And there she is. Despite the sky-scraping sizes of Lily's own Fire Mecha and Matty's duplicate, it felt as if Fatera was the one truly towering over the other two. Her crimson aura outpoured from her body, yet there was a palpable feeling of denseness within her as if a volcano had awoken from its eternal slumber, ready to unleash its earthly fury onto the world.

Her breathe in and out gently warmed her nostrils, and Fatera's entire body tingled. Or rather...Fatera wondered, looking down at the dark red lines of Wave extending from her body fade in and out of existence, and that's when she realized all of those tingling sensations came from her extended control of the wave onto her environments.

Of the many sources of Wave trying to resist against her complete and utter dominance, two offered her the strongest of sensations. One familiar and firm, and another flimsy and redundant.

With a single glance with her crimson eyes, Fatera immediately knew which is which. Lily is clearly the strongest individual on her team, and all Matty is capable of reproducing with his duplication Manifestation is the form of her ultimate attacks. At its core, it's still Matty at the end of the day.

So now, it's all about careful target selection for Fatera, does she focus her effort on taking out Matty, the weaker of the two first, or does she pour all of her attention towards Lily, knowing that Matty alone couldn't have done much, to begin with?

"Take Lily!" Augen's voice pierced through the still air around her, and Fatera slowly turned to see him pressing himself up despite the whirling aura from Fatera's dominance mode. His face is completely red as blood rushed to his head, yet he stood strong behind Fatera, "I will make sure that Matty won't be able to do anything against you."

"I don't need anyone to watch my back." Fatera said, strands of dark red lines lifting her body off the ground as a dark trail followed her body.

"Then it's perfect for me." Augen said, smiling, "Cause I cannot physically watch anything."

With a smirk forming on her face, Fatera kicked back, her body rocketing forward as the dark red trail cut through the air. Lily's Fire Mecha immediately moved, walls of pure fire blocking Fatera's way as she spiralled her body like a drill, piercing through Lily's defenses and crashing through the Mecha's core.

Among the ocean of fire, Fatera chased after Lily within her very own construct of fire, even as Lily literally had to drag herself within her own Fire Manifest. It was absurd as if a tiger had suddenly decided to learn to swim, subsequently becoming the apex predator of the ocean. And yet, that was exactly how Lily felt when Fatera forced herself through the flames, her fingers flicking against her forehead.

"Tsk! Damn it!" Matty grunted, pushing himself to the extreme as he moved towards Lily's Fire Mecha. Then, he let out a loud roar, pouring all of his intentions into reshaping the arm of his own Fire and slicing diagonally through Lily's Fire Mecha, forcibly separating Lily and Fatera and giving his teammate a moment of breathing space.

"Forbidden Autumn! Decaying Inevitability!" Augen commanded, dropping onto his knees and planting both of his hands on the ground as the grey waves of decay originated from his elbow and traversed through the sand. The flames at Matty's feet vibrated violently before they were sniffed out, and Matty cried out as pain overloaded his body with the decay of his own Manifests.

The Fire Mecha of his was snatched away immediately as he started freefalling onto the ground, his body slamming into the soft sand as Augen closed in and knocked him out, shutting down his Forbidden Autumn cast shortly after. Then, he turned his attention upward as Fatera chased after Lily.

"GOOOO!" Augen shouted as Fatera cocked her fist back when Lily reconstructed a far tighter and smaller armor of fire around her body. Then, she conjured up a sword that glowed brighter than the sun above, preparing for this earth-shaking clash.

"BEEEEEP!"

That was when the siren of victory sounded through the island, and Fatera and Lily's eyes both widened before they separated, powering down individually. Then, trails of blue flares were fired off, signaling Wu's squad's victory.

"Did...we do it?" Wu asked, stepping out from the empty stronghold as Lera did so from the other one. In the meanwhile, Ver emerged from the third one near Fatera and Augen. Her body was covered with cuts left behind by Shin in his desperate attempts.

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"I...think so...Fucking Shin..." Ver cursed, holding up her arms as Augen hurried to her side and started healing her wounds. In the meanwhile, Lera found Shin lying unconsciously on top of a mountain of severed tendrils.

