At first, Tyra had thought that sharing her past with Yuki was pointless. But after their battle resumed at the end of the story-telling, she realized sharing that information had served a purpose.

It had made clear for the white-haired beauty it was impossible to turn the wolfwoman away from Darkalight and even less so – away from Deathaxe. Miss Iceflame might have been driven during the little contest the two had had earlier, but that had been only due to having the motivation of learning what Tyra’s past had been. Other than that, her opponent had felt Yuki had become more and more reluctant to fight her, especially to the death.

All the doubt that had previously held back the ice maiden was now gone, even without seeing her gaze under the multilayered octahedron armor she had put on again, the Darkalight colonel being able to tell that gaze was colder than any ice Miss Iceflame could ever produce. Finally the two could have a proper, all-out slaughter.

Amid the remains of Tyra’s fort, on the shattered ground littered with dead ordinari who had been her comrades, where the remains of the treacherous Rukan still lied, the slaughter started. And the wolfwoman didn’t hold back one bit, having become determined to end this battle as quickly as possible in order to go save what was left of the Flexoid Battalion and then move on to supporting Deathaxe.

The cyan energy wolf with multiple empty scarlet eyes that had been reformed around Yuki’s opponent now became bigger than at any other point during its creator’s previous battles, the energy-siphoning and flesh/muscle/bone-tearing properties of its fangs being increased to the max. And from there it was brought down upon the tiny white-haired beauty with all its destructive might, a crater having formed on the street merely by the wolf’s jaws closing in.

Only those jaws never managed to reach their target, something suddenly outstretching them to a level where they would rip if opened a bit wider. Tyra turned her eye goggled in shock toward the thing filling up her pet’s mouth, turning out a mass of thousands, if not tens of thousands of ice octahedrons had impaled it. Miss Iceflame herself emerged from the top of that mass, creating it having cost her the armor covering her face, which allowed the wolfwoman to see her confident smirk.

(Yuki) ‘That wolf cloak of yours isn’t as impenetrable as you thought, Tyra. If I create more things that it can absorb all at once, it will stay busy long enough for me to get to you.’

(Tyra) ‘Do you really think it’s gonna be that simple, Iceflame?! Your beloved teacher I tore apart tried the same thing with his clones earlier!! It doesn’t matter if those clones are made of flesh or ice, if they can change form or anything else!! A clone is just a clone!!! An imitation of the original, which could never beat my Tyrant Wolf!!!’

(Yuki) ‘Aren’t you a bit too quick to judge? The battle’s just getting started!!’

(Tyra) ‘No. IT JUST ENDED.’

‘Seven Eyes of the Tyrant’ wasn’t a technique Tyra was using for the first time on this day. Thus, many before Yuki Iceflame and Aguaro Vivaya had come up with the idea that producing a sufficient amount of energy to distract the wolf cloak would allow them to reach the wolfwoman herself. And all of them had failed because of one important error on their part: failing to realize that if they could make more energy, the Darkalight colonel could increase the size of her cloak accordingly to still suck it all up.

And so she did in the present, making her creation rival Deathaxe’s colossal reaper in height, its jaws tearing straight through the mass of ice octahedrons. The white-haired beauty had extremely fast reflexes, however, so that attack had not been sufficient to finish her off, having used her enhanced physical abilities to jump up beyond the wolf’s initial reach.

Tyra gave the order in her mind for her pet to use its claws against the enemy next, by then Yuki having summoned torrents upon torrents of ice spikes, blades and many other particular types of weapons that weren’t octahedrons as well – katanas, naginatas, shuriken, arrows and more. Whirlwinds of massive ice shards were formed around some of those to start twisting around and destroying the area even more than it already was, successfully managing to create an attack with a wide enough range to surround the wolf on all sides.

And of course it became apparent in mere seconds that the plan was to use that whole multi-type and multidirectional barrage/storm of ice to distract the energy cloak while Miss Iceflame herself descended upon it from up high. This move on her part actually made Tyra laugh, increasing the number of empty scarlet eyes covering her wolf’s fur with a focus on the back because she felt like the ice maiden was planning to use something concentrated and even more powerful than the barrage/storm as her main technique.

