A trap of golden chains held Cosmo and his opponent together, a testament to Red's returned clarity.
While one of his hands gripped the Spire's arm, still driven into his chest cavity, the other held a long extension of fabric that trailed beyond the face of the inverted void below.
"Do you have any idea what you almost did?" he asked between fading gasps, and it screamed directly into his face in return.
"I guess… It's not her I'm talking to anymore, is it?"
His grip tightened around its arm, enough that its bark began to crack under the pressure.
Its other arm swiftly shot toward the center of his head, but immediately halted as it collided with a solidified barrier of air.
"You know, the idea of attacking my own officer without restraint left me reluctant. Distant as we might have been. I thought doing so would only prove her disdain justified."
He realized it then. He was now at the cusp of letting it all go.
"I think I'm over it now."
He was beginning to accept that he couldn't be a considerate and kind Captain as he had hoped.
And he could no longer pretend to be one.
The artificial light that always reflected in his eyes was starting to feel less worth clinging to, and whatever he hoped to gain from the pretense began to lose value beneath the tension brought about by the Spire's actions.
Those bright silver eyes dimmed, adopting the vacant gaze of the dead.
All until a flash of blue light illuminated them.
He was forced back to the surface as blaring blue flames rapidly engulfed his bandages, the chains, and the Spire alike.
The Spire screeched and broke their deadlock, ripping its arm out of Cosmo's chest after a reckless struggle.
Cosmo, however, wasn't fazed by the pain. Instead, he looked down at the human torch that had just burst out of the void and was now racing back toward them.
He was yelling, or rather, roaring, at nothing obvious.
'I've said it over and over again, but no one still gets it. This kid–"
"You're just so damn crazy!"
Cosmo shouted in exhilaration as he tore off burning fabrics in one swift motion before the flames could touch his skin.
The Spire's body convulsed before the fire coating it flew off in solid fragments.
It had shed the outer layer of bark that had been burning.
Then, renewed, it leaped downward toward Tyson with an invisible foothold.
Cosmo would not let things go awry so quickly. He pressed his hand to his chest and manually forced Tzuri's scales to stall the bleeding. Then he fell after it.
Tyson's body released a flare at the Spire without the need for a gesture, and it responded by creating a mass of wood, which it immediately discarded the moment the blue flames enveloped it.
It understood the nature of those flames the instant they touched. They were gluttonous flames that devoured whatever they met, rendering the subject nothing but fuel.
Incidentally, those flames were the perfect counter to its regenerative attribute, so long as it didn't immediately focus on purging them.
Regardless, if it could land a single lethal hit, the problem would end.
But then it heard a voice beside it.
"Hey, I'm hurt you were so quick to move on and forget about me the moment someone a bit flashy shows up."
It noticed the silver–eyed human falling alongside it, then saw him throw a light but swift jab in its direction.
He wasn't within its range, so the action made little sense. Yet its head recoiled from an invisible but deadly blow that sent its body spiraling out of balance.
"Out of every option, you chose to face me with a humanoid body. It makes sense for you to face humanoid consequences as well."
By the time it regained its balance, it was already too late. Tyson had closed the distance.
His arms were still unusable, making close combat seem unreliable.
Except it wasn't an issue for the current Tyson, who had no regard for common sense.
CRUNCH!
To the shock of everyone present, Tyson's jaws were the first to meet the Spire.
His teeth sank into its bark, and a dense flood of deep blue flames spread outward until the Spire was bathed in unforgiving heat.
Cosmo laughed in amusement as the Spire's momentum drove them both back toward the ground. He prepared to catch Tyson again before noticing another unexpected turn for the better.
The inverted voids had begun to shrink and close, gradually leaving the space untainted by any influence. Neither Rita's control nor the Spire's influence replaced the tears, which could only mean one thing.
"They did it…" he muttered.
Blue must have reached Rita. She had gone as far as he expected. And he trusted she hadn't broken their deal.
