8. A: The Counterflow’s End And The Meteor Shower

A blinding bluish light and a deafening bell-light sound suddenly spread, both eroding the flow and erasing the ocean of disgust... well, it almost did, but maybe and just maybe... Did that doll predict this result? Or is it simply rage and impulse blinding it into action?...

‘Well, it’s not important.’ Thinking that and munching on more pieces, Licia slowly stood and then with laziness oozing from her every action, she took a few steps forward, only to then suddenly stop and with unwillingness in her eyes stare at it, the endlessly dark dreamscape around her squirming and wriggling into shape, the nodes and her very way back steadily drawing closer, and not to mention... That doll...

Feeling rage and anger, that doll didn’t wait for the result of its actions. Instead, that childish thing directly broke through the wave of light in front of it, and then with its hoofed hands suddenly shapeshifting into giant claws, it roared madly before directly cutting a path out to the other side of that wave, there where the remains of a disgusting mass of flesh were slowly coalescing once more, only this time...

““RaAaAaHhH...”” ““GEeEeeE...”” ““JAaAaAHhH...””

Only this time, it took a more hideous, more disgusting, and more united form as the thousands of worms forming its new humanoid body screeched, each with distinct but unknown emotions. Nevertheless, screeching or not, hideous or not, it doesn’t change the fact that this counterflow...

‘It’s reaching its end.’ Tapping the newly formed floor under her foot a few times and halfheartedly commenting like that, the Azure fragment, with boredom slowly consumed her expression, waited and waited more as her lifeless eyes darted following a child-sized divine beast and its out of-proportion, gigantic pair of furry fists as... BoOm. They punched once, then... BAaM. They punched twice... Then thrice and more, as they pulverized the grotesque fleshy construct and sent it flying...

10 m... 20 m... They punched forward restlessly, while also defending against the worm-like tentacles... 50 m... 80 m... They punched ferociously, barely standing the corrosive pus leaking... 100 m... 160 m... They punched madly as the doll’s gritted teeth tore its lips apart, and then...

... 200 m, and finally... BOOM. Along with a last explosion of blinding bluish light and lots of disgusting liquids splashing everywhere, that repulsive cluster of flesh...

“““RAAAAAHHHHH...”””

It was finally sent flying... Through the edge of the vast stairs and out of sight, it was sent flying as it fell down and down there into the misty abyss... Maybe crashing into the stairs below, maybe reaching the last dirty floor, or even reaching... Well, who knows what is it like, the layer there beyond.

Still, the scenery on the other side aside, and the endless paths connecting this maze and all of the territory outside too, they are not important for now. Not when compared to that little doll...

That cute and pathetic doll, heavily panting for breath as it tries to walk a little further back from the crumbling edge, but... It’s hard, you know? To walk with trembling legs... It’s hard, Alright? To find balance when both arms are that disfigured... And more than anything, it’s hard...

‘To live when you are meant to die.’ Smiling as it say so, an azure-eyed silhouette stretched its hand upward as if searching for all of its suppressed memories, but then... As if feeling the futility of its actions or simply giving up for now, that silhouette’s twisted smile stretched further, while its hand... It was instantly and forcefully pulled down and along with it was... A beautiful coin.

No, not one actually, but two... three, maybe five, or ten... If not, then...

“!!?... Guuhha?”

Ten, twenty and lots more... Like shining stars, an unknown number of coins suddenly appeared from many random directions imitating the starry sky, and staring at such a fascinating scene, that doll... It suddenly flinched with its trembling legs almost giving up and its cute face instantly darkening as for the first time in its short but eventful life... That disobedient little kid, it suddenly had the urge to seriously curse someone’s ancestry to the eighteenth generation. Nevertheless, as if responding to that urge, suddenly...

Zzzzz. Ssshhh.

Suddenly, tens to hundreds of cutely dangerous coins shone at once... More precisely, the silver-white part in their midst shone in light, before twisting their path and directly guiding the newly created meteor shower precisely to a certain hooded kid and its pair of pure white, shiny antlers.