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Desires End
Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The world blurs around her, and Ambrose finds herself surrounded by endless mirrors. She looks at her reflection for a moment, before closing her eyes and waiting. Her breath evens, creating a slight haze in front of her. A footstep.

Her sword swings in an arc, and a grunt echoes out as a figure is sent flying back. The mirror world fractures, and then explodes as Ambrose’s sight returns to see Bunny in front of her.

She doesn’t give Ambrose time to react as her staff slams back into the ground, its star chart shifting again. A shockwave spreads outward from the staff, sending Ambrose crashing backward again as she struggles to remain standing.

Bunny raises the staff and it shifts again, new stars forming a line as it glows. Her figure disappears and reappears next to Meize and the fox. Her eyes are a little haggard as she leans on her staff, but they shine brightly. Bunny reaches down and clutches Meize’s hand.

A strange, colourless substance seeps out of his pores, a hiss escaping from his body as Bunny sucks in the unknown substance. As his body waxes, like moisture draining away, he grows smaller and more decrepit until only a husk of Meize remains. As Bunny draws in the substance, her own skin begins to glow as her eyes shine brighter and brighter.

Any sense of exhaustion disappears from her, and her back straightens as she clutches her staff. Greed, intermixed with relief, fills her eyes at the euphoria, and her eyes turn to the fox. A step forward, a hand clutching its leg, and Ambrose can only watch as the same thing begins to happen to it.

“Please Anastasia.” Ambrose whispers. Just as she speaks, a loud scream rings out from the darkness. A man's, before suddenly it cuts off. As if on cue, something clicks in her head and she suddenly knows; the mission is done. A calm fills Ambrose, and hope starts beating in her chest again.

Then, beside them in a dark corner, mist begins to swirl into a wild wind. Gathering together, it draws itself into a large gateway, a familiar one. Ambrose turns to look at it, realisation dawning in her.

“Why do you think I gave you so much time.” Bunny laughs wildly, her head raised high as she continues to drink in the euphoria. She stands still for a moment, before letting her head fall. “Thank you for finishing the mission.” Bunny slams her staff down, and with a flash she appears in front of the mist. Her eyes crackle with energy as her gaze pierces Ambrose. “You have nowhere to run.”

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Ambrose stares at her with narrowed eyes as she waits quietly for Anastasia. But Bunny doesn’t give her the reprieve, her staff lighting up. Her vision is shrouded again as she finds herself covered by darkness.

Ambrose closes her eyes, but before she can focus her hearing she feels a shock-wave slam into her. Pain pierces her body as Ambrose gets sent flying back, barely able to roll onto her feet as she hears something whistling toward her. The fake visage around her cracks and her eyes are able to see again, just in time to raise her weapon and defend against the staff slamming into her side.

It sends her reeling back and Ambrose uses the momentum to distance herself. Bunny stops, taking heaving breaths as she glares at Ambrose. She’s winded, but Ambrose can still see the crackle of powerful energy around her.

“Can you hold her down.” Anastasia’s voice whispers from behind Ambrose, her eyes widening slightly before quickly masking her emotions. Ambrose gives an imperceptible nod she watches Bunny.

Then Ambrose launches herself forward. Bunny steps back, sending another shockwave out, but Ambrose digs her feet in and holds fast. Wounds cut across her like a whirlwind of blades, blood dripping down. She rotates her waist, raising her weapon high and then completing reversing her emotion to send her blade crashing toward Bunny at blitzing speed.

Shocked Bunny raises her staff, the blade slamming into it and sending her crashing to the ground. At the same time Anastasia’s figure steps out of the darkness. A large cut is carved diagonally across her face, turning it into something out of a nightmare. She raises a red pentagon, each of its surfaces etched with blood and gore. Flame coats its surface. Anastasia raises the object high and the flame snuffs out, its previous dull surface suddenly lighting up as it begins to tick to an impending explosion.

Anastasia throws it toward Bunny. Her aim is true, the pentagon sailing through the air until it slams directly at her feet. Anastasia doesn’t look at the outcome, stumbling as she tries to get away from the device. Bunny’s eyes widen at the sight and she raises her staff, prepared to teleport.

In the reflection of her eyes, she sees Ambrose raising her hand high, a card held at her fingertips. Bunny sneers, the barrier still around her body, as her staff begins to light up. Ambrose grins as a flash of light shatters the card. Suddenly the wood around her comes alive, turning into numerous tendrils as they latch onto her body.

Bunny’s concentration breaks as she falls over, the tendrils pulling at her body and staff. “You lied!” Bunny roars, ripping the tendrils off her body as she reaches for the staff, the pentagon ticking over. And then - kaboom. An explosion rocks the shrine, swathes of flame and debris rippling outward and crashing into everything around them.