“They got Aclysia.” John’s angry words reached Eliza despite the myriad of other sounds around them. Breaking buildings, mad laughter and the squelching, skittering steps of the Lorylim creatures chasing after the group. The blood pumped inside the insanely powerful woman’s ears. Her heart beat with the excitement of battle and rage.

Despite being among the fastest of their group, Eliza was the rear of the group. Leaping around, her crimson aura enveloping her like drops of blood in water, she formed her sanguine magic into various hardened, crystal projectiles. A mixture of will and raw physical ability sent them flying, skewered Lorylim, causing them to be, usually, incapacitated and rarely to outright die. The dents she made in their pursuers’ mass made only a minor difference, but every little bit helped. Salamander and Sylph bombarded the enemies with fire and lightning as well.

The problem was the Manifestation of Filth, slowly gaining on them all. All attacks Eliza or the other two threw at it, the mountain of misery and mud shrugged off. More direct methods would have to be taken and they would have to be taken fast. Every squelching stomp of the giant of corruption brought it closer to John. Even being carried by Metra, the centrepiece of their group was being threatened.

Eliza launched another lance of sanguine crystal at their pursuers, impaling the bare skull of a bear-like creature. The monstrosity didn’t die, but instead kept running on the spot, trying to break the blood lance. Several spheres of blood were sent out from Eliza’s hands to the lance, fusing with it.

“I really fucking hope this hurts,” Eliza growled, making an expanding gesture with her hand. The excess blood burst out as spikes from within the abomination’s skull. The monstrosity kept moving for several more seconds, before the Lorylim matter started sludging off its bones, leaving a warped and asymmetrical human skeleton behind. One of the over a hundred creatures following them dead, Eliza hurried to get back moving before the mass of enemies washed over them. She caught up with John, who was still getting pulled along by Metra. “Is Aclysia safe?!” she asked first, in a surge of paranoia. “Your life-saving bullshittery worked, yeah?!”

“Yes,” John told her. “Her core is in my inventory. We’ll get her the materials to rebuild herself after we get out of here.” Eliza could hear the upset in his voice and the concern about their current situation. Things were going far from smooth at the moment, but this wasn’t the time to discuss or dwell on this. His eyes directed at the Manifestation of Filth, the Gamer said, “Jane and Nia are still in trouble, but now we don’t know where exactly they are. Not that we should unify the enemy forces anyway…” The emotions were replaced with cold combat calculations. “It appears we’re far enough from the airport now that no additional high-power Lorylim are getting pulled into the mob. We’re going to face them soon. You need to take care of the big one.”

“Fucking obviously,” Eliza nodded.

“When you see me cast Arcana Strike, that’s when we turn.”

“That sounds like a bad fucking plan, you glass cannon.”

“I’ll use Arcane Ascension to cast it,” the Gamer told her. “Enough talking, get ready.”

“Alright,” Eliza dropped back to the rear of their formation and did as before, nailing their pursuers with the occasional attack. She was only about ten metres in front of the Manifestation now and it reached down to grab her. The houses of the suburbs were trampled under its gooey feet.

A silver light rose behind Eliza. She took the split second to confirm that it was the silver sphere rising from John, before launching herself at the Manifestation of Filth. The arm missed her, but tendrils sprouted out of the liquid limb to grasp her in mid-air. Instead, they served Eliza as steps. Closer and closer, she ascended to the sludge creature’s torso. ‘Do it fucking right,’ she told herself, while drawing her arm back. Ki gathered inside her shoulder and rushed out of her fist when it connected with the semi-liquid body.

Mud and Lorylim matter showered down several dozen metres behind the monstrosity, which tumbled backwards and started to fall. Eliza tried to distance herself with another kick, but this time she was caught by one of the tentacles. Teeth grew out of the slinging mud, securing the grapple and tearing into her leg. The pain was familiar, a mere tickle compared to what she had experienced in the past. She growled at the inconvenience as she was pulled down along with the rest of the giant.

