“Why have I lost?” Drim inquired. “Do we really need to fight at all?”

“Of course we do!” Sim boasted. “How else will we know which of us is superior?”

“Does that really matter, though?” Drim insisted.

“I’d say nothing matters more.” Sim leaned forward in his seat as he glared at Drim. “I told you that I don’t hate you for being a Drazah, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor. You see, my family were loyal Drazah supporters during the war, and they suffered the consequences when the war ended. I can’t blame you for that, even though you were the one who ended it. They just backed the wrong horse.”

“In fact, I’d say what you did was almost inspiring, changing your destiny with your own hands. I’m not sure how much you know of this, but among the Drazah supporters, you were highly praised. Well, that’s honestly an understatement, some in my own family even saw you as a messiah after you were born. You were to be the one to lead the world after your parents.”

“I always wanted to meet you when I was little. My family talked constantly about how we would rule the world together as the successors to our houses. After the war… I was in despair. I was terrified of what was to come, our future was so uncertain and no one had any answers. One-by-one my family disappeared, taking the future they’d promised me with them. I understand now, though, that one’s future can’t be plotted out by someone else. You were the one who showed me that.”

“After you killed your parents, you were just a boy with nothing, but you carved out your own path. You became The Slayer, a world-renowned monster hunter that everyone respected. No one knew who you really were, but you were famous nonetheless. Then… then you went and ruined it! You told the world who you were, and cashed in on your name. The gallis unimaginable. How greedy you must be?”

“I don’t know your reasons; whether you just wanted the notoriety you once held, or if it’s all part of some insidious plot, but it doesn’t matter. No one gives two zjiks about The Slayer anymore. They don’t see the monster hunter who rose to the top. It’s just Drim Drazah now, the man everyone can’t look away from. That’s why I hate you!”

“Like you, I’ve been working hard to build my own future, but I’m not relying on my past. I’ve raised my own army with my own hands, and soon the world will see just what I’m capable of. They’ll see how superior I am to Drim Drazah, the false messiah, the one unworthy of anyone’s attention. Now let me tell you why you’ve lost. Do you see what you’re standing on? It’s dirt, a foot of dirt covering every inch of the floor. With that, I can make my soldiers endlessly.”

Sim snapped his fingers, and golems appeared all around the room. They grabbed weapons off the wall and encircled Drim. In response, Drim widened his stance, and readied his blades, expecting that he’d need to block. He also activated his Curse, making the air around his wrists glow, able to shoot out plants at a moment's notice. “Look at you, a true fighter,” Sim patronized him. “I want to know which is the real you; The Slayer or a child who leeches off their parent’s fame.”

Every golem attacked Drim at once; thrusting, slicing, or swinging their weapons at him. A slew of thorned black vines slipped out from Drim’s wrists, grabbing every weapon and holding them in the air. Drim then spun, slicing every dirt soldier in half. He then sent all of his thorns directly at Sim.

“Hmph, nice try,” Sim scoffed. A wall of soldiers appeared before Sim, already holding weapons that must have been hidden in the dirt. They blocked each thorned vine by either grabbing them or cutting them. Before Drim could try anything else, every soldier around him had regenerated and were preparing their next attack.

Drim used his thorns to wrap up all of his attackers, and then sent a barrage of gami leaves flying at the protective wall. The leaves vanished inside the golems and broke out on the other side. However, traversing through the dirt caused them to lose all of their momentum, so they piled up uselessly behind the wall.

Every soldier that had been trapped by Drim vanished, returning back to the dirt floor from whence they came. A minute later, they’d all reformed, free of any restraints. This was already getting annoying, having to take care of a wave of attackers before each attempt at attacking Sim.

Drim dispatched this next group a little more thoroughly, cutting each one into eight distinct pieces so they’d take longer to regenerate. Now he had a bit of time to focus, and summoned a much thicker tentacle-like vine, akin to one he would use in his Thorned Tyrant mode. Using only one was much less stressful on him, but should have substantial power. It also wouldn’t force him to stay in one spot, which would make him vulnerable to attacks from soldiers popping up beneath his feet.

