After Vivienne had taken a moment to indulge in her grotesque sustenance, her cws slick with the remains of the fallen, she rose to her feet with renewed vigor. Her bck eyes glimmered with a wicked iy as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, a macabre smirk curling her bloodied lips.

  “Nothing like a little snack to keep the energy up,” she murmured, her tone casual, almost pyful, as if the age she’d left behind was of no sequence. She stretched, her mutited body shifting with uling cracks and pops as damaged limbs adjusted to her needs. Though battered, her movements had regained a sinister fluidity, a clear signal to her ehat she wasn’t finished yet.

  Renzia, ever silent, stood nearby, her crimson drills gleaming in the faint light. She tilted her head in that peculiar, birdlike manner, as though studying Vivienne’s form with a mix of curiosity and silent approval.

  “Shall we, sweetheart?” Vivienne asked, her voice honeyed as she extended a cw toward the mannequin. “We wouldn’t want to keep our dear host waiting.”

  Without hesitation, Renzia followed, the pair moving through the winding corridors of the keep with an eerie bination of precision and mehe walls seemed to close in around them as the air grew heavier, charged with an almost tangible tension. The further they went, the more apparent it became that the heart of this wretched stronghold was near.

  They entered smaller clusters of resistance as they advanced—lone guards and disanized patrols, clearly remnants of the forces that had already tried and failed to stop them. Vivienne dispatched them with brutal efficy, her cws and remaining limbs carving through armor and flesh like part. Meanwhile, Renzia’s movements were an uling mix of elegand violence, her needles finding oints with surgical precision.

  It wasn’t long before the corridave way to a wider hall, its high ceilings casting ominous shadows in the flickering torchlight. Ahead, a set of massive iron-bound doors loomed, guarded by a small ti of heavily armored soldiers. These were no ordinary guards; their stances were discipliheir ons glowing faintly with the unmistakable hum of ented steel.

  Vivienne paused, her grin widening as she surveyed the se. “Ah, now this is more like it,” she purred, her cing rhythmically against the stone floor. “Think they’ll let us through if we ask nicely?”

  Renzia made no response, but her posture shifted slightly, her needles poised for a while the soldiers brandished their ons.

  Vivienne sighed theatrically. “Guess not. Oh well.”

  Before the soldiers could react, Vivienne sprang forward with shog speed, her cws carving through the air. The guards moved to intercept her, but their ented bdes, while formidable, couldn’t match the relentless ferocity of her attacks.

  Renzia darted around the fray, her movements an uny blur as she slipped through the soldiers’ defenses. Her needles struck with pinpoint accuracy, slig through joints and oints in the ented armor. The soldiers faltered uhe bined onsught, their formation crumbling as Vivienne and Renzia cut through their ranks like a storm of steel and flesh.

  Whe soldier crumpled to the floor, Vivieood before the t double doors, her breath ragged but her grin unwavering. Blood oozed from the torn remains of her limbs, dripping in thick rivulets to pool around her feet. Her cws flexed absently, as if already anticipating the enter.

  Behind her, Renzia stood amidst the age, eerily calm. Her head tilted slightly, her posture radiating an air of waiting—an unwavering, sileinel awaiting her mistress’s and.

  Vivienne cast her a sidelong gnce, her bck eyes glittering with malicious delight. “Well, sweetheart,” she said, voice dripping with anticipation. “Let’s make arahey won’t fet.”

  With a deep breath and a guttural snarl, Vivieed her cws against the iron-bound doors. Her body strained against the weight, but with a sharp cry of effort, the a hinges groaned in protest before the doors swung inward. The force didn’t send them flying, but it was enough to bend one of the hinges out of alig, leaving the massive doors slightly askew.

  The room beyond revealed itself to be a vast, high-ceilinged library. Rows of t bookshelves stretched toward the shadows above, their shelves groaning uhe weight of aomes and scrolls. The st of aged part and ink lingered in the air, almost masking the faint acrid tang of blood and sweat.

  At the ter of the room was a long, regur table, its surfainated by a rge map pinned beh scattered notes, straris, and glowing markers. Gathered around it stood an eclectic mix of individuals.

  Several lekines loomed he edges, their twisted forms casting jagged shadows across the floor. Among them was what Vivienne guessed was a siren—their flowing robes and predatrace remi of the rare few Vivienne had seen in passing ba the cities. A goblin crouched on a high stool, her sharp, rge eyes darting toward the intruders. Most notable, however, were the priests and priestesses, their pristine white-and-gold robes glowing faintly in the dim light, the unmistakable aura of the Aegis Snty surrounding them like an oppressive weight.

