Take Up the Cross – Chapter 81: Battle to the Undeath – Who Are You?

Snakes are known to poison or strangle their prey.

As his weakening body is pulled toward its doom, smooth scales tickle his racing heart.

Adris laments his own experiences with snakes often turn out badly, no matter how soft they are.

(… The girl that likes me bites and strangles!)

Humming to herself the whole time, despite this and her aggression she leaves Adris finally noticing how she shakes. Rather than from cold, the girl who stops to peer into the white darkness at the edge of their battleground sweats in uncertainty.

“Which… which way… can we go? Where is it safe for Adris…?”

That obsessive voice she speaks with cracks as she lifts her hand, timidly grasping for freedom she isn’t sure exists. Beyond the garden is a war that rages far more viciously than with the clanging and grunting struggle that still sparks behind them.

(Huh? She’s… terrified… for me? Huh!?)

His head whips when she swings back to speak.

Though that smile is just as wicked, it can’t hide her terror.

“Adris… you always know about things! Which… which way do you think looks best?”

“…Gah…!”

When he can only spit out a gasp, she blinks rapidly while taking in his red face.

“Oh…? Too tight!?”

Coils finally unwind, allowing sweet air into his lungs.

Panting while gripping her tail for balance, he manages to find the ground again. Though she releases her death grip, that eager tail remains a barrier.

A crashing sound followed by flashes of gold and white rocks the area once more, bringing another shiver to Ave as she wraps her arms around him.

“… Hurry! We have to…! Ah.”

His free hand comes to her face, earning him silence to speak in.

“Out there is a war that will consume both of us if you try to leave. We weren’t made for that place.”

That sharp warning leaves Ave grinding her teeth until she finally shouts.

“But Ave can only… save… one thing!

Help me do that, now!”

The unusual venom in her words leaves him shocked, especially when she lightly clasps his neck.

(You are a terrible bluffer.)

His instincts catch on in a moment to how a resolute face twitches.

Moisture in her eyes swells.

(We can’t escape! Only saving Kol saves us… But, you’re not mentally there to realize this.)

The black moon grants Ave a feeling of danger and a new obsession for what she truly cares for. Its breath is hers as he feels panting, for she’s losing more hope by the moment after he dashes her escape plan.

(These aren’t the real girls… how I remember them, at least.)

Something was missing from Kol and Neesiette, as well.

All of the mental fortitude was stripped away, leaving only raw nerves. While Kol was surrounded by dark fumes, Ave is slightly ghost-like as if she drank the potion that Adris used to escape death.

“Ave… where are you right now?”

“What!? Ave is… forgotten! Except by those who hate me!”

A sobbing starts slowly, big tears falling down her face to drip on her hands as she wipes her face.

(Hmm?)

Her exposed skin is pressed in many places, with depressions moving up her neck and forming on her cheeks. The imprints of fingers and palms flow showily as falsely tender “petting”.

Wherever she twists away from the constricting grips, more hands come to pull on her.

“They’re coming to take me back! Ave can only get away with…”

(Kol was haunted by being unable to overcome, Neesiette by cracks through her perfection, and Ave recalls an… imprisonment?)

“… Papa?” Noticing Adris again, she shakes her head before smiling. “Right! Ave has… Adris! We have to run! It’ll work out as long as you’re there…”

Those invisible hands gripping her hold much stronger, causing the girl to whimper as she uncoils to run.

“The enemies through there are far beyond what you’ve ever faced. Ave, listen: I can help you be free.”

“Hiee?”

Holding her closer, patting her head gains him more attention and an eager ear.

“Only by facing what’s behind us can you escape.”

“NO! You can’t win against them! There’s… always too many!”

(Phantoms can’t harm me! The real enemy is yourself!)

“There’s others here that can save you, if you save them first!”

“Others…?”

The girl’s ponytail flies as she desperately searches the white darkness for rescue.

“Yes! Kol and Still are back there. Kol is fighting alone, while Still is probably… trapped. You’re their only hope!”

At those names, something wakes up within her.

Rather than just the past haunting her, the present comes, too. She smiles that sad smile she uses when thinking of her friends in private.

“… Kol will… eventually find out that I’m never going to be what she wants me to be… then she’ll abandon me, too.”

“What? That brick-headed girl? She—!”

“Still, too! She’s always nice to me and helpful, but… but… when…”

Touching Adris gently, she sighs before pushing away the hand petting her.

“When I ask if she can do things with me, she never has the time. Because… she doesn’t want to?

I’m just… a burden she deals with…”

(Not just a burden! She truly does care—)

“A f f i r m a t i o n: indeed, a creature which places responsibility for her existence upon others, while she flits about playing a great game of pretend, be a terrible burden to shoulder.”

Both turn to look at this voice.

Now sitting while facing them, Neesiette briefly eyes Ave with a frown on her face, before blinking and letting all animus drain away.

“… You…! At least I will defend what I care about!”

Ave crushes Adris to her slender body, hiding beside him while also jealously showing him off.

