Ah, me and my big fucking mouth.
The altar rose silently from the center of the ring, trailing luminous blue tendrils that curled through the air like smoke. The Monster had gone still, its crystalline body refracting light in hypnotic patterns as it watched us. Waiting.
"What's happening?" Eliza hissed, her obsidian energy pulsing erratically around her wounded shoulder.
The choral music that had been haunting the edges of my perception suddenly swelled, no longer distant but immediate—surrounding us, penetrating us. It wasn't music anymore. It was a siren call, voices layering over each other in impossible harmonies that somehow felt both beautiful and profoundly wrong.
"Do you hear that?" I asked, my voice sounding far away even to myself.
Eliza didn't answer. Her golden eyes had gone wide, pupils dilating as she stared at the rising altar. The dark energy around her hands flickered and died.
"Eliza?" I reached for her arm but she stepped away, moving toward the altar. "Hey! Snap out of it!"
The song grew louder, more insistent. Each note vibrated through my bones, pulling at something deep inside me. My vision blurred at the edges, the chamber dissolving into swirls of light and crystal. I felt my body swaying, my consciousness slipping away like water through cupped hands.
Mom needs those treatments.
The thought cut through the fog. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, the sharp pain anchoring me back to reality. The taste of copper flooded my mouth as I staggered, fighting to stay upright.
"We need to get out—" I began, then froze.
Eliza was walking toward the edge of the barrier—not toward the altar but away from it, as if pulled by an invisible force. Beyond the barrier, the drop-off was steep, disappearing into darkness.
"Eliza, stop!" I lunged forward, grabbing for her arm. My fingers just brushed her jacket as she stepped through the barrier, which rippled around her like water.
The Monster didn't move to attack. It simply watched, crystal threads undulating in what might have been anticipation.
Eliza took another step toward the edge. The choral music crested, and I saw her foot lift, hovering over empty space.
"No!"
I threw myself forward, crashing through the barrier. The world tilted as I slid across the crystal floor, one hand outstretched. My fingers caught the hem of her jacket, then slipped. In desperation, I kicked hard against the floor, propelling myself the last few inches.
My arms wrapped around her waist just as she tipped forward. For one heart-stopping moment we hung there, balanced on the precipice, before I wrenched us both backward. We collapsed in a tangle of limbs, skidding across the smooth floor.
"Eliza!" I shook her shoulders. Her eyes were open but vacant, staring past me at something I couldn't see. Her body was limp, unresponsive. "Come on, wake up!"
The music shifted, taking on a plaintive quality that tugged at my chest. I bit my cheek again, harder this time, using the pain to focus.
"Not today," I muttered, hauling Eliza's unconscious form back toward the barrier. The Monster still hadn't moved, but I could feel its attention on us like a physical weight. "Just hang in there, princess. We're getting out of this."
My vision swam as I dragged her through the barrier, back into the circle. The moment we crossed the threshold, the music hit me twice as hard. I stumbled, nearly dropping her.
The altar had fully emerged now, revealing itself as a crystalline pedestal topped with what looked like a basin of the same liquid crystal we'd seen in the larger chamber. The substance churned and flowed, forming shapes that dissolved the moment I tried to focus on them.
"Fuck this place," I growled, fighting to stay conscious. "Fuck this gate. And especially fuck Scarface for getting us into this mess."
I eased Eliza down against the base of the altar, positioning myself between her and whatever might come. My cards were practically useless now—I had enough Essentia left for maybe one more charge, and it wouldn't be a strong one.
The music changed again, becoming a single pure note that pierced through my skull. The liquid crystal in the basin began to rise, forming a column that stretched toward the ceiling.
I pressed my palm against my pocket, feeling the reassuring weight of my mother's pendant. "If you're out there watching," I whispered, "now would be a great time for a miracle."
As if in answer, the column of crystal began to take shape, forming a humanoid figure. It was feminine in form, with long, flowing limbs and an elongated face. But where there should have been features, there was only smooth crystal, reflecting back distorted versions of my own terrified expression.
The figure stepped out of the basin. It towered over me, easily twice my height, radiating a cold light that cast everything in harsh relief.
I tried to stand, to put more distance between this entity and Eliza, but my legs refused to cooperate.
"Stay back," I warned, though my voice was barely more than a whisper. "I'm not in the mood for whatever cosmic bullshit you're selling."
The figure tilted its head, regarding me with faceless curiosity. Then it spoke—not with sound, but directly into my mind, bypassing my ears entirely.
INTERESTING.
The word wasn't in any language I knew, yet I understood it perfectly. It carried with it impressions—curiosity, amusement, something like hunger.
"Yeah, that's me. Fascinating specimen." I forced myself to my knees, placing one hand on the floor to steady myself. With the other, I pulled a card from my pocket. "Mind letting us go now? We've got places to be."
YOU RESIST.
The figure drifted closer, crystal limbs moving with impossible grace. It circled me once, twice, examining me from all angles.
MOST DO NOT.
"I'm not most people." I tried to inject confidence into my voice, but it came out strained. My vision was darkening at the edges, the chamber seeming to pulse in time with the song. "I've got a someone waiting for me."
The figure paused, looming over me.
ATTACHMENTS. WEAKNESSES. YET THEY GIVE YOU STRENGTH.
It extended a long, crystalline finger toward my face. I tried to pull away, but my body refused to respond. The finger stopped just short of touching me, hovering in front of my eyes.
SHOW ME.
