"Tei! What the hell's happening?" Gwen burst through the portal, followed shortly by Lulan, Mayuree, and Eunae. Where Indaw had been a lakeside township a few hours prior, it was now a setting for Rambo II. "Jesus, are we in a war zone?"

"Mia!" Kitty Blinked in from thin air, embracing her companion with a fierce possessiveness. "Are you alright?"

"Kitty." Mayuree was caught in her bodyguard's arms. "The Tyrant's after me!"

The corners of Gwen's eyes twitched.

"I am not sure what's happening here, but first, let's get mobile. We don't want Kyoto to getting too far ahead of us." Tei would have liked the whole story elucidated from the beginning, but he knew the situation could only get worse if they stayed. At the west gate, their rival's convoy had already cleared the town. "We'll be moving northward. Your friends from Kyoto are keeping our unexpected friends busy for now."

"N-northward?" Mayuree spluttered. "No! We should be going south!"

"We're very close to finishing the quest, Miss Mayuree," Tei patiently explained even as his shield dampened a Fireball. "Please move to the centre for your own safety."

"I am staying with Mia," Kitty interjected.

"You-" Gwen bit her tongue, forcing herself to delay her admonishment, giving in to the fact that from Kitty's perspective, she had indeed taken very little care of Mayuree. "Fine, go. Keep her and Eunae safe."

The Ice Mage shot Gwen a cold scowl of disapproval before directing their Healer and Diviner toward a truck with enough space for the agonised Mayuree to lie down.

"No! Don't leave me!" Mayuree reached out in futility.

"I'll be within teleportation range," Gwen parted from her Diviner. Fucking Maymyint, she cursed internally. Whatever the hell that slithering snake in the grass may be planning, she would give the bitch a piece of her mind as soon as they returned to Shanghai.

"Gwen, up here," Tei invited her up to the back of the end truck, a semi-trailer with a shipping container, within which Gwen willed her dogs and Caliban, anticipating a future ambush of whatever may come within melee range of their cargo.

Unfortunately, the multi-team Spellcraft exhibition rampaging in the sky above proved more chaotic than a geometric Picasso.

"I can't tell who's who." Gwen observed the melee. Buildings were falling, and Nagas were rampaging, Fireballs erupted here and there, followed by flashes of close-quarter combat as spells exploded through windows and lit up the alleyways. Indaw was by no means a large town, and from the looks of the collateral damage, there may not be an Indaw thereafter.

_Crack!_

In the distance, she heard the familiar sound of Lightning Bolts materialising and striking the ground, making a familiar sound of fulmination as the air turned to plasma. An enemy Mage was throwing down a volley of explosive bolts, peeling away at a building where the local militia had sheltered themselves. Below, civilians fled in panicked mobs, roving across the street as the half-brick, half-galvanised iron construct began to disintegrate.

"Does anyone anywhere give a shit about non-combatants?" Gwen ground her teeth even as Fudan's supply convoy began to withdraw. At the very least, she gave a shit about her NoMs. She would ensure the men and women that came with them returned to La War unharmed, even if they had to pack themselves like sardines to one side, barely caring to breathe or Achoo in the presence of Caliban and her dogs.

"I dare say... no." Tei empowered a Fuda.

"Incoming!" Two blooming mid-air Water Shields punctuated Richard's warning, catching a series of flaming missiles, one of which exploded into a Fireball, showering the hopping NoMs below with scalding liquid. "Fuck me dead. They weren't this keen before."

"I think I know why." Gwen opened her conduits, transforming her invisible Ariel in the process.

"Dick, can you mark my enemies for me?"

"Will do! Lea?"

Globules of glowing water immediately condensed around five Mages who had gotten too close to Fudan's retreating convoy for comfort.

As Gwen incanted, her Kirin Familiar positioned itself. If they were going to punt these bastards back to the mountains, she would do it without adieu.

Sensing her mana build-up, two of the hostile Mages attempted to disrupt her casting. One materialised a spear of stone, while the other conjured a sudden squall of falling fire.

"Tomb Shield!"

As usual, Tei Bai's barrier offered stoic defence and morbid aesthetics in equal measure, consuming both attacks effortlessly even as the Dust's necrotic aura chilled Gwen to the bone.

"Barbanginy!"

Gwen's retributive counter-fire lit up half the battlefield, painting the low clouds a viridescent green.

With Ariel in position, her bolt made just over two revolutions between five enemy casters, blitzing from one to the next with instantaneous clamours of cobalt-green electricity. The initial hit, by far the most potent, singularly shattered an Abjurer's bronze-coloured Earthen Shield, sending her enemy into convulsive bouts of epilepsy. The resultant ricochet then ping-ponged from Mage to Mage, tearing through their depleted defence, sending the unsuspecting rogues tumbling from the sky.

"Flame Burst"

A torrent of Magma caught a Mage as she fell.

Gwen's irises contracted upon seeing Rene giving her a thumbs up and an encouraging wink.

"Go for the kill," Richard interrupted her internal revelry with a spot of unwelcome advice. "Gunther told me to remind you now and then of Blackheath."

Before she could retort, Richard demonstrated his point by firing off a jet-blast of white water, sending another falling enemy spiralling into the distance, crashing into a Wall of ever-burning Fire deposited by Jiro.

"Gwen, focus," Tei intervened when he caught her reddening face. "Look, Kyoto's no different."

Indeed, Kyoto's giants were fending off the waves of incoming Mages with fire and stone. What Gwen's Captain underscored was the fact that Dororo, though cute as Gumby himself, was in the process of crushing a shielded enemy Mage like a soft-boiled egg.

_Klang!_

"ARRRG—"

A brief scream drew Gwen and Tei's attention to their right flank, where Lulan had caught an assailant flying close to the ground and around the town's waist-high vegetation. Unlike Gwen, whose Ariel could gauge when an enemy was disabled without wasting excess energy, the Sword Mage powered every swing without reserve, cleaving through her enemy's flesh and bone alike. After a dozen flurries in quick succession, an Heart-Piercing Sword impaled her target's chest, pinning an indigenous-seeming man into the gore-strewn asphalt.

Elsewhere, another enemy fled into the distance, aflame with a burst of orange-white fire that refused to extinguish, dashing into the rice paddies in a futile attempt at salvation.

The remaining enemies scattered, likely to regroup and reorganise. Gwen's instantaneous slaying of their Abjurer had opened a glaring hole in their defence.

"Mercy is a privilege," her Captain remarked drily before activating his Message bangle. "Gwen, take the left flank. Jiro, Rene, you take the right. Mayuree, Message our drivers and tell them to increase speed!"

"Oi, we got a big one incoming!" Richard collapsed a Wall of Water to refresh yet another. He and Jiro had been alternating walls every few hundred meters to discourage pursuit. "Gwen! Hydra on the left!"

"It's a Naga!" Gwen shouted, concurrently sending out a mental command, unleashing her dogs from the container's interior. "It's mine!"

A Naga slithered from the tall grass toward the trucks, making haste across the pavement with surprising velocity for a creature of impressive bulk. When the beast broke the fields of still-green rice, Gwen could see that in lieu of Richard's six-headed monster with a body like a brontosaurus, the Naga possessed no limbs, but a massively muscled torso with the likeness of a boa-constrictor. From chest to chest, the creature's central mass was at least the width of their cargo-trailer.

"That's not the Hydra we fought earlier!" Tei reinforced his wards. "Mao! That IS a Naga!"

Nagas were inherently draconic, meaning their resistance to magic was many times that of the pseudo-draconic swamp monster known as the Hydra. If that was the case, it explained how the serpent slithered through spellfire without being cooked, battered or electrocuted.

"Fuck!" Richard swore as the Naga reared to its full height, each cobra head expanding their multi-coloured hoods. "Shit! Lea! Diffusion Shield!"

As one, all six head began to hurl globs of sputum at the convoy.

Lea managed the catch two of the six projectiles, Richard caught two, and the two gnawed at the Tomb Shields Tei had laid down earlier, sliding off the grey barrier to sizzle the asphalt with an odious stink of carbonising acid.

"Nasty stuff." Richard's disgust was met with agreement. "Don't let it get close!"

"I know! Tomb Wall!" Tei formed a circular Sigil with both hands, catching the Naga mid slither, sending its momentum awry by launching it a meter into the air.

Catching the Naga's disorientation, Gwen's deerhounds closed in at once, crackling with electricity as they tore into the Naga's scale-covered body, tearing out great fleshy chunks of rubbery flesh and lichen-covered scales. Feeling the pain, the Naga thrashed, sending its heads to snap at Gwen's dogs. Her deerhounds, however, agile as ferrets and designed by Morden for the express purpose of monster hunting, evaded the envenomed strikes with yips and yelps. With an encouraging "EE!" from Ariel, the dogs renewed their assault by moving down the serpent's body and attacking its mid-section, snapping at its forked tail.

"Do Naga heads grow back?" Gwen shouted at her captain.

"I have no idea!" Tie Messaged back. "This is the first time I've seen an old-world Naga. I'd thought they had human faces and were intelligent creatures."

"Guess we'll find out." Gwen waited for her dogs to position the Naga before she tapped into the Gate of the Void. "Void Seeker! Chakram! Chakram!"

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"Dust Bolt!" Tei threw in his support.

"Jet Blast!" Richard expended a portion of his mana to elicit a stream of super-pressurised water from a tear in the Elemental Plane of Water, aiming to hinder the creature's forward momentum.

"Lava Lance!" From across the field, Rene spared a spell, striking the Naga from the rear flank.

"Fire Lance!" Jiro added his piece.

Gwen waited until her allies' spells had rocked the Naga's body before allowing her deadly frisbees to complete their arc, simultaneously enduring a spell of dizziness.