The new vine pierced right through the soldier wall with ease, and was on its way to grabbing Sim directly. However, it was stopped mere inches from Sim’s face. All the soldiers forming the wall had grabbed the vine and managed to stop it in its tracks with their sheer strength. Drim wouldn’t have the power to summon another and attack with the same amount of ferocity without leaving himself weak and exposed.

It was becoming quite evident that he’d get nowhere with head-on attacks, not as long as Sim could maintain his protective wall. The soldiers around Drim had almost regenerated, so he dispatched them again before they could attack. Now, he’d try a new tactic: striking from above. Drim wouldn’t risk using his vines to pull him up high, since that could potentially bring down the entire room.

Instead, bamboo shoots sprouted at Drim’s feet, growing fast and launching him into the air. Drim then shot several small vines towards Sim. A few wrapped around his wrists, but he was able to easily break free of them with his own strength. That had just been a diversion, though. The other vines latched onto Sim’s throne, and then Drim reeled them in, sending Drim flying right towards Sim. Drim prepared his feet, aiming to give Sim a good kick rather than stabbing him with his blades.

Before he knew it, Drim’s entire body was in pain as he was hit with a strong blunt impact. A giant golem, not quite as large as the colossus outside, but of a similar stature had sprouted up and smacked Drim. This sent Drim flying backwards, crashing into the floor, and skidding back almost the entire way to the door, leaving a trench in his wake.

Sim didn’t waste any time, summoning two golems right next to Drim to try and strike him while his guard was down. Drim managed to roll out of the way, and leapt back up to his feet. This positioned Drim so that the two soldiers were directly in a line in front of him. Drim punched the first soldier in the face, his hand sinking into the soldier’s head as it crumbled to dust. Then, Drim made the blade on his wrist spring forward, extending and stabbing the second soldier behind the first.

Drim used his extended blade to slice downwards, chopping both soldiers in half. He then cut them up a bit more, not wanting a surprise attack from behind any time soon. Once they were dispatched, he returned to the center, and soon another circle of golems was around him.

The fight continued for a while in the same pattern. Drim would take care of those attacking him, then make another attempt at nabbing Sim. So far, not much progress had been made on either side. Sim stayed well protected, and Drim hadn’t really been injured. It was quickly becoming a war of attrition, seeing who would run out of steam first and make a mistake.

During the fight, Drim did pick up on a few things, though. The soldiers Sim was attacking with were much more nimble and strong than those outside or any he’d seen before. It was likely that Sim was controlling these directly, which gave them their power. There were also less soldiers attacking him over time, meaning Sim was likely getting a bit tired from overusing his Curse.

However, Sim’s protective wall of soldiers never got weaker, and the giant golem stuck around to protect him as well. He was putting all he had into defense, while being lax with offense. This was a good strategy, because even if he couldn’t attack anymore, as long as he could defend, he’d have a higher chance at winning.

Drim was confident that he could win this through strength and endurance alone. However, he wanted to end it as quickly as possible. The longer he spent fighting Sim, the longer his companions would have to fight too. He didn’t know how they were faring in their own fights, but he did know they were in greater danger the longer Sim was a factor. Drim needed Sim to put himself on the line, otherwise this battle could go on for hours.

He eventually came up with an idea, a tactic he didn’t really want to use. In fact, the very idea made him feel uneasy, but from what he knew of Sim, it was his best bet. Once Drim vanquished the newest batch of soldiers, he stood confident and smirked. “How are you faring, Sim? You look tired. Would you like a break?” Drim then quickly summoned a chair made out of plants and took a seat. He didn’t have to worry about being attacked for roughly a minute, so he could afford to be relaxed.

“Don’t you dare call me Sim!” Lord Twelling belted with all his might. “Only my friends can call me that!”

“But do you have any friends, Sim?” Drim mocked him, as he got even more comfortable. “As far as I can see, you’re all alone. Do you even have anyone at all? No family either? Why is that?”

“Shut up, what could you know about my life?!” Sim responded in anger.

