Eating Your Weight: Stray's Requiem

Stray's Requiem

Silence reigned in the wake of the declaration, the heavy thrum of power hanging in the air like a static charge. Kuroka stared at the armored figure standing before her, taking in the jagged horns and the pulsing gems, before letting out a derisive snort.

“Overbooster?” she echoed, her tail flicking behind her in amusement. “So you couldn’t even activate your Balance Breaker? How unfortunate.”

Kuroka raised a hand and flicked her wrist as if shooing away a fly. A sphere of concentrated youjutsu energy shot forward, streaking across the clearing towards the stationary dragon.

The orb slammed into Naomi’s chest plate with a dull thud, instantly detonating into a massive plume of smoke and fire that swallowed the hilltop. The explosion was deafening, tearing up chunks of earth and sending a shockwave that bent the trees back nearly to their breaking point.

Kuroka watched the cloud billow for any signs of movement. When she found none, she frowned.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” she muttered, crossing her arms. “I suppose appearances really aren’t every–”

Her words died in her throat as a gauntleted fist punched through the smoke, moving with such speed that the air cracked in its wake. Kuroka’s eyes widened, but her body reacted on instinct, her head snapping to the side just enough to avoid the blow grazing her nose. The wind pressure alone was enough to send her skidding backward, her heels digging deep furrows into the dirt as she fought to maintain her balance.

Fast! Kuroka thought, her heart rate kicking up a notch. And strong too!

The smoke cleared completely, revealing Naomi standing exactly where she had been. The chest gem on her armor pulsed with a rhythmic, hungry light, not a single scratch marring the rugged black metal. The dragon tilted her head, the orange light in her visor flaring brightly as she stared at the woman.

“Is that all?” Naomi asked, her voice layered with a metallic timbre that sent a chill down Kuroka’s spine.

Kuroka narrowed her eyes, her playful demeanor evaporating instantly at her opponent’s arrogance.

“Don’t get cocky just because you took a single hit,” Kuroka snapped. She raised both hands, her fingers weaving through the air as she molded a large amount of senjutsu energy between her palms. The air shimmered and warped, condensing into a jagged, crackling bolt of violet magic. “Try and eat this one!”

She thrust her arms forward, unleashing the devastating blast. It tore across the battlefield, screaming toward Naomi with enough power to level a small building. There was no dodging something of that magnitude at this range; Kuroka was certain of it.

But just like before, Naomi didn’t even try to dodge. Instead, the transformed dragon reached up with an open palm and caught the blast mere inches from her chest plate.

For a split second, the energy roared and struggled against her grip, lighting up the night with a violent violet glow. Then, the jagged bolt of lightning began to shrink, compressing in on itself as it was sucked violently into the orange gem set into the center of Naomi’s armor. In less than a heartbeat, the attack vanished entirely, devoured as if it had never existed.

Kuroka stared, eyes well above her hairline. She had pumped quite a bit of magic into that attack, enough that even Vali would probably dodge before trying to Divide its power. Yet this girl just slurped it up like it was nothing.

“...y turn.”

Kuroka tilted her head, watching as her opponent shifted, “What was that?”

Naomi moved. The ground where she had been standing exploded outward, dirt and grass flying in every direction as she launched herself forward. She crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, an orange blur trailing behind her. Kuroka barely had time to process the movement before the girl’s sword was swinging toward her neck, seeking to lop her head off.

Kuroka threw herself backward, the blade whispering past her throat close enough to shear a few loose hairs. She flipped in midair, wings flaring to catch the wind and propel herself higher into the sky, putting distance between herself and the ground. She looked down just in time to watch Naomi give chase, massive black wings flapping as she rocketed upwards.

“You don’t learn, do you?” Kuroka muttered. She hovered in the air, gathering the concentrated energy of the area into her palms. With a sharp cry, she unleashed a barrage of energy spheres, dozens of them raining down like hail.

