Ebonheim shot left, her boots skidding across the shattered stone, their metallic soles leaving streaks in the cracked earth. The whirring of her wings reorienting added to the cacophony as she drew her bow-blade.

  Syntris took the opposite flank, his silver armor catching the dim light as he vaulted over a jagged rise. Ariastra and Aetheron took to the sky while Nephri darted forward at ground level, slithering nimbly through the debris littering the plateau's surface.

  The cannon on the Guardian's arm hummed louder, building toward a deafening crescendo. The shards on its back pulsed faster and faster, flaring an intense crimson red. There was no way Ebonheim could close the distance in time to silence the attack—not with her mobility hampered and her defenses compromised.

  Ebonheim jumped behind a jagged outcropping as the guardian's cannon discharged. A torrent of searing energy erupted from the barrel, engulfing the area where she had stood moments before. She peered around her cover and unleashed another Essence Shot, sending a volley of blazing arrows streaking toward the Guardian. But they never found their mark; the energy stream from the cannon swept across her position like a tidal wave, incinerating everything in its path—including her arrows.

  The outcropping in front of her erupted into fragments.

  Ebonheim dove to the side as razor-sharp splinters rained down, her already damaged armor taking another beating from the shrapnel. Her head snapped up just in time to watch the energy torrent slice through the crystal spire at the center of the plateau. The elegant tower buckled and collapsed under its own weight with a sound like distant thunder.

  Huge sections came crashing down onto the battlefield, throwing up a thick cloud of glittering dust and debris as they shattered against the ground. For a moment, the entire plateau was shrouded in a veil of haze and rubble.

  Well, guess destroying the spire doesn't do anything to our chances in this fight... So much for that theory.

  She twisted, planting her feet into the earth, wings flaring to life behind her. The whir of their propellers resonated as she propelled herself out of the crater.

  Across from her, Syntris charged out of the chaos. With a bellow that shook the earth, he slammed his massive war hammer into the Guardian's leg. There was a screech of metal on stone and the guardian lurched from the blow, but kept its balance with an unnatural grace. Its cannon swiveled to aim at the god of war, gathering power again for another blast.

  Nephri sprang into action, slithering in an arc to circle behind the guardian. The serpent goddess' iridescent scales pulsed with a vibrant aura as she summoned a barrage of spectral missiles, their ethereal tails tracing sinuous paths through the air. The projectiles snaked toward their target, weaving through the falling rubble, and detonated against the guardian's torso in a chain of silent explosions.

  Yet her assault seemed to deal little damage beyond scorching its crystalline hide.

  Ariastra swooped downward on a glissando of sound that reverberated across the battlefield. Aetheron followed in her wake, their forms dancing and swirling amidst the airborne debris. In unison they let loose a devastating combo of their abilities as they passed overhead.

  Ariastra's orchestral attack disoriented their enemy, forcing it to stagger while Aetheron unleashed an orb of pulsating violet light at the Guardian's cannon. The orb enveloped the weapon just as it discharged again. Instead of another wave of energy lancing toward Syntris, the discharge sputtered and veered off course—screaming skyward harmlessly into the night.

  Capitalizing on their combined assault, Nephri redoubled her efforts. She summoned another barrage of her spectral missiles and directed them at the Guardian's chest where its gemstones glowed fiercely. Again, however, the attack inflicted only superficial wounds; the crystal's surface became pockmarked by small craters but otherwise remained intact.

  Ebonheim pivoted, repositioning herself for her next shot. She would play the opportunist and wait for a proper chance to strike.

  The gods' coordinated strikes continued in waves. Each attacked the behemoth in turn, only to be rebuffed by its overwhelming defense. Ariastra's orchestral aura hammered at the construct, Syntris rained blows upon its chassis with his massive hammer, and Nephri kept the pressure on by raining down spectral projectiles from afar. Meanwhile Aetheron neutralized the cannon every time the behemoth readied another blast.

  It seemed that there was little she could offer right now. Even still, Ebonheim leaped into the air and once again loosed a volley of Essence Bolts from her bow-blade. The arrows struck true and blossomed in white fire against the guardian's shoulder, but they paled compared to the more devastating attacks of her allies.

