"Sophie-"
Asher's mind blanked as he rushed toward the wounded girl.
"Stop him, mutt!" The Impurity shot a withering glare at the Wolf. The torment of countless corpses slammed into the Wolf's soul, cracking its ego in an instant.
Terror seized the Wolf's body. Its paw twitched forward.
*CRACK*
Asher winced as he felt his arm shatter under an unbearable force. He flew across the room, slamming into the wall with a resounding bang.
Dust filled the air.
The Wolf shot a glance at the Impurity, pulling its arm back in distaste. The boy's aura was overpowering its own instincts, yet the Wolf could tell his physical strength was nowhere near its caliber.
"Don't call me a 'mutt'. I won't do your dirty work." It sat on the floor, its hackles relaxing.
Plastered on the wall, Asher groaned before stumbling to his feet with some difficulty.
The Wolf's nonchalant act died away as the Impurity snapped its head backward, his expression frighteningly hollow.
"THEN I'LL KILL YOU."
Filled with murder, the whip of words lashed the Wolf back to its feet.
"I'm glad we could reach an agreement."
The Impurity leaned backwards as Sophie's nails clawed where his throat was. Due to the properties of the System, the two of them had identical physical strengths.
This made it so each of them were fully occupied with tearing each other's throats out.
And Asher was left to deal with the Wolf, alone.
"Ugh..."
Having stabilized himself, Asher spat a little blood from his mouth. Three verdant fairies coalesced from the floor. [Fairy Queen], had already surfaced on his skin.
With some experience, Asher could switch from his E.G.Os near instantaneously.
Asher's nose wrinkled. Was he imagining things, or were the fairies' glows dimmer than usual? They didn't contain their usual enthusiasm, most likely because of the inherent suppression a WAW had against ZAYIN class Abnormalities.
His left arm hung limply on his shoulders. At least the break was clean. The Wolf kept sneaking glances at the brawl beside them, fear evident in its eyes.
Asher felt a bit of pity toward the creature. Since there was no way for him to win if they actually fought, he tried to work out a truce.
"Look, we don't have to fight, okay? I'm sure you don't want to follow that guy's orders-"
"Not another word!" The Wolf snarled, preparing itself to fight. It was one thing being scared by a freak like that, but to be pitied by an innocent kid for it?
The two boys had the same face as well, which made the situation even more unnerving.
Asher sighed, crouching into a defensive stance. His arms formed a protective cage surrounding his heart.
'System, is [Frenzy] off cooldown?'
[Three days have passed.]
So as long as he didn't die in one hit, his survival was on the table.
A plan quickly formed in Asher's head. He had confidence in Sophie, so if he could just hold out for a few minutes, perhaps they could deal with the Wolf together. And when Little Red Riding Hood arrived, her shadow might also help them.
Needless to say, the situation wasn't looking too hot. Although Asher's pain tolerance had gone up by about thirty percent, Pluto's seal still affected his movements by a large margin.
Asher twirled Wingbeat in his palm, directing his fairies to attack while he stayed behind them.
The Wolf snarled, catching the first creature in its jaws, instantly grinding it to a mushy flesh paste.
The other two fairies shivered before collapsing to the ground. They looked back at him, their eyes filled with unwillingness.
Asher's face twitched.
"Sheesh, it's that bad?" he muttered. Seeing as the fairies refused to fight, he let them sink into the floor.
Back to the Wolf.
The rationality in the Wolf's eyes had been replaced with mindless bloodlust. The Impurity's mental enslavement completely overpowered its senses.
The Abnormality tensed its legs, preparing to leap forward.
Asher narrowed his eyes, keeping his muscles loose, prepared to dodge at a moment's notice.
"-!" He stumbled backwards as a flash of movement tore past him.
A sharp pain sliced through Asher's side.
The Wolf was already behind him, swallowing the portion of Asher's side that it bit off.
Stomach acid seeped into his exposed flesh. Asher felt the wound with his hand. Multiple organs threatened to glide past his fingers. At least one of them was the remnants of his stomach.
[Frenzy activates.]
[...Temperance condition met! +250 Fortitude.]
[Current Fortitude: 305]
Strength coursed through Asher's body, and the world slowed down to a crawl around him. Despite the fatal wound on his stomach, he felt more confident than before.
Now, holding out was a genuine possibility.
Just to be safe, he switched into his [Grave of Cherry Blossoms]. Its passive dodge boost would be useful here.
The Wolf once again prepared for a charge. Its movements were forced and jagged, giving Asher a better chance than if it could actually coordinate its attacks.
Using the building tension in the creature's muscles, Asher calculated the Wolf's trajectory.
He leapt to the side, barely missing a trip to the next Punishment Mission. Or perhaps something worse.
