Valoria's ashen hair clings to her face as she runs through the Labyrinth.

  The spirits that pursue her are already dead, yet she didn't think that they would be quite this carefree. They throw themselves at her with no care for themselves. Another one collides with her, latching onto her shoulder. The Twisted Guardian grabs hold of the spirit, and throws it on the ground before crushing it underfoot.

  "Damn!" Valoria curses under her breath, wincing as another portion of her soul is torn away from her.

  Just when Valoria thought she had earned herself a reprieve, just when she thought she could catch her breath, she hears something else coming.

  A rumble. She turns to see a rolling boulder. Her elongated limbs pump wildly, propelling her forward with the wind at her back. She dares not look back, focusing instead on the path ahead.

  As Valoria rounds a corner, she skids to a halt before a gaping pitfall filled to the brim with spikes. With a swift motion, she summons more wind, and it answers her call. The wind surges beneath her, lifting her above the yawning abyss, and carries her safely across.

  "Ha!" Valoria snarls triumphantly, but her victory is short-lived. As she lands, a log trap springs from its hidden recesses, smashing into her side like a battering ram. She's just barely able to get her arm up in time to take the brunt of the force, but she still hears something snap as she's send flying away.

  She hits a spiked wall, hard, and several small, but finely sharpened pieces of wood puncture her flesh. Pain lances through her body, drawing a guttural groan from her lips.

  "Curse this place..." she spits, tasting sap in her mouth. But even as she struggles to pry herself from the wall, something brushes against her leg.

  It was cold, inconsequential, a touch that could only belong to a spirit. Her heart races with a mixture of fear and rage.

  "Get off of me!" she hisses, extending her palm towards the spectral figure of a man. From her palm erupts a long thorn, piercing through the spirit's ethereal form. It dissipates with a soundless scream, leaving Valoria panting and shaking.

  Valoria's paranoia seeps into every corner of her mind, the labyrinth around her a twisted reflection of her own mental state. Shadows seem to dance and taunt her, mocking her faltering grasp on reality. The Nightmare Labyrinth was a horrible place to be...

  There could be spirits hiding around any corner. Waiting to grab hold of her, and take her very soul away. Every noise, every groan, every little creak is an enemy waiting to ambush her. On top of all of this, there is one more memory that has ingrained itself into her mind. No matter what she does, she can not free herself of it.

  She clenches her fists tightly, the pain is almost unbearable as memories of imps and their grimy hands threaten to break her. Why did the sight of those imps cause her such distress? The image of them continues to flash over and over, even as her fist connects with her skull.

  "Get out of my head, get out of my head!" she screams, her voice echoing through her surroundings. Her breath comes in ragged gasps, and she stumbles forward, desperate to escape this nightmare of a labyrinth.

  Though she knows she's being pursued, Valoria can't shake the feeling that something far more sinister lurks just out of view. As she continues through the labyrinth, her soul grows weaker with each spirit that manages to tag her. Their relentless chase is taking its toll, and her strength begins to wane.

  "Is this what you want, Crowsong?!" she shouts, hoping to be heard. "Is it your wish to see me broken?"

  A crash brings Valoria's attention back to her surroundings. Duriel comes barreling through a nearby wall, his form indomitable once more. She swats away the debris with a vine, her eyes narrowing as she prepares to face him once more.

  "Seriously? I just killed... you..." she mutters, her words trailing off as an army of spirits pour through the opening in the wall that Duriel had created. The realization that every spirit she had defeated so far had come back once more was nearly too much for her to bear.

  "Fuck this! I'll just finish you all off right here, right now!" Valoria snarls, leaping into the fray of spirits. Her movements are fluid and deadly as she twirls in and out of combat, slaughtering them by the handful. Yet, try as she might, there was no way of possibly avoiding them all.

  So instead, she just tries her best.

  "Die, damn you!" Valoria hisses through gritted teeth, her soul draining further the longer the conflict goes on.

  Amidst the cacophony of battle and the inhuman cries of the damned spirits, Valoria's gaze locks onto the imps lurking in the shadows. A surge of nausea rises in her throat, accompanied by a cold, primal fear that claws at her very being.

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  It is an unexplainable terror, but it consumes her thoughts, drowning out all reason. Her only desire is to see every last one of those imps meet their end. Turning them into mulch won't enough, she wants their very existence to be erased from this world.

  "Damn you all!" Valoria snarls, her voice trembling with rage. The winds can be heard overhead, cutting its way through the labyrinth. Valoria launches herself through the battlefield at greater speeds than she was formerly capable of. Valoria narrowly avoids Duriel's grasp as slides between his legs, her sharpened claws slicing at his ankles. Swirling gusts carry her through the horde, her thorn-like hands ripping and tearing at any spirit that dares get in her way. There is only one true target present now. Those damned, dirty, red imps.

