Mother of Midnight

Chapter 128 – Can’t Stop Bleeding

The sentinel’s energy blade flared ominously, crackling with unstable power as it swung the weapon in a wide arc. But Vivienne didn’t give it the chance to strike.

Her form rippled again, shifting seamlessly into her massive serpent body. The remnants of her severed arm vanished as her torso streamlined into the sleek, muscular coils of a colossal black-scaled serpent. Her obsidian scales gleamed in the flickering blue light of the chamber, and from the tip of her tail, the long, curved obsidian blade glinted menacingly.

With an explosion of speed, Vivienne surged forward, her massive coils wrapping around the sentinel’s upper half like an anaconda crushing its prey. The automaton’s joints groaned in protest as her immense strength clamped down, locking its arms and forcing the energy blade away from her.

“You want a fight? Fine. Let’s see how well you do when you can’t move,” she hissed, tightening her coils even more. The sentinel struggled violently, but Vivienne’s grip was unrelenting. Sparks flew from the grinding of metal against her scales as it tried to wrench itself free.

“Hold it steady!” Rava barked, circling around to look for a weak spot.

“I am holding it steady, darling!!” Vivienne snapped, her tail flexing with another powerful constriction. “But if this thing has another trick up its sleeve, we’re screwed!”

The sentinel, undeterred by her efforts, activated a hidden mechanism. With a mechanical whirr, an energy blade shot out from its other forearm, this one smaller but faster, glowing with a dangerously bright light. The blade vibrated with such intensity that it cut through the air with a high-pitched hum.

Vivienne’s eyes narrowed. She could feel the hum of the energy vibrating through her coils as the blade began to carve into the metal of its own body, trying to force a gap where her grip was strongest. “Oh no, you don’t!” she hissed.

Before the blade could cut further, Vivienne twisted her tail sharply, driving the tip of her tail blade directly into one of the automaton’s exposed joints. Sparks erupted in a dazzling display as metal screeched against obsidian, and the energy blade flickered erratically before dimming momentarily. The sentinel jerked violently, mechanical limbs straining against Vivienne’s iron grip, but she refused to loosen her coils.

She was now wrapped around the entire upper half of the massive automaton, each coil digging into its metallic frame with unyielding pressure. Her obsidian scales shimmered faintly in the dim light of the chamber, her muscles taut and trembling from the sheer force she was exerting.

“Rava, Ivor, if you’re thinking of jumping in, now’s the time,” Vivienne growled through clenched teeth, her tail blade grinding deeper into the sentinel’s exposed joint. The automaton’s internal mechanisms whined in protest as it fought against her hold.

Rava circled warily, her sharp eyes scanning for another vulnerable point. “You’re doing fine,” she called out, her tone steady. “Just keep it tight—we don’t need it moving while Elira finishes her spell.”

“No pressure then,” Vivienne spat, her coils tightening further. The sentinel groaned under the crushing force, its arms twitching in an attempt to break free. The energy blade flickered to life again, sputtering wildly as it tried to complete its arc toward Vivienne’s exposed body.

“Elira!” Vivienne barked, frustration and pain lacing her voice. “Anytime now!”

“I said I’m almost there!” Elira shot back, her voice tense but focused. She stood a few paces away, hands glowing as she wove complex sigils in midair. Each movement was deliberate, her fingers trailing shimmering lines of light that formed intricate patterns. Sweat trickled down her temple, her concentration unbroken even as the sentinel’s power surged in resistance.

The chamber pulsed with energy as Elira’s sigils grew brighter, the glow reflecting off the cracked stone walls. With a final flourish, she thrust both hands forward, sending a rippling wave of arcane energy toward the sentinel.

“Il cae uph t aerrc, c w mwh taerrjet ilc weaect, ilcrruphtil!” Elira shouted, her voice echoing through the chamber like a crack of thunder.

The wave of energy struck the sentinel head-on, and for a split second, time seemed to slow. The automaton’s energy blade shattered into glowing fragments that dissolved into the air, and its limbs froze mid-struggle. Sparks and arcs of energy erupted from every joint as the sentinel’s core flickered violently, unable to process the sudden disruption.

Vivienne could feel the automaton convulsing beneath her coils as the arcane energy tore through its systems. She tightened her grip even further, ensuring it couldn’t recover. “Gotcha, you big tin can,” she hissed triumphantly.

Then, with a deafening crunch, the sentinel’s core detonated in a burst of blue light, sending out a shockwave that rattled the entire chamber. Vivienne braced herself, her coils absorbing the brunt of the blast as shards of metal scattered harmlessly across the floor.

As the light faded and silence returned, Vivienne unraveled herself, slumping to the ground in exhaustion. The remnants of the once-mighty automaton lay scattered around them, its central core reduced to a smoldering heap of scrap.

