The darkness vomits them out in a rough stone room. Cracks in one wall of the large space are the only source of pale light. Although, with True Sight, Julia can easily make out the room’s contents. Abyssal flies buzz around the stench of dead Succubi thick in the air. In the quick moment, she has to orientate herself all she can see is carnage decorating the room: blood splatters, shards of bones, broken flesh, the membranes of their wings peeled and tattered. He has mutilated their bodies in every way. Odours of bodily fluids, cooked flesh, and viscera are so thick in the air they coat her throat without taking a breath. True Sight revealing uneasily the black wards shining beneath the surface of the rock.


    Lêdhins’ arm shifts position along his torso, scraping her feet against the floor for a moment before he smacks her into the wall. The dark lust that was present within Lêdhin’s gaze appearing as a leer upon his lips. As he grates her wings up the rough wall, his smile broadens even as her knee smashes against his teeth. A thread of blackness appearing in her vision, as Energy Drain seems to catch, but when she tries again nothing. As he rants away, wards burn against her flesh and its protections stop her attempt to cut through the stone with Inventory.


    Fuck! I should have stayed with Ebusuku. Lêdhins, why did you have to lose control?


    “Why do you think I’d care! I don’t care if you say no! I don’t care if you say yes! The little ferret wants to know about his bowl, but I don’t care! Lêdhins has his line in the sand, but I don’t care! By the time I’m done with you, all you’ll care about is making the pain stop!” Lêdhins’ shouting rose louder with every snarling word. The echoing bellows rattling dust from the ceiling down into the pools of drying blood.


    A blade gleams in a free hand, its tip moving in time with her struggles and slides across ivory skin. Its icy kiss traces her collarbone, and it parts a strap with a quick snick. The strap flopping so ominously brought a flinch from beneath the calm. As it presses against struggling flesh, Protean stayed out of reach. Leather slaps against the floor as the first pieces come entirely free. The blade dips low, and soon only air sits against her waist and thighs, despite her continuous attacks.


    Ice runs up Julia’s spine at the blades dancing motions along her twisting body, yet he keeps her held against the wall in his grip. Hollow fury comes clawing at the calm as she holds Bs words away. The blade shifts direction again, the pressure slowly increasing as he traces along her curves. As droplets of blood trickle along the slope of a lush breast, his eyes widen, and the smile grows even sicker. As Julia feels her regeneration alone sealing flesh behind the blades tip, he goes still, ignoring the black flame wrapped fists, as she lands another punch with all the force she can muster. The fury in his eyes turns cold, and he takes a breath in order to speak, and longing shakes within every word. “You heal so quick, and eternity is all we have.”


    “You forgot rule number 1,” Julia chokes out, hoping to buy a touch more time. Every kick, every strike, bounces from his flesh, no matter where it struck. As blood trickles again, it worms towards her groin, she bounces another kick off his balls only for it to the ignored as well. The erection straining the material of his pants, twists a knife within her Soul, as she continues to ignore Bs screams in her mind.


    “What do I care about your rules?” Lêdhins’ voice was a growl, with his gaze devouring her flesh. “I didn’t even have to rip any clothes off you. It was less fun with you just wearing those straps. I’d been dreaming about slowly cutting your leathers away while I fucked you in every hole. Would you put the leathers on? I’ll even let you pick which hole goes first.”


    The words come forth as if he’s offering a fabulous prize, but they provide no mercy, and Julia knew the trap the words set.


    Pick or not the result is still my choice, I’m not buying in.


    "Or I can make you new leathers from your..."


    Blood sprays across Julia’s face as it erupts from the stump of Lêdhins’ arm, silences his threats.


    The long fingers relax their noose, and Julia teleports across the chamber as Lêdhins screams in rage, metal rings sourly against metal as he blocks Ebusuku’s second blade. The edge of it sparks across a wide bracer enclosing another wrist. Even as the war mattock appears in his hand, the blood stops spraying.


    Rule one in a fight, there are no rules.


    {{And don’t play with your food. And we’re not food. Brush your teeth before bed. Don’t floss with pubic hair.}}


    Ebusuku doesn''t say a word. The initial sabre comes up to flick blood across his eyes. The blade he’d blocked, she doesn''t even withdraw. A slide moves her along his side, keeping the weapon''s pressure in play. As she turns their motions combine to rake the blade along his forearm. The war mattock haft turns in his grip, and his palms slap in place along the dark wood. Bones crunch and flesh squelches underfoot as his stance crushes a corpse’s chest, but his balance doesn’t falter. Lêdhins response comes with brutal force, the ends of the mattock spinning and whirling. Blade, spike, or weighted haft, deflect from their path by Ebusuku blades or miss completely no matter how he tries. Metal screams against metal before the mattocks blade gouges stone from a wall and send a spray of rocks kicking up from the floor. Julia moves clear as their movements take them close against, trying to beyond the fighting pair and well clear of Lêdhins’ reach.


