「 episode 8; arc 3.4 」 —tenebrous awakening//submission— 「 hyejoo iv 」

Hyejoo could not have predicted the agility Jisoo possessed.

The lean, nimble swordswoman burst towards her with a rush of speed rivaling that of Hyunjin and Jungeun. With her body leaned forward slightly, the weight of her boots almost seemed irrelevant as she began to close the distance between herself and the pair with immense swiftness. She carefully held her rapier close to her body, the middle of the blade resting in her free hand as her streams of water continued to flow around both her frame and her steel.

Rushing to take a defensive stance at the onset of Jisoo’s sudden advance, Hyejoo planted her feet down firmly with the blade of her scythe pointed upwards. Her eyes narrowing, she focused on her incoming target. Behind her, Chaewon’s odd eye came to life with a beige glow.

“Exercise caution, Hyejoo,” Chaewon advised in a hurried breath as the pages of her tome began to shift. “Jisoo’s alignment to water flows in a clockwise path. She has a high level of affinity with each of your weaknesses.”

Spheres of warm light quickly took shape in the air down the road in front of them as Hyejoo nodded quietly.

With Chaewon’s breath, they hastily expelled white chains from their infinite insides. Continuing to spawn from their voids, they shot down the street towards Jisoo. Most of them were low to the ground, with a collection coming in behind them from higher up.

Jisoo’s calm expression didn’t shift in the slightest as Chaewon’s effect neared her. The floating  vertical rivers encompassing her body split off into several smaller streams as she ran forward, each one challenging the approach of a chain. With a momentarily held breath, Jisoo’s eye of azure glimmered with a shine as cyan mana manifested at the end of her forward moving streams of water.

The bright blue dust coalesced into frost. As Jisoo’s water came into contact with the cold clouds and rushed past them, the end of each stream froze, expanding into small walls of ice. With each of Chaewon’s chains being forced to a dead stop as they collided into her frozen barriers, Jisoo was free to continue her charge. In the following moment, she had come face to face with Hyejoo.

The water surrounding the blade of Jisoo’s rapier rushed downwards and surrounded her sword hand as she extended her weapon towards Hyejoo. The liquid sunk into the twisted sweepings of the hilt, and in a chain reaction, the blue runes along the surface of the sword began to glow.

In the only defensive maneuver she could properly calculate at a moment’s notice, Hyejoo rotated her weapon with a quick movement of her hands. The blade of her scythe positioned in front of the incoming rapier, Hyejoo caught the tip of Jisoo’s armament in the crevice between the blade’s base and the top of the shaft. She exerted physical force as she put her weight into her ankles, holding herself steady and locking Jisoo into place with her.

In the same instant, Chaewon’s chains of light hurriedly retracted themselves into their source points. Without delay, they immediately shot forth once again after fully disappearing into the spheres, now directing themselves towards Jisoo’s ankles and wrists. Caught by Hyejoo’s hold, Jisoo’s eyes quickly shifted to the girl of light behind her opponent.

“What do you take me for...?”

Jisoo’s comment was accompanied with a move so elementary yet strangely reasonable that Hyejoo didn’t expect it, nor did she immediately process it. With Chaewon’s effect coming close to fully restricting her movement, the swordswoman simply let go of her weapon quietly, allowing gravity to seize it.

“Chaewon!”

In a brazen display of quick, straightforward thinking, Jisoo freed herself of her entrapment. Hyejoo’s shout coincided with the swordswoman circling around her with accelerated steps, coming far too close to Chaewon for her liking.

With a degree of mastery similar to Jungeun and Kahei, Jisoo’s rapier had fully dissolved into her ocean blue mist before it could even touch the floor. No more than a single moment passed before it perfectly reconstructed itself in the grasp of her extended hand, the sharp tip inches from Chaewon’s chest.

Turning around to come to Chaewon’s aid, Hyejoo was met with numerous clouds of icy mana in front of Jisoo’s back. The azure dust behind Jisoo quickly materialized into jagged icicles that propelled themselves forward without warning.

Hyejoo was left to inhale sharply and exhale forcefully as violet mana took shape in front of her, coalescing into a collection of medium sized voids of shadow arranged haphazardly. As they gave birth to violent, thrashing spikes that overpowered Jisoo’s heavy rain of consistent projectiles, Hyejoo could only look ahead and watch her companion suffer.

With both hands, Chaewon held her closed tome outwards, the cover facing Jisoo as she exerted force into it with a piercing of her blade. Chaewon’s barrier flashed into existence, encompassing both her body and her book in a shield of light. Runes etched into Chaewon’s teal sweatshirt glowed with a faint light as small cracks began to spawn at both of her hands.

As the standoff continued, Jisoo suddenly exhaled, inciting Chaewon’s eyes to widen with fear. Hyejoo’s own expression turned dark as she saw the reason for Chaewon’s worry herself.

Crimson mana now enveloped Jisoo’s rapier, and with the shimmering of her azure odd eye, the red cloud ignited into existence as a raging blaze. Evaporating the water both around her sword and body, a wave of heat rushed past the three as her weapon combusted, donning a coat of cerulean flame.

With the shift of her weapon’s element, the previously minimal cracks at Chaewon’s hands suddenly transformed into a veritable web of fractures.

Hyejoo’s heart sank as Chaewon yelped, her barrier rapidly succumbing to its exploited weak point.

Deeply ingrained fissures of massive proportions reached her shoulders in the blink of an eye. With continued force exerted from Jisoo as she pushed the tip of her rapier further into Chaewon’s now trembling book, the damage was spreading down Chaewon’s body at an alarming rate.

The heat emanating from Jisoo quickly melting the remainder of her frozen projectiles behind her, Hyejoo’s mind only had time to process a single concept before raw instinct made her act ahead of it.

I’ll protect her.

Her thoughts stalled, frozen in time as a lavender runic circle of gargantuan dimensions took shape in front of her near instantly.

