The battle for their lives had begun.

Sayhas ignored the sounds of the clash, focusing on his role in this surefire stratagem. He took out a beautiful, multicoloured crystal from one of his many pockets. Mizu had made it for him years ago by fusing together dozens of elemental souls. They thought themselves unique but the unnatural lantern disproved that idea. Of course, his crystal didn’t have impure sounds and for that Sayhas was glad. He couldn’t stomach being in possession of such bad sounding things. Clive might be able to handle it but Sayhas couldn’t.

Gusts of wind, plumes of fire, arcs of lightning and shards of ice poured out of the crystal at his command. Soulthirst drank it all up humming to itself.

“Yes,” it purred, “more.”

Countless orbs floated behind Sayhas, revolving slowly about each other. He should be attacking. Oldum wouldn’t be able to hold her for long. He wanted to help, but he didn’t. Something was pulling him back, like a mental tug a war.

“Run,” two voices said in unison. He recognized them, yet couldn’t place them. The two voices mixed together almost perfectly like the same person was saying the exact same thing at the exact same time.

“Oldum will distract her. RUN. or you’ll all die.” the voices urged.

Sayhas took a step back. He didn’t want to die. No.

“Cinders,” he swore, shaking his head.

Soulthirst, along with the spells, had tried to drink Sayhas’ soul. He ripped himself free of Soulthirst’s grasp, maintaining the minimum connection required to sustain Resonance. That small part nagged from a secluded corner of his mind, begging him to run.

He wouldn’t run. He would fight. And they’d win.

You’ve been naughty he chastised mentally.

“No,” Soulthirst objected, oddly quiet, “the pronoun is we.”

With a thought, Sayhas unleashed a barrage of orbs, weaving them into complex trajectories. He didn’t expect them to do anything, just wanted to test the waters and distract her. The result was rather underwhelming. A significant half of the orbs disappeared before getting anywhere close and the other ones she sidestepped cleanly without issue.

But Sayhas wasn’t disheartened; he expected as much. He fired off the rest of his orb, not bothering to input complex paths. Instead, he layered the barrage and made sure to attack from every angle. His hunch was correct, she was able to erase the first few layers but the sheer amount overwhelmed her. As she tried to bat away the beginning of the deluge, she bounced away from Oldum and raised her lantern.

Slow-moving, elemental waves poured out of it—they were similar to Sayhas’ crystal. The waves proved to be troublesome, but it soon became clear that it wouldn’t be enough. Sayhas’ assault would prevail.

Mizu charged her. She was so distracted, she didn’t even notice Mizu until Mizu was right on top of her. Even, Sayhas, from an outsider's perspective, didn’t notice Mizu. The woman dropped her lantern

An iridescent shimmer enveloped the mysterious woman. Sayhas recognized it as Odlums barrier. Ethereal daggers and elemental orbs smashed into it. There wasn’t even a scratch on it.

“That’s dumb,” Oldum called, “not even mine is that strong.”

Sayhas found himself staring at the silver sword. It gave off a nice sound.

“That sword is actually a cheat,” Mizu said, voicing Sayhas’ thoughts.

“I’m better,” Soulthirst said.

The silver sword shifted into her rectangular, keychain blade and a small mace fell into her other hand. “Cheating?” she asked, “no, this is cheating,”

She pointed both at Mizu. Before his eyes, Mizu’s skin flaked off. A light breeze stirred from the mouth of the passage. When the breeze was gone, so was Mizu.

“Mizu?” Sayhas called, too stupefied to do anything else. What just happened? Where was Mizu? His knees gave out. His eyesight grew blurry like water was in his eyes. Before he knew it, he started vomiting.

“Run.”

Sayhas couldn’t move.

“Run.”

Sayhas couldn’t think.

“Run” Soulthirst pleaded.

He got up, not bothering to wipe the vomit on his stubble. Enraged he charged at the woman, raising Soulthirst up high.“You need a whetstone? Cause that’s the wrong way.” She parried Soulthirst easily with her bare hands and thrust a rose into his heart. “Oh well… It was bound to happen,” Soulthirst said without a tinge of remorse.