Only Authority Power can touch me. What’s her trick—hypnosis, nullification? No. It slips like mist over still water—Memory Power.

Vosh dredged up First Epoch knowledge, like a diver prying relics from a dark seabed.

“Memory… Since when did memory belong to that girl?” Doubt swelled like stormclouds in her chest.

While she hesitated, Nirael’s rat tide surged, a black river gnawing at the shore, and Vosh felt her usable energy leak like a cracked cistern. The rush broke her train of thought. She dragged her focus back, gathering energy like kindling to a spark.

She had barely drawn breath when Rexi cut in again, a knife of interruption across raw nerves. Frustration burned like sand in the eyes.

“Good, very good… Lucimia… Run us both dry if you want. In the end, I still win. You’re not feeling peachy either.”

She spoke to the empty air, sensing Lucimia lurking like a shadow under eaves.

Sure enough, Lucimia rose high above, a slim silhouette hanging like a pale blade in the sky, locking eyes with Vosh.

“Heh. What’s your angle? You think this kills me? Our energy’s near equal, but I’m only a shard of consciousness, a sliver of soul, not my true body.”

“Mm. Which is why I’m not using my own energy.”

“What do you mean?”

Lucimia didn’t answer. Lines of light bloomed over the Royal Capital like living veins, as she triggered the Magic Array Elyssus had laid down.

“Vosh, I’ve got more energy than you now. Even if you struck first, it’s wasted.”

“Elyssus’s energy? You’re actually using Elyssus’s energy? Hahahaha.” Vosh’s laughter rang like bells in a ruined temple.

Lucimia frowned, a ripple across still water. “What are you laughing at? Putting on airs before you die?”

“Lucimia, I gave you too much credit.” Her voice was a chill wind. “This is your plan? You cut Elyssus’s energy off from him, which means it’s masterless now—a river anyone can drink from.”

“What’s your point? Sure, anyone can use it, but I started the draw.” Lucimia looked at Vosh, grave as winter stone.

“You’re still naïve. Elyssus and I have long cooperated, and I seeded his Magic Array with my Purification. I’ve coveted his energy for ages. Now you severed his link for me. Hahaha—this energy is mine.”

“…What?!” Lucimia blanched, her composure cracking like ice.

Right under her gaze, Vosh unleashed Purification Power, a whirlpool siphon dragging all of Elyssus’s energy into her true body.

“Damn!” Nirael saw it and whipped her rats together, a mass knotting into a colossal worm, rearing to block the draw.

Vosh shot it a glare like noon sun, and the worm crumbled to ash, snow melting in a breath.

“Ah—being flush with energy feels good.” Vosh flicked her hand, a breeze through reeds, clearing the planted effects inside her.

Clarity washed in like dawn. It wasn’t Lucimia’s Devouring in her body at all—it had been Rexi’s Memory effect the whole time.

“So that’s it. Heh.” Vosh leveled a contemptuous look at Lucimia, a blade hidden in a smile.

Lucimia’s face soured, a sky bruising before rain. Vosh’s mood brightened, a lantern catching fire.

“This was your plan? You’re foolish, Lucimia.” She cut the girl with a single look; the body crisped to gray ash, smoke wisping away like willow catkins.

“Tch. Another double.” Her gaze dropped to the churning rat sea below.

Nirael drove the swarm like a storm. Vosh gathered energy again; Rexi reached to rewrite memory once more. This time, Vosh braced herself, awareness sharp as a whetstone, and with plenty of fuel, she purified Rexi’s memory edit like dousing chalk dust.

Rexi’s attempt failed. Energy blew apart like scattered dandelions. The rat tide cleared to bare earth.

“No choice. We run.” Nirael didn’t hesitate. She hauled Rexi and fled like startled deer through thickets.

“Heh. Quick on your feet.” Vosh let the chase die, a hunter closing the bow. “I’ve shown my hand. Killing you now would be messy. Better to rest, then carry out my plan.”

She swept her arm, a curtain falling, and vanished from the Royal Capital, sinking back into her true body.

The fight flared fast and burned out faster. The restless city stilled, dust settling like quiet rain.

—

Nirael led Rexi back into the forest. Rexi dropped to the ground, breath heaving like bellows, and gasped, “What happened? We failed? Is Lucimia dead?”

“No idea, but she’s likely fine. That was a stand-in…” Nirael’s brows knit, knots in rope. Was that really Lucimia’s plan?

They used Elyssus’s energy against Vosh, only for Vosh’s pre-planted Purification to flip it. The whole scheme looked like a jester’s trick backfiring, confetti in mud.

Crunch-crunch—footsteps on snow drifted from not far away, a soft rasp like dry leaves.

Rexi and Nirael turned. Lucimia walked up smiling, spring sunlight after frost.

“Lucimia!” Rexi sprang up, dashed to her, and pinched her cheek. Soft, tender, silky as fresh tofu—achingly real.

“What are you doing?!” Lucimia’s annoyance flared, a cat’s tail twitching.

“You didn’t die!”

“Why would I?”

“So—what’s going on?” Nirael had taken on her human shape. She stepped close, seeking answers like water seeks a channel.

Lucimia looked Nirael up and down, gaze landing on the rat tail behind and the paw-like left hand—pollution chewing deep, like mold under paint.

Lucimia smiled, light as a breeze over lotus. “Relax. Vosh isn’t feeling great right now.”

“What do you mean?” Both girls watched her, eyes bright as stars.

“Simple. She carried my Devouring back into her true body.”

“Ah?” The two traded confused looks, ripples chasing ripples.

Lucimia raised a finger, her grin a crescent moon. “Here’s the plan. First, Rexi uses Memory Power to rewrite Vosh’s memory so it stands in for my Devouring. Then, the Fuzzy Orbs I planted in the Royal Capital knit a net, a pen for a trapped beast.”

“Next comes the key. After I used Reversion, from your angle I ‘refused’ to help Nirael absorb energy, nudging her to sense trouble and seek me in secret. But I did more than that.”

“What else?” Nirael leaned in, curiosity pricking like needles.

“You know I seized Elyssus, so I can speak with his faithful.” Lucimia’s gaze slid to Nirael, calm as a lake. “For various reasons, I gained another Authority—Severance. I handed the Deceiver in the Royal Capital a sword bearing Severance Power, had her cut the link between the Magic Array and Elyssus. Then I gave her a Fuzzy Orb masked as an octopus and told her to throw it into the array.”

“Hiss—okay, I think I get it.” Nirael’s eyes lit, sparks under ash. “That Fuzzy Orb sat inside the energy, not inside Vosh. So when she purified her own body, she scrubbed away Rexi’s Memory, not your Devouring.”