"I've lost many friends over the years. That is the price paid for a journey longer than life. But, I refuse to forget any of them. I could let them fade to time. I could let what I know of them fade away till I can no longer recall more than a name. But when what you've lost is precious enough to correlate it to family, you hold onto that with every ounce of strength you can put into your metaphorical grasp." A smoky hand clasped out of the fire, holding onto a fading ember. "But, when you do that, one day, you'll receive a grim reminder of what you will never again hold in your arms." The ember sparked a flash of bright light before falling back into the flames. "It may be a pet, a friend, a sibling, a parent… and once you lose them, you'll see all the places you wish they were. And for me, it's a constant reminder that I could have done more, that I should have done more."

>A Living Flame of Hunger and Rage.< The spell's name uttered silently was all the mana needed to leap from my hand out into the sea of bodies.

Emotional magic is a potent, flexible weapon. If you feed the correct goals and desires into the mana, it works miracles without the need for a magic circle. But without either, they sputter like wet sticks in a fire. I would never claim one type is better than the other, but for me, without assistance from the system, emotional magic suited me best.

Like a cat, the mana jumped from my arm. Transforming midflight into a blanket of black, lightless flame, it coated the horde of monsters down the hill. The sound of shuffling and heavy breathing changed in an instant. The primarily silent night vanished, the screams of pain and damnation drowning everything out. Monsters howled, screamed, cried, some imitated the sounds of previous victims, which sounded distinctly human. But that was only the beginning.

I'd imbued emotions into the mana; two strong ones that changed this spell drastically. The first was an endless hunger, a starving stomach that could never eat its fill, and it made the flames burn everything. The air, the bones, the blood, and the grass were all fuel for the blazing mana. The second was the rage and anger built on eons of failure, a fury that sent the flames beyond the concept of heat. The minds of the targets burned under the blackened fire. They crumbled, and instantly they turned melting limbs on one another.

Bones cracked from the heat, but the monsters could no longer feel that pain. Blood boiled, but all it did was turn some into massive steaming clouds that hindered the vision of others. Flesh melted from the bones, but that stopped none of them as they tore into each other. Teeth fell from mouths as some ripped into others like wolves. The screams stopped, each monster too far lost in the rage of the flames to let out any sound. But, another sound grew ever louder in my mind. I heard bones break under blows; organs popped like squeezed waterskins, eyes dripped out of skulls like cracked eggs. I listened to every sound from the dying horde below.

And I relished in it.

When the flames cleared, the horde was gone. But I could see new spawns clawing out of the dirt. Creatures from the nightmares of children and adults alike clawed out of the charred land, seeking to fill a hunger they didn't understand. I was just sane enough still to know I had to make myself a target, so I leaped in to tear into them.

The first had its brain shattered against a rock. The next had no brain, so I ripped its heart from its chest. Some had neither brains nor hearts, so I used the tools of other targets to leave them as rotted piles of meat. This one had a potent poison on its tongue. So I ripped that from its skull and forced it down the throat of one whose amour I could not pierce. I saw one covered in quills, so I tossed dozens of flailing bodies to be impaled on its back. Eventually, that one stopped moving; then, the quills became the spine of something else. I recognized the color as I ripped said spine from the neck of the creature it became. If it had horns, I broke them off. If it could rot something away, I abused it to clear the piled corpses.

Every creature cried out, and I loved the sound. The gurgles of one as it choked on the skull of another were intoxicating. The pop of something that should never burst was almost divine. The blood smelled of metal and decay, and I bathed in it all the more. Bones cracked, the sound filling my mind, and I almost cackled in response. I felt my bones creak, so I pulled spirit from the air to repair them. The process was agonizing, and that pain I turned fourfold on the creatures around me. My false leg was sturdy but unwieldy. It slipped on the blood and puss around me repeatedly, and every time I took a blow, I should have evaded. This turned from anger at myself to rage at those hitting me, and that rage made my actions even more brutal.

I broke the skull of one against the kneecap of another. Neither was dead, but I left them to writhe in pain. I ripped the eyes out of something's skull and shoved them down its gaping maw to choke it. I tore the limbs off of something and beat them against something else.

With every kill, I felt myself slipping. My goal faded with every attack that landed on my body. My desire shifted from protecting the town to destroying every creature spawned from the corpses of my victims. I drew them back to me not to prevent the death of innocents but because I wanted to kill them each myself. I crushed them not to stop them from killing, but so I could feel the blood coat me like paint. I lost track of time. I stopped counting the moments till help arrived. I ripped into each monster like packages of visceral gifts.