    No time to check these damn wards properly.


    “Ebusuku wants a challenge. Pity you’re not it,” Julia said, Dominion’s aura and the mocking tone spits in his face.


    The bellow hits as a crash of sound, Lêdhins’ form blurs across the chamber. Zen State lets Julia see the course of the Mattock’s blade in slow motion as the air screams. As its sharp curve digs into flesh, a brilliant tidal wave of force rips her form apart. Blackness smashes her mind, but she stays aware as a vortex of energy brings with it the sensation of being drawn slowly through a grinder. The wind howls across her intact naked skin as she impacts stone. The essence of the surrounding Plane clings tighter than gravity yet allowing her to move about freely.


    {{Rule two - don’t taunt what you can’t kill. }}


    Alright, my bad, but aren’t you up to six now?


    {{I lost count. I have more of them. Rule twenty-seven: don’t argue with your Id.}}


    That one I do not agree to.


    The wind continues to moan and howls as Julia pays attention to a notification sitting in her awareness.


    [Excessive Chaos Damage Taken.


    You have died.


    Killer’s name: Ebusuku


    Go directly to your home plane, do not pass go, do not collect $200.


    Resistance: Chaos - Unlocked!


    Resistance: Chaos [L] (6).]


    {{You’ve earned time out for a century. Naughty girl!}}


    There was something in B''s voice; Julia hadn’t heard before, sheer relief.


    [Achievement: Banished


    Condition: Forcibly returned to your home plane because of physical destruction of your form.


    Reward: Really, you expect something for that?]


    Whatever, I just wanted Lêdhins dead. Poor fuck, I have to wonder if he’s lost for good.


    {{Who cares about him? Why the fuck do you waste a thought? }}


    A monster ate him, even if it was partly him. He was honest that I shouldn’t trust him.


    {{I’m not a mass-murdering nut job; I just have needs. Ones that you continually ignore.}}


    I danced.


    {{Okay, that was lots of fun, I agree. I’ll downgrade the continually to mostly ignore. }}


    Rising slowly to her feet, Julia takes in the absence of the shielded anklet she’d picked up from the Treasury.


    At least Ebusuku won’t know my home plane without my end of the dimensional beacon.


    {{This is why we can’t have nice things. }}


    {{You had to poke the scary bear. Just because you were calm about it didn’t make it safe. }}


    I was trying to give Ebusuku an opening.


    {{Don’t think she needed it. Why did you stay in the room? }}


    I hadn’t checked the wards properly. The beacon let Ebusuku in. If there were wards to block it outside the building, teleport at best wouldn’t have moved us, and at worst, it would have hurt or killed.


    {{Got news for you. Staying DID! }}


    As a gust of wind pulls at the tendons of Julia’s wings, she folds them in tight and watches as her health climbs. Slowly getting to her feet, she squints against sheer darkness and the dust the wind hurls across her face. The dark pressed so firmly that not even True Vision let her perceive the area’s roof. Some thirty metres or more in any direction was the most she could see. With the wind getting stronger the wingless form shows in her place, and she removes her eyes as well, counting on True Vision for sight. With a thought, Julia mentally rebinds her wingless form, far closer to a Xenomorph than it had been.


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    This will be embarrassing to report. I bet even Livia will scold me.


    {{I want munchkin hugs again. }}


    Rock pillars jutting up from the barren landscape around her offer little cover. Dust whirls in zephyrs that exist somehow within the force of the howling winds. Their screaming noise was penetrating to the bone, the erratic volume challenging Zen State’s calmness with the insanity they hold. A sensation starting in her hands catches Julia by surprise; as the trembling continues up her limbs, B made her opinion known.


    {{I’m not letting you hold that shit in here now. He nearly raped us, and even I was saying no, yet got ignored by you. }}


    {{You’re such a controlling bitch! You didn''t even LISTEN!!!}}


    B’s voice shone with a dreadful fury inside her, and Julia felt something break loose. Fear, guilt, rage and sorrow long denied crush through Zen State and Mental Hardening alike. The first scream erupting without control as the waves kept hitting, with the sensation of mental boxes shattering within. Her voice echoed with emotions, long-contained, painful, and forgotten feelings compounded by survival in her existence’s horror show. The screams continue long, and finally, even over the wind, they beckon. As the first human-sized beetle scuttles into view, with mandibles longer than a man’s arm, its are antenna twitching towards her. As its focus fixes on her, Julia lets rage slip from its leash and rushes in, drowning her sorrow and fear with fury. Telepathy making it clear it and others seek to feast on the wounded, they’ll get no mercy from her.


