I was rather confident we’d have no issues whatsoever taking Carrisyn down and making her see reason. After all, I figured, we were no slouches in the raw power department and she was just one person. Honestly, in the moment, it seemed rather unfair to be ganging up on her like we were. Kind of unsportsmanlike.

Perhaps, I thought, we should come one at a time like in the old Kung Fu movies where there’d be ten people and they’d surround the hero then come one at a time because plot armor demanded it of them. Of course, we were the good guys with the plot armor this time. A moment later, as I slammed into the stone wall of the tower with enough force to cause my vision to explode into stars, I no longer felt the situation was quite so unfair.

I shook my head to clear it and unsteadily swayed to my feet. Zelaeryn was still upright, Alarice seemed unfazed by and large, but Lysabel was crumpled in a heap being tended to by a very worried Sascha, and Sayuri looked none too steady as she regained her feet, shaking her head to try to clear it. For her part, Carrisyn continued to come on flaming white eyes focused on me.

“Lead the others outside!” I called to Zelaeryn, my legs tensing under me, as I sunk into a defensive crouch. “I’ll take care of this!”

“She’s too strong! You can’t even hurt her!” Zelaeryn protested. “I will stay!”

“You need to keep the others safe,” I turned to her with a scowl. “Don’t fight me on this.” Zelaeryn looked uncertain but finally, reluctantly, nodded.

“What do you plan to do?” The tall demon asked.

“What I do best!” I crowed triumphantly. I flung one of my daggers, which Carrisyn brushed aside like a gnat before yanking it back, making sure I had her attention. I then turned and fled down the stairs. I slowed as I reached the floor below, turning back slightly to make sure I was being followed.

It was with no small amount of trepidation I realized I had no real idea what I was doing. I supposed I could run away from the city and see which of us got tired first, but that seemed like a poor plan. In fact, fleeing endlessly through a land I didn’t know hardly felt like much of a plan at all. I looked around for something that looked like a “Magical Talisman of Knocking a Possessed Person Out and Making Them Better’ but nothing presented itself. I really couldn’t even do any weird Elven magic since I knew neither magic, nor Elven. Normally, I imagine, I’d have asked Carrisyn to come up with some sort of plan. As she was currently the one causing the ruckus that option wasn’t viable.

The fact she was even possessed seemed unlikely to me in the first place. I mean, wasn’t she already kind of possessing a body the same as I was with Ashvallen? Was there enough room in bodies for multiple people to be possessing them at the same time? Most of the horror movies I’d watched suggested otherwise.

As I was momentarily lost in thought and searching for the mystical cure to my lack of foresight Carrisyn landed next to me with a thunderous crash. I screamed in surprise and horror and leapt back instinctively. Carrisyn’s fingers, tipped with claws of roiling white fire tore through my armor, leaving it hanging in tatters and opening smoking claw marks in the skin above my left breast.

“We will have your heart!” The voice coming from Carrisyn’s mouth howled as she rushed forward.

I leapt up and back, bringing my foot forward in a sharp motion which should have knocked Carrisyn on her ass as the tip of my boot collided with her chin. I landed deftly, daggers in hand, ready to leap to the attack until I realized that Carrisyn was completely unfazed and moving quickly toward me. Discretion being the far better part of valor and fear being the mother of wisdom, I screamed in panic and ran toward the far stairs.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I panted as I raced down the stairs, barely touching half of them as I flew. Possessed Carrisyn was scary as shit, I thought, her form coming close behind so fast I could barely keep my scant lead. I hit the ground on the next floor, my legs nearly buckling from the fifteen-step jump I’d made. As quick as a shadow I was back on my feet and racing through the room to the other stair. I had to do something, but I had no idea what to do. Throw water on her? Hope she couldn’t breathe the air of our atmosphere? My life as a movie nerd and otaku had ill-prepared me for a situation where I’d be chased by a heart-seeking possessed former countess with the emotional depth of an anglerfish.

In my panic I stumbled over a ruined, charred chair and slid across the floor. I was nearly to my feet when Carrisyn reached me, claws tearing into my back as she sought to draw me close enough to, presumably, rip my heart out of my chest like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I screamed in pain and fear and managed to squirm away from her fiery clutches, kicking at her desperately as I ran once more, now trying to pay attention in the growing darkness to the items littered across the floor of the tower.

Normally it wouldn’t have been an issue given the benefits granted by my Elven eyesight, but the combination of dust and ash kicked up by our previous trip ascending the tower filling the air, and the harsh light Carrisyn was emitting behind me wreaked havoc with my vision. I ran as fast as I possibly could, dodging furniture, piles of books and rotted clothes, my breath coming in ragged gasps, now, as Carrisyn drew ever closer to me.

I felt her fiery touch graze my tattered armor as I leapt through the air. I landed at the top of the stairs, and immediately tumbled down several steps before regaining my footing through some miracle of Elven dexterity I had no idea I even possessed. Once more I raced down the stairs, losing the leather strip holding my hair in its ponytail in the process. My long silver hair now streaming out behind me, I reached the base of the stairs and the ruined research lab.

