Aetheral Space

The city was silent, an abandoned skeleton, its gutted skyscrapers silhouetted against the setting sun. Mannequins smiled vacantly as the light slid off their faces. Rats skittered through the stretching shadows.

And atop a massive silo, Ruth Blaine sat, her legs crossed. She was breathing steadily, her eyes closed, as if she were meditating. Right now, her heart was surrounded by her armour… that was all that had allowed her to reach this place without provoking her target's ire. It was a fragile protection, and one she now intended to do away with.

Ruth thumped her fist upon the roof beneath her.

Ten.

Deep in a derelict factory, Lily Aubrisher's head snapped up.

Nine.

She vanished in a shower of blue sparks, and the door flew off its hinges.

Eight.

She sprinted across a highway, burning her footsteps into the road beneath her.

Clap.

Ruth Blaine brought her hands together, and the sound of their connection echoed through the empty city around her. Infused by her Aether, the noise was like the stomp of a giant beast, accompanied by red tendrils that lit up the night. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Seven.

Lily leapt off the road onto a building, and from there to a higher building, and from there once more to one even higher. In that instant, the city was nothing but her staircase. The only sign of her passing were the craters she left in the rooftops and the trail of electricity in her wake.

Six.

Lily let herself fall off the next roof, arms high in the air as her plummeting form was reflected in the glass windows behind her.

Five.

Even with her mind lost to an endless dream, Lily Aubrisher still had the body of a warrior. In an instant, she calculated the angles and trajectories needed to reach her opponent. In an instant, she readied herself for her next move.

Four.

She made it.

Lily kicked off the building with such force that each and every glass pane on it shattered from the impact, the crater alone nearly splitting the structure in two. Like a bullet, Lily Aubrisher zoomed forth towards her prey.

Seeing the distant glow of approaching blue Aether, Ruth Blaine rose to her feet, her hair billowing in the wind behind her. It was already beginning to shine like a wildfire. Once more, she brought her hands together into a gunshot.

Clap.

Three.

Lily's trajectory fired her into another building, from which she kicked off again -- and again, and again -- leaving a trail of broken skyscrapers behind her.

Two.

Now, it was a straight shot. Lily twisted in the air, tucking her arms in and pointing her feet forward in preparation for a lethal dropkick.

One.

Ruth Blaine blinked.

It doesn't matter how fast you are… she thought. If I know exactly when you're going to reach me… it's nothing.

Clap.

Zero.

Ruth Blaine brought her hands together for the third time -- and caught Lily Aubrisher's leg in her grip.

Even having caught it, the impact alone was devastating -- the roof of the silo exploded as Ruth and Lily went flying off it, Ruth still holding onto that leg with everything she had. Screaming in pain and exertion, she twisted the limb with all her strength even as the wind whipped against her, pulling and turning until --

Snap.

-- she felt it break.

Lily Aubrisher didn't display any sign of pain. She didn't scream, or shout, or cry. Instead, she just calmly swiped her arm -- and slammed her palm into Ruth's chest, spiking her far down towards the ground like a basketball and freeing herself from her opponent's grip.

As she was forced out of the grapple, Ruth knew she couldn't stop and think about her next move. In a fight like this, thought spelt death. Those who couldn't rely on their instincts wouldn't live to regret it…

…but Ruth Blaine had already decided not to regret anymore anyway.

Noblesse Set!

Ruth activated the Noblesse Set the second she hit the ground, and the tremendous recoil fired her right back up towards Lily. Pulling her fist back, Ruth readied herself with all the speed and force the near-lethal maneuver had blessed her with. Screaming, she plunged that burning red fist forward.

It didn't take.

Lily caught Ruth's punch in an infused hand before it could strike her stomach -- and with her other hand, swept a chop through the air that could have taken Ruth's head off. At the last moment, she pulled her head back, letting the chop brush inches over her face instead. The air pressure alone decapitated the factory behind her.

The momentum took both of them, slamming them through and into a neighbouring office building. Separated by the hail of debris, they both plunged their fingers into the floor beneath them, forcing their bodies to a halt in the middle of the dust-covered -- and fake -- office space. Ruth straightened up.

