The sword struck true.
Like a hot blade through wax, it sheared cleanly through the harp and string. For a moment, nothing changed. Then the sword began to crumble, light flaking from its edge as if eaten from within, and the harp's strings snapped one by one with sharp, brittle twangs.
As the last string broke, Elizabeth's mind jolted, yanked from the devouring fog.
The weight in her skull vanished. For the first time since she had set foot in the city, the thoughts in her head were entirely her own. Her mouth obeyed her again. She could feel the distant tug of that other mind, reaching for her, trying to become whole again, but she hesitated, refusing the link just in case.
[Your memory has been destroyed.]
She snapped out of her thoughts and dragged her gaze back to Rethen.
It had not moved. It stared at the vanishing sword and the ruined harp with an expression of disbelief. Slowly, very slowly, its head turned. When its eyes met hers, madness stared back, a raw burning fury, and something wild and desperate crossed it's eyes.
"Die." It said softly
Elizabeth's heart missed a beat as pressure crashed over her like a falling ocean. Her lungs seized, forcing out all the air inside them. She tried to draw breath and could not. It felt as if the very air had become too heavy to pull in. She gritted her teeth and had no choice but to reconnect both minds. Yet when she forced the reconnection, her sense told her that the air had not suddenly grown heavy at all, it was still normal.
'He is not crushing my body,' she realized. 'He is crushing something else...my soul!'
"Die!"
The pressure multiplied, slamming her to her knees, and a burning-hot pain flared at her very core.
'W-What is happening? I thought it was weakened'
This was not part of the plan. She had believed that severing the harp that controlled her would free her. She had known it would still be dangerous after wards she also had known that it had been severely weakened and knew that the next fight was not going to be easy, but she had never expected to be overwhelmed this fast.
'W-where was this strength when I attacked it?'
She forced her head up to look at it. That's when she noticed something.
Rethen did not look unscathed; it was not in the best condition either. Whatever it was doing seemed to be a last-ditch effort. The human softness it had gained earlier, when one seal had been broken, was gone. Stone crept back over its form, its features hardening until it looked more like a statue than a living god. Worse, its body was shrinking. She could see it happening, as if some invisible hand were carving pieces of it away. It was burning its own essence to reach her and destroy her soul.
"DIE!"
The force on her soul spiked into agony. Her being shook under it and then, despite everything, she laughed.
Rethen had not outright tried to kill her before, since it needed her to be free; instead, it had tried taking over her mind in order to control her and achieve its goal, but now things where different. It was blinded by rage, and anger, and saw her as nothing but a nuisance.
Rethen would have been freed anyway without her help. Koven had said that without the sorcery, the giants could not keep a sacred being like Rethen chained for long, even by using their souls. It had only sought to use her to free itself sooner, but now that it could no longer control her, what was the point of keeping someone around who could repower the sorcery?
She now realized what that blinding light she had seen at the start of the nightmare truly was, it had been Rethen's release. His full divine form had been on display, but due to how vast and powerful it was, her mind had failed to comprehend it.
"Rethen," she rasped, "you cannot erase my soul. Why? Let's just say your mother loves me more than you, and i have received her blessings."
He howled, a ragged, beast-like sound, and for a moment, her soul was almost extinguished. Her [Spirited] attribute was working overtime, straining to holding her together from the soul attack. Without it she would have been a hollow already. She gritted her teeth and tried her best to reopen the wound on her palms by clenching her fist and digging her finger nails into her skin, and soon she did it. Warm blood spilled over her fingers and fell onto the golden deck.
The ship blazed.
Light roared along its surface. The assault on her soul snapped off, cut clean.
Elizabeth collapsed forward, gulping air, then doubled over coughing. When she could move, she fumbled for another marble, shoved it into her mouth, and felt it melt, as the cool and clear, spread through her body and mind. Some of the trembling in her being eased.
She pushed herself upright and looked at Rethen.
It was small now.
No longer a towering god-statue, but a child-sized figure chained by a golden chains that had shrunk with it. The sight might have been pitiable, if not for the pure malice carved into its face.
