Hurried steps carried them south.

Aclysia looked like usual, the maid uniform fluttering from the speed of their charge. Rave wore her new body suit. It was much like her old one and that fit her very well. Sitting skin-tight, it didn’t hinder her whatsoever. The colour was more silvery-white with a hint of pink, rather than the neon pink from before, but that wasn’t that bad. It showed that there was quite a bit of Mithril in it. Her reinforced gloves and thigh-high boots were black.

“How much further?” Rave asked.

“Impossible to say for sure, I don’t know our exact location nor the layout of this city,” Aclysia responded. “Between one and five kilometres, judging by connection stability.”

“Casual jog then.” A humanoid shambled into their path, a stubby tail growing from their upper spine showing their infested state. When turning towards the two women blitzing through the suburbs, the exposed brain of the once-female human became visible. Her skull was cracked open, like an egg that had expanded on the inside.

Rave pulled ahead and killed the infected in passing. She felt no hesitation or guilt about it. That thing was no longer a person. Just a monster wearing its skin. Decreasing her speed, she fell back afterwards. Aclysia knew where John and the others were, so Aclysia had to lead the way.

As joking a tone as Rave had used, she wasn’t completely lying. What were a couple kilometres for someone of their speed? A question of minutes, realistically speaking. The only minor problem they had was the unknown layout of the city and the obstructive landmarks, copied or Lorylim grown, all around.

Before them was a breathing mound of a former office building. “Do we go around?” Rave asked. The question was underlaid by the steady beat of music. Like usual in combat situations, she was wearing her headphones over her human ears and listened properly with the cat ones.

“Over,” Aclysia responded, the eagerness of getting to her Master written on her face. Both women leapt and sailed through the air. Rave had a moment to orient herself.

She could see a monster, a giant one, stomping in the distance. At its feet, like ants, were other Lorylim. There was a dust cloud before them. “Metra just collapsed a building,” Aclysia was quick to explain, while they reached the zenith of their arch.

Rave’s eyes wandered back down to the ground, preparing her for the landing. There was a plaza before them. Maybe it once had been a small park or a parking lot. Now it was a concentrated knot of black veins, clumping up around a statue in the middle. Inert infected stood around, facing the centre point. The structure of it all somewhat reminded Rave of an eye.

The clump in the centre twitched. Blades of varying sizes burst out of the liquefying fungal growths. Chunks of sludge fell off and revealed those blades to be a myriad of wings attached to a misshapen female body. Arms and legs were thin and ended in long-fingered talons, and the torso elongated. The head was on a neck of odd length, not human but not long enough to qualify as serpentine either. Hints of the regular skull shape remained, but the maw was pointy and opened into four segments. Where the segments were attached, there was an intact human jaw on the inside. The teeth were grey like lead. As were the wings and claws. The rest was primarily the brown of tanned human skin, but stretched out. Something like breasts was still attached to the being’s chest, grotesquely out of place. Several fungoid stalks burst out from the inside, revealing bronze and gold bones and maggots within.

“FUCK!” Rave shouted, identifying the nature of this creature immediately. She had seen Metra’s armour often enough to recognize Astrotium.

The warped Metracana let out a pained, draconic roar, ramming one of its spindly arms into the sludge still surrounding it and ripping a grey sword out of it. The weapon was completely intact, a crescent of a blade with a thin guard and bare grip, all of it forged from Astrotium.

While the Lorylim Metracana broke free from its stagnation, Aclysia and Rave landed. Their feet touched the ground and the infected golem charged at them. Its movements were primal, sudden and skittish, like a mixture of gorilla and spider. Despite how thin its arms were, the swing of the crescent blade was fast and powerful. Aclysia pulled out Tiemarath and blocked the initial strike, supported by her True Block passive. The Mithril cleaver screeched, its enchantments saving it from being cut by the fundamentally harder metal.

A quick clash ensued. Aclysia knocked back the blocked strike and Rave charged, striking the exposed side of the twisted Metracana thrice. The monster twisted, clawing at Rave, then swung her head around at Aclysia. The four segments of the maw opened wide, each suddenly forming their own bony teeth. Only Copernicus manifesting and tackling the abomination prevented it from latching on Aclysia’s face.

“What do we do here?!” the Lightbearer shouted while they backed away from the Metracana. There was no pause to talk effectively, the creature came right back at them with another scream. Chaotic hatred was all there was to hear from this shell of a once sapient being.

The crescent blade came for Aclysia, who switched weapons fast enough to turn ephemeral before it connected. Stepping forwards, she sliced through the Metracana. The Delayed Cut made the attack a reality once the weaponized maid manifested again. Lorylim matter oozed from a thin line along the stomach, but the Metracana remained, turning around and punching Aclysia with all it had. It connected at the shoulder. The artificial guardian didn’t budge, Fortification active.

