Cinder looked back over her shoulder, hateful glare watching the golden light fade quickly between the leaves and branches of the swamp. Her followers that had escaped were at her side, slowing down, and she let her pace fall as well, lip lifting in a growl. She would deal with the Light once Naze was gone.

When she turned back to face the swamp, she scanned it carefully. Nothing moved. Even the water was entirely stagnant, not the slightest breeze creating any hint of a ripple.

Cinder stopped, knowing that the Paladins could not follow her, and spread her wings out wide. The air was just as dead as the water. She couldn't help but think that it fit the Lich perfectly. Still, worthless, and would not stand in her way.

She started moving forward again, feeling the warm water slosh around her legs. Her nerves tingled, and she grinned, knowing that her master was almost with her. She could feel the egg inside of her continuing to grow, almost to the point of bursting out of her. She wished it would. She wanted nothing more than to become one with her master.

But she wouldn't be allowed to simply stroll into Naze's domain and end him. Naze wouldn't allow it to be that easy of course; he had to make sure he was as much of a thorn in her side as possible. But the question was: how would he do it? The swamp was still now, but Cinder knew there had to be more waiting out there, traps placed with as much cunning and consideration as a skeleton could muster. Perhaps he had been able to devise some things she wouldn't be able to see coming, but she had her doubts.

A strange sound emanated from deeper within the swamp. The heads of her followers all turned in its direction, but something didn't feel quite right. Like a shiver running up her spine, a sudden awareness came over her. Below the surface of the water, only a foot away from her, something was moving.

She lashed out, able to tell its shape from the ripples before she had so much as breached the water, and felt her fingers close around a head.

She ripped it from its hiding place, and held it up so that she could better examine it.

A leathery, rotted human corpse squirmed in her hand, reaching out towards her with wild flailing motions that made Cinder want to laugh. A smile cracked her face, and she spoke out loud to the demons around her.

"Does he really think this is enough to stop us?"

She broke out into laughter, continuing to watch the pale attempt at stopping her. The others started to laugh, and Cinder started to look more carefully at her prey.

Its expression was loose, and milky eyes lazily followed Cinder's face no matter the angle she tilted its head at. She also noticed a numbing feeling in her hand, and when she looked, she found that the parts of her flesh that actually touched the thing were slowly dying, protrusions of grey skin being pushed off and dropping into the water below before being replaced by her incredible regenerative abilities.

Its jaw worked like it was trying to moan, but only water poured out of its mouth along with several other holes in its ribcage.

The speed Cinder's claws moved at to cleave the pathetic creature in two was faster than the human eye could see, yet she felt rather leisurely as she let the shredded remains splash back into the filth it'd come from.

It wasn't a threat, and if Naze thought that it would do any kind of damage, then she was sure the rest of what he'd prepared would be just as mundane and laughable. A warm feeling came over her when she imagined what he would say when she emerged from his makeshift labyrinth unharmed.

The burn on her back twinged, sending the closest thing to pain she could remember through the raw flesh. She jerked, turned her head, and tried to see what was wrong.

The wound hadn't closed yet, and didn't seem to be healing at all. It was strange, but the edges of the seared spot seemed to be trying to close, but it simply couldn't close. Cinder gritted her teeth, but just as quickly turned her attention away from the wound. It didn't matter.

She turned her attention back to her surroundings. Stagnant air and water might be enough to keep some people out, and zombies likely repelled the rest, but it wasn't going to stop her, or her people.

Moving as quickly as they had outside of the swamp was impossible. Her cloven hooves were not suited for walking in mud, they sank into it where it lost its thickness. Sprinting, at least for long distances, would be impossible.

Her eyes turned to the few beams of sunlight visible through the thick canopy of vines and branches. She could break through it easily. Her wings fanned out again, and the others who had wings proceeded to do the same. It only took a single push from her powerful legs to get her off the ground, even though it tried to suck her in like a sponge. Her wings pumped, sending her farther into the air, but just before she crashed through the plants, she started to fall. Her momentum decayed far too quickly, and the air simply disappeared from beneath her wings. To her, the fall seemed slow, and she had plenty of time to right herself again.

