Chapter 25

Tulla stared up at her father, beaming with the excitement of it all! Her heart had been pounding away for what had felt like hours now! Her eyes were wild with the power of it all! With how powerful she’d been, how unstoppable in the tunnels! It had been her first time, first real-time, when she’d gotten to personally let loose in a true fight for her life, and Tulla loved it! She understood what her mother had been talking about now! Understood that lust she’d spoken of when fighting for one's life and destroying everything before one's self… And, even if the souls she was reaping were what people called echoes, possibly even worse than the bunnies she’d helped her father kill, the sheer quantity of them had allowed her to make slow progress in some of her lower-ranked tarots. There were just so many of the monster’s that it didn't matter if they had pitiful souls! Quantity could be a quality in and of itself!

Yet, the expression on her father’s face did not match her own exuberance. The man’s features moved through a slew of complex reactions before, within warning, Tulla found herself crammed in against her father’s side, the man crushing her—or trying, with a hug that was as desperate as it was—wrong… Apologetic? Desperate? She wasn't entirely sure, but she felt that something was wrong; however, in her high of bloodlust, she found it difficult to discern exactly what it was that had him so bothered…

She reciprocated, of course, wrapping her own arms around him and the length of her mechanical tail that clicked and clacked as it moved, the vicious gleaming blade of energy at its apex dimming to the point of harmlessness. Uncertain of the why, Tulla nevertheless pulled in tighter as well. Less for herself, though so far as she was concerned, hugs were positively delightful as much as they’d been somewhat notably absent from her life prior to Arthur’s appearance. She thoroughly enjoyed them and always felt a warm flutter in her chest that was more than just a little difficult to really explain…

All the same, the man dropped to a knee, holding her even tighter to his chest while rubbing a hand down the back of her helmet, unable to really get to Tulla herself, given what her mech-tarot had changed her metamorphosis into but the action merely made her more confused, regardless of how much she was learning she enjoyed such moments of kinship. Actually, the more her mind cracked away at it, she could have sworn that Arthur was the one taking the lion's share of comfort from it all, rather than herself… So, she let him hold her, perfectly content to. For perhaps the first time, help him with a semblance of emotional distress as her tail wrapped around his leg.

Letting out a long breath through puffed cheeks, her father patted her on the back several times without letting her go. His words somewhat—stifled, like he were struggling to maintain his composure… “How were the tunnels kiddo?”

“Amazing!” Tulla exclaimed, perking up with joy! “It was crazy down there! I don't even know if we’d of survived it until I started firing rockets and collapsed everything! We only got out once we started using the portals!”

That made her father tighten his hold on her with a discernable weight, Tulla almost berating herself for not realizing he’d been worried after her safety earlier but… She was a growing woman! And strong now! Far stronger than anyone had thought she could be! And while Athur’s concerns were apprciablly touching, if anything, it should be her that was worried about him through all of this!

“Dad, seriously, I'm okay! I don't think you even realize what it feels like to be like this! I'm invincible!”

He let her go, brows furrowed, not seeming to like her comment in the slightest but also looking as though he regarded her person with more scrutiny… “You want to go out there, don't you?”

“Obviously!” Tulla laughed, wriggling free of his hold and flaring the thrusters of her wings, feeling indomitable as the air around them filled with glittering lights! Her form rising to float off the ground like a god! “Im going to fucking slaughter them! You’ve no idea how badly I need this! Don't send me to the labyrinth with the others? I'm not like them anymore! Im something better!”

“You're mother’s been filling your heads with talk about being a demi-god, hasn't she…”

“You think she’s not already there?” Tulla countered, just staring at him. “Justiciar’s balls, Dad! I'm already there! I wiped out a near hundred of those monsters, all on my own! They just dissolved before me! It was amazing… And Chuck needs help out there! This is my home, Dad, and I'm going to hurt anyone who thinks they can take it away from me…”

Her final words were ominous enough for the man to regain a semblance of concern, though not for her safety. Perhaps a touch of fear, if she was smelling it right, filled the air in the same manner it had when first he’d carried her to the village. The concern he felt for his safety while so near her prickled at her heart in a way that genuinely hurt, but she didn't hold it against him. If anything, she knew what she’d been quite close to doing and it was mortifyingly embarrassing that he still held that moment in his mind as something to be worried after… Still, the display of trust as he forced himself to remain calm and within her proximity filled her with confidence!

