Half of Paula’s body hung from the monster’s dripping jaw.

Her legs kicked weakly, arms flailing as the creature’s throat rippled, pulling her deeper.

Her scream muffled into a sickening gurgle before she disappeared entirely, swallowed into the grotesque mass of flesh that had once been Emma.

Maren stood frozen.

Her lips formed a single, broken word.

"Emma."

The monster’s dozen mismatched eyes turned toward her.

And roared.

The sound split the air, wet and guttural, vibrating through Ronan’s chest.

Then it lunged.

Maren was thrown backward, slamming into the far wall hard enough to crack stone.

Pus, blood, and infection sprayed from the impact, coating the ground in foul-smelling fluids.

She hit the floor gasping, clutching her ribs.

Ronan’s eyes swept the room.

The other cultists – those who had chanted – weren’t human anymore.

Their bodies had long since bulged and twisted, turning them into smaller versions of the disgusting monster Emma had turned into. Arms sprouted from stomachs. Countless eyes lined their skin. Mouths formed where they shouldn’t be.

And they were moving.

Toward him. Toward Aura.

Ronan looked at the only exit.

Blocked.

Three bloated monstrosities filled the doorway, their flesh pressed together disgustingly.

Aura’s voice cut through the chaos.

"We’ll have to fight our way through."

Purple-black demonic energy flared in her palm, no longer hidden.

Her disguise fell, and her blonde hair transformed into pitch black, and her eyes turned deep purple.

But not only that, horns sprouted from her head. She was no longer hiding.

From the corner of his eye, Ronan saw Maren push herself upright, blood streaming from her forehead.

She stared at the massive creature that used to be Emma.

Then charged.

"Emma!"

Idiot.

That monster was far beyond gone.

But the creature hesitated.

Just for a second.

Its dozen eyes blinked unevenly, and its enormous body stopped in its tracks.

Maren saw it too.

Her voice cracked with desperate hope.

"Emma, please– it’s me, it’s–"

The monster roared again.

And attacked.

Maren tried to dodge, twisting her body left–

But the attack clipped her leg.

She spun off balance, hit the ground hard.

Another attack came.

She rolled.

The ground where she’d been shattered, stone exploding into fragments.

Aura released her demonic energy openly now.

The blast tore through several smaller mutated cultists blocking the path, ripping them apart in sprays of pus and mutated flesh.

But they didn’t die cleanly.

The pieces of flesh and limbs started crawling towards each other, like they had a mind of their own, joining back with each other.

They were regenerating.

Aura kept attacking, but the monsters kept regenerating, causing an endless cycle. It didn’t matter how strong she was if they kept regenerating.

His gaze shifted to the ritual circle still glowing faintly on the floor. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The basin.

The strips of cloth pinned to the wall, marked with names, blood.

The offerings.

The ritual was still moving them.

Even with Paula dead, the structure remained, and so did the now-broken ritual.

That’s why they kept regenerating.

Ronan activated [Stealth] and slipped through the chaos, moving low along the wall toward one of the marked cloth strips.

He grabbed it between two fingers.

And burned it.

The fabric blackened, curled, turned to ash.

Across the room, one of the monsters convulsed–

And stopped moving.

It stayed down.

Ronan’s eyes flicked to Aura, who was still cutting down the abominations indiscriminately.

"Aura!"

She glanced back, purple energy crackling around her claws.

"The offerings!" Ronan pointed at the burnt cloth on the ground. "We need to destroy them!"

Aura’s face flickered with realization.

But in that moment of hesitation, dozens of the smaller abominations lunged at her at once, covering her completely in their disgusting flesh.

For a second, Ronan thought she’d been overwhelmed.

However, she soon proved it was a foolish thought.

Purple glass shards – from an unfamiliar spell – exploded outward in all directions.

The creatures shrieked as their bodies were sliced into ribbons, black blood spraying the walls.

Aura stood at the center, eyes glowing faintly violet, demonic energy still radiating from her.

She didn’t waste time.

She darted around the room, tearing cloth strips from the walls, crushing them in bursts of raw power.

Ronan, still cloaked in [Stealth], did the same.

One of the monsters seemed to sense him despite the skill, likely due to his close and lunged.

Ronan turned.

[Fireball].

The flame engulfed it completely.

It fell.

Didn’t regenerate.

Good.

They’d already destroyed its offering.

Slowly, the numbers dwindled.

Fewer monsters. Fewer regenerations.

Until only one remained.

The massive, grotesque thing that had once been Emma.

It was still fighting Maren.

Maren looked bloody now – bruised, limping – but she didn’t give up.

She kept attacking.

Kept calling Emma’s name.

As if saying it enough times would bring her back.

But the monster only roared.

And struck again.

Aura stepped forward.

For Maren, even if she tried her hardest, she would never beat this thing.

But to Aura, this monster was nothing special.

She gathered demonic energy into her palms, and violet-black light spiraled outward like glass before she muttered softly.

"Violet Garden."

Thorns erupted from her fingers.

They shot forward in curving, violent arcs and punctured through the grotesque creature from every angle.

The monster screamed.

It was not a roar this time – it was a wail of pain gurgling through its distorted throat as things spilled from the puncture wounds.

Pus.

Chunks of flesh.

Bubbling rot.

Maren screamed.

"Stop! Please– Emma’s in there, please–"

Her plea’s didn’t sound like she was convincing Aura though, they sounded like she was convincing herself.

Aura didn’t even look at her.

"Your friend is long gone."

Her voice was cold.

She walked closer to the creature, demonic thorns still extending from her fingertips, coiling and uncoiling like serpents.

Maren’s eyes flickered to the horns on Aura’s head, but she didn’t say anything.

"The longer you let her live in this state, the more pain she’s in."

Maren’s knees gave up, and she fell.

Tears poured down her face.

She shook her head, lips trembling, but she didn’t argue.

She knew.

Deep down, she’d known from the moment Emma’s flesh first mutated.

Emma was gone.

Aura’s expression remained flat.

She stepped directly in front of the creature – this thing that used to be Emma – and unleashed a flurry of relentless attacks.

Thorns stabbed through every part of it’s body.

Demonic energy tore through flesh, shredded bone, and ripped apart organs.

Aura didn’t know where the vitals were, so she attacked everything.

Unlike the cultists, Emma didn’t regenerate.

The creature thrashed.

It swung its misshapen limbs wildly, but Aura dodged effortlessly, moving like shadow through the chaos, tearing it apart piece by piece.

Finally, the massive grotesque body stopped moving.

It collapsed with a sickening wet thud.

Maren sobbed over its ruined form.

"I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry–"

She repeated it like a mantra, voice breaking, hands pressed against the ground.

She’d seen Aura’s real form now – the demonic energy, the horns.

But she didn’t care.

She only cried.

Ronan moved toward the exit.

They needed to leave before–

The monster’s stomach bubbled.

A hand burst through the bloated flesh.

Then another.

Maren’s head snapped up, tears still streaming.

She muttered, not believing her eyes.

"Emma...?"

But the figure that crawled out of the split stomach wasn’t Emma.

It was Paula.

She stood slowly, dripping with gore and blood, but her body looked different.

Her skin was too pale. And her eyes were too dull.

Paula’s expression remained completely blank as she turned her head toward all three of them.

And then a male voice spoke from her lips.

"Well, well. Look what we have here."