Roun could hear the others groaning from their locations across the battlefield, each feeling the same pain that he felt as he rolled over onto his back and looked upwards at the sky. Unfortunately for the Synchros host however, Teros had grown particularly tired of his zipping around.

Soon his pale face eclipsed Roun’s vision, but before Roun could move, Teros’ foot on his chest pinned him to the ground. Roun coughed as the wind was knocked out of him; a clear sign that his channelling abilities were failing him after Teros’ last attack. With this knowledge, he focused on summoning Synchros’ energy into him, but the accumulation was slow and laboured.

“You play with forces that you don’t understand.” Teros scoffed. “And wield power that you do not deserve.” He continued. “Geon, Synchros, Khaaos and Dias were the only of your kind ever to be worthy of facing me in battle. To see their power reside in you four is as disgusting as it is disappointing. It’s time to bring this entire ordeal to an end.”

As he spoke, his head rocked back and energy flowed into it, before he leaned forward and unleashed a powerful black breath attack that washed over Roun’s entire body.

Beneath the attack, all Roun could do was scream. Time stood still for the young speedster as the energy approached his form, mere instants away from erasing all that he was from existence.

“This is my last gift to you.”

His panic was assuaged by the calming effect of Synchros’ voice, as she projected her will out of his body. He watched as her likeness erupted from his form, drawing what Synchros energy he had left out of his body to construct her humanoid form so that she could take Teros’ attack in his stead. He could feel the last remnants of the Synchros flame that encircled his channelling core flowing out of his body as the remnants of the entity once called Synchros were erased from existence.

As Teros’ attack dissipated, a puzzled look broke across his face. He could no longer sense the guardian, yet her host still lived. Slowly, puzzlement gave way to amusement as he realised what happened. Raucous cackling erupted in the hellish wasteland as Teros charged another attack to finish what he started, but none would be more shocked than him when a blast of Veranos impacted his chest and sent him flying off into the distance.

Roun’s eyes widened as he looked up at his own hands, having unleashed the attack instinctively and left himself just as confused as Teros no doubt was, as he hurtled through the air. Roun’s confusion was visible and the sentiment was shared with the other hosts as they came to their senses. While Roun tried to figured out what was going on however, the other were gripped by a more pressing sensation.

Greif.

None were more perturbed by the waves of sorrow that washed over them as their connection to their Guardian spirits thrust the feeling of loss that overcame the three remaining sisters, than Jayce Falco. In his short life, he had experienced more than his fair share of death. Comrades, even siblings, had died in servitude to the Order. But this was the first time that he’d felt this emotion. Its potency overwhelmed him, leaving him not just distraught but genuinely disturbed. Luckily, Xavier’s voice would bring his attention back to the world around him.

“Roun.” He sounded. “Are you okay?”

But Roun just shook his head.

“No.” He muttered as teared welled up in his eyes. “She’s gone…”

While the other guardians had fought with Synchros for centuries and valued her as a sister-in-arms, Roun had been bonded to the Guardian all his life. Her death was the death of a piece of him, as for the first time in his life, he was truly alone inside his body.

Unfortunately, there would be no time to commiserate.

“Fall back.” Xavier commanded. “You’re no use to us in that state. Get out of here.”

Roun grimaced at the statement, but it was hard to argue. With minimal effort, he silhouette slid away from his current location, reappearing behind Jayce, Nikolai and Xavier just an instant later. Strangely enough however, despite Synchros’ death, Roun could tell that not all of her gifts had left him. His attention was caught by Jayce’s Dias energy as the young Demai operative summoned the powerful red flames about his body. The previous Synchros host watched as Jayce focused his energy, using Dias’ power to cleave a hole in reality itself before he escaped into whatever lay beyond that.

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Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the occurrence, before powerful surges of energy drew his attention back towards Nikolai and Xavier. As his gaze drifted back to the Geon and Khaaos hosts, he could see the result of their grief and the extent to which it further strengthened their bonds with their Guardian spirits.