I have to protect her.

Hyejoo didn’t allow herself the courtesy of thinking of anything else. Silently, she slashed through the center of her circle with so much force that the pavement beneath her feet gave way, rupturing slightly.

I need to protect her. I promised her.

Hyejoo felt an immense surge of pain flow through her body as her runic circle came apart at the center. With her odd eye glowing fiercely as it dissolved, she clenched her teeth and endured agony that she convinced herself was surely incomparable to what Chaewon was experiencing.

Hyejoo’s breathing quickened as she summoned nothingness itself. A volatile, insidious abyss of darkness came into existence in front of her.

Shaped as a wicked disc with uneven bladed edges, it stood vertically at over two feet in both height and diameter. The only color it held was the deep violet aura that encompassed it. Coinciding with otherworldly physical discomfort that made Hyejoo clutch her chest, it began to spin in place at a breakneck pace as its metallic surface convulsed. The spikes and barbs at its edges writhed madly as if it had a mind of its own.

Feeling strange vibrations displacing the air behind her, Jisoo turned her head. As she peered at the effect from the corner of her eyes, Hyejoo saw it—Jisoo’s composed expression quickly being overwritten with a look of horrified fear as the shadowy sawblade was already skyrocketing towards her with blinding speed.

Her pressure against her target letting up as she could only brace herself in her current position, Chaewon jumped to the side and ran towards an out of breath Hyejoo. Taking point, Chaewon stood in front of Hyejoo and turned to face Jisoo as the pages of her tome shuffled. A sphere of light materialized above her. From it, a column of soft, beige light rained down. It encompassed her body, the runes in her clothing glowing as her barrier manifested and quickly repaired itself.

With damaged, labored breaths, Hyejoo watched the result of her own handiwork as her effect crashed into Jisoo.

The impact alone sent the swordswoman sliding several feet down the pavement, and upon contact, her barrier materialized and immediately suffered extreme damage. Hundreds of splintered veins originating from her spine wrapped around her torso in every direction.

The cracks spread like wildfire as the sawblade continued to spin against her back. Its razor edges sank deeper and deeper into Jisoo’s shield with every rotation, splitting her barrier more and more.

Before Jisoo had to take further countermeasures to prevent the complete destruction of her defense system, Hyejoo’s disc of darkness suddenly dissipated into dust.

Unable to maintain her remarkably dominant effect for much longer than a few seconds, Hyejoo fell to one knee and desperately gasped for air as her onslaught came to a premature conclusion. With every strained breath that followed, the pain tormenting her body gradually subsided and the frighteningly rapid beating of her heart returned to a normal rate.

“I’m sorry,” Hyejoo apologized between heavy inhales and exhales of air. With one final gasp, she stood back up, grabbing proper hold of her scythe. “I wasn’t….I wasn’t sure what else to do there, Chaewon…”

“I’m the one who should apologize.”

Chaewon spoke with assertive certainty as her eyes remained upon the recovering Jisoo. “I told her not to underestimate us, but I didn’t take my own advice...that was a sleight of hand that I should have been able to react to properly. It’s my fault you had to hurt yourself to use such an effect so suddenly to save me.”

Stepping forward, Hyejoo turned her head towards Chaewon. Her companion’s mixed eyes were somberly pensive as she monitored Jisoo down the street.

“I suppose I still haven’t fully registered it...the reality of an old friend who was stronger than me suddenly becoming a new foe.”

“We can stop her, Chaewon.”

Chaewon’s attention was grasped by Hyejoo’s determined declaration. The girl of darkness had brought her own eyes to the swordswoman ahead, her brows furrowing as Jisoo slowly stood up straight.

“Before the others even finish what they’re doing with Red Velvet, we can stop her right here. I’m sure of it.”

Chaewon gave Hyejoo a small nod as she joined her in keeping an eye on Jisoo. “I agree. Jisoo is a sorceress with experience beyond either of us, but she’s both outnumbered and facing someone who can exploit her own weakness just as well as she can exploit ours. That being said, Hyejoo...”

Chaewon’s voice trailed off for a moment, inciting Hyejoo to look at her. The girl of light’s face was stained with melancholy. “Once we break her shield, please be careful. We just need to restrict her until the others get back. We shouldn’t...I don’t want Jisoo to…”

Her words failing her once more, Chaewon fell silent. Despite this, Hyejoo nodded. She didn’t need to hear anything else.

“I’ll stay on a measured offensive,” Hyejoo stated, her fingers tightening around the steel of her scythe’s handles. “Only as much as it takes to stop her from hurting us. That’s all we need to do.”

“I’ll control myself,” Hyejoo announced after a pause. Small as it was, her voice was alive with steadfast conviction. “I promise you, Chaewon.”

“Thank you, Hyejoo. I’ll support you in every capacity I can,” Chaewon said. The moving pages of her tome and her own resolve settled into place simultaneously. “Let’s stay close and watch one another’s backs.”

As Jisoo turned around and exchanged glances with her, Hyejoo felt it abruptly crash against the inner walls of her mind.

The mere existence of the swordswoman carries a threat beyond your comprehension.

She must be erased.

Hyejoo grit her teeth. She attempted to steady her thoughts and redirected her focus to the comforting presence of Chaewon next to her.

It was impossible to not be unsettled by it—her other self stirring itself awake even beyond Chaewon’s diligent purification. Even when Hyejoo felt most safe next to the girl she vowed to protect, the presence of life-threatening danger instilled it with the tenacity to try and break through.

Hyejoo wanted nothing more than for it to stop, but all it did was speak again.

The swordswoman must die.

Hyejoo felt her stomach turn.

We don’t have to kill her. There’s...there’s no need to go that far. Chaewon doesn’t want that. We just need to stop her.

Your anchor’s safety outweighs meaningless moral preferences.

You cannot stop her without ending her life.

To kill her is to stop her.

The swordswoman must die.

