Eliza had felt the tremors for a while now. They had been tiny at first, little quivers. She had assigned them to distant explosions initially, knowing that the enemy was assaulting the Guild Hall. Now, they had become too numerous, too intense and, most importantly, too long lasting to still be coming from mere explosions. Something was going on outside. Far away.

“What is bothering you?” Eliza raised her head from between her knees, cowered together on the floor as she was. What met her was the concerned face of Mabirl. The woman was bent forwards, the plague doctor mask in hand, her black, curly hair was falling. “You have been silent this entire time,” the housewife continued in a motherly voice. “So, something is clearly wrong, want to talk about?”

“No, fuck off,” Eliza hissed back and immediately regretted it. Her lips pressed together and the muscles in her jaw tensed as she placed her chin on her knee and stared forwards. There was no need to treat Mabirl that harshly. If he was here, John would scold her. Regardless of that, her jaw stayed shut. Her teeth even began to ache when the Fateweaver’s wife smiled so kindly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” Mabirl simply stated as she slowly sat down on the ground opposite of Eliza, forcing the angry stare of the moody psycho to be directed at her face again.

“You shouldn’t be nice to me, I hate people,” Eliza grumbled, as another quiver went through the ground.

“I raised two daughters, you’re not going to get rid of me with some bad words and unsteady behaviour,” Mabirl responded. “So, tell me, what is wrong?”

“I…” Eliza took a sharp breath. She didn’t know what she hated more. That she was so easily manipulated with kindness or that she even saw kindness as something to be manipulated by. “Ah fuck,” she cussed. “Sorry that I am being this shitty… I just really hate to talk to people I don’t know…”

“Don’t worry, just say what is bothering you, in whatever way you find most comfortable.”

“It’s just…” another tremor, “…I feel so fucking useless. Like some sort of invincible clown standing in some sort of trench in the Great War, getting shot into pieces over and over again while doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing of note.”

“I’m sure John thinks you’re very important,” Mabirl tried to ease that thought.

“Yeah, for no fucking reason that asshole thinks a cumdump like me is actually more than the trash he should feed me…” Eliza smiled while thinking of the Gamer. “But that doesn’t change the fact that all of them are doing SOMETHING useful and I…” She suddenly laughed way too loudly. “…I’m sitting on my stupidly fat ass again, wasting oxygen! And I don’t even know why! I’m sure I could fight again, Thana pissed off into some corner of my soul, so why am I sitting here throwing around verbal shit like some sort of mixture of cricket and dung beetle?!”

Mabirl didn’t say anything, just looked at Eliza as she scratched at the stone floor.

“I know that fucking guy worries about me, that’s a reason,” the blood mage continued her grumbling. “That’s not the main thing… everytime I try to do something good, I hurt someone. Literally every fucking time. I’m afraid that it’ll happen again and that I’ll go too fucking far one time… that I just won’t be able to control myself and then this entire fucking life I currently have breaks into so many shards that no amount of trying will put it together. All I’ll have is even bloodier hands...”

Finally, Eliza had no more to say and just buried her head between her legs again. “But what do you want to do?” Mabirl asked.

“I don’t fucking know,” Eliza answered and screamed into the tiny darkness she made between her legs and torso. “I am so fucking strong, this stupid shit that is my life made that much possible, I want to use it but I fucking can’t!”

“Eliza,” the housewife spoke clearly. “You want to be a mother, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what the biggest burden of a mother is?”

“Giving birth is supposed to hurt like an absolute fucking truck, so I guess that,” she answered, peeking over her kneecaps. Her joke didn’t find any reception, Mabirl stayed serious.

“It’s that you have to take the risk of giving your child to the world. The world is cruel, unpredictable and vast. Still, you have to send your child out and you have to watch and stay out of its way, otherwise they won’t learn to walk. Do you understand?”

“Life is full of uncertainties?” Eliza asked, kind of getting where this was going. “And I have to face that shit?” She had heard and understood that numerous times before and, once again, she found herself unable to accept it.

