The cling of metal echoed through the valley — accompanied by the static noise of flaring energy shields. The crumbling of rocks, the shattering of ice, and the howling of wind — all as Pierce brought around his Hastryth energy chain weapon in an attempt to slice into Liask’s corrupted body, only to be deflected by energy shields and Chaotic powers alike.

That armor isn’t just melded onto her body, it brought the shields with it, too! Piece thought irately as he flipped away from Liask and then dived to the left, just in time to avoid being skewered by a massive, sharp spire of rock that exploded out of the ground. The spire was immediately shattered as Liask lunged toward it, obliterating it with her sharp, metal claws as she pursued Pierce in a bestial fury. And she has more Chaotic abilities, too — just like the Bleeders at the outpost, Pierce observed as spears of ice and jets of water attempted to cut him off, only for him to easily dance around them with his superspeed. I don’t know how the hell that works, and it makes my job harder, for sure — but I can’t let it stop me!

With that thought, Pierce spun around, allowing two incoming ice lances to shatter against his energy shields before lunging in close to Liask. In one swift motion, he dismissed his weapon and then grabbed Liask around her waist, tackling her off of the cliff and into the valley below. Bestial snarling filled his ears as both Liask and the Knight attached to her began wailing on Pierce’s back with their fists, hammering away at his shields with a combination of Liask’s own Forcetechnism and the Knight’s Velocitechnism. But a second later, they crashed into the ground, stunning Liask just long enough for Pierce to leap off of her, slamming his foot into her chin as he did. She growled, her flaring shields blocking her face — but the head of the Knight remained able to see, and kept her gaze focused squarely on Pierce as ice and water began to swirl around him.

An instant later, Pierce was gone, having leaped out of the watery tornado and across the valley. He passed a quick glance toward the horizon, and the forest beyond, only to look back to Liask — who was readily and rapidly bounding after him. She’s focused on me, instead of the forest. That’s good for now, but I need some way to get through her shields—!

Amidst his thoughts, a fierce whirlwind suddenly surrounded Pierce, arresting him of his momentum and leaving him to hang helplessly in the air. He quickly looked back to Liask right as she leaped up at him, all four of her arms outstretched; but just as she got close enough to grab him, Pierce whipped around in the air to dodge around her hands and slam his foot into her chest, launching her skyward — and himself toward the ground. He hit in an instant, reflexively grimacing as he tumbled down the mountainside with his shields flaring all around him, but he was able to jump back to his feet before long. A loud rumbling brought his attention to up the mountain slopes… where he spotted Liask bounding towards him again, but this time, followed by an avalanche of stone and water.

“Shit—!” Pierce reflexively shouted in surprise, and immediately leaped through the air again, clearing the valley and sailing through the air toward the fog below. Liask quickly followed, currents of wind carrying her through the air as she brought the avalanche debris with her to chuck at Pierce. The sound of metal against stone soon echoed through the air as Pierce summoned his blade and used it to slash through several incoming boulders before disappearing into the fog at the base of the mountains.

Even if I can’t see her, this knot in my stomach will never let me lose her… Pierce mused as he dashed through the fog, carefully watching for — and dodging around — any dead trees that he happened across. Hopefully, though, the fog will give me some cover—!

In an instant, the fog surrounding him froze solid, arresting Pierce of his Mach-speed momentum. Quickly, he began attempting to kick at the ice, hoping to use his superspeed to leverage even the slightest of movements into ice-melting energy — but the entire chunk exploded before he could, revealing Liask herself smashing through it with her superstrength. Without wasting a beat, she lunged at Pierce, raking him across the chest with impossibly sharp metal claws; the claws failed to penetrate his shields, but the force of the blow slammed him down into the ground. Liask lunged again, but this time Pierce just barely managed to roll out of the way of her fists, at which point he jumped to his feet and swung his leg around toward Liask’s back to slam her into the ground. He followed by jackhammering his foot into her back, hoping to rapidly drain her shields — but the Knight attached to her back simply swung her arms around toward Pierce, nailing him in the side and launching him through the fog.

