Vivienne’s many heads snapped in unison, watg the hulking wolf-like creature cirg her, its shadowy form rippling with corrupt Dusk Aether. Every step it took seemed to shake the grouh her, the air growing thick with its presence. Her breathing was boured, and the weight of her hydra form, once a symbol of dominanow felt like an insurmountable burden.

  She hadn’t expected this. Not this creature—no, it wasn’t the aetherbeast’s size that bothered her, nor its power. It was the fact that she felt its essehe corrupted Dusk Aether drenched in memory and trauma, c through her adversary. It was like fag herself, but twisted. She could feel the thing’s hunger. Its desire to e aroy.

  “I’ve done worse,” she muttered to herself, her many voices hissing in unison as the wolf lu her once again. The blow sent her sprawling back, her body shifting painfully with the impact.

  No. She refused to fall.

  Her form writhed, squirming tain bance. Each motio slow and unwieldy, her limbs dragging like lead, ahe wolf pressed forward relentlessly. She had once been a terror herself, moving with the fluidity of nightmares—but not anymore. Not in this body. Not in this fight.

  The wolf’s jaws snapped, inches from her face, and Vivienne's instincts kicked in. She shifted with a speed borne of desperation, narrowly avoiding the sharp teeth that could easily tear her apart.

  “Too fast...” she hissed through ched teeth. Her body, rge and lumbering, wasn’t built for this kind of fight. It was built to overwhelm, to swallow. But she couldn’t e this thing—not yet. The aether in it had too much will, too much for her to handle.

  Ahe pull was undeniable.

  The wolf circled her again, its maw dripping with liquid darkness. She could feel the aether calling, familiar but wrong—like an echo of her own being, taunting her, pushioward ption. She could devour this. She could feed. But at what cost?

  The wolf lunged again, and Vivienne barely had time to react. The strike hit her with a siing crack, sending her sprawling once more. Her body fred with a surge of pain, and what heads were left writhed, disoriented.

  She was starting to lose trol.

  “Damn it...” she growled, frustration and pain mixing in her words. She tried to push herself up, but her movements were sluggish. Her hydra form was beginning to crack, her e to the aether unraveling. Her fidehe power she had once wielded—was slipping away.

  The wolf wasn’t just physically stronger; it was more in tuh the very aether she depended on. The beast was a maion of her deepest fear: being outmatched by her own power.

  No.

  She couldn’t lose to this. She couldn’t lose to herself.

  Summoning every ounce of will, Vivienne rose again, her remaining heads snapping to focus on the creature. It towered over her, its eyes glowing with an unnatural malevolence, but she would not let it break her.

  She reached out with her essence, drawing on the Dusk Aether that danced just beyond her trol. It was close, so close. She could taste it. Just a little more—just a little more power and she would take trol. She would e this thing and make it hers.

  But something was wrong. The aether twisted in her grip, resistiouch.

  “No!” she cried out in cacophony, her voice crag.

  The wolf growled in respos jaws snapping shut. The tension in the air alpable as it drew nearer, sensing her vulnerability. The oppressive weight of the moment g to her as her legs began to tremble, the strain of the fight pushio her limits.

  It was too much.

  Her heart raced in her chest, panic g at her insides. She had reached the end of her rope.

  The creature surged forward, teeth bared, ready to strike the final blow. Vivienne closed her eyes for a moment, preparing herself for the iable.

  Then—

  A crack like thunder split the air, followed by a blinding fsh of lightning.

  Rava tore through the air with the force of a storm, her form a blur of raw power as she smmed into the side of the creature. The wolf’s body was hurled to the ground with an explosive crash, the impact sending a shockwave through the earth. It skidded across the dirt, its form a writhing mass of shadow aheriergy, before ing to a stop, disoriented and r in fury.

  Vivienne’s eyes snapped open, wide with surprise and disbelief. Her breath caught ihroat as she watched Rava stand tall, her body crag with the residual energy of her strike.

  “That’s how you do it,” Rava said, voice low and gruff as she wiped a smear of dirt from her face, a smirk tugging at the er of her lips. “You were taking way too long, Vivi. You looked like you were about to get chewed up.”

