The Witch snorted with amusement and a wave of wind raced through the trees. Zoe shot upwards with a burst of Willpower. She forced herself to move as fast as possible while she kept a grip on her hunger. It might be impossible for her to close the dark star off from the world, not when her gluttony stretched so deep, but she could keep it abated for the moment. Keep it distracted as she flew as high and fast as she could. G-force gripped her body hard enough to crush steel. She gritted her teeth as the bladed wind shot toward her across the land.
With only seconds to spare she flung herself over the wall of wind. It passed beneath her and leveled the trees across the clay. Zoe had only a moment to adjust before the Witch’s foot descended like a meteor.
A massive blade swung through the sky and struck the leg. Flesh poured like ink along the blade. The Gods stepped over Zoe.
Spears of silver flashed down like jabbing stars, but the Witch stepped between the light with ease. Thunder split the air, but her voice carried like a lover’s breathless whisper.
[You’re going to let your little dog nip at my heels? Then I shall return the favor]
She pivoted away from Rue’s onslaught and unzipped herself. Petals of pale skin peeled away to reveal the endless womb of darkness in her soul.
Dark loops of cosmic organs spilled and sloshed on the ground. The Witch staggered woozily. Something twitched inside the dark of her. Zoe remembered the endless squirming sea of sweating bodies.
The writhing.
Zoe flung herself toward the Witch. Whatever was coming out would be nasty, but if she could get a good strike in before it emerged then she would steal more of the Witch’s power. She needed more power -- the fight happening around, above her, was only more encouragement.
This was a fight beyond mountains.
Rue chopped a hand through the air and sent a new horizon toward the Witch. The folded reality blade struck her midsection. She peeled apart. Her body separated down the middle by the new curvature of a world, before the Witch shrieked in pain.
Her scream itself was a summoning. A working of pain that thrummed through the air like glass. Cracks shot through reality and Zoe flashed through a series of portals as she avoided the fractures.
A buckle passed across the horizon. The divine technique shattered, and in the pause between Rue’s next attack, a monster leaped from the dark hole in the Witch’s body.
It looked like a green and furry bug the size of a yacht. A pair of long and limber legs extended from the hindquarters, and four hairy arms touched down on the mud. Amber fluid dripped from its body as it shook itself dry before it looked up at Zoe.
“Zoe,” said Trinch. “The places we run into each other.”
Rage flashed through Zoe’s mind. She roared as she dove toward him like a missile.
The giant green face split into a haphazard grin of grey teeth.
He surged along the ground, all six limbs digging into the mud and flinging himself forward. The movement was an amalgamation of ape and beetle. Green-furred skin stretched tight over pistoning muscles. The way he scurried sent a shiver of disgust through Zoe. This only fueled her rage.
“You monster,” she hissed to herself. “I’ll destroy you.”
She shot through a portal with her fist pulled back ready to ring [The Bell at the Center of the World. Trinch leaped up toward her with his fingers splayed wide. Mud dripped from long yellow claws like the blood of the earth.
Mirror encased Zoe, and her face reflected Trinch’s wide smile as they collided in the air. Zoe’s punch echoed like a churchbell as reality tolled. Trinch’s flesh rippled and his grin widened as he shot down toward the ground. His claws scraped down along her Mirrored armor and shavings of power flung away, but he did not break her skin.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
His body slammed into the mud hard enough to send a red wave splashing away. It tore up what trees remained after the Witch’s wind wall passed through, but the gods ignored the impact completely. Zoe dove down after the mud cleared, but Trinch was nowhere to be seen.
She flew lower, floating above the destroyed ground. If only she had Anton’s ability to scan large areas. Where were her friends? Fate said they were elsewhere, and she hoped they were safe.
“Come out you bastard!” she shouted at the mud.
A glob of mud shot out of the ground toward her. It was large enough to smother a small car. Rather than stay still and take the hit head on, Zoe sidestepped through a portal. The mud sailed harmlessly past the spot where she just floated, but it was only the beginning of the barrage.
Mud sailed toward her and Zoe flickered through portals to avoid it. There was no constant direction. The mud shot up at her from all over a small area of half-sunken trees.
