Another failed tactic? Then, let's try this combination next!

Neo summoned two winged Beringels and two Manticores on the air, plus two Yangs and two Hazels on the ground, to surround and attack The Rabbit at the same time with their raw strength. Hopefully, keeping her in place for an underground root to land on the target. But The Rabbit quickly destroyed them in just a couple of seconds, throwing aura slices and Sakura around her.

"Sorry, but I won't let you continue this for longer. Change of plans." The Rabbit said annoyed, not because of Neo's perseverance, rather because of what the crew at the commanding center had told her.

"It's over, my adorable doll." The Rabbit launched herself with an impressive speed to her opponent. Neo barely managing on time to summon Raven Branwen with her signature long sword, Omen, and stop The Rabbit on her track.

Finally, a construct that works against one of her attacks. I put a significant chunk of aura into this one, so it's a more accurate replica than the previous ones, minus the Maiden magi-

While The Rabbit and the Raven construct had their swords in a bind against each other, the former quickly gave up and spun around, evading the descending slash of Omen, quickly using her other hand to break the construct with a strong hit from Sakura, before it had any chance to raise its long sword in a defense position.

"An odachi is no good for close quarters." The Rabbit advised Neo. "Even an umbrella or a parasol is a better choice in these circumstances."

Shut up, already!

Neo in her anger summoned a Cinder construct without thinking about it. This one was not only breathing fire, but even using combustion to fly around.

I hate to rely on this construct, but I've got no choice. Burn her down!

Neo using more aura than usual to make a construct that had something akin to elemental magic, ordered for her flying creation to shoot several glass swords and fire projectiles at her enemy. The Rabbit casually opened Sakura to used it as a shield, spinning and dodging whenever an opening between Cinder's attacks was available, until finally she used her wakizashi to launch another aura-enhanced slice, which cut diagonally the construct's torso. Its remains falling in front of Neo.

Ha! Serves you right, bitch. Neo smiled for a second.

Oh, wait. That was my construct, not the real one.

"You still have issues you need to deal with, young lady." The Blacksmith said, disappointed in their partner's attitude. Neo calming down her anger from earlier, began to think of another plan.

Blacksmith, have The Tree predict where I will lead the enemy, so that a root prepared in advance hits her. Pay attention to the construct that will speak. If we don't give her even a second to use her Aura Boost, we can ascend this bunny... Neo hesitated a bit after saying this.

"Something wrong?" The Blacksmith unsettled by Neo's pause asked.

Sorry. I was just clearing some doubts. We've got no choice, but to win this fight. This is it!

Neo barely managed to build on time another sturdy construct, stopping The Rabbit's charge against her. It was Qrow Branwen with his scythe-sword, Harbinger.

The Rabbit didn't lose time and overpowered with her raw strength the construct's sword to prevent a bind, making it lose its balance. She then kicked the construct on its neck. The force of the kick being so strong, it shattered whole Neo's summon.

Perfect! She took the bait. Time to spoil her.

Neo jumped backwards to make some distance between The Rabbit and her, at the same time summoning another construct. Tyrian Callows. The Rabbit didn't lose time and, after dodging the construct's kicks, used her wakizashi to slice its head off.

Yuck. She can be creepier than Tyrian, if she wants to.

Before The Rabbit could close the distance between Neo and her, again she jumped away, while summoning another construct.

Jaune Arc. Mercury Black. Harriet Bree. Lie Ren. Adam Taurus. Glynda Goodwitch. Yatsuhashi Daichi. Sun Wukong. Vine Zeki. Arthur Watts. Coco Adel. Leonardo Lionheart. Robyn Hill. Emerald Sustrai. Pyrrha Nikos. Clover Ebi. James Ironwood. Nora Valkyrie.

Neo made sure all her quick summons were as skillful, fast, and dexterous as the real deal, but at the cost of having a low durability and lacking a semblance. The Rabbit almost instantly finished them off, after landing only one hit on their bodies, while Neo continued jumping backwards.

