Interlude 2

The battle in Incursia was dying down, and the Inland attackers who hadn't fled in time were being rounded up and detained. Yet Fornax's anger was only burning hotter as she worked in one of the Industrial Headquarters' many redstone research and development centers, the floor littered with bits of metal and tools. Standing to either side of her were a pair of deactivated Titans she'd been modifying. They were larger, more heavily armed and armored, and the enchantments to control them had been improved with data taken from the field tests of the Scout-Class. Rather than single amethyst spyglasses, they had each been outfitted with a set of three smaller ones for eyes to allow enhanced depth of vision in the field. These, she decided, were called Hunter-Class Titans, and she relished in the thought of them crushing a certain pair of traitors to death.

How dare they? Her two pupils hadn't just turned out to be gutless cowards too soft to fight, oh no, that wouldn't have been enough. They'd also turned on her, defied her orders, and threatened her standing in the Usurpation Army. Everything they'd had, everything they'd achieved in their wretched little lives, was thanks to Fornax. Had she not rescued them from the dusts of the wastes, they would have met their untimely demise years prior.

"Reporting, Overseer."

She really wasn't in any mood to humor whatever grunt had just entered the workshop, yet she stood from her tools and turned to do so. Sir Thomas, the recently promoted leader of Jade Squad, was at the door with a salute. He'd taken off his armor, wearing just his simple gray clothing and wool cloak.

"Enter," she said, keeping her reaction as subdued as possible. "I see you survived the battle."

He put his hand down and looked at the floor. "Unfortunately… I was the only one. Jade Squad's agents were killed fending off the attackers."

Her eyes narrowed. "How fortunate of you to make it, when they couldn't. I wonder, why is it that the troops under my command seem to face such high casualty rates?"

"If I'd only led them better, they might have all still been here," Thomas muttered. "None of the blame should be on them… they fought the best they could, and did their duty."

Fornax found the green command book she'd been testing in her inventory, flipping through a few pages. "Oh, I'm certain they did. And I don't blame them, Sir Thomas. I do have a question for you, however."

He nodded, so she continued. "Have you heard the report of Overseer Pyxis' death?"

"I haven't, Ma'am."

"I'm not surprised, it didn't come in too long ago. It seems he was killed by something very large, with clawed strikes to the chest. Quite a nasty way to go, I'd say. And it's an unfortunate loss for us… he had a brilliant mind; if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have completed Project Titan for months.

Thomas frowned. "That is unfortunate. The death toll is still being counted, I've heard."

"I wasn't finished," she snapped. "I wouldn't say he was a dear friend, but I do trust Pyxis' word. Would you like to know what the last thing he said to me was?"

He looked uncomfortable, taking a step back. "If… if you'd like to share it."

Fornax fully turned to face him. "It was a message from his communication tome. He described a few very interesting people preparing to attack him. Let me see, there were a pair of Inlanders, an enormous black beast… Esme, your old leader… and the agents of Jade Squad. He was very specific about those last few. The agents' bodies were all found near his, by the way. It seems our little traitor came here after all, only to slip away once again."

Thomas didn't say anything.

"So, now you come to me with the news that Jade Squad died fighting the Inlanders outside," she continued. "You should know I don't appreciate being lied to, Sir Thomas. You came across Esme, didn't you? And while she convinced your agents to betray us, to betray me, you just walked away and pretended it didn't happen, is that right? Do you have anything to say for yourself, traitor?"

He was staring at the floor again, likely knowing nothing he said would matter. Yet he spoke up anyway. "...was it true, Overseer? Did you order her to execute helpless Inlanders?"

And there it was, the question she'd been waiting for. She didn't dignify it with a response, just nodding her head toward him as a signal to the other person in the room, lurking in the corner.

Jade-4 struck fast. Sir Thomas only had a moment to gasp before he dropped dead, a sword shoved through his back.

"Thank you for your service," she whispered, giving his body a kick for good measure.

"If Esme needs to be hunted down, it'd be an honor to carry out the task for you," Jade-4 declared with a bow.

"That won't be necessary, I have something else you can help me with."

Fornax turned around, writing a command in her green book. The two Hunter Titans whirred to life, their amethyst eyes glowing fiercely as they set upon the unexpecting agent. His startled protests only lasted a few seconds before a snap cut them short.

