Falling onto her knees, with blood dribbling onto the leaves beneath her, the Heiress began to whimper. Ivy was exhausted, ashamed, and frankly tired of fighting. But when she heard foosteps coming from behind her, she became immediately invigorated with energy.
That wasn't Lila. The stupid girl would have quipped already.
Steel clashed as Ivy deflected a blow from Rena. She glared silently, pointing her staff with murderous intent.
"You...even after all this." Ivy snarled. "She's out there all alone because of you!"
Rena sneered, throwing her weapon at the heiress, who somersaulted over it with unmatched grace. "Don't pretend you care about Lila."
Ivy spun around, calling forth a Psionic construct directly on top of her staff. It was a hexagon of sorts, fashioned into the form of a mace that added a proper amount of lethality to the heirress's weapon. She was, in truth, no longer willing to merely fight Rena off.
"Then don't pretend you even have a reason to do this!" Ivy roared, levitating her mace into the air before slamming it down on the floor, creating a devastating shockwave that ruptured the dirt beneath her.
Rena phased through the attack, reappearing with a trick of her own. With an outstretched hand, she called forth a hazy pink mist that shot out from her palm, enveloping the heiress and her surroundings. And with a snap of her finger, that mist began to ignite in a sparkling explosion of venamous gas.
Ivy wisely threw herself out of the way, crumpling onto the floor as her legs began to fail her. She was barely quick enough to raise her staff to defend herself, catching Rena's chakram as she tried to wrestle its curved edge into the heirress's throat.
"You...deserve this." Rena's arms began to shake as she growled. "Your whole family deserves this."
"And what about you? You, who know nothing of me!" Ivy argued, finally allowing herself to entertain the moral debate. "In one breath, you call me a worthless fraud, and in the next, you blame me as if I'm the orchestrator of your entire life!"
Rena almost laughed. "Oh! Projection, you say? That's rich coming from you. But I don't need a moral reason to kill you, just as you didn't need a reason to keep wearing that damn sigil!"
Ivy grimaced, her bleeding hands pressed against her staff as Rena's blade drew closer and closer. Such ferocious resistance seemed almost pointless. For years, the heirress felt hollow and empty, causing her to ask one simple question as death stared her in the face.
Why resist?
Enhanced by powers still unknown to even herself, Rena could hear those very thoughts within Ivy's mind. She found them delectable. And with a smile, she began to taunt the heirress.
"That's a great question, Ivy. Why fight? You'll be forever blamed for your Father's actions, yet will never benefit from his riches and bounties. You'll only ever have a face if you wear his clothes, and yet you'll be hated for it nonetheless. You were born with the pride of a lion, yet bear the past of a shattered victim. Accept finality."
That voice was not truly Rena's.
Ivy sniffled as her eyes began to water. No matter how hard she tried to ignore those words, they had some merit. She had come to that realization before, both when her father struck her and when she felt Lila's warmth for the first time.
"I..." Ivy hesitated.
Her fight with Sonera had already proven to her how pointless it was to try to impress her father. Her arguments with Rena had already exposed her shallow existence when it came to controlling her family legacy. And most importantly of all, her mother's haunting face reminded her of how little she could control her own fate.
To be an accessory to her father, or a sack of haunted meat for Yrix, didn't seem like much of a choice for Ivy. But there was one last option. A single ray of light, taken form in the girl she couldn't steer away from.
"Lila," Ivy muttered to herself.
When she had fought against the Earthling, she was doomed to fail. But now, faced with an enemy just as dangerous as Sonera, Ivy had changed. It wasn't a complete transformation; her pride still clinging to the idea that she didn't deserve someone like Lila. But it was a start.
"What?" Rena stammered, feeling a tickling sensation emanate from the heiress.
"I choose life!" Ivy screamed.
With a burst of Psionic energy, Ivy sent her opponent sailing off into the distance. It was an act of defiance to be sure. For noble deeds and feelings of love alone did not drive Ivy's heart; instead, it was that same calling that forced her to run from home.
This life is mine.