"Die!"
The word came out in a high, shrill voice.
Elizabeth stared at the source of her nightmare, rage, hatred and smiled. a slow and bright smile.
She gathered her strength and walked toward the center of the crater, summoning another of Rethen's finger-swords as she went. She did not stop until only a few feet separated them.
"Die! Child of the sea!" It screamed but nothing happened. There was no pressure or the crushing weight she had felt earlier. Just the echo of its shriek in the air.
Elizabeth raised her sword and settled into a stance. Rethen's rage twisted his face.
"Do you know who I am?" it screamed. "I am Rethen the Disaster-Born, Herald of Disaster, son of the goddess of black skies and Nether, daemon of destiny. I am the finest of his creations. I will not be slain by the likes of you!"
Its childlike body swelled, it's muscles thickening under it's stone like skin. Then it lunged.
To human eyes, it moved like lightning. Its fist drove straight for her gut.
Elizabeth slipped aside just as Rethen's fist tore through the space where her ribs had been an instant earlier. The punch carried enough force to crack the air itself, a violent gust whipping her hair across her face as stone knuckles blurred past her body. She let the momentum drag the creature forward and slashed for its arm.
Sensing the danger, it snapped the limb back by a hair's breadth, then unleashed a storm of punches at her vitals. One punch drove toward her throat, another toward her heart, a third arcing low for her stomach. Each strike came with monstrous speed, and heavy enough that the golden deck groaned beneath its footing. The golden chains wrapped around its limbs rattled wildly with every motion, clashing like furious bells.
If any of those punches landed, she knew she would die.
From the first strike, Elizabeth's mind had snapped into a higher gear, her focus becoming laser-sharp.
With two minds focusing on one the fight, her awareness doubled as well as her reflexes. One mind was tracking her opponent, registering how it moved, the rhythm of its attacks. The other locked onto the small details that she would have normally missed or simply dismissed. She could see the moment tension went through it's stone like muscles, she could see the faint shifts it went through before each blow. It was as if the world seemed to slow down.
Although it was her first time fighting an opponent with so many limbs, her mind kept track of each one. She moved with minimal effort, tilting and pivoting, always letting each punch miss her by inches. When Rethen tried to catch her off guard, she was already aware of it and reacted before it had even finished the thought. Her blade swung to exploit the tiny opening that appeared each time it happened.
'What is this sensation…?'
The world felt wrong in a good way. Its pace was the same, and yet she saw more of each moment. She could predict what Rethen was about to do before each blow, some part of her already knew where it would land.
The sensation was new. She had sparred with her brother in order to get used to her body, she had spend a few hours while walking here, getting used not having an arm anymore, and learning how to move with one arm and a different center of gravity. yet she had never felt this way before, this...focused. Maybe because unlike sparring with her brother or Tessie, this was a life-or-death battle. A single mistake was all it took for her to die.
Her second mind was fixed on her senses, catching every twitch. When its statue like muscles coiled, she saw it. When its weight shifted, she heard it through the deck. From those tiny cues, her mind spun out dozens of possible attacks and chose the likeliest one.
Even with Rethen's inhuman speed, the combined reflexes of both minds let her move before the punch fully formed.
'This feeling… I like it.'
Rethen snarled and pushed harder, its speed reaching new heights. Its fists blurred as they drove toward her vital points, this time mixing in feints that almost caught her off guard on occasion. Her mind screamed into overdrive as she slipped past strike after strike. She could not afford to block any of the attacks launched at her; she could already feel the overwhelming difference in strength between herself and Rethen.
One fist grazed her cheek. A line opened along her skin, and droplets of blood spattered the on the golden deck. it was bound to happen eventually, she was still not used to her body, and with an arm gone, balance had become an issue as well.
"Urgh."
The sound came from Rethen.
The chain at its arms and ankles flared with a golden light. It staggered due to the sudden weakness it felt.
Elizabeth did not waste that instant.
