With free passage past Ashlight’s tower, Elzio and Carlin made it to the Genyl base before the Deluuth heroes pushed down her final structure. Their base was a peaceful scene, resembling the general landscape of Genyl—white marble boulders, small, quietly rushing waterfalls, even the little wildflowers that peeped between the marble ground were native to Ashlight’s country.

Echo’s base hadn’t been so personalized, but for such a young creature, it made sense. Maybe someday, she’d see a day where her arena base resembled her home. Then again, maybe they’d be able to prevent that from ever happening. Maybe, just maybe, there would be a day where a nexus didn’t have to customize the arena they did battle in because no more arenas would be necessary.

Maybe.

But that wasn’t the question for today. Instead, Elzio headed directly towards Ashlight. The steady pulsing of light coming off her was the same as it had been back in the standard mortal plane. There was nothing urgent or anxious about her, nothing angry or volatile. She looked so utterly unlike the other nexi Elzio had seen die that he wondered if she even knew the plan.

He couldn’t ask. Communications didn’t work like that here. But he could only assume she did.

“I’m going to cast Invisibility on us both,” Elzio said. He forced his mind away from the whirlwind of unanswerable questions that plagued his mind and onto the task at hand. “We’ll have to stand still for it to stay active. My plan is to spawn copies of you to throw at them. They won’t know which is the real you, so try to throw low level abilities at them, keep them guessing. Syrene won’t need much time, but she’ll need more than ten seconds. We should be able to buy her that if all goes according to plan.”

Plan. The word felt sticky in his mouth. Could they do this?

Carlin nodded. “I’ll stand near the nexus then. That way I can keep better tabs on whose recall is nearing completion.”

Elzio wanted to say ‘no, stay near me, away from the fighting, to be safe,’ but Carlin’s pragmatism beat out his own doubts. Carlin’s brother had died for the cause. Carlin’s friends had died for the cause.

With all his planning and scheming, behind the scenes manipulation, Elzio had forgotten just how real this all was. He didn’t like losing. He didn’t like hurting. With his intelligence and skills, he shouldn’t have to.

But real life wasn’t about shoulds or shouldn’ts. It was about doing.

“I’m going to move back a bit,” Elzio said. “Hide. I… If I fall here, we have no way of preventing the recalls. They’ll get back to their base, kill Syrene, and it’ll all be over.”

Carlin put a hand on Elzio’s shoulder, and Elzio could see his own pain reflected in the brawny man’s eyes. “We’ve got this.”

They are almost through Ashlight’s final structure, Echo warned. Cast Invisibility now. If they see you, if they realize that this is a gambit instead of something you have planned for, they may just recall.

Elzio didn’t respond except to cast the spell on Carlin and then scurry back closer to the recall fountain. Even though the cooldown ticked down on his display, he couldn’t help also counting down from 15 in his head. He could see the shimmering of the final structure as it indicated the pounding damage from the enemy champions.

We’re almost through the structure here, Syrene said. Just another minute.

Can Ilshe reopen communications with me? Elzio asked. I won’t try to dissuade them. I just… Wanted to hear their thoughts? Wanted to know what they were thinking, strategizing? Wanted to know how they faced down their potential final moments?

There was a chance some of them survived. It was impossible for him to rank who he hoped made it. Impossible.

He cast his own Invisibility, not really expecting the coms to open. But as his spell took place, his mind was reopened to the communications of the Genyl heroes. They were quiet, only occasionally commanding a redirect—Isla, switch to a different spell. Martin, wait until she’s cast—but it was oddly soothing.

Then a crack shot through the base and the final structure fell.

Carlin’s body tensed as the forms of the five Deluuth heroes took shape in the empty archway. He wanted to go in, fight them, try to stop them, but Elzio and Carlin weren’t here to save Ashlight. They would have to watch.

Harrok stepped forward first, moving determinedly through the base, an ugly sneer on his face. He was testing to see if there had been a trap laid for them. If, perhaps, some of the Genyl heroes pounding desperately against Irona’s walls were doppels, and the true versions were hiding her.

After he reached Ashlight with no interruptions, the rest of the team sprung gleefully after him. It was absurd how their twisted faces revealed both malice and rapture. What hate could have born these despicable beings? They knew what happened to conquered nations, and they reveled in it. They knew what Irona and Iverna did. They knew what Deluuth did.

They couldn’t wait for more children to befall Ilshe and Isla’s fate.

A shock of white light rippled through the clearing as Brent’s first arrow landed on Ashlight. Her light trembled as more and more damage zapped through her. Foul, copper smelling magic flared up as Varenne’s corrupt blood magic empowered her allies. Harock’s slashes fell, hacking hit after hit. A single uninterrupted beam of inky blackness poured from Zalyth’s hands, causing a constantly growing number of damage to appear over Ashlight. Poblima, meanwhile, focused her area-of-attack spells on the minions that had just spawned. They would need those all gone if they were to get back to their base quickly.

