Nyxia's vision didn't fade so much as tear apart. One heartbeat she saw the massive dryad looming over her, its many mouths whispering something low and hungry, vines already reaching as if they remembered her shape. The next, she plunged into black. Wet. Crushing. Suffocating. Her scream never found an echo, it was swallowed whole. She fought to move, but her limbs dragged like they were buried in roots, ribs aching under the pressure. In the dark, something pulsed with her, a heartbeat too slow and too old to belong to anything human, and it made her skin crawl as if the world itself were breathing her in.
She drifted, or sank, time losing all meaning until it unraveled into threads. Breath came thin. Thought frayed. Then a voice slid through the dark, velvet and venom together. "You should've let me break you gently." Nyxia twisted toward it, but the vines moved with her, almost tender. One curled around her thigh, another traced along her ribs, knowing her too well. Acid burned where they touched. Her breath hitched, half pain, half fury, and she bared her teeth into the dark like an animal that refused to be quiet.
The blackness peeled open like rotted bark, and Ves'Sariel stepped through. Beautiful in a way that hurt to look at, sharp and ruined all at once, hair like inky rivers, eyes cracked with voidlight, her smile too intimate, too close. "I begged you not to leave," she whispered, fingers stroking the vines that held Nyxia upright. "And now look at you." Nyxia spat something bitter, voice shaking with exhaustion and defiance. Ves only came closer, her touch soft on Nyxia's jaw, breath warm against her cheek. "You didn't lose me," she murmured. "You let me starve." Nyxia swallowed and said it, quiet and iron. "You infected me." For a heartbeat Ves's mask broke, pain flashing raw across her face, then the vines clenched until Nyxia nearly choked. "You loved me," Ves breathed. Nyxia's answer cut just as soft. "I mourned who you used to be." The vines loosened. She dropped hard to her knees, palms scraping stone. Ves stepped back, something unreadable in her eyes. "You'll stay until you remember," she said, and walked away as the door sealed, leaving Nyxia trembling, breathless, but still alive.
Outside, the forest shuddered. Perseus never felt the ground when the blow came. One moment light blazed along his hammer, the next he was thrown through stone and dark. He woke choking on swamp water, armor dragging him down as panic burned through his chest. He kicked up and broke the surface, gasping, eyes wild. No Nyxia.No monster. Only fog and silence. Then a low snarl cut through it, and Loque staggered into view, limping, flickering, sap-dark blood streaking his spectral fur. Their eyes met, and Perseus didn't need words to hear the question. "We'll find her," he whispered, voice breaking. Loque turned, tracking, and Perseus followed, heart hammering as they burst into a clearing smeared with scorched dirt and shimmering purple blood. Void-touched. Perseus lifted his hammer, resolve hardening. "Ves took her. Then we tear down everything between us and her."
Inside the temple's heart, Nyxia dragged herself upright, ribs screaming, skin burning where the vines had held her too close. The walls pulsed with a sick, living rhythm. She touched the doorway and it opened like something exhaling, but she barely took two steps before the vines surged again, catching her ankle, her wrists, hauling her back. She snarled and fought, but they wrapped with liquid strength, pinning her, coiling along her thighs, crushing her chest until air came in ragged pulls. From the shadows Ves'Sariel stepped out once more, voice soft and cruel. "You think you stopped wanting me." Nyxia answered with a hissed curse, and Ves's smile flickered cold. Then the world shook. A crack split the far wall and holy light poured through, blinding and furious. The vines recoiled. Loque burst in like a star made of claws, and behind him Perseus stormed through the breach, shield raised, eyes burning when he saw her bound. "Get her down!" Loque tore through the vines in savage silence, and Perseus hurled a hammer of golden light that shattered stone above Ves, driving her back into the dark with a hiss. The vines convulsed as they died, crushing Nyxia in their last fury until she screamed and felt her ribs give. Then Loque ripped the final bindings apart and she fell, straight into Perseus's arms. His breath hitched as he caught her, her body trembling violently against him, blood streaking her lips. Ves'Sariel vanished into shadow with a whisper that sounded too much like heartbreak. Nyxia didn't look away from Perseus, not even as the temple trembled, not even as her eyes fluttered and the world dimmed, because his arms were real, and for now, that was enough..