Ryne and Vysala squared off in the open area under the pyramid, with Zaria sitting in her babamorph to watch. The smaller Aelif’s armor showed no visible weapons, and Zaria was curious how she’d fight like that. Vysala hefted her spork overhead, pointing the tines directly at Ryne. “Just so you know,” Vysala said. “We haven’t had a chance to test our powers. Mind going easy at first for a warmup?”

“You don’t need to go easy,” Ryne said breezily. “An older model of this took hits from an escaped Entity. Granted, it was brand new and fairly weak, but still. The model that I was using two models ago soaked hits from a deranged necromantic tyrannosaurus. The last model took a hit from an artifact level weapon. I’m pretty sure I can handle anything you have at Copper tier.”

Vysala shrugged. “Suit yourself. Rav? Helm.”

Rav flowed up around Vysala’s neck, engulfing her head in a helmet made of his own body. Only Vysala’s eyes were visible in the slits of the helm - while Rav’s eyes opened from the pauldrons. Two extra arms, wielding crossbows, erupted from the back and arched over to aim at Ryne.

Ryne grinned, and her helmet snapped shut. “Show me what you’ve-”

The rest of whatever she had been about to say was cut off as Vysala and Rav crossed the distance to Rav far faster than Zaria had expected, and brought the Spork down in an overhead blow. Ryne’s arms snapped up, and screens of mana erupted from her bracers to take the blow for her. The impact rune flared to life, and the sudden explosion of power shattered Ryne’s barrier and drove the Aelif back. Rav opened fire with the crossbows. These had been made with the Bird heart, and the extra accuracy afforded to the mimic from those shots meant every single attack landed true.

They also were deflected by the Aelif’s smooth armor, but by the way she was defending, the attacks were still doing something.

Zaria held out her hand, and mana spun in the air around it. A moment later she had a bird heart that she chucked at Ryne’s fit. The mob heart detonated, showering the area around the Aelif with feathers that glittered like razors.

Ryne came bursting straight up out of the feathers, rocketing into the air on those strange beetle wings she’d shown before. “-got,” Ryne said, finally finishing her earlier statement, and then held out an empty hand and pointed it towards Vysala. Energy gathered in her palm and rocketed out towards the witch, a streaking comet of pure, untyped arcane energy.

Vysala batted the attack with her spork, and a new Rune that Zaria hadn’t seen before flared to life. Based on what happened, however, it was clearly a Deflect or Return rune, because the deflection sent Ryne’s attack flying back at the Aelif. At the same time, Rav shifted the crossbows on his back to wings, and took the air, flying up towards Ryne.

Ryne dodged to avoid her own returned attack and then dropped to avoid the incoming Vysala, but she wasn’t prepared for Rav. His tongue lashed out of the mouth in Vysala’s chest like an elongated tendril, wrapping around Ryne’s ankle and pulling her in. The flame-jets on the underside of Ryne’s beetle wings flared to life and Ryne went rocketing away - but not fast enough to pull her free of Rav’s grasp. Rav was about to sink his teeth into the Aelif’s armor when she fired a jet on the boot, shooting flame directly into the mimic’s mouth and forcing him to let go with a furious shriek.

But her focus on Rav meant Ryne had taken her attention off Vysala, forgetting for a moment there were two opponents in one foe here. Her spork came down on one of Ryne’s wings, and an impact rune went off, sending Ryne into a careening, wild spin as she tried to regain control. Just as it looked like she would, a Bird Heart that Rav had deposited with his tongue went off, once again wrapping the Aelif in a sphere of razor sharp feathers.

Ryne flew down, landing hard. Vysala and Rav dove down on her like descending eagles, and Ryne quickly gestured.

A wall - an honest to gods stone wall - appeared on the ground in front of her, a sudden solid barrier of unbroken stone. Rav had to bank hard to avoid slamming into it directly, and Vysala still had to slam her spork into the stone wall to drive them away before a full crash. Meanwhile, the shoulders of Ryne’s armor opened up, revealing rows and rows of those same strange explosive arrows the Balehen Drone had used against the smaller chickens. She let loose, a wild barrage of missiles that careened around the room, blanketing the area in explosions.

Rav and Vysala came dashing out of the smoke, charging in. Ryne let loose a powerful blast of Mana, and Rav dropped to his knees as Vysala leaned back, letting the blast go right over their head. They kicked up from that position, catching Ryne with a kick to the chin as part of a flip. Rav’s wings switched to crossbows, firing rapidly at the airborne Aelif, as Vysala leapt up and brought the spork down on Ryne’s chest, sending her slamming back towards the stone.

