The world turns red for a brief moment as Ambrose is flung away, smashing into one of the building’s wooden supports. She hears her bones crack as the post breaks into pieces, and she’s sent crashing further across the floor. High-pitched ringing whines in her ear, her vision disorientated and blurry as she struggles to move.
Her skin smolders, the taste of ash assaulting her tongue. Everything hurts, and her back doesn’t move, a rising panic filling her. She forces it down and breathes. In and out. In and out. Smoke fills the air, and the breathing turns into a scorched cough. The heat continues to rise and as Ambrose’s eyes adjust, she sees the world around her.
It’s hell. The shrine is aflame, wood crashing and burning, blazing across the world in front of her like a fiery pit. The explosion inside is a magnitude difference from one in the open-air, especially with how much more potent it was. The only thing in Ambrose’s mind is Anastasia, her hands pressing against the smoldering wood around her as she tries to stand.
It’s hot, the touch of the wood burning her skin. Ambrose pushes, and her hands immediately give. A stifled scream escapes her lips as she collapses to the side, her body spasming. Splitting pain shoots across the length of her back, the burning wood she lands on scorching her body at the same time.
Everything hurts. Smoke continues to fill the room, obscuring what vision she holds. The world around her is almost no different to the darkness before, and a sense of deep hopelessness fills her. The smoke boxes her in, and Ambrose huddles in on herself.
In this moment, as Ambrose becomes overwhelmed, the question assaults her again. What is the point? The pain cuts through her like a fiery knife. Why is she struggling? She slams her hand onto the ground. She already tried her best. She pushes, a hoarse scream escaping her throat as she begins to stand. She owes no-one anything. Her back gives, and she smashes back into the ground. Can’t she just…die in peace. Her blank eyes stare at the endless fire in front of her. A deep despair inside them. And a tiny bit of relief. She tried. It’s okay. So…
“-ose.” The voice is distant, Ambrose barely registering the sound. Smoke fills her lungs, and the fire around her starts to become distant as well. “-rose!” It’s louder this time, insistent. Somewhere in the corner of Ambrose’s mind she registers annoyance. All she wants is peace. For it to end.
“Ambrose!” The scream pierces her ears, shocking her awake. A figure crashes through the fire, smoke and flame coursing across their body. Ambrose’s eyes widen, a tiny bit of light returning to them, as she watches Anastasia stand in front of her.
The scar across her face is completely burnt, fire painting a cruel picture along her skin. Parts of her flesh were ripped through, wood shards sticking through her extremities. Flame smoulders across her body. But Anastasia stands strong, pure determination filling her eyes.
She looks down at Ambrose spasming on the floor, and the light in her eyes grow stronger. She bends down and grabs Ambrose, but the latter shakes her off. Ambrose stares at the ground, unwilling to even look at Anastasia.
“Go.” Ambrose’s voice is hoarse, barely more than a whisper. Anastasia simply bends down again and tries to pull her up. “You won’t make it with me. Go!” Ambrose shouts.
“Shut it.” Anastasia grips Ambrose and pulls, her muscles straining as she drags Ambrose up.
“Leave me.” Ambrose groans. She sags, letting her weight fall down. But Anastasia grips her tighter.
“I said.” Anastasia grits her teeth, letting out a roar as her muscle veins snake across her body with effort. She drags Ambrose up and throws her onto her back, half-kneeling as her weight settles onto her. “Shut it.” Her voice is filled with anger as she forces Ambrose’s arms around her, standing up with gritted teeth. “Work with me, or we both die. Remember your own words you bastard.”
If it was another time, Ambrose might have laughed at the unexpected response. It felt as if a switch had flipped in the woman, a tenacity she had never seen coming out. A strength perhaps even she didn’t know she had. “Okay.” Tears matte her face, and Ambrose grips her waist tightly. “Together.”
“Together.” Anastasia says grimly, taking a step forward. She staggers slightly, and pauses. Then takes another. Her eyes are red, her vision blurry as the smoke agitates them. But each step is solid, pressing into the ground as she prepares for the next.
They lose all sense of time. Smoke shrouds the world around them, flame roaring high all around them. Only a vague sense of where they need to be keeps them going, each step taking longer than the last. Until finally the smoke gives slightly, and the sight of a hazy grey mist in the distance greets them. Their ticket home.
