Wait... What?! Children?!
Apparently, the girls Menzine had attended to earlier had been spectating the fight between Annabeth and Balduino. When they saw Annabeth about to be slain, they couldn't help but gasp, unfortunately attracting some strongly unwanted attention.
Balduino was actually disappointed that what he thought would be a new enemy turned out to be 5 scrawny kids. As compensation for wasting his energy, he undid his void form and savored in their mortified screams when they saw him.
He maliciously grinned and salivated, while slowly walking towards them. He wouldn't actually eat the girls but they didn't know that. He was simply trying to give them something to have nightmares about. Given that he was 2 meters tall and completely black with fangs the size of an adult's fingers; the creatures from children's nightmares would worship him.
He reached out to grab one of the children but then, he felt something strange happening inside him. His senses started picking up on strong magical energy coming from the outside. He had never sensed any other being's magical energy so this was a completely new sensation.
Balduino decided to investigate, once again entering his void form and passing through the girls and the door. In his void form, he saw the outline of a figure standing where he had stabbed the talkative red-haired girl earlier. He wanted to move forward but he got hit by something that forcefully undid his void form and sent him crashing through the door. The door broke free from its hinges, slamming into the girls on the other side before burying them underneath it.
Balduino got up or at least tried to get up but a hand-like dark smokey thing punched him, sending him further deep into the building.
The young girls who had been knocked down by the door felt someone get on top of the door and slowly walk on it, pressing their hurting bodies into the hard floor. The girls were about to scream in pain until they heard whatever was above them speak.
[… Kill…] It said, in a cold hoarse almost-demonic voice.
To say this sounded like something accidentally summoned from the cold harsh depths of hell would be an understatement.
Shivers down their spines and hairs raised was the voice's effect on the young girls underneath the door. No one in the whole world was happier to have a heavy door over them than the girls at that moment. Silence befell the room as the thing above them continued its slow walk and soon stepped off the door.
Balduino looked towards the entrance and was both surprised and creeped out by what he saw. The girl he had stabbed earlier with his claws was slowly walking towards him... well, it could be called walking. Like a puppet on a string or a drunk zombie heading back to its grave after a yearlong celebration of a successful apocalypse, Annabeth walked unsteadily towards him.
She had long black smoke hand-like things coming from her back which were waving in the air like they just didn't care. Aside from the creepy walk and voice, the black smokey hands and the sinister grin on her face, nothing about Annabeth appeared to have changed physically. Except maybe her stomach which no longer had holes in it.
Balduino got to his feet, still in his nightmare wolf form and entered the void again. He moved to one side of the room to try and flank the enemy but he got slammed into the ground the minute he got close enough to her. One of the smoke hands had grabbed him and slammed his head into the floor. His void form was being destabilized by the darkness energy coming from the hand and was forcefully exited out of it again. Despite their smokey appearance, the black hands packed quite a punch.
[… Bad ... dog …] The hoarse voice said.
The hands started rampaging about trying to smash him and the floor below. Several of the black smokey arms were holding him in place while most of the rest combined into two large hands that started punching his joints to weaken him.
[… Scream…]
The two large hands reached for the door that was on the girls and slammed it into Balduino's legs. He screamed at the top of his lungs in pain but then tried to overpower the hands, but the smoke arms weren't letting him go. In a panic, he tried to enter his void form again only to be undone immediately by the hands holding him down.
[…Kill everything…]
The girls who had been under the heavy door felt a mixture of relief and fear when the door was lifted but only for a moment. Small smoke arms started punching them, knocking all of them out. Despite their unconsciousness, the punching still continued, making them develop cuts that started to bleed and dye the floor red.
[...Destroy… everything...] The voice said, finally breaking Balduino's legs and trying to stab what looked like claws into his stomach.
However, before the claws could reach, Annabeth fell down powerlessly on Balduino's side. The arms pushed him away into a nearby wall as they started shrinking before disappearing. Her magical energy had run out again, not that she had recovered much from the sleep session she had earlier.
[… Embrace … darkness…] The hoarse voice said loudly.
"No!" Annabeth screamed out. Her voice had returned to normal and she was now disagreeing with the other voice, which was also coming from her own lips.
[... Accept... me....] The hoarse voice said, a little bit lower this time.
Every time the hoarse voice would return Annabeth's expression would change as though she was a completely different person.
[… Fear... Despair... Kill… Kill them all… torture to... death]
[… Make them despair… Tear him apart… Punish him… Does he bleed? …]
[…Fist him… Cut him… Sponge cake… Peel his skin… Kill… Kill… Kill... kids... Kill them… all... Destroy everything…]
This time the voice was only inside her head, fading away into whispers with every sentence it managed to say. Annabeth used her hands to close her ears but the whispers wouldn't stop. She rolled on the floor, tormented by the whispers only she was hearing.
"No! Shut up! Shut up!" Annabeth screamed out, hoping the voice would stop.
[… Then die Annabeth! ...]
The voice said loudly this time. Her own hands moved to her neck and firmly gripped it. She held tightly at her own throat until she lost consciousness, her arms falling powerlessly to her sides immediately after.
The only sound that could be heard was Balduino screaming in pain. He lay on the ground unable to move any of his limbs. He had witnessed his enemy knock herself out and a sense of relief had overcome him, but so did the pain of having his bones broken.
All he could do was wait for someone to come and save him. He deeply regretted not finishing the girl off when he had the chance, swearing to never play around next time if such an opportunity presented itself again.
In the fight of Annabeth against Balduino, there was no clear victor.