Asher opened his eyes as a burning sensation pierced his chest.
"Ah-!"
He screamed. Mei had raked his ribs with a kitchen knife.
A sharp pain ran through his body. He tried to sit up, but found his limbs bound to the bed by pulsing cords of flesh.
The woman made an incision in his chest as she sat on his stomach. A tendril of blood formed on her finger.
"Stay still now~"
Still confused, Asher tried to reason with her.
"Mei, stop! What are you doing?" He babbled as he struggled to sit up.
Then his voice faded away. The woman's pupils were glowing red. Something was off. This person was not Mei.
As she raised her arm to stab down again, his gaze sharpened. Now wasn't the time to think about Mei.
He had to survive.
His attacker was weaker than him, but that only made her sheer ferociousness far more unsettling.
Asher calculated his chances of survival. Nothing could help him get out of his bonds other than Sophie's Match Flame. Since there was only one witness, it didn't matter if he revealed his disguise. His instinct to survive overpowered his concerns.
In a split second, just before the knife swung down on his neck, he transformed. The woman made a slight noise of surprise as ash covered his body, and long blonde hair replaced his own.
Asher tapped both the cords on his wrist four times in a fraction of a second.
His fingers exploded, and his wrists shattered as the Fourth Match Flame desecrated his flesh. But his arms were free.
Shooting upward, he flung the woman with Mei's appearance off of him. She was surprisingly weak, only giggling in amusement as she slammed into the wall like a limp rag-doll.
Using the bloodied remains of his arms, he wrenched off the blood vessels on his legs as well.
"Who are you? What did you do to Mei?!"
She ignored his questions, instead running her gaze up and down his new form.
"Nice disguise, sis~ Are you like me, a shot down Star or something? Nightmare, maybe?"
'Shot down Star? Blood vessels... The Blood Red Night?!'
"I-I thought you were dead."
The woman's eyes flicked with hatred as she remembered what happened to her. She glared at him, her hand forming into a monstrous claw.
"Another word?"
They faced at each other in a silent standoff. The tension rose as the minutes passed. Even if 'Mei' was much weaker than him, they was something indescribable about her aura that terrified him.
Finally, Asher could not stand it.
"The body you are inhabiting... It is unacceptable for me. Leave it."
Elena barked with laughter, stopping his words with the palm of her hand.
"Unacceptable? Feh. We aren't friends, sis. It would be great if you died right now; I need a better body than this weak rat's."
But at this, the air became chillingly cold.
Asher's eyes melted into blood, swirling in his empty sockets.
His bones crackled as he tilted his head at her.
"'If you died right now'? 'Need a better body'? Mei is dead? She is dead?"
Elena's grin spread wider, splitting her lip open. Blood vessels pulsed in her torn flesh.
"And what are you going to do about it?"
She smirked as Asher appeared in front of her, so fast that Mei's eyes could barely follow.
"Mei is really... Dead?" The girl's joints stiffened as they bent past physical capability.
Asher's emotions leaked into his Synchronization. Tears dripped down Sophie's expressionless face.
After everything that happened last night, Asher was millimeters close to breaking down completely. Yan had disappeared from his life, just like that. If Mei, the person he regarded as his mother, was torn away from him too... Just what would be the point of living?
The Blood Red Night laughed, her face twisting even further. She just couldn't take the girl seriously. Through her pathetic show of strength, Elena could tell that the girl wasn't even a Nightmare in raw strength.
"Two can play that game~" Blood vessels crawled onto the woman's face, hardening into a nightmarish crimson mask.
Asher howled as 'Mei' smiled in front of him, mocking him.
His emotions burned brighter. He screamed, shrouding the room in smoke. His dress sizzled in the open air.
Ash wrapped around his body.
Scorched Girl. The Ruin's Flames.
Elena narrowed her eyes. When one's emotions raised to this level... It was too dangerous for her to leave this one alive.
She slammed her hand on the ground, searching for something to consume. But there wasn't a single living soul in the building other than them. There was no blood to feed from. Her fatal flaw.
And she was weak, limited by an unideal host.
But not weak enough.
Asher shot towards her, his feet skipping above the ground as they carried him forward.
This cramped space was where the unique combat style generated by [Puppet Movements] truly shined.
Thickened blood coursed through Elena's veins, allowing her to barely dodge Asher's first swing.
Then something the Blood Red Night had never seen before happened. The girl's arm bent against her elbow, snapping sickeningly as it smashed into Elena's side before she could react.
A mouthful of blood burst past Elena's mouth as she smiled wider.
