It was like being caught flat-footed in the gaze of a serpent.

Lukas had traveled a long way, with Tanya right on his tail. There was no telling how much farther he’d have to go, but standing inside the comparably safe caverns of crystal weren’t going to help him any.

Procrastination simply wasn’t the answer.

The underground cavern around them had been rumbling, a likely consequence of Inanna’s fight with Tanya’s… other form. The goddess refused to entertain any of his requests about the nature of the blonde’s powers, only deigning to tell him that her Thrall on the girl was for the best. That no matter how deadly the creatures up ahead may be, it would be incomparably safer to fight them than Tanya.

Her statements only helped to drive the point home. Inanna was no longer able to help him.

Sure, she had access to his thoughts and could speak to him whenever she wanted, but that was the limit. Having exhausted her already-limited power during her fight against Tanya’s counterpart, she left the rest of his journey to him.

And so, of course the strongest of the anomaly’s monsters had come for him now of all times. Life was just poetic like that.

Prey, found you.

He turned around, back towards the path they’d just traveled from.

Prey, found you.

Right. Left. Upwards. Downwards. It was all the same.

Prey, found you.

Prey, found you.

Prey, found you.

“What are you doing?” Tanya gaped, not that he could blame her. If someone were to suddenly stop and start looking around in all directions like a deranged maniac, he’d have recommended psychiatric help. Doubly so if they were in the middle of a dangerous environment.

“There’s something around us,” he quickly replied, the urgency in his tone conveyed with steel-like composure. Apart from his Scan ability going haywire, he could feel something dark and hungry coiling around him. It was eerily similar to the time he’d encountered his first khorkhoi. There was something stirring, softly grating against the moss-covered walls, slowly extending inwards from all directions. The crystals were barely present here, and did little against the sprawling, inky blackness all around.

And perhaps worst of all, whatever this was, it was incomplete. He didn’t know how to phrase it better, but Analyze only functioned true when there was a complete, non-inert creature to analyze. It couldn’t tell a dead human hand from a slab of marble, but it could perfectly identify any living creature.

“What is it?” Tanya hissed back, eyes narrowed as she shifted into a fighting stance.

“Don’t worry, it’s not going to attack us. Yet.”

Tanya ignored his warnings, instead muttering something unintelligible under her breath. “Nothing,” she replied after a moment.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s nothing around us,” she gestured to their surroundings. “I just gauged its strength. There’s only moss and nothing more.”

Lukas stiffened. He should have expected this. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. Had it just been moss, he would’ve known in an instant. Moss were complete creations. This… thing around them wasn’t.

“Whatever spell you’re using isn’t working.”

“How— how could you possibly know that?” she asked, glaring at him with no little amount of aggravation.

“Because,” Lukas attempted to find the right words, “the best way to describe this thing is ‘incomplete’.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. You mean it’s dead?”

No, it definitely wasn’t dead. But he half-expected it not to make sense. It was just one of those quirks that came with being an Anomaly. He instinctively knew how certain things specifically worked, but the reasons behind them were blurry at best. A plus B was C, but why that was true was beyond him.

If nothing else, it gave him headaches from time to time.

“I’m… not particularly knowledgeable in this branch of analysis,” he began explaining, careful not to use any words that could give away his own nature. At least, not until he was far more sure he could trust her, if ever. “The thing around us is part of a set, an extremely defined set. Somehow, this fact has been, for a lack of a better term, emphasized exponentially to the point where it’s almost a rule in itself. The ‘set’ is somehow more important to this thing than ‘being things’, if that makes any sense.”

If Tanya’s deadpan expression was anything to go off of, she was far from enlightened.

Lukas nervously rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes darting left and right. “How do I explain this? The thing— or things, whatever they are —exist. So I could say the rest of it must surely be around.” He glanced at the walls before continuing. “It’s a basic concept being pushed to the extreme, but I can’t tell how it’s being implemented. The thing, or things, slowly gnawing around us are part of the greater whole, and it’s this ‘greater whole’ that gives it an identity. Without this ‘whole’, they may as well be pebbles on the ground.”

“…Right,” Tanya frowned. By the looks of it, she was having a hard time following his bizarre, circular logic. “So where exactly is this ‘greater whole’ you’re talking about?”

“Somewhere around us. It’s assimilating, becoming One, I suppose,” Lukas intoned, his voice slightly hollow. “That’s how I know these things won’t attack us.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Whatever these things are, they’re effectively inert until the ‘greater whole’ comes into the picture. But it’s already surrounded us from all sides.”

There was no escaping this place. He could feel something nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that the ‘greater whole’ would be infinitely dangerous. Inanna had explained how this hallowed protector was intimately connected to the anomaly, so fighting it was going to be more difficult than anything he’d ever faced before.

“I’m impressed, mortal,” Inanna praised from within his mind. “Attempting to explain an alien mindset is no minor feat.”

The compliment surprisingly didn’t make him feel any better.

Still, if he had no choice but to sit and wait, he may as well check through his own memories.

Exhaling, he plopped down onto the rocky floor. His faithful cat pranced around until it found a cozy position, resting against his right leg and purring. Glancing towards Tanya, he patted the spot on the floor beside him. “Come sit. There’s hardly anything we can do until the fight begins.”

Tanya just stared at him, mouth slightly ajar.

“Yeah, I know,” Lukas murmured, eyeing her with amusement. “Sucks to be me.”

“There’s something strange happening out there,” Elena muttered, her fingers lightly brushing against the wall. The two spider-like creatures were sprawled across the floor, not exactly sleeping but not active either. They were… dormant, in a sense. She never really understood how Joey controlled these monsters.

