Everyone was up and ready in the morning, had breakfast, and were ready to go. Michi, by Florrie’s request, would take the twins to Thaumia so they’d be safe until things were sorted. Sal’Arzia would use the remote body to fly the ship over to the designated meeting point, which was just out of town. They’d take the bottles of milk in a mini-fridge to drink right before the operation began.
Once they had been given the specific coordinates, they’d take the ship straight there.
“Looks like this is it,” said Natalia, anxiously pacing around. “It’s do or die time.”
“Or get cocooned and brainwashed time, I suppose,” said Anja, “Not sure how that’s much better.”
Estella was looking into a mirror, took a deep breath, and immediately changed into her Arcane Knight guise, draping the lion coat over her. The coat seamlessly integrated into her armour’s glamour, with a similar silhouette, except with the lion hood head and the claws over her hands. She couldn’t help but whistle. “Damn, this actually looks good on me.”
“Of course you’d be more concerned with form than function, Es,” Anja teased with a slight smirk.
Estella turned to her, hands on her hips, “Hey, you gotta look good while kicking ass, you know!”
“Well, that’s what the glamour is for,” remarked Allagí, “You want to look the part of a heroic knight in shining armour, not a faceless soldier.”
Anja shrugged, her own suit forming up to her neck, “Whatever.”
Natalia formed her own armour, including the helmet, just to make a point before dismissing said helmet, “At least Anja and I have cool helmets. Your armour under the illusion is pretty bare. And I can hide mine whenever I need to, too.”
“Let’s not turn this into an argument over who has the best helmet, ladies,” remarked Sonia as she shifted into her were-lioness form.
Florrie chuckled, doing one last check up on her upgraded power armour, “Yeah, we’ve got a whole army of evil copies to smash through.”
Prometheus spoke up, “That reminds me - how’re we gonna deal with the three evil clones? I know we’ve got the numbers advantage, but those chicks are probably gonna be powered up too.”
“That does give me an idea,” said Jay, “I think the best strategy isn’t to have the girls fight their respective clones. They’ll be expecting that. No, the best strategy is to rotate the match-ups to our advantage…”
Estella chuckled, “Do tell, then…”
Once the ship landed, the group of six disembarked. Sal’Arzia’s remote robot would still be there, and would evacuate anyone if needed.
The ship had landed in the bush outside of town, where the Commission and the army had set up a defensive line at a large cave entrance.
Gurumarra was under a large open tent, talking to Agent Yang and an army general as he noticed their arrival, turning to them, “Good, you’re here early. I hope you all got enough rest. This is General Richard Albrighton, 2nd Division, 5th Brigade, he’s in charge of the armed forces here.”
General Albrighton nodded, and looked towards the cave entrance. “A pleasure to finally meet you all. Let me get down to brass tacks - we’ve located several entrances to the cave system, some natural, some constructed by the enemy. It’s clear our enemy has set up as many potential escape routes as possible. That being said, we’ve been monitoring movement in the area, and they haven’t attempted to retreat yet.”
“Guess the Emperor thinks he can win the battle rather than be forced to retreat,” said Estella with a sigh, “And considering last time, I don’t blame him.”
“Well, you gotta do it anyway, otherwise the entire continent might be doomed,” Yang said, “No pressure.”
“Gee, thanks,” Anja said dryly, holding up her milk bottle, “Alright, everyone got their milk bottles?”
The rest of the group nodded, and they all drunk their bottles.
Both Anja and Sonia’s changes were substantial, becoming taller and more muscular like Anja did the last time she drank Clara’s milk. The others, however, weren’t affected as much - the changes were still noticeable, but they only grew a quarter of a meter at most, and the musculature was noticeable but not dramatically more than they were previously, though Estella and Natalia were a bit more affected than Jay and Florrie.
“Okay, any particular reason for the disparity in effect?” asked Jay.
“It’s because you folks aren’t as connected to Gaia, methinks,” said Prometheus, “I’m kinda familiar enough with Gaian genetics that Anja already had bits of it before I came along.”
Gurumarra sighed, “That’s a result of the generic modifications done to Ryana when she was turned into a cyborg - Gaian bovine genetics, if I recall correctly, for strength and resiliance. She passed those on to her daughters.”
Natalia looked down at her chest, “That kinda explains a few things…”
Florrie pointed towards the ship, “We’re got some more bottles in a mini-fridge on the ship, if anyone else needs them.”