(Neesiette finally acted on her own…! And…)

When the two show anger toward each other, the cracks assaulting Neesiette cease to gain her attention.

The grips on Ave’s neck relax, while her spasming body becomes stiller.

Instead, the air between the two whispers with accusations and grievances that take form as shades.

Ave ignores Adris, slithering to tower over the Lunamaton while staring down with a smug face.

“You have no room to talk! … Stupid doll! You may be smart, I’ll admit that; but, that doesn’t mean we should always save you!”

Neesiette’s body jolts, with her eyes narrowing in displeasure.

“Huh, so angry? You’re back to talking like a doll! So shouldn’t I call you one!? Hmph!” Ave’s hands go to her hips, her chin going up.

“If you’re here, too, then why is Adris coming to me!? Aren’t you the one who will perfectly fix everything!? Why do we first have to ask you to fix what should very well involve you, too!”

(Ave is waking up!)

Anger between the two is reviving memories that push away the past strangling her.

“…

… Inconceivable. Words spoken by a…

… a…

… foolish lizard be impossible to permit without refusal!”

Neesiette’s hand strains for a moment, before she stands and dusts off her fine clothes.

“All asked of this tool be fulfilled.

All expected of this tool’s wisdom be given.”

With those cracks becoming less pronounced, a breeze springs up in this still air to surround her.

Its stinging scent overwhelms Adris.

(… Their… thoughts are turning to each other.)

“What more could be owed to a worthless girl who runs from responsibilities? Deserving one does, the full attention of an intellect devoted to useful—?”

Neesiette’s hand waves to dismiss Ave, before it’s slapped by the girl being belittled.

“Stop… stop fighting me with insults! Be… be a person, instead of a little nag that exists only to make me feel bad! I don’t mind losing when I try, but at least let me try!”

Hesitating for a moment, Ave finally rips Neesiette’s hand toward her own body. She makes Neesiette accept this touch, while this enemy grimaces in disgust as they face off.

The two grow fiercer as they stare each other down, with Adris quietly watching the energies springing up from within them strike at the other.

“Stop… stop just telling me what I do wrong like it’s always obvious it will be! I’m trying to… do it right! Why can’t you just leave me alone!?”

The swirl of darkness makes the air shiver, smelling of rot and pain while growing into a boiling hunger.

(It’s powerful, like Kol’s aura!)

“It be impossible to overlook such incompetence. Abandon such folly as ‘trying harder’. If one cannot do, then desist. One does not belong among us, walking where danger be.

Just… return to one’s ho—!”

“AVE DOESN’T HAVE A HOME, ANYMORE! STOP TRYING TO RUN ME OFF FROM THE ONE I’M TRYING TO MAKE!”

Two voices escalate with each barb, until Ave’s screaming stops the fight.

Neesiette almost continues, before turning her eyes to Adris.

Closing her mouth, the small girl remains silent as Ave cries loudly.

“Let’s decide who is right, then.”

“Huh!?”

“… A… Adris? One’s comment…”

Gaining both of their attentions before the relationship conflict between them spirals out of control, Adris understands how to evolve their “standoffs”.

(This darkness they share can only be woken up by setting them against each other; but, it must be “creative”…)

“Whoever can save Kol is ‘right’.”

Both girls shake with surprise at this pronouncement, their sleepy forms waking up completely. Ave grips him tightly while hissing, leaving Neesiette to scoff at his logic.

“… That’s not good!”

“Right be not determined with—!”

“Be silent. ‘Right’ is in the results when one is left with no other options!”

His hand reaches out before closing into a fist, catching their respect when he makes a show of drawing it back in.

Emotions finally burst out from Adris, too.

His join with theirs, increasing the tension in the air.

(I’m tired of listening to you all bicker! We have enough enemies already!)

“This argument is pointless. There is no escape if Kol loses. Therefore: the only matter at hand is rescuing Kol and Still.”

Adris draws upon the strength of his bracer, which digs its tendrils into him in response.

With that earthen vitality, Ave yelps as he forces her coils away.

Striding toward the fight crashing around the corner, Adris waves his arm at it.

“This is where we’re supposed to be! Facing the obstacles on your path to glory!”

“… You… you have to survive, though…!”

He lunges for Ave, taking up her delicate hands while she gasps.

“Then help me survive!

FIGHT, AVE! For my sake and theirs, if not your own!”

“… Ah… okay.”

The girl who listens to him most closely finally assents to his orders once they carry his passion.

(… Shit! Care about the others, not me! Your obsession has become too strong…!)

“… Pointless… it be to struggle further when all be already lost…”

Emotionless tones creep back into her as the doll turns to stare at nothing.

“‘A bloodstained ghoul has won?’ No. There’s a chance, one I’ve gifted!”

“A ‘chance’? Arrived at how, this chance?”

“Look!”

Trotting toward him, Neesiette comes to the corner.

Looking out at the struggle…

“‘The ground that rots sinks with your ambitions!’ [Miserly Mire]!”

