The distorted piano had no musician.
Its broken notes crawled through the mist one at a time, bending whenever the creature bent and shrieking whenever its limbs jerked in directions they were never meant to move.
Little Devil rocked from side to side.
Its arms hung at crooked angles. Its long purple ears dragged across the bloodstained earth, and the cracked grin carved into its mask remained fixed on Lewd.
"I'm disgusting…"
The stolen voice came out warped and uneven.
"I'm… disgusting…"
Lewd lay several feet away, one hand pressed against the torn flesh at her side. Blood seeped between her fingers and soaked into the grass beneath her.
Her breathing had become shallow.
Every breath hurt more than the one before it.
Phantasm's grimoire floated beside her, its pages turning violently as violet light poured into the wound.
Lewd, control your breathing. I am trying to repair your side.
Lewd's lips trembled.
"It's okay, Phantasm."
No, it is not okay.
"I think…I'm ready to go."
Lewd!
The world around her began to darken.
Whisperfen returned to her in broken pieces.
The laughter of the girls who had tormented her.
The job she had lost.
The home that had stopped being hers.
The caretaker who had never cared enough to notice that Lewd was hungry, frightened, and slowly becoming homeless.
She remembered flowers trembling in her hands.
She remembered being too embarrassed to look Derpy in the face.
She remembered his kindness.
Even after everything that had gone wrong, someone had finally looked at her as though she mattered.
A faint pair of hearts appeared within Lewd's fading eyes.
"I'm glad…I met someone who cared about me."
Her chest rose weakly.
"Even if it was only a little."
Stay awake.
"I love him…"
Her voice was barely more than escaping air.
"I wanted to have at least one special night with him before I went."
Her fingers slipped away from her wound.
"Sorry, Derpy."
A final wheeze escaped her.
"I tried."
Lewd stopped breathing.
Tears continued rolling from the corners of her eyes long after the rest of her had become still.
The violet light kept pouring into the wound.
Lewd.
It poured into skin that had stopped asking for it, closing flesh that no longer had any reason to close.
Lewd, answer me.
The grimoire's pages began turning faster — forward, backward, hunting for something that was not written in any of them.
You are still bleeding. If you are still bleeding then you are still—
The contract went slack.
It did not snap. It did not tear. It simply stopped holding weight, the way a rope stops holding weight when there is nothing on the other end of it, and Phantasm felt the entire length of it go loose inside her own pages.
She reached anyway.
She reached the way she had reached into Lewd's mind a hundred times — through humiliation, through nightmares, through five years of a girl apologizing for existing — and she found the door where Lewd had always been and she found it open and she found the room behind it empty.
Somewhere very far below, something enormous and old and full of drifting lights received a soul that had just come loose.
Phantasm could not follow her there.
She was an artifact. She had no soul of her own to send.
No.
The grimoire dropped out of the air.
It struck the grass beside Lewd's outstretched hand, pages splayed open, violet light bleeding out across the dirt with nowhere left to go.
No, no, no—
The book began to scream.
It was not a sound anyone in that clearing could hear. It happened entirely inside its own binding, in a voice that had spent months telling a frightened mouse girl to stop putting herself down, and it went on screaming into a mind that was no longer there to receive it.
From the trees, Lupin stared at her.
For once, the playful smile had disappeared from the rabbit deity's face.
"Number One…"
The chained Chaos Book floated beside her.
"That was heartbreaking. She really does love your past self."
Number One's voice answered from inside Lupin's mind.
She will come back.
Lupin glanced at the motionless mouse girl.
"You sound very confident."
Because I know she will. Get that thing's attention. Then tell Vemi and Shella to begin moving toward Lenora.
"And the body?"
What about it.
"It's still lying next to a hungry thing that already knows what she tastes like."
There was a pause.
…Secure her.
A red chain unwound from Lupin's back, crossed the clearing without hurry, and coiled twice around Lewd's chest before drawing tight — not pulling, only holding. A second loop gathered the fallen grimoire and dragged it against the body.
The chain locked.
Lupin's ears flicked toward the west.
"Your dog and your cat are still out there."
How far.
"Close." Lupin tipped her head. "They've been close for a while. That's the interesting part."
Beyond the treeline, the fog stood in a wall.
It did not drift. It did not thin. It held its shape the way water holds the shape of a bowl, and somewhere behind it something with three sets of lungs was tearing at it and getting nowhere.
"This town doesn't want them," Lupin said, delighted. "Isn't that lovely? Whisperfen has opinions."
Can they break it?
"Eventually."
Then be finished before they do.
