As Nyxia's vision faded, the last thing she saw was the monstrous dryad looming above her—its many mouths chanting in unison as vines wrapped around her limbs…And then—darkness.
Darkness didn't come all at once—it ripped into her.
One blink and the world was gone. No sky. No ground. Just pressure. Wet. Crushing.
Nyxia's scream was swallowed by it, her thoughts flickering like embers in a storm. Her limbs refused to move. Her knife—gone. Her breath—ragged.
She floated.
Or was she sinking?
Then—
A heartbeat. Not hers. Slow. Rhythmic. All around her.
The sound of something ancient… waiting.
And a voice.
Familiar. Velvet-wrapped in venom.
"You should've let me break you gently."
Nyxia stirred.
The vines moved with her—like a lover roused from sleep.
One traced the curve of her thigh. Another tightened slowly around her hips. One slid up her ribs, cupping her breast through ruined armor.
The acid left trails of stinging heat. Her skin was raw, slick, trembling with breath.
"You greet old friends like this now?" she snarled. "Stripped and suspended in a rotting temple?"
A figure emerged from the wall of fungus.
Ves'Sariel.
Her beauty was twisted, radiant in a haunting way—half-night elf, half-something else. Her hair spilled in inky tendrils. Her amethyst eyes cracked with power. Her once-kind smile had been twisted into something cruelly intimate.
"I gave you a place beside me," she murmured, dragging a hand along the vines. They responded, coiling around Nyxia's body—tightening at her ribs, under her jaw, across her legs.
"I begged you not to leave. And now look at you…" Her voice dropped. "Hunted."
"You don't get to rewrite what we were," Nyxia spat.
The vines tugged her head back—lifting her chin, exposing her throat.
Her voice didn't falter.
Ves'Sariel leaned in, her shadow draping over Nyxia's restrained form.
"I whispered truths while you slept in my arms," she said. "I gave you secrets not even the Old Ones were trusted with. And you ran."
Nyxia met her gaze, voice like iron.
"You didn't give me anything. You infected me."
Ves'Sariel's smile faltered.
The vines clenched—one coiling between Nyxia's legs, dangerously close. Acid hissed on skin.
"Say it again," Ves'Sariel whispered, shaking now.
Nyxia's breath trembled, but her words didn't.
"You. Infected. Me."
Silence.
Ves'Sariel's mask cracked.
Pain—real pain—flickered in her eyes."You loved me," she said.
Nyxia's reply was quiet, but cut like steel."I mourned who you used to be. Before you let the Void carve its name into your bones."
The vines released her.
Nyxia collapsed forward, barely catching herself.
The bindings slithered away like reluctant hands.
Ves'Sariel stood over her, unreadable."You'll stay here," she said, voice flat. "Until you remember what it felt like to be chosen."
Then she turned and walked away—bare feet silent on fungus-slick stone.
The door sealed behind her.
And Nyxia, trembling and breathless, was left alone.
Not whole.
But alive.
Outside the Temple
The blow hit like a thunderclap.
Perseus never felt the ground.
One heartbeat he was mid-swing—holy light screaming from his blade—and the next, he was airborne. Crashing through shattered stone and into shadow.
Then—silence.
When Perseus awoke, the creature was gone. So was she.
Cold water swallowed him whole. His armor dragged him down, bubbles fleeing his lips as he sank into blackness.
Nyxia...
He clawed upward, lungs burning, pain blooming in his ribs where the creature's limb had struck. When he finally broke the surface, gasping, he was alone.
No monster. No vines. No Nyxia.
Just stillness.
And fog.
He staggered to the bank, mud clinging to his legs, water trailing from cracked armor.
"Nyxia!" he shouted, voice hoarse.
Only the wind answered.
Then came a low snarl.
Loque'nahak emerged from the mist, limping—his form flickering, blood-dark sap trailing his spectral frame. He was wounded… but standing.
His eyes found Perseus. And then—he growled.
Not in confusion.
But fury.
The beast turned and began to pace, circling, sniffing the air with violent urgency.
Perseus's heart slammed against his chest as he rose to his feet.
"She was just here…" he whispered.
The forest beyond the temple was deathly still.
Fog clung low over twisted ground, swallowing moonlight. Even the trees held their breath. Somewhere beyond the mist… Nyxia had vanished.
Perseus slid down a slick slope, rot and muck clinging to his boots.
"Nyxia!"
No answer. Just the wind, whispering through bone-thin branches.
