"In retrospect, I really should have been more careful," Yanahaseara sighs. "But my insistence on keeping my brother and the infant within my field of vision only served to put them in needless danger."

"...did the cult people attack them?"

"No," she shakes her head. "But do you remember what I said about that thing's voice?"

"Ohhhh."

I can't help but wince.

"It declared itself as Gnirazekna, the ever-encroaching flame, the all-consuming blaze, the creeping embers of the end," she recites from memory. "And the simple act of doing so was enough to cause all the humans around it to scream out in agony."

"Wait- and the baby was there too-"

"My brother shielded the child's ears, but this rendered him unable to do anything for himself."

Damn.

"And then it deferred to that BASTARD-"

Her teeth grind together and her tiny little hands ball up into trembling fists and countless sparks flicker around her horns and I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her that it'll be alright

"The man who stole everything from me."

but then all that fury vanishes in the blink of an eye.

"I should have killed him first," Yahanaseara spits. "He was its first contractor, the leader of those who worshipped it and the one who spoke in its place."

"Oh, so that it could communicate without torturing everyone around it," I posit.

"Psh, no," she scoffs. "That horrible thing enjoyed the effect that its voice had on others. As well as the effect that looking directly at it had..."

She trails off for a couple of seconds.

"...I value beauty."

"Wha?"

The lightning girl places a hand to her chest.

"My human form reflects my ideal of human beauty, and my true form has the same principle."

"Can't argue with that," I mumble without thinking.

"And in the same way, that thing valued unfathomable disgust," she grimaces. "This reflected in its form, its voice, its actions..."

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A long pause.

"...according to that hateful bastard, its master saw humans as nothing more than kindling."

My eyes widen.

"Its worshippers were considered as extensions of its own limbs, spreading out far and wide in search of victims to feed to it. Their screams were its music, their agony its joy."

"......"

"And what it loved the most of all were the primal screams of infants, which were then further 'seasoned' by forcing their parents to watch on as they were roasted alive as slowly as possible."

"......the fuck?"

"What would you have done if you were in my place?" Yahanaseara asks.

"I'd kill it," I reply. "I'd have to."

No consideration is required.

"Even if I died in the process, I couldn't knowingly allow something like that to continue to exist."

Hell, my blood's heating up right now even thinking about it. I know I'm nowhere near strong enough to fight an Elemental Spirit of all things, and I know they're infamously difficult to actually finish off even for people strong enough to fight them evenly, but still.

"I felt the exact same way," Yahanaseara nods. "While I would never claim to possess a strong sense of justice, even what little I did have demanded that thing's eradication."

Her cold, gleaming eyes pull me right in.

"As loath as I am to consider it as the same as myself, I was the first of our kind that it had ever encountered," she grins. "It thought itself invincible, that its flames could burn through any attack I sent its way. So of course..."

She slowly walks towards me.

"...it had no knowledge of the fact that surrounding itself with flames would make it even easier to reach than if it had simply been out in open air."

And suddenly her entire body is pressing up against my abdomen.

"Even easier than this," she says while looking up at me.

"Uh-"

I take a couple of steps back because what the hell

"Boo," she pouts.

I am going to ignore that

"Ultimately, the only thing it had going in its favor was its endurance," the lightning girl sighs. "None if its attacks were able to reach me, while all of mine struck it without fail. So it was but a matter of minutes before victory was mine."

"Nice," I nod.

"And my focus afterwards was on treating my brother and the surviving villagers, so I allowed that thing's remaining worshippers to flee..." she grimaces, "...which proved to be a mistake."

"Because of what that bastard guy did to you?"

"That was... another mistake," she shakes her head. "But the more immediate issue that I did not realize at the time was that I had not fully finished that thing off."

"...shit."

I hadn't even considered that.

"Apparently, when I destroyed what I had thought was its main body, it had broken off part of itself and implanted it inside one of its worshippers," Yahanaseara explains. "Which then fed upon the magical energy produced by said worshipper's soul until it had absorbed enough to finally emerge renewed."

"...Elemental Spirits of Fire can do that?" I gasp.

"Well this one could," she shrugs. "It took another few years before rumblings of the same detestable actions as before reached my village and I faced off against that thing for the second and final time."

A wild, hateful smile.

"Unlike our initial encounter, I was extremely thorough this time around," she grins. "I slew all of its followers who were in the vicinity before even facing it, wasted no time toying with it as I had done during our first battle, and in the end, I held what remnants were left of it within my own four hands..."

She cups her two human hands together and holds them up to the level of her eyes.

"...and personally watched on as its soul was extinguished."

CLAP

"And that, my dear savior..."

A warm, affectionate smile.

"...was the end of the Creeping Embers of Madness."