A flash of lightning struck outside the apartment window, filling the room with blinding light. By the time Momo’s eyes cleared, Lione was gone; the rope that had been binding her sat in a burnt pile on the ground. Robert stared at it, stunned.

“M–m–mother,” he stuttered. “M–m—mother?”

“Shit,” Momo said, whipping her head around. “Where did she go?”

Momo reflexively checked her hand. She was still holding the Wraith Box. Thank god. She had been scared for a moment that Lione had stolen it in the confusion. It was still pulsing, but not with any more intensity than previously.

“Momo, get back!” Nyk screamed.

A force like a battering ram slammed into Momo. It sent her flying backwards into a pile of garbage; luckily, the paper muddied the effect of the slam on Momo’s spine, which was still recovering from being flashbanged by Robert earlier.

“What was that–?” she groaned, looking upwards.

Her eyes were met with hands: green, translucent palms the size of baseballs. She didn’t even have a moment to scream before they were twisting around her neck, clenching down and completely cutting off her airflow. Despite looking like he was the consistency of gelatin, Robert seemingly had the ability to fluctuate his weight and mass, as Momo was now learning the hard way.

“R – Robert. P – please put me down,” she stuttered. She was trying to come up with the right spell to cast, but the lack of oxygen was making it hard to think; not to mention none of the skills in her repertoire were particularly successful against a giant mass of jello. She coughed and wheezed. “Nyk, please—”

“I’m trying!” Nyk yelled. She was kicking at Robert’s side unsuccessfully. Every time she did, her foot would just get stuck, and then she’d spend the next few seconds wiggling it out. “It’s like he takes no damage!”

“You killed m-m-mother,” Robert said, his service dog shirt melting onto the floor. He tightened his grip, and Momo choked out a gurgling sound.

“I didn’t k – kill her, I swear,” she said hoarsely. A dark, hazy ring was starting to form around her vision. She frantically scanned the room, looking for something to help free her. There was so much useless junk around: torn paper, vats of water, broken tables, shattered glass, the discarded tea set…

Wait.

Spotting the teacup on the floor, it clicked.

That’s it.

“Nyk, Nyk, stop. The – the tea.”

Lione had mentioned before that Robert and the tea were made of the same main component – the same nethergel. Since the tea was liquid, and Robert was not, that could only mean one thing.

“What about the damn tea?” Nyk yelled, still kicking to no effect.

“Hot, hot,” Momo coughed out. “The nethergel – when it gets hot, it.. It…”

Nyk’s eyes widened.

“You idiot genius,” she said, wiggling her foot out and taking a few steps to the side so she was adjacent to Momo. She jutted out her palms, facing them forward towards Robert’s side. “If I were you, I’d hold your nose.”

A [Nether Fireball] rocketed out of Nyk’s hand and straight into Robert’s side, burning straight through him. It cut him in half, so his torso and arms flopped onto the floor, melting at the edges. Momo fell to the floor, gasping for breath. The sulfuric air burned her throat.

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“T – thank you,” she said, wincing. “Oh, that smells terrible –”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

Robert’s upper half, still sentient, had already begun to crawl towards his lower half, his gooey fingers dragging along the floorboards. Nyk threw another fireball, then another, until his torso was nothing but a puddle of emerald, runny liquid. His legs fell to their knees, unable to cope.

“There,” Nyk said, sighing. “Gross.”

“P – poor Robert,” Momo coughed. “He didn’t know any better.”

“I have no pity for a goo-man,” Nyk said, scowling. “But where did its owner go?”

Breathing in, Momo looked around the room again. Desert daylight was streaming in through the windows, illuminating the space like a stage spotlight, but still: nothing. It was as if the sudden lightning had struck Lione to smithereens, leaving no trace but a bunch of burnt rope.

As she was about to try and stand, something landed on Momo’s head.

“What was that?” she said, her hand flying to her hair. Something sticky had fallen into it. She pulled at the substance, but it wouldn’t come loose without taking a chunk of her scalp with it. She dropped her hand to her lap, and saw it was coated in an unmistakable green putty.