  Then the gemstones on its chest pulsed with an intensity that drowned out even the light from their ongoing assaults. They weren't discharging energy—they were absorbing. Ebonheim watched as the incoming projectiles faltered and faded when the guardian's twin jewels reached maximum luminescence.

  Ariastra's discordant barrages petered out. Nephri's spectral missiles dissipated before they found their mark. Aetheron's neutralizing spheres broke apart the moment they left his hands. Even Ebonheim's arrows failed to manifest, their energy simply draining away instead. Whatever power this monster was utilizing... It seemed to render them powerless.

  So long as those gemstones remained intact, none of their attacks could land.

  Seizing the lull in their assault, the guardian returned to the offensive. Its cannon tracked across the battlefield and fired again and again. Torrents of searing light carved swathes through the crumbling landscape, leaving nothing but ruin in their wake.

  Aetheron dodged frantically in midair, weaving between the deadly blasts. Ariastra fared little better; her aerial grace saved her from a direct hit, but several near misses sent her staggering in the sky, singed and reeling.

  Meanwhile, Nephri kept her distance and wove evasively around the crumbling outcrops while Syntris strode defiantly forward to meet his fate head-on. The guardian's blasts never managed to land a solid hit on him, yet with each glancing blow against his armor he lost ground—gradually forced backward towards the plateau's edge. His metallic greaves scored deep trenches in the crystal earth, furrowing it like a plow through soil.

  Damn...

  Ebonheim gritted her teeth, her wings straining to keep her aloft. She dove into the fray once again, descending in a blur of silver and blue. She arced her bow-blade outward in a blazing slash that traced an arc of brilliant light through the darkness as she streaked past the guardian's torso. But despite the screech of metal on stone, her attack left only a shallow groove on its surface.

  Its cannon pivoted to track her trajectory and discharged another blinding torrent. Ebonheim twisted in midair, flaring her wings at the last second, narrowly avoiding disintegration. The heat scorched across her left side as the blast sizzled past.

  At least physical attacks still work... somewhat.

  Syntris fell back, his normally steady footsteps faltering in his retreat from the withering barrage. Even his formidable defenses seemed to be reaching their limit. Ariastra circled high above, but her maneuvers grew increasingly erratic. Her dodges were taking longer with each passing exchange—drifting nearer to the deadly beams every time.

  Aetheron focused on providing barriers and redirecting any stray shots, but his efforts could only do so much when their own offensive powers had been suppressed. Nephri continued her assault with projectiles that didn't require energy. Her spines retracted and launched like darts, pelting the guardian's body with a fusillade of crystal-like blades. And while the jagged shards did damage to the armor's outer layers, the gemstones beneath remained intact.

  "How're we going to crack this nut?" Syntris yelled, hefting his hammer once more and bringing it down against the guardian's leg with a thunderous crash. "Every time I make a dent, that blasted thing starts back up again!"

  His words were punctuated by another explosion nearby as a stray beam scored the ground beside him.

  Ebonheim landed in a roll and sprang to her feet behind a crystalline formation. "We need to take out those gems!" she shouted back, steadying herself on her bow-blade.

  "I can't reach. I don't have flight," Syntris roared. His efforts against the titan's legs were valiant but futile. No matter how many times he brought his warhammer to bear, the blows didn't accumulate enough damage to cripple the behemoth.

  Aetheron lifted a hand to conjure a barrier to absorb a blast coming Ebonheim's way. The shield buckled under the strain, but held for just long enough to spare her from being reduced to motes of Essence. "We could bring you within striking range! But we risk destroying ourselves to get you there."

  He was right. Syntris was the only one strong enough to land a damaging blow—but positioning him close enough to those gems could prove fatal to whoever attempted the assist. Aetheron and Ariastra weren't fast enough or maneuverable enough to avoid the cannon's relentless discharges. Nephri was slower.

  Only Ebonheim had the speed and agility necessary. And despite her exhaustion and damaged suit, she found herself saying the words. "I'll do it."

  To her surprise, there was no argument. Aetheron nodded to her, signaling his readiness to commit to the plan. He swooped upward, joining Ariastra on higher air currents where they started circling around in wide arcs.