'This sucks...' Asher clutched his stomach. Glancing downward revealed a portion of his guts that threatened to spill out.
While one of his hands frantically contained the spillage, the other gripped the handle of his cherry blossom fan until its knuckles turned white.
Asher inhaled deeply, waving his fan as well. The fan's passive hypnotism did nothing against the Wolf, as expected.
Before the Wolf could ready itself for another charge, Asher released the smoke in his lungs with an explosive exhale. A screen of coarse pinkish pollen blanketed the Wolf's vision.
Asher leapt to the ceiling before the Wolf could reorient itself.
Sophie was trying to communicate with him.
Her voice was filled with urgency.
...
Sophie coughed out a mouthful of blood as 'Asher' let go of the stick in his hand. The boy's hollow voice commanded the Wolf.
She slashed at his throat, wincing as 'Asher' spun away with a smirk.
She used that second of leeway to tend her wound. She snapped off the branch protruding from her chest, leaving only the part that pierced her inside her body.
"Kuh-" Blood gushed from her mouth. "Why did you betray me?"
The Impurity humored her question with a soft chuckle.
"The thing is, were we ever allies in the first place? Think about it, your skill weakens Pluto's seal enough for that other consciousness to come back. If I kill you, this place won't exist, and my problem will be solved."
Sophie clicked her tongue. Once 'Asher' confirmed that it was her skill that affected the seal, he didn't hesitate to turn on her.
The girl's joints creaked as she readied herself. Usually, she would be confident dealing with an enemy of similar Fortitude (or, identical in this case), yet with 'Asher' she wasn't so sure.
She knew that the Impurity's true power was well above what hers was in her past life. The boy's aura had a suppressing effect on her, an aura that had ended more lives than she had ever seen.
How frightening was that? Someone who had ended more lives than she had seen in her entire life?
She shivered at the thought.
'Asher' broke into a grin, rushing forward.
Sophie clenched her jaw and steeled her resolve. If she failed here, she didn't want to imagine what fate her partner would suffer.
With a twist of her neck, she dodged the boy's first hook-
A wide Cheshire grin filled her vision.
"Ugh-!" Sophie yelped as 'Asher' spat into her left eye. She automatically brought her hand up-
The Impurity's knee slammed into her crotch, shattering her pelvic bone.
Sophie let out a moan of pain, bending downwards reflexively.
However, her rationality took over as the Impurity's fingers sliced toward her eyes. She knew that if she got her eyes gouged out, the fight would be over.
Ignoring the pain in her lower body and the blurriness in her eye, she tucked her head in the nick of time.
The Impurity's nails were redirected as they dug into her eyebrow, tearing off a part of her ear as they slid around her skull and through her flesh.
Sophie used the monster's forward momentum to aim a headbutt on his chin, yet the boy elbowed her neck, stunning her for an instant as he backed away.
All while whistling playfully.
His left hand had migrated into his pocket.
They stood opposite of each other yet again. Sophie was the only one that was panting. She clutched her crotch with one hand, while desperately attempting to remove the spit out of her eye with the other.
'Asher' still carried that languid grin on his face. This was child's play to him. Even with her strange movements, Sophie's combat style was too orthodox to threaten him. She expected a fair fight from an Impurity?
"How laughable." His tone was deadly serious. He flicked the flesh between his fingernails onto the girl's dress.
In response, Sophie groaned in pain, her thoughts disrupted by her garish lower wound. It wasn't the wound to her flesh that caused the pain, but that her pelvic bone was shattered.
The pelvis was the only bone that connected the legs to the rest of the body. Now that it was crushed beyond function, even standing up meant agony beyond what an average person could endure.
Sophie closed her eyes, screaming for help in her mind. She couldn't hold out, let alone defeat this monster. Her only hope was that her partner would finish his share, and maybe they could deal with the monster in front of her together.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes.
The Impurity shot a smirk at her.
"Giving up? That's droll, girlie."
Sophie mustered her strength into a snarl.
"No way in hell, freak."
As she spat the last word from her mouth, an otherworld melody burst from near the ceiling, tearing through their souls.
Echoes from Beyond.
...
The first thing Asher noticed was the deep claw wound along Sophie's skull. His vision pulsed with anger.
His mind raced for anything he could do. His E.G.Os were out of the question, since they were useless on the Wolf, not to mention his future self.
A skill...
A skill!
Asher and Sophie instantly reached an accord, having communicated for a split moment.
The Fragment's skill would affect both the Wolf and 'Asher', perhaps giving both of them a bit of breathing room to recover.
Asher's head split open, revealing a swirling vortex of blood and flesh.
'[Echoes from Beyond]!'
