She could hear its breathing. Only that wet noise echoed out.

The room that had previously seemed so vast seemed like such a small place as cloudy grey distortions gathered at the periphery. Laplace looked around with his bloody and gouged eyes and Devick shivered.

After a few moments of consideration, the bloated serpent used its two arms to drag its body slightly forward. Each movement sent a shudder through its flesh. Each shudder dislodged a few more fresh drops of blood, which hit the ground and echoed strangely out through this perfect Pinnacle environment. The weird glassy quality swirled out from Laplace’s body. The air felt sticky as Devick breathed, her heartbeat becoming alarmingly rapid.

She could feel its sweat against her skin, suffocating her. Its image clogged her airways and constricted her muscles.

“Flee, girl. I have taught you all I can,” The monkey bounced forward and hopped up to stand on Devick’s shoulder. It had continued to grow over the last few minutes, so it was almost half as large as Devick was. It looked at her with blank eyes. “I appreciate you would give so much for me… but I have my pride. And have been alone for a long time. Heh, laboring without any appreciation is just my existence. I do not need your help with this foe- oof!”

The monkey, toward the end of its speech, made to leap off Devick’s shoulder and go face the monster. But as it jumped, Devick’s hand snapped up and grabbed its tail; the unexpected tug halted the monkey’s progress and its face planted into the ground.

“You think we should face this?” Devick snorted while she gathered the monkey up in her arms. Then she pivoted on her heel, condensed Malice around her body, and began sprinting away across the vast, featureless plain. Each step was a supreme effort, forcing her way through the pressure released by the Eternity. Even through her shoes, she could feel the thump of those massive drops of blood hitting the ground behind her. “I’m unreasonable, not stupid. We should not fight-”

This time, it was Devick who was cut off. The breath seemed to freeze in her lungs. Her movements turned sluggish. A horrific intention spun around her. Soon her movements ceased. Then, inexorably, her trembling legs began to reverse. She ran backward, her stride bringing her back to stand in front of the invading Eternity.

As her traitorous body pivoted on her heel, she bit her lip until she drew blood. Malice lashed back and forth inside of her body. Yet she could not escape the grasp of the Eternity.

“Hmph, you tried to simply run from Eternity and claim not to be stupid…” The monkey sniffed.

Devick’s pupils dilated. She felt the fullness of her resentment and unwillingness forming a tight core in her chest. The muscles of her body bulged. I would rather boil the blood in my veins than let you control me…!

Her left hand twitched. Then those grey fingers, which had helped slay a god, grasped upon that horrible filminess in the surrounding air and tore away the power used against her. With a gasp, Devick staggered out of the restriction. Blood gushed out of her mouth from where she had been gnawing on her cheek, but she had her autonomy back.

Instinctively, she glanced directly up in front of her, almost intending to spit some of this blood in the Eternity’s direction. Her scalp itched; she knew she shouldn’t but Devick couldn’t help her own curiosity. She met the gaze of the Eternity. It’s long tongue flopped back and forth in its mouth as it considered her.

Just as she was about to whip around and resume her fleeing, it jabbed a finger at her. Her hand flashed up-

She lost the next few seconds to tumbling dizziness. The pain had suffused her entire body; she had no idea what had been the point of impact. When her perspective ceased spinning, her skull ached and her mouth tasted like blood. Her gaze was unfocused, aimed up toward the vast openness of the ceiling.

Fuck… Devick blinked slowly. She could feel a spot above her right eye beginning to swell. Her heart fluttered against her ribcage. Is this… really the best I can do…?

The monkey stood over her, shaking its head. “You say you are not stupid, yet you dare look at Eternity? Girl, remain here. I… Let us consider the reality of the situation. I have already been abandoned by all. My family, my origins… But that’s okay. I am… I am different from others. What I am is unusual. I would go so far as to say there is a part of me that is unlovable. It’s no one’s fault. It just means that for something like me, there is no better end than this. I will resist this Eternity. Perhaps such a struggle will have meaning.”

The monkey turned away. Devick looked at his back. She felt a new fury ravaging its way along her veins, one softened by the lonely silhouette of the monkey. She forced back her fear and cursed the veritable blood mine that she had drilled into her own cheek, still pumping out the metallic liquid.

You… aren’t…!

If I’m not, then you, definitely…

Devick spat some blood out to the side, but that triggered the tiniest bit of vomiting. Her body shuddered as her physical form made its discomfort known. Wiping her mouth, she ignored the pain and straightened. She pressed her palms against the ground.

Malice whispered a warning in her ear. Her heart clenched— Without thinking, Devick squeezed as much strength as she could out of her weary form, scrambling forward and tackling the monkey from behind just as Laplace unleashed another blast that would have smashed the monkey’s nose. The powerful projectile zipped overhead.

Panting, Devick scooped up the monkey. “You… are not a thing. And maybe you are a little unlovable, but that’s just because you try and do bullshit like this and martyr yourself. There is nothing inherently wrong with you.”

