Diamond comes to meet them, accompanied by Dr. Sower. Her captain is radiant in her exhaustion. Shining with pride at her defeat. “I’ve never faced an adversary like you,” she says. “I’ve never seen a unit that could move as fast and react as fluidly.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was looking at a Heretic unit,” chirps Dr. Sower.

Silence falls. Misery says nothing, but she can feel the heat radiating off Alodia Lightning, who has come to stand beside her. Diamond smooths over the doctor’s faux pas by saying, “This is divine will. When next the Heretics come, they will not be prepared for what they will find.”

“Of course not,” says the doctor.

“We have held them off for long enough,” Misery says. Who’s we? She’s been here for less than two months. It doesn’t matter. “The next time they come, we destroy them.”