There was no real danger of such a thing of course, she hadn't known him back then. Now, she’d never let herself succumb to such baser instincts, especially not when it might put him in danger. She’d rather clip her wings and hurl herself off a cliff than endanger her father, which was why she was actually somewhat annoyed he was still here. Didn't Arthur know how dangerous it was? She could fly! And the man had made her stronger than the whole village put together! There was no reason for him to be concerned after her person and all the reason for her to be concerned after his own mortality! Her mother was right, they needed to get him to a point where he wasn't so vulnerable…

Either way, her father nodded. That familiar mask, as her mother liked to call it, formed over his face to hide away his true feelings. “If you're going out there…” He began, now staring hard at her, “Then I'm going to remain here as well. Im not leaving you up here on you're own. No arguments.”

“No—offence…” Tulla murmured, leaning away and eyeing her father from the side, “But…”

“Just go out there and—I guess have as much fun as you want… come back when you're tired, but I’ll need your help for something—stupid that I have no idea will actually work out… Either way, if Dianna comes back with all the people I intend to liberate, I’d rather them not all be eaten by these things…”

That was more like it! And Tulla beamed at her father as she noticed that familiar glint in his eye. He was up to something! And whenever he thought an idea was silly, it usually worked out perfectly!

“You need cards?”

“No… yes! Actually, if you can, it would help quite a bit, I think, weak or otherwise…”

Tulla just nodded, floating around her father and through the living room, giving him a grinning wave as the front door slid open, and she burst through the opening!

Tulla's wings glittered as though made from captured starlight, each leaving a shimmering contrail of luminescent particles as she ascended. Chuck immediately flooded her visor, which augmented the world around her with a virtual overlay, with a torrent of battlefield data. A dynamic map materialized, pulsing with the real-time movements of both their forces and the encroaching abyssal horrors. Critical zones flashing crimson with a desperate plea for her timely intervention. With a surge of power, she climbed higher, a beacon of defiance against the encroaching unnatural twilight that bled across the sky, shining amidst the gloom a single brilliant light that glimmered overhead.

With a ripple of displaced air, Tulla birthed her doppelganger. A being nearing her own appearance materializing beside her, instantly autonomous. The copy-tulla plummeted towards the swarming mass, a volley of rockets erupting from its back-mounted launchers, painting the gloom with fiery streaks, blasters already pulsing with bulbous blue energy as it strafed the world below!

Tulla herself arced towards a beleaguered unit of bots, their orange beams flickering and faltering under the relentless onslaught. As she approached, her armour shimmered, unfolding into a bristling array of weaponry. Pods extended from her shoulders and back, hissing as they ejected dozens of self-guided projectiles; the missiles hung in the air for a strange heartbeat, their tips blinking with an ominous red warning before igniting in a synchronized blaze of thrust! They climbed, a deadly mass ascending in graceful arcs that curled overhead, then raged back towards the earth at full speed, raining incandescent destruction upon the nightmares below.

The ground erupted in a series of concussive blasts. Fire and smoke billowed, momentarily obscuring the carnage. Then, through the dissipating haze, Tulla descended, her arm-mounted energy cannons blazing. Pulses of cerulean death lashed out, each impact vaporizing anything unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. The air crackled with the raw power, the smell of ozone mixing with the acrid tang of incinerating flesh and cooking vegetation.

Tulla revelled in the destruction! A mad cackle blaring from her helmet! She spiralled downwards, drawing the attention of the surviving creatures in the area as they surged towards her, a tide of grasping claws and snapping jaws drawn to her radiance that pulsed around her as thrusters burned. She spun as a whirlwind of mayhem, her cannons firing in a continuous cascade of firepower. The distorted whine of the weapons intensified as she held the barrage, blending with the roar of explosions and the screech of dying monstrosities. Her armour deflected stray debris as it crushed against her form, shimmering briefly with a protective field that seemed to almost slow the incoming objects until they simply fell away.

Distantly, she felt her duplicate divert course, having expended its initial payload, now rejoining the fray. It moved with uncanny grace, mirroring Tulla's own growing mastery of this new form of flight, its own weaponry blazing. Together, they formed a deadly duo, a vortex of annihilation carving a path through the hordes that vanished before their onslaught. But even as they butchered their way through the enemy ranks, Tulla could sense a shift in the battle. The initial panic had given way to a chilling, almost calculated resistance. The pressing quagmire inky beasts were regrouping, their movements becoming more coordinated, their attacks more focused. Adapting, in a way, just as Chuck had and applying ever greater pressure on the AI general.

