The air in the chamber shifted, the weight of unnatural silence pressing against Vivienne’s sehe dim, flickering glow of the soul wraith illumihe spa ghostly hues, casting long shadows that danced across the crumbling walls. Its body was ethereal, pale, and translut, the sigils carved into its form pulsing like the beat of a dead heart.
Vivienne instinctively recoiled, feeling that same tug at the edges of her sciousness, the one she had bee all too familiar with—an invitation to e, to feed. But this was different. The wraith wasn’t aherbeast. It wasn’t made of aether at all.
She could feel the void in it. A presenot quite a mind, not quite a soul. A thing made of something far more elusive than flesh or energy, something that twisted at the boundaries of reality itself.
Rava, oher hand, seemed entirely unfazed by the wraith’s ominous presence. She stopped a few paces ahead of Vivienne, her ears twitg as she assessed their foe. “That thing isn’t like the rest,” she said, her voice calm but ced with an edge of . “It’s not aherbeast. I don’t even know why this would be here.”
Vivienne hissed in frustratioendrils flexing around her form. So no dionight, she thought bitterly, even as her hunger g her. She could feel the wraith’s energy radiating from it, almost inviting, yet pletely out of her grasp.
The wraith tilted its head, its glowing eyes narrowing, studying them with an unnerving sense of awareness. Then, without warning, it moved, the unnatural angle of its limbs folding in straterns as it advaoward them.
Rava took a slow step back, the muscles in her legs coiling. “Don’t let it get inside your head,” she warned, her voice low, eyes flig to the wraith’s eerie, pulsating form. “It corrupt a mind, bend it to its will if you let it. You o block it out.”
Vivienne nodded sharply, her form shifting slightly as she prepared for whatever was ing. It’s not aherbeast, she thought again, but it’s still a threat. And I won’t let it trol me.
The wraith didn’t o close the distao feel its influence. Vivienne could already feel its presenside her mind, pressing against the edges of her thoughts like firag ss. A quiet, oppressive pressure that seemed to turhoughts into statiot today. Not this time.
It was then that Vivienne heard Rava’s sharp intake of breath, her gaze fixed on something ahead.
Vivienne followed Rava’s line of sight, her many eyes narrowing to focus through the flickering gloom. The soul wraith wasn’t alohe faint shimmer of anure emerged from the shadows—a sed wraith, smaller but no less uling. Its translut form mirrored the first, sigils glowing faintly along its elongated limbs, but its presence felt… sharper, more invasive. The weight pressing against Vivienne’s mind doubled, an almost unbearable cacophony of whispers g at her thoughts.
“Two of them,” Rava muttered, her tone grim. “Brilliant.”
Vivienne hissed low, her heads writhing with agitation. She didn’t respond immediately, fog instead on holding her ground against the oppressive mental force. Every instinct screamed at her to sh out, to attack, but something about these creatures demanded caution. The soul wraiths did not have the same taste as her previous meals. They felt alien in parison, like they were made of the same stone of the fallen ruin that served as their prison.
“They’re trying to push into my mind,” Vivienne said, her voice a fractured cacophony of growls. “I feel it.”
Vivienne’s many hydra heads shifted uneasily, snapping at the empty air. The whispers g at her mind weren’t words but feelings—waves of despair and disorientation, hollow yet overwhelming. She gritted her teeth, or at least the approximation of them in her current form, and forced the invadiion back.
The rger wraith tilted its head, sigils fring briefly as if in respos movements were slow, almost deliberate, but the oppressive energy around it began to intensify. The smaller wraith stepped forward, its elongated limbs folding unnaturally as it drifted closer. The pressure in Vivienne’s head spiked, making her recoil instinctively.
Rava crouched low, her golden eyes narrowing as her cws flexed. “They’re f you on the defensive. Don’t let them,” she said, her voice steady despite the tension radiating from her. “Use what you have. That hydra form—those heads of yours. Keep their attention scattered.”
