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Stealing her lips away as quickly as she gave them, Lycia resumes staring into Adris eyes, smiling balefully as she continues to stroke his hardening cock.

Her expression is befitting of what she is.

Ghoul.

A word that needs no translation for Adris, for the concept is known on Xin, though the word is likely different and the true definition might be dissimilar.

(Those driven mad with a disease. Raving seekers of flesh. Fitting for what she’s showing now.)

The cold wall and Lycia’s hand steal away Adris’ body heat, even as his face and crotch grow hotter to fight it. Lycia’s attention is now totally predatory, ready to do to him first what the others intend to do after she finishes.

(… This is about what I expected.)

Adris had never hoped for Lycia to defend him to her death, even if “death” doesn’t mean as much for her; but, he’d held out hope that she wouldn’t be as cruel as the rest.

“Hmm, hmmmm, something is… wrong, though, isn’t it?” Though content to not interfere, the bunny girl in the robe narrows her eyes in suspicion.

“… Wearing a Works overcoat and traveling with a Works witch, for what reason is this? Were you simply enjoying a Guest, no need would there be for such a strange setup, riiiight?”

As the sage takes in the situation after hostilities cease, questions seem to come to her.

“Hah! More than that! Even if I couldn’t understand all the human words, she sure sounded chummy with him! Maybe even trying to help him get out!”

Up high, the blue-haired kicking bag leans forward, providing her own helpful observations. She has a bitchy smile as she tries to make things worse for Lycia.

With this said, the bunny sage starts sneering, her eyes moving from Adris’ mask to the cross in his hand.

“Carrying some valuable looking goods, he is, for so powerless a presence! A spell-turning cross, it seemed? … Just what are you up to, you toothy, sneaky degenerate?”

When the butler rubs her chin and her tails go stiff, her sword lifts up, again.

“… Fair questions, these are. Ms. Works Ghoul, might you be…?”

(Uh oh, you’re in trouble, Lycia!)

Adris feels great happiness at her turncoat decision going awry, looking forward to Lycia suffering with him.

(Yes, cat woman. We’re quite “acquainted”. Of course, Lycia won’t be able to admit it, because if she-)

“… I just couldn’t see a boy like him being left alone… cast into this mansion and left to be sacrificed to its hunger.”

A soft voice comes from Lycia. No longer grinning at Adris, she now has a slight smile and a look of pity in her eyes.

(What?)

Adris is surprised by her sudden change in tone. So, too, are the assembled minions of the mansion, discontent registering on their faces.

“An experimental subject, probably one used to test magical items of dubious provenance…” Sounding heartbroken, Lycia continues to narrate Adris’ journey as seen through her eyes.

“Somehow escaping from the clutches of the one using him… Searching so desperately for someone to save him. Finding only me, I just couldn’t… abandon him.”

(… Lycia? You…)

“Lost your mind have you, perhaps, maybe… or addled your consciousness he has…?”

The bunny’s grip on her rod firms up, raising it a bit, her head ducking lower as she looks disgusted.

“Careful, Miria… a trifle wrong this is…”

As the observers get ready to take up arms again…

“All alone in the world, only me there to save him… Only I could ease his pain.”

Putting her hand to her chest, Lycia’s face is smiling carefree, full of wonder at her own words.

“So I offered to help! To shepherd him through the horrors! To watch, as his spirits rouse! As he grows hopeful, once more! To see him seek to bond with me, despite his fears and misgivings! Desperate for love and safety…!”

(… What? What are you saying…?)

She puts her hand to his face, and her expression… turns much more content.

“Ahh! To fend off danger, to become his only support, in turn! Bringing him to the border of paradise, it lying just beyond the open door to the outside world! I wanted to see his face…!”

With a look of pure,…

“… as I grabbed him up just at that precipice, ripped off his pants, pinned him to the ground, and rode his delicious cock to climax!

I wanted to know what his face would look like as he cried out in anger or terror, unwillingly losing himself inside of me!”

… evil ecstasy, Lycia announces her true intentions.

(… You… disgusting…!)

Lycia puts her cold hand into Adris’ mouth, pushing down on his tongue as he tries to pull it away.

“To stain the golden carpets white with his semen dripping from me, as I drag him back to the deep blue to be eaten up by Mother, in turn!”

Adris bites down hard on Lycia’s finger, completely unable to penetrate her skin or crush the cold flesh. She giggles, as she watches him gnaw on her finger.

(FUCK YOU!)

“The greatest experiment’s sought result:

‘What will a young boy look like when all of his dreams are permanently crushed, with freedom only feet away?’ My ambition was fulfilling that moment~…”

Lycia looks mildly satisfied when Adris’ eyes start shaking, blind hatred filling him.

Then, she turns her face to the bunny and vents her frustrations.

“And now that will never happen, because you lot couldn’t help yourselves~!”

Mouth now open in complete disbelief, the bunny sage soon rolls her eyes and takes on a disappointed look.

“… How so very stupid. The Wondrous Works is always failing because of this, it is! Two magical tools and a subject loose in the wild, the credibility of Mother in difficulty, and a weirdo wants to do a psychological conditioning experiment… Tempted, tempted I am to spank you with the floor, once more!”

The cat woman, Miria, chuckles as she pats the bunny’s shoulder.

“No, I think it’s quite romantic? It has a ring of innocence to it?”

(Ah, die, all of you die.)

Lycia rubs her face against Adris’, her favorite captive pet, as he starts losing all of his energy. The shock of Lycia’s revealed plot threatens to cut into his will to live.

“Rules and caution exist for a reason, they do! The Great Mistress won’t be happy, unhappy with a speck like-!”

“… What will the Alchemaster say to Mother, when I tell her you lot are setting up in our tier? I may not be active politically, but even I know you’re not supposed to be here. Instead of questioning my research methods, why don’t you consider the implications of your actions becoming known by all~?”

A challenging question is given to the unfinished threat.

Tension returns immediately to the gathering.

To the rising hostility Adris can feel in the air and see on the faces of the Alchemaster’s minions, Lycia shrugs her shoulders, offering a helpful substitute resolution.

“Or? You can leave him to me at the conclusion of this, and I’ll return him, saying nothing to Mother about your presence.

You might earn my silence through crushing me, but I’ll take at least one of you, too, during a true contest. Open violence between our groups will always be noticed by the Gate Guardian, leading to… questions.”

While the bunny girl twitches her evil eyes in annoyance at being openly blackmailed by Lycia, the butler Miria nods with a smile and swishing tails.

“Point made. No dispute from us is relevant, nor report of our meeting truly needed. Artifacts recovered and escaped cattle caught, all is returned to normal with his return. Neither your activities, nor ours, are in need of further inspection.”

As though the butler finds the situation somewhat more delicate now, she decides to be politer.

“Bad blood between the Works and our Great Mistress should ever be avoided, so he’ll be yours to dispense with after our joint luncheon.”

“Miriaaaaa! She’s making a mockery of-!”

As the bunny sage tries to interject, the butler’s eyes open with a violent intensity to stare her back.

“Leave off, Hoime.”

Choking on her next words, the bunny sage Hoime closes her mouth, looking frustrated at Lycia.

