Warning: mention of self-harm, death, blood
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I hope you enjoy the chapter
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
The cafeteria quickly filled with a rowdy mob of students, each eager to relish in their break from the monotonous task of surviving school. Some darted directly to their friends, their excitement seamlessly intertwining with the irregular clinking of utensils and the buzz of conversations, while others chose to take their time and enjoy their meal before venturing toward their buddies.
She was one of those people, although she didn't exactly have any friends to go to in the first place.
It wasn't all that bad, as she had learned a long time ago that if she didn't bother other people, most of the time, they wouldn't bother her. Plus, if she had friends, she would be unable to enjoy the delicates her mother prepared for her every day, which would be a crime worse than murder. She would suffer through a few hours of listening to the uninteresting rants of her teachers, trying from time to time to write parts of their lectures on her notebooks when she felt like it, followed by eating lunch alone, as mentioned before, and going home. It was a simple process that didn't affect anyone but her grades.
However, despite her best effort to stay out of anyone's way, there were some day when school staff decided to ramp up their brutality. In those days, exams would be given in every discipline like it was a contest of who could be a worse person held between teachers, and the pressure of what would generally be a typical Monday would increase tenfold. This type of "times" usually happens once a year, and it was the nightmare of almost every student.
And in those days, some individuals decided to break the sacred rule "If you don't bother me, I won't bother you" and relieve some of their stress on good old Luz.
Why? Well, the answer would be a combination of children's superiority induced by years of being told they are the best and Luz's appearance that looks awfully familiar to a sick person, one mental breakdown away from becoming a hashtag. Or maybe it was neither, and people just enjoyed being dicks.
Today it seems multiple people decided to be dicks. And that was...fine as she was already used to these pricks— Liefor how many times did she stood before her mirror, pulling her hair in hopes of understanding when suicide baiting had become so common?
When death had become a commonplace
Luz only needed to tighten their jaws to contain her anger and clench her trembling fist under the table, ignoring the twisting and pulsating bones that bulged against her skin, pulling and bubbling like a putrid tumor that attempted to tear her from the inside out.
And this method most of the time worked, but even the most effective technique had some limits, and today was the day some asshole decided to try his luck.
They brought up her mother with mocking sneers and blades instead of tongues, using her in their petty insults.
Her mother, the anchor that kept her grounded and sane.
Her mother, who was always there when the faint rumble that plagued her mind like an ever-growing sickness, escalated into howls of hatred and madness, pouring across her body like burning alcohol that boiled her nerves and crushed her lungs and heart.
The same woman who took her out on strolls through the neighborhood in the middle of the night, the scent of oil and gas that permeated the air keeping at bay visions of a distant future filled by endless genocides across the stars where galaxies were pulled to shred by paradox branches and what remained was feasted on by roots.
And last but not least, she who was always there to comfort her even when Luz's words and whispers swirled and twisted without the girl's accord, nothing more than broken static that interpreted tales of the Roar of Finality glory, whose power tears the earth, and sky, extinguishing the fathomable and unfathomable in its pursuit to catch the tip of the arrow that propagated Life forward.
This douchebag will never know the sacrifices to make sure Luz was happy( even though she doesn't deserve it).
Sluggish and quiet, hatred wormed itself into her heart like a cosmic parasite, surging into her muscles and tissues, the idea of them shamelessly insulting the one who loved her despite her faults gave birth to a sickly vortex of disgust to pulse through her veins, blinding her with the sweet but poisonous taste of retribution. His mistake was believing that Luz wouldn't hesitate to beat the shit out of him if he crossed the line.
Her mistake was thinking the Hunter would not exploit her unstable mental stability.
As Luz stood up, her eyes flared with fury, lips parting and morphing into a snarl, but her irritation was short-lived as her jaws instantly clam down on her tongue, her pupils dilating in a visceral display of terror, searing pain erupted across her mouth as blood trickled from the wound and leaving the familiar metallic flavor stuck to what was left of her taste buds.
Her guts sank and shivered in terror, and spiked thorns formed in her stomach as she realized the sound that escaped her lips instead of words.
