Inside a banquet that shimmered like a jewel box buried inside the city.
Golden chandeliers dripped warm light across polished marble floors.
Velvet curtains framed enormous windows overlooking rain-slick streets below, where neon signs bled color into puddles like smeared paint.
The soft melody of a violin drifted through the crowded dining hall while wealthy patrons laughed into crystal glasses, unaware of the predators and liars hidden among them.
Maria sat alone at a table near the center balcony.
Beautiful.
Painfully so.
Her silver-white dress hugged her figure with elegant restraint, exposing just enough of her shoulders to draw eyes without begging for them.
Diamonds shimmered faintly around her throat.
Her hair flowed neatly down her back like fresh snow under moonlight.
And yet…
Something about her expression ruined the illusion.
Not ruined.
Haunted it.
Because while everyone else in the banquet looked alive, Maria looked like someone pretending to be.
Her fingers rested quietly around a glass untouched for nearly twenty minutes.
This was her first mission.
Her first time acting as someone else.
Smile when necessary.
Speak carefully.
Observe everything.
That's what she'd been taught.
Yet all she could think about was Thina.
A brief flash crossed her mind.
Blood on pale hands.
A voice screaming her name.
Maria blinked once and forced the memory back down before it could crack through her expression.
The chair beside her suddenly slid back.
Maria's eyes shifted instantly.
A young woman sat down beside her with the kind of confidence that made the room unconsciously bend around her.
Lee.
Mid-late teens, same as Maria.
But where Maria looked delicate and ghostlike, Lee looked dangerously alive.
Her black dress glittered subtly beneath the chandelier light, split along one thigh with deliberate boldness.
Gold chains wrapped elegantly around one exposed wrist.
Dark eyeliner sharpened her gaze into something feline and unreadable.
Several people in the banquet glanced at her the moment she entered.
Lee noticed every single one.
Didn't care about any of them.
Without looking directly at Maria, she picked up the menu and casually said:
"Funny thing about winter roses."
A pause.
"They bloom prettiest right before they die."
Maria's eyes narrowed slightly.
There it was.
The phrase.
The confirmation.
Keeping her composure, Maria lifted her glass and replied softly:
"And the gardeners always pretend not to notice the blood on the thorns."
Lee smiled faintly.
"Well," she murmured, finally looking at her directly, "guess that means you're my partner."
Maria studied her carefully.
Lee leaned back comfortably in the chair like she owned the building.
Maria hated how naturally she fit into this world.
"You're late," Maria said quietly.
"You're early."
"That's not the same thing."
"It is if nobody important has died yet."
Maria blinked slowly.
What kind of response was that?
Lee extended a gloved hand across the table.
"Lee."
Maria hesitated before shaking it.
"…Maria."
Lee tilted her head slightly.
"That sounds fake."
"It's not."
"Hm."
Lee didn't elaborate.
A waiter approached nervously, clearly distracted by how absurdly attractive both girls looked sitting together.
Lee ordered wine without even opening the menu.
Maria ordered nothing.
The waiter quickly disappeared.
Silence settled briefly between them, though not awkwardly.
Just cautious.
Measured.
Like two knives laid beside each other waiting to see which one moved first.
Lee glanced around the banquet .
"Three armed guards near the northern staircase," she said casually. "One hidden sniper position outside. Two politicians pretending not to have an affair. And the piano player keeps checking the exits every few minutes."
Maria's eyes flickered subtly toward the piano.
"She's nervous," Maria observed.
"No." Lee smirked lightly. "She's armed."
Maria looked back at her fully now.
Interesting.
Lee noticed the shift immediately.
"There we go," she said softly. "First real expression you've made since I sat down."
Maria looked away again.
"…I'm focused."
"You're miserable."
The words landed too easily.
Maria's grip tightened slightly around the glass.
Lee studied her for a moment longer before leaning back again.
"You know," Lee began casually, "they told me my partner would be beautiful."
Maria frowned faintly.
"…What?"
Lee rested her chin against her hand lazily.
"But they forgot to mention you'd look this sad."
The banquet noise suddenly felt distant.
Maria stared at her.
Not offended.
Not angry.
Caught.
Because Lee said it so plainly.
Not mockingly.
Not sympathetically.
Just… honestly.
Beautiful.
Yet sad.
Like both things could exist together naturally.
Maria lowered her gaze toward the untouched drink in front of her.
"…You say strange things."
Lee shrugged.
"You wear grief like jewelry."
A small pause.
"Hard not to notice."
For the first time in weeks, Maria didn't know what to say.
Which irritated her.
She had prepared for deception. Violence. Manipulation.
Not observation.
Lee tapped her fingers lightly against the table.
"So," she said, shifting the mood slightly, "apparently we're supposed to 'get to know each other.'"
Her voice carried obvious sarcasm around the phrase.
Maria almost smiled.
Almost.
"What do you want to know?" Maria asked quietly.
Lee thought for a moment.
Then:
"What's the worst thing you've ever seen?"
Maria's expression immediately dimmed again.
Too direct.
Too real.
But strangely…
Not inappropriate.
After a long silence, Maria answered without looking at her.
"Someone I loved begging me not to leave them alone."
Lee's playful demeanor faded slightly.
Not completely.
Just enough.
"…Yeah," Lee murmured softly. "That'll do it."
Maria finally looked at her again.
"And you?"
Lee stared toward the enormous chandelier overhead.
Its golden light reflected faintly in her eyes.
"I learned very young," she said quietly, "that people can smile while ruining your life."
There it was.
The fracture beneath her charm.
Quick.
Sharp.
Gone almost immediately.
Lee straightened again before the silence could deepen too much.
"Well," she sighed dramatically, "this partnership already feels psychologically unhealthy."
Maria unexpectedly let out the faintest breath of laughter.
Tiny.
Barely audible.
But real.
Lee froze theatrically.
"There she is," she said, pointing lightly at Maria. "I knew there was still a person under all the funeral energy."
Maria rolled her eyes slightly.
Yet the corner of her mouth betrayed her.
Just barely.
And somewhere deep inside her chest, beneath the grief and training and loneliness…
Something loosened.
Not healed.
Not even close.
But noticed.
The violinist transitioned into a slower song.
Rain continued to race down the banquet windows in silver streams, blurring the city lights outside into glowing rivers of gold and crimson.
Around them, conversations rose and fell like distant waves, forks clinked against porcelain, and somewhere nearby a wealthy man laughed far too loudly at a joke nobody else found amusing.
Yet the small table beside the balcony felt strangely separate from all of it.
Like its own little world.
Lee lazily swirled the wine in her glass.
Maria still hadn't touched hers.
"You know," Lee said casually, "for two girls secretly meeting for a dangerous espionage mission, this feels disappointingly uneventful."
Maria raised an eyebrow.
"You wanted explosions?"
"A little gunfire would've been nice."
"That's concerning."
Lee grinned.
"There it is again."
"What?"
"That almost-personality you keep trying to suppress."
Maria looked away toward the rain-soaked glass.
The reflection staring back at her looked elegant.
Cold.
Controlled.
Not real.
"You talk too much," she muttered softly.
"And you think too loudly."
Maria frowned faintly.
"That doesn't even make sense."
"It does to me."
Lee leaned closer slightly now, lowering her voice beneath the hum of the banquet.