“All things considered that would be pretty damn helpful,” said Yang.
Suddenly, a car pulled up nearby. Getting out was Karla, carrying her newborn daughter, and Donavan, who had been driving. “Oh, good to see you, everyone.”
Donavan waved, “G’day. Looks like shit’s really about to go down. Thank fuck I’m not getting involved this time.”
Jay blinked, “Miss Thurman? Mr. Amner? What are you doing here?”
“Simple - I’m here to help. I’ve got magical powers now, so I gotta do my part too,” said Karla, “Donavan’s going to handle little Sandra here in the meantime.”
Estella chuckled, “Sure, he can hang out on the ship. You’re not the only mother here stepping into the fray.”
Karla nodded, kissing her baby daughter on the forehead and handing her off to Donavan, “Mummy will see you soon, sweetie. Take good care of her, Donny.”
“I’ll do my best. Man, way to make me feel like a dad,” chuckled Donavan, cradling the infant closely, “Try to come back alive and hopefully without being cocooned, alright?”
“I’ll do my best.” Karla nodded to him, and then turned to Gurumarra, “So what’s the urgency? Something about draining leylines? Isn’t every powerful magical being around gonna show up and smack this guy down?”
“You’re correct, but him drawing power isn’t the biggest problem,” Gurumarra sighed, “He’s making a massive gamble. He’s essentially attempting to drain the entire country’s leylines - essentially its magical lifeblood. If he does so completely? The entire continent would become uninhabitable.”
“Okay that is enormously fucked up,” Donavan said flatly.
Sonia glanced at Anja, “You… You think Harlan would go that far?”
Anja frowned, “Harlan? God, I hope not. But with the influence of that evil spirit…”
“Exactly,” said Gurumarra, “We’re talking a spirit encompassing the evil from Sun Wukong’s soul, without any of his redeeming qualities or scruples. As far as I’m concerned, there is no line he’s unwilling to cross.”
Natalia nodded, “Okay. What’s the plan?”
General Albrighton spoke up, “The armed forces will blockade every cave entrance we can find, while squads accompanied by agents from the Commission and other volunteers with supernatural abilities. They will move in to deal with any resistance inside. The six of you will cut through the enemy lines, and confront the commander directly to take him down and apprehend him.”
Florrie noted, “Let’s hope we can talk him down, then. But knowing Harlan and that spirit, it probably won’t work.”
“You’re going to be up against an entire army of their soldiers,” said Gurumarra, “This is a marathon, not a spirit. You’ll want to be in the best shape you can be before you get to the ‘Emperor’. And try to avoid hurting the people in the cocoons. We don’t know how they’re stored, but likely not in a way that makes it easy to avoid collateral damage.”
Estella nodded. “When do we start?”
Footsteps echoed through the darkness of the tunnel as the sisters, their friends, Karla, Agent Yang and the squad of soldiers accompanying them carefully advanced. There had been dark soldiers patrolling the tunnel, but they had been dispatched swiftly before they had an opportunity to raise an alarm, with Estella and Jay casting localised sound dampening spells to make it much easier. And all of them either had some form of night vision or were granted such an ability via enchantment, and the group was covered in a cloaking field coming from Florrie’s powered armour.
Natalia tried to push her anxieties about this mission to the back of her mind. She couldn’t afford to hesitate or give in to doubt now.
“So far so good,” Estella said softly, as she spotted an opening up ahead, “I think this is it.”
The group carefully emerged a much larger chamber, with multiple pathways and stairs in front of them, going both up and down. Jay frowned as they saw what was inside, whispering, “Jesus Christ.”
The chamber was a massive, multi-level complex containing hundreds of cocoons, either on the floor or stuck to walls or pillars. And inside, either moving about to manage the chamber or standing perfectly still in perfect formation, were the Emperor’s soldiers - hundreds of them, and more were being created from the cocoons.
“Holy shit,” whispered Sonia, “How many people have they taken?!” Natalia was wondering the same thing, and no doubt everyone else was too.
“There’s no way we’re going to be able to fight all of them at range without hurting the people in those cocoons,” Florrie said, “Even if Natalia and I can basically aim perfectly, one dodged shot could go badly…”
“We already have a plan for this exact scenario,” said the lieutenant in charge of the squad, “When every squad is in position, we’ll initiate controlled fire with the aim of avoiding civilian casualties. Once the enemy responds, we fall back to the tunnels and use them as choke-points.”
