"First time meeting you, Leaders. I'm Camellya."
She took both Rovers' hands and pulled herself up from the ground, slipping into a self-introduction without missing a beat. One palm pressed to her chest, she dipped into an elegant half-bow, graceful as a ballerina's curtain call.
Beautiful.
Then a vine lanced straight at them.
The female Rover's hand dropped to her sword on instinct.
Rover didn't move.
The tendril halted centimeters from their faces, its tip unfurling like a bud in time-lapse. Two Camellias bloomed at its end, impossibly vivid. White pistils cradled by layered petals of deep scarlet, darkening toward black at the outer edges. Like the girl herself, the flowers seemed to crave blood and battle, blossoming fiercer in harsher soil.
And no matter how much damage those outer petals took, they would guard what mattered most at the center.
"For you two. A little something from me."
"Well, that's one way to say hello."
"Camellya, right? I remember you. You've been tailing us for three days, you and a few others. I'd recognize that presence anywhere."
Both Rovers plucked the flowers. He lifted his to his nose and breathed in its fragrance. She turned hers by the stem, studying it for a moment before speaking. Camellya's eyes widened with genuine surprise.
"Oh? You noticed me? I was sure I'd hidden well."
"Your stare runs hot." Both at once.
They pocketed the Camellias, the words leaving their mouths in perfect unison.
Camellya's eyes went wide, then crinkled with delight.
"Well, you're both terribly tempting. But if you knew I was there, why not do something about it?"
"No reason to. You weren't hostile."
"If you'd been an enemy, that'd be a different story."
The two Rovers shrugged. Decisive in a fight, sure, but they weren't about to cut down someone who wasn't a threat. Telling friend from foe before swinging was common sense.
The incident just now? That was combat adrenaline. Didn't count.
Camellya twirled a lock of white hair around her finger, her expression shifting into something complicated. She'd toyed with the idea of testing them herself, but attacking the very people she'd been assigned to protect? Even she didn't pull stunts like that often.
Besides, she'd found a sparring partner to keep her entertained.
But now, imagining what would have happened if she had picked that fight...
She glanced over her shoulder at the battlefield behind them. Hundreds of Tacet Discords lay slain, their remains scattered across the field as hundreds of golden, statue-like Echoes.
If she'd made her move back then, she'd probably be among them. Withered and done.
And yet...
"Ahh, you two are incredible." Her hands rose to cup her own cheeks, eyes blazing. "The way you fight, the power surging through you... my heart won't stop pounding. If only I'd been the one dancing with you instead."
"You're, uh... you're really something."
The female Rover stared at Camellya, caught between exasperation and disbelief. Black Shores really does attract all types. Is this girl okay?
"Don't look at me like that! I was a big help, you know. Three days ago, when you fought that Fractsidus... what was his name? Scar? Wound? Whatever, doesn't matter."
Camellya tapped her chin, gave up trying to remember Scar's name almost immediately, and barreled on with the air of someone claiming a reward.
"Point is, while you two were fighting that guy, I was busy holding off the other Overseer."
"The other Overseer? Phrolova?"
The question came fast. She didn't "know" Phrolova, but three days ago, when she and Rover had been seconds from finishing Scar off, his screaming had been hard to forget: Phrolova, where the HELL are you?!
Memorable delivery, that.
Intelligence extracted from Scar's interrogation in Jinzhou had confirmed it too: Fractsidus had sent two Overseers to cause trouble. Connecting those dots wasn't hard.
"I think so? Anyway, she was this oppressively gloomy woman. Felt like being near a Spider Lily. She could control Tacet Discords, and she seemed to have some kind of history with you two... but that's not important."
Camellya blinked and smiled, skipping neatly past the details. She couldn't care less about whatever arrangement Phrolova had with the Rovers. The feeling was mutual: Phrolova didn't like her, and she didn't like Phrolova.
"She was a decent opponent, though..." A pause, then a grin. "I still won."
A mutual destruction scenario, if one were being honest. But details.
"Nice work. That was a huge help."
Rover reached over, and together with the female Rover, ruffled the top of Camellya's head.
She was right. Their victory over Scar that day owed no small debt to Camellya keeping Phrolova occupied. If an Overseer who could manipulate Tacet Discords had entered the fight, their Echo army would've been useless, or worse, turned against them.
The female Rover found her opinion shifting. Dangerous personality aside, she might actually be reliable.
