Lilyth

I was in Ren’s debt. One that I could never hope to repay. If she didn't shoot that mannequin… I wouldn't have made it in time to save Aki.

FUCK!

Why couldn't I have protected her too? Why?

I am too weak. That's why. I really have to stop pussyfooting around and seize every advantage I can. What good is feeling bad about no longer having a beating heart if I can't keep those of my lovers beating?

I honestly didn't expect to come back from this one. That was a frequent thought of mine, I knew, but… this time the grim spectre of death felt… more palpable than ever. I had to fight an unknown amount of enemies I couldn't detect beforehand. Completely alone. With no way of healing myself. There was also whoever controlled the mannequins to contend with. I had no idea where or what they were. Even when facing a bloody god I felt better about my chances because at least I had an enemy I could see and touch. I knew it was futile, but there was SOMEONE I could try hurting.

Doing my best to look hopeful, I kissed the most important three women in my life goodbye and left the classroom. I heard the sounds of a desk being moved the moment the door closed behind me.

It was time to go.

I activated [The Swiftness of the Wind] and started searching the remaining rooms. I did my best never to stay in one spot longer than necessary. The mannequins’ strength lay in ambush tactics. If they actually had to move while visible… I could hear them. I found as much during the previous fight. This was only partially effective, however. For one, there were moments when I had to stop, for example, to open doors. Secondly, whoever was controlling those was slowly learning.

The theory about those being puppeteered was brought forward by Ren while Caei was healing Aki.

‘It would also explain why we haven't been getting any experience for these,’ she said. ‘You wouldn't get any for destroying my arrows, would you?’

That did seem like the best explanation for all this bullshit, so it became our working assumption.

So, as I said, our mysterious puppeteer was learning. The first two attempts at me were awkward and comically easy to avoid. The third one got crafty. One mannequin drew my attention away and a second one tried to break my neck.

Since that failed to work, the fourth and final attempt involved three of the bastards and knives.

If the stakes weren't so dire, it would honestly be a pretty fun game of cat-and-mouse. Alas, I was the latter.

There were three rooms I still had to search on that level. Every time I would enter one, I would quickly try to close the door behind me.

I managed it the first time around.

I failed the second time and would have gotten my neck broken as a prize.

I thought I did it in the final one, but they were waiting for me inside. That's when the knives came out. Once Cassius, Brutus and Decimus were dealt with, and I had only two extra orifices, I looked around the room. The Roman Senate it was not. It looked to be some sort of a maintenance room: there were shelves of tools, cleaning supplies, a bench and other stuff used for cleaning and fixing shit. There was also a welcome sight there - another door.

Praying it led to the exit, I opened it only to discover that there were stairs heading down there.

I sighed and began my descent.

Caeileera

There was no joy in the goodbye kisses Lilyth, gave the three of us. Just the grimness of confirmation that she was risking her neck to save us. Again. It felt even worse because this time around it was us asking her to do it. After… after… seeing Aki crumple to the floor like a rag doll… I just couldn't… It was too much. I thought… I thought she was dead. We all did. Ren really shot that mannequin at the last possible moment.

We didn't know how much damage Aki had sustained, so Lilyth asked me to heal her the best I could on the spot. Then we moved her to that classroom. As we prayed that Aki would wake up, we discussed various contingencies. Well… more like what Lilyth would have to do. If my blue-haired cutie could move, my jelly would look for the exit and clear the way there. Alas, we weren't that lucky. Sitting in that room was pure torment. I was sitting by Aki’s side, holding her metal hand. The girl was hugging her stuffed animal with the other. Occasionally, I would caress my wife's hair.

‘And once again we have to wait here for Lilyth to save us,’ Ren, who sat on the desk, sighed, echoing my thoughts.

‘I think we’d only get in her way now.’ I said weakly. ‘Though… it feels bad.’

‘She carried us through this place… didn’t she?’ Ren asked.

We wouldn't have gotten past the shrieklins without her, I realised. Every single encounter… even now…

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‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘Though it has been going on much longer. Most serious fights… without her…’

‘We have to get stronger,’ Aki croaked, wincing in pain. ‘So… so that she can rely on us in situations like this. It’s the only way.’

‘Knowing her she already managed to discard all her worries about losing her humanity just so… she can protect us,’ I said. ‘Back on the station… she apologised to me for being untrue. I think it is me who should be apologising to her. Truth be told… maybe we wouldn't end up here… if the rest of us were stronger. At some level, Lilyth likely wanted her powers back…’

‘... So that she can protect us better.’ Aki finished for me in a hoarse voice. ‘That’s no way to fight. That's no way to live. We have to show her… that we can take care of ourselves. That in a situation like this we can have her back.’

