Fluvium. That was the name of the monsters living in the Fluve World.
They were the predators of Fluxers and humans alike. They are beings that fed not just on flesh but on Xana. Each carried two abilities. The first was a natural extension of its vile biology, and the second was a twisted anomaly born from whatever it had consumed most often.
And the Worm of Ezmutheria was one of the worst of them.
Its natural power was the Compulsion of Frost, the ability to infect the will of anyone touched by its snow. That was what kept the blizzard raging for centuries, feeding it with victims walking into its mouth willingly. But its second power was something worse.
The entire valley detonated when Haruno was hit.
Her body slammed into a cliff side so hard that the stone cracked like glass beneath her. The impact echoed through the mountains, throwing up a storm of white dust. She didn't scream. Her voice had already been knocked out of her. Blood spattered the snow as she crumpled to her knees, gasping soundlessly. Her vision flickered in black and red.
Her head slumped forward. For a few seconds, she wasn't sure if she was still alive. When her sight finally steadied, her breath caught in her throat.
Standing before her was her. At least… it looked like her.
The figure had Haruno's face but her skin was covered in black armor. Her hair was white unlike hers, and four muscular arms sprouted from her shoulders, each gripping an odachi made of the same armor. When she spoke, her voice was the sound of Haruno's tone buried beneath the voice of the Worm.
"Ah… so this is what she looked like. The 173rd Haruno made me use this body and killed me. She was the only one who managed to do so. But I learned. I adapted. I evolved. And now, you will feed me again."
Haruno groaned and tried to stand. Her arms trembled violently. She looked down and her stomach dropped. A deep wound cut across her chest. Blood gushed from it in rhythmic spurts, splattering on the snow. The pain caught up a second later, and she collapsed to her knees, gasping.
The Worm chuckled, the sound vibrating through the valley.
"It missed your heart, yes. How tragic for you. You'll live long enough to watch yourself die."
It moved, but faster than anything that size should. One moment it stood twenty meters away. The next, it was right in front of her. Haruno barely saw the blur before the armored copy of herself drove a fist into her gut.
The impact folded her body like paper.
Her mouth flew open with blood spraying from her lips as she was hurled backward. She hit the ground, rolled across the ice, and crashed into a rock. Before she could even breathe, the Worm was there again. It grabbed her head and slammed her into the snow.
The ground cracked beneath each blow. Her teeth shattered. Her nose broke. Her vision went white, then red.
The Worm laughed through the chaos with a chilling, satisfied tone.
"You think blood and Xana will save you? You gave me both, little recursion."
It tossed her like a ragdoll. She bounced across the snowy ground, the blood painting the snow in a trail behind her.
Up on the cliff, the Null Handmaidens stood frozen, horrified. They were also shocked to see Phaser and Mizuhara there.
"Master, she's dying!" Iserra's voice trembled.
Naelle clenched her fists. "We have to go down there! She's not—"
"No."
They all looked at Phaser.
"She has to kill it alone," Mizuhara said. "If she doesn't, she fails. If she dies, then she was never meant to carry the Blood Odachi."
Naelle turned to them, furious. "You're watching her die!"
Phaser didn't flinch. "So are you."
The words cut through the Handmaidens. He looked down again.
"Haruno's not weak. The worm has forced every version of her to repeat this battle 173 times. This time, it's different. She just needs to get her thoughts straight."
Back in the valley, Haruno's head jerked up at the sound of another step in the snow. Her body was barely functioning. Her pulse was slowing down from blood loss. She could feel the cold crawling into her veins. The frost was trying to pull her back into compulsion again. The Worm-Haruno walked toward her slowly, dragging one odachi across the snow. The sound was unbearable.
"The others were so easy. They begged for mercy before I devoured them. But you keep getting up."
Haruno spat out blood, smiling weakly through the crimson.
"Guess that's the point… of recursion, huh?"
"How poetic."
It blurred again and appeared directly behind her, slicing.
Haruno twisted mid-fall, just barely raising her odachi to block, but the impact shattered her guard. The blade slammed into her shoulder, sending blood splattering through the snow again.
Her arm went numb.
She screamed in agony but she used that scream as fuel. Her blood responded, forming crimson tendrils that coiled around her wounds, stitching them just enough for her to stand. She coughed out blood.
"You may be stronger but you're still me."
The Worm tilted its head. "And you think that helps you?"
"Yeah. Because I know all my own weaknesses."
And then, the snow moved.
The pools of blood around her and the gigantic worm trembled and began to rise. Mizuhara's eyes widened.
"She's… using the corrupted blood?"
Phaser's lips curled faintly. "Good. However..."
Haruno's Xana flared again, fusing with the corrupted blood she had drawn from the giant worm. Haruno raised her blade, half-limping, half-floating from the sheer force of her power.
"This recursion ends here."
The world turned white and red as her slash flew towards the worm. Phaser sighed as he saw the sight.
"It's not enough."
The slash was deflected by one of the odachi blades. Before Haruno could recover, she felt a sharp pain in her chest. One of the blades pierced her heart.
"You are weaker than your previous recursion."
Haruno fell to the ground.