Harmonic chants become groans of distress. Beasts roar, men scream, crying and gnashing of teeth are overshadowed by the shrill laughter of the tyrant. Spores fall from the skies like soot and rot organic weapons; they lodge in lungs and sicken the army. Mounds divide the battlefield and allow us to ignore the bloodbath of the soldiers who accompanied the hero, but they will not save us from keeping our word.

  Inhuman Terror, growing insanity. Hoffstein's incorruptible body does not perish, Morgana's nature is faeric, but I am still human. The influence of the fairy world digs its claws into my flesh, I would have already collapsed if I did not randomize the strength of the mutation effect.

  The dragon moves like a worm through the earth, then inflates, rises and roars. Wooden stakes as big as houses are shot at supersonic speed. It would not be able to deflect if it reacted after the movement was made, so I foresee the action of the Beast and uncontrolled the emission present in the projectiles. I rise aura barriers and solidify them like steel, just enough to withstand the impact.

  The fairy watches us, incredulous and Furious. I've seen this look before. Memories of a pastime torment her, consuming her mind with pain and fear. The Green Knight wasn't the only one affected by the war I caused.

  Deformed, Rotten, insane. The words from when I met her come back to torture me.

  Am I the one who left you like this?

  She clenches her fists, determined not to let her weakness kill her. “Silence!” The queen commands.

  The ground roars. Wood rises like tentacles, a mobile Forest forms in a few seconds around us. Trunks invest like snakes, constricting roots advance, but Hoffstein pulverizes them using infra-red light. The Hero makes his way and I follow him, passing through the openings while using chaos to make them hit each other.

  The leaves sharpen like knives and fly towards me, a tornado of razors rushes forward and slashes away the very forest that spawned it. Morgana takes the lead and spins, her dancing steps becoming part of the conjuring ritual and freezing the leaves before they reach us. Weakened, the projectiles break into harmless flakes, and I take advantage of the opening to concentrate the moisture and expand it at once.

  A pulse of steam runs through the forest and explodes against the dragon's shoulder, shattering the wooden armor in place. I aim for the wound and apply chaos, causing its regeneration to spiral out of control and mutations to grow from where the wood tries to rebuild. The beast spins, roots captures Hoffstein for a second, and the dragon's tail smashes him to the ground the next. The quake from the attack ripples through the ground, but Hoffstein cracks his teeth and grabs the limb.

  If it continues this way…!

  The attacks will never stop coming. Defending is pointless if we can't turn the balance in our favor. To prevent us from being overwhelmed…

  I conjure a wave of smoke that spreads through the frozen forest, the thermal shock finishes killing the creatures and hides my presence. I dive into the shadow created below me to emerge into the shadow below the dragon's belly, I charge against the beast alongside dozens of crimson swords.

  The blades wedge against the least protected joints and then explode into aura, ionizing the air and hitting your elbow with superheated plasma. Chains bind me to the wood, I pull myself towards the limbs and conjure the flames to burn them. I propel myself by his arm and approach Hilda, the beast's step faltering, and the real Hoffstein leaps as he enchants his halberd with violet light.

  The queen raises her hand and prepares her defense, Hoffstein launches his weapon like lightning and cuts off the fairy's finger. She grinds her teeth and grabs the Hero. “WORM!” Hilda screams as plants grow around her wrist and release bio-electricity in the form of green lightning.

  She can do that…?!

  I advance from the side, maximize the emission and cast a fireball. It absorbs the organic matter around it like a star and crashes into the wounded spleen, from which I erupted when I broke free. A roar. Hilda throws Hoffstein against a mound on the horizon so she doesn't have to deal with both of us at the same time, then contracts her body and mutters.

  From inside the pulsating wound, worms, and insects burst out at speed like a cloud. I use Chaos and make them lose their sense of direction, then retreat so I don't get impaled by a stake and protect myself with aura a second before Hilda crushes me against the dragon's wood armor.

  The beast fights Morgana, who prevents him from killing me by drawing his attention and investing with sparkling ice against one or another vital area. It's a bluff, of course—one that manages to do only until the forest adapts to its cold.

  Bio-electricity creates fractals in the aura shield. I control its emission, but it pulls more power and creates more plants to withstand the loss. I make it lose control, but others ionize the environment so that electricity circulates more easily. She laughs, and laughs, and laughs, pressing me as the electricity reaches my skin and creates patterns through the flesh. I grit my teeth, maximize my emission, and concentrate the influence of chaos to specifically control the resistance with which Hilda fortifies her mind.

  One second is enough for the illusion to take place. Almost impenetrable barriers are taken by surprise and knocked down, just like the gates of the kingdom that the fairy once defended.