"Another successful test," Fornax thought. "The Hunters are just as strong as I'd hoped, and now I've minimized the number of people who know about my little runaway flock."

The Hunter-Class Titans weren't quite ready for deployment yet, but she had just the tasks in mind for them once they were. A Scout Titan had taken notice of a peculiar Genesis Core in Countess Celia's possession during the battle, one which the Usurpation's magical logbooks could not identify, and Fornax was very interested in studying it for herself. In addition, with both Bonemeal Cores having been stolen by the Inlander who'd given Ray so much trouble, the Usurpation's food supply would suffer shortages. They would need to be retrieved as soon as possible, and her inventions would be responsible for doing so.

But while Project Titan was well underway, and its products would continue to serve the Army, Fornax's real interests were elsewhere. Specifically, to the collection of Illager research and artifacts she'd been gathering ever since she entered the Inlands. They may have been enemies of mankind, but she'd derived a number of fascinating ideas from them which she was eager to put into practice. And few were more fascinating than what she believed to be the Illagers' apex of scientific achievements: a hypothetical procedure which could transform the very essence of life itself to create the ultimate organism, one speculated to rival even the Creators in power.

She checked her communications tome and was pleased to see a message from Overseer Ursa, her collaborator in studying the rituals the Illagers had described.

[Once the city is secure, I will request approval from CMD Green to investigate the "Shrouded Marshes" region. Captive Inlanders believe significant magical research is kept there.]

So Ursa would be taking to the field after all. Fornax wished she could have gone herself, but with Pyxis' untimely demise, she was now responsible for managing Project Titan, and with so many casualties during the battle the need for golems would skyrocket.

But her time would come, she told herself, and in the meantime she could continue to look over the notes and ancient texts she'd obtained. The Illagers had called the procedure the Ritual of Collective Souls, but Fornax had given it her own, more fitting name: Project 303.

Gwendolyn the Diamond Knight, leader of the Netherrack Network, veteran mob huntress and warrior strong enough to be revered as a modern-day Legendary Hero, was dead. Nobody had seen her be struck down, yet she was never found among the evacuating forces of the Overworld, and- frankly- there were few who'd really expected her to survive the battle at her age. Even the greatest fighters weren't invincible, no matter how impressive their feats. Despite the grim reality, Gwendolyn would likely always be remembered as a strong and courageous woman, full of valor and self-assurance.

But Kaitlin, the new head of the Network, knew her better than that. She knew Gwendolyn to be full of regret and bitterness, and to not be nearly as confident as the stories made her seem. She knew the real story of the Diamond Knight, and until very recently she'd seen fit not to share it with anyone.

Kaitlin watched the Usurpation soldier before her stagger, his armor broken and a deep puncture in his chest. His eyes met hers for the briefest of moments before he collapsed, his short time alive meeting a bloody end at her hands. He hit the ground, twitched, and went still, just another corpse in that dark back alley of Incursia. As she made her way through the city, finding the last scattered groups of Overworld soldiers who hadn't retreated and directing them to safe exits, she'd cleared out pockets of Far Landers and mobs wherever she could. And whenever she could, she would watch her dying enemies in their final moments, perhaps to grant them some twisted peace of mind that they weren't mere afterthoughts to their killer.

Or, perhaps to imagine what it would be like to die without coming back, to just be at rest once and for all. It was something she'd imagined lifetime after lifetime. As Kaitlin, as Gwendolyn, as Felicity, as Cassandra, and as every identity she'd taken on all the way back to her very first, roughly four centuries prior.

It would be so easy to do. And yet, she couldn't. She'd acquired enough strength and developed enough skills over her many, many years to be the deadliest woman in the world even at Gwendolyn's old age. Kaitlin, who was physically in her thirties and had none of the limitations to stamina or agility that came with being so old, was even more dangerous. That made her invaluable to the fight against the invaders; however much she wanted to, she couldn't die yet.