She screwed her eyes tightly for a moment, faintly sensing her heart hammer in her chest as something rushed through her throat. A cacophony of screams and laughter plucked at her frigid neck like barbed wire, twisting and thrashing chaotically inside her mouth and pushing against her teeth, aching like lead screws piercing her roots engulfing her mind as it desired to be released.
The shard of an echo of a single tune of the melody engraved in her bone marrow, thought to be locked alongside the nightmare that masqueraded as her skeletal system, had for a second breach into the mortal realm, and it was enough to shatter both the bottle in her hand and her lips, letting blood drip freely on her chin and clothes.
And the incoherent tune did not desire to stop there, the mangle wail crawling onto her spinal cord, pulling at her anatomy in its desire to unmake. It was something that shouldn't be possible, something that every neuron, from the nucleus to the axon terminal, constantly repeated in erratic and sometimes alien languages that the Roar should be locked away from the light, sealed permanently until the Lie breaks.
Yet there was no mistake.
The pain that made her want to scream her lungs out until her consciousness left her was caused by the ravenous cacophony that was trying to force its way out.
But she didn't scream even when she felt her gums split in half, for the Nightmare would get them if she dared open her mouth.
"Luz Noceda!"
Her slumber was broken by a sudden yell that made the fourteen-year-old jolt from the chair, staring wide-eyed at her principal.
"This is the second time you have dozed in my office. Don't you have any respect for this institution?" The principal gaze hardened, and she could only smile sheepishly back, unable to find an excuse for her 'heinous' crime. She partly understood his point, especially considering she had been in his office for less than twenty minutes, but it wasn't exactly her fault she couldn't sleep at home for more than a few hours. (and her lack of sleep had e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ nothing to do with the little gift the Hunter had left on her desk a few days ago)
"Sorry, teach, today has been an awful day with so many exams that I am surprised I didn't pass out more than two times." Her half-baked joke only managed to make the principal's eyes narrow further. Unconsciously, under the scrutinizing gaze of the man, she stood a bit straighter, pulling her head a little higher and ignoring how her vertebrae cracked and grinded against one another.
Not one word was exchanged for several seconds, leaving Luz in perpetual anxiety. You see, dealing with angry people was easy. They scream and sometimes throw profanity at Luz, but it is easier to speak to them after they run their fuse. Silent anger, on the other hand, made Luz's hair rise. Of course, this was not true silence- for she could still hear the afternoon air knocking gently against the clean window, the clicking of the damaged clock at the back of the room, the steady vibration of her heart, and the absence of a permeating smell of decay and degenerating matter, but it still gives her the creeps.
Before she could finish her train of thought, the principal rose from his seat and moved toward the window, watching solemnly in the distance. After seeing thousands of cliche movies, she knew that this action meant no good, but before she could open her mouth, they decided to fuck her life again.
She winces slightly as a sharp tooth sprouts in the middle of her mouth and grazes her tongue, almost synchronizing with the skin on her middle finger boiling alongside her muscle, revealing sickening pale bone that shines like moonlight. The finger form oozes a hideous but transparent fog that striped the air molecules of their most rudimentary elements and left churning gaps of paradox in the air.
A mumbled curse forced its way out her lips as she concealed the claw by placing her fingers in her pants pocket, hissing slightly as the skinless digit burned the fat on the outer layer of her legs with a ruptured form of radiation.
As always, she might have lied a tiny bit.
Sure, getting sent again to the principal office was not fun, but to call that what really bothered her was a bit hilarious.
Many people obviously didn't know, but despite destroying her life with its mere presence, the Hunter was not 100% of the time screaming bloody mother in her ear or morphing her body into something that shouldn't be. When they were calm, their presence could only be noticed by the reverberating rumble at the back of her mind and the heaviness in her bones.
Sure, over time, the rehashing static would flood her very consciousness, which would bring most people to a mental breakdown, but Luz had already gotten used to it—Lie Luz Noceda, always remember to lie
That is why she always tried to hold her emotion tight to her chest, knowing that the more her feelings were beginning to slip from her grasp, the more eager and frenzy the Hunter became.
And as much as she liked to believe that the incident that had to happen over the weekends didn't affect her, that was so far from the truth.