  “… You.” She says.

  The fairy screams and paralyzes all the surrounding plants. Leaves stop their fall in the air, wood ceases its creaking. The hell I have caused pulses through your brain and brings up your deepest traumas by surprise.

  I propel myself backwards and Hilda follows me with her eyes, I throw myself on a shadow and transport myself behind Morgana. I spread heat through the ground and lift the stones, magma explodes from the depths of the underground and blocks electricity, then petrifies in the face of the arctic cold that freezes the forest.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE!” She screams.

  The blast destroys the structure and hurls me into the depths of the bush, burning constructs to keep me alive as it closes in from all directions. Morgana dances and water envelops me, bubbles cushion the impacts and ice coffins survive the power bombs that Hilda sends while screaming and crying.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE!”

  She's...!

  From the injured sites, tumors sprout, a side effect of Hoffstein's light and uncontrolled regeneration. Since extinguishing her mana is impossible, I had hoped that she would kill herself by becoming a giant wound—but this will not happen. It will turn, minute by minute, into something even more desperate.

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  We need to kill her in one fell swoop.

  How?

  With another earthquake, Hoffstein returns and takes Hilda's attention with a well-aimed blow. I inhale, my wounds are healed by the fairy, but the use of emission makes my body crumble. I stand firm on the ground, and from inside the frozen sarcophagus I whisper the words of charm and make the signs.

  “Maelstrom!”

  The tornado of flames consumes the horizon and its heat forces Hilda to stare at it, but the fairy smiles and diverts her attention to Hoffstein. I think her insanity has finally blinded her, but reality proves me otherwise. Out of complete nothingness, a plant opens its leaves into hand shapes and grasps the spell as if fire were solid. Runes run through its yellowish glow, and when crushing the skill, absorb it.

  What?!

  My vision blurs. I look at my hands and see them bubble, my skin burns and itches. This is-

  Poison!

  I thought Hilda's spores wouldn't affect me like they did when I fought in Vanusia, but I was wrong. The hallucinogenic poison has already lodged in half an organism, getting stronger with each passing minute.

  Purple vines grip the aura around me and, in an act of stunning sorcery, they bypass my protection and curl around my leg. Morgana cuts them with ice blades, but a wooden bear invades and takes me down. When my body touches the ground, orange moss opens up and tries to swallow me like quicksand.

  The forest communicates…!

  Roots as neural pathways. It doesn't matter how many spells we use—if only one of the plants survives, the adaptation information will be passed on to the next ones when they are restored. The greater the magic, the greater the information they possess.

  This means not only that the forest itself is sentient as an organism, but that Hilda is connected to it, and that all the fire spells I've used so far—especially this one that was absorbed—have only served to make her adapt.

  The dragon approaches. Hoffstein and Hilda fight as the beast moves by itself, lowering its claw against me. I try to burn it, but its scorched wood resists the heat. Morgana conjures water and pressurizes it, jets of water cut the beast's fingers, and thorns of ice pierce her hand—but this does not stop her. The dragon destabilizes the glacial protection with one of its claws, and with the other, destroys the barriers and throws us with the impact.

  I roll across the floor and grab Morgana, the dragon invests again and, with no other option, I expand my shadow on the ground.

  “UMBRA!”

  Tentacles of darkness are reinforced by the Crimson aura and grip the creature's paw. The constructs tighten the Dragon's remaining wrist as it hurls dozens of red blades against the wooden armor. Chaos hinders his movements, causing him to become confused and dizzy. Plants spasm, plant organs collapse, magic fails. Chains tie me to the ground, and columns support the structure that keeps the Dragon trapped.

  Hilda forces him to spread his wings, and he takes flight, but because of the hundreds of tons pulling him down, he can only puff himself backwards.

  Now…!

  Morgana takes flight towards Hilda. The air cools, and I see the sapphire light contrast with the golden as Hoffstein switches his target and rips one of the dragon's wings. Spells and projectiles fly through the air, trees large as buildings are destroyed without resistance as the beast crawls along the ground. I nail my feet to the ground to make him paralyzed, but I feel the toxins rush through my veins.

  Using chaos, I randomize the strength of side effects, but this only delays their action. Bubbles and burns from corrosion, hallucinogenic blurs that drown my senses in darkness. A cold drop of sweat falls down the side of my face, I grit my teeth and feel my head throb.

  When I feel my arms go numb, I see the dragon grow idols and wooden monsters on its back to prevent Hoffstein from tearing off its other wing. Their tumors prevent regeneration. I prepare, swallow it dry and release the dragon from its chains, use the chaos to make it lose its balance and the surprise force makes it stagger instead of flying.