The Darkalight colonel’s theory was proven correct when Yuki turned all that was left of her armor into a massive super-multilayered octahedron with both its tips being as sharp as could be, cladding that weapon in a whirlwind of ice shards that made it spin and turn into a cutting disk rather than a piercing weapon. A disk meant to cut straight through the wolf after its whirlwind cloak had successfully served as a distraction for the absorbing eyes covering that wolf’s back.

(Tyra) ‘You really are a fucking rookie when it comes to fighting, Iceflame!! Did you think you’re the only one who can use tricks like that?!’ – with a wave of her hand, Tyra combined all the eyes on her wolf’s back into a single massive one that successfully absorbed the ice disk and its cloak before it could do any damage, right after combining most of the remaining eyes on the creature’s body into four as massive as the one on the back – ‘And that I wouldn’t notice you’re using a diversion-within-diversion tactic?!!’

Those four eyes, each of which was pointed in one of the cardinal directions, succeeded in absorbing the multi-type multidirectional barrage, the smoke from all that having barely been lifted when something came charging at the cyan energy wolf. That thing was soon revealed as a gigantic deer made of thick ice with its horns continuing to branch more and more the closer it drew, the wolfwoman making sure its pet would strike first before her newest opponent could fully prepare for its attack.

The horns were evidently the part of the white-haired beauty’s totem manifestation to watch out for the most, Tyra moving the wolf in such a way so as to evade them, making it bite the frozen animal’s throat to start absorbing energy from there. While the deer struggled, the Darkalight colonel could tell it became weaker and weaker with each passing moment, until eventually it surrendered completely.

(Tyra) ‘And what the hell are you doing exactly, huh?! First you used a lot of structures, now totem manifestation … you gonna try and use each of the five basic fighting styles for all deviants to beat me?! None of them will work, in case you haven’t figured that out!!! Nothing will work against me!!! Except you giving up and dying in order to stop wasting both our time!!!’

No verbal answer came from Miss Iceflame after her opponent’s outburst, instead relying on action once again as the ice deer broke apart into a thousand clones of its creator made of the same element. All those clones swarmed the wolf, its furious creator giving the command to use the creature’s claws to cut through some of them, its paws to stomp on others, its tail to whip away at others yet and its jaws – to finish whatever was left of the legion of frost.

(Tyra) ‘I’ve analyzed your fighting style, you fucking bitch!!! Yours and that of everyone else from your team!!! It was clear from the data we had that eight of you could develop hybrid fighting styles and with what you did against me earlier, you proved your style combines clones and structure creation!!

It made sense that someone like that couldn’t change their totem’s size from how big the base animal is, because those abilities are reserved only for people combining totem manifestation and cloak cladding – LIKE ME!!!!

SO THE MOMENT I SAW HOW BIG THAT DEER WAS, I KNEW IT WAS MADE UP OF YOUR CLONES!!!! JUST DIE ALREADY BECAUSE YOU’RE REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES WITH ALL THESE DUMB MOVES!!!!’

Out of the clones’ remains were released multiple freezing waves that quickly covered the area and most important of all – the wolf cloak itself in frost, in order to counter being frozen Tyra making her pet use a particular technique.

(Tyra) ‘Now you’re using deva channeling through the environment? That means you’ve got one fighting style left to try before you die, so go ahead!! I’ll show you how useless it is just like I did with the others!!! SIX-EYED FUR TORNADO!!!!’

Along with the massive eyes formed on the sides of the torso, the chest, near the tail and on the back of the wolf appeared one more – this one manifesting on its head, right after which the creature started spinning very fast until it transformed into a whirlwind of fur. The extremely high rotation speed of that whirlwind completely shattered the ice, whatever remained of the freezing waves being absorbed by the six eyes on the tornado’s outermost layer.

While it was commendable the white-haired beauty had made her enemy use ‘Five-Eyed Omni-Absorber’ and ‘Six-Eyed Fur Tornado’, Tyra could clearly tell her next move was going to be the last one. And she already knew the style used for it would be cloak cladding or in the case of someone with a static elemental deva like Yuki – putting on more ice armor. Whatever shape that armor would take, it was no match for the wolfwoman’s final masterpiece – the technique the previous two and all her battles up until that point had been building to.

Miss Iceflame seemed to have become so caught-up in trying to penetrate the absorbing cloak that she had failed to realize a simple fact – all the energy absorbed would have to be released eventually, Tyra’s pet having just about reached its absorption threshold. The closer the wolf drew to reaching that threshold, the more it would have to use fewer eyes for absorption and make those eyes bigger. Until it had the same number of eyes as those open on its creator’s body in her special form, at which point all the energy housed within would be released in a glorious blast.

