p align="left"Silvery sprinkles whirled around the stone fountain, lifting up in the air to then disperse wildly in the cold night air as if fleeing away from the tensed air between the stuck Monster Mage and the approaching one that was two. Each heavy step it took planted a large, formless foot down into the gravel, both pushing the pebbles astray and absorbing them at the same time. The foot leaked out between the pebbles, as if exploring./p
p align="left"Looking for more dust and blood to h...e...a...l…/p
p align="left"While the forming feet were slow to form, each one was methodical. There was thought behind each step, but not thought that was akin to any logic anyone could discern. Twitches shook the large body, oscillating the skin-like fur as if shivering against the cold of the Xoffian night. Each shiver reverberated through its oppressive aura like thunder that crashed upon Cter's aura./p
p align="left"Each movement that it did with a quarts lucidity to it too knocked at Cter's aura with a desperate scream for attention. If it was actually paying attention to her or not she could not tell, as even when it bent its neck unnaturally to look at the crimson splotches dotted wetly around it the oppressive aura still tried to claw itself inside Cter's to inform her what it was doing./p
p align="left"Its body and aura were one and the same, with each movement from its body reflecting in its aura, and each magical excitation from its aura reflecting in its body. Not through color or texture, but more out of the idea of the magic, in a way./p
p align="left"A strange, discomforting way that had Cter's stomach turning as languid arms began to explore the bloody splotches on its body by sinking long, slender claws into the strange flesh and grabbing around the blood. With an effortless tug the grabbed piece were ripped out like wet mud, held aloft to the twisted face to inspect./p
p align="left"Each thought that went through its aura were like loosened arrows against Cter, filling her head with confusing images of humans and monsters overflowing with fear. The shocks of magic from the arrows hitting Cter's aura also activated the warm layers of dust on her, changing each human and monster in the confusing images into Ziki and the children he cared for./p
p align="left"The inspecting curiosity that bombarded Cter halted for a moment to take in the echo from her aura influenced by the warm dust that rested restlessly on her. The shift gave Cter some respite from the oppressive aura, even if she felt that it had begun to try and drain at her aura and soul rather than forcing in its own emotions into her aura and soul to observe the results. With a wet splat the bloodied piece was discarded on the ground where it writhed in pain before collapsing into viscous white./p
p align="left"A mixture of blood and dust./p
p align="left"It had Cter's heart sinking when feeling the discarded piece boil away. She knew that it wasn't the death of another monster, yet to her soul it felt that way. As if it was someone new and different who's aura was fading away among a tormented roar of helplessness. Her sympathy was toyed with! Same as Ziki's hope had been! It was all to prod at Cter and Ziki's souls! To see how they reacted! To learn more about them!/p
p align="left"To learn about their souls!br /br /p
p align="left"It disgusted Cter!/p
p align="left"Which only played into what it wanted…/p
p align="left"It wanted her expressing emotion. It wanted her to express them all! It wanted her to express them all at the same time! It was why it laid so heavy on her aura, so that it could continue to experiment with her soul! Which of her emotions felt human? Which of them felt monster? Did they become more monster with Ziki's dust on her? Did Ziki's feel more human when activated by Cter?/p
p align="left"It wanted to know!/p
p align="left"It wanted Cter to tell her!/p
p align="left"It kept trying to get through her aura to her with all of its might!/p
p align="left"Only its magical might had it applied though, and with its curiosity piqued even further, it took another step closer to the stone fountain where the Monster Mage laid squirming underneath Ziki's heavy armor to prod further, and differently./p
p align="left"Like a knife slicing its face in two, a smile formed unevenly and haphazardly, as if the excitement was too much to make any straight lines. A black, jagged, and drunkenly drawn line formed as the mouth, which slowly opened to reveal a set of sharp, shattered teeth that snipped the stretched threads that tried desperately to hold the mouth back together. The sound of its laugh was as hoarse as it was beautiful. As forced as it was natural. As sad as it was joyful./p
p align="left"A rainbow of emotions slick as tar dripped from between the row of human-like teeth, crashing into the gravel below like heavy drops of rain-mixed snow. Likewise with its movement, the laugh followed the oppressive aura to crash against Cter's. It was loud, imposing on Cter's restored hearing with a ferocity that threatened to shatter them again. She could only wince against the pain to try and weather it with everything she had./p
p align="left"She refused!/p
p align="left"Cter wasn't gonna let the oppressive aura impose on her, and she was sure as hell not gonna let the laugh influence her either. Even if it made her want to both laugh along its joyful nature and weep along its woeful nature just as much she would not let either take root inside of her!/p
p align="left"She was determined not to!/p
p align="left"For her to proceed with anything more than just a defiant scowl however she had to think. Cter had to find another angle to the Cooperative Connection fast, as her magic was ineffective when covered with dust. Not something that was ever taught in Soul School, nor was it anything that Priestess Frioke or any of the other Monster Mages had thought about./p
p align="left"To begin with there was the mental barrier to get through. Cter was covered in the remains of Ziki, and that, if anything, was a major reason that her magic fizzled out. Not due to her defiling Ziki's remains, that she did not have time to consider. Maybe later she would come to regret and be haunted by what-ifs in how she could have done things differently, but that hinged on her figuring out something that she could then think back on./p
p align="left"Regret to Cter was something to strive for, as that meant that she had managed to survive!/p
p align="left"The onslaught of memories from Ziki's dust as Cter's magic passed through its thick layer were like trying to use a looking glass filled with warped and stained glass. The stasis magic she wanted to produce through her sleeve reacted with the dust like a wet finger dragged through flour. At the end it was completely dried, mired and burdened by the caked-on dust that resulted in nothing. Just a puff of magic with no form or function to it, a cough of excitation in the lingering dust and memories of the deceased Royal Guard who's last act in life was to protect Cter, to do his Royal Duty./p
p align="left"To protect her from any outside magic./p
p align="left"A noble sacrifice, yet in his wish to protect her from outside magic that also meant his own magic. His armor, and his dust. With his dust not having any distinct form, and with the constant magical potential radiating through it from both Cter trying to figure out a way past it and the oppressive aura that crept closer and closer, outside to the dust meant everywhere. Out towards the oppressive aura, and inwards towards Cter's soul./p
p align="left"Could Cter find an angle to that? To perhaps interpret Ziki's last dying wish in a way that allowed her to cast her magic uninterrupted? It was a thought./p
p align="left"And thoughts was exactly what Cter needed./p
p align="left"She focused on the image that was burnt on her retinas. The image of Ziki's soft and apologetic features just before he became as winter akin to how humans became fall. He said something. Cter saw his lips move ever so slightly. He wanted her to do something, but what was it?/p
p align="left"Something...something about the children, right? He wished for Cter to protect them, didn't he? To protect them since he could not no longer after his sacrifice./p
p align="left"However though, he could!/p
p align="left"Yes, yes he could!/p
p align="left"Because how would Cter be able to protect the children if she wasn't able to cast her magic to protect herself? If that didn't work, perhaps she could disguise her magic as from one of the children? She had given them Cooperative Connections, so she did know the hue to their magic./p
p align="left"Just like Sund's who was a bright yell–/p
p align="left"No! None of that!/p
p align="left"Cter could not think about him! If she did it would be the same as inviting the oppressive aura inside of her again! She did it once already in the surgery room, and almost died because of that! Not again!/p
p align="left"Not...again…/p
p align="right""S...u...n...d..."/p
p align="left"No! No! No! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!/p
p align="left"A blinding flash of memories from Ziki's dust tore through Cter's soul as she tried to defend herself from the chilling voice dripping Sund's name with a faux-gentle tone./p
p align="left"Followed by an innocent shrug./p
p align="left"She could not shout against it as that would only give the attention that she so desperately tried to deprive the oppressive aura of. It was curious about her, and acknowledging it would only feed that curiosity. That was why she had to keep it in. Keep the anger from hearing Sund's voice so disgustingly different yet so familiar. It was wrong, so very wrong, yet it came from him. The purest of him, the distilled of him that was his soul./p
p align="left"That influence Cter had to refuse with everything that she had. She had to deny that which still was Sund. When she accepted it inside the surgery room she was put under a spell so powerful. That she could not allow to happen again!/p
p align="left"Nothing she could allow to happen again./p
p align="left"With a harsh grunt that puffed a handful of dust into the air Cter returned to focusing inwards to try and solve how she would be able to cast her magic through the thick layer of Ziki's dust. She had a lead on trying to disguise the magic as from the children, but it was only that though. It was only a small lead that she had figured./p
p align="left"It would have to do though./p
p align="left"Cter recalled how she had given that one kid more magic to when he came to tell her that Sund hadn't left his house for the entire day. What was his name again? Think. Think! What was the human's name?/p
p align="left"It was…/p
p align="left"Dammit! Think!/p
p align="left"Oniya!/p
p align="left"Oniya! Yes, that was the child's name!/p
p align="left"As the name sparked into life in Cter's mind the dust on her body began to react. It was as if it was...alive. It reacted like Ziki would, yet it was only that, a reaction. Something induced by the presence of magic shocking through the dust./p
p align="left"Nothing more./p
p align="left"Once was enough for Cter…/p
p align="left"Nothing more. Nothing more. Nothing more./p
p align="left"Nothing! More!/p
p align="left"Oniya! Cter had to think about Oniya!/p
p align="left"For while Ziki's dust reacted on its own the same that it did when Cter tried to cast her magic, it did so by radiating inwards rather than outwards. A memory prompting the magical reaction rather than the opposite. It was...something./p
p align="left"But it was something that Cter could work with!/p
p align="left"On top of that, Cter had given Oniya stronger stasis magic for the bucket he tried to help lift for Cter! Cter still remembered the feeling vividly how she gave it to him./p
p align="left"And even more importantly, how he used it. What hue his weak magic was!/p
