Pure dusk aether coursed through Vivieendrils, invading her form like a flood. It was cold and chaotic, carrying whispers of anguish and fleeting glimpses of lives long gohe aether spread, igniting every nerve in her shifting body, and with it came fragments—fshes of alieions and fractured memories.

  A siren adorned in glistening pearls, singing vows troom as colourful fish darted around them, their glowing scales illuminating the watery depths. A lekine sman, his fur dusted with sawdust, chopping wood in a snoed forest, pausing to take a deep breath of the crisp winter air. A starbinder acolyte, battered but defiant, using their remaining arms to fend off a marauding raid, their nebu-like eyes bzing with fierce determination.

  The torrent of imagery struck Vivienne like a storm, each fragment more vivid and raw tha. The siren’s song of joy, the sman’s quiet pride, the acolyte’s desperate resolve—all collided within her, overwhelming and alien. She staggered, her form faltering for an instant, before she sank deeper into the hydra’s neck, refusing to release her hold.

  The head she had tched onto shrivelled further, the o shadow crumbling into a faint wisp as she ed more and more of its essence. But the hydra was far from finished. Its remaining heads reared back, their shadowy maws splitting open to let out an ear-splitting, otherworldly roar—a sound that reverberated not just through the chamber, but through Vivienne’s very core.

  The heads struck with ferocious speed. Two of them lunged simultaneously, their jagged teeth sinking into her amorphous body. ks of her form were torn away, the pain exploding through her like molten fire. Vivienne’s scream mingled with their roars, the echoes g in the fined space.

  But as fast as the hydra tore her apart, her feed, reknitting itself with an eerie fluidity. The aether she had absorbed fed her recovery, the pain sharpening her focus instead of weakening it. Every bite they took only spurred her orength growing with each devastating wound.

  When one head surged in for a sed attack, Vivienne split herself, her writhing tendrils stretg outward and ing around another head instead. The tendrils punctured the shadowy flesh, embedding themselves deep into the hydra’s form. Pure dusk aether surged again, p into her in waves so potent it made her entire being shudder.

  The hydra recoiled, its movements more erratiow, but Vivienne didn’t stop. The memories came faster, more insistent. A human child ging to their parent during a storm. A dwarven craftsmag intricate runes into a golden chalice. A celestial being walking among stars, their flowing with radiant energy. Each life was fleeting, ed and repced by the in a blur of stoleence.

  Vivieendrils faltered for a heartbeat, her focus wavering uhe deluge of fn lives. But the out a low growl, her many eyes bzing as she anchored herself, her voice a guttural snarl and dug in deeper, drinking more.

  The chamber shuddered as the hydra thrashed wildly, its remaining heads noing at Vivienne’s growing form, each bite taking far less than what she ed from the monster. Vivienne’s grip only tightened, her hunger uing as she bore down on her prey. Her mass swelling up and enveloping any head brave enough to bite at her, putting it into her mass.

  Rava had siepped back, the aether hydra’s attention long siurned away from her. She watched in grim fasation as Vivienne ballooned in size, each head thrashing around in her, def her but uo escape. The nightmare grew to such a size that she started to her inky form over the main body of the monster.

  Vivieendrils sighter, her grotesque form swelling as she tio devour the hydra’s essehe beast’s remaining heads writhed within her mass, eaent tearing at her insides, yet she barely flihe agony was drowned out by the overwhelming tide of power c through her—a raw, intoxig flood that blurred the lines between pain aasy.

  The chamber trembled uhe hydra’s violent thrashing, its shadowy body flickering like a fme fighting to stay alight. It let out a deafening, otherworldly wail, the sound reverberating off the crystalline walls and sending splinters of darkness scattering into the air. The hydra was being ed, its massive body slowly drawn into Vivienne's ever-expanding form, its strength being hers with each passing sed.

  Rava, now pressed against a jagged outcrop of crystal, stood frozen. Her cws flexed reflexively, sparks dang along her fiips, but she didn’t dare intervehere was no room for her to fight, no opening to strike. The creature before her—her supposed ally—had bee a ing mass of tendrils, glowing eyes, ahing power. Vivienne was no longer merely defending herself. She was g dominance over the beast, ing it whole.

  “Vivienne!” Rava called out, her voice sharp but edged with unease. She didn’t know if her panion could even hear her over the cacophony of the hydra’s roars and the wet, ripping sounds of the battle.

  For a moment, the amorphous nightmare paused, her glowing eyes swivelling toward Rava. A flicker nition passed through them, dim but present, before she tightened her grip on the hydra's body and pressed her tendrils deeper.