Where the ghoul sweeps her arms, liquid shadow flows forth to skip along the stone and soil.

Waters bubble up where this miasma touches, slurping at the earth and sinking it into gaping depressions which swiftly fill.

The golden sheen on the surface marks where one will meet their grave, sucking at legs without ever relenting.

When she finishes an artful twirl, her poison has birthed a swamp of death which begins to devour the crystal foliage that tilts when unseated.

The roaring kobold traverses between safe spots by scent alone, hacking at that which climbs from fetid waters to try and drag her down.

“GRAAAAHHHH!

… SHAK—!?”

Slender, long-limbed humans with pale skin erupt into golden chunks as Kol swings wide. Lesser kin to Lycia fail to find purchase, even when they cling to her appendages briefly before having their faces kicked in.

Lycia’s horde is flung and crushed by shining hands as the ghoul in question keeps ever just out of range with tactful movements.

A single digging digit to Lycia’s flesh earns a spurt of Vigor. The gold that flows up into the air from the wound curls into a liquid coin before its shining form begins to beat.

“[Airy Takings].”

The stale air pulled toward it grows hot.

From the black armor that howls and thrashes, threads of black flow out to stream towards the coin.

While it hovers, the air becomes heavy and falls.

The iron smell of fresh blood joins the scent of the rot.

A quick gasp comes from the rampaging berserker, before she shortens her nightmarish polearm and resumes the chase.

“More allies…!”

Lycia raises her arms above her head, rubbing the leotard’s fabric against her face as she squeezes while moaning.

Quickly festering arms then plunge into the swamp, which begins to bubble and froth as she gains a golden hue to her body.

“[We Hungry Many]!”

Screeches rise from around the resilient would-be knight as more bodies covered in sludge are born unwillingly into the melee. Their lean forms sport rabid muscles thicker than the previous living corpses, while their lungs waste no time with air before thirsting for flesh.

With naught in their eyes but glowing hunger and only sharp teeth in their mouths, they leap at the feast they are summoned for.

The fighter that should have already fallen struggles on, carrying their weight as she rises to usurp it.

“▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒……!!!”

A white nova bursts, sending their forms flying with the crashing air.

Before they can exit her range, though…

Fiery phantasms roughly assault the monsters caught in the air like a swinging pillar, twirling and lancing as only raw strength and no skill can accomplish.

Fear becomes real to them, for the fear that Kol can never be stopped results in sundered flesh and broken bodies.

While white shadows and red slashes carve through their numbers, the burning white knight only charges for a grinning soldier wearing a revealing combat suit.

Neesiette grips Adris’ clothing, bringing his face to hers.

“… Given… by one, what be… this form?”

Her voice twists after seeing Kol’s mutated form, a white and black that reeks of carnage and dread that even the doll can feel.

(I don’t know! What you girls are… I gave a power to what I thought was Kol. But… what really are you?)

The softly shining Neesiette and the somehow ghostly Ave are still strange, even after awakening.

“It was what she wanted. The power to overcome everything!”

Quickly shaking her head, Neesiette hisses at him with that rare burst of emotion she shows when reality doesn’t match her expectations of sanity.

“Never gift to this tool such cruelty! … It be… impossible, even with this…”

“HAH! You admit you can’t do it?”

“You!”

Ave prods Neesiette with the tip of her tail until the girl stumbles, resulting in the mystic finally whipping out her sparking rod to slap it away.

“Ave can save Kol, though!

… Hmm, if I win, then that’ll mean whoever said we couldn’t win was wrong! Finally, I’ll be completely right! Why, that’s the same as saying I was right about everything else, too, Adris!”

“… Such a…! … Ah.”

Belligerent for a moment, Neesiette then inspects Ave’s face.

“Let’s go win… Neesiette!”

Ave isn’t frowning, only smug as hope begins to build between them.

She finally offers her hand to be taken up.

This results in the stuck-up Neesiette huffing before turning away.

“Listen not to the madness of moonstruck creatures. Only a proper design may grasp victory from this dark future. Nothing potentially provided by others matches the counsel of a creation of Luna!”

“… Haughty, annoying show-off!”

“It would behoove geckos to—!”

“Good. I’m counting on both of you.”

The darkness surrounding them settles, falling like spiderwebs to bind their limbs to each other without entrapping.

Its hunger becomes one that turns away from each other.

Only now are they together.

“I say this because… I have no ideas. Kol cannot currently control the power which has grown within her, and I possess no further powers as yet to gift.”

(Nobody gets anything from the Alchemaster!)

“Only the two of you can save this, and only if you can avoid becoming her target.”

“… Ah, Ave wants to run now…”

Neesiette stays quiet, studying Lycia as she jumps around.

Great golden slashes whip out in the air with each artistic sweep of a hand.

“‘Dividing with the absoluteness of envy!’ [Shearing Midas]!”

Slicing into Kol from range and extracting Vigor with each hit, the golden coin that is stained black continues to suck more vitality on its own.

