A single resonance signal was approaching their position. Eri focused intently on its waveform and its location, deciding to meet the lone remnant as it was most likely an android. But her concern increased as the signature came to a halt two hundred meters away.
Standing at the ledge of the ruined building, she saw it: purple hair and silky red eyes, a black coat covering her slim body. A woman with a completely unfamiliar android-like body, neither Meteorn, Human, nor android.
She watched as the glowing woman moved elegantly forward across the muddy field, her presence emanating with purpose and a strong aura surrounding her.
Eri gripped her rifle, pouring her resonance into it to fire off a devastating burst.
However, upon releasing the energy, the bolt flew towards the android's face... and missed entirely. It simply phased through the person and vanished without touching her.
Eri jumped down and stood ready; the tall, beautiful woman's graceful steps sounded in the courtyard.
The figure of the woman flickered as she spoke, "Eri, don't be afraid. I've come to retrieve the two of you. Can you send me Yuren's location?"
"Who are you?!" The resonance in Eri's rifle flared, the weapon ready to fire at any moment.
"OMA-01 Izanami. Call me Izana, it's easier."
"lying?!"
Ishana narrowed her eyes and sighed; her stance did not change, standing erect with her hands behind her back. "Maybe it's better if Introduced myself as the person I used to be, Amalia VolStenthorn."
Eri took a few steps back, though the sudden revelation made her stop. She held the rifle at her waist, looking up at the woman questioningly.
The android smiled, "Don't worry. I will free Yuren from the shackles of deception and tell him the truth about all of this. That way, he and the Empire can embrace their true destiny."
"No." Eri's eyes turned bright red, resonance flooding from her body to the rifle, the metal structure glowing with powerful energy as her feet slid against the pavement to support the shot.
Ishana blinked in surprise and took a half step back, "Isn't it time you stopped pretending to be an android? I only allowed it because he was supposed to contain you."
"Contain?" Eri's hair turned silver, and the signature black and white armor of a Meteorn appeared on her body. Six weapons appeared out of a golden mist and started orbiting her body.
A golden aegis formed a semi-sphere-shaped barrier, locking Eri in a thick energy cage. This was her greatest defense, but her offense was her secret weapon.
"To think it was a tyrant class Meteorn that was hiding right under my nose." Ishana's frown deepened and her eyes turned red and she raised her arm, "Where's Yuren!?"
Two fists made of golden energy materialized before her, at the center of each, a shining white core grew, before a sharp blade-like talon began to protrude from the orbs.
As the constructs sped toward Eri, they fired a massive blast of energy, powerful blue spheres of energy rammed into her barrier.
A powerful shockwave created a large crack in the ground, her barrier's brilliance reduced to a meager flickering before fading as the attacks continued to bash at their target.
Much of her barrier shuddered against the intense attack, Eri's eyes dulled, and the air became thinner as she gathered energy to push forward through the blast.
This time, she did not defend, taking the full brunt of Ishana's fist as she closed the distance instantly. In the instant their collision occurred, a powerful force wave erupted that kicked up an entire pile of dust and rubble into the air.
But what came from below sent out a blinding glow, forcing Ishana back just in time to block a blast of golden energy, lashing her back down upon the ground.
Another of Eri's weapons hovered above, a gleaming black spike pointing down toward her target.
"Quantum Energy?! What kind of Meteorn are you? How can you not be using Resonance?" Ishana glared at the spinning ring of blades.
"I can change it, that's why it's useless against me. You should stop digging into an abyss, human. Remove that core from your body and stop exploiting our kind." A massive white pillar of energy flowed down the spike as the white-silver Meteorn levitated over the battlefield. In a dignified manner, she held one arm outstretched, the ring behind her body moving in a clockwise spin, the slow velocity picked up speed until it became an almost impossible visual.
A large rotating white disk, an area surrounding her, lit up as a bluish hue slowly glowed from the surface. The very air itself sparked as it visibly flashed inside.
