The words echoed long after the voice fell silent.
For a second, time itself refused to move-until the thud of Hoshimi's body hitting the marble split the world back open.
"Hoshimi?"
Her voice cracked like glass. Brittle. Barely sound. She dropped beside him, knees slamming the cold floor, hands shaking so hard she almost missed the wound. Warmth flooded her palms, too thick, too real. Her mind refused to name the color.
"What in Lady Bleu's—"
His eyes were already unfocused, violet fading into a dull gray haze. They looked through her, past her, into nothing. The hole in his chest was obscene-clean, perfect, merciless, yet he was still breathing but barely at that.
Audrey pressed down hard, mana bursting from her skin in a sickly green glow. The light crawled across her hands, trembling, flickering. It sputtered like a dying candle in the wind.
"Come on. Come on, damn it," she whispered, voice fraying. "You're not dying here. If you die, I swear I'll—I'll kill you myself—"
But the air didn't listen.
The air never listened.
The smell of iron choked her. Her heartbeat roared like drums in her skull. Mana surged, chaotic and uneven, syncing with the dying pulse beneath her hands. Two rhythms tangled, fighting, merging-until she couldn't tell which heartbeat was hers anymore.
Then—
Bang.
"Well," a rasp sounded from behind her, "I'm not letting you leave alive either."
The voice was soaked in venom, her long black hair running down her shoulders, her eyes stared into Audrey. Before she could turn, something tore through her chest: a tendril, black and slick, punching through her ribs and out her back. The sound it made was wet.
Her mouth opened, but no scream came out. Just blood, her throat was warm, uncomfortably so. Like needles pouring out of her.
Where pain and silence overlapped, something else stirred.
Her vision swam. Her ears rang. She could feel her mana twisting on itself, cracking apart like shattered glass.
A whisper.
Low. Intimate. Indoors.
"Let me take control, Audrey."
Her body spasmed. Her blood was on fire now. She looked down at Hoshimi's fallen body, his lifeless eyes catching the light, and something in her chest splintered.
"Come on," the voice purred, silken and cruel. "Don't you want to live? If you die here, then we both die. You wouldn't want that… would you?"
She tried moving her lips, but only a strangled sound came out.
The voice laughed-soft at first, then louder, manic, until it filled her skull like a scream that wouldn't stop.
"You're so fucking pathetic," it sneered. "You're weak. Look at you, bleeding out on the floor clutching a corpse. You can't even save him, not to mention, yourself. You've always been nothing but a burden, he is going to die saving you. Let me through."
Her hands twitched. Her mana flared and died again. The smell of ozone and rot filled the air.
"Stop fighting back," it whispered, sharper now, closer. "You're nothing without me. I'm the only reason father kept you alive, to bring me back. You think he cared about you? You think anyone does? You're just a burden. A liability. But I can fix that. I can make you strong. Just—let—me—through."
Her breathing turned shallow, irregular. Blood foamed over her lips as she struggled to inhale. Her lungs wouldn't budge. The world canted sideways, bookcases seeming to flex like shadows in a fever dream.
"I can feel it," the voice hissed, "your pulse fading, your mind slipping. Good. Let go. Let me take it from here. I can kill her. I can save you."
"N-no…"
"Yes," it whispered now in her tone, her cadence, mocking her own voice. "Say it. You want to live. Say it, Audrey, if you don't let me out, we both die here."
Her pulse stuttered. The room swam, drenched in an impossible green light. Shadows warped, Hoshimi's shape stretched thin across the floor, his face melting into a smear of violet and gray. The library shuddered around her, books fluttering open like wings, pages whispering in a chorus of meaningless words.
"Do you remember," the voice said softly, "how you used to dream of being stronger? How it would feel to fight back against Adrian? Fight back against father? You always wanted what they had, didn't you? You wanted power".
Her head throbbed. Her teeth clenched so hard she tasted blood.
"You wanted power, you begged for it, but when it came, you hesitated. You allowed guilt to chain you down. You allowed love to weaken you. You wanted Hoshimi to save you. Look where that got him."
Her fingers tightened around his body, her mana spiking as the floor beneath them cracked. The marble groaned, as if it were alive.
[Don't..]
"Why not?" the voice murmured. "You think he wasn't using you? He pitied you. You were his charity case. His fragile little witch in need of protection."