  The group froze, their gazes snapping toward the ruined doorway as Vivieepped into the room. The silehat followed was deafening, broken only by the faint drip of blood from Vivienne’s cws onto the polished stone floor.

  Vivienne’s grin widened, her arms spreading wide like a showman anding the stage, her tone dripping with mockery and menace. “Well, little morsels,” she purred, her voice slithering through the air like smoke, “I have finally arrived.”

  She strode into the room with a predator’s fidence, her blood-soaked cws glinting in the dim light. She dragged her pitch-bck tongue nguidly along one cw, sav the taste with an exaggerated hum as her steps echoed across the library’s polished floor.

  Her bck eyes swept over the gathering, pausing briefly on each figure—a flicker of disdain for the goblin’s nervous fidgeting, a spark of curiosity for the siren’s poised stillness, and a lingering gre for the priests who instinctively stepped back. Finally, her gaze nded on the lekianding closest to the table, their misshapen forms t over the others.

  “Whie of you,” she began, her voice almost pyful, “is Skoll Rathik? I have a date with him, you see.” She tilted her head, her grin sharp and predatory.

  One of the lekiepped forward, his ed features twisted into something resembling a smirk. His voice was deep and gravelly, carrying a mixture of pride and disdain. “I am Skoll Rathik,” he said, spreading his arms as if to embrace her attention. “And you must be Lady Ravanyr’s new pet.”

  Vivienne’s grin widened, radiating a twisted glee. “Pet?” she repeated, her voice dripping with mock offense as she pced a cwed hand dramatically against her chest. “Well, that’s quite the introdu. But I suppose it fits, given your pent for betrayal.”

  Rathik’s sneer deepened, his misshapen form bristling. “Watch your tongue, creature. I owe the Serkoth hing but disdain. You think I’ve betrayed Rava? No. You ’t betray something you never respected.”

  Vivienne blinked, her grin faltering for a moment as she stared at him in exaggerated disbelief. “I ’t believe you just admitted to it that easily. That’s... really not how these things usually go.”

  Rathik grumbled, his voice rising in irritation. “That’s because—”

  “YOU AREN’T GETTING OUT OF HERE ALIVE!” Vivieerrupted, mimig his gravelly toh uling accuracy. Her glee alpable, her voice ringing out as she waved a cw theatrically in his dire. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it? e on, don’t leave me hanging!”

  Rathik’s expression darkened, his lips curling in frustration as his jaw ched.

  “Oh, this is fantastic,” Vivienne tinued, her grin growing wider, her fangs gleaming in the dim light. She gestured to the room at rge, turning to address the gathered priests and soldiers. “Tell me—has he ever said ‘You have failed me for the st time’ before? Be ho!”

  A feard gnces passed betweehered individuals, the flicker nition on their faces betraying them. Vivie out a fit of giggles, doubling over as if she’d just heard the most delightful joke. “Oh, he has! That’s priceless!”

  Rathik’s growl was low and menag, his fists g as he took a step forward. “You i little—”

  “WORM!” Vivieerrupted again, holding up a cw to stop him. “Oh wait—how about ‘You’ll regret crossing me’? No, no, I’ve got it: ‘Bow before your true master!’”

  The sheer absurdity of her mockery broke the tension for a moment, fusion rippling through the room as even the goblin couldn’t suppress a nervous chuckle.

  Rathik snarled, his patienapping as he raised a cwed hand to silence her ond for all. “Enough of this! I’ll—”

  “Die like all the rest!” Vivienne finished for him, her grin turning savage as she lunged forward with blinding speed. Her cws tore into his midse before he could finish his threat, red blood spttering across the stone floor.

  The room erupted into chaos as Rathik roared in pain, clutg his wound as Vivienne’s ughter filled the air. “Oh, darling,” she purred, her voice as sharp as her cws, “you really should have seen that ing.”

  The gathered soldiers and priests sprang into a, ons drawn and spells f as the battle began in ear. Vivienne’s bck eyes gleamed with manic delight as she prepared to carve her way through the opposition.