When she splashed back down, she felt swamp water splash into her wound, but didn't pay it any mind. It looked like they would be walking, then. Naze had made it so they had to play by his rules, but that only meant it would be more satisfying when she was crushing his skull beneath her hooves. She would make him beg. She didn't know how, but she was going to make it happen.

She moved as quickly as she could, making use of tree trunks and small patches of stable ground to leap from spot to spot. Her minions followed, and they continued to make their way towards the center of the bog.

The air gradually became thick with fumes of decay. The water started to turn into a thick slime, and Cinder didn't need her advanced senses to tell her she was being stalked.

Movement in the shadows caught her eye, and she stopped. Another one of Naze's creatures, no doubt, but she wanted to see what Naze would try this time.

Splashing came from somewhere behind her, but when she turned to look, there was nothing. She could hear no heartbeat, no breathing, and feel no heat. If Naze's intent was to annoy, he was doing a very good job.

"Bring it to me. I want to see this thing for myself before it is destroyed."

Her demons started to move in the direction the splashing had come from, and Cinder took the moment to observe the rest of her surroundings. The smell of rot was thick in the air, but it was no surprise. It seemed like every plant around them was dead, save the vines that crept along the canopy above, falling down in deep loops occasionally, covered in thorns and leaves. The branches they clung to, as well as the trunks they sprouted from, all seemed to be decaying away. Dead roots broke the surface of the slime frequently, and Cinder didn't need ripples to tell her that they formed thick knots just below the surface, just right for tripping someone.

The demons reached the spot where the splash had come from, their claws and teeth ready for whatever monster Naze had sent this time. Cinder could feel their anticipation, and when something happened, they reacted instantly.

The surface of the water exploded as countless bodies sprang from it, moving quickly, even compared to the demons. Cinder dashed forward, slashing and hacking bodies apart without thinking, and when the water settled, she looked around.

The ambush had claimed several of her demons, who now laid in shredded piles beneath the surface of the water, flesh already dissolving in the muck. She turned her attention to one of the more intact attackers, lifting them from the water and examining them like she had the first. It looked like a zombie, similar to the first, but there were radical differences. Most of its flesh and all of its organs were absent, leaving only the framework of a body. Most of its musculature was gone as well, but had been replaced by what looked like some kind of metal fibers. The ends of its arms had been affixed with numerous razor-sharp blades, which sizzled and popped with boiling demon blood. Its remaining limbs twitched with incredible speed, but she could see that there was no real strength in them.

Her skin prickled, and she dropped the useless ghoul as her demons encircled her again. As soon as the circle closed, more splashing came from every direction, and Cinder could see more creatures emerging from the water. They were surrounded, and the ghouls started charging without pause.

Better preparation allowed her demons to dispatch the ghouls more easily, but the undead managed to gain the upper hand in numbers, every zombie that they cut down was replaced by two more.

Cinder watched as two more of her demons were shredded before taking action, pulling demonic power from inside of her, letting it grow, then forcing it out in an explosive burst. Her own followers were unharmed, but the magic keeping the zombies animate was blasted away, and their corpses collapsed back into the water.

More lingered, keeping a distance, peering from behind trees or from below the water, and Cinder saw what Naze was doing. These weren't meant to do any real harm, but to stall her.

A smile crept across her face, and she shook her head. It was cleaver, but not good enough.

The pause in the onslaught was all she needed to dash again towards the center of the swamp, taking swipes at the zombies she passed, and making sure that her demons followed. They did, and she smiled as they started to make progress again. As long as they kept moving, there was nothing that could stop them.

Although the terrain slowed them down, they were still leagues faster than their pursuers. Leaping between trees and ground was much easier than slogging through the slime. A calm seemed to fall over the group as the sounds of Naze's creatures faded into the distance, and only the excitement of putting Naze down remained. Cinder could feel the egg inside of her growing more and more, and her body felt stronger because of it. Her maser was giving her power, showing its favor. With it, she could not possibly lose.

