“Was it wise to split up?” Jayce mumbled as Cirrus led them through the labyrinth, using his concept of knowledge seeking that was stored within his left eye to guide them through.

  Though, in truth, even he didn’t know the answer. He was sure Feather had some sort of plan or at least a vague idea of what he wanted them to do, and Cirrus did agree that finding the second person hiding away in this place should be a priority. But still, he was getting flashbacks from the last time he’d followed Feather into a place like this… as that hadn’t ended very well for him.

  Eve was the only one who seemed even vaguely confident, walking right in between the two men as she shined a bright smile. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be fine! Feather said so.”

  “You really think he knows everything that’s going on in this hellhole?” Jayce snarled behind her, walking forward to be right against her back. “You needa stop suckin’ his dick.”

  “Hah?! I am not!” she turned on him, going to push Jayce’s chest away from her as the man growled in response to the mild aggression. “Ahhh stop growling at me, you animal!”

  “Thanks for the compliment, animals are better than humans anyway.”

  “Okay, we get it dog man!”

  “I literally turn into a werewolf, stop calling me a dog!”

  “You’re just jealous that you don’t get along with Feather as well as I do,” Eve stuck out her tongue, Jayce looking clearly offended as Cirrus let out a sigh. He was too used to this, but he did wish the two of them would stop arguing for at least a little while to take this mission seriously.

  “I don’t need to get along with Feather, I’m not obsessed with him like you are.”

  “Then you have bad taste in men!”

  “What?! What’s so good about that blond freak anyways?! Not when Cirrus is literally right there,” Jayce gruffed out, before he started growling again when Eve began mimicking claws with her hands and pretended to snarl as best she could. “Hey, stop mocking me! That guy’s probably a slut anyways! He doesn’t want you!”

  “No way you think Feather’s a slut! You’re a slut!”

  “I wish I was, but I’ll bet you money that Feather has a crazy body count!”

  “Haha, what? You wish you were a slut, Jayce?”

  “Only in theory… maybe not in practice.”

  “Haha, that’s stupid. Anyways, I’m gonna bet that Feather is a virgin.”

  “Seriously? You’re gonna go so low?” Jayce raised an eyebrow, fangs barring at her as she copied his expression, which only led him to snarl. “Hey, stop doing that! Anyways, he’s definitely not a virgin! You’re gonna lose!”

  “I’ll bet you twenty gold coins!”

  “What the hell? Why are you so confident he’s a virgin? No way, did you ask him?”

  “No, I just don’t like how you’re assuming he’s a slut, so I decided to go in the opposite direction,” Eve shrugged, before she reached out to grab onto Cirrus’ tall shoulder with a grin. “If both of us are wrong and he’s somewhere in the middle, we have to work together and give our good leader here forty gold coins!”

  “Please don’t drag me into this. That’s not something either of you should be betting on,” Cirrus sighed in his defeat, continuing to walk forward while straining his concept-wielding eye. It hurt, and he really was trying his best not to cry despite how harshly his eye was burning. He had to blink rapidly to even be able to process what he was seeing, the flesh behind his eye throbbing as he kept guiding them towards the source of life. And once they got close, he cut into the two’s bickering with a swift movement, putting an arm in front of them as he ordered calmly, “Be quiet. We’ve found them.”

  It was silent as the three approached a large, empty square room without a clear door, merely a hallway-like entrance leading into the dark, dim space. The only light came from the outside where rocks glowed on the ceiling, and the light reached through to illuminate a small, petite woman sitting on the ground surrounded by skinny white monsters with large, sharp teeth. It was awfully eerie, the woman essentially laying on top of the monsters as the three of them paused.

  “Ah, ma’am, are you okay—?!” Eve went to rush over off her own selfless impulses, before both Cirrus and Jayce simultaneously pushed her behind them, blocking her from running close.