The sky lit up with explosions as the attacks slammed home. A chaotic storm of purple light and smoke engulfed Naomi, the concussive force blowing back the clouds and rattling the leaves out of the trees down below.

As the curtain of smoke began to thin, drifting apart in the wind, Kuroka strained her eyes to see the aftermath. She expected to see a broken body, or at least a girl panting and bleeding on the ground.

Instead, the smoke cleared to reveal Naomi hovering in the air, wings wrapped around herself like a comfortable blanket. They were encased in a soft orange glow, and didn’t look damaged in the slightest as they slowly unfurled to reveal the girl herself to be completely unscathed.

Kuroka felt her heart give a traitorous little skip.

“...Devouring Dragon, huh?” she murmured, the corners of her lips twitching upward into a grin despite the situation. Her heart hammered against her ribs, not out of fear, but out of a thrill she hadn’t felt in a long time. “Maybe there’s something to that after all.”

Naomi drifted in the air, her head tilting slightly. The silence stretched between them for a long moment as they stared at one another, before the young dragon finally spoke.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Naomi’s voice was low, distorted by the visor, yet the words carried clearly through the night air. Kuroka blinked, nonplussed by the sudden threat, before she snorted.

“Is that so?” Kuroka asked, raising a delicate eyebrow. “You think that because you got a little boost, you can talk big?”

She floated higher, spreading her arms wide as the purple aura around her roiled like a storm cloud. The natural energy in the air swirled toward her, responding to the call of her Senjutsu. Her hair fluttered upwards, defying gravity as her eyes narrowed into slits.

“Don’t make me laugh,” Kuroka sneered. “Do you honestly think that getting angry is enough to surpass an Ultimate Class being like myself?”

In response, Naomi merely raised a gauntleted hand.

A complex magic circle spread outward from her palm, expanding rapidly until it covered the entirety of the hilltop and the air above it.

“No,” Naomi stated simply, her voice echoing darkly. “I dont.”

The gems on her armor flared with blinding intensity, and Nidhogg’s voice rang out, backing her words with ancient, resonant power.

[Null Grave]

The seal glowed and split in two, before both halves darted in opposite directions. One took position high in the air above them, while the other appeared on the ground below, trapping them both between them.

Kuroka stumbled in mid-air, a sudden, disorienting weakness washing over her. It felt as though she had just run a marathon without taking a breath. She glanced around, panic flaring in her chest as she realized the connection she had to the nature energy around her — the very lifeblood of her Senjutsu — had been greatly weakened.

No... That wasn’t it. The energy of nature itself had been crippled.

“What is this?” Kuroka demanded, her voice shaking slightly. She looked down at her hands; her purple aura was flickering and thin, starving for fuel. She felt lighter, and not in a good way. It was as if half her very soul had been carved away.

Naomi hovered within the circle, staring at Kuroka as she slowly lowered her hand. “Do you still feel like the gap between us is that wide?”

Kuroka stared down at herself in shock, the sudden atrophy of her strength making her feel almost naked. “What did you do to my power!?”

“I did exactly what I do best,” the girl replied darkly. “I devoured it.”

Before the last syllable had even left her mouth, Naomi rocketed forward. The distance between them vanished in an instant, the air shrieking in protest as she moved faster than the eye could track. She slammed a gauntleted fist directly into Kuroka’s face, sending her rocketing back towards the ground.

Kuroka’s vision swam, the world tilting wildly as the blow sent her tumbling from the sky. She barely had time to gasp before a dark shape flashed above her, the jagged edge of a massive black sword whistling through the air.

Instinct took over. Kuroka contorted her body in mid-fall, bending backward with unnatural flexibility. The blade passed just inches over her nose, the displaced wind stinging her eyes. She saw Naomi overshoot, the momentum of her swing carrying her forward, and the Nekoshou capitalized instantly.

She lashed out with her leg, driving a heel into Naomi’s stomach with a resounding crack of metal against armor. It was a solid hit, one that would have sent a lesser opponent flying, but Naomi merely twisted in the air, absorbing the impact with a grunt that sounded more like a growl.