It may not look like it, but I'm now the one in control of this fight's rhythm and direction. Blacksmith, pay attention.

As soon as the Nora construct was shattered, Neo again jumped backwards and pulled out another flash summon. It was Marrow Amin. A member of the Ace Ops with a semblance that allowed him to immobilize any enemy he was facing, uttering just one word.

"Stay."

The Marrow construct shouted in direction of The Rabbit, freezing her body and stopping of all her movements entirely. It had taken Neo lots of aura to replicate the effects of Marrow's semblance, but the cost was worth it.

"Neo, good job!" The Blacksmith congratulated her partner, as a root below The Rabbit was about to break the ground.

I did it! I managed to defeat someone more powerful than even Salem and Cinder. Well, not by myself. This time I wasn't alone, Great Tre-

The Rabbit dodged the root aiming for her again, at the last possible second.

How?

A shocked Neo asked herself, not expecting a reply. It took her some seconds to process what her eyes had seen, but that her brain couldn't handle.

Slightly before the root's tip could reach The Rabbit's body, a couple of shots rang out in the clearing. They were produced by Ranran's machine gun, which had decided to shoot down the Marrow construct, allowing its pilot to move again and escape from the root's reach. The Rabbit had used her AAIS bracelet to order the red mecha to free her from Marrow's semblance.

"Sorry, doggy. This rabbit isn't domesticated." The Rabbit taunted the broken construct.

No. No. No. No. No.

Neo kept repeating the same word inside of her head. Filled with despair.

I cannot believe I overlooked such an important detail. I was never fighting an opponent with only an umbrella and a sword as weapons.

Neo felt that she was about to cry, as the exhaustion from the fight finally started to take a toll on her.

"Neo, relax. You are losing control of your thoughts." The Blacksmith tried to calm down their partner, as she was beginning to pant frantically and collapsed on her knees.

"You did well, pretty doll. Your semblance is impressive." The Rabbit bending her body to look at her rival's eyes, and trying to hide that she was worried for her state of mind, tried to compliment Neo.

"If you keep training and improving your three pillars, I'm sure you will attain an Apex Semblance of your own, someday." This instead ended up infuriating Neo.

Can you please, shut up already!? I already got the best semblance in all of Remnant and the Ever After. No one can rival me in either world, outside of maybe those with elemental magic bullshit! There's no improvement left for me. Also stop it with that stupid Apex Semb-

Suddenly, Neo's angry expression toward The Rabbit, turned into one of confusion and fear.

Blacksmith? Neo tried calling her partner's attention.

"What is it, Neo?" The Blacksmith, who had been silent till now, replied with a puzzled voice.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but so far in this fight our opponent hasn't used something akin to... a semblance? Neo asked, despite knowing the answer and fearing her suspicions been confirmed.

"I don't think so. I haven't noticed her using a semblance." The Blacksmith answered with a reluctant tone.

Neo decided to close her eyes and do her best to keep herself from crying, as she struggled to keep down a flood of negative thoughts and tightened her grip on Hush as hard as she could. She had never felt this humiliated in a fight before. Not even against Manda Rin, Maria Calavera, Penny Polendina, or one of the other two Maidens she avoided fighting.

"Neo, the enemy is changing its tactics and formation. The Tree will have to go all out." Neo was alarmed by The Blacksmith's sudden warning.

What do you mean by that?

As she was thinking her next message, Neo noticed that the Monoliths had changed their flying formation and raised their altitude. Now they were all surrounding The Mother Tree's acre and flying above the altitude of its crown. Around a dozen Minotaurs were also aiming their guns and other weapons at the tree and its surroundings.

"I will protect you." The Blacksmith declared to her.

"Inu-san, what are you thinking!?" The Rabbit's scolding voice could be heard on the speakers of the commanding room. "I still haven't captured the girl! You are going to get her killed."

