The Sweepers turned to Foxtail and peered beyond her, towards the warehouse where the creature that was once Foreigner thrashed and scratched at his surroundings. They chattered at one another in an unintelligible language. She caught the use of numbers but wasn’t sure if there was a pattern to the sequence and she wasn’t curious to decipher it.

All she wanted was for them to swarm. Her or the creature, it didn’t matter who it was. Led by the nose into a frenzy and they wouldn’t care aft-

“Where are they!” The creature bellowed, drawing out each syllable of the word as its body spiraled out of the building and onto the city streets below. The height of its body had grown out enough that its size could rival that of the surrounding buildings, the shape reminiscent of a centipede with its many arms clawing ever upwards towards something out of reach.

“I’m over here!” Foxtail yelled, waving her arms around to attract its attention. It reeled its body back and slung itself down towards her, its segments cracking the cement into pieces with ear splitting thuds.

The Sweepers moved into action as they saw the creature touch ground, weapons brandished for a culling. They ran in a semi organized cluster, their sickles and blades piercing into the chitinous flesh of the creature. Foxtail could see that they were drawing in the black tar that coated its body, those unfortunate initial Sweepers to have imbibed on the liquid spasming on the floor, their crimson containers becoming tainted with the tar.

“Watch out!” The Banshee called out to Foxtail and she reflexively ducked.

She wasn’t as fast as she’d hoped.

Another segment had slithered around the buildings under the cover of that thick night and swung its roped arms to grab her. She avoided the grapple but got clipped in the shoulder by its claws. The initial pain was bearable but the lingering taint that blackened the section of skin was a lot worse. It caused her arm to seize uncontrollably, the area around the wound festering as if boiled in water or coated in acid.

The monster thrashed again as more of the Sweepers leapt onto its segments. They pierced into whatever orifices they could, refraining from draining the sludge around its body and within. Their attacks were making cracks into the chitinous skin but just as quickly as they’d find purchase and pierce into the flesh underneath, the wounds were healed.

All they were doing was inconveniencing the monster, but that was a start.

“Was this the extent of your plan?” Drusillia asked. Foxtail turned her attention to her and shrugged.

“I didn’t really prepare to be in the position where I’d be fighting a monster the size of buildings. So yeah, this is all I’ve got at the moment unless you’ve got some ideas.”

Drusillia considered her options and responded with a shrug of her own, “I don’t know. I didn’t expect for Arenas to distort and if he did, we didn’t expect him to do so in this capacity. It seems that he’s just gaining in size over time by simply existing.”

“Well, it should have a weakness right? To explosives or Fixer weaponry or something? Something beyond this?” Foxtail gestured at her rapier and gave it a wave.

“The project supervisor that worked with Arenas has not been as successful in replicating his results. Moreover, this situation was meant to be handled discreetly and without outstanding incidences.” Drusillia sighed and stretched her body. She began to walk away from the fight.

Foxtail grabbed at her arm and stopped her, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Drusillia slapped Foxtail’s hand out from her arm and continued to walk, “That thing can no longer be considered Arenas and it is far too large of a problem for the both of us to solve.”

“But the Backstreets will be devastated if it’s allowed to thrash about like this!”

Drusillia shrugged, “I was contracted to eliminate Arenas. The man has been eliminated as far as I am concerned. I stuck to the task to the best of my ability but I’m calling it quits from here. My weapon’s destroyed. My shroud is in tatters. I’m the most violent of my sisters but our skills lie in espionage and assassination.” She pointed to the monster, still thrashing about on the concrete against the Sweepers that kept rising for battle after each tumble. “If you want someone to handle him now, call a Color in here or deal with it yourself if you’re so sentimental. I’m paying you back for earlier with that call out and this.”

Drusillia walked over to Foxtail and ripped another length of cloth from her shroud. She placed it over Foxtail’s festering wound and it sizzled as it touched her skin. She could feel a stinging sensation but the pain making the arm near unusable subsided into a noticeable, if bearable pain.

“You can do what you want but I’m going back to my superiors and reporting what they want to hear; Arenas is dead. Let the local Wing handle the Distortion. It’s their problem now.”

Drusillia walked away again and Foxtail did not stop her.

She stood in silence.

“What a coward.” Peepers said, his voice barely above a whisper. Foxtail looked around for him before looking at the hilt of her weapon. She saw his glittering eyes staring back at her.

“Peepers! Wait, if you’re here, how close are you to the monster?”

“I’ve looped around to be on the far side of the thing. Meister Aindo says we should leave before the Sweepers come around but I think they’re preoccupied with the monster from what I can tell.”

“Only momentarily. The Sweepers are hardy but they’re not putting up much of a fight in taking it down.” Foxtail turned around and saw that the bodies were piling up. If they suffered enough casualties they were likely going to retreat back into the sewers below.

“Well, I’ve got good news. If you’re looking for a weak point, I think I have one. The reflective shard Foreigner kept is still on him, meaning the body, in some capacity, was still around. I feel it’s below the surface though, not sure why that is.”

His body was down in that well, the Distortion manifesting like a tumor, growing outward and upward while he remained stuck in that darkness.

“Are you sure that killing that body down below will get the job done?” Foxtail asked. Peepers simply nodded in the affirmative.

“If you do plan to go down there, be careful? Come back to me safely?” Peepers looked at Foxtail and feigned confidence.

Even now…

“Don’t you worry. I still have to figure out what kind of muse you were for Jin, after all.”

Peepers choked on air and Foxtail laughed. His connection to her disappeared and she found herself staring at the gargantuan monster now coiling around the smaller buildings.

She took a deep breath and ran towards the warehouse.