The clearing crackled with tension. Carna stood motionless at its edge, her flesh-whips twitching with held-back evil. The smell of scorched bark hung thick in the air. Across from her, Eleanor and Katya had found a steady rhythm; Sunfire pulsing from one, raw energy crackling from the other. The ground between them was blackened and gouged by searing heat and divine force. The fight was only beginning, yet both sides were already bruised and bleeding.
Carna broke the strained silence. "Two against one? Come on now that's hardly fair."
Katya scoffed, a defiant smirk on her lips. "You ripped my teammate through a vine wall. Fair's off the table."
Eleanor didn't wait. She surged forward first, her axe dragging a trail of sunlight behind it.
"Divine Art: Solar Fang!"
A narrow crescent of Sunfire arced toward Carna, slicing through trees and shrubs like paper. Carna's flesh whips lashed out, slapping the arc aside with a crackling hiss. Steam rose where her mutated limb sizzled from the heat.
Katya followed up without hesitation, her fists pulsing with emerald energy.
"Divine Art: Burst Jab!"
She vanished in a blur of green light, appearing behind Carna mid-punch. Carna twisted, blocking with her forearm. The impact sent a shockwave through the clearing; nearby trees bent from the sheer force. Carna gritted her teeth and whipped her arm forward, trying to catch Katya with her counterattack, but Eleanor had already come around to her side.
"Sunfire Slash!"
The glowing axe cut through Carna's defense, narrowly missing her ribs. The edge seared the flesh of her side, a molten gash opening on her skin. Carna shrieked, not in pain, but in pure, uncontrolled rage.
"You worms!"
The air around them shifted, growing heavy and thick.
Flesh spiraled outward from Carna's arms, forming jagged blades, thorny and pulsing with dark life. She crouched low, her eyes burning with an unsettling passion.
"Divine Right: Bloodlace Bloom."
Whips and tendrils exploded in every direction from Carna's form, tearing through the air. Eleanor leapt back, using the flat of her axe to shield her face. Katya ducked behind a gnarled tree, vines tearing around her as they tried to trap her. Even the ground pulsed; blood-red flowers, alien and vibrant, bloomed from the roots beneath them, giving off waves of a confusing, sickly sweet scent.
"Cover your mouth!" Eleanor yelled, her voice strained. "It's some kind of hallucinogen!"
Katya did as she was told, quickly covering her nose and mouth with her arm, but she still staggered. The sneaky scent still managed to get through, a sudden rush of dizziness clouding her vision. Carna moved like a ghost, appearing in front of her with a whip raised for a killing blow.
But Eleanor was faster.
"Sunfire Crash!"
She slammed her axe into the earth, sending a wave of burning gold outward. The searing flame ate up the blooming flowers, turning them to ash, and forced Carna to fall back. Katya caught her breath, her eyes clearing from the haze.
"...Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet. She's not done."
Carna rose from the flames, her skin blistered but healing rapidly, fixing itself with disturbing speed. Her eyes, though, had changed; more animal-like now, pupils narrowed to slits, gleaming with cold fury. Her whips pulled back into her arms, then burst outward again, thicker, and studded with wicked barbs.
"Enough games. Time to make angels bleed."
She shot forward with terrifying speed. One whip lashed out, slamming Katya into a thick tree. Katya grunted from the impact but bounced back immediately, shaking off the blow and slamming her fists together, channeling her energy.
"Divine Art: Overdrive Pulse!"
A surge of radiant energy burst from her form, blasting Carna back just long enough for Eleanor to close the distance.
"Solar Requiem!"
A full-force axe swing slammed into Carna's middle, launching her into a massive boulder. The ancient stone cracked, dust rising like smoke around the impact.
Still, she rose, slowly, painfully, but her eyes were fixed on them with chilling intent.
"You. Will. Be. Beautiful."
Her arms twisted, shaping into needle-thin lances, glistening with a horrific, wet sheen.
She charged, a creature of pure, mutated evil.
Katya blocked the first lance with her forearms, sparks flying as it scraped against her gauntlets. Eleanor ducked low, swinging for Carna's legs, aiming to make her fall. The battle became a blur of motion: divine light, raw speed, searing pain. Carna was not simply fast; she was fluid, every motion unnatural, inhuman, a grotesque dance of death.
But she was slowing. The healing was no longer keeping up.