  Meanwhile, Nephri shifted her tactics. Instead of firing from afar, she closed the distance and unleashed a stream of needle-like missiles at close range. These scored against the crystalline form without dissipating and produced small cracks across its surface. Her aim shifted lower as she targeted the joints between its legs and torso—seeking to slow the guardian's movements in order to create an opening for their desperate gambit.

  Ebonheim flew over to Syntris, landing behind him amidst a rain of stone fragments kicked up by a glancing beam.

  "I can get you four chances to strike. That's it." Her voice carried a heavy tone, underlined with fatigue from the constant dodging. "You miss any one of those, or this fails, we won't survive the rematch. Got it?"

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  Syntris's grip tightened on his war hammer, the crackling power within its head pulsing brightly in acknowledgment. "Once will do," he grunted in response.

  Ebonheim nodded briskly, wings snapping open once more. They hummed softly as the turbines came back online.

  "Let's not waste time, then."

  [Blink Step: 3/4]

  She grabbed Syntris' waist and phased through space in a teleport, leaving a streak of blue-white light trailing behind them. They appeared in midair just above the Guardian's head. Instantly, she dove, thrusting Syntris down toward the crystal behemoth's torso.

  Syntris struck hard with his hammer—the impact reverberating throughout the plateau. A network of hairline fissures spiderwebbed outward from where the weapon had struck. But the gemstones weren't destroyed entirely; they merely dimmed for a moment before flaring back to life with renewed intensity, leaving the fractures in their crystalline structure visible but stable.

  Ebonheim looped upward sharply, barely avoiding a wild swing from the guardian's arm.

  "Again!" she yelled, wheeling in place and hurtling downwards once more.

  [Blink Step: 2/4]

  They materialized again in the same spot, Syntris delivering another titanic blow that radiated a shockwave across the plateau. This time larger sections of crystal sloughed off, dislodged by the god of war's strike. The guardian's chest shuddered under the impact. But the gemstones still weren't shattered. Their light blazed on undimmed—just flickering and growing in brightness with each passing second.

  Ebonheim snapped away, leaving the Guardian swinging impotently at empty air. A flurry of red-hot energy blasts swept past them and seared the sky beyond.

  Aetheron's barriers intercepted those beams and detonated. The shockwaves buffeted Ebonheim and almost sent her careening out of control. But she regained her balance at the last moment.

  Ariastra's song spiraled around them all, invigorating their bodies while stifling the guardian's attempts to generate more power.

  It seemed momentarily distracted—it turned its cannon towards the airborne goddess in pursuit. But Nephri immediately re-engaged in her skirmish at ground level, drawing its focus again with another volley of razor-sharp darts that found their mark amidst a storm of energy blasts that lashed the plateau's surface.

  Third try's the charm!

  She gripped Syntris tighter, readied herself for another teleport, and prepared to dive onto the guardian's exposed flank.

  [Blink Step: 1/4]

  They phased once more into position and dropped. Syntris released his fury against the gemstones without restraint. Chunks of crystal burst outward and scattered like rain across the broken landscape beneath.

  The entire behemoth rocked and wavered on its feet as though on the brink of collapse. But still those blasted gems endured—only slightly chipped away, but far from broken completely.

  Just one more hit is all we need! Just one! Ebonheim angled upward and dashed for altitude, deftly evading another arc of energy unleashed by their titanic foe. The beam whipped past them so closely she could feel the heat through her armor plates. And more kept coming in an unrelenting torrent. She zigzagged erratically to evade.

  For each barrage she dodged, another erupted from a different angle. They seemed to spring forth with increased vigor whenever she slowed or pulled too straight an escape route. Syntris could only hold on as they ducked and weaved through the oncoming onslaught.

  "Don't drop me now," Syntris said, grunting as a sizzling ray grazed against his pauldron, flaking away a layer of metal plating that cascaded behind him in a glittering trail. "This is uncomfortable enough as is..."

  Ebonheim snorted at his attempt to joke amidst their dire circumstances. Her body trembled from strain from evasive maneuvers and maintaining flight under such constant duress.

  "Last chance. Give it your all, yeah?"

  Syntris snorted. "I'll show you what giving my all means, fledgling."

  No time for retort. Ebonheim angled them downward in a hurtling dive. The wind shrieked around her as she accelerated toward the Guardian below. Its gemstones glowed brighter than ever as their quarry neared. Once more into the fray...

