Sryine and Vwyx scattered as their area of the beach lit up in a dazzling display of lights and explosions, scattering sand everywhere. This didn’t exactly answer the question regarding where Riyxia had disappeared to, but it did effectively represent a suitable reason why such a question would have to wait for a safer moment.

Vwyx could tell right away that the sudden appearance of the giant towering instrument could be blamed upon Fhyernx. The stupid thing looked like it was modeled upon the idea of a giant person.. just with some of the most awkward limbs imaginable.. and an ugly head, really. Throwing a series of grenades long that sparked in the area near it, revealing the barrier around it, she was also certain that the best way to deal with such a behemoth would then be to wait for it to fire, and then deal with it while the barrier around it went down. It was a really basic deal, and didn't take any measure of genius to come up with. However, when the great thing did fire a salvo of missiles from its shoulder, every projectile instead blinked away in the sudden appearance of a rift, which then resolved not far from both her and Sryine in a series of explosions. Sryine thus could tell that Ieqyisa was also behind this, making things even more complicated. There was no sign of Liyuzhe though, even if neither of them were completely aware what sort of signs they would need to look for when it came to Liyuzhe adding performance to a giant siege weapon.

The sudden enormous ambient beam of light that came crashing down upon them from the sky reminded them both that contemplating missing people, including both Riyxia and Liyuzhe, would have to wait until they dealt with the thing before them. Sryine knew her illusions were completely out of place in this situation, considering instruments don’t dream. It didn’t matter, her conjuration held such a pristine value to such a situation anyway.. as long as she could figure out an appropriate way to make use of it. At this distance, it was difficult to figure out anything efficient for the situation. While in wonder of a decent solution to such a problem, she suddenly found a familiar looking bow and quiver thrown to her feet. Sryine knew Vwyx would be capable of crafting a few things like that on the fly, and the amount of flame Vwyx had available to her actually served to make the whole project even easier. It had honestly worked earlier, for the both of them, the application and usage of water and frost had prevented not an ember of the flame from being lost in their battle with the beasts before. Both of them had a wild scral of purple glow all across their bodies, the flame at a huge saturation in each case. Sryine smiled wryly at the bow, knowing it was another destructively imbued bow. This was going to hurt again, wasn’t it?

Sryine pulled back on the bow, a brilliant ambience of lightning gathering with the moment. She loaded the bow with not just one arrow, but several.. and released. Thunder roared as the arrows soared.. not in a straight line but in a variety of directions. The arrows spiraled outwards and then came in towards the towering siege weapon from all directions, connecting at once around it against the barrier in a circle of a circuit. The barrier repelled the arrow strike itself but the lightning surged its defiance, connecting each point of contact with a circular burst of lightning, putting constant strain on the barrier in the process. If the barrier was going to try and hold out against anything she would do, then maybe it was best for her to press it to a breaking point. However, as predicted, the bow successfully managed to injure her again in its usage. Her blood flared, purple flame flowing down her arm. Sryine ignored that for now, her focus intent on the lightning she had unleashed. She had to push to the breaking point, of it or of her.

Vwyx could tell Sryine was struggling to pull this off on her own, this foe was nothing to sneeze at. Worse was just how much it was taking for Sryine to stay on the offense.. which became a problem once the thing unleashed another shoulder barrage. Vwyx knew Sryine would suffer if she tried to dodge, either in devoting everything to her focus at the cost of her own wellbeing, or sacrificing her focus to then lose on her assault. Once again, the projectiles appeared over them, aiming to drop upon them. Vwyx detonated a small bomb below her simply designed to throw her into the air, a gravity bomb basically aimed upwards. This was absolutely backwards for her too, not was it the reverse of how a gravity bomb should be used.. it also threw her excessively high into the air.

In truth, she was still afraid of heights, and having come to control over her augmentation just made the traces of that fear harder to ignore. However, she was determined to be a pavillion of defense, setting her gift upon the projectiles mid-flight. The projectiles all instantly went dead, falling to the ground harmlessly nearby. It wasn’t ideal, but she was having problems manipulating such gigantic pieces of ammunition as things were. Also not ideal was the fact she was at that point falling, the worst part about being so very high up. It was like realizing the core of such fears, the inevitable consequence of her decision as she flew well above any of the trees. However, if it was so inevitable, there was little use in being worried. Vwyx crashed into the sands like a meteor, the injury from the fall causing wounds that ran down her arm in a blaze. Ah, so that was what it felt like to bleed fire, it didn’t even feel very strange to her.

