Zero hurled themself skyward, body twitching, wings flaring in erratic spasms. They slammed into the ground again, claws carving into sand until the desert screamed. Their arms drove into the earth, tearing downward, twisting like a drill.
The crust broke. Heat swallowed them whole. Lava kissed their skin, peeled it, charred them into a black husk — then the meat knitted back, steaming. Burn, heal, burn, heal. Again and again. They couldn't stop.
Voices bit at their skull.
— The Geek, sneering: "Mathematically impossible. You'll never reach the core."
— The Stoic, flat: "Let go. Accept death."
— The Girl, sweet, cruel: "Die now. Come back later. Ghosts steal lives."
Zero snarled, spitting blood and ash. "Let go? Fuck off. They killed my friends, wore their corpses like masks. You think I'll let go?" His eye-swirls flared molten red.
They clawed deeper. The planet cracked with them.
Then light.
A tiny body drifted down from the sky, globe in her hands, childlike and monstrous. Eliza. Always Eliza.
Zero exploded from the tunnel, wings beating until the sky shook. Their voice was a blade. "Get me out."
Her face was porcelain, unblinking. "Why?" Her tone wasn't mocking. Just clinical.
"You watched Invalia burn. You let them die." Their words bled venom.
"I chose to." She tilted the globe. "Samiel was me. You were useless.." Her lips curled with something that might've been a smile. A tear rolled, but it was cold, rehearsed.
Zero's teeth cracked from grinding. "You want me to kneel? To thank you?"
"If I let you leave," she said softly, "you will die differently. Not as a killer. Your madness will be burned out. You'll be ordinary."
Zero's laugh tore from their throat, jagged and wet, splitting their lips. "Ordinary? You think I was ever ordinary? I'd rather rot than let you cut my rage."
Their wings snapped open, blotting the moon. "You'll let me out, and when I return, I'll gut every saint, every angel, until I reach your throne."
Eliza tilted her head, eyes like polished glass. "You'll die. And I'll watch. That is enough."
The desert peeled away. The moon rose beneath them, cold and leering. Below, specks: Amarze, Miles, Medea carrying his cage. All the world, waiting.
The siren roared. 1 HOUR UNTIL SECOND GRAND REPRISAL.
Zero grinned, mouth a shredded ruin. "Good. Let them watch me crawl back."