"Oh, I'm so jealous!"
Interrupting the only moment of peace the two prisoners had managed to attain in that horrible hell, Daiana approached them, dragging a giant, monstrous head along the floor using only her right hand, something impossible for an ordinary person.
"You two are so close and affectionate, and here I am, selflessly bringing you dinner! It's not fair! Why doesn't anyone hug me and whisper sweet words in my ear? Don't I deserve it?"
"You have more than fifty subjects behind you who would give you the pleasures you seek if you ask them, you damn lunatic," Severus replied, which brought a bored grimace to the witch's annoyed face. "And what you deserve is the edge of a guillotine against your neck."
"Just that? I heard far worse threats from men and women more experienced than you, before I cut off their heads. And speaking of heads… Here, enjoy!"
She threw the bestial head in front of Tristessa and Severus, causing the floor to rumble. Sure enough, judging by its black fur and a luminescent organ protruding from its forehead, the beast the witches had hunted was an Ursall, but clearly influenced by the Evil Dream: it was almost twice the size of the head she had seen in the display case in the atrium, with more sharp teeth and yellow eyes with internal damage. From the flies buzzing around it and the foul smell emanating from it, it seemed its flesh had been in a state of putrefaction long before it perished in its fight with the witches. There was no doubt its wild meat was inedible.
Its snout swarming with flies, its teeth covered in dried blood, and its rotten tongue spilling onto the floor… Tristessa didn't want to see that monster or that evil witch for another second, and since she had no way to escape, she had no choice but to curl up against the blood elf.
"Tristessa? Calm down, don't let that crazy bitch scare you," he comforted her, looking down and giving her a sad smile. His arms moved of their own accord, straining against the chains and causing them to jingle softly. "Don't let her get away with it, not even a second from dying. She won't beat you that way."
"Severus, I… I can't be as brave as you…"
"I'll stay with you. Whatever vile plan Daiana has, I…"
"And you two keep flirting in my presence… IN MY PRESENCE?!"
With a powerful kick, Daiana separated Tristessa, throwing her far from the elf with such force that her chained body spun against the ground until it stopped when it collided with one of the dead titan's feet.
"Ugh...!" Her breath had been cut off, and without a doubt some of her ribs had been broken by that attack. This new pain was barely noticeable next to the agony that made her suffer second by second, but it did take away more of her hope for life. Her body couldn't hold out much longer... And yet, her only glimmer of hope wouldn't let her go. "Severus! Sev...!"
When her eyes focused on the blood elf, what she saw was fresh blood trickling from Daiana's ghostly blade, and a demented rage distorting her face so much that her smile would have driven anyone mad with terror. The Coven witches shrieked near the bonfire, shocked and staring at each other despite their eyes blocked by their blindfolds.
And then… She saw Severus's face slide down, falling to the ground with a sickening, liquid sound, while torrents of blood spurted from the rest of his split head, and pieces of eyeballs and brain matter also slid out.
"…"
Dead. His head leaned forward a little bit, his hair hiding the endless fountains of blood that dripped like rain onto the black earth and the rest of his naked torso.
"…Ah…ah…" Mouth agape and her bloodshot eyes wide open, Tristessa could only squeeze those sounds out from the depths of her rasping throat.
"Damn, unfaithful elf, breaking the heart of a lady as pure as I…" the witch snarled, brandishing her saber to cleanse it of all traces of blood before dematerializing it. Then she went to Tristessa, still grumbling under her breath, and crouched down beside her. "Maybe I went a little too far. It's just that I was so jealous of you that if the elf can't be completely mine, then it won't be anyone's. No hard feelings, huh, missy? Here, for your troubles."
Daiana left in her right palm a small sphere that was shining beautifully with trapped dark light within.
"A black soul-jewel, found within the Tainted Ursall we hunted. Not bad, eh? Worth a thousand SJs. A shame that you won't get to spend it… But it's pretty!"
"…Oh?" Tristessa asked, staring at the small, dark sphere. But the girl couldn't care less about a little gem that meant nothing to her. She let the black soul-jewel fell off her hand, and shifted her gray eyes to the side to meet Daiana's silvers, full of malice. "You deserve…"
"Fuck, you too?"