Sryine took account of the blood upon her arms, so obviously her own. It was a pure expression of destruction, and if she just ignored it, it would drip upon the sand and incinerate it into more of that black glass. It might be such a waste. Taking advantage of her gift again, she applied the blood to another series of arrows, loading another volley. There were no sparks of lightning this time, instead her very bow glowed with a purple blaze. She was well aware at this point that her blood, her flame, was a destroyer. Knowing this, she could think of nothing better to destroy the target before her. Once again, she released her volley, the lightning of the first strike fading away. In their place, the next volley struck true, blazing away on impact. The arrows were in that moment completely incinerated, leaving the blood to scatter across the barrier. Her blood was thus challenged, to destroy that barrier if it could, it was free to absolutely obliterate it. The flame craved bringing oblivion, it surged across the barrier, quickly spreading to cover a large portion of it’s upper section still above the water. Dealing with flame was easy, the siege weapon simply shifted so that water splashed over it. However, a windy barrier formed in the defense of such blood, protecting the flame as agreed upon. The barrier started to slowly crinkle, black cracks appearing underneath the flame. After all, such a barrier was never designed to withstand the onslaught from such a nature of fire.

The siege weapon’s light weapons sparked awake this time, trying to interrupt Sryine’s assault. An energy weapon, it wasn’t as if Vwyx could do much to adjust such a design in flight like she could with actual projectiles. While thus distracted, her blood dripped onto the sand, sparking a dramatic shift into more black glass. Vwyx jumped in surprise, realizing that she wasn’t supposed to do that. Actually.. was that really such a bad thing, or could it work more in her favour. Instead of keeping her blood away from the sand, she brought the sand towards her blood, igniting a sheet of sand into a gigantic pane of black glass. She then manipulated and shaped the glass, mixing it with some of the discarded metal, resulting in an void mirror. This was all in the instant the energy weapon prepared to fire, giving her time even to raise the mirror above them using pillars of sand to stand shield above them. The light pierced against the glass… and was consumed. Vwyx grinned, having successfully dealt with both of its weapons. Such a grin didn’t last, as one of it’s limbs began to faintly glow a crimson flame of its own. Wait, it had another weapon? How exactly did this weapon work? The water around the siege weapon churned, waves billowing away from it in an ever-growing intensity. Then without any further warning, the massive thing charged the beachside.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The thing was fast, neither girl was ready to react in time. The flaming fist connected hard, sending both girls flying with some serious burns. The injuries bled despite cauterizing conditions, the flames of their blood wouldn’t respond like that anyway. Their fireproof clothing at least ensured that they didn’t both ingulf on fire, but the flame was at least trying to assert its dominance of their flesh. Being wounded was also a problem because Riyxia was missing. But as both girls suffered burns, their own purple flame only grew brighter. Being harmed by a flame was an insult to the flame, to the people it had come to terms with, had built an agreement with, and had accepted to be a part of its whole. Even so, flame did nothing to flame, it seemed almost futile.. that is, if the flame wasn’t willing to trust in its own whole.

Augmentation flared through both girls, the flame eager to make an offering to display and assert dominance over such a lesser flame. Sryine instinctually managed to conjure a massive supply of water upon the flames, a water that pierced right into her and impacted the red flame that was trying to consume her flesh. The mixture of flame and water in this case did cause a cauterization reaction, sealing up the burn and encouraging her body to heal. Vwyx meanwhile felt her flame shift, pulling the heat from the burn and leaving nothing but a chill that pierced the very element of the red fire, as if her own flame was betraying the fire element of the red flame by providing an invitation of the frost. This was not all her flame’s doing, her gift was clouding her body in sand, shifting it into an armor of frost. Such burns were left in comfort of the soft cool, her body heat self regulating between the cool of her gift and the warmth of her flame. Smothered between such a formidable alliance, the red flame didn’t stand a chance.

Adorned with armors of water and ice, the two girls confronted the crimson flame before them. When the giant fist came back for another assault, the two girls came at it with their own. Sryine smashed into the fist with a gigantic hydrosphere, even larger than the one she had originally conjured on the bridge back in the city. Vwyx formed a massive hammer.. not of stone, but of pure ice. Both girls smashed into the red flame, their gifts piercing and overwhelming the flame in the process. The ice and water pierced through, snuffing out the flame and pushing in deeper, wrecking its thermal engine and building pressure through the entire unit. The deep freeze made the entire thing buckle, while the water pressure threatened to make it burst. The siege weapon went totally stiff for a moment, before falling back into the water and shattering in an explosion of pieces. The water at the surface around the thing froze quickly around it in the process, trapping the weapon in a cage of water and ice as it sunk to the bottom of the lake.