Ignoring the pain in her limbs, Ivy leaped up onto a staircase of projections, using their height to come crashing down with her mace. The impact, equal in scale to that of the golden Daregen Lila had encountered, caused the very ground beneath Ivy to cave in. She did, however, manage to strike Rena while she was still dazed, causing an audible crackling sound from her disabled ambience.
And as Ivy tumbled into the tunnels below, she felt no fear. Steeling herself, she tucked her arms in and dived headfirst with new purpose.
- - - - - - - - - -
Lunae stumbled inside the gloomy cavern, its dripping stalactites and mossy outcrops filling the air with a choking wet smell. But she had far better things to do than complain about the environment. And with the Consortium still hot on her tail, Lunae had no choice but to follow Sonera deeper inside.
"Feeling uneasy?" Sonera reached into Lunae's mind.
"I've never liked caves." Lunae whimpered.
The roaring footsteps of the Consortium warriors echoed throughout the cavern as they began to spill into its dark reaches. Using their blinding flashlights and abundance of red flares, they began to illuminate their surroundings, scanning every crevice and divot for signs of the girls.
"This way!" One of the Psions whispered to the company.
After running as far as her feet could take her, Lunae collapsed onto a bed of moss. Sonera tried to pull her up, but after a soft tail up rubbed against her leg, she knew it was pointless.
"Just...leave me." Lunae panted.
"Ridiculous. We make our stand here." Sonera planted her feet firmly on the ground. "I can feel the others close by."
"Wait..." Lunae's ears perked up, her tail waving back and forth as if detecting a source of heat. "It's...Lila!"
Just after the words left Lunae's mouth, the Earthling tumbled into the cave from a narrow orifice just beside Sonera, her fragile body appearing worn and tattered. Thanks to the bit of ash that could be seen on the top of her head, it had become readily apparent how desperate things were on the surface.
"Ow-ow." Lila squeaked as she rolled around like a broken melon. "Owie."
Cornered and outmatched by the golden Daregen at close range, Lila had already made her decision to crawl into whatever hole she could find. Luckily for her, such desperate maneuvering had led her straight towards her friends. Unfortunately for the girl, however, she was even more cornered than before.
"Lila." Sonera pulled her up by the scruff of her neck, shaking her off as the impending sounds of the Consortium drew closer. "Friend."
"O-oh." Lila panted before waving her limp wrist. "Henlo."
Sonera narrowed her gaze. "Were you followed?"
"Sure was. Giant golden Daregen. Should be here soon. How about you?"
"A swarm of the lesser types."
Lunae interjected with a concerned tone, reaching into Lila's mind to feel her fear. "Where's Ivy?"
"She uh...we got separated. Rena's after her. Pretty bad, I know." Lila tried her best to smile.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I know how much you love her." Lunae lowered her head, her words coming across as eerily genuine.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I think we might be kinda friends now at best." Lila shook her head furiously before clasping her hands togethor with a serious voice. "Besides...I think the whole girl-loving thing is more... y'all's style. Let's hope it's just a phase."
"Focus up. Here they come." Sonera hissed, calling forth a radiant blade. "All of them."
"Well, at least we've seen the worst of them, right?" Lila cringed.
Proving her ability to jinx herself, an unsettling melody seeped out from the direction of the pursuers, as if a creature were speaking in song. And while Sonera and Lunae were entirely expecting to see the familiar come barreling after them, what slithered out into the chamber took them off guard completely.
The alien's face, obscured by a veil of metal and fabric in an almost umbrella-like shape, was the source of the strange noise, as evidenced by the musical rhythm that seeped out of its head. Its limbs, almost too many to count, appeared as a host of tendrils that kept the creature on balance, with four large appendages appearing to be the girthiest and most dominant.
Using one tendril to point at the girls in an almost accusatory manner, the creature emitted a bell-like toll, calling forth the rest of the Consortium. Lila reeled back in pain, her ears overwhelmed by the deafening cry. Yet through all that chaos and pain, a familiar voice managed to worm its way into her head.
"Having a bit of trouble?"
"Yrix!" Lila replied in her own head.