"You keep scanning exits every thirty seconds."
Her eyes flickered downward briefly.
"You're carrying two hidden blades."
Then upward again.
"And every time someone laughs too loudly, your shoulders tense."
Maria's expression stiffened subtly.
Lee saw it immediately.
Bingo.
"You're waiting for something bad to happen," Lee finished quietly.
Maria held her gaze this time.
For a moment, neither girl spoke.
The mission.
The crowd.
The noise.
It all faded behind the weight of simple recognition.
Because Lee understood something terrifying:
Maria was not naturally cold.
She was bracing.
Always.
Like someone standing beneath a collapsing ceiling they were convinced would eventually fall.
Maria finally broke eye contact first.
"…You analyze people too much."
Lee shrugged lightly.
"Occupational hazard."
"No." Maria's voice softened slightly. "I think it's personal."
That caught Lee off guard.
Just a little.
The tiniest flicker crossed her face before she smiled again.
Dangerous girl.
Maria noticed that too.
Interesting.
Before either could continue, a man in a white suit entered the banquet's upper floor balcony surrounded by bodyguards.
The target.
Immediately both girls changed.
Not visibly to anyone else.
But subtly.
Professionally.
Lee's posture relaxed further to appear harmless.
Maria's gaze sharpened microscopically.
Predators slipping into stillness.
Lee lifted her wine glass toward the balcony without looking directly at the man.
"Our idiot finally arrived."
Maria quietly adjusted the silver bracelet around her wrist.
Hidden wire.
Lockpick.
Poison capsule.
"Three guards changed positions," Maria observed softly.
Lee smiled faintly.
"There she is again."
Maria ignored the comment.
"You distract the politician," she continued calmly. "I'll access the private floor."
Lee blinked dramatically.
"Bossy already. We met twenty minutes ago."
"You're unserious."
"I'm alive."
Lee's voice lowered then.
"People like us stay alive by learning when not to look afraid."
Maria's eyes flickered toward her.
People like us.
Not spies.
Not agents.
Something sadder.
Younger.
Lee stood smoothly from the table.
As she did, she leaned slightly closer to Maria's ear.
"Soften your eyes a little," she whispered. "Right now you look like a princess attending her own execution."
Maria's breath caught slightly.
Lee smiled.
Then disappeared into the crowd.
FLASH.
The giant forest trembled.
Massive branches cracked beneath violent impacts as Maria's blade collided against Lee's blade hidden underneath her cloth wrappings in a burst of sparks and force.
The ancient trees towered endlessly around them, their colossal trunks disappearing into darkness above.
Maria lunged forward first.
Fast.
Too fast.
Her blade sliced through the air toward Lee's throat with murderous precision.
Lee twisted sideways at the last possible second, boots skidding across wet bark before she retaliated with a slash aimed at Maria's ribs.
CLANG.
Maria blocked instantly.
The impact echoed through the forest.
Birds scattered screaming into the canopy overhead.
FLASHBACK.
Banquet balcony.
Lee returned to the table minutes later carrying herself with exaggerated elegance.
"Well," she sighed dramatically while sitting down again, "your target is either extremely corrupt or extremely lonely."
Maria didn't look up from adjusting her glove.
"What happened?"
"He invited me upstairs."
"And?"
Lee smirked.
"I robbed him halfway through the conversation."
Maria stared at her.
"…Already?"
Lee casually dropped a stolen security key onto the tablecloth.
"I multitask."
Maria looked at the key.
Then at Lee.
Then, despite herself…
A tiny laugh escaped her.
Lee froze theatrically again.
"Wow," she whispered. "That sound exists."
Maria immediately looked annoyed with herself afterward.
Which only made Lee grin harder.
"There's hope for you yet, princess."
Maria rolled her eyes softly.
"I'm not a princess."
Lee tilted her head.
"No," she agreed quietly.
Her gaze softened for only a second.
"You just look like one cursed by a story."
FLASH.
Present day.
Maria burst through the underbrush in pursuit, white hair whipping violently behind her as she leapt between colossal branches high above the forest floor.
Lee sprinted ahead of her effortlessly.
Almost gracefully.
Their movements looked less like combat and more like two wild animals tearing through the canopy.
A branch exploded behind Maria as her blade cleaved through it mid-leap.
Lee glanced back.
Maria suddenly accelerated.
The distance between them vanished instantly.
Lee's eyes widened slightly.
Maria's sword crashed downward.
BOOM.
The entire branch beneath Lee split apart violently, sending bark and splinters raining into the abyss below.
Lee flipped backward onto another branch just before gravity consumed her.
"You know," Lee said while catching her breath, "back then I used to think you were scary because you were quiet."
Maria landed opposite her with deadly stillness.
"And now?"
Lee's smile faded slightly.
"…Now I know you're quiet because you're angry at the world."
FLASHBACK:
Maria sat near the back of the banquet, one leg crossed over the other, posture effortless despite how rigid she felt inside.
Across from her, Lee lazily spun a silver spoon between her fingers.
Neither of them had touched the food.
Near the far side of the banquet, behind frosted glass and guarded by velvet curtains, a private room remained closed.
Their target still hadn't entered.
Maria glanced toward it again.
A group of politicians nearby erupted into another wave of laughter. One man nearly spilled his drink while another clapped him on the shoulder like they'd personally solved the world's problems tonight.
Maria's eyes lingered on them.
"They seem like they're having a blast."
Lee followed her gaze briefly.
"Hm."
She leaned back into the booth.
"They always do before somebody dies."
Maria sighed quietly through her nose.
Lee smirked faintly.
"Well," she said casually, "looks like we've got time to kill."
Maria gave her a flat look.
"That was terrible."
"I thought it was charming."
"It was predictable."
Lee placed a hand dramatically over her chest.
"You wound me."
"You'll survive."
"Emotionally? Debatable."
Maria tried not to smile.
Tried.
Lee noticed anyway. Of course she did.
For a while neither of them spoke.
The banquet continued moving around them like a machine pretending to be elegant. Servers drifted between tables carrying polished plates. Wine poured. Laughter echoed softly beneath the music. Rain traced slow lines down the tall windows overlooking the city.
Maria found herself staring at the glass.
Not really looking at anything beyond it.
Just… away.
Lee noticed that too.
"You know," she said quietly, "you're very bad at pretending you don't want someone to notice when you're hurting."
Maria's eyes shifted slightly toward her.
Not startled.
Caught.
Lee tilted her head.
A faint smirk touched her lips.
That landed harder than Maria expected.
Her fingers paused against the side of her untouched glass.
The banquet noise dulled slightly around her.
Not silence.
Distance.
Maria looked at Lee fully for the first time since they sat down.
Lee held her gaze without flinching.
No teasing now.
No performance.
Just observation.
And somehow that felt more dangerous.
"You look so beautiful yet so sad," Lee said softly.
Maria froze.
Not visibly.
But somewhere behind her ribs, something tightened.
Nobody was supposed to notice things like that.
Not about her.
Especially not her.
Maria let out a small breath through her nose that almost became a laugh.
"…That's a cruel thing to notice."
Lee's expression softened just slightly.
"I know."
Silence settled between them again.
Not awkward.
Worse.
Honest.
Maria looked back toward the rain crawling down the window.
The city lights beyond the glass blurred into streaks of gold and white.
