Tens of thousands of wood monsters, elementals, and elves taking up their arms to fend from themselves against countless undead and demons heading towards the city. Led by Xander, the first move he cast is massive tornado that signals the fight, it will wipe away the majority of the invaders with only a swing of a hand. Dark wave scatters that raging tornado into air. The demons and undead is never leaderless, for them are led by a young woman with black hair. Taking the form known as Siola, it is the slime that often mimics her appearance, Goolag.


    [Xander]: “Rhys.”


    The mechanical man nods. Charging a golden energy, he unleashes powerful wave that spreads throughout their army, enhancing their prowess. The dead marches towards them and the wood monsters form a formation to defend while the elves take towards the sky and rain down different kinds of magic upon them. Blast like a cannon, sticks of ice, and a cutting wind. The demons fly ever higher and carries with themselves barrels of explosive. When they drop, red tailed woman hops from one minion to another and rise to the air. Spewing a laser of flame that takes both the barrels and the ones that carried them, but a few are amiss. But they stopped in the air.


    A hand grasps them telekinetically, one who wraps herself full of cloth from head to toe, one they know as Cindy, but in truth is Siola. She sends back the barrel to the opposing force and it explodes in spectacular fashion. Among the resistance, the slime Goolag sets her sights upon that very person and sends herself piercing towards the frontline of the resistance. Before she can take Siola’s head, a spear blocks her from doing so. Silas came at the right moment. Then a scythe that cuts the ground deep with the lightest of swing. But even when she is beheaded, it simply reattaches itself back as she backs away.


    The dead breaks the formation of the wood monsters and the two forces now collides to one another. And their leaders are now standing against each other. Goolag against Xander the Tempest, Anya the Nine-tailed fox, Silas the Illusionist, Rhys the mechanical rune master, Lyra the healing elf, and Siola the mage. Knowing the uneven numbers, Goolag splits herself to even them, and now, there’s equal number of Siola to fight against them. Except, there’s already one among the resistance, the real Siola. And behind that mask, her eyes narrowed down to a slit.


    [Xander]: “Dividing your strength to fight us? Aren’t you an arrogant one?”


    Goolag reach to her gut and pulls out a treasure that once belonged to the resistance. Eyes widened at the sight of it. Rarity often translates to power. From common to legendary, a mythic, to ascended and transcendental, to eternal and ethereal, there lies items that are said to have an equal power of a demigod. A Nexus tier item, and this one is called Sunder. A sword that once belonged to a hero of tempest, a sword that can protect and destroy. However, even when faced against such power, Xander remains calm for him also wields another Nexus tier item.


    [Goolag]: “Plysilach.”


    [Xander]: (eyes widened), “I see. So, you’re aware of it. It is never too late for you to return from whence you came, but I reckon you came here with a purpose,” lowering his scythe.


    [Goolag]: “Other than to conquer this realm? I’m here to take that one back.”


    All eyes on Siola as she takes a step forward. A head held high, hands on her hips with a shifting stave lowered to the front. Goolag and her shares a gaze towards one another, and the latter suddenly points her staff and an explosion occurred. One large enough to cause the terrain to change as it consumes both allies and foes alike. It scattered everyone, and Siola got out of the smoke with the very same staff now disintegrating in her hand, but from that smoke, Goolag comes out and it’s the one who is wielding the sword, Sunder. In the sky, Xander sees that and quickly moves towards them, but suddenly, another Siola appears in front of him.


    [Xander]: “You,,,”


    [Luosa]: “Heheheheh, I believe we have an unfinished matter to attend to.”


    On the ground Lyra and Silas got out of the smoke only to be assaulted by one of Goolag’s double, and although Silas expected to make a quick work of her, he doesn’t expect that his spear trust got blocked by only one hand, “What?”


    When her mouth opens, a spray of black goo. Too slow to react, as side of his cheek is melting heavily from that goo, and there’s a sensation of pain he never felt before. Veins flaring as the blackness spreads through, he kicks her away as he steps back. Lyra quickly lend her hand and attempts to heal him, but the wound only heals for so little.


    [Lyra]: “I-Impossible, just what is this?”


    His head turns to a ruckus on the other side, Rhys is fighting against one and Anya is fighting against three Goolag at once. They showed incredible prowess in their fights, casting magic left and right with fire spewing out of Anya’s mouth, the chaos is too much for Silas to follow as the one he is fighting is about to make another move. He holds on to his spear with gritted teeth.


    On the far end of the battlefield lies Siola flying as Goolag swings Sunder towards her. One swing and it already cuts half of the ground. Siola dodges that effortlessly as she’s taking into account everything about this encounter. The speed of her flight, the uneasiness of that attack. She landed further from the battlefield and Goolag as well, with a hint of her sending another attack.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    [Siola]: “…”


    [Goolag]: “Your duty is done. Time to go.”


    [Siola]: “…”


    A moment of silence before she reaches towards her staff but Goolag quickly take a swing and cuts her arm off, destroying part of the forest as a collateral.


    [Goolag]: “What are you doing. You intend to betray our lord?”


    [Siola]: “Huh, even though a Tier – 8 Mega spell bring you no harm, it still makes you itchy enough where you don’t want to feel it again. Had to be my left arm, at least it doesn’t hurt much.”


    [Goolag]: “Answer me, Luosa!”


    [Siola]: “I’m not Luosa!”


    A jaw clenched even in the face of death. Her eyes remain fierce under those bandages. Goolag narrowed her eyes down as she observes Siola’s every move. Her heart beating and she can feel rage coming from her. In terms of strength, the difference in power is obvious, but is it? Somehow, Siola instilled something inside Goolag. Before all this.


    [Siola]: “I know about it all. The Abyss, the Prison Realm, Ludwig, and you.”