Upon impact with the ground, the humanoid form broke into an ocean of filth and tang. Even Eliza’s supreme senses were muddled when she was submerged in the splattering sludge. ‘Oh fuck, I think I got some of it into my mouth.’ Her thoughts were filled with raw disgust, tasting the rot on her tongue and having her nose filled with it. No matter how much she paddled with her arms, she wasn’t able to reach the surface. She wasn’t even sure where up or down was. Martial arts wouldn’t help her either in this situation, at least none she knew. ‘Come on, fuck-throat, you know what you have to do!’ she berated herself.

Fear welled up inside her. What if the parts of Thana that had fused with her took over her instincts again? She had sparred a lot, trained a lot, thought about it a lot, and yet she still wasn’t certain that she wouldn’t turn on John and the others after she got going. Metra’s advice on controlling rage hadn’t been helpful. Her lack of control didn’t stem entirely from her own mind. Yes, she had difficulties on her own already, but she wasn’t the only inhabitant of this body.

‘DO IT!’ she screamed at herself, hesitation and rage wrangling with one another. ‘It goes wrong every time!’ she shouted back. ‘Aclysia and the Mandala Sphere are already out, what the fuck else can go wrong?’ A threatening growl reminded her of reality. If she didn’t fulfil her part here to the best of her ability, then the consequences would be dire. ‘I can feel sorry about another scar, I can’t let them die!’ “To achieve what it takes, I will immolate myself – Bloodburn.”

Wings of flowing, burning and crystallized blood burst out of her back with enough force to tear a large hole into the back of her black robe and the murky water that surrounded her. They resembled something like pointy butterfly wings in shape and pattern. Crimson claws formed around her hands, while she wildly swiped around. Her doubled power achieved what she previously could not, dispersing the encapsulating mud faster than it could flow back over her. Wave after wave of twisted humanoid forms were smashed apart by ki-infused punches.

Eliza looked up to the silver sphere, anticipating the Arcana Strike blast to clear out most of this issue for her. If cast at five times John’s maximum mana, even a few minutes to prepare would turn their current environment into a crater.

The Lorylim must have known the same, instinctually or otherwise, as massive tentacles reached down from the ceiling of the Illusion Barrier and threatened to envelop the Arcana Strike. The spell exploded on contact and it would take quite the tremendous explosion to seriously tilt the balance if it happened up there. Provided that the Lorylim didn’t have some way to further meddle with the spell while it charged anyway.

Eliza realized what would happen next and laughed maniacally as a pillar of light descended from the silver sphere, the single non-rotten star around. If there was no guarantee the spell could unleash its full destructive potential, then firing it early to some effect was the smartest thing to do. The pillar connected with the ground and a moment later the Arcana Strike itself descended.

The energy wave washed over Eliza without any damage, protected from friendly fire as she and the other party members were. However, the Manifestation of Filth around her was fully affected and blasted back. They were more than fifty metres away from the centre of the impact, close enough for the monster to take some damage but not for it to be more than it could quickly recuperate from. Seizing the opportunity, Eliza carved her way out of the mud. Finally, she had solid ground under her feet again.

Eliza would have loved to check how the fight was going for the rest of the group, but the mountain of bodies coming for John and the rest blocked her view. Any chance she might have had to change that was eliminated when the Manifestation of Filth flowed around her, forming a bubble with her at the centre.

“Too much of a fucking coward to attack me, huh?!” she mocked the creature and received no answer. That ticked her off, for some irrational reason. Her hatred was justified, these things had hurt those she cared about several times, that part was easy. ‘Yeah, fuck it, I can get as angry as I want at these zombie shits.” The wings of Bloodburn screamed like electronically distorted violins. “HOW ABOUT YOU DIE, YOU EXISTENTIAL PUSS-PUDDLE?!”