'GARRRRGH!" the Naga bellowed with a sound akin to a dozen elephants trumpeting.

With the din of a mosquito swarm, her warrior princess Chakrams kissed her prey.

_Thonk!_
 _Thonk!_
 _Thunk!_

The first managed half a neck before it dissipated.
The second struck a foot lower, fizzling at the spine.
The Seeker struck the same place as the first, completing its trajectory to exit on the other side.

Two of the Naga's heads parted like zip-sawed fingers from a careless woodworker's hand.

The remaining four howled, baying for violence.

Twisting its body to shake the deerhounds, the now quad-headed Naga made a spring-loaded charge at the moving semi-trailer. Two of its heads stretched with unexpected reach, slamming into the steel container as Tei and Richard parried left and right.

"Ariel!"

Gwen's Kirin rammed into the creature, its horns crackling with electricity as it sent the Naga off course. The hounds had by now recovered, and once again, they mounted the Naga, snapping at its wounds and digging into its flesh with explosive bolts of electricity. Meanwhile, sensing the creature's draconic vitality through her hidden Caliban, Gwen brought to mind a spell which was perfect for the occasion.

"Tei! I need a moment."

"You got it!"

The manifestation took the better part of ten seconds, then one by one, two by threes, torrent by torrent, a cascade of electric elementals from a vivid Elemental Swarm smothered the air. In a second, they fell upon the Naga, exploding across its vibrant scales and gnawing at its open wounds. Thanks to Ariel, she no longer had to fear friendly fire from her numberless elementals.

Tei snuck in another Tomb Wall while the creature stumbled blindly.

The Naga stacked into the pavement heads-first.

"You really are built for monster hunting," her captain remarked. "Your true talent is wasted on Mages."

"Ha!" Gwen's blood was up, the success with the Naga had offset the shame brought on by Richard's reminder. "The greatest is behind! Caliban!"

From the back of the final truck where it had laid in waiting, Caliban slithered from the vehicle's interior, transformed into its spider visage to the background music of screaming NoMs, then leapt for the thrashing Naga, trailing a snail sheen of saliva.

"Onslaught!" Gwen opened her vitality-valves, eager for Caliban to continue its evolution. Walken did say that with enough high-tier creatures in its gullet, Caliban could very well attain Ariel's cognisance. If so, there was no better candidate. "Consume!"

"Lightning Sphere!" Ariel aided its brethren below with a paralytic explosion, keeping the Naga contained and incapable of movement.

"Scorcher!" Jiro performed a flyby, momentarily breaking from his harassment of the enemy Mages, cutting a line of still-burning fire across the Naga's lower back. By now, the Firebird user had left a kilometre of vivid fire that denied all cover to their enemies.

"Panzerschreck!" Lulan aimed for a head, taking off a chunk of jaw even as she revved up a second. With a target as large as this, she felt confident in her aim.

With a jerk, the Naga staggered; the creature's hurt and agony plain for all to see.

"SHAAA!" Caliban leapt into the air, casually allowing a cobra-strike to snap one of its limbs, then landed on the creature's back. Without delay, the spiderling's underbelly maw deployed, opening its grotesque cargo bay to unleash a gut full of writhing tentacles red and blue, eager to hunt for the creature's Core.

"HISSSSS— NO!"

The bark that came from the Naga was like an exploding gasket, with its final syllable ending in a cry of human anguish.

Without warning, its torso shrank, shaking loose Gwen's dogs and momentarily confusing Caliban as it deflated.

An illusion? Gwen wondered, but before she could react, Caliban renewed its assault. She could feel her creature's appetite hollowing the interior of her chest. It had been a long time since Cali had fed, and her monster was hungry enough to eat a herd of horses.

"Astaka, save—" was the final cry she heard from the massive pile of deerhounds encircling Caliban's engorged form, indicating that it had swallowed something. When she panicked and commanded Caliban to regurgitate what could have just called out for parley, her monster opened its maw to reveal nought but a mass of newly hungry tentacles.

SHIT! The immediacy of her mistake struck her. There was eating the creature's Core after a desperate battle, and then there was swallowing a demi-human mid-fight. There was also the fact that she just Consumed a sentient being, but that mental commiseration would have to wait.

When would the vitality hit?
By her previous counts, she had a few minutes at best.

"Richard," she cried out. "I need to meditate!"

It had been such a long time since Caliban ate something that broke her Nephres' Scale. If a high-tier, high-affinity healer was a ten, what new ecstasy would a four-meter-tall sentient Naga reach? She could be out for minutes to an hour!

"Gwen!" Tei had a Dispel ready go. "What's wrong?"

"I need a moment!" Gwen confessed a half-truth. "Caliban needs to digest."

"Oh." Tei glanced at where the Naga had been just a moment ago, trying to catch Caliban in the chaotic action. Under where Fudan's Captain stood, Gwen struck the container of Tei's truck with an audible moan. When she looked up, the glazed orbs of two dozen labourers from La War met her eyes.

FUCK! She could feel Caliban throbbing. There was no bloody way she was about to fall into a convulsive, orgiastic fit in front of strangers. "RICHARD!"

"I am here!" Lea appeared overhead, setting a barrier shield of murky water over her master's cousin.

Once the watery womb enfolded her, Gwen commanded Ariel, Caliban and her dogs to guard the perimeter of their moving line of vehicles while she could maintain them. Furthermore mindful of the deluge of vitality soon to bloat her conduits, she relented on switching Caliban to its stag form, refraining it from consuming any more enemies.

"Shaaa!" Caliban burped, sprouting and twisting until it reached its full height, it's faceless mien scanning for targets to impale.

Now cut off from external stimuli, she took a second to process the final visage of the desperate Naga. With her Essence-enhanced kinetic vision, her hindsight was truly twenty-twenty. The Naga was a woman; she recalled- an indigenous looking serpent folk with blue-green scales.

Right before Caliban did his terrible ferreting for Cores, her enemy had reverted to a Demi-human being. After that, Caliban was large enough to swallow its target wholesale.

She wanted to say she felt ill, that it was accidental; but in truth, her regret paled against the ecstasy of dominating her opponent.

Worry not, the Caliban of her mind lubricated her conscience. The servants of Aung San attacked first, and Mayuree had to be protected. If she was going to eat it anyway, what difference did it make?

Her digits twitched.
Her abdominal muscles contracted.
In her head, she could hear Caliban singing a happy song of madcap violence as it charged a party of screaming, screeching Burmese Mages fleeing its Medusa's visage. Retracting her legs, Gwen pressed her knees to her chest, coiled in a foetal position, clenched her jaws to avoid making too sweet a moan, then readied herself for the oncoming metamorphosis.

"What a magnificent thing!" Lutz von Schlabrendorff found himself hunched forward, an inch away from the projection. "Absorption! Who'd have thought such a thing is possible."

"It's not," a fellow Magister, a British member, corrected the chief proctor from across the table. "We have Void Mages as well. They can't do that."

"Oh-ho? Then explain that."

"It's her Void Beast, or the girl, or her unique magic," the Magister remarked. "Doesn't it remind you of someone? Although I hear Fudan will be releasing a Systematic Study on the subject soon. Submitted by Magister Marie-Roslyn Wen, I believe, the details are said to be very intimate."

"Then we shall drink to interesting bedtime reading," a Magister chuckled, sipping his tea.

"I find the refractory period after Consume particularly interesting."

"A curious flaw," von Schlabrendorff agreed. "One I welcome gladly."

"Sir," Hass interrupted the men's appreciation of the Void Element. "There's an anomaly within Fudan's formation."

As one, the Magisters turned to the lumen-projection.

"What the devil are they doing?"

"Hass, who does that Enchantment signature belong to?"

"Their controller, sir, someone called Kitty Liang. Her profile states she's from Kunlun, although the House of M remains her employer."

"Note the use of non-registered magic and deduct CCs accordingly," the chief proctor grunted. "Wait, what's happening now?"

"Their controller and their diviner appear to be breaking away from the party, sir."

"Where are they going?"

"Heading North-North-East, sir." Hass manipulated the map so that it zoomed outward. "Assuming trajectory by crow-flight, they're aiming for the border of Nagaland and Burma."

"Can you get me a visual before they're out of range?"

"Yessir, I'll bring them up now."

There was a thrum of circulating mana as the Divination engine worked its magic, channelling the long-range Scry enabled by the Chief Proctor's Eye of Providence. From a bird's eye view, the magical vision fell forward with a sense of induced vertigo until it centred on the vague shape of two petite outlines.

The smaller of the silhouettes had secured the first in what looked like a frosty cocoon; a spell used to capture subdued Mages. Concurrent with the lilac flush of Transmutation, Kitty's signature additionally exhibited the unmistakable golden halo of Enchantment.

"An implanted glamour!" von Schlabrendorff raised a brow. "Not something we could have detected without an actual activation. Hass, additionally note the Mind Magic now active on the Ice Mage. Mark the signature and re-check records from Mandalay. Penalise Fudan accordingly if it has impacted the competition's outcome. I am starting to see where this is going."

"Which is where exactly?" a fellow Magister patrolled the footage. "My word, they're going awful fast. That girl sure can fly. What are they fleeing from?"

"From the Void sorceress."

Lutz von Schlabrendorff glanced at the glyph that indicated Gwen Song remained stationary within the travelling convoy.

How long would it take the girl to wake up? He wondered. More importantly, would the girl take the live bait and rush into Nagaland? If it were himself, he would not have put faith in a Mage from the Frontier having the gall to charge headfirst into certain doom. But having observed Walken's student for the better part of two weeks; he was starting to sense a disturbing trend.