“Hoime, you’re a valued servant of the Alchemaster, not a member of the Works. Leave their business to them, and remember you belong with us.”

The assembled players agree to leave the report of Adris’ fate between them, so that nobody in power need know a mere human inconvenienced any of them by being where he shouldn’t have been, with an item he shouldn’t have, at a place that others shouldn’t have been found.

(How nice for you. You get your out and sweep clean this whole mess at the same time. I’d rather you have killed each other.)

Eyes back on his penis again, Lycia nods approvingly.

“Hum, it’s quite delectable~. I made the right choice, didn’t I, little bro? Doing good deeds earns rewards~!”

She teases him while tilting her head, inspecting his face as she gently tugs on the tip of his dick, letting the rest hang loose as she massages.

Her calloused fingers are a bit rough, yet the depravity of the situation, combined with his helplessness, is a new, exciting feeling burning within Adris’ chest.

One that wars with the revulsion he feels for Lycia, now.

“For our honored, truly young guest to have trusted you even a little, you are quite gifted with your tongue, Ms. Works Ghoul. Having made him feel at home during your journey… it will no doubt be an even greater shock to see the true hospitality in store for him now.”

Miria the butler, unlike the green-robed mystic, seems to approve of Lycia’s manipulations.

(I must be losing my touch if I ever believed in you. No, I definitely am. This whole outcome is because I’ve lost my edge. I should’ve beaten your head in the first chance I had.)

His chest is tight with his depression and the pressure of his twisted jerkin.

“Hey~! Why are you getting hard, boy? Is it the fear? Or does discomfort give you pleasure?”

Lycia laughs while pushing him up harder against the wall, her grip suddenly along his whole length, abusive and tight.

The glove is rough as she yanks on him, causing Adris to fear for his dick. She leans in again, bringing her face to his neck and chewing roughly on his skin with her front teeth, leaving marks on him as he squirms in pain.

Pulling him lower and to herself, she lets her body rub against the tip as she strokes, causing Adris to jolt in pleasure, leaving him shamefully wanting to push forward against her stomach.

The feeling of her shirt and belly as he presses against it is enchanting.

The sleepy rabbit sage chuckles while covering her mouth.

“To react to abuse and betrayal with such obsequience, he’s pathetic, he is! A bonafide masochist!” Though still angry, her disposition improves as Adris’ discomfort increases.

“My, you have excellent technique, Ms. Ghoul, even if I find your… work ethic a bit lacking. May his mind melt admirably under your ministrations! But, but, it’s a bit boring just to watch until my turn~…”

The woman reaches out from under her robe, going to the crotch of the hulking man beside her. When she pats it, he gets animated.

Ugly face softening, a look of reverence replaces his previous boredom.

“Oh! Lady Hoime, are you offering…? You are a saintess!”

He is quick, uncinching his belt and letting his own torn pants drop free, pulling his foot out of one end as an enormous, flared dick wobbles, rapidly hardening as she rubs it with her satin-gloved hand.

Disregarding her audience completely, Lycia continues to suck on his neck even as she picks up the pace of her hand.

Pulling her mouth back, she looks up at Adris with her shining eyes. Adris’ mouth is a grimace as he silently accepts his circumstances.

(I’m not being betrayed. She was never my ally. She was an enemy hiding in plain sight, one I wasn’t even truly overlooking. I simply had no other options.)

This woman had helped him of her own volition, so obviously she had her own designs. To sacrifice him when cornered is the smartest thing to do, and the fact that her designs were evil fits with this place.

(Feeling even a bit… disappointed by this would be-)

“Hey, hEy? Why do you look like you want to cry?” She purrs, her mouth becoming a false smile of comfort.

“Were you… truly enamored with me?”

(This outcome is probably less… crushing than the one she was dreaming of.)

Adris squares his jaw, looking down, forced to watch her stroke him against his will, his eyes dark as he avoids hers. There’s no point in giving any more emotional consideration to her actions.

(I can’t change any of this.)

“That’s not an unpracticed look you have, either! Even if you try to hide it, I can smell the pain on you~! HEY!”

She brings him close, suddenly, his rock hard erection brought to her crotch as she embraces him roughly.

Looking down into his face…

“… Who hurt you before me?” She coos, her eyes playful.

(You!)

There’s no way this woman can know.

Adris is far too… good at hiding things for her to notice.

That she could know anything about his losses angers him.

“… It wasn’t the one that put that mask on you, was it…? What was… her name, then~?”

He tries to raise the cross, but a powerful hand moves to capture his arm before it can even lift. Forcing his hand to his chest, she slips the cross into his coat before…

“… No, I need your hands free for this~. And you need to hold on to such a… dubious object until we can have a closer look at it back at the Works~”

Her soft whisper coincides with his wrist flaring up in pain from a crushing grip.

Slipping the cross into his potion bandoleer as the pain frees it, Lycia pulls his hand back out, wrapping hers up with his. Locking fingers, she gives another smile of false comfort.

“Isn’t it better to hold hands with big sis? Or have you stopped loving her? How sad~”

(Before this is done, I’m going to hit you with something!)

He thinks to rear back and force his head into the woman’s face, but knows it’s futile. Anyone that can impact the floor as hard as she did and simply roll out of it would be unfazed by such a gesture.

When he opens his mouth to hurl abuse, she pulls him up and sticks her tongue back in, catching his words with her own passionate french kiss.

(Fuck! Stop…)

Being kissed so passionately by a woman tormenting him feels disgusting to Adris, no matter how fair her face is.

It’s unpleasant to be used this way.

With her finally pulling away, his face openly contorts with his disgust.

“♥! Right, RIGHT! That’s the kind of look I like~!” Pleased, she smiles while crushing him tightly to herself, forcing his dick between her closed hips again as she holds him with both arms now.

Positioning him, she makes him rub cruelly against her barely covered mound, Adris’ dick moving through the slight gap in her thighs. He can feel her moist lips rub on the top of his cock, only the thin fabric separating their sexual organs.

The heat there is just as hot as when his tongue was upon it, and the pleasure he feels after simmering in lust for so long is too much to resist.

“Don’t think you can just stay silent! I want to know how you feel~. I want to taste your hate. If I don’t get to taste the meat after it’s been properly spiced and seasoned, then I want a bloody, fresh flavor, instead~!”

(… Fuck off! Why would… I give you what you want!?)

Adris hears the sound of clothing shifting and looks to his left.

A round, white ass with a cream-colored rabbit tail is what he sees, the sage woman bent over against the wall next to Adris, watching him with sharp, lustful eyes as he’s assaulted.

Her robe has split down the back, letting her body peek out, her booted feet wide as she pulls her ass open with one hand.

(I am not a side show!)

“Cathar, you have my permission to use anything but my pussy, okay, okay? If I let you in the front, I won’t be able to feel our little dear later-”

She speaks lazily, but her eyes go wide a bit as she stops midway through her sentence, focusing on Adris’ penis slipping between Lycia’s soaking thighs.

“- Oh, oh, nevermind, he’s not too lacking, so maybe not! Odd, that size is! Still, best to be consistent…”

The large man named Cathar walks up behind the woman, snorting with impatience, even as he tries to be polite to the woman he respects.