  [Blink Step: 0/4]

  She and Syntris phased out of existence, reappearing instantly directly over the crystal's heart. Before the construct's arm cannon could swivel around to target her again, Syntris struck. This final swing lacked the nuance or control he had demonstrated earlier. He simply committed everything he had into delivering one decisive strike with every ounce of might left in his frame.

  The resulting explosion dwarfed those preceding it. A deep resonant tone pealed forth as the gemstones—finally overwhelmed by the raw power of the impact—fractured and burst apart. Fragments of light spilled out, leaving behind dim and empty husks littering the guardian's torso.

  There was a grinding rumble from deep within the guardian as if its internal mechanisms had begun to unravel. The hum from its main cannon sputtered and died; its great arm went slack and drooped to its side.

  Ebonheim dropped Syntris atop the guardian's shoulder. "There. Head. Smash!"

  "Hah! About time." With a flourish and a nod, he leaped with a mighty roar and brought his hammer crashing down on the behemoth's head. Another cacophony erupted on impact. Shards of crystal flew in a shower from the forceful blow.

  The rest of the gods were quick to act. Ariastra conjured a symphony of discordant notes, shattering more plates on the construct's back. Meanwhile, Aetheron and Nephri launched their own unbridled assaults simultaneously.

  Feeling emboldened by her companions, Ebonheim launched her own attack once again.

  Volleys of Essence Bolts flew from her bow-blade, the projectiles drilling holes into the guardian's now exposed torso. Her shots joined the flood of energies assailing the behemoth from all sides.

  Their combined efforts bore fruit at last. The colossal form crumbled underneath the onslaught and crashed down heavily upon the plateau's broken surface.

  Syntris threw his head back and loosed a thundering laugh as he and the broken behemoth plummeted in tandem. Landing solidly on both feet amid the chaos, he spun around and delivered a vicious backswing that caved in the side of the construct's head.

  Cracks radiated outward across the giant's fractured visage before its entire frame disintegrated into countless shards and slivers. Moments later, those too dissolved and disappeared, leaving no trace behind save for an expanse of broken landscape strewn with rubble and furrowed by deep scars where energy had scorched the earth.

  In the aftershock, Ariastra descended first. Her lithe form seemed almost weightless when she alighted on the ground before them.

  Ebonheim touched down next to Syntris. Aetheron drifted downwards after, landing close by alongside Nephri. They surveyed the obliterated remains of their foe that spread as far as the eye could see across the blighted field. Several tense breaths passed before any spoke.

  "I'd say..." Syntris paused and hefted his hammer over his shoulder, the light from its crystalline core blinking softly with dwindling power. "That went rather well..."

  The joke didn't land, the stress from the moment too heavy to dispel... at least not yet. Despite the humor falling flat, they took comfort from those words nonetheless.

  Within the crumbled remains of the spire, a spherical artifact floated unassumingly. It gleamed with a mesmerizing inner light, shifting between different hues and illuminating the surrounding destruction with an eerie, ethereal glow.

  All eyes turned to this object—their intended objective revealed at last from the collapsed structure's heart.

  "Is that...?" Ariastra murmured, staring intently at the orb as though searching for something within its depths.

  Aetheron's reply came soft but firm. "The conduit responsible for siphoning our quintessence? Undoubtedly."

  "That thing really put us through the wringer..." Ebonheim mused aloud as she slowly approached the source of their woes. "Now how do we disable this thing? Just destroy it?"

  "There may be consequences. Or perhaps the act would prevent us from regaining what we have lost," Aetheron cautioned, shaking his head. "It would be better to first figure out the nature of its effect on us than resort to hasty measures."

  As they approached the metallic sphere, Ebonheim in the lead and Syntris following just a pace behind, the space beside it began to distort.

  A figure, masked in the rippling shroud of warped reality, phased into view from the distorted ether—a shadowy silhouette, its form shifting and flickering as it manifested in their midst.

  Dark, tattered robes adorned its thin frame, though whether they were worn or a part of it wasn't clear. A hood pulled low obscured the intruder's features. Clasped mechanical hands peeked from voluminous sleeves, ending in long pointed fingers.