p align="left"A hue that Cter let flow up her sleeve to lift away the heavy armor that kept her stuck against the stone heart. She did it slowly and weakly so that Ziki's dust had time to adjust to it and to be tricked that it was Oniya's magic. It was time Cter could not afford to lose a lot of, yet it was her only option. The twisted shadow that closed in with each large, wet step crept more and more up her body. Each harsh breath that followed each large step became louder and louder./p
p align="left"Until a warm stream of dark-blue magic took hold of Ziki's armor and–/p
p align="left""Aargh!" the Monster Mage cried underneath the increasing weight on her. In her cry, Ziki's dust flooded her soul with memories of him being alone at night during the weeks before Cter and Sund arrived at Clinic Village. Memories of him choking his tears so that the death reports that he stayed up nights on end to write wouldn't be stained. Each name that he wrote was a friend. Each one was someone he could not accept were gone./p
p align="left"Yet he had to./p
p align="left"And so he wrote./p
p align="left"It took effort for Cter to surface from the induced memories, and when she did she felt the same tears that Ziki had choked building over her eyes. She could not dry them, as dust in her eyes would not do her any favors. As she sat breathing hard against the pain from the heavy armor getting heavier all of a sudden, Cter stared at her sleeve. The purple magic she had tried to summon wasn't present in either her palm or on her spiraling line. Instead there was the distinct dark-blue magic that had been applied on the Royal Guard armor./p
p align="left"Was it...she that cast it?/p
p align="left"But no, she was doing stasis magic! She wasn't casting dark-blue magic! Why did it change?/p
p align="left"Her eyes followed the hazy glow of the dust between her left hand and the armor. It was faint, but she could see that it was purple at first from her hand, with a change in color to dark-blue as it touched the black armor./p
p align="left"Of course…/p
p align="left"Of course!/p
p align="left"She was casting magic through Ziki's dust! It meant that what Cter thought of as stasis magic wasn't the same that Ziki had thought of as stasis magic. She had given him a Cooperative Connection as well, but something was amiss with it. Since it had been hijacked as he died her recollection of how Ziki thought of his magic was askew, different from what it was when he.../p
p align="left"Had there not been for the next large step scraping vicious toes against the outer rim of the stone fountain Cter would have prided herself in figuring it out. Instead, she had to act. If stasis magic turned into dark-blue magic through Ziki's dust then surely it would be vice versa as well?/p
p align="left"Cter didn't really have an option to theorize about it./p
p align="left"So with some initial hesitation from knowingly trying to hurt herself by forcing dark-blue magic upon the black armor instead of accidentally, Cter breathed in, and focused. She again disguised her magic as that on Oniya's to get past the last wish of Ziki, and then imagined pushing down with all of her dark-blue might on the armor./p
p align="left"She coughed as the resulting stasis magic lifted the metallic weight off her chest immediately enough that her rib cage expanded fast. Her lungs sucked in air on their own, surprising Cter with a cold batch of nightly air. A heavy crash followed shortly after, akin to the uncomfortable sound of when Barbeqa threw her pan into the pile of dishes./p
p align="left"Instead of a hearty and hearthy laugh following though it was a mix of anger and surprise that filled the air. There was another loud scrape as the vicious claws turned away from the fountain's outer rim for a moment to inspect the magic that had thrown away the piece of Royal Guard armor. If anything it gave Cter a moment to get her relieved breathing under control, which she did after a myriad of pained coughs that she had to suppress as to not breathe in more dust./p
p align="left"The gust from the heavy armor being thrown through the air was enough to bring with it the warm dust which followed like a shimmering funnel after the armor. Even so, just being able to breathe easier to get more of the sobering cold air into her was enough of a win which the coughing could not take away from./p
p align="left"It was just a win though./p
p align="left"Just one out of the many Cter suspected that she had to face in her immediate future./p
p align="left"Unfortunately, the curiosity towards the magically discarded armor faded as the magic on it did, and for the third time the fountain's outer rim scraped from the large claws digging into it from the outside. To boot, while the curiosity from the armor had faded, it was still piqued./p
p align="left"Piqued about Cter./p
p align="left"About her magic./p
p align="left"About her magic through Ziki's dust./p
p align="left"A finger, slick of white and bony in shape, was stretched out over the distance of water in the fountain. It reached for the sleeve that had conjured the wrong magic to get the correct result. A curious finger that wanted to know more./p
p align="left"That wanted to know everything!/p
p align="left"Through pure reaction, Cter threw her left arm in front of her to protect herself. Her spiraling line began to crackle as spikes of crystal shot out of the dust that still remained on her sleeve. The display was violent enough for the stretching finger to flinch, and in that moment, Cter made her move./p
p align="left"Her soul gave her the chance to flee, and she took it!/p
p align="left"First, Cter made an attempt to throw down ice magic at her feet to slide quickly across the frozen fountain water. It came out as half ice magic and half conjuration, which she quickly formed into rudimentary cylinders to use as stepping stones./p
p align="left"Slippery, rudimentary stepping stones…/p
p align="left"Slipping on both ice and water at the same time, Cter tumbled over the outer rim of the fountain a quarter circle away from the flinched finger. Despite that, feeling dry, solid ground underneath her felt good, even if her rough landing had her right arm hurt./p
p align="left"Had it…/p
p align="left"Had it hurt!/p
p align="left"It hurt! Her right arm hurt! She was in pain over it. There were bruising on her arm from the gravel she had landed heavily on. Sore and tender to the touch. Cter was hurt, and it was the best thing she could be considering her situation./p
p align="left"For she could use her small injury as a gauge to check how much of the oppressive aura was connecting with her. The healing magic that it used was powerful, too powerful for monsters. It was too much for Ziki, and judging by the fresh and dried splotches of blood dotting around the constantly morphing body that lumbered its turn towards where Cter had wetly tripped over the fountain's outer rim, it was too much for humans as well. The red splotches inverted along with the constant morphing, slowly emerging somewhere else on the body like raisins drowning and peeking inside a kneaded dough./p
p align="left"To further help with the gauging, Cter put her right forearm against the edge of the stone fountain. After some inhaled courage she chafed her forearm against the rough stone, causing a small cut. The pain spiked, and she grunted through clenched teeth. The cut wasn't too deep nor was it bleeding too much. A bit wider than a paper cut just below her wrist. The rest of her arm was red from the chafing which was useful too./p
p align="left"Reason being for her pain was that her magic was evidently in a half state between the magic she wanted to cast and the magic that was cast through the interpretation that Ziki's dust around her sleeve made. One or the other she could work with, but half from each wasn't something she had any use of. It would become more and more her own magic as the dust grew colder, but until then Cter would have to lower her own aura to give more from her to overpower Ziki's dust. Less of an aura outside of her meant less of a defense should the oppressive aura whip at her again./p
p align="left"And that was where her self-inflicted wound came into play! If it began to heal then she would know to go fully on the defensive and make her aura more external. She also figured to keep in mind what was around her lest she needed to hurt herself again to survive./p
p align="left""Wow..." Cter exhaled in disbelief./p
p align="left"Being able to breathe properly again after she removed the heavy piece of armor had really reinvigorated her brain, hadn't it? Coupled with the refreshing, nightly air and the instinctive rush of the dangerous situation she was in and Cter felt more alert than ever before. So alert that she even caught herself being alert to remind why she was so alert./p
p align="left"She was in danger./p
p align="left"And if she failed to deal with it, so would the rest of the world./p
p align="left"Sund and Bonny had...killed. They had...no...it had murdered both humans and monsters, as was clearly evident by the burning destruction that had left scorch, blood, and dust marks on the ever-changing, viscous-yet-solid, furry skin that was more as a bag rather than a vessel for whatever it was that was happening inside of it./p
p align="left"Whatever it was that was happening to Sund and Bonny's souls./p
p align="left"There was confusion, foremost. The way it moved and the way its gaze was constantly at a horizon of its own making was evident enough. The way it talked about healing too, especially about Ziki, was akin to a human child not understanding that squeezing something too hard meant that it would hurt. Or a monster child not understanding that while their fire magic had their friends in awe it still burned like a real one should they not be careful with it./p
p align="left"Both of those equally was the confusion that radiated from its soul. A soul that bore the hallmarks and hues of Sund and Bonny. The joyful levity of the Monster Mage with the cold rigidness of the Monster Doctor. Perhaps it was because of Sund's soul's acclimation with Sir Gerson's magic that it took refuge inside Bonny? Even so, the two personalities clashed in their confusion. One feeling like the other and vice versa. Cter recognized it from when Idyll was laid with Romrom's influence. The same internal strife and confusion was present in her soul, albeit much smaller./p
p align="left"The same confusion…/p
p align="left"Confusion…/p
p align="left"Con...fusion…/p
p align="left"Fusion./p
p align="left"Sund and Bonny did not come together, as that implied willingness and understanding. Together they weren't. Together would not have them confused. Together would not have caused them to become such a...fusion! They were fused together, like two pieces of metal in a furnace, neither agreeing to the other. They were a fusion of confusion./p
p align="left"And a danger to all./p
p align="left"But how would Cter mitigate that danger? What was she capable of to save–/p
p align="left"No, no there were no saving Sund and Bonny. There was no between them no more. They were fused. They were one. One confused being that threatened everything around it. There was no separating the two! It wasn't the same as with Idyll and Romrom. For that Cter was more powerful than both Idyll and Romrom. For this fusion of Monster Mage and Monster Doctor though? For the creature that could cast magic upon her soul?/p
p align="left"For that Cter was more monster than she had ever been in her entire life. Compared to the fusion her magical potential was that of a monster compared to a human. The same wide gap. The same enormous chasm between the magical potentials. For Cter to go up against the fusion was the same as the monsters waging war against humans. How could she even begin to think that she was capable of winning?/p
p align="left"Perhaps...perhaps if she became even stronger as a Monster Mage? What if she ascended above the fusion with a similarly wide chasm of power? She still had potential left to explore as a Monster Mage! There were still new heights for her to reach! Heights beyond being able to cast magic on another human's soul! Beyond healing lethal wounds just as they are injured! Beyond…/p
