In the Wolvenheim Greenwood Region, at Grove of Snarling Fangs City’s Obelisk, a young woman with long, straight black hair wearing a mask covering half her face appeared, a shiny white-gold winged serpent laying across her shoulders and resting on her head. Among the hundreds of thousands of visitors commuting to and from the city centre, they weren’t necessarily a unique sight, but the eye-catching colouration and seeming rarity of her bond drew a few eyes here and there as they made their way through the traffic.
The Wolvenheim Greenwood Region was directly ruled by a Supreme high-noble clan under the royal wolf bloodline, the Fenrirs, and so Scytale and Lucy had deemed it safe to remove the Truth-Seizing matriarch’s illusion from him. Quite happy he had his large wings back, the metre-long snake used every chance he got to flap them to the anguish of the girl underneath him, who had the breeze ruffling her normally straight hair everywhere.
Lucy had to see if she could pull a feather out to get him to stop. While she was twirling her shiny new trinket in her hands, the now more subdued amphiptere was curious about her plans for the city.
‘So how are you going to do this? What are the requirements for the main skill?’
I need to form an ‘Identity’ in two different places at once, at the same time, while being Rank-0, which means I can only do this at level 10 or below. And obviously without having selected a main skill already, otherwise I wouldn’t have a skill slot for this.
‘Yeesh. That’s practically impossible. All right, so why couldn’t this have been done earlier?’
Because I need to make a conceptual ‘Identity’. That means the residual spiritual energy of 100 people or more must be directed at me and my temporary doppelganger at the same time in two different places.
‘Okay, this must be used by only one other person in the history of the System. So, I guess you need to make scenes in areas with lots of people, but you can’t be unsafe about it, which means…. the Inheritance Trials Event and the Distorted Depths Battalion Application?’
That’s right.
‘I guess I’m your temporary doppelganger then. Illusion, the ultimate element, helping someone trick double the people in the same amount of time. Should I act for the Inheritance Event or the Battalion Application?’
She tapped on her chin with a finger in thought. Currently trying to find an inn, they had to make their way past many more people than had been in the Supreme Serpent’s Silent City. This city had a much larger population of magical beasts, and most were wolf-types, having long tails and ears with their human features. As was customary among the wolf clans, when they had a disagreement, they organised duels to resolve it. She eventually responded to her bond.
Play my part at the Inheritance Event. Physical combat is less important when you’re part of a navy on constantly stormy seas, so I doubt they’ll try to test my physical ability at the Battalion Application. I passed it last time just fine, and it shouldn’t be that different compared to the time a few months later when I originally joined it. You can act like me well enough, can’t you?
‘Oh definitely. I just have to stand there, all smug, eyes narrowed and with a supremely irritating wide grin on my face that makes anyone who sees it think I know too much about them. Yup, easy peasy.’
I’d swat you if we weren’t in public.
‘I know.’
Entering a decent-looking inn, it was a quick process to get a room key and go up to it. Lucille flopped down on the bed and Scytale lay next to her coiled up. She looked up at the roof.
Come to think of it, I didn’t get the appearance change option that I had when I finished the Tutorial the last time.
‘I noticed you didn’t change your appearance. Was it because of that?’
Not at all. I just don’t care about my appearance anymore after 200+ years. Sure, I wanted to make it so my appearance wasn’t connected with my family when I first entered the Tower, but that must not even be on my list of priorities now.
The old her looked much different to her currently. The original 18-year-old Lucille Goldcroft had been careful in ensuring nobody would know who she was, and so, when offered it by the System, took the chance to completely change her form. She knew several others from Earth had been offered it as well. The User gained an Epic skill that perfectly transformed their body so they could have their old appearance or their new one whenever they pleased.
‘Then the System must’ve detected that you weren’t planning on changing your looks. So, when do we want to do this?’
She closed her eyes, or eye, as one was already closed behind the mask, and relaxed.
The day before the Inheritance Trial appears. I want to take advantage of the groups that will appear because they’ve earned early knowledge of where it will occur, so in two days, here’s what I want you to do...