    Ki Movement pushes her forward with blinding speed against a foe promising primitive cathartic release. Mandibles clack too slow as movement takes her past and the turning kick blasts against its side. Momentum and unleashed wrath, shoving it into a second. Her turning form takes her beyond a third’s strike, with the beetle unable to turn in time. Quick steps take her to its side, slipping along its mandible beside its head. A knee strike ladened with Spatial Mana drives up with staggering force to crack the mandible’s hinge. As she twists with its motion, an elbow strike comes down to shatter through its front leg. Blackness drinks vitality, causing her heath to jump.


    A deflecting hand brushes a mandible stabbing from behind as Julia spun against the shell. The open hand guides its strike home, blood and other fluids spray. The beetle’s momentum and shaking head bouncing the point within the minimal resistance of the ruptured eye. Moving below its motions, Julia lashes out with spinning legs to break through chitin and swings free. With the pair tangled together, she jumps towards the original foe and smashes a heel down as she goes past. Ki, having driven the ruptured carapace through its brain, she races free from its dying body onto the next foe. The hunters can’t even acknowledge they’ve become the prey, as their simple instincts drive them on. The rush of death’s fragrance fills the air, beckoning other things from downwind to new food.


    Fists lashing out at the oncoming foes, blood and death attract even more. Emotions laid raw keep her dancing across the battlefield as their number grows in leaps. Beatles, spiders, and other bugs come in waves before a rock-like monster blending with the pillars appears to lash and bite. Those coming against her provided bloody channels for cathartic release. Till the last nearby have died or fled, and Julia stands amidst the dead, shoulders heaving with emptying sorrow. The screams long ago stopped, yet regardless of her form, the tears can’t come.


    {{That made a mess, don’t expect me to pick up after you, young lady.}}


    As B’s word came forth with a mocking edge, Julia presses a foot down, squeezing the brains of a spider through the cracks in its broken carapace. As she looks over the thick stalagmite that had come alive to attack from amid the other rock pillars lining the floor. Julia considers its maw filled with shard-like teeth and the long tentacles that had unfurled from it. Analysis had named it a Roper. Its stone hide hadn’t protected it from Ki Strike’s ability to bypass protections, a comfort after the way her strikes had bounced from Lêdhins. With no other motion about, Julia relaxes in her stance, and that seems to trigger the combat summary to proceed.


    [Giant Shadow Spiders x 18


    Obsidian Centipedes x 40


    Planar Stag beetle x14


    Rock Slicer x2


    Roper x1


    Total experience gained: 27,100


    Monk: +16,260


    Succubus: +10,840]


    I didn’t appreciate that B.


    {{You would have preferred during Lêdhins’ playroom? }}


    No, just somewhere safe, and not everything at once.


    {{Safe? We’re in a plane sandwiched somewhere between the pure Chaos of limbo and your recent playground. }}


    {{You think a safe place is going to happen soon? I told you before to pay attention to what you push down.}}


    B’s voice was snarky and sharp but far less aggressive than before the emotions she’d unleashed on Julia.


    ((You can walk these tunnels for centuries and never encounter Sapient gatherings of any size.))


    ((The winds are frequently harsh but consider it a challenge for your Zen State. The battles will help you hone your skills.))


    No fucking winds when I came out the first time.


    {{Oh, boy, cause she needs to be levelling that navel-gazing more. Though at least it’s not the bloody ice. }}


    {{Anything else we should know, V? You suck as a traveller’s guide. }}


    ((Even here is better than the Abyss. The evil isn’t as thick. ))


    While B continued to clash with V, Julia focused on Mercury Whisper and sent a message to Yngvarr.


    Well, I can’t break the news to him about the tiers nicely so no point holding that information back now.


    {{You just want to put him on the back foot so he doesn’t scold you for getting ganked. }}


    “Yngvarr, hope I’m not disturbing your rest. First, I’ve learned classes exist in the seventh prestige tier; even the Titan’s servants rarely have above the fifth. I’m currently in Pandemonium. My form got destroyed, so I’m stuck here for a bit. Fortunately, or not, I had re-anchored my home plane to Pandemonium before that occurred. Hopefully, it’s safer to send me messages here. What happened with the Lóm??”


    The spatial mana shifted through the plane’s existence, and she didn’t have long to wait for a response.


    “That isn’t good news. If you’re in Pandemonium, meeting up will be near impossible unless you find a township, and if you do, beware. The winds have driven too many mortal beings that call it home mad. Let us know if your situation changes at all. The Lóm? won’t leave the Abyss till they find the Souls of their Royal line. While the family didn’t get tricked by the Lady, they know they’re about even if none have seen or heard their Songs since coming to Ternòx. Their elders told us that much and then requested we leave.”


    The heavy sorrow within Yngvarr’s voice carried by the spell found Julia punching the nearest pillar, shattered stone spraying far and wide.


