[PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!]
Remember that Arkana chapter a while back? Where stuff happened and it might have made a few readers squeamish? This chapter also has stuff like that. Not as bad as the Arkana chapter, but enough to make you squeamish. Please proceed with caution.
[weeps] I didn't hear from you guys last chapter. Are finals treating you well? Anyway -in spite of GeminiLady21's constant puns, I've persevered and brought you a new chapter. I think you'll find this one veeery interesting ;) Slightly long as well for my patient readers...
Also this features some more Yami Marik... tbh I'm a bit worried he may be OOC, though I tried to stay true to his character as much as I could. Not used to writing about him...
Lorna pants heavily, staring up at her two adversaries -Dark Magician and the Guardian. She's cornered; that much she knows. There's no getting out of this, especially in her current state. She can feel a dull pain in her chest starting to well up, accompanied by a burning sensation in her wrists.
It is a struggle to see Kenny clearly, and an even greater struggle to make out the words coming from his lips. Since her fight began, the wind has been picking up speed and its howling has become near deafening. Is this because of her? Was letting Peten through a bad decision? What other choice did she have? Serenity is in trouble, right? Or was that just a lie he told them to gain access to the Solitude? She can only hope that her companions come back soon with Serenity in tow. She doesn't think she can take much more of this.
Somewhere in the fog and the dirt, a light shines and a towering figure appears to Dark Magician's right. If memory serves, Lorna can identify it as Mystical Elf. The newcomer places a slender hand on the magician's arm, mouthing several quick and distressed words to him before receiving a curt nod in reply. Within a minute, the two of them make their departure, fading into soft golden light.
"Why are they leaving?" she asks, her voice full of desperation, certain, however, that Kenny won't be able to hear her. Her cousin doesn't seem to be paying attention to her anyway. His head is turned to face his left. He says something again and she half-heartedly wishes she knew what he was saying if only to ease the helpless feeling that she's losing all her senses.
His head turns to her again, but he's not looking directly at her, rather at something in the distance behind her, just beyond the tree she had been flung against. She doesn't have the energy to turn around and see it for herself, but her mind is already creating scenarios where the mysterious creature breathing over her shoulder is grabbing her by the neck and killing her, disassembling her body until nothing recognizable is left. The massive void in her senses is only serving to amplify her imagination, letting it ricochet against the inside of her skull like a pinball, playing on repeat until the idea of a gruesome death doesn't even seem scary anymore -just inevitable.
His face twists in what can only be described as fear, before the wind picks up and the dirt flies into her eyes. She vaguely sees his form pull out long violet twin blades and rush out of her field of vision.
Lorna rests her head back against the bark and sighs in exhaustion. It's not worth it… Even Kenny wants her to die…
"I guess I can't run away anymore… Is this what you were all waiting for?" she whispers to nobody in particular, letting conscious thought slip away from her and giving her senses up to the storm around her.
Yami Marik and Ishizu somehow manage to lead Lorna's husk of a body onto the roof of the blimp in order to give it the duel it wants. She stands idly shuffling her deck again, while Marik stares on in curiosity. This isn't the same girl that Malik was chasing after; this girl is different, her entire demeanor, almost like she's forgotten how to be human. Of course, this all seems more exciting to Marik.
"A shadow game, you say, Ishizu?" he asks, shuffling his deck as well.
Ishizu can feel a chill run down her spine, and she's not sure if it's because their surroundings are freezing cold, or because her brother seems all too eager to toy with the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, she has a good reason for asking him to invoke such ancient magic, as much as she wishes she didn't. As long as he was the one in control, it meant that that thing wasn't.
"So be it!" he says, not even waiting for a reply. He swiftly inserts his deck into its slot on his duel disk and watches Lorna's husk do the same. "I'll let you go first, Lorna."
Yami Marik: 4000
Lorna?: 4000
She doesn't respond to her own name, not that he expects her to. She draws her first hand, places one card in facedown defense position and activates Oozaki, which he recognizes as a card with the ability to cut down 800 of his life-points.
Damn it! And so early in the game. At least he knows her deck… and it's nothing special. He'll beat her before she can go crying to her friends like she does…
Yami Marik: 3200
Lorna?: 4000
She ends her move by placing one last card in the field-spell slot on her duel disk -one that Marik doesn't quite recognize -and nor does his duel disk for that matter, as it simply returns a jumble of encrypted characters and symbols in place of its name. It doesn't help that his opponent his completely mute aside from a soft, fleshy pulse that he can faintly hear, further proof that she isn't human.