“Yes, thank you, Lady Hoime! If only Ferthia, might just choose not to.”

“Shut up, you ogre! Considering how you treat women, she should be hollowing out your ass, instead!”

The bat maid shrieks from the hanging walkway, disgruntled at being thought of so poorly.

Pulling a vial of clear liquid out, Cathar opens it with a large fingernail and hastily shakes it out onto his cock. Once lubricated by his own hand, he pushes his large, pre-cum spurting head against her tiny red rose, massaging the outside with it as she pants in anticipation.

Adris can see her body relaxing, both hands on the wall now as his are on her waist with a death grip, hands large enough to almost meet over her flesh.

He inches into her rectum, her tongue floating out of her open mouth, before he loses his temper and slams straight into her, the full nine inch length buried inside as he cries out in victory.

(How can she fit it in, much less to the end…)

“… Hieee, you are quite the gentleman, Cathar, ah, yes!”

Contrary to Adris’ expectations of reality, the woman is pleased by the sudden intrusion.

One of his large hands reaches around, gripping a breast underneath her robe as he leans over her, and begins pounding against her juicy, bouncing butt.

While they go to work, Adris…

“Where are you looking, little brother? Who said you could look away, huh!?

His head is wrenched to look up at Lycia, still holding him.

“Don’t you have something you should be doing?” Her anger subsiding, she presses him forward, threatening to tear off a cheek if he doesn’t start moving on his own.

“… I guess the real you is a lot uglier than the outside is?”

His quiet quip results in his head being tweaked again, a movement which he cries out in pain at.

“You don’t need words, unless they’re to beg.”

Her face is stern as she lets his head go.

“You’re supposed to succumb, not talk back. You have no idea what ‘the real me’ is, anyway, and you’ll never be smart enough to figure it out.”

Her thighs tighten around his trapped dick, her muscles flexing as she speaks in a cold voice.

“You’re a dish, not a person, meat. Food doesn’t get an opinion~!”

A toothy smile is all she spares for him as she resumes grinding against his dick.

Adris is stunned.

This woman who was always only teasing before this situation… easily turned out to be one whose cruelty wouldn’t be lacking among the worst wasteland tyrants of Xin.

(The you inside is even worse than I could’ve ever imagined.)

He subconsciously aids in grinding between her thighs, pushing forward and then pulling back.

The woman who has led him on refuses to give him even a moment of respite, the warmth on his dick growing as he is forced to pleasure her. Her thin panties do nothing to disguise the texture of moving against her lips.

“Ah, see~? As long as you stop thinking, you can do it! Don’t worry about what you want or the fear you feel~. Just do what I want~!”

Holding him tenderly, she lets her voice finally become kind again.

“Give yourself, totally, to me.”

(This is a form of “genuine,” after all. At least I wasn’t wrong about that. Only being a tool to her is…?)

An image fills his mind.

{Adris fehl Dain is a god before these fools, using them in turn, their bodies laid out for him to feast upon.}

Adris rejects the idea of using a tool that he knows will destroy his mind, even if it means losing. While the situation is desperate, the cross is still just as evil as Lycia is.

(Someone else simply won this battle. The match didn’t go to me.)

Adris will survive this, somehow. Believing that some of the information she gave him about this world is true, he believes there’s still a chance of escaping, as long as he doesn’t lose all hope.

(Being raped is just rape. The body endures, the mind moves on.)

Even after her manipulations, compared to being murdered by Serras, this woman’s torments are hardly equal…

After all, there was no real trust, anyway. Adris can’t lose anything he didn’t leave available to steal.

(She simply seemed familiar…)

The cat butler Miria’s tails swish about as she watches the show, her posture attentive and formal, her left hand behind her back as she has her right to her chin, fascinated by the performance.

The woman named Hoime has her insides brutalized and her breasts manhandled by the large, oblivious giant, concentrated as he is on burying himself in quick motions as deep as possible.

Her malicious eyes watch with rapt attention as Adris produces quiet rubbing sounds with Lycia’s thigh socks, grinding over the ghoul’s completely wet crotch as Lycia begins to silently pant.

Lycia’s breathless moaning drives Adris’ brain wild, especially with how her breasts squish him as he presses close. She strokes the back of his head as he grabs behind her back, picking up speed while still held up by her.

“Good, isn’t this what you should be doing? Submitting to me? Just give up everything… ♥”

Her words fill him with disobedience, no matter what decision his mind has arrived at, and he latches onto her ass with one hand, rubbing more tightly against her pussy with the increased leverage.

(Why are you acting needy? I’m the one who never got to- GYAH!)

She roughly grabs his hand, yanking it off and pulling her body back from his.

Using her leverage, she whips Adris’ whole body around after letting go of him, putting him into an arm lock behind his back as he cries out in pain.

(My arm… is going to break!)

Adris tries to circulate his aura to strengthen the ligaments, but his aura refuses to obey his commands. None of it truly belongs to him, now.

It’s all a mutated mass, thoroughly corrupted by the cross.

The only thing listening to him, waiting at the edge of his mind and begging him to be used, is the cross.

“Oh, my, AH!”

The bunny lady yells in pleasure as Cathar reacts to this abuse, suddenly slamming into the woman harder to match Lycia’s display of violence. A thick penis drills into a loose ass, the slapping sound of her butt being impacted joining with Adris’ painful hissing.

Lycia pulls Adris away from the wall, forcing him to a nearby railing as the cat butler nimbly sidesteps her path.

When he’s brought up over it, he nearly falls forward, bent as he is over the edge of the railing with his guts being pushed in.

“Who said you could touch me on your own, meat?”

Before he can respond, she pulls his legs wide with her free hand, reaching past and gripping his cock in this awkward posture of his. Pointing it toward the floor, she furiously strokes the hard member. Wet as it is with her own juices, the pleasure is much stronger than earlier.

Despite his predicament, his impending ejaculation merely grows closer and stronger.

Her expert hand rubs his length as her thumb massages around his crown. Her arm brushes against his balls, occasionally, her cold arm a strange sensation.

Deprived of his ability to resist, Adris is embarrassed at his posture. If not for Lycia being behind him, his naked ass would be on display to everyone.

He is keenly aware of the other people watching him.

The bunny woman’s panting is obnoxiously loud as the slapping against her ass continues without mercy, the large man grunting as he’s captivated by her tight sphincter and muscles.

Adris shrinks from Lycia touching his defenseless ass, scared that the woman might do something similar to him.

(… Even if I have to endure it, it’s still…!)

“Shit! Stop!” He cries out, finally.

“Oh? OH!? You want me to stop? Why~?” Her voice goes heavy and sultry, suddenly pleased with his objections.

Her hand slows down.

(I don’t want to let go like this. That would be… too embarrassing. No, nothing will be right! Why am I feeling any of this!?)

Adris finds himself unwillingly being drawn into her abuse now, letting her control the flow.

Always in charge with Serras, even when she supposedly “took” him, he knew how to bring her low and make her dance on his fingertips.

But this woman is making a mockery of Adris, and something about it is both frustrating him and toying with his thoughts. His body is coming to eagerly welcome it, despite his total hatred of her.