“Oh come on, no. I go through all that effort to recover it from some stupid swamp, and suddenly I find it sinking back into another.” “Fhyernx, it’s a lake, not a swamp.” “Details, it’s still sinking, the stupid thing isn’t even supposed to be able to just sink.” Fhyernx had showed up from almost nowhere at the lakeside near the woods, Ieqyisa not far from him. He had fortunately managed to get their power armor back online, but now he had lost his favourite. “So, looks like we stopped your super weapon too, I guess you’re out of tricks then?” “Silly girl, don’t overestimate his stupid toy like that, it will just go to his head. Distractions are just distractions, nothing more. Though, I would have to admit, I wouldn’t have expected someone of the flame to be suffering so much from some burns, it's actually disappointing.” “For having complained so much about being left to wait earlier, you’re sure rather late to the after-party yourself. Where is Riyxia?” “Oh come on, do you really expect me to just talk? Now where’s the fun in that.” Sryine stepped back from Ieqyisa as the area between them was suddenly lit ablaze in a surge of red flame. Fhyernx turned his flamethrower next against Vwyx, who didn’t bother dodging. As Vwyx got closer, the flame simply faded away, white frost decorating the sands as Vwyx travelled. Ieqyisa stepped in, directing the flow of flame through a gate towards the again unsuspecting Sryine. Sryine however had figured out what they were dealing with, it wasn’t something she would back away from. A jet of water returned through the gate, getting right into Fhyernx’s flamethrower. Fhyernx tried to project another burst of flame.. but only a pitiful supply of water shot forth instead, the flame having been fully replaced.

“For being so attuned to fire.. you both have an uncanny knack for what is most hated by it. Actually, it almost seems as if you both had suddenly started betraying your own flame. Apt, apt, really, Liyuzhe will love to hear about this. But maybe there has been enough time wasted, it would be far better to move on to something more interesting.” Ieqyisa opened up a gate to provide an open avenue of escape. As Ieqyisa brought Fhyernx through the gate as well, they discovered Sryine and Vwyx had accelerated through it. “My my, how unexpected. Let me guess, now that we’re here, there are two ways we could go about things? Did I get that part right again, or am I rememberings things wrong from last time? Don’t worry, things are different now, if you want to go around breaking things, there really isn’t any problem with that. Please, do take your time.” Ieqyisa started breaking into snarky sarcasm as she started to walk towards a distant door, Fhyernx heading in a different direction. As the two of them split apart to try and deal with both people present, Ieqyisa opened up another gate for herself, making it clear that Sryine was the only one capable of following her. Ieqyisa closed the gate behind her, leaving Vwyx alone with Fhyernx. Fhyernx stepped through his chosen doorway through into the room beyond, with Vwyx dashing after him. In the next room though, Fhyernx simply took a seat and looked over his empty workshop, generally sad that everything was actually gone.

Ieqyisa walked around her lab, finding the place to be a lot more disturbing with nothing left inside. She wasn’t new to moving, it was leaving useless space that bothered her. Then again, she shouldn’t think of things like that, this relic of a space still had a really good use ahead. Sryine looked around at her surroundings, getting the uncanny feeling that instead of pursuing an escaping foe that they had otherwise defeated.. that she was instead walking willingly into a trap. Rather than flee further, Ieqyisa simply started to look around like she was completely relaxed. Yup, trap, this was definitely a trap. Sryine turned on her comset and started looking around, trying to get a feeling for any surprise attacks. Nothing, there was a lot of nothing anywhere.. actually, there was more nothing than she might have expected, the comset wasn’t even capable of getting a reading through the walls for some reason. Actually on that subject, she really didn’t know where she was.. or where Vwyx was.

“So yeah, if you want to go around breaking stuff, feel right at home. If you want to have a chat.. I don’t know.. you might possibly convince me that there is anything neat we could talk about, but I’m not exactly certain.” “You set me up, didn’t you.” “Well, everything honestly was Liyuzhe’s idea, she didn’t want us to screw up like before. Really, you got us in a lot of trouble that time, so you would have to excuse me for appreciating turning the tables on you here.” “So what happened to Riyxia?” “Oh come on, we just went over how you aren’t in any position to make demands here.” “Oh really? So then what’s stopping me from knocking you senseless here?” “Easy, because you want to know what happened to Riyxia. Come on, you’re going in circles here, can’t you do any better than that?” “So.. what kinds of stuff do you want me to talk about?” “Now we’re being more agreeable, thank you. So, if you could, is there anything about the astral flame that you know of, anything that we could use that we wouldn’t already know? Hearing some stories about the astral flame would be really good, because you see it seems the book I used to have on the subject had gone missing, and I so terribly would love to hear a new tale.” Ieqyisa settled down to relax, interested to hear what sort of information she could get from Sryine in this wonderful opportunity. Fhyernx was actually doing the exact same thing with Vwyx at the same time, events proceeding in much the same way. Neither girl really knew what they should do, they had been separated and worked into a corner after all. Both of them suspected the other was probably facing the same struggle.. but neither had any idea what Riyxia might be dealing with at that time. If they wanted to get out of this mess, they had to be really careful.

Riyxia however wasn’t finding things to be as difficult at all, in fact she had absolutely nothing to worry about. She was still together with all of her ersatz, relaxed and waiting for.. something she couldn’t quite remember.