I heard voices calling to me after a time. Maybe they wanted me to stop, or they tried to help me. I couldn't understand them. It took all I had not to turn my grotesque rampage against them.

My actions became blended flashes to me. I knew the actions were mine, and I knew what I'd done to reach each moment. But it wasn't a continuous stream of thought and memories. It was an inconsistent barrage of out-of-order thoughts.

Grey slush dripped from my clenched hand, the skull I'd crushed falling to the ground.

Then that creature was back, a ways away. I was throwing a spine to pin its leg to the ground.

I had its face in my hand, it clawed at me, but it failed to shake me before my hand splattered its brains.

A tree threw a rock at me. Branches like the limbs of a man dragged stones from the ground to heave at me.

I saw that tree sprout from the corpse of a wolf, its roots sucking in the mass of the dead creature.

The tree was dead, one of its branches in my hand. I used it as a club to shatter the arm of a massive hairy creature whose arms hung so low its knuckles dragged on the ground.

Monkey, that's what The Hero would call the creature I saw lying dead beneath my feet. I thought I saw the club I'd used to break its arm around.

My head hurt, something was screaming, and I couldn't find it.

I had my arm down the throat of something with hundreds of teeth. It tried to bite me, but I tore its lungs up through its windpipe before it did.

The screaming hurt, so much screaming.

The monster's eye ruptured, and the small rock, the brain inside, crumbled like dust in my palm.

I'd found the screaming thing. I tore its vocal cords out and left it to writhe in agony.

>While it's been a show, it's looking close to time to come back, don't you think?< He asked.

I wanted to think about the words. I wanted to acknowledge the thoughts I knew weren't mine. But I was too far lost.

A stomach lay on the ground, cut from the gut of something overly large.

I saw a creature with grey skin, the head of a bull, and the limbs of a reptile bite into the monsters around it. Within moments it visibly grew in size, the horns on its head growing longer, and the claws on its hands extending, sharper.

The bullhead was four times my size, a wild glee in its eyes as it finally stalked toward me. I'd seen it feasting on the stragglers around the horde for some time, and now it came to challenge me.

One particularly large monster tried to lure me into its mouth with a pulsing magical light dangling from its forehead. Its teeth were so long that they prevented it from closing its mouth. Ignoring the light, I ripped two of its teeth from its jaw, each longer than my arm and as sharp as blades. One, I plunged into the brain of its owner. The other I used to cut into those around me.

On its way over to me, the bullhead monster ate the corpse of the creature whose bladed tale I'd cut off just moments prior. Using that tail, I gutted the bull. Its massive stomach fell onto the ground from its split abdomen.

>I'm not one to complain about the carnage, but the people you're supposed to protect have been calling for you to take a break.< He said, but I couldn't hear him. His words were too jumbled.

I lost even the semi-coherent images that always connected back to one another. In place of them, my mind started listing the properties of what I had killed and what had hit me.

Blood cacked my body, sticking to every part of me. The blood of this one is mildly acidic and good in glasswork. It burns against my hands, but it's only a minor irritation.

Thorns raked across my back. The thorns from this monster are toxic to the touch. A decent potion maker could extract it. I've used it for hunting; it's safe after you heat it.

Teeth bit into my arm. Those teeth are sharp, and you can use them as arrowheads. Outstanding in the field, but surpassed by good metalwork when an option.

I had organs in my hand. The stomach of several monsters makes for great waterskins. Though the process to seal it could be lengthy.

A monster made of rock cracked the side of my skull. A golem always has a core. That core is suitable for mana storage crystals.

My limbs ached, the bones within heated beyond the limit. The feathers of the bird responsible are a crucial ingredient for everlasting flames. The term everlasting is no more than marketing.

Puss dripped from my shoulders. The puss-like substance inside this creature's boils helps treat burns. Some are less than enthusiastic about the smell.

>Hey, can't you hear them shouting? You can stop, army’s just over the hill.Well, that might be a problem.<

Until a moment prior, Curse hadn't realized the state of his host. Watching Mask rip into things like that had been an excellent way to pass the time, so any time he'd ignored what Curse had to say, he'd brushed it off as par for the course. Mask usually ignored what Curse had to say. Why would now be any different?

