{Enki | New Cinder}

Nox back flipped to avoid the next blow. Out of his periphery, he saw Rayne mirror him before they both speared their opponents into a throng.

Rayne and Nox copies.

Weapons filled with yellow Aegis blood and bones of nacre. They weren’t without surprises.

The Rayne Weapon in his face opened its mouth and released a projectile disc, which Nox barely caught before it struck him between the eyes. Bladed, it cut into his fingers. Nearby, true Rayne reacted to his hand injury with a curse, experiencing the pain. He crammed the disc down fake Rayne’s throat without a sound of protest.

These were not Rayne. Their eyes were lifeless, hair more brown than black, and Imminent had dressed them in a replica of her Volcano Day gear.

True Rayne glowed like a beacon. From the light emanating within her skin to the bright sun burning in her eyes, she was radiant. Dressed in a form-fitting, cobalt fighting suit, she held it together with matte black chains. The battle barely affected her pitch-black hair. All the braids and the ponytail were holding fast, proving Rayne possessed Korac’s style in battle.

In shadow form, Nox’s hair moved fluidly with him and remained out of his way, like receding smoke. Dressed in the same black jeans and black tee he’d worn in her conscience, it was bemusing how the shirt irritated his skin even as a weightless shade. When another fake Nox clutched him from behind, it reminded the real Nox why he hated anything covering his shoulders, ribs, and stomach.

He head-butted the fake Nox hard enough to dent its face into its nacre-glass skull.

Calibrated.

Optimized.

Stabilizing…

Unable to stabilize.

Warning: Sixty-five hours and eleven minutes until maximum destabilization.

That afforded them another thirty minutes.

With her real translucent wings, Rayne flew overhead, only to dive with Night Killer, her staff, impaling a Nox. These fakes couldn’t seem to fly or weren’t programmed with that in mind for combat. It made it less challenging, but no less satisfying to kill them. Rayne wrenched Night Killer from one Nox and impaled a fake Rayne on the staff’s opposite side, twirling the blade out of its chest and lending to a shower of yellow gore all around.

Thunder disturbed the surrounding ground, despite the clear sky. Their trail of battle-scarred land had brought them to an orchard of black trees with red and orange leaves. Bodies trampled tall grasses in shades of cranberry, and a stream raced by in crimson water—

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This was familiar.

Nox ripped the nacre from a fake Rayne’s chest, crushed it in his fist, and threw its body into the next wave of opponents. All to afford him a moment to gaze at the scenery.

His mother’s stories. Uncle Vinco’s Verse.

“Cinder.”

This was Nox’s homeworld before the expansion of Li had swallowed them in ash.

Magnesium light consumed the orchard, melting their opponents and blinding them. Nox’s stability wavered a bit, the smoke compromised, separating temporarily until the light receded into Rayne once more. While the counterfeits stumbled, unseeing, she crossed the battlefield to him in an instant.

“Did I hear you say, ‘Cinder?’”

Her eagerness touched Nox. He’d said one word, and Rayne had leveled the field to check on him. In his lifetime, Nox knew only two other people with this much consideration, and he’d foolishly pushed both of them away.

To Rayne.

Calibrated.

Optimized.

Stabilizing…

Unable to stabilize.

Warning: Fifty-nine hours and fifty-nine minutes until maximum destabilization.

Damn.

They were struggling to maintain their separate bodies against the Weapon’s diminishing fuse, and there Nox was staring at Rayne searching for meaning in her kindness when it simply was kind. He answered, “The map led us here, to this replica continent of Cinder before Li exploded.”

Rayne’s eyes widened as she looked way up at him, even in her high-heeled combat boots. With her drenched in yellow Aegis blood, the entire effect was endearing. Astonished, she asked, “They designed a Cinder on Enki?”

Nox nodded. “I recognize it from the Verses.” He gestured at the mountain not half a kilometer away. “That’s Li Mountain, but not as I know it. The vegetation, the waterfalls, and the canyon—”

Thunder roared louder than before, and the ground quaked.

“That’s the second time,” Rayne echoed Nox’s thoughts aloud. “What do you suppose is happening?”

Before he could answer, a fist burst through Nox’s smoky stomach and blood exploded out of Rayne’s abdomen. Crimson gushed from her mouth, and she fell to her knees when the hand retracted from him.

Calibrated.

Optimized.

Stabilizing…

Unable to stabilize.

Warning: Sixty-five hours and twenty-two minutes until maximum destabilization.

With a growl, Nox turned and tornado kicked the fake Rayne’s head hard enough to bend its neck completely sideways with an audible shatter of glass bones. Without hesitation, Nox knelt to check on the real Rayne.

Already healed, she met his eyes with a groan. “Ugh… that sucked. Let’s not do it again.”

At the slight widening of her eyes, Nox turned to find a replica Nox behind him and ripped out its nacre. Out of the millions they’d killed on this continent, only a few remained. Without the adrenaline from the initial rushing army, the last remnants proved tedious, but no less dangerous. Insects to exterminate.

Rayne stood and checked the results of her accelerated healing efforts. No hard or soft tissue repair system worked as fast as hers.

And thank Elden for that.

Nox more than paled a little at the bright red blood mingling with the yellow on her armor. Shaking himself, he scanned their surroundings for more. “We should near the end of them soon. We devastated the East. Do you think we should head West—”

A screech rocked the valley.

Rayne’s laughter was half-wonder, half-excitement. “Oh, I call dibs on whatever that is.”

Nox fought the impulse to sulk and folded his arms.

With a spin of Night Killer, she glanced up at him and huffed. “What? It’s only fair since you killed Squilly.” Her eyes sparkled. “Maybe we can keep it as a pet. Like Many Feet. Come on, Nox. The sound came from the canyon. Let’s go get it—”

The cliff face erupted and a blue giant stumbled out, menaced by a flitting, white bird.

“I believe we’ve found it.”