"Do you ever feel," she asked quietly, "like the world only keeps people around until it figures out what to use them for?"
Lee studied her carefully.
"That sounds less like philosophy," she replied, "and more like a confession."
Maria smiled faintly.
Not amused.
Just tired.
A politician somewhere across the room burst into loud laughter again.
Maria barely heard it.
Lee rested her chin lightly against her hand.
"For what it's worth," she said, "you don't really strike me as someone who was made to belong to other people."
Maria's eyes lowered slightly.
"That's because you met me after I stopped trying."
Lee's gaze sharpened.
"No," she said softly.
"I think it's because you're the kind of person who keeps surviving things that should've turned you into someone worse."
That one hurt.
Maria hated that it hurt.
Because part of her wanted to hear it again.
Her throat tightened slightly before she swallowed it down.
For a moment neither woman moved.
The rain continued slipping down the glass.
Then, from across the banquet:
The private room doors opened.
A heavyset politician entered laughing alongside several armed escorts.
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Mission.
Reality.
Masks.
Lee's softness vanished so smoothly it almost looked unreal.
She straightened slightly, eyes sharpening beneath the dim light.
"There he is," she murmured.
Maria looked toward the private room.
But her mind lingered for half a second too long on Lee's earlier words.
You look so beautiful yet so sad.
Something about hearing that felt dangerous.
Because it made her feel seen.
And people who felt seen started wanting things they couldn't afford to want.
Lee stood first, adjusting her gloves.
"Ready?"
Maria looked at her.
Really looked at her.
Then gave a small nod.
"…Yeah."
Lee smiled faintly.
Professional now.
Distant again.
But not entirely.
"Good," she said.
Then the memory fractures—
Present.
Maria in the forest.
Black spreading beneath her skin.
Breathing uneven.
Lee standing across from her beneath the dying light.
Years later.
Ruined by time.
Ruined by truth.
Lee stares at her for a long moment before speaking quietly:
"There she is."
A pause.
"…I was wondering where you went."
Maria moved instantly.
No warning.
No reply.
The forest detonated beneath her feet.
BOOM.
The branch she launched from shattered backward as Maria crossed the distance between them in a silver blur, blade already carving toward Lee's throat.
Lee twisted sideways at the last possible moment.
SPARKS screamed through the air.
Maria's blade sheared through bark thick as stone, splitting the massive tree trunk behind Lee clean down the center.
The upper half groaned violently before collapsing into the abyss below the canopy.
Lee slid backward across the branch, boots skidding hard against the bark.
"…Yep," she breathed.
CLANG.
Maria was already on her again.
A second strike.
A third.
A fourth.
Each one fast enough to blur together into silver arcs flashing through the forest light.
Lee barely kept up.
Steel collided against steel in bursts of orange sparks that scattered into the leaves like fireflies.
The giant forest shook around them.
Birds erupted screaming from distant branches.
Maria's attacks were vicious.
Not wild.
Precise.
That was what made them terrifying.
Every slash was calculated to kill.
Neck.
Heart.
Tendons.
Eyes.
Lee ducked beneath another strike that shaved several strands of black hair from her head.
"Still aiming for the face?" she asked breathlessly. "That feels personal."
Maria answered with violence.
Her knee drove forward hard enough to crater the bark beneath Lee's stance.
Lee caught the strike against her forearm and immediately felt the impact reverberate up to her shoulder.
Jesus.
Maria had gotten stronger.
Lee twisted sideways and retaliated instantly.
A thin blade flashed from beneath her sleeve toward Maria's ribs.
Maria caught her wrist mid-strike.
The impact cracked the branch beneath them.
For one suspended second they stood locked together face-to-face, arms trembling from opposing force.
Maria's blue eyes burned.
Lee saw it immediately.
Pain.
Exhaustion.
Desperation.
And underneath all of it—
Fear.
Not of Lee.
Of herself.
Lee's expression softened slightly.
Bad mistake.
Maria headbutted her directly across the nose.
CRACK.
Lee staggered backward laughing through the blood instantly spilling down her face.
"There she is," she muttered again.
Maria's expression twisted sharply.
"Stop saying that."
She vanished.
Not metaphorically.
One moment she existed before Lee.
The next—
BOOM.
Lee barely turned in time to block the strike descending from above.
The force exploded through the branch beneath her feet, splitting it apart.
Wood burst outward in every direction as both women dropped through the collapsing canopy together.
Maria attacked mid-fall.
Lee twisted through the air, narrowly avoiding a slash that carved through three massive branches behind her like paper ribbons.
Sunlight flickered violently through the collapsing leaves around them.
Then both landed simultaneously on separate branches dozens of meters lower.
THOOM.
The entire forest trembled.
Maria didn't pause.
She sprinted forward across the branch at impossible speed, white hair trailing behind her like tearing silk.
Lee met her halfway.
Then the blitz truly began.
The forest exploded into motion.
They vanished across the canopy faster than the eye could properly follow.
Branches shattered in their wake.
Entire trunks split apart from missed strikes.
Leaves spiraled violently through the air as shockwaves burst outward from every collision.
CLANG.
BOOM.
CRACK.
Lee flipped backward through the air while throwing three silver blades wrapped in cloth simultaneously.
Maria deflected all of them instantly—
—but the fourth wasn't aimed at her and it was different from the others.
It struck the branch beneath her feet.
BOOM.
The branch exploded upward.
Lee appeared through the debris immediately, driving a kick toward Maria's jaw.
Maria caught her leg mid-motion.
Lee's eyes widened.
Maria swung her violently into a nearby trunk hard enough to rupture the wood on impact.
The entire tree leaned sideways.
Lee coughed sharply before twisting away just as Maria's blade pierced directly through the spot where her head had been.
The sword buried halfway through the trunk.
Maria ripped it free instantly.
Too slow.
Lee's elbow slammed into her ribs.
Maria retaliated immediately with a slash aimed low enough to sever Lee's leg clean off.
Lee vaulted over it sideways, one hand planting against the branch while the blade passed beneath her by centimeters.
"You know," Lee breathed while twisting upright again, "most reunions involve less attempted murder."
Maria's response came cold and immediate.
"You should've stayed gone."
That landed.
Lee hid it well.
But not well enough.
Maria saw the flicker in her eyes.
Saw it hurt.
Good.
The black beneath Maria's skin pulsed suddenly.
Pain stabbed through her chest.
Her movement staggered for half a second.
Lee noticed instantly.
Her expression changed immediately.
"Maria."
Too late.
Maria attacked harder.
Like fury could outrun collapse.
She crossed the distance again in a blur and unleashed a storm of strikes violent enough that Lee stopped talking completely.
Now she was surviving.
CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG.
Their weapons sparked so rapidly it looked like lightning trapped between them.
The branch beneath their feet splintered apart from the pressure alone.
Both launched away simultaneously—
Then reappeared above each other again almost instantly.
Maria's blade descended vertically.
Lee crossed both weapons overhead to catch it.
BOOOOOOM.
The impact detonated downward through the tree.
The colossal trunk split from crown to roots in one catastrophic rupture.
For one impossible second the entire giant tree stood motionless.
Then slowly—
It began to fall.
The sound thundered through the forest.
Lee shoved Maria backward off the collapsing trunk just before gravity consumed them both.