Agent Yang nodded, “The cocoons, based on our research, keep their captives alive. A few stray bullets into centre of mass should be far from fatal, as strange as it sounds. Our people will handle healing any accidental wounds.”
Natalia knew it was a solid plan. However… “Main problem is, making sure the bad guys follow us into the trap,” she mused.
“From my experience, they’re not particularly smart,” said Anja, “It shouldn’t be hard.”
Natalia sighed, “I guess it’s our only option, aside from just charging them, which is a bad idea. Alright, let’s wait.”
The group waited until the other squads were in position. The signal was sent out over radio, the invisibility was dropped, and gunfire immediately erupted as the enemy forces were carefully targeted on multiple sides, as soldiers used single, careful shots instead of automatic fire, with Natalia and Florrie doing the same. Estella, Jay and Agent Yang used homing projectiles instead.
At least some of the enemy soldiers seemed to take the bait, moving in large groups with shields raised to close the distance.
The squad backed off into the tunnel, to a predetermined choke-point, the soldiers forming a formation on a higher elevation, while the more supernaturally-oriented formed their own formation in front of them. Natalia and Florrie deployed portable energy shield barricades that were up to the waist and would electrocute anyone who touched them, before retreating to a slightly higher elevation, with Natalia deploying the Light Utility Vehicle and getting on the machine gun. Estella, Jay and Agent Yang conjured lines of flame in front of the barricade that would ignite anything that would step over them. Karla waited at the side, hair extended and slipping just past the barricades.
When the enemy horde came into view and started charging, the lieutenant called out, “On my signal… Three… Two… One… Weapons free!”
Automatic fire from both modern and futuristic weaponry rung out through the corridor, cutting through enemy soldiers, prioritising enemy soldiers with ranged weaponry. Some of the enemy soldiers were pinned in place by Karla’s hair. Those that managed to get close to the barricades were swiftly set alight, electrocuted by the barricades themselves and then swiftly cut down by the melee fighters. Even the ersatz ‘werewolves’ were cut down in short order.
Much to Natalia’s frustration, however, the enemy just kept coming. She was having trouble not overheating her machine gun, and she was firing so much that the LUV’s battery was starting to run low. Behind her, over the gunfire, she could hear one of the soldiers mention they were starting to run out of ammunition. How many were there?!
When it looked like they might have to retreat further, a familiar sniper shot cracked through the air, blowing off the head of one of the ‘werewolves’. Her suit’s rear camera showed another LUV like hers stopping behind the squad. On the wheel was Phi’Scia, while Tharen was using his sniper lance from the passenger seat, and Gartho was on the machine gun. Natalia looked back to confirm, “Talk about good time, you guys!”
Tharen laughed, dropping off a crate of ammunition, “The boss teleported us down himself when the Aquas finally showed up!”
Phi’Scia nodded, “Lady Sal’Arzia is also sending additional ammunition via drones to the other squads.”
Gartho let loose with the machine gun, “This should be enough to clear the rest!”
With additional firepower and ammunition, the enemy horde soon began to thin out, and eventually stopped entirely. They also heard distant gunfire from elsewhere gradually stop.
Florrie noted, “Looks like that’s either all of them, or they stopped taking the bait.”
“We won’t know until we see the chamber,” said Jay, “Let’s advance carefully, then.”
Anja could see that while there were still numerous enemy soldiers in the larger chamber, their numbers had thinned out considerably. Engaging in close quarters combat was now much more viable. In fact, she could see people emerging from the other tunnel entrances to begin the assault, including spellcasters and were-folk.
She formed her arm-blades and charged into the nearest cluster of soldiers, letting instincts take over as she charged the nearest enemy soldiers and started cutting them down, being mindful of cocoons near her as she attacked.
Sonia was suddenly by her side, as they started fighting back-to-back, “Hey, I’m not letting you go off on your own again and potentially getting yourself killed! Not this time!”
“You say that like they’ll kill me,” Anja said dryly as she blocked a sword strike.
“That’s not the point!” Sonia snapped, decapitating a soldier with flaming claws, “I know part of you doesn’t care if you die or get cocooned or whatever, but I sure as hell do. Also, thanks to your recklessness, we’re surrounded and cut off from everyone else.”
