The black HC rumbled up to Vora’s house and turned off. The blonde man shook the purple woman out of slumber. While Vora wiped her eye and Klev reached for a still-cold glass bottle of orange pop, a creature plopped onto their hood and peered into the vehicle blankly.

“Puggly?” Vora said more calmly than she should have.

“That’s Puggly?! How did he get so massive?” Klev recoiled.

After Puggly groaned, Vora stated, “It’s time then. I may not be home for a while. I need you to make an excuse for my absence, darling.”

“S-Sure. What should be the excuse? I’m bad on the spot.”

“Hmmm. Tell them I slept with you and stayed over.” After gaining a giggle from Klev’s red cheeks, Vora restated, “Say I’m over at Maive’s. Get her on the wire and ask her to cover for me. She owes me three.”

On the street, Vora’s left eye whitened, and she raised her hand to the lampposts. String-like aura leaked from her hand then butterfly wings grew all over her like scales on a snake, forming a copy of her cloak and mask. After blowing a kiss, she vanished into the dark veil.

“Be careful…” Klev said seriously. But he was far too delayed to reach his woman’s ears.

***

Two summers ago, Klev was in the woods with Vora, assisting her with her magic training. She repeatedly tried to control the other part of her soul by stealing her Eoa. She cried and suffered from her twisted magic for hours. When she went too far, and Monarch surfaced, Klev was there to subdue her soul.

Each time, the amount of Eoa Vora controlled safely grew, as well as her tolerance to the agony. She displayed her new limit, sending a vortex of ten thousand butterflies upward. They softly fluttered, refracting the moon’s light.

“Maybe we should finish for tonight,” Klev suggested with concern. “You nearly made a puddle with your crying eye thing.”

In frustration, Vora minced a line of trees before the butterflies absorbed into her body. She grabbed her shredded cloak and broken mask and wiped away the waterworks summoned by two sources.

“Why is it so difficult!?” she screeched. “Everything else is trivial to me. I can pass school with nothing but a sneeze. I’m far more athletic than anyone else. I’m queen of every social event.”

“I don’t think those are comparable to what you’re doing. How many were you able to control?” he asked without understanding Vora’s measurement system.

“A blasted ten thousand…”

“That’s great, though. More than an hour ago.

“Barely.” Vora crumpled into her knees and became frumpy. “She’s so stubborn. Fighting her is so obnoxious. Why doesn’t she just do what I request?”

She is you. Klev thought to himself.

“Is this what it’s like for other people to deal with me?!” Vora asked with self-realization.

“Not at all. Well, a little. But that’s not bad,” Klev remedied. He pulled her to her toes. “You’ll get it, eventually. She’s stubborn, but so are you.”

“Naturally,” she replied, looking offsides glumly.

***

Vora had traveled for three days, following her slobbering Soot friend tirelessly. While Eoa corrupted Vora’s youthful flesh, she was not only speedy and beefy, but the need for sleeping or eating was paused.

It was midday when Puggly declared their arrival with some grunts. The pair entered the ruins of a blasphemous civilization. The city's name was lost when the Burning Bell laid waste to it hundreds of years before Vora was conceived. Vora was taken aback while Puggly breathed anxiously.

“You may leave now, Puggly. Thank you. After my victory today, no, after I masterfully make you that cake, our partnership ends.” Vora’s Eoa cloak gently blew off her, and she patted the ugly Soot. “Go. I’m going to make a grand mess.”

Puggly groaned sadly and reluctantly departed from Vora. Before passing the city’s border into the forest, he gave her an expectant stare.

Her left eye remained pale as she scanned her environment. She wiped her cheek, wetted by the ceaseless stream of tears. Behemoth was here, but he was hiding.

Vora crouched and firmly placed a palm on the stone street below. “Right. Where are you hiding?” She poured her Eoa through her fingertips into the ground, and, with a bang, fifty million caterpillars crawled out of cracks, bursting and traveling until the infestation swiftly consumed the entire ruined city. “Found you,” she sang.