  Vivienne blinked in stunned silence for a moment, trying to steady herself. Her body still ached, but Rava’s intervention had breathed new life into her. A flicker of gratitude burned in her chest.

  “Rava…” Viviearted, her voice hoarse with a mix of exhaustion and admiration. “I... I thought I had it.”

  Rava chuckled darkly, rolling her shoulders with a casual ease that belied the tension still hanging in the air. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t going to stand by a you get yourself killed. You’re not the only oh a few tricks up her sleeve.”

  The creature—shaken but far from defeated—rose to its feet, its glowing eyes fixed on Rava now. It growled, its corrupted form writhing and twisting, as if the very aether within it were boiling with fury. It wasn’t do.

  Vivienne drew in a steadying breath, the residual power from Rava’s strike still humming in the air around them. She wasn’t finished yet, aher was this fight.

  “Let’s finish this,” she said, her voice regaining some of its usual sharpness. She shifted her stance, her heads snapping into pce, a predator ready to strike once more.

  Rava fshed a grin. “Now that is what I like to hear.”

  The aether wolf growled, its glowing eyes flickeriween Rava and Vivieorweewo oppos. The battle had shifted, but the creature wasn’t about to go down easily. It was relentless, driven by primal hunger and the twisted Dusk Aether that coursed through it.

  Vivienne’s body rippled, the Dusk Aether swirling within her as she prepared herself. She wasn’t as strong as she’d been at the start, but she wasn’t out of the fight yet. She redator, and now, with Rava at her side, she could work the angles.

  Rava’s stance was low, her body coiled like a spring, ready to explode into a once more. She made a quick motion, drawing the creature’s attention as she leapt forward with a speed that belied her size, her body crag with statiergy. The grouh her feet trembled with each step.

  The wolf’s head soward Rava, jaws snapping, but before it could lunge, Vivienne surged forward, using the opening to close the distance. Her hydra form allowed her to move uably, her remaining head striking with blinding speed, snapping at the beast’s side.

  The wolf howled in pain, twisting its massive body to retaliate. Its tail shed like a whip, narrowly missing Vivienne’s head as she recoiled.

  Rava was already ba motion, ung herself into the air, a trail of lightning c from her limbs. She spun, using the momentum t her heel crashing down onto the creature’s fnk. The impact sent the wolf skidding to the side, a burst of sparks erupting from its fur where her blow nded.

  Vivieook advantage of the creature’s disorientation, surging forward with feral speed. She sshed at its hind legs, her heads darting forward like vipers. Each bite sank deep into the aetheric creature’s form, tearing away at the corrupted Dusk Aether that made up its body.

  The wolf let out an ear-splitting roar, shaking off the pain, but Vivienne didn’t relent. She kept attag, weaving in and out of its strikes, using the fusion Rava caused to her advantage.

  Together, they were a blur of motion—Rava striking from above, her limbs sparking with electricity as she expertly dodged the wolf’s attacks, and Vivienne moving low, her heads darting in to bite, each strike leaving a mark on the wolf’s twisted form. It wasn’t enough to end the fight, but they were wearing it down.

  The wolf growled again, its eyes narrowing as it tried to anticipate their moves. It shifted its weight, preparing for another assault, but this time, Vivieiced something in the air. The creature’s movements had slowed just slightly, its energy flickering. It was growing tired.

  Rava, seemingly sensing the same thing, shot Vivienne a quice. “We’ve got it on the ropes,” she said, her voice tight with focus. “But don’t get cocky. It’s still got a fight left in it.”

  Vivienne didn’t o be told twice. The st thing she wanted was for this creature to make a eback. She dug deep, reag for whatever Dusk Aether she could pull from the very air arouhe corruption inside her stirred, restless and hungry, but Vivienne ig, pushing it to the back of her mind for now.

  With a low, guttural growl, Vivienne charged again, her multiple heads snapping at the creature’s exposed fnk. Rava was right behind her, diving in for another round of powerful strikes. The wolf was nearly out of time. It couldn’t keep up with the two of them w in tandem.