A small bar on her interface alerted Tulla that her power was quickly draining with her ceaseless barrage, the foe melting away further and further from her position before she let up on the assault, rising to hover while Chuck’s machines crawled through the area to fill the gaps. She could reliably float while not expending needless energy and still recuperate for her transformation reserves, and she did so, feeling the sweat trickle down her skin as her smile split her face from side to side! She loved this! This feeling of—domination! It called to her! Whispered that she should still be fighting! That she should ignore the warnings blinking in her vision, that she should just submerge herself in the violence and carve her way through the hordes with tooth and claw!

Yet, training had tempered her instincts. And while they were strong, Tulla marshalled to observe the situation with a calm mind. She could already feel her doppelganger nearing its limits. While the card had been upgraded, it was hardly bronze… No, as Arthur had demanded, she’d pushed most of what he’d given her into her metamorphosis, the mecha tarot, and the one that would heal her if she were wounded. That last one had been a bit annoying as, thus far, she hadn't needed it in the slightest, and after spending so much power to improve it without seeing any purpose for it thus far, it did annoy her…

All the same, she did return nearer the ground again once Chuck had secured the area, floating over the ruined earth while reaching out with her soul. Slowly, the countless echoes around her shifted and began coalescing toward her. Tulla collected them by the tens and twenties at a time, tucking them in her personal storage as they came near. Her mother had taught her how to do this years ago, though Tulla never imagined she’d be using it in such a widespread manner… Her mother was missing out! Doubtless, the woman would have been thrilled to wade through so many creatures all deadset on throwing themselves at her!

“Then again, mom would just take all the fun out of it…”

For Tulla, she could sit here and blast away for hours and still have the time of her life! Seeing so many monsters, real ones that held real danger, just vanish before her eyes tickled at her desires in ways she’d never found before! And, despite what her father had said, she consumed every other tarot she picked up… Tulla figured her dad wouldn't be too disappointed… after all, it was he who’d said he wanted her to be as safe as possible! She was merely—following in the spirit of his request! Both of them!

As it happened, Chuck agree’d that it was a good idea when she ran it by him, in fact, he even began sending over the piles of cards he’d already collected, stipulating that Arthur would, unequivocally, be the first to say that her safety was of a utmost priority. That was good because Tulla was learning she had a craving for power like nothing she’d ever felt before… Her hands flexed with delighted anticipation as she shoveled souls into her mech and metamorphosis targets by equal measure. Neither rising very quickly, but with the sheer quantity of cards coming in, she could see the stars rising to the point her racial tarot reached silver…

Ha! Not even fourteen years old and she was now the youngest in her family to hit the third tier! The thought of it was positively intoxicating… And as her card evolved, so did her mechanization! Tulla practically felt her body getting bigger! Her metamorphosis forcing a sort of maturation beyond her years until she was certain she was at least as tall Welenda! Maybe even bigger! And her armour shifted to reflect that change. Her wingspan expanded outwards, her tail grew long and dangerous, looking much more like her mother’s did, and Tulla felt the power of rapidly forming muscles starting to bulge beneath her skin!

She wasn't sure how exactly her metamorphosis and the mecha card interacted with each other, however she did note that there was a kind of symbiotic relationship between the two. That was a word that Chuck had taught her, one of many that had helped her, strangely enough, understand the world that surrounded her that much more than she had. Neither tarot individually reflected the delightful but no less odd changes to original soul’s capabilities, but rather, they each seemed to play into each other and build off one another.

As Tulla’s primary card grew in strength, so too did her mechanical visage. And rather than venom, which she knew would arrive at the third tier, she felt her body doing something—different… New instincts formed at the back of her mind, seating themselves comfortably amidst all the others, and while she couldn't have said to say she wholly understood why things were changing so drastically for her, her grin, nevertheless, grew wider! From her back, she felt the strange mechanical cubes form themselves into two new partitions, each one removing themselves from her person with soft clunks as they detached!