Well, that was Curse's thinking until just now. Now Curse knew that his host actually couldn't understand what he was hearing, let alone respond to it.

"Damn, and I was hoping to keep that from him. But if it can get this bad, he'll use me hiding it as binding in our game." Curse spoke to himself. "Well, if he comes back from that, I'll tell him his problem. I'll get some fun out of it for being so honest with him. HEHE" Curse chuckled at what he'd do for the information.

>What do I do? >...< They all conveyed a purposeful silence.

>He needs help. What do I do? >...< Further silence.

Luna prepared to ask them again, to beg them to help her. Until she recalled what Feht had said before going back to camp. He'd said Mask was beyond helping. That was likely what the voices were conveying by staying quiet. That no matter what they said, Luna couldn't help him.

A day ago, Luna would have accepted that. While she wouldn't have broken down from the thought, she would have returned to camp all the more despondent. Yesterday, Luna would have accepted everyone's expectations that Mask was beyond saving now. And she'd have made them into a reality. Today, on this hill, looking down at Mask fighting with everything he had to keep the town safe, she did something different.

Without asking the voices for help again, or even purposely telling them what she was going to do, Luna sprinted down the hill. Luna was short. That was a fact. Her legs were tiny, and she was often mistaken for someone several years younger. But in this world, with the addition of spirit to fill her muscles, that didn't matter as much. Faster than an Olympic gold medalist, almost reaching the speed of a car, Luna rushed down the hill toward the horde of monsters— toward Mask. Practically every creature was visibly twice her size. And none looked as weak as those she'd trained with these past six months. Back home, the sight of any one of these would have terrified Luna. Today, they were just in her way.

>Don't do it. Please.I'm sorry, but you can't help him. >Shut up.< Luna thought.

She was almost at the edge of the horde. Luna couldn't even remember drawing her blade, but it felt reliable in her hand.

>What do you plan to do? Hmm?Helping him right now… it's not worth dying. >SHUT UP!

It was surprising how easily her sword cut into the flesh of the monsters at the edge of the horde. It wasn't quite like cutting into butter, but Luna faced more difficulties cutting chicken back home. The first one fell, blood spraying across her face, nearly impairing her vision.

>HE'LL BE FINE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS. "I SAID SHUT UP!" Luna yelled out loud. "Does it look like he's fine?" She asked, catching a glimpse of Mask through the crowd.

He was covered head to toe in viscera and blood. One of his hands was missing a finger. He had the roots of several teeth sticking out of one of his shoulders. His prosthetic leg was twisted, the knee facing nearly backward. And when Luna caught sight of him again, one of his arms hung limp at his side.

"HE NEEDS HELP." She screamed out, the voices’ lack of care driving her to anger.

>...< Purposeful silence, yet again. This time it was welcome.

Luna never had to worry about facing too many opponents at the edge of the horde. Most focused on Mask, and the ones that did notice her were few enough she could dispatch them before any others joined them. The issue was that, like Mask, Luna wasn't making a dent in the number of monsters. She had little doubt that if she kept this up for a time, her assistance would make a difference. But her goal wasn't clearing the monsters. The army could handle that when they came over the hill. Luna's goal was to help Mask: and she was failing.

No matter how many monsters Luna cut apart, or how much blood coated her pale skin, the number of blows that Mask took didn't decrease. She couldn't cut into the crowd enough to reach him. Nothing at the edge was a relevant threat to Mask, where he was at the center. It was like trying to stop a leak in the rain by blowing on the clouds. The goal was so far removed from Luna's actions that her efforts meant next to nothing.

"MASK," Luna called out. "MASK, YOU CAN STOP." She hollered at the top of her lungs.

Catching another glimpse of Mask in the crowd of monsters, he appeared not to have heard her.

"MASK, WE'RE HERE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING." Luna kept yelling.

A burly-looking mix between a gorilla and fried food stepped away from Mask to stalk toward Luna while she was yelling. Most of the monsters at the edges were smaller than those in the middle. This guy was no exception. Where everything at the fringes of the group was two times Luna's size, this thing was nearly three times. Whatever it was, it looked far more dangerous than everything that Luna was currently fighting. But she kept yelling.

"MASK, PLEASE ANSWER ME." She called out. "YOU DON'T NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING ANYMORE." She explained again. But the only thing that seemed to acknowledge her yelling was the fried gorilla.