It’s all in the arrogant way you act, Devick’s lip twitched, but she managed to keep the last part inside.

The monkey's face scrunched together. “Girl, you do not know the first thing about me. I am an existence that— everyone takes from me, but no one wants anything to do with me. I’m just being realistic. My life is valuable, self-evidently, but my consciousness… For the Nexus, it is better-”

Laplace hissed, the sound shaking the room. Devick flared her image, the crimson hare conjured around her body and barely managed to shift her body to be in front of the monkey. She swung her left hand, concentrating on that god-slaying aspect.

This clash, she mustered up a bit more strength. Empathy became a claw in that withered left hand.

Yet still her resistance crumpled. She and the monkey were sent flying. The bones of her entire upper left side were obliterated. In addition, her left hip had a painful fracture right down its middle. Hitting the ground sent shards of bone drilling through her internal organs. It was one of the worst feelings that Devick had ever experienced.

But it was only one of the worst.

“Fuck them all.” Devick bit out the words, trying not to lose consciousness again. She used her right arm to prop herself up, ignoring the horrifying and liquid feeling of her collapsed left side of her torso sloshing about. She looked the monkey straight in the eye. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to feel unloved? I was raised as a ward after my parents died; as far as I can tell, I’m the last of my kind. Everyone told me how ‘interesting’ I was, and then would avoid me. For better or for worse, I didn’t even have anything of value for people to take… heh, maybe my looks, but even the horniest of my step-father’s associates would spend an afternoon with me and decide I was too much of a headache to even fuck.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“You…”

“Don’t let the way other people treat you become who you are.” Devick shuddered to say the words. She could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “It’s always more about their shit than yours.”

“Do not lecture me. You have clearly allowed the opinion of others to turn you into an abominable monster.” The monkey grumbled, but it was in a small voice.

“Nah, I was always like this.” Devick winked. Then she drew on powers she had seen from the other version of herself. She reached for an insanity that could persist even in the face of overwhelming power. For a second her image trembled, but then powerful maroon chains of madness jangled and spun around her body. They came under her hand coyly, like an alley cat deigning to accept her offering.

All at once, they dove into her flesh. Devick’s back arched and her mouth twisted. Like the worst sort of sutures, the chains dove in and out of her side, stitching together her body. They spun together in her torso, forming a working approximation of a ribcage. They helixed out through her arms, restoring her mobility.

When the pain proved too much to stand on her own, Devick made herself into a marionette with these enthusiastic chains of madness and just lifted her body up into a ‘standing’ position. She couldn’t help but release a laugh as she pivoted and looked toward Laplace. “Damnit, I’m about to sound like such a cliche… but just keep living; eventually, you will find a person who makes you realize… you had to be there, you had to exist. Because otherwise, if you had given up, that person would have wandered around their life without ever finding someone to love.”

The monkey looked at her, its eyes still curiously blank. After an unnatural pause, filled only with the echoing breathing of the monster at the other end of the room, it changed the subject. “You will die if you face the Eternity again.”

Devick just smiled, mostly because she couldn’t disagree. She pivoted to face Laplace, the Fickle Crossroads of Time. While she had been knocked around and speaking seriously to the monkey, it had narrowed the gap. Now it loomed above her, the fleshy limbs spread wide, as though to encircle her and prevent even the slightest possibility of escape. Its very presence leaned against her, flattening her lungs, smothering her heartbeat. Devick trembled, but her marionette form couldn’t flee easily.

Laplace’s tongue swung back and forth, spreading saliva and blood on the ground. From its mouth came a tome. The book opened and pages began to flutter, the noise abnormally loud in the Pinnacle space. It floated toward her chest. The filminess expanded.

Devick wondered what it felt like to die. The chains in her chest rattled with a promise. If she died, they would bring her back as an avatar of woe, to forever seek vengeance on this monster. The jagged madness expanded from the chains, sinking slightly into her flesh. It promised, as long as she accepted the madness, she could become an even more powerful monster than this.

Malice watched the temptation proceed without speaking up. Laplace’s warm breath hit her face. Its image made Devick feel so, so small.

She hung as the most pathetic version of a scarecrow. She created a loop with a rusted chain of madness and caught her left wrist. Then, unsatisfied with the level of articulation, she began to frantically sew smaller chains through the entire appendage. The chains of madness caused her surrounding flesh to bubble, but Devick ignored it.

No, I don’t think so. Because… I won’t need to achieve my own vengeance. Devick’s eyes turned bright and glassy. I just… for him, to protect this universe, I need to buy time.

Devick felt her heart stop, frozen by the horrific waves of temporal distortion the Eternity released. I know you can’t hear me. But because I met you I’m going to do something very, very dumb.

Heh, isn’t it strange? If we hadn’t met, this would have probably been when I broke; I would have flinched at this unreasonable decision.