…
Two days later, in the Tower equivalent of mid-August, a figure walked through the entrance of a large intimidating building. Built out of grey-blue and white brick, in large gold-thread font, the navy-blue banner hanging across the giant entranceway spelled out ‘THE EMPIRE OF ETERNITY’S BEAST REALM BRANCH OF THE DISTORTED DEPTHS’ NAVY BATTALION: GROVE OF SNARLING FANGS CITY’. Hanging below that, a much smaller banner spelled out ‘APPLICATIONS CURRENTLY OPEN’.
The figure had an unruly mane of wild black curly hair highlighted by glowing strands of dark blue and indigo, with specks of white, and piercing brilliant blue eyes. She was tall and had a stunningly gorgeous face but watched everything with a cold, indifferent expression. The woman was currently wearing a white dress shirt, dark-blue pants, knee-high brown boots, and a light-brown leather vest, appearing like she was in her early 20s. It was Lucille, currently using an illusion to appear as she did when she signed up for the Navy in the past.
Making her way forward with purpose, she reached an applicant desk where a young female clerk dressed in a militant Navy-blue uniform detailed with gold buttons, cuffs and a collar was working. She tilted her head - wearing a matching navy blue and gold cap - to look up at Lucy. She put on a pleasant smile.
“Are you here for the Distorted Depths Region Navy Battalion application?”
She nodded her head silently. The clerk pushed forward a form and pen on the dark lacquered wood of the desk.
“Please write your name, level, race, realm of origin, and class type here before you head to the waiting area. The other information is optional. The Empire accepts all we can for the Distorted Depths Region, so do not fear that we will reject you,” the short-haired clerk told her.
Lucy nodded again. She filled out the form and handed it back to the clerk.
The clerk read out the form, comparing it to an invisible status screen of information. “Your name is Adrianna Riftmire?”
Feeling like a pattern was forming, Lucy nodded her head once again.
“Level 40, your race is human and you’re a mage. I don’t suppose you could tell me where you are from? We don’t have any Mystical Realm residents of that name in our population registry.”
Well, that was because ‘Adrianna Riftmire’ didn’t exist. Yet. Lucy responded, her tone apathetic.
“I’m not in the registry because I came from one of the outer planes of the Mystical Realm. It was destroyed during a freak void storm, and the System initiated an emergency teleport for my countrymen. Not all of them made it. Is there more information on this you would like me to supply?” she asked.
The clerk stared at her and then coughed. “Oh, no. That will be all I need.”
She very quickly stamped a red seal of acceptance with the Empire’s emblem onto her form. She awkwardly stood up and while bowing, pointed a white-gloved hand in the direction of the waiting room to her left.
“Please be seated in the waiting room over there. The wait will be for the next half-hour, or until the waiting room is full. Please don’t hesitate to show your talents in the assessment trial, as you may gain a higher initial position when fully accepted into the Navy. The Empire wishes you luck, so that you may see future horizons.”
Then the clerk stiffly gave her the Empire’s salute, a fist pressed against her chest, before sitting down and ignoring Lucy, drawing eyes from the other 20 clerks working nearby. Lucy, herself almost raised an eyebrow but kept up her act and entered the large waiting room. The room big enough to fit hundreds was filled with many people, most of them older veteran adventurers and mercenaries, seated on the wooden benches supplied for them by the staff. One large wall was made of glass, showing a huge white auditorium filled with different obstacles and targets, presumably the assessment area. On the opposite side of the auditorium was a raised platform with several armchairs placed there, but they were currently empty.
Due to her apparent young age, she drew some looks, but most ignored her. She leaned against the wall and waited patiently with her eyes closed.
Most of the people within were mercenaries or adventurers who were looking to enter the navy for a stable job, the Distorted Depths’ Battalion meaning they would gain access to larger amounts of experience from defeating the many monsters found in the Beast Realm. If they entered the Main Navy Battalion instead of the Distorted Depths’, they wouldn’t be fighting monsters, but people. They were people who already had some combat experience, and hoped to get to a decent level in the Navy’s hierarchy by showing off their strength. Lucy, however, wasn’t aiming for that. She had another place she needed to go before becoming an Officer in the navy.
After some time, the doors were opened by a man wearing navy blue. The staff member who opened the doors spoke to the whole room.
“You will now enter the assessment hall. The assessors are honourable military Captains of the Empire’s different battalions, a total of 24, so do not disrespect their judgement. If you are called up, you will come to the front, where you will demonstrate your abilities to them. Everyone else must remain behind the red line, which also indicates where the magical barrier will be, for your protection. Do not move past the red line until your name has been called, or else you will be disqualified.”