Whatever the mystery card is, it causes a bright cyan light to emerge from the center of the field, spreading quickly until the two of them are enclosed in what looks to be a ritual circle with symbols he can't understand. The last thing he notes is that a smaller version of the very same symbol that covered the dueling arena was now glowing underneath the loose strands of hair covering her forehead. With an empty look, she indicates to him that it's his turn.
Marik grimaces and turns to glance at Ishizu, whose face is stricken with worry. She clutches the white fabric of her dress just above her chest as she tries to read the situation before her. "Well?" he asks impatiently.
"I've never seen anything like it," she offers hesitantly, watching the husk roll her shoulders around idly like she didn't care much for the side-talk happening before her.
Marik glances back at Lorna, pulling out his rod and trying to invoke its shadow powers, but instead, he feels a heaviness plague him and his head begins to hurt. "It's… not working, Ishizu," he gasps, almost sounding like his level-headed counterpart for a moment. "She's doing something. But… how?"
Ishizu is silent for a moment, and Marik almost starts to believe that the woman abandoned him here, but then he hears her take in a sharp breath, like she had just discovered something. "Of course… that must be it…"
"What?!" he snarls impatiently, his fingers clamped shut around his cards. He can't risk making a move so long as he feels unsure of what was going on, but he can't stay like that forever. He has a dark suspicion that, in spite of the fact that this isn't a shadow game, the circle on the ground was more than capable of punishing the loser in its own way.
"The person you're dueling is not human, Marik. She's death!"
"Yes, I'm quite aware of the fact that she's dead," he growls in disappointment.
"No, Marik. Not dead. She's death. Her entire physical form is not human; it must be made of powerful dark magic -magic that can even bring back the dead… for a price."
He can't help but direct his thoughts towards Malik when he hears this. That boy is also undead like Lorna, but unlike her, he doesn't seem to have his own body… What makes him so different? Does he have a connection to Marik? Their similar names definitely left room for speculation… Or is it simply chance? Can it be that there's a greater power at work? He doesn't even know where to begin imagining a being capable of bringing back the dead. Not even the Pharaoh's undead soul was granted its own body…
"If she's not human, then what is she?" Well, of course she's not human. Marik can still clearly see her skin shifting like jello, even in the dimly lit hangar.
Ishizu looks unsure for a moment and then speaks again. "An amalgam of demons. Dark creatures that do death's bidding. Her conscious spirit must be elsewhere… and they must be the unconscious manifestation of her spirit, protecting itself."
"From what?" he grumbles. "Last I checked, she came to find me. How am I a threat?" He never planned on killing her… not yet, at least.
She shakes her head. "That, I do not know, but you need to be careful. This thing… this seal on the ground. Those are ancient symbols -not ancient Egyptian, but something very close. I suggest you proceed with caution."
Finding his nerve again, he snatches a card from his hand and places it facedown. "Don't tell me how to win my duels, sister." He grins to himself, seeing the Winged Dragon of Ra in his hand. He's already won this duel.
He summons Drillago (1600/1100) in face-up attack position, following this by activating Dark Pendant to raise its attack by 500 points. With 2100 attack points, it is easily the most formidable creature on the field. He quickly directs his monster with a flair of his wrist. "Attack her facedown monster, Drillago!"
The machine whirrs affirmatively, bounding towards the projection of her card and drilling down into it with its head. The card flips up to reveal Lorna's monster, a fairy type that resembled a priestess with an ornate emerald headdress and a modest black robe. The Forgiving Maiden (1350/2000)…
No way! he thinks bitterly. Why does it have 500 extra life-points? Is it because of that field spell? No matter. It has less defense points than Drillago's attack points. It should be dead.
After a few quiet moments, though, the maiden is unharmed, standing tall in front of her master. "What?" Marik chokes out, tightening his grip on his cards. "Your monster should be dead!" He shudders, glancing at the cyan light that envelopes Lorna's monster. It's the same color as the seal, and the monster itself has the seal over its forehead, just like Lorna… Drillago flinches back, leaping away from her monster and back onto Marik's side of the field.