(And yet you were the one depending on my tongue earlier… This fascination is so foreign, and it seeps in without allowing for resistance!)

Angrily, Adris gives her the answer she’s waiting for.

“… If I let go, I don’t want it to be like this.”

“Hm? You mean bent like a child ready to be spanked, your semen about to be uselessly wasted on the floor?”

She sticks her tongue out after asking, mocking his situation.

“Okay, I can be generous. So, I’ll ask: where would you like to release it?”

She lets go of his dick and brings him back fully to the ground, leaning over and letting her teeth bite onto his shoulder playfully as she lets him decide.

(What…?)

Adris is taken aback, never thinking he’d truly have a choice.

(Isn’t there only one place that’s worth it? Right, I…)

Even if he’s thoroughly beaten as a person by recent events…

“… I want to cum inside of you.”

(I want to taste the depths I had my tongue to. Even if… this is who you are, I want to taste you with my dick, feel the heat for myself. If only for your body, I don’t want all of this to be… worthless.)

The lust is simply overwhelming him.

While Lycia had found release, he never truly did.

(… Damn it, I hate this!)

“Oh? Oooooh? Inside? Have you lost your mind, child? To desire to loose yourself inside the monster playing with you… Is this the form of your love?”

She lets go of him, letting the boy turn around to look at her.

“… Well, no problem~. The Castillo’s presence will always win, that’s what greed and desire mean, boy…”

Glancing back at the butler Miria, Lycia spares her some observations.

“… The important part is knowing what will break them, how much it will take, and how to progress toward it~. You have to know when to be watching~. Feel free to look more closely, I guarantee it will be good.”

(You bitch. Even now, you… No, she’s saying something that… I shouldn’t be able to hear, maybe?)

While he’s assumed that the language they speak to each other isn’t likely to be one that a human would understand, Lycia’s tone during her abuse had a need for him to understand her.

(But those words weren’t designed for me, only speaking about me as an observer…)

He sees Lycia’s hand go down to her crotch, pulling her panties aside and slipping into the slit revealed, a wet sound as she rubs inside with two fingers while leaving her palm against her mons.

With her leaning back a bit, Adris can slightly see her spreading her lips.

Her gaze welcomes his inspection.

“Come, isn’t this what you want?”

The cat butler watches from the side, close now, her congenial smile and almost-closed eyelids now a mocking expression matching Lycia’s.

“Hee, he is quite addled. How wonderful. The succulent air of the mansion breaks them all, eventually.”

As they converse, Adris sees Lycia’s eyes softening as she looks at him.

(What are you doing…?)

“Right, then~! I believe it was the Alchemaster who decreed that “every Guest deserves what they truly desire”… Keeping that in mind: I’ll let you cum inside me, just as you want!”

Still mentally confused, his body moves on its own. He absentmindedly tries to place his hand on her hips to position her…

Until she manhandles him.

Lifted up by the ghoul’s unbelievable strength, he’s placed down hard on the brass railing as he screams out in pain. Left to almost fall over backwards, Lycia kneels before him. At a level to have her head before him, she adjusts her body so she can contort his legs to hold them under her armpits, keeping him from falling.

As he feels like he’s falling, anyway, he reaches out to grab something, and grabs onto Lycia’s head by mistake.

Looking in terror at the woman, unsure if she’s going to let him go as punishment for grabbing her, he sees her smiling coquettishly.

He grabs on with his other hand, getting some balance.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry~. Little brother isn’t something to be thrown away~.”

She coos up to him, her eyes soft as she smiles. Adris is shaken and uncertain as he holds on for his life.

“I’ve taken a liking to you. When I deliver you to Mother, I’ll beg her to be gentle.”

Giving one last, playful smile, she…

“I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”

… winks her left eye, with great emphasis.

Adris’ mind goes blank.

He controls his expression, thinking hard on Lycia’s actions.

The cat butler, just out of focus of Lycia’s face, is watching him, too. Much closer now, this Miria is gazing intently, waiting at Lycia’s suggestion to see Adris break.

(… How many of your words are ever true? What is real, for you?)

He ponders what she said before, when they’d talked in the waiting room…

“… big sis will protect you. I promise.”

Words can mean whatever they need to, their true intentions tailored for that moment.

They can craft a winning solution from a losing situation.

(Is it possible there is a “real” you in all of this, looking for a way to save more than yourself?)

Though his mind is addled, he can still see the hint of a plan in action, one hidden behind layers of deception.

On the stage called Cascading Waters, Lycia has been weaving an impressive tale. One that redeemed her as being Adris’ truest enemy.

(But now you’re controlling their actions with the words you use.)

Adris can’t tell whether this hint, if it even is one, is a lie or the truth. Realizing that fact…

(Oh, I know who you are, now.)

That strange feeling he’d had in her presence, danger and attraction mixed together, now makes sense. The smile usually found on the beautiful woman’s face would probably be a match to one he could see in a mirror.

This Lycia Vehrose is quite similar, after all.

There’s not that much difference between what she does…

… and how Adris has lived his whole life.

(You’re synonymous with deception, too, aren’t you?)

The attraction was a little too on the nose. A woman that plays with people and aggressively worms her way into their hearts, isn’t much different from a man who often does the same thing.

It’s similar if she’s weaving a plot only she can see, too.

When she does it, it’s just… a little more attractive.

(I’m willing to gamble.)

If she’s truly like Adris, and she’s walking a very narrow path to her true goal, then she’ll somehow rebel. She has been trying to get Adris to notice and help.

(And I was missing it earlier. So what she needs from me now is…?)

To give into her, totally.

To give her what she keeps demanding, and show it to them.

Adris finds a place to draw inspiration from. The next action he commits to must seem real.

It has to fool even him.

He thinks about…

The way she’d looked at him the night they’d both murdered someone.

How he’d held her many times after, the frustration on her face fighting against the pleasure.

The way she’d looked when she’d, finally, murdered him.

All those times he’d felt like something was wrong, like maybe something was his fault, but he never really knew what to do about it.

… and he starts crying.

As tears begin falling down his cheeks, as his face breaks down…

… Miria begins to chortle.

“Very good, very good. Ah, this young man has such a savory expression. Ms. Works Ghoul is an excellent servant of our Mistress. Having heard you describe your experiment, I offer now my deepest apologies regarding our… interruption.”

Smiling broadly while watching, the butler now completely approves of Lycia.

The woman reaches down to daintily touch the crotch of her pants, with a quick rub given.

“You’ve managed to arouse even I. How commendable.”

After the woman’s appreciative comments, the cruelty on Lycia’s face vanishes.

Instead, there’s a hint of kindness and appreciation.

The butler has now stopped being alert, watching Lycia abuse Adris with an eager expression. While she agreed to Lycia’s first taste of Adris, this cat woman’s eyes had never left Lycia, and the woman has always seemed capable of striking at any moment.

The hand on her sword has relaxed, with Adris watching it swing loosely as Miria playfully taps it.

At a front-row seat to Adris’ execution, the greatest danger has become a passive spectator. With the last person in the room no longer expecting treachery, Adris knows that Lycia’s plan, if she truly has one, will soon begin.