As it got closer, Luna noticed what made it look like breaded food was actually thousands of small rocks. The monster was a mass of ever-shifting gravel. Its skin had currents of pebbles that flowed from inch to inch as it moved. Watching it move, Luna saw that it didn't so much lift its legs but shifted rocks forward to imitate normal walking.

"PLEASE MASK," Luna screamed. "THE ARMY’S JUST OVER THE HILL." She kept going, her throat stinging from the effort.

>He can't hear you. >If you aren't going to help me, then shut up. >You have to call him ----. "I AM CALLING HIM!" Luna screamed. "MASK, MASK, YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH.

The gravel gorilla reached the edge of the horde a ways from Luna. Out at the periphery, it was clear that it was a step above everything that Luna had to face right now. Not only was it larger, but it demonstrated a clear difference in its understanding of the situation. It never stepped away from the crowd, careful to avoid drawing Mask's ire for venturing too far from the carnage. When another monster got in its way, it didn't smash them to bits or eat them like some of the others Luna had seen. No, it picked them up and tossed them at her like rocks. With most of its attempts, it missed. The bodies of the creatures turned projectile, landing too far away from Luna even to register her existence when they stood up. The gorilla's harassment turned highly dangerous when it was on target.

One of the monsters that stayed away from Mask was something Luna could handle. They weren't hard to cut into, and many of them barely acknowledged her. The problem arose when two or three took note of her simultaneously. When that happened, Luna needed to retreat away from the group or risk biting off more than she could chew. When the gravel gorilla managed to get one of its throws close to Luna, retreat stopped being an option.

At first, it was just one or two behind her. None of the ones thrown at Luna were of the more dangerous variety that warranted retreat. So Luna didn't make getting away from them a priority, merely dealing with them as they got close, like everything else. Her focus was still on getting Mask's attention.

"WOULD YOU STOP FIGHTING FOR ONE MOMENT AND LISTEN!?" She shouted her agitation at the voices spreading to Mask.

>---------------- -his name.< The nearly silent voice whispered.

>What about his name? >You have to call his name.

Before Luna could bite back about not knowing Mask's name, the gravel gorilla managed to get a monster almost directly behind Luna.

Behind Luna was a bundle of fleshy orbs. It appeared barely capable of moving after being thrown like a ball. But from each sphere, it shot a toxic-looking gas that pushed Luna forward to evade it. Past one body, then two more, Luna cut into the crowd to avoid the gas. Looking back at the bundle of orbs, she saw the monsters behind her, grabbing their throats or clawing at what passed for eyes as the gas overtook them. Then she saw the gravel gorilla.

It had seemingly sprinted toward her after throwing the foul creature at her. She could make out what it had for a face much better up close. It looked at her with a horrifying look of glee. Its teeth, twisted into a cruel grin, rotated around its mouth like a saw. Its eyes, small gatherings of shining stones, gleamed at her like she was a toy. It didn't speak, not like the monster back in the city. But looking in its eyes, Luna felt that same cold terror invade her mind. This thing knew it could take her in a fight, so it had chosen to play with her instead.

Slowly, intentionally so, the gorilla reached down to grab the orbs of flesh. Luna thought it would throw it at her again. It didn't. It held one of the orbs in its freehand and tore it from the main body with a grotesque ripping sound. This chunk of the toxic monster continued to spit noxious gasses out while the gorilla tossed it to Luna's right. Again, a wet sucking, tearing sound entered Luna's ears. Then she saw another orb, spitting more fumes into the air, land a few steps away from the one to her right.

Realizing the gorilla's goal, Luna did everything she could to cut her way to her left, out of the mass of bodies around her. Her blade severed limbs, but the body still stood in her way. She gutted one, its organs splattering across her clothes, but another was already in its place before Luna could make a move. From her side, the one with the missing arm swung at her. A hairy fist collided with the side of her head, sending her stumbling toward the gorilla.

>I really could use some help here. >...

With a seemingly practiced ease, the gorilla tossed another chunk of the toxic monster to the opposite side of Luna, sealing off her escape on both sides. With the only place left to go being the center, Luna had no choice but to raise her sword and do her best to cut her way toward Mask. So she did or tried to.

Every step toward the middle cost her several blows from the surrounding monsters. Every one she cut out of her path cost her cuts on her arms and legs. Every attack she blocked was four more she failed to see— and it only got worse the further she went.