  He falls.

  Morgana and Hilda duel, the tyrant makes her plants adapt to the ice but forgets about aura constructs and the forms of water Morgana can manipulate. Geysers and torrents, mimes and clones, whips and tornadoes. A spectacle that lasts until Hilda realizes she is cornered.

  Her eyes change, mesmerized by pain. She sees Morgana's figure and is paralyzed by her fears and memories, so she opens her arms.

  I charge. I don't know what she'll do, but if she's channel a spell, I'll jump at the chance. I break through the clouds of poisons, obstacles, and acid; I launch myself using the wind and heat the Earth so that geysers of magma explode and petrify the forest. I use steam to slide between the stones, ionize the air to generate the plasma and-

  “SIEGHART, DODGE!”

  The dragon pauses, staring at me as Hilda channels and maximizes her emission. She opens her arms, her exposed skin glows against the exposure of the sunlight and transmits this power through the spine of the creature she commands. The beast opens its mouth, a yellow glow illuminates my vision.

  Maximizing the emission, I explode to the right on instinct in a second. In the next, I see the concentrated light of the sun pass by my body and spray a mountain on the horizon.

  I widen my eyes and propel myself into my shadow—the furthest I can reach. I stumble on a root and blow it up, cast spells around myself just to stay alive while I think.

  I breathe in, I breathe out.

  Adapted to spells, I will not be able to destroy it in one fell swoop. Even if she tries, she will counter with something even stronger. How can you do so many complex processes while she's mad? Is this the power of a Royal Fairy? What can queens do?!

  Focus!

  The reality is one: I can't kill her myself, but I don't have to.

  A king needs subjects, willing to listen to his orders and fight for his name. During my journey into the Unknown, I have made subjects kneel before my presence, ready to die at my command.

  So, I remember the first lessons of Morgana.

  An invocation is made through the Connection with a being, something I already have with the monsters of the unknown. Of course, she must also possess a body to be summoned, something that I will improvise with my arm, since the one that will answer me has been totally destroyed.

  Whispers from beyond. They tell me I'm going to die, as if that's some plausible reason. In case I escape, I have no idea what I will do to fix my body mutated by the fairy world. If this is my last fight, then I will make it count and save as many as I can.

  Options and terrors, all useless. Only one is good enough to stand by and help me strike the blow that would separate Hilda from the dragon.

  So, I glide through the ground using steam and erect platforms using solidified magma. I concentrate plasma only to pretend that I will continue using this element, confuse the insects and make them fall in hours on the ground.

  I dodge the bio-electricity lightning, the battle continues until Hilda adapts to Morgana's cold and drives her away. I grab her body and carry her through the shadows, sneak up close to the tyrant and conjure.

  Most wouldn't do the same for me. It doesn't matter, I don't fight for the majority. I mourn for those who guarded my body from being killed while passed out, who had their fate revived and concerns shared. When my work on this earth is done, I will let death take me. Until then, I'll stick to my own terms, even if it draws her close again.

  Building the sarcophagus I called the castle isolated me within the calamity. I cannot bring the unknown in its entirety into the world, but as long as I possess mastery over it, I can express what exists.

  First, I unleash your mental stamina using chaos. She expects the next attack to be an illusion and prepares accordingly, but it is a plasma shot that she receives.

  She laughs. “DO YOU THINK IT WILL-”

  In a moment, I grab the rags that seal the creature I once battled to the death. In the next, I tear off your prison and call your name.

  “Come, Aldwyn.”

  And from the bowels of the unknown, growing like a tumor on my wooden arm, the fairy answers my call and takes shape once more.

  Their shape and mask, their horns and wings. Together we point to the fairy, unprepared for such an illusory ability, and conjure the spell together.

  Instead of the magical world, Hilda relives its horrors. Thousands of elves fall like flies from the sky, and beasts are deformed until they become unrecognizable chimeras. Her memories warp into traumatizing horrors, and the more her senses panic, the less she can resist. Mental barriers solid as concrete. Alone, I couldn't use a hammer to break them. Alongside Aldwyn, however, we brought down the frail psyche as if it were glass.

  And, paralyzed in these long seconds, the fairy avatar is pierced, and her body is ripped out of it by Morgana.

  A shrill scream echoes. Aldwyn's form falls apart, unsteady in the face of my summoning inexperience. It's not important. The damage is done, and Hilda's avatar collapses as her pieces fall.

  The dragon, however, remains, and stares at me with furious eyes -—t before it can attack me, it is intercepted by Hoffstein.

  “SIEGHART! HELP MORGANA! KILL HILDA!” He says.

  And with that order, I bolt.