"I win again!"
"It wasn't a race."
"You always say that, but you still climb like your life depends on it."
"That's wholly untrue. And don't you think it's about time we outgrew this habit? We already sparked an urban legend."
"Oh, I know about that. ~On certain nights, mysterious lights crawl atop the tallest tower in the city. They say it's the vengeful souls of the abandoned, reaching through the skies to claw at their maker… ooooohhhhh~."
"Cut it out. You're not funny."
"Awww, clearly not. I can never get you to smile."
"That's… not your problem."
"You're right, it's yours."
"What?"
"You take everything too seriously, Nithya. You're so strict with yourself."
"If it looks like that, then it's only because I know just how much better I could be."
"That's exactly it. If you're not even your own biggest fan, how do you treat anyone you think is worse than you? Maybe that's why you're so bad at giving people the benefit of the doubt."
"No…"
"What do you mean?"
"I won't let you twist this back to our jobs just to convince me."
"Ah! She caught me! I wasn't trying to be sneaky, I swear! I'm a really good girl–"
"But…"
"Eh?"
"Suppose I were to be… more like you. If I were to smile like you. Do you think… I could bring our dream a little closer?"
***
September 18, 19 A.C.D, Earth calendar.
A streak of light tore through every inch of Dravark's central colony.
The Captain, whose second lieutenant and squad commander had turned up missing, wasted no time racing toward the scene. It wasn't that Nithya lacked faith in her officers, but something about this incident was too reminiscent for her to ignore. Too familiar for her to ever forgive.
Yet despite how much ground she crossed in mere moments, she didn't find a single person.
Even stranger, despite the massive number of casualties reported, not a single drop of blood or hint of flesh remained. The colony was in shambles, flames and smoke painting the horizon, but she saw no sign that anyone had actually been a victim of the attack that had laid the colony to waste.
With no trail to follow, she returned to the first place she had rushed to upon stepping through the portal: the collapsed remains of the government office, now nothing but rubble.
It was where she had traced the latest signature of Alicia's authority.
All that lingered was the aftermath of a hard‑fought battle and a nauseating sensation, recognizable as a large ceremony conducted through unfamiliar Grace.
She stood there with no idea what to do next other than return empty‑handed. But this time, something changed.
"Madam! Madam! Wait! Please help!"
Nithya turned to see a young woman sprinting toward her. She looked injured, exhausted, her attire torn and battered by whatever ordeal she had endured.
When she reached Nithya, she collapsed against her, gasping for breath.
"You're an officer from Veil, aren't you? Thank goodness I found you!"
"What happened? Are you here alone? Why didn't you evacuate with the others?"
The moment Nithya asked, the woman began to cry. She dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands.
"My husband… he was always so paranoid. He had an unshakable bunker we hid in when the attack started. It kept us safe for so long, until it suddenly collapsed on us. I survived, but…"
Her voice broke, dissolving into sobs.
Seeing this, Nithya knelt and gently wiped the woman's face. Then she helped her stand.
After this act, if anyone else witnessed what happened next, they would have lost their mind.
THUD!
Nithya's fist slammed into the woman's gut with brutal force, launching her a considerable distance. The woman's body tumbled, then abruptly bounced off the ground, regaining her footing with unnatural ease.
"There are countless people facing tragedies as cruel as that one right now. I won't allow you to mock their tears."
Scoffing, the woman ripped off her robe in a single swipe, as though she had never intended for the farce to last long in the first place.
Beneath it stood a woman in a blue veiled dress.
Cydra had abandoned her disguise.
"How did you know?" she asked as she stepped forward again. "We take pride in our ability to completely mask our levels without the same drawbacks as your typical Eminents. So how could you possibly have known I was an Eminent?"
"I honestly didn't," Nithya replied. "You were simply terrible at hiding your obvious disdain for me. Your killing intent was hard to miss even before I saw you."
Cydra froze.
"Then… did you hit me like that without even confirming I'd be able to survive?"
"What does it matter?" Nithya tilted her head. "I have no time to deal with someone so sloppy. If you came here to kill me, even knowing who I am, then I had no reason to be gentle."
Cydra didn't respond immediately. She only began to mumble something under her breath, a repeated, fractured whisper.
"Tell me," Nithya pressed, "are you one of the culprits?"
"…wrong… wrong… wrong… wrong…"
"I am talking to you."
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wroooong!" Cydra suddenly pointed at her, composure shattering. "Who are you?!"
Nithya's eyes narrowed at the question. Who else could she be but herself?
"The Fourth Generation Captain, Nithya Kiran, is an ever‑naive and gullible dreamer who indulges in nothing but wishful thinking! Her weakness is her inability to hate, and she has no qualms holding Veil back for the sake of the populace! That's who I was supposed to meet! That's whom he said I would meet!"
The outburst stirred something in Nithya, but not the reaction one might expect. Her narrowed eyes widened slightly, and her posture eased.
"It was starting to become possible for me to change my mind, you know?! I was going to try to forgive you after you were dead, but only if you were really different! If you had truly changed!" Like a child throwing a tantrum, Cydra stomped on the ground. "But no! You're just like the rest of them. You're just like you were that day. You deserve to die suffering too!"
