Essentia Animus

76-Unstoppable Destruction

Explanations had proven more than just challenging once Riyxia had spotted them, but Sryine had heard enough to get the basic idea of what was going on. What as of yet remained a bigger problem was how to deal with the situation left to them.

"You know, I don't think this is working.. It's just making her mad.. or more mad.. madder?" "Shut up, please, I don't care, it's not like we've got any other ideas to work with, and right now I think this is better than dying. Besides, aren't you the one here losing her sanity?" "Oh right, good point. It doesn't madder.. matter anyway, fighting with ourselves would be crazy when we're already fighting among ourselves. Honestly though, crazy is one thing, but let's not be stupid. Running around like fools all day would be just foolish, we need to instead figure out how to be the ones doing the fooling and turn everything around on her." "If you've actually got an idea, I'm all ears. Until then, shut up!" Sryine giggled as she otherwise complied with Vwyx's uncompromising demands. It was surprising just how much of a truce the two of them had found themselves in when left exposed to an overdominant flame that conflicted to the will of their natural selves. It was like each side of themself had taken a moment to plead to the other for help, only to realize that the other could do nothing without help. This left the weirdest feeling for Sryine, like she had totally gone insane.. but with her own will remaining intact. She was thus pondering careful plans and ideas, laughing at her own cleverness. The best of both worlds.. and still really awkward. Vwyx was in a very similar position, being very distant and dismissive, stern and uncompromising, a feeling of being devoid of emotion while still actually fully concerned about the situation and the state of her friends.

Sryine suddenly found herself off balance, the world spinning around her as her sense of balance was destroyed. It really didn't help that she was already mentally off balance too, that just made her even more dizzy. Sryine fell to the ground as an ersatz came down on her hard with a drop kick to the spine. She could feel her back tearing apart by the blow, assisted by Riyxia's attempt to unmake her in the process. The flame within however tempered her, trying to resist this considerable influence. Even so, she wasn't strong enough to block such out completely, the whole thing tearing upon her in the process. Vwyx rushed to Sryine's aid, creating cloth bandages from metal shards rapidly over Sryine to provide some aspect of support. It was the best she could do without the healing process they had grown used to. In the process of providing such support, Vwyx left herself wide open to an attack, an opportunity Riyxia capitalized upon. The sharp punch pierced right through Vwyx's shoulder blade, completely dislocating her right arm. This was really bad, the threat of the flame they faced was beyond what they could handle. Riyxia herself stepped forward, a mantle of purple flame blazing over her body like she was a demon out of some nightmare. Sryine coughed a faint pained chuckle at the irony, even her grimmest illusions were never as real as the actual demon that they currently faced. Vwyx clutched her broken arm with her unbroken one, thankful that she was being deprived of the pain even if it did nothing for her feelings of dread. As the haze of the flame generated from the conflict and the injuries started to turn the room itself black, the heat of the room grew steadily stronger. To Sryine and Vwyx, it was as if the very flame they had grown to depend on had suddenly betrayed them, turned against them, and was overwhelming them.

A sudden rumble of the room agreed with such an assessment, as instruments of the room finally detected ambient heat above acceptable limits. A siren broke out through the room as the emergency water cooling system finally came to life. Panels everywhere split open as a high pressure force of ice-water was propelled into the room at a massive speed in equally massive quantities. Sryine rushed to protect herself with a wind bubble before she was suddenly completely submerged. Vwyx made use of another gravity grenade to throw her into the air, avoiding the cold by remaining within the heat in the upper section of the room. Neither of them were in a very good situation with this sudden complication, as Vwyx was suddenly aware just how unstable the above platforms actually were. Sryine meanwhile was having trouble moving, but was at this point fully underwater, leaving all of her concentration simply to keep her wind bubble active. Dread set upon them both as they realized just how vulnerable they actually were to this environment. However, moments later, they both realized that there was no follow up attack to come afterwards. Riyxia had stood her grounds in defiance of the water threat, bringing the compounded strength of her flame to bear. Celesi water however still had enough strength to compete with her, and an equally mighty flame stands no chance against the might of its equal in water. Thousands of ersatz were water blasted across the room, crushed into walls and pillars with a torrent of remorseless water. Eventually, Riyxia was forced to withdraw as well, the pain of a few ersatz crushed completely beneath the waters still washing over her.