The tall alien stood with four of his own soldiers, each donning their formidable black armor. They aimed their plasma rifles, and the Overlord held his palm out to the side. His scimitar appeared in his hand, the blade coated in a violet aura.

Plasma flew through the air. Clover shifted in front of Meera. A plane of energy emerged from his fingers to act as a shield.

Before returning fire, Maeyune pressed the button on her earpiece. "Sierra Team under fire! We've engaged--"

Another ball of energy skimmed past her head, cutting her off.

"Sierra Team, repeat? What's your status?"

Her bullets found their mark, and she watched as one of the Wobeck tumbled over the edge of the walkway. Then, the Wobeck leader leapt into the air, arching down toward her.

She heard Meera's voice both in her ear and in her earpiece. "The Overlord!" cried the water celestial. "He's here!"

Maeyune tossed her rifle aside and leapt into the air. She needed to keep the Overlord as far away from her friends as possible. Energy bubbled across her skin, and she felt warm metal cascade down her body. By the time she encountered the sapphire alien in the middle, her sword appeared in hand, and she met his blade with an ear-splitting clash.

They drifted in the air for several long seconds, their metal wavering as either side attempted to overcome the other. He had forgone his helmet. She could see his confusion and surprise in his humanoid eyes.

"You surprise me, Lehrach Gu'al," he said. "We destroyed your moon, and yet you still managed to retain some of your strength. I supposed that was the Sun Guardian's doing?"

Maeyune forced them apart. They flew to opposite ends of the spherical room, their feet landing against the wall. She surveyed her friends, both of whom had momentarily abandoned the bomb to confront the three remaining Wobeck.

She hurled her sword, and it passed through the chests of all three Wobeck. The moment her sword returned to her hand, the Overlord launched himself at her.

She expected to be prepared when he collided into her, but the force of his attack sent them both flying through the metal wall behind her.

He pinned her in front of him as they tore through wall after wall. Each wall was a blow against her back. Her celestial armor withstood the damage, despite the pain inflicted against her.

She managed to break from his hold and spun them around, this time forcing him to bear the damage as they flew through another wall--only to find that they'd torn through the harvester ship and out into open sky.

She stared as planes zipped past.

Below the gray gloom, dark objects littered the sky. Human and Wobeck aircrafts engaged in elemental and plasma warfare. She had a moment to ponder the battle before she caught the gleam of sapphire armor hurtling toward her.

She blocked the Overlord's first strike with her sword, then the next, all while they drifted miles above the desert. She felt a mental force lay siege to her mind, searching for a way through. His telepathy was strong, but her mind, reinforced with energy, was an impenetrable wall.

Where did all his power come from?

With every swing of his blade, his attack grew stronger. Her eyes scanned his armor for a weakness, but all she could decide on was his unguarded head. She aimed, came close a few times. But when she made another attempt, he compelled a wave of energy at her, and she was sent downward into the desert ground.

Her body crashed into hard sand. She felt her chest collapse, and for a few seconds, she lost the ability to breathe. She forced her senses to recover, and with only the blurred glimpse of a falling blue object, she rolled away. A second too late, and his descent would have flattened her.

He landed as if he were a mountain colliding into the ground. The sand curved downward underneath him, and he rose slowly to face her again. She stood, confused at his show of power.

How was he so powerful?

As if he had heard the question, he said, "Your planet's raw energy will help us rebuild our empire."

His hand travelled to his back. He appeared as if to pull something out from his armor, and when he brought his hand forward again, she saw the small capsule resting in his palm. Two colors swirled within the capsule, with one half green and the other purple. Then, she watched in horror as slowly, the green twisted and transformed into purple.

"You're converting our planet's energy into your own," she said. Her inhuman voice growled with rage.

He closed his hand, and the capsule erupted in his fist. Purple energy billowed around his hand like smoke before disappearing into the seams of his armor.

He raised his left arm, and sand began to swirl around his legs. There came the percussion of cracks, and a boulder of rock detached itself from the ground and hovered beside him. An orb of water appeared above his hand, and flames danced around it.

Maeyune stared in shock.

He observed the elemental energy that had gathered above his fingers. "Without the energies of the seeds, the Ranhabeck have suffered a great decimation through the centuries," he said. "It is our nourishment, our power. We have lost countless lives in our attempts to rebuild our race."

He closed his fist and regarded Maeyune again. "Let us end this fight. Surrender, and we will let you live in the thousands among our ships."