She'd done all she could for the evacuees. The armor she'd scavenged from dead soldiers had long since completely broken after sustained damage, as had the weapons. Everyone still in the city had been killed or captured, and she knew sticking around wouldn't help. Most of the arriving mob swarm had already entered the northern gates, where she just so happened to be near, yet she'd gone unnoticed. There was still a commotion from outside the outer wall, however, and Kaitlin couldn't bring herself to ignore it. She broke through the cobblestone layers with a scavenged pickaxe and found herself outside in the early morning sun, facing down the Great Badlands.

She wasn't alone. A crowd of dead mobs lay scattered about the area, with critically injured Usurpation soldiers dotted among them. Shards of broken cobblestone blocks hovered in the air, lazily circling around the single Overworlder who'd been fighting them. When the sun was finally high enough to burn the zombies to ash, the stones all shot at the wounded Usurpers and finished them off. She came to a dead stop when she saw who their killer was.

That blue clothing. That dark hair. That arrogant, careless posture with a bloody iron sword resting on his shoulder and with no armor on. She'd never forgotten any of it, not since she last saw him nearly seventy years ago. He slowly turned to face her, and the only things different about him were his eyes: she couldn't see any of the lapis blue she was so used to, just a bright, glowing white. As they stared one another down, he smirked.

"I had a feeling I'd find you here. Back in your prime, Alexandra?"

"Hello, Steven," she replied, as slowly as she could. She could practically feel her new identities slip away in disapproval of her speaking to him.

He was her fellow Legendary Hero, and the only person in the world Alex loathed more than herself.

Steve chuckled, drawing in his stone shards by some invisible force. "If you're hoping to get the egg back, I lost it a few decades ago. But, it may interest you to know that I ran into some thing earlier which was covered in very familiar scales. Too bad the beast slipped away from me."

"I'm not here for that," Alex snapped. "I'm here to drive off the invaders."

"Their city's still standing, and despite both our efforts so are most of their forces," he remarked with a shrug. "Well, we are together again, so maybe we haven't lost yet. There's still a chance for the Legendary Heroes to be back in action."

She snarled. "Don't. Call us that."

Steve began to pace, casually twirling the sword in his hands. "This again with you? Over 400 years and you're still not over it… you know, if we aren't going to be the heroes, then who will be?" He laughed. "Actually, you'll never believe this! There's a little band of kids who think they can be the ones to make a difference! They've been roaming around with the Countess of Luxmouth, isn't that funny?"

She gasped, was he suggesting he'd had a run-in with Celia? The cruel glint in his empty eyes and his next statement only made her fears intensify. "I tried to convince them they were in over their heads, but they… disagreed."

Alex fumed. "If you hurt any of them, I SWEAR-"

"Hold that thought!" Steve cut in, looking back at the city wall. "We have visitors."

She turned, keeping her diamond sword up. A pair of Usurpation soldiers had broken through the cobblestone and stepped toward them. The taller of them wore armor similar to Commandant Red's, with bulky plating on her torso to the sloping angles on her shoulders, only made of the same dark blue material Alex had seen on a few Usurpers that day. Her helmet, likewise, covered her entire head and face and sported a cyan visor shaped like an X.

"You've made quite a bit of trouble for us," she began, observing the pile of smoldering mobs and battered Far Landers around Steve. "It is not easy for me to command so many undead at once, you know. Even my talents with a Genesis Core have their limits."

"I was wondering how you pulled it off!" Steve replied almost amicably. "I thought it was impressive how your forces could fight side-by-side with mobs. Let's see, that armor type looks familiar. Are you Commandant Blue?"

The armored Usurper nodded. "Leader of the Reestablishment Division, and a head of the Usurpation Army. I would say it is an honor to meet such capable warriors on the field of battle, but I doubt it will matter for very long. Who might you be?"

Alex didn't say a word, but Steve was practically cackling. "Finally! Someone who doesn't presume to call me Herobrine! Your lackeys could learn a lot from you."

"It is true that you superficially resemble him, but it is plain to see you are not Herobrine," said the woman beside Blue.

She was perhaps in her sixties, easily the oldest invader Alex had ever seen. Her armor, if it could even be called that, was little more than a few leather plates and pads fastened over her chest and legs, with no protection for her head or arms. She wasn't as malnourished as most other Far Landers, her pepper-gray hair was neater, and her skin was tanner as well. Alex met her bright silver eyes and felt a shiver run down her spine.

