With a solid CRACK against the ground, Lucite shluffed off the purple ooze from her oversized wrench. The others barely noticed, each recovering from the hellish fight themselves. “How much deeper is this place?” she wondered aloud.

“We're headed to the heart of the world, Luce,” Venyx said, idly checking her pistols for damage, as if a routine battle could scuff the magic weapons. “Were you hoping it would just be a casual stroll or something?”

“I just don't see why we have to go there. Can't the Lord of the Nether come to us? Doesn't he want to fight the only people even remotely capable of challenging him?”

“Tough as it is to believe, not everyone's you. He's got nothin' to prove.” Perun, a burly man drenched in dripping netherbeast remains replied. He wielded only a set of massive spiked knuckles, but had repeatedly demonstrated their efficacy against enemies using more conventional arms.

Aurelia was the only member of the party who was completely untouched by the filth of battle. Garbed in a long red robe, she strode past her companions wordlessly, expecting them to keep up. The three reluctantly followed, Lucite still muttering indistinctly about how out-of-her-way a journey to the center of the world took her.

The battles they faced were numerous, but never anything the group couldn't handle. Together they overcame each others' weaknesses, and had proven themselves stronger than most other things alive. Now they were closer than any person had been in a millenia to the heart of their world, surrounded by nether-twisted aberrations and sweltering lava. Even the Alchemist, thought to be the most powerful man alive, had fallen to the quartet. They were strong, and they knew it.

As the hours dragged on, however, the group began to fatigue. The ironworks they traveled through had been built long ago and provided no real rest areas even when it wasn't crawling with netherspawn. The heat was getting under each of their skins – but none moreso than Lucite, who wore thick, bulky plating she'd built herself.

“Guys...” she whined, her battle-wrench slung over one shoulder. “Can we please just portal back to town? Just for a few hours. I don't know how much more of this I can take!”

“You complain too much,” Perun grunted. The Engineer narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, and you're kittens and sunshine?” she snapped. Her mouth stayed open for a moment before closing, as if she had more to say but thought better of doing so. In response, Perun gave a wordless intonation.

Venyx teased her finger in front of a shadow bat perched on her shoulder, giggling like a child at its affectionate coos before it disappeared with a soft puff, leaving a small purple mist behind. Trotting ahead, she caught up to Aurelia and fell in step beside her.

“Yes?” The Embermage asked after a moderate pause, one eyebrow raised.

“The lunks are fighting again,” Venyx said, jerking her head backwards. “Wanted to see what you're up to.”

“What I'm 'up' to?” The mage blinked slowly, shifting her gaze to the long stretch of grated metal before them, then back to her childlike companion. “I'm leading us to the core.” Her dry tone fit in perfectly with the air around them.

“Cool, cool.” Venyx nodded, gazing into the distance. “Sure is long, innit? How much longer do you think we have to go?”

“Much.” The monosyllabic response hung in the space between them. Though Aurelia didn't show it outwardly, her entire body was killing her. She was an Embermage, suited for endeavors of the mind, not endless treks through lava-filled environs. The thought of taking each successive step pained her almost as much as the actual doing, and it was wearing her thin.

To her credit, the Outlander took the hint and backed off, falling several paces behind the surly mage. She twirled her pistols around her fingers and whistled a simple, repetitive tune.

“Must you?” A feminine voice came from behind her. Before she had time to turn around, another spoke up in her defense.

“Back off. She's fine.”

“Thank you, Per-” Venyx was cut off when she ran into Aurelia, who had stopped directly in front of her. “Oh, s-sorry,” she said, peering around the caster. “What's the holdup?”

“It's not fine.” Aurelia's voice was soft, but it carried to all members of her party. “There's no moisture in the air, and we finished the last of our water earlier. You'll save your water, and you will stop. Whistling.”

“Not that I'm arguing for that awful song, but we wouldn't even have a water situation if someone would let us portal back to town for, like, a half hour!”

“A half hour in which the Nether Lord could reach the core before we do and destroy it.”

“Not that we'll be any good for a fight once we even get there! If we even get there!”

“Oh, and I suppose you'll just build another one then? Because somehow I doubt even you are that skilled.”

The armor-clad Engineer dropped her mighty wrench, advancing on the relatively-small Embermage with fierce determination. Perun stepped in her way, holding her back. “Calm down, both of you!” His low voice, when raised to a shout, was an intimidating thing to witness. The two women seethed at each other with the Brawler standing between them. He turned to Aurelia and lowered his voice back to its normal volume. “Look, she's right. We aren't fit for a fight right now.” He glanced down at the satchel against her waist. “Open a portal.”

“Oh, using your legendary leadership skills now, are you?” Aurelia mocked, somehow managing to look down on the much bigger man. “Be a good dog and follow along behind me and sic when I say sic.”