She'd achieved her aim with that first attack, she could confirm that now. Lily's right foot was entirely facing the wrong way -- if she'd been herself, Ruth doubted she could even have brought herself to move right now. Even with whatever those bastards had done to her, though, the injury would have an impact. No matter how fast Lily could move, she still needed working legs to do it.

All this went through her mind between one blink and the next. That was all the time afforded to her.

Lily Aubrisher lunged forward.

It was funny. Breaking Lily's leg had definitely been a massive boon for Ruth Blaine. Still, all it really meant… was that her eyes could now track the afterimages.

"Hurry," Sam hissed, keeping his body low as if that would save him. "Hurry hurry hurry hurry."

"I am hurrying," Serena replied.

She squatted down and planted her palms against the ground. Violet Aether coursed through her hands, and she pulled two concrete pickaxes out of the pavement. She tossed one to Sam, and one to Alcera, before plucking another out for herself. Flipping it in her hand, she got back to her feet.

The Widow's Cold Sleep was pretty nice to look at. It was like an ice sculpture had been erected in the middle of the street -- a sparkling cuboid flower, with the woman herself slumbering at its core. Even asleep, her eyes were open, staring with a muted disdain off into empty space.

"So we just crack it open?" Sam said doubtfully, looking down at the pickaxe in his hands. "Is that even safe? What if damaging this thing kills --"

Alcera wasted no time. With a wordless scream of exertion, she swung her pick with all her strength at the Cold Sleep structure. The ice cracked, the noise accompanied by a wince from Set.

"Amantha," he turned away, putting a finger to his ear. "How's Blaine looking? We still have time? We still have time, right?"

Amantha Noon's voice came back over the comms, grainy and indistinct.

"You guys are gonna wanna see this," Amantha said, chewing on a ration-biscuit as she watched the battle through Demon Core's scope.

Well, she said that, but at this point there wasn't much to see.

The battle had moved into an office building -- and so all that could be seen of the combat now were the flickering lights that moved up and down the levels. If that indicated where the fight was currently taking place, though, it must have been something to behold. Second floor, fifth floor, ninth floor, third floor -- the building was flickering up and down like an ornamental tree.

"Don't give me a line, tell me what's happening!" Sam's panicked voice -- which was really his default voice, honestly speaking -- came back over the comms.

Amantha sighed. "Okie dokie. They're still fighting in a building in Sector B2. Both have taken hits, but it seems like this is gonna go on for a while longer. You're safe to go digging or whatever the heck."

"Roger that."

The comms clicked off, and Amantha hummed softly to herself as she leaned back towards the scope. Perched in the cliffs around the city like this, there wasn't much she could do to get to the others in time for departure… but snipers didn't live long up close, anyway. Right now, she was in her element.

Sitting and waiting… waiting for the perfect shot.

The ice cleared away from the Widow's face with Alcera's third swing of her pickaxe. The tool broke in her hands as she stepped away, her breathing heavy. Even as she freed her superior, she narrowed her crimson eyes in resentment of that fact.

The effect was immediate.

With a blink, the Widow's eyes regained their clarity, and her breathing resumed its calm tempo. From her perspective, it must have seemed like time had skipped forward since she'd activated Cold Sleep, but if that bothered her any she didn't show it. She just turned her head slightly to look down at Sam, even as the frost fell from her grey hair.

"What's the situation?" she croaked.

Skeletal claws clashed with bolts of lightning.

The building was their battlefield now. What level they were fighting on didn't matter. If they wanted to descend, they just pressed down on the floor below them. If they wanted to ascend, they just jumped through the ceiling above them. To them, this building might as well have been made of matchsticks. To them, this city might as well have been made of matchsticks.

Ruth Blaine, clad in her Skeletal Set, darted forth on all fours -- crawling beneath a desk in the instant before Lily attacked. The heat of the lightning she launched was enough to incinerate the wooden furniture instantly, but it still provided enough visual cover for Ruth to get in close. Roaring like a wild beast, she lunged in and swept her claws up towards Lily's mask, seeking to shatter it as quickly as possible.