The moment Vora closed her lips, a massive ivory mass burst out from beneath fallen architecture. Behemoth’s shape was best described as a giant, hairless gorilla with numerous silver eyes, an overabundance of ebony claws, two bulb-tipped tentacles coming out his shoulder blades, and heavy ebony fangs. The caterpillars burrowed into his flesh, but he was so massive they weren’t effective long.

Behemoth roared and aggressively swung around chaotically at the bity caterpillars. His tentacles opened their bulbs, and waxy fire hosed the bugs around him with high pressure. The Eoa crystals were smothered, and half the city was a volcano’s vomit.

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The notes did not mention that, Vora thought. And he’s big enough to crush me with his big toe. Irrelevant. I’d never go back from here. I’ll make the true monster show herself.

Vora extended her arms and sent hundreds of thousands of butterflies into the air. They flowed like a glittering ribbon, swirling and dancing around, then attacked Behemoth’s tentacles. They cracked and bled gray, then chipped away.

Behemoth roared and focused in on the distant Vora with his many eyes. He heaved his body into the sky and came crashing down on the purple-haired woman like a lead warhead. Vora barely moved out of the way as the broken city was further dissected. She landed on her feet, but flying rubble broke her arm in the air.

Vora smirked and grabbed the bicep of her injured arm. “Perhaps you could tell me who your master is. You know, the one who is at the end of your leash.”

Behemoth’s answer was a meteoric clawed fist blasting the area Vora was at. She dodged majestically, and her arm snapped back and healed. She used that Eoa to create a crystal blade in each hand. She quickly ran up Behemoth’s arm, slicing into his ivory flesh as she did by dragging her swords, making a path of Eoa blight.

Seeing the spreading cracking defilement, Behemoth bit it off and tossed it aside. In its place, a new one grew, and his tentacles followed. He rumbled the earth, charging at Vora, who’d abandoned the severed arm and encircled the monster like a tiny predator to large prey.

“I’m delighted I don’t have to be as gentle as I imaged,” Vora smirked. She held out her hand, and millions of butterflies merged to make a blade only a giant could physically wield. “Call your master!”

Behemoth continued his charge, and Vora swung her building-sized blade like it was made of construction paper. The Soot swatted it into the horizon and pounded Vora with his fists, cratering the earth for half a mile.

Behemoth moved his fists, and Vora was revealed to be beaten, broken, and near lifeless. Her bleached left eye moved slowly to the king of Soot and to the foot that quickly consumed her vision.

***

One year ago, Vora was deep within herself conversing with Monarch, trying to gain further control. Monarch sat there quietly, which was odd as of late. She hadn’t tried to take Vora’s place in six months.

“What are you planning?” Vora asked the pale, cracked version of herself. “I’ve run out of Eoa a few times this month, and you haven’t ruined my luscious eyes and skin.” “You take for granted the world you are. You’re pampered by life. And all those bad things that happen are sent to me.” Monarch created a butterfly on her pinky. “I haven’t taken over because I was watching. What do you see me as? A burden? Someone who doesn’t deserve love?”

Vora paused and thought. Then she said, “I’ve never considered you anything more than cancer growing up. I feared one day, all that Eoa would spill out, and I would hurt those I love. But I see now that I’ve forgotten you’re a piece of me. You love who I love.”

“I’m essence of agony; I want to feel love. The love you share with your parents and friends. And those devious thoughts you have about Klev.”

“You have them, too,” Vora accused with a smile.

Monarch offered her hand. “Make us whole again.”

“If I do that, I’ll never be rid of this torture. I want to be normal, so I’m willing to compromise.” Vora held out her pinky. “You’ll see the world alongside this beautiful woman until my objectives are done. In exchange, you stay out of my control of Eoa.”

“You won’t have full access to our Eoa, though.”

“That’s fine.”

Monarch hooked Vora’s pinky with her own. “I want to taste cake immediately. Chocolate lemon!” Monarch smiled. “Then a bubble bath.”

“Naturally,” they both said.

***

Behemoth’s massive leg exploded into gray blood and ivory chunks. He fell backward and crashed into the ruins.

