Options buzzed through Zoe’s mind like bees through a garden. Nothing was ever easy — each question had endless answers — of the three options — hound, whisper, chains — which was truly her?

No, it didn’t need to be so hard. If all you have to do is make a decision, then simply decide.

Steam billowed around her, and she stepped back from the crumbling cliff edge. Time to act. She squeezed her hands so tight the chains clinked together. History is the foundation, and even the tallest pine grips the dark soil with its roots. She made her choice.

[Flesh of the Rabid Hound]

The change was as subtle as a coin flip.

All the buzzing options vanished in a heartbeat, and a great twisting, grinding, sickening sensation seized her cells. She collapsed to her knees. If she hadn’t stepped back she would have fallen. Black pebbles knocked loose and dropped into the steam. She gasped for air, but her lungs faltered. Her heart stopped beating. For a dreadful moment, Zoe thought she was dying.

She thought she was dead.

After all, she was already in hell…

But a growl built up inside her. She snarled, and with the last of her air, a bark of fury escaped her scarred lips.

An itching sensation swept over her as claws scrabbled beneath her skin. She gripped her face, hands becoming claws as she dug at the inescapable burn, and she pulled. Her skin came away in shreds. Flesh peeled. Her chains touched bone but there was no pain. She ripped at herself. Blood filled her nostrils and then she pulled her nose away. A grinning skull with bulging eyes as she disrobed the flesh of her torso, of her limbs, faster, frantic, she had to remove the old…

Zoe collapsed in a pile of flesh on the edge of the Angel’s cliff. Her organs begged for air, for blood, for sustenance, but everything leaked away without skin, and then the organs slid out in a pool of filth. Without eyelids, her eyes stared up into the coalescing steam, and then —

She blinked.

And sat up.

How long had she laid there?

“Zoe?” Bella called from the steam.

Zoe stood. Naked. Shreds of clothes and withered skin at her feet. Small blackened piles of shriveled organs. A flaking puddle of what could only be molten offal. The sight relieved her, like the pus at the end of a finger after squeezing a pimple.

She walked away from the foulness.

[Empress In Time]

She pooled Mirror within her palm and examined herself. Her dark brown skin was smooth and flawless. Her feet and hands of chains remained, but everything else was as new. Perfection beyond the skills of the surgeon’s blade. With a faint tremble of hope, she examined her face.

Dark locs framed her high cheekbones, her large eyes, and her smooth brown skin, but the scars on her lips remained.

They would always remain.

A testimony to the cruelty of the Crimson Armada, no matter how much they tried to blame her. She exhaled.

Her body felt whole, no, more than whole, for new muscles waited to be used. She felt them stirring inside her, panting, eager: the hounds.

[Flesh of the Rabid Hound: give birth to your pack by sacrificing your flesh]

What does that mean?

ding!

Thanks for not choosing the Chain Breaker.

I would never break your chains, Black Star.

I love you too! Can we see the hound? Please? Can we?

Zoe took a deep breath, this would probably hurt.

[Hound Manifestation]

The flesh beneath her ribs bubbled and Zoe sucked in a breath. The rippling, prickling sensation was unpleasant. It didn’t hurt so much as it felt like watching someone get hurt on video. The sympathetic pain twinged at her mind as shapes pressed against her skin: snouts, paws, the vertebrae of a spine. Nausea almost overwhelmed her, but the manifestation felt so close to completion. She pushed, and her flesh slid free of her body.

A dog leaped from her body and paced about the rock.

Zoe gasped, almost collapsing, but couldn’t stop smiling.

The dog bent its nose and started sniffing at the ground, its tail wagging excitedly. It was large, upright, with two small stiff ears and a pointed muzzle. Its short fur was almost sable in color and it turned brown eyes toward her.

For a moment, Zoe expected it to speak.

There was no pain in her stomach and no lightness to her flesh — she had lost no body mass — but a scar remained where the hound had emerged. It was ghostly white and outlined in the vague shape of a running dog.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Could she summon more? She pressed, but a firm resistance told her that this was all she could do. It felt like lifting a weight with a muscle — there’s only so much that can be done before the body gives out.

This was exciting, but her skin was lined with goosebumps. A vague sense of horror crept down her spine. Was it the grotesque transformation? No…

It was the Witch.

That member of the Crimson Armada had spoken to her through Hounds. The unseen dog’s hot breath on her shoulders. The whispering. Had she chosen this New Flesh through some manipulation of the Witch?

The hound cocked its head and padded toward her. She reached out and scratched behind its ears. Her fingers touched warmth beneath the fur as the dog leaned into her.

ding!

He’s so cute

A flutter across her heart as she bent down to comfort the newly born hound and so find comfort herself. It didn’t matter about the Witch, she decided. This was her ability. Her past made manifest. It would serve her, and not the System.

“Can you speak?” she asked.

The dog barked and panted. Well, that's not exactly what she meant, but a good sign. She pointed ten feet away.

“Walk over there.”

The hound walked over there.

“Roll over.”

It rolled, tongue flopping as it watched her.

She thought inside her mind: come back.

And a little tremble passed between them — she felt the dog’s heart pounding — as it rolled to its feet and walked back to her side.

Interesting, she thought to herself as she scratched it behind the ears.

What else could she do with this creation? Coat it with mirror? Could it use her chains?

“Zoe!” Bella’s voice had more panic than last time.