Momo trembled, a foreboding feeling turning in her stomach.

She looked towards the ceiling.

“Oh god,” Momo said, her jaw going slack as she spotted it. Her voice lowered into a trembling whisper. “Nyk, the ceiling.”

The dokkaebi looked up to find Lione splayed out, caught in a spiderweb of green goo. She looked like a mother arachnid, eyes wide open, pupils fully dilated, limbs extended as far as her ligaments could manage without breaking. She was clearly in that hazy state again, somewhere between cognizant and possessed.

The duchess’s eyes unfocused and focused, finally honing in on Momo.

“That was very rude, what you did,” she said slowly, pouting. “Obliterating my child like that. You’re lucky I can just rebuild him by putting him in the freezer.”

Lione freed her hand from the web and stuck it out towards them.

“[Nether Webbing]!”

Goo shot from her hand, fine as thread, encircling Momo and bundling her limbs together. Momo shortly found her wrists bound to her chest, her legs coupled at the knees. She fell over, wriggling around on the floor like a worm.

“Urgh – Lione, let’s just talk this out, okay?” she yelled, the string binding tighter the more she fought against it. “You just need to think clearly. We’re on your side, remember?”

“Why are you even trying to reason with her?” Nyk said, gritting her teeth. “She’s clearly off her shit. She’s just going to end up killing you –”

“The only side I’m on is the side of science,” Lione said, laughing madly. “And to further science, the Marked One must be eliminated, dear. There is no other way around it. You must be the sacrifice.”

“Why are you so sure I’m the Marked One?” Momo said weakly, arguing from her awkward position on the floor. “That could be anyone. Wouldn’t it be a mistake to just kill me willy nilly? What if you’re wrong?”

“Because I know,” Lione said coldly. “Why else would Sera send the box to you? Why else would she choose me to deliver the final blow? It’s the circle of life, darling. You put me in a prison, I put you in one. Only yours will be terminal.”

Lione grinned, her teeth exposed.

“Now, die,” she said. “[Nether Webbing - Acidify]!”

Momo screamed as the webbing around her turned from goo to acid. It burnt straight through her clothing, biting like hot wasps at her skin. Nyk fired another [Nether Fireball] at Lione in retaliation, but the duchess wrapped herself in a thick cocoon of the gel just as it hit, using it like an endlessly replenishable shield. Nyk threw fireball after fireball, but Lione defended herself with the same mechanism each time, laughing wildly.

“Burn,” she yelled towards Momo, “burn!”

“I can’t stop her!” Nyk growled. “The goo regrows too fast!”

Tears streaming down her face, Momo’s mind reeled. All my skills are useless. She couldn’t cast [Nether Fireball] or [Abysmal Blast]; Lione would just defend herself with the goo cocoon. Even if she used [Summon Lesser Familiar], the summoned creature wouldn’t be able to unbind the acidic vines wrapped around her. And if she [Possesed] a piece of furniture to escape the vines, Lione could just destroy that furniture, and Momo with it.

“My Strength isn’t high enough,” Momo cried. “I can’t break free of these.”

“Just try harder!” Nyk said, evading left and right as Lione cast [Nether Webbing] at her. If she paused for even a second, she’d be caught in the same cage as Momo. “Gods, how much Mana does this woman have?”

“A lot!” Lione cackled.

Momo moaned, her limbs aching and her skin peeling. She was stuck, and her health points were dropping fast.

Her head pounding, she could only think of one remaining trick in her arsenal – a skill she’d been too scared to try yet. Ever since she got her horns, she knew that her everyday form wasn’t the true form of the dokkaebi. She had no idea what the transformation really entailed, but there was a small chance, at the very least, it would up her Strength enough that she could break through the vines.

She had no other choice. She had to go full Goblin.

“To hell with it,” Momo groaned. “[Polymorph - Dokkaebi]!”