Sryine stepped free from the coalescing sandstorm in time for her to join Vwyx, just as the gigantic armored vehicle came to a stop a distance away. A gate phased open nearby at the same time, with Ieqyisa stepping forward to greet them in her typical power armor.

“What is with these sudden interruptions, we’re rather busy at this time girls. We know you’re busy with funding your own research in your own goals for reaching to the stars, which is perfectly good in all honesty, but do not get in our way in the process.” “Says the woman who simply had to throw some rather offensive complaints at our own presentation.. you’re like the pillar of minding your own business yourself. In fact, on the same subject, what is with that piece of junk behind you? It moves like a sliding brick.” “Did you hear that Fhyernx? She called your creation a sliding brick.” Ieqyisa started laughing at the sudden jest, Sryine still glaring at her. Hearing a reply to her remark, her expression turned a touch more serious. “No you moron, that would be a very stupid thing to do. Liyuzhe is currently working on the filter, distracting her at all could be incredibly dangerous. If you want to drive away our sudden intruders, the two of us would have to do it without her.” Ieqyisa seemed generally irritated, though her comments were fairly interesting. A filter? Just what exactly was Liyuzhe getting herself into now?

“Weird, the Successor doesn’t seem to be with you. I guess she’s away doing something else, actually being the smart one. You two should really take from her example and get lost, bring your friends with you.” “Oh, really now? What if we don’t want to leave?” “Well, in that case, I would have to insist.” Ieqyisa opened a gate below Sryine suddenly, a move that was avoided without much difficulty. Sryine and Vwyx were already augmented, but Ieqyisa’s barrier rippled visibly around her. Regardless, Sryine called up an illusionary sword, ready to stand her ground. To win, she didn’t need to defeat her enemy, she just needed to hold the line so that Riyxia could complete her own task. There were any number of ways that would be possible, too. Sryine rushed Ieqyisa, slamming her sword upon the barrier from above harmlessly. Ieqyisa took a moment to wonder at the futility until she noticed the ground below her had disappeared, and that she was falling. She teleported a distance away, stumbling in her effort, only for Sryine to dismiss the illusionary hole right after and press the opening, dashing towards Ieqyisa again before Ieqyisa could stand. Illusions might not pass through the barrier, but their effects were still visible to those inside. Ieqyisa rushed to teleport again, moving to another opportune spot nearby to give herself an opening.. only to fall through that illusion as a result, crashing into the sand a distance below. She turned to her instruments to survey her surroundings in her stead, realizing she could no longer trust her own senses, a liability which would dramatically reduce her reaction time.

A massive explosion detonated in the area beside Vwyx, an all too obvious warning shot from the armored vehicle in the distance. A particle cannon, that could actually do some serious damage if it was instead used against her mirror maze. Shifting the sand to glass in her wake to slide along faster than her feet would have been naturally capable of, she moved the ground itself to speed her along, moving the line of fire away from the camp. The cannon fired again, slamming hard in mid air into a metallic lattice forcefield of Vwyx’s own design, both effectively negating the other. As she made her way around the armored vehicle, she realized that Sryine’s judgement was proving all too correct, this thing really did move like a brick. If that was the case, it might be better for her to press an advantage, as she turned to rush the armored vehicle. Propelling a metal lance towards the armored vehicle, she found that even if it was bad at moving, it was just as defensive as it was offensive, the massive barrier around the thing rippling as the lance fragmented upon impact. Awesome, that stupid barrier was always everywhere. Still, a brick was a brick, she could still work with this.

Vwyx formed a solid rock mound under the armored vehicle, the mound growing taller in moments until it was a pillar in the horizon. Then, in an absolute reversal, the entire pillar coiled in on itself and returned the armor vehicle to the ground upside down. The vehicle sustained the impact without any damage, but was unfortunately stuck upside down, with even it’s cannon stuck in the ground. The whole thing fidgeted, trying to figure out how to right itself again, but to no avail. Left without recourse, Fhyernx abandoned his creation and took to the field in power armor of his own, weapons materializing on his own armor in the process. It was his specialty, after all, the creation of versatile instruments.. including instruments with practical use as weaponry. Vwyx realized that she might have one day before been jealous about such an ability.. if not for having found a respectable niche of her own. Even so, she was still outraged that the jerk hadn’t deigned to even once impress her with such a thing anytime in the past, in all of his visits to the village. Even having left her with a simple trinket or two of her own might have been enough to have raised her hopes back then, leaving her feeling at least a bit less alone.

