Lila's gaze was steely and cold as a magenta sheen washed over her skin. Such was the extent of her concentration that she hardly released a peep when Omizen flung a bolt of concentrated lightning in her direction. She would merely duck and weave as a response, blinking through the more unavoidable attacks all in the defense of the heiress she called friend.
Vaulting over Omizen's extended reach, Lila shot out a magenta coil, its strand-like energy grasping onto the very air itself before slinging her towards its pull. Had she been in a more sound state of mind, she might have even equated the new show of power to something "spider-like". But for the moment, simply using the momentum of her grapple to knock Omizen through a tree was good enough.
"Lila..." Ivy wheezed, calling her baton to her side as she rose to her feet.
Fixated on her friend like never before, she casually ignored the danger around her, dismantling an incoming javelin with her Psionic grasp as it sailed towards Rena, whose crumpled form remained close by. She had better things to do than remain petty and vengeful.
Omizen, however, appeared quite furious. Gone was his bravado and showboating, replaced by only a somber promise.
"Run." The shipmaster growled.
Lila accepted the threat with proper humility, bolting her way in the opposite direction of the heiress. Omizen followed quickly behind, his tall frame dissapearing in a flash of light. The two then began to move across the border of the forest at an obscene pace.
Lila knew better than to underestimate her foe.
In the meantime, Sonera and Lunae remained preoccupied, working in tandem to survive. Blocking out everything around them, they relied on their growing bond to complete each psynched maneuver. Though the extent of their feelings on the matter varied immensely.
Sonera's will, more resolved than ever, allowed her to focus on the fight as if it were a game. A familiar tune played in the back of her head, an orchestra from the distant past of an Earthling nation. It filled her with satisfaction, as the rhythm played its part in serenating her lust for violence and the sticky feeling of her enemy's blood on her face.
Lunae remained more aware of her surroundings, however, vaulting over Sonera's shoulder to disrupt a pair of javelins, halting their momentum and freezing them in place. Sonera took such an oppurtunity as an invitation, grabbing onto both javelins before swinging them like brutish clubs.
She didn't even care about the shock.
Sonera lept at the Psions with feral energy, taking out her frustrations against Omizen with each swing. Her opponents, however qualified, lacked the absurd ability to predict and dodge every move, and became a brutal example of how potent Yrix's teaching could be.
She spun around almost like a ballerina.
One of the Psions wisened up to Lunae's tactics, feinting a shot before using its launcher like a club. Lunae was quick enough, ducking under the attack before giving the Psion the gentlest of pushes with her crook.
That little nudge led to a fist from Sonera.
Lunae ignored the carnage before her for the most part, focusing on her supportive role. Sliding across the leaves, she caught up to Sonera's next move, brushing against the girl's shin with her crook with the intent of imbuing her with another memory. Such inspiration led to Sonera unveiling a radiant whip, lined with thorns and bony hooks.
She swung that whip with unbridled cruelty.
Cutting three Psions in half with one crack of her new weapon, Sonera narrowed her gaze. She could feel something stirring within her. Something she had felt once before, only this time with the benefit of hindsight.
Something was watching her. And it was not Yrix.
Sonera blocked a kick from one of the Psions, shrugging off the tipped end of its heel with her shoulder. And after wrapping her whip around its throat, she felt the world freeze around her. Both Lunae and the blood that surged around her had all become still.
"What?" Sonera grimaced.
This was no trick of Yrix. She could feel it. And Omizen was gone, preoccupied with the Earthling.
"How curious." A chilling voice ran down her spine. "A modicum of strength."
That thing in the darkness. The one who spied on Sonera from a distance, twitching and convulsing with anticipation. It had found her again.
She could feel its hunger, insatiable and inquenchable. But more importantly, she knew its power. That creature that Yrix warned her of so long ago was no beggar in the darkness, hoping and praying for a chance at power.
It had been watching her. Egging her on every time Sonera lost control and smashed her fists against her fallen enemy. And after a brief intermission at the hands of Lunae's gentle soul, it had come for Sonera once again.
But that was not what frightened Sonera.
She felt empowered and emboldened. By all means, the mere prescence of the creature, whom she could still not see with her own eyes, should have made her dread the inevitable. But it felt good.
The creature's voice, boundless and filled with such energy that she nearly lost her mind, was a euphony of voices. They cried out all at once, clawing at each other in an attempt to control the entity's cadence once and for all. There were men and women, children and infants, all screaming inside the creature's mouth.
Only that thing didn't have a mouth. Sonera knew that somehow. She knew it for the same reason she knew the sky was blue.
Surveying her new surroundings, Sonera released a cold exhale. The world around her was darkened by a purple hue, frozen and robbed of its color and vigor. She was alone.
Sonera wanted to ask who the creature was. But she knew that was pointless. One doesn't ask a mountain what store they shop at.
She searched and searched, not straying far from Lunae, who remained trapped in her position like a statue. Such a phenomenon reminded her of that girl's mindscape and how she could halt the world around her. But such a technique was limited and passionate.
Where was the owner of this mindscape?
High above the mountains across the Aerie, staring down at Sonera with a poignant gaze, stood a figure of indescribable horror. It was tall and lanky, fat and unwieldy, and bore the faceless visage of a hundred souls. The creature could hardly stand still, its unweildy body quaking with anticipation.
It wasn't afraid of Sonera. It only feared that she would die if she were to even gaze upon its dreaded form. She wasn't ready for such things.
But she was getting there. She was approaching finality. Sonera, whose mind couldn't even process the entity or the true appearance of its Psionic mindscape, was growing stronger.
- - - - - - - - -
Yrix stirred, turning her attention to Sonera. She had half the mind to pursue Lila and observe her struggle. But she was talented enough to perceive the calamitous presence of that which would not be named.
But only weaklings would avoid naming him.
Yrix was no such feeble mind.
She knew who he was. Who it was.
"Well, took him long enough." Yrix squinted with her single eye. "Stay strong, Sonera. This is why I made you."
For the first time in a millennium, the Arch-Flayer felt a sense of remorse. Not for the lives of the girls whom she stole and abused. But for the information she refused to impart to them.
"Maybe..." Yrix muttered. "I should have told them."
Perhaps she had miscalculated. Comical as it was, sending droves of aliens to try and kill her students was far from the riskiest thing Yrix had done. She didn't tell them.
The girls had no idea who lay in the depths of the Psionic realm. They lacked even a smidgen of an idea as to why Yrix never took them back there, even after her gaze had empowered them so drastically. And most of all, they couldn't even dream of why Psions like Omizen paled in comparison to Yrix.
He didn't know either. None of them did. The title of Arch-Flayer wasn't just a bit of mockery to point fun at how cruel and blunt Yrix could be. It was given to her because she knew.
"Well." Yrix sighed, looking over at Ivy and Rena as they tried to track Lila's whereabouts, all the while keeping Lunae and Sonera in the back of their minds. "They don't deserve it. None of them do."
"They're just girls. Humans and humanoids from a civilization that has never truly known his torment."
"They're oblivious to it all. The Infestare. The reason we entered their solar system. The voice in the deep that compels the movement of the stars. The true reason I brought them all here."
Yrix almost laughed. The idea that the girls would be simple warriors for the Consortium was good comedy. That was never the point. And the Emperor knew it.