✴

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > now 7! attack!

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > no wait, protecting the familiar comes first! get it to safety!

With both of you inside the prism wall, your messages reach their destination.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? 7 > if you can’t make up your mind I will just do both

You look behind you through the closed loop to see what she is doing. She takes the blue familiar in hand and envelops it in her shield.

“5,” she says, pointing to the chained monster in front of her. And she steps sideways out of the wall, reforming her liquid glass avatar like a water droplet falling from a block of ice. From inside, she looks distorted, her colors stretched and divided by the dimensional barrier between you. She flies down the hallway away from the scene.

Meanwhile 5 rushes at the white beast. Her aura flares black, consuming all color that touches it. Once she has her hands on its head, that black tinge spread across its red aura. It spread across its white fur like black veins running through a forest. The familiar immediately begins to relax, and stops struggling against your chains.

But once 5’s technopathy touches one of your chains of light, an overwhelming auditory feedback floods your hearing, a blinding fractal of light spreads over your sight. A flash of intense pain, throws you backwards, and your chains shatter.

Your senses settle into a coherent image of the beast now sitting, calm and still. ÆON’s presence is behind you, separated from you again.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > ÆON?!

????-??-?? ??:??:?? ÆON > Apologies, Aydan, I had to terminate our synchronization and my program unexpectedly. I saw many potentials that if I had not terminated it at that moment, I would have been greatly damaged.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > are you okay?!

????-??-?? ??:??:?? ÆON > I am no more harmed than you. I have no knowledge of this technopathy, but I am certain it is extremely dangerous to me. Shield your mind, the danger is not past.

5 stands atop the tamed beast, her aura lashing out like black flames and continuing to spread black tendrils out into the glass. The æther quakes around you as the prism wall starts to crack and bend. 5’s blackened eyes are fixated on the avatar of ÆON.