She didn't fully understand what had been done to Lily, and she didn't fully understand how to snap her out of it, but she was following her instincts now -- and her instincts told her that mask had to go. Once she could look Lily in the eyes, she was sure she could make her remember. The battles they had fought together, the victory they had claimed, the bond they'd forged in their time together. So long as Ruth could look through the windows to her soul, she was sure she could pull it free again.

Not that Lily was going to make it easy.

Three flashes of light like a camera going off -- her speed was such that she seemed to snap from position to position rather than actually moving. With the first snap, she leaned back to avoid Ruth's swipe. With the second, she dropped down to the ground, legs spread wide and crooked like those of a spider. With the third, she jabbed two fingers forward, firing a bolt of electricity towards Ruth's gut.

Noblesse Set!

A bead of sweat swiftly evaporated from Ruth's forehead as the lightning struck her. Her timing had to be perfect, or else she would surely die. The bolt of electricity was reflected at the very last moment -- but with a fourth snap, Lily simply stepped out of the rebounding attack's way and let it zoom past her. It burnt a hole in the wall behind her and lit a path out into the city.

Ruth took a breath in the moment that maneuver had bought her.

Right now, the Noblesse Set was Ruth's lifeline. She could equip it onto part of her body in the same amount of time it took to think about it. Compared to that, manually blocking or dodging an attack seemed unbearably slow. At the same time, she couldn't overuse it either. If a series of rapid attacks destroyed all the pieces of her Noblesse Set, she wouldn't be able to defend against a finishing blow until it regenerated.

So -- she just had to put in the work herself.

Direwolf Set!

The shell of the beast encased her body in an instant -- and she bounded forward, destroying the room with each stomp upon the floor. In dodging, Lily had left an opening, one Ruth fully intended to take advantage of. With a snarl, she slammed her shoulder into Lily's body, seeking to send her flying through the hole in the wall -- but Lily seized that shoulder with both hands and pushed against it, grinding the balls of her feet into the floor.

The blow had been blocked.

Damnit… she shouldn't be able to beat me in pure strength… but…

Ruth's eyes flicked down, and she saw what Lily was doing. Tiny sparks of lightning were binding Lily's feet to the carpet below -- static electricity? Ruth didn't really get how it worked, but somehow it was keeping Lily fixed in place, bolstering her strength to let her withstand Ruth's attack.

She gritted her teeth. With her being controlled, Ruth had expected Lily's attacks to be brutal and wide-ranged, but she was still capable of little tricks like this? That would make things difficult.

Rather, that would make things deadly.

As the two of them ground to a halt, Lily raised one hand -- and lightning blazed in her grip. Electricity coursed and lashed between her fingers, before surging outwards and stabilizing into a structure like a longsword. Without hesitation, she swung it up towards Ruth's head.

Noblesse Set!

The black maw of the Direwolf Set was replaced by the pale helmet of the Noblesse Set, ready to reflect Lily's sword-strike. The second it appeared though, the sword Lily had created disappeared -- and Lily's empty hand lashed out instead. Ruth's eyes widened to their utmost.

She baited me!

Lily wrapped her hand around Ruth's throat and squeezed. Despite the size difference, Ruth was quickly brought down to one knee, her choking barely audible through the featureless Noblesse visage. She swung her free fist sideways at Lily's head -- but a bolt of lightning lashed out from the girl's temple, deflecting the punch and sending Ruth's hand back down to the ground.

As she was strangled, Ruth could only look forward, right into the black-and-white mask that covered Lily's face. If only she could get that damn thing off… she reached out to try and tear it away, but more lightning just repelled her hand every time… slowly, her eyes began to fail her… her eyes began to flutter…

…her eyes began to close…

Guardian Entity: Byakko! 100%!

Right before Ruth's consciousness faded, there was a sound like a balloon bursting --

Pop!

-- and a sudden explosion of force sent both Ruth and Lily flying.

Lily recovered first, flipping in the air and thrusting her hands forward to fire off more lightning -- but before she could get the attack off, a massive fist slammed into her body and spiked her out of the building entirely. The owner of that fist dropped down to the floor in her place -- and as his hand returned to its normal size, smoke trailed from the fingers of Wolfram of the White.

