Chapter 24: Friends

Chapter 24:
Friends

 

NEKT USED THE RED FIBERS of her body to spear the babies surrounding her and pump them full of her power of Connection.

Mother could have sworn he heard the brat’s voice as the bloated babies floated into the air and shot like cannonballs toward his giant face.

“Why, why would you throw your kin away like this?! Why do you refuse to accept my love?!” Mother’s voice bordered on hysterical as he used his tendrils to smack the incoming babies away. Each one disappeared in a bright red mist of blood and limbs as Mother mercilessly shredded his own creations.

Yet more came hurtling from another direction; Nekt was now using her power to teleport them in from farther away. The attack just wasn’t good enough to penetrate Mother’s defenses, so she tried something new: Rotation. The floating babies began to spin like large tops before they twisted and contorted into spear-like shapes that were promptly launched at Mother.

“Aaaugh! Now you’re really making me angry! Who the hell do you think you are, you little reject?!” Mother tried to repeat the same blocking maneuver, only to find it useless against the new attack.

The meaty arrows tore straight through the tendrils and bore down on Mother, finding their mark in his eye, which exploded in a wet squelching noise and a shower of yellow, sticky liquid that rained down on everything below.

“Ow, ow…gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh! It hurts! It hurts, you little brat!!!”

The tendrils thrashed wildly in irritation. Nekt had gotten her strings into the new batch of babies he’d just given birth to, making them her weapons, too.

“And you think of yourself as my child?! You worthless pond scum, look what you did to me after how much I cared for you!! Not that I won’t still treat you as my oooooooooown!”

Nekt paid Mother’s tantrum little heed.

“Just give up, Nekt. You were one of my experiments; you should be ready to lay your life down for me. I’m the only one who can give your life any value! You should devote yourself solely to me! You understand, don’t you??”

The next tendril Mother launched came in fast, spinning like a bullet as it moved. The Rotation powers of the fourth-generation children were leaps and bounds more powerful than the ability lurking in Luke’s core.

“I’ll enjoy listening to you plead for forgiveness as you spend eternity drowning in a sea of blood! That’ll teach you to turn your back on your parents, Nekt!!”

Nekt knew that she could escape the attack if she separated her body out into its constituent parts. She quickly shot her threads out and impaled the nearby babies. For a moment, it looked like she might repeat her last attack, but she poured a different ability into them this time: Sympathy.

The Sympathized babies gathered around a tendril embedded in the ground and began to climb it.

“Ah! Yes, my adorable little darlings! I was waiting for this moment, so I could fawn over you and show you how much I loved you. Alas…alas… If you don’t like being in that world, then get back there and let that miserable failure truly appreciate your hatred!”

Mother tried to knock them away, to little effect. What’s more, the energy pumped into the climbers was about to reach its peak.

Distortion.

BAFWOOM!

They all exploded in unison as the Air Distortion Bomb went off.

The range of the attack was minimal at best, but the distortion field took any matter that happened to find itself inside it and twisted space and time to utterly wipe it from existence.

“…Why?” Mother was so angry at this point that he’d abandoned the maternal routine, wailing in a deep, booming voice. “Why? Why? Why, why, why?! Why, dammit, why???”

Obviously, all his anger was directed at one person.

Nekt let the fibers flow out from her body to form a large, red sphere that floated in the air above her.

“You miserable little failure…no matter how many cores you use, you still won’t be able to defeat me in my perfect form. Why is such a rude and impertinent little wretch like yourself even allowed to live in the same world as me? It’s ludicrous!” Mother regained his composure, mustering a forest of tendrils from the walls surrounding his face.

The tendrils spat out more children. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh echoed throughout the capital. Nekt merely stood by and waited patiently.

She’d held her ground against Mother when he was only wielding one tendril. Obviously, there wasn’t a rock-hard correlation between the number of tentacles and her power, but it was clear that the more of them Mother had at hand, the worse Nekt’s chances became.

“I just don’t get it, I really don’t! This is why parents need to punish their children!!”

Fwoooooooosh!

Spinning tendrils rained down on Nekt. She let her body fall apart once again, but before she could pull herself back together with the interconnected fibers, she found that the powerful whirlwind was fighting to keep her apart. The strings tangled and tore, blood spraying everywhere.

“I’m not done yeeeeet!”

KWABOOM!

The tendrils grew in number until they resembled a massive pillar, before slamming into the ground and shredding Nekt’s body.

“Fooooound iiiiiiit!”