Anja cut down the soldier in front of her, but realised that Sonia was right. In her haste, she had allowed the enemy to come around behind her, cutting them both off. Now she felt like an idiot. “Sorry. We should probably cut our way through and-”
She couldn’t even finish that sentence before a sudden wind surged past them, delivering cuts to soldiers and bowling them over. Anja was initially very confused, before a familiar furry rotund figure smashed through soldiers as they tried to get back up, “Hey, Anja, you owe us again!”
Sonia smirked, “Hey, Kat. And I guess that’s Logos blowing ‘em all down?”
“And I don’t even need to huff and puff!” Logos suddenly flew in, as he began cutting through soldiers with his twin swords, “It seems fortune smiles upon you this day, surface-dwellers!”
“You know, we could’ve kicked their asses by ourselves! Especially with the power-up you gave us! But thanks anyway!”
Anja then heard a pair of lion roars to her left, and two figures started cutting through the horde with primal viciousness, even bringing down a couple of the ‘werewolves’ in the process. Despite their more feline and muscular appearances, Anja immediately recognised them as Sonia’s parents - Bahati and Thandeka.
Anja and Sonia continued the fight, and before long, the surrounding enemies were all slaughtered, giving them a moment of reprieve. Europa popped over via a portal, and Sonia hugged both of her parents, happily greeting them in her native tongue, and they hugged her back.
Bahati looked over Anja. “Is that you, Anja? That is an interesting look for you.”
Anja retracted her ‘helmet’, “Yeah. Long story. Thanks for coming over to help. I guess the rest of the pride’s here too?”
“Most of them, yes, at least most of the ones able to fight,” said Thandeka, walking over, “I never thought you’d get involved in the world of the supernatural this soon, or like this. Your parents were planning to tell you eventually. They were worried your mental state would make that difficult.”
“Believe me, I’ve had to deal with a lot these past few weeks. I don’t blame them one bit.”
“Still, you are stronger than you know. And I’m happy to know my daughter has been such a loyal and steadfast friend keeping you on the right path,” Thandeka smiled as she hugged Anja, before turning to the Gaians, “And these must be your underground friends, hmm? Goodness, I would’ve thought you were were-folk if I didn’t already know about you three. Thank you for helping our daughter and her best friend.”
Logos bowed politely, “It is our honour, Mrs. Mata.”
Europa noted, “This is all nice and all, but you two gotta get moving and take on the big villain. We’ll handle things here for now.”
“Yes, there’s still plenty more where they came from,” Bahati said, baring his claws as more soldiers started approaching them. “Get moving!”
Anja’s helmet reformed, and she nodded to Sonia, who nodded back, and they barrelled through the crowd, heading towards the deeper part of the chamber.
Estella was very relived when she, Natalia, Jay and Florrie ran into Anja and Sonia as they advanced towards the inner sanctum. Agent Yang, Karla and the aliens were staying behind to help the soldiers thin the enemy’s ranks.
At this point they had broken through and were almost at the tunnel likely leading to the Emperor’s chambers. But as expected, their doppelgangers were waiting for them.
Estella’s clone chuckled with a wicked smirk, barring the way. “About time you showed up. Thanks to the gracious boon from our lord, we’re even stronger than we were last time!”
Jay snorted, “So what? So are we. Enough chatter, time to settle this!”
Estella prepared her blade… and charged towards Natalia’s clone, firing off multiple flaming projectiles at her. Her own clone would’ve tried to intercept, but she was intercepted in turn by Anja and Sonia instead.
Indeed, that was the plan, as Jay devised - rather than fight their own clones, they’d rotate. In this case, Estella and Jay would handle Natalia’s copy. Both of them had reinforced themselves against energy attacks, and as it turned out, Natalia’s weaponry could not damage the lion pelt.
“WAIT WHAT?!” Natalia’s copy was desperately backpedalling and spraying Estella down with her blade rifle and shotgun mace, to very limited effect, “I thought this was gonna be a mirror match!”
“You didn’t actually plan for us to rotate match-ups, did you?” Estella smirked as she pursued her, clashing blades and hitting her with projectile spells several times, “Sorry, but we’re not fighting fair, here!”
“You actually had a fucking plan?! Bullshit! You always just go in half-cocked!” The clone ended up backing up against a wall of ice summoned by Jay, and desperately swung both weapons at Estella.
