The monster wrestled with massive tentacles. The woman was trying to take control of the monster by changing her body into liquid form and wrapping it around the monster's skeletal structure.
The further the woman went, the less control Benjamin had over the monster.
He was quickly losing the battle and he had to think of something quick. Benjamin used the monster's sword arm to chop off the parts of the woman connecting her to the monster.
She frowned and retracted her arms. "Pity, do you not want to play anymore," she taunted. Benjamin tried to make the monster attack her but found it to be frozen.
"You chopped off a part of my body," she continued, "I'll give you one moment to think of where it went and what that means. Slowly Benjamin realized that the reason he couldn't control the monster was beca-. The woman shifted, making the monster turn towards Benjamin.
Benjamin pushed his sword deeper into the ground. He was struggling and wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on. The grass at his feet was withering and dying.
This gave Benjamin an idea. The monster stopped moving. A black substance began to leak out of its mouth and eye sockets. Suddenly, the parts of the woman's body that had been inside the monster burst out.
They were seemingly burning, releasing black smoke into the air. Taking advantage of this, Benjamin pushed forward, ordering the monster to lunge at the woman.
The monster landed on top of her and exploded, sending the black substance everywhere.
In the middle of what had been the monster, the woman stood with a cold expression on her face. Benjamin pulled his sword from the ground and pointed it at her.
The woman narrowed her eyes and ran forward towards Benjamin. She slashed with her arms. Benjamin blocked the blows with his sword and swung back.
The blade caught a part of her arms leaving a black substance where they made contact. The black substance immediately began to burn away her skin. She recoiled in pain.
Benjamin began to slash with his sword but she jumped back to avoid it.
Before she could recover Benjamin was there, slashing again with his sword. The woman blocked it with her arms.
She stepped back and formed her arm into a spear. She stabbed the spear forward, catching Benjamin in the shoulder. She then whipped him around and threw him away.
Benjamin landed several yards away. He immediately stood back up and went on the attack. The woman formed her arms into shields and blocked Benjamin's repeated attacks. She then bashed him in the face with one of the shields.
Turning her other hand into a sword, she slashed him across the chest. Benjamin fell back. "You really are him," the woman remarked, checking her injuries. "Really are who?" Benjamin asked, confused.
"You'll find out soon enough," she replied. With that, she started to dissolve into a slime-like substance. The substance broke apart until there were multiple globs of it spreading around Benjamin.
The globs then transformed into multiple versions of the woman. "I am Adina, and my power is deliquesced," they all said in unison. Adina's clones then jumped at Benjamin who couldn't do anything to fend them off.
In the distance, Velena woke up with a start. He was being carried by Corey. He immediately rolled out of Corey's arms and puked on the ground. He sat up and wiped his mouth.
"Where's Benjamin?" he asked, frantically. Corey pointed ahead through the trees towards a clearing. Velena immediately started running towards the clearing.
Evan and Corey looked at each other and followed. In the clearing, Velena watched as Benjamin was getting jumped by Adina's clones. Benjamin was desperately fighting them off, but it was clear that he was losing.
Velena drew out his great ax and swung at the nearest clone. The clone was unfazed and completely ignored him. Behind him, Corey, Evan, and the rest of the group stumbled through the trees. Corey, seeing his best friend in trouble, pulled out his scythe and rushed towards Benjamin.
Corey made five clones of himself and sent them all to attack Adina's clones. Some of Adina's clones turned and began to attack Corey's clones. Through the chaos, Velena slipped through and reached Benjamin.
He hugged him and started dragging him out of the fight. Corey opened a portal behind them allowing them to escape. Once Benjamin and Velena were out of the fray Corey ran in and began to slice through Adina's clones.
Adina's clones began to try to push past Corey's clones. Corey began to alter the perception of the clones causing them to stumble and fall. This allowed Evan and Miles to start killing the clones and clearing them out. After dying the clones turned into blobs of slime once again.
They gathered in a spot yard away and reformed the original Adina. She laughed maniacally. She reached over and used her slime-like arms to envelop the pillar that Isaiah had disarmed. After she released it the pillar returned to a functioning state.
"It's been fun, but I have more important matters to attend to," she said bowing. The giant machine in the sky fired a beam of light down at her and another to where Alphaeus's unconscious body was.
Adina was lifted into the air and suddenly blinked away teleported to the machine.
With the pillar's functionality restored, reality around them began to crumble. Everything was dissolving into black dust and was being pulled up towards the machine.
"I approximate that we have 27 minutes to get out of here before we're erased from existence," Isaiah said somberly. "How the heck do we get out of here?!?" Evan yelled at Isaiah.
"Through that," Isaiah replied pointing to the crack through which the machine had entered. The ground beneath their feet began to crack and Isaiah said, "Quickly!"