"Lieutenant, may I remind you that our biggest priority is taking over The Tree itself? Any other target is secondary." The Wolf rebutted. "You had your chance to capture the assigned target and wasted it playing around with it. She's clearly a lost nadir from an insignificant world that was exiled to this place or a failure that couldn't ascend. There's not much value in her capture."

"Grand Admiral, with all due respect, we cannot be sure about that." The Monkey carefully interjected to calm down the issue between both, once again. "For all we know, she could be a spy from another world that will become a threat to Zenith, in the near future."

"Capturing that clown girl alive is important too." The Boar with urgency now complemented The Monkey's response. "It's the only way we can study her aura and find where she comes from." She stood up in front of The Wolf, pointing her fan in his direction, as if reprimanding her superior's impatient attitude.

"Enough! All ships and units, take aim at the tree and its acre!" The Wolf commanded, while losing his composure. Ever After, you better show up, if you don't want her to die!"

Once its fleet completed his command, The Wolf gave the next order.

"Fire!"

The Monoliths positioned around the acre started to shoot at The Great Tree. Large caliber guns, located in their lower side, shot armor-piercing and explosive rounds combined with fire and bright orange dust, while big railguns shot kinetic projectiles.

On the Monoliths' upper side, launchers released ballistic, dust-enhanced missiles that started to rain down on The Tree. Minotaurs complemented the attack, by shooting at The Tree's branches, or cutting them down with their big axes and swords. Soon, The Great Tree's bark and cambium began to fall, break apart, or catch fire, all over the place.

This isn't at all like the fairy tales I used to read as a kid. I don't want to be Alyx anymore.

Neo thinking that she was sleeping and stuck in a nightmare, couldn't help but be in shock at what she was just witnessing. The firepower from all the projectiles of the 13 Monolith combined was enough to blow up Atlas or Beacon Academy 5 times over. And the attack wasn't showing signs of stopping yet.

"Watch out!" Neo heard The Rabbit scream to her, just as a stray ballistic missile was about to land on the clearing both were standing on. While branches and roots sprouted from the ground to shield just Neo, Ranran managed to intercept the missile in time and activated a big energy shield, to stop its explosion from reaching their location.

"Forgive me, Neo. But things are about to get more dangerous. I've got no choice." The Blacksmith said, extremely concerned for her safety.

What do you mean by I've? As Neo pondered, a strange 'shriek' and an earthquake began to shake the entire acre.

"Is that The Tree?" The Rabbit asked, as she was looking at her surroundings for any signs of danger.

Hundreds of roots started to break all acre's ground, while an incredible amount of thin, but extremely sharp branches started to come out from The Tree's trunk. Branches and roots combined started to attack and intercept the enemy's projectiles and Minotaurs.

Inside of a 'shield dome', made of thick roots and branches, Neo managed to catch a glimpse of the infernal war scenario playing out of her 'refuge'. She saw a Minotaur firing its machine gun, defending itself with its big sword, and dodging branches and roots at incredible speeds, while flying all over the place. It wasn't till it approached The Tree's trunk, that finally a branch that grew out of it, at an insane speed, managed to pierce its 'torso'. The machine kept shooting and was about to use the sword to cut down the branch that pierced it, but before it could achieve this, from the same branch grew several others inside of its objective's 'body', piercing it several times from within.

The Great Tree's branches soon grew enough to reach the Monoliths that kept firing at it, but before they could pierce or land heavy hits on them, energy shields stopped them from reaching their targets. Their shields were so strong, the branches broke or burn whenever they impacted against them violently.

Millions of leaves from The Great Tree and from its surrounding forests, as if elevated by divine whirlwinds, tried to engulf the Minotaurs and Monoliths, although the latters' shields burned all the leaves, as soon as they made contact with them. From all the burned leaves and tree barks, 'ascension' smoke started to come out. The entire acre soon became an 'instant ascension' place.

