Tristessa couldn't bear this nightmare, eating away at her mental integrity and deteriorating it at full speed.

She tried to ignore the river of blood the aracross was guiding her through. Ignore the twisted and bent trees that seemed to be looking up at the heavens, begging for mercy.

She tried not to listen to her own breathing, rapid and frantic, which failed to dilute the fear that had taken hold of her; so much fear that it overshadowed how sick she felt from all the dizzying movement and speed. Fear that drove her further into despair.

All attempts from her side to avoid falling into the blackest void. And she was failing.

All the strength and determination she had built up since she set out to save everyone on that loop were on the verge of falling into the void.

"Sev… I miss you… I love you. My avenging hero… I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you even more, and your memory brings me so much pain…"

The young woman with gray eyes covered in icy tears clung to the mental image of that blood elf who now didn't know her, and who was surely in his workshop in the slums of Entrana, waiting for the dimensional shift to pass.

With no memory of either of them facing Death in the Forest of Dead Titans.

With no memory of either of them devising the plan to save the Mercer-Archeos.

With no memory of either of them meeting Death at the end of that failed mission.

Severus, her beacon of hope, so close because of her memories, and yet so far away because none of that existed anymore. The loneliness of returning to the beginning of the loop was torture worse than the malice of the Evil Dream contaminating her soul. The cruelty of [Death and Resurrection], leaving memories intact and casting a shadow over her heart that would never go away…

"RAAA!"

Tristessa couldn't continue sinking into the misery of a broken love that transcended the boundaries of time, distracted by the roar of the aracross that, perhaps, had just saved her life.

The reality she was now facing didn't wait for girls with broken hearts, demonstrated by the blade that whizzed past her right side, grazing her head and leaving a shallow cut on her cheek.

"Are we being attacked?!" she cried, looking in all directions, feeling the burning pangs of the bleeding cut. To her horror, she realized that she and the nameless aracross weren't alone in the forest. "Watch out!"

She was slow to warn him, but fortunately the beast was the opposite, leaping to the side, almost making its rider fall. That action caused a silhouette that emerged from the petrified trees to fail in its attempt to stab either of them with a throwing dagger.

"Oh no, there are too many of them!" she cried, seeing more hostiles appear from within the forest. Several even further ahead, perched on tree branches, ready to leap and intercept them. "Dodge them!"

The nameless aracross demonstrated its intelligence and dexterity by dodging that trap, though two of the hostiles that fell from the trees almost managed to grab Tristessa by her hair and arms.

"More Fallen vagrants… Just like the [Fallen Militiamen] who attacked Entrana's southern entrance. This forest has become a death trap!"

Thinking this, and relieved that the path ahead was apparently clear, Tristessa looked over her right shoulder. Behind her, where those individuals were rising from the bloody ground.

Those humanoids were part of the Evil Dream. They existed in that alternate dimension, wandering souls trapped in a world of terror. Wearing hoods and light, dilapidated uniforms; dirty, worn, and so riddled with holes. Armed with knives that were falling apart. Their corpse-like bodies, rickety and in a ghostly, shadowy state, a sign of the doomed existence they were destined to live forever.

They were criminals who, during the Age of Kings, had roamed those lands in search of the riches that noble landowners and lumber business owners carried in their pockets… Until the Shadow Queen declared herself the enemy of all Nekrom, and her malice brought about the end of that era, plunging millions of souls, innocent and not so innocent -like those criminals- into madness and absolute darkness.

Now, those [Fallen Bandits] were bent to the Dark Lady's will, condemned to a torture that transcended Life and Death.

"Well done!" Tristessa patted her aracross's back several times, her lips forming a little smile. The beast roared, sharing the girl's sentiment. "You're doing an excellent job as a guide! Huh… Wait, now that I think about it, maybe I could name you…?"

But at that moment, an iron chain rose from the ground, having been hidden among those few centimeters of bloody flood, pulled by two cunning shadowy bandits hiding behind the trees.

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"RAAA!"

Roaring, the aracross leaped just in time, with no way to control itself airborne. Prioritizing avoiding that trap, regardless of the fall: both the beast and Tristessa fell into the river of blood, which did little to cushion the impact.

"Ugh!" Rolling and filling her mouth with the putrid liquid, Tristessa hit her back and felt a deep stab of pain in her right side, a possible sign of a broken rib. "S-shit!"

She did her best to get to her feet as fast as she could, gritting her teeth tightly to keep from screaming at the pain emanating from that side of her abdomen. She saw the bandits releasing the chain to rush toward her without hesitation, armed with daggers and dominated by the envious need to seize that human soul bound to Life itself.

The eye sockets of those cursed bandits sunk in darkness. Searching for the light that had been denied for five hundred years.

"Move… Come on, move!" Tristessa couldn't let the pain distract her or slow her movements. She drew her hunting dagger and, while she suffered, stood on guard, waiting for the clash with these enemies. "Ah…?!"