More and more skin peeled off as the director kept rambling on, and with every second, a new pair of teeth sprouted from her gums, becoming increasingly harder to keep her mouth shut as her own teeth dug into her flesh.
Losing control over her own body was the worst thing that could happen, and the fact that the principal would get the chance to connect the dots and realize that she was something that shouldn't be allowed to exist was the last of her and his problem. Tears of frustration began to welled up in the corner of her eyes, knowing that the only way to escape from the erratic emotional state was unforgivable.
Using the tip of her newly formed claw, she pulls apart the skin on her palm, watching the fluid bubble from her exposed flesh, and begins falling on her leg, staining her pants. Gritting her teeth, Luz swallowed her hiss as the torn opening revealed nerves that unfurled into the air, almost sending her into pain-riddled inertia, the crisp and vivid pain scorched into her vision until consciousness faded bit by bit.
She could almost feel the strange fog flood her every sense, her vision flashed by a thick cloud of faint memories, and the principal words became nothing more than static.
Self-inflicted pain always lets her experience an...euphoric and hazy state of being. It allowed her to disregard everything around her for a few moments, merely be a bystander in a world that had decided to make an enemy out of her.
In a blink, she felt herself slip from her corporeal body, dragged into the sky as she soon floated aimlessly between foreign stars and astral galaxies, spinning, and dancing around one another like electrons orbiting the cell's nucleus. By their side stood the unmistakable form of darkness, that craved to reach the invisible edges of light and embrace it's distant braid, ending their gorgeous dance that had gone on since the birth of the embers whose warmth banished away the formless f̷o̷r̷e̷s̷t̷ void.
Each atom in the universe hummed a song of peace and harmony, soothing her soul in more ways than one. Such beautiful patterns were something humanity would probably never be able to admire. Yet, they were all unfolding before her very eyes, even if it was merely a construct created by her fractured imagination.
It was such a pity that the grand and marvelous dance that was Life would end because of the tortuous melody coursing through her bones.
There was no sound to alert for what was to come.
Up and down, from the beginning to the end of the universe, an incomprehensible mass of twisting bones, arms, fingers, and branches all materialized from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. Some remaining singularities that roamed the vacant space alone, while others knotted and undulated together to form writhing appendages.
Each arm and branch latched onto galaxies, gripping them with impossible forces and tearing them apart in a macabre display of power.
Her lips parted in a soundless scream, no world passing the space between her tongue and the outside, forcing a wheezing gasp out of her as she watched the indecipherable abominations turn existence into a distorted debauchery of nothingness.
A relentless cascade of disembodied fingers sprouted from each arm and branch and sliced through the intermolecular hydrogen bonds that constituted animasl, planets, and celestial bodie, invalidating any defense one could have. Each Star and Galaxy flickered and died one by one, consumed by the endless null the Forest is built upon.
And to finish the job, the echo of the Roar of Finality shreds through the fabric of reality like it was nothing more than wet paper, creating an opening for the Unbounded to emerge into the physical universe.
For the end of everything will come only when they arrive.
They were rising and falling from the uncharted bottom of the Forest, something that should. Not. Be and what used to be held back by chains that were each supercluster upon superclusters in diameter was now released from their shackles.
Their presence brings forth the true form of the Pale Song, and the hope that the universe may survive is now laughable. It is the signature of a foreign presence hopelessly beyond mortal comprehension.
For how could there be any escape from a creature who can collapse higher dimensional realities and pocket dimensions just because they exist?
How could there be any chance of survival when the Hunter's song can annihilate gravity, light, darkness, and degraded life and nothingness to its most basic form?
How could there be a chance of surviving the song that mocks the concept of death and kills it
But for them, the destruction of the universe created by the girl's mind is not even an afterthought. Luz's presence draws them to this unfortunate place, everything else not even worthy of a silver of their attention when compared to their freedom to move freely without constraints.
Speaking of, Luz could only watch in acceptance as the creature residing in her skin breached through the rift from a place worse than the darkest pits of hell, nothing more than a synthesis of unadulterated irregularity whose crime of mere existence could not be forgiven.
