The moment Reiden freed them from the dark dimension of his [Divinity of Shadowstep], he and Tristessa touched the ground with their feet and managed to maintain their balance despite the sudden loss of movement. The plains that divided Derelict Outpost and Feydra Forest greeted them with a blanket of nighttime darkness, dewy grass, and the uneven, patchy ground of the Meridion Highway.

"I hope my companions are alright... Do you think we lost her, Tristessa?" the mercenary asked, taking a deep breath and looking at Tristessa, hoping to hear good news.

"Call me Tessa. And I think so. Her presence is no longer there," she replied, one hand on her chest, feeling the rapid beating of her own heart and those of her Baptism in Ruins on the other side of the leather cloth and belt. Far away, exhausted for the moment, but having left a curse on her. The Curse of the Nemesis, a direct consequence of not resolving the conflict with the Dullahan. "We did it."

"I trust your words with pleasure." Reiden nodded, still trying to catch his breathe. "Is always adventuring with you for a couple hours that exhausting?"

"Well… Yes, not going to lie to you," she answered, smirking. "Would you be interested in…?"

"Impossible. Adventuring with you? Aside from risking my neck for being I company of a Stranger, I'm too old and I have three wives that are waiting for me to return home. Plus two sons and four daughters going around imperial territory, and so many grandchildren that sometimes I forgot how many they are… Nine, yes, they are nine."

"That's a shame. Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me: where problems are."

Reiden nodded, smiling a little. More relieved, though not reassured. Not with the other mercenaries still in the middle of the forest, and with yet another problem to solve, dragging itself a couple of meters from where they were standing.

"Shit… shit… ahh, what is that?! What's going on?!"

Katriel Strauss had been the one who didn't even have a chance of landing on his feet: he had sprawled all over the damp but hard earth, fresh blood splattering and still flowing from all orifices of his face.

"Uhhh… ah, fuck… ah!" he moaned, face up and trembling like a child abandoned by his parents, in the middle of nowhere. Dying of cold, terrified by abandonment and the unknown. He covered his face with both hands, which could no longer contain so much blood that it seeped through his fingers. "Why…don't these voices…stop?!"

Tristessa tried to get closer to get a better look at the man who had tortured her mercilessly in the previous loop, but Reiden stopped her, taking her by arm.

"What are you doing? In case you've forgotten, or if you don't know because you're a Stranger, that man is the leader of a very dangerous gang."

"A gang that no longer exists, and soon he will neither."

The girl freed herself from Reiden's grasp and walked until the light from the Twin Moons allowed her to see Katriel's condition.

The aftereffects of the confrontation with the Dullahan were severe. Attacking what little mental stability and sanity that man had left, destroying everything in its path like a cancer that wouldn't stop. That was the consequence of facing a being like the dark knightess; Daughter of the [Guardians of the In-Between], she was a divine being, her nature barely understandable to human consciousness. Her voice was a celestial chorus and at the same time the discord of abyssal beings that dwell in the darkness between the stars.

What could Katriel do in the face of such a stimulus that devastated neurons and souls alike? Fire is fire, whether caused by angels or demons, and it burns everything in its path without discrimination.

Even his eyes, flooded with blood and giving in to the Madness that revealed itself when he felt the girl's presence nearby.

"Why are you staring at me so much, huh, you little bitch? Do you like me? Wanna fuck me?" he asked, giving her a smile that showed his blood-stained teeth. "I like you too, even though you brought that headless thing into my camp and killed my men with its magic."

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Katriel stood very, very slowly. His stability was compromised, his limbs almost not responding to the commands of a broken mind. Blinking without control at all and spasming, he pulled back his hood on. His vile gaze, which made him weep tears of blood, focused entirely on her.

"But you know what I like more than a woman? Or more than soul-jewels?" he asked, giving Tristessa a new sense of déjà vu. An answer she knew.

"The thrill of combat?"

"CORRECT, HAHAHA!" From inside one of the sleeves of his robes, the man pulled out none other than Reiden's parrying dagger. Tristessa turned and stared in horror at the empty sheath on Reiden's left waistband, him too, unable to believe how clueless they had been. "A thief is always a thief, even with all these damn voices talking at once inside my fucking head! Shut up! SHUT THE FUCK UP! AHHHHHGGGG, STOP!"