The sound of twigs and branches snapping made Cinder look behind her. She saw one of her demons, hanging in the air, thrashing, as one of the vines she'd seen earlier coiled around its neck. The demon tried to free itself, pulling at the vines, even trying to slash through them, but it was to no avail. After several moments, the demon stopped fighting and hung there, limp.

Cinder could see the vines shifting slightly. They moved subtly, but she could now definitely see a predatory edge now. They had strange masses on their sides, like muscle, and their thorns elongated the closer they got to the demon.

Cinder gave a short pout. So maybe Naze was a little cleverer than she'd given credit for. It still wasn't going to help him. He had done nothing to her yet, he had only managed to kill a few of her followers. The things he placed his attention on seemed rather skewed, but she wasn't going to question her good fortune. They were expendable anyways. She had given them pleasures they couldn't dream of, their lives were the least they could give her back.

Before they could all come to her side, more vines dropped down from their perches, catching several more of her followers like snatching insects out of the air. Each one struggled for a few seconds, their faces bulged as their throats were stabbed and crushed.

The air was thicker with noxious fumes. Cinder could feel them rising off the water, wafting past her skin and into her nose, burning her insides. The feeling tingled, but couldn't really harm her.

Again, movement grabbed her attention, and another zombie slowly picked itself up from behind a tree, staggering out and turning its head to face them. Cinder stayed rooted in place, keeping herself wary of her surroundings. No trap was going to catch her off-guard.

The rest of the area was silent, except for the sound of her followers' breathing and the slow hiss of gas rising from the slime. The zombie splashed closer, and every second Cinder waited felt like an hour, but as she glared at it, she noticed a symbol carved into its flesh.

Her eyes widened as she realized that something very bad was about to happen.

Her wings flared out, shooting her forward faster than a bullet. Her hooves skimmed the top of the water, but at the same time, the rune on the zombie's flesh started to glow,

Her eyes widened as she realized that something very bad was about to happen.

She met it, claws ripping through the feeble body like a hot knife through butter, but she couldn't stop its rune. With a bright flash, the remaining chunks of flesh were engulfed in flame.

It was nearly instantaneous that the fumes rising off the water caught the flame, and it exploded outwards, consuming everything flammable it touched. Cinder only had time to try to balance herself again as she attempted to pull her wings around herself.

Her body, as grand and so close to perfect as it was, was thrown like a leaf in the wind. She felt the flame cause some slight damage to her skin, but as the flame wreathed her body and moved beyond, the air in her lungs was sucked out before igniting in her throat. Her vision blurred as her eyes felt like they were being pulled from their sockets, and her eardrums exploded.

The tremendous roar was replaced by pure, absolute silence.

She spiraled wildly; feeling particles of water and wood pelt her wings before either shattering or boiling away. Maneuvering herself with her wings proved pointless, as there was no air against which her wings could push. She couldn't tell which way was up or down, and her shriveled lungs fought to suck in anything that they could.

When she was finally able to get something into her chest, it wasn't air. Her mouth was filled with putrid, fetid liquid, and she almost immediately began to retch, not even her senses able to find anything pleasurable about it.

Her body crashed into a tree, shattering the already scorched trunk to splinters before being submerged completely in the revolting slime. Once her hooves were back under her, she burst from the surface of the water. The weight of air replacing that which had burned away rushed down on her like a momentary tempest, bringing water and ashes raining down on her before everything was still again.

She breathed heavily as water dripped down her hair, carrying soot and ashes with it but leaving a mucus-like coating behind. The flame had burned what remained of her dress away, but she hardly noticed. She could feel her wounds beginning to mend themselves, but something felt off now, like her body had been unbalanced.

A deep crunching and popping sound accompanied the sudden return of her hearing as her eardrums reformed from the bloody mess they'd been reduced to. Cinder looked around wondering if any of the others had survived as well. They had been some distance away, but judging how much damage they would have avoided was impossible.