Pierce tumbled haphazardly along the ground before slamming into the bark of a dead tree, carrying with him enough kinetic energy to blast the tree to shreds. He collapsed to the ground, but quickly rolled to the side, just as a spear of ice slammed into his former location. Massive boulders soon followed, emerging from the swirling mists with startling speed, giving Pierce mere fractions of a second to respond to each. But that was all he needed — in one fluid motion, he summoned his blade back to his hand and used its impossibly sharp edge to slash each incoming boulder in twain, allowing the pieces to smash into the ground on either side of him. One boulder, two boulders, three — but just as Pierce prepared to slice through one more, Liask appeared instead, her hands outstretched to grab Pierce’s blade. The shielding around her hands rapidly flared as she and Pierce began vying for control of the weapon; knowing that he was at a disadvantage to Liask’s Forcetechnism, Pierce moved to release his blade.

“Pierce…?”

Immediately, Pierce snapped his gaze to Liask’s face — for a moment, a brief moment, her eyes had lit up with recognition. But a second later, they clouded over once more with bestial fury, followed by her bladed tails whipping around to grab Pierce by his legs and chuck him into the air.

“What the—?!” he remarked, still in shock at what he had just seen. Is she— is she still in there? No way. Is it possible to save her, even now?!

He looked down at Liask — just in time to see her leap into the air after him. Quickly, he whipped his foot over his head and down towards Liask, successfully nailing her in the head and launching her groundward. She disappeared in an instant into the fog below; on hitting the ground, golden static swept across her entire body, evident even through the fog that moved in to cover her.

And now her shields are down, too! Pierce observed as he finally landed on the ground himself and then took off into the fog on an evasive, zig-zagging course. …That’s it! If I can just cut off the monstrous parts attached to Liask, and subdue her somehow, then Kaoné might have a shot at curing her! Right? Right…?!

 

“…Yeah, it’s as I suspected. I’ll need to fix some of its internal organs and blood… but the extent of the infection isn’t yet far enough to be damning. I think this is possible.”

 

‘Isn’t yet far enough to be damning,’ Pierce mentally echoed as he thought back to Kaoné’s words from just before her attempt to cure the infected animal on Oriciid’kas. He then glanced behind himself — just in time to see Liask burst out of the fog, coalescing it into a torrent of water behind her as she lunged towards Pierce. With a dexterous twist of his torso, Pierce dodged her lunge — only for the water to slam him to the ground. Liask quickly descended upon him, only for him to shoot his foot out, slamming it into Liask’s metal-coated chest and sending her flying into the distance.

Pierce’s gaze lingered for a moment on Liask’s upper body before she disappeared into the fog — it was almost fully covered in silvery metal… yet, aside from her scar, her face appeared unmarred. Hopefully, she isn’t too far gone. But I have to try! I have to save her—!

He cut his thought short to leap to the side, just in time to avoid a variety of projectiles being hurled his way. A sudden pillar of stone cut his leap short, however, stunning him just long enough for Liask to pounce on him again, taking firm hold of his arms with her own. Pierce’s shields flared up under Liask’s Forcetechnic superstrength, accompanied by the attached Knight wailing away with her own arms — but Pierce snapped his knee upward, slamming it into Liask’s chest at supersonic speed. The force knocked her back, but her body remained intact, even without shields to protect her — she was a Forcetechnic and Velocitechnic combined, after all.

Quickly realizing that punches and kicks wouldn’t be enough to pierce Liask’s durability, Pierce summoned his blade back to his hands. As an Ayas Weapon, Hastryth was supposedly sharp enough to cut through anything, and so was his only hope at disabling Liask.

Before he could move again, a spire of ice appeared around him, locking him in place — followed immediately by Liask smashing the spire to smithereens, her fist reaching through the ice and slamming into Pierce’s face before he could stop it. Bright golden lights filled his vision as he felt himself get launched through the fog, where he tumbled across the dirt while attempting to steady himself. Reflexively, he pulled his knees up to his chest, just in time to prevent Liask from slamming her fists down on top of them; he then shot his feet out, nailing her in the side to send her tumbling. Quickly, he jumped to his feet and dashed to her side, blade at the ready to slice at her tails — only for a block of rock to appear in his way. He quickly sliced it to pieces, only for Liask to lunge at him through the debris, seizing upon the attached Knight’s Velocitechnism to react to Pierce’s own supersonic attacks.