They went through a few more rules, with some particularly pointed ones such as ‘no combat between participants while waiting’ and such. Eventually, they headed through the doors and turned left, ending in front of the glass wall of the waiting room. Lucy counted roughly 80 participants and combined with the Captains, if all went to plan, she would get the skill. Contacting a certain winged snake, she sent a pulse of spiritual energy along the bond.
I’m waiting for my turn. How are you going on your end?
She heard Scytale’s voice echo through the bond.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
‘I think I’m good. I’ve got a plan to bait three mid-sized Factions which are searching for the Inheritance Trials site to come together.’
Good. The identities don’t need to form at exactly the same time, but it would be best to keep them within half an hour of each other. ‘R’ from Riftmire is quite far down the Imperial Common alphabet, so I’ll be here for another hour at least.
‘So begin in an hour?’
Yes.
‘Got it. Then I’ll start preparing’
----------------------------------------
A black-haired girl with a mask over her face’s right side was crouched in some tree branches, watching a few steel-plated guilders mull about in the woods below. Scytale’s illusions didn’t transform his body, unlike his great-grandmother’s, but it automatically conformed to what people imagined a human would normally do in his position, so his fake limbs weren’t clipping through the trees near him or twisting weirdly. It was one of the better applications of spiritual energy with illusions Lucy had taught him.
With half an hour still left to go, he was currently waiting for the three Factions to trigger the magic he had left. The Guilds were busy searching for a sign or something that would indicate where the Inheritance Event was going to appear tomorrow, so they could camp and be some of the first to enter. He had asked Lucy in the past about what Guilds in the Beast Realm really did considering they tended to act like large gangs with some sort of ineffectual moral standpoint, but from what he gathered from her description, they were supposed to fight the larger and stronger monster Lairs, rather than squabble over land rights and territory.
Considering all three Factions were from the city, he was willing to take a bet that they would bicker like children when they saw each other, and instantly get defensive if they saw a rival ‘guilder’ spying on them. It wasn’t his fault that his three illusion spells were conveniently mimicking the three Faction’s armour designs. It was only a coincidence. He could swear on his Caladrius bloodline’s ancestors.
He snickered when he discovered that the three armour designs were in the colours red, blue, and yellow, the primary colours. Or not the true primary colours, if you considered that green and not yellow as the primary colour for light, and not paint. That thought of light made him think about his new avenues of attack for the future…. wait, he was supposed to be keeping a lookout for when they would trigger the spells!
Oh, he was fine. They hadn’t yet. A quick check with Lucy and her internal clock told him that he still had 25 minutes, so he continued musing about his light element manipulation.
Known as one of the 6 essential elements of fire, water, earth, wind, light and dark, the light element was very popular for its relatively high attack. Not as great as fire, but it made up for it with its buffs. Conversely, dark was a great defensive power with good debuffs. He was a bit annoyed with the element on how it was related to ‘heroism’ and its connection with that guy, but it was better for him than any of the four base elements, because it also had illusion spells in its repertoire. There were both light element and dark-element illusion spells. He still thought neutral illusion magic was best because he could mimic both light and dark magic with it, but his new bloodline didn’t change his no-element illusion manipulation to light, so he was content.
However, while dark magic was more ‘conceptual’ according to Lucy, as nobody could literally manipulate the absence of light, therefore making it more irregular with its function, the light element was interesting in another way. Most thought light was a less hot and flashier version of fire magic, but he knew better, thanks to his experience with Lucy and through her, Earth. Microwaves, x-rays, infrared, ultraviolet, and even the nastier ones, like gamma rays, were all available to him.
He knew the rare light Archmagus’ had discovered the electromagnetic spectrum, but while most thought their highly devastating forms of magic were related to their proficiency in manipulating the element, he knew it was the opposite: manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum was the most basic form of light manipulation, and therefore the purest. Creating massive barriers of light magic was ten times harder than creating microwaves, however, creating microwaves was harder mentally to understand when it came to elemental laws. He had already skipped that step.
His issue was this: he wasn’t a very deep thinker. Most magical beasts weren’t, although the magic manipulators like his sub-race were considered more academic-minded than most. But yeah, unlike Lucille and her years of research, he was simple. Point him at the enemy and he’ll rip them to pieces.
