda in warning. Nine grabbed Paradox. Even through her opponent's armor, the Set could feel the Sentrimate wriggling around underneath, gasping for breath as the Sentrimate attempted to break free. Eda shot her hands up to the Sentrimate, causing it to go berserk with energy. An odd smell filled the air.

Nine yelled out to Eda. "It's a fake."

"What?" She replied, sweat beginning to fall from her forehead. Paradox's form whiffed into smoke out of her helmet, the armor fighting independently and striking down at Nine. The Set used her free hand to shield the smoke.

 

The Sentrimate's body morphed again, now a luminary blur spinning and spiraling out of her armor, she grew and expanded considerably, extending her torso and gaining a muzzle, wings and feline shape while her surface became hard as stone. The woman transformed into a massive Sphinx, whose paw swipe sent the Set flying into a nearby mountain.

 

"Nine!" Eda called out, with concern, she began to gather a ball of wind around her fist to fire at the Sphinx, only for it to be slapped out of her grip by the monster's muzzle.

"Urk!" Eda cried out, as she was sent flying down. Nine's body felt it, like a massive thorn pricking her chest. She'd been poisoned by Harmonizer and her thorns earlier. She could feel her own body, her body growing hot and sore, her strength falling in line to the point that her movements felt so slow and weak, as if her feet were glued to the ground.

 

The large cat looked up and took in the sky. Her senses flowed the oxygen and nitrogen

through her lungs, as if the world was pulsing through her. Substances of life. Substances of death. The biological, mystical and natural meeting in a singularity that rewound all of the pain and regret. She pushed aside her hatred, focused her breathing and began to breathe in and out, like a machine of natural life, her thoughts of vengeance against the Mystic Rider fading away like a breeze. She looked up and with all of her determination drawn into her paw, she stabbed her own chest, letting blood out like wine. Her tattoo's all glowed as she twisted the injury, her claws letting as much poison out of her heart as she could. With a crunching twist, she leaned forward and puked more blood away from her system. When she exhaled, she felt a slight chill that went through her throat, she felt that slight tickle in her ear and her lungs. She let out another huge, deep breath, and her body felt fine. "All out." She said, vigor and strength returning to her. She looked back where Eda was fighting the Sphinx and thumped her legs backwards, intensifying her muscular thighs and creating a crater as she leapt and blasted through the air, rocketing towards the Sphinx's back from several mountains away.

Nine's claws began to glow blue as she closed in on the Sphinx, her body vibrating with energy that caused the air around her to quake. She was about to strike. Eda was about to land a punch. Soon the two wrangled Paradox as if they were farmhands, rocking and tiring her ankles and back by the weight of Nine's pull. The battle was coming to a close, Nine felt victory was near.

 

Paradox's eyes began to glow, in her massive form her aura passed through the Set and responded by circulating above.

 

Nine felt an aura of power in the air, it felt like a cold breeze, a chill that went through her. She turned around and saw a black, shadowy form in the sky. An aura that seemed to draw everything in and out of existence like a portal. The aura swirled around itself in the center, forming a black silhouette, which formed a copy of herself. Paradox began to shrink once again, becoming a bright blurry wisp of light that returned to her armor as the shadow Nine conjured up tackled the original.

The two were locked together like linebackers. Mystic Rider ran forward, striking the shadowy Nine with a thunderkick that caused a crater to form on the shadow, the copy leaping forward to smash down at Eda but she ducked and let a gust of air blow her aside.

 

The two were left with the copy of the Set, Paradox fleeing and gone. They saw symbols on the doppelganger's arms began to light up, powering into her cheeks, facial tattoos and her eyes until she illuminated her head, which began to pulse with color like a lava lamp. She let out a bellowing roar as if trying to summon a beast. The figure's tail began to twitch, sending an aura of pure lightning and thunder into the ground that caused the ground to shatter like a volcano. Nine blocked the immense burst with her arms which began to glow in turn, she grabbed Eda. "Ready to fly girl?" She said. "You take a liking to my legs?" The girl teased back. She could feel the mystic aura from the Set transferring to her, as if absorbing a glittering current.

