The Maw Corridor — Perseus
The beast's jaw crushed his shield.
Perseus screamed as the force hurled him into the obsidian wall. Metal groaned. His arm lit up with agony, blood dripping in sheets. He barely managed to roll aside before a stitched abomination—a writhing shape made of children's bones and tendons—lunged for his throat.
He swung upward.
His hammer caught the beast mid-air. Its lower half turned to red mist; the upper landed twitching, dragging fingers across his visor.
The corridor pulsed with void. Fleshy growths slithered from the floor. Spores clung to his skin like regrets. Voices whispered, laughter that wasn't laughter.
The void was feeding. On his fear. On his memories.
"Nyxia," he rasped, staggering upright. "I'm coming."
A rotting serpent, armored in fused limbs and screaming skulls, slithered into his path.
Perseus bellowed. Light ignited in his hammer. He charged, smashing through bone and brain—because her voice still echoed somewhere in the dark.
⸻
Ballroom of Bone — Boo
Boo danced.
Not like a rogue. Not like a warrior.
Like an executioner with rhythm.
The ballroom was a cathedral of bone. Columns made of fused skulls. Ghostly specters whirled overhead—her brother, her lovers, herself—mocking, weeping, whispering.
The first fell before it ever saw her.
A saber through the throat. A twist. A second saber in the spine. A flintlock shot straight into the heart of the next horror. It screamed with four mouths.
She silenced all four.
"Wrong girl," she spat, slicing through the creature's neck and twirling in a spray of black ichor.
She was vengeance wrapped in shadow-leather. Her movements were poetry soaked in arterial spray.
Then she saw him.
Rhelos.
Her brother's face on something hollow-eyed and wrong.
She hesitated.
Then screamed.
"YOU DON'T GET TO WEAR HIM!"
Her blades split its skull cleanly.
That's when Ves'Sariel struck.
Voidlight slammed into Boo's chest. She flew back like a ragdoll, crashing into the blood-slick floor. Her shoulder popped—dislocated. Pain flowered.
"You were always easy to hurt," Ves purred, descending barefoot, fingers dripping with rot and power.
Boo spat blood. "Still easy to kill, too."
⸻
The Rupture — Nyxia and Ves
Ves moved like moonlight made cruel.
Her attacks bled memory. Her touch dug into Nyxia's mind: screams of her mother, Loque's wounded eyes, Perseus whispering I'll find you.
Nyxia bled from everywhere—body and past.
"You were always meant to be hollow," Ves hissed. "I was your fill."
Nyxia roared. Her rune ignited—holy light and void colliding.
She rammed her blade into Ves's side.
Ves screamed—inhuman, cathedral-cracking. Blood rained from the ceiling.
"I do love you," Nyxia whispered.
Then her ribs collapsed inward.
The wall exploded.
Ash, memory, and voidlight roared through.
And Nyxia stepped out.
Her own body. Half-ruined. Her left arm dragged. Her chest bled light and shadow. Her eyes were half Ves, half monster.
She opened her mouth.
Ves's voice answered.
"You see? You were never meant to finish me. You were meant to continue me."
She screamed.
Her soul tore.
⸻
The Battle — Perseus, Boo, and Loque
Perseus found her.
"Nyxia—run—please—I can't—"
Her tail snapped. Her hands clawed at her own throat.
"Please… kill me."
Then she struck.
Perseus blocked the first blow—barely. The second broke his shield. The third shattered his arm.
Nyxia fought like fire wearing skin—inhuman, beautiful, devastating.
Boo screamed and fired. Nyxia caught the bullet mid-air. Turned it. Sent it back.
Boo fell—blood spraying.
Then Loque charged.
His roar split the world.
They clashed—fang and flame against blade and ruin. He tore her arm open. She stabbed his flank. He screamed.
Each strike was betrayal.
Nyxia turned to Perseus.
"You promised never to leave me," she said, her voice both hers and Ves's.
She raised her blade.
⸻
The Final Clash
Her sword slammed into Perseus's hammer—sparks and blood flew. He blocked again. The next blow crushed his pauldron.
"Stop!" he cried. "This isn't you!"
Ves's laugh poured from her lips.
"She's never been more beautiful."
Loque struck again—biting her back. He threw her into the wall.
She rose, snarling.
Boo fired—her bullet pierced Nyxia's shoulder.
"Bleed her," Ves whispered.
Nyxia swayed. "I… don't… want this…"
She lunged.
Slashed Boo's thigh. Opened her gut.
Boo gasped, grabbing Nyxia's wrist. "If I die here—it's still worth it."
Nyxia froze.
Loque lunged—but Nyxia pinned him to a column with her sword.
"NO! DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS!"
The rune on her chest erupted—holy and void light clashing. Her skin cracked.
Perseus screamed her name.
⸻
The Void Implodes
Ves stood in shadow, unformed, weeping as her masterpiece shattered.
"I made her perfect," she whispered.
She stepped forward. Her shadow peeled away.
Nyxia shrieked—blade dragging, mouth gaping.
Boo sobbed. Perseus crawled.
Nyxia turned her blade inward.
"I'll end this—"
Ves appeared behind her.
"Not yet, love."
She hugged her like a lover.
Then ripped the rune from her chest.
The world shattered.
The rune screamed.
Glass cracked. Bones shattered. Minds bent.
"Take me instead," Ves whispered. "Let me die in it."
The void recoiled.
It hated her.
The rune collapsed into impossible angles. A dying star of sorrow.
Loque grabbed Nyxia.
Perseus dragged Boo.
And Ves smiled, weeping.
"Tell her I meant it."
The void swallowed her whole.
And silence fell.