The girl twisted her hips and lashed out with a vicious kick. The armored boot connected solidly with Kuroka’s ribs, the impact echoing like a gunshot. Kuroka’s eyes bulged as the air was driven violently from her lungs, sending her spiraling away into the open air.

She tried to flap her wings to stabilize, but before she could even fully extend them, the air around her glowed and massive lengths of iron chain erupted from the void, snapping around her limbs like pythons.

Kuroka gasped as the chains yanked her arms and legs taut, hoisting her up above the ground and leaving her suspended in a spread-eagled position. She struggled immediately, her muscles straining against the bindings, but the metal held fast.

“As long as we are in this circle, you will never reach your full power,” Naomi declared, her voice booming within the helmet. She hovered in the air, watching the Nekoshou dangle helplessly. “Half of your energy, your magic, your very lifespan... it is all being eaten by Abyss Eater. As long as you stay in this circle, you will never get it back.”

Kuroka’s struggling slowed, her chest heaving as she looked up at her captor. She let out a low, incredulous laugh, shaking her head as much as the chains would allow.

“That’s a dirty trick,” she sneered, though her voice lacked its usual playful lilt. “I suppose I should have expected it. After all, it isn’t like you stand a chance without dragging me down to your level.”

Naomi shook her head slowly, her visor flickering like a dying fire. “No, I don’t. I’m not stupid enough to think I stand a chance with you at full power.”

Her fingers tightened audibly around the hilt of her sword, “But you’re not anymore, are you? And now that you’re down here with the rest of us, I’m going to make sure to take my pound of flesh for what you did to my friends.”

For a moment, Kuroka said nothing. She simply hung there, her body going slack as if all the fight had suddenly left her. Her head dipped forward, her raven hair obscuring her face, and a low chuckle began to bubble up from her throat.

Naomi froze, her grip on Kijin tightening as she stared at the suspended woman.

“Something funny?” she growled.

“A little bit,” Kuroka’s voice was amused yet filled with venom. “It’s just adorable... The kind of tricks weaklings come up with to even the playing field.”

With a guttural shout that sounded more like a roar than a scream, Kuroka’s power exploded outward. The malignant purple aura that clung to her body surged violently, pulsing like a diseased heart as she pumped it into the chains binding her.

They withstood her power for a single moment before they shattered with a series of loud snaps, breaking into hundreds of tiny pieces under the Nekoshou’s power. Kuroka dropped, her bare feet hitting the ground with enough force to crater the earth beneath her. She stood slowly, her tails lashing behind her like whips, the purple miasma around her boiling so thick it obscured everything but her poisonous yellow eyes.

“Even with half my power gone...” Kuroka laughed darkly, her voice echoing with a terrifying resonance, “I am still more than a match for some upstart little dragon. This won’t be as easy as you think it will.”

As Kuroka took up a stance, Naomi mirrored her, a burning aura flickering to life over her armor as she called upon her own power.

