Wrath Reincarnated

ENVY

"Envy the Elementalist?" Patience taunted. I'm gonna nickname you Little Prick. "Hmm. You two bore me. I think I'll wait for Wrath. Try to survive until then, so you can witness his death. Now doggies: sic 'em."

Sera—No, Lust— lunged at Kat, and Little Prick let go of the leash. Lust pinned Kat into the sand, creating an outline like a snow angel. More like a sand demon.

Focus, Katarina!

Kat obeyed her Familiar's advice, from whatever far away place he hid, and kicked Lust off of her, back into Little Prick. Lust, now a crazed and berserker husk of Seraphina Raventree, tried to claw and scratch his face, but the Virtue grabbed both of her forearms. He swept her legs out from under her, and Lust swung down to the ground. Little Prick dusted his shirt off, and Lust returned for another charge. Maybe we can use her to our advantage? Little Prick grabbed Lust by the throat—he spun around and thrust the Sin straight at Kat.

The battlefield sped past her, and Kat crashed into a sand dune—and she and Lust erupted from its opposite side. They rolled along the surface into the middle of some Elementalists engaged with some Nomads. Kat caught her breath on her back. I guess that won't be happening today.

Katarina!

Kat crunched her knees up to her face, then flipped her body up to its feet. Lust had already begun attacking everyone around them, regardless of their Faction or side in the battle. Kat drew her daggers and swept them upward to block an Elementalist's flaming sword just in time. A Nomadic man plunged his sword into the man's abdomen and finished him off.

"Consider yourself forgiven," Kat said to her former torturer.

"My men and I will handle the Elementalists," he said. "But we can't handle the Sin." Got it.

"Leave her to me. The real Lust is in there somewhere. I'll draw her out. Just keep my back safe."

«« Quick Step »» [Kat]

"Copy that—"

Before the man could finish, Kat sped toward Lust and plunged a dagger into her neck. Lust howled, her voice thick with venom, and flung Kat away from her. No blood is leaking out? What the hell did She do to you, Sera? And she's not even covering her wound up.

Lust grabbed the closest Elementalist and ripped off his arm, then tossed his body aside like garbage. The agonized man writhed in the sand, mixing it into his wound and causing further pain. The berserker held the arm out from its edges, the wrist and shoulder, then snapped it in half against her raised knee. From some dark magic, the flesh and bone melted away, and the remaining bones turned into wicked blades of their own, like some sort of demonic tantō—and then they lit up gold with a Holy magic Enchantment. She let out a fierce battle cry that shook Kat down to her own bones, just like Judas Priest Zeke's had back in Marina Veridia.

Shit. Whiskers—Give me fuel.

The women collided in a spark of metal against bone. Two blades met one, and vice-versa, as they danced and whipped around each other in a flurry of strikes, slashes, and thrusts. Stay on the defensive, Kat. Don't let a single blade even graze against your skin. Lust held her daggers in opposite grips: one right side up in her hand, the other upside down, which made it hard for Kat to predict where to block or deflect next. One swiping edge flew at Kat's ear, and she ducked just in time. As the blade passed by, seemingly in slow motion, Kat's left eye could make out the serrated edges of the bone. Kat put both her hands out and invoked a Script.

« Air » [Kat]

The blast swept Lust off of her feet, and Kat took her respite to form a strategy.

« Speed » «« Ryoku Shield »» [Kat]

Kat coated her entire body in the shield, just in case anything got through to her. Her legs and arms felt invigorated from the Speed Rune, but she waited to see what Lust would do next. The sun is setting, and the sand dunes are casting shadows all around. Any minute now, she'll enter the Shadow Realm, and I'll have to be ready to evade a sneak attack.

Lust rose from the ground and snarled at Kat. Her black eyes were furrowed and distorted against her pure rage.

"What the hell's the matter with you!?" Kat shouted. "We're here to help you. We're your friends! Don't you remember Shinsora?"

"I remember all too well."

Great. She can talk, but…

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"You and Wrath showed up, and my family was ripped away from me!"

…She's truly insane.

"No—You were ripped away from your family! By the same people who did this to you."

Katarina, Whiskers thought. Seraphina would not be so easily brainwashed. Kat knew what her Familiar was alluding to, but she didn't want to believe it. She just didn't think it could happen to them—to Sins.

"She showed me the truth. We would have been safe without you!"

"No one is safe from That Bitch. The Iron Maiden took your mind, but what about your soul? It's gotta be in there somewhere—"

Berserker Lust crashed down onto Kat from on high, both daggers pointed downward. Kat leapt away and rolled back onto her feet. Drifting sand clouded her right eye's vision, but her left eye Vessel cut through the smokescreen. Finally—There's the first thread. A silver line extended out from Lust's shoulder. Kat trailed it up into the sky.

She only took her eye off her opponent for a second, but it was enough for Lust to make contact. Pain and blood ruptured from Kat's left shoulder as serrated bone slide through flesh. No boiling acid—is my Regeneration stopped again!?

Look again, child, Whiskers thought.

Tiny lights glistened on Kat's wound, and her wound began to seal up, though much slower than before. That's new.

Thank your Vessel for that.