p align="left"Beyond…/p
p align="left"Beyond murdering…/p
p align="left"Beyond killing humans and monsters in droves…/p
p align="left"Beyond killing the humans and monsters that had come for help and who had been promised to be found treatment for their illness…/p
p align="left"Beyond betraying that promise in the most heinous way possible…/p
p align="left"Was Cter willing to go that far? To make even more-heinous acts due to her overwhelming magical potential? To do worse than...worst?/p
p align="left"Cter let her eyes rest on the fusion that lumbered and slogged its steps towards her. Its terrifying presence only furthered the tragedy and pity she felt for the ones inside of it. Not the two, the ones. The part of the one, and not distinctly one and another one. She stepped back around the fountain as its pathetic and confused efforts to reach for her failed, causing it to trip over its shifting weight and fall more clumsily down onto the gravel than she had. It did not lose its bearings because it had none to begin with./p
p align="left"If anything it made the fact that it was so powerful even more of a threat. While Cter suspected that the humans and monsters that it had killed was accidental to the fusion, it was not capable of showing any remorse for it. It might just as well have considered the deaths failures to learn from. The destruction it wrought could again just have been an accident to it. All of that was possible./p
p align="left"How it viewed the world was through a confused mess of emotions from two souls not coming together out of their own volition, but who were stuck and fused together against their own wills./p
p align="left"If they even had any left./p
p align="left"Humans were dead because of it though. Monsters were dead because of it though./p
p align="left"Cter had to stop it!/p
p align="left"She was not able to contain it. She wasn't able to overpower it./p
p align="left"So what was she able to?/p
p align="left"Cter could not just walk around the stone fountain forever, could she? Letting the fusion paw after her in its daze while she easily stepped back from it? It gave her time to think, at least. Gave her time to react that her right arm had stopped bleeding which meant that she needed her aura more external. After a quick rinse in the fountain water she saw that her gash had only half-closed which made it easy enough to open it again with a quick scrape against the edge of the fountain's outer rim. It stung, more so than before./p
p align="left"The dust did not rinse off in the water though despite Cter's best effort to scrub it off her sleeve. In a way Ziki's dust had fused onto her magic, albeit not as drastically or intimately as Bonny and Sund ha, but more as melted honey stuck to paper. Even her attempt at scraping away the dust with her nails was fruitless, and she sighed with slight exasperation before shooting a glance over to the fusion which was lying on the ground moaning in pain. Its last viscous flop down into the gravel had been particularly...splashy. As it landed it had lost more of the vague contours on its form than its previous couple of flops in its chase of Cter./p
p align="left"It looked pitiful lying in an unfocused mess of fur and skin, forming and reforming without any success. Cter should have been vomiting out of pure disgust seeing the body move in such an unnatural way, however the sheer bewilderment of what the hell it was that she was watching didn't have her disgusted. It went past disgusting for her. She could not be disgusted since it did not resemble neither human nor monster. Too abstract for her to even consider it as something alive and not just a pile of...stuff. It was only from its aura that she considered it as...something./p
p align="left"When it was stood up and walking its lumbering steps it looked like something between human and monster, as did its aura feel as something between human and monster. In the strange, viscous pile that almost seemed to drip up the outer rim it was only its aura that told of its intimidating and dangerous presence./p
p align="left""I hate this," Cter said into the clear water and–/p
p align="left"Wait…/p
p align="left"Clear?/p
p align="left"No, it should not have been clear. Cter had dipped her freshly injured right arm into the water when she was trying to clean her sleeved arm. There should have been blood./p
p align="left"Unless…/p
p align="left"A quick look at her right arm confirmed her suspicion./p
p align="left"That her arm was healing quickly./p
p align="left"So she raised her aura./p
p align="left"But the healing did not stop./p
p align="left"So she raised her aura even more./p
p align="left"But the healing did not stop./p
p align="left"Cter did not need to try it a third time before she understood what was happening again. She had managed a brief time of respite from the oppressive aura, but as the fusion raised itself from its last clumsy fall there was a different motion to it. It didn't so much raise its body as it did lift it up via its aura. Not through stasis magic or any other specific magic, but just with a lot of magic in general. Almost like a marionette being raised up by strings of magic, making the tortured body hang upright in its aura rather than standing up on its own./p
p align="left"It was enough for Cter to feel the disgust which she had not been able to feel. Enough for her to raise her left arm in front of her to prepare for battle!/p
p align="left"For...battle?/p
p align="left"Cter had...Cter had never been in battle before. She had never used her magic to try and hurt. Did she want to hurt? Did she need to hurt? Could she...not hurt? Was there a way for her to make the fusion yield without attacking it?/p
p align="left"Using magic to hurt sounded wrong to her at a fundamental level! She knew of the truth of the Cooperative Connection, and she had even seen its true nature with the Royal Mage of Ice. She literally wore it on her sleeve. Even with that though, the concept had her soul feeling unease. Not fear, disgust, anger, or despair, but unease. Unease in the sense that it was not totally against the notion. That a small part of it agreed that Cter would have to cast magic to do hurt./p
p align="left"Unease that the small part may have been right./p
p align="left"No matter how much Cter shook her head against it she could not shake away the feeling that it was what she needed to do. That she had to hurt the fusion./p
p align="left"Most likely kill it too./p
p align="left""There has to be another way," the Fourth Monster Mage cursed through clenched teeth, talking to no one. "There has to!" The dilemma was too big for her to have it internalized. Even if she veiled it akin to how Ziki did when he added his magic to his thrown weapon so that he could protect the human children, it was still breaking the soul of the law, so to speak. The goal was to hurt, but veiled in such a way to prevent further hurt. Cter could easily have done that. Could easily have veiled her magic with the fact that if she did not stop the fusion right there and then, it would potentially cause damage beyond just the lives of the humans and monsters that it had already killed./p
p align="left"The fact that it existed was a danger./p
p align="left"It was a monster that was powerful enough to hurt and kill humans via magic. It upturned the very roots of the political balance between monsters and humans! Monsters enjoyed such freedom and escape from human politics because they weren't a threat to the humans. Monster Mages were allowed to be Monster Mages because even if they were the most powerful mages around they still were only a handful of humans among an army of monsters./p
p align="left"Because of that, the fusion needed to die. If it became known to the world then…/p
p align="left"Then…/p
p align="left"…/p
p align="left"Cter had to kill it./p
p align="left"For if she didn't, the world that she knew would die./p
p align="left""I'm sorry."/p
p align="left"The next step in humans and monsters coming closer was one step too many./p
p align="left""I'm so sorry."/p
p align="left"The golden age of magic was over./p
p align="left""Please don't fight back."/p
p align="left"Cter needed to make sure it wouldn't rust./p
p align="left""I can't do it otherwise."/p
p align="left"The Monster Mage's sleeve was engulfed in a roar of ice and fire, half of each. Spinning around her arm, the combined magic painted swirls of flickering orange and hazy blue across the calm water in the fountain. It began first as thick as a jacket over her sleeve, but after a hard, chastising swear at herself, Cter made her attack bigger and more powerful. Ziki's dust added to it, as it was her protecting herself and the children. Licks of magical fire whipped around its frosty dance partner, leading it in its wake with a steaming hiss./p
p align="left"Curios, misshapened eyes looked at her sleeve with a perplexed curiosity that both confounded and excited. The fusion of the Monster Doctor and the Third Monster Mage was not afraid, for it was something beyond any readable emotion. It stared at Cter's magic growing bigger and bigger, eating more and more of her arm until it covered all the way up to her left shoulder./p
p align="left"The violently swirling whips of ice and fire slashed at her hair, undoing a pair of her braids at the side of her head. Cter would have burned off all of her hair on her head had she needed to. Her soul screamed at her that she wasn't powerful enough to kill what she needed to kill, yet that only had her pouring more into her attack. More of her magic. More of her aura./p
p align="left"As her aura faded externally the fusion did not impose its aura upon her soul. It stared at her from its strung-up position, more curious than ever. It did not want to interrupt what she was doing. It only wanted to observe./p
p align="left"It was...proud, in a way?/p
p align="left"Or perhaps it was just Cter seeing what she wanted to see through the tears that dropped heavily from her eyes. What she wanted to feel, and not what she actually felt. "I'm so sorry." Each tear that fell from her eyes exploded into a distinct hiss as they were sucked into her growing magic./p
p align="left"An innocent tilt had the continuously reforming head ever-so-slightly smiling at the sight and feel of Cter's tears. It blinked, and similar drops formed for it too. Drops that it did not shed though. Drops that stayed in its distant eyes. Drops that reflected the massive vortex closing the distance between it and Cter./p
p align="left"A vortex that disturbed the water of the fountain, twisting the colorful reflection of the magical attack, its target, and its hesitant assailant./p
p align="left"The attack engulfed the fusion, layering its icy blue and fiery orange around the strung-up body with a blazing shatter. It both froze and burnt the furry skin, biting hard with frost to then rip out with an explosion of steam with the fire./p
p align="left"On other parts the fire first charred to then freeze off into clumps which then succumbed to the violent shatter of steam as well. The same and the inverse of what Cter had done with the tar on the green monster's arm, but with viscous white rather than viscous black. Piece by exploding piece, the convulsing body flinched from the force of the exploding steam, causing thick, disgusting smoke to arise into the cold night the same as the black smoke from the burning buildings surrounding the Clinic Hill courtyard./p
p align="left"There was no scream though. No cry in agony from the fusion./p
p align="left""Thank you," Cter said from the bottom of her exhausted soul. "Thank you for not fighting back." Her left arm, drained of magic, fell down at her side where it cramped from the overexertion. Her spiraling line was faint, only really glowing in the aftermath of Cter's attack./p