“You were abandoned, weren’t you?” Drim pushed further. “Was it because no one wanted you? Did they see you as the weak coward you are? You claim to be making your own future, but all I see is a scared wimp hiding behind his toy soldiers. They’re the ones doing all the work. Even if you beat me, could you say you were the one who did it? You who didn’t lift a finger and let others do all his fighting for him, just like a good worthless noble should.”

“You dare?! You dare call me a coward?! You dare judge me?!” Sim raged. “I’m the one on the throne here, and you’re the one in that pretender’s chair!”

“Yet when they talk about this fight in the future, my name will be the only one everyone remembers,” Drim went for the throat. “It will be the great battle of Drim Drazah, versus some noble from a dead family that no one remembers, some craven who was too scared to even face me head-on. I’ll be sure to clip it out and put it on my wall. At least then you’ll have one person to remember you.”

If his mother was conscious, Drim imagined she’d be fawning over him right now. However, she had expended an exorbitant amount of energy a few days ago and probably wouldn’t wake up for another week or two.

“That’s it!” Sim leapt up from his chair. Every single golem in the room vanished, and only Sim was left standing there. Dirt started to swirl around him, coating him entirely. A new creation started to form, a new monster. It was one giant body, with dozens of arms. Smaller hands formed around the room, picking up every weapon, and carrying it to the mutant.

Sim was at the center of it all. His face was covered by a protective guard, but Drim could still see the glint of his muddy eyes. “You want to fight me? Fine, I’ll crush you!” Sim started stamping towards Drim, the ground shaking under the dirt armor’s strong legs.

A hail of weapons were thrusted towards Drim. He tried to block with his vines like before, but the strength behind them was far greater. They easily broke through Drim’s defense, forcing him to dodge out of the way. Several of the weapons stabbed into the ground, and Drim used the opportunity to slice the shaft of one of the spears. He grabbed the tipped end, and lunged it directly at Sim’s face. It was a dead-on shot, but Sim managed to block it with one of his many arms.

Sim retaliated with another barrage of blows. Drim dodged again, and did his best to break as many weapons as possible when they were stuck in the ground. If a weapon wouldn’t easily break like a sword, he’d cut off the arm holding it instead. To Drim’s surprise, new weapons surfaced from the dirt, making it evident that Sim had stockpiled a cache in advance. If nothing else, Drim had to admire Sim’s preparatory skills.

The arms Drim had cut off came back in seconds as well. It was clear that it wasn’t going to be an easy fight, but this was more what Drim was used to. He wasn’t fighting an army anymore, he was fighting a rampaging beast. Drim swept the armor’s legs, ripping them from the main body. Sim dropped to the floor with an echoing thud, but sprouted up a second later sporting brand new legs.

It would be helpful if Drim had a gauge that let him know how much Sim’s Curse was draining him. He didn’t know how long Sim had possessed his Curse, but using them to this degree wasn’t easy. It was clear that Sim was well practiced, with excellent reaction times for someone who looks like they’ve never been in a proper fight. The idea of wearing him down from overusing his Curse was still logical, but Drim was less sure of how long that’d take. Most likely, he’d need to finish this fight with a more direct method.

After dodging another fury of blows, Drim leapt a few steps backwards in the room. He swapped to his bow, and rapidly fired several shots. They were all originally aimed at Sim’s face, which he guarded in response. This had been a feint by Drim, and he redirected their trajectory mid-flight. They were now all aimed at where Drim believed his body would be in that bulging dirt armor.

Each shot pierced the dirt, but they didn’t penetrate as deeply as Drim hoped. He used his Curse to push them in further. It wasn’t much since they didn’t have momentum, but he’d take any inch he could get. Sim wailed a bit, so it seemed a few pricked him, but none did any serious damage. Drim repeated the same tactic using his vines, trying to rip him out of the dirt, but the arms cut them all before Drim could burrow the thorns deep enough.

It seemed that Drim had no other choice but to accept that he’d have to use his blades. They were the only thing that could cut into the dirt deep enough without being hampered. This meant that he’d have to get in close, but it wouldn’t be easy. Drim stopped dodging Sim’s attacks. Instead, he would deflect any that would hit him directly to try and create an opening. This was far more dangerous, but it was the best way to get results.

