Splatting and Ink shots could be heard within the distance. Clover laid on the ground all by herself, holding her stomach that was covered in enemy ink, making her grit her teeth In pain.

Sophie: Clover! C'mon! We need you now!!

Clover opened her eyes and saw Sophie standing above her, ignoring the blasts of ink in the distance. Clover rolled herself over just a little, seeing her holding her Dynamo roller.

Clover:.........d-dammit.....that charger.....luckily it wasn't a fully charged shot.....

Clover slowly stood up and grasped her Dynamo from Sophie, but the second she did, she fell back down and grunted in pain while continuing to hold her stomach.

Sophie: Atlas and Noah are getting pressured back from the zone! Push yourself!

Clover: I just.....n-need a second.....I can barely hold my dynamo......

Sophie: ignore it! Pain is just a mental game!! Remove all thoughts from your head!! Grasp your dynamo hard and fight with everything you got!!

Clover: b-but I-

Sophie: but what!?

Clover......

Clover couldn't say anything to Sophie, but only look up at her, seeing her shift her attention over to the zone.

Sophie: I'll be over there to lend support....

Sophie dashed off, leaving Clover to look down at her stomach and see the enemy ink drip down on the ground below her. She gripped her dynamo harder than ever, then pushed herself back up once more with a stern glare on her face.

Clover:....(keep going.....)

Atlas: shit! None of us have our specials ready! The neo splash is going to rush down the zone with suction bombs!!

Sophie: we can hold it! We have twenty points left before we can take the lead!

Noah: we could potentially hit the bombs away to miss and paint the zone.

Atlas: dude! Have you seen how fast Suction bombs get thrown!? Blocking those are impossible! Plus, we must defeat his teammates in sync as well.

The three saw the splash summon his suction bomb launcher and smirk at all of them, grabbing bomb after bomb and throwing them at the three.

Atlas:.....fucking hell!....we might as well try-

Just then, Atlas heard strong gusts of Ink from behind him, turning his head and seeing an enemy Ink Jet behind him, lowering their finger to the trigger.

Atlas stood still in fear, seeing the giant shot of ink eject from the canon-like weapon. The shot moved too fast for a normal cephalopod to react, and as he accepted his fate by closing his eyes, a gust of Ink flew past him, hitting the giant burst of ink and destroying it.

Atlas looked up and saw Clover in mid air with her dynamo, glaring at the Inkjet and seeing them aim at her to shoot once again, but before they had a chance, Clover shifted her body and hit the jet, splatting them before landing on her feet at the other edge of the zone.

The girl let out a tiny breath and clenched onto her dynamo, feeling no weight on it whatsoever, seeing the enemy neo splash-o-matic in the distance, who glared at her before throwing multiple suction bombs towards the zone.

Clover: ( ignore it.......pain....weight...)

Clover dashed over the zone and rapidly used her Dynamo as a bat to swing and hit every single suction bomb with rapid speed, knocking all of them away from the zone.

Clover: (it's all a mental game....)

Her eyes slightly illuminated with blue, and she swung her dynamo faster and more swiftly as explosions went off all around her. She took one step before dashing towards the splash as they threw their last suction bomb.

She grabbed it in mid air and slammed it straight into their face, kicking them away as it exploded and her team took the lead at the last second.

Clover:....(I'll only stop fighting....when my soul leaves the battlefield....)

Standing in the zone, her friends looked at her......shocked.....unknown on what actually happened......a first glimpse into the true capabilities of a being with a pure will....

