A spectating remnant fished out a golden bell. A second one offered a tiny hammer to ring it. The original smiled in thanks and smacked the remnant with the bell.

*Ding*

The ground turned into ice a second before a maul smashed it. The acolyte audience scrambled away to get away from the shredded ice flying their way.

The Speaker flew upward and fired a cerulean lightning bolt. It crackled around Lizzy's protective barrier, twinkling against the ice crystals being fired back. The Speaker flew like a hummingbird, avoiding projectiles and casting more ineffective lightning at Lizzy.

Ellie stomped into the melee, charging the horde head-on. Swords, maces, Earth spikes, air blades, and even water whips assaulted her from every angle—a whip wrapped around her maul. Ellie grabbed the whip and used the acolyte's poor body as a morningstar.

More mistakes as a red-haired Elden coated her spear in fire and charged Ellie. Shield met spear, and spear shattered, blown away by a casual swing of a maul. The sound of metallic tinkling alerted Ellie to the blowing darts pinging off her armor. Taking a deliberate step, Ellie cast an Earth Pit and watched the woman disappear through her visor.

Rez leapt over the sudden pit and into the crowd, using the chaos to break Keel's line of sight. She ducked a water blade aiming for her neck and let it slice the incoming fireball. Using the acolyte's surprise, Rez kicked him in the gonads. He squeaked and crumpled.

"Why?"

Abandoned and forgotten, Acolyte Jeremy laid there, trying to hold his legacy together by sheer will. His head smacked into the ground when Keel used it as a springboard, launching himself in Rez's direction. One of the Speaker's lightning bolts scarred his landing zone.

Seeing that quick strikes were ineffective, the Speaker stopped speed casting and flew higher to gather magical power. The area darkened as storm clouds rumbled into existence, conjuring harsh gales that blew combatants off balance. The Speaker chanted a spell, casting her gaze downward at her prey.

"Hello little birdie."

The sing-song voice startled the Speaker. An ice-make saber batted the religious leader to the ground, crushing the poor Acolyte that broke her fall.

Lizzy hijacked the magical energy gathered for a lightning storm, causing the chilled air to coalesce, coming together to build a massive, rotating, icy-blue stake. Grinning mischievously, Lizzy dropped it.

Everyone ran for cover as the snowy blast billowed outward and altered the landscape. A winter wonderland complete with frozen snowmen.

Rez's panting breath traced her movements through the macabre field of ice statues. Keel's inferno partially thawed the frozen Eldens as he tracked her. An unaffected and unaware acolyte stumbled into his path and suffered the consequences. Keel pitched the woman to the center of the brawl where a hefty swing of Ellie's maul batted her into the newly erected crystalline monument. The force destabilized the axis and shifted it into a leaning tower.

Pocketed explosions sparked like fireworks as the Speaker swerved past the crystal and through the trees, a predatory Lizzy right on her tail. Blowing past a squawking flock of tropical birds, the Speaker's flight path made a forced correction to avoid a stampede of Puck Boars. Stomping and squealing, the elephant-sized pigs rammed into a forcefield and parted like a river around a rock. Lizzy's eager eyes pinpointed her actual quarry.

"You are as slippery as your name."

The words seemed to strike a chord as a sudden wind wall transformed into a swirling tornado. The growing vortex carved a path through the battlefield. The disaster tore up the earth and uprooted priceless treasures, sweeping up the remaining ice statues and any who were too slow to find shelter.

Rez felt her momentum cease and become weightless. Swimming and tumbling over flying objects, leap-frogging a Puck Boar Piglet, Rez spotted Lizzy trapped in the eye of the storm. They got the same idea.

Reaching out, they linked hands and Lizzy transferred a portion of her power.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Lizzy's ice managed to stave off the radiating heat Rez was putting out. The flying statues melted instantly, reverting into screaming and flailing acolytes. With so much heat, the wind fled, and the tornado dispersed.

"Ellie! Catch!"

Rez felt her stomach lurch as Lizzy slung her back toward the ground. Traversing the distance in a blink, her firey aura winked out, coming into contact with a strong but gentle arm. In the act of catching the girl, Ellie's rotation tore a half-circle groove in the ground.

The armored giganaut set the teenager down and patted her once.

"It's all in the pivot foot."

Rez watched Ellie shatter a siege fireball before it hit them. Tearing her vision away, Rez moved to run, but Keel was there. She'd been cornered.

"I've got your back. Deal with him."

Queen Ellie's back was more than a wall. It was a castle. A beacon of hope and rallying cry. Rez felt all her worries crumble.