"I am not quite sure what you are, only that you are most certainly not a Creator. Or even a human, for that matter," she finished.

Steve cracked a grin. "You've got that right. I'm a step above human… I'm what's called a Legendary Hero around here."

Commandant Blue looked at Alex. "That would make the pair of you Alexandra and Steven, then? The Inlanders speak very highly of your exploits from years ago… tell me, has he always been like this?"

"More or less," she replied. She drew a second diamond sword, wielding both at once as she braced herself.

"That's rich coming from you," Steve scoffed. "I think we've talked enough for now, shall we get to the main event? Two of us, two of you… let's have a little fun."

Blue, arms crossed dismissively, looked at her companion. "What do you think, Marshal? Should we take them up on their challenge?"

The elder rolled her shoulders and stepped toward them, holding a block of obsidian. "Leave this to me, Commandant. You'd best regroup with Red and Green to finish securing the city."

"And so I shall. Your battle will not be disturbed."

Blue turned and walked back through the hole in the wall, leaving her underling to contend with Alex and Steve alone. Their odds may have looked good, but Alex knew better than to think the old Far Lander didn't have a reason to fight by herself. The block of obsidian made her uneasy; did she wield a Genesis Core which could manipulate it?

Steve, meanwhile, had a very different reaction. He started to laugh. "I see how it is! Clever, very clever… for a moment, you almost had me fooled there."

Alex wasn't sure what he meant, while the soldier just gave him an unimpressed frown.

"You spoke as if reassuring Blue you had this under control, but I know an order when I hear one," he continued. "You aren't her lackey at all, are you? She's yours. In fact, why don't I go out on a limb here?"

Then Steve slowly reached out and pointed the tip of his sword in her direction, smirking. "You're the one really in charge here. You're the true leader of the Usurpation Army. And that makes you… the villain."

A pause. Alex shifted her stance, holding both swords ready- she knew a fight was mere moments from breaking out. The woman craned her neck side to side as if accepting the same.

"Very perceptive of you, yet you're only mostly right. I am no villain, I am a liberator of the Far Lands. I am a revolutionary for humanity. And as far as you ought to be concerned, wretched defenders of the Overworld," she raised the obsidian block over her head, and its shape changed until she was holding a pitch-black sword, "I am The Usurper!"

For the first time in many, many years, Steve truly felt alive.

The excitement of his hunt for the witch who'd killed him had been fleeting, and he'd met defeat a second time by underestimating Commandant Red. After that, he'd allowed the Countess' party to get the better of him. None of his recent battles had been fun; something was missing from them all, something he could never place at the time.

But his current battle was different. He was stronger than ever, finally wielding a magic sphere much like the one he'd possessed for as long as he could remember. Having two of the violet crystals felt incredible, and he was eager to find more.

Beyond simply being more powerful, there was of course the matter of his lovely partner, at whose side he hadn't fought in more than a lifetime. She was every bit as majestic as she'd been all those years ago: her flamelike hair billowing with every movement, her swordplay fierce and unrelenting yet deceptively controlled and smooth… Alex was a spirit of warfare made manifest. If only she weren't so stuck-up and depressing.

Yet the most important difference was their enemy. They were not fighting mobs, Illagers, or grunt Usurpation soldiers, they were fighting The Usurper herself. The true villain (contrary to whatever nonsense logic she'd used to convince herself otherwise), and their ultimate target as the Legendary Heroes. Their opportunity had come to save the world once more, and their final opponent wasn't even a dragon this time, just an old woman in minimal armor.

Steve launched a barrage of stones at The Usurper. She stacked two obsidian blocks to shield herself, then thrust the barrier along the ground as Alex tried to move in. But Alex was nimble, vaulting clear over the blocks and making a dash for her while Steve pulled more stones from Incursia's wall to hold the obsidian in place- the last thing he needed was for his partner to be struck from behind.

The Usurper's obsidian sword looked too heavy even for either of the Heroes to wield effectively, yet she swung it as if it had no weight at all, clashing with Alex's two diamond blades in a flurry of strikes. Steve crept toward them with more stone shards hovering around him, waiting for an opening. He was impressed; Alex was a quick fighter, but despite her age the old soldier wasn't having any trouble keeping up with her, even pulling out a second obsidian block which she swung like a bludgeon.