Hyejoo closed her eyes as the words repeated themselves in her head. She took in a slow, deep breath of air before forcefully opening her eyes again.

No. I promised her...

The fog in her head cleared.

...and I don't want to break my promises. Not again.

She felt the presence of her other self within her mind fizzle away. Regaining herself, Hyejoo refocused her attention towards Jisoo.

Facing the two once more, Jisoo gathered her breath as streams of water enveloped her. The liquid at her command collected behind her as her barrier came to life. The water gradually sank into her back, and slowly, the chaotic fissures in her defenses receded.

With a sigh, Jisoo’s eyes shifted towards Chaewon.

“I see this is beyond the scope of your usual goodwill, Chaewon,” she remarked, her eyes slowly trailing back towards Hyejoo.

“You’re babysitting a proper demon child this time. Its strength is truly frightening...and at the same time, it’s equally laughable. To lack experience to the point where it cannot maintain a worthwhile effect of its own natural alignment...I pity it.”

“Hyejoo is not an ‘it,’ Jisoo.”

Jisoo fell quiet as Chaewon cut her off. The swordswoman raised a single eyebrow as the normally well-mannered girl of light took serious offense, displaying clear abhorrence towards her enemy.

“She’s not some monster. Hyejoo’s been through more than both of us combined. Treat her with respect.”

Curiously, Jisoo’s eyes shifted towards Hyejoo.

The young girl with potential beyond measure stood tall and firm next to Chaewon, her grip on her scythe tight and secure. Jisoo’s derogatory comments of Hyejoo’s supposed lack of humanity seemingly had no effect on her, evoking a head tilt from Jisoo.

“I see. What you lack in combat experience and the handling of your own power, you make up for in mental fortitude. Now, I wonder...how much of that is a result of Chaewon babysitting you…?”

Hyejoo didn’t answer, and neither did Chaewon. The two stood their ground, unsure of what move to make next. Their eyes remained locked onto Jisoo.

Jisoo took notice of Chaewon’s fixed, wistful stare towards her. After a brief moment of silence, she exhaled with a shake of her head as she addressed them with a small smirk.

“I suppose her general inexperience could be an excuse to suffer from tunnel vision, but I expected better from you, Chaewon.”

“What do you—”

Chaewon’s incomplete question was interrupted by the sound of Jisoo’s preemptive answer: the loud flow of rushing water rapidly approaching them from behind.

Turning around, the pair of light and dark were met with the sight of a colossal tidal wave barreling down the road. Stories high in size, it effortlessly swept up vehicles parked down each side of the street like bread crumbs. Jisoo’s smirk widened as it rolled towards the three of them with heavy debris in tow.  

“To be so lost in the sight of me that you can’t even bother to realize the mana gathering behind you for the past several moments…just when did you become such an incompetent disappointment, Chaewon?”

As the tsunami swallowed the street whole with hurried haste, Hyejoo found her hand being grabbed by Chaewon. Without time to process whatever her plan might have been, Hyejoo watched her suddenly inhale sharply.

Chaewon held her breath for a moment before exhaling forcefully through her nose. In response, a bed of wind beneath the pair took shape and pushed them upwards with vigorous might.

Launched high into the sky, Hyejoo looked down below and witnessed Jisoo performing the same feat. With a briefly held breath and a deep exhale, the swordswoman propelled herself into the atmosphere after them, quickly ascending towards their altitude.

As Chaewon floated higher and touched down onto the rooftop of a building just higher than Jisoo’s waves, Hyejoo broke away from her grasp.

“Hyejoo!”

Aiming to have her actions speak louder than words, Hyejoo remained silent as Chaewon immediately reestablished the tether of mana between them. Her body drifting towards the side of the building Chaewon was stood upon, Hyejoo steadied herself as images of Hyunjin came to mind.

Even if I can’t do it as well as her...

Flipping herself over at the apex of her ascent, Hyejoo’s boots touched down onto the glass of a large window. Bending her knees upon landing, her legs tensed up as she redistributed her weight.

...intercepting her like this is the best play right now…!

Mustering as much physical strength as she could, Hyejoo launched herself off the window. With rebounded velocity, she soared downwards towards a rising Jisoo with her scythe extended. Jisoo attempted to raise her sword to meet her foe in some capacity, but she found herself suddenly blinded as she took a deep breath in.

“Hngh!”

A small sphere of light had manifested directly in front of Jisoo’s face. At the edge of the rooftop above, Chaewon’s odd eye glowed softly as she pierced a small runic circle in front of her with two fingers. With its shattering, the beige orb expelled a beam of glaring bright light directly into Jisoo’s eyes, stunning her briefly.

Their opponent dazed, Hyejoo proceeded with her attack. With the titanic tsunami still terrorizing the street below and spilling over into alleyways, Hyejoo opted to hook her scythe around Jisoo’s ankle.

As she began to twist her body during her continued descent towards the furious waves below, Chaewon quickly pieced together Hyejoo’s plan and assisted her without hesitation.

With a briefly held breath and a steady exhale, Chaewon summoned a verdant cyclone that encompassed Hyejoo, suspending her in midair while also adding a moderate amount of speed to her spinning motion. Letting one of her hands free of her scythe, Hyejoo held Jisoo with her by the ankle, forcing the woman to pick up just as much velocity.

Facing the sky above with enough speed built up, Hyejoo released Jisoo from her grasp, throwing her well above Chaewon on the rooftop. At the behest of the girl of light, the winds keeping Hyejoo afloat redirected themselves into an upwards stream that lifted her up in pursuit of Jisoo.

As she was carried up, Hyejoo curled her body inwards with her scythe extended. Building up momentum with a rising aerial somersault further assisted by Chaewon’s winds boosting her, Hyejoo’s entire body became a living weapon as she transformed into a destructive fast moving buzzsaw.