    [Goolag]: “?!”


    [Siola]: “I didn’t even expect it, and it’s probably better off if I don’t know, but I’m done being so clueless about the whole thing. You had every opportunity to save me, and everything to gain from doing that, yet you didn’t. I became a lapdog roleplaying as his daughter? And what even is a father when he just left me for my own devices, and says, hey, go do this very dangerous mission. I mean you’re immortal, and even if you are so weak, just go ahead and do it.”


    [Goolag]: “Watch your tone, Luosa. The lord cherishes you immensely.”


    [Siola]: “Me? Or her.”


    Goolag turns her head to see another Siola fighting against Xander where turbulent wind and darkness clashes, but then, she hears a clack from the other Siola. Turns out, it’s coming from a massive clock ticking from behind her back. Eyes narrowed as she grips the sword, Sunder.


    [Siola]: “Like I said, I know everything. And I understand why it had to be me. Why you— no, why Avarice chose me for your little pet project. Simply put, I am the perfect choice for it.”


    [Goolag]: “How confident, you sure you’re not overestimating yourself?”


    [Siola]: “Oh please, I know my worth.”


    When the clock ticks to 03:00, her arm is healed completely, including her torn outfit. Goolag notices the magic she cast. The magic that makes her eyes twitched. She feels a familiar sense of dread coming from it. However, unlike when the time when Siola healed Silas, the clock remains on her back instead of disappearing, and the arrow continue to tick.


    [Siola]: “My loyalty to the skeleton will have to remain because of his mark, but that doesn’t mean I have to let you or ANYONE ELSE stomp me however you want! No, you’ll pay for what you’ve done. My life that was stolen from me, you and him! The both of you WILL PAY!”


    [Goolag]: “LUOSA!”


    Taking another swing at her. Siola responds with throwing four of her staves on the ground, unleashing wires of energy that stops her movement. Part of her body becomes a slime as she jumps and passes through the wires. Siola backs away while Goolag reaching towards her sword again but then, the four staff creates a magical circle and Goolag notices its inscription.


    [Goolag]: “Ludtleth, you bastard.”


    [Siola]: “True Art of the Golden Order, Holy Atrophy!”


    All four staves explode to golden magical balls that hurl in a swirl towards Goolag. She swings towards one, destroying the landscape in the process, it splits into two, and the more she cuts, the more she creates. Less dense, but the quantity is a lot more, and the speed of which they hurl increases ever more. Prompting her to take flight, she cast a few a signs before aiming her palm towards the incoming missiles.


    [Goolag]: “Art of the Darkness, Dark Current!”


    It pierces through the missiles and splitting each one smaller and smaller, but suddenly, her entire body feels a massive weight as she goes down. Her body heading towards the earth.


    [Goolag]: “Psionic magic? Hmph!”


    She breaks away and roll in the air. She sees a laser heading towards her from the ground. A palm puts up towards that, but then suddenly, she stretched the same arm away. A clash as she blocks an ice spear that almost pierces her head, and now there are two types of magic coming her way. The small Holy Atrophy and the blue laser. Her eyes narrowed as she grips to the sword Sunder.


    [Goolag]: “I see, so that’s your plan. Too bad it won’t work.”


    Two more Siola coming out of her body, but then lightning. One of the premature bodies cast a shield that blocks it in the nick of time but turbulent wind from the bottom cause her to flip. Eyes widened, an unexpected move, but that was not the end of it. Siola has yet to show herself, and she might not even need to when suddenly, a wormhole appears right in front of Goolag. There lies Siola casting a massive black dragon, hurling out of the wormhole. It comes not from Siola, but Xander’s fight against Luosa. Now, more things are heading towards Goolag, and they all converge into one at the same time, creating a massive explosion that consume a large portion of the land and the forest.


    Black goo on the opposite side of the sword Sunder impaling the ground. A gentle hand takes it as the slime gathers itself into one piece. A tick from her massive clock, rejuvenating Siola once more. Siola, now with Sunder, the first thing she does is to look upon the slime hastily putting herself back together and swings the sword at it.


    *BOOOM*


    Yet when the dust settles, the slime remains intact. The gallant back that protected her is none other than Siola herself, or rather, the one the slimes always call her, Luosa.


    [Siola]: “Out of the way.”


    [Luosa]: “Hmm, no. Not yet. She still has a purpose.”


    Suddenly, a massive silhouette of a scythe surrounds them. Black flame erupts from the ground like a volcano but the two had escaped. It was Xander and his treasured item, Plysilach. He descends to check up on Siola, “Cindy, you managed to retrieve it. Well done.”


    [Siola]: “Yes, but, I don’t think they have the attention to back out now.”


    She ponders to herself, ‘There’s no way she thinks she can come here alone with just a bunch of undead. There must be another one, but the question is… where… and who? And what the hell is Luosa doing, protecting her from me?’


    On the other part of the forest where a previous skirmish upon a bunch of travelers and the nomad lies a revelation extracted from a flower that witness it all. The details of the information is relayed to the Aella who is talking to the plants in the surrounding.


    [Elara]: “Got something for us, Aella?”


    [Aella]: “Yes. Apparently, there was a deadhead here.”


    [Elara]: “I knew it. That lying bitch. Do you know where it went? Where did that bitch take him?”


    [Aella]: “You just came out of it, but if he’s not there, then, I don’t know.”


    [Elara]: “Damn it, I have to inform Xander about this. Just wait until that bitch is—.”


    Suddenly, all eyes widened at the same time after noticing a massive presence coming out of the woods. Steps of the muddy ground. All eyes turn toward it. Towards a woman with a naked back and hip full of satchels. Black hair waving unaffected by the weather. A black sclera and orange eyes.