Senia stared at Orion, who walked past the shards of ice stuck around him.

His feet sploshed around the muddy landscape as a serious expression formed on his face.

A frown suddenly appeared as his steps came to a rest.

Another pair of wings raptured through his back, albeit way quicker than the previous ones.

The largest pair of wings was the first one, stretching farther than a meter away from his back. Halfway through, they curved upward.

Under them, the second pair, way smaller, only covered half of the first's length.

The third, which has only been created, began to stretch horizontally, differently from the other two pairs. It was the longest and the thickest.

At this time, it was impossible to guess what those wings would look like, as they were a mess of flesh and bones still under development.

As Orion was under incredible stress while his wings were being formed, a white-haired comet crashed in front of him and Senia.

"..."

Deveralna glared at Orion without saying a word. The seriousness in her gaze spoke louder than anything she could say.

The berserk Orion gathered his bearing instantly.

Playtime seemed to be over for him, as a wild energy left his core.

Inside his left hand, a white light spun around like a wormhole, gathering rapidly.

After a brief instant, a weapon very familiar to the group formed, directly aimed at the lamia.

"Alcyone..."

Amelia was stunned. This was a weapon, alongside Taygeta, that Orion was unable to create anymore.

After separating from the light and dark elements, it became impossible to recreate them, as their essences were no longer in his core.

Even the bored energies from Alyssia and Alaric weren't familiar with this transformation, making it impossible to replicate.

But here was Alcyone, in the hands of its creator.

*Click*

The crossbow fired a bolt of light straight at Deveralna.

"Hmpf!"

Slapping the arrow out of the way, she kept standing in between him and Senia.

This was like introducing yourself to someone. Neither of them were seriously attacking the other, but that was only a matter of time.

Senia, behind Deveralna, stretched her arms above her head, letting out a wonderful voice.

Choked with magic, her song called for snow to descend upon the battlefield.

A very thin and delicate powdered snow began to fall to the ground.

At that point, Orion began to seriously attack, which he hadn't done yet. He warped away from her and fired.

Pressing Alcyone's trigger, a single arrow escaped its groove. After traveling a few meters, the arrow split into ten, which again multiplied into the same number.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The volley of light arrows crossed the distance almost instantly, until Senia's snowflakes turned into water spheres.

One after the other, the spheres captured the light arrows.

Only a handful of them made it to Deveralna, who covered her tail with plasma.

With a single swipe of her tail, she nullified the magic arrows.

But that wasn't nearly enough to make Orion stop.

The air grew heavier around him, noticeably shifting as it warped. Over his shoulders, two crossbows similar to Alcyone formed as if expelled from some place hidden away.

Deveralna took this even more seriously as he fired the three crossbows in unison.

A shower of light arrows came from above, while a ray of them went straight toward her.

Some arrows were stopped by Senia's water spheres, but their power was far stronger than before, easily piercing through them.

Her eyes gleaming a bright white, replacing her usual dark orange pupils, Deveralna released enough plasma to erase anything around her.

The snow melted instantly on contact, while the ground burned instantly.

A low growl echoed as a monster made of plasma crashed behind her.

Ophion, extending his body over Deveralna, glared at the incoming attack.

Wrapping his lengthy body around his master, his energy swallowed the surrounding force field.

The arrows fell on Ophion, meeting an end that was all too obvious.

Not a single arrow went past his defense.

Slithering around, his head appeared directed at Orion. He opened his mouth and prepared another beam of plasma, similar to the one that had been interrupted earlier.

Orion, with his weapon in hand, warped above Ophion and aimed his crossbow at it, ready to strike it down.

"..."

But Senia, who was attentively watching, dropped one hand in his direction.

A hail of frozen bullets struck him down, sending him crashing toward the ground.

He recovered before hitting the ground, sliding as he aimed Alcyone and the copies at Ophion and Deveralna.

Gathering a similar energy that managed to erase giant corrupts from the face of Triazils, the giant snake opened its mouth wider.

Orion, on the other side, focused yet even more energy into the crossbows.

Light gathered at the tips of the crossbows, forming a large sphere of light energy in front of him.

When Ophion fired, Orion did the same.

Two blasts met at the very center, pushing against one another as air pushed back anything around it.

"He's serious!"

Tetra, holding her ground as best as she could, hid her eyes due to the sheer amount of dust sent her way.

