Lewd skill in a filthy world

Gegee was the only sane one remaining, the only hope left in this wilting field of delusions while the tsukuma kept cooing at Lilian to accept a satisfying death.

"Say it, dear child. Say the words. Accept your beautiful death…"

Gegee didn't know why, but her gut told her that if Lilian were to say those words, if she gave in even for a second, the worst could happen. She might die. Just like that! Not that she cared much, she'd make a great undead puppet, honestly but not now. She needed her help to defeat this creature alone and complete her trial.quest.

"I accept a satisfying—"

SMACK!!!

Gegee didn't wait. Her foot collided with the back of Lilian's head before she could finish the sentence, cutting her words mid-way. Just as the tsukuma's petal-snake charged with its thousand-leaf fangs wide open, Gegee stepped forward and offered herself to be bitten while using her body as a shield.

The microscopic barbs of the petal snake's fangs dug into her, eating a piece of her memory too. But she still remained sane. Still self-conscious.

Her tiny original body gritted it's teeth. Think! Think, dammit!

What can kill a flower?

I have a flower monster that's capable of controlling flowers, ready to kill us. What could be its weakness?

It can spawn massive vines, blooming flowers that spit a hallucination gas, and in its terrain where all these things listen to her, defeating her is nearly impossible.

What can l do?

Or perhaps…

A wild, impossible idea cracked through her thoughts.

She took a deep, calm breathe, colder than a corpse. She sat down, legs crossed like a meditating ghost, and began summoning every last ounce of energy from her core.

Soul Split.

Her vision blurred as she activated the area scan, glancing at the red marks that showed the dead bodies she could control, buried under the ground.

But this time… she wasn't going to pick one.

She wanted everything.

Tiny, sharp shards of her soul began cutting away from her original body, flying toward every single corpse. The HiveMind skill activated, trembling under the strain. She began commanding over fifty dead at once — a feat no sane necromancer would try, and something she was never capable if pulling off even back then when she was using clones.

As her soul frayed like a shredded flag, the corpses began twitching, their bones cracking, and eyes rolling open.

Flesh stretched over broken limbs.

And her MP? It dropped like a dying heartbeat. Her tiny body coughed dark red blood that splattered on her lap and she clutched her chest, a sharp pain burrowing through her ribs like something inside wanted out. A searing migraine tore through her body, almost making her feel dizzy, but still, she kept going and still controlled her undead army!

Within seconds, the whole place began glitching.

The floral dreamscape twisted into a nightmare as the illusion of the garden faded. The petals browned. The trees cracked, revealing a landscape filled with dried leaves, maggot-infested soil, and the sickly stench of death. The very sky changed color, going from blushing pink and blue to the dark hue of storm clouds soaked in blood.

"Arrghhh...." Gegee's tiny body screamed, pain seeping into her scream like poison, her agony commanding the undead to rise.

They responded.

Their bones groaned. Rotten joints twisted unnaturally. Some were just skeletons with crimson-glowing sockets, while others had meat still hanging, bloated and speckled with fungus. One had maggots where eyes should be. Another dripped black cloth-like flesh, strung along like rags.

Some moved with clumsy cracks.

Others moved like they'd never stopped killing.

"No!!" The tsukuma shrieked. Her calm mask melted off like wax. "Stop it!!! You're ruining my beautiful garden!! You're... Stop it!!"

Her eyes turned deep red. Her voice cracked as wind rose like a hurricane of petals, spinning in a howling vortex. Her hydra behind her collapsed, and she rose into the air, her elegant dresses flailing in the wind.

"L-let's move!!" Gegee's first undead shouted at Lilian, whose memories were a scrambled mess, confusion written all over her face.

She looked at the undead army. Looked up at the levitating woman.

She didn't know who to trust. So, screw it — she went with her gut.

She picked up her axe from the soil, its blade now soaked in black mush and gripped it tight with her metal gauntlets. She howled, swinging it with all her weight and strength, aiming straight at the tsukuma.

The tsukuma summoned petals in a gust of repelling wind to intercept the axe, and slow it down, but the blade still pierced through them and grazed her cheek.

A thin line of inky black blood dribbled down her flawless face.

The tsukuma's eyes turned pure black as a single black tear fell from her left eye. She was crying, not from pain, but disbelief. Lilian had scarred her beautiful face, her pride, her masterpiece.