[That's not true… I can protect myself… I never- I never needed anyone]
"You're kidding yourself]
The voice began to layer upon itself, repeating her own words with twisted inflections. Each syllable echoed louder, closer, until it wasn't in her head anymore, it was in the walls, the bookshelves, the open mouths of the statues lining the reading hall.
"You're weak."
"You're weak."
"You're weak."
The floor was pulsating now, breathing with her. The tendril still in her chest writhed in rhythm with her heartbeat, as though it too were part of her.
"You see?" the voice crooned. "We're always been connected. You and I. We share a body. A pulse. We were never separate, Audrey. I've always been watching you".
She tried to pull the tendril out—but her hand wouldn't move. Her muscles locked. Her own arm trembled, then stilled, fingers twitching like a puppet's.
Laughter came again, this time softer, almost pitying.
"You think control is about strength," it whispered. "It isn't. It's about surrender. The moment you stop fighting me… the moment you accept me… I'll give you everything you've ever wanted. No fear. No pain. No weakness."
Her breathing was ragged now, the blood in her throat making speech difficult.
"What… do you want from me?"
"I want for you and me to stay alive, I don't want to die either".
Her body convulsed violently. Mana surged upward, green light twisting into tendrils of black. The air crackled with pressure as her hair whipped around her face.
Her echo was fragile, breaking apart under the weight of darkness that spread through her veins.
The voice chuckled, almost tender now. "Oh, Audrey. Just let me take over."
Her reflection-faint, in a pool of spilled ink-looked up at her. Its lips moved before hers did.
"I am you."
The words hadn't come from her mouth. They came from the reflection's. From the thing inside her.
Her pulse slowed. The world narrowed to the sound of her own heartbeat: heavy, mechanical, distant.
"Let go," it whispered, softer than breath. "It's easier this way."
Her eyes fluttered shut.
The moment stretched-long, quiet, endless. Then the silence cracked. The shelves exploded outward, books and ash filling the air like feathers. The light turned black-green, pulsing like veins through the walls. Her voice-no, their voice-rose in a low, trembling hum that shook the floor. Her eyes snapped open. They were no longer green. No longer hers. The black had taken them completely, deep, endless, and aware.
Audrey's body jerked, a violent convulsion that sent her sprawling. Her mana flared in bursts, light, then shadow, then light again, until the air around her trembled from the imbalance. Her reflection in the shards of broken glass didn't match her movements anymore.
"Shit, finally. Audrey finally let me take control."
Domino let her breath ease out of her slowly, like smoke.
The light in the library flickered once, then died.
Before the Witch's eyes, her hair began to bleach, strand by strand losing its colour, until silver pooled down her shoulders like molten moonlight. Her eyes were the opposite of light, voids that seemed to drink in what little remained.
"Come on, let's make this quick shall we"?
She licked the blood from her lips, then wiped them clean with the back of her hand. The actions were too calm. Too deliberate.
The Rogue Witch, still crouched amidst shards of glass and wafting paper ash, blinked confusedly. "The hell…? What is this?"
Domino's eyes didn't shift. Her face was flat, unreadable-only her eyes betrayed life, flickering like oil on water. She stared at the place where the blackened hole yawned through her ribs.
Her voice was low, quiet, like a memory dredged from the bottom of someone else's mind.
She tapped on her chin as she looked towards the ceiling.
"I saw Hoshimi do this once. How'd it go again?"
Her hand hovered over the wound. It began to glow, a sickly, green luminescence that crawled through her skin and veins like wildfire. She whispered the words, almost mockingly.
"Vitae Core."
The flesh rippled, knitting itself together, muscle and bone reforming, skin closing until not even a scar remained. Domino flexed her hand, testing it.
"That kinda hurt," she said, her voice flat, "He made it look way easier."
Audrey's head echoed in her head.
"Shh." Domino smiled faintly, tilting her head as though listening to a child. "I'm borrowing it. You were wasting it anyway."
"This uses up way too much mana. I don't even know how he managed to keep regenerating without collapsing from mana shortage".
The Rogue raised an eyebrow, her mouth twisting in a smirk as she crossed her arms. "The hell is this supposed to be? Some stupid power-up"?