As soon as Yuki revealed herself, having focused the entirety of her deva’ freezing effect on a small portion of one of the cloak’s front paws to break through and actually reach the wolfwoman while clad in a single-layer ice armor, Tyra knew it was time. And knowing she was so close to getting rid of the annoying amnesiac and saving her remaining family, she couldn’t help but smile with tears of relief in her eyes.

(Tyra) ‘Goodbye, Iceflame. SEVEN-EYED TYRANT’S DOOM.’      

The final eye to open on the wolf’s body appeared on its belly as the wolf itself stood up properly and proudly, howling while its now seven eyes opened even wider than before, orbs of red energy forming in their centers. Yuki had indeed managed to break through the cloak and reach its creator, but by then it was too late.

She disappeared amid a flash mixing a little scarlet with a lot of cyan and the following boom that shook all of Deckstoru in Tyra’s opinion, further decimating a large portion of Old Town. This attack of hers was always very powerful, but knowing the Flexoid Battalion members as well as she did, she was certain all of them would be able to survive it.

At the same time the Darkalight colonel hoped quite a few of the Deckstorians fighting them would’ve been killed, crippled or at least distracted enough by the explosion to ensure their demise. After taking a deep breath with the complete dispelling of the wolf cloak and beginning to shut the extra opened four of the Seven Eyes of the Tyrant, the wolfwoman ran in the direction her troops were to check on their situation herself.

But after just starting to run, she felt something rapidly entering her torso and making its way through her insides, by the time she looked down, seeing an ice octahedron was sticking out of her abdomen. That combined with the heavy breathing she felt tickling the fur on the back of her neck confirmed this was the doing of Yuki who had somehow survived.

(Yuki) ‘Finally got you.’

Before Tyra could say anything, she spit an enormous amount of blood, which was almost instantly followed by her losing her balance and finally falling to the ground. The white-haired beauty behind her had broken off the weapon she had manifested out of her wrist, leaving it inside the wolfwoman’s body, who could now feel it had started freezing her from the inside out to ensure no further resistance.

As painful as this experience was both physically and because Tyra had been defeated by a person she was certain she could defeat, seeing the look on Yuki’s face as she turned to lie on her back dulled all other feelings in the present. Her freezing cold gaze from before was gone, having been replaced with regret and sadness.

(Tyra) ‘H-how … how’d you do it, Iceflame?’

(Yuki) ‘All the techniques I used were standard for the five fighting styles, but I’ve got another trick up my sleeve I was saving for the end when you were the most tired and distracted. The teleportation than no other static elemental deva but my ice is capable of. I use it very rarely on purpose so that my enemies don’t have the chance to think of a countermeasure against it.’

(Tyra) ‘I-I see … you weren’t even in the blast radius …’

(Yuki) ‘I teleported as far away from here as I could and although I suffered some damage from the blast, it was bearable. Then I pinpointed your location with my superhuman sight and came right in as fast as possible in order to not allow you to counter in any way.’

Tyra suddenly smiled then while feeling her mouth was getting filled with more and more blood and her body was growing number. Once again Yuki Iceflame had earned her respect after the numerous things the two had been through on that day. If there was anyone worthy of defeating the wolfwoman, it was the ice maiden standing next to her.

But even she couldn’t do it because she had forgotten to count the time. And there was still a little left of the seven minutes Tyra normally had to keep the Seven Eyes of the Tyrant open.

Summoning whatever strength she had left, the Darkalight colonel sprang halfway back up, swinging with all the power her arm possessed and tearing off Yuki’s right eye and a chunk of her face around it amid a blood splatter. While Miss Iceflame fell to her knees herself and started screaming from the pain, her opponent rose back up all the way, a grin of mad confidence having returned to her face.

(Tyra) ‘That was a nice move, but you should’ve aimed better, stupid bitch!!! A wound in the gut won’t kill me fast enough!!!’ – the extra four eyes from the Seven were open again, Tyra spreading her arms as she looked up with a roar instead of a howl due to no longer being able to maintain wolfwoman form – ‘There’s still plenty of time to finish all of you off!!!!’