Her hair was pushed horizontally from the harsh and continuous blasts of air, and her feet were sliding over the grass as she was pushed backward.

The noise of the two clashing energies was enough to cause a shudder down everyone's spine.

But while this folly was happening, two women were still battling at their fullest.

A lone Lorelei gathered a sphere of water twice her size over her head. She condensed the water into a pearl-sized orb that she sent over to Orion.

Crossing over the blast at high speed, it abruptly unleashed a torrent of water over Orion.

As the water dropped on him, most of it disappeared on contact with the beam of light, but some managed to soak him.

A white trail of light flew high into the air from the center of Ophion's wrapped body.

Deveralna glared at Orion as she released the energy she had accumulated.

A bolt of plasma traveled from her hand and directly struck Orion.

The conductivity of salt water created by Senia and the devastating lightning magic that Deveralna unleashed shocked him on the spot.

Unable to maintain the beam of light, Ophion's plasma beam took over and ravaged everything on its path.

Orion's eyes reflected the incoming beam as it swallowed him whole.

"There's no way he fell for that."

Glancing toward Senia, Deveralna frowned. She nodded instinctively, recalling the warning Tetra spoke to her.

"If not even my full power can bring him down... I wonder what it will take."

Ophion's energy began to dwindle as the beam diminished in size.

All eyes turned to where Orion was.

A dark sphere covered him, opening ever so slightly. Entirely unscathed, Orion appeared to everyone.

"Not only is he using very little void magic, but he isn't even suffering from our combined attacks."

"This is absurd."

Deveralna felt like giving up the fight, but she couldn't. Her pride as a Remnant couldn't accept a defeat like this.

During this brief instant of inattention, Orion moved.

Dark shadows crawled under Senia and Deveralna before erupting unexpectedly.

"Wha-!"

Before they could move, abyssal tendrils grabbed their limbs and pulled them toward the ground.

"Ack!"

Pinned down on the ground, they began to thrash around. Ophion was also sealed, as arches of dark magic caged him entirely.

Then, from above, dark javelins began to rain upon them, ready to skewer them.

"Shit!"

"Deveralna! Senia!"

The rest of the ground immediately moved to defend them.

Nia was the first to move.

With swiftness unlike anything else, she appeared in front of them, erecting a thick wall of metal to withstand the attack.

As Olivia arrived to counter Orion's dark element with her own, the javelins met the massive shield.

*Bang*

A continuous echoed of objects hitting the walls entered their ears as Nia frowned.

"Hurry! It's stronger than I was expecting!"

The javelins were denting the wall rapidly, giving them very little time before piercing through.

"What do you think I'm doing?!"

Focusing on taking over the magic, Olivia snapped at her.

"Calm down."

Elliott stepped forward, reminding them to focus.

He stood in front of Nia, ready to counter any javelin that would get through.

"I... don't need your help."

"It is also fine. I am but insurance."

Nodding at Nia, Elliott stayed motionless with his hand, ready to draw Vanitas.

"I'm serious."

As the first dent appeared on the other side of the metallic wall, Nia forced her energy to surge even more.

In front of Elliott, a second wall of metal broke through the ground and stopped the advancement of the javelins.

This was causing a headache for Nia, but she managed to hold it nonetheless.

Smiling, Elliott glanced over his shoulder.

Olivia was breaking the tendrils with her dark magic, and Nia was holding on with everything she had.

Such a sight made him acknowledge that he liked this place. He loved the feelings these people were expressing.

His Remnant power, which he had obtained very recently, was soothing his emotions in turn, making Horizon a perfect place for him.

With that in mind, he walked away, leaving the situation to Orion's partners.

As Olivia rescued Deveralna and Senia, they moved away from the area. Ophion shrunk down and returned to his master, in need of recharging his expended energy.

Nia was the last to move away, holding the defense until the very last second.

The javelins pierced the second wall and wrecked the ground behind it.

This was a serious attack that would have seriously injured both of them.

As all eyes were turned to them, they failed to notice the fourth pair of wings behind Orion.

With each pair of wings powering him even more, how long would it take for Orion to finally control his power?

As this question kept coming back in their minds, May stepped forward, her sword in hand.

Meeting her gaze, Amelia also stepped forward.

The woman who possessed enough power to turn the battlefield into a firestorm, May, felt her energy surge from within.

The end was near, but no clear victor was in sight.

Two women, fighting on the same side of the battlefield, approached their beloved with faith.