Reaching the end of her own ascent, Jisoo was unable to act as she was subjected to a continued combo attack. With Hyejoo’s spinning assault approaching from below, her attempt at any form of impromptu defense was stopped by four chains wrapping themselves around her wrists and ankles.

A weary Chaewon on the edge of the rooftop took exasperated breaths. Experiencing the beginnings of strained exhaustion from consecutive effects, the girl of light kept her composure as best she could while orbs of light behind her spawned the chains that restricted Jisoo. Before gravity could bring her down, Jisoo was met with fierce might that kept her airborne.

With unreal speed built up from her maneuvers, Hyejoo crashed into Jisoo’s chest with an obscene amount of force. The potency of her strike made itself clear as Jisoo’s body shook violently even under the cover of her freshly materialized barrier. The swordswoman inhaled deeply as Hyejoo pressed the edge of her scythe into her barrier with every ounce of her being.

Jisoo held her breath as Hyejoo continued to exert force into her chest. The edges of the violet scythe dug into her shield slowly, a nasty mess of veiny fissures steadily racing across Jisoo’s frame. Hyejoo grunted through clenched teeth as she inhaled air through her nostrils. Small clouds of dense lavender mana quickly spawned all around Jisoo.

Hyejoo felt Chaewon’s winds at her back, keeping her afloat as she continued to apply pressure to Jisoo’s barrier. With a fast exhale through her nose, Hyejoo’s mana coalesced into an array of ghostly voids around Jisoo. Surging with her darkness, the spheres encompassed in violet auras released thorny purple spikes from their bottomless insides that lashed out against Jisoo’s defenses.

Falling victim to a midair assault on every front, Jisoo felt her body start to collapse as her barrier was pierced from several angles. With each piercing of Hyejoo’s spike, the cracks from their points of impact grew deeper, eventually bleeding into each other. In tandem with the blade that was almost pushing itself into the fabric of her shirt, Jisoo was moments from defeat.

The concerned look on her face betrayed her emotions within, however. As she felt a series of ticks click within her body, her expression eased as she finally exhaled.

Hyejoo choked.

The girl of darkness dropped her scythe as both it and her spheres of shadow began to disintegrate.

Reaching for her neck with one hand and her face with the other, she pulled at chains of light tightly wrapped around her neck, mouth, and nose that had suddenly ensnared her.

The four chains that held Jisoo captive turned to dust in a similar manner. Hyejoo looked to her side as they vanished, her eyes widening as she witnessed Chaewon suffering the same fate as her. Already desperate for air from her excessive effects, the blonde haired girl weakly pulled at the chains restricting her.

Jisoo’s breathing was quick for a moment as she caught her breath. Recollecting herself, she summoned winds to keep her where she was above her still raging waters below. Behind her, four spheres of light had manifested from her prior exhale. Grabbing onto two chains with one hand each, Jisoo dismissed her beige orbs as she pulled them out of their origin points.

Veins in her arms showed themselves as she held her two captured prisoners steady. Pulling on one pair of chains, Jisoo dragged Chaewon off the edge of the building she was stood on. She dropped her other arm, lowering Hyejoo’s altitude to match Chaewon.

Hyejoo and Chaewon both pulled at their chain collars in desperation. Attempts to coalesce mana in self-defense were helplessly failing as all venues of breathing were cut off. With the loss of air came the fading of the tether of mana between the two. As it withered away, Hyejoo felt the birth of a migraine that gradually intensified with every second.

Jisoo tilted her head with curiosity, inquisitively eyeing the diminishing connection between the two and the accompanying degradation of Hyejoo’s already compromised physical state. Her hands quickly moved from the chains imprisoning her to the sides of her head as she cried out with a muffled scream.

Jisoo’s wonder traveled further as Chaewon extended an arm towards Hyejoo. Breathing what little she could through her suffocated hold, Hyejoo seemed to struggle to collect herself as she clutched Chaewon’s hand. With the intertwining of their fingers, the pain present in Hyejoo’s expression faded.

“How curious. Whatever this entails goes beyond standard purification...what exactly are the details of your connection to this girl, Chaewon…?”

Jisoo’s muttered musings to herself went unacknowledged as Hyejoo and Chaewon simply stared at each other. Hyejoo’s eyes were inundated with a sort of horrific dread that only made Jisoo more and more curious. The look in Chaewon’s eyes was one of similar fear, but the swordswoman could tell that she was doing her best to keep it together.

Chaewon blinked with surprise as the chain around her face dematerialized.

Reflexively, she gasped for air, taking in so much so quickly that she was left coughing for a moment. She and her companion both looked up to their captor. Jisoo was peering at Chaewon with cautious interest.

“Jisoo—”

“Explain the circumstances of this arrangement between the two of you,” Jisoo promptly commanded, interrupting Chaewon. Her eyes found Hyejoo’s quivering gaze as she raised a perplexed eyebrow. “This seems far and away from your usual bout of purification, Chaewon.”

“She’s...Hyejoo is…”

Jisoo scoffed with contempt as Chaewon failed to answer in a timely manner.

“On second thought, disregard the inquiry. If such a simple question is something you must deliberate on, then perhaps it would be better for me to save you the trouble of answering by cutting to the chase.”

“Wait, Jisoo—”

The swordswoman’s expression returned to a neutral state as she pulled up on the chains in her hands, causing the girl of light to choke on her words.

“Farewell, Chaewon.”

Hyejoo’s mind was ablaze with anxious despair as Jisoo’s scornful eyes transitioned from Chaewon’s to her own. In a spiteful tone sharp enough to cut the very chains robbing her of air, Jisoo addressed her.

“As for you…”

Jisoo paused. Hyejoo felt a cold sweat drip from her brow as the swordswoman’s eyes burned with what she could only interpret as vengeful hatred.

“Die.”

In the following moment, Hyejoo found herself forcefully launched through a window into a dark office building.

Lifting her arms and yanking the chains downwards in a cross shape, Jisoo flung her two prisoners in opposite directions. Streams of her winds diverted towards each girl, adding turbulent acceleration to their treacherous flight paths.

