Bytra Blinked away, immediately followed by Korgh. No matter the direction she took, her double would follow her without fail. Soon both of them were outside the mines, in a secluded space away from prying eyes.
'Something is wrong.' Korgh thought. 'After Blinking so many times, even I feel tired. How can a hybrid have such strength? Also, why did she left the mines? I couldn't use powerful spells there without the risk of killing us both.
'Even if she's just half as smart as I am, she can't have given me this advantage for no reason.'
'You bet I didn't!' Bytra replied, shocking her double. Korgh couldn't believe that a mere copy had developed a willpower so strong that she could easily invade Korgh's mind.
An enormous array, over 100 meters (330 feet) large surrounded them as Bytra assumed the perfect form of a Raiju. Korgh could clearly feel that her clone didn't just shapeshift, that was an exact copy of their original body.
The only difference was that its scales were black and its eyes yellow instead of being respectively silver and red.
Korgh unleashed the tier five Chaos spell, Flood Storm, only to see the Chaos magic revert to its darkness version because of the array. Bytra didn't miss the opening. She dodged all the darkness bullets as if they were still and pierced Korgh's chest with her horns, ripping it to shreds.
Korgh screamed in pain realizing she had fallen into a trap. Not only did the light-based array made Chaos magic useless, but it also made the light element seep inside everything within the premises of the formation.
Because of that, the light element was constantly assaulting her Chaos made body, turning it into darkness energy as well. The light magic flooding through her open wound was like poison, sapping her strength at an alarming rate.
Each chunk of flesh was actually highly compressed Chaos energy that once lost couldn't be recovered due to Bytra's energy signature infecting Korgh's. Unlike Scarlett the Scorpicore, Bytra knew all the secrets of Chaos magic and its fatal weaknesses as well.
Bytra, on the other hand, was unaffected by the array. Her body was physical, hence the light element was a source of nourishment for her.
'Fuck! All the spells I had prepared are now useless. If this keeps up like this, I'll be the one devoured!' Korgh thought as the Raiju tore her apart limb from limb, with such speed and ferocity that she had no time to cast a single spell.
It had taken Bytra a lot of time and effort to steal enough crystals from the mines to support her Reversal array, but it had been worth it.
The more of her original' memories and wisdom she recovered, the more the psychic bond between them grew stronger. She knew it was only a matter of time before the Eldritch who had spawned her would hunt her down.
Bytra could already taste the enormous amount of energy she would obtain by consuming her double. Enough to maybe even satiate the hunger that tormented her ever since the day she had turned into an Abomination.
Suddenly, the ground trembled and the earth below the two sworn enemies turned into a hand the size of a cruise ship, crushing both the array and Bytra under its grip.
"I told you not to underestimate a hybrid. We've already lost several Eldritchs due to their conceit." Xenagrosh said, using her Mother Earth glove to trap her prey.
Not only did it allow her to dominate the earth element, but it also distorted the elemental balance so much that it made it impossible to use dimensional magic.
After consuming her Troll double, Xenagrosh had become able to recover her human body. She looked like a woman in her mid-twenties, around 1.6 meters (5'3") tall wearing an ample cream-colored magician robe.
Her looks were kind of plain. She had light brown hair with black streaks and youthful chestnut eyes that contrasted with the ancient wisdom of her gaze.
"How long have you been there?" Korgh asked. Only her head and part of her chest remained. It would take her months to recover from her injuries without committing genocide.
"From the beginning."
"Then why didn't you do anything?" Korgh's voice was full of anger and spite.
"To teach you a lesson I hope you will in turn teach other Eldritchs. Never underestimate an opponent. You knew your clone was bound to have recovered most of your memories, yet you charged in blindly. That was beyond stupid."
"Please, let me go." Bytra said. "Original or clone, I don't care. I just want to live. I promise that if you spare my life, you'll never hear again from me."
"Beg all you want, your destiny is sealed. There's only room for one Korgh on the entire Mogar." Korgh replied.
"Then you can be Korgh and I can be Bytra! I'm tired of hiding and fighting. I want to use my hammer and Forgemaster again. I don't want to be defined by my hunger any more."
"Bytra is a name I relinquished, but it's still mine." Korgh said, regrowing her limbs so that she could stand up. "You own nothing and you deserve nothing. Once I'm done with you, I'll become strong enough to devour anyone who dares to stand in my path."
"What?" Xenagrosh was flabbergasted. "What about your title of Ruler of the Flames? What about your herd? You could finally meet other Raijus again after centuries of isolation, and all you can think of is something meaningless as preying on the weak?"
"Who needs a herd when you can have power? What use can have wasting time to Forgemaster artifacts when I can simply take them from the hands of my fallen enemies?" Korgh said with a mad grin on her face, showing many rows of shark-like teeth.
"As for my title, do not worry. I will cleanse Mogar in a Forge of Chaos!"
"I changed my mind. Feel free to eat her." Xenagrosh opened her hand and freed Bytra from her stone prison.
"What?" Both the original and the clone asked in unison.
"I told you to not underestimate your opponent, in this case, me. The cause has no use for a power-hungry fool. Neither I nor the Master have ever aimed for Mogar's destruction.
"The Master just wants to make the human race better, whereas I'm content with breaking free from the chains of fate. Since you're bound to be a problem in the future, I might as well take care of you right now in your weakened state." Xenagrosh nodded for Bytra to resume her attack.
The Raiju charged against Korgh's broken form one last time, skewering the Eldritch with her horns before absorbing the very life essence of her double. A blinding light erupted from Bytra's body as the two black cores merged into one.
If for Xenagrosh the key for her new form had been absorbing her troll's counterpart light core, for Bytra was the goblin's vitality. With each generation, they had become more and more resistant to the Chaos energy they were born with until both their cores and bodies were able to coexist with it.
Bytra wasn't just an Abomination anymore, she was now a perfect hybrid. Her human form and Raiju form were now almost identical to their original appearance. Bytra looked at her own naked figure, combing her silver hair with her fingers.
"Gods, I'm not a monster anymore." She blurted out.