Well, this duel is going to be one hell of a pain in the ass… Especially since I don't know the extent of that seal's abilities…
Zephyr watches as Ophelia screams something at him, only to be drowned out by the wind. It's unnaturally loud and he reckons that the only reason they haven't been dragged into the swirling vortex is the fact that whatever this storm is being caused by, it is likely nothing more than an illusion -albeit quite a powerful illusion.
It seems pointless to fight on when both of them know there is a third force at play here, hindering the both of them and trying to drag them into the rubble. He flaps his enormous wings against the wind and struggles to keep himself steady as he descends to the ground. Ophelia seems to have the same idea, as she braces herself against the stump of a fallen tree and raises her hand.
He nods knowingly and approaches her cautiously. Extending his arm warily and subconsciously anticipating an attack, he allows his opponent to latch onto him and stand upright. In such close proximity, it is possible to understand her when she tells him, "Believe it or not, our goal… was never to destroy you. I was never trying to kill you. Just… capture you…"
"What's happening?" he asks, relinquishing his hold on her and letting her walk on her own. The two decide the best direction to go is towards the exit.
"It's the Warden -"
"And who -what exactly is this Warden?"
"An ancient being… more ancient than the millennium items and almost as ancient as the Inbetween itself. Nobody knows where she came from -only that this, the Solitude, is her domain, and it appeared at the very same time as her," she explains.
Zephyr scratches his chin with his unarmed hand and questions, "How exactly do you know all this?"
"It's my job to know," she replies simply. "Now, we need to get our friends and get out of here before she finds us." He isn't satisfied with such a curt response and still has plenty of questions, but for the moment, they're too short on time, and he has no choice but to let her lead him away.
Serenity's eye burns as she puts in as great an effort as she can into getting the aim right for this shot. Her hand quivers slightly on the silver arch of the bow, sweat making it hard to keep steady. Malik is counting on her, so she can't miss this time. Taking in a deep breath, she tries to relax her heart and clear her mind. Without overthinking her actions, she releases the arrow, watching it fly directly into the dragon's eye. It makes a defeated whining noise as it drops its head almost limply. Serenity drops her head as well, her hands still shaking even after landing her shot perfectly.
After a few moments of standing uncertainly with her hair and robes billowing around her like a green tornado, she feels Malik's gauntlet on her shoulder. In a reassuring voice he tells her, "Sun is still alive, Serenity. Look."
Heeding his words, she turns her gaze hesitantly back towards the creature, only to find her devolved back to her human form. The arrow is still stuck in her eye socket, but her body on its knees and still holding on to life. She brings her hands up to her head, one placed flat against her forehead and the other gripping the arrow by its shaft.
Serenity winces; she can't watch this.
With a shriek so loud, it manages to reach Serenity and Malik in spite of the winds, Sun yanks the unwanted object right out of her head. There are bits and pieces of her flesh still dangling from the point, her eyeball completely rendered unrecognizable as tiny specks of it are carried off by the wind. The cavity itself begins to bleed profusely, creating a trail of blood, like tears, streaming down her face.
Serenity can feel the bile rising to her throat, but she can't look away from the grisly sight. Sun is still determined, still fixated on ending them, and she only needs one eye to convey that to them. Her skin prickles and morphs as she attempts her transmogrification again, but it's no secret that she's too weak to maintain that form. She raises a shaking hand to telepathically pull a couple of boulders out of the ground, but they get carried away by the wind, crashing into far off trees instead.
Before they can anticipate it, a heavy-looking stone soars straight into Sun's head, knocking her out and causing her to drop to the ground like a ragdoll. From the general direction of that stone, comes someone that neither Malik nor Serenity recognize. He's dressed in a distressed red robe that bares his chest and he has a distinctive scar running down his face from the bottom of his right eye all the way down to his jawline.
He grabs Sun's unconscious body and comes just close enough for them to hear him when he yells, "I need to borrow this one! I hope you don't mind!"
Serenity gives Malik a pleading look as if to say, "We can't let him do that." With a sigh, Malik pulls Serenity into his arms and goes after the mysterious man. They don't have to go far to reach their destination however. They end up at the mouth of a cave and Malik puts his companion down again.
Inside the cave, the man is placing his prisoner down on the ground with her back against the stone. Beside him, curled up in a ball so tiny that they nearly miss her, is a small girl with skin like smooth onyx and a braid curled around her jaw like a cat's tail. She's asleep, which seems odd given the state of the Solitude and how it wailed and moaned around them.
