Nyxia's vision didn't fade so much as rip apart. The last thing she saw was the massive dryad looming over her, its many mouths chanting something low and hungry, vines reaching for her like hands that remembered her shape too well. Then came a plunge into black—wet, crushing, suffocating. Her scream didn't echo. It was swallowed. She tried to move, but her limbs dragged like they were caught in roots, her ribs aching under the pressure. Something pulsed in the dark with her, a heartbeat too slow and too old to be hers.
She floated for what felt like hours or only seconds—it was impossible to tell. Breath thinned to threads. Consciousness frayed. Then a voice slithered through the dark, velvet-sweet and poisonous. "You should've let me break you gently." Nyxia tried to twist toward it, but the vines moved with her, almost tender. One curled around her thigh, another along her ribs, tracing her with a familiarity she wanted to tear out of her own skin. Acid stung wherever they touched. Her breath hitched, half pain, half fury.
The darkness peeled open like rotted bark, and Ves'Sariel stepped through it. Her beauty had become something sharp, tragic, twisted—hair like inky rivers, eyes cracked with voidlight, her smile intimate in a way that made Nyxia's stomach knot. "I begged you not to leave," Ves whispered, stroking the vines that held Nyxia up, "and now look at you." Nyxia spat something bitter, her voice shaking with both defiance and exhaustion. Ves only stepped closer. Her touch was soft on Nyxia's jaw, her breath warm. "You didn't lose me," she murmured. "You let me starve."
Nyxia said it then—quiet, iron, shaking. "You infected me." The vines answered for Ves, clenching until Nyxia almost choked. Ves's mask broke for a heartbeat, pain twisting through her expression, but she recovered with a trembling whisper. "You loved me." Nyxia's reply was soft but brutal: "I mourned who you used to be." And with that, the vines loosened. Nyxia dropped hard to her knees, catching herself on scraped palms. Ves stepped back, something unreadable moving in her eyes. "You'll stay until you remember," she said gently, and walked away. The door sealed behind her, leaving Nyxia trembling, breathless, but not broken.
Outside, the forest trembled. Perseus never felt the ground when the creature's blow landed—one moment he was mid-swing, light blazing along his hammer, and the next he was flying through stone and darkness. When he clawed awake, cold swamp water filled his lungs. He kicked upward, armor dragging him down, panic burning hot in his chest. He breached the surface gasping, eyes searching wildly. No Nyxia. No monster. Only fog. Only silence. Then a low snarl cut through the stillness, and Loque staggered into view, limping, flickering, covered in sap-dark blood. His eyes met Perseus's, fierce and accusing. Where is she.
Perseus staggered after him, their bodies crashing through corrupted brush. Every step felt slow, too slow. Loque's growls vibrated through the ground as he tracked her scent. They burst into a clearing—scorched dirt, smeared purple blood. Void-touched. Perseus's breath stopped in his throat. "Ves took her." Loque threw back his head and howled, a raw sound that shook the trees. Perseus lifted his hammer, resolve hardening. "Then we tear down everything between us and her."
Back inside the temple's heart, Nyxia dragged herself upright, ribs aching, skin burning where the vines had held her too close. The walls pulsed with a sick heartbeat. She touched the doorway; it opened like something exhaling. She barely took two steps before vines erupted again, catching her ankle, her wrists, dragging her back. She snarled, thrashing, but they wrapped with liquid strength, pulling her upright, pinning her ribcage, coiling along her thighs. She gasped as they held her still, the air thick and hot around her. Ves stepped out of the shadows again, voice soft. "You think you stopped wanting me."
Nyxia's answer was a hissed curse—and Ves's smile flickered before turning cold. The vines reacted, tightening with fury, one sliding along Nyxia's spine. The floor shook suddenly, a deep rumble, and Ves's eyes narrowed. A crack split across the far wall. Light poured through—brilliant, holy, furious. The vines recoiled instantly. A massive spectral form burst through the breach, claws glowing like stars. Loque. Behind him, Perseus stormed in, shield raised, eyes burning when he saw Nyxia bound. "Get her down!"
Loque struck first—tearing through the vines in savage silence. Perseus hurled a hammer of golden light that shattered the ceiling above Ves, forcing her into the shadows with a hiss. The vines convulsed as they died, crushing Nyxia in their last grasp, and she screamed as her ribs nearly gave. Loque leapt, ripping the last bindings apart. Nyxia fell—
Straight into Perseus's arms.His breath hitched. Her body trembled violently against him, blood streaking her lips. She managed to look up at him, barely conscious. Ves'Sariel vanished into the dark with a whisper of silk and heartbreak. Nyxia didn't look away from Perseus. Not even as she faded. Not even as the temple trembled around them.