Unlike the trial from the Goddess of Death, which required the person to die, the one from the Goddess of Darkness was less… eternally changing.

Of course, she still had to resist until morning, while challenging the Fears.

The Fears that came with the ritual were random, and depended on the person who made the ritual. It could be a single one or several, but Velvet saw three black tears fall from the moon.

Since the Fears were personalized in a way, they didn’t have a singular name. But, watching the grotesque silhouettes, who some might call human-like, with their skin and meat dripping down like the candle wax next to her, getting closer, Velvet had a name in mind.

The Fear of Melting.

Now, even when the Fear had based itself on the Casrey’s accident, Velvet really wasn’t afraid of the melting thing. Even from before she obtained an Esca with a Paradigm adjacent to Apathy, her memories of that incident always surrounded the man on top of the mountain; that’s to say, the Chained Man, instead of the victims.

That didn’t mean she didn’t remember them, because she certainly did. And, deep in the island, she could even hear the calling voice.

Now, it had been years since she was forced to remember that scene, and hear that voice, so she wasn’t sure if the Fears were peeking at her deepest memories to shape themselves or if that choice was a way to mess with her.

She didn’t have a perfect memory until gaining an Esca, so what happened before obtaining it wasn’t recorded in her brain.

That was why she couldn’t be a hundred percent sure of the authenticity of the Calling Voice, or, more specifically, of its owner.

Was there even a Calling Voice? Or was it just the cacophony of the voices of its own victims?

Even so, the fact that she, a knowledge mage, didn’t remember how the real Calling Voice sounded, bothered her a bit. Because the Fears were making it sound exactly like the chains which restrained the Chained Man.

Of course, they were also making the melting people move towards her, instead of following the Calling Voice, so their legitimacy was questionable. They probably were made to mess with her mind, not to be historically accurate actors.

Not only with my mind. Velvet thought, watching the half-melted people coming close to the clearing, triggering Hyde’s formation.

The red moon shone over them, illuminating the details of their bodies. If bodies could be used as a descriptive term.

None of them were complete. In fact, some of them were having parts sliding and dripping on the floor. Some had half their faces melted, not even their craniums left unaffected, some lacked arms, or legs, and crawled on the floor, leaving a trail made from their torsos.

Now, even if they were melting like candles, there wasn’t a burning smell coming from them, and their meat and bones weren’t getting ‘cooked’.

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That was accurate to the real incident in Velvet's memory. The people of Casrey melted, not burned alive. Their remains weren’t ashes, they had to be scrubbed from the floor and put in bags to give a proper sea burial.

Fire was never involved in the accident.

Looking at one of the persons taken from her memory, a woman with gray hair and blue eyes, or eye, since half her face had melted off, Velvet acknowledged that she really had her mother's eyes.

She already knew, since Madam Dorna reminded her sometimes, but it had been so long that she saw those same eyes on something that wasn’t a mirror.

You have your mother’s eyes, and your father’s temper. That was the exact sentence Madam Dorna used.

But, she always used it as a jab to her temper.

Behind her, something triggered Hyde’s formation, right in the opposite direction from where the melted people were coming. Velvet didn't need to look at it to see who it was, instead ordering a charm to explo-

Her magic didn’t respond.

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy… Having access to magic would trivialize any sort of challenge. Even so, the fact that she didn’t feel her connection to the Primeval Sea get blocked until she tried to access it was… unnerving. She didn’t lose everything, her chains still sending some connection.

But she didn’t have time to think about that, “Hyde!” She warned with a shout, rolling away from the half-melted man made to look like her father, before rushing to the side where the melting people weren’t.

And, to the side where Hyde’s formation ended.

Thin golden threads, now coloured red under the moonlight rose from the floor, and fell from the trees, covering the melting people, and tangling them.

Only the counterfeit version of her father managed to escape the binds.

With a tug, Hyde activated the formation, tensing the threads, and dragging them to the center of the altar.

Velvet pulled out a silver knife. One of the things Harlan included on the bulk of stuff she bought. It wasn’t magically enhanced, since it was just a base for an artifact.

But it was enough for what she planned to do.

“Hyde, give me one of your paper figurines, and light it up when I told you to.”

“Here.” A paper figurine crawled on Velvet’s hand, and she rolled it around the knife’s edge.

Then, with a bit of bad aim (unlike Alrai, she had never tossed knives before), she threw it on the feet of a melting person.

A melting person who had an eye like hers.

“Now.”

The knife ignited, burning its legs. The escaping person rushed inside the formation, trying to put out the flames.

The Fears really are inspired by my memories. They even behave like their real counterparts. Velvet thought, biting her lips. She was aware that those weren’t her real parents, and any kind of salvation or mercy she could offer them was futile by now.

“Frenese.” She said. “Eat them.”

From the beginning of the formation, the chained, floating book trembled, its chains loosening.

Something rose from inside the book, pushing aside the pages, making them drool.

Velvet expected to hear a growl or something, but only the crumpling pages and the moving chains deigned themselves to make noise.

A flesh-like muzzle, covered by leech-like tendrils poked out, silently sniffing the air.

Velvet couldn’t pull Frenese out on her own, not even when she had access to the Primeval Sea, in fact, she only loosened the chains, and the devil himself did the rest. Reason why he couldn't come out completely.

Frenese opened one of his mouths, making more drool fall down, before biting down on the air.

The whole formation shook, and Velvet covered her eyes, shielding herself from the impact.

When the dust settled and she opened them back, no melting people remained, and some pitch black drool dripped from Frenese’s mouth.

Velvet was aware that using the devil to deal with the Fears was a bit overkill, and having his help to complete the ritual cost her another petition, with now seven remaining. But, the sooner she dealt with the Fears, the sooner she could go back to the safety of the Mergifari.

Two Fears remain. The Calling Voice must be one, since I can still hear it. That means that the other one is…

The rustling of leaves, and the cracking of the twisting branches caught her attention. And not only that, her connection to the Primeval Sea worked again.

Why take my magic just to give it back now? A bad sensation crept Velvet’s back, as a polite laugh came from the trees.

She had never forgotten that laugh, nor the owner. And, even knowing it was a fake, Velvet couldn’t contain a flinch.

Because that laugh belonged to Siberina Ropertti.