"You deserve to die… You deserve to fucking die!" The light was dead. Gone, vanished. Now she was lost in darkness, like her wrecked mind. "I'm going to kill you! I SWEAR, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"Really? You?! I would pay to see it! You're just a pathetic little girl!" Daiana sneered, finding Tristessa's expression of inhuman anger very funny and adorable. "Knights and gunslingers tried to hunt me down and failed, what the fuck can someone like you do?! Someone who did nothing but stand by and watch as everyone fell like dead flies at my feet? You're so funny! Perhaps if you cry me a river, I may drown in it! HAHAHA!"
Her unhinged laughter and mockery, even if born from madness, were not without transparent honesty. Daiana saw nothing to fear in Tristessa. After all, the raven-haired girl knew, beyond all the hatred flowing through her veins toward that woman, that she was right.
She wasn't lying when she said she was absolutely useless. The little information she had managed to convey to Tiara and Severus in the midst of the battle, thanks to her previous Death, only served to delay the inevitable; it wasn't enough to turn the tables.
And now, they were all dead. Was this her reward for doing nothing? Her inaction that led to the deaths of the entire Mercer-Archeos family and Severus?
She was no heroine. She was nothing but bad luck personified, bringing misery and Death to those near her.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Is this yours, missy? The scent of Discord emanating from it is exquisite… It smells like you."
The Priestess pulled an object from inside her leather uniform and showed it to her, causing Tristessa's anger clouding her judgment to momentarily fade by her surprise.
"…!"
Dirty, cut on several sides but still whole, it was the photograph she had lost when she was devoured by the Vargs.
"Ah, it seems I hit the target!" Daiana celebrated as she saw Tristessa writhing desperately in the chains that bound her, hoping to do something to retrieve that photograph. "You were careless with your belongings, but with me, it won't be lost. Don't worry."
"Give it to me! Stop touching it with your filthy hands! G-give me…! Give me…give…"
Swallowing ashes and spitting out noxious dirt in her eagerness to free herself from the chains, the stress she was putting on her body were not without consequences. Soon, her brain was once again drowned in inescapable pain, and her consciousness was hanging by a thread. Her rib wounds opened, and the burned skin and dead muscle of her amputated leg also began to bleed…
"I am very curious to know what knowledge you bring from the other world, Miss Stranger… We will have plenty of time to ourselves before we reach Merzul. I have no doubt you will tell me your name by then," the Priestess said, very close to her ear and giving her a long lick on her temple. As if she wanted to probe beyond the wall of her skull. Her brain. "You are truly blessed. You will be such a wonderful gift to my Lord that he will reward me richly. Perhaps with knowledge worthy of the Gods, if I am fortunate…"
Her lord, Moebius. A name steeped in mystery to Tristessa; a name magnified by what it meant, if the Coven served him so blindly.
A name that carried the title of Lord of Forbidden Knowledge.
By repeating that title in her head, Tristessa realized she had a trick up her sleeve. A last resort to end this nightmare once and for all.
"I-I have some knowledge…that you will love, bitch…" Drawing on the last ounces of strength that allowed her to speak and grinning vengefully at the Priestess, she opened her mouth and screamed. "I can return from…!"
But her words were violently interrupted by a deafening rumble from the accursed heavens. The earth shook, a cataclysm that caused several of the titans' bodies to emit large amounts of ash that fell like snow.
"What's going on?!" Daiana exclaimed, standing up disturbed and rapidly going to her subjects. "Could it be...?!"
At the source of the rumble in the air, several kilometers to the east, the red clouds surrounded by black lightning formed a great vortex. The darkness of the cosmos could be clearly seen at the epicenter, from the Coven's makeshift camp.
"Yes, it must be! Ladies...!" Going from worried to excited in the blink of an eye, the Priestess caught every witch's attention and exclaimed, "Princess Ithrendyl will appear in the Forest of Dead Titans!"
Confused, Tristessa watched the dozens and dozens of witches let out cries of excitement and celebration, as if they had won a war.
"That vortex… If it's good news for those women, then it must be something very bad," she thought, staring upside down at that dark, mile-long vortex worthy of an apocalyptic event.
She could taste Death in her mouth from the constantly falling ash, combined with her own salty tears. She turned her head to the left and saw Severus's corpse being buried in the ash.
More tears escaped, cold, thanks to the noxious wind blowing in her face.
Death was coming, again. The end of her life was nigh.