“We’re nearly there.” Anastasia breathes, stifling the cough trying to rise from her scorched throat. Ambrose grunts, just barely remaining lucid. Another step. Another, and-
“You!” A figure crashes out of the blaze. A demon. Fire covering their body, skin blackened and broken. Their flesh has been ripped out in chunks. It’s the figure of a human, but barely recognisable, its two charred eyes staring hellfire into their souls. “I’ll kill you!” Bunny screams, raising a flaming staff high in the air. Its light flashes, and shock-wave rips into them.
Anastasia and Ambrose get sent flying, crashing just meters away from the mist. Anastasia knocks her head against some debris, and goes silent. A manic scream resonates from Bunny, pure unadulterated hatred filling her lungs as she raises her staff again. As the light begins to flash, her eyes latch onto their figures. An overwhelming need fills her. To rip them apart, to make them pay.
So intense was her emotions that she failed to see the shadow of a figure looming behind her. Part of the shadow extends into a long separated line, the shape of a blade at its end. In that moment Bunny sees it. Her eyes go wide and she twists out of the way. But not fast enough, as the shadow extends downward and a sickening crunch echoes out. It rips through her shoulder, sending her arm flying as Bunny’s screams fill the room.
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Ambrose watches the shadow step forward, her vision obscured. Bunny, fallen to the side, turns to face it. Her body stiffens as she realises what - or who - it is. “No!” Bunny scrambles backward, desperation filling her voice. “Please!” She scrambles onto her feet and runs toward the mist, as the shadow of the figure continues to loom behind her. Following slowly, methodically, like a hunter stalking its prey.
Ambrose turns her eyes away and stares at Anastasia, who still isn’t moving. Her eyes harden and she grabs the debris beside her, ignoring the flame that scorches her hands and pulls herself forward. Her body screams, her skin burns, but she forces her arms to drag her. Inch by inch. Until she collapses by Anastasia’s side. Ambrose grabs onto her, and shakes.
“Anastasia.” Ambrose whispers hoarsely, but she doesn’t respond. A sinking feeling hits her. “Wake up.” She shakes, slaps, rips her hair and even bites her in desperate hope. But she doesn’t move, and only agony replaces it.
“I just want to live!” Bunny’s desperate voice draws Ambrose’s gaze. Bunny had tripped partway to the mist, and is now moving backward as fast as she can across the ground. Pure fear fills her voice, and she hasn’t even attempted to defend herself. “Why!” Bunny screams. “I was so close. You fucking thing.” Strength fills her voice for a moment, before fading away again. She stares up at the shadow covering her figure, and despair fills her eyes. “I just wanted to live.”
The slice of a blade rings out, and her head goes flying. It rolls across the ground until it hits a piece of wood, its eyes forever fixated on the mist. Ambrose stares numbly at the sight, until the shadow grows larger as it steps forward and reveals its owner.
A grotesque monster. Its body is tall and thin, almost elongated with grey skin hardened like stone. Long, oily hair drapes across its face and extends down to its hips, covering whatever rests there. And its hand; two arms extended down into twisted, bone blades carved out of its flesh. Where the blade starts, and the flesh ends, is a mess of melded flesh.
The oily liquid that drips off its hair lands onto the wood, a hiss escaping as it eats clean through the wood. The flame surrounding it snuffs itself out the second it touches its body. The creature leans down and stick its blade into Bunny’s corpse. Ambrose stares, wide-eyed, as the same thing Bunny did begins to occur. Pulses of energy flow from Bunny’s body to the monsters, and its figure bursts with energy.
Ambrose tears her eyes away as it feeds, staring at Anastasia’s unmoving body. She thought she could die in peace. But not now, not like this. She slams her hands into the ground, intense resolve filling her as she begins to push her body off the ground. She screams, pain coursing through her like a lightning bolt, her body attempting to give way.
But with a muted scream she digs her hands further into the ground, forcing herself up and up. Further, higher, as her back hunches and her figure turns curved. The muted roar gives way to a thunderous shout, and Ambrose stands on her feet. Her back cracks as something seems to shift, and the pain grows even more intense. Yet, she’s standing.
