Despite her words, EMMI doesn’t wait for us to prepare and formulate a plan of attack before striking, giving me only enough time to cast [Etheric Armor] upon Chloe before the battle begins in earnest.

A trio of the sluices, previously buried barely half a millimeter into the ground, rise up with alarming speed, then slam back down with horrendous speed, cracking through the air like a bullwhip as each of them targets one of us. I’m able to avoid the attack with a well-timed roll, and Alexey blocks the attack with his massive forearms, suffering only scratches that quickly scab over. But Chloe suffers a more serious attack to her side. Her own [Cloister] absorbs the damage, but the momentum from the strike isn’t fully blunted, sending her flying to the ground.

She sprouts her wings, negating the gravitational force upon her, giving her just enough time to spin around and land on her hands. She springs upward, floating in midair and narrowly avoids EMMI’s follow-up strike. But she’s not going to last, considering our opponent seems to be intent on targeting her specifically, even to the point of completely ignoring the two of us.

Alexey glows with a fiery aura, releasing a war cry as he launches himself toward EMMI’s avatar. I’m not convinced that this is actually her main body, or even that it’s a physical entity as opposed to a hologram. It is exuding Ether as though it were a monster, suggesting it has at least some physicality, but to what extent remains unseen.

I have no opportunity to analyze further, with EMMI’s attacks now including a pair of laser cannons mounted near the top of the ceiling. They definitely weren’t there when we entered the boss chamber; must’ve been hidden beneath some panel that my [Archangel’s Gaze] couldn’t detect. Cold welding, perhaps.

They fire at me, keeping me off balance and unable to assist Chloe. Each strike happens in a flash— they don’t move at literal light speed, thank the goddesses, but they’re still quick even by my standards. If not for my ability to watch the subtle shifts of the cannons high above and calculate the firing trajectory in advance, I know I’d be unable to properly dodge.

Even as it is, I’m still unable to do more than defend myself and watch as Chloe continues to be ravaged by those damn vines. I curse EMMI silently, watching, waiting, looking for any pattern or proclivity that I can find.

It’s Alexey who ends up making one for me, his fist colliding with a massive barrier surrounding EMMI’s face. The attack fails to breach her defenses, but it does cause the air to shift and the room to shake. Chloe’s able to keep her footing thanks to her wings, but Alexey’s attack manages to stagger the whip-like appendages just long enough for Chloe to get out of her defensive position and cast a [Curing Light] upon herself.

“Do you have a plan?” Chloe asks me as the two of us dodge the next pair of whips in opposite directions.

I manage to grab hold of one of them before EMMI can pull it back, only to recoil when bursts of electricity start coursing through my metal appendage and conduct into the rest of my body. Because of course it has to be lightning attacks. I yank on it despite the pain, despite my own [Cloister] rapidly being drained, hoping to make some progress in the fight.

But I fail, despite my best efforts. EMMI wriggles free of my grasp, even with my metallic-grip reinforced by my [Strength] and [Vitality] thanks to [Angelic Form]. A beam of luminous energy shoots out toward Chloe. I intercept, grabbing her by the waist and flying the both of us away from the blast.

Chloe is safe, uninjured, but I take the hit in the back, right at the base of my still-extant wings. It stings, siphoning off the rest of my [Cloister] and then a thousand points of my [Health] for good measure. Still have plenty left, but it’s yet another reminder that, despite every tribulation we’ve faced to this point, I’m still far from invincible.

Worse, the attacks are so quick and relentless that Chloe doesn’t have the time she needs to cast [Saintess’s Cloister] or her [Sanctuary] spell, both of which might be able to turn the tide of our current predicament. I can’t even get a good [Glyphcasting] array put together, most of my mental fortitude focused just on calculating evading the attacks raging from all sides. The most either of us can get off are Chloe’s basic [Heal] and [Curing Light] spell, and an occasional [Impulse] or [Repulsion] glyph on my end to bat back attacks the two of us can’t dodge on our own.

At this point, we won’t be able to win. We’re fighting defensively, but our [Health] and [Ether] are being whittled down, bit by bit, outstripping our meager regeneration rates. Even with both of us able to share our [Ether] pool through the power of [Transference], we’re definitely on the back foot. I grit my teeth, looking for a breakthrough. And, in the instant after the next blasts narrowly miss my toes, Alexey provides one for me.