Having no other option, The Rabbit left Neo inside of her shield dome and hopped into Ranran, to avoid the 'ascension' smoke, crazy roots, and leaves flying all over the acre.

"Look at what have you done, Inu-san." The Rabbit, inside of Ranran's cabin, complained to her superior.

"It's all part of the plan, Rabbit. Better return to a Monolith. Otherwise, you will get caught in the blast of thirteen simultaneous anti-matter shots." The Wolf said, eerily satisfied with his mighty fleet's firepower.

"Nani!? What do you mean?" The Rabbit asked in disbelief.

"The Ever After finally showed its true colors. It's giving us a proper battle. We've already lost half of the deployed Minotaurs and the Monoliths' shields are experiencing some strain." Despite the situation described, The Wolf spoke without worries. "It's time to rely again on bigger firepower, to force even more The Tree and destroy this acre."

"But the cute doll is still down there. Her aura levels are low." The Rabbit replied, doing her best to not scream and avoid her voice breaking with fear. "She will not be able to survive the intense heat and radiation from one shot, let alone thirteen."

"That's not our problem, Rabbit. Taking down and capturing The Tree has always been the main mission." The Wolf ignored without hesitation his subordinate's words. "You want the girl to survive? Then, deal with that tree yourself, before the Monoliths are done charging their shots."

The Wolf closed the communication channel, so that his subordinate couldn't rebuke to him anymore.

"AAAAAH, he's so obstinate and merciless!" The Rabbit grabbed the back of her uncovered head with her hands, while moving it like crazy and doing small kicks inside of the cabin. "Ranran, lend me your power! We got a beautiful damsel to save!"

Ranran began flying fast, up to the sky, while dodging roots, branches, Minotaurs, and 'friendly' fire on the way. Its speed exceeding multiple times the sound barrier.

"Grand Admiral, Ranr- The Rabbit's unit made it past the Monoliths and its flying toward the Ever After's thermosphere. It's about to reach an altitude of 100 kms." The computer operator with the owl mask, nervously informed The Wolf.

"Is she going to do what I'm thinking?" The Boar asked incredulous.

"What a show off." The Monkey shrugged and said sarcastically. "All this to save a girl she's not even familiar with. Well, that's Usagi for you."

"Attention all Monoliths. Cancel the procedures for anti-matter firing. Raise shield levels to maximum capacity, in preparation for a kinetic bombardment. Now!" The Wolf ordered quickly with annoyance.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have taunted her, but this can turn out to be useful, if it makes that thing finally reveal itself on the battlefield." Deep in thought, the admiral started scratching the lower part of his mask.

Once Ranran made it past 250 kms above the sea level, the Ever After's thermosphere, The Rabbit finally ordered it to stop.

"Ranran, let's try aiming for a location in which landing will be the least dangerous for our princess doll." The Rabbit started inputting info into the computers of the cabin, so that it could calculate the best trajectory for the impact.

"Sorry, tree. It's either you or her. And clearly, you also care more for her, than for your own safety." The Rabbit thought aloud, with a feeling of regret.

"All AAIS restrictions lifted. Aiming for the highest possible aura synchronization levels." The Rabbit adjusted the configuration on her left bracelet and cabin computers. "Ranran, we will use together one of my favorite recorded semblances, Sakura Blast. Let's make it Apex!"

"Neopolitan, The Tree is running out of power. It won't be able to fend off for longer the invaders." The Blacksmith tried to call their partner's attention, as she was trying to look at how the battle was developing, from inside of the dome. "We have been saving enough energy for another portal though."

Great. Let's escape together, while The Tree still has some bravado left. Neo told the Blacksmith, trying to conceal the fear that was building up inside of her. The Rabbit girl and her robot are gone, while most of the Minotaurs are either down or too busy to aim here.

"... Right. We will try to open a new door, as close as possible to you." The Blacksmith hesitated while saying this.