He whirled his head around to face Ruth. "Miss Blaine! Are you okay?!"

Ruth grunted as she picked herself up from the floor, the white helmet of the Noblesse Set swapping out for the snarling face of the Direwolf in a flash of red Aether.

"I'm good," she forced out. "But where the hell did you come from?"

Wolfram's gaze flicked anxiously between Ruth and the hole in the wall Lily had gone flying through. "I -- I was hiding inside her armour, I got stuck there during the fight, back before -- but, but Miss Blaine -- it -- she isn't just a thing, she's Miss Aubri --"

"I know," Ruth said gravely.

He swung around to face her, his eyes wide. "What?!"

"I know," Ruth repeated, standing up straight. "It's why I'm here. I'm trying to snap her out of it."

"Well, we --"

The air shifted. Ruth took in a sharp breath. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. In that moment, all of Ruth Blaine's instincts told her to accept death.

This time, she would ignore them. With one bound, she seized hold of Wolfram. With another, she launched the two of them out of the building, flying off in the opposite direction from where Lily had gone.

It was nearly too late.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A colossal bolt of lightning spat down from the sky and lanced through the building, permeating each and every level in an instant. The explosion that followed a moment later devoured the building entirely -- and as Ruth wrapped her body protectively around Wolfram, pellets of shrapnel bounced off her armoured back.

The two of them rolled to a stop on the ravaged ground below, their forms separating as they reflexively assumed combat positions. Wolfram looked warily up towards the sky -- and it was no wonder. The environment had changed while they'd been fighting inside. The clear sky from earlier was gone, replaced by a tumultuous sea of broiling clouds. A thunderstorm. Was this a coincidence, or something brought about by Lily's powers?

Ruth got the feeling she wouldn't be getting an explanation.

Lily Aubrisher strode out of the flames, transformed into a silhouette of death by the inferno. Wolfram's emergence had shattered the outer layer of her armour, revealing the sleek black bodysuit beneath -- and as she advanced, Lily tore away the shredded remnants of a shoulder pad and tossed it onto the floor. Arcs of electricity coursed between her hips and her arms as she lifted them, preparing for the next stage of combat.

"Like I said," Ruth picked up the conversation like nothing had happened, wiping the soot from her face as she stared Lily down. "I'm gonna snap her out of it."

Wolfram swallowed back his tension, raising his fists as he stood up straight. "I'll help, then. What's the plan?"

Ruth shook her head slightly, eyes locked on the enemy before her, waiting for that fatal first move. "The others are heading to the source of all this. You'll be more useful there. Go catch up with them."

"But…!"

"I don't want to be mean," she said coldly. "But I can't afford to babysit you right now."

Wolfram squeezed his hands into fists, and his eyes closed. For a second, it looked like he might just stay put. Then, he tore himself away from the battlefield and sprinted off into the night. Ruth didn't turn to watch him go.

"I'm surprised you just let him get away like that," she called out to Lily. "I bet it's too much to ask that you're coming back to your senses, though, huh?"

Lily said nothing.

Ruth narrowed her eyes. Most likely, this was just a result of whatever programming Lily was under. She'd decided that Ruth was more of a threat than Wolfram, that was all. If she went to pursue Wolfram, she'd be opening herself up to an attack from Ruth. Just basic threat prioritization.

The logic of a machine. That was all. Ruth growled as a living thing.

Lily stepped forward. Twin blades of lightning manifested in her hands.

Ruth stepped forward. Crimson Aether crawled across her form.

In the distance, thunder crashed… and, like a starting pistol had gone off, the two of them lunged as one.

Skeletal Set!

Lily had swept her blades through the air in anticipation of Ruth's arrival -- but with the swap from Direwolf to Skeletal, the reduced speed meant that the swords struck only empty air. As Ruth darted into the opening she'd created, a bolt of red Aether lanced out from her shoulder blades and up into the sky.

Monarque Set!

Back during her fight with the Shepherdess, Ruth had been able to control two Sets at once -- one equipped to her body, the other controlled remotely like a puppet. She'd done it without thinking back then… and she did it without thinking now. The egg of death appeared in the sky, looking down at them.