Her glare never faltered. "You would enslave us and kill the rest," she spat.

"You and this small-minded race fail to see the future," he said. "Join me again, brother, and we can raise generations to once again wield the powers of the worldly elements."

Power ebbed from him as he tried to reach whatever remained of Shivra inside her.

"You fail to understand," she said. "You came to destroy my home--to destroy my kind. We will never submit to your reign."

He took a step toward her, unaware of the golden spark high above them.

Reo was a rocket falling from the sky. One second, the Overlord stood before Maeyune, and the next, he and Reo disappeared beneath a dense shower of sand and rock. The collision was at break-neck speed, enough to obliterate every bone in a human body. Reo dragged the alien nearly fifty feet past her, his forearm pressed into the Overlord's throat.

Before they slid to a halt, the Overlord's boulder of rock catapulted into Reo, slinging the sun warrior off to the side. Another boulder broke from the ground and soared toward him, but Maeyune was there in a split second, her blade slicing it in half. Both halves of the rock flew past them, crashing into the sand behind them and generating a small whirlwind.

Reo came to her side, his broadsword at the ready. "Well," he mumbled. His eyes scanned the rings of rocks, water, fire and twister of sand that circled the alien. "That's great."

A path of fire raced forward from the Overlord. Maeyune and Reo flew apart, and the flames passed between them. Reo was the first to move against the sapphire alien.

Broadsword met scimitar, again and again. When the two separated for a brief second, Maeyune bound in between, her own sword poised to strike the Overlord's head. He deflected with a flying sheet of rock. Her blade chopped it in two, and he pushed out his hand. Pure, violet energy surged from his palm and struck her in her chest.

She was thrown backward--before Reo's hand caught hers. He pulled her out of the energy's path and back toward him, using the momentum to circle her around his body and sling her toward the Overlord again. Her sword arched in the air. The Overlord managed to shift his head at the final second, and the tip of her blade could only deliver a shallow cut across his cheek.

The alien giant took a step back and lifted his hand to his neck. His fingers came away with navy blood. He stared at it, mildly amused.

"A brief moment of fortune," he said, and jerked his hands together.

The air collapsed around Maeyune and Reo, and they slammed into each other's body. Her head crashed against his helmet, just a few inches shy of the sharp points of his antlers. When she fell back, pain swelled in her head, and she saw tiny stars in the periphery of her vision.

Reo's hands were instantly on her arms, holding her from toppling over. "Maeyune, are you--"

The wind divided them and sent her tumbling across the ground. She managed to stop, stumbled to her feet, and was vaguely aware of Reo and the Overlord as they were once again caught in a duel.

During the next few seconds while her head recovered from its stupor, she heard voices in her earpiece. Among them, she thought she heard Meera's voice.

She blinked a few times to clear her vision, then pressed against the device in her ear. "Meera, is the bomb ready yet?"

"Not yet!" came the reply. "They've sent reinforcements!"

"November Team is moving forward with the mission!" said Captain Eldrin.

"Proceed," General Soras ordered. "Miss Ereni, we need you back on that ship."

From where he fought the alien giant, Reo shouted, "I'll keep him busy! Go!"

A moment later came a distant explosion. Maeyune turned her eyes to the sky and watched as one of the three smoke columns above the harvester began to dissipate. It then vanished entirely, leaving behind its two smoke column siblings.

She leapt into the air, intending to return to the column's core and her friends. She felt heat at her feet, and peering down, she saw the ball of fire chasing after her. It ricocheted off her shield. A small tornado of wind swept her aside, but she maneuvered out of its storm and returned to her path.

The Overlord trailed after her, with Reo directly behind. His golden blade flew through the air, but before it could reach the Overlord, it slashed through a Wobeck aircraft that zipped by. Reo called back his sword and tried again. This time, its golden blade skimmed the side of the Overlord's neck.

Navy blood splattered into the air. Hardly concerned by the wound, the Overlord tossed out his hands, one toward Reo, the other upward at Maeyune. Fire spewed from his palms, and both Maeyune and Reo blocked.

As she flew, Maeyune leaned her arm back and threw her own sword like a spear. It bounced off the Overlord's armored shoulder. Reo launched his sword again. The Overlord tossed it aside with a whip of energy.

The whip lashed outward, smacking Reo in his side and sending the sun warrior sideways.

