The valley was dead quiet except for the faint, deep rumbling beneath the earth. Snow hissed under Haruno's boots as she stepped forward. The air was so cold that her breath came out like white smoke. The Null Handmaidens stood high above on a cliff. Even at this distance, their eyes followed her every move, ready to intervene only if she was about to die.
Haruno's grip on the odachi Enheduanna had given her tightened. The valley stretched far and wide with its blackened stone walls covered in frozen veins of ice. The ground the trembled with a violent, rolling quake that made her stumble.
The Worm of Ezmutheria rose from beneath the earth. Its body was long and colossal, stretching across the valley. Its skin was a mixture of dark crimson and gray, slick with frost and lined with armored ridges that pulsed as if the creature breathed through them. Its maw was circular, lined with layers upon layers of serrated teeth, each turning like a spinning saw blade. The sound that came out was a shriek of metal grinding on stone, echoing through the canyon and shaking snow off the cliff sides.
Haruno's body froze in instinctual terror. Her heart hammered so violently she thought it would break her ribs.
The worm spoke. Its voice it came from everywhere.
"Are you here… to kill me?"
Haruno swallowed hard, her breath fogging in front of her face.
"Yes," she said firmly, even as her knees trembled. She raised her odachi, pointing it toward the monstrous creature.
"Heh… you have guts, little one. But you will die like the others. I have killed hundreds of you."
Her eyes widened. "Hundreds?"
"You heard me," the worm continued, its circular jaws curling into what could only be called a smile. "The recursions. I remember them all. So many you's… frozen, devoured, shredded apart. Every one of you screamed the same before dying. But this time—"
The ground exploded beneath it as it lunged, half its body crashing through the ice.
"—you don't even wield the Blood Odachi. Pathetic!"
The shockwave of its movement ripped through the valley. Haruno barely managed to stab the odachi into the ground, holding on tight as snow and shards of rock blasted past her. The worm's laughter echoed like thunder.
"Too weak! At least the one before you fought and killed me!"
Haruno gritted her teeth, forcing her trembling legs to steady.
"Shut up you oversized parasite."
But then the worm's tone shifted.
"Walk."
Her muscles locked.
Her mind began to fade like someone was pouring warm water into her thoughts, drowning her consciousness. Her body started moving without her will. Step by step, she walked toward the worm's open maw.
"Walk."
She couldn't fight it. Panic clawed at her chest. Memories flooded back. She walked into that same mouth once as the teeth closed around her.
"No… not again…"
A snowball smacked the side of her head.
"Oi!"
Haruno snapped out of it, stumbling backward. She turned and saw Naelle up on the ridge, waving her arms.
"SNOWBALLS! With rocks inside! You're welcome, Haruno! If it tries mind-control again, I'll hit you back to your senses! Just don't die before I run out, yeah?!"
Haruno blinked, then laughed despite the situation.
"You're insane!"
Naelle cupped her hands and shouted back, "You're welcome, sweetheart!"
But there was no time for more banter. The worm screamed again, this time so loud the snow on the cliffs collapsed. Haruno jumped to the side just as its massive jaws slammed into the ground where she had stood, obliterating the ice and sending shards flying.
"Shit—"
She sprinted as she dodged the next lunge. The worm's speed was horrifying. Each time it moved, the ground erupted, its body burrowing and reappearing elsewhere. Above, the Handmaidens watched intently. Enheduanna's eyes glowed faintly beneath her veil. Syraleh muttered.
"The thing's too fast for her to read its rhythm."
Naelle smirked, holding another snowball. "She'll figure it out. If she doesn't, I'll knock some sense into her again."
Back below, Haruno slashed as the worm surfaced again, striking its armored hide. Sparks erupted. The blade didn't even leave a mark.
"Damn it!"
"You can't harm me with that toy, girl. You are nothing but another failure."
"Guess we'll see about that!"
She yelled, rolling away as it tried to crush her beneath its body. Haruno moved purely on instinct as it burrowed to the ground and resurfaced. She leaped over fissures, dodged debris, and every time the worm reared its head, she met it with another slash. She wasn't strong enough to cut through, but she wasn't giving up either. For once, she wasn't thinking about the 173 failures before her. She was thinking about this moment.
In an instant, teal light exploded from her body.
It flowed across her limbs, coiling around her muscles and bones. The odachi in her hands roared to life. The snow beneath her boots vaporized instantly, melting into black mud. Her eyes turned a vivid, eerie teal.
Haruno swung first.
The slash came before the creature even lunged. She formed a teal crescent slash across the air, ripping through the wind with a shriek so sharp it felt like the atmosphere split apart. The blade met flesh and for the first time, the worm bled.