"By the way, how did you figure out we're the Black Shores Leaders? The Tethys System and Shorekeeper wouldn't have leaked that."
Before losing her memories, the female Rover had intended to operate in secret. A high-profile identity would only get in her way. Sometimes staying under the radar made everything easier. She still understood that logic, even now.
But she had a new idea.
Because she wasn't alone anymore.
With Rover at her side, they could work in tandem: one in the spotlight, one in the shadows. Whichever of them took on the public mantle of Jinzhou's champion and Black Shores Leader would draw every eye, while the other moved freely behind the scenes.
The plan was still theoretical, not yet put into practice. But in the not-so-distant future, when the two Rovers set out for the land called Rinascita, this exact strategy would let them turn the entire region on its head.
That, however, was a story for another time.
"No one told me who you are," Camellya said, certainty bright in her eyes. "But I know it can't be anyone else."
The Leader's order had been to reinforce Jinzhou, which meant the Leader had to be somewhere in the region. Four days ago, the Tethys System had given her an emergency mission: travel to Jinzhou and protect two Rovers. And most importantly, she'd witnessed their strength firsthand, felt the pull of their existence like something beyond reason. A certainty she couldn't explain, like love at first sight.
No other possibility existed. These two were Black Shores' Leaders.
"Smart girl. Keep it to yourself, though," Rover said.
"No problem. I was never planning to share."
She agreed without a heartbeat of hesitation. Something this thrilling, she had no intention of telling anyone else. It would stay her secret, hers and theirs alone.
Shorekeeper: (...)
A certain blue butterfly would like to remind everyone she was still here, thank you very much.
"Alright, we've bought enough time. The Midnight Rangers and Black Shores should be synced up by now. Let's absorb these Reverberations, convert them to Echoes, and head back."
Rover drew his Pangu Terminal. But as he and the female Rover turned toward the golden Reverberations scattered across the field, they noticed something wrong. The golden light was dimming before their eyes, dissolving into raw Frequency and streaming toward the horizon.
"What's happening? Uncollected Reverberations aren't supposed to dissipate for at least an hour," she said, alarmed.
"Waaah! Rover, something big is eating those Frequencies! That's so mean, stealing our stuff!"
Abby burst from the Tacet Mark in a fury, watching the hard-won Reverberations get siphoned away. The little Echo opened wide and began competing for the haul, golden vortex swirling in its mouth as it wrenched the Frequency streams back in its own direction.
And won.
Every last wisp of dissolving Reverberation vanished into Abby's stomach before the hidden thief could claim it.
"Good work, Abby."
Rover exhaled with relief. He normally preferred converting Reverberations into Echoes, but between losing their spoils to some unseen enemy and feeding Abby, the choice was obvious. At least this way, both he and the female Rover got stronger.
"Rover, was that what I think it was?"
"Yeah. That was the Threnodian. Ovathrax."
A grim nod.
Among Ovathrax's many abilities was the power to absorb the Frequencies of every casualty on the battlefield, human and Tacet Discord alike. The dead became its nourishment. Worse, any human who fell under its influence would rise again as a Tacet Discord, conscripted into its army.
That single ability alone earned it the title of war-class Threnodian. But Rover knew this was only a fraction of its Authority. Everything related to war fed its power.
Which meant, among other things, Ovathrax commanded a theoretically inexhaustible army.
The roaring came from every direction at once. Hundreds of voices, layered into a wall of sound.
"We barely finished the last wave."
Rover's brow furrowed. Another massive swarm of Tacet Discords was closing in, and with the Retroact Rain intensifying, their numbers kept climbing.
"We cut straight through, draw them into the defensive line's kill zone. Abby, keep absorbing the Reverberations from everything we kill. Don't let Ovathrax steal them."
"Leave it to me! Nobody out-eats me!"
"Camellya, stay close." His voice dropped, serious now. "Your Frequency's unstable. Those wounds from fighting Phrolova haven't healed, have they? No reckless stunts. That's an order from your Leader."
Camellya had been a breath away from triggering Overclocking again. Instead, she stared at the two hands that had closed around hers, one from each Rover, pulling her forward as they charged into the densest cluster of Tacet Discords.
Ten bloody paths carved open before them. Literally.
And no matter how vast the horde, no matter how savage the monsters pressing in, not a single one touched her.