The rare exposed patches of mud were now hard and cracked, covered in a thick layer of soot. The surface of the water had boiled briefly, leaving it the cleanest Cinder had seen it so far, but the filth quickly began pouring back in from the surrounding waters.

Her followers began to pick themselves out of the water, where they had survived. They were obviously heavily injured, but their regeneration was already in action to fix what had been done.

From a horde of many, she had only about thirty demons left. It was nothing to spit at, but such a heavy loss in one fell stroke was definitely not what she'd been planning for.

It would be no issue, though. She didn't need their strength, and once Naze was gone, she could replenish their numbers easily. What city would be the next to embrace her? Vale? Atlas? Minstrel? Vacuo? She could practically taste it already. All the delicious souls and minds, belonging to no one but her, and her to her master. She felt the egg move again, and a wave of bliss shot through her.

Her master was so close, only a thin veil kept them apart. Soon, she would join, and their powers would be one. She would feel everything, she would deliver Remnant, and she would rule over it.

The air began to feel tainted again, and Cinder knew better than to hand around. She started to slog her way through the water, followers in tow, towards the center of the swamp.

Her stomach started to twist, and she realized something wasn't quite right with her. Something inside of her gurgled, and it wasn't the egg.

The sound of vomiting from behind her made Cinder look back, and she found that one of her demons vomiting profusely. Their face was hidden, but as they tried to keep up, they looked up. Blood streamed from their eyes, ears, and nose. She opened her mouth to call out, but a mixture of viscera and bile poured into the water around her. She splashed into the water face-first, sinking below the surface and not coming back up.

Cinder's teeth gritted again in annoyance. Naze was even using infection against them? It was cowardly, even for a dead man. She herself had been infected, she could feel the disease trying to rot away her insides, but she could also feel her body fighting it. No agents of disease would weaken her. She would not let them.

Her body grew hotter as it began to purge the sickness from her system. Any normal disease would have been obliterated instantly, but this, whatever it was, was far hardier than that. It seemed that it had already managed to entrench itself firmly through her wounds.

The burn on her back started to go numb. Cinder couldn't feel the holy power continuing to fight against her natural regeneration anymore. Perhaps they had somehow cancelled each other out. That didn't explain why it was numb, but she didn't have the time to worry about it. She didn't stop moving, it wasn't that important.

More choked retching came from behind, followed by a few more splashes. The air seemed to clear slightly of the effluvial rot that suffocated the area before. The water seemed notably less disgusting, and some life returned to the trees. The air seemed to grow warmer and warmer the farther they went, and after some time, Cinder could feel the ground changing beneath her.

Something she was much more interested in, though, was the light that started to shine through the trees in the distance. It looked as though she had reached what she was looking for.

Strength flowed through her body. She could feel her master's eyes on her, watching her every action carefully, not wanting to miss a single sublime detail.

Then she felt something stick to her shoulder, like a cobweb.

She didn't care to react at first, but when she felt the eyes of her master start to slip away, as though she was being hidden, she knew immediately that it was another one of Naze's traps.

Her hooves dug into the muck as she slammed herself to a halt, looking down at what had attached itself to her shoulder. The difference was instantly obvious. Thin, clear, hair-like formations sprouted off the surface of her skin, spreading outwards from its initial point of contact in a slow but steady manner. She could feel it sapping the energy she gave off, feeding on the fell energies she put out constantly.

She brushed at it, finding it strange that it seemed to offer no resistance at all. Instead, it was scraped off as easily as the cobweb it felt like. Cinder's eyes flicked towards the distant light again, and she started to suspect why it came away so easily.

It hid in the steam that rose off the water, so she wouldn't see it at her high speeds. Millions upon millions of miniscule floating specks, each one the same glassy translucent shade as the first. If she had to guess what they were, she would say spores. The disgusting environment the Lich used would certainly fit.

One of her followers approached from behind and, through a mouthful of bile, said, "Mistress…"

She didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence. She became aware of it as soon as the demon had opened its mouth. The spongy floor of the swamp rumbled, but it couldn't be an earthquake. It was nowhere near large enough.