  “Don’t,” Cirrus whispered softly, eyepatch still wrapped around his wrist with his long bangs brushed behind his ear, his golden eyes pinned on the small woman. She had a body that looked frail and malnourished, her skin clammy and deathly pale. Her inky black hair was washed over her face like a mop, the long, greasy black strands falling all the way down her hips over her hunched back on the ground. She was completely naked, bushy dark hair coming from her sensitive areas as she reached a scrawny arm to caress the head of the monster sitting next to her. But what was perhaps scariest were her eyes… they were entirely pitch black. There was no way to tell the iris and pupil apart, almost like he was staring at an animal.

  “Wow… you really made it all the way here,” the woman smiled in a raspy voice, her ribs popping out of her skin as her stomach was round and fleshy. She stood up on wobbling legs, using one of the monsters at her side to help lift her up, chest flat against the white flesh as she let out a breathless laugh. “I’m so happy… this is the best day of my life… the best day ever, it really is…”

  Eve’s expression turned absolutely mortified while both Cirrus and Jayce turned disgusted when the woman immediately turned down and took a large bite from the monster she was laying on, the beast only letting out a small whine as white blood leaked from its flesh and splattered on the ground. She ate ravenously, like she hadn’t eaten once in her life, and her belly got a little larger as she filled herself up on the monster’s thick flesh, white blood smeared against her lips and pale skin, far brighter than her shriveled complexion.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Hahh, now I feel energized. I think I’m ready to talk to you now,” she gleamed, her stomach bubbling and contorting before it began visibly shifting throughout her body, her stomach flattening as the flesh and blood she’d eaten off the monster’s back extended itself to her arms and legs before she finally stood up on her own. “Sorry about that, I prefer to only eat my babies as a last resort. I don’t like hurting my children,” she smiled slowly, wiping the white blood off her mouth before she patted the mauled monster’s back, the creature cowering under her touch as she grinned, rocking her head back and forth as she turned towards her audience. “Anyways, what can I do for you? You did come all this way to find me… surely you want something.”

  And Cirrus steadied his stance, facing the monstrous woman with a guarded gaze. He needed to handle this cleanly. Right now, she had exactly six monsters right beside her, which he and Jayce could easily take. The only problem was that Eve was still new to his squad and had never fought these beasts before… but she would just have to adapt.

  “Who are you?” he threw out, testing the waters with a more innocent question as the woman smiled at him, further caressing the white monster’s head as she started playing with its sharp teeth.

  “That’s a difficult question to answer,” she replied neutrally, lazily scratching at her chest before she gave a low, breathy laugh. “I don’t remember the name my parents gave me. But the man who took me under his wing named me Sinika. I do think it’s a pretty name, so I guess that is who I am.”

  “And can you tell who this man is? The one who took you in?” Cirrus requested, Sinika’s hand dropping back to her side as her black eyes flickered to the ground.

  “Well… he’s always told me to call him Sinicus,” Sinika responded, smiling at him widely as her white skin wrinkled. “I like it. I like how they match. It makes us sound like real family.”

  “I see,” Cirrus nodded, before he took another look at the monster she’d taken a bite out of. This is what all the monsters he’d fought before had looked like on the planets that had been corrupted so far. These were the beasts he was familiar with, the ones on the battlefields he'd been sent to so many times before, directly after monsters had climbed out of a broken rift in reality, which had come to be known as reality's cracks. They’d all been extremely pale, maybe a little pink occasionally, and they always had white blood. The black blood phenomena he’d discovered with Feather had been completely unknown to him, and he still didn’t know what the real difference was. But he supposed now was as good a time as any to try and figure it out. And with his eyepatch uncovered, he could tell she’d only been telling the truth up until now. “Then… how come these monsters aren’t attacking you?”

  And Sinika only gave him another creepy smile, pearly teeth still dripping with white saliva as she tilted her head to the side. “Because they’re my children. I made them myself. From my own flesh.”

  “What about the ones with the black blood?” Cirrus asked again, holding firm in his stance as Sinika leaned off her monster completely, taking two steps toward him before she stopped.