Vivienne snarled, one of her heads snapping toward Rava in irritation. “I know,” she spat. She let her tendrils flex, her hydra heads curling back like striking vipers. “Just… don’t die, alright?”
The wraiths moved suddenly, as if responding to some unseen signal. The smaller one darted forward, its limbs t unnaturally as it lu Viviehe rger wraith remained where it was, its sigils pulsing in rhythmic waves, amplifying the mental pressure.
Vivie the smaller wraith’s advance head-on. Two of her heads shot forward, jaws wide, split vertically, but the creature twisted impossibly, its translut body slippiween the snapping maws like smoke. She shed out again, one head striking low while another came in from the side, but the wraith evaded with inhuman fluidity.
“It’s too fast!” she snarled, frustration bleeding into her voice.
“Distract it!” Rava called, her voice rising as she darted to the side, cirg the chamber. “You’re n to hit it—keep it busy! I’ll hahe rest.”
Vivienne growled but didn’t argue. She let her heads sh out in a frenzy, snapping and coiling like serpents around the smaller wraith. Eaent forced the creature to twist and tort further, its form flickering faintly uhe strain.
The rger wraith, meanwhile, began to move, its flesh-carved markings fring brighter as it advaoward Vivie did not rush, it crept forward slowly but methodically. The whispers g at her mind grew louder, more insistent, and she staggered briefly uhe weight of its presence.
To her left, Rava began ting once more, her whole body arg with electricity, lig the ground with singing sparks.
Vivienne didn’t look over to her, trusting Rava to make good on her word. Two more of her heads shed out at the smaller wraith, f it to twist and dart away, its movements more frantiow. It wasn’t invulnerable, she realised, but it was agile. Even sg a si on it roving to be a tall order.
Then, out of the er of her vision, she saw Rava sprint toward the rger wraith, her nude, lightning-wreathed form crag violently with aetheriergy. “Alright, you pale bastard,” Rava muttered under her breath. “Let’s see how tough you really are.”
The chamber erupted with light and sound as Rava charged, her body a streak of crag aetheriergy. Each step sent arcs of electricity skittering across the floor, her movements precise and unyielding. The rger wraith’s sigils fred in response, a deep, pulsing rhythm that seemed to ripple through the air.
Vivienne focused her attention on the smaller wraith, its form darting uably around her snapping hydra heads. Her frustration mounted, but she pressed on, f it to keep moving, weaving a deadly cage of writhing tendrils.
If I ’t hit it, I’ll trap it. She let her heads extend further, creating a barrier around the wraith and closing in, leaving as fes as she could manage.
The rger wraith, meanwhile, turs hollow gaze toward Rava as she closed the distance, a sharp battle cry tearing from her throat. The moment her fist ected with its shimmering form, the chamber was filled with a deafening crad a blinding fsh of light.
The force of Rava’s blow sent a shockwave rippling through the chamber, loose debris raining from the fractured ceiling. The rger wraith staggered but did not fall. Its translut form absorbed the brunt of the attack, its markings fring brightly as if in defiance. Rava didn’t relent; she pivoted on her heel, delivering a sed electrified strike to the wraith’s torso.
Vivieook advantage of the chaos, her hydra heads weaving a ttice of dark tendrils around the smaller wraith. It darted left, right, up, and down in a desperate bid to escape, but Vivienne adjusted with unnerving precision, her movements tightening like a he creature hissed, a discordant sound that sent shivers through the air, but its eerie agility was beginning to falter.
"Rava, watch your fnk!" Vivienne’s guttural shout echoed as the rger wraith shed out with a limb that split into jagged, cw-like tendrils mid-strike.
Rava ducked, rolling out e, but the wraith adjusted its attack with an unnatural grace. One of the tendrils grazed her side, leaving a faint, shimmering scar that pulsed with dull light. She hissed in pain but pushed forward, her strike aimed at the creature’s head.
The blow nded with another crack of thunder, but the wraith didn’t stagger this time. Instead, it leaned into the impact, its sigils pulsing shtly now that it cast ahereal glow over the chamber. Rava’s lightning danced across its surface but dissipated before reag its core.