“Shit—!” he exclaimed as he just barely managed to dodge around Liask’s claws. Time slowed to a crawl; as Liask lunged past Pierce, he dismissed his weapon and then re-summoned it, this time with the blade in his left hand — just as Liask’s back passed by his left arm. Immediately, Pierce made to swing down on her exposed backside, hoping to cleave off both the Knight and the tails in one fell swoop; but the Knight pre-empted his swing, slapping his blade away with the back of her hand. The tails then snapped around, two of them raking their blades across Pierce’s chest while the other two moved to grab his leg. His teeth grit, Pierce bore with the tails slamming into his chest as he dismissed his weapon and resummoned it yet again, this time into his right hand, and then twisted his body to the side, giving his arm just enough reach to slice at the base of Liask’s tails. Deftly, she began to dodge out of the way… but not before Pierce managed to slice right through one of the four tails, the appendage falling to the ground.

A mere second had passed during that exchange of blows, but Pierce maintained his focus — quickly, he dropped to the ground, grabbed the severed tail, and then rolled under Liask’s legs to dash off into the distance. Once clear, he chucked the tail at the ground and rapidly sliced it into smaller pieces, hoping to prevent Liask from reattaching it; though amidst his slashing, fierce winds whipped up around him and then launched him high into the sky, above the fog. Immediately following were several jets of water and boulders, one of which Pierce kicked off of to return to the ground — but conspicuously, the barrage was missing any sign of ice.

Taking note of that fact, Pierce whipped his weapon through the air to slash an incoming boulder to pieces, and then reached out to grab hold of the next boulder to fling himself into the air — positioning him to be able to use the third incoming boulder as a springboard towards Liask. With rapid movements, Pierce effectively jumped between all of the boulders that Liask was hurling at him to descend on her, who began backpedaling while spinning up a fierce whirlwind around her. Water and stone joined the whirlwind, forming a virtual wall; but Pierce simply dove straight through, allowing his energy shielding to absorb the hits as he lunged in close to Liask. With a snarl, she threw out all four of her hands to try and catch Pierce — but he ducked into sliding between her legs, all while moving his blade to slash at her remaining tails. She quickly jumped to the side to evade, but Pierce was just fast enough to sever one more tail… and when he did, the whirlwind suddenly collapsed into a slurry of stone and water.

That’s it…! Pierce thought to himself as he jumped to his feet, just in time to dodge out of the way of incoming water jets. Somehow, those tails are granting her those extra abilities. Is that a thing that any Chaotic could do, or is that unique to the infection…? Agh, questions for later! All I need to do is cut off all the extras — then, in a one-on-one fight against Liask, I’m pretty sure I can win! Just hold on, Liask—!

The sudden appearance of a massive boulder overhead forced Pierce to focus again on the present as he lunged to the side, just barely in time to escape being crushed. But as he lunged, another boulder appeared, and then another, and then another— forcing him to continually dodge to avoid being crushed. Then, just as he jumped out of the way of the fifth boulder, Liask descended upon him with incredible speed, grabbing him by the back of his neck and slamming him down into the ground. She then released his neck, but before he could react further, she slammed her fists down onto his back with incredible force, cracking and cratering the ground all around and brightly flaring up Pierce’s shields.

“Ngh—!” he grunted in pain — and then scowled as bright golden static suddenly swept across his body, signaling the death of his energy shielding. Already, Liask was raising her fists for another slam; but just as she brought them down, Pierce managed to roll out of the way, narrowly avoiding a direct hit. The sheer force of her fists hitting the ground still flung him into the air, however; Liask immediately whipped around to try and grab him, but he quickly pulled his foot around to kick off of her fist and slam back into the ground, where he rolled to his feet and lunged to the side. With incredible speed, Liask pursued, successfully remaining so close to Pierce that the low visibility in the fog was no issue; on seeing this, Pierce quickly lunged to the right, with Liask following… though slightly slower than Pierce.