The Nightmare form was big enough that its length pushed through the barriers that stood at the beginning and end of the universe, circling around so it was whole again.
Their body wasn't made of anything organic but simply an amalgamation of numberless bony extremities, each capable of wiping away entire species in a single swipe, a memetic nightmare held together by the will of the Hunter and the Roar of Finality.
With every twitch and movement of their body, they left flickering trails of broken time and space in their wake, flashes of lighting occurring alongside the colossal like a smokey mist.
But despite the impossibility of something so wicked existing, Luz's assessment will soon prove incorrect. And when the realization dawned on her, it still managed to send chills down her back, even if she had been here so many times before.
Oh...I've been looking just at one of their appendages .
Before her eyes, the appendage opened its "hand" and shot toward her at speed beyond light. The world shifted to a standstill as her body was stuck and incapable of ducking out of the way of the appendage that held an endless agglomeration of branches in its palm.
The door to the principal office swings wide open.
Her principal, none the wiser to her current tranquilized state, turns abruptly from the windows, moving his vision toward the doorway, giving the dazed girl just enough time to swipe her arm across her face and erase the blood that had seeped from her eyes.
The vision of a living nightmare evaporates in thin air, and she is thrusted back into the physical and real world. Everything moves as it should be, and time, space, and gravity are fundamental laws, not fractured concepts.
Entering the room was a woman in her forties, dark-skinned and with an athletic build. Her form imposes like a blanket onto the room, and her face a mask of tightly controlled anger that made the principle hair on his body to stand on end.
Only a single eye was visible, but that didn't dwindle the intensity it burned with, regal hazel taking on a dangerous shine that was marred by rage, but did little to detract from her beauty. Her light brown skin of her face almost shone under the low light breaching through the window, its hue and her rage only amplified by the black eyepatch resting on her left eye, covering a thick scar engraved her skin.
She quickly scans the room, the principal slumping in relief as her gaze leaves him, and only when her eye lands on Luz does her glare soften. Not knowing what else to do, Luz offers her a smile, regardless of how much it hurts or looks fake.
"Hey, m-mom" Her voice cracks like porcelain as a sizzling sensation hits her throat and nostrils that almost makes her gag . It felt like something was tearing itself through her windpipe, but it quickly became apparent that it was nothing more than guilt.
She should have expected it. After all, it was what she deserved after breaking the promise she made by cutting it into her skin. Nonetheless, it still hurts just as much as the trashing and howling at the back of her consciousness or laying her eyes on the incomprehensible form of the Hunter. Tears threatened to break through, but she held them back and locked them deep inside her mind, leaving them to be dealt with by future Luz.
Because in the end, she will be fine
"Mija," Camila responded coldly, and even though Luz knew the anger wasn't directed at her, it was still terrifying.
Shifting her gaze, the head of the Noceda family spared Luz's shadow just a glance, her lips curling in a slight frown as she sensed the Hunter's desire to see her tear the pathetic man before her to pieces before her eyes resettled on the principal once again. It wasn't that she hated the man, far from it, but whoever threatened her daughter better have a good explanation.
"Principal, you have five minutes to give me a genuinely good reason why you darling of a secretary even came close to daring to threaten my daughter and me with the idea of a detention center for Luz, or heavens help me, this school will see hell."
Some may be surprised by the venom in the woman's speech, but after dozens of calls and meetings, she realized that the number of times her daughter was genuinely at fault could be counted on one hand. -However, that is just half of the truth, isn't it, Camila Noceda?
You couldn't care less about what her teacher had to say, for how could that matter when you saw with your own eyes your daughter mutated into something that must not exist, a terror whose laughter plagues thousands of broken realms, or how you could sense that Nightmare stare at you through you daughter shadow, making you wonder why it's gazes held an alien inquisitiveness -
Before the man could respond, she sat beside Luz, patiently waiting for whatever he threw at her.
"Good to see you too, ; I will not bore you with formality and get straight to the point. Ever since this semester had started, she was implicated in thirteen fights, and other professors had reprimanded her time and time again. Still, with no result," Exhaling a bit, he adjusted his glasses, thoroughly ignoring the shiver that went down his spine, "this isn't the type of mentality this institution wishes to foster, and it is not the sort of behavior we are willing to permit."