Hyejoo careened through the air, her body breaking glass first and furniture second. She continued to soar until she met the stopping force of a reinforced cement pillar that stood in the center of the office floor. Slamming into it hard, she fell to the ground on her side. Strained discomfort settled into her body as she struggled to move.

Opposite to Hyejoo, Chaewon was tossed towards the submerged city street below.

Her lightweight body made a dangerously high speed impact with the rushing waves. Sinking several feet into Jisoo’s waters, Chaewon clutched as liquid filled her lungs. In no time at all, the breathing she had just regained was stolen away once more as she gasped for air beneath the currents.

Jisoo’s winds carried her to the opening in the office building. Touching down, she took deep, measured breaths, steadying herself after continued mana conversion.

Stepping through the rubble of the office floor and eyeing the destroyed desks and chairs, Jisoo’s gaze settled upon the immobile Hyejoo. Motionless on the ground, the girl of darkness appeared to be fully incapacitated. Remaining still for a moment, Jisoo watched her body briefly before turning back around.

Making her way back to the opening in the wall, Jisoo’s odd eye glimmered faintly as her torrents of water below began to die down. After a minute, the intensity of her waves settled down tremendously, becoming light enough that the street’s storm drains carried away the remainder of it. In the midst of cars, benches, and signs tossed astray, Chaewon’s body lay still.

Jisoo held her breath briefly, and with her exhale, she let herself down to the city road below with a gentle breeze at her back. Behind her, the girl of darkness stirred.

Chaewon…

Slowly, Hyejoo grasped the carpet floor of the office area that her projectile of a body had destroyed.

She could feel her heart beating again, her blood pulsing through her veins. Her mind was coming back together, and as she fought the pain coursing within her body to lift herself to her knees, she took a deep breath and felt it.

Rather, she felt the lack of it.

Chaewon…!

Simultaneous with her slow rise to her feet, her head surged with the ache of a lifetime. It clawed at the inside of her mind, vehemently digging its fangs into her consciousness.

There isn’t time…

Hyejoo hobbled towards the destroyed window she crashed through. With miserable agony, she tried to maintain her composure, but her staggered, strenuous breathing was proving the task difficult. Every step she took resulted in the chaotic dissonance in her head growing ever so slightly louder.

She could hear her other self, but she shut it out. She had to stay in control.

I promised her...I can’t let it happen...

She absolutely had to stay in control.

Hyejoo’s boots crunched shards of glass into even smaller fragments as she came to a gradual stop at the edge of the building. Standing at the broken window, Hyejoo gazed down onto the street below. Her eyes of violet and deep brown scanned the mess of lopsided cars along the pavement.

When Hyejoo’s eyes found her, everything paused. First, her heart.

A disturbingly motionless Chaewon was sprawled out on the pavement below. Her eyes were closed, and above her stood Jisoo. Her rapier in hand, Jisoo idly ran her index and middle fingers across the length of the blade. Stopping at the tip, she curiously dug the flesh of her fingertips into it as she muttered something inaudible towards the incapacitated girl.

No...this isn’t...I was supposed to protect her...

Hyejoo’s next pause was her breathing.

As she choked up, tears slowly began to form in her eyes. The pain in her head was quickly becoming immeasurable, but the agony of seeing Jisoo bring the end of her blade to Chaewon’s chest superseded it.

Please...please don’t...

With the sight of Jisoo slowly raising her rapier aimed for Chaewon’s heart, Hyejoo’s mind paused next.

A momentary lapse in conscious thought for a mere second was all it took for her to slip through.

She is lost. You have failed.

Hyejoo clutched her head as she fell to her knees.

Sizable shards of glass cut through the black denim of her jeans, piercing the flesh of her shins beneath. Hyejoo didn’t even feel the blood flow out, the overwhelming tremors surging from within her mind taking precedence.

Your cursed existence is without an anchor once again.

The pain.

Uninhibited and unrestrained, you are nothing but a harbinger of apocalyptic death.

The pain.

The containment of your cataclysmic potential is not optional.

An ear-piercing screech of unbridled distress broke free from Hyejoo’s mouth.

Her anguished cry dismantled the noiselessness of the city street, enough so that Jisoo’s attention was summoned. Her imminent execution of Chaewon was halted as she looked up behind her, eyeing the screaming Hyejoo in the window.

I am the only one remaining capable of withstanding your unrelenting fury.

Before Jisoo could even ponder the occurrence, a slew of fireballs crashed into her body from an open door across the street.

Her nearly broken barrier came to life as she rolled down the pavement into the side of a displaced car. A gray-haired spearwoman came to a stop in front of Jisoo, and following her, a staff-wielding sorceress rushed to Chaewon’s side.

If you care about those you have left, you will submit.

The quakes rocking Hyejoo’s head rampaged without end. For a moment, she made notice of Jungeun’s and Kahei’s presence. As her eyes quickly flittered between them, her gaze settled on Chaewon again. A tear rolled down her cheek as she closed her eyes with another blood curdling screech.

I can’t…! I have to stay in control…!

Hyejoo’s scream brought Jungeun’s eyes towards her. The woman of fire yelled towards her ally a ways behind her. “Kahei!”

“I’m on it, Jungeun!” Kahei shouted back as she got down on her knees next to Chaewon. Releasing her staff, it instantly dissipated into mana as she brought her hands over the motionless girl’s chest. With one hand locked over the other, she began to rhythmically press down on Chaewon’s chest.

Above, Hyejoo struggled to even attempt to form a cohesive thought amidst the unparalleled pain flowing through every square inch of her body. She felt it everywhere at the same time. Her blood felt like it was boiling. Her head was sure to explode. Her heart was pumping at an uncomfortable speed, and every single beat felt strong enough to break her ribcage.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. It hurt to exist.

You have no other choice, child.