They landed separately on neighboring branches while the ancient tree disappeared into darkness below.
Silence.
Breathing.
Leaves drifting through sunlight.
Maria stood hunched slightly now.
One hand pressed against her chest.
The black beneath her skin had spread further.
Lee's breathing slowed.
Her blade lowered slightly.
"…You're dying," she said quietly.
Maria's eyes sharpened instantly.
"And whose fault is that?"
Lee froze.
Not because of the accusation.
Because Maria sounded tired.
Not angry.
Tired.
The forest groaned around them.
Somewhere far below, the fallen tree finally crashed into the lower levels of the giant forest.
The impact echoed upward like distant thunder.
Lee stared at her for a long moment.
Then softly:
"You should've told me."
Maria laughed once under her breath.
Broken.
"You already said that."
A pulse of pain hit her again.
Black spread further beneath her collarbone.
Lee saw it.
And for the first time since the fight began—
She looked genuinely afraid.
Lee's expression becomes serious.
"I'm taking you back, Maria." she pauses, "I'm going to cure you of this affliction."
Suddenly, a grey haze descends over the forest as Whisperer slams her hands onto the ground.
The dense mist envelops the surroundings, obscuring vision and muffling sounds, creating an eerie stillness.
Maria feels the chill of the haze seep into her bones, her senses dulled as she struggles to maintain her bearings in the disorienting environment.
The forest seems to shift and warp, shadows dancing unpredictably, adding an unnerving layer of complexity to their deadly game.
Maria's heart races as the familiar terrain becomes alien under the cloak of the haze.
Her instincts scream to stay alert, and she relies on her honed senses to guide her through the murky confusion.
With each cautious step, she listens intently for any sign of movement, determined not to be caught off guard in this treacherous, shifting landscape.
Lee exclaims, "You seem to have forgotten you're in my trap."
The grey haze continued to roll through the forest like a dying breath.
Trees bent away from it.
Grass blackened where it touched the earth.
The air itself felt infected, heavy with static and whispering pressure.
Across from Maria, Lee stood motionless in the haze.
Or rather… something inside the haze stood wearing Lee's shape.
The wrappings hanging from her body drifted unnaturally, suspended as though underwater.
Thin grey ribbons coiled around her wrists and ankles like living things tasting blood in the air.
Maria narrowed her eyes.
"Lee…"
No answer.
Only ticking silence.
Then Lee tilted her head.
Slowly.
Mechanically.
And smiled.
Not the familiar teasing smile.
Something emptier.
Hungrier.
The haze thickened around her feet.
Maria immediately felt danger crawl up her spine.
Her lotus blossoms reacted before she did, blooming violently from the earth around her in defensive formation.
Spears of white petals aimed toward Lee's chest.
"Don't make me do this," Maria warned, voice cracking under exhaustion.
Lee finally moved.
One step.
The forest screamed.
The haze exploded outward in a violent pulse, snapping branches and ripping leaves from trees as the wrappings around Lee's body suddenly tightened.
Maria's eyes widened.
The bandages constricted around Lee's arms hard enough to draw blood.
Then they began to move.
Not unraveling.
Hunting.
The wrappings slithered across her skin with horrifying speed, latching onto her body like starving parasites finally reaching prey.
They wrapped around her throat, her jaw, her ribs.
Others pierced into her flesh with wet, muffled sounds before tightening until her muscles visibly flexed beneath them.
Lee's back arched sharply.
CRACK.
Something shifted beneath her skin.
The haze spiraled upward around her body in twisting black currents as more wrappings burst from beneath her sleeves like restrained creatures finally freed.
Maria stepped back instinctively.
Grey streams of wrappings wrapped over Lee's left eye, sealing it shut beneath layers of blackened cloth while others stretched across her mouth and torso in jagged asymmetrical patterns.
Symbols resembling fractured scripture ignited faintly across the bandages in dull crimson light.
Her silhouette changed.
Taller.
Sharper.
Monstrous elegance replacing humanity piece by piece.
The Whisperer emerged.
The forest responded immediately.
Branches bowed away from her.
Animals fled screaming through the trees.
Even the haze itself began orbiting her body like she had become the center of a storm too unnatural for the world to reject.
Maria felt her stomach drop.
Because Lee wasn't suppressing herself anymore.
She was synchronizing.
Lee slowly lifted her head.
Only one eye remained visible now, glowing faintly through the wrappings with a cold silver light.
When she spoke, multiple whispers overlapped beneath her voice.
"I think our dance has gone on long enough."
Maria's white lotus aura flared violently in response.
Blossoms erupted from the forest floor as her spear formed instantly in her hand.
"Indeed."
For the first time since transforming, Lee laughed.
It sounded like torn fabric dragged across a coffin lid.
Then she vanished.
The haze detonated behind Maria an instant later.
Too fast.
Maria barely raised her spear before wrappings lashed around the weapon and crushed it apart mid-guard.
White lotus petals exploded everywhere as Lee appeared directly in front of her, wrapped fingers reaching for Maria's throat.
Maria twisted away at the last second, summoning a wave of white blossoms that burst outward between them.
BOOM.
The forest lit up white.
The explosion tore trees apart and sent petals raining through the haze like burning snow.
But when the smoke cleared, Lee was still standing there.
Unmoving.
Untouched.
The wrappings covering her body slowly unwound and rewove themselves with twitching, predatory movement.
Maria stared in disbelief.
Lee tilted her head again.
Then the Whisperer smiled beneath the wrappings.
And the entire forest began whispering with her.
The forest ceased feeling like a forest.
It became a battlefield between two disasters trying not to become catastrophes.
Maria slid backward through shredded earth, boots carving trenches into the ground as she struggled to stabilize her breathing.
White lotus petals spiraled around her in a frantic orbit, reacting to her panic before she fully acknowledged it herself.
Across from her, Lee no longer touched the ground.
The Whisperer moved through the haze like gravity had become optional.
The grey wrappings extending from her back slammed into nearby trees with explosive force, launching her forward.
BOOM.
Lee rocketed sideways through the haze, body horizontal midair as another wrapping speared into the forest floor to redirect her trajectory instantly.
Maria's eyes widened.
Too late.
A wrapping came screaming toward her face.
Maria ducked just as it ripped through the air above her head with enough force to split the trees behind her apart in a straight line. Splinters erupted outward like shrapnel.
Another wrapping lunged low.
Maria jumped.
A third immediately followed upward.
The wrappings weren't attacking randomly.
They hunted in coordination.
One forced movement. Another punished it.
Lee spun through the haze with monstrous grace, the wrappings carrying her body through impossible angles while others lashed outward offensively.
She looked less like a person fighting and more like a predator suspended by living cables of hatred.
Maria summoned two blossom spears instantly and hurled them.
Lee didn't dodge.
The wrappings intercepted.
CRACK.
One spear shattered apart.
The second was caught mid-flight by a wrapping that coiled around it before violently returning it back toward Maria.
Maria barely sidestepped as her own weapon obliterated a boulder behind her.
The Whisperer descended from above immediately afterward.
Two wrappings stabbed into the ground beside Maria while another pair swung toward her torso like giant bladed whips.
Maria crossed her arms.
White lotus vines erupted upward defensively.
BOOOOM.
The impact detonated outward violently.
Petals and grey wrappings collided in a storm of white and grey energy that flattened everything nearby.
