Specria cut her wrist with her nail and swung her right hand against the transparent glass wall, splattering her blood against the surface. The crimson shade seeped into the shattered glasses and formed a spell formation.
It shone dully like her grey eyes, which stared at Permotir with coldness akin to the winter night. Specria uttered not a single cry but instead curved her mouth into a smile. The hostility she expressed was by no mean a lapsed of judgement, for her mind was as calm as the vast ocean, waiting for the storm to unfold.
"What I hate the most is those who control others," she said.
"My little Specria, what are you going to do to your Big Sister? You can't physically harm me, and without your Fons, you are just a hopeless maiden. There exist no white knight in here, only monsters."
"Thankfully, I'm a friend of the most beautiful and resolute monster of all times."
Specria raised her gaze. The chains which held the cylinders afloat above the abyss clanked. The greenish liquid inside boiled and woke the deformed Arachna from their slumbers. They turned their countless eyes towards the monitoring room and collectively wailed.
The cylinders trembled before they shattered, sending fragmented security glasses flying. The monstrosities of multiple forms fell onto the metallic platform. The howls seeped into the abyss below and invited countless dark silhouettes to emerge and tower over the monitoring room.
They stared at the humans with their countless eyes glowing in the dark, but when they saw Specria, their bloodthirst vanished as they recognized the person on which Princess left her mark. Specria glanced at them before she leant against the breaking glass wall. Her eyes shifted to Permotir.
"Because of you all, Peritia has to die. Now that she is no more, why do you still exist?" Specria said and fell through the wall, which disintegrated into a translucent membrane. Her body submerged into the abyss below.
"In the end, you still choose her," Permotir said before she walked to stand beside Immodulus, who was staring at his unmoving android. "Immodulus, she betrays us. If you don't do anything, we're going to die here."
"The budget for the Mind Academy needs to be reduced. You've been with her for a long time. Yet, you still couldn't control her."
"If the Fallen Princess protected her, then a hundred more years wouldn't make any difference."
"My android can't move during the data transferring. You'll have to survive for a few minutes. How about letting me modify your body?"
"I'll gift you my experiment results, but I won't ever let you inject anything into me."
"Don't blame me if you died then."
Immodulus stepped in front of Permotir. The experimental monstrosity hissed at him from away, but the presence of the overarching dark entities suffocated him more than these pesky flies. He felt their ghostly pupils scrutinizing his every movement.
An excited howl broke his chain of thought. He raised his guard and saw an Arachna lunged towards him. It stood on four while its two extending limps emerged from its fleshy back and snapped at him.
Immodulus stepped forwards and punched towards the creature. His build instantly expanded in size. His healthy skin turned crimson red as his veins and muscles enlarged, filling him with explosive strength. His fist connected against the Arachna, shattering its skull.
The impact sunk his feet into the metallic floor and splashed the Arachna into a bloody mess. Silence permeated the area as a puddle of blood formed around him before angry howls from other Arachna followed. They mindlessly rushed towards him, whose unnatural build towered over them.
Like a swarm of flies, the Arachna assaulted Immodulus with their exotic and gory bodies. They came in myriad forms, some more disgusting than others. They encircled Immodulus and fought against him like beasts fighting against another fiend. Still, the dark shadow which surrounded the monitoring room stayed their hands.
Away from the bloody battle, Permotir stood beside the stationary android and watched with bored expression Immodulus's beast-like display. With her exotic power, she rendered her presence undetectable by the mindless Arachna. Though she was merely an ordinary human, her telepathic-like mind-controlling capability could turn the Arachna against one another. Her mind was greater than any others, and she only looked up to the Arachna Queen who commanded millions.
"If the Arachna Queen or the Fallen Princess were to be here, I might have lost," Permotir said as she gazed at the dark silhouettes surrounding her. Her eyes narrowed. "It is still not too late to surrender."
A sudden premonition struck her and forced her to focus her attention. A muffled boom rang inside her ears as the platform shook, followed by a blinding light which painted the world white.
As it died down, Permotir found herself standing alone. The monitoring room in which she previously stood turned into an infinitely expanding field with its horizon concealed by countless layers of thick, murky fogs. The previous gruesome battle-cries faintly echoed as if they came from the distant place.
Permotir focused her mental power to discern the illusion she found herself in. The white noises echoed all around her, but their origins were undecipherable, some far away, others right beside her. She closed all her senses, but everything resumed just the same in her head.
In fear, Permotir shouted for any echoes or replies, but the mists consumed her hope and never spitted back. She ran through the fogs, which retreated to confine her within the same proximity, where everything was white, except for her lonely shadow.
Permotir had no idea how long she had been in there, but her body finally succumbed to the exhaustion. Though she knew all the psychological pitfalls, her mind couldn't resist falling into despair as her futility became apparent.
The emptiness broke her fun, teasing air into a cold, dejected expression. She collapsed onto the white ground and stared at the sky, which surrounded her with its all-encompassing mists. The last ray of hope was unseen and untraceable, but Permotir believed with all her hearts Specria was watching.
"I'm sorry, Specria. Please stop," she whimpered. The world remained quiet. The soft, murmuring noises of the mists permeated the atmosphere and ground her mind into the finest dust.