As the light faded and silence returned, Vivienne unraveled herself from the crumpled remains of the sentinel, her serpentine form slowly shrinking. With a strained breath, she shifted back into her humanoid shape, her long, wavy hair cascading over her shoulders as obsidian scales faded into dark grey skin. She took a shaky step forward, her black eyes scanning the scattered heap of twisted metal and smoking parts.

“Is it… dead?” Elira asked cautiously, still gripping her staff, her fingers trembling slightly.

Vivienne straightened slowly, wincing as she pressed a hand against her side. “If it gets up again, I’ll personally apologize to whoever built it—right before tearing it apart a second time.” Despite the strain in her voice, that familiar playful edge remained. She dragged the back of her hand across her mouth—then froze.

Something felt off.

She glanced down at herself and immediately noticed what was missing. Her left arm.

"Ah... damn." Vivienne’s voice was unnervingly casual for someone who had just realized they were short a limb. She stared at the stump where her arm had been severed, dark ichor sluggishly oozing from the wound. “That explains why everything felt… lopsided.”

Rava rushed over, eyes wide with concern. “Vivienne, you’re—your arm—”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Vivienne said, managing a faint grin despite the situation. She flexed the fingers of her remaining hand. “Still got one left, though. So, not a total loss.”

Ivor approached cautiously, his gaze flicking between Vivienne and the scattered remains of the automaton. “You’re taking this remarkably well.”

Vivienne half-shrugged, the motion stiff and uneven. “I mean, yeah, it hurts like hell. But it’s not the first time I’ve lost something important—just another thing to deal with.” She cast a sidelong glance at Elira, her lips curling slightly into a wry grin. “Please tell me whatever you did to that thing wasn’t a one-time trick. I’d really rather not wrestle another one of those if we stumble into more.”

Elira, still catching her breath, managed a nod between gulps of air. “No promises. Whatever that was, it burned through more aether than I’m comfortable admitting. That thing was built tougher than it had any right to be.”

Vivienne chuckled, though the sound was more of a tired exhale than her usual playful laugh. “Well, darling, I’m just glad it’s over. That was rough.” Her voice, thick with exhaustion, still carried that familiar playful edge, an attempt to mask the ache in her body. She stretched her remaining arm, the clawed hand flexing as if testing its strength. The motion, however, was slow and stiff, each movement sending a sharp pulse of pain through her muscles, a stark reminder of how much she'd just endured.

Rava’s voice, edged with concern, cut through her half-hearted stretching. “Viv, you are still bleeding.”

Vivienne blinked, her attention snapping to the empty space where her other arm used to be. She saw it then—the ichor flowing steadily from the ragged stump. For a moment, she stared at the black liquid, unbothered, before her eyes narrowed in thought. “Oh, right. Yes,” she muttered, almost absently, as if it were a passing inconvenience rather than something serious.

She sighed and allowed herself to melt into a formless mass, her body dissipating into shadows and aether. The black substance kept flowing steadily from her stump, unaffected by her transformation. When she reformed, the stump remained, still bleeding, the ichor dripping like a slow, persistent leak. Her remaining claw flexed as she assessed the situation, frustration creeping into her voice. “Well, that’s really inconvenient.”

Vivienne glanced down at the wound again, seeing the dark ichor staining her grey skin and seeping into the floor beneath her. It didn’t hurt—it never did—but the sight alone was enough to provoke a deeper irritation. She flexed the single clawed hand, her fingers trembling slightly from the strain, but the stump continued its grim drip. With a resigned huff, she looked over at Rava, a wry grin on her lips despite the frustration building in her chest. “Any bright ideas, or should we start worrying about how much of this stuff I can lose before I dissipate?”

“Well, it wasn’t an issue when you were that giant snake, or when you were that… blob,” Elira suggested, her eyes flicking between Vivienne’s stump and the black ichor steadily dripping from it. She sounded more curious than worried, but there was an underlying edge to her tone, as though she wasn’t sure what Vivienne was waiting for.

Vivienne tilted her head slightly, her lips curling into a faint, amused smile despite the discomfort. “Ah, yes, the snake and the blob,” she said lightly, her voice tinged with dry humor. “I suppose I could always try those again—maybe a more impressive snake this time, something really showy." She shrugged, her single claw making a slow, deliberate motion in the air. "But, honestly, this is hardly the first time I’ve had to deal with something like this.”

“It didn’t bleed last time it happened. Whatever that Nexus Arbiter did to you was different from this.” Rava’s voice was tinged with concern, but there was an edge of something deeper, something unspoken.

Vivienne’s lips curled into a dark smile. “Well, darling, I can hardly blame you for noticing. But I don’t exactly keep track of these things. Whatever that thing was—it was... something else.”

