Chapter 58: The Author's Knight!
"My own children."

Defenseless and stunned, Aurora could only listen to these words without being able to respond. She ran out of breath, the world became darker.

"Polar, Aurora, you two were once my family! You were the only thing I had left from him! But you couldn't replace him. Never. You brought me nothing but memories of my loss! That's why I fled! And found the Plot! That he would truly go so far as to put you in my way... and yet it changes nothing. I am ready to sacrifice any Pokemon if it is the only way to harmony! No matter who they are! I have already killed you once, Aurora, and I will do it again! And finally, finally achieve the peace this world so deserves!"

All these years... Epsilon had been Aurora's missing mother? She was the one who left the family behind back then. She had set off and became the Plot Empress on the way. And now Aurora would die here. At the hands of her own mother...

Suddenly, she fell to the ground. Aurora could breathe again and saw her rescuer in front of her. Epsilon was being attacked by an Arcanine. Kel. Or... was it really Kel?

"Epsilon... it seems to me that you have forgotten what the deal was, have you not? It wasn't your place to start this battle today! And your secrets were also a revelation for the future!"
"What do you know? You're nothing but a madman! I don't need to listen to you!"
"A madman? Epsilon, it seems to me that you have misinterpreted the voices in this Pokemon's head. He was not just mad. Moreover, you allow yourself to use my creation as a puppet for your own purposes? You, Epsilon, have broken our agreement. And thus, I will break my end of the deal as well."

A bright flash pierced the room as a strange disk floated out of nowhere in front of Kel. The champion's emblem. The last part of the Plot Armor. Epsilon herself now seemed to understand something that nobody else did.

"N...No! You? It's you? You are here? But I thought…"
"You thought wrong!"

A roar, louder than all the Pokemon in the arena combined echoed through the hall. The Plot Armor was reunited. And Kel truly became its master. When the light faded, the entire armor seemed to have disappeared. But the Arcanine's fur now glowed in bright yellow.

"And thus, the demon is tamed!"

Kel extended his claws again, but this time the blow hit Epsilon's helmet. A crack went through the headgear. It grew wider and wider until the helmet shattered into small pieces and revealed the face of a Zoroark. She immediately pushed Kel away from her.

Epsilon floated up, her gaze fixed on the group below her, but she kept her head up. The familiar face of the Zoroark seemed out of place and yet fitting on the Plot Empress's armor.

"You… you… I don't care what you think! What you say! I've had enough! Was I more than a puppet to you anyway? Or were you just using me, like you do with this Arcanine?"
"Can you finally tell us what the fuck you are talking about?!"

Epsilon pointed her sword at her daughter in a flash, but decided that the truth could be an advantage for herself.

"What is speaking through Kel right now is the voice of the Plot itself! The one who gave you and me our powers, Aurora. And your Arcanine friend is nothing more than his puppet. And now, after years, decades, of loyal service, he is turning on me as well! And all because, even after all these years, I have not yet become a mindless follower! I still want to fulfill my dreams! Even if, after countless promises, they have been denied for decades!"

Kel, or whoever spoke through his body, answered immediately.

"You do not understand me and you never have, Epsilon. And that is precisely why you are no longer of any use to me. You have always followed my words, but never with your heart, only to now, at the first opportunity, put your hatred above what you are truly fighting for! Ultimately, Aurora, the important thing is that we now have a common enemy, right? Everything else you will understand soon!"

Despite her uncertainty, Aurora saw the truth of these words, but the Plot Empress seemed to disagree.

"Don't believe this being! He's taking advantage of you, just like he does to all Pokemon in the world! He claims to want peace, but he only wants to entertain himself."
"And I'm supposed to believe that from the Pokemon that has been lying to me for months, pretending to be my friend, even though she was actually my worst enemy and long lost mother? Epsilon, you will fall today! I don't care how!"

Aurora had made her decision. Once again, purple lightning struck all over the field, but neither Aurora nor Kel flinched even a little.

"I don't care what you think! I don't care what you all think! Blindness overshadows all of your vision! If I have to clean up the world all by myself, then I will! I don't care who stands in my way! My children, my teammates, the league, the author... everyone will fall! Do you hear me?! EVERYONE!"

The fight now entered the second round, but the tables had turned. Epsilon was driven by more hatred than ever before, but she was alone against the entirety of Polarna vatra! And... against whatever exactly was going on with Kel. The Plot Empress immediately stormed forward, clearly not limited in her strength by the loss of her helmet. She immediately tried to land a direct blow against Aurora, but the Ninetales just blocked and counterattacked. Now attacked from five sides, Epsilon whirled around to get free from all enemies. But she didn't summon new shadows. Was this the helmet's ability? One ability that clearly remained, however, was the rotation of space, which started again immediately. In addition, the geysers also shot out of the ground again. Epsilon tried to make up for her lack of numbers by creating space.