Her sword hissed through the air, but Rethen twisted in a fluid bowing motion and sprang backward at the last possible second, barely escaping decapitation. She let it retreat and reset her stance.
'Even with this new perspective… Rethen is simply too strong. It's only a matter of time before i get to injured to fight.'
The misstep she had made irritated her, but the sight of her own blood effects calmed her down a little. At least that had gone in her favor. She had considered simply bleeding until it grew weak enough, but she had already lost too much blood and was starting to feel lightheaded. Any more, and she was not sure she would survive.
She studied it.
'For someone who claimed to be a musician of the gods, it fights very well.'
Nothing about this was easy, but she had noticed something was off. It seemed wary, no… terrified even, of the sword in her hand. She noticed that when it could have risked blocking a blow to create an advantage, it had chosen to evade instead. It must have placed one hell of an enchantment on these artifacts, one that made them as dangerous to it as to anyone else.
She tightened her grip, readying herself to press the attack.
Then she saw it. It left her an opening. It was too obvious, and too convenient to be a true opening.
'Least obvious trap ever.'
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and let a small smile curl her lips. A plan was slowly taking shape in her mind.
She charged forward although unlike Rethen, her speed was not inhuman like it, but it was enough. She pretended to attack the gap it had left while purposely leaving her side wide open and As expected, Rethen snapped a punch at her exposed ribs on her disabled-arm side.
She stepped back, letting the fist whistle past, and swept her sword for its neck. It ducked again, but this time it was different.
A dagger suddenly shot toward its throat, and from its reaction toward it, it did not consider it a threat, most likely because no weapon could probably damage it other than the one made of its parts, so it chose to ignore it. Elizabeth had guessed as much, but she had thrown it anyway. The dagger was not ordinary, she hoped it could at least do something. If it bounced uselessly off it, fine. She would try something else.
The dagger reached the space before its neck. Just as it was inches away from its neck, a small cut started to appear at its neck, and with inhuman reflexes, one of its arms grabbed it before It could actually penetrate it.
"What? That is impossible…"
Its childlike voice cracked with disbelief.
That moment of shock was all Elizabeth needed.
'There it is.'
Her muscles tightened, every fiber straining to its limit. She launched herself forward. At this range, a single step brought her within reach. Rethen realized its mistake and tried to spring away, but her foot came down on its own, blocking its retreat. Her strength was not enough to stop it for long, but it stumbled ever so slightly as it freed itself. It was too late.
Her sword, Rethen's own finger turned against it, drove through its throat at a brutal angle. Golden blood fountained behind the creature, spattering the deck in gleaming arcs.
The ship's radiance instantly reached its peak. Its blood seemed far more powerful and concentrated than her own, flooding the surroundings with blinding golden light. Yet she refused to blink.
She wanted to see him die. The blade in her hand flared as it slowly turned to light particles.
"N‑no!" Rethen screamed.
[Your memory has been destroyed.]
The sword began to dissolve from the tip, vanishing into dust.
"I cannot be destroyed by the likes of you—"
Its voice cut off as if it was interrupted. It was starting to fade, its beautiful face turning more statue like. It desperately tried to kill her with the last of it's strength as it rushed at her, raining a barrage of fists down, but she dodged them with ease. There was no longer any technique to it, and its movements became slower and slower. Suddenly it halted and looked at her with pure hatred before it rushed toward the remains of the harp. Of course, Elizabeth did not let it do as it pleased. With her sword gone, she kicked at its leg. She had only wanted to trip it, but its leg broke off from the rest of its body. It had truly weakened; its body was like clay. It squirmed on the ground for a moment, its movements becoming increasingly rigid, and Elizabeth watched without even blinking, savoring every twitch of its body. The hatred in its gaze slowly dimmed.
And at last, it went still.
[You have slain a sacred beast, Disaster‑Born.]
The Spell's whisper brushed her thoughts.
Only then did her body loosen. She let herself fall, the deck rushing up to meet her.
[You have received a memory.]
Before she could rejoice, everything went black.
[Wake up, Elizabeth! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]