“Tough bastard,” Rava muttered through gritted teeth. She danced back a step, already preparing her move.
The smaller wraith seized the moment, slipping through a narro in Vivienne’s hydra cage. It moved faster than before, its own markings fring as if drawing energy from its rger terpart. Vivienne roared in frustration, her heads snapping toward the creature in unison, but it twisted and darted with an almost taunting fluidity.
“They’re feeding off each other!” Vivienne snarled, her voice a discordant growl.
Rava g the rger wraith, now surging with rerength. “The’s starve them!” she called, her voice tight.
The two moved in tandem without needing further words. Rava darted toward the smaller wraith, her sudden approach startling it just enough for Vivieo react. A hydra head smmed down from above, pinning the wraith’s flickering form to the ground. It writhed violently, its fshing markings doing little to deter her. She pressed harder, the shadowy tendrils erupting from her necks, strig the aberration tighter and tighter.
At the same time, Rava turned her attention back to the rger wraith, dodging its elongated limbs with quick, calcuted movements. She feinted left, drawing its focus, then surged right, nding a direct hit to its leg. A pulse of lightning rippled through its translut body, the creature’s sigils dimming for the briefest moment.
Vivienne grihrough her many mouths, sensing a shift itle’s rhythm. “We’ve got this!”
But the wraiths weren’t fihe rger one raised its limb, and the eldritch markings on both creatures fred in unison. A wave of energy rippled outward, smming into Vivienne and Rava with a force that sent the warrior skidding bad Vivienne’s heads thrown off the smaller creature. It made a mad dash towards the rger creature, hiding behind it like a scared child.
“Gods damn it,” Rava hissed, her breaths heavy.
The wraiths stood together now, their sigils pulsing in sync. The whispers g at Vivienne’s mind grew deafening, and she staggered uhe weight of them. They weren’t just fighting their strength—they were fighting their sanity.
“Stay sharp!” Rava shouted, wiping blood from a shallow cut on her lip. “They’re not do.”
Vivieeadied herself, her hydra heads coiling bato formation. “Good,” she snarled, her voice dark and eager. “her are we.”
The chamber seemed to pulse with the wraiths’ energy, an oppressive rhythm that resonated in the very air around them. Rava and Vivienne didn’t exge a ghey didn’t o. Their movements began to synise, a wordless uanding f between them.
Vivienne surged forward, her hydra heads darting in alternating strikes, f the rger wraith to react. Each time it twisted to evade, Rava slipped closer, her steps precise and deliberate. Lightning still crackled faintly around her fists, a reminder of the raw energy she could unleash if given the ce.
The smaller wraith darted out from behind the rger one, lunging toward Vivienne’s fnk. She caught the movement with one of her peripheral eyes and shed out preemptively. A tendril-like head coiled around the creature, stopping its attack mid-air. It writhed and twisted, but Vivienne’s grip tightened, her shadowy form abs the strain.
“Focus on the big one!” she barked, her voice reverberating like a low growl.
“Already ahead of you,” Rava shot back, her tone sharp but not without a trace of camaraderie.
The rger wraith lunged, its limb splitting into jagged tendrils that struck toward Rava like a . She didn’t falter. She ducked low, slidih the attack, and came up with a burst of speed. Her fist struck the wraith’s torso again, but this time she didn’t withdraw. She followed through, driving the creature back with a flurry of rapid, electrified blows.
“Keep it moving!” Vivienne called, sensing Rava’s rhythm. She twisted her own form to intercept the smaller wraith’s attempts to rejoin its terpart. Each time it tried to slip free, one of her hydra heads shed out, f it to retreat.
The synergy between them began to tilt the battle. Vivienne’s relentless aggressiohe smaller wraith isoted, while Rava’s precise strikes prevehe rger one fraining its posure. But the wraiths were far from beaten.