“Oh nonononononono, don’t cry little brother.”

She plaintively tries to calm him, an evil tone to her voice that doesn’t match her face.

“Big sister will make everything better.”

A long tongue pokes out from between her opening lips, flicking at Adris as she smiles, before Lycia moves her face toward Adris’ unprotected dick.

This tongue, far longer than a human should possess, snakes out to hang in the air and lick at his cock.

(Wait, where do you hide – AH!?)

She gulps his cock into her throat with one quick, practiced motion. Her long tongue rests along the bottom of his cock as she pulls it into her mouth, the tip of her tongue moving down to lick at his balls.

“AH! Too warm!”

Crying out as he’s swallowed up, Adris is forced to hang onto her shoulders as her head moves.

Though he’d expected the woman’s mouth to be cold like her body, there’s an inexhaustible heat instead.

He watches with terror as, with each movement, her sharp teeth only narrowly avoid piercing him. The exquisite tightness of her lips constricting around his shaft, even while her tongue escapes to play with him, is a completely novel sensation.

Adris feels like his whole dick is being cocooned.

She wastes zero time, bringing his head to her throat each time she thrusts her own head forward, bobbing back and forth as she consumes him.

The long tongue is skilled in a way he can no longer claim to say his is any contender to, and her throat has zero gag reflex.

(This is, far better than Symphonia!)

Adris’ mouth is open, his tears drying as his expression is replaced by undisguised satisfaction.

A vacuum tension of this intensity on his penis is a first experience, a feeling that no previous one can top. Even Serras’ tight, muscular pussy is only good as a separate activity.

If he had to choose between them, he would never leave Lycia.

The lips are too soft, too strong. Her tongue is a living creature unto itself, wrapping around his cock outside of her mouth as if it belongs to the coiling muscle, jealous of not possessing it entirely.

The saliva within her mouth coats everything thoroughly, and he feels like he’ll melt with its slightly tingling effect on his skin.

“Oh, oh, oh! Look, Cathar! He has such a wonderful expression for a boy being ‘eaten’!”

The rabbit lady is bouncing a good distance behind Lycia, held up in a standing position by two strong arms as she’s rammed onto a hard shaft.

She has one arm holding onto Cathar’s big ones as the other hand is to her empty pussy, rubbing her clit vigorously as Cathar pounds into her wet asshole.

Her ears flop around as her hat threatens to fall off, the ears brushing against Cathar’s chin as the ugly man’s face shows his pleasure.

While Hoime should be worrying about her own brutal punishment, her appreciative eyes are instead locked on Adris’ face.

Cathar, instead of staring at Adris, is unabashedly glaring at Lycia’s round ass. Adris grips Lycia tighter in resentment, bringing a harder, more devious light to Lycia’s eyes.

“Hah! Hurry up, bitch!”

Adris looks up drunkenly at another voice, seeing the batgirl with hidden eyes still perched overhead, her legs wide now as she squats like a bitch.

Her clamshell pussy is now engorged and soaked, lips flowering as she impatiently waits to use him.

“After seeing how big it is, I want to ride it. I want him to hold me as I rape him. Can’t you just lay him down to do this? I could sit on his face…”

The cute, bitchy woman drips as she looks in annoyance at the time it’s taking to finish.

Lycia ignores her, sucking faster, stopping and pulling out at times to let her tongue work the head of the shaft all the way down to the base.

Adris can barely hold on, feeling like he’s falling the entire time. With this feeling of falling, comes fear.

The fear gives way to reliance on Lycia’s mouth for comfort. He finds himself falling both over the railing and for this terrible woman.

(Shit, she’s still trying to brainwash me.)

It had been a part of how he’d appealed to Serras, letting their combined terror force them to work together and grow closer.

When Lycia opens her eyes again and sees Adris glaring at her, she looks amused and winks again, her mouth disgustingly slurping as she brings him over.

Even if Adris knows her game, he’s absolutely helpless to stop it.

All his body can feel for Lycia now is a man’s lust and desire for a woman he wants, despite his mind telling him not to fall for her.

The renewed hope that this is all to save him is toying with his emotions even more than her earlier declarations.

She pulls his cock out, putting her hand around it to violently stroke it, while she licks the head with a rotating tongue.

The woman can use her arm in such a way even with Adris’ leg hooked underneath it.

It’s a wonderful feeling, as fulfilling as his own masturbation. He can’t understand how a woman would know what to do, sliding evenly over the shaft without pulling on it too tightly, the perfect gentle pressure encompassing his girth.

Even the roughness of her callouses and glove is excused by the technique she demonstrates.

Her lips take in only his head, wrapping around his glans and pulling on them as she puts her tongue against the slit of his head, loosely pushing it open as she strokes him.

He feels a little saliva at the side of his mouth, feeling stupid for losing himself completely to this pleasure.

This is the first time in Adris’ life that he’s been completely defeated sexually by a woman.

Adris had always loved Serras’ body, but now his own body feels like a puppet that exists to dance solely to the movements of Lycia’s dexterous tongue.

If anything, he’s beginning to think he is her pet.

(Ah, I can’t handle this, I’m done for.)

Adris feels his semen rising and can’t even think of stopping it.

His muscles have no time to assist him in resisting the feeling, stuck as he is between the pain of hanging on the railing, the fear of being let go, and the lust he feels for the woman before him.

He tenses his hands, gripping as he moans out loud, an embarrassing whimper in a young boy’s foreign voice as he loses control.

Hearing him gasp, Lycia shares her thoughts as she smiles.

“Look at how pathetic you are. Hanging on for dear life, not with your legs, but with your dick. Squirming like you are, you’ll never have a mouth like mine anywhere else.”

She kisses the head of his penis, with him moaning as he longs for release instead of words.

“You’ll have to live your whole life with the memory of this paradise~. Of pleasure given to you by an evil bitch you revile!”

Opening her mouth wide to let him look within, even the sharp teeth dripping saliva seem erotic to Adris, now.

She licks his head lovingly, penetrating pleasure driving deep into Adris.

“Every time another woman tastes you, I will have been there, first~! Every time she pretends to pleasure you like only I can…”

Kissing the head of his penis like it’s his own lips, she smiles gaily at his suffering. Adris realizes this isn’t a jest:

Lycia is truly enjoying herself. Even if she is planning to save him, Adris’ current situation brings her extreme bliss.

“… you’ll be thinking of me, instead ♥.”

(Maybe I will be. But, I don’t think that they will be thoughts filled with love… Only appreciation of how good you are at what you do.)

Lycia doesn’t need to look as she brings his cock all the way back down her throat and moves swiftly, knowing that Adris’ eyes are fixed on her.

“Ah, I’m… going to come!”

Adris moans, giving away his surrender.

“My, simply exquisite.” The butler purrs.

“Oh, oh, oh, yes, YES!” The bunny woman calls out, her climax coming when she sees Adris give up.

She has her fingers over her clit, rubbing quickly as she’s held aloft. She closes her eyes and begins to shudder, as the man named Cathar lets out a deep growl, his balls twitching as Hoime milks his over-sized cock, making him a slave to her body.