“I hope not,” she replied, a bit of uncharacteristic bloodlust leaking into her voice. “Because my blood is fucking boiling right now.”

~~~

I licked blood off of my lips as I stared at the woman across from me, face tight in pain and anger. The air between us felt heavy, thick with the anticipation of two beasts ready to tear each other apart. She was finally treating me like a threat.

Too little, too late.

I didn’t wait for her to make the first move. I surged forward, my boots slamming into the ground with enough force to leave craters in my wake, launching myself across the distance between us like a bullet. The wind roared in my ears, but inside my helmet, all I could hear was the roar of my own heart and the demanding surge of the power inside me.

Kuroka moved to meet me, her nails poised to tear out my throat right through my armor. I wasn’t sure if she could manage it, but even if she could, I doubted it’d stop me from tearing hers out in kind.

We met in the center of the hill with a crash. Kuroka’s claws raked across my chest plate, sparks flying in every direction. I took the hit head-on, letting the momentum carry me forward as I slammed my shoulder into her.

She grunted, her feet skidding backward as she tried to stop herself, and I followed up. Stepping forward, I brought Kijin up to cut her from navel to neck, but Kuroka barely managed to twist out of the way. Even so, the tip of my sword carved a shallow line through her kimono, drawing a thin line of red across her stomach.

She hissed in pain, eyes flashing angrily, and lashed out with a kick that I caught on my vambrace instead of my helmet. The impact jarred my entire arm, rattling my teeth inside my skull, but I bore it alongside everything else. Grabbing onto her calf, I spun with the momentum, using her leg as leverage to hurl her into the ground.

Kuroka hit the earth hard, rolling to absorb the impact and springing back to her feet in one fluid motion. But I was already there, blade flashing once again, seeking blood. We danced across the hillside, a chaotic mix of orange and purple energy tearing up the ground as we battled. Kuroka was like smoke, but I was a wall. I couldn't hit her, but every time she tried to dart past my guard, I was there to meet her, reacting faster than I ever had before.

“Stop running!” I roared, lunging forward. I feinted high with a slash, then dropped low and swept my leg out. I caught her behind the knee, sending her stumbling just long enough for me to bury a fist into her ribs.

The impact was sickeningly loud. Kuroka gasped, her eyes widening as she flew backward, crashing through a cluster of trees. She didn’t stay down, of course, and vaulted off a broken trunk, flipping in the air and landing in a crouch, her tail thrashing violently against the air.

We stared at one another for a long moment, and I stoically raised Kijin towards her chest, baring the blade towards the place I hoped to plant it. The gesture brought a small frown to Kuroka’s face, the woman clearly disconcerted at my calm demeanor.

It was a pretty good act, I’d admit. Because even lifting the damn sword right now made me feel like my arms were going to fall off.

Nidhogg’s power coursed through my veins, searing me from the inside out. It was thick, boiling, and far more than I could have ever generated on my own. My muscles felt like lead balloons, swelling with strength that wasn't mine, struggling to keep up with even more pouring in.

I grunted silently as I felt a wet snap in my side, my already damaged ribs cracking under the effort I was exerting just to keep standing. White-hot pain lanced through me, sharp enough to make my vision black out for a split second, before the magic surged again. The bone knit back together, the flesh mended, and I was forced to endure the agony of the repair all over again.

Nidhogg’s magic burned through me at a rapid pace, breaking my body down and simultaneously building it back up just enough to keep fighting. It was probably the most torturous thing I had ever experienced, easily beating out my literal death only a few months ago.

But I didn’t care. I didn’t care if my arms turned to jelly or if my heart burst in my chest. After all, the pain was just a background noise to the roaring symphony of rage screaming in my skull, anger pointed directly at the woman across from me, and the fucking cult who sent her here in the first place.

How dare she. How dare this bitch waltz into my home, into my sanctuary, and hurt my friends. The image of my friends and lovers, battered and bruised, flashed through my mind, and I grit my teeth. How dare she hurt what was mine.

Her, Agnir, Ylva, and anyone else who joined that damn cult... they thought that they could get away with this shit just because they were demigods or yokai or whatever the fuck. They thought that just because I only awakened a few months ago, they could take what they wanted and fuck me and mine over in the process…