As for their current dilemma, he could only bank on Walken's projection that the deposed Royal House of Burma was playing with dragon fire. When he had questioned Walken about the man's unruly student and the possibility of the girl's connection to a certain wild Wyvern, his old acquaintance had hinted that the girl had links to mythic presences in both China and Australia, though neither received official verification. "Gwen thinks the Tyrant might be related to her in some convoluted way." Walken had explained his limited knowledge of the girl's multi-pronged affairs. "Though I disagree, her speculations do hold some merit."

For von Schlabrendorff, one Dragon or two made no difference. The dilemma was whether or not a rescue action was warranted. For now, as one of Fudan's Mages had betrayed her team, there was no protocol for the IIUC proctors to intervene. As for alerting Walken, with the competition ongoing, it was improper for von Schlabrendorff to feed his friend any more information. By logic, regulation and creed, he was a neutral observer.

"How far is Nagaland from Hpakan?"

"About a hundred-and-fifty kilometres, sir."

"Tell Hpakan to send out a relay team," von Schlabrendorff commanded his second. "Whatever happens, the record shall speak for itself."

Fudan's victory was short-lived.

Just as they managed to disable about half of the Mages pursuing their convoy, there was a cry of blue murder coming from the middle of the transport column.

Hot-headed and bathed in spellfire, Jiro and Rene had ignored the interruption entirely, while behind them, Bai and Anita had their hands occupied deflecting bolts of fire, stone and electricity aimed at the truck's wheels. It was only Richard who heard, though when he finally pulled from the battle to inspect what had occurred, a great blast of air blew through the tarped roof, sending him skittering into the roadside rubble, scattering the NoMs that rode with them in every direction.

After Richard cushioned the NoMs' deadly trajectories and recovered the tumbling Eunae, he found the girl dazed and covered in a thin crust of rime, safe thanks to her distressed nature Spirit.

"Well, shit on a stick," he swore. "KITTY?! MAYUREE?"

Looking up toward the hazy sky, he could scarcely make out Kitty's Flight form, already reaching an impressive altitude, visible only thanks to a trailing cocoon.

Without warning, Aung San's Mages retreated, pursuing the fleeing Kitty as though Jiro had lit a flame up their arse.

When finally the confusion cleared and combat concluded, Richard measured his team's present predicament.

"Lea, how's Gwen?"

"Recovering," Lea replied. "She's burning up, but I think she'll be okay."

"STOP THE TRUCKS!" Tei called out from the rear, ordering the terrified NoMs back onto the vehicle. "Wocao! What the hell just happened?"

"Kitty's gone," Richard informed their Captain as he knelt beside Eunae. "With Mayuree. She attacked Eunae."

"I'll be f-fine," Eunae clattered while she circulated a healing spell from an anxious Luyi. "K-Kitty's gone c-crazy!"

"Give me some heat!" Richard called out to the returning Mages.

"Maybe she is trying to help us?" Jiro landed shortly, likewise troubled by Kitty's unexpected escapade. With a word, a Firebird settled beside the shivering Eunae. "Are you sure Kitty's not carrying out some crazy plan instead?"

In Jiro's experience, Kitty was quiet and shy, but in no way a traitor.

"I don't think Kitty is trying to help, Jiro…" Rene read Richard's iron expression far more readily than the straight-laced Fire Mage.

"What happened?" Anita and Lulan were the last to join them, having come seeking Eunae's aid to heal the NoMs. "Kitty took Mia? Why?"

Richard's answer came in the form of a complicated expression aimed at their vice captain's privacy bubble. Before he could clarify further, the barrier burst, revealing a radiant looking Gwen flush with supernatural vitality.

"Let's not worry about the 'why' just yet." Richard felt his fingers grow suddenly numb. "Here comes the waking dragon. Who wants to hold her down while I give her the bad news?"


"Eunie, Resistance, Bless and Fortify! Annie, Mage Armour, Haste and Expeditious Retreat—" Gwen barked at their defender, all pretence of politeness driven from the usual mildness of her mannerism. "Come on, chop-chop! Every second wasted is an opportunity lost."

Anita obliged, moving her lips even as Captain Bai's bloodshot eyes screamed for her to refuse.

"I am coming with you," Richard insisted.

"Me too," Lulan volunteered.

"Mao!" Tei Bai growled. "We're in the middle of a match!"

"A match we've won." Gwen turned to her Captain coldly. "Deliver the goods, connect Mandalay to the villages, and collect our CCs. Don't bother me if you're not going to help."

"We're a team, Gwen."

"And MIA is a PART of your team!" his Vice Captain snapped, then sighed. "Sorry Cap, the time for words will have come later."

Tei pursed his lips, looking to his other teammates for help.

"I'll come too." Jiro declared.

"Count me in." Rene likewise disappointed Tei.

Fudan's Captain facepalmed with both hands.

"Thanks, guys." Gwen inclined her head. "But I need to arrive fast, and when I leave, it needs to be VERY fast." And without additional burdens, Gwen added mentally.

"Do you know where to go?"

"Yeah." Gwen materialised a transponder unit. "Minty had it all planned it out, right from the start."

"You could be facing a whole dragon," Richard forewarned. "Gunther is going to miss his one-of-a-kind Ring."

"Worth it," his cousin replied. "And no. My only purpose is to take Mayuree back."

"Maybe Mayuree's Contingency Ring will activate?" Tei implored. "Save you a trip."

"I somehow doubt that, Cap," Gwen replied as she lifted into the air. "Tei, please take care of things."

"Lea," Richard implored his Spirit to partitioned a droplet of her elemental Essence into a vial. "Hold onto this. Lea will redirect us to you. Promise me, NO FIGHTING. We'll come as soon as we can."

"Right. Mia and I will be back in a jiffy." Gwen slipped the container into her potion pouch, then without adieu, Fudan's primadonna blasted off.

"Phew." Anita finally breathed, the tension draining from her face. "Mao, I thought we had to fight Ariel and Caliban!"

Tei turned away, then stepped on the truck's bonnet. "Let's not tarry then, move out!"

Xiao Mīao Liang was eight-years-old when she wandered the Wildlands. Her home, the Sect of Kunlun, had failed the test of time. Though the sect had survived since the Han Dynasty, the splendour of the cities proved too alluring for the younger generation of their warrior-hermits, and one by one, either tempted by a better life or slain by the monsters on the mountain, they dwindled into irrelevance. In the end, Xiao Mīao's venerable guardian, a distant relative, took the orphaned child down to Lhasa, through Bhutan, and finally to Manipur, where the Grandmaster of the Shadowmen then introduced Xiao Mīao to the House of Mü. By the end of their journey, her ageing guardian had grown worn and threadbare. With his dying breath, he tethered her to an heir of the Mon and Pyu, assured by the promise of provisions for his heir.

So it was that at the age of eleven, Xiao Mīao entered Mayuree's service as her companion.

"Xiao Mīao means cat!" her young mistress had been adamant on the name of her new pet. "You're Kitty from now on!"

The Mīao in Xiao Mīao stood for "sprout", representing her Clan's hope that one day, she would grow into a mighty tree. Though her impromptu name change had foreshadowed her future in the House of M, the newly minted Kitty Liang had been satisfied with a home and a friend.

At the age of fifteen, she tapped into a secondary element: Air, something the old Daoshi of Kunlun would have celebrated. She was given more resources to cultivate her skills, then assigned to higher tiers of learning.

At sixteen, she returned to Mayuree, who was now responsible for a division of the House of M's mercantile operations in Shanghai and served as her friend's companion and guard in Senior school. She had by then learned of the seniority system among the House of M's siblings, so had sworn to protect her friend against all harm, even her kin.

At eighteen, six-months into university at Fudan, Mayuree came to her with a vision.

"She's going to save my life one day!" Her companion had stammered, brimming from the crown to the toe with confidence. "Kitty, my saviour is going to be at your scholarship practical!"

And that was the first time Kitty met Gwen Song.

Even without Mayuree's divined wisdom, Kitty knew that the Void sorceress was going to be her bane. Faced with a giantess wearing an uncommonly comely countenance, Mayuree became instantly smitten. When her best friend's eyes positively glowed at the auction, it was enough to send a frosty shiv twisting into her heart.

After that, whether serendipity, fate or overt wilfulness on Mayuree's part, Gwen Song entered the orbit of their lives.

At first, the crass Frontierswoman was just an annoyance; then with increasing regularly, she began to show up at their apartment at B1, abandoning her hovel to invade the sanctum of Kitty and Mayuree's abode.

Gwen's constant presence had incensed Kitty to no end, far worse than when Marong, Mayuree's sister-obsessed inbred brother, decided to move into the master bedroom.

Day after day, Mayuree grew closer to the younger woman, eating with her, drinking with her, even questing together and finally, starting a business together; an equal partnership, something Kitty could never achieve.

Somewhere in between, Kitty witnessed Gwen Song eating a woman alive, starting from the head. Who was to say Gwen would not turn her appetite on Mayuree? Or that her aberrant Void powers wouldn't hurt Mayuree in some horrid, unforeseen way?

But Mayuree would not listen, and that had hurt Kitty profoundly. Unable to respond, she instead took breaks, going out to quest, to train up her skills so that when she returned, she could best Gwen Song and prove that it was she who would save Mayuree, and not the six-foot space invader.

"Gwen..."

Mayuree's half-frozen murmuring shook Kitty from her retrospection. They were at an altitude mundane Mages couldn't reach, where the air was cold enough to freeze the moisture from one's dermis. Kitty wasn't afraid of the cold, as per her elemental trait, while Mayuree was safely cocooned in her Rime Shell, a spell Kitty usually used for bounties.