Beneath her closed eyes, Hyejoo was unable to see Jungeun’s concerned, focused eyes on her. As Jisoo stood up, she looked between Hyejoo above and the spearwoman in front of her. “I was hoping that any help they might have had wouldn’t show up so soon…”

“Yeah, funny how quickly you can tell something’s wrong when the catacombs you’re in start to flood from above,” Jungeun replied with annoyed disdain towards the swordswoman, her own eyes still locked onto Hyejoo. “That was your first mistake.”

“First?” Jisoo scoffed. Her gaze found its way towards Kahei. As if she had anticipated Jisoo’s focus, a mass of brown mana spanning the width of the street was already coalescing. It materialized into a dense barrier of cement stories high. Immediately after, a replica of the same wall came to life right in front of it from another collection of earthen mana.

Hyejoo’s hands slid up her head. She pulled her hair by the roots, grinding her teeth and inhaling sharply as she felt her insides twist and turn.  

It wasn’t stopping. It wouldn’t stop.

Just like before, she couldn’t stop it on her own, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

They’re here...they came...they’ll figure it out, they’ll save her! I just need to hold on...!

You underestimate the speed with which you will completely annihilate everything before you.

Contrarily, you overestimate your capability to detain your own ruinous indignation.

Your manifested will to live was the key. With her passing, you must now submit.

Don’t say that!

Hyejoo’s grip on her hair tightened as she wailed her loudest shriek yet.

Jungeun winced at the sight of Hyejoo’s descent into madness. The volume of her discomfort paled in comparison to the true degree of pain that emanated from every single fiber of her being.

Don’t say was…! She hasn’t passed! She’s…she’s still here!

Enough.

Hyejoo’s heart stopped. Her odd eye glowed with an intense violet light.

Whatever chances she may or may not have at survival will prove useless if you do not submit.

Her breathing stopped. Her arms fell to her sides.

Slowly, a sea of bright lavender began to gradually overtake both the pupil and sclera of her odd eye.

The safety of those you hold dear cannot be guaranteed if you do not submit.

Her mind stopped. The vicious clawing and rending earthquakes within her head came to an end.

Everything ends here…

Hyejoo felt it.

The gradual loss of ownership.

The unwilling transference of control.

...if you do not submit.

Unable to move her body in any physical aspect, the only part of herself she maintained possession of was her mind.

It was the final piece keeping her together, but the difficulty that now arose in creating conscious thought was beyond measure. The normally automatic process of thinking was now an arduous effort, but even still, Hyejoo fought to accomplish it.

Every muscle in her body strained as she struggled to remain conscious. It was the only thing keeping her sense of self from fading away. As almost impossible as it felt, Hyejoo had to think.

She needed to be conscious at all costs.

I don’t...I don’t want anyone to get hurt...

Her odd eye now completely washed over with a shade of illuminated violet, Hyejoo stared contemplatively towards the walls that hid Chaewon’s body. Though she couldn’t see it, she could easily visualize Kahei’s heroic attempts to desperately resuscitate Chaewon with chest compressions and rescue breaths.

...I don’t want it to end here...

Then you will submit to your darkness. Submit to me. Become Olivia Hye.

Olivia…

Below, Jungeun grimaced. Her grip on her polearm tightened, her knuckles white. From behind her, Jisoo took a step forward, bringing the tip of her rapier an inch from the back of Jungeun’s neck. Streams of water around Jisoo had just finished restoring her barrier to full health. “Are the lot of you so foolish that you’d leave your enemy unsupervised?”

“What the hell do you think I’m looking at?”

Jungeun’s response was immediate, the alert spearwoman not even flinching at Jisoo’s close presence. “You think you’re the enemy I have to worry about here? This isn’t about you anymore. You’ve made this about something beyond the level of any of us.”

Jisoo’s eyes roamed back up towards Hyejoo in the building. In the next moment, Jisoo’s calm and collected expression nightmarishly warped into one of worried anxiety.

Hyejoo’s body was radiating a perceptible aura of harsh violet. The skin of her left hand was slowly turning dark gray. The sickly color spread up towards the left half of her neck, encompassing half of her face.

Can you...save her?

I can salvage the chance to do so.

Without...killing Jisoo?

The slaying of the swordswoman is paramount to preventing further tragedy.

No...Chaewon doesn’t want that...

If you allow yourself to detonate, her desires matter not.

Hyejoo felt it. It stirred within her body as it did years ago. It was coming, and the only way to stop it would be to let go.

If she didn’t want to hurt her friends, she would have to let go.

The gray portions of Hyejoo’s skin darkened further as she cried. Imprinted onto the stretches of her decaying flesh, black pathways were fading into existence.

Her corrupted manastream was surfacing, becoming visible through her skin as it pressed upwards from underneath. It squirmed with each of her convulsive breaths through her sobbing, wriggling as if it were alive.

Tears of blood streamed down Hyejoo’s face. The end was nigh.

Please...don’t kill her…

You are at your limit. Submit.

Chaewon...

                                                                                    Death approaches. Submit.

...I’m sorry...

                                 Your resistance will be their end. Submit.

...I couldn’t keep my promise.

Submit.

I submit.

The girl of darkness stopped.

Still sitting on her bloodied knees, the gray tone of her skin and her revealed manastream began to recede. As it did, her odd eye glowed even brighter, and with it, the air around her vibrated.

A quiet, insubstantial wave of subdued energy escaped from her body. With it, a booming cacophony of hundreds of windows simultaneously shattering filled the air of the silent night. Every pane of glass on the office building had broken into thousands upon thousands of pieces. A few windows on neighboring buildings followed suit, as did those of cars on the street below.

Behind the waterfall of fragmented glass cascading down to earth in front of her, she rose to her feet at a snail’s pace with an eerie serenity. Her eyes now glued to Jisoo, she felt her functions come back to life.

