No buildings. No shadows. No shelter. Just wind-cut grass, broken stone monuments, and open sky.

It was a battlefield designed to strip away cleverness and reveal only power. There was nowhere to hide.

Gerbert and Rann had made it halfway across the plateau in practiced silence. Her steps were light, measured. His eyes scanned the horizon, fingers twitching near his conjureplate.

That’s when the air changed

A breeze swept past, thick with something out of place. Not smoke. Not dust.

Floral.

Rann’s body tensed. “It’s him.”

A patch of grass ahead exploded.

Petals, vines, roots—bursting in every direction in a riot of color and motion. Flowers bloomed midair and spun to the ground like falling blades. From the heart of it all stepped a man dressed like spring itself.

Ace – HP: 93/100

Long pink coat flaring dramatically in the wind. Stylish boots that made flowers bloom beneath each step. His smile dazzled. His voice, when it came, rang with theatrical glee.

“Hello, darlings,” he said, cocking his head. “Lovely day to try and kill me, isn’t it?”

Rann’s reaction was instant—she phased backward behind a ruined stone block. Gerbert’s hand flew up, a barrier conjured just in time to deflect a sharp burst of rose-thorns that speared the earth between them.

“You again,” Gerbert muttered. “Of course.”

Ace stepped forward slowly, arms raised like a performer hitting his mark. “You wound me, engineer. After all the chemistry we’ve shared?”

A turret snapped into place beside Gerbert, clanking and humming as it locked onto Ace.

“Let’s see if the garden can catch this,” Gerbert said flatly.

Click-click-click—FWHIP!

The turret fired. Three precision shots sliced through the air.

Ace spun. Vines rose in arcs to intercept. Each bullet deflected, thudding into the dirt.

Rann reappeared to the side, boots kicking up petals. She dashed low, phasing between broken pillars for cover, angling for Ace’s blind spot.

Ace caught her movement with the edge of his eye. “Still darting around like a shadow. You never slow down, do you, Rann?”

He twirled.

A ring of lilies burst outward from his heels, releasing a pollen wave.

Rann choked mid-phase, coughing hard as she emerged behind a stone. “He’s upgraded his field control.”

“Confirmed,” Gerbert said. “He’s playing the whole map.”

Ace walked with exaggerated grace, placing a hand on the ground. Vines surged upward, curving into a towering wall of bloom and thorn that separated Rann from Gerbert.

“Isolation tactic,” Rann warned. “He’s trying to split us.”

“Noted,” Gerbert replied. His hands glowed, assembling a compact sonic burst device on his wrist. “Let’s test his harmony.”

He slammed his palm to the ground. SHOOM. A focused sonic pulse radiated out.

Ace winced.

The flowers screamed in reply, twisting their petals into warped funnels to absorb and bend the sound.

The air turned discordant, strange.

Ace steadied himself, brushing pollen from his shoulder. “Okay, that one stung a bit.”

Rann burst through the vine wall, blade in hand. She swung wide, aiming for his midsection.

Ace ducked, back arched. A sunflower bloomed upward to intercept the strike, its thick stem acting like a shield. He kicked backward, forcing Rann to phase-step away before he could counter.

“Still sharp,” he said, panting now. “But not sharp enough.”

Gerbert fired a bolt of kinetic force, catching Ace in the side. The plant-wielder grunted, knocked off balance.

He crouched, breathing hard.

Petals drifted across the field. A silence settled.

Gerbert was sweating. His conjuration systems hummed with strain.

Rann had scratches along her arms. Pollen clung to her boots and gloves like glittering dust.

Ace stood slowly. A single flower rested between his fingers.

“Are we going to keep this up, sweethearts?” he said, softer now. “It’s getting a bit exhausting, and I do prefer to make an exit looking fabulous.”

Rann didn’t lower her guard. “We’re not here to die. But we will if we have to.”

Gerbert shook his head. “It doesn’t have to go that far.”

Ace’s smile wavered. “You two… you always talk like you're better than this place.”

“No,” Gerbert said, “we talk like people who want to survive without becoming monsters.”

Rann stepped closer. “Not every meeting has to end in a bloodbath.”

Ace looked between them, a flicker of something behind his eyes—fatigue, perhaps, or memory.

Then he let the flower fall.

It landed soundlessly in the grass.

“Fine,” he said. “But only because you’re both so stubbornly reasonable.”

He walked toward them—no vines followed.

Just steps.

Just a hand, outstretched.

“Ace,” he said, smiling like a man who’d just finished his performance. “Flamboyant, fabulous, and your new favorite mistake.”

“Gerbert,” the conjurer said, shaking it.

“Rann,” came her cool reply.

They stood in silence.

Not as allies.

Not yet.

But something softer than enemies.

The Plateau of Silence held its breath as the three turned away from battle.

Petals swirled in the wind behind them.

And peace, for once, bloomed.