Not even the transforming halberd can deflect these slashes, but bright flashes off her armor that come with a shaking metallic noise see some of them explode harmlessly off of Kol.

Both continue this eternal chase, with Lycia growing more spent as Kol loses more of her life.

Whirlwinds from a halberd catch ghoul as gold tears into kobold flesh.

(Invulnerability! Kol has found it again!)

While Adris grins at this turnabout, Ave hums while shivering at the destruction.

“Isn’t this ghoul… a lot more like she belongs to the Castillo now? Earlier, it seemed like she was her own person. Couldn’t that be something!?”

“[Golden Luster] be the only Modus affecting the ghoul at present. Possessing only its strengths and weaknesses should that creature now. Considering the specialties of one once in our midst, that be… fortuitous.”

Neesiette tilts her head, as Ave returns the gesture while scrunching her eyebrows in curiosity.

“Why is that impor—?

… Ah! Golden Luster means she’s weak to…!”

Two people arrive at similar thoughts, sharing conspiratorial nods as they mutter between themselves.

“Indeed… Then, believing in her we shall. Match designs with this tool and provide excellent accompaniment to what be available to utilize.”

“Hah, I can do way more than just be second fiddle to you! … But, I don’t have many options, since the wind spirits have been pretty abused…

Anyway, she absolutely will come through for us!”

(What did you come up with!?)

“Is there a plan?”

Both girls blink, before Ave gives a coquettish grin.

“… Hmmm… it’s a secret? Just… trust us, Adris…”

“‘Trust’!? What…?”

“Indeed. Supremely foolish it would be, to leak knowledge of it while unsure of the capacity of those involved to keep it hidden.”

“Are you… suggesting I would screw up your…!?”

“Be silent.”

Neesiette points at his face with a strict expression, before smiling lightly like Ave.

“Requiring a much grander strategy, wearing down a bloodstained ghoul requires. That and impeccable timing, absolutely absent improvisations. As a… an accomplice suggests: entrust oneself to us, Adris. Prove bonds be in existence, ones that one speaks often of.”

(Without knowing the plan!? I… I can’t…)

Sweating profusely, Adris cannot speak again before Ave and Neesiette pull him around the corner.

(How can I just… go along?)

“Foul creature of undeath that preys on the living! With no breath to offer to the wind, it blows not for you, either! So says Avenalliah, the elf who brings your doom!”

(Watch out for…!)

The storybook heroine darts forward, navigating the swamp by pure chance while Adris leaves his mouth hanging open at the sight.

“Hiee!? Cold!” Her tail eventually dips once into the muck before slurching out with a pop.

(I wish I had your luck!)

A playful green whip whistles as it’s pulled free, before cracking threateningly at an angry, naked ghoul that turns to regard her.

Its rigid member throbs as it smiles at a new target, its slimey interest in female flesh peaked.

“… BADBADBAD! [Oh lord of singing gales, make this whip dance with your spirit! Let the wind become it, and flow with your beat!]”

The hand placed to the whip’s handle begins to glow a deep green, drawing divinity from her…

(Wrist! It’s her bracers, like Neesiette said.)

The deepness of the earth becomes absolute when its length starts to hazily glimmer.

“Hyah!”

A whip that flicks out to crack does so with the sound of a rockslide letting loose.

It feels paradoxically heavy, even as its weight remains unchanged.

“EEEGYYYYYYIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!”

The ghoul screams loudly enough to wake a god when Ave whips its most precious treasure.

Its body is instantly immolated by the fire born from the metal tip, shortly before its pelvis spontaneously explodes.

The creature soars awkwardly, carried by its self-detonation to splatter upon an upper terrace.

Smoking cinders pelt Kol and Lycia, who turn to face Ave now that the air smells of burning soil.

“HIIEEE!? Wind is supposed to purify, not explode! Why did it do that!?”

Ave frets and holds her whip far away from her body, too scared to be near it.

Her self-image shatters immediately, and with it her confidence.

“Combatants Increased. Adjusting Battle Parameters.”

“……▒▒▒▒▒▒▒!?!?!?”

Lycia’s body blurs as she rockets away from Kol, with a hatred affixed to her face that screams for an elf’s scalp.

Claws flash wide.

“H-hmm?”

No mercy is offered as gold flares up off their edges to light both their faces, with an elder sister welcoming a new sibling to the slaughter.

“{redirect, location 23B-bridge-89, -FROM- entity -> anomalous (x2) -TO- entity -> ġūl, alter-and-update -FROM- Designation Source: Degraded Art -> Elemental Drawing(Area Effect) -> Water/Wind.

Substitute and Execute -> [Pseudo-Art = Mute: Undefined]}”

Commands too fast to interpret for normal people buzz as her silver rod twirls.

Neesiette faces away from the carnage, drawing from two black shadows in the distance of a rooftop struggle.

The shady runes they write change form, bridging between themselves to create a new paradigm that twirls dangerously as a frigid wind to surround Lycia.