p align="left"She felt...apathy...seeing the shadow of the fusion's crumbling contours inside the wild flames and ices of her making./p
p align="left"To hurt./p
p align="left"To kill./p
p align="left"There was no remorse in her. No...anything, actually. Only tiredness. Cter felt tired that she it had to come so far with this. That it had forced her hand to...kill. To take another life to protect countless more. She had a good reason for it. No one would ever blame her./p
p align="left"Except herself./p
p align="left"Not in the moment though. The apathy and tiredness were encompassing enough of her entirety, both physical and magical, that all she could do was to sit down on the broken outer rim of the fountain and just…/p
p align="left"Just wait./p
p align="left"Wait with head lowered and eyes closed to try and rest while her magic raged on the fusion, waiting for it to finally succumb to her magic. Its aura had completely vanished. Its confusion had finally stopped. The oppressive aura had finally lifted from Cter's aura. She had felt refreshed when the oppressive aura faded from hers, akin to how she felt when she managed to remove Ziki's armor from her. The same rush of clarity and lucidity that invigorated her she had immediately put into her spell though to give it more power./p
p align="left"Even with the added power though it wasn't enough for Cter to be able to kill the fusion instantly. She did not know if the fusion was suffering since its aura was retracted. Hell, she didn't even know if it was capable of suffering to begin with./p
p align="left"And if she got to choose then she would choose the luxury of not thinking that it could suffer. Not to think about it at all, if she was greedy. There was no way Cter was able to not think about the fusion though. Even as she sat with her head lowered and her eyes closed the alternate whips of cold and warm against her cheek was enough to remind her of what she had done. The coppery, burnt stench in her nose and mouth was relentless, thickening with each second that passed. It was enough to have her not be able to rest, but to merely have her eyes closed. Had it not been for that she would have fallen asleep right there and then. She would have laid down on the bent stone rim and slept throughout the next day./p
p align="left"That she would have done had she been confident that her magic was enough to kill the fusion./p
p align="left"However, her magic was still twisting around the fusion for minutes on end seemingly without any progress made. It was still violently ripping out pieces of the fusion's body via fire and ice, yet it never seemed to end. Cter's magic did not become smaller as the pieces were torn out, nor did the fusion become any smaller from having pieces torn out from it./p
p align="left"Eventually Cter had to peek open an eye to look./p
p align="left"She saw the exact same image that she had seen before she sat down./p
p align="left""Please," she begged tiredly. "Please just die." Her words dripped down into the gravel below her as her head fell into her palms. "I want you dead. I need you dead. Please. I can't leave if you're alive. I can't do anything if you're alive. You're not supposed to be here. You're..." Cter had completely given up on any pretense of how absurd her situation was. She just wanted it to end! "Do this for me, I beg of you. The last favor I ask of you."/p
p align="left"Why was it too strong for her? Why wasn't her magic enough to kill it?/p
p align="left"Wasn't her intent enough…/p
p align="left""Bonny."/p
p align="left"Whatever the reason./p
p align="left""Sund."/p
p align="left"It didn't matter./p
p align="left""Please."/p
p align="left"For as she caught a glimpse of the shadowy contour in the vortex of her magic./p
p align="left""Bonny?"/p
p align="left"She realized her mistake./p
p align="left""Sund?"/p
p align="left"For she had succeeded in killing./p
p align="left""No..."/p
p align="left"But only their confusion./p
p align="left"The violent vortex of magic slowed down as if mired in molasses until it stood completely still with clean, separated sections of ice and fire magic like the pages of a book seen from the side. The sections were still at first, hovering like banners without wind for a couple of long seconds. Each one that passed had Cter struggling more and more to back away. Her body felt heavier and heavier as she shuffled away ungracefully on the outer rim where she had sat down./p
p align="left"She knew that heaviness, and when it eventually punched at her rib cage from the inside, as if she had snagged her mantle on a door handle, Cter despaired. With an exhausted cry she collapsed on the ground, wailing not in pain, but in the lack thereof. She didn't feel oppressed, yet she still knew that the fusion's aura was within her. Her soul was once again under the effect of dark-blue magic, and a much-more-conscious application of it to boot. There was pure focus in the magic, with none of the confusion it had prior to it./p
p align="left"Since Cter had killed it./p
p align="left"In her attempt to kill she had only brought together in the pain. She had given the two a commonality that they were able to agree on, and from that they came together as one./p
p align="center""Cter..."/p
p align="left"The voice clung inside Cter's ears and soul, reverberating strongly throughout her, and only fading as it got to the dark-blue magic in her soul. Not even the loud shattering of her fire and ice magic was enough to drown out the fusion's voice speaking her name./p
p align="left"Burning clumps of ice shot out from the fusion in a circle, whizzing above Cter's body with less of a nose's length to spare. Had Cter's head not been laying sideways one of the pieces would have taken hers clean off./p
p align="center""We're...together..."/p
p align="left"The fusion's monstrous, dark shadow crept up Cter with each calm step it took closer to her. Slowly, and with patience, it lowered its hand towards Cter's sleeve./p
p align="center""Be...together..."/p
p align="left"A burst of pain surged on Cter's left arm as the viscous fingers wrapped around her sleeve. An immense, fiercely shocking pain that had Cter's entire body convulsing in complete disregard to the dark-blue magic affecting her. It burnt through her veins like the fire and ice she had cast on the fusion, causing choked screams that were dragged down back by the dark-blue magic before the screams could escape her./p
p align="center""With...us..."/p
p align="left"Through the immense pain Cter felt how the fire and ice moved in her arm's veins, carving a deep spiral from her wrist and up her left arm until it reached her shoulder where it dove deep down inside of her chest. In the sharp agony there was one clear though in Cter's head. One conscious fear that understood what had been carved on her arm./p
p align="left"A Cooperative Connection./p
p align="left"The grip on Cter's arm changed from a wide, furry one to a more slender and skinny handful of fingers that burrowed into the spiraling line it had just inscribed with Cter's own magic./p
p align="center""Human...by...monster..."/p
p align="left"Its voice changed too with its grip to a more human-like texture./p
p align="center""Monster...by...human..."/p
p align="left"Pressure, as if bloating inside of her aura, was forced through her arm. Cter felt the outside magic travel quickly through the Cooperative Connection that had been carved with her magic. It was using the same technique Cter had used to make temporary Cooperative Connections by taking in the monster's magic and using it to cloak her own magic. Now she was the monster having a Cooperative Connection inscribed upon her!/p
p align="left"The magic that crawled up her arm was unlike anything Cter had ever felt before, at the same time powerful, yet unstable. It made her arm feel numb, and her aura even more so. As if it was taken over by another presence. Taken over by the fusion! It was acting as a human in the Cooperative Connection, but inverting the flow of memories and magic too! It, the human, was giving Cter, the monster, magic and memories rather than the opposite!/p
p align="left"It was overwhelming Cter with flashes of emotions that she did not understand. Flashes of memories from two completely different views and personalities colliding with hers. It continued up her arm like poison, burning away her physical and magical sensation and replacing it with…/p
p align="left"With its soul!/p
p align="left"It was gonna replaced Cter's soul with its! It was gonna bring Cter into the fusion via the Cooperative Connection it was inscribing!/p
p align="left""Help!" Cter yelled into the cold night./p
p align="left""Help!" the fusion mimicked with the radiance to its aura changing more and more towards Cter's. It copied how Cter felt, and used it to quicken its magical tendrils reaching up Cter's arm. Her skin flushed underneath her sleeve. Not with blood./p
p align="left"But with dust./p
p align="left"That the fusion allowed Cter to feel to sate its perverted curiosity of the situation. Even as the stone heart in the middle of the fountain finally succumbed to the cracks that the exploding fire-covered ice shards had caused to then fall into the cold fountain water with a loud splash that dozed the fusion's body did it not react. All of its attention was with Cter./p
p align="left"All of its attention was within Cter./p
p align="left"She pushed back with her magic cascading up her arm like an avalanche, yet it was only a gentle wave crashing against the might of a fast-moving glacier. With her right hand she managed to ball a handful of gravel as the more of her left arm was taken over by the fusion's soul the less the effect the dark-blue magic had upon Cter's soul. With a weak toss Cter threw the handful of gravel into the fusion's hanging expression. Like the careful dabs from a brush on a fresh canvas the gravels bounced off the fusion's face, which turned to Cter's, and quickly morphing into her pained and horrified expression./p
p align="left"Its eyes had even turned the same forest-green as hers…/p
p align="left"As the thrown gravel joined back in the lake of their brethren, the fusion's expression mirrored that of Cter's defeated one. Once again it formed heavy drops in its eyes, the same as Cter's./p
p align="center""More...human..."/p
p align="left"As Cter became more monster./p
p align="center""More...monster..."/p
p align="left"As the fusion became more human./p
p align="center""Mor–"/p
p align="left"A drowning gurgle followed a wet and sharp thud that had the fusion stumbling forwards, its head swinging from the deep wedge that cleaved its neck./p
p align="left"Cter felt it. The blade that had cut deep into the fusion's flesh Cter felt in her aura. The magical half of the pain was hers while the physical was the fusion's. Agony spread throughout her, and she roared in the pain that the fusion could only gurgle./p
p align="left"A rugged human pushed down at the curved axe's handle with his shoulder, adding his own weight to it to drive it further through the fusion's neck. "I can't get through!" he cursed through his bloodied mustache. "Cter, I can't get through!" He jumped up to apply even more force, but the blade was still stuck where it was halfway into the fusion's thick, formless neck./p
p align="left"No…/p
p align="left"No, not completely formless!/p
p align="left"There were the contours of a human neck in the part that the blade had cut through! Sarbor had managed halfway through the fusion, but only its…/p
p align="left"Only its human part!/p
p align="left"Only its human part that it had to take on to continue inscribing its Cooperative Connection onto Cter's arm and eventually her soul! It changed into more of the human part of the connection as Cter became more the monster part of the equation!/p
p align="left"Which meant that for Sarbor to cut its neck off, Cter had to become fully the monster in the connection. She had to let the fusion into her soul fully and without fight. She had to…/p
