They took Eve to Meerkat's camp.
Meerkat: "What's wrong with her?"
Axel: "Seems like she's been drained of energy."
Eve could barely open her eyes.
Sappherine: "She needs her xenopills. Axel, the Soul Drifter."
He shortly returned and snapped a xenopill open spilling the liquid nanobot solution over her sternum. Electricity coursed over her skin as her body jerked. She awoke and sat upright.
Meerkat: "Glad glad are back... we lost the artifact."
Eve: "We lost more than that. Vestos stole my genetic data using tree's essence. He's in full form. We cannot take him down like this," she said, getting down from the table, "but I have to try."
Kayden: "Right by your side, commander."
Eve: "Meerkat, the game's changed with Vestos out. Evacuate your people immediately. It's a matter of time before the swarm is unleashed."
Meerkat: "Then we must destroy him before he releases the swarm."
Eve: "For now your first responsibility is safety of your people. You and your army are free from the battle course. Mobilize your forces, use allied and IC ships."
Meerkat's chief advisor weighed in, "She's right, Chief. We must act swiftly!"
Kayden assumed the charge of the encampments as more dropships arrived. Now the peak had become their fortress and the Alliance were the ones preparing for the breach.
Several Thelarian generals kneeled before Vestos as he stood by the sacred tree.
"Kill them all. Leave no survivors. We must possess the complete Essence of the Tree."
They rose and departed silently. vigilant protocol guard, while workers labored, adorning the temporary throne for the self-proclaimed King of Darkness.
Back at the base, Eve prepared for attack. Tens of thousands of soldiers jetted into the sky, led by the queen herself.
Razmos summoned a specialized ship containing his formidable collection of pet creatures, gathered from across the universe, and unleashed them upon the ground forces. He then utilized his immense space fighter to dismember enemy formations.
Vestos observed the escalating conflict on holographic displays. The Thelarian soldiers had converted the temple into their command center. A general approached with a report: "Master, the Doom-Borne Slayer. We cannot contain her for much longer.
Vestos gripped the general's neck and snapped it. The other generals recoiled in shock.
"You worms are utterly worthless."
He stormed out of the crater and landed on the peak.
Eve spotted him. She zoomed in and landed with a blast. The ground cracked. The rest of the squad joined her.
Vestos: "You are useless. I no longer have need of you."
Eve: "So your ass is fully out here. Does that mean if I kill you this time, it will be your final death, right?"
Her comment momentarily stunned him, but he quickly recovered and laughed. "Hahaha. You truly never falter? How many cycles must you endure to grasp that I cannot be vanquished?"
"This time, I am not alone," she said and vaulted toward him, firing her dual guns. He swung his arm, but she twisted in midair, dodged, firing several rounds directly at his face at point-blank range.
His head did not move; only a small part of his helm was grazed. The Eve Squad fired and bombarded him from all sides: K'thar's and Vorlag's strength, Voila's blades, Zohan's telekinetic strikes, Aura's powers; blades, bullets, plasma, railguns, cannons. Everything failed.
They fought relentlessly and dodged, but Vestos' punches produced blast waves. He was not only immensely strong but telekinetic as well. They also had to fend off intermittent attacks from the generals.
A kick slammed Eve to the ground, got up snarling. From the thigh of her exosuit, a compartment slid out. She took a packet of xenobombs out of it and squeezed all the pillls in her hands. Electricity crackled.
This was not a normal transformation. Excessive xenopills had unpredictable effects. The machine, hyperxeno, and alien triggers activated at the same time. Her muscles expanded and she grew in size. The exosuit tore apart. She developed alien limbs and a cyborg torso. Her eyes glowed and her hair shimmered.
All her genetic potential was fully manifest. She fought with primal ferocity. Vestos began to feel her power. His telekinetic abilities had no effect on her. The squad continued to fire distractive rounds.
His punches barely allowed him to keep balance; she fought at hyperspeed. Her metallic tail swung around and tore at his muscles, but his wounds healed instantly. At last, with a massive blast rippled from Vestos, they were all thrown away like paper paper cards.
Vestos grew thirty meters tall. His eyes glowed with fiery ember. He breathed molten plasma. Every step made the ground tremble. Their weapons and even Eve's powerful had no effect on him.
He laughed. "You still think you can defeat me. I'm barely begun to unleash my true form." He punched the ground; the blast radius shot them away. Some exosuits were already broken. Vorlag and K'thar sustained heavy injuries, but they were not ready to give up.
Vestos pressed his foot down on Eve with so much force the bedrocks cracked beneath her. In her hypermode, she barely felt the pain, but she fought furiously to break free, punching at his toes.