  But just as Vivienne saeeth into the creature’s leg, a sudden shift in the air stopped her. The wolf let out a screech that vibrated through the earth, a shockwave of aetheriergy pulsing from its form. It was using everything it had left.

  Vivienne recoiled, her body crashing back against jagged stone. Her head spun as the air thied with a strange, oppressive weight. She felt it before she saw it—an unnatural current, a surging undercurrent of energy that rippled through the atmosphere like a dark storm rolling in. The creature’s aether was ging.

  No longer a frenzied, corrupted beast, the wolf’s essence seemed to shift, its energy swelling into something far more deliberate, far more... purposeful. There was a crity to it now, a ing force buried deep withiher that sent a cold chill down her spine.

  What is it doing?

  The wolf’s form flickered, the flickering of its aether being sharper, more defined, as if it were trying to pull itself back together into something more whole, more dangerous. The raw power that had surged through its body was not only raw destru—it was will, it was i.

  A ripple passed through Viviehe sudden uanding hitting her like a wave. This wasn’t just a creature she could simply devour. It was fighting back. It was fighting her.

  She sucked in a breath, her body vulsing. No... no, no, no, she thought, the hunger in her chest r to life. It’s too much.

  The wolf’s aether cwed at her from every dire, like cws scrabbling against her insides. It was fighting back. There was nothing natural in its resista was alive, pulsing with emotions, memories. Feelings she could taste even before she fully realised what they were. Bitter, sharp, flickering moments from a life she couldn’t see but could feel crashing against her thoughts. Violent anger, grief, and terror—a lifetime pressed into brief, jagged fragments. The wolf’s pain. Its loneliness.

  Her throat ched. The flood of broken memories aions hit her like a sudden thuorm—intense, overwhelming, unbearable. What the hell is this? She couldn’t hold it baymore. Her e to the Dusk Aether fred with a painful iy, a desperate call to e, to devour. But the creature’s will was to. It held on, keepi bay.

  Vivienne’s heads writhed in agony, the memories fshing faster now—slivers mented lives. A child’s ughter, the echo of war drums, a fsh of fire, the ache of loss. They smmed into her, oer another, eae ripping through her mind, uninvited, unwanted. Not again, she thought desperately, choking down the suffog emotions. But they broke through her defences, slipping past her awareness with ease.

  Her vision blurred as the creature’s memories threateo overwhelm her, drowning her in a flood of sensations and fshes she couldn’t make sense of. There was so much pain, so much loss. It wasn’t just a monster.

  The st thing Vivienne needed was to be burdened by the fractured memories of something she was trying to e. It was supposed to be simple. She was supposed to take it.

  With a forceful roar, she dropped back, rippieeth from the wolf’s body with an involuntary scream. Her body, already drained, colpsed onto the cold, rough earth. The Dusk Aether that had once been her on now felt like a parasite inside her, gnawing at her from within. The air around her shimmered, her form bug uhe weight of it all. I ’t...

  A moment of crity pierced through the haze of pain. This isn’t just about feeding. It’s about breaking the will. Breaking it... She could feel the creature’s resistas pride, its desperation. It wasn’t like the Sunwake Lynx—this wasn’t about simple hunger or aheric mismatch. This was something much more personal.

  The wolf’s form was shifting again, pulling itself together, but Vivienne was too slow, too weak to get back up. Her head spun. She couldn’t focus. The emotions... they kept ing.

  In a desperate act, she forced herself upright again, her body shaking with the exertion, her will stretched thin as she struggled to tre herself. The battle wasn’t just physiow. She had to shatter the creature’s will, to rip its soul apart just as she had with others.

  No more hesitation. No more moments of doubt.

  Vivie out a guttural scream, her body rippling and vulsing as she abandoned her hydra form entirely, pulling the Dusk Aether into herself. The ge ainful, her body twisting and folding as she shrank bato her base form. Her body shook, but the ge let her focus agaiing her feel the raw pulse of energy around her.

  But the wolf was still fighting.