"Told ya." Fatera said, landing down like an asteroid as the sand under her were blown away by the impact of her superhero landing, "I will carry ya to victory, as long as you can play your roles remotely well."

Lily looked back at the three rising blue flares and dropped her hands down to the side of her body. The results was clear, and by taking advantage of Fatera's overwhelming strength when combined with Augen's support, Wu's squad were able to achieve complete victory. At least, they are able to overcome Lily's squad.

There are still plenty of kinks to work on, however, as Fatera and Lera still haven't been able to fight with one another effectively, and there will come a time when that will become necessary. But before then...Chores time!

Once Matty, Yuna, Shin, and Braka were all awake after the fight, they found Lily wiping down the surfaces of the House alone. Shin sprung to his feet to help her immediately as Yuna kicked Matty and Braka awake before getting up too.

"Damn...did we lose?" Braka asked, rubbing his eyes before Yuna tossed a broom that nearly hit his face if he didn't have years of trained reflexes to help him catch it.

"What did you think, BAKA!" Yuna said, bopping him repeatedly in the head, "If you weren't so eager to help me, you would have at least activated Blood Brink before you got knocked out!"

"I...sorry...I didn’t expect it..." Braka lowered his head before Yuna instead caressed his hair, her intense touch softening with her voice.

"Don't you worry about me, okay?" Yuna said, holding up Braka's chin as she leaned in close. His face turned red, and his eyes locked onto her, "If I have to make you worry, then I am unfit as your boss."

"There is no one else better suited!" Braka said immediately, his stare intensifying as Yuna looked at him funny and started laughing.

"Of course there isn't. You idiot."

In the meanwhile as Lily's squad is busy cleaning up the beach house as their stay neared its end, Wu's squad simply sat on the beach in silence, not saying anything and not knowing what to do.

"I...never thought we would actually win." Wu murmured, planting his face in between his hands before he rolled on the sand and accidentally bumped into Lera's soft embrace. However, she clung to him as they just cuddled in silence.

"I did." Fatera said, jumping up and running into the ocean, "BECAUSE I AM THE ONE WHO WINS! THAT'S RIGHT!"

"She certainly is back to her form." Ver smiled, jumping up and following after her, "My next goal is to reach perfect synchrony too..."

"You will." Augen said as Ver half-turned around and looked at him.

"That the future you talking?" Ver joked.

"No...You will, because of your resolve." Augen said seriously as Ver nodded and created a whirlpool purple behind her, falling straight through and teleporting right over Fatera's head. The latter screamed and moved out of the way as Ver cannon-balled onto the water.

"Augen, the battle is over, so you can loosen up just a bit." Wu said, trying to roll back as Lera groaned and held him close still.

"I am loosening up." Augen smiled, stretching his arms out and enjoying the sun.

"So should you..." Lera murmured in Wu's ear, "Just let me hold you for a little while...as friends."

Wu nodded his head slowly, and he dozed off in Lera's arms as she massaged the back of his neck slowly.

When Wu opened his eyes eventually, surrounded by warmth and a light sunburning feeling all over his body, he saw Lera still napping beside him. However, there were eight other shadows that loomed over them, and it turned out to be the rest of his squad and Lily's.

"Yo, sleepy head." Lily said, reaching a hand towards Wu as Lera shook herself awake at last, "Welcome to Illiol college. Now...break's over."

"Is school starting again?" Wu asked, and Lily smiled and shook his head.

"Not until next month. So you got...two weeks. I am going home with my idiot brother, and these four idiots are going...where?"

"The Eternal Xia!" Yuna said, throwing her hands up excitedly, "One of the best holiday spots around!"

"With arguably the best seafood sources in the world." Shin added.

"I am going home too." Ver said, looking at Wu and Lera, "Fatera and Augen are going back to the Academy to train...so what are your plans?"

Wu and Lera shared a look, and Lera's stomach growled as her mind became filled with the memories of her mother's potato stew.

"I want to go home too." Lera said, tugging Wu's shirt as he nodded and smiled.

"Then let's go home."