Before Rava could respond, Elira’s expression seemed to flash with something resembling anger, a brief crack in her otherwise controlled demeanor. Her eyes narrowed, her lips pressing into a thin line before she forced the emotion back down, a cool mask returning in its place. “You fought a Nexus Arbiter? And lived?” The words were sharp, almost incredulous.

Vivienne let out a soft, malicious chuckle. “We didn’t just fight it, darling. We destroyed it.” Her voice, though still weary, was rich with satisfaction. She leaned against the nearest wall, her lone claw tapping softly as she spoke. “Rava and I took it on together. Some priests from Aegis had been draining people, farmers and the like, of their aether—harvesting them like livestock.” Her voice grew colder, the anger of the memory flashing behind her eyes for a brief moment. “They ended up summoning one of those tin cans.”

She straightened then, the pride evident in her stance. “And we took it down. Took an arm and a leg from me, but we destroyed it.” She glanced over at Rava, her expression softening for just a moment. “I couldn’t have done it without her. She’s better at this than I am, and that’s saying something.”

Rava’s frown deepened at the mention of the lost limbs, but she didn’t interrupt. The mention of Aegis’ priests, though, caught her attention. “And these priests—where are they now? Surely they didn’t just vanish after summoning something like that.”

Vivienne’s smile faded, replaced with a sharp, calculating expression. “One or two did, but the rest? They didn’t just vanish. We made sure of that. The last thing they saw was their precious Arbiter falling apart into a heap of scrap. It was... poetic.” She rolled her shoulders, her fingers flexing in a way that made the jagged edges of her claws scrape together with a satisfying sound.

Elira’s brow furrowed at the mention of Aegis’ involvement. “You’re telling me Aegis was in on this?” Her voice was laced with disbelief, but there was no doubting the weight of suspicion hanging in the air.

Vivienne shrugged, her usual mischievous grin returning. “Not Aegis as a whole, no. But there are always a few rogues in every order, aren’t there? They must have thought they could get away with using that... thing. But when you’re dabbling with things you don’t understand, it’s only a matter of time before it all blows up in your face.”

Her eyes glinted with something dangerous, a trace of the fire that had burned during that battle. “And we were more than happy to be the explosion.”

Elira looked between the two of them, her eyes still wide with surprise. “You really destroyed a Nexus Arbiter. Just like that?”

Vivienne’s smile grew, though it was darker now, edged with something wild and unpredictable. “Oh, darling, it wasn’t easy. But nothing in life worth doing ever is.” Her eyes flicked to Rava again, a silent acknowledgment shared between them. “But that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? The challenge. I’d love to fight one again.”

Elira blinked, her expression caught somewhere between disbelief and exasperation. "You’d love to fight another Nexus Arbiter?" She gestured broadly with both hands, as if trying to grasp how anyone could want that. "Are you serious? Most people don’t live to tell the tale, and you’re itching for a rematch?"

Vivienne chuckled, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face with her lone claw. “Darling, I don’t think you quite understand—I don’t want to fight another one. But if one shows up again, oh, I’ll be ready. Nothing gets the blood pumping like a proper fight, don’t you think?”

Rava shot Vivienne a sideways look, her tail flicking once, sharply. “You’re not invincible, Viv. Let’s not tempt fate by inviting another tin can to the party.”

Vivienne winked at her, undeterred. “Tempting fate is half the fun, Rava. You know that.”

Before the conversation could spiral further, Elira cleared her throat, cutting through the rising tension. “We should get moving. Whatever’s on the other side of this chamber might not wait forever.” Her voice was steady, though there was an edge of unease in her tone. Whether it was the oppressive atmosphere of the ancient place or the lingering disbelief at Vivienne’s reckless confidence, something clearly weighed on her.

Vivienne let out a dramatic sigh, her lips curving into a smirk. “I suppose I’ll have to settle for being a giant enemy snake for now. I should still fit in those corridors, shouldn’t I?” Her words dripped with a mixture of teasing and practicality, as if becoming a monstrous serpent was as casual a decision as changing her outfit.

Without waiting for a response, Vivienne’s form began to shift. Her skin rippled, dark scales spreading rapidly over her body as she elongated, growing larger by the second. Her legs melded together into a thick, muscular tail, while her torso remained humanoid, albeit covered in obsidian plating. Her six eyes gleamed faintly in the dim light as her horns twisted slightly, adopting a more serpentine curve.

Elira watched the transformation in a mixture of fascination and unease. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” she muttered, gripping her cloak a little tighter.

“You say that every time,” Vivienne said with a playful grin, her voice taking on a layered, echoing quality. She flicked her tail experimentally, the motion creating a soft whooshing sound that echoed off the stone walls. “Still fits perfectly. No need to worry.”

Rava, who had been observing silently, gave a nod of approval. “Better. If something decides to ambush us, you’ll be harder to pin down like this.”