His eyes were so open that they seemed about to pop out of their sockets. Biting so hard his teeth threatened to break, blood and saliva foaming at the corners of his mouth…

"Is it noise? Or is it me?! What is it? What, what, what is it! It is me, isn't it?! IT IS ME!? TELL ME, IT IS ME!?"

"Get away from him, Tristessa!" Reiden drew his sword, ready to finish him off. "Let me handle it…"

"No."

That simple word left her mouth, and at first, she wasn't sure why. It managed to stop Reiden in his tracks, confusing him to the extreme. More than she was.

It was a strange feeling inside her. Not supernatural like when she activated a Divinity, but something completely human. Mortal, mundane, as simple yet chaotic as a mixture of guilt and loathing.

Guilt because seeing Katriel Strauss in that state was entirely her fault, since the Dullahan was her problem, and she was making her the problem one of others. Loathing because Katriel Strauss had also put her through such a horrible time, almost comparable to dying and returning from Death.

She hated him for what he did in a reality that no longer existed, and she still hated him because he was there, wandering through that forest with his gang, posing a real threat to Madame Luchie and the mercenaries. Having ruined innocent lives without regard for the consequences, following the same immoral compass as the Coven.

"Huh… I wonder if the Tristessa Irandell I hate for being a cowardly, selfish bitch has this same sense of justice I'm feeling," she whispered more to herself, almost on the verge of a smile escaping her as the deranged criminal threatened her with that stolen weapon. "Reiden. I want to face him in combat."

"What?!" He couldn't believe what he'd just heard.

"HA, THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!" Katriel celebrated, bringing his free hand to his forehead to scratch it maniacally, and by exerting deep force with his fingers, he ripped away the skin to the point of slashing himself deeply and causing bleeding. "You're wonderful, missy!"

"Were you also affected by those maddening shrieks from that armored phantasm?" the veteran asked, stunned to see Tristessa draw her hunting dagger. But not stunned enough to stand there and not go to her side, threatening the criminal with his sword to keep him from taking another step toward them. "Katriel Strauss is a notorious criminal in the region, almost as notorious as the witches of Coven! I'll take care of him!"

"Just look at him. Do you think he's the same Katriel who fought alongside you against the Dullahan?" she asked, on the verge of almost feeling pity for such trash of a person. "He's a shadow of his former self."

Tristessa saw something obvious before Reiden did, but only because she could reflect on her own traumatic experience. She had seen what the [Gradient of Madness] did to people, turning them into vicious, violent killers intent on destroying her. But the way the Dullahan had shattered Katriel's sanity hadn't resulted in extreme physical strength or heightened senses: with each passing second, his breathing grew shallower; his body wobbled more, searching for a balance his legs couldn't and wouldn't guarantee; and he kept losing blood due to internal injuries he hadn't sustained beyond a few blows.

It was his soul, being chipped away by Madness. The eldritch aftermath of the battle against the Dullahan. That was what was killing him, devouring everything in its path.

"Let me fight him. It's because of me that he's in that condition, you know." Tristessa stepped forward and assumed the fighting stance she'd learned from none other than the very man in front of her. Knowledge stored in her mind palace; photographic memory in the most literal sense of the word. "If it gets dangerous, I'd appreciate it if you could save my ass. I wouldn't want to die, you know? I'm too afraid of Death."

"You're insane…" the mercenary sighed, his heroic spirit surely telling him it was a terrible idea to play along. But he saw that she was confident she could do it. A confidence filled with naiveté, but worthy of a novice seeking to learn how to defend herself, and he couldn't ignore that. "And I must be even more so for allowing you to do it."

"Who isn't crazy here?! Everything around us is madness! Otherwise, how do you explain that little girl knowing my Arachnion stance when my master should never have had the chance to teach her?!" Katriel mimicked Tristessa, smiling and chattering his teeth to the point where thin lines of bloody saliva dripped from the bottom of his lips. "And you know why? Because I myself killed my master in his sleep and plundered his temple!"

"And you say it with pride…" Tristessa raised her guard and took a deep breath, shaking off some of the nerves and stress stored in the pit of her stomach. "Will you teach me how to dance, Katriel?"

"It will be a pleasure, miss!"

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