However, Kel seemed unimpressed, as he moved as before despite the strong centrifugal force. He also avoided the obstacles as if they weren't even there. Epsilon had now found a new main opponent in him. She seemed to prefer to focus on her daughter, but she no longer had the chance to do so. Instead, the golden Arcanine, the author's knight, required all her strength. At the same time, Aurora, Marshadow, Zeraora and Tyrantrum were also fighting with all their might. And before any of these strange events, Aurora had been able to keep up with Epsilon and Kel almost on her own. The fight seemed unequal, but for the first time the cards were stacked against the empress! An idea that many had dreamed of for so long. Epsilon was pushed into a corner. But she was still not ready to give up. Her blows became more and more desperate, faster and more aggressive, even Kel seemed to be slowly having problems with pure aggression.

Offense quickly became Epsilon's best defense, but after a few minutes of fighting, Marshadow hit the enemy critically and she crashed into the dome of the battlefield with full force. The leg protection of her armor, the second of three pieces, immediately shattered. At the same moment, the rotation of the entire room stopped! The Zoroark also had to recognize her situation. That's why she tried to reach her daughter again.

"Aurora... look around you! Don't you see what's going on here? How you're being exploited? What this being wants is not peace, it's control! The Plot was never a friend, Aurora! I too trusted it, believed it, yes, even worshipped it! And look where I am now! Look what the Plot has brought me! It is the enemy!"

In a flash, the empress blocked another Ice Beam with her sword.

"The Plot is not the enemy, you are! Don't you see that it wasn't a higher power that made you the lonely madwoman that you are? You alone are to blame for everything that happened to you! You decided your own fate! You could have used your power for good! Or you could have stayed with us back then! None of this would have happened! And in the end, the Plot was the only thing that could keep me going. All because of you!"
"The plot kept you alive so that it could use you here and now! You are blind! When I met you in the league, I doubted whether it might have been the better decision to stay with you back then! Maybe even to reveal myself to you in the league, to solve things differently. But today I have to see that I was right! I was right then and I am right now! You and Polar are worthless to me! I don't need you! Family, friends, it's all just a burden! If it hadn't been for you, everything would have been better! Hail would still be alive! And I would be happy! You convinced me, Aurora! The Plot is not to blame for what happened to me! It is you! Your very existence was a mistake!"

As much as Aurora hated the Pokemon here, as little as she respected Epsilon, knowing that this was indeed her mother, the words of the only family of hers who did not take their own life, these exclamations cut her deeper than she cared to admit.

"While I cannot judge why father did what he did, whatever his reasons were... how you handled it is neither Polar's fault nor mine! After giving so much to make this world a better place, I will not put up with such claims from the tyrant of the land! If Hail was really that important to you, Epsilon, then tell me: What would he think of all this, if he were here today?"
"If he were here, things would be different! And the fact that he is dead is the reason for everything happening! I will not give up, not until I have taken my last breath!"

Still the fight continued, the Plot Empress's stamina still did not seem to wane. For her last chance, she decided to ignore her strongest opponent. Epsilon was still fighting, but she had already given up on winning this battle. All she wanted was to live out all the hatred in her soul, the hatred towards her own daughter. Images of the meeting at the iceberg flashed in her mind. The fight had been easy. Aurora stood alone, inexperienced, weak, betrayed. She was easy prey. Back then, she had killed Aurora, but listened to the Plot and had given her a second chance. A mistake!

The Ninetales who now faced her was not the same Aurora that she had fought back then. She had become stronger, more determined. She had learned a lot. Now, in those minutes, everything had changed. Aurora was now a true opponent. On an equal footing? If not higher! All those involved, even the being in Kel, kept their distance. They all saw that the final blows of the fight were a matter between Aurora and Epsilon alone. And now, in this environment, with the gaze of the spectators outside the one-sided black barrier on her neck, Epsilon also felt the exhaustion that all her fighting spirit had brought. All the sins, the heavy words, the burden of all her actions... it was all too much.

Epsilon fell to her knees, sword and arms lowered, breathing heavily. The breastplate of her armor shattered into pieces and the Feathersword fell to the ground. Just for Kel to immediately jump for the sword and grab it. Without paying any more attention to the fallen empress, he turned to Polarna vatra.

"Aurora, Marshadow. Follow the path north. Past the iceberg, for three days. You will find a mountain range. Climb it and find the grotto in the valley! I will be waiting for you there. You will learn the whole truth!"
"Wait! What..."

Aurora did not have time to ask her question as her partner had already disappeared. And Epsilon, dismayed and desperate, rushed to the remains of her armor...