I’m faster—! Pierce noted, while simultaneously slamming his foot into the ground to lunge to the left, hoping to throw Liask off with repeated jukes. While the speed she inherited from the Knight was fast, she seemed just slower than Pierce to the point of being noticeable — but she soon made up for that fact by using her Geotechnism to explode the very ground beneath Pierce’s feet, causing him to stumble. In an instant, she was upon him, her fists raised to slam down over his head while her two remaining tails whipped around to try and slash at Pierce.

But with his shields down, Pierce reacted to the bladed tails with newfound urgency — even if he was immune to being infected, he most certainly wasn’t immune to being slashed by Mach-speed blades. Time seemed to slow again as Pierce deftly contorted his body to just barely evade the incoming blades… at the expense of falling into Liask’s fists. It was a calculated risk; Pierce knew, from sparring with Liask in the past, that he could survive the blunt force of her punches — it was the blades that presented real risk. Nevertheless, as Liask’s fists came down onto Pierce’s chest and slammed him into the ground, he couldn’t help but grunt and grimace in pain.

Just as Pierce slammed into the ground, Liask manipulated the dirt under him to launch him back up into the air, her arms and tails already swinging for another attack. Pierce’s eyes darted around at the different appendages each racing for him — two bladed tails slashing from below, Liask’s arms coming in at the middle, and the Knight’s arms attempting to grab him from above — and himself little able to dodge, due to already being airborne. For a moment, Pierce thought that he was done for… but then, an idea shot through his head, and his brow furrowed with focus. Come on, Pierce, you’re FASTER!

A split-second later, he pulled his knees in; the momentum from the rapid movement caused his body to begin rotating in the air. Combined with a slight arc to his back, he just barely managed to dodge the tails — but he remained focused, already swinging his left elbow downwards, timed just perfectly to slam into Liask’s fist. Due to his superior speed, he was able to knock Liask’s fist away with enough force to throw her off balance while also giving himself slightly more altitude, where he fell into the waiting hands of the Knight. Immediately, the Knight gripped his left arm and left leg and began pulling hard, evidently aiming to use Liask’s Forcetechnism to rip him in half — and indeed, fierce pain shot through the left side of Pierce’s body as his Velocitechnic durability was barely enough to hold him together.

But a split second was all he needed — as soon as the Knight had grabbed him, he summoned his blade into his right hand and swung it around, slicing clean through both of the Knight’s arms. Now free of her grasp — and currently in the air just above Liask — Pierce spun himself around and then lashed out at where the Knight was conjoined to Liask’s back. With one swift, clean swing of Hastryth, Pierce fully severed the Knight from Liask, leaving the heavily-corrupted torso to fall to the ground as Liask winced away.

Immediately following that, the ground beneath them exploded, launching Pierce high into the sky. He quickly whipped around, rapidly swinging his blade through the air to clear debris around him and enable him to look back at the ground. The fog had been parted by the explosion and was already moving back in, but Pierce was still able to lay eyes on Liask for a but a moment, noting the silvery metal that moved to cover the area of her back that the Knight had been attached to — and the Knight, laying on the ground, no longer carried the light of life in her eyes. A grim expression overcame Pierce as he landed on the ground, but he immediately lunged back towards Liask’s last location.

With the Knight no longer attached to her, Liask no longer benefited from superspeed, enabling Pierce to dash up to her with no riposte. She attempted to swing her fists at him, while rocks rose from the ground and the fog coalesced into torrents of water — but Pierce effortlessly dodged around them all, flipping over Liask to her backside and then whirling around to slice off her remaining tails. Deep rumbling filled the air as all of the massive rocks crashed down to the ground and Liask slowly turned to face Pierce… only to suddenly leap high into the air, the raw force of her jump cratering the dirt beneath her.

This is it, I just need to subdue her! Pierce thought, dismissing his weapon and leaping high into the air after Liask. If I can just bring her back to Kaoné, then—!

His thought was cut short as he reached Liask in the air, only to find her waiting for him. She lashed out with her arms, to which Pierce responded by moving to kick and elbow them away, as he had previously — only for her to suddenly pull her arms back and instead kick his backside, flinging him higher into the sky, and herself groundward.

She feinted?! Pierce quickly twisted himself around to search for Liask, just in time to spot her leap over the fog and into the distance. Where is she going—? Oh, shit! Pierce’s eyes snapped to the horizon, to the green of the distant forest — to where Liask was currently bounding.