It hadn’t taken long for Teros to shrug off his attack, which had been more surprising than truly effective against the legendary Destroyer. As such, it was left to the others to keep the monster at bay as he came back to finish what he had started. Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards as his gaze narrowed in on Xavier, who seemed to have managed to increase his energy output even further. Further inspection revealed a particularly peculiar connection to the Font and the Annals, allowing the young Khaaos host to conjure the Guardian’s energy directly from these realms that fed their ability without having to draw it into his body and process it. The result was powerful surges of energy being discharged from his fingertips without any conjuring time—blasts so powerful that Teros was finally being forced to deflect them rather than simply shield them. This put him on the defensive for the first time in their battle, allowing Nikolai’s Aegis to really put the pressure on.

The summon, which was usually used defensively, instead now pursued Teros aggressively—and somewhat recklessly, he had to admit. As Aegis barrelled towards him, Teros broke into a backpedal, doing his best to deflect Xavier’s attacks while keeping himself out of the reach of the massive construct. Luckily for the destroyer, despite the increase in the potency of their abilities, the emotional nature of their attacks made these two sloppy. Xavier’s blasts quickly became predictable, allowing Teros to time his deflections in such a way that he still had time to release his own projectile attacks towards Nikolai’s armoured summon. Normally, this would have been enough to deter its advance, but now the entity seemed relentless. Rather than retreat, or even attempt to dodge the attacks, the massive armoured knight instead resorted to Geon’s ability to freeze time and space solid. These shields proved effective enough to keep it alive, but hardly managed to make it immune to Teros’ attacks. What Aegis gained in ground, it lost in armour, slowly revealing the entity that was normally hidden beneath all of that defensive gear.

Teros’ eyes widened as his last blast destroyed Aegis’ helmet, revealing the summon’s face. Xavier didn’t waste the opportunity, taking his lapse in concentration to unleash a powerful volley. Teros barely managed to regain his composure in time to deflect the attack, but the unplanned attack left him open just long enough for Aegis’ trump card to hit its mark.

“Geon!” Nikolai yelled as his summon’s armour fell away, revealing the likeness of a young Asian woman.

As the armour dissipated, the woman summoned a spear from her energy and lunged forward with a powerful thrust. Teros couldn’t react to the attack in time, instead twisting at the last minute to prevent the spear from impaling him through the chest. The attack only managed to catch his left shoulder, causing him to spin wildly and lose his balance.

Roun grinned at what he could see coming next.

He could already notice the tell-tale signs of reality warping behind Teros, making it no surprise when Teros stumbled into Jayce as he erupted from wherever it was that he had disappeared to. Just like the others before him, Jayce’s access to Dias seemed significantly heightened, but not even Roun could have foreseen what would have happened next. Jayce was already fully transformed into his feral form once again and burning with the red flames of Dias, but the young Demai operative spared no expense with this attack. With a bestial roar, he tapped into his R.E.D. augmentation, multiplying his energy output rapidly as he focused all of his prodigious might on tearing the object of his rage apart.

Roun watched as Jayce’s two cloven hands slowly began to move away from each other, a sight that shocked him beyond belief—but what would happen next left him even more flabbergasted. Instead of coming apart at the seams, Teros appeared to almost split into two different entities. The separation was minor, as Jayce barely managed to move his hands a few inches, but Roun’s augmented senses were enough to pick it up.

Unfortunately, what he sensed next was less intriguing and far more worrying. He could see the influx of energy and code into their world that preceded a powerful channelling feat. Nikolai and Xavier caught it late—too late to do anything about it—and Jayce was so preoccupied with his task that he didn’t even notice it at all. It was therefore quite the surprise to him when Teros expanded a dome of his black energy outwards. But it was even more of a surprise when Jayce found himself almost a hundred metres from the perimeter of this attack, watching the earth and air at his previous location vanish into nothingness.

“Roun, get out of here before you get yourself killed.” Xavier snarled, unleashing blasts to keep Teros occupied and to cover his escape.

But Roun just chuckled.

“No can do, X.” Roun smirked knowingly. “I just figured out how to kill this thing.”