Estella parried them both in quick succession, knocking them out of her hands, and running her through with Allagí. “It’s not just me you’re fighting. Two heads are better than one, after all.”
The ice wall suddenly erupted, impaling the clone on several icicles, sealing her fate. “I’m sorry, Master… I… failed you…”
Estella winced as she watched the duplicate burn away. It wasn’t her real sister, but seeing even a copy of her die like that was unsettling. “Jay, did you really need to do that…?”
“Empowered like she was, based on my scan of her, it would take much more than a normal human to put her down,” Jay noted, “Yeah, it wasn’t pretty, but it had to be done.”
Estella turned to check how the others were doing…
Anja and Sonia were the most obvious match-up against Estella’s doppelganger, especially due to Sonia’s magic resistance.
Sonia was in front, arms raised to block the clone’s projectiles. Estella’s copy had taken to the air, trying to stay out of reach. However, Sonia extended a hand out, launching fireballs are her, forcing her to evade.
Anja jumped up onto Sonia’s shoulders, and Sonia hurled her into the air towards the clone, allowing her to tackle the copy to the ground, impaling her on her arm-blades. She felt the copy of Allagí go through her gut before they even hit the ground, sending a spike of agony through her body.
The clone snarled, trying to send a powerful shock through Anja’s body, “Fine, you have a death wish so bad, ‘dear sister’?! I’ll give you the death you want!”
“Yeah, fuck that,” said Sonia, charging over, and slamming a flaming boot down on the clone’s head, crushing it. It was a bit of a grisly sight, but the lack of blood and the inhuman nature of the copy thankfully helped somewhat. “I’m not letting Anja die, even if she wants it.”
Anja pulled the sword out of her gut, before cutting the body in half, watching as the remains were incinerated by Sonia, while Prometheus healed her injuries. “And I don’t want to die today. And hopefully, never again.”
Sonia chuckled, helping her up, “Nicely done.”
Anja smiled back. “Likewise.”
Anja’s copy lacking ranged options made her an ideal target for Natalia and Florrie to spray down with weapons fire.
Natalia was actively keeping her distance, wincing as the doppelganger pursued her with primal fury, warped into a moral bestial form. The constant moment seemed to be giving Florrie trouble when it came to actually aiming.
Natalia was using her blade rifle and her shotgun mace, ideally one at range and at the other in closer quarters, but she found herself being forced to use both as the copy relentlessly came at her, not even being slowed down for a moment no matter what seemed to hit her. She wasn’t sure what this warped clone of her sister was trying to do. “Are you trying to knock me out, or kill me?!”
“I thought you were submissive, Nat,” the clone growled, her voice also warped into an uncanny, hostile tone, “Our lord is the perfect master!”
“Yeah, I am submissive, but NOT LIKE THAT!” Natalia raised her hand, forming an energy shield as the clone got a bit too close to comfort, wincing from the impacts of blade and claw striking it, but held her ground for just a moment.
“GOTCHA!” Florrie finally managed to hit her mark with a plasma beam from her palm, knocking the clone down before she let loose with a barrage of energy micro-missiles.
That merely caused the clone to switch targets, her damaged body slowly regenerating as she charged Florrie, who was forced to raise an energy shield of her own to keep her at bay.
Natalia pulled out the energy launcher, and fired a fully-charged shot at centre of mass.
The clone turned around just in time to get struck right in the torso.
Natalia stepped back to brace herself as the explosion nearly knocked her off her feet, with Florrie’s shield being broken, but not thankfully her power armour was not damaged.
When the smoke cleared, the clone was missing a portion of her head, arm, part of her leg and about a quarter of her torso. “I’m… I’m going to-”
Florrie formed her plasma cutter, and sliced the copy in half horizontally. Natalia and Florrie wasted no time blasting the remainder of her body into ashes.
“Okay, good, we didn’t exert too much effort there,” muttered Natalia, “Good job, Florrie.”
“Could say the same to you, Nat. Nice timing with the launcher,” Florrie said, looking around, “Looks like the others have cleaned up too. I guess we can… Uh… This could be trouble.”
Natalia looked where she was staring. Emerging from the tunnel leading to the inner sanctum were more copies. Her HUD counted about twenty-one. “Oh, are you kidding me?!”
