The jungle had not healed since the battle. Burnt trees leaned like broken bones, rivers still churned with unsettled silt. Yet in the shadows of the canopy, Mausgrau watched.
She had seen the newcomer. A woman's body, but not her spirit. Mausgrau's sharp ears had picked up the unnatural rhythm of her movements, the weight of the forest bending unnaturally around her. And she had seen the Serpents flee in terror.
So she followed.
---
Delilah knelt by a stream, her reflection rippling with flickers of fire and stone. Her hands shifted shapes unconsciously—water flowing into blades, earth becoming armor, lightning coiling in her veins. She did not smile; her face was the mask of a conqueror, controlled by the nameless man within.
"You should not be here," Mausgrau said, stepping from the trees. Her voice was low, but steady.
Delilah turned, eyes blazing with stormlight. "And yet here I am."
Mausgrau's whiskers twitched, tail coiled tight behind her. "You fight the Serpents. That makes you useful. But I know what you are. You're not her anymore."
A pause. Then the elemental voice answered through Delilah's lips, deep and resonant. "The woman is gone. I remain. If you wish to stop the Serpents, stand aside or stand with me."
Mausgrau didn't like it. She didn't trust it. But the Serpents had returned in greater numbers, and even she could not hold back an army alone.
"Fine," she hissed. "We fight them together. But I watch you. One wrong move, and this forest will swallow you whole."
---
The attack came at dusk.
Columns of Serpent soldiers poured into the jungle, their armored transports crushing roots, their weapons glowing with toxic green fire. Overhead, drone-like machines buzzed, scanning for heat signatures.
The commander returned as well, scars burned into his mask, his voice sharper than before. "Find the witch. Find the elemental. Burn this place to ash."
---
They found both.
Mausgrau struck first, leaping from the canopy, her tail snapping a drone from the sky. She landed among soldiers, her claws flashing, every strike precise and lethal. Vines whipped out at her command, tangling legs, pulling men into darkness.
Then Delilah—no, the nameless one—rose behind her.
The earth shook as he walked. Fire spiraled from her hands, water surged from the very ground, lightning forked across the clearing. With a wave, he turned the Serpents' own weapons to molten slag. With a thought, he raised walls of stone that crushed vehicles like toys.
Side by side, mouse and godling carved through the invaders. Mausgrau's speed and cunning cut down the stragglers. The nameless one's sheer elemental fury shattered their core.
The commander tried to rally, lunging with new venom-forged blades, but Mausgrau struck first, her tail wrapping his arm, holding him in place.
Then fire consumed him.
---
When silence fell, the jungle smoldered, but it still stood. The Serpents had been broken—again.
Mausgrau stood on a root, her chest heaving, eyes narrowing at her unlikely ally. "You're too dangerous. You fight them now, but I see what you are. You're not here to protect. You're here to conquer."
The nameless one, wearing Delilah's face, tilted his head. "Perhaps. But until the Serpents are ash, our goals align."
The mouse warrior's tail lashed, uncertain. Then she turned away. "Then I will fight beside you. For now."
The jungle whispered around them, uneasy. An alliance born not of trust, but survival.
And somewhere deeper in the Serpents' network, word spread fast: their enemies were uniting.
The war was changing.