“… haaaaaaaaaah…!”

“SHAAA!?”

Lycia’s claws halt while cracking, inches from Ave’s hissing face.

The elf sidles away while shivering, staring at the bloodstained ghoul whose body is now encased in a permafrost that spreads to consume the screaming ghouls behind her.

“▒▒▒▒▒▒▒!!!”

“Newt! Scatter!”

“AAHHH! KOL! GO AWAYYYYY!?!?!”

The kobold waiting for an opportunity leaps up as the elf springs from her coils, leaving Ave launching herself out of danger while flailing. A crystal tree falls over and sinks between her and the blazing kobold who is out for blood.

All of the fear in the room centers on the halberd that is held aloft, pulling whispering starlight to house in its blade.

“[▒▒▓▓▓TYRANNY]!!!”

Axeblade splits spine, cleaving through the Alchemaster’s perfect soldier and bursting innards all around.

The culled fear excavates the slushy marsh into the sky, taking with it the bodies of summoned creatures toward the upper winds and vanishing them at the edge of recognition.

As cracks of written authority run through the entire battlefield, all motion except for this stops.

Air distorts as Adris shields Neesiette from the wave that flows out, before the declarations of Kol’s rule flow back to the body of the mutely screaming ghoul.

(Far too power—!)

Their battleground is launched skyward by white flames, taking with it all the pieces of Lycia.

Fetid water rains down upon them.

The pink wisps in Kol’s helmet glow brighter with satisfaction of this carnage, while the muddy rains pelt her.

A shining coin forced to the ground is then stomped on, splattering it across the ruins of the fen.

Adris shields his eyes to look into the white pillar of fire still rising, one which continually breaks up his sister.

(Could that do it…?)

A fetching hand attached to nothing exits the pillar.

It curls in the air as broken claws reform from pieces of keratin pulled toward it.

“… It… it didn’t work! Kol! Watch—!”

Golden Vigor held aloft glues together, joining to pull other pieces from the fire.

From this falling mass, a woman is reborn bit by bit as she descends with her foot thrust downward.

“▒▒▒▒——!?”

A shooting star impacts on an immovable object.

Body and steel scream as newly upturned ground is added to the arena.

“Kol!”

Ave slithers forward, jumping out from behind the crystal tree that “coincidentally” fell in front of her.

Her holy whip shoots out.

It snaps tight, as a burning hand grasps it and pulls.

Revealed slowly as the dust settles is the revived Lycia, staring over her shoulder at the snake trying to strike her flank.

“You… umm… Neesiette…?”

“A ghoul’s reserves be worn down over time! Ensure one’s own safety now!”

A struggling white monster with a tremendous dent in its helmet reaches for the neck of its enemy, but the golden servant, whose ruined clothing begins to reform from winding thread formed of Vigor, keeps her congenial smile.

Releasing Ave’s whip, Lycia turns long claws up, invitingly curling toward an elf as they start to glow.

“[Playful spirits, rise and dance! A joyful song, be light and prance! A wind for me, a slight request! That plays like you, with equal zest!] HEEEEEELPPPPPP!!!!”

All chaos breaks loose as the first riotous gales react to the earth’s anger, springing up directly beneath Ave.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The elf becomes airborne, shooting between dirty whirlwinds as the ghoul scythes out with her blades of gold to split them in half.

“EEEEEHHHH!!?”

Zooming around at enormous speed, the airsick elf flicks her whip while trying to wrap it around a crystal tree.

The whip goes terribly wide, snaking out to slice right at a surprised Lycia instead.

“GAH!?”

A wicked flash of fire bursts from Lycia’s face when the metal slashes it, leaving a deep slashing wound and a missing eye on the ghoul.

Clutching it as she shakes, Lycia pulls away to reveal pale flesh that is filling it in.

Just, more slowly than before.

(She’s still weak to the divine! And she’s… getting weaker overall!)

“Ave! She is weakening! Keep pelting her!”

“HHHHOOOOOOWWWWWW!?”

Proving to be more of a distraction than a pure fighting force, Ave can no longer keep Lycia’s attention as the ghoul that still hauls their brutalized frontliner turns toward the person who yelled instructions.

(Ah, that’s not good.)

“Remove oneself.”

Neesiette pushes by him, looking to a hill past the garden.

Atop it, a dark form of a man with a living cape, one that lashes out at his enemies as he maniacally waves his scepter, starts to gather wind and fire to the jewel at its tip as the air grows energetic.

“Degenerate ‘dual elements’ may serve.”

Toward this false aura movement, Neesiette’s silver rod points.

“{subvert and enjoin, location 99-78, -FROM- entity -> anomalous, superimpose-and-permutate -OVER- Regional Effect: Distortion(Wind) -FROM- Designation Source: Degraded Art -> Elemental Drawing(Chain) -> Wind/Fire.

Substitute and Execute -> [Pseudo-Art = Rage: Undefined]}”

A crack and boom comes only after the first blinding flashes.

