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Chapter 78 - Permanence

Lila shook her head rapidly, snapping out of her stupor before hurling herself into the fray. She couldn't allow Ivy to stand alone. And with the Xenquar gone, and her heart lit aflame, she could use the full extent of her power.

Grabbing onto Ivy's baton, which had been floating at the ready behind her back, Lila wrapped her Psionic weave around it before swinging it like a flail. Her aim was true, slamming the baton right on top of Imura's trident, shattering it into pieces. But Imura still seemed unbothered, forming a Psionic disk around her wrist before launching it at the girls.

Lila slid low, and Ivy jumped high, as both the girls evaded the attack. But as they attacked Imura in unison, she held her own, deflecting with her sharpened claws as she backed away. The Flayer then slammed her heel onto the ground, causing a boulder to rise up from the wet dirt before rolling itself towards the heiress.

Ivy managed to raise her staff and smash the rock before it could run her over. But Lila wasn't quite as prepared, unable to dodge the purple rift that appeared behind her, containing a lone Xenquar that had been called forth by Imura. She didn't remain pinned for long, however, as she used her Psionic speed to slip under its claws and grab onto its tail.

Lila spun the creature around, amplifying her rotational cycle with a few Psionic blinks. At the end of her windup, she managed to throw the creature straight at Imura, who casually smashed it into meaty bits with her fist. It was a ridiculous attack to be sure, but enough to be a good distraction.

"You know what to do," Lila whispered into Ivy's mind.

Ivy raised her staff high, winding up for her strongest, most predictable swing, only to be relocated by Lila at the last instance with a magenta colored flash. Imura prepared herself to block from the wrong angle, caught off guard as the staff struck the back of her knee. Pain didn't seem to mean anything to her, and it wasn't long before she slid across the dirt with her hand raised aloft.

The metallic nails attached to Imura's digits suddenly flew off, flying towards the girls like a swarm of bees. Lila responded with her typical evasive maneuvers, keeping herself and the heiress safe. But Imura had seen the pattern.

"Ack!" Lila wheezed, her neck firmly caught by a purple ring of energy.

The life was being choked out of her by the Flayer, reducing her speed dramatically. Ivy responded with a wall of hexagons to protect herself as she tried to remove the binds, counting on Imura to turn them to her side. Sure enough, the flayer took hold of the wall and used it as a battering ram as it slid towards the girls.

"No, you," Ivy recited the joke on her companion's behalf.

The heiress's eyes flashed red, and after touching Lila's neck with a tender hand, she managed to mimic a fraction of her power. The Psionic wall was redirected, teleported behind Imura just before crashing into her. Like before, Ivy hadn't the slightest clue as to how she was utilizing this new ability.

She simply went with the flow.

But that was how Yrix liked to teach them. In Lila's words, it was about messing around and finding out.

She then pulled with all her might, tearing the binding off of Lila's neck. Ivy didn't have the time to check if she was alright; however, as she became consumed by her desire to destroy Imura. It was then that she began to understand how Sonera felt.

Revenge was a good motivator. And Imura had hurt Lila. Her precious Lila.

Calling forth a series of panels that surrounded Imura, Ivy threw her baton, allowing it to bounce off each panel until it became an unavoidable swarm. Imura clasped her hands together in response, forming a ball of void-like energy in her palms before throwing it onto the floor with a leap, shattering Ivy's attack before it could strike her.

The heiress was ready for the exchange. Lifting her staff high, she called forth a bright light that shone from the tip. Imura reeled backwards, blinded and surprised that Ivy even knew how to conjure such a spell. At a certain point, the most advanced of Psionic abilities were indeed akin to magic.

But Imura knew some tricks of her own, shutting her singular eye before disappearing into a purple rift. She might not have been able to see Ivy through the blinding light, but she could feel the energy that radiated from her. A sharpened claw emerged from the void, slashing Ivy across her back.

The heiress fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Her ambience absorbed most of the blow, but she was still weakened.

"And so it is done." Imura hissed, reaching out for her broken trident, reconstructing it from the broken fragments before holding it aloft. "Die now."

Ivy spun around, her eyes flickering red. Just before Imura could plunge her blade into the heiress's chest, her trident suddenly exploded, this time in a ball of fire. It was the munitions that had been tampered with, meddled with by Ivy from within the firing chamber.

"What the-." Imura scoffed, looking down at her bleeding hands.

She kicked Ivy in the face just before the heiress could smirk. But before she could dig her claws into her heart, Lila came up from behind, fortifying her feet with her own ambience before dropkicking the Psion with all her might. Ivy was quick to take advantage of the opening, forming another baton before using it to cast another blinding flash of light right in front of Imura's face.

The two girls then held hands, unleashing a flurry of teleporting attacks as they assaulted their stunned opponent with everything they had.

Lila wanted to say something along the lines of "wombo combo", but the words escaped her. She just wanted to win. So that after all was said and done, she could keel over and cry.

Imura flew backwards, unable to block Ivy's staff once it came from every conceivable direction. But she was able to get a grip on the pair with her Psionic grasp, pulling them apart before throwing another disk at Lila's face, knocking her to the ground. The disk then rebounded back towards Ivy, but was absorbed completely by her open palm.

"You said you wanted the truth," Ivy muttered to herself as her staff glowed with the same energy that Imura had wielded. "Well, here it is."

The heiress's staff transformed, lengthening into a black scythe as she swung it at Imura in a devastating onslaught. The Flayer tried disappearing into a rift, but somehow the scythe pulled her back into reality as it spun around Ivy's waist. It cut deep, blowing past both Imura's hands and her Psionic barrier.

Ivy swung again and again, slashing her opponent over and over with merciless precision. She didn't really know where she had gotten the scythe, or what it meant, but it was strong enough to overcome the sheer gap in experience between the two combatants. With one last final slash, she managed to aim high and cut straight through Imura.

The Psion didn't have any last words before her head fell to the ground.

It was over.

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