p align="left"She had to let her magical head be cut off for the fusion's physical to be cut off!/p
p align="left""It's..."/p
p align="left"She closed her eyes./p
p align="left""I'm getting through!"/p
p align="left"And gave up./p
p align="left"Looking for more dust and blood to h...e...a...l…/p
p align="left"While the forming feet were slow to form, each one was methodical. There was thought behind each step, but not thought that was akin to any logic anyone could discern. Twitches shook the large body, oscillating the skin-like fur as if shivering against the cold of the Xoffian night. Each shiver reverberated through its oppressive aura like thunder that crashed upon Cter's aura./p
p align="left"Each movement that it did with a quarts lucidity to it too knocked at Cter's aura with a desperate scream for attention. If it was actually paying attention to her or not she could not tell, as even when it bent its neck unnaturally to look at the crimson splotches dotted wetly around it the oppressive aura still tried to claw itself inside Cter's to inform her what it was doing./p
p align="left"Its body and aura were one and the same, with each movement from its body reflecting in its aura, and each magical excitation from its aura reflecting in its body. Not through color or texture, but more out of the idea of the magic, in a way./p
p align="left"A strange, discomforting way that had Cter's stomach turning as languid arms began to explore the bloody splotches on its body by sinking long, slender claws into the strange flesh and grabbing around the blood. With an effortless tug the grabbed piece were ripped out like wet mud, held aloft to the twisted face to inspect./p
p align="left"Each thought that went through its aura were like loosened arrows against Cter, filling her head with confusing images of humans and monsters overflowing with fear. The shocks of magic from the arrows hitting Cter's aura also activated the warm layers of dust on her, changing each human and monster in the confusing images into Ziki and the children he cared for./p
p align="left"The inspecting curiosity that bombarded Cter halted for a moment to take in the echo from her aura influenced by the warm dust that rested restlessly on her. The shift gave Cter some respite from the oppressive aura, even if she felt that it had begun to try and drain at her aura and soul rather than forcing in its own emotions into her aura and soul to observe the results. With a wet splat the bloodied piece was discarded on the ground where it writhed in pain before collapsing into viscous white./p
p align="left"A mixture of blood and dust./p
p align="left"It had Cter's heart sinking when feeling the discarded piece boil away. She knew that it wasn't the death of another monster, yet to her soul it felt that way. As if it was someone new and different who's aura was fading away among a tormented roar of helplessness. Her sympathy was toyed with! Same as Ziki's hope had been! It was all to prod at Cter and Ziki's souls! To see how they reacted! To learn more about them!/p
p align="left"To learn about their souls!br /br /p
p align="left"It disgusted Cter!/p
p align="left"Which only played into what it wanted…/p
p align="left"It wanted her expressing emotion. It wanted her to express them all! It wanted her to express them all at the same time! It was why it laid so heavy on her aura, so that it could continue to experiment with her soul! Which of her emotions felt human? Which of them felt monster? Did they become more monster with Ziki's dust on her? Did Ziki's feel more human when activated by Cter?/p
p align="left"It wanted to know!/p
p align="left"It wanted Cter to tell her!/p
p align="left"It kept trying to get through her aura to her with all of its might!/p
p align="left"Only its magical might had it applied though, and with its curiosity piqued even further, it took another step closer to the stone fountain where the Monster Mage laid squirming underneath Ziki's heavy armor to prod further, and differently./p
p align="left"Like a knife slicing its face in two, a smile formed unevenly and haphazardly, as if the excitement was too much to make any straight lines. A black, jagged, and drunkenly drawn line formed as the mouth, which slowly opened to reveal a set of sharp, shattered teeth that snipped the stretched threads that tried desperately to hold the mouth back together. The sound of its laugh was as hoarse as it was beautiful. As forced as it was natural. As sad as it was joyful./p
p align="left"A rainbow of emotions slick as tar dripped from between the row of human-like teeth, crashing into the gravel below like heavy drops of rain-mixed snow. Likewise with its movement, the laugh followed the oppressive aura to crash against Cter's. It was loud, imposing on Cter's restored hearing with a ferocity that threatened to shatter them again. She could only wince against the pain to try and weather it with everything she had./p
p align="left"She refused!/p
p align="left"Cter wasn't gonna let the oppressive aura impose on her, and she was sure as hell not gonna let the laugh influence her either. Even if it made her want to both laugh along its joyful nature and weep along its woeful nature just as much she would not let either take root inside of her!/p
p align="left"She was determined not to!/p
p align="left"For her to proceed with anything more than just a defiant scowl however she had to think. Cter had to find another angle to the Cooperative Connection fast, as her magic was ineffective when covered with dust. Not something that was ever taught in Soul School, nor was it anything that Priestess Frioke or any of the other Monster Mages had thought about./p
p align="left"To begin with there was the mental barrier to get through. Cter was covered in the remains of Ziki, and that, if anything, was a major reason that her magic fizzled out. Not due to her defiling Ziki's remains, that she did not have time to consider. Maybe later she would come to regret and be haunted by what-ifs in how she could have done things differently, but that hinged on her figuring out something that she could then think back on./p
p align="left"Regret to Cter was something to strive for, as that meant that she had managed to survive!/p
p align="left"The onslaught of memories from Ziki's dust as Cter's magic passed through its thick layer were like trying to use a looking glass filled with warped and stained glass. The stasis magic she wanted to produce through her sleeve reacted with the dust like a wet finger dragged through flour. At the end it was completely dried, mired and burdened by the caked-on dust that resulted in nothing. Just a puff of magic with no form or function to it, a cough of excitation in the lingering dust and memories of the deceased Royal Guard who's last act in life was to protect Cter, to do his Royal Duty./p
p align="left"To protect her from any outside magic./p
p align="left"A noble sacrifice, yet in his wish to protect her from outside magic that also meant his own magic. His armor, and his dust. With his dust not having any distinct form, and with the constant magical potential radiating through it from both Cter trying to figure out a way past it and the oppressive aura that crept closer and closer, outside to the dust meant everywhere. Out towards the oppressive aura, and inwards towards Cter's soul./p
p align="left"Could Cter find an angle to that? To perhaps interpret Ziki's last dying wish in a way that allowed her to cast her magic uninterrupted? It was a thought./p
p align="left"And thoughts was exactly what Cter needed./p
p align="left"She focused on the image that was burnt on her retinas. The image of Ziki's soft and apologetic features just before he became as winter akin to how humans became fall. He said something. Cter saw his lips move ever so slightly. He wanted her to do something, but what was it?/p
p align="left"Something...something about the children, right? He wished for Cter to protect them, didn't he? To protect them since he could not no longer after his sacrifice./p
p align="left"However though, he could!/p
p align="left"Yes, yes he could!/p
p align="left"Because how would Cter be able to protect the children if she wasn't able to cast her magic to protect herself? If that didn't work, perhaps she could disguise her magic as from one of the children? She had given them Cooperative Connections, so she did know the hue to their magic./p
p align="left"Just like Sund's who was a bright yell–/p
p align="left"No! None of that!/p
p align="left"Cter could not think about him! If she did it would be the same as inviting the oppressive aura inside of her again! She did it once already in the surgery room, and almost died because of that! Not again!/p
p align="left"Not...again…/p
p align="right""S...u...n...d..."/p
p align="left"No! No! No! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!/p
p align="left"A blinding flash of memories from Ziki's dust tore through Cter's soul as she tried to defend herself from the chilling voice dripping Sund's name with a faux-gentle tone./p
p align="left"Followed by an innocent shrug./p
p align="left"She could not shout against it as that would only give the attention that she so desperately tried to deprive the oppressive aura of. It was curious about her, and acknowledging it would only feed that curiosity. That was why she had to keep it in. Keep the anger from hearing Sund's voice so disgustingly different yet so familiar. It was wrong, so very wrong, yet it came from him. The purest of him, the distilled of him that was his soul./p
p align="left"That influence Cter had to refuse with everything that she had. She had to deny that which still was Sund. When she accepted it inside the surgery room she was put under a spell so powerful. That she could not allow to happen again!/p
p align="left"Nothing she could allow to happen again./p
p align="left"With a harsh grunt that puffed a handful of dust into the air Cter returned to focusing inwards to try and solve how she would be able to cast her magic through the thick layer of Ziki's dust. She had a lead on trying to disguise the magic as from the children, but it was only that though. It was only a small lead that she had figured./p
p align="left"It would have to do though./p
p align="left"Cter recalled how she had given that one kid more magic to when he came to tell her that Sund hadn't left his house for the entire day. What was his name again? Think. Think! What was the human's name?/p
p align="left"It was…/p
p align="left"Dammit! Think!/p
p align="left"Oniya!/p
p align="left"Oniya! Yes, that was the child's name!/p
p align="left"As the name sparked into life in Cter's mind the dust on her body began to react. It was as if it was...alive. It reacted like Ziki would, yet it was only that, a reaction. Something induced by the presence of magic shocking through the dust./p
p align="left"Nothing more./p
p align="left"Once was enough for Cter…/p
p align="left"Nothing more. Nothing more. Nothing more./p
p align="left"Nothing! More!/p
p align="left"Oniya! Cter had to think about Oniya!/p
p align="left"For while Ziki's dust reacted on its own the same that it did when Cter tried to cast her magic, it did so by radiating inwards rather than outwards. A memory prompting the magical reaction rather than the opposite. It was...something./p
p align="left"But it was something that Cter could work with!/p
p align="left"On top of that, Cter had given Oniya stronger stasis magic for the bucket he tried to help lift for Cter! Cter still remembered the feeling vividly how she gave it to him./p
p align="left"And even more importantly, how he used it. What hue his weak magic was!/p
p align="left"A hue that Cter let flow up her sleeve to lift away the heavy armor that kept her stuck against the stone heart. She did it slowly and weakly so that Ziki's dust had time to adjust to it and to be tricked that it was Oniya's magic. It was time Cter could not afford to lose a lot of, yet it was her only option. The twisted shadow that closed in with each large, wet step crept more and more up her body. Each harsh breath that followed each large step became louder and louder./p
