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    Bethy’s bat swarm flowed across the surface of the island like a tide of living darkness. The eyes of every bat gleamed red as blood, and the only sound they made was the silent flap of dreadful wings as they eclipsed the sky, boiling down to whirl around the elf.


    The elf’s own eyes were glowing a brighter red, more ruby than blood, and her hand blurred as she plucked and fired arrow after arrow, aiming for the bats.


    Within the swarm, I saw Bethy partially materialize, the edges of her form blurred like a ghost, her dress trailing off into smoky shadows as she stepped gracefully across the bats like a dancer leaping across a brilliant stage. Above us, the sky changed as the dirt of the island was replaced with lush black grass, Bethy’s Domain unfolding above us like the backdrop lowering on a grand play.


    Arrows sang through the air, some even managing to catch the bats, but to my surprise, on impact, they dispersed into smoke. Because Murmur was overlapping the Domain, I was able to use Dantalion to puzzle out what was happening.


    Bethy WAS a swarm of bats, or parts of one, but there were more bats than there should be. About two of every three bats were illusory, confusion and doubt sown into the assault to disorient and mislead. Bethy herself conducted an unnatural orchestra of wing beats and slicing arrows as she drifted between the attacks.


    Her eyes, while bloody, weren’t cold or calculated. My purification during our fight had helped her, giving her a firmer base from which to work.


    It was the duality of her nature. The Maenad was actually the stronger of her two bloodlines. Not because it was more powerful objectively, but because her strong physical form made the straightforward madness the most direct means of attack. The Vampire, conversely, leaned more toward finesse and precision.


    Because of this, the more raw power she pulled, the further she fell into the bloodlust, and vice versa. The form she took when fighting me had been stronger in a direct fight, but I was infinitely more terrified of the brutal efficiency I was seeing now.


    After my purification, however, the problem had been mitigated. She could pull more overt strength while maintaining control, maximizing her use of her power.


    Bethy’s claws cut the air, adding a high harmony to the low thump of wings beating air, and she drifted down into a long, sweeping dive, seeming to ride the wind like an ice dancer as she spun past the archer, fingernails gleaming as the lashed out at the elf.


    The hunter hissed, her bow coming up to deflect, and there was a scream of tortured metal and wood as Bethy’s fingers bit deep into the arch of the bow. Snarling, the elf dove forward, her shark teeth snapping as she lunged over the bow to attempt to savage Bethy’s face with her bite.


    She looked terrifying, and Bethy’s diminutive fangs looked almost delicate in comparison as she flashed a dazzling smile, falling backwards, swept aloft on the wings of a hundred bats and carried out of reach of the attack.


    From behind, a pair of massive black shapes exploded from the grass, and I had to blink to recognize Poptarts and Donuts, who had grown and mutated into something almost unrecognizable.


    I wasn’t sure if this was some kind of transformation or if this was their natural form now and Bethy made them shrink when they came out, but the Night Pride had become completely different beasts. The cats, formerly close to panthers, had grown and shifted, backs hunching and limbs thickening as their mouths spawned massive jagged fangs.


    In a process that looked like some kind of primordial reversion, the two cats had become something akin to dark sabertooth tigers, easily the size of a small shuttle as they fell upon the archer, snarling and slashing.


    The elf didn’t panic, simply glancing over her shoulder…and then she was replaced by some kind of six armed bear creature, whirling to meet the two animals with an earthshaking roar, swatting them from the sky to smash heavily into the ground. Bethy, perched atop a platform of bats, frowned coldly, and flicked her fingers before the cats hit the ground, dispersing them into shadows to prevent them from being injured.


    Glaring up at Bethy, the elf ROARED, and I felt as much as saw her body…solidify. This wasn’t just a shapeshift. This was a FORM. Not quite a pseudo Domain, more like Abel’s Ragam Blood Body, but it was purpose built from dangerous skills and stably sitting on a Chronicle for support.


    Bethy, face calm, stared down at the bear, and the flock of bats behind her spread out, erupting into smoke that manifested into a pair of absolutely colossal EYES in the air. Familiar red eyes I recognized in an instant.


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    I remembered a long time ago, Bethy telling me that her specialty wasn’t brute force or raw power, but mental manipulation and hypnosis. The eyes blazed red, a wave of…something, erupting across the sky, and I had to sift through it because it wasn’t aimed specifically at me, focused into a sort of cone to smash into the bear. And then, she opened her mouth, and began to sing.


    The sky shifted, dimming so that the eyes were the only things visible, and images began to appear, projected into our minds by the bloody gaze of those heaven spanning pupils.


    Emotions rolled through me as I watched a story play out. The story of a little girl who lived alone in a big dark castle. The only person she had in her world was her mother, an erratic but caring woman who would sometimes forget that she existed for stretches of time as she became obsessed with various projects.


