"Mamoru, I have a question." He fixed some of his attention on his combat partner. "You're not Mamoru, are you? You don't have Hana's features."
— he pushed the man away. — It was Hana's father who named me Mamoru. My real name is Luis Felipe. — He ran a hand over his head. — I'm sorry I never told you or Cassandra.
Everyone present heard it and was impressed by it. It made perfect sense, since unlike Hana, who had a round face and eyes with large, slightly more horizontal lashes. While Mamoru's eyes were larger, his eyebrows were long. His forehead was hidden by his wavy hair, which reached down to his chin in a diamond shape.
— Focus team! Let's fight!
— Right!
After a short time to glimpse Mamoru and Felipe's appearance, everyone returned to their respective fights.
Cassandra saw her attacks controlled by the daggers, while her opponent used his strong feet to deliver powerful blows, often destroying her suit. The black markings on her body glowed, giving her the strength to maintain her composure.
The whip touched the sky, creating thunderous sounds as it launched projectiles toward the cachal. The creature used its larger axe to shield the whip, while rotating its wrist with the smaller one to defend itself from the projectiles.
The ground was lava, engulfed in flames from Dionysus's sword, which burned the ground. His opponent's tail gave him an advantage; he used his hands to hold the long sword, while using his tail to strike horizontally with the sword.
The creature moved strangely, and struck with equal bizarreness. Its body became the other's, no longer human. Because of this, its strength was immense, but its mobility nonexistent. Heleno and Felipe's attacks were like hot steel struck by a hammer; with each blow, their strength and strategy improved.
— Argos, we will have to act!
— Alright! Help Master Cassandra, while I help Dionysus.
Callisto controlled the battlefield with her arrows. She fired an arrow into the alloy that held the two daggers together, shot an arrow into the cachal's leg, forcing him to shift his stance, and then, using her axes, deformed arrows toward the baboon's tail, turning it into a thorny field.
Cassandra raised her arm as her halberd exploded, creating a smokescreen that made it impossible for her opponent to see. With force, Dionysus slammed his long sword into the ground, sending stones flying.
— Aix\Estige: Lissa!
— Aix\Estige: Lissa!
Antares stung Cassandra, turning her eyes black and her hair a fiery red. The scorpion's tail curled into a shield. Its six legs joined together to form a spear. Antares's stinger and head became a helmet, while the rest of its body became a breastplate for Cassandra.
Argos's fan opened there. The small circles became eyes, its gaze fixed on Dionysus. The long sword, blazing, reached for the peacock, touched Argos's body, piercing it. Its feathers gathered together to form a sheath, and the bird disappeared.
- What is that?
—Dionysus and Kassandra awakened their connection to Styx, allowing them to merge with Aix. This unleashed their Lissa mode, the madness hidden within their minds, the penultimate stage before the promise to Styx.
The shield no longer had its meaning, completely losing its creative function. Cassandra used it to strike her opponent relentlessly, leaping from side to side. Her spear separated into three elongated pieces, trapping her opponent's body. The helmet, a combination of the scorpion's mouth and stinger, released a corrosive liquid.
In one hand he wielded his hilt, and in the other his eye-blade. A diagonal cut sent meta feathers toward the opponent, and a diagonal cut sent heat, and from their X-shaped encounter an explosion erupted. Dionysus's body was covered in black scales. Time passed differently for Dionysus; even before the X formed, he was behind his opponent.
— Felipe and Heleno, we're not going to be left behind!
— Right!
Margarida stepped back, the whip in her hands becoming a spear again, its tip gripped tightly, while the pine cone on the tip took on a larger proportion. What's the point of strategy if you can simply crush your enemy, and so Margarida did.
The dynamic duo assembled the puzzle before them. Actually, no, because of the creature's shape, removing one piece would never complete the puzzle. Heleno's rapier was aimed at the creature's knee, while Felipe focused on its shoulder; they both attacked simultaneously. The creature was unable to change shape. The creature's most frequent shift was between its knees, the body's strongest joint, and its shoulder, the most flexible. With both knees and shoulders destroyed, the creature simply fell to the ground.
— Damn, I'm about to lose control, this isn't going to happen! — He took the bottle out of his pocket and drank half of it. — Take this, Dionysus!
— He took the bottle and drank the liquid. — Thank you, Nee-san.
The promise between the young men and the animals was over. With her body exposed, her veins were visible, a golden liquid oozing from them, while Cassandra's eyes turned gold. Her red wings began to fall, giving rise to new purple ones, as she removed her large cloak, leaving only her underwear. She tore at her chest with her hands, her heart seemingly leaping, then slowly returned to normal. She lay unconscious on the ground.
— August emerged from his cocoon. — It couldn't be better. Dionysus is reincarnating, being the Echidna who fed on the giant, and Cassandra being the chosen one of the fire promise of the Styx that awakened. — He took a cloth from his pocket and wiped his tears.
— Nice rogue, could you hand over the amphora to Hermaphrodite?
"Of course." He picked up the amphora from the ground and walked toward Felipe. "This is yours, just break it." The creatures' bodies turned into serpents. "You passed my master's test."
— Right, but I didn't evolve when I ate those two Echidnas, what do we do?
"As I said, today is the day I fulfill my duty of existence. Feed on my flesh and the Echidnas in those bodies; you will evolve on your path as well, Poimandres."
August greeted Philip, Callisto, Heleno, and Margarida. He touched Cassandra's face with his hand, and then Dionysus'. The creatures' bodies began to glow, their lights colliding, forming a golden apple, which he handed to Philip, who stared at it.
Cassandra got up from the ground, walked over to Dionysus, took his cloak, and helped him up. Standing a little away from everyone there, while Philip ate the apple and the man lay on the ground, a smile on his face, knowing he would sleep forever.
"This is beautiful, but it's simply the sound of the apocalypse's trumpets. We need to seize this moment of calm, don't we, sister?"
— My god, Mamoru's name was always Felipe, why did I never realize what a bad girlfriend I am! Hana is ahead of me, but I'm going to pass her, I don't care what I have to do, I'm going to marry Felipe before she marries Calisto!