The man turns his attention from Sun to the little girl, picking her up gently and holding her against his chest. It isn't long until he realizes that he has company. He gives the intruders a grin and says, "I guess you caught me."
"What are you doing?" Serenity asks him, the narrow cave making it easier to project her voice to him.
"This cave requires a sacrifice. The only way to leave is by leaving someone behind, and I'm not about to leave this little one here," he explains. "Something's happening here and someone needed to get her out of this place. The Warden's pissed, and anything could happen. I'd leave, too, if I were you."
Serenity gives the girl a wary look. She can't exactly argue with that logic. She can only feel slightly guilty at the fact that it was her own recklessness that put the Solitude in this state to begin with. She's the one who enraged the Warden. "What about Sun?" she asks him. "Isn't there any way to get her out of that cave?"
The man shrugs. "Not a clue, but if she was trying to kill you, then maybe she ought to stay in there for a while." So he'd been watching them? "I only picked her and not one of you two because I figured nobody would complain if a homicidal dragon lady got offed by an angry Warden."
"How do you know the Warden will kill her…" Serenity pauses, unsure what to call this man.
"The name's Sarenen," he tells her, "And I don't know. But I wasn't about to take that chance on myself and Noxie over here." Noxie, as he had called her, shifts slightly in his arms at the sound of her name, but remains asleep nonetheless.
"We should start looking for Lorna," Malik reminds her, taking her attention away from Sarenen.
She nods sourly. "But let's find Ryou first. If the Warden is really dangerous, we can't leave him here." Then, upon noticing the concerned expression on his face, she adds, "Zephyr said Lorna was by the gates, which means it's probably better to find her on our way back. I know Ryou is around here somewhere."
Malik bites his lip to stifle a sigh. He'd really rather find Lorna first, but Serenity is right. If Ryou is defenseless in this realm, then he needs to be found. Besides, he can't risk Serenity going off on her own to find the boy. "But as soon as we find him, we're going back."
"Definitely," she promises.
Yami Marik and the husk have been at it for the past half-hour. It still hasn't said a word, leaving Marik at a bit of a disadvantage, and that disadvantage is costing him his own life-points.
Yami Marik: 3200
Lorna?: 4000
He hasn't managed to reduce her life-points at all, nor has he been able to summon his Winged Dragon of Ra. The seal she has summoned seems to give each of her monsters a 500 point attack boost, not to mention the fact that he is unable to attack her weakest monsters. His Drillago (2100/1100) is still on the field, along with two face-down monsters; she hasn't bothered to attack him yet, but he knows it's a matter of time before she does.
Currently, she's controlling five monsters, her Forgiving Maiden (1350/2000), Dunames Dark Witch (2300/1050), Shining Abyss (2100/1800), the Fabled Ganashia (2100/1000), and Dancing Fairy (2200/1000). Normally, all of them would stand no chance against his monster, but with that seal on the field, they are more than powerful enough to destroy his monster; the question was: why haven't they?
It's her move and he watches her draw a card. Giving it a short cursory glance, she places it on her duel disk in defense position right next to Dancing Fairy. This causes him to nearly choke on his own spit, clenching his hand tightly over his cards -almost bending the thin material. He has a feeling this is related to her seal, and at this point, it's looking a bit too overpowered for his liking.
"She has six monsters on the field? How is this possible?" Ishizu gasps.
Marik lets out an inhuman sounding snarl as he glares into the pits of black on Lorna's face. "Like that thing will say anything to us! This duel was a trap from the very beginning, wasn't it?" The corners of the husk's lips turn up in a leer. "No answer, huh? Why don't you just go back where you fucking came from, you shitstain abomination?!"
Lorna's mouth opens and she lets out one short laugh that sounds so different to Lorna's own voice that the two Egyptians have to do a double take to make sure they aren't just hearing things. It sounds so low and distorted, like it's coming out of a broken speaker.
"Foolish mortals…"
Ishizu looks up at Marik anxiously, but he doesn't look back, his eyes stuck on the creature dueling him. He now knows for sure that this can't, in any way, shape, or form, be Lorna. That girl may be more trouble than she's worth, but she's not… whatever this is…
"So full of rage… hatred… fear…" She isn't even moving her lips; the voice simply comes out through her open mouth.