The agonizing pain that tortured her was no longer present, as if it hadn’t immobilized her just moments prior. Her heart began to beat once again, each pump strong and steady. Her breathing resumed, her lungs openly welcoming each slow, deep breath of air.

Her mind, however, did not resume.

“What...what’s wrong with her? Hyejoo, was it?” Jisoo asked, unsure how to process the change in the girl’s character. She stepped forward. In response, Jungeun stepped forward herself, strangely insistent on remaining in front of Jisoo.

The swordswoman looked on with uncomfortable eyes as she witnessed a colossal mass of violet mana aggregate in front of the building. Taking the shape of steps, the dense cloud materialized into a staircase of obsidian steel. A shade of black darker than nothingness itself, it would have blended in with the veil of night were it not for the moon’s light from above.

“That’s not Hyejoo. Not anymore,” Jungeun clarified, carefully watching the girl as she started a calm, unhurried descent from the ruined building.

“What do you mean ‘not anymore?’” Jisoo parroted. “If not her, then who…?”

“You’re looking at your second mistake—the end result of keeping Chaewon and Hyejoo separated.”

Touching ground, the girl of darkness turned to face the two as her staircase became lavender dust. She approached slowly, her steps heavy. Coming to a stop a few feet away from them, she stood perfectly still.

Her undivided attention was on Jisoo behind Jungeun. It remained as such for what felt like an eternity to Jungeun before she finally turned her head towards the woman of fire. As she spoke, her glowing eye pulsed with life.

“Make yourself scarce, spearwoman.”

It was Hyejoo’s voice that spoke, but with her odd eye entirely immersed in darkness and with her body’s aura as intense as it was, Jungeun would’ve known then if she hadn’t already.

“There’s no need for this, Olivia.” Jungeun asserted, standing her ground. “Kahei is performing CPR on Chaewon right now. It won’t be long.”

“Your ignorance baffles me.”

Jungeun’s eyes narrowed as Olivia spoke to her. Hyejoo’s alter ego remained completely still as her eyes shifted back towards Jisoo in a manner so slow that it seemed inhuman. “The life or death situation of the cursed one’s anchor bears no influence in this particular matter. The sorceress behind you absolutely must die.”

Jisoo flinched. Being directly addressed by what she could only call an actual monster made her skin crawl. With no response coming from her, Jungeun spoke next with nothing but a clear reiteration of her words. “I said there’s no need for this, Olivia. Stand down.”

“Are you aware that she is part of a team that strives to halt the efforts of your organization?” Olivia asked calmly, still locked onto a troubled Jisoo. “If she escapes, she will only inconvenience you in the future. To allow her to live would be the single most foolish thing you could possibly do at this juncture.”

“That’s a hell of a conclusion to jump to,” Jungeun replied with a sigh. “Didn’t even consider just capturing her and bringing her back or something? Skipping the potentially fruitful interrogation and gunning for the execution is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Do not speak of me so candidly as if I’m not hearing every word you’re saying!” Jisoo remarked in annoyance, her eyes darting between Jungeun and Olivia. “As if I would fall victim to a plot revealed to me so openly…”

“Shut up.”

Jisoo took a reflexive step back as she found the axe end of Jungeun’s halberd inches away from her chest.

Jungeun returned her extended arm to her side, puncturing the wet pavement with the tip of her polearm as she condemned Jisoo behind her. “You have absolutely no idea what you’ve gotten us into. Nothing you could possibly say can help at this point. Just stay behind me and shut up.”

“I would suggest practicing what you preach and remaining silent yourself, spearwoman.”

Jungeun tensed up as Olivia looked back towards her. Slowly, violet mana began to collect around her body. “Before my presence fades—if my presence fades—I will kill this woman where she stands. She is proficient in the four elements this body is weakest to. She is a threat to both my existence and your long term goals. She must die.”

“Keep talking like that and you’re really going to piss me off.”

Olivia’s perfectly composed demeanor was not affected by the challenging tone of the now agitated Jungeun.

Contempt was present on her face as she spoke, her crimson eye heated with anger. “You’re not possessing some lifeless vessel, Olivia. That’s not your body. It’s Hyejoo’s, which means you’re using her hands to spill blood without her consent.”

Jungeun’s odd eye glimmered with a flash of light as a column of fire erupted from a ring of vermilion mana beneath her. She took a deep breath as it subsided, emerging from it in an offensive stance with her weapon aimed towards Olivia.

“Hyejoo isn’t a killer, and I’m not gonna let you make her one.”

“You would defend a sorceress who stands against you and your allies?” Olivia questioned, her neutral expression slowly growing a slight frown. “One who struck down your own teammate? The cursed one’s anchor may never draw breath again, and it is the fault of this woman and this woman alone. Knowing this, you would stand against me and protect her?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth, Olivia,” Jungeun countered with a growl in her voice. “I’m not defending her. The only person I’m protecting is Hyejoo.”

“By challenging me? Attempting to stop me by bringing physical harm to the cursed one’s body?” Olivia asked slowly. “You speak unintelligible nonsense.”

“She can heal from a cut or a bruise. She can’t heal from being forced to kill someone against her will.”

“I fail to comprehend how the cursed one could be seen as the murderer. The swordswoman’s undoing would be the result of solely my actions.”

“You just don’t get it.”

Olivia fell silent as her reasoning was disregarded. Jungeun redirected her polearm back to her side, holding it in front of Jisoo behind her. “Maybe you’d understand if you had your own body...or maybe the concept is just beyond you. Whatever the case, I can’t let you kill her. Hyejoo wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Why are you so devoted to maintaining the meaningless innocence of the cursed one?”

Jungeun remained silent as Olivia scowled at her in full.

“If an inconsequential bond of a measly two months is enough to drive you to protect her in this fashion, why are you unable to realize how my plan of action will benefit her? Does her assured survival not strike you as more critical than the upholding of her personal values? How can the importance of morality persist in the face of extinction?”

