Freeing his mind from the illusion as the final essence of Mizuki's mind drifts away, Ryu watches the scorched earth where her body once laid in his arms in the violet patch. Watching the mound of hardening lava and ash sink into the earth, fresh violet that carry her scent bloom anew in her place.
Midnight winds tousle hair against his face as Tsukiyomi says to Ryu within the prison of his own mind, "Binding her to you was a dangerous way of breaking the rules. If you fall, and in her rebirth she rises, her essence will follow you down rather than up to Sanemaru."
"You saw through my eyes as I saw through yours. Every other path she could venture in this life, had I refused her, would have stripped away everything that made her. . . Her."
Feeling his pants unusually restrictive, he looks down at his clothed crotch to see a raging boner unlike any this his host has experienced. Disappointed he didn't have the time to experience Mizuki one, last time in the flesh, Ryu's host dribbles a sizable amount of precum in his pants; the two feels Umeko have an orgasm through Tsukiyomi's senses and his host's entire body tenses.
"That. . .wasn't me," Ryu raises a curious eyebrow at the sight of a stain forming on his pants.
Tsukiyomi informs Ryu, "The vessel of my power's flesh weakened during your invoking of Mizuki's trance. Bound to me, under the essence of your spell, she remains in the hands of Hansuke."
Fuming mad, "WE haven't even tasted her yet! They'd better not be–!"
Disregarding his most loyal servant's prior service, Ryu waves his hand to make a red door of light and steps through the other side, "Naughty, little girl."
Arriving into a crystal cave behind the winged, gray-skinned creature, the dragon-infected Tsukiyomi shoves his taloned hand into Hansuke's back, past the gargoyle's spine, and out through his stomach; blasting through gray skin with cauterizing, glowing claws, the scent of his burning flesh fills the air.
Covering Umeko in splattered blood, the Plum Blossom Child screams bloody murder.
"No!" her shriek of horror echoes through the cave louder than Hansuke's excruciating groan when he looks down to see ivory claws sticking out of his belly. Umeko's exasperation takes her under the water when she momentarily loses the ability to tread water.
Ryu attempts twice to free his hand, learning the wound is already healing around him. Releasing lava that scorches gray flesh, roasting the meat, Hansuke groans and flies away from Ryu's hand.
Just before the gargoyle can flee, Ryu snatches him by one of the wings and flicks him hard enough to break the wing before tossing the wounded creature behind him in her moment of petrification. Hansuke's limp, burned, and bloody form gets hurled far to the other side of the spring with a giant splash.
"No. . .no. . .no," she shakes her head in shock.
Struggling with her limbs to act right and keep her afloat, the girl's mind is on the brink of shattering when gulps at the thought of what Ryu plans on doing to her next.
Holding in the tears of her mind, wanting to clutch at her face to grip a hold of her own sanity, Ryu's, "Hn," nearly sends her under again when she succumbs to her fear.
Watching the bloody body of his freshly unemployed servant float to the surface, glowing red from the lave that has yet to be drowned by the water, "It appears our friend's perspicacious nature was lacking."
Grabbing Umeko by her hair, he drags her through the water until she's back on land. Throwing her down beside her belongings, "Get dressed," he orders viciously annoyed. Just as she ties her gown shut, Hansuke flies out of nowhere and takes off with Ryu in the air.
Watching them punch and wrestle across the open space inside the cave, they throw each other against the spiked crystals overhead; jagged spikes tear through Hansuke's regenerating flesh as Ryu remains unharmed from the quick surfacing of impenetrable scales.
Shrieking, jumping, and cheering in her mind, she roots for Hansuke to escape with his life without Tsukiyomi's body getting hurt really bad while watching the fight. Covering her mouth to keep from screaming, she watches Hansuke encase Ryu in his massive wingspan before turning to stone and plummeting into the middle of the water.
What the--! Oh no!
Rushing to the edge, squinting to see anything under water that bubbles, waves, and rumbles with blasts of red light under the surface, she falls back onto her butt when Hansuke flies out of the water alone to stand confidently in front of her.
Glancing from the water to a heavily breathing Hansuke, his sense of humor remains in tact through coughs as the clawed-open wounds on his face and chest heal while she watches, "Guess he can't cover his lungs in scales."
Preparing to ask if that means he's dead, Panic fills the air when the gargoyle's back suddenly arches and a grimace crosses his face. As she asks if he is alright, Ryu appears behind Hansuke and the dragon's arm plunges out through the other side of the gagoiru's chest.
Grisly, blood-soaked talons, inches from the girl's face, holds a beating heart in devastating clutches.
A horrified, mind-shattering, "No!" echoes through the cave in unison with Hansuke's excruciating scream.
Chuckling sinisterly, Ryu chucks the winged creature hard into the crystal-speared ceiling where he's stabbed all over. Stuck on the clusters of rainbow stones protruding from gray, his lifeless and bloody peels away from the cave's dome to plop down into the water.
Holding the sides of her head, "No. No. No," she shakes it in shock. Holding in the tears of her mind, wanting to pull apart her own face to grip reality, the images of all her dead friends and family rush into her mind all at once.
Ryu brings the blood-soaked claw to his mouth, devouring the hollow organ POPS and CRUNCHES. Licking the viscous material from his skin, Ryu turns and squats to wash his hands and face in the water.
Thinking now's her chance, Umeko races for the only way out; alarm overtakes her efforts to move as far from him as possible when she's yanked by the collar. Looking back, she finds the emperor an arm's length away with air pulling at her clothes to stop her.
Stopping to keep from having her clothes ripped off by the invisible force, she readjusts her dress with a guilty frown when he throws his hands up angrily, "Why?"
Grimacing with a shrug, she avoids eye contact and remains silent.
"Why is it so hard to find a loyal servant these days? The steed, the bear, and now my gargoyle has been eradicated because of You," he growls, pointing at her with a fist, "You are a spear in my hide, girl!"
Repeating his words in her head, she utters in confusion, "The bear? Mizuki is--?"
Bunching her eyebrows, blinking hard with an interrogative stare, "You killed Mizu--how could you?"
Collapsing to her knees, allowing the face of his cruelty to sink in, she grips at the cave floor. Holding herself as close to it as possible, never taking her eyes from him, Umeko finds her grief for the awful woman quite surprising.
Seizing her arm, "She begged for extermination," the very tips of his claws puncture her flesh before receding into dull nails. Drawing red beads that disappear into the red silk of her dress's sleeve, "Since sexual release is what you seek," he rips her dress from her body.
Leaving only the sleeve that is pinned between his grasp and her bleeding arm, "I will leave you to my prisoners," she shivers naked.
Watching try and hide her genitals with one arm, he sneers, "It's the least I could do since they'll be too dead to see your wet ass tomorrow."
Dragging the girl as she wrenches feebly to get away, he heads for the entrance, "Since you can satisfy yourself with strangers' leers, I'll give you an early taste of what's ahead."
Waving his hand to make a red door of light appear, the sharp, promising tone of the Dragon Heika squeezes her insides tighter than his grasp on her arm.
Consumed by lugubrious thoughts, Now what do I do?!