*End*
~~~~~~~~~~~

Sho jumped away from the metallic tentacles, slicing some in the process before landing at a comfortable position. She gently felt upon her face, feeling blood dripping down and slowly make contact with the ground.

Sho: where did this ketchup come from!?

Jenny dashed at Sho and thrusted her fist towards her throat, but Sho quickly adapted and moved just in time to avoid the attack, grabbing onto Jenny's hand

Jenny: one of your eyes were destroyed.....But I won't destroy the other. I want you witness your own death.......

Jenny used her other fist and punched Sho in the face, knocking her away and into a house within the empire. Sho tumbled before landing into kitchen of the resident's home.

Sho leaned herself up slowly, but then she heard crying near her. She turned her head and saw a little girl hiding under her kitchen table, covering her eyes and shifting her legs closer to her chest.

Sho walked over to the little girl, looking at her before offering her hand to help the girl stand on her two feet, but when the girl looked at Sho, she saw the blood dripping from her eye, which made her tears flow faster as she moved herself farther away from her.

Sho: no no! don't worry It's just ketchup!

Sho leaned closer to the girl, but then, she moved her body and quickly grabbed onto Jenny's tentacle from behind, ripping it off and using her sword to slash the rest.

Jenny ran into the house and began to fight Sho right in front of the little girl. Sho dodged the regenerated tentacles and blocked them with her sword, then Jenny tried to punch her once again, only for her to redirect the punch my adjusting her sword to slide the punch away.

Jenny: just give up........can't you tell that I already surpass you in strength?.....

Sho huffed with a smile on her face, thrusting her sword towards Jenny's face, but Jenny dodged her sword and used one of her tentacles to swing at Sho's legs, but Sho jumped and flipped her body to dodge the attack and to put herself in the air above Jenny.

Jenny looked up at Sho just as she brought down her heel and axe kicked the robot down into the ground. Sho landed back on her feet and looked over at the girl, quickly grabbing her and running off, jumping through the air.

Sho: phew! Are you alright!?

The little girl didn't answer Sho, but instead quivered in fear from her bloody appearance. Sho grumbled to herself and thought for a second on what to do to raise the kid's spirits. She smirked at the kid before sticking her tongue out to make a funny face at her, which got no reaction from the child.

Sho: Blah!! Laugh! It's funny!! Smiiiile!!

Sho tilted her head at the child, but then she noticed that the kid wasn't even looking at her anymore, but rather, behind her and above, shaking even more as tears began to roll down her eyes again.

Sho: What's wrong!?

Sho turned her head around and saw a giant barrage of metallic tentacles above her in the air as she drifted with the wind, making her stare at them all with a blank expression.

Sho:...........oh.......

The tentacles thrusted towards Sho, and she used her free hand to summon her sword once again, slicing through the tentacles while maneuvering her body in the air, seeing Jenny emerge from the distance, readjusting her broken jaw that Sho destroyed.

Sho: you're cheating!! This isn't fair!!!

Jenny: in my eyes......you're in our empire.....our territory.......so anything I do is fair.......

Sho grumbled again as she sliced through many more tentacles, but they regenerated faster than she could cut, and just as two tentacles shot at her from both sides, she quickly looked down before nodding to herself.

Sho: thank you for riding on the Sho express!! Make sure to gather all of your belongings!!

Sho threw the girl high in the sky before adjusting her own body and slicing the tentacles, but suffering more cuts than she could handle, eventually getting overwhelmed by all of the tentacles and sadly losing one of her arms in the process.

Now with one functional eye and arm, Sho fell down to the ground and landed on her feet, stabbing her sword in the ground before raising her hand in the air and catching the little girl, then smiling at her.

Sho: here's your stop!

Sho put the girl down and pointed over to the exit of the empire, but before the girl ran off, she pointed at Sho's severed arm, to which she looked at and tilted her head at.

Sho: maaan!.....well that's a bummer....now I can't double much on my pizza.....

Sho smiled at the girl, but then felt her vision get a little dizzy, which made her stumble for a second, but catch herself and shake her head.

Sho: hehe.....funny stars.....

Jenny: you're suffering from blood loss, you fool......

Sho turned her head and saw Jenny walking towards her with her tentacles emerged from her back, glaring directly into her eyes.

Jenny: For years, you've been a thorn in my side......you are the last one.....just die.....like the rest of them.....

No matter how hard Jenny tried, she never saw the smile from Sho's face fade. She saw the Octoling grab her sword and pull it up from the ground, stumbling back from her dizziness.

Sho: I don't wanna go to sleep yet!!

Jenny gritted her teeth at Sho, then aggressively thrusted her tentacles at her, and all Sho did was look down a little as her smile gleamed with warmth and comfort.

Sho:.....and neither....does Leaf.....

Just then, Jenny's tentacles were slashed rapidly before they touched Sho. An unexpected event that shocked the robotic Inkling, forcing her to draw back her tentacles and see Clover land in front of Sho, showing her eyes illuminating with blue ink as she held onto her sword.

Jenny:........her.......

Clover turned her head and looked at Sho, looking down at her severed arm, and she walked over to the Octoling while ripping off a piece of her own shirt.

Sho: Leaf, Leaf! You look so cool! Your eyes! Yo-

Clover stabbed her sword into the ground before gently using her hand to cover Sho's mouth in a caring way before resuming her process of tying up Sho's arm to slow the bleeding.

Clover:......you're losing too much blood.........rest a bit......

Clover gave Sho a nod before walking over to her sword and picking it up with one hand, looking straight at Jenny.

Clover:......alright then.......

Jenny:......(I see.......within acts of desperation for victory or survival.......creatures would tap into unseen levels of strength......a shift in her Sumi......)

Jenny saw straight into Clover to see the Ink in her body flow more fluently and coordinated. She calmed her nerves and focused on her, the sword she once saw as heavy, was as light as a feather.

Jenny: (......this isn't a passive especial stream.....this is definitely something more unique......but still nowhere near the level of a core....after all.....she's still a normal mere Inkling.....)

Jenny saw Clover take a very unique stance, and through her own eyes, Clover didn't see a destructive battlefield, a ruined empire, a robotic inkling.....from her eyes.....she saw The Reef.......Ink on the floor......a Zone below Jenny......who was a normal Inkling girl holding onto a hydra splatling.

Clover:......I won't allow you to hurt her anymore........not one bit......if you truly wanna splat my friend.......you'd have to go through me first......

Sho stood behind Clover in a frozen state.......just like before....Sho's eyes glistened.....just from the glance from Clover alone....then......an echo was heard through her head....

