Sonera squinted through the dust, ignoring the searing pain in her body as the flame around her arms began to calm. She wasn't nearly foolish enough to expect victory so soon. In fact, there was maybe a snowball's chance in hell that Yrix was hurt at all.
"Did we get her?" Lila muttered with her mouth agape.
"She better be dead!" Rena whined. "What the fuck was all that for then!"
The remaining Consortium warriors stared in equal disbelief. Even Premus was uncertain of which order to give. Never before, in all their days, had they witnessed someone resist the Arch-Flayer.
"Run," Sonera threw her wrist at the girls. "While you still can."
Maybe, she prayed, Yrix was indisposed somewhere beneath all that ash and smoke. Sonera could no longer feel her presence. But despite this, she felt more afraid than anything.
What if she was cut off?
That would be the prelude to something far worse.
"O-okay," Lila stumbled, hoisting her partner into her arms as she prepared to leave.
Alia reached toward the group, a void-like aura in her grip, intent on obscuring their retreat once she had a moment to breathe. Lunae, however, refused to leave without Sonera. She had only taken a few shaky steps before a sudden blur halted the princess in her tracks.
Sonera saw it first, long before anyone else. It was her heightened state that allowed the assassin to perceive Yrix as the Arch-Flayer stood ominously behind her beloved.
"You-!"
Yrix wagged her finger. "Nuh-uh."
The assassin glanced at her feet, realizing her focused aura was dissipating with even the slightest movement. She was bound to her circle. To leave it would mean surrendering the power to contend with Yrix.
"It's not every day a Psion cracks the code. Don't assume you can just rip that out whenever you want," Yrix taunted, playing with Lunae's hair before the princess could react. "Now then, we have a graduation ceremony to attend."
"I'm not done with you!" Sonera growled.
"Indubitably." Yrix stared at her own fingernails as if she were at the salon. "You'll know where to find me."
"No!"
Lunae had barely begun to speak before she was flung through a tear in reality, disappearing along with Yrix. Whatever parting words she might have intended were for naught. Enraged, Sonera spurned her higher state, using the last of its power to dart through the portal before it could close.
"Oh fuck," Lila gulped. "Uhm."
"Keep running!" Alia grabbed onto her. "How much longer do you think they'll just stand around?!"
Quite right she was, for without the commotion brought upon by Sonera, the Consortium was free to resume their campaign. High above the arena, Premus stood up from his command chair, clenching his fist as he bellowed out new orders.
"The Arch-Flayer is indisposed. The project is cancelled! Initiate full containment protocol!"
Ivy caught a fragment of the loud transmission through a decapitated head, translating it to her family posthaste. It was do or die for the girls.
"Everyone hold onto me!" Lila offered her shoulder to Rena.
With Ivy in tow, she became consumed by Psionic power, transporting the entire party through a ruined gate. Both Alia and Rena's talents proved sufficient in moving through all manner of rubble and bodies. And not a moment too soon.
"Shit!" Lila flew backward, having lost Rena's intangibility. "Ivy!"
She sheltered her dear heiress from the ensuing rubble before everything went dark. Premus was done playing games. Moments ago, he had reduced the entire arena to molten slag without a second thought.
"Anything that moves," He snapped at his crew. "Pulverize it."
The Executor stormed off towards the nearest airlock in full gear. The odds against Yrix's powerful experiment were grim. But Premus had made his decision.
"Your mistake will not be the end of us," he snorted at Yrix, knowing full well she could hear him. "Let my life be a reminder of where our true loyalties should lie."
Premus did little to hide his reckless zeal. And so, without a moment of deliberation, the Daregen flung himself through the airlock with nothing but his barn-like size to protect his descent. Such was the conduct of a veteran.
"Lila!" Ivy coughed.
She used what remained of her strength to push away the rubble, clearing a small pocket of air.
"Are you alright?"
Lila blinked, taking a moment to respond. "I don't think I've been this high on adrenaline since the bugs bit."
"They're called the Infestare, Lila." Ivy smiled. "Might as well get it right now."
She was going to miss their little interactions.
The heiress could see in the dark just fine. Lila, however, was practically blind. She made sure to fumble around like a clumsy animal before panic finally set in.