Asher gave her no time for rest, using each of his limbs to inflict brutal wounds onto Mei's body. He ignored the numbness in his wrists as he slowly bled out.
Fourth Match Flame.
Asher wrapped his arms around Elena, ignoring the pain as she tore the flesh off of his shoulder with her canines.
His arm sizzled with purple flames as he raised it behind her back.
The Blood Red Night twitched as she felt a searing heat behind her. She did not try to escape, instead simply resuming her consumption. Her teeth bit to the bone.
"Die." The stench of burnt flesh filled the room.
*BOOM*
Sophie did not flinch as her flesh twisted grotesquely. Bone shards sliced through what remained of her arm.
Asher and Sophie's soul contained only one goal. Kill Elena.
They threw the Blood Red Night to the ground.
Blood vessels pulsed forward to replace the hole in the woman's chest.
She swallowed the flesh in her mouth, grinning as newfound energy coursed through her veins. From the taste alone, she could tell that this was a high-quality specimen.
Asher's assault begun once more. He was unable to see that the Blood Red Night had grown stronger, decreasing the physical gap between them in an instant.
Elena was used to the girl's strange movements now. No longer could Asher's swings touch her.
Even when the Fourth Match Flame activated once again, Asher could not hit the Blood Red Night in time before his right arm disintegrated in a flash of light.
He gasped as a vestige of pain flashed in his expression. But it only fueled his rage.
"WHY DID YOU KILL HER!?" Asher tried to lift his arms, only to find that they were both too mangled to move. His legs trembled as blood gushed from his wounds.
Asher fell to the floor, having lost too much blood.
Elena stepped up to him, giggling.
"Can't handle a little joke?"
"Alive...?"
She smirked at the girl's trembling expression.
"And she could feel everything, too~" Elena's eyes glazed over.
Then Mei let out a screech of pain, slumping to the ground.
"M-Mei! Mei!" Asher stumbled toward her. Mei gasped, struggling to breathe as her head twitched at Sophie's voice.
Asher's eyes reformed in an instant as he saw hope in the darkness.
Mei wasn't dead. Her eyes were filled with pain and epiphany.
"Asher... You were... Sophie?"
Asher gulped before nodding with some difficulty.
Despite the mind-shattering pain, Mei's mouth twitched.
"So that's why... y-you didn't like it when I mentioned her..."
She raised her hand to his cheek.
But then she screamed in terror.
"Get away! Asher, run!"
It was too late. Her pupils became filled with blood.
Mei's hand, originally intended to caress his cheek, changed into a claw in an instant. Asher couldn't react in time as Elena's fingers sliced into his eyes, digging them out slowly.
A new sensation, having his eyes ripped out. Tears flowed, covering his eyes as they attempted to make the intrusive irritant slip off. Elena's grip wouldn't allow that. He could feel her individual fingers sliding to the back of his retinas. A nest of fire ants crawled in his flesh.
He screamed.
Elena pulled her arm back, cackling as his head tried to move along with her arm. One kick in the chest, and his eyes disconnected from his skull with a nauseating snap.
"Ahahaha! That noise!" Elena popped the tear-stained eyes into her mouth. She wasn't done with her fun just yet. What would the soul in her body react to this?
Elena suddenly began to vomit, spitting out whatever she could from her stomach. Elena already absorbed what she had to, so she didn't care about what Mei did.
She was just a sadist, hoping to see the desperation on the girl's face, the person who dared oppose her.
"a-asher... i'm s-sorryyy..." Mei was back in control. She had experienced everything, from ripping the eyes out of the child that saved her life so many times, to the texture of Sophie's eyes as it slid down her throat.
Her mind broke as she raked her nails across her own pupils, clawing at her throat in a vain attempt to atone for what she did. She bit her tongue off, and blood gushed from her mouth.
Miserable wails and cackling laughter echoed from the same mouth as Mei mutilated her body. As Elena gloated over the change in Asher's expression.
Asher couldn't see anymore. He knew he was going to die.
"Sadistic freak... Kill me." He spat the words from his mouth. The current situation was unsalvageable. He must die. He must make things right.
Mei sobbed as she heard the hopelessness in Sophie's voice. Sophie leaned against the wall, shivering as she curled into a ball.
Then Elena took over. The evidence of Mei's self-harm was swept away under a curtain of blood vessels.
"That resolve... It's as if..." The Blood Red Night paused, her gaze unfocusing.
"Nevermind. But color me impressed~" She opened her mouth, clamping her teeth on Asher's throat.
He gurgled as he felt his throat tear away from him.
Within seconds, Asher was dead.
And the Blood Red Night was reborn.