Mother discovered the four cores wrapped tightly in Nekt’s fibers. He mercilessly smashed them to the ground and rained piercing blows on them. As the vital cores took more and more damage, the discarded fibers began to come together, intertwine, and change shape until they once again resembled a human.

“Oh, Nekt. You know, I always thought about making you one of my own. Yes, you’re a failure, but I figured that if I could just rebirth you, maybe then I could love you. But…well, now that it’s come to this, I’m just so sad. You know, from the bottom of my heart… Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Massive tears dripped from Mother’s eyes, looking for all the world like tears of sadness.

Nekt used the last of her power to move the loose fibers of her muscles and spear more of the babies.

Even though she couldn’t work up enough strength to speak aloud, she somehow knew that her feelings were getting through to Mother.

“You…are…an absolutely…disgusting…abomination!”

“Huh?”

“That’s…not love. None of it. Your stupid game of playing at being a mother… it’s nothing but an annoyance. Just leave us out of your sick desire to play with people like they’re living dolls.”

It almost looked to Mother as if Nekt were smiling, even though she had no mouth.

“Hahahaha… gyahahahaha… Aaaahahahaha!! Just up and die already!!”

THWUMP!

The massive tendril stabbed through Nekt. She was only as tall as a large human, making the size differential between the two truly enormous.

THWUMP!

The next blow practically smashed her body to pulp.

THWUMP! THWUMP! THWUUUMP!

Nekt was little more than a blob, no longer recognizable from the creature she’d been moments before. Yet the muscle fibers continued to twitch as the four cores took over.

“Haah…haah…you got what you had coming, kid. In fact, I think I may have even gone easy on you. Ha…hahahaha! I wouldn’t even mind if you’re still alive. Then I can give you the agonizing punishment that you deserve.”

With Nekt out of the fight, Mother finally turned his attention elsewhere.

“Hurry up, Cyrill! Mother’s noticed us!”

“I know! It’s just…the shell, it’s too strong to break through!”

Maria and Cyrill were trying to hack into the cocoon where Flum was locked away.

“She’s beyond help, I’ll have you know.”

Mother finally realized what Nekt had been doing. She’d known all along that she could never win with the difference in their power, but she’d still used her four cores to bring the battle to Mother. She never planned on winning—only to buy time for her friends.

“Heh, and you couldn’t even pull off a trivial task like that. You’re a failure, from start to finish. A disaster. Useless. The only value your life ever had came from me.”

The tendrils turned toward Maria and Cyrill.

“Cyrill, can you use Brave yet?”

“N-no, I’m sorry.”

The nightmare world surrounding them was probably a familiar sight to Flum by now. Even Maria wasn’t terribly surprised by what she was seeing. Cyrill, however, was approaching her limit.

Maria had little faith in her at the moment. Though it might have done some good for Cyrill to have Flum close by, she was in no emotional state to properly execute Brave.

“All right then, I guess it’s up to me to buy some more time. You keep working on getting Flum out!”

Maria stood up and turned to face the oncoming tendrils. Though human in form, she possessed an Origin core that continued to war with her body. None of that changed the fact that she stood no chance against Mother, though she at least knew that she could resist Origin’s spiral energy better than Cyrill.

There’s no way that Mother will let this cocoon become damaged, which can only mean that these tendrils are merely a threat.

THWUMP! The tendrils speared straight to the ground right to her side. The ground beneath her feet shook from the blow.

After the initial shock, then he’ll send in the babies and… No, that’s not right. He’s too far for that. Which could only mean that I’m the target!

The surface of the massive tentacle began to split, making way for countless tendrils beneath to shoot out.

“Judgment Spiral Rain!!”

With a wave of her right hand, Maria summoned a shower of whirling blades.

Every tendril that tried to close in on Cyrill was cut down, but she could never conjure enough blades to counter the volume of attacks bearing down on herself.

“My, my, you’re a clever one. I take it you’ve been completely abandoned now, fallen sister?”

“…Sin Judgment!!” Maria had no interest in engaging with Mother’s taunts. She chained one attack into another, this one summoning a much larger blade than before. “Spiral Edge!!”

The blade spun with the power of Origin and chopped through the tendrils.

Mother’s body wasn’t just durable in its own right; it was also protected by the power of Origin coursing within. Nothing short of a fully committed strike would penetrate Mother’s hardened flesh and Origin-conferred wards—hence Cyrill’s struggle to open the deliberately fortified cocoon.