After the IIUC selection, Maymyint had summoned her in Shanghai. There, three Shadowmen had cornered Kitty so that the Mind Mage could ferret through her brain. When she then tried to escape, to warn someone, anyone, their punishment had not been kind.

After that; her memory became a haze.

Training. Gwen Song. The competition. Yangon. Mandalay. Everything had been a blur.

Then they arrived at Indaw, where Aung San's Mages attacked.

As soon as Gwen collapsed in her grotesque throe of pleasure, Kitty knew what she had to do. An ardent desire blossomed in her head, and Maymyint's command that Mayuree must reach Nagaland's border outpost before the fourteenth day of the competition became paramount to her continued existence.

With her capture spell, she had disabled a feverish Mayuree and an unsuspecting Eunae, and now, she would travel to the basin north of the Arakan mountains, just past Manipur.

There, in the rolling green hills of Nagaland, she would find the mountain trail where for the last thirty years, members of Mayuree's family had been exiled to maintain the House of M's operations in the north.

And when she arrives?

Kitty couldn't guess even if she tried.

For now, she could only lament her friend's divined wisdom.

Gwen Song was Mayuree's boon.
While herself, Xiao Mīao, had grown into Mayuree's bane.

Nagaland.

A flock of Wildland Doves took to sudden flight across a winding landscape which an imperial cartographer once labelled, "The Naga's Rise".

The unusual crests and valleys of Nagaland were a formation both natural and supernatural, for here was the homeland of the Naga, a race of mythic beings once worshipped as lesser Deva. Ancient Tibetan records stated that the Nagas descended from the many-headed dragon Xiangliu, itself defeated by one of the seven followers of the Yellow Emperor, a dragon called Zhulong, occupying the Aspect of Fire.

Atop the emerald valley lay the highest locality in southern Nagaland, Saramati Peak, the kissing-point of old colonial Burma and India, long before the cartographic border was made irrelevant by the Beast Tide.

Below the peak itself, in between the saddle of two rising hills, was the beginning of what the Generals of Yangon would call the illusive Tyrant's Lair, the home base of Aung San's rebellion, and the last bastion of the man who once dreamt of Burma's independence.

Within its vaulted underground palace lived the surviving children of Myăma's aborted independence. The first was Astaka, scion of Kauravya, the youngest Naga to follow Gautama Buddha. The other was Aung San Yuzana, inheriting the will of their father.

Astaka's name meant "he who has eight parts", or as Yuzana had translated, he who desires the Noble Eightfold Path. Within the mountain's depth, many manuscripts remained intact, unsullied by the twenty-five centuries that had passed since Gautama reached the state of nirvana, ascending into the Unbound Land, taking with him his many-headed disciples.

What Astaka recalled of his past lay only in fragments, memories baked into the jade shell of his egg, etched onto his Core when he hatched into the uncaring world; for the Naga are demi-dragons, creatures younger than the divine likes of the Shenlong, Yinglong and the Zhulong, whose eternal existence hailed from a higher plane. Comparatively, Nagas were terrestrial, having their beginnings in the material plane, incubated by a convergence of elemental forces given will and shape.

"Yuzana!" Astaka fought to hold his humanoid shape intact, shaken by the horror of what he had witnessed in Indaw. "Where are you?"

"My lord, I have arrived." A human woman entered the resplendent halls in which Astaka fumed. "What's the matter? News from the south?"

"She ATE Virana!" The Naga's metamorphic form revolted, no longer capable of holding back the raw emotions burning at his throat. In a moment, his body bloated, swelling and growing until no less than seven heads sprouted from his shoulders, expanding until his mass filled the cavern. "She's gone, Yuzana, GONE! Not even her soul remained! Virana will never be reborn, do you understand? They diminished her, wholly and completely!"

Stolen novel; please report.

"What of my Mages?" the daughter of General Aung San pleaded. In the dim viridescent light of the jade plated hall, the woman appeared ageless, with a soft halo of radiance just above her temple. A human observer would have placed her in the forties, though her mien was well preserved, possessing the suppleness of one younger. "If even your Nagas are defeated…"

"They are in retreat," Astaka wailed. "I've commanded Nila and Ugra to flee. But Virana is no more!"

"How many of my kin still live?"

"Eight or nine, before Virana's life was cut short." As the Naga spoke, each head uttered a word, yet together, their fluency flowed without pause.

"Lord Astaka, can you speak to them on my behalf?" Yuzana bit her tongue, stifling her grief even as she spoke. It had been Astaka's idea to take the tithe by force, and she knew the Naga's regret was exclusive to his kin and not hers.

As six heads continued to wail, one lowered itself toward her face.

"Mistress?" came the voice of one of her officers. "Mistress! We're in pursuit! The target Lord Astaka had requested now moves toward Nagaland! W-we've lost half our men, including Kuhara, your brother. I… I am truly sorry."

"We're past the time for sorrow." Yuzana lowered her voice, stroking the Naga's cobra-like mien. With time, Astaka would grow one more head, completing his namesake and come into his destined power. As for now, Astaka remained a young adult, barely past his fourth century. When Yuzana's father first found the creature and actualised their alliance, he had thought the being unparalleled, but since his demise and during Yuzana's conflict with the lineage of the Pyu and Mon, she had come to realise the reality of the Naga's immature power. That was why, rather than completing her father's wishes, she had to cultivate Astaka's growth. For even if they were to decimate Yangon, entirely possible with Astaka, his siblings and her Mages, without the Pillar of Jade and the Naga firmly seated in Nagaland, they couldn't resist the imperialists. "Do you know why they had a change of heart?"

"No, mistress, the one bringing the tithing is Kitty Liang from the House of M. We won't be able to catch up."

Kitty Liang, Yuzana mulled over the name. She knew of the dual-element sorceress, though they had never fought.

"Are you followed?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good, once she nears the outpost, return to your villages."

Astaka's head floated away.

Yuzana tempered her disquieted heart.
For months, even before their betrayal, Astaka's temper had been terrible, smothering the mountain with storms and landslides, making the lives of those farming on its tiled rice-terraces utterly impossible.

If the levy was now delivered, did that mean Me Nu yielded? Could it be that the delay was not the fault of the House of M, but outside forces at play, such as the foreign Mages?

At the thought of these invaders in her homeland, Yuzana felt a wave of anger. Again and again, the Mageocracy meddled in their affairs. An international university competition in Northern Burma? Who were they trying to fool?

As for their lost kin, Virana was only two centuries old. Yuzana had watched the Naga moult as she took on her human form for the first time. It had been a feat much celebrated by Astaka, who saw Ugra, Nila and Virana as future mates. When she had first heard Astaka boast of his planned incest, Yuzana had been appalled, but in the decade since, she had come to accept that the Essence of higher beings had little to do with organic physicalities. In mating and eating, Nagas like Astaka magnified their "being". That was when Yuzana had the brilliant epiphany of making Me Nu sacrifice her army of diluted brood to their "Tyrant". As the old saying goes, even the meat of a mosquito could be nourishment.

Then there was Kuhara. She had told her younger brother not to go, but he had romanticised himself a friend to Astaka. If Astaka was displeased and troubled, Kuhara had boasted, then it was his duty to make his compatriot well.

"Yuzana?"

Yuzana blinked. "Yes, my Lord?"

"Your eyes are wet."

"Pay it no heed, my Lord. Nonetheless, I have good news. The Diviner is on her way."

"The line of Nahusha have capitulated?"

"I cannot be sure, my lord," Yuzana confessed. "But you shall soon have what was promised."

The good news seemed to distract Astaka from the new grief of losing a sibling, catching the lord of Nagaland between anticipation and melancholy.

"Come." Astaka's response was to slither for the exit. "Let us question this soon to arrive Mayuree. I desired to know what manner of cosmic horrors they had to commit to rob me of my sister's Essence, and what her 'mother' means by their gross delay!"

Maymyint's beacon flashed in the right direction, but the bloody thing was far from a GPS, meaning every so often, Gwen had to readjust her trajectory, losing time and distance.

The bitch had planned for everything, Gwen grumbled as she Dimension Doored another kilometre forward, hoping the periodic displacement added to her haste. When she left Richard and company, she had been confident that with her estimated velocity of just over a hundred kilometres an hour, she should be able to catch up to Kitty. It was like a real-world application of those mathematics questions her high school teacher used to give out:

A Kitty has absconded with Mayuree, travelling at 75 KM/H for forty minutes, and a very angry Gwen is in pursuit at 100 KM/H with the addition of Dimension Door at 1 KM for every 5 KMs covered. Calculate when Gwen could catch up to Kitty and light the traitor up like a Christmas Tree.

The arithmetic was unfortunately not in her favour, considering Nagaland can't be more than two hundred kilometres away and she kept getting lost, but she had to try. It was her idea to participate in the IIUC, and she had been more than happy for Mayuree and Kitty to join her. She had also been overconfident that there was no way Maymyint could meddle with the competition, and in a way, she was right. The match was almost over, and barring a Kyoto miracle, Fudan would win. If she hadn't been in a hurry to chomp down on Caliban's upgrades, she wouldn't have allowed this to happen.

Likewise, she couldn't have accounted for the fact that Kitty was a mole for Maymyint, and that she had planned to send Mayuree to the fucking Tyrant like a frozen turkey. _Fucking Kitty!_ Gwen fumed. To take advantage of her single incident of absence! No wonder Kitty avoided her like the plague. She should have known Maymyint would have Mayuree under watch and key. For how long had Kitty awaited the opportunity?

The sheer level of convolution was astounding.