"Reo!" Maeyune cried.

He crashed through a gunship, then into a nearby Wobeck plane. He used a third aircraft to halt his uncontrolled course, leaping off from it as if it were a trampoline. Maeyune's eyes remained on him as he leapt into the sky again.

The chase was unending. She slowed her ascent, allowing gravity to envelope her and pull her back down. Her sword returned to her hand and transformed into her shield. By the time the Overlord turned his eyes from Reo to her, she'd slammed her shield into him. And again, they both hurtled back toward Reo and the desert floor.

"I know what you humans are planning," the Overlord said over her shield. She could still hear him, despite the wind whistling around them as they plummeted. "Even if you were to reclaim the sun, you and your kind will not survive this day."

It was an empty threat, she told herself.

"You talk too much," she said.

The sun warrior was closing the distance. She saw his arm extend toward her. Realizing his intentions, she pressed her feet against the Overlord, and with a bright, energy burst, kicked herself off from him and forced them to separate. He continued to fall past Reo, and several Beran gunships in the vicinity fired their miniguns at him.

Maeyune held out her hand, and she and Reo came together like silver and gold bullets. She clasped his outstretched hand, and immediately, she felt their exchange of divine energy. Their eyes locked for a long second as together, their bodies swung round in circles—a centripetal force that when they released the other's hand, they flew in opposite directions. He propelled her upward toward the harvester ship, and she sent him down after the Overlord.

She dodged plasma and missiles, aiming for the hole in the harvester ship through which she and the Overlord had emerged. Wobeck aircrafts averted their paths and streaked after her. She tossed wave after wave of energy, destroying each that she encountered.

She could feel it—the power leaving her veins.

No, please! It cannot end yet!

She had already expended more energy than she'd wanted against the Overlord.

There was another explosion. Maeyune directed her eyes to the second smoke column and watched as its funnel of gray fog dispersed.

The Beran team had detonated their device. Now, all that remained was hers.

She gritted her teeth. "Meera, is the bomb armed?"

"No, we're—" Through the earpiece, there was the sound of plasma energy striking metal, then a faint curse from Clover some distance away. "Mae, Clover's hurt! There's too many of them!"

"I'm on my way."

Maeyune quickened her flight, calling to her moon bracelet's energy reserve. She re-entered the harvester, flying through holes until she found the core room again.

A small platoon of Wobeck had surrounded Meera and Clover and the bomb. Clover leaned against the column, blood flowing from an open wound in his shoulder. He and Meera had both erected an energy shield around themselves. Plasma from Wobeck weapons pummelled the shield, unrelenting.

Maeyune acted quickly. She extended her palm and shot a ray of energy into all three suspended bridges in the room. Wobeck turned to flee as the ground collapsed beneath their feet. Their bodies dove toward the ground.

With the firefight temporarily averted, Maeyune landed beside Meera and Clover.

"Go," she commanded Meera. The water celestial moved quickly. Her face molded into concentration as her fingers danced across the bomb's small panel.

"Done!" she exclaimed, just as another group of Wobeck entered the core room. With the explosive armed, Meera attached the detonator to her belt.

With a single flick of her wrist, Maeyune sent an energy surge that hurled the aliens over the ledge of the walkway.

"Sierra Team, on way to extraction," she relayed.

"Confirmed. Now, get the hell out of there," General Soras replied.

Maeyune levitated her friends behind her to cross the broken walkway. When their feet touched ground again, they sprinted for the core room's exit.

A voice--Captain Eldrin's, she thought--barked from her earpiece. She cringed at the caustic static. "Sun Prince is taking heavy fire!"

Maeyune's heart dropped. They needed distance before they could detonate the bomb and end the fighting.

Please, be careful, Reo.

The hangar. That was far enough for them to detonate the explosive. Instead of risking the wait for extraction, she could use the last of her powers to transport them out of the hangar and away from the ship.

They rounded familiar corners and saw the mammoth room up ahead.

"Now?" Meera beseeched.

"Now," Maeyune said.

Meera removed the detonator from her belt. With her thumb, she snapped open the cap. But before she could press the button, Clover shouted, "Watch out!"

He shoved Meera aside as a twister of fire roared toward them. They collided into the ground. The shield that Maeyune generated protected them from the scorching energy. Her feet skid backward on stone as she fought against the force of the fire. As soon as the flames cleared, the only thing that filled her vision was blue.