Alex backed away for fear of taking a hit from the block with no armor on, leaving The Usurper open. Steve sent forth another storm of sharp rocks, this time sending them to either side of her so she couldn't shield herself. But she didn't need to; her obsidian block burst into countless smaller chunks which swarmed around her and destroyed Steve's projectiles before they could get close. To his surprise, the small bits of cobblestone left behind weren't responding to his commands anymore, as if there wasn't enough rock per piece for him to control.

"I do hope you have more than this planned," she remarked, reconstructing her obsidian block. "Do you think you can defeat me with only a Genesis Core that you barely know how to use? You cannot have wielded it for more than a few hours."

Steve frowned. "You can tell that, can you?"

"To be truly in sync with one's Core is a level of skill very few possess. To pour all of one's ambitions into it, for it to be so familiar with its wielder as to recognize them as its rightful master, that is what I call awakening a Genesis Core. And once such power is your own… you may wield another Core without fear of the former masters' lingering willpower supplanting your own."

Alex was on guard. Steve, truthfully, didn't have a clue what any of that meant, but The Usurper was starting to get on his nerves. She must have been able to see his lack of amusement, because she had a wry smile.

"Would you care for a demonstration, Legendary Heroes? This will make you show me the strength you are so renowned for!"

She sent her block hurtling toward Alex. Mid-flight, and so smoothly as to seem instantaneous, the obsidian melted away until it had become a glob of lava. Alex yelped and sidestepped it, but Steve had to throw more cobblestone to block it before The Usurper could pull the lava back and hit her from behind. He couldn't deny feeling just a little impressed as he drew an enchanted bow from his inventory; maybe this would be a challenge after all.

Steve only had one arrow on hand, but he'd taken the time to enchant his bow with Infinity. Every time he pulled back on the string, a new arrow materialized from thin air for him to use, which meant he had an endless supply of projectiles at his disposal. He proceeded to loose a barrage at The Usurper, one after the other and with no break in between. Of course, she responded by stacking obsidian in front of herself, but he had a plan for that too.

"Alex, cannon!" he barked, pausing just long enough to dump an assortment of redstone tools like pistons, dispensers, and repeaters on the ground along with a few blocks of slime and TNT. He returned to suppressing fire afterwards, rotating his position to shoot around the obsidian barricade.

"What are you up to?" The Usurper asked. She sounded more chiding than suspicious.

Another block of obsidian flew at Steve, but he was ready for her surprise this time. He took out a bucket of water and doused the block just as it morphed into lava, immediately solidifying it again. The trick had surprised her just long enough for him to snatch the block out of the air and tuck it in his inventory, leaving her with one less weapon.

"Clever… clever indeed." She ducked behind her barrier again as Steve continued shooting. "I'll admit, I do not remember the last time any opponent of mine kept up with me for this long!"

Steve cackled and shouted back, "What'd I tell you? You're dealing with the Legendary Heroes!"

"Ready," he heard Alex announce.

She'd taken the supplies and assembled- in less than a minute- a device which would propel TNT blocks across quite the distance. She pushed a button on the dispenser in the middle of it, and the first explosive was propelled by a piston and bounced off a slime block, sailing toward their entrenched enemy. Steve drew back another arrow, waiting for her to scramble out of cover to avoid the explosion.

Yet she didn't. As the block approached, she simply raised a hand, and conjured a mass of water around it, muffling the blast to the point of harmlessness when it went off. Alex fired again, and Steve loosed more arrows, yet either by water or by obsidian, she continued to defend against them.

"Do not misunderstand me," The Usurper continued, "you have only lasted this long because I have allowed you to. I believe it is time for me to put an end to this and get on with my plans."

She tossed another glob of lava at Steve, curving it to account for his attempted dodge. It still missed him, but enough of the embers licked his bow to set it ablaze, and he had to drop the now-useless weapon and switch back to his iron sword. The Usurper built a tower of obsidian under her, high enough to be out of the cannon's reach, and raised a hand to the sky. In spite of the Great Badlands' warmth, and the early morning sun shining on them, Steve began to feel cold. Dark clouds assembled overhead, conjured seemingly from nowhere. Raindrops pattered against them, soaking into the dry ground and coalescing it into a thick, muddy slurry. The moisture, much more than even a regular rainstorm, effectively ruined their cannon as well by rendering the redstone dust unable to carry a charge.

