The vibrant green armour felt wrong in the possession of Arkeidos. Although the mist had tinted to a more friendly variant of the colour, harmonizing with the Tempi this body was forged from, it was still discordant with the souls wailing in the background. The armour seemed smaller than the others and more streamlined. The various segments were aerodynamically designed, giving this version of the Emperor a sleek appearance.

Smaller he may have been, but he still towered over Undine, at least a metre her better. She suppressed any petty emotions that rose within her. They had no place here, no value. Her calm was important now. Doubly so because Gnome was having a worse stammer than usual.

“S-s-s-s-so, i-i-if you c-c-c-could go e-easy o-o-o-on, us m-m-m-mister horrible, that’d be… be ver-very great!” The sentence ended on a high pitch and the season elemental still pumped her fist as if she had done something incredible. Sometimes, Undine was very annoyed with their leader. For one standing first among the forces of nature they had become, she was too meek.

Then again, it was the meekness that made her stand out among them.

“She’s trying to say that we will burn you to the fucking ground,” Salamander announced.

“That’s exactly not what I’m saying, I want him to go easy on us!” Arkeidos crossed his arms, his contempt at the idea radiating without a single word. “Uwu… uwuwuwuwuwu…”

“Calm,” Undine advised their leader. Flowing around her, doubling a hug with her cooling presence, the abysstide elemental connected to Gnome’s mind. ‘Your fear will not aid us here. Focus not on what you wish, but what he deserves.’

‘O-okay…’ The aggregable woman nodded and closed her eyes. From deep within her, she pulled forth all the contempt she could muster. The images of all the horrid scenes they had witnessed, the knowledge that he was holding Claire hostage, and that he was about to smash John around on the roof, all of it bloomed in the peak of aggression her wonderful soul was capable of. “We will… beat you, because you are a horrible person who cannot be saved!”

Arkeidos only had three words for them, “You bore me.”

“Hm, men rarely keep that opinion when it comes to me,” Siena hummed. She scowled when there was no reaction. ‘No quipping with this one, how dull.’

‘Maybe we are just boring,’ Gnome said.

‘Impossible, completely impossible, absolutely, positively, not possible. Nope, nah, nope, nope,’ Sylph created a word salad of denial. ‘We are the bestest, the cutest elementals around. He just has no taste whatsoever. That’s why John has us and he has no one. Iron Maiden? More like Iron No-show!’

Salamander rolled her eyes with such conviction, it could be felt through the mental connection. ‘Quite certain they are currently downstairs, tearing into our fucking allies.’

‘SHE is, singular, there’s only one, Claire totally killed the other one, because Claire is awesome!’

Undine, for once, agreed with the airhead. ‘It is possible.’

‘See, Undine knows what’s up and she is strong and wise and really, really, really beautiful!’

The slime girl quietly retreated her spirit from the conversation. Satisfaction and indulgence of the compliments rose and were quickly smothered. All that remained were expectations, the sisterly love she had for the other four elementals present, and a rage that boiled in the depths of her soul, like a deep-sea volcano. Those three emotions were her weapons. Those three, she deemed appropriate for the situation. Those three, she would carry to battle.

Control over her mind had to be maintained. Like her body, it was only a useful tool when its fluidity was reigned in by her will. The greyish, dark blue abyssstide elemental spread the influence of her mind back out through the mental connection they shared. Although Gnome was their leader, Undine had the greatest capacity at sharing everyone’s senses. The different perspectives and sensations flooded into her and were digested without issue. Five times her normal senses were no issue to her, who was capable of splitting several dozen times.

What to share of these senses, that was the greater task. The elementals had no commander among themselves. Those that would usually instruct their efforts, John or Momo, were far away. Gnome was too hesitant to give more than general goals, Salamander too much of a hothead, Siena too focused on herself, Sylph was… Sylph, and Undine, Undine did not trust herself to make the correct calls. All she could truly do was to try and let them all achieve a unity in which they could work as one whole. There was no leadership required in a hive.

It was their best bet. Doubts had to be smothered. If anyone could achieve that kind of connection, it would be them.

The platform ended its horizontal path and entered a chamber dedicated entirely to the wind. At first, that appeared to be a purely visual decision, with the sky blue ceiling and the many decorative elements resembling gusts and storms. Once the tunnel closed behind them, however, the enchantments activated.

Magic buzzed in the air, overpowered by the strong winds it summoned. The very dimensions of the room were expanded, up and downwards. The painted ceiling rose off into the distance, transitioning from a roof to an almost proper sky, complete with a bright light serving as a midday sun. Simultaneously, the countless statues throughout the massive dome hovered up and down at many different rates of speed, creating a three-dimensional battlefield. Down below, massive turbines whirled to create constant winds that rushed upwards, which were formed by the slanted undersides of the separated platforms, and then further channelled by the shapes and magics within the statues.