Yuki’s opponent had a technique in her arsenal she had forbidden herself to use again since the death of her mother. Now, however, in the last moments of her life, the time had come to make an exception. It was time for Tyra to break her own most sacred rule and absorb energy from people she cared about again. As much as she needed to achieve her goal.

She sensed the nearby energy sources that were living or undead fighters and although she could discriminate between their signatures even in her current state, the wolfwoman turned to normal woman chose not to. Instead she started absorbing energy from all of them. And from any other potentially useful source in the environment, to however far her absorption deva could reach, siphoning as fast and as much of it as possible.

The multi-eyed wolf cloak started forming around her again as the memories of some of her comrades and some of Yuki’s filled her mind during the transfer. And seeing those memories first surprised and then hurt Tyra more than any physical wound ever could.

Why? Because the two sides’ experience was so similar – ordinari and deviants were living, suffering, laughing, losing and winning together both in Darkalight’s ranks and among the Deckstoru militia. Eating whatever they could find, going to bed all beat-up, getting up early to go at it again … both species were doing those and all other things together in both organizations.

Seeing all this made the colonel wonder – would the darkalighters resume the fighting between species after winning the war just like how she was certain the Deckstorians would? They were acting the same way in the present, after all, so who was to say they weren’t going to make the same decision in the future as well?

And if their experience really was so similar, why were they even fighting?

The answer to that question presented itself with the next wave of memories that coincided with the energy wolf growing beyond even the size of Deathaxe’s colossal reaper. This time around the memories were mostly of what the Flexoid Battalion members had been through with Tyra herself. And O-Renji Lee. And Rukan.

No more reminders were needed to reaffirm the Darkalight colonel’s purpose. The purpose she and Deathaxe shared – to rid the world of all ordinari, whether living or dead.

Staying true to that, the ex-wolfwoman made the ordinari from her battalion the sole focus of her energy absorption deva – so much so that their death would be ensured. And with the energy taken from them she would power up her wolf cloak enough to easily deal with the remainder of Yuki’s allies in the area. Then only those darkalighters worthy to survive in her eyes – the deviants – would be allowed to advance to Dreadblade Fortress.

That had been Tyra’s intention, anyway, because all of a sudden she was interrupted by the lower half of her left arm exploding in blood, pieces of meat and bone and lastly – streams of cyan energy. A part of her right knee blew up the same way seconds later, making her fall down while screaming under the effects of an agony overload and trying to make sense of what had just happened to her.

By the time the Darkalight colonel had figured it out, a big portion of her back had blown up as well, having lost so much blood and other body parts already that staying even a bit upright was no longer an option. Falling down in a puddle of blood now, Tyra resorted to crawling, trying to give commands to the wolf whose rampage would be her final legacy.

It had to move on. It had to reach the Flexoid Battalion and wipe out all their enemies. No matter what, it had to.

Yet it couldn’t even do that. Even in her last act, Tyra had failed. Because she had underestimated the half-blind white-haired beauty next to her and how much she wanted to protect her own comrades.

Having overcome the pain of her latest wound, she had slammed her palm on the broken ground and channeled her ice through it, having successfully frozen most of the destabilized energy wolf and more importantly – its creator. Now the wolfwoman could no longer give orders to her pet and make it absorb energy. The five extra of the Seven Eyes of the Tyrant started closing, even speaking not being possible for Tyra who could only listen to what the upset Yuki had to say in her final moments.

(Yuki) ‘I’m sorry, Tyra. You didn’t leave me a choice. I have … I have to destroy you. All of you. To make sure you can’t come back. To make sure you can’t keep doing this.’ – suddenly her sadness turned to resolve that unexpectedly calmed Tyra down – ‘But I promise … I promise you … I’ll change the world. Until now I was only fighting for my family, but you showed me there’s more to it than that. That dream you and Deathaxe have … I’ll make the world even better than what you want. Both the deviants and the ordinari will live on. And they’ll be together and be very happy. I don’t how that will happen yet, but I’ll find a way.

Wherever your soul goes from here, please … watch over me.’

As she froze completely and her only two remaining eyes closed as well, Tyra was able to muster a final smile. The last thing she had seen in this life was the ice maiden’s determined and yet sorrowful face, the last thing she thought oddly not being about anyone from the Flexoid Battalion or Darkalight at all:

‘I’ll be watching, Iceflame. I think the crazy shit you just said can’t possibly happen, but if anyone could pull it off, it’d be a crazy bitch like you.’