Immediately, Tulla felt herself balk at the sudden shift in perspective! Her glide across the broken landscape slowing to the point she actually touched down and stood there. Her head felt—funny… It wasn't painful, if anything, it was more bizarre… Her head just seeming to spin for a brief few seconds as the world itself expanded to her! Suddenly, she could see everything around her, not just where her eyes were looking but, truly everything! Each new semblance of comprehension filtering through her mind with almost seamless efficiency, even as the now three separate visual fields, two spherical and one binocular, melded into a singular field of view that Tulla was rapidly adapting to.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She turned her head, observing one of the floating—things that were now hovering at her side, the object like a sleek metal ball with an all too familiar glowing lens at it's core. She had drones! Her own drones! Not just under her command via Chuck, but her own! Likewise, she could feel the countless automatons around her, sense them like she could feel the air on her wings while flying without her suit! Reaching out, Tulla wrested control of the machines, dominating their simple minds and enslaving them to her own! Crushing Chuck’s own influence on them as she laughed with excitement! Realising what this meant!

Text exploded across her screen as Chuck, panicked and confused, rapidly made inquires into what was happening, yet in the same manner that Tulla could sense the automatons around her, Chucks—voice filled her head as though he were speaking rather than forming his words in the written form… She was interfacing! And Tulla couldn't be more excited!

Still, she released command over the bots… she didn't need them at that moment, and her friend did to keep the pressure on.

“Chuck, deliver these to my father for me? I'm going back in!” And, after handing the small bot at her side several massive stacks of tarots, Tulla rose back into the air, thrusters shining like a beacon of light amidst the darkening skies, bursting into movement at speeds that blurred existence all around her! Burning hard towards the dark masses of abyssal creatures, plasma erupting from her arms!

Arthur glanced at the hollo to his side, watching as his daughter seemed to—change… Then, she was off again, diving headlong into the carnage to her—dark little hearts delight…

“Not so little now…” He muttered, taking in a deep breath as Benny, controlling one of the constructor drones, built a small mockup pylon to complete the set.

After a moment, a shimmering field of energy formed between the two devices, one that hummed with a sort of disturbing intensity… They both watched as Benny tentatively pushed one of the bots’ graspers into the projection, only for it to vanish, the arm pushing through existence itself from a separate device at their side, projecting the portal before itself.

“Power consumption?”

“Less than the last idea…” Benny intoned, eyeing the mockup with mild interest. “Based on what I can calculate… magic being a bit of a new field of study for you're people… We will need a significant source of power to keep the proposed perimeter working indefinitely…”

“Can we make mana batteries?”

“I don't see why not; it's arcane, and as we know, that sort of thing doesn't seem to care a meaningful tidbit towards what we're already doing… I shall have the printers begin production immediately, lord.”

“And the pylons themselves?”

“Too large for them… but the construction bots work very much on the same premise, lord. They will analyze these designs and be capable of replication. They will require defending as they build the structures, but I don't think that will be a problem… You're daughter, and Chuck are making quite an effective team…”

“Alright. Let's do it then. We also need the farming chamber ready for activation.”

“It is being built as per you're description, lord. It will be ready by the time it is needed.”

“Awesome!” Arthur clapped, clearing his throat before rubbing his palms together.

Again, he was left in a position where he was lacking anything to do… It was like watching paint dry for him… Though, while before, he’d been panicked over what he should do, now he was forced to simply content himself with monitoring the progress of the plans he’d put into motion.

He returned to the living room, the displays flickering away with each swipe of his hand before he found what he wanted. One one, he had a drone that was following Tulla’s warpath as she left potentially concerning degrees of unstable energy in her wake that he was almost positive to be radioactive in nature… though he wasn't sure if it worked the same way as it did back on earth, wherever she went, the drone footage grew a degree grainy in nature… He’d need to sweep the area of it all after this was done. Knowing he could presumably work something out to capture it all, given it was magic at this universe foundations with atoms seeming to come afterwards… And, if it was magic, he could bleed it and harness it… That thought made him wonder if he could create a magical nuclear reactor of sorts… It would be totally bullshit in nature, but he supposed he would be trying it, nevertheless.

From what he could tell, the swarm of creatures wasn't seeming to abate with their forces flowing from the south… It was a more ragged thing as time went on but, even as their numbers had swelled beyond their initial size, Chuck was running circles around them with Tulla’s aid. No, his plan going forward was to try to mitigate more of them flooding in from wherever the hell they were coming from! The reason for their appearance could come later; for now, he needed to ensure redundant defences were erected to prevent more from streaming into the area. It wouldn't help if they just fucking emerged from the ground as they had the first time, but as they weren't doing so anymore, Arthur earnestly hoped it might just have been a one-time event… He might not be able to counteract it all; however, he was sure his plan would help them retake the settlement!