“And some things just will fail. You will feel awful about it, there is no way around it. You’re a smart girl, you know that.” Mabirl reached out to the blood mage and gently caressed her face. “Right now, you not doing anything could cause things to go horribly wrong. You going out there could also cause things to go horribly wrong. If your head can’t come to a logical decision, go with your heart. Do you want to feel useless or do you want to worry John? Do you want to see things you care being destroyed or are you willing to potentially do harm yourself? Do you want to be safe and sheltered or do you want to risk and learn?”

Eliza took a deep breath and made her decision.

____________________________________________________________________________

With closed eyes, Eliza stepped through the tunnel that lead out of the Guild Heart chamber. Unlike Rave, she had been able to remember the passcode, albeit she had the same administrative rights to open and close things as the Lightbearer. All damage the Guild Hall map showed so far were affecting the Silicate Island. Until that changed, Eliza had to rely on her senses to find the source.

‘Maybe I should turn around after all…’ she caught herself thinking, doubt gnawing at her. ‘What if Thana is fucking with me? Maybe she is just letting me be happy so my guard is down… No, stop, you absolute idiot, that bitch has locked herself deep in our soul. She can’t get out. She can’t. She’ll stay in.’ No matter how often she repeated variations of this, she couldn’t quite believe it. At least she had a task to occupy herself with.

For the moment, the tremors’ source was too far away to make a clear guess. Her senses were beyond superhuman, but even she couldn’t accurately make out the place of origin for a tremor that seemingly spread over the entire island. What she could do was slowly approach the issue. Once outside the tunnels, she walked north.

That turned out to be a lucky pick. Every few metres, she could feel the trembling stronger under her boots. Granted, the regular pulses also made it easier for her to check her directions every few seconds. From north, to north-west, to north-north-west, she specified her direction. The more certain she became, the quicker she walked, until she ran at a moderate pace.

Aside from the one elite that Rave was fighting, there had been no other enemy sighted on the entire island. As such, all soldiers had left and only Sentry Golems were patrolling the area. They were everywhere, except for that one place that Eliza soon realized that she was getting into.

The Midnight Forest, she had visited it just earlier today with John and the others. She had also been there yesterday, helping to put the bed in the place Siena wanted. At that time, it had seemed like a dark forest with an odd sky, earlier today, it had been a creepy fantasy wood, and now it was just eerily silent.

All except for the tremors. So close to the source, they felt like proper earthquakes. Only minor ones, nothing that would cause a grown person to fall, but enough to make a glass of water slide off a table. Subsequently, also enough to shake the leaves of the trees, creating a steady rustling, as if heavy winds were blowing through the canopies.

There were no fairies to be seen. All the changes they had made to the plant life were still present. The living waterpark of sap and bark was still right where Sylph had played with it earlier. Another tremor, from Eliza’s left. ‘Where that creepy ass dancer was,’ she realized, and quickly weaved through trees, the black robe fluttering behind her. The smell of ash filled her nose.

The trees soon cleared, leaving access to the valley between the two downsized mountains where wood had been twisted into a circular labyrinth. A labyrinth that no longer existed. All that was left were charred branches, sticking into the air. They had been smoothly cut, but the sliced areas were steadily burning. Eliza walked through a trench towards the sole possible perpetrator.

He had the stature of a strongman. He was tall and muscular, but not in a lean way. Arms and belly, especially, were buffed up to an imposing stature. Most of his black hair was combed backwards and a salt and pepper beard of crinkly volume hid most of his face and a fair bit of his neck. A large nose split blue eyes, surrounded by wrinkles. In one arm, that man held a massive axe, the black and red weapon resting on his shoulder; the other was choking Methenia. The man reminded her of someone she wanted to forget.

Even struggling, it seemed the unnatural urge to dance consumed the fairy. There was a melody in the way she threw her arms and legs around. Several gashes on her body had been stapled shut with large rose thorns that grew out of her flesh, if she even had any. Bored, the man turned to look at Eliza.

“Ah, the creature,” the man exclaimed, just as another tremor went through the island. The source was right under their feet. Something was growing in the earth. A deposit of something. Something hot.