"It's her Genesis Core," Alex said, "she must be strong enough with it to create rain clouds even in a desert."

"Brilliant observation, would you like to tell me something I haven't figured out?" he shot back.

She scowled at him. "You have one arrow left, don't you? And we have a dispenser. You tell me what you can do with that, and that new Core of yours."

Obsidian blocks were tearing free of the tower and melting into an enormous mass of lava which hissed and steamed in the rain. The Usurper was preparing to dump it on them all at once. Steve, who couldn't believe he was actually feeling concerned about their chance of victory, thought about the backup plan they'd always employed together. "Do you need another one?"

Alex knew what he meant, and she visibly flinched at the question. "I… not again, Steve…"

"Now's not the time to be hesitating," he growled. "You are NOT going to duck out on me, understand?!"

"I-I can't do it again!" she almost cried. "I-"

He didn't care what she thought about it at that point. Steve lunged for her, placing a hand for a brief moment on her shoulder and imbuing her with the mystical power his first purple crystal had always given him. She backed away from him with a pale face and a distraught expression, but he paid that no mind, shoving his single arrow into her hands.

"Take that, take the dispenser, and be ready! I'll get you up there," he said, already pulling more cobblestone blocks toward them.

Alex had never appreciated the gift he'd given her, never once expressed anything more than thinly veiled revulsion at the power he'd used to keep them both alive for so long, but she was at least competent enough not to waste it. She grabbed the dispenser, loaded it with the arrow, and climbed onto one of his cobblestone blocks.

"SUFFER!"

The lava fell toward them. Steve controlled the blocks of stone they both stood on, shooting them out of its path and raising them into the air. He threw more stones toward The Usurper to draw her attention. She turned to face him, while Alex quickly took aim and fired the single arrow from her dispenser. Steve watched their enemy's notice shift toward it, and- before she could move any obsidian into its path- threw a barrage of stone shards into her floating blocks, keeping them at bay just long enough for the arrow to strike her in the ribs, right through a tiny seam in her leather chestplate. She gasped and stumbled off the edge of her tower.

"Yes!" Steve exclaimed, watching her fall toward the mound of lava she'd dropped.

Just before impact, The Usurper swiped a hand in front of her. He felt an enormous burst of wind kick up, nearly strong enough to knock him off his stone block. She glided with the gust as if suddenly weightless, throwing herself away from the lava and tumbling onto the sand near it.

"Well, she's not dead, but it's a start," he remarked with a grin toward Alex, which she didn't return. "Nice shot, now let's wrap this up."

Steve lowered both of their cobblestones to the ground in front of their enemy. The Usurper was wheezing, clutching her chest around the arrow and fumbling through her inventory. Curiously, the item she decided on was a tattered brown bed which she placed to lean on as she glowered at them.

"This has been fun, but I'm afraid your little incursion ends here," Steve told her.

Alex drew both of her swords again. "If you really are in charge, then tell the Commandants to surrender. You've lost."

She let out a harsh cough and pulled herself up to sit on the bed. One of her legs looked bent at an odd angle; she must have had an even harder fall than it appeared. "My… my life's work… will not be stopped by the likes of you…"

Steve shrugged, resting his iron blade on his shoulder. "You never stood a chance at beating us. If it makes you feel any better, we do have a little over four centuries of experience battling and growing stronger."

The Usurper coughed again and went very still where she sat. Then she looked up at them, her scowl suddenly replaced by a tiny smile. "Oh? Just four centuries? You're right, that does make me feel better."

She took a slow, deep breath as if settling down to rest. Steve didn't make the connection between that and what she was sitting on until she'd drawn a short iron blade from her inventory and plunged it deep into her chest.

"No," Alex whispered, sounding utterly horrified. He would never admit it, but he was beginning to feel concerned as well.

Despite her mortal wound, the Usurper collapsed gracefully onto the pillow, and her entire body flickered with a dark aura before disappearing into thin air. She left behind her leather armor, a pile of weapons and items… and five Genesis Cores, each one as pitch black as the clouds she'd summoned.