A quarter of the way, she felt her off-hand break deflecting a blow away from her eye. Luna felt the bone grind against itself any time she moved it after that, sending sharp spikes of pain up her arm. Still, she pressed forward, the walls of noxious gas closing in behind her. A third of the way, she took a claw to her forehead. The bleeding from the wound left her with only one working eye. She tried to clean the blood from her eye, but it kept flowing no matter how many times she did, so she left it and pushed forward.

"MASK, MASK," Luna shouted out, hoping she'd get through to her friend.

>He can't hear you. >What about his name? >You have to call his name. > I don’t know his name!

When Luna got Halfway to Mask, she took a blow to the ankle that left her foot worthless. She dragged it behind her with every step, ignoring the pain. She had to do everything she could so the noxious gas didn't overtake her.

>You have to call his name. >I DON'T KNOW HIS NAME!

With every step, it was harder to take the next. A broken wrist joined Luna's broken hand, the end of her arm bent at the wrong angle blocking a blow. Still using that arm despite the pain, Luna tried to stop another attack, only to lose the feeling of everything below her elbow.

>You have to say his name, call to him. "WHAT IS HIS NAME?!" Luna yelled in frustration, only to suck in dust and blood, hindering her breathing.

Luna tried to cut into the back of the monster in front of her. She swung the blade in a practiced manner, doing what she could to guide it between the bones along weaker sections of flesh. At first, she felt the same feeling of her weapon going through flesh that she'd grown used to during her training. Then something horrifying happened. The creature's skin turned from a fleshy pink to the same color as her sword. Almost instantly, the weapon stopped, the force of Luna's blow ripping the blade from her hand.

In an instant, her progress toward Mask stalled. The monster she'd tried to cut down rotated to face her. A vertical gash filled with hundreds of teeth looked at her, no eyes or face, only a maw of teeth the height of her body. Fear overtook Luna staring into that blood-filled mouth. She tried to step back, tried to back away from the monster. And when she did, she felt what that toxic gas could do. Her skin turned raw, blisters appearing across her legs and back instantly. She felt like her back was on fire, but she didn't dare step forward as that gaping maw lumbered toward her.

"Somebody help," Luna whispered, knowing no one could hear her.

>You have to say his name, say -̸̨͖̣̫̠̻͙̒̆̆͊̍͛̈̍̎̄͝-̸̛̰̺̺̠̙̗̲͚̪͎̗̺̄̐͗͛̇̈́́̿̒̄̕̚-̶̜̝̥̺̼͎͛͒̓̈̋̂̆̒̊͜͝-̷̢̛̟̤͉̂̏̄̓͛̌͝ͅ-̸̨͚̱̥̦͚͙̳̹͍̪͇̄̅̓̊̂-̶̡̛̠̬̩͍̞̦̲̪̖̈́͑̂́͒͝-̸͖̫͖̣̟̇̈̊̎͐͐̀̂̕̚͠-̶̺̮͕̪̗͙̳̖̟̝͂-̶̦̹̣͉̜̝̗̤͙̱́̃͛̅̽͑͛͊́̕̕͝-̶͉̜̲͕̯̯̖̦̄̈́.< The silent voice said.

Luna had no idea what the voice had said. It didn't sound like language; it didn't sound like anything. It almost felt like Luna's mind refused to recognize it as words. Still, whatever the voice had said, Luna knew at this point it was her only hope of getting Mask's attention. So she prayed to whatever god existed out there that she said it correctly, and opened her mouth to speak.

"-̸̨͖̣̫̠̻͙̒̆̆͊̍͛̈̍̎̄͝-̸̛̰̺̺̠̙̗̲͚̪͎̗̺̄̐͗͛̇̈́́̿̒̄̕̚-̶̜̝̥̺̼͎͛͒̓̈̋̂̆̒̊͜͝-̷̢̛̟̤͉̂̏̄̓͛̌͝ͅ-̸̨͚̱̥̦͚͙̳̹͍̪͇̄̅̓̊̂-̶̡̛̠̬̩͍̞̦̲̪̖̈́͑̂́͒͝-̸͖̫͖̣̟̇̈̊̎͐͐̀̂̕̚͠-̶̺̮͕̪̗͙̳̖̟̝͂-̶̦̹̣͉̜̝̗̤͙̱́̃͛̅̽͑͛͊́̕̕͝-̶͉̜̲͕̯̯̖̦̄̈́" Luna yelled, and the world stopped at the sound.