Having noticed that her illusions weren’t cutting it anymore, Sryine was suddenly made aware of a dramatic crash off in the distance, Vwyx having turned the brick of a vehicle upside down. Actually, that looked like fun, she wondered just how well these armor suits could sustain being thrown around like that, too. Switching tactics, Sryine cascaded ice across the ground Ieqyisa stood upon, causing Ieqyisa to slip before she could react. Sryine knew what would follow, yet another teleportation a distance away in recovery, she could even spot where Ieqyisa would go after taking an accelerated moment of consideration. In a shock of lightning, Sryine was there waiting before Ieqyisa arrived, setting a shell on the area just as Ieqyisa arrived. Skipping the usual period where she allowed others time to adjust, she instantly brought the sphere high into the sky, her own effect not being influenced as it was not in contact with the barrier itself. There, she began the momentum of her descent, then removed the sphere as a whole, letting everyone return to normal movement. She then personally slammed herself into the top of Ieqyisa’s barrier, allowing gravity to take care of the rest. Ieqyisa didn’t even have time to react or try to provide a way to warp away, slamming into the ground with the result of all of that built momentum after a period of near panic, from an altitude as high as the clouds. Ieqyisa’s barrier did weather the entire impact, even cushioning Sryine in the process, but the result was still a meteoric crater on landing.

“Hells, what was that? Did you just teleport us or something?” “Something like that. Your brother was a huge help in the process, by the way. I know it's sort of a family thing, so I guess I should thank you for being maybe a little bit of the whole inspiration.” “More Astral Flame empowerment, I’m guessing. Hells, Liyuzhe needs to hurry up, we’re running out of time.” Having at least caught her bearings, Ieqyisa warped away to get Sryine off of her, only to find Sryine slamming into her barrier from behind immediately after teleportation with a lightning discharge. The blow was completely absorbed, but her sensors went dark as a static field developed around them. Left thus blind, Sryine was then free to resort to further illusions while Ieqyisa was thus left unable to react.

Thunder raged around behind Vwyx as she dodged an onslaught of seeker missiles, her lattice forcefield having been avoided in the process. Okay, having smart weapons was cheating, not even she was capable of manipulating her weaponized effects once the effect was in progress. Then again, she was certain that it was the weapon’s firing instrument that was handling that portion of its performance, it was the benefit of making the weapon itself rather than just the ammunition. However, she was well versed in the quandaries of making ammunition for a weapon, it limited the versatility of options available to the given weapon. It was for this reason that the predictable spray of missiles was becoming all too easy to deal with. Meanwhile, Fhyernx was being as immobile as the brick he just finished riding in, more so in fact. She tried to pick him up with another shift of the ground, only to find the ledge pierced and destroyed mid creation. She took the ground away from him, and he just started hovering in the air instead. It was getting both boring and tiring.

Vwyx still had a slight advantage. Her crafting of things ended at its usage typically because she had no ability to work with the sort of effects generated by most instruments. However, a metal flying craft in nature up until it would detonate, such a creation actually remained within her own domain in that moment. Becoming aware of this, she reached out to some of the projectiles coming her way and made slight adjustments to their design, that they would go towards the sender of the signal they intercepted, like it was a targeting beacon. The missiles thus stopped following their original design, neglected any instructions to detonate, and collided in a series with Fhyernx’s barrier. Vwyx repeated this same design within the span of a moment to even a huge volley of projectiles, the adjustment not being very hard for her. This provided her plenty of opportunity to close grounds, to rush Fhyernx directly. His own sensors were starting to become clouded by the series of explosions slamming into him, the whole process demanding far more from Fhyernx than Vwyx at that point.