_Was Maymyint expecting me to fight a fucking dragon?_ Gwen wondered.
Had news gotten out that she had bested a Thunder Wyvern, only for it to be Chinese whispered into a Thunder Dragon? Was that the ploy? Did "saving" Mayuree by blasting Kitty from the sky, scooping up her friend and flying the fuck back to Hpakan where a dozen high-tier Magisters awaited not occur to the genius Maymyint?

What of when Gwen returned to Shanghai? What was Maymyint's plan then? She willed a mote of Essence into her body, then pushed herself harder against the buffeting air.

So long as she caught up to Mayuree, then everything would be fine.

The drizzle that washed from Saramati Peak transformed into a deluge, painting the iron-rich escarpments white with rain, filling the canyons below with blood-tinged streams of ochre and rust.

"What.. what happened here?" Astaka's mood mirrored the weather, or perhaps it was vice-versa. Ever since a few months ago, he had felt invaded, violated, as though the land that belonged to him was slipping from his grasp. Losing the connection to his domain was an impossibility when the Jade Pillar was in his control, but the paranoia he felt was compounded by the fact that he knew the scent of the invader.

It was Yinglong; it had to be. Though Astaka had never met the elder being, his knowledge of the divine dragons was written into his blood, burned into his Core by the ancestral memory of the Naga's progenitor, whose ascension ended at the five-digited claws of a Fire Dragon.

Now, his paranoia manifested in reality.

At Saramati Peak, Yuzana had her kin set up a listening post which could observe all activity in the lower valley from Lay Shi to the densely forested province of Sagaing. From the mountain's vantage, Yuzana had witnessed the coming and going of convoys and invasions from the south.

But when Astaka had arrived with Yuzana and her mountain Mages, what greeted them was a massacre. Around the camouflaged outpost reposed the bodies of Yuzana's kin, some crushed, others half-eaten, one torn bodily limb from limb, almost as if a ritual took place. As for the stone shelter itself, the structure which Astaka had his Nagas built had been singularly destroyed, shattered as if by a mighty blow from a creature no less potent than Astaka himself.

"A thunder… dragon?" Yuzana allowed a clump of blasted soil to pass her fingers, noting that the silica had fused into glass. Concurrently, the unique presence of the dragon-kind, mockingly known as the "stink", was unmistakable.

"A scion of the Yinglong." Astaka tasted the air, each of his massive heads snapping at invisible particles, catching the scent of his enemy. "Yuzana, more and more, I feel Me Nu wants war."

Kitty descended, knowing that her destination neared, feeling the conclusion of her compelled quest in the thrum of magic confounding the chemistry of her brain.

Exhausted, she hovered over an upper saddle near the peak of Mount Saramati, observing the sheer drop on one side looking down toward low land Burma, while the opposite sloped back, descending into Nagaland.

She then landed with Mayuree in tow, surrounded by a group of human Mages, two with the dark indigenous skin of the mountain folk, and three with fairer complexions, all wearing the nationalist Burmese garb of a shawl and lungi. There was one other observer, half-naked, a demi-human serpent-folk, who watched from the side.

With a wave of her hand, she dispelled the cocoon capturing Mayuree, sending her friend tumbling onto the grass.

Then she knelt and was still.

Maymyint's Mind Magic faded.

Her senses returned.

She was free.

She opened her eyes like a new-born babe. Having regained her faculties, Kitty realised she recognised the woman who now approached, for she was the number one enemy of Yangon, second only to her father.

"I am Aung San Yuzana," the woman intoned. "I see you have brought the offering."

"I—" Kitty paused, her tongue suddenly caught in a snare. The offering? Slowly, she turned to regard Mayuree.

Her friend was unconscious, preserved by magic.

"Naga got your tongue, girl?" Yuzana prodded Kitty's kneeling body with her foot. "You're not a part of the tithing. You may go."

Kitty's eyes widened in horror.

"No, I- I can't..." she mumbled.

"Oh? Are you going to join us?"

"No! What?" Her mind struggled to catch up.

"What indeed." Yuzana's expression took on the bearing of a steel mask. When she spoke, her voice was full of command. "Tell me, child, is the House of M now in league with the heavenly dragons? Have Me Nu sold us out to the Chinese, or the British, or worse yet, to the dragons of the middle country?"

Kitty backed away, shuffling until she rested against Mayuree's rime-covered form. Her mana was low, but she had potions. Two periodic injections ought to get her home.

"What do you know of that?" Yuzana pointed to her right.

Kitty followed her fingers until she saw half-a-dozen bodies, mangled and desecrated, preserved by magic for burial.

"I don't know."

"You don't know very much, do you? Do you think I don't know who you are or who you serve? Go from here, and tell Maymyint we shall require another shipment if they wish to preserve the peace. Whatever she had planned, it will not succeed so long as our Lord rules Nagaland."

Instead of answering, Kitty reached down and wrapped an arm against Mayuree's hypothermic figure. If she could somehow get away, maybe there could be salvation yet.

"Are you daft, girl?" Yuzana jeered. "What are you—"

"FREEZING FOG!"

Without a word, having no plan beyond the immediacy of now, Kitty activated a spell she had held at the tip of her tongue, one that exercised little harm, but which offered her a chance to use her supernatural agility. From around her body and the space surrounding her Astral Form, a torrent of icy particles, enhanced by the additional of Elemental Air, burst where she stood, obfuscating all vision while simultaneously slowing her enemies.

With a careful tug, Kitty drew Mayuree into a princess-carry, then made an upward Jump into the air. If she could clear a certain height, she was sure that no Mage present could catch up to her, at least until Mayuree could be injected with a Restoration Potion and the two of them could work out a better strategy.

"DOWN! Dog of Me Nu!" The voice that burst from overhead possessed the mass of seven behemoths clamouring at once.

"Shield!"

All Kitty could do was cradle Mayuree in her arms while she manifested an Ice Shield, retracting her arms and legs to protect her friend's head and neck.

_WHAM!_

The air in Kitty's lungs compressed at once, cracking her ribs as her barrier shattered, driving her into the rocky ground with a terrific velocity that exceeded her initial ascent. Her legs struck the floor first, her thighs cushioning her precious package as both knees cracked against the granite rock bed. With a grunt of supreme effort, she rolled to disperse her momentum, feeling her skin scrap as the cold stone violently kissed the left side of her face.

For a split-second, Kitty thought she had stood back up, for such was the rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins, but when she opened her surviving eye, she found herself sprawled out on the floor with Mayuree lying over her.

Before the agony struck, she ran a mote of Ice through her body, dulling all sensation. Move! She commanded her rebellious limbs. Move! Damn you! Mia!

"Grrrghk… Miaaaa…" was the sound that issued from her lips, even dulled, the pain was everywhere.

Something loomed overhead, eclipsing the sun.

Seven heads, each the size of automobiles, tasted her broken body.

Where did the Naga come from? How had she missed such a being?

_Mayuree!_ She returned her mind to the only thing that mattered, only to see Aung San Yuzana's men pulling the Diviner from her.

"I still have questions for this one," a voice resounded from each of the cobra heads, indicating Mayuree. "But before we begin, I could use a light snack."

Kitty's one remaining eye stared toward the heavens.

Her tormentor laughed.

But the Naga's semi-conscious victim was no longer trembling at its impressive maws. Neither the Tyrant's flickering forked-tongues nor the fangs that would soon sink into her torso bothered her, for Kitty's cyclopean vision caught something just behind the Naga, first, a spell flare, then a familiar Kirin silhouette.

Suddenly, the Tyrant reared its head as to snap at something in the air.

A bolt of cobalt zinged past the space between the Naga's open mouth, curving around the massive girth of its serpentine body, then blossomed into a semi-sphere of brilliant viridescent energy enveloping the entirety of the outpost, expanding until it reached a dozen meters in diameter. A portion of it caught the Tyrant, sizzling the creature's skin with its plasmic discharge. The rest of the blast enveloped Aung San Yuzana and her Mages, taking the unsuspecting casters off their feet, leaving an untouched Mayuree to tumble violently against the blasted stones of the plateau.

"Yuzana!"

With a twist of its body, the Tyrant arched with unearthly haste and swallowed Aung San's daughter. A split-second later, the second stage of Elemental Sphere erupted, ringing out in a massive nova twenty-meters wide, slicing across the outpost, destroying all that remained, disintegrating the bodies of the fallen, fusing sand to stone and wiping four of Yuzana's Mages from the face of Nagaland.

_Crack!_

Almost simultaneously, a blast of lightning landed beside Mayuree, revealing a giantess in a bible-black combat-suit, cascading lightning and venting electricity as she scooped up the Diviner's rigid body and hoisted her across one shoulder.

"Gwen…" Kitty choked, her meek lungs incapable of generating a louder sound. The spell had just caressed Kitty's body. Hope soared. If it was Gwen, maybe she could save them both.

"Hello…" Her Vice Captain took a half-second to catch her breath before she dematerialised in the next, leaving only her last words for Kitty. "… and good luck with your Contingency Ring."


Sagol Kangba, Chief of the Salai Leishangthem, Vairagi and Grandmaster of the Shadowmen of Manipur, watched his men and women as they carried out their meticulous work.

His Shadowmen numbered only a hundred, but Sagol's confidence was absolute. Since the fall of the Imperialists, it was the Shadowmen who had defended the Meitei people against the Burmans, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Chinese and the demi-humans. His troops made an inferior standing army, but they made excellent scouts, spies, assassins and saboteurs.

Each of his warrior ascetics was trained from birth, hand-picked from talented children. His troops could stalk like cats, scale walls like geckos, slither like snakes through the smallest windows and infiltrate even monstrous lairs. Thanks to the Tyrant's absence and a freshly failed sortie, the remaining Mages were to the Shadowmen as bleating goats brought to the butcher.