 

She threw Mystic Rider like a sonic pitch, Eda began to feel like the weight of the world was lifting away from her shoulders. She flew at 8000 mph blasting through the sky like a bullet. The copy of Nine leapt in pursuit, her feet and legs twitching with lightning energy. Eda threw herself into a ball and rolled, her body glowing with air currents. She looked back at her opponent and grinned, laughing to herself and pulling on her own hair. "I love you, and I hate you, and I can't lose to you, and you.." Upon the curve of her swerve, Eda descended onto the copy, her legs drilling into Nine with hundreds of kicks a second, the fusion of Nine's energy and her own divebombing her opponent who tried to swipe and punch back. She felt her body twitch like a spider in the wind, as if she'd taken thousands of punches before her body was thrown downwards. The contest between her legs and duplicate's fists created enough friction to ignite the atmosphere for hundreds of meters. Nine turned the attack into her advantage, her entire body began to glow as she began to supercharge, the entire

aura around her flaring up like a nuclear blast, she focused everything into a single sharp point, aimed it forward. "EDA!" She yelled. From her nail pointing ahead, the beam was launched like a laser.

 

The copy, requiring all her strength just to hold off Eda thrashing and crushing it into a crater from above, turned too late. Her arm went up to block- the beam piercing through her paw's block and directly through her shadowy skull.

 

Her paw blew off and shot behind her like a bullet, causing her body to explode into thousands of pieces, her aura disrupted and her body falling as pure dust. The copy of Nine blew up like a massive explosion, the blast hitting Eda in the face and sending her crashing against the mountain, her body pancaked into an indention that had Nine's fingerprint engraved in it. Nine began leaping and sprinting through the landscape until she found her and collapsed. The two girls layed there, Nine breathing deeply, the girl panting like a dog after a 10k run, but having traveled only a couple of kilometers at most to reach where Eda landed.

"You okay?" She said.

 

Eda tried to get up. Her legs twitched, her right Achilles tendon was blown out, her right knee was swollen and her right foot had a crack running from heel to toes. "Yeeeesssss.." She said, her words pained.

Nine picked her up, her grip not as strong as the copy's though. "

 

"We both took some serious hits." Nine replied. Eda's eyes closed shut. She began laughing like a hyena. "Both of us? You silly jerk- You're built like a tank. A couple hits to you are nothing." "You should feel your pain, you know."

"I do. I felt your blast. You blew me out, Nine! I was nearly as dead as that-" She touched her head, the flesh dripping with cold red droplets, her fingertips leaving behind a trail of blood over her forehead and cheeks. "-that!" She said, waving to the remains of her copy. Nine's eyes widened. "I didn't know I could do that, I really didn't."

 

"Whatever, I'll be good. Let me lay down, go help the kiddos and their babyfest." Eda teased, she felt so tired.

"Yeah, let me be the mama bear for a minute." Nine replied.

 

Back under the subterranean, Jetti continued engaging Jackbecca, her icy scythe sending icicles at every clash against her opponent's crowbar. Jack looked at her hand, her nails frozen and hard as ice. Her attacks were weakening, and her body began to turn blue as Jetti's blasts froze and hardened her, then her metal arm split in half. "Got you!" Jetti yelled, she tried to finish off her opponent, only for Jackbecca to grab the extended ice-blade of Spirit Chaser and crack it in half, weapon reverting into numb-chucks. The girl was free to fight, Jetti began to panic and scream.

"No! No no no no no no no!" She screamed, she began to gather wind in her hands. "Fuck this! Code 19: WIND-HOOKED ASTRAL WHIP!" Suddenly the nunchucks lasso'd an icy current that constricted all over Jackbecca and Jetti started slamming her into the ground. "Why won't you just DIE!" She yelled. The two slammed into a waterfall, they stood up, their bodies bruised and shivering in a cold ice sweat, one arm less. She tried to charge forward. "Code 27: POLAR VELOCITY." The Glitterkiss magus turned into a missile of pure white and blue and rocketed towards the two, ricocheting off them with an earth-shaking burst and blasting the merged target together. Becca's body went flying into a temple wall and tumbled, leaving scrapes of red along the ground as she collapsed.

"Jeack!" Becca yelled, her voice trembling as she was slowly losing her strength. Jackwas also panting. "I- I can't fight this long anymore! Can barely stand.."

"Yeah, I feel ya. C'mon, let's make a run for it." Jack replied. "I don't see no other way outta this. She's alot stronger than way back.."

 

The Mystic Rider looked up, the mountain she was ascending in her vision with no visible end. Nine placed her down near the underground hole.

The girl looked up, she began to cry. She held herself together, then slowly raised her head up to the sky and began to laugh, letting out a small cry of terror. Her laughter began to turn her into ice and her eyes began to crack into frost. "What's so funny?"