"What… the hell's going on here?" he asked, more to himself than to Alex.

The Cores disappeared just in time for her body to take form again in another flash of black. Were it not for her fierce silver eyes remaining the same, Steve might have thought she was a different person entirely.

She couldn't have been much older than the Countess. Skeletally thin, so ghastly pale as to look stark white, and shorter than both him and Alex, she took the emaciated physique of most Far Landers to a new level. Her hair was the same dust-gray, but it was now almost waist length, wiry, and frayed. Most bizarre were the rags she wore: two draping strips of cloth over her dark gray clothing, messily stitched together. One half of the cloak was brown, the other was the same teal as Steve's shirt, and both were stained with years of dust.

"You should see the looks on your faces," she said with a grin. A gale of wind kicked up around her, sending her hair billowing out. "If it's all the same to you, I'll go ahead and start fighting for real now."

She always enjoyed being young again. The Usurpation Army was the product of planning and preparing across multiple lifetimes, and by the time she really set the invasion into motion she'd become old again. Well, old for a Far Lander at any rate, and certainly no longer in her prime. But age had been a temporary hindrance, and an easily surmounted one at that. All she'd needed to do was die to revert to being physically around 19 again, and suddenly she could really appreciate the thrills of her conquest, her grand ambition.

And at the moment, said thrills included utterly crushing the hopes of the two people who dared stand against her.

"Watch closely, Legendary Heroes."

Steve, the one who so resembled Herobrine, tore a barrage of cobblestone chunks from the wall and sent them flying her way. She dodged them effortlessly, gracefully even, as she weaved around each like a dancer in motion. The stones crashed to the ground behind her and shattered. She thrust an arm in Steve's direction, sending a gust of wind hard enough to make him stumble before he could focus on moving more stones. Alex charged for her, poised to strike with her twin diamond blades.

She drew her obsidian sword again and found, to her delight, that Alex's rapid flurry of slashes and stabs were even easier to parry after her revival. Her enemy was a capable swordswoman, no doubt, but she was still no match. She kicked Alex back and tossed her blade into the air, and the split second of distraction such a move earned her was all she needed. A quick grapple, an elbow to the chest, and a disarming followed before Alex had time to process any of it. Mere moments later, the first Legendary Hero sank to her knees, one of her own blades shoved through her gut. The Usurper left her obsidian sword where it was: floating in the air above the battle, leisurely spinning in place.

Steve had the exact look on his face she'd hoped for. His bravado from before had shriveled away, and seeing her defeat his partner only made him seem tenser, and more frustrated.

"You! Who are you?!"

"Only four hundred years?" She couldn't help but giggle as she slowly made her way toward him next. "Would you like to know just how outmatched you are?"

She used all four of her offensive Genesis Cores in turn. Steve was blinded by torrential rain, struck from all sides by obsidian blocks, nearly blown off his feet by raging winds, and she ever so gently manipulated the lava mound to scatter a few burning embers at his back. He dropped to one knee at the end of her barrage, struggling to stand again, yet was more resilient than he appeared. Even as she approached, he threw a desperate storm of cobblestone shards her way which she expertly dodged once more.

His Stone Core would be an annoyance if it wasn't dealt with, but she had just the technique to handle it. For those who hadn't awakened their abilities, more than one Genesis Core was too much to handle on the psyche, and their actions would devolve to mindlessly and randomly lashing out at anything around them in a state known as a Core Berserker. Such a state did come with one benefit, a unique ability she called the Dispel Wave, but without proper control over oneself its usefulness was limited.

But for her, who'd awakened five Cores to recognize her as their master, the Dispel Wave was natural and even trivial to use. She reached a spot just in front of Steve, drew a fist back, and drove it into his face as she let out a shockwave of black energy. A violet Genesis Core was ejected from his body and landed on the sand just a chunk away. The white glow of Steve's eyes faded a moment later, replaced by lapis-blue irises. And oh, did they ever look terrified in that moment.

"I've fought, planned, trained, and improved for, I'd say… six hundred and thirty-eight years."