It seemed distant at first, but gradually increased in size and intensity. It wasn't any natural phenomenon. She could feel something drawing closer, but what? It had to be close if she could feel it through the bog ground.

As the vibrations grew closer, she started to pick out a general shape. She didn't like what she found. It was big, dangerous, and most certainly something Naze had cooked up.

The sound of a few more vomiting followers was interrupted when the ground almost imperceptibly started to sink inwards. Cinder shouted out to her followers, "Move!"

She jolted herself to the side, and a second later, the ground she had been standing on fell inwards. Then, the ground exploded outward, and Cinder found herself staring up at something she wasn't entirely sure how to react to.

It was a worm, or at least, something like a worm. A long cylindrical body, several times Cinder's width, and it seemed to end in an open maw of mechanically fixed and spinning rows of teeth. All along its body, metallic supports showed where sections of its flesh had been hacked away, and replaced with harder parts to make it more resilient to damage. Runes were engraved at what seemed like random points.

Cinder stared for a few moments before shaking her head, readying herself to fight.

She lunged forward, hoping to disable it before it had the opportunity to attack. Her claws sliced through its meat with ease, but they stopped short when she felt a cold metal plate. The thing's head turned in her direction, bearing down on her, rows of teeth still spinning like a chainsaw.

She threw herself back, dodging out from under the creature's mouth as it came back towards the ground. As its mouth hit, her followers rushed forwards, taking the opportunity to strike. The worm's body started to move again, diving from its first hole to the new one. Claws ripped into flesh again, the sounds of thick hide being torn away filling the air, combined with their attempts to rip through the dark grey steel. It was much harder than anything they had encountered before.

Cinder buried her fingers as far as she could in the metal, pouring strength into dragging her claws upwards. The metal screeched as it was rent apart, and she tried to peer inside its body.

She saw thick muscles, made of some artificial fiber, pulling tightly as the thing tried to move its body. Deep green gas seeped from the wound, and as it made contact with Cinder's skin. She could feel her nerves starting to dim as the gas tried to choke the life out of her body. It was more magic, of course, and not some mundane poison.

The worm continued to go without slowing, and a particularly stronger part of its structure passed by, forcing Cinder to pull her claws out. She stepped back, and felt a spore land on her arm, spreading almost immediately aver her elbow and working outwards. She wiped it away idly, keeping most of her focus on the vibrations she felt as the last of the worm disappeared. She also took a moment to glance at her followers.

The ones who had still been vulnerable to deadly illness had been killed already, but those who remained were not free of its debilitating effects. Their breath was hollow and wheezing; blood and bile still poured from their eyes, nose, mouth, and eyes. Even through all this, their faces still showed almost overwhelming pleasure. They couldn't be forced down.

They had been affected by the spores as well, though it seemed that it didn't spread quite as fast on them as it did on her. They made quick motions to rid themselves of it, but the numerous spores floating through the air guaranteed that cleaning it off was only a temporary fix. They didn't have the time to focus on keeping themselves free of whatever kind of fungus it was anyways. The worm demanded a much more immediate solution.

The ground shook harder as the creature came in for a second approach, and Cinder looked to where it was headed. Its destination, it seemed, was two of her followers who had erupted into an uncontrollable fit of coughing, vomiting, and sneezing. The others could feel it coming, and cleared out from the area, but those two were unable to move, even falling to their knees, faces only inches away from the water.

Cinder approached, but didn't get too close. If they couldn't get up, she wasn't going to help. They would simply die of the disease moments later anyways.

She positioned herself within striking distance, then waited. A few more spores touched her skin, and she brushed them away just as easily as before. The spongy ground started to sink inwards again, then collapsed, opening into a whirling pit. The two demons disappeared in the teeth, reduced to a red mist and a few loose chunks almost instantly, while the mud and water imply slipped past.

Cinder saw what were probably the thing's eyes. They were faded grey, and a few of them seemed to have burst at some point, but that didn't stop the remaining eyes from looking down at the small crowd.