A few attacks knicked Drim, those that he couldn’t deflect in time or chose not to because they weren’t serious. He got a few cuts and his clothes were torn up a bit, but it was nothing that would stop him from pressing on. The two of them exchanged blows for quite a while. Drim took a few slices at Sim, but he never had that perfect opportune moment.

Finally, it came. Sim was attacking wide with all of his arms, trying to pincer Drim from both sides. However, this left his body completely open to attack. Drim didn’t hesitate, and went right for the attack. About a foot away, he had his blades ready, raring to strike. A hole opened up in Sim’s armor, and a spear flew out of it, driven forward by a new hand. The spear pierced right through Drim’s torso and out the other side, impaling him with a streak of green blood trailing from the tip.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Ahaha, I can’t believe you fell for it!” Sim mocked his skewered victim. Drim stood there silently, with blood slowly leaking out of his chest. He didn’t move or react, his eyes silhouetted by his hair. The next moment, there was a loud explosion nearby. The entire throne room reverberated, and any glass that was still in the window panes was blown free.

Sim’s eyes drifted towards the direction of the noise, but Drim’s didn’t. They started to burn brightly, cutting through the shadow on his face. He stepped forward, pushing ahead as if nothing was wrong. More blood streaked on the spear as it traveled through his body, scraping along his insides as he moved. Drim raised his arms, and slashed forward with both blades with all of his might.

◆◆◆

The column came crashing down towards Phon, bearing the full force of the titan’s strength with it. She teleported out of the way and on top of the colossus’s shoulder. Its attacks were strong but slow, so it wouldn’t have time to react to her quick actions. Phon wrapped her yo-yo around the giant’s shoulder and then activated the buzzsaw. It ripped through the shoulder as she pulled the string, severing it entirely.

The arm crashed to the ground, and the golem crashed down after it. This made Phon lose her balance and fall off, but she was able to catch herself and teleport before she hit the floor. Phon had to severely limit the range of her vision to be able to teleport at all. With all the noise caused by the dirt army, it blurred everything to the point of being useless. However, by just focusing on the garden, she could see and move freely.

It was a shame what they were doing to the place. Phon didn’t really care that much about aesthetics and decor, but could appreciate when it was done well. This garden had been well kept, and seemed like a tranquil spot to relax and have tea. Now the colossus had smashed the place to bits. Every chair and trellis was wrecked, and every flower had been trampled.

The arm didn’t take long at all to reattach, but Phon had been counting the seconds. She wanted to know exactly how much time she had to try out new tactics before she had to be on the defensive. Even if she cut off one limb, she had to be wary of the others, but if she ever damaged the giant knight, its main objective seemed to be repairing itself.

The knight tried crushing her again, swinging the pillar downwards and slamming into the dirt. She teleported on top of the now horizontal column, right next to its hand. Phon repeated the same severing tactic on its wrist that she had just done to its shoulder. The end of the column she was standing on crashed to the floor too, and the colossus knelt down to retrieve its hand.

Phon teleported next to the giant’s head, and stiffened the string on her yo-yo after unfurling it about two feet. She activated the buzzsaw again, practically transforming it into a handheld chainsaw. Phon stabbed the saw into the giant’s head, ripping it to shreds. She then pushed down, swinging the saw from side to side. Dirt flew everywhere as Phon meticulously cut the giant in half all the way through.

The colossus’s body fully split in two. One half fell forward and the other collapsed backwards. Phon had to believe she could relax now, completely separating it into two pieces that were no longer touching had to be the end of it. The other soldiers they’d come across could recover from this, but they weren’t even close in magnitude. To her dismay, the dirt started moving.

The colossus slowly reformed itself, starting from the bottom and finishing with its head. Phon didn’t even bother attacking it while it was regenerating because she didn’t know what she’d do. Electricity was useless against it, so that meant she’d have to destroy it completely in one go. This was a problem because of its size. It took so long to cut it in half that it would start regenerating before she could cut it in half again.