Ryne was quick, Zaria had to give her that. Although she couldn’t turn the impact into a complete non-issue, she was able to turn it into a roll that bled off some of the momentum. Ryne kicked off the ground, using the Aelif’s natural jumping ability to take herself far higher, and gestured again. Instead of a wall of stone in front of herself, however, these started to materialize around Vysala and Rav - and an iron roof to the structure.

Ryne landed, taking deep breaths. The stone of this wall was uniform and unbroken, and easily half a foot thick. “I’ll deconstruct those in a moment,” she said between breaths. “All right. Are you sure they’re Copper? Because I’ve fought Silvers that didn’t-”

Before she could finish, an immense crash rang through the room, and one of the stone walls detonated. Stone shrapnel went flying towards Ryne, hitting her armor and mostly bouncing off it, but the sheer force still drove the Aelif backwards. One of the shards struck her in the shoulder, and sparks started to flare up from the joint. Vysala and Rav stepped out of the interior of the cage, the impact rune still glowing.

Ryne froze for a moment. “No way you’re Copper,” she said. “Areve! Show me their nameplates. Now.” Ryne went silent for a moment, then whistled. “Damn. You are. Gestalt.”

Vysala hesitated on hearing that word. “What do you mean?”

“When the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Each of you, alone, are Copper boss level. But together…this suit runs at Copper Dungeon levels. I’ve used this suit to battle low tier gods. Keldoran gods, which are apparently just spicy mortals compared to other gods, but still - you’re strong.” Ryne charged a blast, then hesitated. “Wait, hold on. I don’t know how hard this will hit you. My estimates of your power are way off, and I don’t want to actually injure you.”

“Same for you,” Vysala said, holding up her spork. A Moon Heart had grown into the bowl of the spork, and was pulsing with energy.

Ryne grinned. “Maybe call it a draw there, then?”

Vysala shook her head. “There’s one thing I want to try. Fire at me again? And get ready to evade, I’m not sure what this will do.”

Ryne nodded and raised her hand. A glowing circle appeared just above her palm. Without the chaos of actual battle, Zaria could move her vision in and listen to the hum of the power. To her surprise, Ryne spoke quietly inside her helmet. “Drop power to ten percent.”

Then Ryne fired. A beam of energy erupted from her hand.

Vysala and Rav together moved like flowing water, bringing up the spork to catch the blast as it came in. They caught it in the bowl, and the moon heart shattered - at the same time Vysala activated her Impact rune. For a moment, the energy pooled in the bowl of the spork like water, power gathering there.

Then Vysala swung, using the spork like the arm of a catapult to hurl the gathered power back at Ryne. The thrusters on Ryne’s suit activated, carrying her up and out of the way of the blast. It hit the back wall of the dungeon and erupted. The detonation created a shockwave that rattled Zaria’s windows- and then a mass of tentacles erupted from the point of impact. They covered the back wall, grasping wildly at everything nearby. Fortunately, right now everything near by consisted of the air and the rest of the wall, but they still strained towards Ryne, as if by sheer force of desperation they could grab the Aelif out of the air.

Moments later, the tentacles started to disperse, and Rav peeled back from Vysala’s face so they could see the Striga’s grin. “Knew it,” she said.

Ryne landed and opened her helmet. “What were you testing?” she asked excitedly.

“You’re using raw mana for those blasts. No elemental affinity. I thought I could possibly use the impact rune to redirect the power from the blast back into the mob heart-”

“Which shattered,” Ryne said, “mingling your mana with the mana you were absorbing. You created a mana battery in the bowl of that weapon.”

Vysala nodded eagerly. “You get it. I couldn’t have held it there for long, but I could.”

Ryne scratched her chin. “And…it could work with other elements.”

“Probably only with the moon, bird, and serpent hearts,” Vysala said. “Those energy types make the most sense for dungeon mobs. It’ll spawn something related to the energy I absorbed, mingling those energies.”

“Flame tentacles from a flame heart,” Ryne said. She looked thrilled. “You’re…halfway between a dungeon and a normal core in terms of what you can do. How is that possible?”

Zaria cleared her throat to interrupt. “We’ll explain soon,” she said. “But before we reveal all of our secrets, Vys?”

Vysala nodded. “Sorry, got caught up in things.”

Rav opened his mouth on her chest. “So we’re not going to eat the Aelif?”

“No,” Vysala said.

Rav sighed. “Can I have something fun to eat?”

“Soon,” Vysala said, looking at Zaria. “We won’t be here for too long, and once we’re moving again you’ll have plenty opportunities to feed.”

“She said I can’t eat Witches,” Rav said to Zaria. “I want to know what they taste like.”

“Some of them joined the Reclaimers,” Zaria said. “I’m sure Vysala won’t stop you from eating them.”