Images flashed through my mind—my mother in her hospital bed, pale and thin; the outskirts where I grew up; the counterfeit hunter's license I'd worked so hard to obtain; the faces of those who had helped or hindered me. Each memory was pulled from me without effort, examined, and discarded.
"Stop," I gasped. "Get out of my head!"
POTENTIAL. UNFULFILLED.
The figure withdrew its finger, then placed both hands on either side of my head, not quite touching. The crystal of its palms emitted a soft glow that pulsed in counterpoint to the song.
YOU WILL SERVE.
"I serve no one," I spat, summoning the last of my strength to charge the card in my hand. It glowed feebly, the orange-magenta energy barely visible. "Especially not some crystal freak show."
The figure's head tilted again, this time in what might have been amusement.
WE SHALL SEE.
It moved with sudden speed, one hand tapping my forehead while the other pressed against my chest, directly over my heart. The touch was cold, so cold it burned.
Energy surged through me—not mine, but something ancient and vast. My Essentia flared in response, trying to reject the foreign power, but it was like a candle fighting against a flood. The card in my hand exploded, sending shards flying in all directions.
My back arched, muscles seizing as the energy coursed through my veins. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. The world contracted to a single point of crystalline light, then expanded outward in a kaleidoscope of impossible colors.
Through it all, the figure watched, impassive.
SLEEP NOW. DREAM LATER.
The last thing I saw before consciousness fled was Eliza's face, still slack in her enchanted sleep. I reached for her, fingers brushing against her arm.
Sorry, princess. Looks like we're both screwed.
Then darkness claimed me, and I fell into a sleep deeper than any I'd known before.
In my dreams, I heard the Choir sing.
***
A few hours later I woke to silence.
No, not silence—the absence of that terrible song. The soft hiss of my own breathing seemed deafening in comparison, each exhale stirring motes of crystalline dust that danced in the dim light.
My head pounded with the mother of all migraines, and my limbs felt leaden. I tried to move, managed to roll onto my side, and immediately regretted it as nausea surged through me.
"Fuck," I croaked, my voice cracking.
Memory returned in fragments—the Monster, the altar, the crystal goddess. Eliza almost falling to her death. The invasion of my mind.
Eliza.
I forced my eyes open wider, scanning the chamber. She lay a few feet away, still unconscious but breathing steadily. Her wounded shoulder had stopped bleeding, the torn fabric crusted with dried blood.
The altar was gone. In its place was a circular depression in the floor, as if it had never existed at all. The barrier that had trapped us was gone too, and with it, the Monster.
We were alone in the chamber.
I dragged myself to my knees, then to my feet, swaying dangerously before finding my balance. Every muscle ached, and my Essentia channels felt raw, as if they'd been scoured clean.
"Eliza," I called, stumbling toward her. "Wake up. We need to move."
She didn't stir. I knelt beside her, checking her pulse—strong and steady. Whatever that thing had done to us, it hadn't killed us. Yet.
I slipped my arms under her shoulders and knees, gathering her against my chest. She was heavier than she looked, all lean muscle beneath her combat gear. My legs trembled while carrying her, but I managed it.
"Don't worry," I murmured, though she couldn't hear me. "I'm not leaving you here."
I turned in a slow circle, trying to get my bearings. The chamber had three exits, including the one we'd entered through. One led back toward the heart of the cathedral, where we'd encountered the Monster. Another sloped upward, potentially toward the surface.
The choice seemed obvious.
I staggered toward the upward passage, Eliza's head lolling against my shoulder. Each step was agony, but I kept moving, driven by a stubborn refusal to die in this place.
"My mother's going to kill me if I don't make it back," I told Eliza's unconscious form. "She's got this thing about me staying alive. Pretty unreasonable, right?"
Talking helped. It kept me focused, pushing back the creeping edges of exhaustion and fear.
"Plus, I've still got to prove my brother wrong. Can't become a top-tier hunter if I die as a D-rank nobody in some forgotten gate. That'd just be embarrassing."
The passage narrowed, forcing me to turn sideways to navigate while still carrying Eliza. Her breathing remained steady, but her eyes darted rapidly beneath closed lids. Whatever she was experiencing in her mind, it wasn't peaceful.
"Hang in there, princess," I said, adjusting my grip.
The slope grew steeper, my legs burning with the effort. Sweat dripped into my eyes, and my arms trembled. But I kept climbing, one painful step after another.
"When we get out of here," I continued, my voice growing hoarse, "I'm going to cash in those crystals Beard collected. Get my mom the treatment she needs. Maybe even apply to an academy. Wouldn't that be something? Me, in a fancy hunter school."
I laughed, the sound echoing hollowly in the narrow passage.
"They'd probably kick me out the first day. Or I'd get bored and leave. But it'd be worth it just to try."
The passage curved, and suddenly there was light ahead—not the eerie blue glow of the cathedral crystals, but something warmer, more natural. Sunlight.
"Look at that," I whispered, a surge of desperate hope giving me renewed strength. "We might actually make it out of this shitshow alive."
I quickened my pace, ignoring the protests of my exhausted body. The exit was close now, a small opening in the crystalline wall that led out to what looked like the cathedral ruins we'd first entered.
"Almost there, Eliza. Just hold on."
As I approached the opening, a familiar sound reached my ears—the soft slithering of crystal threads across stone. I froze, heart hammering in my chest.
The Monster stood just outside the exit, its towering form silhouetted against the crimson sky.
It was waiting for us.