Spatial 8

The intent to kill her, to make her suffer in ways that she knew not before, was clear. The invisible chains lashed at her skin, ripping it apart, pulling her arms from her until that awful moment she spoke. As the woman was felled, there was a single word which stole his interest, and that too would cancel his original plan. The lashing chains wrapped around her arms and legs, and a pale green beam of Astral force lashed from his fingers across her person.

That would be the final strike. Something to wind her before his hands set upon her cheeks. Hate, chaos, evil, betrayal, entertainment. These words would start to enter her mind as his Void plague crawled into her skin from his gloves. The Void itself began to infect her, demanding blood, demanding tribute, demanding entertainment of all.

"Ya hav' no say in it. Ya hav' been captured. Ya are comin' wit' ma."

She had suffering left to endure, that which she knew not before. "I will take from ya everything I want an' need. But fer now? First ya will return wit' ma."

A rift opened up by him. The invisible chains held the woman in place as he dragged her into the world's distortion with him.
(Sors Ultovex)
(Posted 11 minutes ago)

The last strike was a finale - A parting gift that brings Aia to her knees. She coughs, blood escaping her mouth and splashing against the greenery underneath. She was to die here - Tribute for her failures. But not before this man who took so much pleasure in pain had his way with her.

But the pain doesn't come.

Wheezing, Aia looks up from the ground to stare into Sors eyes. As his hand lifts to her cheek, something scrawls. A black infection that worms its way inside of her. The sensation of chaos, of pure madness was overbearing. It was everywhere - Inside of her, around her.

Laddie, Aku - They stand beside her, snickering as thousands of eyes open up and cast the surroundings into the darkness. "No... N-No you're not real-" She cries. Gentle, soft music plays at an unbearable volume. Casting itself across the forest, soothing the discord within those who become afflicted by its tune.

Perhaps it would have done something for Sors. But the infection was in her now.

The music turns - Going from something soothing into an orchistra of madness. Off-key notes, harsh violin pulls. The purity of Melody was being lost. "What have you DONE TO me-" Aku was laughing, blood trailing down his face. A dark liquid pours out of Aia's eyes as she cries...

Chains drag her into the tear - All but some claw marks are left on the ground to show her failed resistance.
(Aia Hirabayashi)
(Posted 2 minutes ago)

Taiga smelled it. He knew Aia had slipped out alone and bless his heart, he was worried. It had been just a hair too long since he last saw her - she should've been back by now, and as Taiga walks through the forest, a certain scent draws him closer. A stench. He finds himself moving faster, his legs picking up speed.

That's when he hears it.

Aia's music. Distorted. Warped. A single note is all it takes to set his heart ablaze. Taiga races forward, scrambling towards the source of the commotion. One heartbeat pounds in his ear, then another. Another. He can't pick out his own from the discordant song.

But he knows what's happening. He can feel a pit open up under his heart. He has to get there faster - he has to save her. Taiga sees them through the trees now. Sors is pulling Aia through the rift. He can still save her. He just needs to be there - he just needs to make it.

A portal opens up in a snap of his fingers and he dives through. Taiga poises himself directly above Sors Ultovex himself. Emerging out from his Wayfinding portal and hurtling down to the ground, weapon drawn and every ounce of his body refusing this fate. He cannot lose her. She is light - kind and pure, willing to treat him with humanity the likes of which so few could muster. If he could not save her. If he could not use this curse for anything else, let it be this. If he could not use the art he had trained so hard in for anything else, let it be this. In this moment, Taiga would sacrifice all that he was for this chance--

"DON'T TOUCH HER!"

And he swings on empty air.

His blade finds no foe. It slams into the ground and splits apart the earth, a shockwave rippling through the forest. There's a roar - then silence. Dead air. Taiga can't process it. He absolutely cannot accept it. A minute too slow. What? Why? How?

Taiga stands there, hunched over his blade, eyes beady and body starting to drip with sweat. His hands shake. How? Were his legs not fast enough? Was his form too sloppy? His runeweaving too slow? Too inaccurate?

Taiga breaks like a twig. Snapped into a thousand splinters of doubt that tear into his heart.

His failure measured in seconds. A moment too slow. He could've saved her.

"Ah....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A beast howls into the sky, Taiga melting away.

(Taiga Rowan)