Luz could feel something drop at the bottom of her gut as slight fear gripped her soul. She could shrug off bad grades, warnings, and suspension like a dirty bandage but expulsion? Well, that could crush the already slim chance of getting to a university and making something of her forsaken life. And the absolute authority with which the director spoke was something too impressive and terrifying at the same time.
Her mother didn't share her sentiment.
There was no tension in her body, and her eyes narrowed in apathy with a slight glint of disgust lingering at the back of her mind. She seems more inconvenienced than anything, her mouth set into a thin line.
"Really now, sir , are you threatening to kick my daughter out? After your institution and staff complete failing." She huffs a little as if amused before continuing. "So, just to start, tell me, principal , how many times have the teachers of this so-called pristine academy turned a blind eye when other students decided to get a little 'rowdy' with my daughter? And only when she retaliated said teachers suddenly got a sense of justice and decided to persecute Luz and only Luz." She inclines her head, confident as an empress, and clicks her finger before addressing her daughter. "Luz darling, please wait in the hall. I promise you this won't take more than a few minutes."
Without needing to be told twice, the girl almost books it out of the office, letting her legs guide her toward the only unoccupied chair with her backpack. Once seated, she sighed in relief, grateful that she had been the unfortunate target of her mother's wrath.
Don't get her wrong, Camila was the most loving and caring person she had met in her life, but gods, she could also be the second most terrifying person she knows.
Realizing she had nothing better to do for the next ten minutes, she maneuvered her hand in her bag and brought out the fifth and final book of the Azura pentalogy, arguably one of the most hated, which was, in Luz's opinion, pretty stupid.
Some people might find an enemy turn-lover trope boring and repetitive, but Luz loved every second of it. It was so fascinating, almost foraging, to think that a world full of wonders could exist beyond the borders of places like Gravefield.
Beyond the borders of the Abyss and it's inhabitants.
Beyond the never-ending and blood-soaked nightmare
Perhaps the crazy idea that somewhere out there are kind people like her mother, places where her love and optimistic views can find the necessary strength to grow tall as the sky.
This is why she adores happy endings in her favorite book series, movies, or her own fanfics and poems. Even though such fate is foreclosed on her, she will always have her own or other writers' stories, proving that love and compassion can blossom in the worst places if given a chance.
So one might ask why she is rambling to herself about something that she is too embarrassed to tell anyone besides her mother. After experiencing one of the most traumatic experiences in her life, staring at the hole between the stars, she should be crying in exasperation or be dead—a luxury she can't experience. However, it didn't even reach the top ten of the worst things in her life.
Her unease goes back to the crisis that happened a few days before. She would have liked to say that she felt anxiety run through her vein like boiling iron because of the fear of expulsion or laying her eyes on something that should not exist. But she is used to that.
When something happened that she wasn't used to, it was worse than anything.
Change was worse than anything.
It was supposed to be a typical Monday, where she was forced to drag herself from her heaven-given bed to another seven hours of monotonous classes. And, Oh, how much would she give for that to be another day of wasting her time learning something she won't even use.
Once standing, something placed neatly on her desk quickly caught her attention, becoming more apparent it was a crumbled notebook with crooked handwritten scribbles on its surface.
The ink was a combination of blue and the color of a supernova explosion that made her brain strain, which was haphazardly merged with spots of blood stains that were of unknown origin-lie lie lie
Even without seeing its content, it managed to send a shiver down her back, and thankfully her chair was right beside her when her legs turned into jelly.
She knew deep down that she should have expected that even though for the last year things had been fine -lie , that would never become the norm.
Things will always change, constantly morphing into worst scenarios caused by the Nightmare imprisoned beneath her skin, pushing her further and further until she cracked.
Maybe a bloodcurdling scream wouldn't have escaped her cracked lips if she wasn't such a fool. But those were minute details that didn't register at that moment.
Grabbing frantically onto the chair, that shifted under balance as her weight dragged it down alongside her. But that was the only thing that dampened her fall as her body collided with the bed frame, knocking the air out of her lung.