Ishana knew she wasn't going to win if she insisted on fighting a Meteorn physically when she didn't have a counter for the quantum energy this one carried. "I've come too far to let this end!"
The red energy of resonance began to build around Ishana's body as she floated above the dusty battlefield. Reaching as high as the clouds above, her resonance energy exploded downward in the form of a concentrated blast, screaming across the land like a meteor breaking through the atmosphere.
While Eri retaliated, the entire landscape became engulfed in a tidal wave of brilliant light as its blazing heat and destruction collided with Eri's unknown force. An eye of the storm enveloped the space between them, their powers struggling against one another.
Seeing she couldn't overpower Eri directly, her final trump card had been revealed. Using the raw force of her will, she ignited an explosion to increase the power of her attack tremendously, pushing through with the rest of her might; she was going to condense resonance around Eri and implode it, crushing her in a spatial collapsar.
Grinning wickedly at the notion of killing one of the strongest Meteorn ever encountered by humans.
The last dregs of her resistance had collapsed, the blast faded, revealing that the target had long escaped, vanished, without a single trace; not even dust was left floating in the air.
The remnants of the nearby buildings had now been reduced to rubble, and everything in the immediate area had been flattened, as if there was no one there. But a lone figure stood at the epicenter.
Ishana was pushed further into a rage at the prospect of this Meteorn surviving. There was no conceivable way a lesser Meteorn had the power to dodge that strike, even if it was faster.
"You dumbass. She used the simplest method of evading a large attack by warping away." Garra called out from the center of a crater. Now that the transformation was finished, her new look was on full display. Black and red hair reaching her waist, and the crimson eyes of a Meteorn.
Her armor reflected a more exotic design compared to Eri's white and black three-layered armor. The intricate details on the red accents forming a mystical dragon lined the waistband and her upper arms, each reaching her chest with the legs crossing over her sides, framing her appearance; the fine and perfectly smooth armor.
But what stood out was a ring on her shoulder; attached to the opposite arm was a long fur cloak. On both shoulders were plates extending forward as armor. Almost as if a royal cape had become permanent wings. Her boots and gloves were the same shade as Eri's, which seemed the only resemblance the two androids shared.
Having failed her attempt to eliminate Eri, who was supposedly an even more dangerous entity, Ishana immediately sought a different angle of attack; A very fine and concentrated beam of resonance energy emerged from one fingertip and slashed at the transformed Meteorn, Garra.
A large cannon formed from the golden mist that emerged from Garra's hair and fired a massive energy burst at the beam. In an instant, the space between them roared with a powerful blast, destroying more of the surroundings.
"Enough!" A voice rang out, and immediately, all the energy from both sides dispersed. "No more blood should be shed today."
Out of the now gray atmosphere, Esotonia ascended, and into the view of both. And with the wave of a hand, a flash of light warped Garra away.
Ishana stood silent, the apocalypse class had appeared once more, this time for some reason she didn't have the same rage or fire in her expression, instead she seemed... somber.
"You who has taken a core of our kind and placed it in your body. Whilst it does make me angry you have done that to one of my sisters... today is not a day for vengeance. You will no longer perpetuate such crimes by continuing your use of Meteorn cores." Esotonia's aura emanated outward, and space began to distort and twist as she raised her arm.
Hastily, Ishana tried to prepare herself for whatever attack was being leveled at her, but as the air distorted, she found herself back in the capital city within the blink of an eye, staring up at the night sky, without Garra or Eri.
The sudden change completely threw her off guard. After engaging with both sides just now, returning here was a completely unexpected turn of events.
She couldn't fathom how the apocalypse class could transport someone such a distance so quickly. Her intelligence on that particular Meteorn didn't match her abilities. Perhaps there were additional factors that contributed to her teleportation powers? But that didn't mean anything if Ishana couldn't at least see what was happening before the teleportation was about to take place.
Getting Yuren was going to be significantly harder than before because the apocalypse class was still around. Knowing that what she had done before was no longer going to work was the worst thing that could have happened. Now, the real question was whether Yuren would believe her after what had transpired here?