Phon wracked her brain for ideas, and the longer she thought on the matter, the more pissed off she got. Having an enemy that was easy to beat but impossible to kill was infuriating. Normally, when she killed something, it stayed dead. Occasionally, she’d get a stubborn bastard who’d cling to life, but this was just ridiculous.

The giant stared at her as it readied its next strike, like it was looking down on an ant it was about to crush. “Alright, I’ve had it!” Phon blurted. “I will not be looked down on by an oversized dirt clod!” Phon let her yo-yo spin at her feet for a moment to make sure it was still in perfect order. “Let me show you what the eight time-undefeated yo-yo world champion is capable of! First, let’s get rid of your toy!”

Of course, the golem ignored her words and readied itself to attack her again. This time, it tried crushing her with the tip of the column, as if it were stabbing a spike in the ground. It held the column above her, but she didn’t dodge out of the way. She flung her yo-yo straight into the air, and it spiraled around the column all the way to the top. Phon tugged the string down right as the giant began its attack. The yo-yo retracted with blazing speed, the buzzsaw digging deep into the column.

Before the column could splatter her, it shattered to pieces above her head. Phon teleported out of the way of the falling debris as it rained down on where she had been standing. While the golem was preoccupied staring at the broken remains, Phon began her next attack. From behind, she launched her yo-yo at the golem. Rather than try to strike anything, she wrapped it around the golem with the string.

Thanks to the string upgrade from Nathym, Phon could practically extend the length of it endlessly. To this day she didn’t know how long it went. She’d tried to measure it a few times, but she always got bored in the middle when it got out of the range of her vision. As far as she was concerned, its length was infinite, and she was banking on that.

Even though the string could go on forever, the momentum of her throw wouldn’t. To counteract this, she activated the buzzsaw which dug into the titan’s dirt skin. It began running all along the knight, with Phon able to control its direction like a puppet master. The yo-yo trenched all around its body, leaving string behind to bind it further.

The colossus tried to free itself, but the more it was wrapped up, the more its movements were contained. Phon had been very careful about the order she wrapped it, because if she tried to bind its arms first, it would probably be able to break free. She confined the easier areas first to limit its range of motion before tackling the limbs.

The yo-yo trenched on, eventually reaching a point where the string would overlap. Instead of the buzzsaw cutting through it, any teeth that were about to impact the string would momentarily retract as it passed over. During the process, there had been a world shaking quake, but Phon ignored it, entirely focused on her attack. It took a while, but soon the golem was entirely wrapped in Phon’s string, like a fly trapped in a spider’s web. The knight was now completely immobile, but that wasn’t good enough for Phon. She needed to destroy it.

The buzzsaw plunged into the dead center of the colossus. Phon took a deep breath as she got ready. “I think I’ll call this move ‘The Atom Splitter’,” she muttered to herself as she wrapped the end of the yo-yo’s string around her hands to get a better grip. Phon then tugged with every ounce of her strength as the yo-yo inside the giant began whirring with maximum intensity.

Slowly, the golem started to shrink. Its entire body was being pulled into the buzzsaw, which was mulching the knight to dust an inch at a time. Phon strained herself as she pulled, the golem getting smaller with each passing second, being devastated from the inside-out. Finally, the string that had wrapped up the golem hit the buzzsaw itself, causing it to shut off and limp to the floor.

Phon recalled her yo-yo, returning it to its normal setting while shaking off some excess dirt as she stared at her work. All that was left was a pile of finely shredded dirt, that was now closer to sand in texture. Finally having accomplished her task, Phon let herself relax for a moment. Once she’d let the adrenaline subside, she finally expanded her vision to see how the others were doing. “Huh…? Drim?!”

◆◆◆

Phon Drazah teleported into the throne room. At her feet, Drim was laying face-forward on the ground. There was a hole in his cloak encircled in green blood, with an upsetting amount of blood pooling beneath his body. “No way… Drim… lost?” Phon couldn’t believe her quivering eyes. She searched around for answers, but didn’t have to look far.

There was another liquid that was now starting to mix with Drim’s blood. It was brown, and looked like mud, but it had the consistency of blood as well. Phon followed the trail, but it didn’t go far, and there was no source. She continued following that direction anyways, her eyes eventually landing on the throne. “I see, he didn’t lose then.”