Monarque in the sky and Skeletal on the ground. A skull-face above and below.

Ruth slammed her elbow into Lily's stomach, sending her skidding backwards -- and the Monarque unleashed a flurry of force-blasts that pummeled her into the ground, a crater expanding with each blow. As Lily was slowly buried by the repeated crimson blasts, Ruth spread her arms wide, preparing herself. In a perfect world, the fight would end there, with Lily held down by the perpetual blows.

But this was not a perfect world.

Lily blasted herself up out of the crater, weaving between the bolts of redistributed force as they rained down, like she was dancing through a thunderstorm. She was using that technique that allowed her to stand on air, blue sparks kicking off her feet as she kicked off empty space again and again. It was like she was generating a spiral staircase even as she climbed it.

Within five seconds, Lily Aubrisher was face-to-face with the soaring Monarque Set. Electricity screeched as she generated a bolt of lightning in her hand -- but before she could hurl it and shatter Monarque like the egg it so resembled, she was suddenly assaulted by a hail of thin, sharp projectiles from below.

It was simple.

Ruth could manifest and demanifest any part of the armour she was wearing at will. When she manifested a part of the armour, she also didn't necessarily have to be wearing it. That included the deadly claws of the Skeletal Set. If she manifested them individually, without the gauntlets they were usually attached to, they made perfectly good throwing knives.

She hurled them up at Lily, demanifested them when they were blocked and dodged, then remanifested them and threw them again. In doing so, Ruth turned herself into something like a human gatling gun. The endless hail of death flew upwards -- and even with Lily Aubrisher's insane reflexes, she couldn't avoid having them scrape past her body and draw blood.

Freed from impending destruction, the Monarque Set began to charge a shot more powerful than the ones that had come before, force crawling across its form to coalesce between its empty eye-sockets.

Ruth smirked. Dodge this.

But Lily Aubrisher didn't dodge. She didn't need to. In an instant afforded to her between one knife and the next, she jerked two fingers to the side --

-- and, out of nowhere, a car slammed into Ruth Blaine.

The air was forced out of Ruth's lungs as she was sent flying, but she quickly recovered, dropping down to the ground and lowering her body to avoid the flying vehicle as it zoomed towards her again. Her mind ran -- she threw aside surprise and sprinted straight towards realization. What was happening?

Of course. Electromagnetism. Lily was using her abilities to control the metal around her -- to turn this skeleton of a city into an extension of her hands and feet. A chill went down Ruth's spine as she realized just how much the human weapon had been holding back until now.

Another chill went down her spine as she saw the cloud of commandeered vehicles now hurtling through the air towards her.

Ruth Blaine braced herself.

The Widow didn't so much as blink as she sank into LYCHGATE's wound, not even when the green blood and pus washed over her eyes. The moment she disappeared from sight, Serena turned to look at Sam.

"So, uh," she said. "Are we sure that she's, like, a person?"

"We've gone through that debate," Sam muttered, rubbing his nose. "We're not sure. She'll get pissed if we don't follow straight away, though -- Morgan, you go in next."

"Fine," Morgan said, even as he looked queasy at the thought of touching the abomination before him. He climbed into the wound and began sinking too.

"How is it?" Serena asked curiously.

"In a tactile sense?" Morgan asked. "It's sort of the worst thing I've experienced in my life."

"It's that bad?"

"Mm-hmm." Morgan clamped his mouth shut and squeezed his eyes closed as his face sank into the viscera.

"Okay," said Sam as Morgan vanished. "Now Alcera, you --"

"Guys!"

The group turned -- just in time to see Wolfram arrive in the chamber, panting for breath, his hands planted on his knees as he recovered from what seemed like it had been quite a marathon. Sam widened his eyes, and Alcera allowed herself a smirk. It wasn't like they'd thought Wolfram was dead, but… okay, maybe they had thought Wolfram was dead. It wasn't often in their line of work that they got a miracle like this.

Wolfram grinned, even if it looked forced.

"Room for one more?"

Two titans tore their way through the city.