  The room exploded into chaos as Vivienne’s grin only widened, her bloodied cws twitg with anticipation. The first knight charged her with a feral shout, his bde gleaming with secrated light. She sidestepped the strike with inhuman agility, grabbing his arm mid-swing and twisting it with a siing crack. His scream was short-lived as she drove her cws into his chest, hurling him into a nearby priest and sending them both sprawling.

  Behind her, Rathik growled, rising shakily to his feet. “Yant monster—”

  Vivieurned her head sharply, fshing him a fanged grin. “Wait your turn, darling.”

  A nce of searing light shot toward her, a priest’s t eg through the chamber. Vivienne shifted, her ashen flesh rippling like water as her lithe frame grew bulkier and more robust. Her colossus form emerged, t above the batants as the light struck her chest, scorg her but failing to pierce her thied hide. She she wound smoking, before sweeping a massive cwed hand through a group of soldiers. Their cries were cut short as they were crushed against a bookshelf, splinters and blood flying in all dires.

  A siren raised her hands, her song a haunting melody that filled the room with an oppressive weight. Vivienne’s movement slowed, her limbs growing heavy as the siren’s magic took hold. “You’ll regret—”

  “Wrong,” Vivieerrupted with a guttural roar, smming a massive hand onto the floor. The impact shattered stone and bookshelves alike, the shockwave sending the siren tumbling backward. With a growl, Vivienne’s form rippled again, shrinking into her drider shape. Her eight limbs scuttled along the walls, her movements now ulingly quid precise.

  The siren barely had time to rise before Vivienne on her, a sticky web shooting from her abdomen to pin her against the wall. “Don’t worry, darling,” she purred, her fangs inches from the siren’s face. “You’ll still be beautiful ih.” Her cws sshed once, sileng the melody forever.

  The priests redoubled their efforts, glyphs glowing as they unleashed a barrage of holy light. Vivienne hissed as the beams struck her legs, severing two in an instant. She staggered, bck ichor spttering across the ground, but her fury only burned hotter.

  “Renzia!” Vivienne barked, her voice cutting through the chaoti.

  The mannequin sprang into motion, her body a blur of angur movements. Her needles fshed as she closed in on her first target, a priest hastily f a protective spell. Renzia’s needle sshed upward, severing the tendons in his wrist and causing his glowing hands to falter. She spun with her usual meical precision, driviher needle into the back of his leg, sending him crashing to the ground with a pained cry.

  As she moved to disengage, her foot caught on the edge of his fallen staff, sending her into a stumble. Renzia wobbled, her head twitg rapidly as though recalibrating, befaining her bah an awkward hop.

  A sed priest lu her with a glowing dagger, emboldened by her apparent misstep. Renzia’s head tilted sharply, and she moved to ter, but her needle snagged on a loose strand of her dress mid-swing. The priest’s bde grazed her shoulder, slig through the fabrid leaving a faint mark on the wood beh. Renzia froze for a moment, as if processing the insult to her appearance, before yanking the needle free and driving it upward with sudden, brutal precision. The dagger cttered to the floor as the priest slumped against her, lifeless.

  A soldier charged from her left, his halberd raised high. Renzia turned sharply to face him, her movements jerky as she adjusted for her earlier clumsiness. She ducked under his swing, but misjudged the angle and stumbled sideways, crashing into a small table. The table toppled, scattering dles and scrolls across the floor.

  The soldier hesitated for a split sed, startled by the blunder. Renzia capitalized on his hesitation, springing back to her feet and closing the distah a single leap. Her needle sshed across his chest, carving through the leather of his armor and drawing a dark line of blood.

  Another priest ted furiously, light gathering in her hands. Renzia turoward the sound, but her foot caught on a discarded tome, sending her careening sideways into a bookshelf. The impact sent books tumbling down around her, one even boung off her head with a hollow thunk.

  For a moment, Renzia stood there, surrounded by the mess, her head tilted in what might have been fusion. Then, as if nothing had happened, she stepped out of the pile and dashed toward the priest. She vaulted over a broken chair with surprising grading behiarget. A quick, precise jab of her needle silehe priest mid-intation, the light fading from her hands.

  From across the room, Vivienne ughed. “Oh, darling, you’re a disaster! But it’s w, so keep at it!”

  Renzia turned her head toward Vivieilting it slightly before tinuing her methodical culling of their enemies, her meical elegance marred only occasionally by her endearing mishaps.

  Vivienne’s ughter died into a feral grin as her attention snapped back to the swirling chaos arouhe room had bee a storm of fshing bdes, burning spells, and cries of pain. It erfect.