"Red! she–"
As he turned to deliver the news, he was stunned to see his officer's limp body falling after them. And this time, it was clearly involuntary.
"Oh sh–!"
He kicked off the air and caught the boy by the collar before they slammed into the wall on the opposite side.
Clawing into the surface to slow their descent, he immediately began adjusting the concentration of oxygen Red was inhaling.
He slowly regained consciousness, then panicked slightly as recognition of his surroundings returned.
"What happened?" he asked, noticing that the chains which had dictated the pace of the battle were now gone.
"You passed out for a moment," Cosmo answered. "That idiot's so hell‑bent on the Spire, he doesn't realize he's burning everything in the vicinity. That includes the air we need to breathe. I'm surprised his covenant hasn't punished that infraction yet. Luckily, your scales seem to have caught up to the shift, so it won't be a problem any longer."
"That doesn't seem like him. He'd usually be more careful about how he's affecting others. That's the whole point of his covenant in the first place." Red commented as he watched the blue flames Tyson was apparently responsible for, spreading endlessly across the area, burning the walls and rising higher.
However, the true reason became apparent to Cosmo in a short moment.
For Eminents who control fire, their bodies naturally produce a semi‑material solution that is then ignited by the spark provided by their Authority. This spark determines and allows them to control subsequent reactions. The problem with Tyson, however, was that the solution created by his body was being ignited by a spark foreign to it.
One that, incidentally, interfered with the communication systems in his brain responsible for cognitive operation.
In other words–
"He is zooted out of his damn mind," Cosmo laughed.
He had no idea where Tyson had obtained those flames, but he clearly hadn't used them before.
It was yet another secret among the many he knew Tyson had been hiding. And this was one Cosmo fully intended to grill him about later.
They watched as the Spire attempted to separate itself from Tyson to no avail, until both crashed into the ground.
The surface of the water lit up with those blue flames, and immediately after, Tyson rushed toward the Spire without hesitation.
It looked less like a tactical assault and more like he simply wanted to latch onto the Shadowbeast again. But the creature wasn't having it. It retreated, avoiding contact by firing seedling projectiles and erupting spikes in Tyson's path.
They slowed him and even injured him momentarily, but Tyson, utterly unconcerned with injury or restraint, pushed forward with overwhelming aggression.
"As much as I'd love to keep watching, this is buying us a lot of useful time," Cosmo commented.
"Oh, right." Red instantly understood. This relates to the cocoon and its destruction once and for all.
"What about the others?"
"They'll be fine. They won't be affected by the way things are going," Cosmo responded before pointing at the last inverted void as it sealed shut as though it had never existed.
Then he called out.
"ADA, respond."
The orb that should have been waiting above the cocoon suddenly hovered out of Red's pocket.
"Whoa… Since when was it–"
"You guys didn't even consider that ADA was up there waiting for my signal when you destroyed the roof of this structure. It probably predicted things going badly before choosing to hide down here instead."
"Give me a moment," Cosmo replied as he surveyed the structure around them.
To ensure they could finally force the Spire to cease regenerating, their only option was to make it waste the limited energy it had left.
Since this cocoon also served as part of the Spire's physical form, most of its energy must have been spent manifesting it.
That was the basis of Cosmo's decision to have them expend as much as they could to destroy it.
But for a structure so tall it touched the clouds, doing so in a short amount of time was nearly impossible–at least while Cosmo was busy outpacing the Spire's precognition.
Now, however, it was a different story.
It might have regained access to the imaginary space once after Rita relinquished it, but it didn't have enough stored energy to reach it again.
The only energy it still possessed was the steady stream it passively devoured from the boundary.
Which meant the current Tyson was the perfect bait.
But before that, they couldn't pass up the opportunity to fulfill the task they originally came here for.
If its influence had waned, then this was the literal optimal moment for Clarisse to return the boundary to zero.
"Now."
<"Understood."> Her voice finally traveled through the line after so long, and she began the restitution.