They kept running—through the rain, through the pitch-black night. Their breaths were ragged, feet splashing through puddles. But their pace came to a screeching halt—because from above, something landed in front of them with a heavy THUMP!
"—Where do you think you're going~?"
The voice rang out, shrill and manic. Hiori and Yhera looked up… and froze.
The figure standing before them… was the tavern waitress. But now her eyes glowed a faint red, and her wide grin twisted into something wholly inhuman.
"Miss waitress!? What's the meaning of this!?" Hiori shouted, eyes narrowed with caution.
"Oh~ I've been dying to take off this mask…" Her voice dropped into something guttural. Her right hand split open, flesh tearing apart to reveal a twisted purple-black claw, with bulging veins like roots from the depths of hell.
"D-Deus Carnis… accept my offering…" she murmured fanatically. "Your necks… will be prayers strung together for the God of Flesh!"
"Wait—you're one of the cultists too!?" Yhera stepped back.
Hiori unsheathed her sword in a swift motion, faint red fire flickering along its blade. "I've had enough of your madness. If this is what you want…"
The waitress slashed her claw through the air, creating a force so sharp it made Yhera's hair whip back from the pressure.
"Watch out, Yhera! She's not human anymore!"
"Tch, I figured!" Yhera formed a magic circle in her hand, ready to cast Barrier Pulse at a moment's notice.
The waitress giggled.
"Your blood will awaken the Eternal Flesh…"
FWUSH!
She lunged! Unnaturally fast—like a shadow striking—Hiori blocked the attack with a cross-slash, CLANK!, sparks and energy erupting into the night sky.
"Yhera! Go left and clear a path! I'll hold her off!"
"Don't you dare die, Hiori!" Yhera shouted, circling around.
Hiori hissed, eyes burning. "I'm not that easy to kill…"
The waitress grinned, tongue snaking out grotesquely.
"You think a sword and some guts will save you from flesh's judgment? Tonight… your bones will become one with the sacred altar!"
"If that's the case, then try me… You won't succeed," said Hiori coldly, her gaze sharp as a blade as it locked onto the woman.
The maid grinned wide, her teeth now resembling fangs, clenching with madness. "Hehehe… Here it comes!"
SWOOSH!
With vicious, fluid movements, her transformed right hand—now a veiny, fleshy claw—lashed out toward Hiori. In an instant, she launched a flurry of slashes, each one a blur of speed and brutality—like a shadow dancing in the rain.
CLANG! CLANG! SCRATCH!
Hiori parried with her sword, but every strike came with tremendous force, and each graze from the claw left scorched trails on the ground and air—as if cursed energy clung to every swing.
"Hah… You're fast," Hiori hissed, sliding back a few paces.
"Of course~ I am Uluccia, left hand of the Flesh Priest! And you… are tonight's feast!"
The maid leapt to the side wall, sprinting horizontally before rebounding like a feral beast, launching herself again—WHOOSH!
But Hiori dodged to the side and planted her feet firmly.
"Ignis Cross!"
Her blade ignited, forming a blazing crimson X that slashed through the air and struck Uluccia squarely on her left side.
BOOM!
The explosion sent Uluccia crashing into a pile of wooden barrels beside a villager's house. Smoke and embers flew into the air.
"Aaaaarghhh!!!" she screamed, her body smoldering and her right arm melting like seared meat.
But from the charred flesh, fresh tendrils of meat began to sprout, regenerating her limb in a grotesque display of living flesh reforming itself.
"Kuhahaha! That little wound means nothing to me!" she cackled, blood dripping from her eyes, yet the deranged smile never left her face.
Hiori narrowed her eyes and exhaled sharply. "Whatever you are… I'll make sure no more lives are taken by your damned cult."
With a vicious grin and eyes glinting like a beast catching the scent of fresh blood, Uluccia bared her teeth at Hiori.