p align="left"Until a warm stream of dark-blue magic took hold of Ziki's armor and–/p
p align="left""Aargh!" the Monster Mage cried underneath the increasing weight on her. In her cry, Ziki's dust flooded her soul with memories of him being alone at night during the weeks before Cter and Sund arrived at Clinic Village. Memories of him choking his tears so that the death reports that he stayed up nights on end to write wouldn't be stained. Each name that he wrote was a friend. Each one was someone he could not accept were gone./p
p align="left"Yet he had to./p
p align="left"And so he wrote./p
p align="left"It took effort for Cter to surface from the induced memories, and when she did she felt the same tears that Ziki had choked building over her eyes. She could not dry them, as dust in her eyes would not do her any favors. As she sat breathing hard against the pain from the heavy armor getting heavier all of a sudden, Cter stared at her sleeve. The purple magic she had tried to summon wasn't present in either her palm or on her spiraling line. Instead there was the distinct dark-blue magic that had been applied on the Royal Guard armor./p
p align="left"Was it...she that cast it?/p
p align="left"But no, she was doing stasis magic! She wasn't casting dark-blue magic! Why did it change?/p
p align="left"Her eyes followed the hazy glow of the dust between her left hand and the armor. It was faint, but she could see that it was purple at first from her hand, with a change in color to dark-blue as it touched the black armor./p
p align="left"Of course…/p
p align="left"Of course!/p
p align="left"She was casting magic through Ziki's dust! It meant that what Cter thought of as stasis magic wasn't the same that Ziki had thought of as stasis magic. She had given him a Cooperative Connection as well, but something was amiss with it. Since it had been hijacked as he died her recollection of how Ziki thought of his magic was askew, different from what it was when he.../p
p align="left"Had there not been for the next large step scraping vicious toes against the outer rim of the stone fountain Cter would have prided herself in figuring it out. Instead, she had to act. If stasis magic turned into dark-blue magic through Ziki's dust then surely it would be vice versa as well?/p
p align="left"Cter didn't really have an option to theorize about it./p
p align="left"So with some initial hesitation from knowingly trying to hurt herself by forcing dark-blue magic upon the black armor instead of accidentally, Cter breathed in, and focused. She again disguised her magic as that on Oniya's to get past the last wish of Ziki, and then imagined pushing down with all of her dark-blue might on the armor./p
p align="left"She coughed as the resulting stasis magic lifted the metallic weight off her chest immediately enough that her rib cage expanded fast. Her lungs sucked in air on their own, surprising Cter with a cold batch of nightly air. A heavy crash followed shortly after, akin to the uncomfortable sound of when Barbeqa threw her pan into the pile of dishes./p
p align="left"Instead of a hearty and hearthy laugh following though it was a mix of anger and surprise that filled the air. There was another loud scrape as the vicious claws turned away from the fountain's outer rim for a moment to inspect the magic that had thrown away the piece of Royal Guard armor. If anything it gave Cter a moment to get her relieved breathing under control, which she did after a myriad of pained coughs that she had to suppress as to not breathe in more dust./p
p align="left"The gust from the heavy armor being thrown through the air was enough to bring with it the warm dust which followed like a shimmering funnel after the armor. Even so, just being able to breathe easier to get more of the sobering cold air into her was enough of a win which the coughing could not take away from./p
p align="left"It was just a win though./p
p align="left"Just one out of the many Cter suspected that she had to face in her immediate future./p
p align="left"Unfortunately, the curiosity towards the magically discarded armor faded as the magic on it did, and for the third time the fountain's outer rim scraped from the large claws digging into it from the outside. To boot, while the curiosity from the armor had faded, it was still piqued./p
p align="left"Piqued about Cter./p
p align="left"About her magic./p
p align="left"About her magic through Ziki's dust./p
p align="left"A finger, slick of white and bony in shape, was stretched out over the distance of water in the fountain. It reached for the sleeve that had conjured the wrong magic to get the correct result. A curious finger that wanted to know more./p
p align="left"That wanted to know everything!/p
p align="left"Through pure reaction, Cter threw her left arm in front of her to protect herself. Her spiraling line began to crackle as spikes of crystal shot out of the dust that still remained on her sleeve. The display was violent enough for the stretching finger to flinch, and in that moment, Cter made her move./p
p align="left"Her soul gave her the chance to flee, and she took it!/p
p align="left"First, Cter made an attempt to throw down ice magic at her feet to slide quickly across the frozen fountain water. It came out as half ice magic and half conjuration, which she quickly formed into rudimentary cylinders to use as stepping stones./p
p align="left"Slippery, rudimentary stepping stones…/p
p align="left"Slipping on both ice and water at the same time, Cter tumbled over the outer rim of the fountain a quarter circle away from the flinched finger. Despite that, feeling dry, solid ground underneath her felt good, even if her rough landing had her right arm hurt./p
p align="left"Had it…/p
p align="left"Had it hurt!/p
p align="left"It hurt! Her right arm hurt! She was in pain over it. There were bruising on her arm from the gravel she had landed heavily on. Sore and tender to the touch. Cter was hurt, and it was the best thing she could be considering her situation./p
p align="left"For she could use her small injury as a gauge to check how much of the oppressive aura was connecting with her. The healing magic that it used was powerful, too powerful for monsters. It was too much for Ziki, and judging by the fresh and dried splotches of blood dotting around the constantly morphing body that lumbered its turn towards where Cter had wetly tripped over the fountain's outer rim, it was too much for humans as well. The red splotches inverted along with the constant morphing, slowly emerging somewhere else on the body like raisins drowning and peeking inside a kneaded dough./p
p align="left"To further help with the gauging, Cter put her right forearm against the edge of the stone fountain. After some inhaled courage she chafed her forearm against the rough stone, causing a small cut. The pain spiked, and she grunted through clenched teeth. The cut wasn't too deep nor was it bleeding too much. A bit wider than a paper cut just below her wrist. The rest of her arm was red from the chafing which was useful too./p
p align="left"Reason being for her pain was that her magic was evidently in a half state between the magic she wanted to cast and the magic that was cast through the interpretation that Ziki's dust around her sleeve made. One or the other she could work with, but half from each wasn't something she had any use of. It would become more and more her own magic as the dust grew colder, but until then Cter would have to lower her own aura to give more from her to overpower Ziki's dust. Less of an aura outside of her meant less of a defense should the oppressive aura whip at her again./p
p align="left"And that was where her self-inflicted wound came into play! If it began to heal then she would know to go fully on the defensive and make her aura more external. She also figured to keep in mind what was around her lest she needed to hurt herself again to survive./p
p align="left""Wow..." Cter exhaled in disbelief./p
p align="left"Being able to breathe properly again after she removed the heavy piece of armor had really reinvigorated her brain, hadn't it? Coupled with the refreshing, nightly air and the instinctive rush of the dangerous situation she was in and Cter felt more alert than ever before. So alert that she even caught herself being alert to remind why she was so alert./p
p align="left"She was in danger./p
p align="left"And if she failed to deal with it, so would the rest of the world./p
p align="left"Sund and Bonny had...killed. They had...no...it had murdered both humans and monsters, as was clearly evident by the burning destruction that had left scorch, blood, and dust marks on the ever-changing, viscous-yet-solid, furry skin that was more as a bag rather than a vessel for whatever it was that was happening inside of it./p
p align="left"Whatever it was that was happening to Sund and Bonny's souls./p
p align="left"There was confusion, foremost. The way it moved and the way its gaze was constantly at a horizon of its own making was evident enough. The way it talked about healing too, especially about Ziki, was akin to a human child not understanding that squeezing something too hard meant that it would hurt. Or a monster child not understanding that while their fire magic had their friends in awe it still burned like a real one should they not be careful with it./p
p align="left"Both of those equally was the confusion that radiated from its soul. A soul that bore the hallmarks and hues of Sund and Bonny. The joyful levity of the Monster Mage with the cold rigidness of the Monster Doctor. Perhaps it was because of Sund's soul's acclimation with Sir Gerson's magic that it took refuge inside Bonny? Even so, the two personalities clashed in their confusion. One feeling like the other and vice versa. Cter recognized it from when Idyll was laid with Romrom's influence. The same internal strife and confusion was present in her soul, albeit much smaller./p
p align="left"The same confusion…/p
p align="left"Confusion…/p
p align="left"Con...fusion…/p
p align="left"Fusion./p
p align="left"Sund and Bonny did not come together, as that implied willingness and understanding. Together they weren't. Together would not have them confused. Together would not have caused them to become such a...fusion! They were fused together, like two pieces of metal in a furnace, neither agreeing to the other. They were a fusion of confusion./p
p align="left"And a danger to all./p
p align="left"But how would Cter mitigate that danger? What was she capable of to save–/p
p align="left"No, no there were no saving Sund and Bonny. There was no between them no more. They were fused. They were one. One confused being that threatened everything around it. There was no separating the two! It wasn't the same as with Idyll and Romrom. For that Cter was more powerful than both Idyll and Romrom. For this fusion of Monster Mage and Monster Doctor though? For the creature that could cast magic upon her soul?/p
p align="left"For that Cter was more monster than she had ever been in her entire life. Compared to the fusion her magical potential was that of a monster compared to a human. The same wide gap. The same enormous chasm between the magical potentials. For Cter to go up against the fusion was the same as the monsters waging war against humans. How could she even begin to think that she was capable of winning?/p
p align="left"Perhaps...perhaps if she became even stronger as a Monster Mage? What if she ascended above the fusion with a similarly wide chasm of power? She still had potential left to explore as a Monster Mage! There were still new heights for her to reach! Heights beyond being able to cast magic on another human's soul! Beyond healing lethal wounds just as they are injured! Beyond…/p
p align="left"Beyond…/p
p align="left"Beyond murdering…/p