Sim Twelling was sitting on his throne, with his own, even larger pool of blood at the base of the chair. Most likely, he had used one of his soldiers to pick him up and carry him, which would explain the gap in the blood trail. There was an x-shaped gash in his chest. It was extremely deep, and through the liquid that looked like sewage, Phon could practically see his organs.

Both of his arms had been cut off completely as well, and were now resting against the sides of his throne. There was no doubt in Phon’s mind. Sim Twelling would die. He was losing too much blood, and even being a Fiend wouldn’t save him now. She didn’t know how long it would take; minutes, hours, it could even be an entire day when the regenerative properties of a Fiend was factored in, but he would die nonetheless. It was possible that he could be saved if treated, but as far as she was aware, no help was coming for him.

“Alright Drim, you did a good job,” Phon smiled at her collapsed brother. “Let's get you out of her and then we’ll get you patched up.” Phonscience went to grab Drim’s piece but… “What…? I can’t move him? Why can’t I move him?!” Phon started to panic, her mind refusing to accept it as she desperately tried to grab his piece.

“Phon Drazah…” Sim rasped from his chair, clearly in pain. “I have no business with you… But I’m not done with him. Leave us!” Phon didn’t respond, still refusing to accept the situation. “I’ll be the one who ended Drim Drazah once and for all, the man who overcame him and removed any trace of his existence. I’ll devour him.”

The dirt around the room started to shift. Soon, several beasts had been formed from the soil. Their heads were those of snarling hounds, but their bodies were closer to apes. Even though they weren’t technically alive, they looked starved and feral. “Move out of the way,” Sim demanded. “Look at him, he’s already dead. All that’s left is to clean up the mess. If you stay here, my beasts will eat you too.”

“No… No, I won’t let you have him!” Phon cried. “It doesn’t matter that I can’t move him. Whether he’s alive or not, I’ll protect him! Even if I failed in saving his life, I can still save him from you! No matter what, that’s my job as his sister, to keep him safe. That’s why…”

Phon spun the ring on her finger to green, and then pulled out her yo-yo. It came apart, and she held one half in each hand. There was another ring on the second half, which she attached to her free hand. The metal of the yo-yo started to expand, getting thinner with every inch. Soon, she had two large discs, which bowed in the middle, resting on the outside of each hand. “That’s why my real weapon is shields!”

While Sim was caught off guard, Phon threw one of her shields at the beasts. Just before it hit, teeth bared around the shield’s circumference, spinning rapidly and ripping the beast to shreds. Phon pulled the shield back just in time to block a beast that had charged her. She bashed it in the head and pushed it back, then swiped her other shield at it, cutting it in half with the saw.

Then, the whole pack started to swarm her. She’d block them and then strike back as soon as there was an opening. However, the highest priority was protecting Drim. She’d do anything to keep him from getting hurt, even if it was ultimately pointless. If nothing else, Phon would make sure no more damage was done to his body, not so much as a single new scratch.

It didn’t matter how she protected him, whether it was with the shields or her own body. A few times when her shield’s were flying around, she’d block the bite of an attacking beast with one of her limbs. She had to mentally apologize to Drim over and over for getting her blood on him.

Sim had gone quiet, his eyes were closed, and it looked like he had lost consciousness. However, the beasts kept coming, spawning as rapidly as Phon could defeat them. Not a second went by that she didn’t feel overwhelmed, but somehow she kept pushing through. It didn’t take her long to fully retreat to Drim’s body, huddling over it to make sure no beast could get close.

Hours passed, or at least that was Phon’s best guess. She’d lost track of time long ago. The morning sun peaking through the hole in the ceiling was her main indicator. She’d been at this all night, or maybe the sun was a fever dream. She was beyond exhausted, and could hardly stay focused.

Her arms had ached relentlessly for hours, but now they’d just gone numb. She could still move them, but that was the only thing. The rest of her body was dead, unable to move an inch, she simply didn’t have the energy to spare. She was now straddling Drim’s back, having lost the ability to stand at some point. Her eyes had glossed over, and she was barely able to process what was in front of her anymore, mostly reacting on instinct.