Blacksmith... things are going to be fine, right? You wil-

As an anxious Neo was trying to communicate with her partner, she saw way up in the sky something that mesmerized her. From a distance, it looked like some sort of violet meteorite or comet. She noticed that it was heading toward The Tree, and the closer it got to the ground, the more details she could discern from it. Its center was red. Its violet light and tail were the result of some flame that it was emitting. And it was leaving behind a trail of pink petals on its fall.

Could that be... Ranran? But something is off. The speed at which this object is falling is way too fast!

Thanks to her way above average nerve conduction velocity, senses, and reflexes, Neo could tell on time that the violet comet was heading toward the acre. Never she had seen a transport or vehicle move this fast.

Blacksmith, I got a bad feeling about this. Something is going to crash hard against this acre.

Thinking fast, Neo noticed all the remaining broken shards of her fallen constructs laying across the clearing's ground. Using her semblance, she gathered them all together on Hush, to use the same shield tactic from earlier. As she was doing this, more roots and branches manifested, to reinforce the 'dome' that contained Neo, while previous ones already installed there, grew thicker, as if preparing for the upcoming impact.

With Hush opened in direction of where the object was going to fall, Neo placed herself behind it as best as she could. Combining almost all her remaining energy reserves, plus the shards used to reinforce Hush's defense, a pink aura sphere shield appeared to cover her body. In front of Hush, a bright silhouette reminiscent of a pink flower with petals showed up.

All of this happened within 3 seconds.

"Falling speed: 50 kms per second!" The Owl operator said quickly and urgently to his superior.

The Monoliths' energy shields not only had been activated by now, but were reinforced as best as possible, sacrificing many of their other capabilities, including projectile firing, just to be able to sustain them at their peak performance for longer.

"It's over, Ever After." The Wolf declared triumphantly.

"Everybody, brace yourselves!" The Board said in panic.

"BUNNY KICK!" The Rabbit positioned Ranran, so that one of its legs was fully extended, while the other one retracted. Twisting Ranran's body a bit and positioning its arms to take full advantage of the gained momentum, with the goal of increasing as much as possible the force behind the kick.

"And..." The Monkey, who was sitting relaxed on a chair, putting his legs on top of a computer desk in the commanding room, and with his arms behind his head, casually moved one his hands to the front and opened it to simulate an explosion.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, an intense violet light covered the entire area. Ranran had landed near the base of The Tree, on the other side of the acre where Neo's refuge dome was located in. A big and long spiked column of purple smoke grew fast near The Tree, soon surpassing its height and the Monoliths' flying altitude, while several other spiked columns of a lesser size, grew from its same base.

A gigantic shockwave hit The Great Tree hard, destroying instantly all its branches and pulverizing its leaves. The shockwave reached the Monoliths with their activated shields, shacking them and making them lose their balanced, flying positions for a moment. All the 'ascension' smoke and clouds, produced by the burned leaves, were dispersed by the force of the impact travelling across the acre.

The ground of the acre started to break, as entire big sections of it got leveled up and their forests got decimated. The ground continued to break, while some of its sections near the acre's border broke apart from the 'mainland', falling into the abyss that surrounded it. Big portions of land started to rise, while other ones got buried by those, completely deforming the shape and landscape of the previously fertile area.

The shockwave and kinetic energy of the attack made it to the neighboring acres, destroying the wildlife and structures contained within them, and even making cracks appear across their entire ground areas. The impact made it to the beaches and its waters, tearing palms and other vegetation from the ground, sending sand all over the place.

The shockwave continued a couple of kilometers travelling across the Ever After's surrounding sea, before finally it started to lose its destructive force.

While the Rabbit and Ranran had calculated that most of the direct force from the impact would be absorbed by The Great Tree's trunk, a significant portion of it reached the clearing in which Neo and her dome were stationed. The kinetic energy destroyed fiercely the refuge, tearing instantaneously apart the roots and branches that it was made of.