Already, constructors were racing out to the locations he and Benny had designated, and Chuck was already shifting his tactics to accommodate their plans. Four separate details of automatons began forming beachheads around the settlement's perimeter, small islands of protection for the meandering constructors which began digitizing the land around themselves to build his magical pillars. It was slow going, almost agonizing to watch as the swarm deviated in parts, but the trenches the constructors left in their wake wreaked havoc for any trying to directly besiege the impromptu fortifications.

Thankfully, if there was a silver lining in any of this, the rear-most pylons were far from endangered. The best he could tell, the genuine bulk of the entities were arriving from the south… And while Arthur could only theorize after what was happening elsewhere, he stoically refused to believe that the creatures were truly endless. The only question was, what would break first? The swarm, or the energy reserves of his machines.

Sadly, more and more automatons were forced into retreat or otherwise left behind to make a valiant last stand as their magical reserves ran dry. Chuck truly was pulling out every trick the AI could likely imagine, but his machines weren't faultless… As they powered down, the only reinforcements they might receive had already been halved as Arthur had ordered a sizable partition of his printers to focus their efforts elsewhere.

“It would be great if Dianna decided to show up…” He mused mockingly, groaning at the utterly laughable, poor timing of it all! It was almost a joke! Nearly too coincidental for him to even believe it was happening. But, as the saying whet, when it rained, it poured… And currently, existence was doing its best to piss on all of them…

What were the odds that an apocalyptic event would transpire in the interlude of the woman's absence? Surly less than that of winning the lottery… probably… Either way, Tulla was only ramping up as the fight wore on. Getting stronger, not weaker, the more she fought… It was gradual, but more and more, Arthur noted the zones she was active in becoming practical miniature wastelands… His daughter devastating the landscape with complete impunity to a degree he wasn't even sure how much land would be left as—usable. Oh, he had no doubt he could begin an initiative to restore the earth itself to a reasonable approximation, but… the local fauna was being devastated before his very eyes…

There was nothing for it of course, they weren't going to just let these creatures push them off their home’s, Tulla being quite right in her declaration to a point that Arthur was feeling vindictive. The only reason he hadn't resorted to trying for a nuclear option was that he wasn't interested in leaving the settlement uninhabitable… or, that was to say, more toxic than it might already be at this point… They could fix it. They could fix all of it. All Arthur needed was the breathing room to do so.

“The batteries, Benny?”

“On the second batch. And construction of the siphon above the compound is moving smoothly. Progress stands at thirty-percent completion across the board.”

“Are we going to make it before Chuck runs out of forces?”

“A tentative shmaybe lord… Things are desperate but Tulla has become something of a wrecking ball in of herself. Even as the umm… echoes of the souls she is consuming have an ever lessoning effect, there are simply so many that the girl is improving at a staggering pace… If she keeps it up, it won't be long before she eclipses Chuck’s command in inflicted casualties…”

“You know the cards we designed for her… They weren't half-assed…”

“No, lord, that is becoming wildly apparent as she continued to unleash ruin on everything around her…”

Arthur caught the small inflection in the butler's tone, eyeing the man sidelong for a moment before sighing… Life wasn't perfect… And he’d rather see the girl transformed into whatever she was becoming rather than have her turned into one of the—things she was fighting. It would be doubtlessly hard to find checks and balances after this, but he’d deal with it one problem at a time… just as he always did.

Tulla looked around herself, momentarily disoriented as she flew through a rising storm of dust and smoke so thick that it was getting harder to see what she was doing… Flying lower to avoid the plume that seemed to hang about the sky and mess with her sensors. She had no idea where her clone had gotten to or if it was even still active… And while she’d shovelled souls at it in a desperate attempt to make up for Chuck’s dwindling army, it felt as though every dent she put in the damned horde was filled the next time she looked back! She was—positive they were making progress, but more and more of the creatures just kept coming! There likely weren't any actually left from those that had first appeared, but what they’d identified as the corrupted dead of the Tricen peoples just kept hammering at them… Simply splitting into more monsters when they died, though, thankfully, the process didn't repeat after the first time…

Were these all the dead that had been left behind in the legion's wake? Well, in all honestly, it was as close enough to an explanation that she had… Tulla wasn't sure what was exactly attracting them all, but the way they’d begun to move as if to sloppily attempt a counter to Chuck's own supremacy of the battle felt like somebody was controlling these things… And, if she couldn't beat them by mindlessly bashing their skulls in, then there had to be another way…

Idly, she glanced at the progress of her father’s plan… It was getting close… but she was beginning to feel the strain, same as Chuck. She might have been consuming what remnants of the creature's souls that she could get, but Tulla could feel the exhaustion creeping in… She needed a way to end this… And while she was sure her dad’s plan would work after a fashion, if there was something at the head of the horde, then how long would it be before it figured out the rather glaring variabilities of these—pylons… It was a good idea in practice but... she wasn't certain how well it would work if, conversely, she was right.