With that, they moved forward, Vivienne’s serpentine form gliding effortlessly over the uneven floor. The faint hum of distant machinery grew louder as they progressed, each step—or in Vivienne’s case, glide—bringing them closer to whatever lay ahead. The air grew colder, more charged, as if the ancient artifice embedded in the walls still pulsed with some forgotten power.

The corridors twisted sharply, opening up into a wide platform overlooking a massive, circular pit that descended into shadow. Thin beams of light streamed down from cracks in the ceiling, illuminating the edges of an elaborate, rune-inscribed mechanism encircling the pit’s mouth. It pulsed faintly with a dull, blue glow, its sigils flickering like a heartbeat.

“Well,” Vivienne said, coiling herself loosely as she took in the sight below, “this looks promising.” She tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing. “Or dangerous. Either way, it’s interesting.”

Elira crouched near the edge, studying the runes carefully. “It’s some kind of containment mechanism,” she said after a moment, tracing her fingers over one of the sigils. “But it’s ancient. I don’t know what it’s supposed to hold—or if it’s still holding anything at all.”

“Only one way to find out,” Vivienne said with a grin. She turned to Rava. “Shall we give it a push and see what happens?”

Rava raised an eyebrow, her tail flicking in irritation. “Or we could not immediately trigger whatever ancient death trap this thing is.”

Vivienne shrugged, the motion rippling down her upper body like a wave. “Fine, fine. But it’s boring just standing around. What’s the plan, then?”

Elira glanced around the platform, noting several small, crystalline pillars set into the ground at intervals. “There’s got to be a way to activate this properly. Let’s look for something—an interface, a lever, anything.”

She pressed her palm against the stone and closed her eyes. Vivienne watched in rapt attention as the ambient aether in the air seemed to move to Elira’s will, funnelling itself into the pillar. 

Elira ‘s attention was locked on the glowing sigils. “Careful,” she muttered to herself, though her fingers instinctively reached toward the edge of the pillar, curiosity overriding caution. The runes pulsed steadily now, the light dancing in sync with the faint hum that seemed to resonate from deep below.

Rava, keeping a healthy distance, called out sharply, “What did you do?”

“She touched it,” Vivienne replied, her serpentine coils shifting as she pulled back slightly. The dark, polished scales along her body caught the blue glow of the pillar. “Pushed some aether into it”

“It seems to be active now.” Elira muttered, her brow furrowing as she examined the flickering sigils more closely. “This pattern… it’s like some kind of lock—or maybe a barrier. And it’s responding to my aether. That means it’s definitely still active.”

Vivienne’s grin stretched wider, her six eyes gleaming in the dim light. “Active, you say? Now I really want to know what’s hiding down there.” Her tongue flicked out briefly, tasting the air. It carried a metallic tang, mingled with the cold, stale scent of stone.

“Viv, don’t get any ideas.” Rava’s voice was sharp, a warning laced with tension. Her claws flexed at her sides, the fur on her tail bristling slightly. “Whatever’s down there might still be sealed for a reason.”

“Oh, darling, you know me.” Vivienne’s voice dripped with mock innocence. She shifted her coils lazily, circling the pillar as if sizing up prey. “If it’s dangerous, we’ll handle it. If it’s interesting, we’ll learn from it. Either way, sitting here isn’t going to answer anything.”

Elira hesitated, glancing between Rava and Vivienne. The air felt heavier now, charged with something ancient and restless. Finally, she exhaled and gave a short nod. “Fine. But if we’re doing this, we don’t go in blind. We stay alert, we don’t split up, and we keep our options open.”

Vivienne gave a mock bow, lowering her upper body in a serpentine arc. “As you wish.”

Without waiting for further agreement, she pressed her coils against the center of the pillar. The runes flared brighter in response, a pulse of energy rippling outward in a circular wave. One by one, the other crystalline pillars scattered across the platform began to glow in unison, forming a complete ring around the pit.

The low hum grew deeper, vibrating through the stone beneath them. Vivienne felt it in her body, the vibration traveling up her coiled form. The tension in the air thickened, crackling faintly with static energy.

The platform gave a low, mechanical groan, and the stone at the center of the pit began to shift. Runes along its edge rearranged themselves, glowing brighter as they locked into a new pattern. From deep within, a soft, swirling blue light began to rise, bathing the chamber in an eerie glow.

“This can’t be good,” Rava muttered, her claws gleaming as she readied herself. Her stance was low, balanced, prepared for a fight.

Elira stepped back, her eyes never leaving the shifting mechanism. “It’s either going to open something… or release something.”

Vivienne’s smile only widened, her coiled body tensing as she prepared to strike—or slither—at a moment’s notice. “Oh, darling, either way, we’re in for something exciting.”