“The only fucker that can give me names is John, so take that ‘creature’ shit and shove it where it belongs?!” Eliza growled, taking a deep breath and assuming a martial art pose that Rave had taught her. The movement felt mechanical. Well trained, but still clunky. She hadn’t fought in months. Not as herself, anyway. All she had was some minor sparring and punching a sandbag. “Let her go.”

“For all I care.” The man tossed Methenia to the side like a pebble; the fairy flew far, almost colliding with the side of the mountain, were it not for Eliza running over and catching her. Whatever she thought of that ‘woman’ herself, the blood mage knew that Methenia was part of John’s property now – and that was what Eliza had come to protect.

The hand that had held Methenia formed a claw and pulled back. Spikes of stone suddenly grew out of the mountain and pierced Eliza’s back. One of them tore a big hole the size of a fist through where her liver should be.

“You say you are no creature, but humans don’t survive that,” the man stated dismissively.

“Humans also don’t command stone to form into sharp spikes, you decrepit mongoloid,” Eliza cussed back. With sheer force, she moved away from the mountain and carefully placed the fairy down. While pulling the spikes out of her body, Eliza noticed that Methenia was dancing back towards the broken labyrinth. “Can you get the fuck out of here, please?!”

“I must oversee the court,” the daughter of Titania declared without a second thought.

Grabbing her by the shoulder, the blood mage growled. “Your court is out of session.”

“You have no authority to declare this.”

“Thornefucker, I’m the future mother of your ‘Earl’s’ children! Get the fuck out of here or I will just murder you myself so I don’t have to worry about your dumbass,” Eliza half-screamed.

Whether it was the threat or the invoked authority of John, Methenia obeyed with a sudden twist in her movements. Half a pirouette turned her around and she danced off. The invader just watched all of this, obviously caring more about the thing he was actually doing. Another tremor shook the trees.

“Alright, now I can fuck you up,” Eliza growled and charged at her enemy. Straight-up, no tricks needed, her superior power should have easily handed her the victory in a few moments.

Instead, it was Eliza who found herself too slow to react when the man raised his axe. It descended on her slowly. She could see the shifting of the starlight on its polished, red edge. Hear the howling as it cut through the air. Her perception was as sharp as ever. ‘Why the fuck am I so slow?!’ she thought, and the answer came immediately from the corners of her mind. ‘Because I am still afraid.’

The axe split her clean in half. Every crack of her bones, every bit of her brain squashed, her muscles torn and her tissues ruptured, she felt in real time. Unpleasant, painful, but not exactly bothersome for the blood mage, who had gotten used to so much worse.

Although her active power was inhibited by her current paranoia, her regeneration was as potent as ever. By the time the axe crashed into the floor between her legs, her body had already regenerated. Split clothes fell to the side as Eliza threw her punch in reckless abandon. The man caught it in his hand without a problem. Her fist looked so small in his bearpaw of a hand. It reminded Eliza of something unpleasant.

“The footage I saw of you made you seem so much more threatening, but the Gamer was always good at information warfare,” the man said, their locked fists trembling. Eliza was still pushing, but it didn’t amount to anything. “You’re strong,” he did admit, “but you aren’t as strong as me. I am Lakamun, strongest of the Lake Alliance. And you, creature,” he raised his axe with a grim expression, “are unlucky that I am the one of us who will hurt this upstart in his ambitions and pride however I desire.”

The thorn that ended the shaft of the axe at the head end was pointed at the ground and Lakamun rammed it into the floor. A massive shockwave rippled out, uprooted nearby trees and quaked the entire island. At the centre of it all, the ground under both of their feet gave away, crumbled into what the invader had been preparing underneath.

Glowing orange magma spluttered into the air as the rock, dirt and wood fell into it. Lakamun stood on the surface as if it was solid ground, unbothered by the heat. None of which were luxuries Eliza had. She fell, her naked back was immediately seared by the molten rock. With a mere gesture, the Lake Alliance’s strongest made the lava swallow her.