Maria was launched backward regardless.
She hit the ground hard, rolling through mud and broken flowers before catching herself on one knee.
Black blood ran from the corner of her mouth now.
Lee landed softly several yards away.
The wrappings slowly lifted her higher off the ground again, suspending her body like a marionette controlled by something buried inside the haze.
The visible silver eye beneath the wrappings narrowed slightly.
"You're slowing down."
Maria pushed herself upright.
The Whisperer tilted her head.
Then all the wrappings spread outward at once.
The forest groaned.
Maria felt it immediately.
Pressure.
A suffocating pressure that made her lotus aura recoil instinctively.
No…
Not pressure.
Preparation.
The wrappings surrounding Lee began twisting together into massive spiraling formations around her body.
Symbols across the bandages ignited brighter now, glowing deep crimson through the haze.
The ground beneath her feet started collapsing inward.
Maria's eyes widened in horror.
"She's actually using it…"
Wrappings Of Extermination.
Even the name felt cursed.
The haze above the battlefield began spiraling into the sky.
Trees uprooted themselves from the force alone, dragged upward before being shredded apart by rotating bands of black cloth moving faster than sound.
The Whisperer slowly raised one hand.
"Sacred Art…"
And every wrapping pointed toward Maria simultaneously.
Like cannons preparing to fire.
The overlapping whispers inside Lee's voice deepened.
"Wrappings Of Extermination."
Maria froze.
The real appearance of the haze has emerged, a web of wrappings controlled by Whisperer.
For one terrible second… She considered running.
Because she knew exactly what would happen if that sacred art was fully released.
The entire forest would vanish.
Everything.
Reduced to dust beneath an annihilating storm of wrappings moving at impossible speed.
Maria's breathing became uneven.
Her eyes trembled slightly.
No choice.
The realization hurt more than her injuries.
White Blossom.
It was an ability she feared.
The last time she unleashed it… entire battlefields disappeared beneath flowers and light.
People called it beautiful afterward because they had not stood close enough to hear the screaming inside the explosion.
Maria slowly lowered her head.
"…I really didn't want this."
Tiny white lotuses began blooming around the battlefield.
One.
Then dozens.
Then hundreds.
The shattered forest floor became coated in glowing white blossoms radiating soft energy into the air.
Whisperer quickly understood her situation and acted faster.
From her back and the web of wrappings surrounding them, wrappings surround Maria from all sides.
Maria takes a deep breath, focusing on the energy flowing through her.
With a swift motion, she raises her hand, conjuring a lotus harpoon.
The shaft of the harpoon is long and pale, resembling polished ivory wood infused with flowing white energy beneath the surface.
Veins of faint silver-blue light pulse through it slowly, almost like sap traveling through a living branch.
It didn't appear completely solid.
Parts of it subtly bloom and decay in cycles while being held, as though the weapon itself is alive and breathing with Maria.
The spearhead is the centerpiece.
Instead of a conventional blade, the harpoon's head resembles a partially bloomed white lotus forced into the shape of a weapon.
Several razor-thin petals curve forward into layered barbs, each one translucent near the edges like delicate porcelain dipped in moonlight.
The petals overlap in a spiraling formation, giving the impression the weapon is constantly unfolding while simultaneously piercing reality ahead of it.
In a flash, Maria sprints towards Whisperer.
Trying to avoid taking damage from the approaching and piercing wrappings, Maria spins around her lotus harpoon so fast that it becomes untraceable and cuts through the wrappings in her path as she dashes towards Whisperer.
Whisperer's eyes widen in shock as Maria's blade glows with an intense light, slicing through the wrappings with ease.
Caught off guard by her newfound power, Whisperer stumbles backward, trying to regain composure.
Panic flickers across Whisperer's face as Maria closes the distance, her determination unyielding.
Maria's legs, body, and the side of her neck are pierced by the wrappings, but she keeps going forward.
Maria coughs up black blood and black veins are seen all over her body.
"Not yet..." Maria groans.
In a desperate effort to kill Whisperer, Maria hurls her harpoon, screaming at the top of her lungs.
When the blade is launched, a mini shockwave appears around it.
Wrappings attempt to slow down the blade's momentum, but it cuts through them.
As the blade draws closer, Whisperer looks in fear at it.
On the ground, white balls of energy hover out of small white lotuses.
The remaining wrappings draw near Maria, about to pierce her. As if she were preparing to die, her eyes are closed.
Lee's visible eye widened slightly beneath the wrappings.
For the first time during the fight… the Whisperer hesitated.
Maria lifted one trembling hand ahead of her as she closed in on Whisperer.
"Sacred Art…"
The smaller lotuses surrounding the battlefield began releasing white particles upward like drifting stars.
The air changed instantly.
Calmer.
Sadder.
Almost sacred.
Lee's wrappings recoiled violently as if instinctively aware of what was coming.
Not pain.
Recognition.
Maria's voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Please survive this…"
The ground beneath her feet cracked apart.
The floating white particles pause midair
"White Blossom"
Suddenly, an intense burst of light erupts from the hovering white balls of energy, enveloping the forest in a blinding radiance.
The explosion reverberates through the air, a deafening roar that shakes the very ground beneath them.
The force of Maria's unleashed power sends shockwaves rippling outward, obliterating the wrappings and leaving Whisperer struggling to maintain their balance amidst the chaos.
In response to Maria's sacred recitation, Lee loses her whisperer form as The Whisperer takes on its independent form once more.
Lee lies on the ground, looking up at Whisperer's back.
"What are you doing, Whisperer? Let me in!" Lee orders.
While focusing on the oncoming explosion, Whisperer lets out a loud screech at Lee.
Maria's lotus harpoon hurls out of the explosion and is aimed at Lee.
Realizing its target, Lee gasps in shock when she sees it.
With its body, Whisperer blocks both the lotus harpoon and the explosion from Lee.
As a result of the bright explosion, Lee covers her face.
The explosion vaporizes Whisperer's body and Lee cries out in despair as she lies on the ground, reaching out to Whisperer.
"Whisperer!!!"
Every small lotus detonated simultaneously into blinding white energy.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.
The explosion swallowed a section of the forest whole.
Not fire.
Light.
Pure white destruction expanded outward in a colossal sphere that dwarfed the giant trees themselves.
Mountains in the distance shook from the impact.
Clouds split apart overhead.
And at the center of the detonation—
A giant white lotus bloomed.
Massive.
Divine.
Its glowing petals erupted upward beyond the forest canopy, towering higher than anything natural should ever reach.
its petals unfurling with an ethereal glow.
With each passing moment, the lotus expands, its beauty a stark contrast to the devastation surrounding it, symbolizing hope and renewal even in the direst of circumstances.
The world became white.
And at the top of this plant, Maria stood beautiful yet sad.
Motionless at the top of the lotus, overlooking the giant forest, Maria can see the cottage engulfed in a supernatural darkness that is blocking out the setting sun.
Her breathing trembled unevenly now.
Black veins spread visibly along her arms and neck, pulsing faintly beneath pale skin.
Black blood dripped slowly from her fingertips onto the glowing lotus beneath her feet.
Yet her eyes remained fixed on the distant cottage swallowed by supernatural darkness.
"Xavier…" she whispered weakly.
