We’re all going to die.

Zuken was unconscious, his face scrunched up in pain from all the mana poisoning. The entire place was shaking like it was the center of a huge earthquake, and the walls crumbled into an avalanche of debris. The metal sludge-monster had gone inert and dissipated into liquid, forming thousands of little orbs and splattering across the floor as large chunks of the ceiling fell on them. Meanwhile, the giant jaw-head reverted back into a cat and was… absorbing the metal into itself.

That doesn’t even make sense. It’s not growing at all.

“Elena!” she heard Tanya yell.

“Oh, you’re still up—”

“GET DOWN!”

Without questioning the annoying blonde’s orders, Elena crouched low, just in time for a whip of wind to slash through the space above her head. It smashed against a falling boulder instead, shattering it into countless pieces.

If only it was neater.

Elena stumbled back in equal parts shock and fear as something long, sharp, and obsidian pierced her right underneath her left shoulder. With a painful whimper, she pulled it out and tightly clasped a hand over the wound, feeling a terrifying amount of warm liquid seep out of her. Gathering up the courage, she peered down at it.

She couldn’t help but gasp. It was big. And bad. Really bad.

Scrambling through the avalanche of debris, Elena dragged Zuken’s unconscious body with her. She needed to get him somewhere safe. What rationality remained pointed out that nowhere was safe until they managed to get out of the anomaly, but her heart refused to accept it.

“Come on Zuken,” she tugged at him, “we need to get out of here!”

Zuken trembled, but remained unconscious.

Elena felt all her hope drain away.

What should I do? What— what can I do? Joey! Help me!

She didn’t receive a response. But why? Joey always answered, so why not now? What happened to him? Was he afraid of the Outsider like she was? He was a better sensor than her, after all. Was he—

Her thoughts died as Olfric suddenly collapsed beside her. The Asukan had been pushing himself despite his mana exhaustion taking a toll. He’d already been looking peaky before the place started coming down, and with the blood dripping from the bump on his head, it was a miracle he could hold steady for so long.

As if that weren’t enough, a large portion of the ceiling fell just next to them, raising a cloud of dust.

“We’re gonna be buried alive at this rate!” she squeaked out.

“We most certainly are not!” Tanya snapped back. She pushed Olfric closer to her and conjured a spherical dome of wind around them. As far as protections went, it looked a lot flimsier than any of Zuken’s shields. But she wasn’t going to complain. Not when—

“What the hell are you doing?!” she screamed, realizing what Tanya had done. The blonde had closed the dome around them, leaving herself out of it, and slowly raised them all upwards.

“NO!” Elena screamed. “I’m not— I won’t leave you behind! We’ll escape together!”

Her shrieks made Tanya softly smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll catch up soon enough.”

“You’re going to save him, aren’t you?” Elena accused, glaring at the Outsider with suspicion. Lukas was currently standing a few meters away, power rolling off of him in waves. There was a humming throb of energy enveloping him, a power so deep and ancient that the world had forgotten what its existence was like. It demanded her respect, her adoration, her abject terror. And suddenly, Elena knew exactly what that Outsider was.

He was no bremetan.

He was a World-Eater.

Someone that had descended from the Abyss itself, to consume worlds at a stretch. This anomaly was barely the beginning.

Elena could barely breathe. She couldn’t have moved if she tried.

This— he— he’s going to kill us all.

She didn’t know why the thought flitted through her mind, but she couldn’t bring herself to challenge it. She had seen Lukas devour a monster earlier, and now it looked like he was devouring the anomaly itself. It was insane and horrifying and wrong, but the Outsider showed no signs of stopping.

“Tanya! He’s dangerous!” Elena half-whispered, half-screamed. “Please! Let’s get away from here. He can stay or escape on his own. If we want to survive, this is the time to—”

“He’s something else, isn't he?” Tanya asked, still standing beside the levitating dome of wind. Her gaze was affixed to the Outsider, and her eyes shone with an indecipherable emotion. There was something odd about her. She felt… colder.