Well, I was going to show them here and now how wrong they were.

As my rage reignited, so too did my resolve. The tiny tremors in my grip ceased, replaced by an iron surety that I was going to do everything within my power to shove my sword straight into this cat bitch’s chest.

And I had a lot of power right now. Even if it was literally tearing my body apart to house it.

Kuroka’s eyes narrowed, the slitted pupils dilating as they locked onto my momentary hesitation. She saw the way my gauntleted fingers twitched, the slight hitch in my breath in my shoulders. A cruel smirk curled her lips, exposing her sharp canines.

“Tired already, little dragon?” she taunted, her voice dripping with false sympathy. “All that big talk, and you’re shaking in your boots.”

“Say whatever you want,” I spat back, forcing myself to take a step forward despite the screaming protests of every muscle fiber in my legs. “It won’t stop me from killing you.”

I launched myself forward again, refusing to give her even a second to catch her breath. Kuroka responded in kind, waving a hand and gathering that strange energy in her palm before sending it straight at my face. I batted it aside with Kijin, my other hand already moving to throw the nail I had formed in my palm.

The length of iron streaked toward Kuroka like a missile, forcing her to twist her torso to avoid being impaled. It was a distraction, nothing more, but it bought me the split second I needed.

I closed the distance in a heartbeat, driving my fist toward the woman’s gut with every ounce of augmented strength I possessed. Kuroka’s eyes widened and her hand snapped up, catching my fist just in time. The impact jarred my arm all the way to the shoulder, but I didn’t stop pushing, letting my boots skid through the dirt as I tried to drive her into the ground.

She growled, her claws digging into my gauntlet, and with a fluid twist of her body, she slipped around my guard. My momentum carried me forward, leaving me wide open. Something exploded against my upper back, just between my wings, and I stumbled forward, crying out in anger as I crashed to one knee, agony shooting through me as I felt my bones shift in a way they weren’t supposed to before being knitted back together.

The pain fueled my rage, and I spent only a second down before I turned around and lunged at her with an enraged roar.

Through the haze of battle, I could feel Miyo moving through my barrier, gathering everyone up and getting them away just like I asked her to.

A momentary wave of relief washed over me, cold and sharp against the burning rage in my gut. Just a little longer and they’d be safe.

Still, I couldn't let up. Kuroka wasn’t stupid and she had already shown how sadistic she was willing to be. If she looked over her shoulder and saw Miyo dragging Aika and the others away, she might decide that killing them was worth the effort just to spite me.

I wouldn't let that happen.

We clashed again, the sound of our combat ringing out across the hill. Kuroka was still stronger than me, that was for certain. Every time we traded blows, it felt like being hit by a freight train. But the gap wasn't the yawning chasm it had been at the start. When she hit me, I stayed standing. When I hit her, she flinched. I could win this. I really could.

I needed to press the advantage before she realized it too.

I thrust my armored hand forward, my will lashing out along with it. “Catch!”

The earth beneath Kuroka’s feet exploded upward as thick chains erupted from the soil, snapping and clattering like metallic vipers. Kuroka was moving the moment they appeared, leaping backwards and flipping through the air as she landed a small distance away.

Eyes narrowed, she rose and made a series of small gestures with her hand. The air in front of her flashed with symbols, glyphs I didn’t recognize, before the ground at my feet began to move in kind.

“The hell!?” I shouted as the solid earth instantly softened into a thick, sucking muck. Before I could react, the ground rose up like a living thing, grasping claws of mud and stone clamping around my greaves and dragging me down. I growled in frustration, feeling the heavy sludge trying to pin me in place, before, with a roar, I flared my wings.

The wind exploded outward from the beat of my wings, shredding the grasping earth like wet paper and sending clods of mud flying in every direction. I felt heavy, sluggish, the damp earth clinging to my armor, but I forced myself to move, shaking off the debris.

I looked up just in time to see a violet sphere of energy, crackling with destructive power, sailing straight for my face.

There was no time to dodge. I barely managed to throw my arms up in a defensive cross before the blast slammed into me. The explosion was deafening, a roar of thunder that swallowed the world. The impact lifted me off my feet, tossing me backward like a ragdoll. I felt the heat singe my hair, even through the helmet, and the force rattled my brain inside my skull.

