Varric, with a panicked expression, looked over at Von Melrose’s unconscious body and pondered his next move. He then thrust both of his arms upwards, aiming his palms at the sky. Suddenly, multiple large red and white runic symbols appeared around him in a circle, surrounding his entire area. A massive burst of Core Energy built up as the ground beneath him shook vigorously, crumbling the already devastated terrain.

  Varric’s power exploded to incredible levels, showcasing just how formidable of a Calamity Class Vesta he was. His rings shined brightly and suddenly a pillar of fire welled up from his body, fully engulfing him. The flaming pillar shot upwards into the sky and transformed, shifting into a massive red and white phoenix.

  Its entire body was a beautiful, glowing pure white that sparkled when its red flames reflected against it. Cinders of fire danced in the air as the creature flapped its large, flaming red wings. The phoenix screeched loudly, letting out an ear piercing and high-pitched rhythm.

  Azhane stared down the phoenix as it rose higher into the sky, knocking away her onslaught of swords with ease. Then with immense speed, the bird flew directly towards her, completely unfazed by the many blades raining down on it. As the phoenix approached, its all white body quickly engulfed in flames, increasing the air temperature to absurd levels.

  Within seconds, the phoenix collided with Azhane, causing a massive fiery explosion in the sky. Fire rained down in spectacular fashion, looking as though a volcano had violently erupted all of its magma from within. The sky quickly filled with thick, black smoke as Varric emerged from it all.

  He slowly floated down to the ground below, breathing heavily and completely out of Core Energy. He patted out a small flame on his pants leg and removed his burnt up trench coat, feeling that it wasn’t even worth wearing anymore.

  “Did I get her? It’s been a few years since I’ve used that skill. Luckily we’re inside some other dimension, otherwise that would’ve destroyed everything within twenty miles at least.” Varric muttered under his breath, looking upward at the smoke filled sky and the falling balls of fire everywhere.

  As he continued to look up, the smoke slowly started to lift and what he saw made his stomach drop. Azhane floated above with a second black gauntlet providing protection, it's open palm covering her body. It had taken considerable damage from the fiery blast, but Azhane remained completely unscathed.

  The gauntlet moved off to the side, showing Azhane’s rather agitated expression. Varric’s was at a loss for words as his jaw dropped, having no idea how this woman survived an attack that could level multiple cities in one shot.

  “T-There’s just no way…”

  The moment these words exited his mouth, he felt something sharp hit his chest. A blade had pierced him straight through, missing all vital organs as it lodged itself deep in his chest. Varric screamed out in pain as the blade lifted him off the ground and up towards Azhane. It paused in front of her, allowing Azhane to float over and look him face to face.

  “If you were capable of all this, why did you even waste your time fighting us normally before? Is this some kind of game to you?” Varric asked with a heavy grimace.

  “I had hoped I could defeat you two without resorting to this, but I was wrong..” She replied, now beginning to look and sound like her usual self again.

  “Tsk, lame.. So what now toots? Gonna kill us?” He asked, preparing himself for the end.

  “No, I've done enough killing for today. However, try something like this again and I won’t be so merciful..”

  She glared at Varric with her piercing red eyes and with that final statement, her blade tossed him straight to the ground. Varric crashed into the same crater as Von and laid on top of him fully unconscious. Her two Calamity Class foes were soundly defeated, having depleted their Core Energy pool and losing the will to continue fighting.

  Azhane floated towards the ground and once her feet touched the cold dirt, the three found themselves back on the battlefield in southern Volaire. She looked over at their unconscious bodies and let out an exhausted sigh. Although they were only gone for thirty seconds in the real world, Von and Varric had endured the plain of nothingness for thirty minutes. This was the longest anyone had ever survived inside of Azhane’s Manifest and up until this point, she had never had to fight for such an extensive period of time.

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  She took a small step forward and aimed her right palm up to the sky. Azhane fired off a massive black orb into the clouds above, making sure her signal could be seen from miles away. Azhane lowered her arm and in that same moment, she felt a massive jolt in her head. She collapsed to the ground and suddenly, multiple purple chains emerged from her Manifest and wrapped around her body.

  They squeezed incredibly tightly until her Manifest dematerialized itself, causing the chains to fade away. She rolled over onto her back and struggled to keep her eyes open as copious amounts of Core Energy left her body. However, just as she went in and out of consciousness, Azhane heard a muffled voice calling her from a short distance away.

  “Your Majesty. Your Majesty!!”

  She squinted through her blurred vision and saw Graymoor sprinting towards her. He arrived at the scene and quickly crouched down, picking up the Queen gently. He lifted her up into his arms, like a prince carrying his princess, making sure she was fully comfortable. Her battered body looked small and frail in his large frame as he carried her towards his horse. Azhane snuggled her head into Graymoor's shoulder and looked up at his face.