We’re through! Athin’s triumphant shout broke through Elzio’s mind. Elzio briefly let his gaze flick to where the set of six were already racing through the enemy base. They didn’t waste a single spell on the throng of Unleashed Minions. They didn’t have the time.

Just as they reached the furiously pulsing form of Nexus Deluuth, a coldness fell over Elzio so abruptly that he momentarily failed to take anything else in.

The five Genyl heroes flickered and vanished in a heartbeat.

Back in the Genyl base, the whole world had gone dull. Everything was a foggy greyscale. The little details began deteriorating off everything. The flowers fell away. The water had gone quiet.

Ashlight was gone.

Elzio’s fist tightened, indecisiveness a thing of the past. The Deluuth heroes were already recalling. It was time to show them how badly they’d messed up.

He summoned up two mid level Carlin doppels, one after another, using up the first charge of his ring. As he did, Carlin cast a level one Hail of Shards, an early level tank skill that did a AOE debuff to enemy damage. At the level he cast it, it barely did anything, but it did disrupt their recalls.

In the Deluuth base, Syrene made it to the nexus. Her eyes glowed red as she powered up a high level Melting Magma.

Carlin yelped as a flurry of shots were fired his way by Brent and Zalyth. As he dodged, one of Elzio’s Carlin doppels fired off another Hail of Shards, cancelling the newly restarted recalls of the remaining enemy team.

Poblima spat a string of Deluuth curses under her breath as she turned to the two that had fired, the rest of her team already powering up their recalls.

It was all a game of seconds as Elzio threw another Hail of Shards at them. As his first doppel fell to Poblima’s spell, the rest were interrupted. Immediately, Elzio summoned two more, teleporting one directly beside Carlin.

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Poblima jutted a hand out, casting a wave of magic that evaporated one of the copies before it could even cast. The one near Carlin, however, was able to get off another spell. The recalls canceled. Another ten seconds secured.

In the Deluuth base, Syrene had gotten Nexus Deluuth down to two thirds of her health. They could do this.

“I’ll get them,” Brent said, his voice harsh against Elzio’s ears. He looked annoyed. The whole team did. Annoyed, but not scared. Not worried.

Not yet.

Brent and Poblima blasted out spells, hitting Carlin hard and eliminating both doppels, but Elzio was already back at it with two more.

“Find the god damned Summoner!” roared Harock, rage pouring from his voice. “The other is a worthless Armorsmith!”

Poblima whipped around, eyes ablaze as they locked onto Elzio. It was honestly almost impressive that he’d managed nearly a full minute crouched behind a slowly evaporating rock. His sole salvation thus far has been that no one had turned around to face him. Now that tenuous advantage had run dry.

His ring was half up. Moving purely on instinct, he leapt to his feet, calling up two copies of himself directly between himself and Poblima. They all managed to dodge her first spell. Elzio sent one right, one left, and then personally charged directly towards them.

As he expected, Poblima shot towards the one on his right while Brent shot for the one who went left.

The other three had almost finished their recalls, however, but Carlin had not been distracted by Elzio. He ran right towards them. His Hail of Shards would be on cooldown for another 8 seconds—too long to interrupt this recall—but that wasn’t needed. He smacked Zalyth hard with his sword and threw a wrench at Harock.

Elzio wasn’t actually sure if that would work, since the wrench was just part of his workbench, but it did succeed in causing Brent to dodge, breaking the channel.

Then Carlin turned to Varenne. He raised his weapon.

Don’t, Elzio hissed, still running at them.

Carlin didn’t even question Elzio’s perturbing order. He swung at the blood mage, but his movements were too slow, and her recall fell around her.

Syrene, their support recalled.

I can handle that. She didn’t sound happy, but she did sound sure. Letting Varenne recall had been a dangerous move, but if there was anyone on the Deluuth team that Syrene could easily handle, it was Varenne. And without Varenne with her team, they would be just a little slower, just a little weaker. Logically, as the person least likely to defeat Syrene, she should have been the one chasing down the doppels, but Deluuth had instead opted for their best AOE fighters. It made sense if your goal was just chasing down the doppels, but it was a short sighted tactic.

There was no time to gloat or even explain the decision to Carlin, however. By this point, Poblima had taken out her doppel and was turning her eyes towards Elzio. He was already on her at that point, but instead of attacking, he cast Ghost Form and ran right through her.

She shuddered, a perplexed look on her face, but the ruse worked. The Pyromancer turned away from him—assuming that doppelgangers must have some kind of reduced physicality—and turned towards the doppel Brent had already wounded. None of them had seen Elzio yet. They didn’t know anything about his skills.

While Elzio was busy confusing Poblima and Brent, Carlin had taken punishment for his interruptions. Zalyth had grown tired of the battle—with Carlin’s tank stats, he’d managed to absorb the hits against him with still half his hit points left. The Night Spectre drained his hit points to a tiny fraction of their full amount, and blasted a Hunger Leech on Carlin.

There was no way Carlin would survive the devastating damage over time spell, and the moment it finished, Zalyth would regain his entire health bar.