"Get ready to die!" His punch came down with terrible speed, but before it could touch her, a lightning bolt came from nowhere and struck his chest. He blasted through several large rock formations before embedding deep into the mountain.
Cetra glided down in her hair glowing yellow-white and her sleek caped outfit.
Kayden said to Hannah, "She's Cetra? She looks younger than Eve and remarkably hot."
Cetra placed her hands on Eve. Her xeno and alien triggers receded and she returned to normal.
Eve: "Cetra, you came!"
Cetra: "I'm here now. We get through this together."
Eve smiled and embraced her. Strange halos and energies flowed from Cetra's body into Eve's. Eve looked at her hands; her veins pulsed with energy.
Cetra: "Witness the power of your machine and alien genes without transformations."
Rock and mud lifted around Eve and formed a sleek nanofiber outfit that covered her skin.
"Wait here. Recover. Then join me."
Cetra's wings unfurled. Debris surrounding her became airborne and reformed into countless spears and shrapnel. With a single commanding gesture, a multitude of sharpened projectiles launched toward Vestos, striking his body repeated
Cetra increased her size and engaged him. She mounted a formidable defense, but he ultimately overpowered her. Eve, now fully charged joined the action. They executed a combined kick to his chest, driving him further into the rocks.
Vestos emerged from the rocky fissure with a deafening roar; thunder crackled around his form. He expanded to 50 meters, a colossal figure towering over the mountain.
Eve and Cetra fought him with lightening speed while the rest of the squad provided covering fire. He raged on. The more they damaged him, the larger he grew in size.
A blast sent both women to the ground.
Eve got up, "are you okay?"
Cetra elegantly floated up and stood upright, "never better."
Vestos had grown twice the height of the mountain. Spacefighters attacked him from all directions but his laser energy blasts pierced the orbits, tearing ships out of the sky.
Eve: "How do we stop that thing?"
Cetra: "Keep trying."
She dramatically increased in size as surrounding materials transformed and merged with her body, shaping her into a towering, faceless mecha. She leaned in, and an AI voice instructed, "Hop in."
Eve jumped and climbed into the cockpit.
A massive blade appeared in the Mech's hand. It accelerated and sliced through the demon. The fundamental problem persisted: he continued to regenerate.
Eve screamed from the cockpit, "Does he not have a core or a vital organ?"
Cetra: "Let's wreck him from the inside out."
The mech jetted and speared into his back, breaking bones and muscle. Eve cut through organs and sinew. The monster knelt in pain, then roared again as his body began to heat up.
Cetra: "It's going to explode!"
Eve cut a rift in his abdomen and jetted out just as the entire monster detonated.
It expanded into an blinding orb of white light and rose like a mushroom cloud. Those in close vicinity were vaporized, mostly the Thelarians.
A huge crater formed miles from the mountain. In its pit stood a lonely figure: Vestos, returned to normal form.
A mech landed nearby with a thud. Vestos barely reached its knee.
Eve shouted from the cockpit, "You are done!" and raised her sword.
"Hardly!" he growled.
Suddenly his whole body turned to lava. He threw a fiery punch at the mech; metallic chunks flew through the air as the shoulder disintegrated and the sword fell.
Cetra's AI voice echoed: "Eve, eject now!"
She lifted the lid and jumped out of the cockpit.
Vestos blasted the remains of the frame into rubble.
Eve landed and shouted, "Cetra!!" A lightning bolt struck beside her. It was Cetra in her original form. "I'm here."
Eve exhaled in relief. Cetra placed her hands on Eve's shoulders as they watched the lava creature grow.
"Doesn't matter what we do, he continues to transform."
"Andromeda, we need to combine our powers."
"How?"
"Hold my hand."
They ascended into the air and halos danced around them. An electrical orb formed and encapsulated them; wind blew outward. Finally the orb vanished.
A goddess with golden skin and wings emerged. She flew into the sky and crashed onto the lava monster. The crater deepened and ripples of electrical current crawled across its surface.
The goddess chimed as she lightly flapped her wings. "It is done!" she said in a heavenly voice.
A dark smoke rose from the crater and poured through her body.
Cetra saw herself flying alone. "Where's Andromeda?" she thought, worry crossing her face. "Is that possible? Dear Eve, hold on."
Eve found herself inside a dark blank space. Nothing. No light. Then a monstrous face appeared — a glowing, fiery beast surrounded by silhouettes and glowing eyes.
Vestos: "Welcome to the void."
Eve: "You and your dirty tricks."
Vestos: "How many times have we done this? Do you really have to go all the way before accepting your defeat?"
Eve: "Then all you have to do is defeat me and take over my body, right?"