~~~~
???: "if you want to kill my daughter, you'd have to go through me first!!!"
~~~~

Sho felt her whole body pulsate for a slight second, and she took one step forward, but then her body began to shake.....her vision faded slowly.....

She dropped to her knees and her body became weaker and weaker. She looked up at Clover again, and before she could speak, her body fell and her eye slowly shut, sending her into pure darkness as Clover stood in front of her, glaring at the robot.

Jenny:........you really want to stand in my way?.......

Clover didn't say a single word, but instead she gently shifted her foot as she used two hands to clench onto her sword, feeling the driving rush of ink fly all around her, and her friends by her side.

Clover:.......

Jenny:.....just get out of my way.....scum....

Jenny used her metallic tentacles and thrusted all of them at Clover, but the Inkling girl simply shifted her sword and dashed forward towards Jenny, running head first into the onslaught of tentacles. She sliced through and kicked away Jenny's tentacles with ease, shocking her a little.

Jenny:......(her sudden growth.....mm..)

Jenny quietly thrusted a tentacle into the ground behind her and allowed it to submerge and guide its way underground until it reached Clover, planning to emerge from below the Inkling and impale her through her body once again.

Jenny saw the shift in Clover's eyes, then saw her immediately jump back and use her sword to block the emerging underground tentacle, making the Inkling question her further inside of her own mind.

Jenny:....(she doesn't seem to be struggling as hard as before......her eyes have changed.......her Sumi flow seems more upbeat and happy......what is it that she's exactly seeing?.....)