The one who didn't wait to attack was the nameless aracross, passing by Tristessa and lunging at one of the two bandits, its bite locking around his neck. They both fell, blood splattering in all directions, while the other enemy kept rushing toward Tristessa, and tried to stab her with his rusty dagger.

She dodged the attack and several successive ones. Uncontrolled slashes that sought only to do damage, without regard for prioritizing a strategy or analyzing the opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

"Patience... patience... There!" Thanks to her [Divinity of the Dark Room], she saw the same movement she had made in a previous loop and how Katriel had rendered her useless by blocking with the edge of her blade. She mimicked it as best she could, and while it wasn't completely effective in absorbing the bandit's attack's momentum and using it against him, she was able to make him stumble, leaving his side completely exposed. "Got you!"

This time, Tristessa didn't hesitate to grab him by the arm and attack for the kill, plunging the tip of her dagger under the bandit's armpit. Perhaps because her enemy was a creature that had lost its humanity, perhaps because she was already getting used to covering her spirit with a layer of ice that allowed her to attack like this, mercilessly.

Or perhaps because the adrenaline flowing through her body prioritized her survival, guiding her hand and causing her to pierce his abdomen at least three more times before releasing it and distancing herself.

Black blood began to flow in great quantities from those fresh wounds, and the Fallen Bandit ended up tumbling sideways into the river of blood. Dead, his body, somewhere between ethereal and shadowy, moved only by the small waves caused by the fight between the aracross and the other bandit, which was coming to an end: the beast didn't let go of its victim's neck, tearing muscle and arteries alike, spilling corrupted blood that mixed with that of the trees like ink diluting in water.

Soon, the cursed bandit stopped struggling. His arms fell to his sides, stiff and bloody. The aracross opened his mouth to show that, without a doubt, his prey had lost its life.

"Grrr..." the beast growled, victorious, and so drenched in blood that its fur had almost taken on reddish hues and wouldn't stop dripping.

With those two hostiles dead, a bit of dubious peace reigned, at last. A fragile serenity and calm, incompatible with the hellish scenery surrounding them, amidst so much abnormal darkness among the forest trees and the constant flashes of lightning accompanied by black thunder that crossed the skies saturated with Discord.

It was as if that calm were a wolf in sheep's clothing, capable of committing a massacre when one least expected it. A peace that could end in the blink of an eye and spell Death, either cornered by dozens of Fallen, or by the appearance of some other creature capable of bestowing upon them a worse fate…

"…?!"

What Tristessa didn't expect, amidst her constant paranoia that something dwelling in the darkness within that [Forest of Agony] could attack and kill her, was a warm tongue stained with rotten blood that would brush against her face from chin to nose.

A sign of affection, unthinkable in that circumstance. A gesture that rescued Tristessa's psyche from a point of no return in that loop, from so much torment caused by the desperation of living through that nightmare, and the suffering brought on by the painful memories that existed only for her.

"Ah, enough, enough!" she begged the aracross, laughing at its insistence on sloshing saliva all over her face. She was so relieved that she was even able to ignore some of the deep pain that continued to send signals from the side of her abdomen. "You're incredible, thank you for defending me from that bandit!"

The beast sat on its hind legs, gladly accepting the caresses Tristessa began to give it. Running her hands along the sides of its head, stroking its ears, and under the remnants of horn near its temple.

"Raaa!"

"You like it, huh? I'd like to keep doing this, but time is not really on our side… How about we continue this journey?" the girl asked, smiling at the way the aracrosse had closed its eyes and its morbid, toothy mouth was curved as if it were smiling, happy with such displays of affection. "I still need a guide to point me in the right direction, you know?"

The beast opened its eyes, yellow and smart. Not only understanding but also accepting its owner's will. Ready to fulfill the role she asked of it, like a certain poet who guided an Italian writer through a hell called Inferno, of an Earth religion; a work of poetic narrative that Tristessa had read and remembered.

A guide through hell, only now in Nekrom—specifically in the Evil Dream—said poet began to unfold his role from the very dark forest where the protagonist of the story had strayed from the path of salvation.

"What do you say, Vergil?"

The aracross's response was to lick Tristessa's face again. Happy and accepting the name she had given him, no doubt about it.

"Ha, stop drooling on me!"

She wiped her face and then sheathed her hunting dagger, removing the traces of blood with the forearm of her trench coat sleeve. She climbed onto the beast, making a massive effort to ignore the deep agony coming from her ribs, and patted its back again. Showing Vergil her gratitude for helping her through that difficult time, and for being the company she needed to face all that heartbreaking loneliness reserved only for her and her forbidden Divinity.

"I'm glad you like your name. Come on, Vergil!" Tristessa reached over to her pocket, only to feel that Severus's soul-shard was still there. It was pulsing ever more strongly, like a heart beating in sync with hers, and her ever-present Baptism in Ruins. "To Entrana!"

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