Letting out juices herself as she’s embraced powerfully from behind, her insides are displaced by the gargantuan dick forced into her as he unleashes his seed uselessly inside of her intestines.

Adris begins to climax as he watches the devious woman get filled, closing his eyes involuntarily and shaking a bit when Lycia squeezes on his cock.

Lycia sucks down the white semen flowing from Adris’ dick, her tongue unable to sample it as it goes straight down her throat.

It lashes out with outrage, massaging his cock along the bottom, even as the tip licks his lifting balls.

Her sharp teeth graze ever so lightly against him, a cruel feeling while hot with his own release.

This pleasure is an eternity all to itself, his cock alive in her mouth as his balls surrender themselves completely.

He’s no longer in control of his own body, his hands on her head now as he holds onto her, afraid that he might pass out and fall to his death if he lets go.

Adris moans weakly as she sucks down his spray, pulling her mouth off his cock slightly to begin licking the head abusively when he finishes, milking him further with excessive stimulation.

Adris tears up at this, his orgasm lingering as she continues.

When she’s sure that he’s let out everything easy to release, she pulls off of his dick with a meaty pop, her saliva spraying around it.

Letting his cock rub up against her face as she leans in to grab his balls with her serpentine tongue, this elicits a painful sigh from Adris.

As she cups them with only her tongue and lightly squeezes, he lets out a little more of his white gift, coating her face a bit with the remnants of his orgasm.

Lycia looks drunk as she stares up at him, the same sort of expression she had when she had kissed him in the chair.

She pulls him off of the railing, letting him fall onto her as she holds him against her heated body.

“Finally! My turn!” Adris hears a swooping sound from the air.

“Ah… do be a dear and clean that up.”

The bunny woman speaks before lifting herself off of Cathar’s shriveling dick, him having sat down with her still on him, panting at the pleasure that’s overcome him.

She totters forward on unsure legs, a white puddle beneath her having leaked out from her abused hole, unable to hold the torrent of the large man’s deposit left in her.

Lycia clings to Adris, bringing his face to hers.

Her expression is troubled, hollow, and a bit… frightening.

Strangely, the beaten body in Adris’ arms looks anything but absent vitality.

In fact…

(Where are her wounds?)

The moment she swallowed his semen, something began to change.

Adris can see the wounds from earlier, the ones that linger with the touch of golden blood still upon them, simply vanishing.

There is no pain to her expression, only strength, as she quickly rouses.

Adris feels that her grip is even more powerful, now, as she jealously holds him.

(You dope yourself with the essence of…?)

Pulled toward her lips, she forcefully kisses him while he’s locked in thought, pushing her tongue into his mouth even as he wretches at the experience, completely unwilling to taste his own semen.

(What are you doing! Let… OW!)

Lycia… bites his tongue; then, her own tongue grips his like a death struggle is taking place.

Adris’ tongue becomes a live wire of pain, an iron taste entering his mouth a bit as he feels drops collecting, before being slurped by Lycia.

With outrage in his eyes, Adris stares into hers and…

Feels deep, all-consuming fear.

Lycia’s eyes are shining with a light that far exceeds an idea like sanity.

Slit irises tight.

Eyes wide open and shaking slightly.

Gold, speckled green, now.

No joyful or teasing expression remains, only a cheshire grin of madness on her face as she pulls out of their passionate kiss.

Completely bloodshot eyes.

From her mouth, a throaty breath comes out.

Malevolent and fetid, rather than the smell of semen, she smells of blood and violence.

“i PrOmIsE.”

Those are the only words she can give to Adris.

He feels her body… subtly shifting.

The pompous bat maid saunters up to Lycia’s back, coming closer to Lycia than Miria is.

“What are you going to do, old lady, marry him?! Let him go so I can have some-”

The girl’s voice is cut off completely when…

Lycia grabs her by the face, after rising up from the ground like an uncoiling snake.

A long, clawed hand is wrapped around the bat’s head.

The small, quivering girl is trapped in this grasp, too scared to move.

Before the terrified girl, a beast wearing the guise of a humanoid called Lycia…

… smiles proudly, as if she’s finally free.

“aaaa——————AAAA‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾!!!!”

Lycia unleashes a terrible wail, stunning everything in the room with its ferocity.

Her body explodes with a burst of energy and air, the roaring force knocking the cat woman back and ramming Adris into the rail behind him, before the cheeky maid is lifted up by the monster now standing where Lycia was…

… and has her head mashed into the stone floor with a massive cracking noise, as her body flops along after it.

Golden particles spray out from the impact as the girl goes completely still.

Lycia lets go of her head, reaches in with elongated, clawed arms…

… and mercilessly tears into the poor girl’s back while ripping outward, splashing shining, golden blood on everything in the area.

“… What?”

The dazed cat butler, licking spattered drops of gold off her face with her tongue, suddenly flings herself backward as Lycia leaps forward like a rabid animal and slashes at where the butler’s face used to be.

A singing blade whips out, its serrated edge trying to sever Lycia’s arm; instead, it slices through empty air, its target jumping away, too.

In the aftermath of her transformation, the air rushing from Lycia’s body fills the room with a reddish haze. Her presence overtakes the room, as if she has become the only danger present.

The environment darkens. Even the glowing, blue serpent overhead is diminished by Lycia’s presence as she takes center stage.

At the entrance to the enormous room, the sight of the entrance hallway vanishes as a red-iron portcullis forms from condensing droplets of crystal red and falls into place before it.

The once playful body of the ghoul woman has become quite fearsome.

Still beautiful, the effect is somewhat lessened by the clawed feet that have burst from her shoes, and the long and sharp fingers that stretch from the open gloves of her now elongated arms.

Her deathly pale skin is striated and woven with artery-like red lines, her visage sinister as she bares her razor teeth.

Even her cute ears have stretched a bit, looking like they come to a greater point as the skin strains against the cartilage.

A womanly body has grown slightly taller, but also looks much more gaunt. Her posture turns totally feral as she leans forward.

The only vestige of Lycia’s teasing personality left is the slashing smile, morphed into the most frightening of her features.

“Ahahahahahahaha haaaaaaaaaa!”

Lycia cackles like a madwoman while drunkenly flailing about, causing Adris’ ears to ring from the loudness as he timidly crawls away to escape her vicinity.

Taking on a higher posture, she leans in with enormous confidence, her bloodshot eyes whipping between the assembled prey.

Her plan, if it can be called one, was simple.

(Lycia… needed something other than me within reach to attack after deranging!)

Had Ferthia not walked up at the last moment, the one who would now be embedded in the ground would be…

The butler rushes Lycia, her sawblade singing as she expertly enters into close range.

A wide, swinging arm is juked by Lycia, but the woman’s second strike flashes like moving shadows when Miria lunges forward, the first one only a feint to distract the ghoul.

Neon red “blood” sprays from Lycia’s stomach as the sawblade cuts through her, her flesh ripping out slightly with the blade before the sword snaps loose of what it’s pulling.

Adris would think such an attack would be lethal, but Vigor denies his logic.

Instead of being daunted by the tearing wound she receives, Lycia slams her arms into the ground, narrowly missing crushing the butler when she sways to the side.