So Elzio, who was briefly enjoying a reprieve from their attacks, turned and created two copies of Zalyth, both right next to to the Night Spectre.

Harock, who was looking increasingly enraged and twitchy, immediately slashed at the two with a Cleaving Strike—a melee AOE ability.

Unfortunately for the Deluuth heroes, however, Night Spectres required friendly-damage to be switched on in order to drain their own health.

Harock made contact with all combatants in the area… including the barely alive Zalyth. Both doppels and the Night Spectre—whose tarlike eyes had grown wide with shock—vanished.

Blood Mage eliminated, but I took some damage, Syrene reported. She was already back on the nexus, having drained it to half its health. Between Varenne and the Unleashed Minions, I’m at half my health. I shouldn’t need to divert my attacks, but you can’t let anyone else finish recalling. Normally I could take them, but with these minions, I won’t be able to.

As she reported, the second Elzio doppel dropped. Poblima and Brent both turned to start their recalls, but Carlin, with his dying breath, cast a final Hail of Shards, interrupting them.

As he flickered out, Elzio found himself alone with three charges left on his ring and three remaining heroes.

Quickly, Elzio pulled up a Poblima doppel, which immediately cast a screen of Fog Cloud, giving Elzio the cover necessary to dodge the rain of incoming attacks at him. He could still see through the Poblima doppel’s spell, enough to see Harock start another recall. Elzio shot a basic attack at him, the flimsy bolt of energy pinging against the tanky Crafter.

“Someone find him!”

How much longer, Syrene? Elzio asked.

Twenty seconds if no one else shows up.

Twenty seconds.

You need to last ten, Echo said. Ten seconds, and then no amount of recalling will get them back in time.

And she started counting.

Ten

Elzio used the last of his refreshes to create two copies of himself. He had taken some passive damage from wideshot AOEs and now more than ever he needed to stay alive. Syrene had been whittled down to a third of her health from the Unleashed Minions. Any recall would kill her.

“We need to hurry!” Now Poblima sounded worried. Judging by the movements of the rest of her team, they were starting to understand the urgency. They spread out, putting distance between themselves so that no more standard AOE spells would be able to target more than one of them.

But Elzio had anticipated that, which is why he’d pulled up two copies of himself immediately instead of another Poblima. He needed to chase them down.

At the exact same time, all three Elzios ran from the Fog Cloud, each heading towards one of the Deluuth heroes.

Five. It felt like an eternity between each of the seconds, and Elzio was certain Echo had miscounted somewhere.

Brent canceled his recall, turning his crossbow on the doppels. One bolt felled the one chasing him—an understandable gut response, but a tactical blunder, since the one charging him couldn’t cause him any real damage and protecting his teammates was more important.

His next bolt found the doppel who was heading towards Poblima. The mage didn’t even flinch as the copy got within striking distance, but before it could wind up its basic attack, Brent’s arrow found it.

Elzio knew the next bolt would come for him, but by now he was within range of Harock, so he threw his own attack while ordering the Poblima doppel, still in the fog, to shoot a long range blot at her namesake.

The ice shard flung from the mist as Elzio’s own basic attack canceled Harock’s recall. With only Elzio left, Harock lowered his head and rushed Elzio, fast. Brent also fired Stunning Bolt at him. They weren’t letting him get away.

As the shard homed in on its target, almost invisible in the grey air around them, Brent’s ability hit him, freezing his body, with Harock only a few feet away.

For a moment, Elzio could see a look of malicious glee fire to life on Poblima’s face—the same look that had filled her eyes when she’d taken down Ashlight’s final structure. With Elzio about to be down, nothing would interrupt her recall.

Then the look froze on her face as the level one Ice Shard landed right between those gloating eyes.

One.

And that was it.

Harock smashed into Elzio, throwing him to the ground, but it didn’t matter.

He lay on his back. Winded. Prone. Stunned. His Concentration had been shattered by Harock’s charge, so his Poblima doppel had fallen. The fog had fallen.

It didn’t matter. He no longer cared.

Brent started up another recall. Elzio couldn’t stop him from here but he didn’t need to.

Well done, Elzio, Syrene said.

Harock reached Elzio and brought down another basic attack on him. Basic attacks from his magical weapons dealt an enormous blow, and Elzio could do nothing but take it.

As the attack wrenched his hit points down further, though, the stun wore off. Elzio couldn’t fight the smile that crossed his face, one that gave Harock pause. With how quiet the Deluuth heroes had been, it tracked that they’d been coordinating mentally. But it wasn’t clear whether they’d realized that they’d already lost.

Until now.

A slow look of concern creased the man’s warped face. He turned to see Brent and Poblima already both halfway through their recalls. Elzio could see the communication, the calculation on his face.

The realization.

Harock turned back to Elzio, his body shaking. He gripped his weapon, raising it overhead, charging up a lethal attack, but Elzio could already see that this was an act of rage, not of any kind of tactics or strategy.

I’ll see you soon, Elzio, Syrene said.

The forms of Poblima and Brent vanished then, just as Harock’s axe fell—