The club-goers run in all directions and scream in terror as a shark smashes through the ceiling, sending gss everywhere as several more sharks follow behind. Luckily for them, these invaders only seem to care about one person as they all start circling around Meg, who is now the only one left out on the dancefloor after everyone else ran for safety. What’s odd is that Meg, who is the type to immediately jump into action at the first sign of danger, doesn’t seem to react to them at all. She just looks downward, her fists trembling.

  “Meg! Are you okay?” Mari calls out from a distance as the sharks start to chant.

  “Shaaark! Shaaark! Shaaark!”

  Meg doesn’t respond to either the sharks or to Mari, which reminds the Erune all too much of when they surrounded Meg on the pier yesterday. She’s about to step back onto the dancefloor to try and help out like she did then, when Meg suddenly breaks out into a snarl and takes a wild swipe at one of them as Ursu appears over her arm.

  “NO. MORE. SHARRRRRRRKS!” She howls as she attacks again, her targets backing off, but not fleeing, in the face of her aggressive onsught.

  “All I wanted was a nice vacation with Marrri, but NO! You guys just have to keep getting in the way!” Any sense of precision and control Meg might demonstrate when she usually fights is completely absent here, as she simply charges at whichever shark is in her line of sight before trying to punch it with her own shark that’s currently merged into her arm, not even attempting to draw her weapon.

  “We carrrn’t even go one SINGLE day without a bunch of you showing up to attack us! And every time you do, things just keep getting worse!” She finally manages to nd a hit on one of them, and some of the onlookers who had stayed behind to watch the hero of Auguste save the day only barely manage to get out of the way in time as it’s sent flying into the wall.

  “Now I’m stuck here, turning into some kind of MONSTER, with all these memories that don’t make sense, and I’m always so FREAKING hungry, but none of you will tell me a single thing about what’s going on! I’M SICK OF IT!” She grabs one of the sharks by the tail, holding onto it tight with the teeth located where her fingers would normally be, and starts swinging it around like a wild beast in a white hot rage, hitting several of its brethren in the process.

  “Whatever you want with me, I don’t care! JUST BUZZ OFF AND LEAVE US THE HECK ALONE, YOU STUPID… STUPID… SHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKS!” Meg’s roar, plus the beating she’s given to the members of this shiver, seems to have finally gotten through to them as they fly back the way they came, crying out in fear. Even the one that was left dazed on the floor after making impact with the wall gets back up and flies off, albeit much slower than the rest of the pack.

  Meg just stands there, panting heavily as she watches them leave with fury in her eyes. Only once they’re well and truly gone does she show any signs of calming down, and as she starts to compose herself again as she notices the club is now dead silent, with every set of eyes in the room fixed squarely on her. “Is… everyone okay? I… probably went a bit too farrr there, sorry…”

  She looks around, and notices that the reactions of the people around her are very different than when she usually saves the day. They all look so shocked, fearful even. Everyone usually calms down after I beat up the bad guys, why do they still look so scared?

  “M-Meg… What’s going on? The s-shark…” Mari says as she steps forward a bit. Even she seems more concerned than usual, which only makes Meg worry more.

  “The sharrrk? You mean Ursurr?” Meg waves her left hand a bit after realising she hasn’t asked Ursu to return to her body yet. “Why is everyone so scared of her all of a sudden?”

  “N-No… The… The other arm…” The shock in Mari’s eyes feels like a dagger through Meg’s heart as she points to Meg’s right hand, and it’s only when she looks for herself that she realises what’s going on.

  There’s a shark on her right arm as well. One that’s not Ursu, but is clearly part of her body all the same.

  “Crap… I… didn’t want anyone to see this…” Meg’s stomach starts to sink as she realises she was too upset to think about what she was doing during the fight.

  “Didn’t want us to see it? Is there something you haven’t been telling me, Meg?” Mari looks at Meg, her expression taking on a hint of anger in a way that Meg has never seen directed at her before.

  “H-Hold on!” Meg says as both sharks recede into her body, returning her hands to her. “I-If you give me a moment I can expin everything, I swear!”