A second later, Pierce finally landed on the ground. Immediately, he catapulted himself through the air, leveraging his superspeed to try and catch up with Liask. As a Forcetechnic, Liask possessed enough strength in her entire body to make the same kind of sudden accelerations as a Velocitechnic; she just didn’t have the reflexes to keep up with such speedy movement. But in a straight line, that lack of reflexes didn’t matter, enabling her to sail through the air at Mach speeds, with Pierce just barely gaining. “Shit…!” he muttered. I need a boost, somehow, anyhow! Uh…! Has my Overdrive worn off, yet? Agh, it’s all I have! “Overdrive: Speed Break!”

Pierce mentally sighed of relief as he felt his reflexes hone, and his next leap catapult him through the air at incredible speed. As he sailed over the fog, he could begin to make out individual branches in the trees beyond — but he put that out of mind as he finally caught up to Liask, bringing his foot around to slam her out of the air and back to the ground. She rapidly disappeared into the fog; a moment later, Pierce landed back on the ground as well, at which point he spun around and sped off towards Liask’s location, using the knotted feeling in his stomach to home in on her.

Suddenly, a fierce crack of thunder shot through the air, accompanied by a shockwave that blasted back all of the fog around Pierce. Standing in the center of it all was Liask, the ground cratered under her right foot — evidently, she had stomped the ground with incredible force to blast away all of the fog and clear the air. And as soon as Pierce spotted Liask, her eyes snapped to him; Pierce scowled and lunged into a kick, but Liask’s arms were already moving to block, her legs braced to prevent his kick from flinging her away. Instead, Pierce kicked off of her arms to flip away from her, where he landed on the ground and adopted a cautious posture himself, all while the fog slowly began to roll back in.

She’s down to just her Forcetechnism… Pierce thought, carefully eying Liask’s silver-coated body. At that point, just about her entire body — with the exception of her head and parts of her legs and arms — was covered in metallic silver. He then glanced behind himself; the fog blocked his vision of the distance, but he still knew that the living forest was a scant couple of kilometers away — a distance that meant nothing to Force- or Velocitechnics. …I can’t let her reach the forest. But if I can just knock her out, then I can save her! C’mon, Pierce — this is it! Focus…!

Liask’s arms shifted as she leaned forward, seemingly into a lunge. Instantly, Pierce shot forward, leveraging his superior reflexes to move in close and swing his foot around to hit Liask’s back, knocking her to the ground. He then moved his foot to her head — only to hesitate, due to being unsure of how much force he needed to knock her out instead of outright killing her. But in that moment, she slammed both of her fists into the ground, launching her back to her feet and flipping Pierce off-balance. She lunged forward to slam her fist into his face, driving him into the dirt… and then she bounded off into the distance.

Grimacing in pain, Pierce nonetheless forced the pain out of mind as he jumped to his feet and sped off after Liask. In a mere second, he found himself standing amidst live tree branches covered in green leaves — with Liask incoming, her hands already outstretched toward the trees. Quickly, Pierce launched himself into the air, slamming into Liask at supersonic speeds to fling her into the distance while also sending himself flying back toward the ground. As soon as he landed, he took off to the south, keeping an eye on Liask’s body above as he kept a cautious pace below her — only to suddenly slam into a dead tree. His raw momentum smashed the tree to bits as he tumbled straight through it, but it was enough of a distraction for him to lose Liask amidst the fog.

“Fucking hell…!” Pierce muttered, gingerly rubbing his forehead — only for Liask’s fist to suddenly appear out of the fog. Pierce immediately dropped to the ground, dodging her fist by just a hair; once on the ground, he waited just a half-moment for Liask’s lunge to carry her over him before shooting both of his feet upwards and into her chest, sending her flying into the air. He quickly leaped after her, hoping to deal another blow to launch her even further away from the living forest — perhaps even towards the mountain peaks that they had first met on. But just as he whirled his foot around to kick Liask once more, she swung her arm around, successfully grabbing Pierce by his ankle and whipping him around through the air to hurl him southward — an action that propelled herself northward, toward the living forest.