  “Oh, those? I don’t make those,” she giggled, looking awfully amused with his questions as she kept indulging him. “That’s Sinicus’ playground, not mine. He’s the one who uses the concept of evil. All he did was take some of the white blood my babies have and tampered with it for a while, before he created the perfect black blood solution to feed to people, turning them into monsters as well so long as the black blood is put into their bloodstream. Though, those creatures will attack anyone, even me, so I don’t like being around them. Sinicus always keeps them in cages.”

  “Alright… thank you for telling me all of that,” he nodded, Cirrus’ eye throbbing dangerously as he felt the vision in his left eye begin to cloud. But he forced it to keep going, using his all-knowing sight to its utter limits so that he could get to the bottom of things. “But why are you telling me this so freely? Shouldn’t you be more keen on keeping your secrets?”

  “Oh, well… maybe,” Sinika smiled, her expression turning very sinister as she started scratching under her monster’s chin. “Usually I would be more secretive, but… well, I’m afraid you’re not going to be making it out of here alive. Sorry, I guess.”

  And Cirrus’ eyes narrowed at those malicious words before Jayce instinctively jumped forward with a growl, his body morphing into its humanoid wolf form with the top half of a ferocious beast as he swatted at two of the white creatures using a large claw, shredding them instantly before he went to swipe at Sinika as well. But the woman only smiled at him, more monsters appearing from the other corners of the room as all of them suddenly moved to surround Jayce while she reached out and snatched his arm.

  “How careless,” the woman spoke airily, her grip tightening around Jayce’s furry arm, the thick dark brown fur beginning to thin and turn white as the man tried to snatch it away, only for her grip to be entirely too strong. He lifted Sinika up and off her feet, slamming the naked woman into the ground as she grinned, but the white only kept spreading as it started infecting Jayce’s bones and flesh. But Cirrus wasn't about to stand by and let that continue, the prince stepping forward as ice molded and shaped itself into a spear within the palm of his hand, before he quickly winded back and threw the spear of ice right at Sinika’s arm to pierce her wrist while Cirris controlled the ice to wrap around and slice off her entire hand, the woman giddily laughing as she collapsed and curled up into a ball. “Hahah, woah, my, hahahaha… my babies, children, come here… come to mommy, please…” she shook, her body convulsing as another monster kneeled itself before her, the woman climbing on top and straddling it after it rolled over, taking a large, gluttonous bite out of its stomach as Jayce hesitated.

  “Jayce, come here, now!” Cirrus commanded sternly, pulling his friend behind him as he listened to his labored breathing. “You can’t fight her. You rely on your physical abilities to fight, which will make yourself an easy target. Just focus on any monsters she sends our way while me and Eve take care of this.”

  And he felt it when Jayce growled at him, but did as he was told regardless, slinking to the back as he let Eve step forward, the white-haired woman still looking awfully disturbed. He wanted to say something to her, something that might possibly make this fight easier… after all, not only was it Eve's first time fighting one of these monsters, but she was also going to be going head to head with the person who was creating them. Though, that didn’t entirely line up… after all, those monsters also came out of the rift, so it was impossible this woman had created all of those, as well. But still, he’d rather not send Eve into her first fight like this…

  But the optimistic snowy woman merely gave him a light punch to the shoulder, slamming her fist right into him as she forced a determined grin. “Don’t worry. It’s alright,” she assured him, flashing her smile at him the best she could as Cirrus’ eyes reluctantly softened. “We got this. Let’s kick ass, okay?”

  “...okay,” Cirrus nodded, slapping his hand against Eve’s outstretched palm, before the two of them faced the woman that had just finished regenerating her cut off limb by consuming the flesh of her so-called children. It was a disturbing sight, and Cirrus had never fought someone like this before, so he knew that Eve most definitely hadn’t either. But they lacked options, so the only thing they could do now was face the enemy in front of them and give it the best they had. All he knew for certain was that he refused to die today. He had a prophecy to fulfill, and he had a life to live. So Cirrus knew deep within every inch of his being that today would not be his last to live, no matter how threatening or malicious the foe.