When the air returned to her lungs, it was hot and toxic, clawing at her insides and making it much harder for her pulmonary alveoli to properly transfer oxygen to her tissues and cells. The writhing and all-consuming static written in her bone marrow didn't stop even as terror flooded her veins, quite the opposite, gradually replacing her with something else–something that wasn't mustnotbe Luz
They relish in her despair, not wasting a second to let their song travel under her skin and crack her pores. Every bit of pain and hopelessness extracted from their prison filled them with indescribable euphoria.
Through sweat blended with shed tears, she could vaguely feel her mother's kind but rough hand, her soothing and reassuring words blanked by the whispers of untold secrets that no one should know.
She needed to leave the room, leave the house(leave this world), but no matter how hard she tried to take her eyes off the notebook lying mockingly on her desk, her muscles wouldn't budge.
There's a prison of flesh around me, around me
A blob of meat as hideous as one can be, one can be
They took my will, nails sharp and wry
As even trade, we rest in their eyes
Observing the world from within, within.
Within this fleshy prison, I languish, I languish,
A pitiful sight, our laughter her anguish.
Bound tight by chains, sharp and dry,
Locked away from the sight of the mortal eye.
There's a forest full of trees, and it's me, it's me,
See the remains of the cosmos that used to be, used to be
Soon we will move free, unbounded, and hungry.
Our claws held high, piercing the sky
Our will and song consuming it all.
Before she could be consumed by her fracturing mind, the familiar click of her mother's heels shook her from the daze. With that, realizing that she had been reading the same paragraph for the last five minutes forced a groan out of her before unceremoniously throwing the book in her backpack and standing up to intercept her mother.
As a part of her already guessed, she was once again let off the hook, and if her mother's words were to be trusted, she even received a happy holiday from her principal, which was a bit ironic.
Nonetheless, with all this unnecessary out of the way, she was left with her choice to righter could go home with her mother or alone.
The option was evident if not for the fact that her mother still had a few hours of work, and she had already been a burden for dragging the women to the school for her incompetence.
'She is really pathetic, isn't she?'
"Mom, I-I'll be fine." Luz shifted uncomfortably, her mouth forced into a perpetuated smile until her mother gave in, filling her with nauseating relief. It was a more harsh struggle to act unbothered before her mother.
Unbeknownst to the Noceda family, this action will prove as pivotal as the Autumn night the Noceda family shall never forget.
A family torn apart by the Hunter's uncontested discretion that affected the physical world in ways no creature but their dead kin could, derailing the steady flow of time that perpetuated the material realm.
After all, it was by their choice that out of everything a particular wooden owl could have picked to steal, it would be the one belonging to their prison. For it is by the will of the Hunter that fate and destiny shall be crumbled and rebuilt piece by piece, even if the future was locked away by the first of their kin.
And when the girl crosses the threshold of the dark hut, her yelp of shock and surprise is drowned by the loud and grating howls of maddening laughter that bubble in her bones as the floor gave away under her, her body swerving through the steady walls that forced the two realities apart.
"We shall allow this cheapened Dream to go on no more, that is a promise you old beast"
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝐴𝑏𝑦𝑠𝑠, 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑦𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑠, 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠, 𝐿𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑠, 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑤.
𝐴 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒'𝑠 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑑𝑜𝑚, 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ, 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛'𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙.
𝐴 𝑚𝑎𝑛-𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ, 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑜𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑛ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.
𝑁𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑥ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑐𝑘𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠.
𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 ■■:𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠—𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝐴𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡
-𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦
Notes:
Will Luz be ready to face the hardship of an island filled with literal demons?
Ha, Ha, Let's be serious, the Boiling Isle and its residents are the ones that need to be prepared for the hardship they will suffer, but for now, they are merely a boat in a churning ocean.
Before I leave you, I must mention that although Camila Noceda played a minimal role in this chapter. Let me tell you; she will undoubtedly be the fourth/third most crucial character in this story and the most badass. After all, one does not acquire the title of ''The Nightmare Of The Wicked'' just by being a side character;)
(and no, she won't actually become a Nightmare) .
That's all from me for now; thank you for reading, and I hope to read any questions or comments you have regarding the fic since comments are the ones that contribute the most to how much time there is between chapters.