The tendrils were far softer by comparison, but it still took a significant amount of magic to cut through them. Knowing this, Mother must have figured that a failure like Maria never stood a chance at causing him any harm, though these spinning blades were about to force him to rethink that.

“How is it that you are able to tap so much of Origin’s power? It’s more than any other core user I’ve seen. You don’t strike me as some kind of fanatic…which can only mean that you must be hiding something deep inside that fleshy little body of yours!”

Mother launched another tentacle; Maria met it head on with her blade. Though she countered it blow for blow, the exertion was taking its toll on her.

“I’m going to rip you open and see what you’ve got in there!” More and more tendrils came flying in.

Maria was already at her limit squaring off against one tendril, so it looked like she wouldn’t be able to stall for time much longer. After confirming that their battle was taking place at a safe distance from Flum’s cocoon, she decided it was time to raise the stakes.

“Spiral Rain Broken Edge!!” Tiny daggers slammed into the tentacles’ flesh, lit up with magic, and exploded.

“Closed Circle, Ray Light Reflection!!” A large sphere of light appeared, inside of which the rays of light bounced back and forth until the inside of the sphere was ablaze with white-hot flames.

“My, my, you’re quite aggressive for a woman of the cloth. Your magic is quite well suited for murder!”

“Hyaugh!” Maria’s face contorted slightly at this, eliciting a booming laugh from Mother. However, it did little to upset Maria’s mental state.

While Maria faced off against the tendrils, Cyrill found herself surrounded by newly generated babies.

“Spiral…”

“You think I’m just going to let you keep dragging this out? Think again!”

“Gaaugh!” Maria barely managed to block Mother’s next strike, but the sheer force of the blow snapped the bones in her right arm.

“As long as my core survives, so shall I. You are powerless against me and my unstoppable Children. But that goes without saying. I am the ideal mother, and it’s only fitting for the rest of the world to become my children as well.”

Maria tumbled backward, her face screwing up as she redirected her magic to assist Cyrill.

Cyrill channeled her heroic energies into her sword as she stabbed into the cocoon over and over again. “Flum… Flum! I’m going to get you out of there, I promise! Hyaaaaah!”

Unlike the multiple affinities that Jean and the Demon Chiefs used, magic based on unique affinities often relied on feeling and perception, and the technique she’d just used to power up her sword was no exception. It had come to her, fully formed and uninvited, and she decided to see what it could do.

“Let…Flum…go!! She’s my friend, and you’re not going to get in the way of that!!” Cyrill blocked out everything around her but her task.

Maria somehow managed to hold her own against Mother while also frequently turning her attention to the incoming swarm of babies, annihilating them, too.

Even as lightning flashed past her and her surroundings exploded, Cyrill remained unfazed. Call it hope that Flum would save her from her downward spiral or call it conviction that this one deed would be penance for her past sins—whatever the case, she was so frenzied that she teetered on the edge of insanity.

The story Maria told her on the way to the cocoon only spurred her on more.

“Flum’s already fought a great many of these Origin core-based creatures. Even after being sold into nearly literal hell by Jean, she learned that her reversal powers gave her the ability to use cursed equipment. She may still get beaten down, sure, but she keeps getting back up every time. She’s completely transformed. She’s like an entirely different person.”

Of course, none of this was technically Cyrill’s fault. Yet in spite of all her hardships, Flum had pushed through the pain of being sold into slavery, through fraught battles with terrifying monsters, and managed to find the strength to fight on. She’d had a far harder and more arduous road than Cyrill had as a hero, and yet, she refused to give up.

If she couldn’t save Flum, the real hero in her mind, then Cyrill Sweechka could no longer claim the title of hero for herself, much less forgive herself for as long as she lived.

She was doing this for someone dear to her. She was doing this for herself. These dueling motives finally found the place they converged, in a brilliant, unyielding point from which she would not be moved.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaugh! Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!”

Her focus narrowed to a single, perfect point that verged on madness.

 

***

 

Mother was beginning to grow frantic.

Flum had long passed the saturation point of where the transformation should have been complete, and yet, it wasn’t working.

“Uung…haaah…gyaugh!”

He understood why Origin needed Flum and why he was doing this. But the longer this went on, the more obstinate the researcher in him grew.

“Haa…aaauh…fauuu…”

She was only barely conscious, floating in a dim, hazy state as her injuries were invaded and pumped full.

“Agyauh…gahyiiiiiii!”

Eyes wide. A scream. Useless. Panic. Open up another wound and insert a blood vessel.

“Agyaaa…gaggaa…gyiiiiiii!!”