  “Thank.. You.. Go to.. Castle…” She said with an extremely weakened and exhausted voice.

  She gently caressed the side of his face as he looked down at her, giving Azhane a determined nod.

  “Of course, Your Majesty! Rest now, I will take it from here.” He replied with great care, not wasting any time to get her to safety.

  He placed her onto his horse and he quickly got on behind her, keeping Azhane’s body close to his. They set off at a breakneck speed as Azhane fell into a deep sleep.

  During Azhane’s fearsome battle against Von and Varric, Zalthia and her unit were making their way to the enemy's back line. As they snuck around the Lumen and Arista militaries, they stopped briefly to discuss their plans further. Zalthia walked over to Caleb, handing him a black cloak and a simple mouth cover.

  “What's this for?” He asked with curiosity.

  “You’re the crown prince of another nation. The last thing we need are people recognizing your face and thinking Melspire is assisting us in this war. It would cause a multitude of issues for your father.” Zalthia responded with a serious tone.

  Caleb nodded as he fully understood what she meant, taking the attire from her and putting it on.

  “Alright, Carmen and Caleb you’re with me. We'll divide and conquer the groups at this camp alongside our remaining forces. Defeat as many of their soldiers as possible, hold nothing back. Sarah, I need you and the other archers in our group to head to that ridge over there. Stay hidden within the trees and provide us with cover fire. We’re going to hit them from all angles and we’re going to hit them hard, cause as much chaos as possible so we can halt their advance.”

  Zalthia looked at her group to confirm that everyone was ready, taking note of their hearty nods.

  “Let’s give 'em hell!”

  She thrust her fist into the air and everyone in the group gave Zalthia a loud cry before heading off to their respective positions. Caleb and Carmen began their walk to the left side of the base while Zalthia stepped towards the right, pulling out her Manifest in the process. The eerie power permeating from her scythe sent chills down her group's spines as they got closer to the camp.

  Shortly after, some guards sitting down at the entrance noticed someone slowly approaching their location. They couldn't quite make out who it was until they focused and squinted their eyes. Her features came into view as they saw Zalthia’s silver hair flowing in the wind and her red eyes glaring into their souls. The large demonic looking scythe in her hands felt beyond dangerous and the guards quickly stood up with fearful expressions.

  “Zalthia of One has appeared!!!” One of the guards yelled out, hoping to get the attention of the others within their camp.

  A horn blared loudly in the distance as hundreds of soldiers began to mobilize, quickly taking their positions at the rear. However, before they could even start to prepare for combat, Zalthia dashed towards the mob of soldiers with blinding speed. She mightily swung her Manifest at them and the blade cleaved through their bodies with ease. Limbs and blood flew everywhere as she made quick and effortless work of the weaker forces of the enemy's back line.

  She continued her gruesome assault and just as she leapt backwards to create some space between them, Zalthia split into ten other copies of herself. All of her clones donned the same dangerous looking Manifest and they each assumed a different pose with the weapon, showing incredible coordination. They all rushed in different directions of the massive group of soldiers and caused even more carnage, slicing and dicing anyone in their path. Zalthia twirled Mind Reaper around in her hands before joining in on the fun again.

  “Woah, your sister is amazing!” Caleb said with an amazed expression, gushing over Zalthia’s immense level of skill.

  “Yeah, she is. There’s a reason why she’s the leader of the Six. But hey, we need to focus on our half!” Carmen replied, pushing back an enemy soldier with her gravity manipulation.

  Caleb nodded as he swiped at another soldier with his Manifest, knocking him to the ground with great force. The duo rushed in and easily handled the soldiers, having no issue at all with forcing them away. Even though the size of the back line was quite large, it was mostly composed of weaker soldiers while the main force forged a path on the front lines.

  Caleb weaved and dodged their coordinated attacks, firing off ice shards of his own to dispatch anyone that got too close. He saw someone approaching Carmen from behind and with a quick flick of the wrist, Caleb aimed his Manifest at the ground. The icy blue rapier glowed as multiple pillars of ice flew up from the dirt below.

  The soldier was flung into the air, his body flying several meters away. Carmen quickly turned around and smiled at Caleb, thanking him for the assist. He nodded as he dashed over towards her, so they could stand back-to-back. Once they were together, Carmen aimed her Manifest upwards, thrusting it into the sky.

  Suddenly the sky shifted dark as an eclipse began to occur over the sun. The air grew colder and moments later the surrounding soldiers were hammered by an incredible amount of gravitational force. They dropped to their knees and flattened out like dominoes as the gravity field grew significantly larger. Caleb quickly followed up with a skill of his own, summoning forth more ice shards and firing them off into the crowds of kneeling soldiers. This assault continued for quite awhile and even though the battle was going well for them, Carmen noticed that the fight was taking a bit too long.