Switching tactics, Fhyernx swapped his current missile launcher for a luminous battery, a beam of light surging forth suddenly instead. The beam was blocked at the last moment by Vwyx, but it didn’t stop just like that, it was a continuous beam. Quickly her blockade was shattered, leaving her to dodge as the beam tried to center on her. Getting closer was only making it easier for such a weapon to find her, too. Her solution was obvious, but so were the consequences. She would set a mirror shield to reflect the beam, he would switch to another weapon and change the situation all over again. It was her own abilities that could remain unpredictable, she needed to turn things around with that advantage. She tossed out a series of grenades, detonating into a massive smoke screen. It wasn’t enough to stop the beam, the cloud not lasting long either, but he could no longer aim correctly for the moment. Fhyernx continued to fire the beam, a series of explosions occurring in the beam's wake. The explosions started to get even closer, as the very air incinerated in the presence of the beam. This ignitable air grew closer and closer, explosions resulting from even the slightest disturbance. A series more grenades landed in the close area, the first half sending more gas into the air, the later half sparking in a series of discharges. This caused the gas to explode multiple times in the air just before him, leaving him uncertain about his own offense. Left with such uncertainty, he finally started to move to relocate himself, instantly slipping on the glass at his feet. Soon after, Vwyx was on him.. giving him no stability to mount any new offense.

“Could you kindly move, this armor wasn’t designed to work for two people.” “Oh, back to not supplying transporting services again, are you? Was it maybe that it was always Ieqyisa who did that sort of thing for you then? I guess everyone just thought you were too slow or something. Were you always this slow, I can’t remember anymore.” “I certainly remember you being much more cooperative and sensible, for one thing. Why exactly are you here again, certainly not just simply to get in the way I hope.” “Don’t flatter yourself, we didn’t even know you would be here. On that matter, why are you here, anyway?” “Ah, I see, business secrets for everyone. If only Liyuzhe was here, maybe we could figure out a thing or two more.” Fwyx suddenly vanished from below her, appearing a short distance away beside Ieqyisa who had also teleported nearby. Sryine was at Vwyx side not even a moment later, the both of them still ready to go. Meanwhile, both Ieqyisa and Fhyernx were exhausted, trying to hold on. Oh, right, even if their barrier was capable of blocking everything, it still ran from their own stamina. Even with the best instrumentation to optimize their stamina usage, Vwyx and Sryine had a considerable advantage thanks to the astral flame.

“Can we please pull out any of our other resources, I’m really not holding on very well. Even that Colossal would pay us back right about now with a significant advantage.” “You moron, no, a thing like that needs some pretty impressive backup, else it would just run dry right alongside you. Just a little longer, then Liyuzhe should be done. At that point, we should be free for some of your more.. dramatic options.” Fhyernx passed Ieqyisa a spare weapon addon for her armor, figuring he could keep going for a bit longer. Vwyx and Sryine exchanged a quick glance, having at least figured out something minor at that moment. The two girls weren’t the only ones present providing cover for a friend sneaking around the area, Liyuzhe was here doing something too. A filter, exactly what sort of thing could they be trying to filter? Did it have anything to do with why the beasts around them weren’t even being organized aggressively. Wait, couldn’t they have even used the beasts as a stamina backup too? Instead, all the beasts had been conveniently moved away, there wasn’t even much of an assault on their camp anymore. A distraction for a distraction, everyone was being a fool. Sryine started laughing despite herself, actually finding real amunsement in how stupid this was.

“Sryine, you okay.” “Yes, yes, sorry. Wow, I haven’t done that in a while, have I? Actually, I guess not laughing has been kinda the irregular thing, we’ve both been doing really well, haven’t we? To think we’ve played them this well, and they haven’t guessed even once. Do you think we would have made a better message if we just left them and started slaughtering the beasts around here? What do you think the odds are that Riyxia has found Liyuzhe at this point, anyway? I’m getting tired of all this waiting, after all.” Vwyx stared at Sryine like she had really lost it, an odd thought considering Sryine had been augmented this whole time as things stood. What was she saying anyway.. that’s not how things exactly were, she must be confused somewhere… Ieqyisa and Fhyernx however started to resolve looks of pure shock, turning to their instruments to try and get any updates from Liyuzhe.. but it was still radio silence. Ieqyisa opened a portal and forced Fhyernx through, only to find the accelerated shell around Sryine and Vwyx disappearing after their withdrawal.