At dusk, the screaming ceased.

Sagol Kangba praised Deva and Asura alike as a dozen of his men, gore-strewn and breathing heavily, parted the ivory gates with the delicacy of a blushing bride on her wedding night.

One by one, his remaining disciples returned. With a little melancholy, he counted seven and sixty.

The last to arrive was Sagol's best, the son of his previous employer.

With Marong's return, the sovereignty of Sagol's homeland was now assured. His disciple had promised that he would personally see to Manipur's protection, though it wasn't in Marong that Sagol placed his faith.

That belonged to their mutual patron.

Unlike Miss Maymyint's secretive orders, Sagol Kangba had been present in Marong's meetings with their exalted client, having been spared no detail as to their lord's meticulous plan, so vast, so complex and yet so well composed that Sagol at once realised the futility of resisting the new master of Nagaland, Manipur and Kachin. It was almost ridiculous to think that he had laboured beside Me Nu for half a century without progress.

"My Lord." Marong bowed. "The Pillar awaits your pleasure."

"Marong, Sagol." Their lord's generosity was astounding. "Well done."

Sagol Kangba inclined his turbaned head, imploring his master to proceed. Even in his human form, the majesty of the dragon was palpable, an existence beyond mortal reproach.

"But before we divest the Tyrant of his power," his white-maned majesty chuckled as he inspected the men. "Let us wait, for in patience lies the root of a thousand virtues."

Gwen chugged the Potion of Invisibility, hoping to hell the illicit concoction didn't have a use-by-date, for her present condition was as Richard would say, "up shit creek without a paddle."

She wiped the milky residue from her lips. Thanks to her illicit potion, she could hover within teleportation range.

Through Ariel's Link Sight, she saw the traitorous Kitty settke her cocoon before her captors, then knelt on one knee before offering Mia with the grace of a vacuum-packed Costco brisket.

Fighting an impulse for immediate retribution, she layered her eyes with Detect Magic. The Divination staple lacked utility while out of range, but at least she could gauge her enemy's capabilities. With a quick scan, her eyes swept the plateau.

The leader was a woman, and from her palpable aura, Gwen detected a mote of Radiance. Shit, she exhaled with great care. No matter how inferior regular Radiant Mages were compared to Gunther, they made incredible disruptors. As for the others, they were Senior Mages at best, likely the woman's supporting casters.

Near the ruin was a serpent-folk, one with an outlandish mana signature. While Mages like Gwen and her enemies below displaced the Astral winds: here was a bloke whose aura formed a proverbial whirlpool. Considering the context, it didn't challenge the imagination to say that that this would be her Naga encounter.

_Very well,_ she told herself. Her present obstacle involved five rebel Mages and a giant-ass Naga beyond her abilities.

Quickly, she ran over the potential scenarios. Firstly, Nagas were terrestrial creatures. Whatever this Naga could be, it wasn't Golos, who could eat, piss and shit while corkscrewing at Mach 1. Secondly, if she alternated between Void and Lightning Dimension Doors, even with a passenger drastically reducing efficiency, she should be able to make it at least twenty to forty kilometres before she had to switch to flight. Thirdly, an alpha-strike should—

_VOOMP_!

An expansive burst of liquid nitrogen ruptured across the plateau. It was a spell Kitty had previously demonstrated, Freezing Fog. Simultaneously, the serpent folk changed into its Naga form.

_What?_ Gwen gave a start— then quickly banished any seeds of doubt before they could germinate. Mayuree had prophesied that she would save her life, and that time was now.

_Ariel!_ She called on her invisible Familiar. _On my mark, unleash hell!_

Astaka, whose name signified the Eight-fold Path of perception, resolve, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, and mindful union, was not true to his name; instead, he was proud, lustful, greedy, resentful, wanton, impulsive, wrathful and very powerful.

For a Naga, the formative years began with cannibalising one's brood, hunting down Magic Creatures, consuming rare flora and finally progressing toward hoarding precious materials. For Astaka, it was only after gaining his sentience in the second century that he inherited the wisdom his forebearers had left, and even then it took decades of instruction by Aung San and Yuzana to temper his baser impulses. Eventually, given enough time, Astaka would reach Enlightenment, slowly shedding his physical form to meld with the land, becoming a higher being.

Presently, Astaka was very upset.
Bound by earthly desire, he could only bow to the alchemical tyranny of testosterone, adrenaline and blood.

He felt a wild desire to destroy anything and everything, wanting nothing more than to crush the female figures even now half-a-kilometre away under his scaled belly.

But first, Astaka took stock.

Yuzana, his mentor and ally, was in his gullet. While under his guard, he would use the power of the Pillar to heal her.

Her kin, the men and women who came with her, were dead. As dead as the men and women of their commune who had guarded the outpost, killed by thunder and lightning.

His tongues flickered.

THAT STINK!

How could he not recognise it? Was their ambusher a daughter of the Yinglong? Was she betting that he would take her sire's invasion with a grin?

"Thran!" his heads barked, invoking powers granted by the Jade Pillar, commanding the air itself to bestow the power of flight.

Though he knew Yuzana would advise against it, he was a dragon, and his dignity, nay, his DIVINITY; could not allow such insults to go unpunished.

"SCION OF YINGLONG! I COME FOR THEE—"

"CHAINS OF ICE!"

Before Astaka could clear the ledge, a sudden tug from behind sent him careening into the cliff-face.

It took Kitty several more seconds to realise that indeed, she had been abandoned.

If so, then she was out of luck.

She had never told Gwen that her teleport was a slave to Mayuree's master. Until Mia's ring triggered, hers would remain inert. That had been their relationship in the House of M. What she and Mayuree shared wasn't the same as what Gwen shared with Mayuree. That was why she had hated the Lightning sorceress, for being Mayuree's equal, something Kitty could only mime.

_Good luck with your Contingency Ring!_

Kitty felt a sudden urge to cry, to curse, to laugh.

But Mia had been saved! She comforted herself. Gwen had slain all the Mages present, and even now she was kilometres away. The prophecy came true; Gwen rescued Mia. Everything had been ordained from the beginning.

Though her legs lost all feeling, Kitty touched a hand to her face.

If you're so happy that Mayuree was no longer in danger, then why are you crying? She mocked herself. Are these tears of joy?

"Thran!"

A bark from the Tyrant shook her from her self-pity.

Kitty craned her neck, bearing witness to the absurd sight of a Naga the size of a pleasure-barge lift into the air.

_No!_ Her mind rioted. _Wasn't Mayuree's safe? How could the Tyrant fly?_ Nagas were terrestrial creatures! Did that mean that even if she had escaped with Mayuree, her act would have been futile? If so, why had she even tried? What did her suffering mean?

A dreadful sense of oppression suffused her beaten body. For what reason was she made Mayuree's companion all these years ago? Was it for this? For delivering her friend to her death? The western Gods are cruel, or so she was told, but the eastern divinities appeared no less sadistic.

"SCION OF YINGLONG! I COME FOR THEE—"

At the Naga's battle cry, a sudden clarity suffused her feverish mind.

Perhaps there was still a way to save Mia after all.

If she were to die, her final act could not be one of futility.

"CHAINS OF ICE!"

What remained of her mana drained from her body, creating six chains tethering her opponent's tail to the granite below.

With a comical lurch, the Naga crashed into a nearby cliff face, making Kitty laugh out loud.

"You'll never catch them," she shouted at the bloated beast.

"Vermin, I had forgotten about you." The Naga recovered, then with an effortless sweep of its tail, it tore the icy chains from the rock, stone and all. She could tell its anger was magnified now. There was a rainbow sheen running up and down its flaring cobra hoods.

For some reason, Kitty recalled a story Mayuree had told her about a monk who gave himself to a starving Naga so that the creature would not eat its brood.

"You won't have her." She did her best to spit at the creature. "Mayuree is not for thee."

A moment of silence passed between them, a moment Kitty hoped would last for all of eternity.

"You have gifted me a wonderful idea," the Tyrant's voice boomed, its eyes growing cruel and cold as it opened its maw. "You shall be the witness to your allies' suffering..."

An arm-thick fang penetrated her chest, filling her body with molten lead, paralysing every nerve. Even in the darkness, she could hear it speak.

"...and believe me, they shall _suffer_ for a very long time."

After two kilometres of Dimension Doors in the dim dusk, Gwen took a break to reorientate herself. While adjusting her human cargo, she had injected Mayuree with a Potion of Restoration, defrosting her friend and returning the Diviner to a semblance of consciousness. If she was going to be teleporting blindly through the woods in the dark, having a working Diviner was going to be a godsend.

"SCION OF YINGLONG I COME FOR THEE—"

From the mountain, the Naga's almighty battle cry suddenly cut out, as though a cat had arrested all seven of its tongues.

"Mia! Are you awake?" Gwen gave Mayuree a playful slap, wondering if the Tyrant had changed its mind.

With a shudder, Mayuree opened her mouth, then was sick over Gwen's shoulder. "Wha- G-Gwen? GWEN?! Where are we? Where's Kitty?"

"She's with her friends back on the plateau." Gwen made a quick teleport to the next clearing. "Considering what she did, I was very charitable."

"No! Maymyint glamoured her!" Mayuree's words exploded like a thunderclap beside her ear. "I saw it in Indaw, a spell activated, then Kitty started acting crazy!"

Gwen faltered, first her step, then her incantation, then she stumbled again from the nauseating feedback. _Kitty, glamoured?_

"A-Are you certain?" Her scalp crawled, her skin broke out with a terrific slick. If Mayuree was right, then she had just made a terrible mistake. "The proctors never detected—"

"Gwen, Shield! NOW!"