"That day…"
BOOM!
Unbeknownst to Nithya, several marbles had been hidden beneath the debris she stood on. They detonated simultaneously, the impact swallowing her in a violent burst. Shards of metal shot out with the flames, making it clear what Cydra had stored.
After forcing the crash of all the aircraft the riders owned across every colony on Dravark, Cydra had entertained an amusing thought. She stored the point of contact between several smaller aircraft and the surface using her Authority, Memorial Amber, a power capable of capturing and preserving all events within a selected section of space within illogical marbles, even capable of halting them in time.
Naturally, this allowed her to seize something like a collision even as it occurred.
But the more twisted aspect of the attack was that her opponent would know each explosion represented a death they could not prevent, even as it unfolded before them.
"How horrible," Nithya said as she walked out of the flames, not a single scratch on her.
If there was one thing she had confirmed from everything that had just transpired, it was that–
"You're just a fool."
"Tch…"
"I don't remember you, and frankly, I don't care. But whomever your spy was, I'd like to thank him for his evaluation. The person you described is who I truly wish I could be. She's who I've always tried to be," she confessed, her words only further infuriating Cydra. "But there are still flaws about me that I can't seem to get rid of."
"Flaws?" Cydra snarled, manifesting several more marbles.
"You see, I am my ideal self around my allies. But I still don't know how to show mercy to those who point their blades at me, and at those I care about."
THACK! THACK!
More marbles struck the ground, unleashing a flood of magma that surged toward Nithya. She walked straight into it, unfazed even as molten rock engulfed her.
"Don't think I don't know what your abilities are either!" Cydra declared as more marbles followed, this time releasing a torrent of water.
An explosion of steam erupted, fogging the battlefield. Nithya could still sense Cydra's presence, but that clearly wasn't the point.
"Resonance, was it?" a voice echoed from no particular direction. "You can alter your fundamental data at will, allowing you to move and even phase through anything. But only as long as you can grasp and perceive its approximate structure."
Nithya sensed an attack approaching and tilted her head. A beam of kinetic energy shot past where her head had been. Though upon a second glance, it was more like a severed projectile than a continuous ray. The energy traveled, but its source had been cut off.
"I see," Nithya said. "So you've been picking fights with Eminents just to steal their attacks? If you're bringing a fight to me, am I to assume you've worked very hard preparing for this day?"
"Don't flatter yourself!"
Nithya leapt just before a torrent of lightning swallowed the ground. But she knew the problems didn't end there.
Through the steam, a radiant heat locked onto her position. She had predicted this, so she phased through the phenomenon until every droplet of water in the air vaporized.
But the moment her surroundings cleared, she looked up, just to see several rigid glaciers falling from above.
They crashed down until the ground around her vanished beneath the cold ice hard as diamonds.
"The answer was admittedly too simple," Cydra said. "I just have to overwhelm you with more than you can react to. In that regard, I have the perfect Authority to defeat you!"
THINK! THINK! THINK!
Even before the glaciers finished crashing, bursts of red flames erupted from all directions, burning through Nithya's approximate position.
"So just die!"
A flying wave of crescent‑shaped slashes followed, cutting through the air at devastating speed.
"Die! Die! Die! Die!"
She had an excess of that particular attack, and she hurled it relentlessly while screaming at the opponent she could no longer see.
But even as she shrieked, she heard footsteps approaching.
Nithya emerged from the devastation, running straight toward her, and unfettered by the slashes passing through her body.
"I can't understand how you've made it this far while being so hot‑headed." With that, Nithya vanished.
"Ngh!"
Cydra halted her attacks and tried to track the Captain. But by the time she noticed a streak of light closing in from her left, it was already too late.
THUD!
A direct hit struck her cheek, throwing her to the right, where Nithya was already waiting to deliver another blow straight into the center of her face.
"How the hell–"
As she stumbled back, she felt her dress being held right above her chest.
"Is this really all you're capable of? I honestly expected more," Nithya said, genuinely confused. It seemed Cydra didn't have much beyond this, though she refused to believe it. "Either way, I have a few questions I need answered. If you cooperate, things don't need to go beyond this."
Cydra laughed.
"Did you honestly think that would work on me?"
"No. But I feel it's better to offer you a way out, just out of courtesy."
"I understand. I've been doing something similar."
Along with the blood dripping from her nose onto her lips, Cydra suddenly spat out a marble.
Nithya didn't panic. She could easily escape whatever emerged from it even if it proved too difficult to resonate with.
But a devastating realization froze her.
What replaced the marble was an orb made of streaming burgundy light.
The orb struck Nithya directly and swelled, then exploded, delivering the first concrete damage she had suffered since the fight began.
The blast separated them, pushing Nithya back, and when Cydra was released, she burst into hysterical laughter.
Nithya didn't fall, but she was far from pleased.
"That attack…" she began, even as Cydra cackled.
And even if she wasn't going to get a straight answer, she was resolved to pry it out of Cydra no matter what it took.
Because that attack belonged to a precious officer of her branch.
A commander, no less.
"What… What did you do to Dale?!"