Henrietta, held by Karteira, looked with desperation toward Amelia.

"Ah-"

A soft sound escaped her mouth, as the destructive beam of energy engulfed her daughter, and everything around it.

*Swing*

But, the clear sound of a sharp object slicing the air echoed across the area. The air split in half in front of Amelia as she spun the scythe above her head.

She gripped the crystal clear, icy scythe's long handle, and dropped it with incredible force toward the ground.

The air froze around the scythe's blades, before Amelia slashed at the beam of corrupted energy.

*SHHHHRK*

The icy blades glistened beautifully, holding the beam in place. Even though powerful, its strength wasn't sufficient to push her backward.

Noticing the remarkable resistance coming from his target, Miasma gathered even more corruption from the air and ground, forcing the beam to enlarge.

On the other side, Amelia was forced to rethink her strategy.

'I thought I would overpower it and get closer to place a hit on him, but I guess it won't be that easy...'

With a deep frown on her face, Amelia focused on Dana. The once beautiful water dagger, turned into a deadly, but gorgeous scythe.

She placed her entire faith into her elements, and stayed her ground.

Without glancing over her shoulder, she understood that if she were to move out of the way, the beam would become everyone's problem.

All she needed now was to bother Orion, and force him to use even more magic before fighting Miasma.

'The stakes are too high to go all out. If we lose Orion, everything is over.'

Her man was looking at her back with hidden anxiety, yet, she was unable to do anything else apart from that.

She needed to protect him, before the fate her mother spoke off caught up to him.

-

"Mom..."

"Is there something on your mind?"

Henrietta was helping Amelia in her training of the fire mastery, when suddenly, Amelia turned to her mother.

"You could say that."

"Tell me. Even though I am what I am, I will be your emotional support as long as you need me."

"Thanks."

In her fire mastery form, she approached her mother.

"Is there... something we can do to avoid Orion's death?"

Henrietta lifted her eyebrow, until she recalled the discussion they had in Noctelagia.

"Is this about the fate of the Hero?"

"Yes."

Amelia gripped the fiery spear's shaft tightly while showing the frustration on her face.

"You're the Remnant of Fate. Is there nothing we can do to avoid this end?"

"..."

Hearing the pleading tone in her voice, Henrietta paused and crossed her arms.

Thoughts rapidly crossed her mind, but her expression showed that they weren't promising.

In the end, she shook her head.

"There is little control over fate and destiny. While 'Fate' dictates the life of every being, it only influences their birth, and death. Manipulating it is close to impossible, unless the world itself accepts the change."

"Your birth is one of those changes."

"Right."

Nodding, Amelia faintly smiled. She was truly grateful for the opportunities she was given since her birth.

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"At first, you weren't part of this world's fate. I brought you after many trials and errors, using the knowledge of another, rather annoying, Remnant."

A warm smile appeared shortly on Henrietta's face, before she returned to a more serious mood.

"On the other side of things, 'Destiny' is slightly more malleable."

"?"

Amelia tilted her head, confused.

"I'll explain so that you understand, just wait."

Henrietta opened her right hand. She placed her left hand into her pocket, and pulled out a small notebook the size of her hand, alongside a pen.

She placed the notebook in her right hand while keeping the pen in her left hand, and opened the notebook.

"You see, 'Fate' doesn't influence your life itself. It is similar to the cover of this small book. On the contrary, what do you think 'Destiny' represents in this context?"

Holding the book in front of her daughter, she had high expectations toward her. Amelia thought seriously about it, and answered those expectations surprisingly fast.

"Is the writings inside the book 'Destiny'?"

Very satisfied by her answer, Henrietta nodded.

"Exactly."

She placed the tip of the pen on a white page of the notebook, and wrote two words. 'Amelia', and 'Birth'.

"You see, the world is held together by the power of the Remnants like me and Tetra. There are others than us that maintain relatively important roles, but as far as I am concerned, ours are dangerous."

"If I write your birth in the book of fate, what do you think will happen?"

"..."

Taking this conversation as a lesson, Amelia focused.

"Nothing would happen, from what you've told me."

"Again, you are correct."

She showed the page with the words to Amelia, before explaining in details.

"What is needed here is the 'Destiny' where you are born, not the 'Fate'. Because you are destined to be born, if I do something for it, then 'Fate' will follow suit."