Behind him, Loque'nahak snarled—a low, guttural sound that made the earth hum.
The spirit beast prowled restlessly, ears twitching, spectral claws scoring gouges into blackened roots. His glowing eyes swept the fog, tail lashing in frustration.
"She was right there," Perseus muttered, breathless. "No scream. No trail. Nothing."
Loque suddenly jerked forward, muzzle to the earth, nostrils flaring. He growled—sharper this time—and bolted into the brush.
"Loque!"
Perseus didn't hesitate. He followed, pushing through the corrupted undergrowth, armored limbs crashing through tangled limbs and vine.
It wasn't just pursuit—it was panic.
They burst into a clearing. Loque huffed, low and vibrating with tension.
"You smell her," Perseus guessed, dropping to a knee. "Is she alive?"
A soft, answering growl.
Then Loque's eyes flicked sideways. Wary. Focused.
Perseus followed his gaze.
A patch of scorched dirt.
A smear of shimmering purple blood.
"Void magic," Perseus whispered, reaching toward it. A shiver crawled up his spine. "It's her. Ves'Sariel took her."
Loque's fur bristled. He reared, howling in fury—the kind of sound that made the forest wither.
Perseus rose, hammer clutched tight.
"Then we go," he said. "You and I. We tear down everything she's placed between us and Nyxia."
Their eyes met—warrior to spirit.
Loque dipped his head.
The vow was silent, but absolute.
Back inside the Temple
The chamber pulsed like a living wound.
Nyxia staggered to her feet, blood drying in streaks along her arms, her armor barely clinging to her after the last wave of acidic sap.
The walls—once cold stone—had grown veins. Pulsing. Wet. Flexing like they breathed.
She pressed a hand to one of the twisted, vine-coated doorways.
It hissed open with a reluctant groan.
Her legs were heavy. Skin scorched. Muscles stiff.
But the defiance in her chest burned brighter.
Loque… Perseus… I'm coming.
She took a step forward—
The vines moved.
They surged from the ceiling in a hiss of damp heat, writhing like serpents awakened by her heartbeat. One coiled around her ankle before she could run. Another wrapped her wrist.
She thrashed, snarling—but more followed. They tangled around her legs, yanked her arms wide, and dragged her backward toward the heart of the room.
"No! No, no—!"
Nyxia twisted violently, but the vines reacted like liquid muscle. One slithered across her lower back, wrapping tight around her hips, her chest, her thighs.
She gasped—not just from pain, but from the wrongness of it. The way the vines lingered, memorizing the shape of her.
Her breathing turned ragged. She screamed—frustration, shame—as one vine slid up her spine, another brushing her collarbone.
Slow. Invasive.
From the shadows, Ves'Sariel stepped into view.
"You're still fighting me," she purred. "Even after all this time… your body remembers what your mind fears."
"Let me go, Ves," Nyxia growled, baring her teeth.
Ves'Sariel tilted her head."You left me starving. Do you know what that does to someone who has tasted your soul?"
The vines tightened in response to her voice—kneading Nyxia's limbs, holding her upright. One crept beneath what little armor remained, sliding around her inner thigh. Another traced the small of her back, almost… possessive.
"I should hollow you out," Ves'Sariel whispered, pressing her forehead against Nyxia's."I should make you mine again."
Nyxia snarled—and slammed her head forward.
Blood sprayed—her own—from the sheer force of it. But Ves'Sariel stumbled back, laughing. Her eyes were wild with pain and pleasure.
"Still fierce. Good."
That's when thunder cracked through the temple.
Light—blinding, holy, furious—poured through a shattered corridor.
The vines recoiled. Some shriveled at the touch of its radiance.
A massive shape tore through the breach, silver and blue, spectral light pulsing with fury.
Loque'nahak.
Behind him, shield raised and blade drawn, stood Perseus.
His face paled at the sight of Nyxia bound and suspended—but his eyes… blazed with wrath.
"Get her down!" he roared.
Loque charged.
The vines lashed at him, but they burst into blackened ash beneath his claws. Perseus hurled a hammer of holy light that shattered the ceiling above Ves'Sariel, forcing her to retreat.
Nyxia screamed as the vines convulsed—tightening in rage, nearly crushing her ribs—
Loque leapt.
His claws tore through the thick mass of tendrils at her back, and Nyxia fell—
Right into Perseus's arms.
Her breath was shallow. Her body limp. Blood painted her lips.
Ves'Sariel vanished into the shadows with a whisper of silk and spite.