Tulla sped along the ground, almost skimming the swarm while new rockets released, her two drones carving through the masses as they followed her. Tulla looking now, in earnest towards the direction all the beasts were approaching from before—there!

She could see—something in the near distance. A figure that winked in and out of existence with each small movement, looking to almost exist as though not fully formed in the world. The head of the snake… Grinning to herself, Tulla aimed her weapons at the towering shadow with glee! Unleashing terrible ruination upon its visage, which shrieked with rage as she suddenly banked hard, not willing to go anywhere near it!

“Worm!” The darkness hissed, though its speech was quieted from what she’d heard in the tunnels. The large shadow seeming to try and chase after her, but Tulla was just too quick. She vanished back into the clouds, relying on spydrones she’d asked Chuck to send her way to watch for it's movements.

Tulla had listened intently to the panicked explanation of Korvil, the automatons that had been nearby relayiing it all while the man had quickly shared what happened with Tavir. The warnings he’d given were still fresh in her mind. She didn't know what it was, but after the century had made distance, it hadn't attacked them as it initially had. She was weary of the strange anomaly, but she didn't need to get close to it.

A predatory grin stretched across Tulla’s face, hidden behind her armour. Trusting the array of data streaming from Chuck, she unleashed a barrage of plasma fire, not aiming but knowing. The satisfying shriek of tortured pain and the crazed hatred that echoed back confirmed that she’d been effective. The gargantuan shade, its form a towering silhouette against the unnatural twilight, stomped after her but couldn't at all keep up as she burned away.

Tulla ascended, drawing the behemoth from the besieged settlement, peppering its shadowy form with everything she had! Missiles streaked like angry hornets, energy blasts lancing out in blinding flashes! Each impact sending ripples through the creature’s inky form, but it seemed impervious to true damage, its shadowy substance reforming as quickly as it dissipated.

Then, something unexpected happened. The tide of smaller nightmares swarming below slowed their relentless advance faltering. They turned, their glowing eyes fixated on Tulla as she darted above them, the creatures beginning to leap at her! Their clawed limbs raking the air in futile attempts to reach her lofty heights! The sight was almost comical. The towering shade roared in frustration, its shadowy hands swiping at her as its minions failed to grasp their airborne prey. Tulla was like a darting hummingbird amidst a swarm of clumsy moths, weaving through their desperate leaps, her laughter echoing through the air as if to mock their very struggles!

She wasn’t just kiting the monsters around by the nose; she was playing with them. She’d noticed a pattern in their movements, a subtle shift before each leap. And, exploiting this, she timed her evasive maneuvers, narrowly avoiding their grasp time and time again, the rush of wind against her armour making her feel alive amidst the frustrated howls!

One particularly bold creature, larger than the others and with spines protruding from its back, managed to nearly snag the edge of her hoof with a calculated swipe. But, twisting in mid-air, she unleashed a point-blank blast of energy, vaporizing the creature’s head in a flash of bright blue luminance! The momentum of its leap carried its headless body to soar past her while she roared with giggles, it's limp form falling haplessly in a streak of blazing fire!

The towering shade bellowed in rage as she flew higher, pulling away from the living piles of bodies that were climbing up one another to get nearer! The ground trembled beneath its feet as it unleashed a shockwave of pure unbridled force, a concussive blast that sent the lot of its own creatures tumbling over each other! More missiles launched from her armour as they were rebuilt, pounding the base of the wobbling towers that blew apart and crashed back to the ground!

“Cowardice! What are you?”

The girl didn't answer it. Instead, she zipped back to the waning automatons that were finally beginning a semblance of ease as the flow of undead and shadows trickled. A quick conversation in her mind with Chuck and Tulla was back to consuming whatever echoes were nearby. Shoving them into her metamorphosis and mecha tarots with wild abandon! Within minutes, she was back! Blasting away at the massive thing that had decided to fuck with her home! Brutalizing it with what seemed like ineffectual attacks, but that nonetheless caused the entity to fall away from her! Its form jittering faster and more violently!