A geyser of dark crimson burst from its armored hide, splattering across the valley floor and staining the snow. The worm let out an ear-splitting roar, its massive body twisting in pain. Haruno smirked through gritted teeth.
"Finally."
But her small victory lasted seconds.
The beast slammed into the ground, the shockwave tossing her off her feet like a leaf in a storm. She hit the ground hard, rolling across ice and rock, feeling her bones rattle. The next instant, a chunk of debris the size of a cart slammed into the ground beside her, throwing snow and shards of frozen stone everywhere.
"That hurts..."
She forced herself up. The teal Xana pulsed stronger with every breath. She wasn't just using it for her weapon anymore. She was channeling it through her entire body, reinforcing her muscles. The worm lunged again and Haruno ducked low, the sheer mass of it blowing apart the ice behind her. She slid across the snow, swung and released another wave of teal energy. It cut another scar into the worm's body. It was smaller, but it made the creature angry.
"You dare wound me again, little insect?"
Its voice crawled into her head. For a moment, her body stiffened.
"Walk."
She froze mid-swing, her vision blurring. She felt her consciousness tilt. Her feet moved on their own. She began stepping toward the open, circular maw of the worm...
A snowball smashed into the side of her face.
"WAKE UP, IDIOT!"
Haruno blinked, breath catching in her throat. She stumbled backward, mind snapping back to clarity just in time to roll away from the worm's closing jaws.
The teeth slammed into the earth where she stood, pulverizing rock into dust. Haruno gasped.
"Stop spacing out and kill the damn thing!"
"Working on it!" Haruno yelled back, spinning her odachi into position again. The worm screeched, pulling back its body, blood still pouring from its previous wounds.
"That blood…"
Haruno's eyes flickered toward the crimson pools spreading across the snow. Then she remembered something. Haruno tightened her grip on her odachi with teeth clenched.
"Blood Manipulation…"
She thrust her free hand toward the splattered pools of the worm's blood. Her Xana shifted her hue slightly streaks of scarlet. The blood around her began to rise. With a sweep of her hand, it moved. Streams of crimson shot upward, coiling around her arm, and in a blink, they hardened into sharp, spear-like projectiles. The blood spears exploded forward, driving deep into its underbelly. The worm shrieked, writhing in agony. Haruno used the chance to dash forward. She jumped onto a falling rock, then another, running up the side of the beast's body.
"Let's see if the 174th can do what the others couldn't!"
The worm twisted, its body flinging through the valley, but Haruno didn't stop. She kept climbing. Every movement cost her. Each block of flying debris grazed her skin, ripped fabric and drew blood. But she didn't care. When she reached one of the bleeding scars she made earlier, she grinned.
"Perfect."
She pressed her hand to it and the blood responded instantly.
She pulled, twisting her wrist. The worm's blood obeyed. Streams of crimson surged out of its wound and coiled around her, forming rotating blades of blood and ice. The worm tried to shake her off, slamming its body against the ground, but she jumped free, flipping backward.
Her odachi blazed with both teal and crimson energy. She slashed downward, unleashing a massive cross-shaped wave that struck the worm head-on. The explosion was deafening.
The entire valley erupted with energy and snow. The shockwave was so massive that it spread all the way up to the cliff where the Null Handmaidens stood. Even they shielded their faces as the blizzard of debris and snow tore through the air. When the smoke cleared, Haruno was on one knee, panting, blood dripping down her arm. The worm was still alive but it was badly hurt.
It screamed again, trying to burrow, but Haruno wasn't done. She slammed her hand to the ground, manipulating the trails of its blood that had already seeped deep into the ice. The blood hardened beneath it like chains, freezing it in place.
"You… won't… bind me…!"
Haruno's eyes glowed brighter. Her Xana was surging to the limit.
"You're damn right I will. I am Haruno Nishikata and you're not killing me again!"
The worm thrashed, roaring in fury, its body convulsing as if the world itself trembled beneath it. But Haruno's blade cut through the air, straight down.
The teal-and-crimson energy wave split through the Worm of Ezmutheria. The roar that followed shook the skies.
The worm writhed and then collapsed. The mountain of flesh crashed into the frozen valley with a sound like thunder cracking open the world.
Haruno stood close to it. Her Xana flickered weakly but she didn't care. She looked at the fallen monster, and for a second, she could almost hear the echoes of her 173 predecessors whispering in relief.
She had done what they couldn't.
Up on the cliff, Naelle let out a loud whistle.
"Well, damn. Took her long enough."
Haruno, hearing their voices faintly echoing down the valley, couldn't help but laugh.
"Guess I finally made it, huh?"
"Haruno, LOOK OUT!"
It was too late.