Neo did her best to hold Hush and her flower aura shield in the optimal defensive position, but the latter started to break as it lost its 'petals'. The shockwave's force continued breaking her external aura shield, until just Hush remained.

Roman! Blacksmith!

As Neo's fear began to increase, doing her best to not lose her grip on Hush, she directed most of what remained of her aura into its 'canopy'. Unfortunately, despite her efforts, Hush was beginning to break apart. A strong wind refused to give up on its victim, and soon tears started to appear on Hush.

Please, no! Hold on for longer! We can do this, together!

Flashes of her sad life back in Remnant started to appear before her closed eyes, full of tears. She remembered all her tragedies and misadventures that she had experienced across her life.

I know I don't deserve to, but I want to survive!

Neo suddenly remembered a pink box. The day she got Hush. A pink light started to spread across the parasol, as Neo's body kept getting pushed behind. The destructive force of the kinetic bombardment continued to attack her, doing its best to claim her life, but her weapon was also refusing to give up.

Without notice, Hush's canopy finally broke entirely, and Neo lost her grip on its shaft. The impact reached Neo's body and tried tearing through her. She subconsciously covered her head and face with her arms, while forcing herself to keep her aura shield activated at the most vital parts of her body. But as she did this, a sudden thought of terror crossed her mind.

ROMAN'S HAT!

She finally noticed that the hat had been blown away from her head long ago. As she lost her concentration and tried desperately to look for the hat, the final push from the explosion sent a distracted Neo flying away.

She fell several meters away from where she was last standing, almost losing her consciousness. But she was still alive and her injuries weren't life threatening.

Neo tried standing, noticing that her balance was a bit off. One of her shoes was gone, while the other one had its heel broken. Her gloves, detached sleeves, and scarf had also disappeared. Her pants had two big holes on them. One in the left knee and another one around her right thigh. Most of her brown coat was gone too, and what little remained of it, was attached to her white vest. One of her two belt shoulder straps was broken, her ice cream keychain was gone, and she was covered in dirt stains.

She had cuts across multiple parts of her body, her clothes and skin, fortunately not deep ones, but still enough for some of them to cause slight bleeding, while purple bruises were beginning to form here and there. Despite some pain, Neo noticed that luckily, she didn't have broken bones nor suffered some sort of dislocation. Outside of a messy hair, tiny cuts on her face and some small bumps, her head had been spared from worse. Neo's aura had lasted long enough to protect her from most of the kinetic energy released by Ranran's fall. Hush and the wood dome had, for the most part, served their purpose.

For the next minute, Neo tried to regain control of her senses and process her surroundings. She finally understood that the broken and desolated area she was standing on used to be the acre of The Mother Tree. As she began to recover from the shock, she saw up in the distance the extremely damaged and crooked trunk of what used to be the mighty Great Tree. Its foliage and branches were no more, along its surrounding forests.

If Vale had been victim of that same kinetic bombardment, not only Beacon Academy, but the entire kingdom and its city would have been gone, without leaving any trace behind. If that same attack had landed on Atlas, the entire city would have been flattened. Along its floating continental landmass breaking down and destroying Mantle in the process.

Blacksmith!? Can you hear me!? Please, answer me!

Terror was again winning over Neo. Memories of the night she lost her previous partner, Roman Torchwick, emerged. Fearing that this was a repeat of Beacon's Fall, she tried to get a reply from her partner.

I may not be able to ascend anymore, but at least let's escape together!

Neo began to ran in fear, looking aimlessly around the former acre, in a futile attempt to find her partner.

Don't leave me alone, please! Not you too.

After some minutes of a frantic and erratic search, Neo collapsed on her knees. Her throat and chest began to hurt a lot, as her tears started finally coming out from her white colored eyes. Neo opened her mouth while crouching and clutching her head, but as much as she wanted, a scream wouldn't come out.

I'm sorry.