Lust came in for a second attack, and Kat used up all of her Speed Rune to move behind her. Kat slammed her face into the sand, and took Lust's back. They struggled for positioning in the sand, and neither let up. Kat had both of her arms wrapped under Lust's armpits, and crossed her arms over the back of her neck; her legs grape-vined with Lust's to hold her enemy's hips in place. Lust jerked side to side to try and throw Kat off of her. Kat dug her forehead into the back of Lust's head to keep her pinned, and so Lust wouldn't jerk back and break Kat's nose.

"Did she use the Black Sacrament on you!?" Kat yelled into Lust's ear. "How can she even do that to a Sin?"

"She showed me the truth—That all you Sinners must die!"

That pissed Kat off. "LISTEN TO ME, YOU BITCH!" Temptation got the better of her, and she bit into Lust's ear. Lust's shrieks sounded like it came from multiple mouths, just how Judas Priest Zeke's sounded. "The Iron Maiden will kill you, and probably your whole family. If you want to survive, we are your only chance—So tell me how to fix this!"

"Only Death can save us now."

Fucking hell. I never imagined this would work on Sins. What about Virtues? Can this work on Little Prick? Seemed to have a strong effect on Maddie, just being near Zeke.

Katarina, her Seal.

YEAH I KNOW WHISKERS GET OFF MY BACK. I don't even know where it is. Fuck! We're gonna have to kill The Iron Maiden tonight if we want Lust back, and to make sure this never happens again.

Lust pushed Kat off to one side, and Kat had to claw her hooks back in tight; the bucking never stopped.

You can't do that without Seraphina and Jafar. Find a way to free her first.

Dammit, Whiskers, Jafar's a lost cause—

Let Cy and Jules worry about him. Your task is Seraphina. Quit wasting time.

"Fucking pussy," Kat mumbled. "Too afraid to fight but gives orders from the sidelines." She tugged Lust's hair from behind, trying to find the silver line that controlled her. Found it—

A blast of ice and fire blew Kat off of Lust. Elementalists closed in on the berserker. Opposite them, the Nomadic torturer and his comrades lay fallen and slain. Men tried to help Lust to her feet, but she knocked them away and put her hands up in an eerie, familiar sign.

Oh shit. "No!! Get away from her!"

«« Soul Sacrifice »» [Lust]

A third eye emerged from Lust's forehead, and the closest man to her collapsed. His skin turned taut and gray as his life flowed out of him and into Lust's third eye. Tendrils spread out to the other men, and they began to falter and faint.

« Illuminate » [Kat]

Kat saw multiple threads above Lust now, clear as day, and she also saw the Rune sigil behind Lust's third eye. Strike there. She launched herself at Lust. With her left dagger, she swiped at the binding threads above her head. A third, ghastly arm reached out from Lust's back and caught Kat midair—and Kat plunged her right dagger into Lust's eye. Too easy.

A black spark arced once. Twice. A giant black orb grew from the sigil, then collapsed into itself almost immediately, and an explosion blasted Kat away. Double-vision focused back into one while the ringing in her ears slowly died down. Kat scrunched up her face and blinked hard.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw Lust—or what remained of her. Her clothes were tattered and barren. A large chunk of hair was missing on the side of her head. Black blood leaked from the wounded Third Eye, but it was still black and open, like the other two. A frail third arm stuck out of her back, twisted and broken. But no fourth, thank Salvos. I must have stopped it in time.

Men littered the ground around her. Most rolled over and moaned. Just a few others were dead. A man coughed beside Kat. At least you're still alive. Hopefully you'll be of some use tonight.

Kat rose to her feet, but she couldn't stand up straight. That blast did a lot of damage. Looks like it hurt Lust, too—

Lust dropped to her knees and howled into the darkening sky. She clawed her own face; she reached behind to try and scratch her third arm's root in her back. Lust even cried and sobbed. Whiskers?

She… She must have succeeded somewhat in her Script. Her Regeneration is clashing with the Holy damage and Black Sacrament. If she hadn't fully lost her mind before, she will now. Hurry, Katarina!

Kat glanced at the silver threads overhead. Right. She limped over to Lust a few steps, then hobbled, and walked, until she could jog. Along the way, Kat thought of Felix. She lifted a dagger up in the air and hurled it sideways like a boomerang.

« Air » [Kat]

One thread severed, and then a second. Kat's Vessel focused in on something entirely different, now. Just as her dagger came into contact with the third string, Lust's third arm reflexively intercepted it. The blade slide through its palm, and it halted the attack. But Kat had her eyes set on another target now.

Her Seal. Stab it just like Jules did mine, and maybe I can end this…

The blade slid through skin, then muscle, and into bone. Lust shrieked. The third arm grabbed Kat's throat and jerked her up into the air. The pommel of Kat's own dagger that'd stabbed it now jutted into her neck and blocked a carotid artery.

Come on, work already!

While she waited in those few precious seconds, Kat looked to the sky. The puppet strings didn't flow back to The Iron Maiden like she expected—No. They trailed all the way up into the Teleportal, and disappeared from sight.

Kat dared to glance down to great disappointment. Lust's black eyes glared back up at her.

She's even madder than before, Whiskers, if you can believe that. I need a Plan B.