Then she called her obsidian sword to her hand and swung it hard. Steve's eyes went wide in shock, dark gas like that found within the Genesis Cores sprayed from the slash in his neck, and he toppled onto his back. She turned to see Alex was still on her knees, facing away from them and shakily attempting to remove the sword from her body.

"Poor thing," she thought with a smirk. She sent the black blade flying toward her back, putting Alex down for good. The rain stopped, and the storm clouds dispersed.

The bodies of both Legendary Heroes glowed violet then disappeared, dropping their inventories where they'd died. A second Genesis Core sat where Steve had just been, but it vanished as well. Her eyes narrowed.

"I see… so he has inherited Herobrine's power to revive himself after death…"

She of all people would have recognized it: one of her five abilities was a Revival Core. The deep, spiteful black fit her much better than its former golden radiance.

Her attention fell to the abandoned dark Stone Core, feebly glowing where it sat on the sand. She approached it, weighing up the pros and cons of what she had in mind.

"One of Herobrine's abilities, all alone. It wouldn't hurt to indulge myself just this once, would it?"

Rather than concentrate a Dispel Wave's power into her arm like she just had, she instead focused on the Stone Core using only her mind, exerting a crushing force against it. Its surface cracked and shook, the gaseous matter within disappeared, and the violet glow faded until the Core was little more than a useless ball of glass. Smiling to herself, she brought a boot down and shattered what was left of it.

"One step closer…"

She'd had her fun, but it was time to get back to business. She had an invasion to oversee, after all.

Commandant Blue was back at Incursia's outer wall, and she'd brought Red and Green as well. It appeared they'd witnessed the end of her battle.

"Magnificently done," Blue told her. "You are as powerful as ever."

Red was silent, and she could feel the resentment coming from him. She smirked. "Does it trouble you to see me, who appears barely older than a child, outclass you so, Commandant?"

"Not at all, Mistress," he muttered. "I know there is more to you than meets the eye."

"We weren't so old ourselves when you first came to us," Green said. "Isn't it strange how our differences in age have reversed?"

She laughed. "Ah, and while I may appear young, I hope you never forget the things I have done for you all. Without me, you and the rest of the Usurpation would still be scrounging uselessly in the wastes."

Obedient as ever, Blue gave her a short bow. "We owe everything to you. Now, your orders?"

"Yes, yes, to business… Commandant Blue. I leave Incursia in your care. You are to manage reparations with the Reestablishment Division reinforcements we brought, as well as reserve forces from the Industrial and Expansion Divisions."

"It shall be done," said Blue.

She turned to Green. "You will take the bulk of the Industrial armed forces and march southwest. Occupy Granitetown; it will serve as an excellent staging point to surround the rest of this region. The city is weakened already, and you should have little trouble in overtaking it."

"So be it," Green acknowledged.

"Commandant Red, the Iron Garrison continues to delay our progress in the northwestern plains. You and the Expansion Division are to deal with them. Join up with Marshal Volans, he and the Reestablishment Division's main forces are waiting to surround the mercenaries."

Red nodded. "Trivial. Leave them to me; Volans should already know how to prepare our pincer attack."

"Commandant Red, sir!"

A Usurpation Marshal was waiting at the hole in the wall. He didn't pay her much mind, and only shouted to what he perceived to be the ones really in charge. Red turned to face him. "I told you we were not to be disturbed, Cygnus."

"A-apologies, sir, but the Mouth of the Banished King was found beyond the eastern gate. He looks to be injured, but he has refused assistance and is threatening anyone who approaches him."

Red sighed. "Tell him to return to the city and hole up wherever he pleases while he recovers. We will discuss what the Ender Forge can do next as soon as he is amenable to the idea."

Cygnus saluted and returned through the hole in the wall, leaving The Usurper alone with her three Commandants again.

"What will you do, if I may ask?" Green hazarded.

She thought about it. There was still a Revival Core unaccounted for, and she didn't like that one bit. "I will hunt down the one calling himself a Legendary Hero. It may be some time before I return, so keep your wits about you… and remember your places in my absence. May the sun soon rise above a new world."

At her code phrase, the Commandants knew the discussion was over. They saluted and spoke their customary response in unison.

"Your will is our will, Lady Genesis."