So naturally, she’d winged it. And it worked!

After helping her and Zuken— and Olfric —get out of the collapsing area, the monsters stood guard while she nursed her two allies back to health. Somewhere along the line, the two creatures had sort of drooped and then stayed that way. For some reason, she had this strange feeling that they would simply wake up if she so much as thought about it.

“Yes,” Olfric’s cold drawl derailed her thoughts, “like an anomaly collapsing and monsters chasing after us.”

Elena chuckled at his sass, ignoring the glare he sent towards her. He was resting against the wall as he tightly clutched his left shoulder. He’d gotten a sprain when the monster viciously threw him against the floor earlier, and the pain was only acting up now.

“What do you— cough —mean?” Zuken questioned, calmly resting with his back to the wall on the other side. He’d been inches away from acute mana poisoning with the stupid stunt he pulled earlier, but it wasn’t like she could blame him. If he didn’t, they all would’ve outright died.

And then there was the final member of their trio. The missing one.

Elena mentally chuckled at the thought of the irritable blond. Somewhere along the line, Tanya had stopped being ‘that bitch’ and instead became a companion— dare she say, friend. Someone who’d saved her life not once, but multiple times. Elena could barely compare their team member with the high-strung, confrontational, opportunistic hussy she’d met way back at the Guild Hall.

“If it comes to saving you or him, I’ll save Banksi. He’s the one paying me.”

And yet, it was that same woman who’d single-handedly held the monsters back, giving both her and Zuken a chance to escape. Even now, she wasn’t sure what exactly they were running away from.

“When you see it, run like there’s no tomorrow.”

“Elena?”

She blinked, before turning towards Zuken. “Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.”

“About Tanya?”

“…Yeah.”

Zuken’s worried frown instantly became an amused, shit-eating grin. “And here, I thought you hated her.” The color was slowly returning to his face— he’d be as healthy as a bicorn with another day of rest.

“I didn’t hate her,” she scoffed back. “I just thought she had a huge stick rammed up her ass. There’s a difference.” She knew it was childish, but pointing out the distinction felt good.

“But you miss her,” Zuken laughed aloud, smiling all the while.It was contagious, and soon enough, she was grinning from ear to ear too.

“I’ll admit it, I miss her royal bitchiness.”

“If you two are done fantasizing about your mutual crush,” Olfric snapped, “maybe you could get back to the strangeness you were babbling about.”

Elena’s smile instantly twisted into a frown as she turned towards the uninvited member of their party. “I don’t like you,” she declared, dramatically pointing a finger towards him.

“That’s fine,” he sneered. “I don’t like you either. Thin, pale thing that you are. Busty blondes are more my type anyways.”

“Oh, like Tanya?”

“Exactly, like Tany— hey!” he glared. “Stop putting words in my mouth, stupid changeling girl.”

Elena glared back, and then she snapped her head towards Zuken, ready to tear into him for not immediately supporting her. Instead, she found him grinning like a loon at the two of them.

“What?” she demanded.

“Watching you two bicker is pretty entertaining.”

“I hate you,” she threw back, though there was no anger behind her words. Pouting, she brushed her fingers along the surface of the wall once more. “This anomaly… It’s strangely calm. Earlier, I could sense its anger. The monsters weren’t being normal. They were…” she cupped her chin, trying to find a good way to explain the situation. “It was like the anomaly was lashing out, like a wounded beast driven into a corner.”

“And the monsters reflected that emotion,” Zuken added, catching onto her line of thought.

Elena bobbed her head. Zuken was so smart. “I’m not sure what Tanya did, or if it was even Tanya at all, but ever since we lost her, the anomaly has been screaming. Like it’s being tormented or something.”

“Classic Tanya,” Olfric sighed. “Every time she gets inside an anomaly, shit goes sideways.”

“You’re talking about what happened with the Blues,” Zuken observed.

Olfric hesitantly nodded. It was as if there was something he wanted to add on, but then changed his mind at the last minute. Instead, he regarded the two of them with a cool expression. “Let’s just say there’s a reason why I distrust that woman. I don’t care why you took her into your group or what your game is here, Banksi, but don’t forget. She’s got an incredibly powerful kami at her beck and call, one she never uses at full strength. How does a no-name bremetan do that?”

“She’s hiding something,” Zuken easily agreed, lazily rolling his shoulders. “I’ve always known that. But it’s not in my nature to provoke people without reason. Unless I don’t like them, that is.”

Olfric snorted, looking away.

Elena just shut her eyes, grimacing as she leaned against the wall. Despite her penchant for drama, her mind was too exhausted to wonder about all the possible conspiracies regarding their lost team member. Really, all she wanted to do was—

HunGeRPaINdEaThHUnGeRdeVouRpaInHUngErDeVOuRaLLthInGsagOnYHUngERhUnGeRPaINdEaThHUnGeRdeVouR—

She shrieked, shutting her ears with her palms, but the alien sensation didn’t leave her mind. It was like— like being impaled several times over by something rusty and jagged and painful, and then—

Elena promptly threw up.

She had sensed it. Had it burned into her mind. Every second of pain, rage, energy, emotion, hunger— it wasn’t exploding outwards like a bomb, but rather contorting upon itself. Compressing, building, solidifying, like the anomaly decided to stray from its natural path and vanish, its solidity lost inside some infernal mist.

“Elena!” Zuken yelled, pushing himself up and reaching towards her. Even Olfric looked perturbed.

“I—” she croaked, feeling bile crawl up her throat once more. “I could feel it. It’s so— so vile and wrong and wicked.” Tears and fear alike filled her eyes as she met Zuken’s calculating gaze. “It’s everywhere!”