Katya landed another heavy punch to her ribs, a sickening crunch echoing in the clearing. Eleanor's axe struck her shoulder, breaking through healed muscle and bone with a wet tear. The goddess screamed, a raw, tormented sound, stumbling backward, finally showing true pain.
"Now!" Eleanor shouted, recognizing the opportunity.
Katya nodded, gathering a massive amount of emerald energy in both hands, her gauntlets practically humming.
"Divine Art: Twin Pulse Breaker!"
She struck the ground with both fists. Pillars of blinding emerald light erupted around Carna, locking her in place, caging her within the searing energy.
Eleanor didn't hesitate. This was the moment.
"Divine Art: Sunflare Execution!"
She leapt, spinning mid-air, her axe blazing with incredibly bright, blinding gold. She came down with a roar,
And the axe struck true, cutting through Carna's immobilized form.
A final, blinding burst of golden flame engulfed the clearing, consuming everything in its radiant light.
When the smoke cleared, Carna was on her knees, burned, broken, her form flickering as her divine essence unraveled. Yet, a faint, unsettling smile still touched her lips.
"You won't stop her…"
Carna, the Sculptress of Pain, had weakened, now a ghostly image of her former self.
The once-elegant goddess was a mess of torn silk and dark, oozing blood. Her flesh whips, now frayed and pulsing unevenly, hung at her sides like dying, withered limbs. Her breaths came out ragged, that tranquil grace from before replaced with something cracked and hollow. The raw rage had burned out of her eyes, replaced by disbelief. This wasn't how it was supposed to end for her.
Katya stepped forward beside Eleanor, her gauntlets still glowing faintly with leftover energy. One of her sleeves had been burned off, and a streak of dried blood lined her jaw, but her trademark smirk remained intact, a small victory in itself. "You're still standing? Damn. You really don't know when to quit."
Carna looked at them, her lips twitching into a smile that was far too gentle for the wreckage around her, for the horrors she had caused. "Flesh tears, bones break, but beauty, beauty is eternal."
Then her knees buckled.
She collapsed slowly, first to one knee, then the other, her breath catching in her throat, a soft gurgle. The whips detached from her wrists like wilted vines and slithered lifelessly into the dirt. Light began to gather around her; a soft, golden shimmer that sparked from her skin like fireflies, signaling her end.
Eleanor and Katya watched in silence, respecting the final moments of their formidable foe.
As Carna exhaled and coughed out some blood, her final breath, her body began to disintegrate, not into dust, but into radiant particles. Fine golden essence lifted from her form and drifted upward, scattering into the dense canopy above, catching the faint light. The Divine essence within her, the fragment of godhood that had made her more than mortal, now returned to the ether, back to the source from which it came.
She faded like a memory, graceful even in death, her monstrous beauty finally undone.
Katya exhaled, wiping a hand across her mouth, her relief clear. "Well. That was disgusting."
Eleanor leaned on her axe for a moment, then nodded slowly, a weary satisfaction settling over her. "Yeah. But at least that's over."
Katya glanced around, taking in the ravaged clearing. "Guess this means we're not dead. Yet."
Before either of them could truly relax, the forest rustled unnaturally. Vines trembled in the distance, not just swaying with the wind, but shifting deliberately, moving with a chilling intention.
A low pulse echoed through the roots beneath their feet, like the deep, rhythmic heartbeat of something ancient waking up from a long slumber.
Far deeper in the forest, among moss-covered ruins half-swallowed by gnarled tree roots, Hector stood perfectly still. His dark robes fluttered gently in an unseen breeze, golden eyes half-closed, deep in conversation with nature. He rested one palm against the ancient bark of a colossal tree, its roots pulsing with a vibrant, ominous green light.
He opened his eyes fully, the golden depths now alight with powerful energy. Whispering leaves carried his words, too soft for anyone but the awakened forest itself to hear.
"One has fallen. The Sculptress of Pain… scattered to dust...What a shame."
He stepped away from the tree, his form radiating ancient power.
"But not to worry… My time has come."
Back near the broken clearing, Katya cracked her knuckles, a grim readiness in her gaze. "So what now?"
Eleanor hoisted her axe onto her shoulder, the weight oddly comforting, a familiar burden. "Now? We should find the others."
She started forward, golden light burning in her eyes, leading the way towards the next challenge.
Katya followed. They walked in silence for the time being.