Within the fort, Paladin Phobus stood tall and proud, one foot raised as if he was standing on something, while the other hand was raised and clenched in a fist. The muscles in his arm were bulging as he was pulling on an invisible leash.

His eyes were still pitch black, the injector gun having fallen to the floor, as more black tears streamed down his cheeks. Those pure black eyes stared at the floor, focusing on something that didn't exist in front of him.

The paladins lips moved, although no words came from them. Instead, words drifted across the battlefield from the twisted, monstrous lips of the Demonic Mother, as she pressed Alexandra down with her foot and choked her with her whip.

"Look at her Cynthia. Look at what you have done! You worthless, spineless little wretch. Why did you make me do this? You should have just laid down and taken your punishment like a good dog. This is all. your. fault."

The woven leather rope tightened around Alexandra's throat, the whip straining against her stone skin which was starting to gain hairline fractures. A spider-web of cracks crept out from the point of contact with the whip as it crushed her throat, and closed off her airway, leaving it open only a fraction.

Alexandra let out strained, wheezing breaths as she tried her best to breathe and fight back, but the more cracks her skin gained the more the whip was able to tighten and close her airway even more.

One of her hands clawed at her throat, trying her best to peel the whip from her throat to no avail, while the other desperately pawed at the ground. She was trying to stir her mana, to use her ability and bend the earth to her will.

But as she was losing oxygen rapidly, that will was becoming clouded in fog and impossible to grasp, so the earth beneath her hand just churned and swirled uselessly, as if it couldn't decide on what it wanted to do.

"Listen to her struggles Cynthia. LISTEN! You did this. YOU! It is always you! And you, little wretch, will be next."

The Demon hissed out, her vipers tongue eagerly licking over her overflowing teeth with sadistic glee as she slammed her foot down onto Alexandra's shredded and gash covered back, forcing more strained cries of pain from the Amazon.

As for the one truly being taunted and tormented by this visage of deepest nightmares, she had no changed since she Demon first appeared.

Cynthia was still curled up in a ball, having reverted to a child-like form, with her knees against her chest while she rocked back and forth. Her eyes were blank as she stared into space. The words reached her and every word uttered by that voice never failed to drill itself deep into her psyche.

Even without the goading, her mind was reeling and drowning in the memories of her childhood. Every crack of the whip as Alexandra was torn made her flinch, and she could feel the pain across her own even though it never touched her. Not this time at least.

Something moved in Cynthia's vision, and her eyes finally gained some hint of life. Although her gaze was still blank and distant, she shivered and found herself focusing on the object moving towards her.

A giant, grey boulder was nudging gently against her foot. No... not a boulder. It was a finger.

"Je...lly....be...an..."

She flinched again, but not at the crack of the whip, but at the name being muttered with gasping breaths. Her eyes fully focused on the colossal finger as it drew closer to her, until it eventually touched against her chest.

Cynthia glanced down, looking where the finger was touching, and found that the whip that was wrapped around Alexandra's throat was engulfed in her gelatinous body. It was sizzling softly as her passive digestive acid was slowly eating at it.

She... she hadn't even felt it. It had been wrapped around her girlfriends throat, and gone through her entire body, and she hadn't even felt it.

Cynthia stood slowly, the whip inside of her offering no resistance as her body simply morphed around it, not concerned with objects that would stop someone with the affliction of solidity.

With a blank expression, she glanced down at her hands as she stepped away from the whip, letting it leave her body without any feeling, and turned back to face it.

It couldn't hurt her anymore. She was... afraid of something that couldn't hurt her. Terrified of a ghost of someone that had passed long ago. But even if she couldn't feel it, someone else could. Someone who absolutely didn't deserve it and maybe... maybe she didn't either.

Raising a trembling hand, Cynthia took a deep breath although she had no functioning lungs, and could feel her heart thundering in her chest even when she didn't usually have one. Her body subconsciously grew one, just so she could feel it pounding and palpitating in fear, for that was all part of the memories she had been reliving in her mind.

It was the same reason her slimy body had shifted to have scars across her back when she assumed her child-like form.

A hole manifested in the palm of her trembling hand, before a stream of acid shot from it like water from a fire hose. It splashed against the whip and immediately started to sizzle, eating away at the leather rope that rapidly began to dissolve before her very eyes.

The same moment the stream of acid shot from her hand, was the same moment that the Demon's grip on the whip weakened. It was minuscule, but for Alexandra who had been having the life choked out of her, she was immediately able to feel the difference as her airway opened up slightly.

She could feel the acid sizzling against her skin, feeling it eating away at the stone as well as the whip. But she didn't care.

Alexandra grit her teeth and endured the pain of the acid dissolving her skin as her fingers clawed at her throat once more. But unlike before, where it was a futile endeavour, her fingers were able to slip until the bindings this time.

She pulled the whip away from her throat, just the smallest amount at first, but the more she pulled the more she could breathe. Her strength increased with the flow of oxygen, and new energy filled her body as it flooded her system with an overdose of adrenaline.

Confusion and irritation painted the demon's face as she felt her strength sap, and as she felt the resistance against the whip. She lifted her foot, slamming it down again on the fresh scars and even grinding her heel in as she felt the stone giant shifting underneath her.

However the smile that was already creeping onto her face rapidly faded, replaced with bafflement, as there were no wonderful screams or cries of pain.

Instead there was only one sound, the snapping of leather.

Alexandra yanked the whip hard as Cynthia's acid ate away at its structure until finally one of the woven strings was drawn to its limit and simply snapped. Then, like a cascade of dominoes, the rest of the whips structure was quick to follow.

One after the other they snapped and tore, until Alexandra finally ripped the entire whip in half and tore it from her throat with a defiant roar.

She raised it high, before slamming it down onto the ground, channelling her mana at the same time. The ground beneath the Demon's balancing foot churned, and rapidly softened. The demons clawed foot immediately sank, causing her to wobble from the sudden loss of balance, before the earth hardened around it once more.

Her other foot lifted from Alexandra's back, just enough for Alexandra to escape.

She grabbed Cynthia from her shoulder, holding the slime girl tight in her hand without fear of crushing her, and quickly rolled to the side. She grit her teeth, enduring the pain of laying on her back as the adrenaline in her system helped to mute it.

Alexandra spun like a turtle on its back, so that her body was at a ninety degree angle from what it was previously.

Without hesitation, she lifted both legs until her knees were pressed against her chest with her hands, before thrusting them forwards with all of her might.

Paladin Phobus wore a confused expression as the strength in his hand faded. Although he had been standing fine on one leg the entire time, he suddenly wobbled and almost fell backwards, causing the black robed mortal attendants around him to flinch and rush forwards in an attempt to catch him.

But he didn't fall and quickly regained his balance, at least that's what it seemed. Then, as if he was being controlled by some twisted voodoo doll, the leg that he was balancing on let out a disgusting, stomach churning crunch.

His knee whipped to the side, bending in a way that knees absolutely shouldn't, as the bones of his leg tore through his skin, spraying one of the black robed individuals in fresh blood, as the Paladin collapsed.

His mouth opened wide, yet the distorted screams of pain could be heard echoing from across the battlefield.