The gargantuan dragon was still on the far side of the hill, close to the sealed entrance of the mirror maze, but it wouldn't take him long to figure out where all the action was happening.
He was already beginning to climb the ruins toward the peak.
The Masters looked at each other in disbelief for a moment. This was too much.
A Remnant, nightmarish spiders, and, if the battle below the water was what they expected, the Others were all after them.
How was that fair?!
The water settled, and for a brief moment, Noble hoped that at least one of her enemies had been vanquished.
But then…
"Watch out!" Noble ducked behind a boulder.
A vast explosion emptied a portion of the lake, sending water into the air like a tsunami. The wave soaked the humans, blocking out the moon until the downpour cleared.
When it did, hundreds of figures dotted the shore between the wall and the refilling lake.
Leading them was a woman in a now tattered tunic with gashes on her body rapidly healing from the black mist permeating the air around her. Maelys strode forward, a strange, hollow smile on her face.
"You are a hard woman to track down, sister!" She said too pleasantly.
"Go back where you came from, and we will let you leave peacefully," Syrce responded evenly. She raised her sword.
The Other Maelys clicked her tongue. "Is that any way to greet me? I cannot go. I was tasked with two jobs, and one of them was to make you happy. Now bring the mirror and come with me. We will make a Utopia together."
The tone was like a mother scolding a naughty child.
"A Utopia? How? By killing everyone who has fought with me and cared for me?" Syrce dug in her heels.
The Other shrugged casually. "If that is what it takes. Now come, sister. We have somewhere to be."
"Syrce!" Noble warned.
The Saint nodded subtly. "I will not go anywhere with you, Monster. I repeat my offer: leave peacefully or die."
The elder Saint clicked her tongue.
"Oh Ceecee…you could have been so happy…why must you choose the hard way..." Maelys's voice became alien to her by the end.
Her emotions spiked, but before Noble could send a second warning about an incoming attack, Syrce sprang from behind the wall and crashed into the Other Saint.
The world seemed to shake, not from their collision, but from thousands of spindly legs scrambling onto the shore and turning the rubble to dust.
The spiders had arrived.
"Fight! Fight for your life!" Syrce screamed, though who or what she wanted them to fight was unclear.
There were too many options, the third of which had now crested the hill and was roaring from the summit amid a plume of fire.
The four Masters exchanged glances. This had all happened too fast with too many moving parts. But the cohort was not about to fold under pressure; if anything, they were stronger for it.
Roan gripped his sword as the griffin materialized from its all too brief rest.
"Aether and I will distract the Remnant. Clear out things down here and keep Syrce from dying."
Noble wanted to argue, but his plan made the most sense. While only he and Noble had flying capabilities, Roan had more experience with the dragon, and she was the one who had the most experience fighting against the Others. Helie's emotions would need to be mitigated, too. And if something went wrong with Syrce, Noble was pretty certain she would be the only one there who could bring her back from the voice still lingering in her head.
Still, Noble hated that Roan had taken the arguably harder job.
In a blink, it was decided. Noble raised the Zenith. "We will help as soon as we can."
"We will do the same," Aether promised.
His optimism that they might be able to slay the dragon gave Noble courage she didn't know that she needed. She smiled at him before turning away.
The three forces were about to collide in a chaotic display. The human army entrenched themselves behind the low wall.
It was the best they could do to form a defense. However, the ruins around them provided a rocky terrain for a battlefield. The spiders were shorter than the humans and far more agile, making no direction safe from their insidious attacks.
The soldiers work was cut out for them.
Silently, Noble sent calm to steady Helie, then the two ladies dove headlong into the fray.
Using her Aspect, Helie reinforced the low wall. Spikes protruded from the ancient structure, skewering the first of the spiders to crash against the battlement. While none of them died immediately, they were pressed against the rocks and impaled under the weight of their brethren.
Satisfied with her work, Helie moved behind the human army, watching their backs and shooting a constant barrage of arrows into the enemy to obliterate large swaths before they could reach the soldiers.
It wasn't enough to tip the balance, but it did keep the warriors from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of assailants.
Leaving Helie to her work, Noble let her eyes swirl. The time for measured control was over. Queen Bee would need to come out in her full glory.
Noble took in the battlefield, pinpointing the places where she would be most needed.
Nearby, the two Saints were brawling through the crowd of Others. They had taken their Transcendant forms. The galaxy of energy ripped at the fur of the powerful polar bear while the glistening jaws of the Other tore and cracked the orbiting balls at every turn.
The overwhelming strength of the two powerhouses obliterated the ruins around them, taking a few of the Others and spiders with them.
While that should have been a boon, it had a dubious result. Each dying reflection dissolved into black mist, which was promptly absorbed by the magnificent mammal.
So for each member of Maelys's team that was lost, she seemed to only grow in power herself.
That was a dangerous game. Sooner or later, the balance of power would shift too much in Maelys's favor. She had many soldiers to spare in her quest for revenge.
Syrce could not afford the same luxury, and so she lured the bear to the edge of the battlefield. Away from her people, Syrce released herself from restraint.
The glowing satellites spread wide, ready to converge on their target from every angle. With a snarl, the bear reared on her back legs, deflecting the energy like they were made of air.
It wasn't until the bulk of Syrce's energy crashed into the bear's chest that the creature fell off balance, causing both to tumble.
Noble felt Syrce's rage. She would not be overcome. The Saint would defeat her foe or die trying.
So the bitter stalemate continued.
Noble decided to leave them for the time being. Syrce was a fierce fighter, perhaps the most powerful she had ever seen. If anyone could handle an oversized bear that was a demented copy of a long-lost sister, it was the quirky Saint who could control her own galaxy of power.
Noble had power, too. And right now, she was about to unleash it on this broken world.
Having come to a decision on which enemy to attack first, Noble dove into the mass of monsters.
She had some spiders to slay.