(Creatures of this world can take damage like that and not even flinch!?)

“This ghoul recovers much faster from impacts than…! … No, wait, something’s wrong, Miria! She’s not a normal ghoul!”

Hoime cries out, still awkwardly leaking white droplets, even as she aims her wand.

Muscles taut, Lycia seems to ripple with power. Her clawed feet dig into the stone.

(She’s beyond a “monster”. She’s an abject nightmare.)

Adris is dumbstruck, frightened that this is the same woman that he’d just unloaded his semen into moments earlier.

He bleeds a bit from his lips, the wound on his tongue not having closed yet.

(It should be clotting.)

The woman who had bitten him has changed from tasting his blood. Ferthia’s essence, as well as Lycia’s own, clings heavily to her body and discolors her. She is…

“Shit, she’s a [Bloodstained Ghoul!]”

Hoime yells out a warning and then vanishes in an explosion of green, billowing smoke, right before Lycia…

… puts her hand over her face, then moves it away, her wide eyes a source of pure fascination.

“[HEART… TAKING…!]”

The monstrous woman moans.

A flash of goldish-green light radiates in front of her.

The giant Cathar falls to his knees, shaking, as he holds his head with his hands. With the man’s eyes locked on Lycia, Adris notes no life in them.

He’s simply frozen in place, like his mind has been stolen.

The cat butler quivers a bit, but…

… her unfocused eyes gain new life when the woman slices her own leg with her blade, causing a gold-spewing wound to appear.

Her eyes then take on a pained edge, a stony look coming to her face as she stares down her enemy.

“It’s Battle Pressure! And she’s a [Beast of Conquest] (TRUE MONSTER), too! Hoime! Annihilate her, I’ll support!”

The cat butler issues orders, readying her blade to assault the beast before her. Her sharp teeth are bared as she grimaces.

“[Rouse!] Cathar!”

The word she speaks with authority carries power with it. The man’s eyes return to life, but his body still can’t move effectively as he stumbles while rising.

“Tsk”ing at this, Miria charges Lycia alone, taking the ghoul’s attention away from the still dazed giant.

Adris reties his pants and gets up, moving out to a nearby walkway to get away from the mad Lycia and impending carnage, before he ends up being seen as a target by either side.

Lycia rears back comically with a free hand and leaps toward the butler who comes within her range.

Accompanied by a raucous scream, blood flows from Lycia’s wound to her own arm, merging with the golden blood from the reaved Ferthia.

A sanguine, blade-like emission flares around her claw, gouging the floor under the dodging Miria, before Lycia pulls her claw along to follow the now rolling butler.

“Fast!” Miria jumps from the end of her roll, leaping ten feet into the air as the ground is scooped up by the chasing ghoul.

Blood splatters everywhere, a hissing sound as it boils on the discoloring flagstones.

In the air, the cat woman somersaults, tossing out filled, opaque bottles during her odd flight.

The bottles impact in front of Lycia as she yanks herself backward.

They burst into purple flames that expand over the entire area, consuming the light around the fire and emitting dimness instead.

The fire separates Lycia from Cathar and Miria.

Miria pulls out a large, single-shot black iron pistol with a cracked, walnut frame. She tries to aim through the fire at a rapidly approaching shadow, but instead jumps toward it after lowering her pistol.

“How vile.”

The unconscious, and now burning, bat girl flies through the smoky flames. Miria jumps up to bring her to ground safely, before she can sail forward to splatter on the wall ahead.

Miria is caught up with the girl as they roll, losing focus on the battle when she stops to put out the fire burning on the girl.

With the beast Lycia circling the flames quickly to take advantage of her opponent’s sudden helplessness, Miria is too caught up to notice.

Lycia picks up speed as she claws into the ground like an animal, rushing them with murderous intent and pinning both women to the ground.

Putting both claws into the cat woman, the sharp hands sink into her body before tearing violently back out, spraying golden blood that stains both predator and prey.

The woman’s chest and leg are brutally maimed.

(But, she’s still moving.)

What should be a mortal blow is both suffered and endured. Miria feels pain, but refuses to leave the maid under her unprotected.

As Lycia attempts to savage her again, Miria counters her first, striking Lycia’s incoming arm with the singing sawblade. The hit redirects the blow, with Lycia’s spilling flesh the reward, and then seamlessly follows up with a slash at Lycia’s exposed chest.

Undaunted, Lycia’s sends another strike with her other hand, but it meets with Miria’s aimed pistol. A cracking sound comes from it as the burning projectile pierces Lycia’s wrist, blowing her hand back and sending red misting into the air.

Even while Lycia’s red essence flows in copious quantities…

“KYAHAHAHAHA!”

She doesn’t slow down.

If anything, damage to the laughing Lycia only excites her, enticing her to stand firm and claw to pieces her still disadvantaged foe.

(Is she going to win? No, what is that feeling?)

Adris feels the feeling of fake aura moving. Like with Tishia and Heleton, something powerful is gathering.

Looking up to follow the flow, Adris sees the sage Hoime on a high walkway above, her low voice intoning while her wand floats before her.

The bunny sage’s now unbound book is floating above her, its pages turning themselves.

Adris’ aura senses detect a great vortex of energy where she stands.

“Power unwavering and unlimited, drawn from the dreams of dead gods, manifest as form unknowable to the unenlightened, as you who dwelt in death since before creation are now finally born!” [Realm of Mysteries!]

“Lycia! Above! RUN!”

Adris screams as loud as he can, hoping Lycia can hear him through her mania.

Lycia does look up, noticing the woman who had escaped her radiant eyes.

A large, black-iron double door appears beside Hoime from a ripping tear, the surface of it writ with emerald lines and glyphs. Its presence is a blinding beacon for Adris’ aura sight.

The sound of a ship breaking up accompanies the distortion it forms from.

Robe whipping to and fro, exposing her bare, still-dripping crotch, Hoime is grinning madly as the double doors open with a hideous clanging and creaking sound.

As Adris peers inside the opening doors…

His mind is assaulted by possibilities.

Consciousness burning, he sees a true darkness beyond it.

(What is it inside that is familiar?)

This space beyond saps his mind, but also fills him with thoughts which drive him wild, bringing forth memories…

Of his “death.”

And of his “rebirth” here.

Of dark whispers and the unknown.

Of droning and shining black…

A squelching roar and squirming sounds interrupt his fascination.

From this shining dark space, festering, opaque tendrils rush out, pulling on each other and racing to fill the room.

Gel-like extrusions of phantasmal goo splash all around Lycia, who escapes by precisely dodging between the impacting streams.

The sludge is alive as it flails around trying to capture her, the stone that it rests on warping, curdling, and turning black as it sticks.

“Miserable, miserable boy! If you want to be loved by the mad beast so much, then join her in demise, please~!”

Taking up her floating rod, the bunny girl flicks it to point toward Adris.

In response, tendrils freed from the door become living missiles, homing in as they throw themselves at this new, helpless foe.

(No hope, there-)

Only having a brief moment to think before his death, Adris’ view becomes a sudden blur.