Vysala nodded. “Traitors are traitors,” she said.

Ryne watched the exchanged with a bemused expression on her face. “I like you two.”

“You’re fun,” Zaria said by agreement. “Now…what was that you said about gods?”

“Right. So…different worlds are scaled differently. You know a Copper boss can handle five Copper adventurers?”

Zaria and Vysala both nodded.

“Well, the world I’m from has a plethora of god who use the same scaling system as mortals. A Copper Keldoran God can handle twenty-five Copper adventurers - but due to the gods messing with our System to hold our mortals weaker, five Keldoran Copper herocores would treat one adventurer from here as a Boss level threat to them. It’s a bit messy, but to bring my people up to par with the rest of the universe, we need this power armor.” Ryne tapped her chest. “That’s why I don’t have a core of my own yes. I want to make sure I’m getting the best possible one from all worlds.”

“You should make your own,” Vysala said, drawing both their attention. “Like what Cultivators do. It’s not done often because it takes so long to form the foundation, and learn to cultivate, and then form your core, and the entire time you’re vulnerable. But you’re not, not with that suit.” Vysala tried to take a step, but it was slow and heavy. She sighed. “Rav, wake up or withdraw to just my chest? I can’t walk when you’ve fallen asleep.”

“I’m bored,” Rav said, peeling back the armor from Vysala’s legs and arm. “Wake me up again when we’re about to eat something.”

Ryne’s eyes had lit up at the idea of forming her own core, but she didn’t pursue that. “You do have cultivators here,” she said, more to herself than anything. “All right. Well. Let’s talk about-”

Behind them, the portal started to hum. Words flashed in Zaria’s vision.

On my way! - Penara.

“-about how I’m going to let you two handle that while I sit here quietly,” Ryne said. She gestured, and new stone walls started to form around her.

“What are you doing?” Zaria asked.

“I really don’t want to startled the Wisp of a platinum dungeon with my presence,” Ryne said. “Let her know I’m here before she turns me into dust. And Areve? Give me the Faebane suit. Just in case.”

Zaria wanted to ask who this “Areve” was, but there wasn’t time.

Penara came through the portal, beaming brightly. “You did it!” she said cheerfully, flying in a lazy loop before scanning the room. Her eyes narrowed. “Wait. I’m sensing dungeon cores. Behind that wall. But they aren’t…what is going on?”

“That’s a friend,” Zaria said quickly. “Her name is Ryne. She’s from offworld, but she’s here to help.”

Penara sighed. “Oh, Zaria. Never trust an offworlder.” She held up her hand, and light began to pool in her palm. Even though it was tiny, the energy started to glow like a miniature sun. “Let me just clean ths up.”

Zaria tried to interrupt, but Penara wasn’t listening. She let loose a beam of light that streaked toward Ryne. The sheer force behind it lit the air as it passed, creating a conflagration around the attack that roared in the aftermath of the attack’s passing. It created a shockwave a moment later that rocked Zaria and sent Vysala and Rav tumbling to the ground.

Penara brushed her hands, and Zaria whirled on her. “How could you-”

Penara held up a finger. “Give it a moment.”

Moments later, the debris where Ryne had crumbled inwards, and Ryne staggered out. Her armor was not what she’d been wearing before. It was green and pink - or it had been. Now it was charred and burnt in places, smoke rising from it. Ryne took a step forward, then stood there, swaying like a drunk. “So,” she said, her voice slurred. “Faebane armor test…three-even? Three teen. Thirteen. That was... Areve, take note. Noumena shields…noumena is a fun word to say. Noooooumena. But. They do the holding. Did. They held. Addendum to that note - auxilililili-” Ryne paused. “Note to self - how many lis are in that word? But two-endary systems only…slightly blunted…sleepy time.”

Then Ryne collapsed facefirst.

“Searing Sleep,” Penara said, brushing off her hands. “She has armor made of the same matter as things in Wisphame - noumena. The same matter I’m made of. I wasn’t going to kill her. I just wanted to…put her to sleep.” She gestured to Ryne. “Would have used a gentler spell if not for that armor.”

Zaria took a deep slow breath. The power on display there - it had been so casual. For the first time in quite some time, Zaria remembered how large the gap between Tiers could be. And that was just a wisp! What was Cestmir capable of? What would she be capable of? “Well,” Zaria said. “Can I convince you not to kill her?”

“Probably!” Penara said brightly. “I just don’t want her to know that yet. And…offworlders are dangerous, Zaria. I’m not bringing other fae in here unless I’m sure it’s safe. Which, good news! I am.” She turned to the portal. “Come on through!”

As new figures started to emerge, Rav chuckled. “Oh, I like her.”

Zaria, however, was less certain.