Oh, she should return to her friends. Should she bring the dog with her? How would she return the dog to her —

The hound pressed against her sides. A spark of heat passed between them, and it melted back into her flesh. The scar vanished. She stood, naked once more, alone, with her skin impossibly smooth.

“That answers that,” she said.

One dog would be helpful, but hopefully, by practicing this technique she could summon more. It would be good to run with the pack again. An anxiety she wasn’t even aware she held slipped away from her.

The Angel lay below, and with it the chain that the Black Star craved. The little system in her mind had done well not to bug her about it while she made her choice, but she knew it wanted to pester her. Could feel it practically hopping up and down with impatience. The hound had only distracted them for so long.

Zoe would keep her promise. Before they progressed deeper into Hell she would get the chain. Though, it would be foolish to attempt such a theft while everyone else lay comatose. There was no telling how the Angel would react.

She still had plenty to worry about, but it was with a smile that she headed back toward her friends.

###

Everyone waited for her in the circle. They were different, and they were naked. Five flawless specimens of humanoid form. Skidmark and Bella and Anton with their pale white skin, and Oriz with her slender gray form.

Anton was thin, his shoulders broad, and his waist tapered. There was no hair on his head, accentuating his monklike demeanor. However, as she looked at him, something changed. Small scars covered his body, but when she looked closer she realized they were eyes. Only a few of them opened and peered out at the world before closing, like clams or mussels. It was monstrous, but somehow Zoe wasn’t disturbed.

Oriz was inhumanly slender, and seeing her completely naked reminded Zoe that she was in actuality an alien. She wasn’t sure if she was beautiful, or merely ethereal. It felt as though she had been walking in an English garden and stumbled upon a fairy.

Skidmark and Bella were the greatest differences though. They almost seemed like sisters with their pale skin and long dark hair. Some part of the New Flesh transformation had purged them of their bleached hair as well as their tattoos.

When Zoe entered the circle of clean air, the two women were discussing what tattoos they would get next.

“You should consider a Japanese-style piece,” Skidmark said. “Something big to cover your back, it would go with the whole sword maiden aesthetic you’re cultivating.”

“I don’t know that I’m cultivating that…”

“You kind of are,” Anton added.

“Nobody asked you,” Bella said with a scowl. “My old tattoos were meaningful, each one was a memory.”

“Always more memories to make,” Skidmark said.

What surprised Zoe the most was that none of them seemed awkward or abashed, even though they were nude before each other. Anton’s eyes blinked and closed, going to sleep one by one, as the other women stretched as though waking from a nap.

Zoe felt the same as them, both rejuvenated and natural. Their New Flesh felt old, proper, and she wondered if this was how Adam and Eve first felt…

“You have returned,” Oriz said to her.

“I have.”

She greeted the others. A softness filled the silence between their words. There was a moment extending that none of them wanted to break.

“Sorry, I went for a walk after my Epiphany,” Zoe said.

“We get it,” Bella said. “I think all of us stumbled out into the steam for a moment. It was… intense.”

“Sad,” added Skidmark. “I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much.”

Oriz nodded.

“There was a lot of…” she clenched her fists. “I didn’t realize I was so angry. The plant grows toward the sun, but does it crave to be burned?”

Zoe shook her head.

“We all want to be burned,” she said. “That’s what draws us to power in the first place.”

“Can we save the philosophy for another time?” Anton asked. “I’d like to get moving, if possible.”

“Feeling antsy?” Skidmark teased. “What was your Epiphany like?”

“I didn’t have one,” he lied obviously. “I’m the same old Anton.”

“I call malarkey,” Skidmark said. “When I woke up you were curled up and whining.”

“I —”

“Leave him alone,” Bella said. “We all have our demons. Speaking of, what’s the plan, Zoe?”

Bella gazed at her with intent. Her eyes were like two dark wells. The blue was deeper now, almost shadowed. Another change? Bella leaned forward on her sword. She was the only one who knew about the map. Zoe hesitated to tell the others — what would they think of her — but then she pushed past the doubt.

“I made a deal with the Four-Hearted Wasp while I was unconscious and now I have a map out of hell,” she held up her hand to stop any comments. “I know it was stupid, but it’s my problem to deal with. Now we have a way out, and it’s on this island. With my body path and Bella’s sword runes, we can cut a shortcut through Hell and out. There’s one thing though…”

“There’s always something,” Anton said, but he seemed excited. “What is it?”

“I want to steal the chain around the Angel.”

“You want to free the Angel?”

“No. The Angel is the prison, not the prisoner. It’s binding the chain because the chain was a part of the Black Star System.”

Anton frowned.

“That’s confusing.”

“I know. I’m not going to ask you to help me steal the chain —”

“Don’t have to ask, I’m in.”

“Same,” said Skidmark.

“It’s stupid, but I’ll help, obviously,” said Bella.

Oriz nodded at her.

“To go against an Angel… Not long ago I would have said it was the craziest thing I ever heard proposed. Not long ago my heart worshipped three gods… I will say this: expect dire repercussions should your plan go wrong — and maybe even if it goes right — but I will follow you.”

Zoe let out a sigh.

“I promise we won’t regret doing this.”

The words slipped out before she could stop herself, and everybody winced. The silence that followed was broken by Bella’s laugh.

“Oh, wait, the Gambler is dead. He can’t read our minds and make things horrible anymore. We’re going to be fine!” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “No, I’m sure it’s alright, but can we get some clothes first?”