"I am not your enemy, Keel."

Wispy flames flickered off his diluted hair.

"You are standing against me! You are no longer my Sub-Commander."

The orange mace Keel conjured overshadowed the yellow daggers wielded by Rez. Meager tools, but it was more than enough to make the Leader see sense.

Rez charged first, her stance low, arms crossed in front of her wielding daggers like a charging boar. Her tusks caught the descending mace blow and threw it backward. The opening allowed a horizontal slice to cut Keel's chest. He recoiled and staggered, grasping at the scorched wound. Eyes bulging in rage, he twirled his mace.

A series of swings had Rez hopping back and staying low. A deceitful fireball made her roll to the side; off-balance she could only block the mace as it came down. Her arm cracked, and a dagger dispelled.

"Controlling the others will be cumbersome without you."

"Is that all I am to you? What happened to traveling the world? Forming a wandering sect? No adults allowed; that was the dream for all of us."

"Childish dreams. A pack of Manaless kids is nothing but food for stronger beasts. We are a disease."

"I never thought of us like that, of you, like that. We can become better."

"Enough talk. You made your decision painfully clear."

Keel resumed his attack. Swinging in wide arcs, Rez ducked and dodged backward, cutting at Keel's wrist. His mace deflected her weak attack and left her stomach open for a kick. She somersaulted and landed on her back. Dodging right, then left, as holes opened in the ground near her head. Instinct took over. Roots sprouted into yellow vines and entangled Keel's legs. Cursing, he tried to set them on fire, but they were already burning. Fueled with two elements, Rez crafted a new spell of blistering heat. The yellow fire chomped through Keel's pants and shoes, causing him to drop his mace and scream in agony. He couldn't put out a fire that wasn't his.

Falling on his face, Keel whimpered as the magic finally dissipated. Red, black, and yellow furrows scarred the skin, binding his legs into a crippled state. Keel wouldn't walk again. Not for a long time.

Getting to her feet, Rez cradled her broken arm and peered down at her Leader.

"When was it? When did you change?"

Keel's grunts of pain and resentment kept him from answering. Then they were drowned out by a glorious gong. The crystal monument was falling, falling towards them. Rez tried to grab Keel and drag him out of the way, but he continued fighting her off. Scrambling, she tumbled out from under the impact zone, a bleeding body bouncing past her like a skipping stone.

The monumental crash emphasized the Speaker's mangled form. She was bleeding from a dozen wounds, and her leylines were flickering worriedly. A shoulder was out of place, making her effort at inching away futile.

"Connie?"

Lizzy landed gracefully, a paragon of ice. She waltzed over to the crawling Speaker, intrigued by Rez's word.

"Connie. Is that your name? Connie, what? Connie Pleezu? Please, tell me, I'm dying to know."

Lizzy used a boot to flip Connie over. An icey sword tip pushed aside the matted grey hair clinging to her damp skin. The injured woman's gaze drilled daggers into her still-pristine adversary. Seething, Connie spoke through her teeth.

"I am the Speaker of Qwaver. You hold no right to treat me this way."

"Just like you have a right to Fracture little girls? Nuh-uh. I don't think so. Speak your name or die nameless and without remembrance."

"Even if I were to perish this day, Qwaver would welcome me into his open arms. Unbelievers receive nothing."

Connie spat the barbed words thinking they would cut. They did nothing but annoy.

"Fine, then. I wonder if your death will pacify your groupies."

Connie cackled. She laughed in the face of death and used her working arm to dig around in a pocket. When it didn't find what should have been present, her amusement died out.

"You stole it."

A whispered accusation.

"Stole what?"

"You stole it! You stole my-"

The first pulse halted words. Then the second drew attention.

Heat pulsated like a heartbeat and rippled outward from the fallen ice monument. Only Ellie managed to ground herself before the air currents swatted everyone away. Lizzy was able to right herself a moment later; however, she was concerned that the temperature was affecting her armor.

The fallen crystalline monument melted into slag as a figure emerged adorned in the ethereal leather of an Ifrit. The intensity of Keel's aura was nothing like before. It was as if it had been fundamentally changed.

Keel seethed like the demon whose skin he wore. An elongated finger rose to point at the downed Speaker.

"Connie Lingus, your life is mine."

For some reason, it didn't tickle Lizzy the way it should have.

"But first. What was it you said?"

Lizzy was startled to detect spatial energy. She followed the mana fluctuation to the trembling Rez.

Keel's finger switched targets...

And Rez vanished.