She obliged.

_WHAM!_

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

 _Crack!_

A chunk of granite weighing at least half a ton skidded off her double-glazed barrier, driving her bodily into the soft earth before ricocheting into a Banyan tree, shattering the ancient wood.

Two seconds later, a cascade of magma immolated the treetops.

The girls looked up.

From the sky, a floating Naga expelled bolts of elemental energy, mostly earthen, but also that of malformed rock, molten metal, blue-white fire, and even the occasional deluge of acid from its serpentine heads.

_OH FUCK! IT FLIES!_ She gulped the burning air, then Dimension Doored twice in quick succession.

_BOOM!_

An eruption of heat blossomed close enough for her to shield up for the second time. When the debris settled, the distinct Dragon Fear of the Naga pressed in from above. A part of her entertained the possibility of a fight, but with Mayuree on her back, a slugfest was impossible. Alternatively, she could try to activate Mayuree's Contingency Ring, but that would send her Diviner right back to Minty, likewise raising the question of whether Mayuree's ring would work at all.

"Scion!" The Naga's chorus was loud enough to give her a headache. "Come and face Astaka, Master of Nagaland!"

Gwen rolled her eyes at the Naga's feeble offer of parley. Wait- she blinked. Scion? Scion of the Yinglong? Did he mean her? Does the Naga think he's fighting another dragon?

"I am a mortal Mage! I seek no quarrel with you! I wish only to return with my friend!" She broadcasted through her Clarion Call, continuing her zig-zag teleportation. "Mia, Scry ahead and plot me a path! Is Kitty's Contingency Ring linked to Yangon, Chengdu or Shanghai?"

Mayuree's arms suddenly tightened.

"Her ring won't activate!" Mayuree's speech pieced her brain like a sliver of Kitty's ice. "It's slaved to mine! It'll only activate after mine does!"

"Y-You're shitting me!" Gwen spat. "Why was I never told? What kind of fucking ring is that?"

"That's how it has always been," came the choked reply. "Kitty's not allowed a normal one."

"FUCK!" Gwen swore, narrowing avoiding a branch. "FUCKING HOUSE OF M! GODDAMN BASTARDS!"

She could feel Mayuree tremble, but she hadn't intended to blame her friend. She knew who to blame.

"As soon as you're safe, I'll go back for Kitty!" Gwen promised, feeling Gunther's band weighing down her ring finger. _Blood will have blood,_ she thought of that aphorism from Macbeth. _Is this what they mean by you live long enough, and you'll become the villain?_ Maymyint had used Mayuree as bait, and she had left Kitty as bait, and now she was going to be Naga bait.

"Which way?" She refocused on the task at hand. "Mia, I don't know what's happened to Kitty, and I can't fight with you here, so I am going to send you away with Ariel."

"No!" Mayuree tightened her grip. "I won't leave you. I'll activate my Ring, maybe..."

"Too risky!" Gwen hissed. "Listen! Do you want to save Kitty or not? Can you Scry the mountain top?"

Mayuree's voice choked. "We're outside my range. I just tried Messaging her as well. The spell isn't pinging!"

"FUCK!" Gwen's heart sunk. "What does that mean? Is she..."

"I don't know! Kitty could be unconscious!"

"You dare flee?!" the Tyrant's voice pounded the valley. "VATAKA!"

Draconic Essence flooded the vicinity. Mayuree's tiny body seized up at once, seizing even her choking sobs.

"BUZZ OFF WITH THE GOBBLEDYGOOK!" Gwen hollered back, feeling a hidden heat compressing her brain as Almudj's will pushed back against the invasive command. "Dimension Door!"

"VATAKA! VATAKA!" the Tyrant's response was more rage, more anger, more disbelief. "You lie! No mere mortal can resist our will!"

"SHUT UP!" came Gwen's verbal riposte from the wending woods. "GO FUCK YOURSELF."

The next barrage grew in intensity and radius.

"Thaczil, tyrtrol ve!"

She had no idea what the creature was incanting, nor did she care. With enough Dimension Doors, she maybe could circle back.

"Oof-!"

In between her spells, something snagged her foot, coiling around her ankles and digging into the leather of her boots. Her forward momentum, compounded with that of Mayuree unbalancing her from behind, sent her face first into the forest floor.

"ARRGH!" An indescribable line of agony travelled up her leg.

"Gwen!" Mayuree headbutted her Vice Captain's iron-hard skull.

Gwen felt it before she saw it. A thorn-studded vine had snagged her left leg, and where it had coiled against her combat boots, hooked spikes now strangled her calve. Thankfully, at least for her, poisons weren't a problem.

"Void Bolt!" A quick spell was enough to sever the vine and prevent it from regenerating. When she limped on, she noted that the landscape had taken on a conscious hostility. Her first instinct was to Void Skin, but she had Mayuree strapped to her.

"I am sensing hostiles everywhere." Mayuree huffed, bleeding from a cut above her eye. "Gwen, leave me!"

"That's the plan! Dimension Door!" Gwen made a snap decision to teleport upwards, above the treeline, she could once again combine Flight with short teleports. "Ariel!"

Her Kirin reappeared just as she stabilised her flight, limping even in mid-air. A few hundred meters away, floated the Battleship Agro-Asta-Fuck, barreling toward her like a natural disaster. She wanted to conjure up another Barbanginy, possibly a twin-strike, but knew whatever Essence she had in reserve was best used to keep up her health. It didn't take a genius to know that if Almudj's blessing dried up, the slightest injury was going to bring the pain.

With a click, she unstrapped Mayuree, then against all protest, bundled her against Ariel, simultaneously slipping the vial from Richard into Mayuree's potion pouch.

"Gwen, don't!" Mayuree kicked and squirmed. "Let me fight! I'll use my items! I'll distract the Tyrant!"

"Ariel!" Gwen ignored her. Instead, she charged up her next attack. "Wait for the signal. Take Mia back to Richard!"

"EE EE!"

Behind the duo, their assailant was pleased that he had flushed the pheasants from the bush.

"Deceiver! Your demise shall be slow and agonising!" The Naga slithered toward her; its seven tongues tasting the air as though slathering her skin.

Gwen meanwhile, collated as much potential energy as she could into a spell that had served her well in many an occasion.

"Eat this, arsehole! FLASHBANG!"

_BUNG_!

"Hissss!" The Naga recoiled, its hypersensitive organs flaring white-hot. "Dishonourable hag!"

Following Gwen's behest, Ariel decamped eastward, invisible but for the small girl on its back.

_Psssht!_

Gwen meanwhile, took the advantage offered by the Naga's momentary blindness to airdrop Caliban into the undergrowth before stabbing herself with a healing injector.

_Cali!_ She mentally commanded her beast to Consume at will. If the bloody Naga thought he could turn the vegetation against her, then she would show him the meaning of deforestation.

Below, the forest came alive with roving foliage.
Behind, Mayuree was already a speck upon a speck.

"Void Skin! Chakram! Chakram!" Gwen retooled her defence against untoward ambushes, then sent her discs against the Tyrant. With a sound of cutting silk, both of her meat-slicers scored palpable hits, drawing dark blood where semi-chromatic scales had been consumed.

_Woa!_ She marvelled at the potency of her new spell, realising at once that the Tyrant wasn't like Golos. The wyvern was a tough customer because it had been clad in Lightning. Comparatively, this Astaka was an earthen Naga.

"Shaaa!" Caliban was making a feast of what little life animated trees provided.

"YOU!" The Naga was suddenly in an uproar. "You're the one!"

"I am flattered." Gwen worked her restored ankle before engaging yet another Dimension Door. She looked for a way around. Maybe she could teleport right through the bastard. "I don't date snakes, too clingy."

To her surprise, the Naga's riposte was to regurgitate something from one of its heads.

"Bleurgh!"

It was a woman.

_What. The. Fuck._ Her mind struggled with the spectacle. Was this Astaka's Simulacrum? The disturbance was akin to Caliban's culinary adventures, only in reverse.

"How dare you hurt Astaka!"

When the woman further began to speak, she had to realign her knowledge of reality. Though slime slathered, the being was alive and kicking. Not only that, she recognised her as the leader of the rebel Mages on the plateau. What did that mean? Gwen's eyes widened. She had thought the woman perished.

"Radiant..."

_OH FU—_ her mind caught up. She blinked.

"...Blast!"

_TSSSS!_ The spell struck before she had time to react.
Her Void Skin broiled with the sound of a searing steak, sending an eye-rolling rush of agony into her brain. The blast had resembled a shotgun of light particles, catching her from chin to chest.

"Radiant Bolt!" A circular imprint glowed red-hot on her shoulder, weaker than the first, but still painful.

"Flashbang!" Gwen retorted with a distraction. She had to buy herself time.
__
_TSSSS!_
 _BUNG!_

_FUCK!_ Unbridled tears gushed from her eyes. She recalled training with Gunther, thankful that the most Radiant evokers lacked her brother-in-law's ability to mimic the Death Star. In a one-on-one duel, she could tank every attack until she could overwhelm her opponent, but now she was alone and facing off a Naga. Concurrently, Ariel was half-a-kilometre away with Mayuree, and Caliban was collecting vitality from below. Moreover, she couldn't concentrate on higher spells if she got branded every few seconds.

"Yuzana! She ate Virana!" the Naga chorused. "I need to consume her to recover Virana's Essence!"

"As you wish, my lord." The woman recovered quicker than Gwen had anticipated. "Scorching Radiance!"

Gwen rapidly descended, pre-shielding with a double-serving of Void in a semi-dome, flying in a direction perpendicular to Ariel's trajectory. The problem was that she had effectively blocked her line-of-sight, leaving her to retreat blindly.