Insert, insert, insert. Pump her full of “me”…nothing.

She had to understand all the memories, all the tragedies endured. So why?

“You just don’t know when to give up.”

“I think…I finally understand…how you can still…hang on to your sense…of self even…while using all this…Origin power.”

People who used Origin cores quickly lost their sense of self as they became less and less human. However, despite Mother’s shocking transformation, that hadn’t happened to him.

“Oh? And what do you think you know? This is all thanks to my diligent work!”

Mother had created this child precisely to ensure that he could forever maintain his sense of self. The Chimera project had stolen various technologies from its rivals in the Necromancy and Children projects, but the theft went both ways. Mother had also stolen the secret to suppressing Origin’s will from the Chimera project.

“I have maintained my mind—my dreams—all to make sure that I become the mother I deserve to be.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Flum unceremoniously shot Mother down. “It’s loneliness. Everything in this…world…exists…for you to use…to achieve your goals. You resist…all connections. Even the children that loved you…so much…you discarded like tools.”

“So what are you trying to say? Those children served their purpose. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Flum chuckled weakly. “I guess you and Origin have a lot in common. That’s why you haven’t been consumed.”

“And knowing that changes nothing, you know, so why don’t you just give up and listen to me, Flum Apricot—or should I say ‘Mich Smithee.’”

Mother’s power reserves were a long way from running dry. He knew that there was no way that this little upstart could keep resisting him.

However, Flum had found a weakness in Mother’s corrupted mind. Or, better put, a weakness in Origin itself.

One of Origin’s unique characteristics was the fact that it would connect or bond with things, though that connection was always incredibly one-sided. Connect, invade, assault…that was how it took control.

Though bonds between people and connections between objects might seem similar in concept, they were nothing alike. Sure, on some level, connecting all living beings into a single entity would eliminate the risk of further adverse relationships between people. It was hardly a surprise that some people and organizations would praise such a complete sense of peace. On the other hand, such an act would also mean the death of all feeling.

“…Milkit.”

Any time things got hard, Flum’s mind wandered to her. Only now did it occur to her that perhaps that was what saved her.

This was something that neither Mother nor Origin could ever understand: Human relationships were difficult. Peace was elusive; gruesome war was omnipresent. It was the curse that humans had to bear—but also the source of their strength.

“No matter what happens, I’ll always be me, no matter what. You can never make me into your image, Mother. Not until I see her again.”

Mother cackled at Flum’s defiance. “What’s this, refusing to acknowledge the fate that awaits you? It’ll do you no good. No one can escape these cocoons. The best you can achieve is having your body ripped to shreds where it’s adhered to you.”

Even if it did tear her body apart, why would that matter? Flum could easily regenerate from that. She had nothing to lose.

“Besides, all this talk means nothing if you can’t even move, wouldn’t you agree?”

Well, then, she’d just have to make herself move.

Flum didn’t concern herself with debating human will or spirituality. Her heart simply longed for the presence of another. Origin and other lonely creatures like it might have protected themselves from the pain other people could inflict, but they also deprived themselves of the power that can be gained from the companionship of another.

Eterna, Ink, Gadhio, Linus, and Cyrill. And Y’lla too, maybe. There were so many people out there, and even if they didn’t always have the best of relationships, their existence gave Flum strength. And then there was the most important person of all.

The connection that we call love.

Flum’s feelings for Milkit were the source of the power that rose up within her…and Origin could do nothing to stop it.

“Ha…aaaaaaah!” Flum tensed her left arm; it was splayed out by the blood vessel piercing through it. She pressed on, feeling an immense pain running through her as she felt something tear away.

Flesh and muscle dangled from the bones of the back of her hand, but she wasn’t done yet.

“Mil…kit…!!!”

Only one thought ran through Flum’s mind, consuming her. She couldn’t think about anything else. She was filled with the desire to see Milkit again, and that desire gave her the power to force her body forward.

Next came her right arm, her back, and then her head. One by one she tore them away, losing flesh in the process as she broke from her bonds. Pain. Cold. Dampness.

The world around her was blurry, making it impossible to see. Her body also felt surprisingly light.

“You broke out of there on your own? Hmm…could it have to do with the collapse of the wall? Or…no…am I wasting away?! In that case…then that means…that means…that disrespectful little lowlife tramp!!”

Mother sent another tendril lunging straight toward Flum’s throat, but she caught it in her hand before it could make contact. “Reversaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!”

BLASH!