The monster turns to the noise, Bunny’s corpse now a husk. It sees Ambrose, and steps forward. Ambrose staggers over to Anastasia and grabs her. She attempts to pick her up, but almost falls over again at the attempt. Instead, her eyes aflame with a pure intensity, she grasps her body and begins to drag her with all her might towards the mist. Together. The words resonate in her head, nothing else mattering. Not even the monster that, with each step, advances toward her.
Ambrose moves excruciatingly slowly. The mist is only a few meters away, but it feels like a chasm. She doesn’t relent, each groan of pain bringing them a tiny step closer. But the monster moves closer and closer, its even steps far faster than Ambrose can move. With them barely a meter away from the mist, it’s upon them.
Ambrose can only look up hopelessly, its figure towering over them. As it looks down, she sees its face. It’s completely flat. Eyes that are just pure white without an iris, two slits to make a nose and a mouth drawn like a haphazard line. Its face is completely static, emotionless and empty as it stares down at her. Its hand draws up, the blade raised high. Ambrose looks at it and closes her eyes. It swings down.
A figure flashes across the room and slams into the monster, sending it reeling back. Ambrose snaps her eyes open and sees the person in front of her. Sunfa. Her small back covering her vision. She turns, her multi-hued eyes looking at Ambrose briefly.
“Thank you.” Sunfa says and turns back to the creature righting itself. She readies herself. “Now go.” Her speed is blinding, and in a single moment Sunfa has barreled into the creature and sent both of them flying. Tears drip from Ambrose’s eyes as she watches it raise its blade as it falls, and slice through Sunfa’s body. Splitting her in two.
She turns her eyes away from the sight, a new, familiar pain filling her, as she grabs Anastasia and continues to drag them forward. As they close in, Anastasia beings to stir. Relief fills Ambrose, and she pulls her as fast as she can. Her eyes catch the monster walking out of the flames, heading back into their direction. It’s slow at first, methodical, before its steps begin to speed up until it’s full-on sprinting at them.
“Am..br..?” Anastasia mumbles as she begins to wake, the world spinning around her. Everything keeps moving back and forth as she looks around, her sense of direction unable to centre her. Seeing her state, Ambrose grits her teeth and simply pulls harder. The monster runs across the room, its feet smashing into the wood with each great stride.
They reach the mist. It swirls next to them, inviting them forward. Just one last step. The monster steps harshly into the wood beneath it, a great strength ripping through its legs as it sends itself flying toward them. Ambrose pulls Anastasia with all her might, her throat too cracked to even scream. She pulls, even as her arms bleed, as her muscles break. She pulls, and throws them both toward the mist.
Time almost seems to slow as they’re falling toward the mist, the monster bearing down above them. For a second Ambrose has hope. That it doesn’t reach them. That they make it. And then it’s before them, its blade slicing down. Toward Anastasia. Ambrose’s eyes widen as she watches its blade cut through her body, and then the world disappears. The mist swallows her whole and everything goes dark.
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The monster stares at the empty space. Blood drips down its blade, splattering across the floor. Then it raises its blade, and cuts through the air. The air tears in two, revealing behind it a pure black space. A void. It steps through, and the space closes behind it.
Not long after, Sunfa’s body begins to twitch. Her two separated halves wriggle, before suddenly slamming together. The flesh melds together into a seamless line, and Sunfa’s eyes open. She stands up, walking over to where Talin’s body rests. His chest is split open, a small creature inside of it carved into pieces. The Arthreeki’s true nature is a parasite hiding inside its host's body.
“You can finally rest in peace Talin.” Sunfa says softly, reaching down and closes his eyes. “Our endless suffering is over.” As she talks, motes of light begin to appear in the shrine. They eat away at the flame, the wood, the air itself, removing everything bit by bit.
Sunfa walks out of the shrine as the world around her begins to disappear. Outside it is even clearer. The buildings are eaten away, even the ground itself, much of it already taken to the blinding white light. Sunfa looks up at the moon above her, its giant figure gazing down at them. Her eyes are forlorn, watching as the sky itself begins to disappear. Her own body being eaten away.
“God, why did you forsake us?” Sunfa whispers, her voice adrift in the air before even that is taken. Light covers the world, washing away everything.