A dreadful pant left Ira's lips, her body crumbling to the ground in exhaustion as the pain in her lungs only grew worse with time. Bariealla was not in a better shape, either.
Her body was covered in filth and her eyelids struggled to stay open. A rough cough escaped her lips, and then her legs gave way. A gagging sound escaped the depths of her body, a deep shiver running across her body.
Both of them lay on the ground, neither having the resolve to stand and fight any longer. The world was a sea of flames and rubble; a single breath filled their lungs with poisonous dust, making their breathing even worse. Luckily, the dust in the air had already begun to settle down onto the ground.
Rather than feeling hope or relief, they felt despair and hopelessness. They knew the battle was not over, and in only a few moments the corpses would be mended together to form an abomination of horrific power; when it happened, the Dormants would all die. Their red blood would mix with the black that painted the ground—unless that too would be absorbed in the creation of the beast.
Whatever the answer was, they hoped not to figure it out. They needed to make a decision quickly—yet all the possibilities they had thought up did not seem reasonable.
They could desert their mission, killing Alter in the process. Maybe they could band together and somehow beat the odds, or perhaps they could all run, and hopefully escape.
Alter gritted his teeth, the black blood under his boot already stirring. It was a signal that the corpses would begin to mend together in only a few moments.
A single word left his lips, "Go."
The Dormants stood there for a few moments, his voice ringing out once more. "Begone! I shall slay this beast; you will only get in the way."
That is all they needed to hear, yet a few of them remained hesitant.
Ira and Bariealla both stood up, their legs slightly shaky. A drop of blood trickled down her lip as she bit into it, its metallic taste leaving her far more irritated than before.
"Come on… We will live another day because of what he has given us—an opportunity to live and prosper…" Bari said.
Hearing her words, they slowly began to walk away.
Ira saw the three corpses melting and then solidifying together. Bones cracked and crunched, blood flowed like a river towards it, and flesh had melted. Underneath the flesh, Will collided to form an even stronger one; shadows, too, combined.
Plenty of things unseen to the mundane eye were visible to her, a tremble echoing through her body at the horrid sight.
'An Aberrant Demon… Why should we run when this is our target? Never mind; I need to save my own skin. Fate still has me in its clutches, and I must escape… I must survive, to achieve my goal—my desire to destroy the Flame of Destruction.'
A light chuckle escaped her lips. Destroy destruction with destruction? Perhaps that was hypocritical of her, but that was what she hoped to accomplish. She had already even given that said Flame of desire, after all.
The Frenzied Flame.
◇
Limping lightly as she ran, a grimace appeared on her face. Had Ira just doomed a man to die? Could she have even saved him? Perhaps she could have, but she did not truly care.
She was forcing sorrow upon herself. 'In the end, I am what I am—and what I am is selfish. There is nothing wrong with being selfish. Greed is a virtue in the last glimmers of mankind, not a damn sin!'
But, would she kill a man to save herself? Could she slay another human being only to achieve her goals? What if a man stood in her way; would she slit his throat where he stood?
Yes, of course she would. Her world had already been set ablaze. She held nothing, so why would she act as if she had something to lose? Who would dare stare down the Champion of Hope, Heir of nothing, and Keystone to the Oracle's plan to save humanity?
She did not know.
Behind her, one of the girls spoke. "S-slow down..! I… I can't breathe..!' She breathlessly yelled out.
With a grunt of frustration, they slowed their pace down. 'If this girl does not quickly recover I swear I will bolt away, leaving them to defend themselves!' She thought.
Luckily, no one could read her mind—at least she hoped no one could. What lay inside the depths of her consciousness would shatter the souls of most who did not possess a strong resolve.
She had nearly died at the mere sight of the vile god. Most of the memories she received in that vision she could not even comprehend—she did not even know if she had remembered it all!
◇
A low groan left Ira's lips, her body lethargic and hungry.
"Ira. May I ask what your first time outside Fort Delta was like?" A hesitant pause happened between her words, "I know you did not want to speak of it last time, but perhaps we have known each other long enough?"
Ira stared at her for a few moments before finally answering.
"My first time… I was not born in Fort Delta. Actually, I was not born anywhere near it for that matter. The lesser Fort I dwelled in did not even possess a name, and it would forever stay like that."
Interrupting her, Bariealla questioned:
"Why is that?"
A small frown appeared on her face, one of true sorrow unlike her previous one.
"Because it was destroyed—not by the Purge Beast, but by the Raiders. At least that is what I think. Moments after they stormed the gate, and infiltrated the city, Purge Beast began to swarm inside. However, they lunged right past the Raiders and began to slaughter the civilians. They did not seem to be the Corrupted, so I do not have an explanation for why the Purge Beasts avoided them. In the end, my parents were slaughtered helplessly so as to hide me away…"
Bariealla seemed to grow silent, her curiosity satisfied. Even so, Ira continued.
"Come the next morning, they were all dead. They took everything—money, furniture, Awakening Crystals, and more. Luckily, they had all left by the time I escaped my hiding spot. I was found a few hours later by a cohort of Awakened sent to investigate the destruction of my Fort."
The atmosphere grew quiet, only interrupted by the loud explosions of rays of light slamming into buildings and people alike.
Noticing the silence, she spoke once more. "I am starving! Perhaps we could catch a Purge Beast and devour it?"
Bariealla hesitantly spoke, "Well, if you are alright with risking corruption, be my guest. Unless you have a taste for charred meat?"
Ira chuckled slightly, "I've eaten worse."
One thing they desperately needed more than food was strength. Ira had an idea, but she could not help but feel anxious about it. 'I shall spend half of my reserves of Realm Thread on the creation of my mist. If I want even the slightest of chances of aiding in the defeat of an Aberrant Demon, that is what I must do."
Taking a deep breath in, she concentrated her efforts on the formation of her mist.
And thus, she became confident that she could slay a Strayed Demon alone.