"It is by writing my own destiny differently that I was able to bring you to this world. In other words, I stayed inside the rules of the world, but altered its 'Fate'."

The conversation was easy to follow thanks to Henrietta's explanation. Amelia frowned, and looked downward.

"Then... if we want to alter Orion's 'Fate', we need to change his 'Destiny'?"

"Correct. But what you are asking for is like trying to keep an ice cream from melting under a blazing sun."

The painful reality was still present. If it was that easy to alter destiny, then Henrietta would have done it a long time ago, before watching the countless endings of this world.

"You can push the deadline by altering some parts of the story, but ultimately, you have to read the ending... And that ending is dictated by 'Fate'. You cannot escape that, even if you try to alter the entire story."

A torn expression warped Henrietta's face, as she recalled the failures she went through. Not only did she watch Orion and Amelia die to a point her mind could break down, she also forced her best friend to die each time she needed to alter the timeline.

"Then..."

Suddenly, Amelia thought of a plan.

"What if we stole the scene?"

"Eh?"

Surprised, she let out a small perplexed noise.

"What... do you mean by that?"

Amelia nodded.

"What if I become the Hero instead?"

-

Dana's sharp blades glowed brighter, before Amelia jumped backward.

She managed to keep the beam in place with an icy wall for just enough time to prepare an attack, which she unleashed toward Miasma the instant her defense shattered.

Spinning the scythe once counter-clockwise, blade turned to the sky, she sliced the beam in two with a frozen crescent-shape slash.

Miasma noticed the dangerous attack, and abruptly stopped. He swiftly moved away as the attack ripped the ground in half, continuing far behind him.

He hurriedly looked forward, but Amelia was already in front of him, ready to pounce on him with her scythe behind her.

"You!"

Unable to finish a full sentence, Miasma bent his body backward, avoiding narrowly the cold blades from ripping his head off.

Taking the chance thrown at her, Amelia kept on pressuring Miasma.

Her scythe split the air in half as Miasma dodged it repeatedly, trying to find a moment to put some distance between them.

"!"

Suddenly, as he was backing away, his feet sunk into the dirt.

While dealing with him, she used her water magic to transform the dirt into mud.

*Krrrrrrrr*

The ground froze around his feet, leaving Miasma no choice but to defend against the onslaught.

"Ei!"

Amelia jumped up, and sliced Miasma's right horn off his head.

"Gah!"

Then, as she fell behind him, she managed to slice the protruding spike on his right shoulder.

As her feet touched the ground, she practically presser her entire body against the ground with her scythe above her back, before slicing both of his legs with a clean and swift strike.

Miasma's large body fell forward. He placed his hands in front of him to catch his fall, and managed to distance himself from Amelia by pushing on his hands.

As he moved away, hi legs and broken parts healed, making Amelia's efforts to fell him meaningless.

"Tsk!"

She clicked her tongue with incredible disdain, letting go of Dana.

The icy crown above her head shattered, before its shards began to rotate rapidly. Its blue color turned white, and electricity replaced the shards.

Her outfit changed with a flash of light, while two long chains dropped from her forearms.

'Leima.'

Amelia released an exploding amount of lightning, vaporizing the air itself around her. The ionization of the air filled everyone's noses, forming a distinguishable smell of metal.

"Girl, I'll fuck you up if you stand in my way any longer."

The deep glare in Miasma's eyes showed that he was serious. Compared to Henrietta, this woman was even more dangerous.

She had actually managed to catch him off guard.

"Try your worse."

The next moment, Amelia vanished, leaving behind an afterimage of herself. One chain suddenly wrapped around Miasma's neck, and pulled him backward.

Still, he gathered all of his strength, and managed to stay in place.

"..."

Amelia glared at him from behind, and gripped the chain with her hand. Dangerously high voltage traveled through the chains, electrocuting Miasma's neck instantly.

Yet, not a single sound escaped his mouth. His left hand moved upward and grabbed the tightly wrapped metal chain.

"I am no pushover."

He forcefully removed the weapon from his neck, and pulled on it, dragging Amelia toward him.

Turning around abruptly, he swung his right arm toward her.

Amelia jumped over his arm, and wrapped her other chained dagger around his arm. Jumping behind him once again, she pulled on his arm to maintain the advantage he had over him.

"Let's see if that's true."

With a condescending attitude from Amelia, it was only the beginning of their fight.