Lupin spun like a ballerina, ending directly in front of the two sisters.
"All right, you two. Playtime is over."
Vemi immediately stepped closer to Shella, whose body was still trembling from the aftereffects of the Storyteller and Narration abilities.
"Until Shella recovers, both of you need to head toward your mother."
Vemi's rabbit ears stiffened.
"You're staying here alone?"
A red chain exploded from Lupin's back.
It tore through the fog and wrapped itself around Little Devil's arm.
The creature's distorted piano struck a violent note.
Lupin's smile returned.
"I won't be alone."
The chain tightened.
"And I've decided what to call this ugly little thing."
Little Devil slowly turned its cracked mask toward her.
"Little Devil."
The creature twitched.
Lewd's blood still stained its teeth and fingers.
Something inside that blood began to move.
Memories that did not belong to Little Devil forced themselves into its mind.
A frightened mouse girl carrying flowers.
A white dress purchased after the one she wore had been ruined.
A hand being offered when she believed no one would ever reach for her.
Derpy helping her.
Derpy protecting her.
Derpy caring about her when she possessed nothing worth taking.
Little Devil staggered.
It had expected flesh.
It had not expected memories.
Its masked face snapped toward Lewd's body.
It finally understood whom it had bitten.
Vemi transformed before it could react.
Her body expanded into an enormous winged rabbit, powerful legs digging into the earth as broad wings unfolded from her back. She carefully lifted Shella and secured her against herself.
"We're coming back!" Vemi shouted.
With one mighty sweep of her wings, she launched into the fog and carried Shella toward Lenora.
Lupin watched them disappear.
Then she began stretching.
She leaned left.
Then right.
She raised both arms above her head and rolled her shoulders as though she were preparing for a performance instead of a battle against a monster wearing Derpy's face.
"Chaos Series Number One…"
The chained book opened.
Its pages snapped through the air as red-and-black light spilled between them.
"Derpy the Dragon-Wolf, hear my call."
The forest trembled.
"Give me a weapon that will allow me to fight Little Devil on equal ground. I only need to stall it."
Lupin's violet eyes narrowed with excitement.
"I won't siphon its power. I want to test myself."
She looked directly at the creature.
"I want to know how strong you were when this skin was shed."
Number One's voice became severe.
Roae, listen carefully. That creature possesses no empathy. It has no compassion and no restraint. It sees you as food.
Lupin's ears snapped flat against her skull.
She looked around the clearing — at the trees, at the fog, at the frozen sky above it — the way a person checks a room after knocking something expensive off a shelf.
"You said it."
I thought it.
"That is not the same thing and you know it is not the same thing."
Nothing listening to this forest can hear the inside of your head, Roae.
"Do not do it twice."
The Chaos Book's chains rattled.
It will not hold back.
Lupin grinned, and the fear went out of her face as fast as it had arrived.
"Neither will I."
Her restraint chain whipped Little Devil around and slammed it against a tree.
The tree split down the middle.
Little Devil rose from the shattered wood, its head tilted unnaturally to one side.
It stared at Lupin.
Then at the Chaos Book.
Something familiar was coming from both of them.
Its own presence.
Derpy's presence.
The creature clawed at its mask.
"I'm the real one."
A fracture spread across its carved grin.
"Not you."
Blood began leaking through the crack.
The Chaos Book erupted.
Red and black power shook the entire forest. Birds fled from the canopy as tree roots tore free from the earth.
Black liquid flowed from the open pages and spiraled around Lupin's hands. It crawled over her fingers, wrists, and forearms before hardening into a pair of massive black gauntlets lined with burning-red seams.
A freezing hiss split the air.
Lupin raised both fists.
Cold vapor rolled from one gauntlet while a crimson glow pulsed through the other.
Then she noticed the lettering.
It ran along the inner plate of the left gauntlet in a script she had not asked for, worked into the metal as though it had always been part of the weapon and not something the book had decided a moment ago.
Lupin read it out loud.
"Maribel."
The Chaos Book said nothing.
Lupin turned the gauntlet slightly, following the name with her eyes.
"Number One."
Yes.
"Whose name is on my hands?"
Later.
"It's on your weapon."
It is on the first weapon I ever made, Number One said. You asked me for something that could fight my own shed skin on equal ground. There is only one thing I have ever built that qualifies, and it did not come out of nothing.
Lupin looked at the name a moment longer.
Then, because there was a monster crossing the clearing toward her, she filed it somewhere she could get at it later.
"The Frost Burn."
Little Devil charged.
"You are fake!"
