The black smoke;
Stopped.
Abrrupt.
Unnatural.
Like something had been cut mid-flow.
Leah's body jerked violently in mid-air.
Not falling.
Not held.
Just… suspended.
For a brief moment after the blade passed;
Everything held still.
The creature's body remained upright.
Headless.
Frozen in place as if it hadn't yet understood what had been done to it.
A thin line of light lingered across the severed neck;
Glowing;
Then fading.
Silence pressed in.
Heavy.
Unnatural.
Without warning...
It began.
The body twitched.
A violent, involuntary jerk rippled through its torso, shoulders snapping slightly forward as if something inside had just been cut loose. The claws flexed once; sharp, erratic; scraping through empty air.
A wet, broken sound followed.
Not a scream.
Not anymore.
Just something collapsing from within.
The neck;
Open.
Black.
Instead of blood spraying, thick, dark fluid began to pour slowly from the severed edge, heavier than liquid, almost dragging downward as it spilled.
The torso leaned.
Forward at first.
Then sideways.
Balance gone.
Control gone.
The massive form staggered half a step; uncoordinated, unstable; before gravity fully claimed it.
Then it fell.
Hard.
The impact slammed into the ground with a deep, crushing thud that echoed outward through the mist. The roots beneath it cracked slightly under the weight, dust and fragments shifting outward in a low burst.
Its limbs hit unevenly.
One arm twisted beneath its body with a sickening angle, claws digging into the ground as if trying to catch something;
Too late.
The rest followed.
Heavy.
Final.
The body collapsed completely, chest striking last, forcing another dull, hollow sound from it as whatever remained inside settled into stillness.
The black fluid continued to seep from the neck, pooling slowly beneath it, spreading outward in thick, unnatural waves.
No movement.
No resistance.
No breath.
The mist around it shifted slightly;
Then stilled.
And for the first time;
The creature lay there;
Truly motionless.
The black smoke;
Stopped.
Abrrupt.
Unnatural.
Like something had been cut mid-flow.
Leah's body jerked violently in mid-air.
Not falling.
Not held.
Just… suspended.
Her spine arched as if an invisible force pulled through her, her arms twitching sharply at her sides. A broken gasp tore from her throat, but it didn't sound right; like the breath itself was glitching, cutting in and out.
Then....
Lightning.
Not from the sky;
From her.
Thin, jagged flashes sparked across her body, snapping into existence along her arms, her shoulders, her neck; brief, violent bursts of pale light that flickered and vanished just as quickly.
Her form distorted.
Glitched.
For a split second;
She wasn't there.
Then she was.
Then....
Something else.
The mist forest flashed around her.
Roots twisting beneath unseen ground;
Darkness pressing in from every side;
The echo of that nightmare world snapping into existence over the real one.
Then it vanished.
Replaced by emptiness.
Then again.....
A flicker;
Back to the forest.
Back to the red.
Back to the voices;
Gone.
Her body spasmed again mid-air, her head snapping slightly to one side as her pupils struggled to stabilize, rolling, then trying to focus, then losing it again.
She felt it.
Everything.
At once.
The cold of the mist.
The weight of the real world.
The suffocating pull of the darkness that had been inside her.
All of it overlapping;
Colliding;
Breaking.
Her fingers curled tightly, then released, then curled again, as if she couldn't control them. Her legs twitched in uneven bursts, her entire form caught between states, unable to settle into one.
A moment later ....
Darkness.
A flicker of it.
Not around her;
Inside.
A glitch of something deeper;
That place.
That void.
The silhouettes.
For a fraction of a second, she felt it again; the pull, the watching presence, the cold space that had no ground, no sky;
Then it snapped away.
The black smoke was gone.
But its absence;
Wasn't clean.
It left something unstable behind.
Leah's body hung there, trembling, suspended in the aftermath of something that hadn't fully ended.
Below;
The horned girl tilted her head slightly, watching, her bright blue eyes narrowing with interest rather than concern. One clawed finger lifted casually, pointing toward Leah's flickering form.
"…What should we do with her?"
Her voice carried that same elegant, almost playful tone; light, curious, as if she were observing something fascinating rather than dangerous.
Her gaze shifted briefly toward the warrior.
The man with the silver armor.
The blade of light still faintly glowing in his hand.
Leah's body sparked again;
Another flash of lightning snapping across her shoulder;
Her form glitching once more between worlds;
The air tightened.
For a fraction of a second;
Everything held.
Leah's body still hung there, trembling, flickering between states;
Then.....
It broke.
A violent surge of lightning exploded from her.
Not a spark; Not a flicker; An eruption.
Blinding white energy tore outward from her body in a jagged burst, splitting the air with a deafening crack. The force rippled through the space around her, pushing the mist back in a sudden wave, distorting everything in its reach.
Her body convulsed mid-air.
Hard.
Violently.
Her back arched sharply, her limbs snapping outward as if struck by something unseen, her fingers clawing at nothing as the energy discharged through her.
Then....
Gone.
The light vanished.
Cut.
And gravity took her.
Leah dropped.
Fast.
Her body lost all tension at once, going limp as she fell, her head tilting slightly to one side, her arms trailing behind her, lifeless. The last flickers of instability faded from her form as she descended, no longer suspended;
Just falling.
Uncontrolled.
Below;
The horned girl moved.
No hesitation.
Her left foot pressed hard against the ground;
A sharp, controlled push;
Then she was gone.
She launched forward in a blur, her body cutting through the mist with precise, explosive speed. Her form leaned low for a split second, then rose into a powerful stride, momentum building instantly.
Another step;
Then she jumped.
Clean.
Sharp.
Her body lifted into the air with effortless control, hair trailing behind her, horns slicing through the mist as she angled herself perfectly toward the falling form above.
Leah dropped toward her.
Unaware.
Unresponsive.
The distance closed in an instant.
The horned girl reached out;
Arms extending smoothly;
And caught her.
Mid-air.
Not clumsy.
Not forced.
Controlled.
One arm slid behind Leah's back, supporting her weight, the other catching beneath her shoulder as she absorbed the fall's momentum seamlessly into her own movement.
The impact didn't stop her.
She flowed with it.
Her body rotated slightly as she descended, knees bending upon landing to disperse the force. The ground met her with a soft, controlled thud, her feet stabilizing instantly as she carried Leah's weight without strain.
No stumble.
No delay.
She kept moving.
A few steps forward;
Light.
Measured.
Then she turned.
A nearby tree emerged through the mist; its surface rough, solid, real.
She guided Leah toward it.
Carefully.
Lowering her.
Not dropping.
Not careless.
Leah's back met the trunk first, her upper body supported as the horned girl adjusted her grip, easing her down until she rested there, seated but held upright by the tree.
Her head tilted slightly to the side, hair falling across her face, her chest rising faintly;
Alive.
But barely present.
The horned girl released her slowly.
Stepping back half a pace, her eyes scanning Leah's still form with quiet interest, her expression unchanged; calm, almost amused, as if observing something rare.
Behind them, the last echoes of that lightning faded into silence.