Perun bristled, but it was Venyx who spoke up this time. “Um, Raylee?”

The mage rolled her eyes. “What?”

“It's just... maybe we could go back to town... you know, just for a bit? I, uh, I do have some stuff I could sell.”

Aurelia closed her eyes. In her mind, she imagined herself reclining in a cool oasis in the middle of a desert, surrounded by the charred, desiccated corpses of her companions. “Fine.” She opened her eyes and reached into the bag. A collective sigh of relief came from the other three, boiling her blood even further. “You want to go to town? You all want to just portal back up to town and leave the fate of the world to chance? Fine.” From the pouch she withdrew three scrolls, each bound with a thin blue piece of cloth. With a flick of her wrist and a small magical thrust, she cast the three scrolls over the railing and into the bubbling lava below.

Perun bellowed and charged her, his meaty fist raised to strike. With another wave of her hand she cast the brute aside. He slammed into the guard rail, tearing an entire section off its hinges. His fearsome cry became one of surprise and terror as Aurelia closed her fist, keeping him suspended in the air, teetering on the brink of disaster.

“Aurelia!” Lucite screamed, rushing forward. The Embermage put her hand out as a warning, stopping the Engineer dead in her tracks.

“I am sick and tired of putting up with you lot thinking you have any sway in this group.” Her voice was filled with venom. “I am the leader. We will do what I say we're doing, and that will always be the end of discussion.”

“End of discussion my ass! What are you, fuckin' nuts!? You can't hold Perun hostage!”

“Stop me, you towering oaf.”

“I'm not a fucking oaf, god damn!” Lucite stomped the metal grating hard enough to dent it. “I'm smarter than you! Oh, just because you can wield elemental forces you think you're such hot shit.”

Aurelia smirked condescendingly. “Please. You can put together some toys; that's hardly on par with tapping into the primal fabric of the universe.”

“...Would one of you please pull me the fuck up?” Perun yelled, grabbing the attention of the bickering ladies.

“Hush.” With a word, the Embermage silenced the teetering man. His eyes went wide with rage, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

“You've gone completely mental. You're insane! You're fucking insane! Pull him up right now, goddamnit!”

“Or what?”

“Or I'll splatter your pretty little brains all over these.” She brandished her massive brass gauntlets, curling the fingers threateningly. Aurelia laughed.

“You'll be dead before you take two steps. And he'll be dead unless you... kneel.” A smirk grew from the unexpected idea. “Yeah. Get down on your knees, you big metal brute.”

“I'm not... w-what?” Lucite looked down at herself and was surprised to find the ground much closer than she expected. “Stop this. Stop it!”

“I'm not doing anything, honey.” Lucite began to respond, but it was Venyx who spoke next.

“She's right; she isn't. I just wanted to hurry along your submission.” The Outlander sat a short distance away, a small netherbat perched on top of her head. “You can be so stubborn sometimes, you know?”

“W... You?”

“Yep!” Venyx giggled. “Betcha didn't see that one comin', huh? Probably should have, though. I mean... come on.” She pointed at the purple creature above her. “The Nether Lord took notice of me after I kept using his minions against him, and guess what? It turns out he has way more to offer than anyone – really, literally anyone – in this entire world. I mean, check this out: Hey, babe?”

The Embermage turned to face Venyx, smiling. “Yes, Mistress?”

“Let him go.”

“No!” Lucite cried, fighting against an invisible force that kept her pinned to the ground. She was helpless to do anything but watch as Aurelia made a hand motion akin to brushing dust off her shoulder, and Perun plummeted to the magma below. The hot liquid swallowed him up, eliminating a quarter of their group in a heartbeat. The Engineer stared aghast at the space he had occupied moments ago.

“It's not her fault, though,” Venyx explained. “She's as easily manipulated as you are, I've just sunk my claws deeper into her. Oh! Hey, wanna see something funny?” With a wave of her hand, their surroundings changed. The long, seemingly-infinite stretch of walkway curled around itself, and Lucite had to turn her eyes away to keep what she was seeing from hurting her mind. When she looked back, she saw that she was instead kneeling on a square platform, only about five meters long on any side, and in the middle rotated a pair of stone rings around a floating gear.

“Th... that's...”

“The clockwork core,” Venyx finished for her. She walked over to it, peering down at it like an exhibit at a museum. “We've been here for hours. Walkin' in this big dumb circle for hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours 'n' hours!” She turned it into a song, skipping playfully around the platform before coming to a stop in front of Lucite. “Just wearing you bozos down until you were weak enough to take control of. And look, here we are!”

“I trusted you. We all trusted you.” Lucite had tears in her eyes as she looked at the girl she had once thought of as a younger sister; the same person who now gloated about her deliberate deceit of her friends at the cost of the world as they knew it.

