Nera had been running for several minutes and was getting close to approaching the outside of the expanse. Then, her cell phone would start working again and she would be able to call for an ambulance.

She was incredibly worried. Osvald’s heartbeat was steadily getting slower. She had heard this happening while he was still on the ground. She just did not have the heart to tell Allen the truth nor to accept that there was nothing she could do.

‘His heartbeat may going down quickly but there's still a chance to save him. I just gotta go fast enough to get him some help. I won’t let Allen down. I’m not allowed to let anyone down.’

In the midst of her whirl of thoughts and worries, she heard an unpleasantly familiar sound. A harmonic melody rang out in the forest and an emerald staff of musical notes appeared swiftly towards Nera from her left. She leaped over them and continued running forward while the staff continued past her.

There was another rush of music, another leap out of danger’s way. This time it came from the right and vanished instantly. A third emerged almost immediately after from Nera’s front and she dodged out of the way before landing on the ground, placing Osvald softly on the ground, and sprinted toward the music’s source, sure she would find the assailant.

“Harpe!!!”, Nera leaped onto the treetops and bounded from the branches until she saw the disgustingly self-pleased smirk of the musical Crafter, Harpe. She was wearing exactly what she had on last time. A black hooded outfit with white musical notes strewn across it.

The woman opened her mouth to speak but Nera immediately launched herself from the branch she was on towards her. Harpe jumped out of the way, but Nera caught herself with her hands and spun her body to kick Harpe in the face.

She did not care what Harpe had to say or if she had any involvement in what happened to them. All that mattered to her right now was getting Osvald help in order to uphold the faith Allen had put in her and this woman was in her way.

At the same moment, Harpe strummed on her golden lyre and a stream of green musical lines encircled Nera and sent her rapidly twirling into a tree, knocking a spray of saliva out of her mouth when her back hit the trunk.

“Hey now! Don’t get so worked up already.”, Harpe taunted

Nera ignored Harpe’s words and quickly recovered before landing on the ground with the nimbleness of a cat and lunged at Harpe. Just as she was in striking distance of the sinister Crafter, a stream of musical lines came crashing through her, pushing her to the ground. However, Nera resisted this and forced herself back up, allowing her to uppercut Harpe straight in the jaw.

Nera followed this up with another blow that dug into Harpe solar plexus and propelled her several meters away. Harpe stopped herself by jamming her sandaled feet into the ground, leaving skid marks on the forest floor. She still had a confident grin on her bruised face as Nera sprinted to her again.

“Harpist Craft, Page 2 - Hymn of Restriction!”

A ring of black musical notes began forming around Nera but she jumped out of it before it could be completed. She came down in a somersault along with an axe kick but Harpe nonchalantly dodged to the side and sent a concurrent onslaught of musical staves at her.

Nera dodged all of them except one that caught her leg and almost made her lose balance but used her other leg to propel her forward and keep her from falling. She reached Harpe again and was about to punch her, but another stave wrapped around Nera’s wrist and twisted it so much it was nearly sprained beyond use.

“Tchh..”, she let out at the burst of pain.

Without skipping a beat, she threw another punch at Harpe but it was deflected harmlessly to the side with a staff of music, giving Harpe enough time to backpedal a moderate distance away from her.

“Shit!”, Nera uttered in frustration.

Harpe then tried surrounding Nera in a circle of black notes like before and Nera was able to escape for the second time by leaping to a tree and then launching herself at Harpe.

“Looks like the lab rat is really eager today.”, Harpe mocked condescendly.

“Just shut the hell up!”, Nera shouted as she charged at her with a punch.

Harpe quickly maneuvered out of the way and Nera proceeded to follow up with a kick that was mystically deflected then a punch that was similarly tossed to the side.

She continued her assault and directed another powerful strike of her fist at Harpe as the Crafter leaped back, Nera not paying mind to if it would be deflected or not. She would keep attacking until the enemy before her was put down.

‘Dammit! Why can’t I touch her-’

Her eyes widened with shock as Harpe reached out and grabbed her arm with startling strength and pulled Nera in for a headbutt that rattled her senses and kept Nera from avoiding the circle of black musical notes that completed itself around the two. Nera found herself barely able to move her body.

As blood dripped from both of their foreheads and Harpe stared directly into Nera’s violet eyes with her emerald eyes filled with swirling darkness, she made a declaration with sickening glee.