However… he was getting interested in finding out more about the scientific side of the light element now that it applied to him, and possibly his future magic. Lucy said that was because if he could find anything that would make him stronger, he would try his best to do it. He supposed it might be true, he did enjoy the few video games he played, even if not the VR games so common in her world at the present. And when she explained spiritual energy and its relation to magic, he did pick up a few tricks.
But how could it apply to him…. Hmmm. It seemed like he would need to think a bit. While his plan could, very very loosely, be explained as becoming a ‘very angry armoured disco ball’, as he told his bond, it was more complicated than that. His last skill of the Sanctity Caladrius bloodline could be explained as needing him to be an aggravator of some kind. Stereotypically what Earth’s Users refer to as a ‘tank’. Because the Tower was not a game, no matter what the forerunners believed, people built their classes and skillset around their Origin Skills, regardless of their actual wants, and so there was very little true ‘min-maxing’.
He wasn’t too upset about that, as he wasn’t quite up for becoming the ‘Truth-Seizing World-Ender’ of old yet, but he had no experience with the traditional fighting style of a tank, with buffs and all. He was originally more of a just shrug off all the damage and turn their spells against them kind of guy.
How did a stereotypical tank usually function? He remembered they had good defence, physical strength, high hp, aggro skills and regen…. and the light element was best for healing outside water or wood. He focused on CON and STR in the past, due to his size meaning he didn’t get the stats members of his bloodline usually did, but this time he would have to go for a more magic-based fighting style. He would need much more INT than WIS, as WIS would increase his mana regen, which was the easiest for him to increase due to his Caladrius skill, but his mana cap was harder to increase. Although…. If he invested in WIS instead of relying on his bloodline skill to supply it, couldn’t he use tons of passive buffs?
As long as he had enough mana, he could apply millions of buffs, increasing all his stats, and the stronger he becomes, the more likely he is to attract more attention. With more mana, he could have permanent healing spells, and permanent buffs active. He was sure Lucy knew some of the skills required for the Citadel of Fate’s Paladin class, and they had some of the best light element buffs, so if he fused a low-rarity Paladin class... Oh, and with his elemental mimicry technique, he could simulate the other elements with his illusion magic at around 75% similarity, and they had some cool buffs too. Even better, he will be immune to the effects of elemental damage reduction, as unless they were specific to illusion, a dark, fire, air, water, or earth damage reduction would be ineffective, as he will be using illusion for those buffs.
And how could he forget about skill chains? By using damage reflection buffs, every time he gets attacked, he can set off skill chains and reactive buffs that can reverse the damage, sending it back to them. With a high CHAR stat, they’ll always consider him the greatest threat on the battlefield, attacking him and making it worse. Then he’ll really become a threat from the bonus mana, which means they’ll continue attacking him, keeping their attention on him! Wait, but for his defence, just high CON might not be good enough. If only he could create a super strong full-body Heroic Armament somehow…. Maybe Lucy knew a technique to merge-
He flinched as he felt a slight mana drain. Quickly switching his attention to the faint senses of his three illusory guilders, he realised one of the Faction’s guilder parties had activated the fake guilder. He quickly controlled it to follow the party at a distance. Checking the time, he realised there were about 5 minutes left, so, he activated the other two, finding a few parties nearby to stalk. Then, very carefully, he made his illusion puppets enter the range of the three party’s senses. When a party member noticed the puppet and saw their colour, he made them start running away, leaving traces. Someone with decent skill would be able to see that the traces were on purpose, but he didn’t believe they had anyone like that here. They weren’t any of the larger Factions from the city, after all.
He led the three parties to an open field. It was where Lucy knew the Inheritance Event was going to appear, but these little Factions hadn’t discovered that yet. He made sure the parties didn’t appear in the field at the same time, so they wouldn’t meet and then watched from his now bird-shaped illusion puppets to see them make their way back to their main Faction camps. In this way, they would report the open field within the forest to their superiors, suggesting that could be where the Inheritance Event will appear. The open field was expanded with System magic, and so was a new addition to the forest that normally these Guilds would have known like the back of their hands.
After they reported, he made his way over to the field. Hiding within one of the encircling trees, he watched patiently as the red, blue, and yellow Guilds, each having 50 people, came over to inspect the field, approaching from the field’s sides, all evenly spaced from each other. Then, while sniggering, he saw the awkward silence occur when the three leaders and their subordinates saw the other two factions had found the field and arrived at the same time as them.