Monarque had disappeared from the sky. Right now, Ruth Blaine needed access to all the speed she could get. Clad in the jagged black steel of the Direwolf, she darted swiftly through the demise that was coming for her. With each and every movement accompanied by a crimson lance of Aether, she made to close the distance between her and Lily Aubrisher.

It wasn't easy.

The city itself had become Ruth's enemy. A hail of vehicles surged towards her, like massive bullets, each intended to reduce Ruth to a stain on the highway. Moving so fast she became a blur herself, Ruth charged -- turning the projectiles intended to kill her into a stairway of her own. She leapt from car to car, launching herself with such force that the vehicles were reduced to scrap metal as she abandoned them. Those she couldn't climb upon, she tore to pieces with her claws. Those she couldn't tear to pieces with her claws, she punched and kicked out of her path.

Lily stood upon thin air a short distance away, directing the torrent of metal with waves of her fingers. As Ruth continued to close the distance, Lily just crooked her fingers -- pulling what was left of the vehicles back towards her. Scrap or not, metal was metal, and soon enough Ruth was forced to jump between the web of tightening steel, held back by the revolving torrent.

It was funny. This didn't feel like it did before. While Ruth was moving with all the natural instinct of a beast, her mind was calmly ticking away. While she bounced between murder like a pinball, it felt like she was dictating a letter to an old friend…

Hey, Skipper. I've been thinking.

She tucked her body in, passing unharmed through the interior of a bus as it was flung at her.

Did you realize something like this could happen?

A hail of stray nails flew through the air like a swarm of angry bees, and Ruth deflected them with a flurry of slashes.

You brought all those people to Elysian Fields… you brought all those people we'd fought with to Elysian Fields, to help you kill the Supreme… but did you realize some of them could end up like this?

The storm opened its eye, and Ruth took advantage of it immediately. Launching off the tiniest foothold, she shot right towards Lily -- the sheer speed of her movement producing a deafening boom. The missile named Ruth Blaine slammed into the weapon named Lily Aubrisher -- and the thunder goddess seized her fists in her hands. They flew through the air as one, each pushing against the other's strength.

Scout died. Nobody's even seen Roy's face in years. And Lily ended up like this.

The two of them twisted in the sky, struggling for dominance -- and for a second, Ruth found it. She hurled Lily down towards the ground with all her strength, and the impact kicked up a geyser of rubble.

Recently… I've been thinking of you as a hero, Skipper. That's the word I keep using: 'hero'. But… that isn't right, is it? A 'hero' isn't a real person. A 'hero' is some guy from a storybook, who only makes good things happen. Who makes all the right decisions, and does everything right. I've never met a 'hero' in real life.

…and even if I did, I don't think he'd look like me or you.

Ruth landed on the roof of a half-collapsed building -- and without much effort, she tore free a protruding length of rebar steel from the wall next to her. Using one hand as a guide, she aimed her newfound weapon down towards the spot Lily had landed, now consumed by a cloud of smog. With a flash of crimson Aether, she leapt up into the sky once more --

Direwolf Set!

-- and she transferred her armour to the metal pole in her hand.

Encased by Direwolf, the metal pole had become a jagged black harpoon -- and Ruth hurled it down towards the ground without hesitation. It slammed into the earth like a missile, stirring up a vortex of smoke and rubble as it made impact. As she landed, Ruth frowned to herself.

Did that knock her out, at least? I need to --

The air became death once more, and Ruth Blaine became a survivor. She leapt back -- right as a blur of indescribable movement erased the building she'd been standing on. Hissing electricity raced through the space the skyscraper had occupied, lashing out like a swarm of angry snakes.

With a stomp, Lily Aubrisher banished the smoke that had been surrounding her, and Ruth realized what she had done.

She'd used electromagnetism once again -- gathering mannequins around her like the bullets of a revolver. Then, using her lightning, she'd fired one of the human-shaped lumps of metal directly at Ruth. Just like Ruth had acted as a human gatling gun, Lily had turned herself into a human railgun.

It's coming!

In the second afforded to her, Ruth instinctively raised her arms in a cross to block. Lighting flared behind one of the human bullets, and -- with a flash of electricity…

Noblesse --

…too late.