“It’s too fast to have on our tail, we must try to eliminate it,” Aclysia reported. “According to Metra’s description: First of Hatred, Ehtra.”

“What remains of her,” Rave shouted back, firing up her Aura. “Alrighty, Cappy, all out on the Unleash train.”

‘Agreed.’ The solar feline didn’t waste time vocalizing these things. All of the specs of light around Rave’s limbs flared up and changed into a golden dot with a pitch-black outline. Every impact she landed would now supply mana to her elemental, aiming for his Unleash.

“Krkrrkkrrkraaaaaaaaaah!” Inside the First of Hatred’s throat, something clicked repeatedly, only to be replaced by a loud scream. Fortification ended, but Aclysia had already switched to her dagger Salver. Again she turned ephemeral, again she sliced through the Metracana and again the attack connected. If the Metracana had learned anything from their first altercation, then it was the timing with which Aclysia returned, hitting her with a backwards kick and sending her flying. “Krkrkrrkrkrkr,” the clicking continued, while the abominable golem jittered where she stood. Her limbs looked as if pulled by invisible strings.

Rave charged in and was met with a back-bending turn of the Lorylim host, the crescent blade coming right for her head. Her aura fired up, Rave Shifted behind the enemy, whirling around with a high-rise kick. The infested First of Hatred was her match in speed and cared fairly little for the integrity of her own body. The spine of golem snapped with a metallic crunch, allowing her to catch Rave’s leg in the talons of her right hand.

Sharp needles of Astrotium penetrated the body suit. Its firmness prevented the Lightbearer from getting her lower leg torn out then and there, but the prickling was still felt. Ehtra ripped Rave around, ready to smash her on the floor. Copernicus once more served as vital support, the jaguar’s glowing paws swiping the legs away. Aclysia was there to assist, using Cutting Flurry’s three-hit combo to stagger the Metracana further.

Rave freed herself, barely, by kicking the Metracana’s torso. It was a very limited window of opportunity, courtesy of the long arms of the creature, but the martial art reinforced kick delivered. The gripping claws tore away at her bodysuit, but that was a sacrifice she had to make. “I just got this thing!” she complained and went right back in.

Ehtra slashed at Aclysia, True Block saving the Artificial Spirit from the loss of her arm by giving her the speed required to once more move Tiemarath into the defensive position. Now Rave had an opening to exploit, laying into the First of Hatred’s stomach with a series of punches. Each created a shockwave that travelled through the inorganic body, curling the air and spore clouds behind the creature.

Rave kept going and going, the flurry of punches forcing the Metracana back. Dug in heels ploughed the ground. Rave’s Aura burned blue on the outside and Copernicus’s blessing filled her on the inside, increasing her speed and power to the maximum she was capable of. Her knuckles left dents in the creature’s malformed skin. Lorylim matter squirted out of the patchy ribcage and the broken spine.

One final punch and Ehtra was sent flying through a wall. There was a moment of silence on the battlefield, Aclysia and Copernicus catching up to Rave’s position. Then all three of them dispersed again when the Metracana, battered but not broken, came charging out on all fours.

Aclysia, while on-guard, was still caught. True Block and another use of Fortification, much weaker now that she was working on the little Devotion she had regenerated, allowed her to take the attack head-on. Rave and Copernicus attempted to help, but were forced to jump back by the blade-wings on the Metracana’s back suddenly expanding.

“MOOOO- mo- MOTH-KRKRRKRKR!” The hateful screech and clicks echoed through the city, while Ehtra went on a relentless offensive that mimicked Rave’s ferociousness. Aclysia was able to withstand it for the first few seconds, then her guard was broken. The Metracana tore the maid apart, chunk for chunk.

Rave tried her best to intervene again and again, but the First of Hatred was now utilizing her complete superiority. Be it by shrugging weaker attacks off or by dodging the stronger ones, Ehtra took all of Rave’s attacks in stride. Wings and the willingness to break herself covered all of her dead angles.

‘Cappy, we need to do the thing!’ Rave shouted mentally.

‘I need a little more,’ the solar jaguar returned.

Aclysia was barely recognizable at this point, her entire surface scratched open. Rave glanced at the HP bar. The weaponized maid wouldn’t be able to withstand this assault much longer. “Gaia dammit!” the Lightbearer exclaimed and charged back in. She was met by the blades, but didn’t care. She just needed to connect additional hits and charge Copernicus up in the most efficient way. “One moment more!”

The weaponized maid had lost her jaw, and so couldn’t answer. All the two women could share was a moment of eye contact. An exchange of nods was all the two needed. Aclysia could defend herself for six seconds more, utilizing her Reality Fracture invulnerability. Then her only lifeline would be to teleport out.

The cruel sword of Ehtra slammed into the ground, causing the single-minded Metracana to scream with annoyance. Over and over again she slashed at the ephemeral Aclysia.