Ishizu shrieks when someone grabs her arms and pins them behind her back. She cranes her neck and realizes that the one holding her is Sun… or is she? Sun's eyes are hollow and black, leaking black gas just like Lorna's, and her face is stoic and stern, devoid of emotion.
"Hoszthen has been captured by the humans," the second demon announces from behind Ishizu.
For the first time since the beginning of the duel, Lorna's face twists in a grimace. "He is in no danger from those weaklings. The limitations of this form make us vulnerable. Proceed as you were."
Sun nods, however, before she can do anything to Ishizu, her grip weakens and she slips to the ground.
"Saragyw!" Lorna's husk snaps.
"It is the Departed One… she is… incapacitated."
"Not dead?"
"Not yet…" Sun -or rather, Saragyw -says before she loses consciousness completely and collapses at Ishizu's feet.
"Are things not going according to your plan?" Marik jeers, crossing his arms as well as he could under his duel disk.
"Silence!"
Ishizu kneels down slowly, hesitantly turning Sun's body over so that she could further examine the husk. She touches her necklace, calling forth the power and knowledge of her ancestors.
"Don't touch them!"
She falters for a moment, but then hears Marik speak again. "And who's going to stop her? You? The only way you're getting out of this is by surrendering. You're not about to do that, are you?" His words give her the confidence to fully examine the unconscious creature, touching its face lightly, trying to elicit a response from the necklace.
Her eyes are abruptly and overwhelmingly taken over with visions she can neither comprehend nor explain. All she can see is an essence of what she can only call death; it's coating the floors and everything around her is drenched in it. It's red, boiling and bubbling like lava. The image is replaced with flaming rocks falling to the ground and shattering, hitting people and ancient stone buildings alike. The next image is of a woman with ethereal beauty, clad in pure white silk, standing and watching as a monster sunk his teeth into a human. It's tearing into their gut and pulling out its entrails, and all the woman can do is laugh, her entire body surrounded by a halo of blue. The images are engulfed in black smoke before Ishizu is forced to stop watching.
She feels like she's coming up after having her entire body submerged in cold water when her mind returns her to the reality around her. Panting heavily, she looks over at Marik, whose steely gaze is on her. Lorna's husk is also glowering, and with Lorna's young face and full cheeks, it looks more like an angry and indignant child.
"Your move, mortal," it tells Marik, turning around quickly to face its opponent.
Yet again, it doesn't attack. What is it waiting for? Marik frowns and draws his card. He fingers the Winged Dragon of Ra card in his hand… He can summon it now, if he wants, but something doesn't feel right. There are a couple of face-down cards in the spell and trap slots on the creature's side of the field, which are making him have doubts. He doesn't want to summon his strongest monster only to have it killed or weakened immediately.
This reluctance… this uncertainty… He doesn't know it. He doesn't want it. No, he's summoning his god monster, and he's showing this freak of nature exactly what happens when someone messes with him.
He chuckles almost hysterically when he says, "You imbecile! I have the power of the gods! If you thought you could beat me, then you're sorely mistaken! Now, behold! The power of my Egyptian God! Once I recite the ancient text and summon my monster, you're finished!"
"Marik, are you sure -" Ishizu asks, her voice shaking slightly.
He gives his sister a Cheshire grin, and laughs. "Do you think, just because I've allowed you to stay and watch this duel, that you can start to act like a sister? Just shut up and watch, because as soon as I'm done with this thing, you're next!"
She knows that Marik has been taken over by his dark emotions, but the words hurt nonetheless. She can feel her dread compiling in thick layers over her heart as her brother begins to recite the ancient chant.
It doesn't take Zephyr and Ophelia long to find Lorna; she's sitting in the eye of the storm, in the fetal position with a light blue aura coming off of her body. Her eyes are set on a distant point in front of her, almost like she's in a trance, and she's clearly unaware of her surroundings.
"Lorna!" Zephyr calls out, leaving Ophelia's side to fly over to the girl. That's when he notices it: the blue circle on the ground around her. He stops suddenly right before he can breach its boundaries, examining it from afar. "The Seal of Orichalcos? But… why? How?" Lorna looks almost frozen in time sitting there.
Ophelia looks around the clearing, searching for her partner. "Ken?" she hollers over the sound of the wind. Naturally, she gets no answer. She dashes across towards Zephyr and Lorna. When her gaze meets with Zephyr's, she knows that something is totally wrong. Her eyes wide with alarm, she rushes past the tree that Lorna is resting against to resume her search for her partner.