Vestos: "You are stubborn!"
His immaterial particles surged through Eve as she screamed. She felt her soul being ripped from her existence. The pain was enormous, as if every cell wanted release.
She resisted and tried to stay conscious, but the light began to waver.
She heard his voice: "In here, you are alone. Surrender now."
"Ah!" Eve felt like letting go. She almost gave up.
Just then she heard the most beautiful voice: "She's never alone."
It was Synthia's voice.
Eve opened her eyes. She and Synthia hovered in space between galaxies and nebulae.
Synthia held her hand as they floated. Eve smiled.
Synthia: "I told you I live inside you. You are never alone, my daughter. Traversing the corridors of the quantum world, I never left a stone unturned trying to reach you in your dreams and visions."
Eve: "So you are really here? You are not a memory fragment."
Synthia: "Eve, I love you so much!"
They embraced. A portal opened, showing the void and Vestos' face.
Eve: "He's too strong, Mother. I can't defeat him. And the truth about these cycles — I can't make sense of it."
Synthia: "You don't have to. You are someone's friend, someone's daughter. In time you'll find that spark."
Eve: "I lost Sky. I feel like I lost my Andrew, mother."
Synthia: "You still have his love. Feel it. Revive it in your heart and rise from this darkness."
A flash sparked.
Eve was back in the void. Synthia fought the demonic forces and Vestos, hurling lightning. Eve raised her hands and electricity crackled. She joined her mother. Vestos lunged.
They blasted him with a combined laser strike. He disappeared into shadow and reemerged. "If I can't destroy you in the void, I'll kill you elsewhere," he vowed. Then he vanished.
Synthia: "Go now, my daughter. Remember, the line between fulfilling destiny and making one is thin, and love is the best way to understand the difference."
Eve: "This is not goodbye."
Synthia: "I'll always be with you."
Eve closed her eyes and woke in the crater. Mother Cetra hovered above, wings wide. The mountain burned and the sky was fiery; chaos hung everywhere — but everything was frozen.
Vestos appeared.
Eve: "I guess we are still in the void."
Vestos: "We are in a time rift. And you won't get any help in here."
Eve: "Your ugly face is all the help I need."
They clashed.
Eve's body felt light, as if will rather than muscle drove her movements. They fought at incredible speed.
Time rifts teleported them to different times and places, all drawn from Eve's memories: Sal Parlos, Thalen's Reach, and many others.
A rift cracked around them and flashed. This time they were on Earth. Eve kept fighting.
Time rifted again to Saiyara. Ships hailed from the sky. Eve's palace was torn. People ran for their lives. Eve saw Sable.
A surprise punch knocked her down. Vestos exploited her pause and kicked her in the back. She slammed to the ground, roared, and attacked Vestos furiously. Just before her final blow could land, he disappeared and she felt her existence being dragged away.
The scene shifted. Now they were at Cetra 9 citadel. A fist came at her face; she held it and spun, "Gotcha!" She flung a kick and Vestos smashed into a metallic wall. As she walked toward him, time rifted again.
They faught furiously as time rifts took them through different places from Eve's memories. The glitches becames faster. One second they were on one planet, next a completely different.
Vestos stood on the wasted planet where Eve was created. He looked around. Eve fell on top of him from above and smashed him to the ground. She began to pummel his face furiously. She delivered a final punch that shattered a rock. He had disappeared. She looked up.
They were back in the Yarkhzaer crater. Everything returned to motion.
Cetra looked at Eve and nodded.
Eve smiled and then looked at the smoky phantom of Vestos.
"You destroyed my body, but you can't destroy my mind," he taunted.
Cetra fired a laser, but it passed through the smoke. The smoke rose and drifted toward the mountain.
"Cetra! The Tree!" Eve cried.
Cetra transformed into a lightning bolt and flashed toward the mountain's mouth, but the smoke had already reached it. She flashed back to Eve. "I was too late."
"Take me to my team," Eve said.
Cetra carried Eve to the base where Nomad soldiers fought the remaining Thelarian forces.
Sappherine and the rest of the squad ran to Eve. "You're back," Sappherine said, embracing her. "Vestos?" she asked.
"Gone! But he pulled one last trick," Eve replied.
Kayden asked, "More Thelarians?"
Eve looked at the volcanic peak. "No, much worse," she said, pointing. "That!"
Everyone looked.
Pixels of dark shadow emerging from the volcano, as if it suddenly became active. Ash and fire rose from it. Close up, nothing but dark bodies and red wings.
"Is that...?" Sappherine began.
"The swarm," Axel finished.
They all watched as creatures spread like a dark cloud.