Scytale had used his illusions to prevent the Guilds from realising the other Guilds were searching for the site of the Inheritance Trials. There were a few close calls, but he managed to prevent them from seeing the real guilder parties, so they all were extremely excited when they ‘realised’ that they were the only ones currently in the forest at the time.
When the three leaders started walking towards the circular field’s centre to talk, Scytale knew it was his time to shine. Activating [Lesser Invisibility], he slithered his way through the grass, hiding in preparation as he eavesdropped on their conversation. The red-plated, black-haired leader spoke up first.
“So, you guys teamed up and baited me here? What are you going to do now, kill us here, where anyone can stumble across my Faction’s bodies?” he growled, a hand already on the handle of the longsword by his waist.
The red-haired leader with a blue crest on her armour made a motion to grab the battle axe strapped to her back. “You’re playing this sort of game, huh? Well, I don’t care, I’ve been wanting to cut off that over-blown ego of yours anyway.”
The blonde-haired Guild leader with gold, yellow-crested armour and a spear on his back stepped between them both and held up his hands placatingly, a smile on his face.
“I believe we shouldn’t be fighting right now. Maybe we can all take a step back to think through this situation further-”
“No!”
The blonde-haired man ran a hand down his face as they prepared to fight.
“Please, Garson, Louise, don’t do this now. I feel like something’s off about this.”
The red-head Guild leader turned her head to the blonde guy with renewed fury.
“As if I would believe your sketchy mug, Francis! I’ve never trusted you since you stole my skill book.”
“But that was when we were 16! …never mind, please calm down and think about this a bit more!”
Louise clenched her teeth and looked ready to argue, while Garson, even though he was still scowling, removed his hand from his sword and took a less aggressive position.
“Well,” he said, arms crossed, “You always were the smartest one, Francis, so I’ll hear you out, if only because I don’t believe Louise has the intelligence to bait us like this.”
Louise turned back to him, obviously irate, while Francis nodded in thanks and placed his gauntleted hands on his hips. He gestured with one, indicating to the gathered Guild members.
“Thank you. Now, can we at least agree that none of us in our right minds would ever lead another of our three Guilds to an Event we could use ourselves?”
The two of them grudgingly nodded and Francis continued.
“And so, I want to bring up another fact: why could none of our parties see traces of the other Guilds right until we were all conveniently led to this field at the same time? Surely you can see the issue, as all our trackers have similar skill levels!”
“Thomas is at tier XII for his tracking. He tiered up last week.”
Francis gave Louise a look. She blinked back.
“I’m not talking about their Statuses.” He put a hand to his forehead before gesturing to the others again.
“I’m just saying, there’s no point to me, Garson, or you Louise, inviting any of the other Guilds to this field. It’s more likely someone else lured us here.”
“Someone like me?”
All three of them whirled around, weapons at the ready, to see a black-haired mask-wearing girl(?) standing behind them. They glanced at each of their own Faction members, who shrugged and looked just as confused as the trio was to see the girl. Scytale stepped forward as he masqueraded as Lucy, a carefree smile on his face. With the illusion copying his intentions, it was easy to make it follow his expressions, even if he was in beast form. The Lucy mimicry’s grin widened, and he made it do a deep bow, one hand spread wide.
“Lucille Goldcroft at your service,” he said with her voice. They traded wary glances between them, telling Scytale exactly how they felt about not sensing his presence. Lesser Invisibility had minor presence-reducing abilities, as it was an intermediate spell. The red-wearing Garson waved his sword at ‘Lucy’ threateningly when she straightened up.
“Get back.”
‘Lucy’ raised an eyebrow, her smile still present. “Whatever for?”
Louise was less cautious and swept out with her battle-axe, letting a slash of water magic out at the same time. ‘Lucy’ leaned back, dodging it with ease. It wouldn’t have done anything to the illusion, but it was best to keep the act up for now. ‘Lucy’ saw that Francis seemed to be looking at the area around him with searching eyes, and she narrowed her own eyes, but Francis’s gaze quickly returned to her.
Francis hissed at Louise with clenched teeth before she could make another move. “Get. Back. You can’t harm her.”
‘Lucy’ tilted her head at him. “What astute eyes.”