  “Yes, I think an expnation about what’s been going on would do all of us some good.” Someone says from behind Mari, and she sees Meg turn pale in fright.

  A simple “O-Oh no…” escapes Meg’s lips as Mari turns around to see who it is.

  “It’s been quite difficult to track the two of you down after you weren’t at home tonight. I suppose I can at least thank this test shark attack for leading me to you.” Vira says, her displeasure apparent for all to see.

  “V-V-VIRARR!” Meg yells before turning tail and running out the doors of the club before anyone can even think about stopping her.

  “And yet you insist on making it even harder still, I see…” Vira sighs. “Very well.”

  “Vira, wait!” Mari says as she grabs Vira’s hand. “You don’t have to do this!”

  “I’m afraid I do, Mari. Frankly, I’m not even sure why you’d bother trying to stop me.” She sternly replies as she pulls her hand free. “I’ve had more than enough of this farce, and I’m putting an end to this before either of you get a chance to make things even worse.”

  Vira then runs out the door, in pursuit of her target.

  “No no no no no no no no no!” Mari yells as she starts to give chase as well, though not quite as quickly as the other two.

  Meg sprints through the streets at a blistering pace in her desperate attempt to escape the knight that now hunts her, weaving through groups of people spending the night out and about as she runs down side roads that lead to areas that aren’t quite so noisy at this time of night. If she wasn’t currently fearing for her life, she’d be impressed by just how fast she’s able to move thanks to her newfound size and strength as she gets further and further from the distracting lights of the nightlife district, the buildings around her growing darker as she runs. These quieter parts of town are much more comfortable on her eyes, although it’s the only comfort she has at the moment, as the fog seems to thicken in the cold air with every step she takes.

  Having decided she’s put enough distance between herself and the club to stop Vira from following her, she turns down one st street to take a quick breather and figure out her next steps. Her heavy breaths are visible in the night air as she thinks to herself.

  How did she even know we were at the club? This is really, really bad, I can’t even go back to Mari’s pce to hide… At least I should have lost her by now, maybe I can try taking the long way around to get back to the square and meet up with Mari again? She’d probably know what to do… Wait… what’s that smell?

  Meg’s thoughts are interrupted when her nose picks up a vaguely familiar scent. It’s not one she can immediately identify, but she knows she’s smelt it several times over the past few days. Unfortunately for her, the answer reveals itself when she hears a set of footsteps start to grow closer, and she turns back from where she came to see Vira run around the corner, having somehow managed to follow her all the way here.

  “NO!” Meg immediately takes off again as she hears Vira call out from behind.

  “There’s no point in running away from this, Meg!”

  Meg can’t accept that, even in spite of what she’s become, she refuses to believe that her death is inevitable, even with such a formidable foe on the prowl. She continues running through a series of alleyways and side streets, her heartbeat reverberating through her entire body thanks to the sheer panic she’s experiencing. How could Vira have possibly followed her all the way there, and if she’s already managed that, where is there to escape to?

  She’s not completely without hope, however, now that she knows for sure that the scent she picked up belonged to Vira, she at least has something to work with. She’s far too scared to come up with a proper strategy, or even pay all that much attention to her surroundings as she hastily flees, but if she can tell where the scent is coming from, all she has to do is head in the other direction, right? If she smells it behind her, she keeps running forward. If it’s coming from the left, she turns right.

  Even if she has no clue how Vira is keeping up with her, this should help her maintain the upper hand. She bets everything on this strategy, using it to decide where to run every time she’s presented with a choice. It’s not a complex pn at all, but it should make sure she’s getting as far away from her pursuer.

  Which is why, after several more minutes of running, Meg is completely shocked when she turns down a street, only to find Vira waiting for her not far down the road, impatiently heading towards her.

  “Please, don’t make this any more difficult than it already is…”

  Meg screams as she turns around and runs down a different street instead. What in the skies is happening? Was that smell not her after all? Even if it’s not, how did she manage to cut me off like that? Did she know where I was running? But even I didn’t know that!

  Then, after making it some distance down the road, her keen eyes barely manage to notice a small object floating in the foggy darkness ahead. Before she can even begin to wonder what it is, an intense light shines out from the object, rendering her unable to see the path forward.