Then softer:
"…Sam…"
Far below her, buried beneath collapsed trees and pulverized earth—
Something moved.
CRRRRK.
A massive slab of shattered bark slowly shifted upward.
Then another.
White mist rolled aside as a figure dragged itself from the crater left at the center of the explosion.
Lee.
Or what remained of her.
She collapsed immediately onto one knee, coughing violently as blood splattered across the ruined ground beneath her.
One arm hung limp at her side.
Burns and deep lacerations covered nearly half her body where the blast had reached her before Whisperer intervened.
The wrappings were gone.
No.
Not gone.
Destroyed.
Torn fragments of grey cloth drifted weakly around her like dying feathers before crumbling into ash whenever she tried reaching toward them.
Lee's visible eye widened slightly.
"…Whisperer…"
Lee looks around at the white mist surrounding white mist turning the forest surface into a white sprinkling fog.
"If I'm lucky, she'll think Whisperer and I were finished by her sacred art."
Her eyes shift to the moon, now that the sun has gone.
"She's preparing for their arrival."
On the ground, small pieces of wrappings are moving towards each other and reconnecting.
With a sigh of relief, Lee glances up towards Maria's direction.
Her expression becomes stern.
Lee examines Maria's wounds from afar.
She's full of cuts and holes from Lee's ultimate wrapping attacks earlier.
Yet, she stands motionless and observes the stars as the sun finally sets low.
In the approaching night breeze, her hair blows gracefully.
"Princess, tonight will be your last night as Maria Aka…"
"I've come to grant you the freedom you've been longing for and yet, you still resist."
"Fighting me with every fiber in your body to see the next day."
"I am hurt."
"Playing pretend on that cottage truly has made you reckless."
"The white lotus I know would have never taken such measures so early."
"I don't come close to your power despite having a powerful void entity at my side."
"But somehow I'm still standing here and I've wounded you significantly."
She clutches her fist.
"This isn't like you…"
"It pisses me off that this is what you've become after everything you've been through."
The realization hit harder than the explosion itself.
Lee's hand slowly tightened against the dirt beneath her.
"…You idiot…" she rasped.
Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence.
She lowered her head briefly, breathing unevenly as pain wracked through her body.
Then—
She laughed.
Small at first.
Disbelieving.
Then sharper.
More exhausted than amused.
"It doesn't matter…" she muttered through bloodied teeth. "I'm taking her with me no matter the outcome."
High above, Maria finally sensed movement below.
Her eyes widened slightly.
Lee was alive.
Relief struck first.
Immediate.
Dangerous.
Then horror followed right behind it.
Because Lee was still standing.
Barely.
But standing.
Maria's knees weakened slightly atop the lotus.
The effort of White Blossom was finally catching up to her now.
Her vision blurred at the edges.
"Why…" she whispered faintly.
Below, Lee slowly forced herself upright again.
Every movement looked painful.
One leg dragged slightly.
Blood streamed steadily down the side of her face.
Half of her black outfit had been burned away entirely by the blast, exposing skin carved open by the force of the detonation.
Yet her remaining eye still held that same terrible determination.
Not hatred.
Worse.
Resolve.
Lee looked upward toward Maria standing atop the lotus.
And despite everything—
She smiled.
Weakly.
"…Still beautiful," she coughed.
Maria's chest tightened painfully.
"Stop…"
Lee ignored her.
"You know what the worst part is?" she called upward hoarsely. "You actually almost convinced me to give up."
Her knees nearly buckled again.
She caught herself against a shattered trunk before continuing, looking back at the approaching white mist get closer to her.
"But if I stop now…"
Lee slowly lifted her head again.
"…then everything we survived becomes meaningless."
Maria's expression trembled.
"Lee…"
"I'm serious."
For once, there was no teasing in her voice.
No performance.
Only brutal honesty.
"You think I'm doing this against you?" Lee continued weakly. "Maria, I'm doing this for you."
The words hit like another explosion.
Maria stared down at her silently.
Lee wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her trembling hand.
"You're dying."
A pause.
"And you know it."
The white lotus beneath Maria pulsed faintly.
Petals drifted around her like snowfall.
Maria looked away briefly.
That tiny movement told Lee everything.
Lee exhaled shakily.
"…There she is."
Maria closed her eyes tightly for half a second.
Not that phrase again.
Not now.
"Don't," Maria whispered.
But Lee kept going.
"The girl sitting in that banquet…"
Her voice softened painfully.
"…she would hate what's happening to you."
Maria's breathing hitched.
Lee staggered forward another step through the devastation.
"I know you're scared," she said quietly. "I know you think this thing inside you is going to destroy everything eventually."
Another step.
"But I am not letting you die alone because you decided suffering is noble."
Maria's composure finally cracked.
"You don't understand!"
The giant lotus trembled violently beneath her feet.
Black spread further beneath her skin.
"I can't control it anymore!" she shouted. "Every day it gets worse!"
Lee didn't stop approaching.
Even injured.
Even barely standing.
"…Then let someone stand beside you while it does."
Silence.
The white mist drifted softly between them.
Maria stared down at her.
At the blood.
At the burns.
At the girl who should have died beneath White Blossom and still kept walking toward her anyway.
And somehow…
That frightened her more than the battle ever did.
The colossal lotus still towered over the broken forest, glowing softly against the unnatural darkness swallowing the horizon. Pieces of shattered bark smoldered below while ruined trees leaned like graves beneath the aftermath of White Blossom.
Maria stood atop the lotus with trembling legs.
Lee stood below her barely able to remain upright.
And somehow… This felt more dangerous than the fight itself.
"I don't want to fight anymore, Lee." Maria said quietly.
The words barely carried through the drifting mist.
Maria lowered her gaze toward her bloodstained hands.
Black veins pulsed beneath her skin slowly now, spreading further with every passing minute.
"However…"
Her voice tightened.
"…I know as long as Sam is in harm's way, I'll never be able to do that."
Below, Lee stared up at her through exhausted eyes.
Even injured.
Even broken.
She still looked determined.
"Then," Lee said softly, "you know what you must do."
Maria already hated the answer before Lee said it.
"Submit to your fate."
Maria immediately shook her head.
No.
Not anger.
Refusal.
"I've tried," Maria whispered. "Trust me… I've tried."
Her breathing became uneven again.
"But I learned that giving up isn't easy either."
The wind moved gently through the giant lotus petals around her.
Maria's eyes drifted somewhere distant.
Somewhere older.
"My sister…" she murmured weakly.
Lee's expression shifted slightly.
Maria rarely spoke about Thina directly.
"Her final words to me were to endure," Maria continued. "Endure all of the pain."
The memory visibly hurts to say aloud.
Maria's fingers tightened slightly against the glowing petals beneath her feet.
"She told me…"
A pause.
"…that surviving mattered even when it stopped feeling beautiful."
Silence settled over the ruined forest.
Then Lee answered quietly:
"Her and all those people are gone now."
Maria's eyes flickered downward sharply.
"Left in the past."
The words sounded cruel at first.
But Lee's voice softened immediately afterward.
Not cold.
Tired.
Like someone trying to pull another person away from a cliff without knowing gentler words.
"You keep carrying ghosts like they're proof you still deserve to suffer," Lee said quietly.
Maria's jaw tightened.
"That's not what this is."
"Then what is it?"