The inner walls of the blood vessel expanded and reversed, tearing it open in the process.

“This is as far as your reversal powers are going to get you. Let’s just see how much you can take before you’ve lost the strength to cancel out my attacks!”

Flum wriggled out of the way of the next blow before slapping it with her right hand and blowing it open.

“Those were supposed to be stronger!! Your magic is really getting on my nerves!”

“That’s not all! The power that drives me to move…to resist Origin…”

“Cut the melodrama and spit it out!”

Flum stuck out her hand and summoned forth the Souleater as she spoke. “Heh…a wretch like you who’s forgotten their humanity would never understand!!”

She rammed her blade straight through the tough red film, and…

 

***

 

Cyrill watched as a black blade came lunging out of the spot she was hacking away at.

“Flum? Flum!” Cyril struck with renewed vigor, widening the hole until it was big enough to catch a peek of Flum on the other side.

“Flum!!!!” She shoved her arms into the hole.

“Cyrill!” Flum immediately recognized the voice and reached out to her.

Just as their fingertips touched, someone—or something—grabbed ahold of Cyrill’s feet.

“Dammit… Behind you, Cyrill!”

A heavily injured Maria shouted out to her from behind.

The battle between her and Mother had grown so intense that she couldn’t keep the babies off of Cyrill any longer.

“Gyah!! Get off me!” Cyrill kicked frantically at the baby to get her leg free, but it only increased the strength of its grip until her femur threatened to shatter.

“No, Cyrill!”

If she let go, the exit they made would close up right behind her.

“Blade!! Impaaaaaale!!”

Cyrill clenched her hand around her sword; a bright glow surrounded it, growing longer. If she could just pierce through its brain… Even after several successive stabs into the baby’s face with her burning ray of light, the monster didn’t yield.

“All right then… Blaster!” A large beam of light shot from her blade, blowing its head straight off.

Alas, even that wasn’t enough. The headless baby held tight.

“You just won’t give up, will you??”

“It’s no use, Cyrill! That’s just one piece of Mother’s body. Short of destroying the Origin core that serves as its heart, that thing just won’t give up!”

A new baby crawled out of the severed neck and made its way up Cyrill’s leg before using its hands to tear away at her flesh and burrow into her body.

I’m not going to make it… I’m going to die too, and I can’t even help Flum. No…no no no! I can’t let that happen!!

There was still one option left to her.

Can I do it…can I…can I really? Do I have the courage to, even after I’ve been so useless to Flum? No, that’s not right at all. I can’t give up because I couldn’t help her—just the opposite. It’s my duty to summon up the courage precisely because I haven’t been able to help Flum, because I’m on the precipice of failure. I need to have faith in myself. It’s not a matter of if I can do it, no. I must do it. If I don’t, I’ll just keep repeating the same mistakes, and I’m done with that!!

Her mind was made up. A fire burned in her heart. Cyrill squeezed her hand around the hilt of her sword when she heard a loud squish and felt a red thread wrap around her leg.

…Or so she thought. The thread pierced through the creature burrowing into her and tore it to shreds.

“Live…as you please.”

Mute’s words suddenly came to mind. Or maybe she really had heard them again, just now.

She couldn’t tell if it was a sound, a memory, or a voice on the wind, but whatever it was, she felt her heart warm.

“I gave up…it’s over. I’m scared. But Cyrill…you gave this to me.”

It was Mute’s voice, but she never heard the words before.

“I made…my decision. How to dream…live. So…I’m returning…the favor.”

Why was Mute’s spirit in that “thread”? Everything happening around her defied all logic and common sense, but she knew one thing for certain.

“Thank you…Cyrill. You were my…first…friend.”

Mute was dead. This wasn’t Mute resigning herself to her fate. It was a way for her to finally close the book on her life, while offering Cyrill a hand so she wouldn’t have to live with regret.

Cyrill clenched her jaw to fight back her tears.

Now wasn’t the time to wallow in her anguish over Mute’s message. No, she was going to turn that into her courage to honor the young girl.

“Braaaaaaaaaaaaave!!” Cyrill screamed out to the heavens and began to glow.

A powerful wind blew past, blowing away every enemy nearby before a wave of light seared them alive. The red thread went limp and drooped to the ground just as Cyrill turned and shoved her fingers into what was left of the rapidly shrinking hole in the cocoon.

“Guh…graaaaaaaaaaaaaaawh!!”

Riiiiiiiiip!

Bit by bit, the hole grew larger.

“Cyrill!!”

