'Tch… my normal form isn't enough… guess I have to use it' Alerya growled after taking a brutal hit to the stomach.
Leobruns and Rhyhamr stepped back, sensing she was about to unleash something dangerous.
'This will last me just sixty seconds… I have to be fast.' She knew exactly how long her magic could sustain her final form.
While Alerya battled two towering krukins, Darian and Allocen were locked in a deadly fight against the Krukmongbee.
The creature slammed its arm into the ground, shaking the area and throwing both of them off balance. It immediately unleashed a volley of stingers.
Darian conjured an ice wall just in time to block them. Without exchanging a word, he and Allocen split up, Darian to the left, Allocen to the right, both searching for an opening.
Darian launched shards of razor-sharp ice, while Allocen coated the ground in black spikes before hurling several toward the enemy.
It was useless. The Krukmongbee took to the air, out of reach. Allocen couldn't make spikes tall enough to strike it… but he could attack from above. He raised a spike from the ceiling itself.
Darian understood instantly. He hurled an ice shard to knock the beast down toward Allocen's waiting spike. The strike pierced its body, not killing it but leaving it vulnerable.
Darian followed up with a barrage at its wings, shattering one and sending the monster spiraling to the ground.
The Krukmongbee screeched in pain. More krukins swarmed toward them, but Allocen's golem was ready, scooping the smaller ones up and devouring them.
More stingers flew toward the two fighters. Allocen blocked them with his golem's body, while Darian armored himself in jagged ice. The shards embedded in his armor caught and broke each incoming projectile.
When the crippled Krukmongbee finally crashed, Darian renewed his ice armor and closed in. The monster swung at him, but Allocen's golem intercepted the blow. Allocen stayed busy, keeping the lesser enemies off them.
Darian climbed onto the beast's back and drove ice shards into it, but they weren't enough. "Let's try this now!"
Standing directly over its body, with the golem holding it immobile, Darian roared:
"RADIAL FREEZE!"
An immense ice spike erupted from the ground beneath its jaw, driving clean through and leaving a gaping hole. The Krukmongbee went limp.
They didn't waste a second and began making their way toward the portal.
On another part of the battlefield, Kael, Liro, and Vane faced the worm-like krukin.
Kael's legs shook uncontrollably. The last time he had faced this monster, twelve years ago, it had slaughtered every Veilguard present. His magic came late, his focus shattered. Because of his hesitation, Vane was hurt.
"Kael!!" Vane shouted, straining to keep the worm's massive mouth from closing on him. Even in polar bear form, the beast's lashing tongue battered him over and over.
Vane had trained to harden his transformed body, but the blows were taking their toll.
Liro tried to create an illusion, a boulder crashing down on the worm, but the enemy smashed it with its tail, unwilling to risk it being real.
'I need to move… or they'll die again,' Kael thought, frozen by fear.
"Kael!!" Vane and Liro yelled together.
Kael shut his eyes, breathing hard. When he opened them, he saw flashes of his old team… and the girl he had admired smiling at him. His heart steadied. He ran.
Magic flared from his hands, forcing the worm's tongue to the ground. "Go, Kael!" Vane shouted, shifting into an owl to dodge the snapping jaws. The beast's mouth clamped down on its own tongue, causing a deep, bloody wound.
Kael slammed his magic against the worm's body, pinning it. Vane shifted into a buffalo, charging with all his strength. His horns tore through the creature's hide, digging deeper until a hole gaped in its side.
"Finish him, Kael!" Vane called, stepping back.
Kael altered the gravity around the beast, hurling it into the air, then slamming it back down. Again and again, ten times, until it stopped moving entirely.
He looked up… and for a moment, he saw her again, smiling lips, then nothing.
"We have to reach the huge portal, let's go!" he commanded. Vane shifted back into buffalo form, carrying them toward the fight's heart.
In front of the portal, Alerya had just triggered her final form.
Lara reached her position but stayed hidden, afraid the krukins might spot her.
Leobruns lunged in, sword flashing. His strikes left no mark, her wounds healed instantly. But the blood-forged blades orbiting her body shredded anything too close, even biting into Leobruns's katana.
He leapt away, but Alerya followed like a shadow, slamming into him and tearing at his armor.
Rhyhamr dropped from above, hammer ready, but one of Alerya's rotating blades transformed into a black rose and exploded. She healed instantly, but the strain showed, her blood coursed faster, pain flickering in her eyes.
The blast tore open Leobruns's armor, burning his skin beneath. Rhyhamr weathered it better, slamming his hammer into the ground. The earth cracked, the city quaked.
Darian and Allocen, still far away, felt the tremor. "What's happening?!" Darian shouted from atop the golem.
Alerya had only ten seconds left in her transformation.
'I have to end this now!' She conjured a colossal sword of blood, visible across the entire city, and swung.
Rhyhamr and Leobruns braced together, weapons straining against hers. "We'll hold her!" Rhyhamr roared.
Reinforcements poured in, smaller krukins cut down instantly if they got too close, and Krukmongbees forcing the blade back.
Seven seconds gone.
Her power faded.
Leobruns's broken katana punched through her chest. Krukmongbee stingers rained down, piercing her armor. She stumbled, breath shuddering… then fell.
For three seconds, the battlefield went silent.
Four seconds.
Veilguards rushed in, screaming her name.
Five seconds.
Liro dropped to his knees, tears welling. "No… it can't be…"
Six seconds.
Vane slammed his fist into the ground, roaring.
Seven seconds.
Allocen stood frozen, his golem idle beside him.
Nine seconds.
Lara's voice cut through the grief. "Everyone, move away! It hasn't been fifteen seconds yet, we're at nine! I can still save her!"
Confusion rippled through the Veilguards, but they obeyed, clearing a space.
"Garden of Silence."
Flowers burst from the ground, carpeting the earth in green and bloom. Petals cloaked Lara entirely.
Twelve seconds.
Alerya's chest rose. She breathed again.
The magic's price was steep, Lara collapsed, alive but barely, knowing she'd soon lose one of her most precious memories.
Alerya's eyes fluttered open. She looked at Lara, reached out, and patted her head.
"Thank you…" she whispered, before passing out on top of her.