I tried to push myself up, to tell my legs to hold steady and plant myself like a fortress, but they betrayed me. My knees buckled, and I crashed back down, driving one knee hard into the dirt. The world spun violently, the hillside tilting at a sickening angle, colors blurring into a nauseating smear of grey and orange.

What’s happening? I thought, panic starting to claw at the edges of my mind.

“Your body is reaching its limit,” Nidhogg’s voice rumbled in my head. “I am pouring energy into you faster than your vessel can accommodate. I cannot keep this up. If I force any more power through you, you will tear apart in a way that even I cannot fix. You need to end this. Now.”

Easier said than done, I bit back, forcing my breathing to steady even as my body screamed at me. She’s not exactly just standing there and even if I could hit her, I’m not sure I can do enough damage to finish her off before she gets me.

"Don’t be dense," he countered, his tone shifting angrily. "You have all the power in the world at your fingertips right now, do you not? So use it."

Use what? Everything I have is already—

My thoughts cut off as my gaze drifted, sweeping over the battlefield, settling on the magic circle sitting serenely in the air above us, and on the ground under my feet.

I’m a fucking idiot.

The realization hit me with a shock. I had been so focused on killing Kuroka that I had completely forgotten about the massive amount of energy I was pulling from the woman and the environment itself. My barrier had been sucking the area dry this entire time, and that energy had to go somewhere eventually…

Why not back to the one it came from?

“You’re on your last legs, aren’t you?” Kuroka’s voice drifted down, laced with a condescending pity that made my skin crawl. “What a shame. You talked such a big game, little dragon, but you couldn’t back it up in the end. I suppose it’s time to put you out of your misery.”

“I am pretty miserable right now, I’ll give you that,” I grit out, forcing myself to stand. My legs trembled but I locked my joints and forced my body to move. “But I’m far from finished.”

Kuroka scoffed, raising a glowing hand. “Spoken like a true sore loser.”

Light coalesced in her palms, splitting apart into a dozen distinct spheres that hovered around her like angry hornets. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them screaming toward me.

Unlike before, I didn’t try to block or even absorb them. Instead, I waited until the last possible second, and then launched myself straight up, the force of the takeoff blasting the ground beneath me away. The spheres slammed into the earth where I had been standing a second before, erupting wildly and sending dirt and soot high into the air.

I flew upwards toward the barrier as Kuroka focused on the cloud down below. I reached out, grabbing onto the energy held within the glowing sigil, locked in a dimension only I could access.

It was like trying to drink a waterfall. The energy roared into me, violent and uncontrolled as it thrashed against my mental hold. My vision went white, and for a second, I thought I might actually dissolve right then and there, but I forced it all down, channeling every last drop into a single point of focus.

Below me, Kuroka was scanning the smoke, her head whipping back and forth as she tried to find where I had gone. I knew I only had a single moment before she realized what I was doing and so, channeling every ounce of will I had left, I shaped the energy and raised a shaking hand.

Thick chains erupted from the void around Kuroka, snapping tight around her limbs and torso before she could so much as twitch. She yowled in surprise, fighting against the bindings, but I didn’t give her a chance to break free this time. I pulled my arm back, clenching my fist around the titanic mass of energy I had siphoned from the barrier, mixing it with my own energy to give it form.

“Choke on this!” I screamed, thrusting my hand forward. She looked up, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the attack that I had created right under her nose.

“What the hell!?”

The energy coalesced as it left me, twisting and writhing until it took the shape of a massive, jagged dragon head. Its maw was wide open, glowing with the intensity of a dying star, and it roared silently as it dove toward the trapped woman, slamming into her before she had a chance to utter another word.

For a heartbeat, there was absolute silence, the world pausing as if holding its breath.

Then it screamed.

The magic expanded with a deafening, earth-shattering crack that rattled my teeth and split the sky. The sphere of energy swallowed her whole, expanding outward in a brilliant flash of violet and orange that quickly bloomed even farther. Trees were vaporized as the blast reached them, dirt and rock launching into the air as the shockwave rippled outward, tearing through the hillside like a bulldozer.