From the scepter, living lightning connects to the core pillars of Ave’s dust storm.

(Neesiette said that joined elements were much stronger!)

And, from this dust storm…

Blistering death converges on the lightning rod that is Kol’s armor, for destruction from the heavens can never be avoided once successfully cast down.

Riotous winds ride along with the arcing doom.

“▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒—————▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓!?!?!?!?!?”

“HYAAAAAAAH!?”

While Kol spasms in the air, swinging running legs as she fries to a hissing sound, Lycia’s body arches from the living current flowing down it.

It grounds at her feet, causing the air itself to combust when it reaches its crescendo upon the storm crushing them.

Both fall down in the aftermath, with the entire area revealed by residual sparks to be a smoldering crater.

“Neesiette!? How can you do that…!? None of what goes on outside…”

(Should be real!?)

The moon-made horror examines her handiwork, nodding only once.

Pointing at the black moon, she seems purely exasperated.

“That which be imperfect shall be re-written by this tool into a more perfect form, even if drawn from a past made impossibly real by this creature! Flexibility always be demanded of this tool, therefore annoy it not when demonstrated!

So that we may proceed to the final part, retrieve Kol!”

“… AYAH! KOOOOL!”

Ave flies in, tumbling along the new wasteland with a yelp before slithering to the corpses.

The winds that aided her escape, no longer fettered by her needs.

“… HAH! Got yah!”

Yet, even as Ave grabs onto the corpse of her dear friend while moving away,

The other rises up first to interpose itself.

Its blackened exterior burns with indignity when the maimed flesh peels away, revealing slit golden eyes that lock onto Ave.

“… W-wait… you were supposed to be… AAAHHHH!?”

Swift hands grab up both snake and kobold, hoisting them up to stare down at the grinning monster who reverts slowly to whole.

Not even the mad strength of Ave can crush Lycia’s wrist, though.

Both begin to make choking noises as they swing.

(How much can you take before succumbing!?)

“[HEART… TAKING…]!”

Adris sweeps up Neesiette, shielding her before the ghoul’s will fills the air.

“[… ENEMIES AMONG US]!”

A golden flash infests the very surfaces around them.

Something is rewritten, becoming an indelible mark on all but Adris’ flesh as the ringing fights back against it.

Two objects strike the wall near Adris, crashing to the ground after.

“….. Aaaahhhh…?”

The monster who tossed them wilts where she stands, for little remains to feed her regrowth with the power just expended.

A poor elf coughs up black juices while shaking, while the steel-clad terror next to her swiftly claws to upright.

“… Ah… ah… AAAHHHHHH!?!?!? NO, DON’T! I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK!”

“▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓!!!!”

Each are surrounded by spectral images, clouds of light which cling to their proximity as they flinch and move.

(What… what did she use…?)

Ave swings wildly at the images, while her flailing tail slams the ground just as uselessly.

“HEEEELLLPPP! PAPAAAA!”

(They’re…)

“Flee… Adris…! Deranged by illusions be their fate! Kol resists many charms, but…!”

Ave’s hand slaps into Kol’s helmet, sending the kobold stumbling into the wall.

“▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒……!!!”

The anger bursts out once more, no matter how little is left of the shining warrior’s vitality.

“ACK!!!! AAAAAGGGHHHH!”

Hands wrap around Ave’s neck, crushing the life from her.

In response, a tail coils around Kol as delicate nails scratch at the ruined, white wolf helmet.

“KOL! AVE!”

“True illusions ever be Kol’s eternal nemesis! Nothing further may we accomplish here! Depart, Adris!”

His baggage pulls on him, begging for rationality.

Stuck for a moment, Adris almost rushes to their side.

His gut churns as they attack each other.

But golden slashes hurled at him meet only air,

for the path that they predicted was between Adris and his teammates.

Bouncing backward, Adris screams in dismay.

“Neesiette! Save them!”

“… Silence… the opportunity arises shortly should she remain within view of the sky! Hold fast until then!”

Rather than looking at the ground’s many sights, Neesiette stares upward with wide eyes. The grandiose battlefield of ancient Petripolis is all she concerns herself with.

These violet moons take in a white shape.

Behind him, a half-formed Lycia gasps while picking up speed.

Legs finally knit back, granting her a loping gait.

(Shit! Only one way through this, Your Highness!)

“[Obscuring Sonjil]!”

A wave of his arm becomes a flowing fog bank that an obsidian rabbit hops into.

“Foolish Adris! A tool has been ignored at the peril of all!”

(I have not! She can follow my scent, but what about your non-existent one!? So…!)

“HYAH!”

“For what reasoooonnnn—!?”

Someone screams through the fog, leaving Adris much lighter.

He jukes and jumps, using his aura senses to feel the subtle movements of the moisture in the cloud.

Those claws whistle as they wind up, giving him time to anticipate where they will try to sever his muscles at.

(I’m… not agile enough, though…!)