‘Yes…’ I agreed. ‘We just assumed that since Lilyth can’t hear those things we can't do anything and called it a day.’

‘But what could we do?’ Ren asked. ‘It’s not like…’

‘There must have been something!’ I interrupted her. ‘Maybe I could have done something with [Ward]. But… I didn't even try. Couldn't try because… you know. And now I am beyond useless. I couldn't even fully heal Aki, because as you pointed out, Rennie, I needed to maintain a mana reserve… just in case.’

‘We really are desperate, aren’t we?’ my wife wondered.

‘We were desperate yesterday, hon,’ I replied. ‘Today we need a fucking miracle.’

And the only person capable of delivering it was my reckless jelly.

Lilyth

The staircase led to a large open concrete room, likely the building’s basement. While featureless, other than a corridor entrance in the opposite wall, the room did have quite an ambience though, generated by dozens of white sheet-covered… bodies lying on the floor.

I sighed and shouted:

‘I know this is a trap and whatever is under those sheets will get up and attack me. I am not fucking stupid. Can we just get it over with? I have places to be, people to do.’

When nothing moved I sighed and muttered:

‘So… the hard way it is, eh?’

I approached the nearest sheet, crouched next to it and ran one of my knives through the head. I was rewarded by the crunch of bones breaking.

What?

I pulled the sheet back and saw that instead of a mannequin there was a skeleton underneath.

The fuck?

I looked around the room again and noticed that some of the bodies under the sheets… looked awfully small.

Oh. Oh no. What happened here?

A quick count told me that there were at least sixty corpses here. Going through all of them to check if some of them were mannequins would take too long and open me to an attack. I feared that attacking one of them would wake up the rest.

Well…. The very hard way then.

Figuring that if the mannequins would try to get up I would hear the sheets rustling, I started making my way towards the corridor entrance. And that was when my lack of ability to see the big picture came to fuck me. I was so focused on the possibility of there being mannequins under the sheets that I forgot about the free-range ones. A knife entering through my back and exiting through my navel was a powerful reminder. Then the rustling of sheets began.

Oh… balls…

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

This is gonna suck.

I dove forward, ripping the knife out of my back. It ripped my body apart a bit more, sending waves of pain throughout me, but I didn't care. Based on the amount of sheets I heard move there were at least twenty of the mannequins around.

Time to test my new ability.

I deactivated [The Swiftness of the Wind] and readied myself to start using [Harden Skin]. It took me a while and some painful trial and error, but I figured out how to keep the skill active and just move the protected area where it would be actually needed. So, while I haven't actually come out of the fight uninjured it would have been so much worse without that ability. Only four of the other mannequins actually had knives too, so I prioritised dealing with them. Once that hurdle was cleared, and since, judging by the way the dolls were uncoordinated, whoever was controlling them probably had no experience managing this many at once, the fight became fairly one-sided. In fact, all the injuries I have sustained after that one surprise knife wound were bruises.

I hurried down the corridor expecting more attacks, but none came.

Did they run out of mannequins?

The answer came to me just as I was reaching another room. I first had to process what I was seeing. Parts of the floor were covered in grass and some sort of pink and blue flower-like plants and the foliage only got thicker the closer I got to the next room, which looked like some sort of a greenhouse, once again with another corridor entrance on the opposite side of the room. There was some sort of sickly sweet smell in the air that made my slime crawl.

I think fuckery doth be afoot.

Holding my knives tightly, I carefully stepped onto the grass. This caused a nearby pink plant to release a cloud of spores that only intensified the smell and my feeling of discomfort and made me genuinely afraid.

Please don’t be Zalikh… Pleasedon’tbezalikhpleasedon’tbezalikh…

My Kitsune form didn't suddenly go out or anything and I still could feel magic going through me. The worst part was that I couldn't really test it, as my mana reserves were dangerously low at that stage too and I’ve decided to use what was left in case of an emergency.

I could tell the spores weren't exactly neutral on me, there was some magical component to them, but it likely wasn’t Zalikh, though I couldn’t tell whether they had any meaningful effect on me.

What the fuck am I breathing in?

Now seriously freaked out, I took a step into the room. I sensed something move quickly towards me, and, before I could react, it wrapped itself around my ankle and yanked, throwing me to the ground, my knives clattering onto the floor. I grunted in pain and tried to push myself up, but then something coiled itself around my wrists and constricted them. I began to struggle but couldn't break the iron grip around my limbs. Then, whatever was holding me yanked me up and I found myself hanging off my wrists from near the ceiling. I finally got a look at my assailant.

Vines!

I saw another green tendril sneak towards my one free leg. I tried evading it, but that only made me not notice the one that was trying to grab my neck. The shock of being choked was enough window for the other vine to fully immobilise me.

SHIT!