The two then fell back to the ground, hitting at about the same time, but with well over a kilometer of fog between them. Pierce immediately spun on his heel and darted forward, focusing on maximum speed as he simply blasted through any dead trees in his path towards Liask. But she was far from slow, herself, and had already leaped once more to the north, sailing through the air at a pace that even Pierce found difficult to match. She’s so strong! Or is it the infection? Fuck—! Pierce scowled, his eyes on Liask as she landed on the ground just in front of him. Brow furrowed and fist clenched, he forced himself forward even faster, pushing out as much speed as his body would give him to reach Liask right before she could leap forward again. In an instant, his foot came down on her head, slamming her into the dirt with a thundering rumble and a shockwave that pushed back the fog.

But the blow wasn’t enough to take her out, as she immediately jumped back to her feet. Pierce made to kick her again, hoping to keep her down, but she twisted around to grab his leg with her left arm and then slam him to the ground herself, generating another shockwave that further dispelled the fog. She then turned to leap, but Pierce quickly rolled forward to swipe her legs out from under her. As she fell forward, he jumped to his feet — but then she punched the ground, launching herself into an upright position before throwing out her elbow to slam Pierce in the collarbone.

“Gagh—!” he grunted in pain as the blow slammed him into a tree, sending chips and chunks of wood flying. Pain shot through his collar, his chest, his side, even his legs — but when he looked up and saw Liask preparing to leap forwards once more, he forced all of his pain out of mind to blast forwards, tackling her to the ground. He quickly rolled off of her to avoid taking an elbow to the face, at which point they both jumped back to their feet; once there, Pierce acted first, seizing on his superior speed and reflexes to throw the first kick at Liask’s legs. She braced herself and moved her arm to grab his foot, but Pierce suddenly pulled his knee in to avoid her hand and then shot his foot out, nailing her in her chest and sending her tumbling across the ground. He dashed after her, only for her to pound the ground again, cratering the entire area and sending Pierce stumbling to the ground. As soon as he fell, she pounced on him, grabbing him by the arm and hurling him into a nearby tree.

Fuck… fuck…! he mentally swore as he tore himself out of the tree and dashed after Liask, just in time to stop her from bounding northward again. I just need… to keep her out of the forest, but—! His kick slammed her into another tree, but she immediately rebounded, kicking off of the tree to pounce on Pierce again and punch him square in the chest, sending him tumbling across the ground. But I can’t fucking knock her out…! He jumped to his feet, his head and chest both pounding, but he desperately charged forward, swinging a fast kick straight at Liask — who met it with her fist. The combined force of the blow rocketed them away from each other, generating a fierce crack! and a shockwave that blasted away the fog once more… revealing the living forest a mere few dozen meters away.

Shit… shit…! Pierce quickly jumped to his feet and lunged after Liask, but she was already moving to bound towards the forest — while he could get within arms reach of her, she was still just far enough away to be able to leap before Pierce could touch her. …Damn it! She’s gonna reach the forest, and then…!

Time slowed to a crawl. Pierce could feel himself moving, his body mid-lunge, while Liask crouched down, prepared to push against the earth with incredible strength; amidst all of that…

.

“In the beginning stages of an infection outbreak, the nanites piggyback on biological cell division to create more of themselves. Eventually, once enough creatures in the same physical region have been infected, the outbreak reaches a ‘critical infection’ stage.”

 .

“You think you can contain an outbreak of this severity? Ha!”

“I’ve trapped these beasts in ice, before, but this time… this time…! What’s… changed?!”

“Hold up, though — what? Didn’t you say just earlier that the only way to stop this thing is to obliterate it completely? Are we not doing that?”

“Pah! You thought I meant we would obliterate it? Hardly. The plan was always to delay the beast long enough for the district to evacuate. Though waiting even this long is folly.”

“We’re evacuating? What?! But what about—?!”

“Obliterating the beast is what the orbital cannons are for.”

 .

“You weren’t there to fight the dragon on Orciid’kas. That thing was practically impossible for me or even Mark to fight, with how it kept deforming itself and opening up fucking holes in its body.”

“I’d heard about that… I honestly ain’t ever heard of an infection dragon makin’ moves like that. I’ve fought a few in my time, and I was always able to hit ‘em hard just fine. I think the one you fought was an outlier.”