The rger wraith suddenly shifted tactics, its glowing sigils pulsing in a rapid, chaotic pattern. It emitted a shrill, resonant scream that sent shockwaves through the chamber. The smaller wraith seized the opportunity, its form being more erratic as it surged toward Rava’s exposed back.
Vivienne roared, her hydra heads coiling in unison to intercept. She smmed one down, striking the smaller wraith with enough force to send it skidding across the chamber floor. It flickered violently but recovered, its markings brighter than ever.
The chamber trembled uhe wraiths’ bined fury. The rger wraith’s sigils now bzed like a maelstrom, pulsiically in time with the screeg vibrations that filled the air. Rava’s ears rang from the wave of sound, but she didn’t flinch. She crouched low, lightning crag around her limbs, her focus sharpeo a razor’s edge. The rger wraith’s arms twisted and ed into jagged bdes, and it struck with all the fury of a storm. Rava blocked one, but the force of its blow sent her reeling, the edge of its limb catg her across the ribs in a siing crack.
She gritted her teeth against the pain, but the sharp ache of injury was already spreading. Blood welled beh her skin, her breath ing ragged. “This is getting old,” she muttered through ched teeth, her voice strained but fierce.
Vivienne’s rage burned brighter as she saw Rava stumble, and her focus shifted in an instant. The smaller wraith had recovered, its erratients growing more pronounced, as though feeding off the chaos in the air. It darted toward Rava once again, faster than before, but Vivienne was already in motion. Her jaws snapped forward with terrifying speed, catg one of the wraith’s limbs in her grip. She wre back with brutal force, the creature screeg as it flickered and fred in a desperate attempt to break free.
The small wraith tried to coil, its form being insubstantial, slipping through Vivienne’s hold, but she anticipated the move. One head shed upward, its sharp, cw-like teeth sinking into the wraith’s form. The creature’s essence bled out in a stream of shattered shadows, but it wasn’t finished. It whipped its other limbs out, striking Vivienne across the face, its shadoendages cutting through the air with brutal precision. Her skin burned where they touched, but she didn’t give ground.
Behind her, Rava’s eyes bzed with fury. She twisted, her form a blur of crag electricity, and once again surged forward. Her fist collided with the rger wraith, a burst of energy that cracked the air, sending the creature staggering back. But it wasn’t enough. The sigils on its body bzed even brighter, and a pulse of raw energy rippled outward, striking Rava square in the chest.
She screamed, the force of the impaog her off her feet. Her body smmed hard into the storicity arg wildly from her skin. She y still for a moment, but Vivienne could see the twitch of her muscles, the way her breath started to return. A warrior through and through.
Vivienne was already closing the distance, her jaws snapping at the air with ferocious speed. She o finish this now.
The rger wraith shrieked again, its form rippling with chaos as its strange energies spiralled in on themselves. It lunged, but this time Vivienne repared. Her hydra heads twisted in a synised pattern, smming down one by one, keeping the wraith’s arms at bay. With a growl of fury, she whipped her tail out, ing it around the rger wraith’s leg, throwing it off bance.
Rava, now ba her feet, charged again, her body crag with aetheric power. More electricity shed from her body into her surroundings, the cracks of thunder pig up pace, each bolt a snap of ozone. Rava let out a primal roar, an alien sound from her husky voice, then she unched herself at the rger wraith, her limbs blurring in a series of rapid strikes. Each hit was a thundercp, each e sending shockwaves through the creature’s form, each strike ing faster and fast. Its eldritch markings flickered, dimming with every hit, but still, it fought. Its limbs shed out wildly, striking Rava across her shoulder, leaving a trail of sizzling marks where the wraith’s energy bled into her skin but she relented, shrugging off any ter blow the creature offered.
Rava did not harhe tempest— she became the storm itself. Furious, untamed, powerful.