  As Valoria reaches them, she raises her arm, poised to strike down upon the first imp. Its vile body crumples under her merciless attack, exploding into a spray of blood that paints the ground of the labyrinth a deep red. With heavy breathes, she turns to the next imp, repeating the gruesome process until they all lay lifeless before her.

  A momentary relief washes over Valoria, only to be replaced by the impending threat of the approaching spirits. She prepares to flee, but a strange sound stops her dead in her tracks. A bubbling noise, like water that’s just reached its boiling point. Her heart hammers in her chest as she slowly turns to face the source of the noise.

  "Wait… spirits don't bleed," Valoria whispers, realization dawning on her just as the blood on the ground erupts in a violent explosion of crimson. The force of the blast temporarily blinds her, leaving her vulnerable to the monstrous presence that now towers before her.

  It's grotesque, and unsightly. Its form looms over Valoria, its hulking mass dwarfing even Duriel's imposing figure. Its skin, a deep shade of red, is adorned with vicious spikes, and its eyes, two glowing orbs of red. They seem to dig their way into what remains of Valoria's soul.

  "Twigs..." the demon rasps, its voice a guttural hiss. A series of clicks follow, like the sound of bones snapping, and this sends a series of nonstop shivers down Valoria's spine.

  Valoria freezes, unable to move, or speak, as the creature draws closer.

  This devil was her nightmare, the embodiment of everything she feared.

  She does not understand why, but the terror it inspires in her is all too real. As its massive, clawed hand reaches out, it caresses her cheek with an almost tender touch. A single tear leaves Valoria’s crimson eye and rolls down her cheek.

  "I don't understand," Valoria whispers, her voice just barely audible to herself. "I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't, I don’t, I-"

  The devil grabs a hold of Valoria’s body, holding her in place as its maw unhinges. Its gaping jaws descends toward Valoria, who has already resigned herself to her fate. This fear is more than a memory, it has been ingrained soul-deep, nothing could make her forget this feeling. Valoria’s world turns to moist darkness as the devil's mouth envelopes her.

  But before the devil can bite down, Duriel lunges at the beast, his body collides with it, and he pushes it back, pinning it to the wall of the labyrinth. The devil screeches in delectable surprise, its talons flailing wildly as it tears into the spectral warrior's back.

  "Don’t just stand there!" Clara's voice echoes through the air, urgency lacing every syllable. "That things ruining our game of tag, help Duriel!" A moment later, all of the spirits present converge on the devil.

  Valoria turns on her heel and races towards the Grand Tree at the center of the labyrinth. If she could just reach it, perhaps she could escape this nightmare... and that thing. That fucking thing.

  Rain begins to fall down from the sky, transforming the once solid ground of the labyrinth into a muddy, treacherous mire. Each step Valoria takes is met with resistance as her limbs sink deeper into the mud, slowing her escape. Her mind races, consumed by thoughts of the devil she had encountered moments before.

  Nothing made sense. It was as if something vital was missing, a crucial piece to understanding her own terror. She couldn’t help but remember the way it called her "Twigs", it made her body shake, and it won't stop no matter how hard she tries to calm herself.

  Valoria presses her hands against her head, tapping it lightly at first, then harder and harder. Soon enough she’s hitting herself in the head, as if trying to beat the memories locked within to rise to the surface.

  What was it that eluded her? She couldn't bear this gnawing feeling of incompleteness.

  As Valoria continues her frantic run through the labyrinth, she feels a small pair of grimy hands grasp her leg. Rage and confusion bubble up inside her like a volcano on the verge of eruption; another fucking imp?

  Twisting around, her hand raises to strike down the creature in an act of vengeance, but she stops just short of delivering the killing blow.

  It isn't an imp clinging to her leg. It's a human. A little human girl.

  "I want to go home..." the girl pleads, her voice trembling with fear as she clings to Valoria's leg.

  A sharp pain courses through Valoria's body as another fragment of her soul is drained away. She stumbles backwards, collapsing into the muddy earth with the child falling on top of her. Struggling to catch her breath, Valoria manages to choke out, "Who...are you?... I never killed a child…"

  Valoria is unable to discern where the rain began on the child's face and where her tears ended. Humans are complicated beings. This wasn’t even this nightmare, so why was she crying?

  "Valor, I want to go home!" the little girl screams.

  An immense flood of pain blooms throughout Valoria's entire being as she hears these words. "That's not my name, I'm..." Her eyes snap open, locking onto the little girls.

  Images swirl around Valoria like a whirlwind, each one revealing a memory that has long since been forgotten. A house, a child, a knight, and a forest. The more she sees, the more confused she becomes.

  "Who are you?!" Valoria snarls, swiping at the open air in an attempt to stop the memories from coming to her.

  As the rain continues to pour down, Valoria can do little but bear witness to the torrent of memories that threaten to drown her in her own mind.