“Enough! Stop this worthless struggling!”

Honestly, Tulla didn't feel it was worthless at all! If anything, she was beating it! Dozens of artillery drones joined her as the fighting abated near the settlement, the increased intelligence of the monsters flailing, their living piles of crawling bodies nothing more but amusing targets for her to knock over! She zipped about the sky, laughing at their silly attempts to catch her always going just close enough that it looked like she might get caught before pulling back away with abject glee as monstrosities flew worthlessly at her from all directions!

The smaller and aerial combat units added to the assault, seemingly immune to the entity's influence as they surrounded it, glaring beams of light causing it to swing wildly at their forms, a giant trying to swat mosquitoes!

“Fine! I have much more important works to enact! Have you're pile of dirt! I’ll be back for you in due time…”

Tulla blinked, her barrage relenting as she watched the massive form of darkness turn, flickering in and out of existence as it still was… Yet, as it did so, the piles of abyssal beasts at its command turned as well, screeching as though in hatred and defiance, even as they sprinted away, moving to keep pace with the giant as it departed, never once looking back…

Had she just won? Just like that? Was she fighting a bully in the sandbox? Tulla had half a mind to chase the damned thing down! It couldn't just leave! Not after everything it had done! And yet, she felt the weariness already close in… her eyelids fluttering with dangerous promise for her body's needs… There was a toll to be paid for how much she’d exerted herself, how fast she’d pushed her soul… And now, at the very first indication this might just be over, the weight of fatigue felt as though it were trying to drive her into the ground… An almost distant voice in her head already pleading with her to come back…

Tulla hit the ground hard… The landing sending a jolt through her mechanical joints at the shock of her now rather heavy form being abused by her landing… Still, one benefit to apparently being—whatever it was she’d turned into was that her body really wasn't that tired; it was an exhaustion of the mind more than anything else…

The dust was already starting to clear; automatons were stomping out fires wherever they could, the occasional ray of destruction turning a lingering and wounded monster to ash as roving bands of surviving robots swept across the land. It was devastated… A dark and smoking smudge of melted dirt, craters and something her father was warning her against called radiation. She had no idea what that was outside of her father saying it was poisonous, but Tulla felt fine as she walked across the ruined battlefield, at some point, just collapsing on her rear, sitting on the edge of a particularly large hole… It was filling with water at a rather expedient pace, though again, she had zero idea where water would be coming from, given she wasn't anywhere near the river…

Several bots seemed to close in around her, creating a sort of guard while Tulla took the first break in what felt like hours… Actually, how long was she even fighting? Today marked the first real time she’d ever been in what she could call a battle… And while she’d loved it, this part of it was somewhat odd… It felt too quiet… too abrupt… The sudden end of all the chaos and noise, the thrills and panic and flashing lights! Everything had felt like it was starting to crush her, pinning her in on all sides as the desperation had mounted, but now it all just fluttered away as though carried on the breeze.

Tulla couldn't help but chuckle, leaning back at staring at a sky that was again beginning to brighten… The dark overcast of clouds seeming to simply drift away with the absence of the odd creature she’d driven away… It was vaguely Tricen in shape, but… all wrong… It's form seemingly without cohesion to bind it together, forever trying to keep itself from falling apart…

“And it's coming back…” She whispered, ruminating on it's final words… Strange as it was to say, the fact it had acted as it had kind of made it—normal in a bizarre way… Like it was less an unfathomable threat from the void and more a real person that had just—seeped itself into the abyss… Far less frightening now that she had face… or that was to say a shape to go along with the distressing threat it had possed. “Worse, it doesn't take a genius to guess where it's going…”

Tulla sighed, wondering if there was anything to be done… As much as she’d driven it off, they’d been a hair's breadth from being overrun. And she wasn't wholly convinced she’d don't much more than piss the giant shadow off…

Her hooves kicked against the dirt for a few moments before she grunted, picking herself with hands pushing against crumbling earth, even as her thrusters flared to lift her back into the air. She needed to head back out and collect what soul echoes were still out there. Needed to help Chuck finish executing any creatures still living or trying to hide. And, she’d be heading back into the tunnels before long to find out exactly what had happened… and, to make sure they were cleared out and collapsed once and for all.