"We just beat the biggest, baddest, meanest bitch in the world. I should cry, right?" "No, you should stop laughing, that is."

"Right right, but I can't stop! We beat that evil bitch, all of those haters in fact. Feels like a million!" Eda replied, coughing continually and straining herself.

"You're going to make yourself sick!" Nine set her head near a rock, trying to treat her gently. "Hun ain't nobody that can cure this mamma." Eda kicked her moveable leg up, waving it

teasingly. "When we get back to the orphanage, will you show me how to make that soup?" She asked

Eda, who chuckled. "I'm serious. I have, someone back home in my galaxy who'd love your cooking. They always burn the soup."

"No way. You'll get cat hair in my pot, you big lug." She snorted. "No wonder you cats are burning soup. You're on some crazy hellish magic damnit."

"You're a brat." Nine said, she looked into the girl's eyes, one still glowing green with the other a hazel hue, both still glistening with the same glint of mischief.

"I am. I'm a brat. I'm the biggest brat in the entire world." Eda was finally starting to catch her breath again, the pain further and farther away. "But sure kiddo. I'll teach you the art of soup. Eda style."

She replied.

"You're a damn sweetheart, Eda." Nine said. "Kinda crazy tho."

"Yeah. That's why you and the orphans need to watch out for me." She whispered. "I'm a damn psychotic sweetheart."

 

"I'll be back in a bit, just try to relax." Nine said. She left Eda and crawled down into the underground.

 

As Becca and Jack finally unmerged, the two crawled along the cold iced ground, everything within the temple appeared like a snowglobe , a winter storm had taken over, crystallizing the statues and ruins into pure blocks of blue and white. Jetti approached them slowly, enjoying her ascend with a hint of sadism. Jack opened her lips to unleash a rainbow beam of light, which was blocked by an impenetrable bubble of ice around the girl. In retaliation Jetti grabbed the crowbar out of her hands and smacked her face with the crowbar, sending her stumbling back onto the ground in a daze. "Now, to finish off this monster for little sis." Jetti said as she turned to Becca, who was shivering on the ground. She pointed Spirit Chaser at her. "You think that ice is cold? Try death." Becca gave her one last look, seeing the swirling madness in her eyes. "I'll see you in paradise!" She said, as she took a final breath, then the swirl of the mystic world drawn around her arm and weapon.

 

"Code 10: E-EKKPPF" Suddenly she was gagged by a paw the size of her face.

Nine appeared behind and tossed her into a statue 50m away, her torso cracking into the stone and leaving her legs dangling out.

 

Becca looked up with a gasp.

"What? Don't say something dumb like 'I didn't need help.'" Nine told her. "I just wanted, to say thank you." Becca sighed.

 

Jetti let out a scream as she pulled her body out and leapt into the air, her hair flowing like the wind. She began to charge, swinging a scythe down at the catgirl. "Code 29: PANDORA'S PELTIER!" Suddenly her hair swirled and a huge flurry of hair whirled around her like a tornado, spinning Nine like a propeller with an icy whirlwind behind her, attacking Nine's backside. Her descent created a sonic boom, the attack fast approaching.

 

Nine swatted her away like a fly without averting her gaze and Jetti went flying. "You're welcome." She told Becca.

 

Jetti swirled back, letting out a bellowing scream as her mystic aura swirled over the girl and Spirit Chaser, transforming into a massive twister of wind that began to turn her eyes white, and the girl's head like a drill. "Begone!" She screamed, Nine turned her body and charged at full force, she began to swivel with her arms to punt the air, making her Set's body a spinning wheel that smacked the glitterkiss girl hard and fast, sending her flying upwards. The Set clapped her hands, creating a land of thundering spear. She launched it towards Jetti with a loud boom against Jetti's whirring winds, the blast sent Jetti careening into a mountain, blasting her into a crater of rock and ice as the entire clash of forces created a blizzard in the atmosphere that caused a landslide which lead to an avalanche of ice and rocks to plunge Jetti into the abyss of the underground, causing a tremor that was sent through the entire Earth and rocking the entire planet like a tidal wave.

 

When Jetti finished landing, her limbs felt crushed and body flattened and fried.

 

Nine turned back towards Becca, offering her paw. "Now then, shall we go back?" She said. "Mystic Rider's healing up outside, and those other ladies left too."

"Uh, okay." She replied.

