Zu Mari ran through the air, his steps firm and resolute. Alahira Inferna, the Demonic Prune Tree, fought off Ozyri Tori with the last of her strength.

"I am coming, my love!" Zu shouted as he came. "Bind him tight, do not falter!"

Alahira had no branches left longer than an arm, but her demonic essence could reconfigure them however she pleased. Two of her thickest remaining stubs of branch shrank down and stretched out, thinning as they elongated, snaking out to grab Ozyri.

Ozyri spun to face Zu, slapping away one branch so hard it exploded, while the other branch grabbed his leg successfully.

"You are a stubborn and irritating man," Ozyri growled. "I shall kill you ten thousand times for the trouble you've put me through!"

Zu didn't speak, his full attention on his charge. He placed each foot with precision, held every technique and spell in place on Heart of Fire and Spirit of Twilight Death, while in his mind he tracked the progress of Death Shadow.

"I had heard the Mari clan were irritants, but not to such an extent as this! Once I am done wreaking my rightful vengeance upon the Chartreuse Cougars, make no mistake, I, Ozyri Tori, will utterly wipe out the Mari clan until you are nothing but a whisper of fear, the smallest part of the legend about how great I am!"

"He should not have made that threat," whispered Heart of Fire and Spirit of Twilight Death. "I have seen it many times. This was the moment he sealed his fate."

Yes, Zu agreed silently. This was Ozyri Tori's last mistake. Zu was a kind and forgiving man, who always would rather turn an enemy into a disciple and teach them to do better. But threatening his family crossed the line.

He would never be able to trust someone whose heart held that much bitterness. Ozyri Tori was going to... well, he'd already died several times, so killing him wouldn't accomplish much, but he would be dealt with mercilessly.

Zu felt the pressure of Ozyri's strength push against him before he reached within striking distance of his eternal foe, his steps growing labored and sluggish however hard he strained.

Ozyri casually swiped his dagger through the branch holding his leg, swatted away a second attempt from Alahira to bind him, and ran to meet Zu in midair.

Alahira screamed in pain and rage, her very trunk constricting as she pushed everything she had into reaching out to stop Ozyri from killing her beloved Zu—

Too slow. Zu and Ozyri clashed, Heart of Fire and Spirit of Twilight Death shearing straight through Ozyri's dagger and carving a deep gouge in Ozyri's forearm, but Ozyri's other hand came up under Zu's guard.

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Ozyri whispered a word, and Zu saw only brilliant brightness—

The amber walls of the world contracted. Zu stood beside Alahira, both uninjured, and this time it was Ozyri who stumbled and fell from the air, looking around in complete confusion. He hadn't guessed that Zu was also looping, hadn't understood that by killing him the loop would reset as surely as if Ozyri himself were to fall.

"Alahira, my love," Zu whispered with urgent haste, "that man is an evil soul sorcerer who cannot be killed. He must be silenced before he casts any spell upon us, for he could kill either of us with a word. I will distract him, get in place so you can bind and silence him with a single strike. If we fail, he will kill us both. I'm sorry to ask so much of you."

"I will do it," Alahira said. A branch reached down and touched Zu's lips gently. "Be safe, my love. We will defeat this sorcerer and live happily forever."

Zu nodded and sprang away. "Now would be a good time to teach me those presence suppression rituals," he told Heart of Fire and Spirit of Twilight Death.

"You?" Ozyri roared, regaining control of his flight. He spun to face Zu, his expression twisted with disbelief and hatred. "A Mari, with knowledge of Spirit Memory Retention? How?"

"I'm not like the other Mari," Zu said. "I am Zu Mari, and I will ascend to the heavens to rule among the gods."

"There is no one with that kind of talent among the Mari! They are broken and useless, a tiny vestige of their former glory. Mari are a fading and forgotten family, with no value to anyone! How?!"

"The same way anyone gets anything," Zu said. "Hard work. I strove and suffered for years, slowly attaining the power I needed, until finally the heavens rewarded my efforts. Those who had never noticed or cared about my existence suddenly realized that they owed me friendship and assistance. The great treasures of my clan were finally given to me as is my right."

"The heavens do not care for the goings on of frogs who leap about uselessly," sneered Ozyri Tori. "Every power must be taken." He clenched a fist. "Grasped with your own hands, else it has no value whatsoever. Power is not given to those who deserve it, it is taken by those with the strength to claim it."

"You are a sad and lonely man, Ozyri Tori," Zu said pityingly. "If you had not threatened my family, I might have let you go. But there is too much hatred in your heart and I do not think you are willing to purge it."

"You may have overpowered me with trickery, but that will never be enough to defeat me! I will return again and again until you are nothing but a broken husk of a man! I will shatter your spirit and destroy your soul. Zu Mari, whatever power you have been given, it cannot match my determination to succeed!"

Zu saw Alahira in position behind Xashu, her branches condensed from their former myriad to only five, each thicker and stronger than any he'd seen from her before, almost as thick as her trunk but flexible and long. She watched, ready to strike.

"Your determination is useless," Zu said, and leapt forward. He aimed Heart of Fire and Spirit of Twilight Death straight at Ozyri's heart, but did not put his full force into the strike, so that when Ozyri's dagger came up to block the blades clanged against each other without doing injury to either of them.

Alahira struck. Ozyri opened his mouth to taunt Zu, but Alahira was faster. Her branch looped around Ozyri's face and drew tight, so he only got a mouthful of bark. He lurched to strike, raising his arm, only for another branch to wrap around it and bind it tight. The thick branches coiled around Ozyri, wrapping him and holding him still.

Zu laughed, letting out all the tension and desperation that he'd felt as they fought time and again. "Finally," he said, stepping down from the air and leaning his head against Alahira's warm branch. "You've done so well. Thank you." He pressed a kiss against her trunk, then stepped back. "Now, what to do with our would-be time master?"

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