Vora stood with her fist skyward, and both eyes were white now. She released millions of butterflies into the sky. They obscured the sun’s light and fluttered above as if waiting for a command.

“How dare step on a dainty lady, such as myself.” Vora’s body became veiled by purple, stringy aura and bounded toward Behemoth like a purple-haired cannonball. She reeled back and demanded clearly, “Call your master!”

Despite the size divide, Vora's kick blew Behemoth across the city, and he dented into a hillside.

Before Vora orchestrated the butterflies to attack and reiterate her request aggressively, Behemoth let out a howl that caused grass to dance and shook dust off cobwebs thousands of miles away. Vora slapped her sweaty hands over her ears, and they bled for a minute.

“That will due. Now I can start playing,” Vora glared.

Behemoth aimed his tentacles at himself and covered his body in a layer of flaming wax. Vora intercepted the burning giant with a sky-full of butterflies, swarming and slowing him down.

Vora held her palm downward and touched her thumb to her middle finger. Her eyes and skin cracked like glass, and everything near her became blighted by agony.

“For how many lives you helped ruined, I’m being merciful,” Vora said coldly. “In the end, you’re just another Soot I’ve practiced on. Your master, however, will know the beauty of their agony.”

She snapped her fingers. As the massive, flaming chunks and lakes of gray blood crashed around her, Vora didn’t blink. She merely witnessed the millions of different colored crystal butterflies separate from their origin point: Behemoth’s heart.

Her skin turned soft and smooth, and her eyes turned chocolate brown. She collapsed, utterly exhausted.

“I’ve used everything,” Vora laughed. “It’s all gone. I’ve never dreamed of such comfort. It’s like fluffy bunnies running in my veins.”

Without Eoa, Vora was in bliss but also fragile. She lay there for hours to regain her strength. Then, high above against the setting sky, a Chime came from a sigil.

“Terrible. Bad. Naughty. Impossible!” The child-looking Chime darted around. “Behemoth can’t go out like this. He’s immortal. Unkillable.”

Vora’s drumming heart accelerated seeing Kindler Cherub. All this time, she was Love Bekkan’s murderer. How often has Klev attended this Kindler’s sermons, unknowingly putting faith in a monster?

She wanted to torture Cherub and make her beg for a swift death. But Vora was vulnerable and weak. It was best to escape with her target’s identity and clip her wings later.

Vora stood and aimed to disappear into the nearby woods. But after only two steps, brass spears from above stuck the ground and caged Vora.

Cherub’s adorable face crossed Vora’s. “Do you know who did this?” She asked earnestly.

“Oh, it was mwah. He was in my way, so I squished him under my heel.” Vora smiled sadistically.

“You’re horrible. A bad person. You’re a Drowned, then? What number?”

“How insulting. I’d never be a Dowser. You’re in the presence of a beautiful witch.”

“Monarch.” Cherub’s voice lowered and became more mature. Her expression became hostile. “Figures. Only you could kill my favorite pet. I spent so long getting him that big. So many great hunts.”

“You get your kicks out of killing Dowsers.”

“You got it. Correct. It’s a thrill. Fun. The low numbers corpses gives me a rush,” Cherub squealed. “Just have to have my doggies sniff them out.”

“You can control those beasts, then?”

“Yes. I… Hey. You’re buying time for some reason.” Cherub wagged her finger. “You’re out of magic. I could skewer you…” Cherub summoned a brass horn in her tiny hand. “But it would be fun irony to let Soot tear you apart.”

Cherub blew a lovely, loud sound. Howls, growls, and screeches came from the distance and all around.

It wasn’t too long before inbred-looking, pale, silver-eyed creatures surrounded Vora’s cage.

“There’s always more of these Chime rejects. I give them a purpose,” Cherub said, lifting the cage with a divinity-fueled wave.

Before the Soot collapsed onto the helpless Vora, several black tongues wrapped around her limbs and waist, yanking her into the dark woods. Seconds later, Puggly roared out, flaming mad.