Caelum didn't reach for a spell. He reached for her.
Abandoning the clinical distance of an alchemist, he lunged forward, his body a golden blur. He sought to use the raw, pressurized weight of his Aether to pin the Knight-Scout, hoping to overwhelm her through **Grappling Synthesis**. He caught her around her **supple, muscular waist**, his hands sinking into the firm flesh of her back as he drove her toward the mossy floor.
Siris let out a sharp, feral grunt as they hit the ground. The impact was a chaotic tangle of **sweat-slicked limbs** and grinding Aether. Caelum used his superior weight to straddle her, his knees pinning her **long, powerful legs**, but Siris was not a delicate professor or a soft student. She was a weapon forged in the Vanguard.
"You're in... my domain... boy!" Siris hissed.
She arched her back with explosive force, her **firm, athletic breasts** crushing against Caelum's chest as she bucked. Her Emerald Aether flared, not as a blast, but as an internal reinforcement. Her muscles, already toned and dense, became as hard as ironwood. She gripped Caelum's wrists with hands that had strangled Void-beasts, her **fingernails digging into his skin** as she began to peel his hold away.
Caelum pushed back, his Gold Aether surging to provide him with artificial strength. The friction between their bodies was immense—the heat of his gold meeting the cool, stubborn endurance of her wood. His face was inches from hers, his golden eyes locked onto her slit-like emerald pupils. He could smell the iron in her blood and the wild mint of her sweat.
Despite his pressure, Siris's training began to tell. She shifted her center of gravity, using her **thick, powerful thighs** to catch Caelum in a sudden, vice-like scissor lock around his ribs. The air left his lungs in a sharp gasp. With a roar of effort, she twisted her entire body, using the rotational force to flip him.
Caelum slammed into the dirt, and before he could reorient, Siris was on top of him.
She pinned his arms over his head with one hand, her other forearm pressing firmly against his throat. She sat heavy on his chest, her **round, muscular seat** anchoring him down with the weight of the forest itself. Her **braided moss-green hair** hung over him like a curtain, her chest heaving with deep, jagged breaths that made her **breasts bounce and sway** just inches from his face.
"The Earth doesn't yield to the Sun, Caelum," Siris panted, a triumphant, predatory smirk crossing her **high cheekbones**. "It outlasts it."
Caelum looked up at her, pinned and momentarily powerless. For the first time, the "Master" was looking at the world from the dirt. The Slime Empress was still caged, and he was held fast by a woman whose physical prowess and Aetheric endurance were a perfect match for his ambition.
"You've got a lot of heat, Catalyst," Siris whispered, her **emerald eyes** glowing with a fierce, dark respect. "But you're currently at the bottom of the food chain."