Olivia waited for a response, but it didn’t come. Jungeun and Jisoo simply stared her down, and with unblinking eyes, Hyejoo’s alter ego continued.

“I am led to believe that I am doing your group a favor, and to your luck, I do not care for repayment of implied debt. As long as the swordswoman lives, the cursed one will be at great risk. Even with her anchor at her side, she is weak. Thus—”

“Don’t say another word.”

Olivia paused as Jungeun interrupted her. The anger in her eyes had evolved into venomous vexation. Her voice was hushed and her words were slow, as if she were struggling to prevent herself from exploding with fiery wrath.

“You are not going to sit there in a body that isn’t even yours and call the owner weak...not when she’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. You don’t go through what Hyejoo experienced and walk out smiling like she did without having considerable strength.”

“Even if such strength only arises from the presence of her anchor?”

“Especially so!” Jungeun roared, the edges of her halberd glowing as they seared with heat. “She depended on Chaewon to keep her steady! Being able to rely on someone like means you have the strength to accept that you can’t do everything by yourself! How is that a weakness?!”

“How is it strength if she was unable to dispose of an outnumbered threat right in front of her?”

Jungeun’s irritation multiplied as Olivia quietly answered her with another question, her eyes almost vacant of life.

“If she were truly strong, she would have protected her anchor as she originally promised. If her strength was truly worth praise, neither I nor the swordswoman would be standing before you right now. Our presence here is irrefutable proof of her weakness.”

“You’re sick in the head.”

“And you are blind to that which is being done for the good of those you hold dear,” Olivia remarked, unaffected by Jungeun’s statement as she continued.

“The undeniable mark of hopeless idiocy...I will not waste precious time or energy further attempting to understand your ill-aligned mentality. With or without your approval, I will now kill the sorceress that threatens the safety of this body.”  

From within Olivia, darkness flowed outwards.

The mana around her body became more and more dense, swiftly relocating itself to her left arm. Moving her arms, she allowed the oversized jacket worn at her shoulders to fall to the ground behind her. Her mana slowly began to coalesce, and as it took shape, Jisoo shuddered.

The entirety of Olivia’s left arm slowly became coated in a black liquid. Oozing with bubbles like some sort of acid, Jisoo’s spine crawled as it melted the sleeve of Hyejoo’s shirt. Her appendage now drenched in the substance and dripping with excess, Olivia shook her hand by the wrist. The sea of lavender that drowned her odd eye glimmered as her arm began to reflect the moonlight above.

Starting at her fingertips and working upwards, the substance that coated her limb gradually changed from liquid to solid. By the time it reached her shoulder, it was visibly hard, her arm now covered in a sleek, perfectly fitted sleeve of reinforced obsidian steel.

Along both sides of her metallic arm, they began to form—thick uneven spikes that rose one by one like quills. A single look at them was enough to determine that their sharpness would shred through skin and flesh with zero difficulty.

Equally razor sharp claws came into existence at her fingers, their lengths and jaggedness increasing in scale. The claw of her smallest finger was no more than four inches, but the claws of her middle finger, index finger, and thumb were monstrously asymmetrical at nearly a foot in length each. Their edges were serrated, reminding Jungeun of Seulgi’s hunting knife, but far more malicious.

The manifestation of Olivia’s weapon was finalized with violet runes coming to life alongside every possible stretch of space across her arm. Looking like manic scrawlings penned by a psychopath, the symbols were frenetically disjointed with their writing styles and sizes varying madly for no discernible reason.

“This is the only warning I will issue, spearwoman,” Olivia declared, lifting her arm of ebony steel and pointing her serrated index claw towards Jungeun.

“Step aside and allow me to bring an end to the swordswoman’s life. Interfere, and I cannot guarantee your safety. Your pointless death would serve no purpose other than that of a preposterous fallacy, as the hands you are so eager to protect would simply be soaked with your own blood instead.”

“Yeah, but then I’d never forgive myself for not stepping in and just letting you turn Hyejoo into a killer,” Jungeun reasoned. Flipping her halberd around, she repositioned it low to the ground as she bent down slightly, her eyes on Olivia’s arm. With the axe end pointed upwards, she frowned.

“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Gonna have to try for the best outcome here, even if it’s the least likely.”

Jungeun felt her words barely acknowledged as Olivia’s eyes slowly returned towards Jisoo.

The swordswoman held herself together as best she could, having little experience with something so plainly demonic. She asked Jungeun a simple question as streams of water came to life around her body and weapon like before. “What exactly is the plan, then?”

“The plan, er...”

“Jisoo,” the woman of water properly introduced herself, to which Jungeun nodded. Her gaze remained focused on Olivia as she continued.

“The plan, Jisoo,” Jungeun explained, “is to stay alive long enough for Kahei to save the girl you almost killed so she can restart the purification and draw Hyejoo back out.”

“And if events do not play out in such a manner?” Jisoo inquired, her grip on her rapier’s handle tightening. “What then, Jungeun?”

“You mean what happens if you’ve actually killed Chaewon?”

Even though she wasn’t looking at her, Jisoo could tell the disdain present in Jungeun’s voice extended to her eyes. It was clear that she had her own words she wanted to say to Jisoo, but the far more serious problem standing in front of them made that issue unbelievably insignificant in comparison.

“In that case, karma’s gonna bite you in the earlier than expected, I guess,” Jungeun revealed as Olivia began to walk towards them, “because, uh…”

Jungeun held her words. She briefly contemplated answering Jisoo’s question with some sort of optimism.

With every step Olivia took, Jisoo could feel it—murderous intent aimed directly at her. She gulped as she waited for Jungeun’s response.

Unable to find any hopeful countermeasures as she stared into the bottomless violet void of Hyejoo’s odd eye, Jungeun simply came clean to Jisoo.

The severity of her claim shook the foundation of Jisoo’s mind, yet despite the situation, Jungeun was oddly calm.

“...well, realistically speaking, without Chaewon...we’re both going to die here.”