“And if it wasn’t?”

 .

“…The NSD tends to take the same scorched-earth stance as the Chaos Knights…”

 .

“Nothin’ changes the fact that, if not for you, Liask wouldn’t be fuckin’ infected!”

 .

“It is the only responsible decision. The only decision that will save the most lives.”

 .

“This kind of thing is much easier said than done. Are you sure you can do this?”

 .

“A Critical Infection on this scale would require the Fog Islands to be glassed. And that carries its own risks.”

“An infection here could also have disastrous consequences elsewhere on the planet. The infection is endemic to Relédiaka, and a Critical Infection incident here could rile up the infection in Relédiaka enough to cause a chain effect. That would be disastrous… So, as much as I hate to say it… Pierce, I think you’re right. You might be our only option, here.”

 .

“Your continued insistence on cures will be the doom of us all!”

 

…

 

..

 

.

 

“It’s… fine,” Liask insisted. “You’re free, now… right? Just… get out of here…!”

 

.

 

..

 

…

The sound of crunching dirt filled the air as Liask twisted her foot, preparing to leap forwards. She crouched slightly, her knees bent, ready to pound the earth in order to lunge with incredible speed.

Shink!

A small sound, the metallic echo of metal cutting through metal. Liask glanced down, at the source of the noise… as a silver blade fell out of her chest, connected to a blue energy tether that threaded through the new hole in her abdomen.

Immediately, her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. But before her face hit the dirt, Pierce rushed to her side, grabbing her and gingerly letting her down — dismissing his weapon to free his hands to cradle her body.

“P…Pierce…?”

Pierce’s gaze snapped to Liask’s face, where her eyes met his.

“It… it’s you…” Liask muttered softly, her voice faint. “What… …happened…?”

“That’s…!” Pierce pursed his lips, covering his mouth for a brief moment before forcing a smile — all while ignoring the warm, yet damp and sticky sensation that washed across his arm that supported Liask. “…It’s… alright. It’s alright.”

Liask smiled back, though with a faintness that suggested it took all of her effort. “Good… I’m glad… you’re safe…”

“Y…yeah…”

“L-look…” Liask slowly lifted her arm, trembling with effort as she gestured toward the distance. “…A mountain…”

Pierce slowly looked where she was pointing — at the stony peaks where their fight had begun, still visible even as the fog rolled in to surround the couple.

“I… a-always wanted to… visit my namesake, you know…”

“I…” Pierce responded, unable to meet Liask’s gaze. Instead, he reached over to take hold of her hand and squeeze it gently. “I’m… sorry…”

“It’s fine… really. Now… now I can… see Trenon, again…”

Pierce snapped his gaze back to Liask, his eyes wide, only to note that she was smiling at him again.

“I had… …a lot of fun,” she whispered as she softly squeezed Pierce’s hand. But her breathing had grown ragged, and despite her smile, she seemed to be fighting just to keep speaking. “…I’m happy… …I met you… Pierce… …”

And with that, she fell limp.

Silence reigned for several moments as Pierce continued to cradle Liask, ignoring the warm, sticky feeling on his right arm, or the dull throb in his torso. But — just a moment later — his vision went black. He saw burning buildings, collapsing buildings… and then, simply nothing but a desolate wasteland. Then, a young man’s face — appearing almost exactly like how Pierce would imagine a young Trenon would look — as he grinned broadly, while holding up a green and black uniform. Following that was the campus buildings of WCU, and then the visages of Obra and Minilas, the latter poking fun at the former over some meaningless trifle; and then, he saw himself, staring back at him with a confident smirk… before fading away to black.

“…What…?” Pierce muttered, his eyes fluttering open. He quickly looked around himself, but no one else was present; it was only him… and Liask.

He looked down at her again, his gaze lingering on her still expression. Gingerly, he reached over to close her eyes, his own expression solemn. “…I’m sorry…” he whispered. “…I won’t forget you. Not ever.”

His eyes closed, and his chest heaved, as he took a deep breath. A moment later, he wordlessly stood, still cradling Liask’s body in his arms as he turned southward to return to the outpost.