Vivienne’s hydra heads hissed with frustration, snapping at the smaller wraith, keeping it tethered to the ground with brutal force. But it wasn’t enough to tain it for long. The wraith struggled, writhing violently, its sigils growing brighter as it fought against the strig coils of her tendrils. Each twist of her body brought a satisfying, sharp crack as the smaller wraith’s form was forcibly bent. Yet the struggle was relentless, its body flickering and ref faster than she could fully crush it.
With a frustrated growl, Vivienne shed out again, her heads darting forward to bite down with a ferocity that shook the chamber. The smaller wraith screeched, a high-pitched wail that reverberated through Vivienne’s skull, rattling her tration. She winced but pressed harder. She could feel it weakening. Its form was shuddering, its sigils dimming as her relentless assault finally began to wear it down.
Meanwhile, Rava’s strikes grew more frantic as the rger wraith pushed her back, its limbs shing out in a desperate attempt to break her momentum. One of its tendrils ed around her waist, lifting her off the ground and smming her bato the stoh a siing crack. Rava’s breath left her in a sharp grunt, but before the wraith could finish its attack, she rolled with the momentum, twisting herself free.
Her skin burned with pain from the tact, but it only fueled her rage. Her fist crackled with aetheric fury as she smmed it down into the wraith’s face, the shockwave from the impact radiating outward. The creature staggered but it recovered almost immediately, its twisted form t as it s her with jagged, sharp limbs. One of its cws grazed her thigh, leaving a deep burn. The searing pain made her hiss, but it also lit the fire inside her. She couldn’t back down now.
Vivienne, sensing the shift in her ally’s state, pushed harder against the smaller wraith, her form being more jagged, her movements sharper. Her tendrils ed tighter, her heads snapping down with inhuman precision. The wraith screeched in agony, its body beginning tment.
Then, just as the smaller wraith seemed to be on the brink of dissolution, the rger one unleashed its final, desperate tactic. Its trio of eyes fred with violent iy, releasing a burst of blinding light that knocked both Vivienne and Rava back, the force s it felt as though the very air had been torn apart.
Vivienne’s hydra heads recoiled, disoriented by the shockwave. Her tail whipped out wildly, barely managing to keep her bance. Her vision swam, and the roar in her head grew deafening as the malevolent whispers g her. She gritted her teeth, refog. She couldn’t let up now.
Rava, her body crag with barely-tained power, shook off the disorientation, her chest heaving as she staggered to her feet. Her body screamed in protest, but she pushed forward. This battle was almost won. She wasn’t about to let the wraiths take that from her.
The rger wraith’s markings flickered erratically, its form twitg with failing energy. It tried to sh out o time, but Rava was already in motion. With a furious yell, she surged forward, nding a punch directly to its head. The energy rippled outward, causing the wraith’s form to colpse inward on itself. A final fsh of dark light filled the chamber as the creature crumbled into shadow, its sigils colpsing into nothingness.
Simultaneously, Vivieail shed around the smaller wraith’s form, squeezing it tighter and tighter until its body buckled uhe pressure. With one final, earth-shattering snap, the wraith shattered into a cloud of dark particles that evaporated into the air.
The battle had ehe two warriors stood amidst the remains of their foes, breathing heavily, battered but triumphant.
Rava wiped the blood from her lips, a grin curling at the ers of her mouth despite the pain radiating through her body. “That... that was something else.”
Vivienne, her many heads panting, let out a low growl of satisfa. “We make a hell of a team.”
Rava chuckled, the sound rasping ihroat. “hought I’d find myself fighting alongside a nightmare.”
Vivienne’s heads turoward her, the eerie, otherworldly gleam in her eyes softening for a moment. “How about side by side a friend?”
“Yeah, I could do that.” Replied the exhausted lekih a smirk. This rapidly turned into fusion when Vivienne colpsed to the ground in a dull thud, her heads split open in a cacophony of otherworldly ughter.
The chamber fell silent, the remnants of the wraiths dissipating into the air, leaving nothing but the crag remnants of their resonant energy hanging in the air. They had won, but her of them spoke of the toll it had taken, at least not yet.
The storm was over— for now.
SupernovaSymphony