The silence that followed the explosion was louder than the blast itself. The dust began to settle slowly, drifting down like gray snow over the crater I had carved with stolen power. I hovered there, my breath coming in short gasps as I stared at the clearing debris, searching for any sign of movement.

There was nothing. No flare of magic, no mocking laughter, no silhouette of a woman appearing in the smoke. Just a burnt, empty void where she had stood.

Did I get her? I waited another second, then another, straining my ears for anything. But the hill was dead silent. I let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding for hours, the tension draining out of me all at once.

The relief was so profound it made me dizzy, but it was short-lived.

It started as a hairline fracture, a soft snap that I felt more than heard. A jagged line of light appeared across the black plate of my gauntlet and then, with a sound like shattering glass, the glove fell apart, the pieces dissolving into motes of orange light before they could hit the ground.

The chestplate went next, crumbling to dust, quickly followed by my wings. I plummeted, the sudden loss of flight making my stomach lurch, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to care about landing gracefully. I slammed into the ground face-first, the impact jarring my teeth, though I barely felt it over the agony that was consuming my body.

I laid in the dirt, gasping for air, my skin feeling raw and exposed as the last remnants of my armor dissolved into nothingness. The pain was almost mind numbing, but the sense of victory curling in my chest made me smile regardless.

It was over. I had won.

Before I could truly get comfortable in my victory, it was stripped away by a sudden surge of magic that washed across the hilltop. I froze, my heart stilling in my chest as the malignant magic filled the air around me. It felt cold, lifeless, evil.

“Well, this is certainly an unpleasant surprise.”

I forced my head up, my vision swimming as I watched a cloud of poisonous green mist coalesce in the air above the crater Kuroka had left, twisting and churning as it slowly took a humanoid shape.

She was beautiful, in a terrifying way, with pale skin that looked like it had never seen the sun and long, dark hair that cascaded down her back. Her eyes looked almost dead as they gazed upon me with bored disdain, like a noble addressing a peasant who had spilled something in front of them.

I had never seen her before, but I recognized her instantly. From her appearance to the clothes to the tiara on her head, this woman was a dead ringer for the goddess in the file Sona had shown me. She was the leader of the cult, the one responsible for all this bullshit that I had to deal with.

I tried to struggle to my feet but I couldn't even make it to my knees without my vision swimming. I was completely drained. I couldn't even summon my Sacred Gear.

“Your efforts are impressive,” the woman murmured, ignoring my struggles. “And extremely vexing. You’ve managed to kill two of my subordinates and greviously injured an ally. That is unprecedented.”

I watched, panting as she waved her hand in a smooth gesture. Mist crawled over the hill, washing over the corpses of both Agnir and Ylva. It gathered in heaps, darkening and swirling over the bodies as the goddess performed some magic that I wasn't privy to.

After a moment, she frowned. “As I suspected. You have consumed him completely. Ylva may yet be salvageable but Agnir...”

She trailed off, her green eyes narrowing as she looked me up and down, dissecting me with her gaze. “You are growing at a rapid pace, little dragon. It is... concerning.”

I glared up at her, forcing my trembling body to remain upright despite the agony screaming through every nerve. “Best news I’ve heard all day,” I rasped, my throat dry and raw. “Mind sending more of your buddies so I can kill them too?”

The woman’s lips curled upward, a ghost of a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I don’t believe that will be necessary. You’ve already weakened your soul enough for me to try my hand at something new.”

She raised a hand, and the air around us grew heavy with magic. Mist swirled and I tried to push myself up, to summon even a spark of energy to defend myself, but I was running on fumes. I could barely keep my eyes open at this point.

“Rest now, little dragon,” she said, her fingers curling as if to crush an invisible throat. The mist swirled faster. “My embrace is so much warmer than what would await you otherwise. Come to me, and I will—”

“I think that’s enough of that.”

A bright blue teleportation circle burned to life on the ground right next to me, a figure manifesting the moment it was finished forming. With a pair of dark pigtails and a face that was oddly familiar, it wasn’t anyone that I had ever seen before, but somehow I instantly knew who it was.