She lashed out, doing her best to pierce its segmented shell as it emerged. As it rose, one of the runes engraved on its side came parallel to Cinder. Without any warning, the rune exploded, sending shrapnel in every direction. Cinder pulled her wings close and ducked a shoulder back, avoiding several of the projectiles before stepping in closer and getting ready to rip the creature apart.

Like the first hole she had made, she could see numerous artificial muscles working to support the massive thing, but she could also make out a kind of spine, running the whole length of what she could see, making sure that no part of the worm was completely disabled.

The worm started to shudder, and it started to bring the exposed portion of its body smashing down, yet it didn't aim for Cinder. Instead, it went for another one of her followers who had begun to collapse. They disappeared under its weight, sending water and mud in every direction. The worm lifted its body back off the ground, and all that remained of the demon was a steaming spot in the water.

One of Cinder's companions stepped towards her, focused on the worm, and she saw that her leg was almost completely covered in the moss. Not only that, but at the center, where Cinder assumed the spore had first landed, the long hairs seemed to be hardening, forming into a crystalline structure. Her eyes narrowed, and she tried to see what the end goal of the stuff was. Did Naze mean something other than death for those who got covered in it?

Her thoughts shifted when another demon got too close to one of the runes on the opposite side of its body, and was nearly shredded in the ensuing blast. Cinder saw them take a few nicks, but most damage seemed unimportant. More importantly, another cloud of necrotic gas started to seep from the worm's body, and its head swiveled to look at the offender.

It lunged forwards and down, making a motion that would scoop the demon up and into its mouth like it was nothing, but she noticed something else about its movements. It was slow now, or at lease slower. She couldn't see the new wound, but she was willing to bet that something inside had been damaged.

The beast swooped down, but the attack was easy for the demon to dodge. Cinder took advantage of how close it brought itself to the ground, taking a few running steps before pushing herself out of the mud and upwards towards the worm's back.

They didn't need to destroy it, just make sure it didn't bother them anymore. If she could find just one vulnerable spot…

She gave up before she started. There wasn't going to be any single spot like that. The thing was undead. And not only that, but it was massive. Judging by what she had seen already, the thing would keep going, even if it were reduced to only teeth.

The only option, then, was to blast the magic out of it.

Her hooves hit the hard skin, and her claws dug into the soft tissue, finding a sturdy grip. If the worm noticed her presence, it didn't react. Numerous small glands lined the flesh, though they seemed useless now. What they did before, she didn't know, but she didn't care either.

Her body started to shake as she pulled power from inside, directing it out of her palms and outward from there. Seconds dragged by, slow to her heightened senses. She could feel the muscles and skeleton inside of the thing moving, keeping it from collapsing. As she received enough power to do as she wanted, the worm started to whip towards the ground again.

Her jaw dropped as demonic energy, lighting every nerve in her body on fire with ecstasy, spewed from her palms almost uncontrollably. Her body involuntarily straightened as a wide swath of the worm was stripped from existence by a blinding flash blowing meat and metal apart. Necromantic power was dispelled, unable to keep its cohesion in the face of such overwhelming power.

The head of the worm dropped to the ground, limp and inanimate. The rest of the body jerked as large amounts of both muscle and mass were lost.

Its body started to rise out of the ground, wiggling and squirming as it pulled itself free. Keeping her balance on the thing was easy, and when its thrashing became violent, she dropped off the side calmly.

The worm threw muck in every direction, uprooting trees and letting its gas flood out of the new opening. The machinery and flesh near the new hole was lifeless, no longer in possession of the magic that had kept it going, but the rest of the thing was more than animate. It showed no signs of slowing in the least; instead, it seemed to be picking up momentum.

More of its body left its borehole, and what was already out of the ground thrashed even harder. The demons began to back off, keeping a safe distance. They tried to be as wary as they could, at least until with one particularly vicious whip, it brought its body careening in a massive circle.

