Ivory panted as she hid against a small section of destroyed wall. Her left arm was sore. She glanced at her shoulder. In the dim light, she noticed a small stream of blood originating from her shoulder. The fangs of the Corrupted were sharp enough to completely cut through her aura, even though it was fully intact.

She closed her eyes to try and stave off the pain. Her aura would fix up her wound in short order, but the Corrupted chasing her were still in the area. She could hear their tortured groaning and other disgusting noises their bodies made. She peeked around the corner only to see the grotesque leg of one of the corrupted. She looked up. It was facing the other direction, searching for her. She kept perfectly still, a nigh-impossible task with her heart pounding in her chest.

After what felt like an eternity, the monster finally moved on and she let out a tiny sigh of relief. She looked in the other direction. The Corrupted were quite a ways away and the dark made it just as difficult for them to see her. Still, their senses were impressive. The slightest sound would draw their attention straight to her let alone the bright light emitted by her glyphs.

It dawned on her just how reliant she had been on the rest of her team. Their absence now made surviving in this parallel world all the more difficult, but at the same time she was glad that they didn't have to deal with this. After all, she only barely held it together as she trekked through this unholy place of unending torment. She wondered how Lilly was able to maintain her sanity amid her repeated incursions into this world.

With her wound fully healed, she got up from her hiding place, Elfenbein held tightly in hand. She carefully proceeded through the darkness, senses on high alert. She needed to get out of this place as soon as possible, but she had no idea how she would even manage to return to the real world.

Another one of those blasphemous scenes assaulted her mind's eye. It was like a video clip out of the depths of hell itself, the obvious goal to disorient her and tear away at her soul, but she was too strong to be brought down so easily. She squeezed her eyes shut, even though that would do nothing to purge the images and sounds from her mind. The mental onslaught was enough to affect her emotionally and she found tears rolling down her cheeks, but she would not crumble under the weight, not her, not Ivory Schnee.

A battle broke out in the distance, flashes of light burning away at the surrounding darkness. A shockwave rumbled through the area, shaking her to her very core. She recognized those geometric figures and ancient text floating in the air. They were runes.

"Lilly!" she shouted as she rushed forward to aid her cousin in her battle, but her way was barred by several Corrupted, each one with its own unique cries of pain, anguish, and torment. She barreled through, slashing and stabbing with Elfenbein while supplementing with ranged attacks of her own. She was almost out of Dust, but she would still have use of her Semblance in other ways.

She used her strengthening glyphs on herself, increasing her speed and attack power. The new aura augmentation glyph she developed proved to be quite useful as well, bolstering her defensive output. Even these horrible creatures of the Labyrinth stood no chance against her in this state.

"Out of my way!" she yelled before thrusting Elfenbein into the ground, opening up a massive summoning glyph. In less than a second, a massive armored knight manifested in the middle of the glyph, cleaving three of her enemies in half before fully emerging by her side.

"Let's go," she said to her summoned apparition. "My cousin needs our help."

The massive knight nodded to her before leading the way, its equally enormous sword held at ready. Together, both knight and lady advanced, mowing down one Corrupted after another. Lilly was still a good distance from them, battling with a monstrosity that rose a considerable height into the black sky. Ivory estimated it must have stood five stories, possibly more.

"C'mon!" she yelled before leading the charge. Her knight gave her the support she needed, cleaving other misshapen and grotesque monsters in half. Fewer and fewer Corrupted barred her path, replaced by monsters that were far more alien with anatomies that made absolutely no sense in the natural world.

What the hell are all these things? she thought as she glanced around. As one of the tentacled creatures lunged at her, she switched Elfenbein's cartridge to Fire Dust and unleashed a glyph-facilitated blaze, incinerating the monster. At least they can be killed with Dust attacks.

An intense shockwave blew her off her feet and her knight caught her as she was tossed through the air. She looked up at her summoned knight's helmet and smiled. It gave her a nod before setting her back down on her feet. Both looked to the distance. The massive creature had exploded with enough energy to flatten the area, revealing a smaller, humanoid creature within its core, which began to battle with Lilly at high speeds.

Ivory was amazed at how far her elder cousin had gone after all this time. She was once the black sheep of the family, unable to use the Schnee Semblance and possessing light brownish hazel eyes rather than the blues they were known for. In a way, Lilly was still the outsider, having far and away surpassed even the child prodigy Ivory, who had developed the family Semblance in ways that had never been done before, particularly in the field of self-enhancement. On the other hand, Lilly's rune magic was superior to anything the Schnee Family possessed, a clear inheritance from the Silver Maiden.

But in spite of these clear advantages, it seemed Lilly still lacked the strength necessary to defeat their new enemies.

"Lilly!" Ivory cried out as her cousin's opponent landed a blow on her, disorienting her enough to sink the tip of his spear into her side.

Lilly shrieked in pain as the weapon pierced her body, but she was quick to brush off the attack, instead pulling her enemy closer, preventing his escape.

"I have you now, you son of a bitch!" she yelled before projecting a massive rune on the ground centered on her. "Now, be gone, vermin! Darkness Rune! Shadow Eruption!"

A phenomenon that could only be described as pure darkness exploded from the deep violet rune, disintegrating every monster within range and nearly blowing Ivory off her feet, but her knight was right behind her to hold her steady. When the tempest subsided, she ran to her cousin, who had fallen to her knees.

"Lilly!" Ivory yelled as she cradled her.

"Shit," Lilly muttered. "He got me pretty good, didn't he?"

"You can heal yourself with your magic, can't you?"

"Not this time. That bastard was using a cursed spear. Nothing I have can undo it."

"What can I do, Lilly?"

"Nothing. That spear was touched by The Darkest Rune. No magic is potent enough to undo that curse besides other Primal Runes, which haven't been seen in ages."

"I'm not going to just sit here and watch you die!"

Lilly smiled at her cousin. "Dammit, Ivory. Why couldn't we be friends sooner?"

Ivory shut her eyes, squeezing out tears that fell on her cousin's face. "Lilly, damn it! There has to be something I can do!"

"There is." She coughed. "Never lose hope, Ivory. That's something my mom always taught me."

"What?"

With one final smile, Lilly fell lifeless in her arms.

"Lilly?"

There was no response.

"Lilly!"