Domino looked up, her smirk growing wider. "Yep."
The floor cracked beneath her feet as mana surged upward, glowing veins snaking up her neck, collecting at her throat. A resonance filled the air, low at first, growing higher in pitch until it became unbearable.
The sound tore out of her like the shriek of the earth splitting open.
A raw, concussive blast shattered the glass that still stood in the library and shook the entire building.
The Rogue Witch was launched backward, crashing through what remained of the window. Her scream was lost in the sonic storm as she flew into the night.
"I thought you could only use defensive magic".
Outside, the moon cast an icy silver bath over the courtyard. The Witch landed hard, her body splintering stone and soil alike.
"With that technique, you must be from the Shaw family".
A sharp grin spread across Domino's face.
"Nope, I stole it".
She crouched slightly, mana gathering at her feet. The glow condensed, thick and unstable, then burst downward like a jet. The floor shattered as she launched herself through the air, faster than an arrow.
She landed on the Rogue's stomach with a dull crack that echoed through the courtyard, as dust and mana burst outward in a halo of debris.
But the moment her heel struck, the Witch's body liquefied, melting into a black, bubbling mass that slid away from under her foot and reformed several meters away.
Domino straightened slowly, brushing imaginary dust from her sleeve. "Huh."
Her tone was dry, almost bored. "That's kind of a stupid ability isn't it? That means that blunt damage isn't very effective on you. Hoshimi was wrong in evaluating you".
She cocked her head slightly, her silver hair shining in the moonlight.
[There was a delay, before my attack hit her, she turned into the black goo instead of automatically transforming. It must be an active skill. That means… that her transformation depends on her reaction time.]
Her eyes narrowed.
[I should attack her quicker than she can transform into it, then.]
The body of the Witch rippled, half-human, half-fluid, searingly glaring with eyes that shone like hot coals. "You think you're so smart? You're just a kid".
Domino smiled thinly. "And you're the one that ran away because you were oh so scared of the poor government".
She took a deep breath in, and her cheeks puffed up as if the air was being compressed in her lungs. Her throat veins pulsed green with mana collecting around her vocal cords once more.
Then, she screamed.
The sound hit the courtyard like an explosion.
Windows shattered, roof tiles cracked, and the flagpole bent sideways with a metallic groan.
The rogue witch stumbled, covering her ears, black ichor dripping from her nose yet she smiled. "What in the world is that output"?
The Witch sprang forward, arm outstretched, like a spear. Black sludge coagulated in mid-air into a sharpened blade and plunged toward Domino's neck.
She tilted her head, letting the blade flick past her hair; she caught it with one hand, fingers tightening until the blade hissed, melting under the sheer pressure.
With a single hand, Domino deflected all the attacks while repeatedly striking the Witch with her fists, her other free hand running through her hair. "Come on, is that all you've got? You hit like a vegetarian".
The Witch snarled and swung her other arm, turning her limb into a massive, bladed tentacle that sliced the air. Domino ducked low, pivoted, and slammed her elbow into the Witch's side, her body weight shifting with inhuman precision, as she kept pummeling her.
The impact caused the Witch's form to ripple violently, her parts dissolving into sludge before reforming.
Domino didn't stop. She pressed forward, every action smooth, calculated, surgical. Her blows weren't wild, but exact, as if she was dissecting her opponent in real time, a smile on her face.
"Stop copying me!" the Rogue screamed, forming another clawed arm and slashing down.
Domino leaned aside just enough for the claw to miss by a hair's breadth. Her smirk deepened. "Stop copying me"! She repeated her, in a baby's voice, openly mocking her.
She raised her foot, and mana flared from the ground, explosive force channeled through one strike.
The Witch barely dodged by twisting her form into liquid again.
But Domino didn't follow through. She froze mid-motion, letting the attack stop inches away.
The Witch still did transform.
Satisfaction glinted in Domino's eyes.
[I guess that at least proves my hypothesis.]
The Witch solidified again, panting, her breaths ragged. "You're toying with me."
Domino stepped closer. The courtyard light fluttered around her like it was bending away. Did you only notice just now"? She crouched, meeting the Witch's eyes with that endless black stare. "I haven't had control over this body in a long long time, I should at least try to have some fun."
She smiled faintly, something eerily human and wrong at the same time.