“Look alive, ladies!” he shouts, his deep and booming voice filling the air with a burst of energy that deflects the whips aimed at us. Better yet, EMMI has turned her attention toward us, right as his [Rally Cry] takes effect. It seems that there might be some extra condition on his Skill compared with my [Hearken] or Stefan’s identically-named Skill with a different effect, requiring it be used only after getting battered by the first wave of an enemy attack.

The invigorating effect tempers my mind, dispelling the lingering clouds of doubt that were trying to occlude my focus. With a roar of defiance of my own, I activate my [Hearken] in tandem with Alexey’s shout, twisting the air around us as our [Ether] rallies and radiates outward.

EMMI’s attacks come once more, but now, I see them coming far more clearly than before. With a midair barrel roll, I narrowly dodge the whip aimed directly for me, and I retaliate with a burst of [Impulse] that sends the appendage into the ground. Better still, I notice a couple of tiny cracks and the faintest bit of [Ether] leak, along with the expected teal gas quickly dissolving into the ambient environment.

She lets out a pained noise, like a person sucking in air through gritted teeth. It lasts only for a fraction of a second, but it’s enough to confirm that this is working. We might not be able to shatter the barrier leading to her core just yet, but we can weaken her little by little. Alexey, having heard it as well, grapples the whip nearest him, plucking it out of the air despite suffering quite the painful laceration on his palm in response.

With willpower matching or even exceeding my own, he pulls with all the force his body can muster, roaring with a mixture of pain and maddening glee. EMMI grimaces back, and the two enter into a tug-of-war contest, the cybernetic intelligence pulsing electric energy at the grizzled veteran while attempting to stab him with her remaining tendrils.

“Chloe, can you take care of yourself for a couple seconds? This might be our best chance to do some real damage.”

“I– I’ll manage, Sera.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do it, love! For all of us! I’ll focus on keeping myself healthy in the meantime.”

I spare only the slightest of nods and a nonverbal affirmative emote through our bond before rushing forward. EMMI must have already calculated my plan, as her attention is now firmly on me. Two beams of light fire directly in front of me, and another tendril-like [Ether] conduit chases me quickly enough that I’d have no chance to avoid both attacks.

But my plan was never to evade the beams. Instead, I charge up a [Luminous Reflect] array, adding a [Repulsion] and a [Straightness] glyph into formation. This should work. I’m confident, based on everything I’ve experienced to this point. It was the same idea that I was planning against the Ultimate Weapon, and I have no doubt it’ll work against the far weaker computer mainframe.

I twist around another attack coming at me from a transverse direction. I suffer a grazing cut against my hip, which is quickly healed with a burst of Chloe’s magic. Another attack comes at me, hitting me square in the kneecap. I seethe in pain, but I push forward, spreading my wings and flying forward as fast as they’ll carry me.

“You better hurry, Seraphina!” Alexey says. “I can’t hold it much longer!”

“I’m on it!” I say.

The largest burst of photonic energy yet blasts directly toward my torso. EMMI gives me a contemptuous look, chastising me for leaving myself wide open to a direct attack. And I smirk back, releasing my spell the instant before her beam would pierce through my skin and pass through my heart on the way out.

I tilt the mirrored surface, carving a thin but no less impressive swath of destruction through the room. The appendage that Alexey is holding is now severed cleanly in half, as are two others on the ground beneath him. The hard surface, made of some alloy with which I’m unfamiliar, has likewise cracked and smoked over where the focused, reflected beam of destructed energy sliced through.

“You… You… impudent!” EMMI screams out.

Alexey tumbles down to one knee, completely drained from his ordeal. He’s still conscious, running on fumes and adrenaline, but for the first time since the fight began, we’ve made noticeable progress.

Chloe rushes over toward the two of us, diving into the range of her healing magic and launching her new most powerful spell, [Healing Burst], upon Alexey. His wounds stitch back up and life re-enters his eyes as golden light suffuses his every pore. I, meanwhile, take the primary defensive position in our squad. Contrary to my previous assessment, I am not nearly as durable as Alexey, especially with my [Cloister] having long-since expired. But EMMI’s attacks are slower and weaker now that substantial portions of her appendages have been severed and her [Ether] contains to drain from her body of metal and artifice.