"Such magnificent ambition!" she screamed, just as her fleshy claw began to pulse and unfold like charred, burning petals—then hardened, reshaping itself into a brutal blade, jagged and crude, forged from a fusion of bone and blackened metal.
CRACK! SCHLIK!
Her right arm had become a pulsating sword, thumping like a living heart. Dark energy swirled around it, making the air grow thick and sharp, stinging against the skin like invisible needles.
"I'm going to enjoy this... Hiori Ashley Mahardika!" she declared with twisted delight. Every word dripped with the cadence of a curse.
Hiori stood her ground, breathing heavily, her eyes locked onto her foe. She gripped her sword tightly as a faint aura began to flicker around her—her Essence Core trembling, unstable from overuse.
"You know my name… but there's one thing you don't know."
Uluccia tilted her head, curious. "And what's that?"
"I never fight to lose."
ZRAAK!
Uluccia lunged forward at blinding speed. Her blade raked across the ground, tearing up stone and earth, each missed swing carving blood-like trails into the soil. Their battle became a maelstrom of flesh and flame—the world narrowing to two figures locked in a deadly dance.
Hiori kicked back and launched herself into the air.
"Flare Collapse!"
She drove her sword into the ground, sending a shockwave of fire erupting from the impact point. The explosion surged outward, engulfing Uluccia and tearing apart part of a nearby building. Flames licked the crimson sky, set aglow by the blood-red moon.
But from within the smoke and fire...
TAP... TAP...
Uluccia stepped forward, half her face peeled away down to bone—yet her twisted smile remained.
"More! More wounds! More blood!" she shrieked like a possessed soul.
Hiori narrowed her eyes, jaw clenched. "This is going to be harder than I thought…"
"AAAAHH!!"
Uluccia lunged again, her body now writhing like a monstrous maggot, flesh shifting shape at terrifying speed—her arms transformed into sharp fleshy whips, lashing out at Hiori from every direction.
SWUSH! CRASH!
One whip smashed through a nearby wooden pillar, sending splinters flying. Hiori jumped back, kicked off the wall, and launched herself forward mid-air with a shout:
"Blazing Fang: Second Arc!"
Her sword ignited and spun like a wheel of fire, slicing through the air in a fiery crescent. Uluccia tried to dodge, but the edge of the flame grazed her, peeling flesh from her side like raw meat grated against metal. Yet instead of crying out in pain, she burst into delighted laughter.
"HAHAHA!! YOU MADE IT FEEL REAL!" Uluccia roared.
Her own blood dripped onto the ground… only to flow back into her body, as accelerated regeneration fueled by the dark flesh-worshipping magic of the Deus Carnis cult stitched her back together grotesquely.
Behind the rubble, Yhera watched, panting.
"Hiori needs help…" she thought. Gripping the pendant around her neck, she whispered a spell in an ancient tongue.
"Sanctum Lux."
A silver-white aura enveloped her body, and she leapt into the fray just as Uluccia's whip came lashing at Hiori's back.
CRAACK!
A radiant barrier burst into existence, halting the attack mid-swing.
"Yhera?!" Hiori shouted.
"Did you think I'd let you fight alone?" Yhera said firmly, her face no longer afraid—her violet eyes now glowing with resolve.
Uluccia snarled. "You think two of you can stop me?! I WAS CHOSEN BY THE FLESH! I AM THE BEARER OF OFFERINGS!"
Her body began to mutate again, swelling and elongating. Bone-wings erupted from her back, and a third mouth formed on her stomach—laughing with insane glee.
"It's time for Ascension!"
Hiori and Yhera stepped into battle formation.
Hiori lowered her stance, igniting her sword once more with crimson fire.
Yhera summoned two magic circles—one in each hand: one for defense, one for destruction.
"Yhera."
"Yeah?"
"If we fail… this village becomes a blood-soaked altar."
Yhera gave a confident smile.
"Then let's make sure nothing is left of that altar when we're done."