Cinder jumped, feeling the breeze off the creature as it went by, but not all of her followers were so lucky. Cinder was able to count the sounds of nine impacts against the metal shell, and these were quickly followed by explosions of shrapnel and blood.

Upon completing a full rotation, the other end of the worm revealed itself, sliding out of the ground and flailing like the rest of the body.

It couldn't dig now, and thus couldn't follow them if they continued on. Cinder watched its movements for a moment, determining how wide a berth to give it before shouting out "We're moving on!"

She had forgotten about the spores, so when her legs refused to respond, she was confused. She looked down, and found that most of her lower legs had been totally covered, the fungus solidifying over her joints.

It took unpleasantly jerky motions to break through the coating, and she felt a few shards stab through her thick skin as she shook off the pieces. They fell out easily, and she stomped her hooves several times to shake the rest off. After she was satisfied, she looked around at the rest of her people.

Most were fine, making their way over to her, getting ready to move on, but there were also a few statue-like figures, frozen in place, knee deep in the swamp water.

She didn't feel any pity for them, taking only a second to admire the way the hairs-like structure of the crystals caught every available beam of light, almost making it look like they were glowing.

Then she started to run, curving around the worm's reach as it continued to spasm wildly. She couldn't help but wonder if it had done its job or not, or why Naze had even decided to use it in the first place. Where had he found something like that? Was it always that big?

The sounds of trees and terrain being destroyed faded into the distance as she put space between them. She made sure to keep the spores from taking root on her body any more. She kept her wings tucked close to her back, and her eyes wide open to see any that were coming.

The demons that followed did the same, not wanting to suffer the same fate as their partners. The distant light was getting brighter as they grew closer to the inner edge of the swamp, and Cinder couldn't say that she would miss the place. She wouldn't miss all the traps, either, but she didn't think they would end with the swamp.

As they got closer, her skin started to prickle again, and a presence ahead of her started to emerge. It was large, like a weight pushing down on her, and her eyes widened as she realized what it was. Her steps became faster, and she began to outrun her followers. There was no time to lose, her target was so close now…

Before she could break from the line of trees, however, a far off twanging sound came from somewhere ahead of her, and what appeared to be a long metal spear came speeding through the trees. It was aimed directly at her, and would have hit even at the speed she was moving, if she didn't make the small ducking motion to avoid it. As the thing travelled, Cinder took note of the dark grey metal it was made from, as well as the spines that protruded from its shaft. They were forward-facing, and just long enough to snatch anything out of whatever body they hit and drag it with them, whether it was accompanied by the rest of the body or not. It whistled through the air at nearly the speed of a bullet. Cinder continued to watch as it went past her, striking a demon that was too slow to dodge it in the abdomen, and simply carrying them off into the swamp, giving them barely even enough time to scream.

As they disappeared, Cinder looked for the source of the arrow. It was almost too far to see, but she could just make out a tall, armored figure, with a bow the size of the rest of its body. Burning eyes shone through the trees, illuminating the edges of a helmet on the attacker's head.

She kept her course, knowing that she could dodge anything that was thrown her way. The Lich was so close, she couldn't let him go. If he was out in a place like this, maybe he would be vulnerable. She couldn't pass up even the slightest chance.

As she sped forward, several more shapes started to emerge, each one with the same burning orange eyes, like the inside of their skulls was magma. They had weapons too, that bore the same angry glow, but Cinder didn't take the time to look.

The edge of the swamp was so close; she could feel the fresh air blowing lightly against her skin, almost taunting her with the promise of her quarry nearby.

Her eyes were drawn to a figure in the distance, and she zeroed in on it. The robes, staff, and floating a foot off the ground were telltale indicators, as if his overbearing presence wasn't enough. The eyes of the Lich seared with a piercing icy blue, making Cinder remember the first time she'd seen them. It had been before she found her master, and had the veil lifted from her eyes on what she could do.

She poured every ounce of speed she could into dashing forwards, ignoring the glowing eyes opening all around her. If she could strike down the Lich, she won.

Author's Note:

So close, yet so far away.

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