 

Nine walked forward, her head dipping in and out of a deep freeze as she took a step forward and another back. A step of ice and another of liquid. Becca was walking like a ghost, the wind around them whistling her through. They were about to open the cave when Nine's ears perked up. "I can feel something.. It's weird." She told Becca. The set's previous attack had created a massive hole in the ceiling wide enough to see the sky. "Something in the air.."

"Feelings are weird." Becca replied, still panting. She tried to laugh. "Yeah you know?"

 

Nine felt a breeze coming from the left. The two looked up, the sky was a stormy blue. "It's- that statue." They looked towards it- a huge statue of a sizable woman with ringlets and a curvy dress sculpted in. Her face was an odd sight, as if she were a living statue with her expression frozen, her face not in expression but with a look of sadism in her eyes.

"Is that, um.." Nine said.

"Rose Quartz." Jack replied, pulling herself up finally. She picked up what she could find of Becca's metal arm and tossed it towards the girl.

Becca started to approach the statue, the strange energy she was feeling as ominous as Nine had described.

 

She looked up at the statue. Nine joined her gaze.

 

"Rose Quartz..?" Nine asked. Becca stared at the statue, her eyes narrowing. She looked at the statue's face and the ringlets. She got the dreadful feeling that the more she gazed in, the more the statue gazed back.

 

The pink diamond on the gem's chest released a star-shaped beam of light which shone on Becca.

Becca turned around, her eyes closing too late, then opening as she slowly turned back and looked into the vivid pink glow. Her armour, her face, the girl's posture. The gem stood in awe at Becca. She felt an epiphany shine from the light and course through her, causing her Becca to collapse onto her knees. The diamond gem's glimmer began to crack like ice, fissures appeared and cracks and lines crept towards the center of the pink diamond.

"I.." The girl said, her eyes beginning to tear, the statue's lips parted and a smile formed on her face.

 

The crack around the gem continued, growing from the center.

"I, I- I was her." The girl said, her face twisting in terror. "I was her." "Her? What do you mean?" Nine shook the girl concerned.

 

Her face felt frozen. "You're Rose? Rose.. you.. you're me! You're me!" She repeated. "I mean, I'm me but, how-"

Jack and Nine grew confused, and deadly concerned.

The Obsidian gem looked down at the girl and took in the scene. "What's wrong with her?"

 

The statue's head suddenly snapped up, a beam of pink shone from the gem like a laser, shattering a boulder near them into thousands of fragments and splinters, the blast tearing the landscape. The two girls ducked and shielded their eyes with their arms, which shone with a rainbow of beams, each of them trying to fight the beam. "No.. no no no..!" Becca screamed. "Run!" Nine said. She ran into the hole with Becca, and with Jack, jumped out of the temple. From the numerous laserbeams, the temple in the underground cavern began to collapse and implode. The three barely understood what had just happened. Nine, seeing no sense in the situation could see Becca's panic and gently threw her arms around her, giving her a hug.

"It's alright kiddo, it's alright. I'll help ya sort this out." Becca sobbed in her arms.

"What- how could that be? She was, I was her! She's from the past, she couldn't be me-" "Shsshs. We'll figure it out together." Nine replied. "The important thing is we're all s-"

 

An icy spear stabbed through Nine's chest from behind. Behind her, a long and thick trail of blood zigzagged and curved from beyond the horizon in the cavern and even blizzard-snow above from the rooftop. Jetti was torn and ragged beyond compare, putting every last ounce of energy she had in a single attack. Spirit-chaser lodged firmly inside the feline. "Code -1: Perfect Zero-storm. Arctic Absolution." The spear jutted out of her chest, from behind her, Jetti's hand began to grab her shoulder and yank her out of the shadows, Nine's arms trying to reach for Becca to protect and

shield her, as if covering someone from a grenade. Jetti's eyes snapped shut as a white flash exploded around her, a loud crack that sounded like a giant tree splitting in half reverberated in her ears followed by an echo like firecrackers popping everywhere at once.

 

The entire sky turned into a white cold flash.

 

Jack's eyes swirled to a white and blue as she collapsed and froze completely, becoming ice- white and falling to the ground. The explosion created an icy storm and tremor around the world for the next half-hour. Everywhere within 15 kilometers of the impact instantly reached −273.15 °C degrees, as far as a ten thousand kilometers upwards. The atmosphere rocked back and forth like a lollipop stick, the energy creating a huge tidal wave of air and heat transitioning that crashed and rattled the continents, causing tidal waves across the planet from the change in weather patterns.