Estella frowned as the team quickly gathered back together, seeing the larger group of copies coming their way. “Guess even without the cocoons, he can make more…”
One of the Natalia clones said gleefully, “As long as there’s one of each of us, Master can duplicate us over time! And he dedicated quite a bit of time and energy to us!”
One of the Anja clones remarked, “Now that trick you guys pulled won’t work again. You’re going back into the fold, whether you like it or not.”
One of Estella’s clones raised her sword at the real her, “Your resistance ends-” Then her eyes widened, “SHIT, DUCK!”
The entire gathering of copies immediately attempted to duck out of the way as a streak of light shot over Estella’s head, briefly recognisable as a huge arrow of light, which struck the ground behind them and erupted into an explosion that sent most of them flying.
Estella looked over her shoulder, and her eyes widened, grinning as she saw a familiar figure on higher elevation, “Clarette!”
“Seems our arrival was quite timely,” remarked Clarette. Aurelius was there as well, of course, but neither of them had fired the arrow - that had been a young woman next to them, wielding an ornate, bladed bow. She had red eyes and long, blonde hair with huge immaculate curls, and an armoured dress of blue, silver and gold that was remarkably skimpy, even moreso than Estella’s outfit, showing off her very curvaceous figure, including a huge chest that rivalled the sisters. Atop her head sat a simple gold crown with a ruby affixed to the front.
“Tch. They dodged,” said the woman with a sigh, “I was hoping to end this with a single shot. Oh well, it can’t be helped.”
“Just more fun for me and Klaus, I suppose!” Coming up behind them was a young woman with green eyes and long, light brown hair with a cute wing ornament, tied into braids near the end. She was also armed with a bladed bow, and wearing a white top and boots, both with black trim, and a black skirt. Next to her was a huge brown bear.
“Then these abominations will be purged by my blade,” spoke another young woman, with shoulder-length hair and blue eyes. She wore an armoured dress that resembled a priest’s outfit, adorned in white and blue with gold trim that would be relatively modest if not for the notable cleavage window that provided substantial view of her also impressive chest. In her left hand she held a bible, and in the other hand she held what looked like a large one-handed sword but had a very long handle that allowed it to be used like a polearm, with the pommel inscribed with the holy cross.
“We were fortunate to come with additional reinforcements, all three of them Arcane Knights of the Order. Allow me to introduce them,” said Aurelius, “Noelle Lemaire, ranger, and her familiar, Klaus. Valeria Fiore, paladin of the Church. And last but not least, Princess Avaline Noëlla Halothine, Grandmaster of the Order.”
“She certainly is a descendant of that duke,” mumbled Allagí.
Avaline drew her bow once again, “Charmed, but we have to save the pleasantries until after this mess is over and done with.”
Indeed, the clones were quickly recovering from the explosion, and all of them were glaring angrily at them.
Natalia winced, “We’ve still got a numbers disadvantage…”
“Wanna say that again, little lady?” Tharen remarked as the other LUV came into view, stopped, and Gartho opened fire with the machine gun. Coming right after them were the Gaians and Sonia’s parents, heralded by Logos’ cutting wind flowing through the battlefield.
Both sides began to engage in battle, with blades flashing and projectiles flying. Estella was forced to contend with two of her clones, only for Valeria to come to her aid, running one of them through with her polearm and blasting her away with a burst of holy energy.
Estella chuckled, locking blades with the other clone, “Thanks for the help!”
“You’re welcome,” said Valeria, stabbing at the other clone, forcing her to jump back, “But if you’re going to fight by my side, then I demand that you alter that glamour of yours! That outfit is shameful!”
Estella had choice words for her, but she decided not to utter them. “Now’s not the time to talk about how skimpy my outfit is!”
The clone laughed, unleashing a burst of lightning from her hand, “Says the girl with the huge tits that look like they’ll pop out of her top at any moment! Also, I can see your bare thighs under your dress, and damn, they look thicc. I bet your pussy tastes real nice…”
“SHUT UP!” Estella and Valeria said in tandem, blocking the thunder with their blades, before rushing the clone.
Valeria locked blades with the copy, while Estella cut her doppelganger in half, before setting her remains aflame. Estella noted, “For the record, those were not my thoughts, and I’d ignore whatever my evil clones say, if I were you.”
“Hmph. Pervert. I don’t know why Clarette thinks so highly of you,” Valeria huffed, as she focused on a new target. “Stay out of my way.”