  “Time to up the ante,” she muttered, her bck eyes gleaming with savage delight.

  Vivienne lu the knight, dodging his swing with predatrace. Her cws fshed as she sshed through his armor, the force of her strike sending him sprawling. She pounced on him before he could recover, sinking her cws deep into his chest and tearing free with a siing ch.

  Another soldier came at her from the side, his spear thrusting toward her midse. She twisted, catg the oween her cws and snapping it in half with ease. Her free hand shed out, grabbing the man by the throat. “You should’ve brought a bigger stick,” she purred before flinging him across the room like a rag doll.

  Her ears caught the telltale hum of a spell charging. Vivienne spun just as a priest unleashed a bolt of searing dawher. She barely dodged in time, the light grazing her side and scorg her flesh. A hiss of pain escaped her lips, but her grin only widened.

  “Oh, you’ve got bite,” she growled, closing the distan a heartbeat. The priest tried to form another spell, but Vivienne was faster. Her cws pierced through his robes, sileng him permaly.

  From her periphery, she spotted a goblin scrambling toward the table, clutg a relic adorned with glowing runes. “No, no, no!” Vivieaunted, leaping onto the table and sending maps and tris flying. “Not like this!” she mogly cried as she desded upon the goblin like a shadow, her cws slig through the air. She shrieked, but it was cut short as Vivienne’s strike hit home.

  A sudden surge of heat made her snap her head around. Another siren had ehe fray, her hands wreathed in fmes as she sang an a, haunting melody. The sou a ripple through the air, eaote burning into Vivienne’s ears. She staggered, her vision blurring slightly as the magic of the song took hold.

  “Oh, that’s clever,” Vivietered, shaking her head as if to dislodge the sound. “But I hate clever.”

  Vivienne snarled, shaking her head violently as the siren’s haunting song drilled into her mind, its melody twisting and burning. Her body responded instinctively, her flesh rippling and t in grotesque shifts.

  “You like music?” she hissed, her voice low and guttural. “Then you’ll love this.”

  Her torso swelled as her shoulders split apart, giving way to six long, musecks, each ed with a savage head. Her existing tail thied aended, its spiked tip smming into the stone floor with a deafening crack. Her limbs morphed, being powerful legs tipped with talons capable of rending steel. Ebony scales spread across her body, gleaming like polished onyx uhe dim light.

  The siren faltered mid-note, her fiery aura sputtering out as Vivienne’s hydra form fully maed. All six heads let out a cacophony of roars, their bined voices reverberating through the chamber like an unholy symphony.

  “Run,” hissed one head, its jaws snapping shut with a thunderous cck.“Hide,” growled another, its forked tongue flig through the air.“her will save you,” purred a third, its tone dripping with malice.

  The siren screamed as one of Vivienne’s heads lunged, fangs bared. She narrowly avoided the attack, diving to the side, but another head struck with terrifying speed, g ont. With a violent twist, it sent her flying into a row of bookshelves, the aomes colpsing around her in a cloud of dust.

  The remaining clergy and knights scrambled troup, their formation fracturing uhe weight of terror. One priest mao jure a shield of holy light, but Vivienne’s tral head smmed into it, shattering the barrier with a single, brutal strike. Another head followed, its jaws closing around the priest’s midse and sileng his cries in an instant.

  Across the room, Renzia tinued her chaotic battle, weaving through the fray with meical grace, though her movements were not without fws. She stumbled over a shattered table, her foot catg awkwardly before she corrected herself, but not before toppling a knight in the process. As he tried to recover, her needle-like fingers pierced his throat, an uional precision that left the enemy lifeless on the ground.

  From her vantage, Vivienne’s tral head turo observe Renzia’s awkward yet effective assault. “You’re doing great, sweetie!” the head hissed with a hint of amusement. Another head let out a hissing ugh.

  The chaotic sughter came to a halt as the air suddenly grew dense, a deep hum reverberating through the room. All six of Vivienne’s heads turned simultaneously toward the far wall as a swirling vortex of bd gold light began to form.

  The portal expanded, and from it stepped a figure cloaked in long, flowing robes, their features hiddeh a hood. A faiallic glint caught the light where their face should have been. The figure exuded an air of cold authority, their movements unnervingly smooth and deliberate.

  “Meddlers,” the figure said, their voice metallid reverberant, cutting through the chaos like a bde. “You’ve done enough damage for one day.”