Permotir closed her eyes and laid on the ground, feeling the prinking sensation originated from the occasional cold winds. They reached out from the blurry mists and caressed her body, reminding her that she was still alive in this desolate hell.
"Specria, please forgive me. I know my method is wrong, but I just want to find a way to connect with everyone," she confessed. "Those children, they are too adorable. It would be great if they remain that way, wouldn't it?"
Her cracked voice distorted and submerged under the mist. Though nothing returned, she knew Specria was there, listening to her every word in contempt. So, she carried on with her repentance.
"That child, Angelica, is the candidate with the highest potential to connect with the Threads of Fate, but she was too weak, so we inserted her consciousness into an android. Surprisingly, we also get another girl to volunteer to be with her. That girl is a good big sister, isn't she?"
In front of Permotir, Specria stood and watched her talking gibberish. The external stimulations ceased to matter as her mind descended into the subliminal dream. There was no telling what her worst fear was, and Specria didn't care enough to peek into it.
She looked at the broken lady before she shook her head and uttered a single strange syllable. The Fons inside her body resonated with the word and seeped through her skin, filling the surrounding with azure light. Beneath her feet, the fragments of glasses scattering in the monitoring room brightened as they arranged into the complete shape of the formation Specria drew on them mere moments ago.
"You can't hear me anymore, right?" Specria said and placed her hand at Permotir's relaxed neck. Her fingers slid into the soft skin and cut open a gaping split. "If you feel sorry, please stop bothering me."
Permotir fell backwards. Though her body violently struggled for breath, her face remained expressionless and confused. In her mind, she was still within the endless plane of whiteness, talking to Specria in hope for forgiveness.
"Ancient Vocal? You sure are something." Immodulus said before he groaned. His body, bound by the shadowy gazes of the dark silhouettes and the restraints from the deformed Arachna, struggled against them, but Specria's spell loosened his mind and blocked his responses.
Specria turned to Immodulus, surprised that he didn't fall into the dizzy dream sequence like Permotir. The inhuman modification of his body changed his biological structure too much that the spell intended for a human's mind was ineffective against him.
"You are the one who makes Peritia suffers," Specria said as she closed in.
"The Fallen Princess suffered because she could not discard her irrational sentiments. In front of the greater good of the Great Races, the suffering of the individuals is trivial."
"What is there to be proud of in your children experiments? Is your utopia filled with mind-controlled androids?"
"At least it is better than having a malevolent being controls your Fate."
"And what makes the difference between you and Lady Fate? Do you look like a benevolent being?"
"I don't intend to rule this world. The research into the resonance of the Threads of Fate is for us humans to study the working of Fate. As long as we have the mean to control our Fate, I will consider my purpose fulfilled."
"What will become of the next generation then? Can you believe that the Great Races can restrain themselves from becoming like an all-controlling god you overthrew?"
"If we become the controller of Fate, then all of this would happen once more. Someday, someone will rise against Fate. That's the testimony to free will."
"It sounds like what Fate would arrange to perpetuate itself, and unfortunately, you pick the wrong side."
"I pick the right side. The outcome is already decided the moment I set foot in here." Immodulus smiled and closed his eyes.
The Arachna suddenly trembled and screamed. A crushing pressure descended everywhere and overwhelmed them. Their bodies crushed into bloody pulps. The towering silhouettes let out a wail before they retreated into the abyss below.
Witnessing the impossible, Specria stabbed her finger at Immodulus's forehead. Her Fons circled her hand and strengthened it. It arrived just a breathing distance away from his skull before a viscous force stopped her.
Immodulus opened his eyes and got up. His body shrunk back to its ordinary human appearance, albeit soaked in acidic green blood. Without any concern for Specria, he walked past her towards the android.
"What did you do?" Specria said while attempting to move her body to no avail.
"It isn't me who do anything. It is a little sister helping her big sister."
"What are you saying?"
"My guess isn't off the mark. The Fallen Princess has been collecting various parts to build a new body for Angelica. My conclusion is that she put Angelica into Shifting Mist, so I test it by letting her unite with her long lost sister," Immodulus said and stared at the android. "Don't worry, Sistrea isn't unwilling to become an android. She did it for Angelica, after all."
Sistrea slowly drew back her hand and walked to Immodulus. She stood beside him and gazed at Specria with her eyes glittering with pity.
"Sit down," Sistrea said. A sudden force pulled Specria to the ground. The bloody puddle tainted her tattered clothes, but her grey eyes remained resolute, unwavering even in front of death.
"Sistrea, why are you willing to work under him?" Specria said.
"You misunderstand me. I don't work under him. I merely used him."
Immodulus glared at Sistrea. "What—"
Sistrea pointed at Immodulus and watched his body twisting in pain. His flesh quivered as they expanded and contracted rapidly, rupturing into a pool of gore. His shivered corpse fell on the metallic floor, which reflected his appalling appearance.
The invisible power which restrained Specria vanished. She weakly coughed before raising her head to meet Sistrea, who beamed a grateful smile at her.
Despite tainted by blood, her snow-white appearance remained pure. Her long, silky ashy hair fluttered under the cold wind and glittered amidst the darkness. She wore an expression of kindness, though the gruesome surrounding contrasted her smile.
"Thank you for watching over Angelica all this while," Sistrea said. "Now, please don't stop me from reuniting with her, or else I will have to end you too."