The beasts never stopped, but they did slow down. Both the speed at which they were created and how fast they moved had steadily declined, seemingly inline with Phon’s own exhaustion. Finally, they stopped entirely, and the room went quiet, except for some low muttering coming from the throne.

“Don’t go… please don’t go,” Sim pleaded. “Why are you leaving? Don’t leave me all alone... Everyone always leaves me, and now you’re abandoning me too… Please stay, I beg of you. Without you, I’ll have no one… No, I won’t let you go…” With those final words, Sim Twelling finally passed away.

Phon’s arms went limp the moment she knew they were out of danger. Her shields clunked to the dirt, shrinking back to their normal size as a yo-yo. After that, she lost all semblance of time as her mind went blank. All Phon knew was that at some point there was a lot of noise.

Soldiers entered the throne room, undoubtedly from the CP, but Phon didn’t have the energy to check. They pointed guns at her, and removed the ribbon from her eyes, but she didn’t react at all. She just sat there, as lifeless as her brother, barely processing what was going on around her.

A lot of chatter was coming from the soldiers, but Phon didn’t really pay attention. Someone was giving orders to the rest. Only one line stuck out to her from the slew of reports. “We’ve recovered the bodies of The Mermaid and The Artillery.”

Eventually, Phon was lifted to her feet. She wasn’t sure how she had the energy to stay standing, but it seemed her body was working automatically at this point. A soldier roughly grabbed her arms, pulling them behind her back, and slid them into handcuffs that were closer to large metal clamps. They covered the entirety of her forearms and were extremely heavy. A normal human would need all their strength to stay balanced.

The last thing Phon saw was a bag being placed over her head. It wasn’t the normal dark bag used to obstruct people’s vision, this bag was filled with lights. They were blinding, and they stung her eyes even when they were shut. Eventually, she got used to it, but it never stopped being unpleasant.

She was escorted to a vehicle and then more time passed: hours, or maybe a day. She was carted all around, transfering vehicles a few times. At one point she may have been in a skycraft based on the noise.

Finally, her hood was removed. Phon was in a car enroute to a destination she didn’t know. There was a man sitting across from her who looked official and high ranking. He started talking endlessly. Phon listened to every word, but only retained a small fraction of the information.

She was going to be executed, that was the gist of it. There wasn’t going to be a trial, and it wasn’t going to be public. Just like everything else he said, this didn’t matter to her, nothing did. There was no point to anything anymore, so there was no reason for her to argue or resist.

The car stopped soon after, and the doors opened. An entire army of guards was waiting with guns drawn, but the official waved to them to put them away. It seemed he understood that she had no fight in her, so there was no reason to be so cautious.

Phon was led to the top of a hill on a grassy plain. Eyes followed her the entire time. There sure were a lot of people for something that wasn’t public, most of which were bearing the CP emblem.

There were gallows waiting at the top of the hill. It seemed brand new, likely assembled just for her. The noose, however, was unusual. It seemed to be made from steel cable rather than the traditional rope. Spikes were protruding upwards from it. These extra measures had to be because she was a Fiend, since it was reasonable that a normal noose wouldn’t kill her.

Phon was led onto the gallows, her feet placed on the trapdoor. The noose was wrapped around her neck and tightened to the point that the spikes were just slightly digging into her skin. The same man from the car came forward. He said a lot more pointless words as the moment passed slowly.

Finally, it was time for the conclusion. The man moved next to the gallows, and gripped the lever. He asked her if she had any last words, but Phon stayed silent as she stared off into the distance, as if she was completely unaware that she was about to die.

The man pulled the lever, and Phon’s body dropped a few inches. It was likely anticlimactic for some of those watching. She didn’t writhe or squirm or even react at all. Purple blood started trickling from her neck, running down her entire body, staining her clothes before it dribbled to the ground. Phon’s eyes slowly closed. It was an important moment for the observers and a few even cheered, because it finally meant the end of the Drazah bloodline once and for all.