“Well, well, someone who actively seems to dislike you immediately. That’s new,” remarked Allagí.
Estella just groaned. This was not what she needed right now. Why did Clarette bring the paladin with the stick up her arse?!
One of Anja’s clones came at her, but was suddenly intercepted by Klaus, who started viciously mauling her. Noelle leaped off his back, splitting her bow into two swords that she drove into the clone’s head. However, the clone attempted to stab her, only for Klaus to rip off one arm with his maw, and Estella cut off the other in tandem, allowing Noelle to rip off her head, before Estella burned the body.
The brunette smiled, turning to her, “Thanks for the save, I thought she’d go down quicker than that!”
“Quite, it seems these duplicates are akin to certain kinds of demons in that manner, and we should treat them as such,” said Avaline as she walked up, hitting one of Natalia’s clones with a perfect shot, blasting a chunk off her body before the princess cut her to ribbons in short order, “Like so!”
“Geez, I clearly have a lot to learn if our clones are getting wrecked this easily,” Estella mused.
“Such copies often are somewhat degraded compared to the real thing, especially when mass-manufactured like this,” said Avaline, turning to her, “I’m sure this will be over and done with by suppertime. Perhaps we can celebrate in private later, hmm~? I will say, you’re far more attractive than Lady Leigh implied…”
Noelle shot her an annoyed glance, “Grandmaster, are you seriously flirting with someone you just met in the middle of battle?!”
“Oh, yes, I should be focusing on the fight. Apologies!” Avaline turned around, and drew her bow to focus on a new target.
“Bloody hell, she’s hornier than me,” Estella muttered in surprise.
Noelle sighed, and got back on Klaus’ back, “Yeah, if it’s not demonic or ugly as sin, if it moves, the Princess will likely attempt to shag it. I’ve caught her ‘riding’ her horse more than once.”
Estella decided it was best not to think about that.
However, she noticed something else - more clones were emerging from the tunnel. “Oh, great, there’s more of them! We’re gonna waste all our energy fighting these…”
Suddenly, something began to break through the ceiling above. Everyone moved apart, creating some distance from it.
Two figures broke through, starting to float down from the ceiling. Estella recognised them both instantly - her parents. Atsuko was adorned in ornate samurai armour without a helmet, while Ryana had a bodysuit with futuristic armour plating, using foot-mounted jets to hover towards the ground, firing off energy beams from her arm cannon, while Atsuko was unleashing bursts of energy from her palms, forcing the clones to back off. Estella thought she saw Atsuko’s eyes shift for a moment, but she wasn’t close enough to tell what changed.
“MUMS!” Natalia called out. Estella could practically hear the grin on her face, despite her helmet.
Ryana smiled, dropping to the ground, and hugging her daughters, “You’re all okay, and fighting the good fight! Thank goodness!”
Atsuko did the same, with a laugh that seemed almost uncharacteristic of her. “Maybe I underestimated you three after all. Don’t worry, Mummy’s here. Both of us.”
Anja hugged them both back, as did Natalia. “We missed you both.”
“Nice of you to join us, you two!” Thandeka remarked, “I knew you’d drop everything and race over here when you heard your daughters were in trouble.”
Estella chuckled, hugging both her mothers, “Thanks for making it in time.”
“Alright, enough commiserating for now!” Ryana remarked, “We know the plan, we’ll make a path for you six to get through and stop Harlan. Don’t worry. We’ll be right behind you once we’re done mopping up here.”
“No matter what happens, as long as you do your best, we’re proud of you,” Atsuko chuckled.
“Well said,” said Gurumarra, as he walked up, followed by Agent Yang and Karla. He placed his hand to the ground, causing a rupture in the ground that forced the group of clones apart, forming a straight path to the tunnel ahead. “Take out whatever’s producing these copies, and deal with the main threat.”
“No pressure!” remarked Yang, “Well, maybe a little. Go kick his ass.”
Karla remarked, as she formed a wall of hair, “When this is over, we’re having another interview, ladies! I wish I could see your battle with my own eyes, but alas…”
“Okay, enough of that, get going already!” said Phi’Scia.
Logos nodded, “May the earth mother protect you.”
“And may God bless your every step,” said Clarette.
Estella nodded, “You heard them. Let’s move!”
The six of them took off, past the angry clones and into the tunnels, cutting down another set of clones on their way through.
It was time to confront their greatest threat.