The terrain began collapsing further. No more illusion. No more lies.

But truth was far worse.

The tsukuma's body convulsed.

Her throat pulsed and dark petals spilled from her mouth like vomit. Her smile cracked wide, tearing flesh from ear to ear. Her cheeks stretched unnaturally, and from the sides, tiny spider-leg teeth emerged, flicking, clicking, and twitching.

Her front teeth extended to be dagger-like as her lips peeled back to reveal a maw of twitching teeth made for ripping throats.

"How dare you?" she whispered, but the words were like knives sliding into Gegee's spine, making her tremble in place.

They couldn't drag this out.

This fight was nearly impossible but they had to try.

Her undead army began picking up the weapons they had before they died.

Some had guns, old, and rusted, but still capable. Some took bows and arrows.

They began firing everything at the levitating monster.

But then — boom!

Two cherry blossom trees rose beside the Tsukuma.

No longer beautiful. Their petals fell, revealing their true, dried-out, grotesque forms. They shielded her like loyal guardians, their branches blocking every projectile. Bullets shattered on impact. Arrows bent like twigs against their barks.

Then the ground cracked.

It split open, like a mouth yawning wide, and hands that almost looked skeletal, but made from black, wilting flowers began grasping at whatever moved. They pulled, twisted, and held down the undead. For every undead that was held down back yo the ground, flowers bloomed in their chests, snapping their already snapped up limbs.

Gegee's original body was next.

Her hiding spot which was once a solid stone in the illusion had turned into a mound of sickly red dirt, sprouting fungal growths like tumors. The mushrooms pulsed and hissed, releasing a violet gas that smelled of sugar and sulfur.

She coughed. Hard.

Her vision swam.

The undead around her flickered, and one of them rushed in, sliced mushrooms away, and grabbed her fragile body, running through the toxic field as more fungi bloomed around them.

Chaos. It was full chaos.

Lilian didn't stop. As an NPC, unlike a human, she could withstand tight situations with a calm mind. She ran, dodging vines and floral hands on the ground. She picked up stones and hurled them like bullets, one after another toward the levitating tsukuma.

They didn't do much damage.

But she was observing.

The trees protected the tsukuma's face every time. Which meant she loved her face than any part of her body. And she used her right hand to control her guardian trees.

Lilian launched another rock, faking for the face — both cherry trees moved to shield her again.

And just before they finished moving, Lilian stopped, twisted her body, and hurled another stone, this time directly at the Tsukuma's right hand.

CRACK!

The bones shattered. Her fingers snapped sideways, but the Tsukuma made no sound — only growled, her now-useless hand hanging like dead weight.

Lilian smiled. She had exposed a weakness. But the price was steep.

The flowers grabbed her. Soil turned to muck, sucking her down. Her legs sank as if the ground wanted to swallow her whole.

One of Gegee's corpses dove forward and cut the vines, freeing Lilian, and kicking her away from the mucky soil, but got dragged down itself, its bones cracking as it was swallowed by the earth.

"Why?!" the Tsukuma cried. "Why do you reject me?! Why won't you accept my beautiful death!!"

"Beautiful?" Gegee scoffed from a corpse still drawing a rotted arrow. "Not so beautiful now, is it?"

She let the arrow fly.

The guardian trees blocked, but this time, controlled by her remaining hand.

Gotcha.

Lilian grinned.

Just one more hit, and both her arms would be useless. And we'd see if she'd still be able to protect herself!

Gegee's tiny original body, cradled in a skeleton's arms, began taunting to draw the tsukuma's attention, knowing fully well Lilian wanted a distraction.

"Flowers aren't just for graves!" she shouted. Her voice was barely loud, but the tsukuma turned, narrowing her monstrous eyes.

"Huh?"

"Flowers can put smiles on people's faces! Be given to loved ones! They make the world beautiful — not a graveyard!! Your logic is rotted!!"

The tsukuma screamed as if that was the most hurting insult it had ever had. Her scream shook the very ground, but that gave Lilian an opening.

She halted from running around, took aim —

SMACK!!!

The stone smashed the monster's left hand, pulverizing it beneath the force.

Her guardian trees fell down.

"Yes!!" Gegee shouted. "Let's finish it!!"

They had her.

They had hope.

Or so they thought.

TBC...