This is that most wonderful of things; a battle where everyone involved is winning. Everyone is getting everything they crave from battle. The world is in alignment.

Countess Keron was not born to this life. She adopted her personality and role in the world as a girl adopts a stray kitten, not knowing at the time that it was a tiger cub... but not flinching from it either. Hers had been a path of temptation, foes who sought to overcome her with beauty and blade, and with each one she had defeated her resolve hardened. Each victory became a heart to defend; if her foes dashed themselves to pieces against her siren's rocks then to fail would be to let each of them down. Her secret strength is her [i]strength[/i] - but as she fights against Princess Chen she knows that strength is not enough. This foe is stronger, faster, and will not tire. This foe has a heart reforged in her own shadow. This foe has reached the limits of her control. And so, Countess Keron tosses her Naginata aside -

[Countess Keron creates an opportunity for Princess Jessic]

And Princess Jessic seizes it. Well, eventually. In the immediate sense the flat of it impacts against the side of her head as she stares up at Rose from the River, and the force of the blow shakes her from the hypnotism of the warrior monk's swaying motions. That is enough to draw the dragon's eyes across the hall to where the now unarmed Countess Keron is giving her the evil eye amidst wild dodges of Princess Chen's unstoppable offensive. It's a call to action that even the power of the ancient world cannot deny, and so a new thunder finds Princess Jessic.

It was correct to try to seize a dragon by the heart, for no other chains could be binding. She sweeps the naginata up with her tail and engages, whirling it with shocking prowess before transferring it to the grip of her foreclaws. It is a wild swing in the nature of battle, almost impossible to keep up with. Jessic is no master of this weapon but the sheer novelty of having to fight an armed dragon is enough to break the momentum that had turned against her. 

She had not come to this life by accident. It had been the result of deep deliberation and many conscious choices. She was not human and her thoughts and cravings were impossible to explain. There were patterns and authorities that her mind naturally shaped around. She had her own ideas of beauty, some of which were dark and fierce. But she'd found in Keron a halfway point between the human and the draconic; a lens through which she could communicate with a species she did not truly understand. And through that she'd been able to build a trust that was as strange as it was absolute. She didn't know how to relate to a being as fierce and seductive as Rose from the River, so her decision was as it always was in this strange world: to obey Keron, to follow the lead of her partner and translator.

She hooks the naginata up into her tail and uses it to strike like a scorpion's stinger from above her head as she crouches low to the ground. Attempts to evade or encircle her are met with sudden, sharp wing blows. Her technique has its limits but it is enough to drive Rose back - and then turn and lunge, fast as blinking, across the hall to where Chen has Keron on the ropes. She spreads her wings as she reaches the second duel, the clap of her wings transforming all her forwards momentum into a hurricane blast of air to send the winter princess flying clear of her partner. 

[Princess Jessic creates an opportunity for Countess Keron]

With a toss, the naginata lands back in Keron's outstretched palm. With a grin, the Countess lifts herself to stand atop her dragon's back. This, then, is their final form. This is their true harmony of battle. 

But this is not their day. This is not their scene. This, [i]all[/i] of this, has been stolen already by Hyra of the Wolves and the master thieves who trained her. And now it's time for her to bring it to its conclusion.

She presses the detonator. The charges in the ceiling explode, and with an enormous crash, treasure begins to rain down from the second floor. The vault of the Sky Castle pours down in a rain of gold, gemstones and rare video game cartridges to land in an enormous heap in the centre of the floor, separating the four combatants. A gagged and squirming fox is tossed down to land on top of the pile, at once the greatest treasure of the pile and trying to grip as much of it as possible with her tied hands.

And hovering there, in mid-air, is the Sunshard. The gleaming, four meter orange and black tigerseye gemstone, filled with all of the wishes of Princess Jessic. Atop the Sunshard, power glowing up through her boots and running through her fingers, stands Hyra, and in her arms, Yue.

"Make a wish," she says to Yue with a smile.

Then she presses the detonator again. This time it blows out the floor of the main hall, sending all that gold and treasure falling down out of the bottom of the Sky Castle, down and down towards the distant countryside below. Hyra steps from the edge of the Sunshard and falls too, hand holding Yue's hand as they descend amidst a springtime storm of diamonds.