  The resistance was unbearable, the creature’s emotions crashing against her like waves of razor-sharp gss. It didn’t want to die. It refused to be ed, and that refusal fueled the Dusk Aether within it, making it burn brighter, hotter, more intense.

  Vivienne's eyes flickered with a growing darkness. She had never entered anything like this before. It wasn’t just the creature’s power—it was its will. Its essence was alive, pulsating with emotions so raw and fragmehat they cwed at her, threatening to swallow her whole. The twisted, broken memories and feelings e and despair twisted around her mind, eae sharper and more insistent tha. She had faced creatures before, but this... this was something different. It fought her.

  With ahly howl, perhaps influenced by the wolf’s essence, Viviehrew herself at the beast, expanding like a dark blight. Her mass surged over it, thick tendrils of Dusk Aether spreading like shadows to e every inch of its form. The creature thrashed beh her, desperate to break free, but Vivienne igs violent writhing, pushing forward relentlessly. With eaent, she drew more of its esseo herself, feeding her expansion with the very aether that once gave it strength. It was the only way to survive. The only way to win.

  The wolf's aether fought ba violent bursts, surging through the air like a storm, but Vivienne’s grip tightened, being a slow but unstoppable force. Its resistance was like wading through tar—thick, painful, suffog. Every inch she cimed felt like pulling herself through yers of grief, anger, and sorrow. The wolf's memories surged violently against her, each fragment of its life crashing into her mind with the force of a tidal wave. There were fshes of a family lost, of a pack torn apart by fmes, and the soul-crushing hunger of the creature’s owes pain... its o survive...

  Vivienne recoiled for a moment, feeling herself slipping, the memories almost overtaking her. For a heartbeat, she wondered if this was how it felt to drown.

  But then her hunger surged again, stronger, demanding, and she pushed through the tide. She would not be ed. She would not let this creature's brokenness shatter her resolve.

  The creature’s aether burned like fire, and for a split sed, Vivien herself falter as the overwhelmiio her mind, threatening to fracture her grip. But she refused to let go. She would take it.

  She would eat it.

  Her form coiled tighter, a mass of dark tendrils spreading like living tar over the wolf’s struggling frame. It thrashed and howled, but her grip was relentless. Every movement, every burst of energy it unleashed, she absorbed, pulling its strength into herself. The aether burned her insides, each surge like molten fire tearing through her very essence, but she pushed past the pain. She would not lose.

  The emotions came , raw and violent. Sorrow flooded her—a deep, ag loss that twisted in her chest. Rage followed, bitter and primal, sharpenihoughts like shards of gss. Memories, fragmented and disjointed, surged into her mind. They weren’t hers, yet they ed her: a forest cloaked in twilight, a pack torn apart by invaders, a lone howl eg in the dark.

  She faltered again, her body trembling uhe weight of the wolf’s life. Its will to survive was a force of nature, fierd unyielding. It wasn’t just a creature. It had been something—someone? So many memories from so many walks of life blurred as its essence poured into her, saturating her very core.

  “Enough!” Vivienne snarled, her voice a distorted cacophony. Her body quaked as she drew more and more of the creature’s aether into herself, her form swelling with the sheer volume of power. The wolf’s thrashing slowed, its once-mighty roars being strangled whimpers. The resista had offered began to fade, its essenravelling in her grip.

  The storm of aether in the air grew heavier, denser, pressing down on her as she ed the st remnants of the wolf’s power. Its body began to dissolve, the corrupted Dusk Aether that made up its form breaking apart into streaks of shadowy light, being pulled into her. The final pulse of its esse her like a tidal wave—a scream of anguish and defiahat surged through her mind.

  Vivienne vulsed, her form shuddering violently. The final memories of the beast flooded her senses, broken and jagged: the moonlit gde, the st of pihe pack, the betrayal, the fall. She could feel it all—the fear, the hatred, the despair.

  And then, silence.

  The creature was gos form had dissolved entirely, leaving only a faint, shimmering haze of Dusk Aether in the air. Vivienne colpsed onto the ground, her formless body roiling as she y there, exhausted.

  SupernovaSymphony