  Vivienne’s heads tilted in unison, her multiple voices harmonizing in a low, threatening growl. “And who might you be?” one head demanded.

  “A snack?” Asked another.

  “Or a pything?” another added, its jaws snapping eagerly.

  The figure ignored her taunts, raising a robed hand as golden light enveloped the injured clergy and knights still ging to life. Their wounds began to knit together, and their terror-stri forms steadied as the light bolstered them.

  Vivienne’s heads snarled, and her cws gouged deep grooves into the stoh her. “Oh, this will be fun,” one head sneered.

  “Stop pying healer,” another hissed, “and fight me already!”

  The figure turoward her, their hand still aglow. “You are a blight upon this world,” they iheir voice steady. “But your time will e. This may not be your hour to fall as I am not powerful enough, but my sister is, and she has your st.”

  Vivienne lunged, her six heads surging forward with jaws wide open, but the figure made a swift gesture, juring a barrier of golden light that threw her back with a deafening impact. She hissed in frustration, her heads snapping at the shimmering wall.

  The figure lowered their hand, and a crackle of swirling energy began to form within their palm, its light shiftiween bd gold. The air crackled with raw power as the figure’s presence grew even more oppressive.

  With a siion, the figure hurled the orb forward, and a wave of pure aether burst through the room like a tidal wave, its energy dist the very fabric of reality. The raw power, both beautiful and terrifying, struck Vivienne square in the body with a sound that seemed to tear the very air apart.

  The bst tore into her form, sending waves of searing pain through her body. Her heads filed and hissed in agony, the scales along her six heads ing and crag uhe energy’s assault. Her cws dug into the stone floor as she tried to resist the overwhelming force, but it surged through her body, twisting her senses and corrupting her form.

  Her vision blurred, the edges of her sciousness ing as she struggled to maintain her grip oy. The aetherium was rewriting everything—her body, her existence—pushio the brink of something far darker. It was as if the world was erasing her, f her into oblivion. But Vivienne fought it.

  Her six heads shrashing in desperation as the power tio tear through her. Her hydra form writhed, the energy singing through her veins, yet she refused to colpse.

  Through the pain, she felt something—someone—moving through the room with purpose. A dark silhouette moving in the periphery of her vision. It was the figure that had summohe destructive spell, and their focus shifted. But they were not alone.

  A sudden fsh of light caught Vivienne’s attention as a new presence ripped through the fabric of reality. A portal opened—a swirling vortex of dark energy—and a figure emerged. This one was different—warrior-like in their posture, shrouded in shadows, their movements swift and decisive. Vivienne reised it, like it was instinctual. She knew what it felt like to witness someoh a mark on their soul from a god now that her pool was a bit rger. They were a champion, unmistakably.

  As the portal widehe champion wasted no time. They moved directly to the surviving priests and soldiers, their powerful form cutting through the room like a shadow in the night. One by ohey gathered the survivors—the Aegis priests, the goblin, and the siren—each of them looking battered but alive, their faces filled with desperation.

  The figure held out their hand, a soft intation on their lips, and the space around them began to ripple with energy. Before Vivienne could react, a surge of light enveloped the survivors, and they began to fade from sight, whisked away through the portal with a force that kept them safe from Vivienne’s fury.

  The champion, standing tall and impervious, looked briefly toward Vivieh an almost disied ghey had seen her survive the strike, and though they didn't speak, their expression hi an aowledgment of her resilience.

  Vivienne’s jaws snapped as the st of the survivors vanished, frustration burning in her chest. But she couldn’t afford to focus on that. Her body—her form—was still being ravaged by the aether, and though her regeion was w tirelessly to heal her, it was a slow battle.

  "You escape now," Vivienne growled, her voice loained as she regained some sembnce of trol. "But you won’t always have that advantage."

  The portal flickered, closing slowly as the champion’s final gnce held a ess that sent a chill through Vivienne's battered form.

  The room fell silent for a moment, the weight of the battle hanging heavy in the air. Vivienne, barely holding her form together, stood tall, her six heads hissing in defiance. "I’ll hunt you all down," she muttered, her words drenched in venom. "You run. But you won’t hide forever."

  With that, the st flicker of the portal vanished into nothingness, leaving Vivienne alone once more, the chamber silent save for the sound of her breathing, her body still healing as the damage from the reality ing spell began to slowly repair itself.

  SupernovaSymphony