Zoe continuously pulled on her Body Path, cycling the energy and the abilities it granted to collapse points together and travel through them. The world squeezed at her. Pink light streaked at the corner of her eyes. She’d never teleported so much at once before, and she felt it straining at her in ways she never expected.
She teleported too close to the surface of the mud and Trinch leaped out from beneath. He reached up a long arm to snatch at her. Zoe avoided him by jerking to the side but he leaped higher. A second hand grabbed hold of Zoe’s legs. Muscles rippled in his fingers as he squeezed. Her Mirrored armor spat force into his flesh. Green fur shredded and chunks of meat flew away into the air. Trinch’s bones clung. The yellowed, stony, material pulsed with power and his flesh crawled back along their polished surface like a tide of ants.
“Got you,” Trinch said as he yanked her back down toward the mud.
She hit it hard and sank. There was no need for air, but she kept her mouth clamped shut. She was still concentrating, but when Trinch’s hands snaked through the mud and grabbed hold of her and squeezed, her hold on her hunger slipped.
Trinch only squeezed tighter. His grin crawled through the mud toward her ears.
“I refused their offers,” Trinch said. “And so they made me a slave. What gives you the right to expect any different?”
Spikes burst from his fingers and stabbed deep into Zoe. Her flesh bent around the wounds, Faith working to keep her whole despite the intrusion, but her control fell away.
The hunger screamed from her chest.
Mud unraveled around her and poured into the hold in her center. She couldn’t stop it. Trinch’s fingers burst and fell into her. She was a ravenous black hole and she would take all the power there was.
It filled her, but could never fill her.
Trinch fled toward the surface, and Zoe flew after him. They burst into the air. Two legs were missing from Trinch’s right side and he ambled away awkwardly. Black ichor dripped from his wounds. The dark gore emanated cold, and when it struck the mud it formed oily pools edged with frost.
Zoe’s reflection peered up at her from the pools as she passed over them. Though she flew as fast as she could, Trinch galloped away even faster. Even with his legs missing, his muscles twitched and flung him along the muddy ground with staggering precision. He rocked from side to side as his one arm on the right did the work of the two missing limbs.
Zoe split herself into hounds and shot through portals. She appeared in a ring around Trinch. The hounds flew, and Trinch started pulling away, but the formation of seven held for the moment.
Fire bloomed at the tips of her snouts as she called on [Empress in Time]. Time lashed down on Trinch, and for a moment it held him, but his skin sloughed away into more of the cold black oil. His green fur emerged from beneath the greasy black peel as dry and fluffy as though he just come from the dry cleaners. His speed increased as he hit the ground with six limbs, his shed skin regrowing his missing two.
Zoe dashed through more portals, the flames gathering once more, and casting out a web to encircle him. His body contorted as he slipped between the invisible attacks, but this time Zoe wasn’t trying to hold him. She ignited the Time within her attacks and the flames raged through the reality surrounding Trinch. The air he passed through lost its future and distance shattered. Trinch stumbled into a knot as time accelerated and vanished around him.
Zoe took that moment to dive toward him. Her jaws sank into his flesh and ripped as her hunger swallowed it down. Trinch lashed down at her with his long claws, but her hounds rolled savagely across him. When they met, they fused. Soon Zoe clung to Trinch’s mutilated chest with one hand as she lashed at him with the other. Psychic claws lashed at his flesh and Skein, slicing through both.
Trinch howled, but Zoe refused to end things now. She wanted a moment to savor this revenge before she ate his heart. An arm lashed down at her but she flung [Mind’s Eye Incision] toward it. Witnessing all of Rue’s attacks had done something, since her blades now sliced effortlessly through Trinch’s flesh, and where they severed they didn't regrow.
“You’re mine,” she hissed.
A shudder ran through Trinch’s body. He went still. Zoe beat at him, tearing at his chest.
“No!” she babbled nonsense as her hunger ripped at her mind. “You can’t die yet! I need to kill you!”
A wheeze escaped Trinch’s mouth, and it was followed by a sea of crawling grey bugs. They looked like termites or lice as they flowed over Trinch’s green fur toward Zoe.