  To Ebonheim's Divine Sight, its aura stood out like a black, roiling void within the surrounding space, darker and more oppressive than anything she'd yet encountered. The newcomer radiated coldness—not in the literal sense—but something much deeper and intangible. Like an unrelenting abyss yawning wide in the world.

  "Heh, wonder who that could be?" Syntris rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck with a mechanical clank. "Not another surprise round with a chatty mastermind I hope... My throat's getting parched from all the banter. Not that I have a throat, mind you..."

  Despite his flippant remark, the god's body language was tense and prepared for a fight.

  Aetheron responded quickly, but warily. "Do any here recognize this new entity?"

  "Not I. Intriguing isn't it?" Nephri remarked. Her slitted eyes fixed on the cloaked enigma before them—pupils narrowing as though trying to discern secrets hidden in the inky depths of his shadowed hood.

  "Seems kinda creepy..." Ebonheim said. She shifted uncomfortably at the unwelcome arrival's entrance. Her suit still groaned from her previous exertions, not fully recovered from the skirmish mere moments prior. She gripped her bow-blade tighter.

  As if sensing their scrutiny, the hooded figure placed a mechanical hand upon the conduit's surface. The artifact responded with an obedient hum; bands began spinning about its meridian lines while the glyphs flared an eerie blue hue.

  Suddenly, the quintessence within the artifact began to pour out, flowing from its surface as streams of light. The tendrils converged into streams that flowed into Ebonheim's companions, leaving a glittering trail in their wake. The remainder drifted out to the open space beyond their pocket reality.

  "Did that just...?" Ebonheim gasped. What is even happening?

  The stranger withdrew their hand, causing the artifact to return to its inactive state. It turned to regard Ebonheim, though without a face there wasn't much to discern aside from the angle of its hood. Yet that gaze unnerved her nonetheless.

  Ebonheim winced as a jolt of pain shot through her temples.

  [W?a?r?n?i?n?g?.? ?P?r?o?x?i?m?i?t?y? ?t?o? ?a?n? ?a?s?c?e?n?d?a?n?t? ?a?n?o?m?a?l?y? ?d?e?t?e?c?t?e?d?.? ?C?o?d?e? ?N?a?m?e?:? ?'?G?r?i?m?o?i?r?e?.?'? ?T?h?r?e?a?t? ?l?e?v?e?l?:? ?U?n?d?e?t?e?r?m?i?n?e?d?.? (?A?c?c?e?s?s? ?D?e?n?i?e?d?)?]

  Her Divine Sight swam in her vision. Stumbling, she dropped her bow-blade. Her knees hit the ground with a clang, followed soon by her hands. Blinking didn't help at all. The words seemed seared into her mind.

  As her sight returned to normal, the artifact and the robed entity vanished simultaneously in the ether, leaving only the ruined plateau behind.

  Ebonheim stifled a curse. Her head still swam, but she stood on shaky legs nonetheless.

  "Ebonheim, what happened to you?" Aetheron asked, a rare hint of concern entering his voice. "I hadn't sensed anything—yet, the entity that departed..."

  "I don't... I don't know," Ebonheim admitted, massaging her temples.

  She was confused and wary. There's a massive piece missing to all of this...

  "Did we manage to free all the stolen quintessence in the end?" Ebonheim changed the topic. "If so, there's no reason to linger here any longer, is there?"

  "Assuming that entity doesn't return and replace the device," Aetheron commented. "However unlikely that may be. As long as the entrance to the fractal realms remains properly sealed and monitored, it should be an acceptable risk. So yes, our business here is settled. For now."

  Ebonheim sighed in relief. That's all she needed to hear at the moment. Let Aetheron or the higher-ranked gods handle the rest. She just wanted to go back to her town and have a well-needed break.

  "So... how do we go back again? Hopefully not through another sequence of multi-dimensional hijinks."

  "Just demanifest, obviously," Syntris rumbled. "What are you, stupid?"

  Ebonheim narrowed her eyes at him in response, but saw Syntris and Ariastra flicker as he uttered those words. Their bodies dissolved into shimmering strands of essence. Then, the remainder of her fellow deities disappeared too.

  "Oh, right." She paused awkwardly. "That works."

  She pinched herself out of existence with a twinge of embarrassment.