"Trigger? That you?" a voice calls out to her. Her 'real' name, as it were…
She turns around and finds exactly who she's searching for, looking worse for the wear. He limps towards her with a pained smile on his face. "What happened?" she asks him, her voice rising in pitch due to her rage and desperation. She clutches him against her, supporting his weight as she turned them around, back towards the gates.
"Warden…" he coughs. It sounds wet and painful.
She grits her teeth, glancing over her shoulder. The Warden is nowhere to be seen for the moment, and that's good enough for her. "Why would the Warden do that? She's supposed to leave the living alone."
"She's after… Lorna…" he replies. His legs buckle under his weight and it's all Trigger can do to keep him upright and moving.
She shakes her head at him. "And you actually took her on? Are you out of your fucking mind?" With a sigh she predicts his next words, "She's family…"
Zorc steps into a clearing, scanning the trees and rubble around him as he moves slowly and methodically. "Come get me, you conniving bitch," he growls to himself. "Get. Out. Here. And. FACE. ME!" He bellows, voice eaten by the wind, feeling his muscles stiffen in anticipation. "COME ON!"
He doesn't remember the last time he's felt so excited, blood rushing in his veins, chest heaving. He has been waiting for her awakening for millennia… and finally, he's at the center of the Solitude's beating heart, ready to snatch its core by its rotting roots and put an end to the Warden that has eluded him for so long. Of course he could have come at any time to end her, but he wants her to see his face when he tears her head from her body. Today is that day.
"Brother, if you're looking for her, then you're looking in the wrong place." The voice that speaks is casual and effortless. It doesn't have to speak over the wind because it can project itself into his mind.
"Zaleon…" Zorc mumbles, turning to face his older brother. "To what do I owe this pleasure? Come to stop me?"
Zaleon smiles underneath his mask. "It's Peten the Dark Clown now."
"Is it?" Zorc smirks. "You didn't answer my question."
The clown chuckles. "Me? Stop you? Perish the thought, dear brother. I'm here to tell you that the Warden is with my Departed souls right now. One of them was foolish enough to bring a shard of Orichalcos crystal with her into this realm…"
Zorc's entire face tightens for a moment before he hisses. "Lorna!" He should have stolen the damned thing off of her the moment he knew of its existence. Of course that idiot girl would bring the single most dangerous stone in existence straight into the Warden's hands. "That moron!"
"My queen's return to earth may be closer than I ever could have hoped. Who could have known that a shard of the Orichalcos still existed out of Dartz's reach…" Zaleon laughs darkly. "Makes my job a lot easier, doesn't it."
"You could bring her back a thousand times, Zaleon," Zorc threatens. "And I would strike her down every single time. This, I promise you."
"Such scary words…" Zaleon notes, his tone remaining light and casual. He raises a clawed hand and waves it in a circular motion. In the next moment, both he and his brother are standing behind a large tree that seems to be protected from the storm by a blue light.
A tall figure in black, made of black and grey wisps, nearly concealed by the wind and dirt, is hovering beside the tree. She snaps her arm back, causing the tree to go flying right through the space between Zorc and his brother, revealing Lorna's small hunched form. The Warden turns her head sharply, casting her sight upon Zorc and if those thin and torn lips could smile, they would have. Her expression makes even Zorc shudder, but he doesn't retreat.
He knows he can't breach the barrier formed by the Orichalcos seal around Lorna's body and every movement the Warden makes only increases his frustration. His eyes meet those of one of Lorna's useless companions. He stands meekly a few feet away, unsure of what to do. There's nothing the boy can do really. He isn't at all powerful enough to go up against something like the Warden.
Lorna doesn't even look like she's paying attention when the Warden reaches for her neck and closes her hand around the delicate flesh there. The girl puts up no resistance at all when she's lifted into the air and rotated slightly to face her captor. It does nothing to remove the dumb, far off look on her face, however. The Warden then lifts her second hand and braces it slightly. Zorc doesn't even bother flinching when she thrusts the hand right through Lorna's chest and closes it around her heart.
Whatta chapter, amirite? Who saw this coming? I certainly didn't. (no that is a lie... I've had this planned since maybe chapter 19, but still) It's interesting to see Melvin get blindsided. This duel could rly go either way... I wonder who will win ;) Ofc Im sure you know what happens to whoever loses... or do you?
Also merry Christmas ;)