The air cracked.
Not from thunder, but from her.
Misty blood particles hovered around Mai as the orange aura flared violently around her body. Her eyes burned molten orange, her fingertips twitching, limbs heavier but sharper. Every vein in her body pulsed with the fury of the Ixora.
"She's... not herself," Duncan muttered, standing his ground.
"No. She's becoming exactly what they want," Tiffany snapped, already stepping forward, sunflower aura igniting. "Get out of my way."
"We can't fight her! We have to talk to her!"
"Then talk fast, Duncan!"
Mai's scream shattered the forest silence. Trees splintered, earth ripped. She vanished in a blur, reappearing beside a terrified Akwan scout hiding behind a boulder.
Her fist connected.
The man's head imploded—no scream, no time. Just meat and bone. Gone.
Duncan winced. "We need to pull her out of this."
Tiffany glanced at Mai. "You try mercy again, I swear—"
A shriek.
This time it wasn't Mai's.
Explosions burst from the ridge behind them—an ambush. Dozens of Aqua soldiers surrounded them, glowing with synthetic blue enhancements.
Tiffany turned, reflexes sharp. "I'll take the left—"
She didn't finish.
From the shadows, a heavy net of energy bindings wrapped around her. A commander emerged—a tall woman in navy armor, with an artificial marigold embedded in her palm.
"Retain the arrogant one."
Tiffany fought, launching herself skyward—solar burst slamming down—but the trap was set. The marigold shimmered.
Her power flickered.
She fell.
"TIPH!" Mai's voice cut through, but too late. The orange aura snapped inward, twisting. Her body tensed like a wild beast sensing prey.
Duncan lunged for her shoulder. "Mai, don't!"
She turned.
Her hand glowed.
He flew back, smashed into a boulder. Ribs cracked.
Then she was gone.
What followed was carnage.
Villages near the mountain pass burned. Witnesses spoke of a red-haired devil with orange light who tore through battalions, screaming, laughing, vaporizing flesh. A one-woman slaughter.
Mai left no survivors.
By dusk, Duncan dragged himself to a cave near the ravine. He coughed up blood.
From deep inside, a familiar figure limped toward him: a chained prisoner—Tiffany, battered but alive.
She looked at him. "She's coming, isn't she?"
He nodded.
From the sky above, orange flames fell like rain.
Far away, deep beneath the Dragon Shrine, something stirred.
A pedal.
Pink. Massive. Sleeping.
Waiting.
The Dragon Rose.