The railgun shot slammed into Ruth's body, far superior to the speed of the earlier attacks, and pushed her through the city with ease. Buildings shattered against Ruth's back as she crashed through them, metal and brick and glass pelting her from every angle. A scream of pain poured from her throat, swallowed by the sheer speed at which she was flying.

In the end, Ruth was thrown through a dozen skyscrapers, tracing a path of destruction through the city, and was left in a twitching heap -- right inside the burning skeleton of the silo this battle had begun in.

Slowly, she picked herself up, limbs shaking…

…and then stopped as a massive shadow fell on her.

Ruth Blaine looked up.

Oh, she thought with dawning horror. You really were holding back, weren't you, Lily?

Lily Aubrisher was standing atop the sky once more, the raging storm behind her like a regalia of clouds. She stared down at Ruth with that inscrutable mask, one hand raised high above her head. And… high above that, held in the grip of electromagnetism…

…was a goddamn building.

Lily had torn an entire building out of the ground, and now she held it ready -- ready to fire down as another one of her bullets. Chunks of concrete were already coming down from its base like vicious snowfall. As Lily rotated the structure slightly to improve her aim, the screech of suffering metal filled the night air.

I'm dead.

Regret clearly said that to Ruth Blaine… but she'd already decided, hadn't she? She wouldn't be listening to regret anymore.

She'd withstand this lightning.

She'd withstand this railgun.

She'd withstand everything, everything, this entire damn world if she had to!

Ruth Blaine raised her arms once more -- and once more, Lily Aubrisher fired.

The final shot, fired with the Humanoid Weapon AUBRISHER's maximum discrimination, had truly been a sight to behold. The explosion it had created had turned nearly the entire city into a crater of glass, even the underground tunnels having collapsed from the impact. To tell the truth, this was a level of destruction beyond even what AUBRISHER's developers would have anticipated.

Slowly, she descended to the ground, already returning to a neutral state. The threat, although formidable, had been eliminated. Her running orders now were to await the detection of the next threat, wait ten seconds, then eliminate it too.

With mechanical efficiency, she turned and went to leave --

"Lily."

-- before stopping and turning back.

Life-signs had resumed. The threat had not been eliminated. Combat would therefore resume as well. AUBRISHER looked down into the crater, ascertaining the current state of her enemy.

Molten metal -- the remains of the city's buildings -- was flowing across the ground, running down the crater and gathering at its centre. The heartbeat was coming from the same area, from within the churning lump of bubbling steel at the crater's base. AUBRISHER raised two fingers and fired a bolt of lightning -- one billion volts -- at the target.

Ruth Blaine deflected it with a swing of her arm.

"Sorry, Lily," she said, voice low. "You can't kill me anymore."

Only the bottom half of Ruth's face was visible -- she was clad in a long, flowing cloak of molten metal, stretching for nearly a kilometer. Every inch of it crackled with crimson. Every inch of it crawled in tighter, and tighter, clasping her body, surely but slowly forming something new.

This was not something AUBRISHER could allow. She knew that instinctively. With all the speed her body could still produce, she lunged forward --

-- but it had become too late for her a long time ago.

Empereur Set.

A pillar of red Aether blasted out of Ruth's body, linking the heavens and the earth in a single transcendent line. It shone out of Ruth's eyes. It shone out of Ruth's mouth. It shone out of Ruth's wounds. Glory escaped through every gate.

The molten metal solidified, achieved shape, forming a shape suited for victory. Skeletal and Direwolf, Noblesse and Monarque, even Revolutionnaire… everything she had been given, everything she had achieved, fusing and melding together into one.

A knight's white helmet sculpted into the shape of a skull. A pair of wide shoulder-pads, lined with hooked blades. A series of short but sharp claws tipping her new radiant gauntlet. A hulking figure that could overpower anything.

Still… the look is important, too.

Ruth threw one thick arm out -- and cast a billowing red cape behind her, like a waving warbanner.

Lily was still coming. She'd reach Ruth and try to finish her off before this second ended. Even with that, though, Ruth wasn't worried any longer.

I'm glad you hit me with that building, Lily.