‘This is not going to be easy!’ Copernicus told her, even as he finally Unleashed.

“What even is easy?!” Rave shouted back out loud, her Aura changing into an intense gold, just as her familiar suddenly grew and expanded into a massive tiger, his stripes as black as the moon during an eclipse. Immediately, she started the chant. There was no overpowering this one even with her increased power in this state. “A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…”

“Krkrkrkr-ooooooootttttheeeeerrrrrrr!” the Metracana suddenly turned her neck and stared at the source of blinding, golden light, contrasting so heavily with the pale stars. Ehtra looked back and forth between Aclysia, who was now on her second duration of Reality Fracture, and Rave. Then the First of Hatred broke out into a sprint towards Rave.

The tiger feinted a charge, which at least had the First of Hatred swerve to dodge an attack that never came. Rave skipped backwards, doing her best to anticipate incoming attacks while focusing this swelling might inside her. Copernicus couldn’t risk too much and was simultaneously her only defence at this moment. Rave had to channel the finishing blow, but also not get her concentration broken.

She tried to hurry the words along, but there was no breakthrough in her power to be had in this moment. Speaking the incantation, those words of pure power, would take as long as it had to. Ehtra had basically caught up with Rave by now. “…and we all fight…” The Astrotium claws reached out.

A woman of blonde hair and pale skin appeared right next to the two of them. Pale blue eyes, mostly hidden under a black visor shaped from nothing, were focused to the utmost on victory as Nia ripped upwards her black lance, the long blade extending into a thin slice. Her lips moved, eliminating part of their current reality.

“[Obliteration],” the absence of sound carved this single word into Rave’s mind, as a wave of null energy sliced through her pursuer. Just as it desaturated the world of colour where it travelled, so did the attack disperse and confuse the magical life force of the corrupted Metracana. Her skittish movements turned incomplete, as if the strings that dragged her existence along had become tangled. The pariah swung her second weapon, a large, curved dagger. No sooner had that weapon cut through the Metracana as well, that she suddenly disappeared again.

Leaving Rave to finish her chant without worry of who would get caught up in the blast. “…Let our worlds collide!”

A black outline enveloped her, containing a golden glow so intense it made her body appear two dimensional. Everything slowed to a crawl for the Lightbearer. To her, it was as if she drew her fist back at regular speed. To the Metracana, it must have appeared instantaneous.

She brought her fist forwards. The energy filling her body filled that singular limb entirely, burst outwards as heat and kinetic energy. The fist never truly connected with Ehtra. Once brought close, the torso melted and was scattered as drops that flew outwards, like water after a stone was dropped into it. The resulting cavity expanded, became deeper and wider, until the elongated torso was fully melted through.

The world resumed its regular pace; the excess energy blasted the Metracana’s remains away. Arms, wings and head, no longer attached to anything, cut through the air and ultimately embedded themselves in the dirt. As powerful as the attack was, it couldn’t melt Astrotium.

“Phew,” Rave exhaled, as the gold drained from her hair. “Ya always come at the last moment, don’tcha?” she asked Nia, who stood beside Aclysia.

“I was right on time,” the pariah responded without any emotion in her voice. In the current situation, she fell back into her old habit of non-expressiveness. There were more important things going on, admittedly. “Are you alright, Aclysia?” Her neutral tone did not prevent her from worrying.

“I will regenerate,” the weaponized maid responded and walked over to the remains of the Metracana. “Once my health has recovered to 25% maximum, we shall continue towards Master’s position,” she reported and dismissed her weapon. She pulled the Astrotium blade out of the ground and inspected it. “It appears to be itself uncorrupted, only covered in spores.”

“I can clean it of remnants once we are safe,” Nia said.

“Acknowledged,” Aclysia said and put it into her inventory.

“Isn’t that kinda risky?” Rave asked.

“Nothing in my main inventory is too valuable to warrant the caution,” Aclysia responded. “Keeping the Astrotium out of enemy hands is the priori-“

Metal tore and everyone’s eyes widened, staring at the draconic claw that had punched through Aclysia’s chest. The hand held her core and squeezed. The Artificial Crystal cracked, then vanished, claimed by the death prevention passive. Left behind, the body of the Artificial Spirit turned limp.

“Hehehehe…” the first of the inert Lorylim around started to giggle. “Keheheeh…” a second soon joined. “HAha…” “Gehihih..” “Hehe…” “AHAHA…” “AHAHAHA.” “A-HA-HA-HA!” The jovial echoes accompanied the resurrection of Ehtra.

Separated limbs were stitched back together by the mycelium that covered practically every surface; spores were pulled in to supply additional mass. The torso Rave had obliterated was reconstructed from nothing but corruption, covering it with maws and eyes that laughed along the rotten Sanctum.

“Mother?” the First of Hatred sounded like a regular woman for just one second.