In the dilapidated underground hall beneath the ruins of Dark Night City.
This was one of the few areas that had suffered less severe damage. It had been built as the Matriarch's residence, with consideration given to whether the damage here could be substantially reduced if a Root-Level being lost control.
A heavy smell of blood filled the hall.
In a dark corner, a girl wrapped entirely in bandages leaned against the wall. Her eyes were tightly shut, her fingers dug deep into the hard wall behind her, as though she were enduring an agonizing pain that cut to the bone.
The bandages covering her were stained with blood.
And intermittently.
One could just make out pieces of flesh peeling away from her frail body, then healing over again.
She was like a "person" freshly cut into countless pieces and forcibly pieced back together. With every breath she took, the pieces of flesh beneath her bandages pulled bloodily apart, then pressed together again with her breathing.
And it was not just her flesh. Her soul was the same.
She had been here for a long time. Apart from going to see Lynn on the day he woke up, she had locked herself in the underground Great Hall, enduring the disintegration brought on by the curse.
To keep herself from hurting innocents again if she lost control.
A bloody, deathly silence filled the Great Hall.
Until footsteps echoed through the empty space.
When she abruptly opened her silver eyes, which were likewise splitting and shifting, she saw that familiar face before her. The only difference was the faint streak of white in the hair above his forehead. His face was grave. He reached out to touch her, but when he saw the pieces of flesh splitting and shifting beneath her bandages,