A false god lacks the long limbs of a very committed sneak. Even if he has boots that willingly surrender their power to him, his mind strains under the increasing weight of those red eyes that blaze in his mind.

Over moving bog water he jumps, aiming for a wall he hears through the fog.

Landing on it, he turns to face the hunting cat reaching out from the whiteness.

Her half-healed face brightens upon finally having her catch within killing range.

Teeth open wide.

(One last trick! Aim for the sky!)

“Never lose!”

Muscles bulge on his legs with that pronouncement.

Cord wood tightens, with tendons creaking as he shakes. As they creak, a euphoria floods through them that reminds him of Kol’s kick.

(I don’t need the ground to mimic that…)

Adris’ now veiny face widens to match a reflected smile. He lets Lycia’s own movements inspire him.

(It’s similar! Just similar enough…!)

A resurrected giant surges through his body as he springs back at Lycia while twisting.

Like the ghoul before him, his acrobatic body miraculously winds around her outstretched stab.

“!?”

She looks stunned as he, with only a hair’s breadth, contorts in mid-air. The shallow cuts in his cheek spurt blood.

His fighting spirit burns like never before on Zennia.

(I CAN FEEL IT! SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO!)

His leg shatters along with her chin, for the majesty transmitted from the bracer and his ingrained martial technique can’t be contained.

This rotating blow slams the ball of his feet through her face, coating him with cold life essence.

“OOORAAAAAAHHHHH!!”

No matter what breaks, the follow through is forced by the animating spirit overtaking him.

It sends Lycia soaring while flipping toward the black moon she called for and parting the fog around Adris with an explosive gust, all at the meager price of leaving his entire body growing numb from exhaustion.

(AAAAAAHHHHH!?!)

Obsidian flesh cracks and shifts, leaving him groaning from what’s left of his leg as he flops to the marshy soil.

Staring up, Adris watches as the ghoul stops flipping.

She instead rights in the air to aim toward him with her fall.

Indignation is writ upon her.

That coy beauty of hers is messy and slick with Vigor as she grinds her broken fangs.

(I finally got your attention!)

“{system expunge, realign observation mode -DERIVE- Historical Category: INVADER

substitute firing solution, location Z-Z-778, entity -> INVADER SKYSHIP, overwrite -FROM- Designation Source: Invader -> InvaderNEWTYPE -> GrandGameAllowedWeaponSystems -> Photon Lancer…}”

A crystal clear voice wakes up everyone.

Bright glyphs zigzag through the air, dodging around Lycia on their way to the cloud above.

When they hit a blister on the cloud, the glyphs merge into a bright silver line connecting a glowing girl and the white evil looming above.

(The Invaders, too, Neesiette!? Oh no, I know what that can do.)

Adris rolls into the marsh, choosing to sink slowly into it while holding his breath.

“{Substitute and Execute ->[Target Redirect: (ġūl)

… Fire]}”

The silver line peters out of existence.

Immediately after, the blister begins to shine like a sun.

“Ah. That’s… bad.”

Lycia finally speaks something that doesn’t seem programmed.

Before white light envelops her.

The air around them rushes as it ignites.

Terraced garden becomes a shattering inferno, shooting up in acrid smoke, or spreading around as ground becomes dross and glass shatters to melt.

Marsh water evaporates above, while the heat reaches deep for Adris.

(BOILING!)

Skin blisters, but the feathers don’t care.

Everything that burns instantly reforms.

Seconds become a white eternity, before the light departs.

(UGH! This… water is…!)

A creation of Lycia, his arms no longer find purchase and his body has no buoyancy while in it.

He can only drown, even though there’s little depth left after most of it boils off.

(End… end this fight…!)

If they do, Adris knows it will all return to normal.

A strong hand pulls the boy free, with the swamp almost refusing to let go as it clings to his feet until the last.

“PUAH!”

Dripping as he coughs, he faces his savior while lying on the ground.

(I knew… you’d come through…!)

“Still!”

(Hiding this whole time… trying to make me sweat…!)

“Forget about me… We… have to make sure that she’s…!”

Blinking as he wipes away the grime, he startles when the hand hoists him up into the air.

“‘She’? What about this her?”

A voice with a tone he’s never heard before, but one that sounds ever familiar, causes him to gasp.

“GAAHK!?”

Before his breathing is cut off.

“You just… had to have me! You just had to bind me!”

Neesiette’s final gambit leaves the white-black stage too ruined to endure.

Shattering sounds come from the sky which is falling around them.

Lycia Vehrose starts to peek through the perfect servant.

Parts of the anonymous soldier crack and fall, revealing the familiar woman beneath.

Like the white-black world, the dream of the Once Bloodstained Ghoul of the Alchemaster is crumbling.

The mass-made uniform is burnt nearly to nothing, leaving her naked body on display to him.

Half of a grinning face calmly stares at him, while the other half revealed by evaporating gold leaf shows a side of Adris’ Big Sister that he’s never seen before.

“JUST HAD TO TRY TO MAKE ME YOUR PUPPET!”