The distorted piano exploded into a frantic melody.
"I'm the real one!"
Lupin's body changed.
She grew taller and more monstrous. Her royal clothing expanded into a fur-lined battle dress of pink, black, and gold. Her eyes burned with violet light, sharp teeth appeared behind her widening smile, and her long tongue slipped between them as red chains erupted from her back.
She charged to meet it.
Their fists collided.
The impact flattened the grass around them.
A ring of pressure tore through the trees, shredding branches and blasting the fog away from the battlefield.
Little Devil swung.
Lupin ducked beneath its claw and drove Frost Burn into its stomach.
The creature folded around the blow—but instead of being thrown backward, it caught her wrist.
Lupin's eyes widened.
Little Devil seized her other gauntlet.
Their fingers locked.
Claws scraped across black metal as the two monsters strained against one another.
Lupin's feet dug trenches through the earth.
Little Devil continued advancing.
One step.
Then another.
Then another.
Its strength forced Lupin backward despite everything she poured into the gauntlets.
The cracked mask leaned closer.
"I'm…the real…"
A red chain exploded from Lupin's back.
It wrapped around a distant branch and snapped tight, violently pulling her out of Little Devil's grasp.
The creature screamed in frustration.
Lupin sailed over its head, laughing as she flipped through the air.
"Aww! Can't you keep up?"
Another chain struck a tree.
Lupin swung around its trunk, released herself at the highest point, and spun over the canopy.
"The real Derpy would be much faster than that!"
She fired another chain.
Then another.
Lupin swung from branch to branch as though the forest had become her private circus. She twisted, flipped, and laughed while Little Devil chased her from below.
The grin on its mask shifted.
The carved smile folded inward, reshaping itself into an enraged expression.
Little Devil jumped toward a branch and tried to copy Lupin.
Its claws caught the bark.
Its body swung sideways.
The branch broke.
The creature crashed into the ground while Lupin hung upside down above it, kicking her legs with delight.
"Oh, that was terrible!"
Little Devil's mask twisted with humiliation.
The piano screamed.
Lewd did not know how long she remained inside the darkness.
She remembered surrendering.
She remembered deciding that she was ready.
But now that everything had become silent, she began wondering whether she had truly been ready—or whether she had simply become too exhausted to continue fighting.
Her eyes opened.
Countless sphere-like objects floated around her. Some glowed softly. Others were dark. They drifted through the endless space like stars that had forgotten where the sky was.
Lewd tried to touch her injured side.
Her body refused to respond.
"What is this place?"
Golden words formed in front of her.
THIS IS NOT HEAVEN.
The message disappeared.
THIS IS NOT HELL.
Another line followed.
THIS IS NOT PURGATORY.
Lewd's ears slowly lowered.
"Then where am I?"
The final words burned red.
SOMEWHERE MUCH WORSE.
A chain erupted from the darkness below.
It wrapped around Lewd's ankle.
She screamed as it yanked her downward.
"No!"
The floating spheres rushed past her as the chain dragged her deeper into the endless dark.
"What is this place?"
She clawed at the chain, but her fingers passed through it.
"Am I going to remain like this forever?"
The confidence she had felt while dying vanished.
"I want to see him again!"
The chain pulled harder.
"I thought I was content! I thought I was ready!"
Tears floated away from her face.
"But I regret it!"
Lewd reached toward the distant lights.
"I regret giving up!"
Wicked laughter erupted from somewhere beneath her.
The chain dragged Lewd into the center of the Soul Seam and abruptly released her.
She floated there, trembling.
A figure descended through the darkness on layered wings of red, pink, and purple.
Harpy Derpy opened his arms dramatically.
"Welcome, wandering soul, to—"
He looked at Lewd.
His expression collapsed.
"Oh."
Lewd stared back at him.
Harpy Derpy's wings stiffened.
"Oh, this is bad."
"Derpy?"
"You aren't supposed to be here."
A second figure appeared beside him.
Rabbit Derpy leaned forward eagerly.
"How about another chance?"
Then he recognized Lewd.
His ears shot upward.
"Ohhh no. This isn't good. Guys, we have an issue!"
Wolf Derpy emerged from one side of the darkness.
Dragon Derpy appeared from the other.
Lewd's gaze moved between all four of them.
Four faces.
Four bodies.
Four different versions of the same person she had been longing to see.
Her fear momentarily disappeared.
"Four Derpys…"
Hearts returned to her eyes.
"Is this my heaven?"
All four Derpys looked at one another.
Then their bodies began to glow.