The tendrils strike the walkway he was previously standing on. Adris watches it melt, noticing that it’s upside down to his view now.

Held by Lycia, the crazed woman is, herself, hanging from a tank twenty feet above the vanishing walkway.

Sensing danger, she leaps from one walkway to the next, dodging streaking, black death. Bouncing off sheer walls of glass as she ascends the room, Lycia interposes tanks and walkways to block the hungry phantasms as she climbs.

(Still sane enough to save me? That is…)

A silver bullet impacts on the glass beside Adris’ head, the shot ricocheting off to fly into a nearby tank.

Blinking at the second near death, Adris traces it to its source.

Miria has recovered, standing on the ground level with her pistol aimed at them. It leaks foul, black smoke from its barrel, the butler’s eyes merciless as she calmly loads another shot.

Sensing the danger of this joint attack, Lycia cackles and descends to fight them.

The tendrils that follow Lycia’s climb are cut in twine by sharp claws, disappearing when she severs them.

“Stand still, stand still, I have so many secrets to share with you, Works bitch!”

Hoime the mad sage twirls her rod, fresh tendrils shooting from the door as she tries to capture Lycia.

(What is this?)

He can’t keep up with the combat, barely able to keep from falling to his own death, helped to hold on by the woman he’s clinging to.

Lycia has already been hit by the goo once, sock melted and her leg slightly darkened as she failed to break free fast enough. She can’t effectively dodge while also holding onto Adris.

“[Crowkill.]”

The bleeding butler whispers after taking a while to aim, her gun obscured by a purple flame wicking off of it.

Lycia tenses when she notices it.

(That thing is deadly! And I’m going to… kill Lycia if she can’t fight!)

Adris tries to let go, so that Lycia can move more freely. Aiming for a tank of water, he releases his hold on her and drops, but she instead grabs him in mid fall and whips him around to hold him in an arm.

(Fuck, let me go! I don’t want you to die… or me to die with you!)

Flying into the air, she pulls a red gem from her thigh satchel with great effort, the madness consuming her making it difficult for her to focus.

Put between the tips of her claws, it easily shatters when squeezed. Red lightning erupts, thick smoke rushing out.

Miria fires her shot, the bullet shooting like a bolt of silver as it flies towards Lycia without error.

The bullet enters the cloud, and the sound of a dying crow rings out as it impacts something, a great wooden sound of splintering resounding.

From out of the cloud, Lycia and Adris emerge.

The bullet missed.

It instead lodged into a great, rectangular box with holes at the end.

Miria looks to her right, to the spot where Lycia had left her aura tool.

“Hoime, watch out! It’s a magic item!”

But, it’s too late.

Hoime’s attention is consumed by her effort to catch Lycia, directing the tendrils rushing toward the two jumping opponents.

A wicked smile is plastered onto her face, every bit as insane as Lycia’s. The effect of the bizarre technique has sapped her ability to think clearly.

Lycia levels her powerful weapon, pointing it at whipping bunny ears as black sludge flies past.

A great cataclysm erupts from the end.

Even though the device is damaged from a silver bullet embedded into it, most of the tubes function properly, dozens of white stars streaming out towards Hoime with a great cacophony.

A perfect shot, even in mid air, Lycia’s strength allows her to aim the box while rocking in flight from the recoil.

The stars start with a slower, rocket-like momentum; but, as they travel, their speed impossibly increases.

(What increases in speed as it travels like this? It defies logic.)

Not even an arrow increases with speed so quickly while falling.

What’s more, the attack is far stronger than when used previously. The entire room is alight with the white rockets.

(How is Lycia more powerful now?)

“Huh…”

Hoime makes a muted sound as she watches the stars demolish the tendrils she sent toward Lycia, enormous white explosions vaporizing the goo and pressing ever on as the area is deafened by the roar of impact.

The great rocketing stars of death push through until they impact on a green shield Hoime raises, enveloping her, and the entire walkway and wall, in complete devastation.

It’s a popping display, smoke billowing out from the path of the stars, filling most of the immense room at the level Hoime once inhabited.

Scatters of tiny, iridescent star pieces shoot out from the explosions, lingering radiances that also gain in speed as they travel out while also falling, impacting and exploding on surfaces.

The destruction leaves the entire area to wrench itself lose from the wall, falling down with a clanging and squealing storm of noise.

Hoime disappears under the barrage, only for the thinning smoke to reveal her trapped, face down, under a chunk of metal on the level below.

Lycia lands suddenly on the edge of a water reservoir, recovering her vitality while watching Miria rescue both Cathar and the fallen Hoime.

Miria drags the woman with the green, and now blackened, robe toward the giant, pulling out a rough, orange stone and slapping Hoime’s face with it. The stone explodes into a mist, which then rapidly rushes back to cling to the bunny’s body, disappearing quickly as the golden Vigor on her evaporates.

Miria then hits the giant in the face with the pommel of her crooked sawsword multiple times, ceasing only when he blocks it with his hand.

Lycia stares at Adris. Her bloodshot eyes are twitching as she looks at him, the gold in them almost completely eating away the green spots.

She is beautiful, in a murderous fashion.

As controlling as he knows her to be, her presence is still stunning, this rampage burning in his mind.

(Far too attractive.)

Adris knows there’s very little time remaining before Lycia loses all of her faculties and becomes a threat to even him.

He can already smell the odor of pure insanity leaking more heavily from her, the fear it brings smothering any other thought he has about her.

As the green starts to disappear completely from her eyes, Adris feels like he’s starting to hear whispers from both her and all around him.

She holds him closer to her, an act he doesn’t reject, even with fear gripping him.

“… wE’lL mEeT aGaIn… little bro.”

The woman smiles with a strained face as she haltingly speaks.

Lycia leaps quickly then, moving down towards the enemy rallying to confront her.

Cathar is active now, his fists to the ground, stone moving up to cover his body until only his violent eyes can be seen.

Hoime is no longer unconscious and is standing while wobbling, intoning some spell while her creepy wand writhes energetically in her hand.

Miria is coating her sawblade with Vigor from the hand she’s cutting on it, the blade bursting into a purple flame as the saw teeth begin to vibrate hungrily.

As they fall, Lycia tosses Adris toward a tank she passes by.

Adris hits the water, being pulled quickly to a drain he lands by, dragged underneath into a clear, crystal-glass tube that’s going toward the writhing stone floor below.

He holds his breath as he watches Lycia descend, the ghoulish woman hopping from walkway to walkway.

She extends her free hand languidly while in mid air, whipping it palm up with a flourish as darkness rises up around her side.

Her blond hair streaks like a falling star.

“[HUNGER OF THE STARS.]”

Spectral, headless skeletal creatures of dark light and smoke burst from her hand, a torrent moving with immense speed as it rushes towards enemies Adris can no longer perceive.

It’s a gout like a dying flame rushing out, enrapturing and revolting. Each skeleton flails in apparent pain, appearing briefly before the darkness consumes it again, only to eject more ghostly images ahead as it perishes.

The ghastly images cling to everything they touch, then explode out to consume the space around them, like a billow of the dark devouring all life.

The entire room shakes at the impact of this mass…

… as Adris is pulled down a drain.

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