“Finally, the curtain has closed on your performance. It was excellent, if futile.”

***

Meanwhile, while trailing behind Nera a long distance away. Allen saw the glistening armor of someone in his path and knew exactly who it was. The sight of that figure clad in knightly silver armor and wielding a silver axe was unmistakable. The three scars on his chest almost stung in remembrance of that night and his blood began to boil in anger.

Even with the armored warrior already being empowered with red musical staffs around his limbs, the sight of the adversary standing in his way did nothing to slow Allen down as he charged forward and cloaked the shovel he had brought along with him in ebon aura

“Hache!!!”, Allen yelled out as he swung his shovel at Hache who easily dodged the clumsy attack.

“You can not go any further than this. I will not allow you to interfere with Madame Harpe’s dealings.”, Hache uttered out from his metal helmet.

“Shut the hell up! It was you guys who sent those specters after us!”, Allen swung the shovel again and Hache blocked it with the rod of his axe.

“That’s incorrect. We had nothing to do with the three specters that attacked. That man’s grievous wounds are due to your own ineptitude.”, Hache stated condescendingly.

“Like hell I’d believe that!”, Allen raised the shovel and brought it down towards Hache but this time the armored warrior responded with an attack of his own. He swung the grand axe at Allen. In a flash of memory, Allen recalled the power the red musical staves granted Hache.

His abilities were not only amplified significantly but his attack could fly through the air and objects as well as strike in three different places at once. Allen haphazardly leaped toward the ground as his shovel was cleanly cut into five pieces with three slashes.

Allen then rolled out of the way as Hache’s armored foot came crashing down on him. Allen quickly got up to the ground and rushed at Hache again. Hache swung his axe forward and Allen dodged in between the three slashes knowing exactly where their positions were now. He then threw an uppercut at Hache’s chest with Subtle Iron.

Hache was not phased by this however and proceeded to attack with his axe again. Allen ducked down low to avoid all three of the slashes but before he could send another blow at the armored warrior, Hache swiftly swung the axe to hit the shaft of the weapon into Allen’s side.

Allen felt three blows strike him at the same time on his forearm, middle torso, and shoulder. He heard a crack in his right arm as he was hurled into a tree at an incredible speed with a heavy impact.

“No...”, Allen let out as he sank to the ground and clutched his broken arm. A downside to using Subtle Iron is that it kept him from defending the rest of his body with aura.

“Do you give up now? Only three swings of my axe and you’ve already been reduced to this sorry state.”’

“Screw you.”, Allen did not waste even a second contemplating giving up. He was determined to reach where Nera is and help her fight Harpe. He wanted to finish this fight as quickly as possible so he could get Osvald medical attention.

‘How am I going to get past this guy? I can barely keep my aura concentrated, my attacks aren’t enough to make him budge at all, and one swing of his axe could off me easily. ...But I have to get by him no matter what.’

After collecting his thoughts and resolving himself, Allen gathered a tremendous amount of mana in his left arm turning it completely jet black. This took him a while to do and he was carefully watching Hache the entire time. He then got up and sprinted toward Hache at full speed.

Hache responded in kind by raising his axe for a decisive attack but when Allen threw his fist toward him, he cloaked Hache in Subtle Iron which obscured his vision with a thick mist of magical energy.

He blindly swung his axe around until it struck something. It was to no avail though. When the mist cleared, Hache found his axe embedded into the trunk of a tree and Allen was nowhere to be found.

Allen had bolted far away from Hache the moment his hand left his armor and was empowering each of his legs with Subtle Iron as they came down on the ground, rocketing him forward. He could not beat Hache right now but he did not need to in order to get past him.

It still took him a while to gather mana but he was getting better with each step as he got closer to where Nera and Harpe were.

***

“You’re talking pretty big for some reason who’s trapped here with me.”, Nera snidely remarked as she glared Harpe in the eyes with the two in close proximity of each other and surrounded by the black musical staves that restricted Nera’s movements almost completely.

Harpe chuckled, “Is that what you think is going on?”

She then slowly released Nera’s arm and retreated back from the young woman out of the circle, much to her surprise.

“I’m sorry, but I’m exempt from the effects of my own skills. It’s unfortunate that you were naive enough to think you had brought this battle to a stalemate.”

Nera grunted in anger, “Damn you! You were the ones who sicked those specters on us!”