_Tssss!_
_THUNK!_

A half-dozen beams of radiant fire ate away at her shield, followed by conjured stones from the Naga.

Allowing the momentum of the boulders to accelerate her fall, she quickly erected a second shield. Below, Caliban reported that there was little vitality to be had in these moving trees and walking shrubs, an unwelcome reality furthermore complicating her dilemma.

"Dimension Door!" She disappeared and reappeared.

"Radiant Bolt!"

As expected, Yuzana gave chase, though thankfully the forest provided cover while her Void Skin diffused the threat of molesting tendrils and tripping vines.

"Radiant Bolt!"

A Banyan burst spontaneously combusted.

"Radiant Blast!"
"Void Bolt!"

Her Void consumed itself before she could reach the enemy Mage. As had been proven by Gunther, Radiance was a bad matchup for Void, or at least the Evocation variation. As before, a burst of eye-searing brillance struck her paper-thin armour, causing such a distraction that she almost ran headfirst into a tree.

_WHAM!_
_Whoomp!_

A volley of stones crashed to her left.
A fall of fire ignited to her right.

"!"

_They were herding her!_ Gwen's Sigil tingled. She had to do something and do it quick. Could she ambush the Radiant Mage with Caliban? She could, but first, she had to disable the woman.

Taking advantage of her superior agility, she dodged from roving tree to grasping vine, even so, the wayward mote of Radiance scalded her skin and drained her vitality. Were it not for her draconic-constitution and her Void element, she would be nearing medium-rare.

"Shaaa!"

Watching Caliban's casual slaughter of animated lumber, a spell came to mind. An invocation she had never wanted to use against another human being.

"Radiant Strike!"

_Tsss!_ Her back sizzled. Some of her armour flaked off even as an odour of skinsuit and sautéed flesh suffused her nostrils.

All compassion evaporated from her mind.

"Caliban! To me!" she called out. There was plenty of life left in her Familiar. Were she and Yuzana vis-a-vis, she could Consume the bitch, but she couldn't afford the incapacitation, not with the Naga panting like a seven-headed Cerberus over a juicy bone.

A split-second later, a hasted Caliban bodily retrieved her, deposited her on its back, then began to skitter through the forest, shredding through the twisting branches and thorns that sought to impede the duo.

"Radiant Bolt!"

A mass of tentacles from Caliban's underbelly served as a temporary barrier, leaving behind a trail of smoking sinew and writhing tissue.

The last syllable of the horrid spell lapped at Gwen's lips.

"Die!" Yuzana descended, buzzing like a Giant Hornet. She swooped closer toward where Gwen and her minion leapt from tree to tree, skittering high and low and in between before letting loose a wide-area AoE in an attempt to catch the two. "Sundering Sun!"

From a pinpoint just ahead of Gwen, the forest grew as bright as day.

"Cloud Kill!"

A black haze a full twenty-meters in diameter formed near-instantaneously into a semi-dome, smothering the air with particles of corrosive Void-matter, each alive with the insatiable appetite of the Quasi-Elemental Plane of endless hunger.

"ARRRGH!" The Radiant Mage flew face first into the darkness. "ARR—"

Yuzana's scream suddenly cut short. Her spell ceased. Ten-thousand little pin-holes appeared over the woman's face and clothes, pock-marking every inch of her body. She suddenly fell forward, choking and hacking like a hag as she rag-dolled onto the sodden, Void-smothered vegetation.

"Yuzana!" The great Naga descended, once again attempting to save its companion by swallowing her into the safety of its gullet.

"Shoe's on the other foot, fucker!" Gwen halted Caliban, for the opportunity wouldn't last. The Radiant Mage must die, else she would never get back to Kitty. "Cali!"

Caliban leapt forward, metamorphosing into its Horror Stag form.

"Void Seeker!"

A whispering disc paralleled Caliban's charge while her Familiar's stiletto legs churned the dark earth, lowering its sixteen-prong tentacle horns for entry into the Mage's delicious body.

With a corrosive hiss of disintegrating scales and skin, the Naga displaced the boundaries of her Cloud Kill just as Gwen herself made an acrobatic Jump from Caliban's back to avoid her Negative Energy cloud.

Her mind gauged the distance to clear the Tyrant in a single Dimension Door. While it busied itself with the Radiant Mage, she could teleport back to their Ice Mage. If all else were lost, she would bring back Kitty's body, in front of which she would offer Maymyint's head.

"Blueeargh!"

The Tyrant regurgitated yet again, a scene that made Gwen despair. The mucus that came from its jaws slathered the Radiant Mage, negating the permeation of her Void-matter.

Her Seeker closed-in.
She called up another attack.

"Chak—"

Kitty came sliding out from the snake's gullet, falling headlong into her Cloud Kill and directly into the path of her Seeker.

Gwen's Chakram caught in her throat. Her spell backfired, flooding her Astral Body with a paralytic surge of violent, void-tinged mana.

_CANCEL!_ She shrieked internally even as her organs revolted from the backlash. As Caliban slid to one side, she caught sight of Mayuree's partner kissing the obsidian mass, a second before she could dispell its effect.

_NO!_ Her limbs seized. _How could this happen?!_

"She's DEAD!" came such a cry of anguish that Gwen's heart skipped a beat. For a second, she had thought herself the source of that unhappy eruption of grief. "YOU! HOW DARE YOU!"

The Naga took the words right out of her mouth.

Towering over Gwen's nauseated body, Astaka reared on its impressive abdomen, all seven cobra-hoods flared, shivering with rage. There was a thrum of mana from the ground below; then its serpentine torso shuddered. With a grotesque crackle of crunching bone and peeling scales, an eighth head exploded from Astaka's shoulder-blades, completing its namesake.

While she reeled, first from her mana burn and then from the spine-numbing Dragon-Fear pouring from her assailant, the Naga swept its heads down and across with the likeness of a man swinging a set of snake-tipped cat-o-nines. As its brutal body made the one-eighty necessary to complete the motion, uprooting trees and dashing boulders the size of sedans, it caught Caliban as the Familiar circled back to shield its master, first crushing it against one head, then against another, then against the ground, clubbing her beast until its shape was barely recognisable.

"Shield!" Gwen poured every ounce of summonable effort into her barrier.

The first blow was comparable to Golos when he had ambushed her. The next shattered her double-barrier like fragile glass, and the third conformed her body to the shape of its cobra-snout.

_GUNTHER! I AM SORRY!_ She clenched her fist, circulating Essence like mad. She had fought off the Radiant Mage, but she had forgotten Alesia's advice. Never duke a Mythic in melee range. No matter how powerful a Mage might be, a blow from a millennia-old creature the size of a building wasn't anything human magic could withstand, because why the fuck else would they build Towers?

Without the need for magic, she flew through the air.

Her world slowed. Briefly, Gwen's superior kinetic vision caught a familiar silhouette.

Her Deus Ex Machina had arrived.

"YOU IDIOT!"

The fulminating howl of frustration followed the spectacle of an enormous, bone-white Wyvern tackling the Tyrant head-on.

"You're the FOOL!" the Tyrant returned Golos' insult, which had been directed at Gwen. "Dishonorable rascals of the Yinglong! I KNEW YOU WOULD COME!"

Her world sped up, and Gwen's trajectory continued. Instead of receiving the aid she had anticipated, she struck the forest floor, bounced from the foliage, then slammed into a tree trunk, felt her ligaments tear, then crash-landed against the root of a Banyan tree. She must have blacked out for a second because her Void Skin had deactivated and at least a dozen gashes had appeared where there had been none. When she tried to move, an unbearable agony travelled up her right arm, indicating a revolt of bone and flesh.

"Ow—" She gasped for breath. Just as she wondered if her incredulous appetite for assault and battery was boon or bane, creeping vines descending from the Banyan hoisted her into the air like a leg of ham.

There was a strange clattering of teeth just beside her ear.

"ARRGH! GOLOS!" Gwen screamed as barbs began to sprout, digging into her tender flesh.

There was no doubt that Golos was as mighty as it was dim. Busy fighting the Naga, the wyvern craned its neck to fire off a jet of blue-white plasma toward where she hung.

_Gunther!_ Gwen closed her eyes. _I'll pay you back!_

"SHAAA!" came the cry of a blighted angel.

Caliban caught its master before she could be sent back to Shanghai, having restored its stag-form in the intervening seconds between the Naga's sweep-attack and Golos' intervention. When the teeth-covered trees once again reached for the master-creature duo, Caliban activated its all-consuming tentacles.

"Father's whiskers, this bastard is strong!" A dozen meters away, Golos was proving to be the inferior of the two. "Help me, you idiot!"

Where the Thunder Wyvern crackled with blue-white lightning, whipping at the Tyrant with its spiked-club tail, the Naga could not give two shits. Comparatively, it possessed eight vectors of attack, a far larger body, and superior elemental resistance.

"GARR!" Golos howled, pierced by multiple fangs.

The Wyvern's associate was frantically searching for her Controller. What had been a virgin forest was now a disaster zone. Where her Cloud Kill had been, nothing living remained bar for the titanic struggle between Golos-zilla and knock-off Ghidorah.

Gwen felt her mind grow numb.

"CALAMITY! HELP ME!"

How was she going to explain this to Mayuree?

"DO SOMETHING!"

Did she kill Kitty? Or was Kitty already dead?

She looked up. Her first thought was to flee. She was rightly fucked up, and the Naga was too strong. If she left Golos to battle the Naga for the next fifteen minutes, she was sure to get away.

"GWEN!"

But the damned wyvern had come to save her, had it not?
Golos was no Kitty, but how could she leave another ally to die?