“Why not?! She’s right there!” Louise hissed back at him. ‘Lucy’ placed her hands behind her back with an amused smile, slowly walking around them. The defensive trio moved around in a circle to keep her within their field of view.
“It’s because-” Francis began, but Garson slashed through ‘Lucy’ with his longsword. Instead of pulling back, injured as she normally would’ve been, she wavered like a reflection on water and reappeared on their opposite side, chuckling.
“-of that,” Francis finished. The other two looked flabbergasted that the attack didn’t work, while Francis let out a sigh. “She’s an illusion,” he explained to them.
‘Lucy’s’ smile widened, and she gave an exaggerated shrug.
“Indeed. It seems we may be at an impasse. You seem intent on killing me, an unknown factor, while I currently do not feel the same way. Although that,” she continued, eyes narrowing coldly while her smile remained the same, “May change depending on your actions.” The three of them shrunk back a little at the implied threat. Scytale had no intention of killing them, but they had no way of knowing that.
Garson and Louise seemed to become nervous with her statement, but Francis straightened up slightly, still pointing his spear at her.
“Your earlier words seemed to imply you led us here. Is that true?” he demanded.
‘Lucy’ smirked and responded. “It’s true.”
“For what purpose?!” He shouted at her, scowling. ‘Lucy’ let out a short laugh and pointed at the ground beneath them.
“You’re here for the Inheritance Trials are you not?”
Garson and Louise opened their mouths in surprise, while Francis remained silent. ‘Lucy’ raised an eyebrow at Francis’s reaction but carried on walking with her hands behind her back.
“Don’t want to give any more details away? Well, your silence is an answer in itself. I’m here for it too, obviously.”
Garson let out a ‘Bah’ while Louise scoffed. Francis kept his spear steadily aimed at her.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Oh? You don’t?” she responded.
“No,” he growled. “You’ve turned up a day earlier. You led all our factions to the field where the Event is most likely to appear. You let us talk it out instead of inciting us to fight, and you used an illusion to appear before us as we were discussing this. Why would you do any of these things?!”
‘Lucy’ raised her eyebrow again. “Curious? Then let’s trade information. One question per answer.”
Francis stared at her for a second before shaking his head. “I’m not playing your games.”
‘Lucy’ halted her actions. They nervously watched her for a moment, unsure of what she was going to do, before the girl started chuckling, then doubling down and laughing heartily in a show of emotion the real Lucy would never do. Slapping her thigh and wiping away a fake tear in laughter, ‘Lucy’ stopped using the type of words the real Lucy would, and grinned in amusement at them.
“I mean, come on, ‘I’m not playing your games’? What is this, some childish book with the villain tricking the three heroes with words of power? Do you think you actually have important information? No random demon is going to turn up and think ‘Oh, I might just trap these random guilders into an unwilling contract, that’ll be worth it’. Dude, be realistic. Even if I meant it, my questions couldn’t do anything to you guys.”
The three of them just stared at the ‘Lucy’ who had abandoned his acting, very confused and feeling slightly embarrassed when they heard what she said. Garson had even begun to turn red in humiliation, and Francis’s expression was very interesting for Scytale to watch as burgeoning realisation formed.
“Sorry guys had to do this for my bond. Something about 100 people seeing me or whatever. And wow, you guys are terrible guilders. I mean, I’m not even Rank-3 yet and you got tricked by my illusions! But seriously, get a grip. I don’t care about your ‘information’ or whatever. Who cares what this little region has. Anyways, I gotta go. So long!”
And, after poking his tongue out at them, Scytale in ‘Lucy’s’ form dashed away from the three factions, having received confirmation from Lucille that his part of the job was completed. But he wanted to do one last thing. Turning around, he yelled out to them, pointing in the air.
“Oh, AND THIS IS FOR TRYING TO KILL ME!”
And with a twist of magic, illusory red fireworks shot up from his finger above the clearing, spelling out the words ‘INHERITANCE EVENT HERE!’ next to a bright red arrow, pointing downward, clearly visible from the city. As the three red, blue, and yellow Guilds watched, his Lucy visage melted away, and they barely caught a glance of a silver tail slipping into the darker woods.
I don’t think I could ever truly understand why Lucille plays with her enemies like that, but I’ve got to admit, that was majorly satisfying.