“Tanya—” Elena hesitated. “I—”

The floor beneath them interrupted her, shaking with the roar of a thunderclap as large cracks formed.

“Do not fret,” Tanya said, her eyes now pearly white— wait, white eyes? “We will survive. But I want him alive. I need him alive.”

“Alive?!” Elena hysterically screamed. “That’s the guy who’s trying to bury us all. He’s literally devouring the place around us, with us still in it!”

“I know,” the blonde breathed. “But I want him to finish. He’s in the middle of something grand. Even I, at the peak of my power, cannot fathom such an accomplishment. To reach into the very heart of the Origin. The dedication, the zeal, the ambition… It is making me ecstatic. Famished. Never in the hundreds of years of my reign have I seen something so glorious.”

That was the moment Elena finally realized something was truly off about Tanya.

“Who—” her voice trembled, “who are you?”

Pure snow-white frost travelled up Tanya’s cheeks, until her face became a twisted caricature of itself— an odd mixture of flesh and frost. Wind flared around her, as if caressing her lovingly like a fierce protector.

“What does that matter to you, changeling?”

Elena took a step back. Was this the coldness she’d always felt inside Tanya? Had that coldness crawled to the surface and replaced the blonde? Or was something else at play?

She gathered herself and lifted her chin. “It matters because— because Tanya is my friend.”

There. She finally said it out loud. It had been a rough start between the two of them, but as they spent more time down here in the anomaly, they struck up a kinship. A small one, a rocky one, but definitely one. And if some creepy thing took over her body, then she most definitely had a problem with it.

Tanya threw her head back and laughed. The sound sent shivers down her spine.

“Tell me, changeling. Do you know what a thrall is?”

Elena stared at the sandy plain around her in abject confusion. Beside her, Zuken and Olfric lay fallen upon the hot sands. It was daylight, but she wasn’t burning up or dying or anything. And neither were her friends.

“Huh. I thought this desert was cursed,” she said to no one in particular.

“It was,” Not-Tanya replied, her face still covered in frost. “But not anymore. There is no reason for the curse to linger any longer.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have returned. And now, the others will know it.”

“What others?”

“My followers. My acolytes. Those who live to serve me without fail.”

“Yokai,” Elena replied sullenly. Did— did that mean her friend was actually a— a—

The thrall forbade her from even thinking about it. It was so weird, knowing the truth but unable to think about it. Knowing everything that had happened, was happening, and would happen, but having to sit on it without being able to tell Zuken.

Elena loathed it. She wanted to scream and run for her life, far away from this crazy being.

But she didn’t budge.

For Tanya.

“I can see the hatred in your eyes, changeling,” Not-Tanya replied, a small smirk on her face. “It seems my vessel has made rather interesting associations. I find myself fascinated by how things will play out from this point onwards.”

“Give this body back to Tanya,” Elena spat.

“Oh, but I will. And with it, her newfound power over Frost as well. But first, there is something I must do.”

She raised her right palm, gathering frost on it. One after another, slivers of ice extended out in the shape of spiral towers and thick chambers. By the time it was done, the frost resembled a miniature version of an ancient edifice that could only belong to a mighty God-King.

Not-Tanya slowly levitated the ice-crystal structure down to the sandy floor. The moment it touched down, it grew rapidly until it was as large as a house.

“What— what is this thing?”

“Strategy,” Not-Tanya chuckled. “A bit too complicated for you, I believe.”

But Elena knew what it was. A symbol. One made by the other being in Tanya’s body. The edifice represented her aims, her beliefs, her ambitions. It was a promise, one proving to all who laid eyes upon it that the ancient being was finally back to finish what she had once started.

“The other yokai will know of you,” Elena replied. “And what then?”

“Then?” Not-Tanya’s lips twisted into a cruel smirk. “The annihilation of the Asukan Empire.”