~~~~~~
*Flashback*

Jenny laid upon a table as an Inkling boy was digging into her wires and mainframes. The Inkling boy had mixed skin, yellow eyes, and dark tentacles. She watched as the boy from her upper right, but then her eyes shifted to her upper left to see a Octoling woman standing across from the boy. The woman being no other than the flaming Angel, Yufine, who took one single glance down at Jenny into her eyes.

Yufine:.......I must say.......a robot defying their clan is a pretty rare aspect.......how did you accomplish this, Ronan?.....

Ronan.....the Inkling boy was shifting his tools around while letting out a sigh and spinning a screwdriver in his hand. He stood before Yufine, but unlike any other cephalopod, Ronan showed no signs of fear around the woman. He instead turned to his side and grabbed a vial of ink that looked very corrupted and distorted.

Ronan: it took a while, but I knew Gage would slip up eventually........he doesn't deserve the right to rule his clan.....

Yufine: so you stole his servant?....and how exactly does this benefit you in the future?....

Ronan: she'll provide me with Gear Clan information........plus.....Gage is deeply associated with.......someone I know.........in no means of disrespect, Yufine.....

Ronan spread open a pair of wings from his back, a pair that Jenny saw coated in very dark purple Ink. The boy grabbed onto a feather coated in ink, and plucked it from his wing. He opened the vial of corrupted ink and dipped his feather inside. Jenny watched as the color of purple faded from the feather and seeped into the ink, causing a toxic mist to start to flow from it as he grabbed a syringe.

Ronan:.....this process is something that I want to......keep to myself.....I wish to deal with this on my own terms.....

Ronan injected the syringe into the ink and absorbed it inside, and just as he checked the ink inside of the syringe, he saw Yufine lower her head and give the boy a respectable nod.

Yufine: I see.........do as you must.....

Ronan: with this dose of my ink....along with the help from the Venom clan....you will be enhanced to your peak, Jennifer.....you will be blessed with my poisonous strength and will, just so you can take action when the time is right....then show the citizens of Inkopolis that their realm of illusion will only affect them for so long before they're taken over and dragged into a REAL battlefield......

Yufine: a realm of illusion......I've only heard a mention of it from the Venom clan's core......

Ronan: I've spent more time in venom clan than I expected.....eventually learning about the realm of illusion...it is a mind based state that cephalopods can achieve.......When one gets pushed to their limitations.....they are able to hinder their mind.....shift the world around them into their liking....a place of illusion that tricks the mind and body into performance higher than your peak......

Yufine: a state of mind that tricks the body......I'm surprised that such simple cephalopods are able to achieve such a thing.....

Ronan: it completely nullifies the nerves in your body, giving you no negativity within your Sumi flow. For some odd reason...Venom clan said that only normal cephalopods can achieve this state....it's interesting...

Yufine saw saw Ronan grab onto a silver sphere inside of Jenny that glowed blue in front of her. Ronan injected the ink into a wire that connected itself to the sphere. Jenny began to malfunction and twitch violently as her blue core shifted to purple as time passed, and Yufine simply turned her head and began to walk away, which caught Ronan's attention as Jenny clenched her fists, seeing the purple flow throughout her circuits and wires.

Ronan:.....where are you going?.....

Yufine:......I'm going to speak with Venom clan...........Just to get a glimpse into future projects that the core has planned......

Jenny's eyes shifted over to Yufine, seeing her light vision fade slightly as her indicators went out of control until her body enabled itself to an emergency shut down as the purple ink.....completely took over her body....

~~~~~~~~~

*present*

Jenny:......(so that's what lord Ronan was speaking of......the realm of illusion.........)

The robot saw the blood seep from Clover's wounds......Jenny looked down at the ground and saw her own reflection within the glistening metal ground, sighing and emerging her tentacles for battle.

Clover held her sword and only saw Jenny's mouth move slightly as her tentacles swayed in the wind, shifting up towards Clover.

Jenny:.....come at me.....