    The calm tone of V’s voice interjected to cut off another strike against the stone.


    (( You’ve let Zen State stay lapsed. What you call gravity will always drag you towards the nearest outer tunnel surface. ))


    (( The side of all tunnels curve so if you walk towards a wall, you could walk forever without needing to climb.))


    {{ You still suck as a tour guide. }}


    (( Sometimes too much knowledge can cripple you. I''m not speaking to guide you for entertainment but to achieve your goal.))


    Well, it’s time to carve a hideout.


    As Julia considered where to set her base, she paused before she made the first cut. Inventory’s ability to carve would certainly let her cut grooves and slabs. While using its ability would make setting a sunken stone hut or even an expanded shelter easy, the surrounding landscape made one thing clear. Among the chaotically placed, wind-etched pillars of this dark and bitter landscape, it certainly would stand out.


    Yet…


    I keep going back to mortal limits.


    After a moment of consideration, Julia set her focus to the stone. A thought pulls a fist wide pillar some ten metres long from the floor, with its far end a wide stone plate. Adjustments were quick enough to make, and nestled in the created hollow, Julia returned the pillar now minus the plate from where she’d removed it. On the pillar’s end at the centre point of the hollow, she carved some runes to use as a focus.


    Teleport easily let her bounce back and forth with that unique reference, and she soon had a large room carved out. The hollow formed by the pillar’s original base now a tiny niche near the room’s ceiling. The extracted stone blocks she shattered into dust and scattered into the winds before Julia retreated again. It didn’t take long to craft furnishings, using the inventory skill to remove more stone. While it certainly wasn’t luxurious, she had a wide stone table with a basic bench running beside it to sit on while she worked. The table was far bigger than she needed to set out the equipment she’d purchased from the Treasury, though she hadn’t wanted to make use of it anytime so soon.


    A set of balance balls she’d crafted from ball bearings were soon clicking away, helping her perception of time while she practiced Inscribe. Julia had set aside the fourth stack of ten Lightning Spikes she’d etched carefully with the tools; when a mana ball materialised with a pulsing noise beside her head. The moment she focused on it, words buzzed within her hearing.


    “Lêdhins’ place was in Giza. Hopefully, my Chaos Bolt got you and not his war mattock. If I got you, I bid you come forth Trouble. But really, wherever you ended up, lie low. The Bolt destroyed your form, the wall and wards behind you, but tore him up less than I’d expected. Our fight spilled us out into regiments of Kralcí reinforcements in town. The lucky bastard slipped away amid the battle when further reinforcements arrived. I’ve not been able to find him since then. He’s as tough to scry as you. Though you now owe me for a lot of recent kills. Just as well, you paid up after visiting the Treasury. Eight hundred and seventy-nine more before I broke away. My class feels like it’s strengthening so fast. You’ll still need to pay your little bounty, but I owe you, little sister.”


    As soon as Ebusuku’s words bid her come forth, the sense of pressure present since her arrival in Pandemonium lifted from her being.


    Just in case it was traceable, Julia opened the conduit and scurried through to Hrz’Styrn.


    The conduit opened out on a rock encrusted mountainside, the snow line within sight. The bitter sulfuric yellow snow causing B to snicker away in the back of her mind. Setting her Id’s antics aside, Julia replied to Ebusuku’s casting, monitoring the conduit for anything looking to follow her path through it.


    Julia let Zen State’s calmness settle over her before she sent her message on.


    “Appreciate the information. I felt the edge of the blade bite, just as your spell ripped me apart. Will lie low.”


    Julia almost mentioned how he’d tracked her but kept it secret. While it might give Ebusuku a way to find Lêdhins via his weapon, it would also let her scry on Julia.


    {{You know you confirmed you know the planar version of flit effectively. }}


    She’s already seen the spell form. She certainly knew enough to recognise it as human, not just what it did.


    “IF I get asked I''ll tell the Sisterhood, that you got your form destroyed but proved useful before that. Till next we meet.”


    Ebusuku’s voice came back to Julia, the Mana orb not even pausing this time before it spoke.


    Quickly retracing her steps, Julia closed the conduit, counting herself fortunate that it had appeared away from immediate notice. Sure movements placed the scribed disks within her inventory, and after a moment’s consideration she left the inscribing equipment in place. However, she took care to place each item in its case again.


    After everything was in its place, Julia’s gaze flickered over the pile of ruined discs she’d cast to the floor. As she crouched to pick up the first, rogue emotion shock her hand even through Zen State’s calm.


    I only fail when I don’t get back up. Can’t let the close calls get to me.


    {{You could always just let it out in screaming passion. }}


    ((You cannot always control what happens, merely how you react to it, negative or positive. ))


    {{Shush you. Baby let’s find more bugs to fuck up. }}