“... ake up … Wake up … Ms. Eleanor, please wake up!”

“Huh? Wha …?”

As the screen slowly brightens, we see Donna huddling in a dark cave as the snow still rages on outside.

Before her is a stack of sticks and some torn fabric.

“Ms. Eleanor, are you awake? I need you to make a fire for us. Ms. Eleanor?”

“Yawn … Yeah, I’m up. I’m up.”

A voice echoes from inside Donna’s body. The girl feels her body heat up for a moment, then the fuel before her is suddenly lit ablaze.

Donna rubs her blue palms together and places them before the fire. The orange glow reveals the girl’s haggard face and dark limbs.

“Let me fix that for you,” Eleanor says and casts a healing spell to rejuvenate Donna.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Both of them turn silent and watch the dancing flame.

After some time, Donna says, “You said you were inside me.”

“Yep.”

“As in … you’re currently residing inside my body?”

“Yep.”

“Oh.”

Donna scratches her ear, and it falls right off.

“Oops. Forgot to fix that.”

“It’s alright.” Donna picks up her ear and holds it in place for Eleanor to reattach it.

“So …” Eleanor starts. “Yeah …”

“Ms. Eleanor, whatever you have to say—I don’t want to hear it. You may think I do, but trust me, I’d rather not know a gosh darn thing.”

“... Okay.”

The two of them remain in the cave, waiting for the storm to subside.

The Devil slips in and out of consciousness, but she makes sure to keep the fire ablaze and to keep Donna’s heart beating.

After an unknown amount of time, the snow finally stops. Donna steps out under the clear blue sky. Her cheeks are sunken, and she is much thinner than before. She is only able to move thanks to the Devil circulating mana and hatred through her body.

All around them is pristine snow, with only a few pine trees sticking out in a sea of white.

“Try climbing the tree, freckles. I want to observe the area.”

Donna nods and climbs up the dark branches. Her limbs move smoothly thanks to the circulating mana. Once they reach the top, the Devil peers through the girl’s eyes at the surrounding environment. She spots a faraway mountain range and a certain twinkle on one of its peaks.

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“It’ll be a long walk,” Donna says. “We better get going before the storm resumes.”

“Why walk when you have wings?”

The Devil laughs and sprouts wings on the priestess’s back. But then the cold air forces her to retract them.

The Devil coughs awkwardly.

“I better start walking,” Donna says.

“... You do that.”

Donna Day makes her way through the snowfield. The distance to the mountain is incredibly far, but she simply keeps her head down and focuses on walking one step at a time. She walks until the sun goes down, and she continues to trudge through the night. The Devil creates a floating fireball beside her to keep her warm and light her path forward.

At the light of dawn, the mountain doesn’t seem to be any closer.

The sun goes up. The sun goes down. The snow resumes and stops again. The girl simply keeps walking, without food or water. Days go by, then weeks. Donna barely stops to rest.

Whether it’s due to the strength given to her by the Devil or her superhuman tenacity, Donna finally reaches the foot of the mountain.

“What now, Ms. Eleanor?”

Donna looks up at the jaggy surface reaching up to the sky.

“Let me try something. Just don’t freak out.”

“At this point, nothing phases me anymore.”

“We’ll see.”

The Devil uses her power to reshape Donna from within. Using the same shape-shifting ability she used on the horse, she makes Donna’s limbs elongate. Her fingers sharpen and curve like hooks. The poor girl now looks like a creature out of a nightmare.

Donna wiggles her long fingers with dead eyes. She exhales heavily and starts to scale the mountain. Her sharp fingers dig into the rocky surface and her inhuman limbs allow her to climb up quickly.

“Pretty convenient, right? How about I give you two more pairs of hands to climb faster?”

“Ms. Eleanor, please stop spouting heresy or I promise you, I will cleanse your soul the old-fashioned way.”

The Devil looks down and decides to keep her mouth shut.

When they reach the top of the mountain, they find themselves standing before a majestic structure made of purple crystal. It’s like a grand cathedral shining brilliantly atop the mountain.

Donna drops to her knees and prays.

“Lord, give me strength.”

“Stop wasting time, freckles! I want to get out of this goddamn freezer already!”

“Lord, give me the strength to not hurl myself down to the world below and take this heretic with me.”

“...”

Donna Day wraps up her prayer and approaches the crystalline structure. The closer she gets, the more brilliant it shines—almost blinding. She reaches a gigantic gate embedded with countless gemstones. But only the one smack right at the center is pulsating with purple energy, like a transport point.

“Well, only one way to find out what’s behind door number one, freckles.”

“I really wish you would stop calling me that.”

Donna touches the purple gem and she once again finds herself transported to a new space … literally.

All around is an endless space with countless purple stars shimmering in the black void. Donna reaches out her hand to touch a star and it breaks into shining particles before reforming into a mirror—no, a screen that is showing a world of endless ocean. Donna touches another star, and this one shows a desolate landscape with an erupting volcano in the background.”

Each star shows a different world—a different region of the Amber Dungeons.

“Amazing,” Donna says.

“I suppose this is the end of the road … or where it all began.”

“Do you know where we are, Ms. Eleanor?”

“I got a theory. And if I’m right … then we’re both fucked.”

“I’m sorry?”

“We shouldn’t have come here. No, I shouldn’t have come to this realm.” Inside of Donna’s body, the Devil is squirming. She is shaking with fright. “This young, backwater shithole of a planet actually has a … God.”

Suddenly, the void begins to shake violently and the stars scatter into dust. A thunderous voice echoes from all directions:

“Indeed, you should never have stepped into my world, abominable Hate-runner!”