    Her mother painted, sang, wrote, and made many kinds of wine, but the little girl’s favorite hobby was sewing. When her mother would sew, she would call the little girl to her room and teach her to stitch, creating beautiful dresses and outfits together.


    But the sewing episodes became fewer and fewer, and the wine making more frequent, the mother losing herself in the process and madness of her craft. Until one day, a man arrived. He told the little girl he was her father, and that he was going to take her away. He was kind to her, but she still cried, wanting her mother.


    She left the grand castle and didn’t see her mother for many years. Her father raised her after that, indulging her and trying to make her happy. She realized that it made him sad to see her in pain, and learned to put on a happy face. He was a dour man, and rarely took joy in anything, but she was his favorite child, though he had many, because she was the only one who worried about his happiness.


    Emotions tore across the surface of my mind, terror, loneliness, desperation, sorrow. Dark feelings that I could barely process. I triggered Leviathan, and I felt the subversive thoughts and emotions melt away under the heat of the mind cleansing fire.


    When my head cleared, I found myself standing amidst a sea of statues. Or rather, standing among my frozen friends. Sighing, I reached out to Callie, gently pushing her to activate the Promethean Fire Soul Body. She did, and her eyes cleared as she turned to look up at Bethy, drifting in the sky in front of those massive red eyes.


    Bethy looked calm, but Callie’s cheeks were drenched with tears, and I felt the jagged bite of sympathy and heartbreak through the bond. I stepped up next to her, draping an arm over her shoulder. I understood. Bethy was an absolute master of hypnosis. She’d pulled us all into her own memories, though I suspected we’d only caught the edges of that attack.


    Forced to undergo the deepest heartbreaks of Bethy’s life, probably amplified for the elf, even my willpower had been starting to crack. We woke the others, having them all use the soul body to defend their minds. I think Bethy expected it to work passively, which it probably would have if the others had all had time to acclimate their techniques to their own Paths properly. As it was, only once we shook them awake did their eyes start to glow with the light of their power, showing they were protected.


    There was a thump, and we all turned to see the bear collapse to its knees, and then melt into the familiar form of the elf with the ruby eyes, staring down at the ground with a lost and desolate expression, tears streaming from her eyes. All signs of resistance had vanished, in fact, all signs of anything had vanished, she looked like almost an empty shell.


    Bethy appeared beside her, putting her arms around the hunter in a warm hug as she dropped her bow from boneless fingers, her gaze hollow as the Domain around us faded. I kept Murmur going, covering the whole thing up from start to finish.


    “It’s ok,” cooed Bethy as the elf wept silently. “You’re ok. You’re just like me aren’t you? You were all alone for such a long time. But you can stay with us. Life is so much more fun when it’s full of friends.”


    It occurred to me that if we could see Bethy’s life, maybe Bethy had seen the elf’s. What had she watched in this hunter’s head, to be so gentle with her?


    But then, maybe that was just Bethy. My friend had one of the kindest hearts of anyone I’d ever met. She could be frustrating, goofy, obtuse, and even ruthless when she needed to be, but Bethy cared about her friends more than anything. It would be just like her to accept someone into her heart like that without too much resistance.


    I didn’t interrupt. This was clearly a personal moment, and if this elf was going to be part of our group now, questions could wait. We would get plenty of answers soon enough.


    Somehow, I got the impression that this elf was going to fit in with us just fine. After all, we had people from plenty of different factions, what was one more. Vanished god worshipper or not, she seemed like she would be a great addition to our ranks. Not to mention with a Chronicle at D-rank, I could learn a lot from her. More importantly, she didn’t seem like she’d had an easy life in the godworld. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like there, though seeing Bethy holding her, I imagined my Vampire friend had an idea.


    It was a touching scene, and I was so focused on it, I didn’t even notice the slight disturbance in the Murmur domain. Not until it was too late. I heard a scream, and my heart turned to ice as I whirled to find…something, wrapping around my wife’s ankle.


    Time seemed to stand still as I triggered my waltz, vanishing in a burst of black flame and appearing right in front of Callie, my hand reaching out for my wife. But despite my speed and focus, I wasn’t fast enough. I stared into Callie’s eyes in pure primordial terror as she was yanked violently from her feet and dragged across the ground, the tentacle that I could now see extending from the edge of the water almost a hundred feet away pulling her across the ground like a skater across ice.


    I burst forward, chasing her, but the limb was too fast, too strong. I couldn’t catch up, and I could only watch in horror as she hit the shore and was dragged into the endlessly churning black water, vanishing beneath the waves. I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate, didn’t even slow down, I triggered Leviathan and dove headfirst into that terrifying abyss, following her down into the dark.