“No, you’ve got it wrong. Those specters were already here before us, the timing just lined up as all. You couldn’t have thought we’d just let you two prance around pretending to be Traversers while you had something I fervently wanted.”

“That’s unlikely coming out of your mouth. What do you want from us?”

“The same as last time, the Grim Piece that’s inside of you. Well that, along with the clandestine information you have. Before I take the Grim Piece from you, just where did you get that odd scythe of yours?”

Nera scoffed at her question, “There’s no way I’m telling you that.”

“That’s a good answer.”, she stated sinisterly and closed her fist, causing the black circle to tighten around Nera and compress her arms to her sides and straighten her body. This placed Nera in a great deal of pain as it felt she was being crushed from all around her.

“Now, I’ll ask again. Where did you get that scythe, Nera Vide?”

Nera smirked, “I am never going to tell you, you crazy bitch.”

At this, Harpe let out a low chuckle that steadily grew into a bellowing laughter that echoed throughout the forest. She clutched her stomach as she continued to laugh.

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. My favorite thing in this life is the moment when a human commits an action that goes completely against their own will. Something that they thought they would never do.”, she proclaimed hauntingly, even worrying Nera.

She then gripped her lyre in her other hand and began playing an erratic song with an array of discordant notes in it and a blistering fast melody.

It was at this moment that Allen finally arrived at their location led by the sound of the disturbing song. He immediately directed his rush towards Harpe but before he could get close she chanted an ominous incantation.

“Expanse Open and Give Rise To The Hysterical Midgard of the Depraved Humans.”

Immediately, the area was basked in a bright emerald light. When it faded, all of the trees were no longer present and they were inside a green dome of some sort of viscous substance. With dismembered hands, eyes, and ears crawling through it. The jade canopy completely covered up the sky and made their surroundings dim.

Allen was bewildered by the sight of this and was not sure what his next action should be for a moment. But after regaining sight of Nera who was confined in excruciating pain. His anger urged him to confront Harpe.

But as soon as he put a foot forward, the musical Crafter who was still playing her instrument spoke a word that stopped him instantly in his tracks.

“Fear.”

His blood ran cold. Allen was suddenly overwhelmed with a terror like none he had ever felt before and his heart felt like it was going to spring out his chest at the alarming rate it was beating.

“What’s going on with me? I can’t be chickening out now.”

He kept moving forward but he was only walking now. Each mechanical raising of his leg and placing it down to get closer toward Harpe took him mustering all of his willpower. It was like one misstep could send him falling off the edge of the world.

Meanwhile, Nera was not faring any better. She never had claustrophobia before but now she was feeling like she was cramped in an unfathomably small space with barely any air to breath. Her breaths started getting more and more rapid until she began hyperventilating.

Terrified by this, Allen continued walking towards Harpe but he was gradually getting slower. His legs felt like they were moving knee deep through a swamp and beads of sweat were forming all over his body.

‘This must be some sort of weird power of hers. It’s strong but I won’t let it stop me.’

“Come on! I’m almost towards her-”

Harpe looked at him directly for the first time and he collapsed to his knees. He was almost completely sure that if he got any closer, Harpe would kill the both of them in an instant.

“Damn it! This isn’t fair! I thought I had gotten so much stronger.. That I finally had the courage to go do what I truly want, but all it took was one word from here and..my resolve was shattered completely.”, Allen was shaking uncontrollably, in both fear and frustration.

“Don’t blame yourself too hard, pitiful boy. It’s nothing to be ashamed of to cower in the face of a greater power.”, she assured with false sincerity.

She proceeded to walk up to Nera who was still held in place by the black mystical circle and still breathing much too rapidly.

“Tell me what I want to hear.”

Inbetween hastened gasps for air, Nera wheezed out, “Nnn...o..”

Immediately she was struck on the side of her head with an emerald stream that slammed her skull into the ground. When she opened her eyes up after the impact, her vision was met by grotesque goat-like eye lurking in the floor beneath also opening up and gazing at her, causing her to shriek in fear.

“Wrong! Looks like you’re drying up. Did you forget your lines, coming down with some stage fright?”, Harpe laughed at her own joke while Nera struggled to control her breathing. She then put her hand on her chin deep in thought.

“Even in the midst of absolute terror, you continue to defy me. Maybe if I explain my stance, you’ll be more open to comply.”, she kept on playing her lyre as she continued.