Feathers, fur, scales, wings, horns, and shadows broke apart into streams of energy. Rabbit merged with Wolf. Wolf merged with Harpy. Harpy merged with Dragon.
The four forms became one towering Dragon-Wolf.
He lowered his head until his eyes were level with Lewd's.
"No, Lewd. This is the Soul Seam."
His voice traveled through the darkness.
"It is not Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. This is a place that collects wandering souls and gives them a new purpose."
Lewd slowly floated toward him.
"Like reincarnation?"
"In a way."
She settled onto his shoulder as though it were the most natural place in the world.
Derpy sighed.
"But it always comes at a cost."
Lewd's fingers curled gently into his fur.
"What cost?"
Derpy did not answer.
Instead, he lifted her from his shoulder and placed her carefully in front of him.
"I need a moment."
He closed his eyes.
The spheres surrounding them began to tremble.
"What are you doing?"
Lewd attempted to move closer, but a wave of pressure held her back.
Derpy concentrated harder.
"Derpy?"
His outline began to disappear.
"What are you trying to do?"
His eyes opened one final time.
"Bringing your Derpy here."
Then he vanished.
The Soul Seam stopped.
Every sphere froze.
Every distant chain became motionless.
Even Lewd's drifting hair fell still.
Time had never behaved properly inside the Seam, but now it seemed to disappear entirely.
Seconds might have passed.
Or hours.
Or an eternity.
Lewd floated alone, trying to understand what he had meant.
Your Derpy.
"Wasn't that already you?"
The Soul Seam began to spin.
Slowly at first.
Then faster.
The countless spheres circled Lewd as though the entire realm were turning around a newly formed center.
Tap.
Lewd's ears lifted.
Tap.
A silhouette appeared beyond the spiraling lights.
Tap.
Black boots walked across an invisible floor.
A white wolf stepped through the darkness.
She had long white hair that fell over her shoulders, large white wolf ears, piercing red eyes, and an enormous fluffy tail. A red musical horn curled beside one side of her head, while a purple one rested on the other. She wore a black hooded top, fitted black shorts, a belt with a hanging chain, straps around one thigh, and black heeled boots.
Lewd stared.
"Derpy?"
The white wolf continued approaching.
Confusion spread across Lewd's face. The Derpy she knew was male, yet the person walking toward her possessed the unmistakable shape of a wolf woman.
The white wolf stopped.
"Hello, Lewd."
Even in this form, the voice belonged to him.
"Do you have time to chat?"
Lewd floated closer, studying his face.
"Are you my Derpy?"
"Yes."
Derpy gestured toward his current body.
"When I escaped the White Tiger Kingdom, I temporarily lost access to my dragon form. I became…this."
Lewd stopped moving.
"You escaped."
"Four days ago."
"Four days." Her ears came up. "Lenora is still out there thinking you're in a cell. Mia and Sphinx are still following orders you gave them before you—" She stopped. "You've been loose for four days and none of us knew."
"I know."
"Where have you been?"
Derpy's tail moved once and went still.
"That," he said, "is a longer conversation than the one you came here for."
Lewd circled him once, still puzzled.
"And the four who were here?"
"They are me, but they aren't separate living versions of me. They are fragments created from my broken dragon horns."
Derpy looked out at the endless spheres.
"The Soul Seam itself has existed since the beginning of time. I didn't create it."
"Then why are you in charge?"
"I somehow took over from the person who controlled it before me."
His red eyes lowered.
"I still don't understand how it happened."
Lewd became quiet.
The confusion in her expression slowly gave way to something heavier.
"There's something outside wearing your face."
Derpy looked at her.
"It walks like you. It speaks with your voice. It claims that it is you."
Lewd's hands tightened.
"I saw what happened that night."
Derpy froze.
"I saw you climb out of the hotel window. I saw you running through the woods. I saw you scratching yourself until pieces of your body fell away."
The musical horns beside Derpy's head dimmed.
"I heard what you said."
Lewd's voice trembled.
"You called yourself disgusting."
Derpy's enormous tail became still.
"You called yourself worthless. You said there were beautiful girls around you, and you couldn't understand why any of us would care about you."
Lewd floated directly in front of him.
"Is that truly how you see us?"
Derpy opened his mouth, but no answer came.
"You think Lenora and I are beautiful…"
Tears gathered in Lewd's eyes.
"But when you look at yourself, all you see is something disgusting?"
Silence moved through the Soul Seam.
Lewd stared into his red eyes.
"Is that really what you believe?"
For the first time since Lewd entered the Soul Seam, Derpy looked as though he had nowhere left to run.