And it seemed the goddess did too, because she frowned deeply and the mist around me began to settle. “Serafall Leviathan. To what do I owe the... pleasure?”

The short woman placed her hands on her hips, tilting her head as a bright, bubbly smile plastered itself across her face. It was then I noticed her outfit. It looked like something straight out of one of the magical girl anime I totally never watched, complete with the freaking magic staff.

Her appearance, combined with the childish look on her face, was so sudden and at odds with the situation that I nearly did a double-take despite the agony I was in.

“I could ask you the same thing!” Serafall chirped, her voice high and childish. “You know, it’s very rude to trespass in someone else’s territory without asking first! Don’t your parents teach you any manners?”

The goddes's expression hardened, the slight curvature of her lips vanishing until her face seemed like it was carved from stone. She looked down at the Satan with an air of absolute disgust, like she was looking at something gathered on the bottom of her shoe.

“I have no interest in your etiquette lessons, Leviathan,” the goddess replied, voice stained with disdain. “I am here for the girl. Hand her over, and I will take my leave.”

“No can do!” Serafall giggled, though her voice carried a dangerous edge to it. “I can’t just hand over such a dangerous, super-rare Sacred Gear to the big bad guys like you! That would be totally irresponsible!”

The air around Serafall shifted, the temperature dropping so sharply that the sweat on my exposed skin turned to ice. The bubbly, magical girl demeanor evaporated instantly, replaced by a terrifying, pressurized bloodlust that made the green mist of the goddess in front of her seem like a gentle breeze.

“Not to mention,” Serafall said, her voice losing its playful lilt and dropping into a tone that could have frozen the surface of the sun. “Your followers hurt my So-tan, and I’m just a little unhappy with your whole group right now. You’re lucky I don’t march down to that little section of the underworld and give you all a piece of my mind.”

The goddess stared at the Satan, her expression unchanging, though the air around her seemed to thrum with a low, dangerous power. The green mist coiling around her form thickened, writhing like a nest of angry snakes as if reacting to the sudden spike in hostility.

“Yet again, it seems that fate conspires in your favor, little dragon,” the goddess whispered after a long moment. The mist slowly began to recede, alongside the power that had been keeping me on edge since she had arrived. “We will resume this at a later date. And next time, I will not let you go so easily.”

I watched, my breath hitching in my throat, as the green mist swirled tighter around the goddess, obscuring her pale features until she was nothing more than a silhouette in the cloud. The pressure in the air lightened, the oppressive weight of her presence receding as quickly as it had arrived before, with a final swirl of emerald vapor, she was gone.

The mist dissipated quickly afterward, leaving behind nothing but the scent of rot and the ruined hilltop. I stared at the empty space where she had stood, my heart hammering against my ribs, before I crumpled face-first into the dirt.

A shadow fell over me, blocking out the moonlight. I tried to lift my head, but my body refused to respond. I was done.

Suddenly, a face popped into my field of view. It was inches from my own, upside down and beaming with a brightness that was honestly kind of painful in my current state.

“So you’re the one who saved my So-tan, huh?” Serafall chirped, her violet eyes sparkling with mirth. She leaned down closer, inspecting my battered face like I was a curiosity she’d found in a shop window. “Ooh, you look like you’ve been through the wringer! Looks like you had a tough fight.”

“You could say that,” I rasped, my voice barely a wheeze. My mouth tasted like blood and the dark edges of my vision were creeping inward, eating away the stars and the dead grass around me. My body hurt like hell.

What was that Nidhogg had said? I thought deliriously. Assuming I survive? I sure don’t feel like it’s going that way.

Just as oblivion began to drag me into its warm embrace, I felt hands on me. Gentle, impossibly strong arms slipped beneath my knees and shoulders, lifting me from the dirt as if I weighed nothing at all.

My face was pressed against something warm and soft, smelling faintly of vanilla and some floral perfume that cut through the stench of blood filling my nose. I nuzzled close, easily recognizing the feeling and seeking comfort.

“Shhh, it’s alright now,” a soft voice murmured above me. The fingers of one hand caressed the back of my head, threading carefully through my messy hair. “Thank you... for protecting her.”

Totally worth it, I wanted to say. But I was already long gone.