Venyx shrugged. “Sorry. But hey, don't worry. You're gonna die in a pretty awesome way.” This time she focused on Lucite, her next spell taking concentration to cast. A dark pool formed beneath the kneeling woman, and purple tendrils snaked out of the surface, climbing up her armor and dissolving it like sugar in water. She cried out and tried to pull away, but Venyx kept her firmly in place. Within a minute, the brave heroine had been rendered completely nude, covering her generous endowment as best as she was able.

“Wow!” Venyx giggled and clapped at her red-faced former friend. “Bravo, Luce! Jeez, I never knew they were so big! You always keep 'em shut up in that suit of yours! Let the girls breathe!” Lucite had no response to this, looking away from her tormentor in shame. “Okay, but that was just so you don't get lost. Here's the real trick. Boop!”

With a snap of Venyx's fingers, Lucite's entire world changed. The metal grate beneath her, fine and digging into the skin of her knees, stretched out for miles ahead of her in all directions. Venyx and Aurelia shot up in height, the ceiling expanding above them to match. As the former took a step forward, Lucite could see every little detail in her leather boots. A thin stain of purple rested on her sole, and as it came to hover over the diminished woman she realized that could just as easily be her. Once again in control of her body, the Engineer fled from the advancing appendage, diving to the side just as it crashed down next to her.

“Looks like we got a runner!” Venyx exclaimed. She brought her feet together and bent at the knees, charging up another jump. Lucite tried to call for mercy, but the giant woman obviously couldn't hear her tiny voice from so far away. She sprinted away in a blind panic, shrieking as the girl came crashing down just inches from her current location; if she had been a touch slower, she would have been pummeled into nothing.

Again the process repeated itself, with Venyx's two-footed jumps bringing her closer and closer to Lucite. The tiny woman knew that the Outlander could end her torturous game any time she chose, but that didn't stop her from running just as hard. She could also see, looking out across the metallic expanse before her, that there was nowhere to run. She was trapped here with this nether-corrupted psycho who had once been her best friend, running and crying until Venyx ultimately decided to end her.

“C'mere little mousey!” She let out a childish giggle, stomping down hard behind the fleeing woman. “You can't run forever!”

“Please help!” Lucite called up to Aurelia, who until now had stood more or less frozen in place like a forgotten doll. She ran up to the giant woman's sandaled foot, pounding on the soft flesh. “Please! You have to wake up! You have to stop her!”

“Get that for me, wouldja Raylee?”

“Of course.” The Embermage's sinister voice was back in full force as her head pivoted down to look at the bug pleading for mercy at her foot. Lucite shook her head, backing away slowly.

“No... no, please, Aurelia this isn't you! This isn't you! Y-you're the smartest woman alive! Remember? You wouldn't let yourself be controlled this easily! You can resist her! You have to resist her!”

“Poor little thing,” Aurelia said, clucking her tongue as she took a soft step forward. Lucite never even had time to react; the next thing she knew, the sandal was upon her, pressing her against the metal grate beneath them. The immense force crumpled her body with little resistance, caving in her chest and forcing her head to the side. Next, her body split and tore against the grate, pressing through like the end of a meat grinder. Her viscera dripped and pressed out as little cubes of the world's greatest inventor oozed through the grate, staining the metal and dripping down to the lava below.

Venyx hugged Aurelia from behind, giggling into her back. “Oh man, that was brutal. Way to go Raylee. Really stellar work.” She pranced around to face the Embermage, looking into her eyes. “You were so easy, you know that? But what did you expect? The Alchemist got his shit possessed because he was so infused with Ember – did you forget that part? Or were you just ignoring it?” She giggled, placing the barrel of one of her pistols against the crook of Aurelia's nose, and made a small explosion noise with her mouth.

“P-please,” came the sudden response. Only the mage's mouth moved freely; even the rest of her face remained stoic and neutral. “Please let me go, please Venyx please...”

“Shush.” She pushed the gun harder against the woman's face, eliciting a short squeal of terror. “I'm not gonna kill you. You served us well, and you'll be rewarded for that.” Holstering her weapon, Venyx took a step back, concentrating on another spell. This time a purple cloud engulfed the woman, who let out one final shriek of agony before she was silenced for good.

The Outlander took a step forward, waving away the murky cloud and revealing a light blue gem resting on the ground. She crouched over and picked it up, turning it in her fingers. Within the finely-cut jewel floated Aurelia, an expression of mute horror frozen on her face. Staring into the woman's eyes, she could swear she saw her blink, and instantly beamed with joy.

“You're gonna be coming with me from now on,” Venyx gloated, fitting the precious gem into a socket on her gloves. Instantly she could feel the Embermage's power coursing through her, adding to her already-frightening capabilities. “Oh yeah, doll,” she said as she approached the Clockwork Core, hands crackling with energy. “We're gonna have some fun.”