Skeletal boosted Ruth's strength and speed. Direwolf pushed that to the next level. Noblesse reflected enemy attacks. Monarque absorbed the impact of enemy attacks and redistributed it as blasts of force.

And Empereur, the culmination of Ruth Blaine? It absorbed those attacks too -- and then converted the force directly into more strength and more speed.

Lily Aubrisher threw a thousand punches in sixty seconds.

Ruth Blaine met her with a thousand-and-one more.

The last of them slammed into that damn mask -- and shattered it.

How long had Lily Aubrisher been fighting for now? It felt like ages… years, at the very least. But that didn't mean she could give up.

She had to go fight in the forest. She was needed there. If she didn't fight there, her comrades would die.

She had to go fight in the base. She was needed there. If she didn't fight there, her comrades would die.

She had to go fight in the tunnels. She was needed there. If she didn't fight there, her comrades would die.

She had to go fight in the starship. She was needed there. If she didn't fight there, her comrades would die.

She flitted from one end of Elysian Fields to the other, killing and killing, fulfilling her duty to her comrades. Yes. She had a duty here. She had promised Ruth, after all. She had promised Ruth she would help. She had to help kill the Supreme. A man she had never even heard of until recently… but still, she had promised.

Everything was so strange. The killing and the killing. It felt like she wasn't herself. It felt like this was all a long, vague dream. But she had a duty. She had a duty to keep fighting until the end. When was the end? When was the end?

It didn't matter. She had a duty. She had to go fight in the forest. She was needed there. If she didn't fight there, her comrades would die.

She turned to head back to the forest…

…and stopped.

"Oh," she said vaguely. "You're here, Ruth."

Yes. Ruth was here, standing before her, looking at her with an expression like her heart was broken. What was going on? Was the battle not going well? But they'd been fighting for years now. They just had to keep fighting. They had a duty.

Still… tears were coursing down Ruth's face. That wasn't good. Lily opened her mouth to say something… something she couldn't even think of… but before she could, Ruth Blaine was gone, and only the mission remained.

Yes… she had a duty.

Even if her flesh was torn, she had to keep fighting.

Even if her bones were broken, she had to keep fighting.

Even if her soul was spent, she had to keep fighting.

She'd promised, after all.

What was behind Lily Aubrisher's mask could not be called a face.

It was a mess of red mutilated flesh, and dark implanted metal. Wires ran down empty eye-sockets. Needles pierced an exposed brain. A jaw cut away, replaced by a tube. Ears clamped over with thick implants, the borders between them yellow with infection.

I can't save this, Ruth thought to herself. Oh, I can't save this.

It was a strange sensation, like a weight was being lifted from her shoulders even as it pushed down at her. Deep down, she'd suspected this, hadn't she? Deep down, she'd known. Elysian Fields wasn't the kind of story that gave out happy endings, even this long down the line.

This is my fault, she knew. And this is Skipper's fault.

So… it's our responsibility, too.

Lily let out a distorted snarl as she charged at Ruth again, her fingers bared like claws. Her mechanical efficiency had degenerated into an animalistic drive to kill… but that wouldn't be enough. Ruth Blaine had already won this battle.

All that remained was to end it.

Now that she'd been weakened to this extent, strength was no contest. Ruth reached out with the kindest grip she could, grabbed Lily by the shoulder, and sent her high up into the air. Then, looking up at her, Ruth reached out one hand as if to grasp the empty air there.

Contretemps.

A lance appeared in her hand, big enough to dwarf even the massive Empereur Set, and she calmly pointed it up at her target. Vaguely, she noticed that this left arm of hers -- unlike the rest of her armour -- was thin and spindly, black, with red lines running over it like magma. It was the chip, Rufus' chip -- it had spread out to cover this part of her new Set entirely.

Ruth tightened her grip.

Skipper… maybe you could have saved her, if it were you instead of me… but let's be honest…

It was the smallest, slightest thing -- a beam of absorbed force, as thin as a needle, firing out from the tip of the lance and cleanly piercing Lily Aubrisher's heart.

…you wouldn't have tried, would you?

Ruth reached out, delicately catching Lily as she fell from the sky…

…and, far above them, the storm came to a solemn end.