A feral eye shakes, wide and flashing with…

(Betrayal…!?)

“I WILL NEVER BE A PUPPET AGAIN, YOU CHARLATAN! EVEN IF YOU DELUDE OTHERS INTO FIGHTING FOR YOU!

SEND THEM ALL AFTER ME, KEY HOLDER! I WILL NOT BE BOUND!”

Even as she screams at him, her words can’t deny the golden chains stuck inside of her body. The Lycia he knows from the Zennia of now also bears them, wrapped around her spine up to her neck and coiling out to restrain her limbs.

As they constrict her, she hones her own grip firmer.

“You will die…

they will die…

you will all die,

if that’s what it takes…

for me…

to be…!”

(HELP!)

Adris calls out in his mind as the terrified woman tries to finish the job she pretended to start in the cistern room.

Bone is already cracking, which is dangerous now for him.

Because the feathers and obsidian flesh are falling away, just like her guise is.

(Where do these feelings of yours come from!?)

“Every time… I try to have something I want… it always…

you always…!”

As Adris’ sight dims, Lycia’s face only looks more betrayed by his encroaching death.

(… I… didn’t… even do anything…!)

That denial will never be voiced.

Because his potential saviors are gone.

A doll lies on the other side of an enormous smoking hole in the ground, her dress shredded and silvered rod snapped in two beside her.

An emerald-scaled elf lies motionless on the ground, with a monster in black carapace sitting on her while driving fists into the girl’s hidden face.

His trusted partner never…

“Time for the true heroine to show up~!

Lights, canvas…!”

“… HAH!?”

Black noise billows up beside Lycia and Adris to coalesce. The form of a white-skinned, cloak-wearing girl whose face is hidden by a wimple exuberantly cheers.

“R-A-N-T-I-L…❤️!”

Existing only ever as a secret, this new addition wraps her arms around both their necks and pulls them in close.

(I in no way intended to use you, Rantil!)

The wimple draws back, letting Lycia come face-to-face with an impish smile, making her the first person to know the secret.

“… Who…?”

“… Kukuku, what a wonderful question, refugee from greed.”

The impish smile turns sinister, mocking with a refined smugness as Rantil’s lips curl.

“Now, receive a suitable answer:

… ‘Mind shall wrack and rave, burdened by answers whose questions derange!’”

Silence becomes cacophony.

Chattering darkness becomes solemn revelation from Beyond.

Rantil whispers as she screams, joined by all of the warriors and innocents who have fallen.

“[WORDS OF PAIN].”

Adris’ skin crawls when he hears the words that come after.

His heart bursts from his chest, unable to be contained with the truth so evident.

The shattering world ripples.

Dark things, formless the whole time as they watched without once losing fascination, fly down to scream the same words at them.

Bells ring out, as mad as they were when that thing between worlds treated him with silence and a puppet show.

“You will never be loved,

precisely because you cannot love others.

Not even yourself.”

“… AH… ah… ahhh…”

Adris stares up from the ground at the blond woman gasping in horror.

Whatever the words for her were, they too produce the same feeling he endures.

For just a moment, Adris feels sympathy.

(… Too much… alike…)

“… That… that’s not…

true…”

Fragile tears come to her eyes, as the still revealing Lycia bites her lip with sharp teeth.

She stumbles forward, losing all sense of anything but the truth that struck her.

The soldier and the scholar: both faces share the same pain.

“… right?”

Something rushes up from behind her, not even attempting to stay hidden.

“… What…?”

… A saber glints in the disappearing light.

Made of fluid quicksilver, its artful, yet brutal, design looks supremely familiar to Adris.

It refuses to accept the Vigor that collects at the wound.

Even if a heart is pierced, this blade absolutely reviles the taste it uncovered.

The golden Vigor isn’t spared to exist, though.

Instead of healing, it denatures, becoming an ugly, tarnished color.

“… Sil… ver…?”

Lycia’s eyes begin to bleed the same substance she speaks, followed by her mouth as she chokes.

Veins and arteries fill up with it.

As Lycia collapses to her knees, hanging behind the immortal ghoul’s back is a common-enough looking girl. Should a crowd line up for inspection, her beauty is one that would blend in completely.

Brown eyes shine with hate, though, showing that her spirit is far more outstanding than her appearance.

Wearing only rags otherwise to hide her thin body, the firm grip on the hilt of the weapon thrust through Lycia’s heart proves she deserves this blade’s companionship.

“All of yah… are goin’ to die! Every last one…

I’m… givin’ all of ’em a taste of…

[NECTAR]!”

“GGGAAAAHHHHHHH!?”

Lycia screams when the saber is twisted, permanently destroying her unbeating heart while the silver poison melts her flesh.

“Hope hell is as sweet as what you’re drownin’ in, bitch! Ahahahaha!”

This unknown assassin bares her teeth in triumph, before laughing her head off as the shattering world finally explodes into pieces.

(… Partner…?)

With its end, Adris ends, too.

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