“Girl…” The monkey tried to step forward when it sensed the rapid failing of Devick’s body, but the temporal distortions

Devick’s lip twisted and curled, pulled up and up by mania and determination. She blazed with so much emotion it would consume a lesser being. She still remembered his serious expression, when he walked out onto that balcony and saw her. But we met. You looked at me and smiled. You extended your hand. You encouraged me.

In the end… the most unreasonable expectation… was just for us to have a happy ending… right, Randidly Ghosthound?

Without hesitation, Devick tossed three unsaid words into the pyre of her image.

The tome which promised death fluttered its pages and glided forward. Using the manipulation of maroon chains, Devick raised her hand. She felt two-dimensional, all ill-will and a roaring conflagration. She would be unreasonable, right up until the end. Malice rolled its shoulders. She was the Merry Consort of Perdition, and she would smile and carve a pound of flesh from existence until she had been completely annihilated.

If I can reach it, I can harm it. With eyes filled with madness, Devick slashed out with her grey, withered, god-slaying hand. She wrung out every ounce of frustration she had felt growing up, every tremor in her heart called to the surface when the monkey had talked about being unlovable. For all those who found her ‘too-much’, Devick scratched.

Those three words she wanted to say to Randidly Ghosthound sat at the core of her being. As the layers of those words burned away, novas of pure emotion washed outward, reversing the corrupting effects of the chains of madness and suffusing her body with power.

Grey fingertip and advancing book met.

The pages of the tome fluttered more quickly. Several pages began to yellow and rot away, corrupted by the powerful viciousness than Devick. One page deteriorated so quickly it had vanished entirely before the process of fluttering had been completed. The tome’s advance briefly stalled out.

A corner of the tome turned maroon and then crumbled to black.

Laplace unleashed a burp. Devick’s sharpened image wavered and vanished. The tome continued forward, aimed straight at Devick’s chest. Those three words pulsed and pulsed, over and over again. Yet each wave was annihilated by the inexorable waves of time. She felt her awareness narrow to this single book.

I am yours, Randidly Ghosthound. If this universe is worth so many of your sacrifices, it is worth just as many of mine.

The chains in her body trembling, offering her one last chance as her flesh began to wither and age. She ignored it.

Devick did not close her eyes. She would not look away.

Yet abruptly, she felt an easing in her heart. Devick sucked in a breath, filled with shock; the restrictions around her had faded. She found the source of the experience and her smile widened. “Actually, little monkey… I think I’ll be okay. Tsk tsk, you certainly took your sweet time.”

A strange sense of tranquility filled Devick as Randidly Ghosthound appeared in front of her. He stood tall, clothed in tattered rags after a day’s worth of intense fighting. She could see wounds and burns all across his flesh. His black hair was messy. Malice whispered that there seemed to be something wrong with him and his eyes had shifted, but he offered her the same crooked smile. “Really, the issue is you refuse to wait for me before throwing yourself in harm’s way.”

With a single hand, he swallowed the tome that had so threatened her.

“If I wait around during all of your strange little meanderings, even I might not be able to keep up with you, Randidly Ghosthound. Reflect seriously on your wild and unpredictable improvements.” Even as Devick spoke, she was already swaying, her mind and spirit overtaxed. Randidly’s arm snaked around her waist and kept her standing.

She gave him a frank look, not missing his own tattered body, the subtle lines of exhaustion around his eyes. “I know you are obsessed with ravaging me right now, but we have a bigger problem here. Besides, the monkey has no knowledge of carnal congress between man and woman-”

Randidly interrupted her with a wicked grin. “Surely we have time for at least a chaste kiss?”

Devick blinked, genuinely surprised that no-nonsense Randidly Ghosthound had gone along with her joke. And before she could formulate a response, that arm around her waist tightened and she was pressed against him. His lips were warm.

Tingles radiated out from their multiple point of contact, setting off firecrackers in her body. She could feel small tremors in his body, not from weakness, but from control; maybe they had been closer to a ravaging than Devick had expected.

Then he pulled away and turned to face Laplace. As Randidly’s eyes narrowed, the monkey hopped to stand next to them. “Randidly Ghosthound. I know you. No matter how powerful you have become, you cannot yet rival an Eternity. I shall buy the two of you time-”

“Pine, I know you too. And I know that even after I defeat this foe, you are the one who really needs attention,” Randidly said, but his eyes were surprisingly soft as he looked over at the growing monkey. He reached out and touched the being’s shoulder— there was a stinging sensation of static, as he felt a familiar energy in the monkey’s body. “...the arrangements that Elhume made, cycling and funneling all the significance back through you, so you wouldn’t deteriorate further… you’ll soon collapse under that weight. The entirety of the Nexus will be implicated. But don’t worry.

“Today…” Randidly unleashed a beaming grin as he pivoted to face Laplace. “I’ve got one last miracle up my sleeve. It’s time to finish this.”