The wooden walls began to vibrate under the Fragment of the Universe's song. Hundreds of bloodshot eyes emerged from the walls, half directed at the Wolf and half directed at the Impurity.
The Wolf froze in place, its mind taken to a different plane of existence.
'Asher' also ceased his movements, a note of surprise lingering on his lips.
Asher let out a sigh of relief, though it came out more of a droning whistle from the flesh blossom that replaced his face.
A thump on the ground notified him of Little Red Riding Hood behind him, collapsing on the ground before the doorway. The girl's crimson shadow fluttered with agitation, seeing Asher and 'Asher' in the same frame. Its suspicions were confirmed.
As Asher made a placating gesture toward Little Red, Sophie brought her knee into the Impurity's crotch as hard as she could, in an act of vengeance. Luckily, the boy did not awaken from his hallucination.
Little Red Riding Hood, the poor innocent soul, fainted, her mind shaken by sensory overload.
Her shadow remained, pulsing with thoughts yet unable to voice itself.
Sophie let out a weak cough as she stumbled to the ground. Her wounds finally caught up to her.
Asher collapsed on the floor with a sigh. For the same reason as well.
For a few seconds, the only sound that could be heard was the rasp of laborious pants.
Sophie hacked out a brackish puddle of blood onto the floorboards. The Impurity's first blow had pierced her right lung, centimeters from her heart.
Asher turned to her with concern, yet the girl gave him an expressionless O.K. sign. She motioned to the orange glow chained to his neck.
"Oh, this? The seal's slowly breaking apart," he pointed to the fracturing ring of light around his neck. "The System says it'll dissolve soon. After that, we're safe to go back."
The flesh tendrils from Asher's face waved and squirmed as he spoke. His voice created resonating shivers in the wooden foundation.
"Is there any chance..." Sophie's voice gurgled away as her hand weakly flicked toward the two bodies beside them.
Asher consulted the System, which replied to his question instantly.
[Expect only ten seconds.]
A bleak warning.
Before Asher could react, Sophie sprang into action, blood gushing from her mouth.
She pushed herself forward, digging her fingers knuckle-deep into the Impurity's eye sockets. She clenched her fingers, hooking them solidly into the boy's skull.
Her other fist burst into searing white flames as she aimed at his throat-
A deafening roar pushed Sophie back. The two Fixers stumbled backwards, overpowered by the raw emotion. The Wolf, awakened by the stifling aura, howled into the air as well.
Asher's head closed as [Echoes from Beyond] was forcefully deactivated.
"-!" Sophie formed a curse under her breath as her forearm dissolved into ash. Her window to attack was gone.
Her expression paled even further as her wounds pushed a fine line between life and death.
"Don't worry." Asher gripped Sophie's remaining hand, ignoring the slime and flesh that coated his palm.
Her hand was startlingly cold. She was dying.
A being with lesser willpower would have died minutes ago. Sheer determination kept her body alive.
"They're disoriented. I-I only need five more seconds. Please, five more seconds-!"
Sophie's hand twitched in response.
Indeed, it seemed more manageable now that 'Asher' was blinded. However, at the sound of his younger self's voice, the boy pounced forward, screaming unintelligible words of rage.
Strangely, Asher found it easier to handle the chaotic, raw emotions that pressed into his flesh. Compared to earlier, this was somehow more manageable.
"Sophie, behind me!" Asher pulled Sophie's dying body behind him as the Impurity shot closer. He realized that the Impurity wanted to kill Sophie so the Nostalgic Room would cease to exist. The room was the only thing that could break down the seal.
So Asher let the boy's arm sink through the hole in his stomach. He grit his teeth, using both of his arms to wrap around the Impurity's body.
He whispered, his breath sickly sweet with blood.
"You can't kill me."
'Asher' stiffened, bringing his blinded eyes up.
The two Ashers stared at each other.
The Impurity broke into a grin. All signs of anger were gone from his expression. His ruined face even held a bit of... nostalgia.
"As expected of me. Well played."
With a crack, Pluto's seal shattered. Orange light glimmered in the air for an instant, before dissipating into dust.
'Asher' broadened his grin. Even without his vision, he could sense that the seal was gone. He had failed.
"Sophie, let's head back." Asher glanced at Sophie with exhaustion. The girl nodded, her eyes scarily hollow. If she stayed any longer, her wounds would consume her.
Out of the brawl, she was by far the most injured.
The Impurity did not struggle as the world began to fracture into light.
Before the Room faded away, Asher heard one last taunt from his future self.
"Next time, you won't be so lucky."
Asher let out a thin smile. He didn't have the energy to make a comeback to that.
But he couldn't leave without one.
"That's my line."
The Impurity chuckled, fading away into the light.