“You insect!” Teros roared at the statement, slapping off Xavier’s last attack and lunging towards Roun’s location instead.

But by the time he unleashed his attack at their previous location, Roun and Jayce were long gone.

“Keep him busy X.” Roun stated from a few hundred metres away in the opposite direction, before vanishing with Jayce in tow once more.

Xavier just grinned at the statement, while Nikolai summoned Aegis next to him and prepared to engage Teros once more.

A few kilometres away, Roun rematerialized with Jayce just an instant later.

“What the hell is going on Itami?” He pressed, puzzled at how Roun was managing to keep up his Guardian-like energy levels without Synchros still bound to him.

“Like I told Xavier, I’ve figured Teros out.” Roun explained. “Nikolai had the right idea—but he was missing some of the details. The guardians and destroyer aren’t like us, but not in the way we thought. Synchros lived a human life, and I believe Teros when he said that he did too—but the Synchros that was bonded to me was also not actually the woman that lived millennia ago. She was a shadow, bonded to my soul—and Teros isn’t much different. The reason your Dias can’t cleave him is because you trying to separate things, that aren’t joined in the first place.”

Jayce just looked puzzled at the statement.

“Just now, in your rage, I saw you pulling Teros apart.” Roun continued. “But he wasn’t being torn in half—nor were you separating his power from his form, like Xavier speculated you might be able to. You were splitting him into two completely separate entities. The next chance you get, instead of trying to cleave him with your power, I want you to focus on separating the substance from the substrate.”

“I don’t even know what that means.” Jayce growled lightly.

“You will.” Roun retorted knowingly. “You’ll feel it—isolate Teros in your mind and pull him off of whatever it is that he’s attached himself to.”

Jayce’s gaze just narrowed at the statement, before nodding in the affirmative.

Back in the fray, Xavier and Aegis—no Geon—were doing their best to keep Teros at bay. It didn’t take much to put two and two together after Teros’ reaction to her face, but nothing was more indicative of the true identity of Nikolai’s binding summon than her skill with a spear. For the first time in their battle, they’d finally seen an entity with the capacity to go toe-to-toe with Teros in melee combat. Watching the two of them attack, parry and counterattack each other was akin to watching a dance.

They were almost evenly matched. But only almost.

Geon lacked access to her full power. In her current state, she was still just a construct summoned by Nikolai, and as such her total power was limited by his maximum throughput. Luckily for her, she had Xavier at her back. While she dealt with Teros at melee range, Xavier engaged him from a distance, doing his best dissipate the surges of black energy that Teros managed to get off, in between exchanges.

For the first time, the sides seemed evenly matched. But Roun was intent on changing that.

“Xavier, fall back.” He commanded as he rematerialized with Jayce in tow, dropping the Dias host off before barrelling into the fray.

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“What the hell is that guy up to?” He muttered to himself, watching as Roun silhouette slid into battle beside Geon.

As Roun exited his energized state, he tried to summon the blade that Synchros had gifted him, but with their link now severed, all he managed to conjure was a traditional Japanese katana. The youngster scoffed lightly at the sight, but he’d have little time to complain. Much like the ability to sense all forms of energy, Roun also found that he could still tap into the Cache, Font and Annals without much effort. This allowed him to maintain his Guadian-like energy level, despite not actually being able to tap into Synchros’ power specifically.

It would have to make do.

The young man did his best to follow Geon’s lead as he entered the battle, green flames swirling about him as he did. At first, all he could do was watch out for Teros’ discharges and do his best to keep himself and Geon out of their way, but the longer the battle went on the more and more his fighting style seemed to synchronize with the original Guardian. Soon his attacks were becoming less opportunistic and more complimentary to the legendary construct, while his body began to energize in the process. With each passing second, the youngster’s speed improved, and it wasn’t long before he was coming at Teros from all directions with blinding speed. With each pass the energy trailing in the wake of his attacks increased until he, Geon and Teros were caught in a maelstrom of energy being dragged along by his Aesis. He could feel Teros’ desperation as he became overwhelmed and they all knew what would come next. Roun leaned into his attacks, intent on keeping it up until the last possible second but even he was caught off guard when Geon exploded into energy capturing Teros and Roun in a temporal stasis field.

Roun’s eyes widened as the black flames of Teros danced just inches from his face, frozen in time under the effects of Geon. He hadn’t even caught on to when the attack was launched, but it mattered naught at this point. Nikolai used the last of his energy to reach out and pluck Roun from Geon’s stasis field, while Jayce erupted from his perfected stealth and tore into Teros one more time. This time, with all his might and all the energy that he could muster, he focused his will on separating the entity that they knew as Teros from the corporeal substrate on which his will was super imposed.

Xavier joined in as he did, focusing the full power of his Khaaos on destabilizing Teros’ body; but even for the two of these prodigious channellers, this was a colossal feat and one that required more than just energy. Thankfully, Jayce was up to the task.

It was in that moment that the young Dias host understood precisely why he was chosen by his Guardian spirit.

With a singular mind, Jayce drove all of Dias’ energy into his claws and pulled them apart with all the sheer force of his will. Roun watched curiously as Teros’ lithe pale body was yanked outwards in Jayce’s right hand while the body of an oddly familiar woman was drawn out with his left. The four of them watched as both bodies seemed to visibly glitch, oscillating rapidly as if between reality and something else.

What was more shocking however was that Teros’ black aura seemed to leak from the woman’s body, while the body that resembled Teros’ form exhibited no energy signature whatsoever. This left Jayce, Nikolai, Xavier and all three of their Guardian spirits completely confused—but Roun could not waste this opportunity. Without warning, a pillar of green flames exploded from his body as he took off, covering the distance between himself and Jayce in just a fraction of a second. Jayce wouldn’t even notice when he plucked Teros’ body from his hand and drove it straight into the Annals—dissolving it in the ocean of raw code.

“What the hell was that?” Xavier questioned, but neither Jayce nor Nikolai could answer.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Roun re-emerged from his dive.

“Nikolai.” He sounded as he rematerialized in their realm and fell to both knees, panting heavily and doing his best to speak between breaths. “Quickly, stabilize her form.” He asked, causing Nikolai to oblige.

Soon green flames washed over the body of the odd young woman, stopping her from glitching and causing her body to stabilize fully within their reality. By now, Jayce had released the young woman from his grasp, and was eagerly awaiting an explanation for what was going on—but Roun was unable to give one.

Upon seeing the body stabilized, all he could do was smile. He was past his limit. With fatigue gripping him, the youngster finally relinquished his grasp on consciousness; allowing his heavily taxed braver form to dissipate into the ether. As Roun’s unpowered form reformed in its place, Xavier could only scoff loudly.

“Great… now how the hell do we get back to Merricent?”