Lee stepped forward weakly through the white mist.
Every movement clearly hurts now.
"But you still keep choosing pain whenever you're offered another option."
Maria looked away.
Because she knew part of that was true.
Lee exhaled slowly.
"…Do you know why I was trying to take you back?"
Maria didn't answer.
The giant lotus hummed softly beneath her feet.
Lee lifted her eyes toward her again.
"There's someone who survived it."
That made Maria look back immediately.
For the first time in several minutes… genuine surprise crossed her face.
Lee continued quietly:
"Not controlled it."
A pause.
"Not delayed it."
Her remaining eye narrowed slightly.
"Survived it."
The white mist shifted around them.
Maria's expression slowly hardened with disbelief.
"…That's impossible."
"That's what everyone says."
Lee coughed sharply into her arm before continuing.
"But she's real."
Maria stared at her silently.
Lee's voice lowered further now.
"She's called the Silent Saint."
The name alone changed the atmosphere.
Even the drifting mist seemed to still for half a second.
Maria felt something unfamiliar crawl beneath her ribs.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Like hearing the title of a dream she had forgotten years ago.
Lee noticed immediately.
"…So you've heard of her."
Maria didn't respond right away.
Her eyes drifted toward the horizon where darkness consumed the setting sun.
"Only stories," she admitted quietly.
"Stories about a woman who bloomed endlessly."
Lee nodded faintly.
"They buried most of the truth."
A bitter smile touched her face.
"They usually do when someone survives becoming a god wrong."
Maria's breathing slowed.
Something about that sentence terrified her more than White Blossom ever could.
Lee stepped closer again.
"She had your condition," she said softly. "The same black spreading beneath the skin. The same loss of control. The same…"
Her gaze lowered briefly toward the black veins crawling across Maria's neck.
"…fear."
Maria's fingers trembled slightly.
"No," she whispered. "If someone survived something like this…"
"Then why isn't the world talking about her?" Lee finished.
Maria looked at her sharply.
Lee's expression darkened.
"Because survival has a cost."
Silence.
The lotus petals above them drifted softly through the white mist like falling moons.
Maria's voice came out smaller now.
"…What happened to her?"
Lee hesitated for the first time since the conversation began.
That alone was enough to frighten Maria.
Finally, Lee answered quietly:
"She's still alive."
A pause.
"…I just don't know if there's much of the woman left."
The words struck something deep inside Maria instantly.
Because that…
That had always been the real fear.
Not death.
Becoming something unrecognizable while continuing to breathe.
Lee lifted her eyes toward her once more.
"But she endured," she said softly.
"And whether you like it or not…"
Her voice almost broke from exhaustion.
"…so can you."
Maria remained silent for several minutes before finally looking away, lost in thought.
Far beyond the ruined forest, the unnatural darkness consuming the horizon continued spreading slowly across the sky like ink bleeding through water.
But for the first time since the battle began, Maria barely noticed it.
The Silent Saint.
Someone survived.
The thought refused to leave her mind.
Not cured.
Survived.
Maria lowered her eyes toward the black veins spreading across her wrist.
They pulsed faintly beneath her skin, alive in a way that no sickness should ever feel.
Could she really endure this?
Could she become something else and still remain… herself?
Below, Lee watched her carefully.
And behind Lee—
Something shifted inside the drifting mist.
Subtle.
Almost invisible.
The remaining strands of destroyed wrappings lying scattered across the shattered forest floor began twitching faintly.
Tiny movements.
Weak.
Like dying nerves remembering sensation.
Lee noticed instantly.
Her remaining eye widened slightly.
No…
The white mist behind her slowly tightened inward.
A shape was beginning to form.
Incomplete.
Flickering.
But there.
Long grey strands emerged first, drifting upward through the haze before slowly weaving together like threads stitching themselves back into existence.
Whisperer.
Lee's breathing caught softly.
The thing should have been gone.
White Blossom should have erased it completely.
Yet somehow…
It was still trying to return to her.
A thin wrapping slowly stretched outward from the mist toward Lee's hand.
Reaching.
Instinctively, Lee shifted her body slightly to block Maria's line of sight.
The movement was subtle.
Protective.
Possessive.
Maria thankfully didn't notice.
She was still staring into the distance, lost somewhere inside herself.
Lee lowered her voice carefully.
"…You stubborn thing."
The wrapping twitched faintly at the sound of her voice.
More strands slowly emerged behind it, struggling to maintain shape.
The outline of a shoulder.
A partial arm.
Fractured silver light where an eye should have been.
Weak.
Hurting.
But alive.
Lee's chest tightened unexpectedly.
Whisperer stretched another wrapping toward her slowly, almost hesitantly this time.
Like it was afraid she might reject it.
Lee swallowed hard.
Then quietly extended her own trembling hand downward beside her leg where Maria couldn't see.
The wrapping latched onto her wrist instantly.
A violent pulse shot through Lee's body.
Pain.
Familiar.
Comforting.
The whispers immediately returned faintly at the edge of her hearing.
Not loud enough to overwhelm her.
Just enough to remind her she wasn't alone anymore.
Lee closed her eye briefly.
Relief flickered across her face before she quickly hid it again.
Above them, Maria finally spoke.
"…If I go with you…"
Lee immediately looked up at her.
Hope appeared too quickly in her expression.
Maria noticed.
And for a second, Lee looked painfully young again.
Not Whisperer.
Not manipulative.
Not dangerous.
Just someone desperate not to lose another person.
Maria's gaze softened slightly at that.
"If I survive this," she continued quietly, "what happens afterward?"
Lee answered carefully now.
"The Silent Saint lives far beyond the northern sanctuaries of Ast."
The wrapping around her wrist tightened subtly.
"There are still places in Ast untouched by the world. Places where people like us can still disappear."
Maria listened silently.
Lee continued softly:
"You wouldn't have to keep fighting anymore."
That line hurt.
Because part of Maria wanted it.
The cottage.
The wars.
The hiding.
The fear of losing control.
She was tired.
So unbelievably tired.
Then—
A memory surfaced.
Sam sitting beside her on the porch overlooking the ocean.
The sunlight warming the wooden boards beneath them.
His awkward nervousness while trying to explain what he loved.
"I love moments like these."
"…And I guess I love the people in them too."
Maria's chest tightened painfully.
Another memory followed immediately after.
Sam panicking while holding her after she coughed up black blood.
The fear in his voice.
The way his hands shook trying to help her.
Then another.
"And what if I don't?"
"What if I still feel the same way?"
Maria closed her eyes tightly.
No.
If she disappeared now…
If she abandoned him to save herself…
Sam would blame himself forever.
Worse.
He would suffer alone wondering if he could have saved her.
Maria already knew how that kind of grief poisoned a person.
She carried it every day.
Her expression slowly changed.
Lee noticed immediately.
Hope fading from her face before Maria even spoke.
"…I can't."
The words came out barely above a whisper.
Lee's hand tightened involuntarily around Whisperer's wrapping hidden beside her leg.
Maria slowly opened her eyes again.
"He's already lost too much because of me."
Lee stared at her silently.
Maria shook her head softly.
"If I leave with you now…"
Her voice cracked slightly.
"…then I'm teaching him that everyone he loves eventually disappears."
Silence settled heavily across the ruined forest.
Even Whisperer seemed to still.