p align="left"Beyond killing humans and monsters in droves…/p
p align="left"Beyond killing the humans and monsters that had come for help and who had been promised to be found treatment for their illness…/p
p align="left"Beyond betraying that promise in the most heinous way possible…/p
p align="left"Was Cter willing to go that far? To make even more-heinous acts due to her overwhelming magical potential? To do worse than...worst?/p
p align="left"Cter let her eyes rest on the fusion that lumbered and slogged its steps towards her. Its terrifying presence only furthered the tragedy and pity she felt for the ones inside of it. Not the two, the ones. The part of the one, and not distinctly one and another one. She stepped back around the fountain as its pathetic and confused efforts to reach for her failed, causing it to trip over its shifting weight and fall more clumsily down onto the gravel than she had. It did not lose its bearings because it had none to begin with./p
p align="left"If anything it made the fact that it was so powerful even more of a threat. While Cter suspected that the humans and monsters that it had killed was accidental to the fusion, it was not capable of showing any remorse for it. It might just as well have considered the deaths failures to learn from. The destruction it wrought could again just have been an accident to it. All of that was possible./p
p align="left"How it viewed the world was through a confused mess of emotions from two souls not coming together out of their own volition, but who were stuck and fused together against their own wills./p
p align="left"If they even had any left./p
p align="left"Humans were dead because of it though. Monsters were dead because of it though./p
p align="left"Cter had to stop it!/p
p align="left"She was not able to contain it. She wasn't able to overpower it./p
p align="left"So what was she able to?/p
p align="left"Cter could not just walk around the stone fountain forever, could she? Letting the fusion paw after her in its daze while she easily stepped back from it? It gave her time to think, at least. Gave her time to react that her right arm had stopped bleeding which meant that she needed her aura more external. After a quick rinse in the fountain water she saw that her gash had only half-closed which made it easy enough to open it again with a quick scrape against the edge of the fountain's outer rim. It stung, more so than before./p
p align="left"The dust did not rinse off in the water though despite Cter's best effort to scrub it off her sleeve. In a way Ziki's dust had fused onto her magic, albeit not as drastically or intimately as Bonny and Sund ha, but more as melted honey stuck to paper. Even her attempt at scraping away the dust with her nails was fruitless, and she sighed with slight exasperation before shooting a glance over to the fusion which was lying on the ground moaning in pain. Its last viscous flop down into the gravel had been particularly...splashy. As it landed it had lost more of the vague contours on its form than its previous couple of flops in its chase of Cter./p
p align="left"It looked pitiful lying in an unfocused mess of fur and skin, forming and reforming without any success. Cter should have been vomiting out of pure disgust seeing the body move in such an unnatural way, however the sheer bewilderment of what the hell it was that she was watching didn't have her disgusted. It went past disgusting for her. She could not be disgusted since it did not resemble neither human nor monster. Too abstract for her to even consider it as something alive and not just a pile of...stuff. It was only from its aura that she considered it as...something./p
p align="left"When it was stood up and walking its lumbering steps it looked like something between human and monster, as did its aura feel as something between human and monster. In the strange, viscous pile that almost seemed to drip up the outer rim it was only its aura that told of its intimidating and dangerous presence./p
p align="left""I hate this," Cter said into the clear water and–/p
p align="left"Wait…/p
p align="left"Clear?/p
p align="left"No, it should not have been clear. Cter had dipped her freshly injured right arm into the water when she was trying to clean her sleeved arm. There should have been blood./p
p align="left"Unless…/p
p align="left"A quick look at her right arm confirmed her suspicion./p
p align="left"That her arm was healing quickly./p
p align="left"So she raised her aura./p
p align="left"But the healing did not stop./p
p align="left"So she raised her aura even more./p
p align="left"But the healing did not stop./p
p align="left"Cter did not need to try it a third time before she understood what was happening again. She had managed a brief time of respite from the oppressive aura, but as the fusion raised itself from its last clumsy fall there was a different motion to it. It didn't so much raise its body as it did lift it up via its aura. Not through stasis magic or any other specific magic, but just with a lot of magic in general. Almost like a marionette being raised up by strings of magic, making the tortured body hang upright in its aura rather than standing up on its own./p
p align="left"It was enough for Cter to feel the disgust which she had not been able to feel. Enough for her to raise her left arm in front of her to prepare for battle!/p
p align="left"For...battle?/p
p align="left"Cter had...Cter had never been in battle before. She had never used her magic to try and hurt. Did she want to hurt? Did she need to hurt? Could she...not hurt? Was there a way for her to make the fusion yield without attacking it?/p
p align="left"Using magic to hurt sounded wrong to her at a fundamental level! She knew of the truth of the Cooperative Connection, and she had even seen its true nature with the Royal Mage of Ice. She literally wore it on her sleeve. Even with that though, the concept had her soul feeling unease. Not fear, disgust, anger, or despair, but unease. Unease in the sense that it was not totally against the notion. That a small part of it agreed that Cter would have to cast magic to do hurt./p
p align="left"Unease that the small part may have been right./p
p align="left"No matter how much Cter shook her head against it she could not shake away the feeling that it was what she needed to do. That she had to hurt the fusion./p
p align="left"Most likely kill it too./p
p align="left""There has to be another way," the Fourth Monster Mage cursed through clenched teeth, talking to no one. "There has to!" The dilemma was too big for her to have it internalized. Even if she veiled it akin to how Ziki did when he added his magic to his thrown weapon so that he could protect the human children, it was still breaking the soul of the law, so to speak. The goal was to hurt, but veiled in such a way to prevent further hurt. Cter could easily have done that. Could easily have veiled her magic with the fact that if she did not stop the fusion right there and then, it would potentially cause damage beyond just the lives of the humans and monsters that it had already killed./p
p align="left"The fact that it existed was a danger./p
p align="left"It was a monster that was powerful enough to hurt and kill humans via magic. It upturned the very roots of the political balance between monsters and humans! Monsters enjoyed such freedom and escape from human politics because they weren't a threat to the humans. Monster Mages were allowed to be Monster Mages because even if they were the most powerful mages around they still were only a handful of humans among an army of monsters./p
p align="left"Because of that, the fusion needed to die. If it became known to the world then…/p
p align="left"Then…/p
p align="left"…/p
p align="left"Cter had to kill it./p
p align="left"For if she didn't, the world that she knew would die./p
p align="left""I'm sorry."/p
p align="left"The next step in humans and monsters coming closer was one step too many./p
p align="left""I'm so sorry."/p
p align="left"The golden age of magic was over./p
p align="left""Please don't fight back."/p
p align="left"Cter needed to make sure it wouldn't rust./p
p align="left""I can't do it otherwise."/p
p align="left"The Monster Mage's sleeve was engulfed in a roar of ice and fire, half of each. Spinning around her arm, the combined magic painted swirls of flickering orange and hazy blue across the calm water in the fountain. It began first as thick as a jacket over her sleeve, but after a hard, chastising swear at herself, Cter made her attack bigger and more powerful. Ziki's dust added to it, as it was her protecting herself and the children. Licks of magical fire whipped around its frosty dance partner, leading it in its wake with a steaming hiss./p
p align="left"Curios, misshapened eyes looked at her sleeve with a perplexed curiosity that both confounded and excited. The fusion of the Monster Doctor and the Third Monster Mage was not afraid, for it was something beyond any readable emotion. It stared at Cter's magic growing bigger and bigger, eating more and more of her arm until it covered all the way up to her left shoulder./p
p align="left"The violently swirling whips of ice and fire slashed at her hair, undoing a pair of her braids at the side of her head. Cter would have burned off all of her hair on her head had she needed to. Her soul screamed at her that she wasn't powerful enough to kill what she needed to kill, yet that only had her pouring more into her attack. More of her magic. More of her aura./p
p align="left"As her aura faded externally the fusion did not impose its aura upon her soul. It stared at her from its strung-up position, more curious than ever. It did not want to interrupt what she was doing. It only wanted to observe./p
p align="left"It was...proud, in a way?/p
p align="left"Or perhaps it was just Cter seeing what she wanted to see through the tears that dropped heavily from her eyes. What she wanted to feel, and not what she actually felt. "I'm so sorry." Each tear that fell from her eyes exploded into a distinct hiss as they were sucked into her growing magic./p
p align="left"An innocent tilt had the continuously reforming head ever-so-slightly smiling at the sight and feel of Cter's tears. It blinked, and similar drops formed for it too. Drops that it did not shed though. Drops that stayed in its distant eyes. Drops that reflected the massive vortex closing the distance between it and Cter./p
p align="left"A vortex that disturbed the water of the fountain, twisting the colorful reflection of the magical attack, its target, and its hesitant assailant./p
p align="left"The attack engulfed the fusion, layering its icy blue and fiery orange around the strung-up body with a blazing shatter. It both froze and burnt the furry skin, biting hard with frost to then rip out with an explosion of steam with the fire./p
p align="left"On other parts the fire first charred to then freeze off into clumps which then succumbed to the violent shatter of steam as well. The same and the inverse of what Cter had done with the tar on the green monster's arm, but with viscous white rather than viscous black. Piece by exploding piece, the convulsing body flinched from the force of the exploding steam, causing thick, disgusting smoke to arise into the cold night the same as the black smoke from the burning buildings surrounding the Clinic Hill courtyard./p
p align="left"There was no scream though. No cry in agony from the fusion./p
p align="left""Thank you," Cter said from the bottom of her exhausted soul. "Thank you for not fighting back." Her left arm, drained of magic, fell down at her side where it cramped from the overexertion. Her spiraling line was faint, only really glowing in the aftermath of Cter's attack./p
p align="left"She felt...apathy...seeing the shadow of the fusion's crumbling contours inside the wild flames and ices of her making./p
p align="left"To hurt./p
p align="left"To kill./p