She lashes out at me with three pulsing tendrils, each arcing with electricity. I deactivate my wings as they approach, ridding myself of the weakness they give me to Lightning-based attacks, and charge up one final [Glyphcasting] array. With [Sharpness] and [Wind] and an inverted [Enlarge] glyph, I prepare the attack that’s either going to win the fight, or the final attack I’ll make before I fall.

Chloe casts [Curing Light] upon me, along with a mental warning that she’s too lightheaded to go on due to severe [Ether] strain. I nod in affirmation, my entire body filled with resolve. Alexey stands beside me, ready to do what he can.

The attack comes. Four in total, approaching in two waves of two. Alexey grabs the first tendril to approach me, yanking on it with everything he has.

Then comes the second. He kicks it, landing a glancing blow. Instead of piercing my stomach, it grazes past my right arm. It stings, but compared with all the pain I’ve fought through, with all the endorphins I have running through my system, I hardly notice it.

The third one comes directly toward me. I brace myself for what I need to do. Chloe, I’m sure you’re going to be pissed for what I need to do right now, but I promised before that I was going to keep us all alive, and this is the best chance of ensuring we all live through it. I ask only that you forgive me for this.

It aims directly for my liver. I wait until the last second, then leap up slightly, just enough to ensure I take a less-lethal wound in the middle of my upper thigh. Blood spurts out from the wound, but it seems to have just missed my femoral artery, just as I’d hoped. With my body locking the attack in place and anchoring myself from being blown away, I release my final spell.

A thin, almost invisible, and deadly-sharp blade of solidified air buttressed further by glyphs and magic appears in the palm of my hand. I grip it tight, focusing on it and EMMI’s final attack, waiting, feeling the pulse of battle, calculating with the help of [Archangel’s Gaze]. And then the moment is right.

I slice through the final whip, cleaving it as easily as if it were a stick of butter. With another flourish, I cut off the tendril still embedded in my flesh, then slice through the one that Alexey has been grappling. The final attack, the one Alexey could only bat away, approaches me. I ready myself to slice, but my spell fizzles on me right before I’m about to deliver what should be the finishing blow, my [Ether] all but depleted between my spells, [Transfering] a bit to Chloe to help her with her healing, maintaining [Hearken], and everything else we’ve gone through in this lengthy ordeal.

Instead, I can only curse myself, force myself to figure out some other way to deal with this fight. I pull a dagger out of my [Inventory], infusing it with what little [Ether] I have remaining, and slice. But my attack fails, unable to even chip the serpentine coil preparing to eat into me.

“Oh no you don’t!” Alexey says, slamming his foot on the attack when it’s only an inch or two from my face. He screams, pulling with everything he has. His muscles bulge, the veins in his forehead throb, his eyes squint, and his teeth are fully clenched. And then, having summoned every bit of his monstrous [Strength] and enormous bulk, he manages to snap the final tendril in two like a piece of wood.

With one final burst of energy, the last he’ll likely be able to summon, he punches toward EMMI’s main body. His fist collides with her shield once more, but this time, the attack cracks, then crunches, then shatters the barrier. He flies through, grabbing hold of her core and crushing it, filling the air with a cool and revitalizing light. At last. It’s over. It’s done.

[You have defeated EMMI, the Epsilon-Mu Station Central Computer (Level 59). You have gained a boosted 290,520 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 56. [Strength] +1, [Speed] +1, [Vitality] +1, [Mind] +1. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 4).]

I assign a point to each of my four stats, not feeling a particular need for any one of them over the others, but knowing that I’ll need more of each of them before this Tower is done.

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = 274]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = 214]

[Level: 56; Experience: 3,455,730; To Next: 18,785]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 951 / 9,064; [Ether]: 894 / 6,740]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 169 (Base: 82); [Speed]: 179 (Base: 87); [Vitality]: 289 (Base: 108); [Mind]: 420 (Base: 157)]

[Your [Multidimensional Glyphcasting (Rank I)] has upgraded to [Multidimensional Glyphcasting (Rank II)].]

[Your [Intermediate Glyph Manipulation (Rank IX)] has upgraded to [Intermediate Glyph Manipulation (Rank X)].]

[Your [Etheric Armor (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Etheric Armor (Rank V)].]

[Your [Archangel’s Gaze (Rank X)] has upgraded to [Archangel’s Gaze (Rank XII)].]