Arkeidos crossed his arms, the green mist pouring from his body turning into a whirl around and then under his feet as he rose to the air. Like a djinni, the Emperor hovered. A dozen razor-thin blades appeared from behind his back, each forged from the same metal as his body. They were shaped like long, right-sided triangles. “Let us make this swift,” he stated and the weapons were sent flying.

Sylph and Siena dashed back. Gnome charged at Arkeidos, Salamander’s opening attack flying over her head. Undine concentrated on a nearby patch of shadow, creating a new body in the trajectory of one of the blades.

The Tempi weapon was aimed at Siena and cut through the barrier of a swiftly formed body so cleanly, it didn’t hurt Undine at all. Her slime closed behind the passing blade, with no loss in mass or even any regenerative effort. A lack of damage also meant a total lack of hindering the weapon.

Of one mind, Siena stopped as Undine spawned a third body from her shadow. Their mana mixed, spurring the creation of the rubbery matter only the upper echelons of water-shadow elementals could create. Liquid shadow coated her stomach. Like the previous body, it was immediately sliced through. Some of it stuck to the sides of the blade, though, and kept stretching even after the weapon had made its way through her abdomen.

Siena jumped to a higher platform, then swiftly skittered up the side of a tall statue. Her silky hair blew in the wind. Gusts whistled around the blade and through the strands of liquid shadow that kept on stretching, stickier and more flexible than spider silk and fluid rubber combined.

The third Undine reshaped, turning inside out so the black material no longer stretched through her own body. Rather than assume a human form afterwards, she became a blob that anchored itself as well as it could around the statue there. A mass of dark blue, enveloping a large, male head, blowing air out into the storm.

Even the Tempi blade eventually had to succumb to the stretchiness of the liquid shadow. Its chase of Siena ended when the amount of force in the rubber band exceeded the momentum of the weapon. First it slowed, then it stopped, then it was rapidly pulled towards the anchor point. The Undine blob spread out in anticipation and, like a starfish turned ambush predator, enveloped the weapon instantly. The liquid shadow fully coated the weapon, hopefully turning it useless.

Elsewhere, Sylph was in the same situation, but managed to outrun two of the weapons by zipping about. She circled back around to the main platform, arriving just as the dust cloud of the initial meteor strike cleared. Lighting crackled through the air, clashing with an opposing discharge of electricity from the Emperor, whose body bore the slight signs of having taken the previous attack.

Two lightning beams vied for dominance. Another one of the three other blades sliced through Gnome. Like with Undine, the earth spirit took the impact in stride. Although her regenerative factor was certainly less impressive, it was enough to deal with a wound like this.

The season elemental’s fist collided with Arkeidos’ chest, causing the plates defining the pectoral muscles to rise just a bit. Two butterflies settled down and started to glow. Salamander swooped down, smashing her fist against the opponent as well.

The horrible, screeching sound of rock over metal overpowered the storm for three solid seconds as the roots of the earth trees expanded between the segments of armour. Two thin trunks stuck out from the upper chest of the tyrant. “You demand a change of strategy, elementals,” Arkeidos admitted, a twinge of excitement making its way into his voice.

Flexing his power, he sent a powerful surge outward, forcing Sylph to surrender the struggle and dash off to the side. Raising his freed hand above his head, Arkeidos swirled the air above him. The room reacted; the storm picked up, gathering dust or creating it with the raw power of the wind. In the stormy hall of the Revenant Emperor, a tornado soon obscured the vision of the owner of the domicile. Tiny pieces of metal and dust rubbed together, creating electricity, which discharged in a series of bangs and flashes. The five remaining blades were pulled into this storm. The five elementals struggled to keep their distance.

Practically weightless as they were, Siena and Salamander struggled immensely to not be claimed by the vortex. Anchored down by Gnome or Undine, pressed against statues, they were fine until the lightning strikes within the tornado turned outwards. Blue electricity struck Gnome, Salamander, Siena and the several bodies of Undine. The first and last of that group could cope with it quite well, the fire spirit managed the one, but Siena was badly hurt. Already connected to one of Undine’s bodies, the healing process began immediately.

Intuitively, they disregarded the waiting strategy. Anger surged in the one member of them that was entirely unfazed by the storm. Undine expanded her influence on Sylph’s mind, imparted to her all of the pain the rest of them had just been through, the helplessness they experienced in this adversarial wind, and the evil of their enemy. Anger turned into incredible wrath. Sylph dashed over to where the rest of them were clustered between two platforms.