p align="left"There was no remorse in her. No...anything, actually. Only tiredness. Cter felt tired that she it had to come so far with this. That it had forced her hand to...kill. To take another life to protect countless more. She had a good reason for it. No one would ever blame her./p
p align="left"Except herself./p
p align="left"Not in the moment though. The apathy and tiredness were encompassing enough of her entirety, both physical and magical, that all she could do was to sit down on the broken outer rim of the fountain and just…/p
p align="left"Just wait./p
p align="left"Wait with head lowered and eyes closed to try and rest while her magic raged on the fusion, waiting for it to finally succumb to her magic. Its aura had completely vanished. Its confusion had finally stopped. The oppressive aura had finally lifted from Cter's aura. She had felt refreshed when the oppressive aura faded from hers, akin to how she felt when she managed to remove Ziki's armor from her. The same rush of clarity and lucidity that invigorated her she had immediately put into her spell though to give it more power./p
p align="left"Even with the added power though it wasn't enough for Cter to be able to kill the fusion instantly. She did not know if the fusion was suffering since its aura was retracted. Hell, she didn't even know if it was capable of suffering to begin with./p
p align="left"And if she got to choose then she would choose the luxury of not thinking that it could suffer. Not to think about it at all, if she was greedy. There was no way Cter was able to not think about the fusion though. Even as she sat with her head lowered and her eyes closed the alternate whips of cold and warm against her cheek was enough to remind her of what she had done. The coppery, burnt stench in her nose and mouth was relentless, thickening with each second that passed. It was enough to have her not be able to rest, but to merely have her eyes closed. Had it not been for that she would have fallen asleep right there and then. She would have laid down on the bent stone rim and slept throughout the next day./p
p align="left"That she would have done had she been confident that her magic was enough to kill the fusion./p
p align="left"However, her magic was still twisting around the fusion for minutes on end seemingly without any progress made. It was still violently ripping out pieces of the fusion's body via fire and ice, yet it never seemed to end. Cter's magic did not become smaller as the pieces were torn out, nor did the fusion become any smaller from having pieces torn out from it./p
p align="left"Eventually Cter had to peek open an eye to look./p
p align="left"She saw the exact same image that she had seen before she sat down./p
p align="left""Please," she begged tiredly. "Please just die." Her words dripped down into the gravel below her as her head fell into her palms. "I want you dead. I need you dead. Please. I can't leave if you're alive. I can't do anything if you're alive. You're not supposed to be here. You're..." Cter had completely given up on any pretense of how absurd her situation was. She just wanted it to end! "Do this for me, I beg of you. The last favor I ask of you."/p
p align="left"Why was it too strong for her? Why wasn't her magic enough to kill it?/p
p align="left"Wasn't her intent enough…/p
p align="left""Bonny."/p
p align="left"Whatever the reason./p
p align="left""Sund."/p
p align="left"It didn't matter./p
p align="left""Please."/p
p align="left"For as she caught a glimpse of the shadowy contour in the vortex of her magic./p
p align="left""Bonny?"/p
p align="left"She realized her mistake./p
p align="left""Sund?"/p
p align="left"For she had succeeded in killing./p
p align="left""No..."/p
p align="left"But only their confusion./p
p align="left"The violent vortex of magic slowed down as if mired in molasses until it stood completely still with clean, separated sections of ice and fire magic like the pages of a book seen from the side. The sections were still at first, hovering like banners without wind for a couple of long seconds. Each one that passed had Cter struggling more and more to back away. Her body felt heavier and heavier as she shuffled away ungracefully on the outer rim where she had sat down./p
p align="left"She knew that heaviness, and when it eventually punched at her rib cage from the inside, as if she had snagged her mantle on a door handle, Cter despaired. With an exhausted cry she collapsed on the ground, wailing not in pain, but in the lack thereof. She didn't feel oppressed, yet she still knew that the fusion's aura was within her. Her soul was once again under the effect of dark-blue magic, and a much-more-conscious application of it to boot. There was pure focus in the magic, with none of the confusion it had prior to it./p
p align="left"Since Cter had killed it./p
p align="left"In her attempt to kill she had only brought together in the pain. She had given the two a commonality that they were able to agree on, and from that they came together as one./p
p align="center""Cter..."/p
p align="left"The voice clung inside Cter's ears and soul, reverberating strongly throughout her, and only fading as it got to the dark-blue magic in her soul. Not even the loud shattering of her fire and ice magic was enough to drown out the fusion's voice speaking her name./p
p align="left"Burning clumps of ice shot out from the fusion in a circle, whizzing above Cter's body with less of a nose's length to spare. Had Cter's head not been laying sideways one of the pieces would have taken hers clean off./p
p align="center""We're...together..."/p
p align="left"The fusion's monstrous, dark shadow crept up Cter with each calm step it took closer to her. Slowly, and with patience, it lowered its hand towards Cter's sleeve./p
p align="center""Be...together..."/p
p align="left"A burst of pain surged on Cter's left arm as the viscous fingers wrapped around her sleeve. An immense, fiercely shocking pain that had Cter's entire body convulsing in complete disregard to the dark-blue magic affecting her. It burnt through her veins like the fire and ice she had cast on the fusion, causing choked screams that were dragged down back by the dark-blue magic before the screams could escape her./p
p align="center""With...us..."/p
p align="left"Through the immense pain Cter felt how the fire and ice moved in her arm's veins, carving a deep spiral from her wrist and up her left arm until it reached her shoulder where it dove deep down inside of her chest. In the sharp agony there was one clear though in Cter's head. One conscious fear that understood what had been carved on her arm./p
p align="left"A Cooperative Connection./p
p align="left"The grip on Cter's arm changed from a wide, furry one to a more slender and skinny handful of fingers that burrowed into the spiraling line it had just inscribed with Cter's own magic./p
p align="center""Human...by...monster..."/p
p align="left"Its voice changed too with its grip to a more human-like texture./p
p align="center""Monster...by...human..."/p
p align="left"Pressure, as if bloating inside of her aura, was forced through her arm. Cter felt the outside magic travel quickly through the Cooperative Connection that had been carved with her magic. It was using the same technique Cter had used to make temporary Cooperative Connections by taking in the monster's magic and using it to cloak her own magic. Now she was the monster having a Cooperative Connection inscribed upon her!/p
p align="left"The magic that crawled up her arm was unlike anything Cter had ever felt before, at the same time powerful, yet unstable. It made her arm feel numb, and her aura even more so. As if it was taken over by another presence. Taken over by the fusion! It was acting as a human in the Cooperative Connection, but inverting the flow of memories and magic too! It, the human, was giving Cter, the monster, magic and memories rather than the opposite!/p
p align="left"It was overwhelming Cter with flashes of emotions that she did not understand. Flashes of memories from two completely different views and personalities colliding with hers. It continued up her arm like poison, burning away her physical and magical sensation and replacing it with…/p
p align="left"With its soul!/p
p align="left"It was gonna replaced Cter's soul with its! It was gonna bring Cter into the fusion via the Cooperative Connection it was inscribing!/p
p align="left""Help!" Cter yelled into the cold night./p
p align="left""Help!" the fusion mimicked with the radiance to its aura changing more and more towards Cter's. It copied how Cter felt, and used it to quicken its magical tendrils reaching up Cter's arm. Her skin flushed underneath her sleeve. Not with blood./p
p align="left"But with dust./p
p align="left"That the fusion allowed Cter to feel to sate its perverted curiosity of the situation. Even as the stone heart in the middle of the fountain finally succumbed to the cracks that the exploding fire-covered ice shards had caused to then fall into the cold fountain water with a loud splash that dozed the fusion's body did it not react. All of its attention was with Cter./p
p align="left"All of its attention was within Cter./p
p align="left"She pushed back with her magic cascading up her arm like an avalanche, yet it was only a gentle wave crashing against the might of a fast-moving glacier. With her right hand she managed to ball a handful of gravel as the more of her left arm was taken over by the fusion's soul the less the effect the dark-blue magic had upon Cter's soul. With a weak toss Cter threw the handful of gravel into the fusion's hanging expression. Like the careful dabs from a brush on a fresh canvas the gravels bounced off the fusion's face, which turned to Cter's, and quickly morphing into her pained and horrified expression./p
p align="left"Its eyes had even turned the same forest-green as hers…/p
p align="left"As the thrown gravel joined back in the lake of their brethren, the fusion's expression mirrored that of Cter's defeated one. Once again it formed heavy drops in its eyes, the same as Cter's./p
p align="center""More...human..."/p
p align="left"As Cter became more monster./p
p align="center""More...monster..."/p
p align="left"As the fusion became more human./p
p align="center""Mor–"/p
p align="left"A drowning gurgle followed a wet and sharp thud that had the fusion stumbling forwards, its head swinging from the deep wedge that cleaved its neck./p
p align="left"Cter felt it. The blade that had cut deep into the fusion's flesh Cter felt in her aura. The magical half of the pain was hers while the physical was the fusion's. Agony spread throughout her, and she roared in the pain that the fusion could only gurgle./p
p align="left"A rugged human pushed down at the curved axe's handle with his shoulder, adding his own weight to it to drive it further through the fusion's neck. "I can't get through!" he cursed through his bloodied mustache. "Cter, I can't get through!" He jumped up to apply even more force, but the blade was still stuck where it was halfway into the fusion's thick, formless neck./p
p align="left"No…/p
p align="left"No, not completely formless!/p
p align="left"There were the contours of a human neck in the part that the blade had cut through! Sarbor had managed halfway through the fusion, but only its…/p
p align="left"Only its human part!/p
p align="left"Only its human part that it had to take on to continue inscribing its Cooperative Connection onto Cter's arm and eventually her soul! It changed into more of the human part of the connection as Cter became more the monster part of the equation!/p
p align="left"Which meant that for Sarbor to cut its neck off, Cter had to become fully the monster in the connection. She had to let the fusion into her soul fully and without fight. She had to…/p
p align="left"She had to let her magical head be cut off for the fusion's physical to be cut off!/p
p align="left""It's..."/p
p align="left"She closed her eyes./p
p align="left""I'm getting through!"/p
p align="left"And gave up./p