An idea suddenly occurred to my panicked brain. I had a bunch of vials and devices and crap I couldn’t even identify stuffed in the pouches at my waist. Maybe one of them could do something. When in doubt, I decided, just throw whatever was handy. I jumped, spinning in the air gracefully. My hand produced a small vial from one of the pouches and I flung it into Carrisyn’s face with a satisfied grunt. The vial shattered and a bright flash of light exploded, blinding me temporarily. I gasped in pain and hit the ground hard in surprise, my vision filled suddenly with bright splotches of rainbow color as my eyes tried desperately to adjust. I staggered to my feet awkwardly and Carrisyn was on top of me, bearing me to the ground.

“We will have your heart,” She hissed. I felt her fingers burning into the exposed skin my armor had once covered and I gasped in agony as her claws bit deeply into me.

“Leave! Me! Alone!” I screamed, punctuating every word by bringing both handles of my dagger down on top of her head as hard as I could. I felt a moment of hesitation and I tore myself free, her claws ripping across my shoulder as I rolled away. Ignoring the agony from my torn shoulder and chest I was back on my feet and running toward the stairs again, in pain and humbled by the stupidity of trying to use things I couldn’t readily identify.

Once more I could tell Carrisyn was hot on my tail as the brilliant light filled the darkness around me, but I focused on trying to control my breathing and ignore the pain from my torn body. My body was healing, I could feel it, but far slower than usual. By the time I reached the destroyed living quarters the blood seeping from my wounds had slowed, but not ceased. My shoulder was broken and at least two ribs were cracked. My head spun from the exertion of running from the Carrisyn beast thing and the pain from my abused body. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep going but I knew that if I slowed, I was done for.

I reached the ground floor when my strength finally gave out. My legs tangled with each other, and I pitched forward, screaming in pain once more as I landed hard on my broken shoulder. I rolled over and got to my knees. My head swam drunkenly as I struggled to suck in air, the dust and ash clogged my throat, causing me to wheeze and cough. I sat back on my haunches, hands at my side and watched Carrisyn reach the base of the stairs.

I wondered, briefly, if it was reasonable to hope my body could somehow repair itself without a heart. Was I like a flatworm and could regenerate even after bits and pieces were missing? On one hand it was interesting to think about, while on the other it was exceedingly disgusting, and I really didn’t want to think too deeply about the notion. Though, regardless of how repulsive I found the idea, it seemed pretty likely I’d be finding out soon enough.

The idea of running through the wilds of an unknown land with a fiery possessed countess chasing me quickly became nothing more than a pleasant pipe dream as Carrisyn stopped in front of me. I was well and thoroughly done. I hadn’t even bought the others more than a few minutes by my stupidly short-sighted action. There was no emotion in her face. No look of triumph or satisfaction. Nothing more or less than a blank slate.

“I know,” I gasped, trying my best to gather what little strength I had left. “You’ll have my heart. I heard you. Well, if you want it, you’ll have to come get it.” I gritted my teeth as Carrisyn stepped a pace toward me. Magic flared through my body, roaring down my arms, my fingers, and into my daggers. I ignored the agony from my chest and arm and brought the daggers down on the solid stone floor, hoping for nothing more than to make her pay some sort of price before she ripped my heart out Mortal Kombat style.

The magic flared blue for a long moment before exploding in brilliant, lurid emerald green fire. My eyes opened wide in surprise when I felt myself tumbling through open air, rock, dust and Carrisyn all spinning around me before I landed with a pained thud on hard stone in a dark, damp chamber below the base of the tower. I struggled to my knees once more to find Carrisyn partially trapped by a rather large chunk of the tower floor a meter away. Beyond her, the chamber continued on, dark stone intricately carved in runes. A doorway sat on the north wall, long since sealed and in the center of the chamber, less than a meter from where Carrisyn struggled to free herself a gold and silver arch etched with flowing Elven characters sat silent sentry.

The writhing green fire coursing through my fingers seemed to catch the floor on fire, runes coming to life in response. The center of the arch roiled with what appeared to be fog. Green fire lit the characters on the arch one by one, and as the final character blazed the arch exploded into life with the sound of a freight train entering a tunnel.

“We will have your heart,” Carrisyn’s mouth moved to the familiar words. I gritted my teeth.

“You are just a one trick pony, aren’t you? Well, fuck you!” I shouted, launching myself forward. Still recovering from freeing herself I caught Carrisyn off guard and the two of us tumbled beneath the arch.

As soon as we passed through the arch the entire universe seemed to lurch and spin off-kilter and my ears felt like I’d just climbed onto the wing of an airliner at 10,000 meters as air roared all around me. My eyes watered as what felt like a blast of icy snow assaulted me then the roaring ceased, and everything was dark and silent. My eyes refused to adjust to the darkness and my head thrummed in pain.

“Your nipple is in my mouth,” Carrisyn’s muffled voice mumbled from beneath me.