“You know as well as I do how widespread the corruption of this sparkling city is. We’ve both been stained by it. However, it’s a more prevalent threat than you may realize. Think about the disparate rifts and specter attacks that happen from time to time. With how advanced and wealthy this city is, do you really think they don’t have the resources to handle them better?”, Harpe waited dramatically to let this question settle into Nera’s head before continuing.

“The answer is yes, they do but they don’t care. Atelier City does not care if a few of its citizens are attacked by specters because they see the resources they could put into fixing the problem as better spent in lining their pockets and building monuments to their austerity and indolence!”, Harpe’s voice raised considerably as she was now practically screaming at Nera.

“Isn’t it mad!? Doesn’t it just drive you crazy!? Well, I despise them, the people that run this city from the shadows! The way they run this place is haphazard and dull! Humans are tools that should be taken care of in order to last as long as possible so they can use up their entire pathetic lives providing me as much entertainment as possible!”, Harpe ended her rant seething with rage and in that moment, Nera and Allen both shared the same thought. That this entity before them was completely and utterly insane.

Harpe shook her head to reveal the circlet of mystical runes on her neck then sighed. Her demeanor turned to a more solemn state.

“That’s where these Grim Pieces come in. Me and my cohorts are attempting to gather as many weapons against the heads of Atelier City as possible and these marks are one of them. That’s also why I want to know where you got that scythe from. The source of it could be significantly helpful to our cause.”

Nera simply shook her head in response, still resolute in the words she had spoken before.

“Very well.”

With that, the black ring of musical notes around Nera began to condense even further and squeeze her even more intensely. She could barely breathe at all now.

“Just cave in already you insufferable lab ra-”, she was interrupted by someone grabbing her ankle. Allen had crawled all the way to her unnoticed, still nearly paralyzed in fear.

“What?”, Harpe uttered in disgust then kicked him in the face. Allen could do nothing but shake in terror as he tried to get up.

“Wait...stop!”, Nera screamed out hoarsely.

“You want me to stop playing my song? How about taking my instrument for yourself then? Greed.”, the melody of her song became lower and more staggered. Allen suddenly felt emboldened with an urge to take the golden lyre for himself and jumped up to charge at Harpe but was knocked down to the ground by a green stave. Nera was also eager to snatch the instrument away as well but was still restrained by Harpe’s magic.

Harpe then kicked him in the side a few meters away.

“Let’s make things more festive now. Joy.”, before he could get up, she stomped his head to the floor and kept doing so even after she started drawing blood. All the while, Allen was laughing uncontrollably and ecstatically. Nera watched on in horror as she could not do anything but laugh as well at the sight of him being brutally beaten.

‘No...this isn’t right.’, she thought to herself even though her outward appearance did not match with this sentiment.

Allen was able to resist even if he was feeling this false joy. He still knew Harpe was an enemy and was still determined to save Nera, to get Osvald help. He was not going to be reduced as some jester for this deranged lunatic. While still laughing hysterically, Allen started to force himself up against Harpe’s foot with his hand and knee. But as soon as he started making progress, Harpe continued her dreadful performance.

“That’s not what you should be doing. Despair.”

Instantly, Allen and Nera both lost hope and Allen fell to the ground while still being trampled by Harpe. Nera did not see any chance of them being able to defeat this monster in human skin.

“Now that you’ve seen more of my marvelous power, you’ll be able to feel this even more strongly. Fear.”

The terror that had consumed their hearts before came rushing back, magnified tremendously. Allen was shuddering and Nera could bear to watch no longer. She was afraid of what could happen to him and what could happen to her as well.

“I’ll do what you want. Please, just leave him alone.”

Harpe smirked and walked away from Allen.

“I knew it would happen eventually. Just a matter of time. Tell me where you got that scythe.”

Trapped in the expanse of green that stretched for at least a hundred meters and still bound by Harpe’s magic, Nera thought carefully about her next words.

“I want to tell you, but I don’t know. I have no memory of how I got this scythe or how I got involved in all of this. I may be one of you Grim Inheritors but I don’t remember ever meeting this Grim Reaper you all have been talking about.” the young woman admitted.

Harpe eyed her suspiciously but sensed no deceit in her words.

“That’s disappointing. So be it, I’ll just end you now and claim your Grim Piece. Your resistance was at least entertaining while it lasted.”, Harpe commended. Nera’s vision started to blur from lack of oxygen. If she passed out, there was no chance of her ever waking up again. She was on the verge of oblivion.