“Eliza…” a human voice suddenly came from the walls. A face appeared among the teeth, tang and eyes, repeating her name. “…Eliza…” A second face, then a third, a fourth, and many more blossomed on the surfaces, babbling away. “…host of the goddess of genocide…” “…Eliza…” “…pretty little psycho…” The temperature in the bubble dropped steadily. “…hehehe…” “We must all die.” “…you will always be too late…”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Eliza screamed, anger mixing with panic. She felt the cold, her senses dull, her vision as if she was staring out through glass. She was all alone again, trapped inside that tank, faces all around her whispering to and screaming at her. ‘John, where is John?’ a spark of reason inside her reminded her who she could depend on to soothe this trauma. Focusing on her wrath, she charged at the bubble and clawed away at it. She was powerful, extremely powerful, and these things couldn’t hurt her. Any injuries she had sustained had already healed. She just had to see John. Claw her way out and see John. Then she could kill this blight on existence. A tiny favour for all of the things all of them did for her.

“It’s cold, so cold.” “Many things died for us. We all died for us.” “We’re like you, fundamentally, little survivor.” “So, so similar.” “We understand.” “Let it win, it’s not the end of humanity.” “Laugh, laugh at the dying of the heartbeat.”

“SHUT UP!” she screamed, slowly making progress through the liquid wall. She could see the outside, between punches, but the holes closed again and again. The red light of her wings was the only light source around. Her flesh was rent by teeth and claws, whipped to the bone by serrated tendrils, and none of it was pain she cared for.

‘Elizaaaaaaaaaa.’

Until the singing voice entered her head. Fury was finally overpowered by panic and she looked down at herself. The tentacles she had so single-mindedly ignored hadn’t just carved chunks out of her, they were actively replacing it. Black Lorylim matter oozed out of the wounds, steadily pumped into the open flesh. It was largely ineffective. Overpowering Eliza’s burning blood and healing factor was no easy task. Still, Eliza could see the teeth growing out of her own, rotting flesh around the wounds.

“No… nononononnonono,” she stammered, pulled between fright and fight, tearing at the tentacles, looking for a way to escape, slicing one into the wall, trying to do all of these things simultaneously and ultimately doing nothing. “No, I can’t… I can’t become something that hurts them. Stop, stop! Please… please!”

‘It will be alright,’ the male voice was sweet and devoid of conviction. Drums and the gnashing of teeth underlaid the words like a maddening song. ‘You and I are the same, Eliza. You will do well as a body of Izha. The truth is already writhing into your brain, my dear broken angel.’

What wrath Eliza wanted to feel was muted by the physical truth of these words. She could feel the tendrils wrapping around her spine, crawling under her skin and spreading over her bones. A knot formed in her stomach. “No…” her voice was weak now, she trembled and tears welled up in her eyes. “No… I’m not… Izha… I’m…” the burning wings withered away, as the blood was drawn inside. Her magic slipped from her control.

‘You’re Izha,’ the nihilistic mind whispered. ‘There is no purpose. All will end. Help me show the world this truth. Don’t worry, you will be united with those you care about. United in being truly nothing.’ The tendrils were inside her skull now, replacing blood with themself, gnawing at her brain like a delicious treat. Still her regenerative factor maintained her life and left her with enough understanding to know what was going on. The Lorylim tried to stimulate euphoria inside her mental faculties, make her more tolerant, eager even, to accept the foreign influence. ‘Let it go, it will be easier when you say your new name. You are Izha. You are Izha. You are…’

Eliza shivered. ‘John… I don’t… I’m so useless… I…’ There was a massive pressure in her stomach. It hurt. It hurt so much it bothered even her. The tendrils pressed against it. ‘I’m…’

‘You’re a useless parasite,’ a third voice rose up inside her mind, silencing Izha in an instance. ‘I let you be in charge and you pleasure addict can’t even keep our body intact?!’ Her consciousness was suddenly in the grasp of something that wasn’t foreign. ‘Fine, I’ll do it myself.’