“Nice place, thanks for the invitation, by the way. Fhyernx, did you make this, it so looks like your sort of work. Hmm, I don’t think this is the floating base Riyxia mentioned before, so this is just your own camp. Of course, you wouldn’t leave Liyuzhe behind, so that makes sense. So, the way I see things, we sorta have two options. Option one is that our hosts give us some nice hospitality and we talk like professionals. Option two involves Vwyx and I competing for who can wreck the most junk. I mean, if you two think you can stop us, especially in your current condition, it might be amusing to see you try. It would all depend on how far back you want your own research to fall before Riyxia gets here with Liyuzhe.” “Vwyx, I thought you said you didn’t even know we would be here.” “Oh, of course she didn’t know Liyuzhe’s friends would remain so close, foolish us, huh? But when Liyuzhe personally stepped into our little trap, we all had to move into action. I hope you understand, we have a vested interest in certain matters ourselves.” Sryine was grinning like a demon, with Fhyernx uncertain in the safest way to reply. Things had suddenly made a turn for the worst, all so unexpectedly. Vwyx herself was still keeping quiet, barely following along. They had a trap? Since when?

“Of course, we should have expected your devoted interest in the Astral Flame might have given you reason enough to keep watch over such a place, we should feel lucky that nothing had gone wrong sooner. Look, we’ve figured out all about your inheritance of the flame, we know the whole thing killed Khyzae in the process. Yes, it was a botched attempt to reach the stars.. one that somehow pierced the veil instead. Now, you three are left with picking up the pieces of Khyzae’s dream, and we’re left with picking up the pieces of Khyzae’s sacrifice. This is the only thing that remains of our childhood friend, we have to make the most of the opportunity she’s left us. I know you wouldn’t understand, you’re both using the flame like it's your second nature at this point, and it’s not like you’ve dedicated any time to researching the flaws of something that doesn’t even limit you anymore. There is no way you could possibly hope to understand, that’s why it’s up to us to get things done.” Ieqyisa seemed almost irate in her helplessness, generally at a loss for what to do at that point. She was mostly worried about Liyuzhe, being caught in such a dangerous situation, and the high risk involved with that. Clearly, this was a tense situation, something would have to improve first.

“I wouldn’t be so certain if I were you, Riyxia understands more than you might give her credit for. I’m surprised you don’t hold her in higher regard, actually, she is completely what remains of Khyzae, actually literally. Riyxia is her own person, with her own memories, but there is so much of the Khyzae you knew still inside her. Much like us, we haven’t lost the essences that made us who we are.. even if we still aren’t sure what states those old essences remain in. Khyzae’s essence is there, a fuel for Riyxia’s own ambitions, that’s exactly how she became a successor to Khyzae’s will. I would really recommend you don’t underestimate the sort of thing Riyxia is capable of, she’s bound to surprise you in the process.” Vwyx paused in her statement, having finished speaking so highly of Riyxia.. when circumstances alone were seeming to prove her statement. Especially when considered in addition to the current conversation.. a conversation she was only barely following. It was surprising that Ieqyisa had just admitted to so much already, something that was becoming more and more obvious to have been by Sryine’s design. To have taken so much information, given freely, it was exactly like Liyuzhe had done to them before. The information she thus shared in return about Riyxia’s potential, it was only fair after the offered return Liyuzhe had left them with too.

Even so, Vwyx wondered just how accurate Sryine’s predictions might have actually panned out. They had no idea what Riyxia had been doing all this time, in all honesty anything could have happened while they were busy providing cover for her.. and if Liyuzhe was around too, there was even more for them to worry about.