Maria looked down at Lee again, sadness flooding her exhausted eyes.
"I won't hurt him like that."
And for the first time since surviving White Blossom—
Lee looked genuinely defeated.
"I wish things didn't have to be this way, Lee."
Maria's voice drifted softly through the white mist surrounding the giant lotus.
Below her, Lee stood motionless among the ruined forest, blood running steadily down her torn clothes while weakened wrappings continued crawling across her body like injured creatures trying desperately to rebuild their host.
For once…
Neither of them looked ready to fight anymore.
"But they are," Maria continued quietly.
Her eyes lowered toward the black veins spreading further beneath her pale skin.
"This is the world we created."
The giant lotus pulsed softly beneath her feet.
Petals drifted through the air around her like dying stars.
"These are the consequences we must suffer for the sins we committed."
Lee's jaw tightened slightly.
Maria's exhausted gaze slowly lifted toward the distant darkness swallowing the horizon.
"This is our fate now."
The words didn't sound dramatic.
They sounded accepted.
That frightened Lee.
Maria slowly walked toward the edge of the massive lotus petal overlooking the devastated forest below.
Every step looked weaker than the last.
Black and red blood dripped steadily from her lips now, staining the glowing white petals beneath her feet.
The veins spreading across her body had darkened significantly, pulsing violently beneath her neck, arms, and collarbone like roots growing beneath fragile porcelain skin.
She was deteriorating quickly.
Lee felt it immediately.
Maria didn't have much time left.
"Maria…"
Her voice came out rougher than intended.
Maria looked down at her from atop the towering lotus.
Beautiful.
Yet unbearably sad.
"Embracing our past sins…" she whispered softly.
The white mist curled around her body.
"…and enduring our fate."
Then Maria stepped forward.
And fell.
Gracefully.
Like a dying flower surrendering itself to the wind.
Lee's visible eye widened instantly.
"Maria—"
For one suspended second, the world became quiet.
Maria descended through drifting white petals toward the ruined forest below, her white hair flowing weightlessly around her while black blood trailed behind her like ink bleeding through water.
Lee's body moved instinctively.
Toward her.
But suddenly—
SKREEEEEEEECH.
The forest violently convulsed.
Grey wrappings exploded upward around Lee from every direction.
Not from her.
Around her.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Piercing wrappings surged through the shattered earth like predatory spears preparing to intercept Maria mid-fall.
Lee froze.
"No…"
The wrappings surrounding her body tightened violently, crawling further up her arms, throat, and torso.
Whisperer was reacting on instinct.
Protecting her.
The partially reformed creature behind Lee finally became visible within the lingering haze.
Incomplete.
Distorted.
But there.
A tall silhouette of writhing wrappings and fractured silver light emerging from the mist like something dragged upward from the bottom of the abyss.
Its visible eye snapped upward toward Maria descending from the lotus.
Threat detected.
Kill.
The wrappings around Lee sharpened instantly into bladed forms.
Lee's breathing hitched.
"Stop!" she shouted desperately.
But Whisperer didn't listen.
Or perhaps… couldn't.
The wrappings launched upward toward Maria simultaneously.
BOOM.
The air ruptured from the force.
Maria's exhausted eyes widened slightly mid-fall.
Too fast.
Too many.
Her body could barely move properly anymore.
Then—
Everything changed.
The light vanished.
Not dimmed.
Consumed.
An overwhelming darkness suddenly swallowed the forest whole.
Thicker than night.
Heavier than shadow.
The white lotus dimmed beneath it instantly as though something vast had draped itself across the sky above them.
Every sound disappeared.
Even the wrappings froze.
Lee's breath caught violently in her throat.
No…
Not here.
The darkness surrounding the forest shifted unnaturally.
Not empty.
Moving.
Shapes emerged slowly within it.
Too many limbs.
Too many eyes.
Bodies resembling unfinished thoughts given flesh.
Creatures of the void.
They watched from inside the darkness surrounding the battlefield with silent hunger.
Ancient.
Patient.
Wrong.
But for Maria… everything froze.
The creatures.
The darkness.
The screaming forest.
None of it mattered anymore.
As she descended through the air, she slowly closed her eyes, a sad smile touching her lips.
"There are a lot of things I haven't been honest about with you, Sam."
White mist drifted around her like falling snow.
"So much I wanted to tell you…"
Her body ached.
Not from White Blossom.
From regret.
"But if I could only tell you one thing…"
"It would be this."
Her fingers tightened around a forming lotus blade.
"The person you grew up to know and love…"
"…is a lie."
Below her, Lee's wrappings twisted violently through the darkness, preparing to strike.
"I am a liar."
"A pretender."
The darkness beneath her skin throbbed visibly harder beneath Maria's skin.
Her heartbeat no longer sounded human.
"A long time ago… I realized there was something empty inside me."
"And I spent years trying to bury it."
The void creatures emerged fully now.
One descended upside down from the trees, its jaw splitting open vertically.
Another dragged itself across the forest floor on too many limbs while obsidian wings unfolded from its spine.
A third unfolded from the darkness itself.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hungry.
"My coming into your life has…"
"…and will continue to cause you pain."
Maria opened her eyes.
Black and red.
Not metaphorically.
Actually black and red.
Lee froze for half a second seeing them.
Fear.
Real fear.
Maria looked horrifying now.
Beautiful still.
But wrong.
"I thought I could live happily with you and Xavier."
"Forget what I was."
"Forget the things I've done."
Her voice cracked.
Then hardened.
"But my past finally caught up to me."
The creatures lunged simultaneously.
Lee reacted instantly.
"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" she screamed.
The wrappings exploded outward in every direction.
Maria spun forward through the air.
Lotus blade descending.
Void creatures shrieking around them.
"Sam…"
"Don't hate the world."
A creature resembling a wolf stitched together from shadows and bone leapt toward her midair.
Maria split it apart instantly.
Black blood exploded into the mist.
"This world doesn't deserve hatred."
Another creature lunged.
Lee's wrappings shredded it apart before it reached Maria.
Their attacks crossed through each other instinctively.
Even now.
Still fighting together.
"But the people who escaped into it…"
"…knowing they were never supposed to…"
Maria's smile disappeared completely.
Only grief remained.
"…should be hated."
The veins spread fully across her chest.
Her body convulsed midair.
Something inside her snapped.
The air around Maria distorted violently.
Her hair began floating upward unnaturally.
The void reacted.
Not excitement.
Recognition.
"Their world made the wrong choices…"
Her voice layered strangely now.
Like someone else was speaking beneath it.
"…and now they're bringing them into yours."
Lee's eyes widened.
"Maria—"
"And I…"
Maria raised the lotus blade.
Her face twisted.
Not calm anymore.
Not composed.
Breaking.
"…am one of those people."
"MARIA!"
"LEE!"
They collided.
And in the instant before impact—
Maria thought of the porch.
The ocean.
Sam smiling awkwardly beside her.
"I'm sorry, Sam…"
"But for the first time…"
The black veins consumed her heart completely.
Her eyes became endless void-red.
Her smile broke apart into something wild.
Something suffering.
Something no longer entirely human.
"…it looks like I'm not coming home."
"RAHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
The clash split the forest.
Birds erupted screaming into the moonlight.
The darkness swallowed everything.
To Be Continued.