“Flum!”

The two women finally found each other’s hands, and Cyrill yanked Flum free of the cocoon, leaving chunks of her body behind where she was pinned down. She cared little for the pain at this point; she didn’t even grimace.

However, the cocoon quickly went on the attack, shooting tendrils out of the newly formed hole. Flum and Cyrill held hands and jumped clear.

“Why…? Why must you always do this to me?? You may have driven me back and put me in this awful position, but I will have the last laugh! Let’s see how you like it!!”

Mother’s refusal to give in was born of his jealousy and mistrust.

“Don’t let your guard down quite yet! I’m going to need some cover…ngyaaah!” Maria was thoroughly exhausted at this point. It was all she could do just to fend off Mother’s attacks.

Flum could still hear Mother’s warped view of the world echoing through her head as she drew her Souleater into existence. She let out a loud sigh.

“It’s a shame to be reunited under such conditions. Gah…”

“You can move already, Flum?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just leave these guys to me!”

Flum’s sword was abuzz with prana and magic, and her eyes twinkled as she turned to face the swarm of monster babies.

“Enchanted Blade!!!!” Cyrill came to Flum’s side, placed her hand over Flum’s on the Souleater’s hilt, and pumped her magic into it, wreathing the blade in light. The sword was so bright that it lit up even the darkest, gloomiest parts of the capital that had been thrown into shadow after the wall of flesh went up.

“We’ve got this, Flum.”

“Thanks, Cyrill. Let’s do this with one shot!”

These creatures, these masses of flesh and muscle had been human before becoming a part of Mother. No matter how many she destroyed, more would come. They were controlled by Mother’s core, which was in turn powered by Origin. Assuming they didn’t have any hearts of their own, they were essentially living representations of Origin’s energy.

In other words, their hearts were exposed to Flum’s reversal power at all times.

“Heimdall Grand Stoooooooooooooorm!!” She brought the sword down and watched as the earth ripped open, a powerful gust of wind whipped up, and light beamed down all around.

What looked like a completely fantastical scene at a glance was a living nightmare for Origin’s creatures. The hero lauded for her strength and the tagalong mocked for her weakness came together to annihilate their enemies.

When the breeze died down and the dust settled, not a single creature remained.

“Cyrill…?”

Cyrill turned toward Flum to find her with her hand outstretched next to her face. She knew what Flum wanted, but she paused for a moment to stare down at her own palm.

Flum smiled brightly at her friend. “I just wanted to say thanks again.”

“Flum…oh, Flum, I’m so, so sorry.

“Listen, I know I was holding you guys back. Let’s just say we were both wrong and let it go.”

“No, it’s not that simple.”

“Hmm…well, do you still think of us as friends, Cyrill?”

“Of course!” Cyrill brought her hand to her chest and responded without hesitation.

Flum blushed slightly and felt her heart well up. “Well, then, that’s more than enough. Really, I mean it. All this time I was worried that you didn’t want to be my friend anymore. So…let’s just keep being friends, okay? Now and forever.”

Flum smiled and stretched out her hand, palm side up. She tapped her finger against it several times. Cyrill hesitated for a moment. Could she really do this? Was it really okay? She slowly brought her hand closer to Flum’s until finally their palms touched. Flum closed her hand and intertwined her fingers with Cyrill’s with a silly grin.

“Hey, let’s go back to that cake shop sometime.”

“Right. Once we knock this battle out of the way, I’ll make good on my promise.”

The two young women looked up at the darkened sky and glared at the gargantuan shape of Mother’s face. He was shaking slightly, biting down on his lip in annoyance.

Free from the melee, Maria finally joined up with Flum and Cyrill.

“Thanks to you two, I was finally able to break away.”

“Maria…there’s still a lot for you and me to talk about, but let’s focus on working together for now.”

Maria blinked. It was odd for Flum to speak to her that way. After a moment, however, she laughed gently and nodded.

“I was just about to say the same thing myself.”

For the time being, at least, the three were united against their common enemy.

The sight of Flum and Cyrill together infuriated Mother. He bit down even harder on his lip until he finally drew blood, sending fat droplets to the earth below and staining everything in their path.

“Relationships…love…friendship… Why must you keep throwing such awful, hideous things in my face? You leave me with no other choice than to utterly obliterate you to make sure the world knows how right I am!!”

A massive tendril whipped toward them, spinning as it went.

“Let’s go!” Flum and Maria nodded instantly at Cyrill’s command. The three were united in their battle, if not in fate.