  “Arrrgh!” The bright light cutting through the darkness briefly disorients Meg, and she‘s only barely able to take a turn into a nearby alleyway to get away as she shields her eyes from this luminous assault. What the heck even was that? No time to dwell on it, I can’t let Vira catch me!

  Meg just continues running, her previous pn didn’t work so now she’s solely focused on getting somewhere, anywhere, as fast as she can, as long as it gets her away from the woman who seems to be a step ahead of her no matter where she goes. She comes up to a spot where she can keep running forward, or turn right to enter a different alley, but another light suddenly shines out from this other path, forcing her to continue forward as she runs past the blindingly bright attack.

  She’s concerned about the source of the lights as she runs into more and more in her attempt to flee, but more than anything, she’s desperate. Desperate to run, desperate to escape, desperate to survive the night. She has no time to think about what they are, or how they keep forcing her to take certain alleyways, or even the fact that it’s taking longer and longer for her eyes to adjust in order to see in these dark, narrow passages each time she’s struck with another burst of light. All she can think about is how she has to keep running as fast as she can, for as long as she can, if she ever wants a chance to see Mari again.

  It’s only after Meg runs past one of these strange lights, only for the object emitting said light to fly right past her after it turns off, as if it has somewhere else to be now, that she finally gets a good look at what it is. It’s a small, winged orb, one that she's become retively familiar with recently.

  They’re Luminiera’s bits.

  Meg feels her stomach sink as this realisation raises her dread to new heights, and between that and her increasing difficulty seeing where she’s going, she doesn’t even notice the primal beast floating in front of her at the upcoming 4-way intersection until it hits her with the brightest light yet, badly disorienting her as several more bits fsh her from the left and behind, leaving her with only one path to take.

  She yells in confusion, stumbling down the only road still open to her as she tries to pick up the pace, but between her reduced vision and the adrenaline starting to wear off, she's not sure how much longer she can keep this up. Finally, she reaches the end of the alleyway, only to be met with nothing but solid wall. It’s a dead end.

  Meg falls to the floor, realising she’s trapped, and what exactly this means for her. It’s all over. She’s exhausted, there’s nowhere to run, the cold is starting to set in now that she’s stopped running, and the only way out at this point would involve hurting a fellow crew member, but she could never bring herself to do that, even in self defence. No matter what she looks like now, she wants to hold out hope that she’s not a monster, and she’s not sure she could keep holding onto that hope if she were to attack Vira. All she can manage to do is curl up in a ball and wait for the end.

  “I really hope you’ve realised by now that it was pointless to run, Meg.” Meg looks back to where she came to see Vira walking slowly towards her, cutting a striking silhouette as Luminiera continues to shine a light from the entrance to the alley. “We could have gotten to this point so much sooner if you hadn’t attempted to escape in the first pce, but at least now we can finally put an end to all of this.”

  Meg, unable to bear looking a moment longer, tucks her head in her arms as she shakes profusely in sheer terror, cowering uselessly in a dark alley as she listens to Vira’s footsteps grow ever nearer. She knows she only has moments left, and one single thought is running through her mind:

  I was too weak to ever tell her how I feel, but still… I wish I could’ve at least seen Mari’s smile one st time…

  The footsteps get closer and closer, and then they stop, right in front of her. Meg braces herself for what she knows will come at any moment now.

  Any moment now…

  …

  Vira’s really drawing this out, isn’t she?

  “Meg.”

  Huh?

  Not having expected Vira to say anything else before doing the deed, the trembling Meg slowly and shakily removes one of her hands to peek out at the deadly hunter about to cim their prey, and…

  She’s holding a hand out…

  She looks completely exhausted, like she couldn’t have run for another moment longer, but she’s offering Meg a hand, along with the closest thing to a smile she can manage in her current state as she has her other hand on the nearby wall to help keep her from toppling over.

  “Please… talk to me, Meg… I can help…” She wheezes between breaths.

  Meg looks back at her, completely stunned.

  “...Bwuh?”

  SyntaxSpeedway