When the white flash ended, Spirit-Chaser was destroyed.

 

Then, in the darkness of the icy storm that followed the singularity, in the midst of the world's atmospheric weathered collapse, there stood a Set with one eye glowing like a sun, one eye glowing like a moon. Her hair was a flaming black sea, her limbs were glistening like frosted jewels and precious metals. Her maw was like a black hole and her body had turned into a glimmering black sun that blazed with the cold-freeze of the explosion. When Jetti looked up at her, this black sun introduced the girl to something she hadn't felt in a long, lone time: Fear.

 

The silhouette of the fearbringer reached towards Jetti's neck and slowly strangled her, a set of eyes like a white diamond behind the gloom of the black sun.

"P-please.." Jetti could barely make out the words.

 

"Please what?" The Set replied, slowly pulling the Glitterkiss's frozen limbs off like they were frozen cracked taffy. She grabbed the girl's head, her paw and claws extending around her entire face and the back of her skull " The Set's eyes flashed like starlight, shining white along with her maw and claws, and the girl's maw suddenly opened, her teeth bursting-in and crunching Jetti's skull like a nut.

 

She tore her head off and spit it out, letting the girl's body fall behind promptly into the snow with a soft thud.

 

"NINE!" Becca cried, safe but traumatized. When the catgirl turned around, she looked

down and saw the massive, cracked solid hole in her chest, crystals filling in the gaps. "We've got to-" The wound began to heal, its cracks and crystal splinters fusing into a pure, beautiful diamond-like shell, covering her heart in an icy mosaic of frost and diamond. "I'm good. Really, I’m f-fine." She grinned and pawed Becca on the shoulder. But slowly the crystals extended beyond the void, traveling through her shoulders, up her neck and deepening, her entire body becoming iced over.

 

Code -1.

 

Becca recalled the last time she'd heard a Glitterkiss girl use a spell of that rank. She'd lost a friend to it.

The horrible realization was now dawning on her how that would soon repeat. "Please, don't move!" Becca was tearing.

Nine reached for her forehead, pulling hard and against the pain as quickly as she could before it was too late. She began to pull at her forehead, stabbing her claws in until she drew blood and pulled out a diamond-shaped red jewel from the flesh. "Hold still." Becca complied. She watched the large cat slowly place the jewel on Becca's own forehead, shoving it so tight that the girl felt as if her own skull would crack. Something squirmy. Something electrical. An interlude into her soul. A connection, a fissure, her own internals rearranging, Becca squealed, the sensation of her brain going into an adrenaline overdrive fighting to handle whatever the Akura unit had done to her.

"It'll be... alright." Nine said, the cold stiffening her vitals and traveling up her neck until she couldn't breath. "I've got 9 lives.. maybe 8. And you're going to be the best one yet." She said as she looked into Becca's eyes.

Nine was shivering and wet with glossy, hard glassy fissures, her face cold and lips beginning to crack and drip blood like an icicle. The frost grew over her until her entire body was nothing but a block of ice, she let out a sigh and began to shiver harder. A small puff of air flew from her nose, then her body stopped moving. The Set's maw glistened with her final light as she raised the hand. The catgirl roared, echoing through the mountains and capturing the world in her vision before she was completely crystallized. Cracks spread from her final roar, then spread division throughout until she shattered into hundreds of crystal shards. Each crystal glinted in the moonlight and sunrise, each one with a hint of white-blue. Becca was reminded of Thatti's fate, but rather than be carried through the stars Nine's remains crumbled into a shimmering pile laid across in broken pieces.

 

Despite the dizziness running through her head, she started digging through the pile, desperation overwhelming her. After several moments, she found a single dense furball the size of a walnut, she held it tightly, losing her sense of balance. The red shard in her forehead integrated deeper,

 

She turned around, as if there were someone behind her.

"..Becca?" Eda said, who'd leapt high and far prior when the arctic nuke went off, and was only now arriving back at the blast-site. She watched the girl tremble, furball in her hands Her heart skipped a beat. "..is that... her..?" Eda asked. "Is it?" She repeated, hugging the girl despite being so shaky herself.

 

"M..m... "

 

But Becca couldn't form the proper words anymore. Her mind completely shut down.

Some residents of Aethel swear on that day, they saw a black star coruscating in the sky, as if purring down a eulogy onto the world.