  As Vivienne enveloped the hydra’s core, the shadows that prised its form began to colpse inward, the creature shrinking as she devoured it piece by piece. The chamber’s oppressive darkness lightehe once-imposing figure of the hydra reduced to little more than wisps of shadow ging desperately to existence.

  The st of the hydra’s roar faded into silence, repced by the uling stillness of the chamber. Vivienne, now a t, writhing mass of bck tendrils and bzing eyes, stood where the hydra had been. She pulsed with residual dusk aether, her form radiating an almost tangible heat.

  For a few moments, her of them spoke. Rava watched, her heart pounding in her chest. Slowly, Vivienne’s form began to settle, the wild chaos of her tendrils zily flig to and fro. Her many eyes dimmed one by oil her form settled, ragged but reizably herself. She turo Rava, her voice a hollo.

  “Delicious”

  Rava exhaled, the tension draining from her body as she stepped forward cautiously. “You’re... still yht?”

  Vivienne’s jagged smiles widened for a moment as she let the st traces of euphoria ripple through her. The hydra had been unlike anything she’d ed before—not as trated as the revenant, but teeming with an overwhelming multitude. Dozens of lives, their echoes still faintly vibrating within her. It was exhirating, intoxig, and utterly damning.

  “Yes,” she said at st, her many mouths speaking in unison, their voices reverberating unnervingly through the chamber. “Very much so.”

  But as the rush began to fade, her bzing eyes turo Rava. The lekine warrior stood several paces away, cws still crag faintly with residual lightning. She oised as if for bat, but her gaze—fixed squarely on Vivierayed a fear so raw that it pierced through the lingering haze of Vivieriumph.

  Fear. It poured off Rava like a palpable wave, and it wasn’t the kind of fear born from fag an enemy. It was directed entirely at Vivienne.

  Vivienne faltered, her smiles dimming one by one. A sharp pang of guilt twisted through her, cutting deeper than any wound the hydra had inflicted. Just ho— or perhaps days, there was no way to tell in the dark ruins, Rava had been a strao her, but in that short time, Vivienne had glimpsed the woman’s fierce spirit, her unyielding strength, and—most painfully—the kindness she showed to a stranger who had the form of a mohat warmth had been eclipsed by the shadow Vivienne now cast.

  Mohe word coiled arouhoughts like a viper, tightening with every passing sed. She couldn’t deny it. Rava had seen what she was, what she had bee. Worst of all, she was starting to enjoy it.

  Who am I kidding? I love what I am. It feels amazing.

  Vivienne exhaled, a sound that was more of a low, guttural rumble than a sigh. Slowly, she began to pull herself inward, her many tendrils retrag as she tried to press her amorphous form. The act was like trying to squeeze a raging storm into a bottle—every fibre of her beied the effort, her mass writhing and straining as if it had a will of its own.

  “I be smaller,” she muttered, half to herself, half as a reassurao Rava. Her voice, though quiet, was heavy with vi.

  She pressed herself tighter, fog on the creatures she had ed. The revenant, with its pact, dense form. The wild hound of hostile aether, raw and uraihe hydra, massive and fragmented. Each had been made of aether, but their positions had varied. If they could exist in such diverse forms, why couldn’t she?

  The more she dehe more difficult it became. Her body pushed back, straining as if to explode outward again, but she refused to yield. The chamber groaned faintly uhe pressure she exerted on herself. Finally, after what felt like ay, she stopped. She was smaller now, more tained, but still rger than the shape she’d worn before the hydra.

  Vivienne g her lekine panion, l herself to meet Rava’s eye level. The guilt g her, but she forced a faint, crooked smile onto her face.

  “Better?” she asked softly, her many voices harmonising into something almost gentle.

  Rava hesitated, her cws l slightly as she studied Vivienne’s new form. The fear in her eyes didn’t vanish, but it dimmed, repced by a cautious resolve. She gave a single nod.

  “It’s a start,” Rava said, her voice steady but distant. Then, without waiting for a response, she turoward the dimly glowing path ahead. “Let’s keep moving. I want to get out of this pce sooner rather than ter.”

  Vivieched her for a moment before following, her densed form pulsing faintly with residual energy. The remnants of the hydra still stirred within her, whispering fragments of its stolen memories. She pushed them aside, fog instead on the faint echo of Rava’s words.

  It’s a start.

  The two moved forward into the shadows, the chamber behind them silent and still, save for the faint, haunting echoes of the battle that had taken pce.

  SupernovaSymphony