Suddenly, the world became silent.

Around the arcvolt elemental, all wind stopped. The air itself stopped. Had any of them needed to breathe, they would have found it incredibly difficult to do so. Not even sound reached them as another lightning strike descended on Siena.

It curved unnaturally, describing the kind of smooth curve electricity never did naturally, before continuing in the crackling, jagged fashion observed during lightning strikes. It smashed down on Sylph’s raised hand, pushing it backwards as she caught the energy in her palm. Swiftly she raised the hand again, a ball of electricity dancing in front of it. A second lighting strike curved away from Salamander and Gnome, a third from where Undine’s first body stood. A fourth, a fifth, a sixth, a consistent hammering of lightning down on the small air spirit. Each time, it threw her off balance. Each time, she caught herself and focused back on her task. Grim determination in her soul, she grew the gathering of magic.

Then she raised her arm in a different way. Clenching the practically solid sphere of voltage, she forced it into the form of a javelin. The bundled together lightning strikes danced in the confinement of the elongated shape and were then launched with one mighty throw at the tornado. In its flight, the javelin pulled into it all of the other electricity.

Sound returned to the world as Sylph had exhausted her Unleash for the time being. An eardrum shattering boom shook the chamber, strong enough to make Undine feel her bodies deform from the severity of the shockwave.

The tornado was blasted apart, the dust scattering to the far ends of the colossal chamber. Revealed was Arkeidos. The tip of the javelin turned the green Tempi bright with incandescence, as it did with the palms of his hands. Electricity jumped back and forth between the spear and his body. Excitement at a successful attack rushed through the connection.

Undine drowned it in caution and immediately they were all back on the offensive. Rapidly, they approached Arkeidos, who suddenly grabbed the manifested lighting strike and pulled it away from his chest. Drops of melted metal flew through the air, confirming that it had been indeed a powerful blow.

Holding the javelin in one hand, he pointed the other at the five of them and channelled the unending storm from the turbines below into their direction. The attack did not hurt, only hindered their approach. Salamander and Siena swerved to the side, Gnome and Sylph tried to weather through the centre, Undine focused on keeping bits and pieces of her surface area from flying away.

While they were occupied, Arkeidos focused on the lightning whose control he had regained. The five blades of Tempi lowered onto it and were soon enveloped by a coil of lightning that rose upwards. Thirty seconds later, the electricity retreated into the javelin. A javelin that was now a spear, tipped by a spiral formed from the five blades that had been melted and warped by the electromagnetic heat. They immediately began to turn, soon rotating at such a speed that they appeared solid.

With the spear of lightning and wind, the Emperor, for the first time since combat began, moved from the spot he hovered. Charging straight at Undine, he eliminated her efforts at keeping that body together in an instant. The torrent created by the rotating blade turned her into a scattering vortex of goo.

Disruptive as the attack was, it did not properly destroy her. Much of the slime turned into water, as Undine rescinded control over it. Several of the larger splatters that hit nearby platforms grew rapidly, until reaching the size of their own person. Undine had to be careful, only one of these bodies was her real one and its demise would spell the death of all of her. Arkeidos, thankfully, did not know that.

Watching the one target he had wanted to eliminate turning into half a dozen more, the Emperor must have decided to pursue more worthwhile endeavours and instead turned towards Gnome. With speed worthy of being dedicated to wind and lightning, he thrust the spear at the earth spirit. Obliterated, her shoulder turned into mud, leaves, and sand.

Gnome threw her punch, then attempted to back off. Setting after her, Arkeidos was stopped by a combo attack of Sylph and Siena, a lightning strike was quickly followed by the midnight elemental jumping on his back. Her tail extended into his armour, scraping the crystals within. Electricity roared within, about to burst out, when Siena jumped upwards just in time for the second Unleashed meteor from Salamander to slam into Arkeidos’ chest and drive him three meters back, off the platform.

Forming the gusts, Arkeidos rode the wind in a spiral upwards, dodging several attacks coming his way. A sphere of translucent green made its way from his palm to where Gnome was being healed by one of Undine’s doubles. Three of the butterflies of the season elemental landed on the ground before them, expanding into a wall of three trees of rock and dirt. The sphere exploded into slicing winds, turning the wall into neatly sliced rubble. One of the stray gusts cut into Siena, creating a demand for healing there as well. Arkeidos, meanwhile, had taken some notable ‘injuries’, but nothing that would have been categorizable as worrisome.