"Calm down," Ivy whispered into her ear, albeit meekly. "Call out to Rena. She can get us out of this."
"O-okay," Lila stammered. "Uh...haven't you done that already?"
She hadn't gotten a chance to properly gauge Ivy's condition. But it soon became apparent. The heiress was fading.
"I can't." Ivy placed a hand on her wound. "Lila-."
"Don't even start with that shit." Lila cradled her partner. "I'm getting you out of here. No more heroics."
The Earthling cried out with a Psionic message.
"Yeah, yeah," a muffled voice caught Lila by surprise. Rena was close. "Gimme a second."
"We gotta get outta here!" Lila screamed. "Ivy's not doing good!"
"Not so fast," Rena explained. "We pop out somewhere visible, and they nuke us again. Honestly, it's better down here. Those dumb bitches shot us through at least a few meters. I reckon we're in a sewer of sorts."
"Is Alia okay?" Ivy chimed in with her cracked voice.
The dancer's response sounded a bit flustered. "Fine. Worry about yourself, big shot."
"So then where to?" Lila peeped.
Ivy rolled her eyes. She was hoping someone else could perform a rudimentary scan. An echo-pulse, the heiress gathered, would do the trick.
"I got it," Alia peeped. "Tunnel to our left."
Thank goodness.
Lila smiled down at Ivy with a stern expression. "We've got ourselves a path, baby girl."
"Hmph," the heiress pursed her lips. "Okay."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"What are you doing?!" Lunae choked, her legs dangling in the air.
"Fret not, she's near," Yrix sighed. "My domain might be a little large for this sort of thing."
"Yrix!" The princess could barely speak.
"Don't Yrix me. The only reason you're still alive is so that your begging cries can urge her on. This is it. Everything I've planned. Sonera won't hold back now, and neither will I!" Yrix roared.
The Arch-Flayer extended her finger, setting it alight with searing flame. Lunae wanted to resist. She tried with all her might. But the terrible heat needed only a moment to brush against her stomach.
"Aaah!" Her wail forced its way through her teeth.
Lunae's neck lurched toward the distant stars, holding back the urge to call for Sonera. She hadn't visited Yrix's mindscape since the day they first met. If only that fragile princess back then knew the truth.
"Why!" She managed a disheveled grunt. "W-why!"
Yrix looked over the horizon towards the vast, empty ruins of her mindscape. "Would you believe me if I said it was to protect you?"
"What?!" Lunae couldn't believe a word she was hearing.
"Do you see that?" The Arch-Flayer pointed. "That dead star over there."
Lunae figured it was more of a pit than anything, or a tear on reality that threatened to swallow the sky. Yrix's mindscape carried little of her student's intricacies. Instead, it was a broken, lifeless expanse.
"It's our fate. An ugly maw that awaits us all," Yrix explained. "We Psions are not gifted. We are not blessed. We...are food."
Ironic, for an Infestare to hear such a thing. But Lunae was beginning to believe her. Yrix had finally opened.
"Neirophen. The first Psion. He has chosen your beloved Sonera. She is doomed to become a vessel for his mania. The sad truth, however, is that we are no different. Unfavored, perhaps. But equally doomed."
"I," Lunae gasped for air, still caught by the neck.
Yrix stared into her student's soul. "Do you have any idea how long we live? Old age doesn't catch us, little bug. As a Psion, you will one day lose yourself to Neirophen. It is inevitable. In our world, he is finality."
Lunae had always believed there was a cosmic force of sorts that bound all Psions together. But she never imagined her prediction would be so dire. Humans and aliens alike, all were prey for the first Psion. She had accepted that.
"But you," the princess offered concern, even as her life hung by a thread. "Yrix-."
"My time has come. Yes. But before I go, I'd like to leave behind a little something. Hope," Yrix swiveled around. "The ultimate Psion. Someone who can defeat Neirophen and save our people."
She knew exactly when Sonera would appear.
"Every test. Every trial. Every death. It is as I promised," Yrix pointed. "It is only with the sharpest of blades that a Psion can grow. My students are that evolution. But will you take it? Will you seize the opportunity and strike me down!"
If you can't beat me.
What chance have you against him?