Behind a cracked glass, the counter of anomalous rating was exceeding the scale, all the way past the red region of the index. The astronaut moved his arm away from the corpse of a horse and gestured to his companions that they should get out as soon as possible.

Another astronaut lifted his hand to an earpiece, while making sure his other hand stays on the automatic rifle. - "The area is clear. Moving out." - For a brief moment, his plate with engraved snake gleamed behind the cloud of brown dust.

Behind him, a female voice in an orange suit relayed, almost shouting. - "Wait! One is still alive."

The entire squad of snake-badged soldiers lifted their weapons, aiming in the direction of the woman. A few meters away from her, a corpse of a young horse was convulsing. - "Clear the line of sight. Immediately." - The leader requested, but the woman refused.

"No, don't shoot!" - She crouched closer to the monster, watching its gaping mouth. A pair of slimy arms exited through, then a small head revealed itself. - "It's... it's a child!"

"Once again, clear the line." - Commander demanded while lifting an arm to his comrades. Once it would be down, they would shoot.

The child crawled out of the horse's belly, terrified, in tears, and covered in web. The woman quickly approached and cleaned the mucus off the boy's face. - "Everything will be alright. You're safe now."

"M... my sister." - The child stuttered out. - "Sh.. she... is in there." - He pointed at the horse.

The woman looked at the beast's swollen belly. It wasn't moving. She gently spoke to the boy. - "Listen. I need to you to slowly walk to my friends. They'll take care of you. I'll try to free your sister, okay?"

The boy nodded while holding an arm over his sobbing eyes. After he moved away, the woman pulled out a laser scalpel and began to open the horse's stomach.

Her squad observed from afar, one of the soldiers grabbed the boy's wrist and pulled it, to move the kid away from the horrendous sight, when the half-digested corpse slid out of the horse's guts.

"Okay, we are leaving." - The leader of the snakes signaled and his group began to run towards a gunship.

In front of the aircraft, stood the astronaut with the counter. As he inspected the commander, the red diode on his device lit up and loud beeping could be heard.

"I'm sorry." - The astronaut replied and reached to his holster in a flash. A loud bang scared the crows resting on the branches of lifeless trees. The leader of the squad collapsed, there was a large hole in his head.

His team fell into disarray and reached for their rifles, but half of them were too slow. The astronaut with a scanner moved his arm with a lightning-fast speed, eliminating them one by one with precise shots at the frontal lobe.

Countless bullets whizzed in the air, but they all were evaporated by a forcefield. When the last soldier collapsed, only the kid was still standing.

The astronaut aimed his scanner at the boy - "Beep." - then pointed his gun at the kid's face.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Something akin to black branches grew out of the astronaut's fingernails, piercing the suit, and he dropped his gun. The astronaut fought against the tendrils that seemed to rapidly grow right under his skin, he tried to reach his weapon, but the outgrowths immobilized him just as his fingers touched its surface.

Multiple branches pierced the astronaut's suit and the glass screen of his helmet, rising to the sky and reaching for the gunship.

"Code: Yellow. Hazard: Contamination. Phoenix protocol..." – The astronaut observed how bloodied screens inside his helmet crack one after another. - "...inaccessible. Requesting purge."

A bright dot of light appeared behind the dark skies, its luminosity intensified with every second, until a laser beam pierced the clouds and burnt the gunship and everything in its vicinity to ashes.

The astronaut woman dropped to her knees as she observed the event.

"Save me." - She whispered in a weak voice.

"Is that, what you really want?" - She heard a reply.

The woman reached to her holster, but branches erupted from her fingers and knocked her gun away.

"Free yourself from the doubt." - The voice continued. - "It's the only way."

"I don't... bargain with the witch."

The voice burst into laughter. - "I will not ask again, is that.... what you really want?"

"You... you monster. I... I will not..." - At this point, branches wrapped around her throat. - "...n...not."

"Hmm.... yes? Speak louder."

"Ghh... ngh." - The woman was out of air. Before her eyes, appeared a shadow of dark silhouette, with a wide, satisfied smile. As it stared at the dying astronaut, its smile got gradually wider.

"I still can't hear you~"

"Gh... ghh... hhh..." - The woman collapsed, lifeless.

The dark shadow snapped its fingers and two gray humanoids with featureless faces and the anatomy of a stick bug emerged from the ground.

"Bring her corpse to the castle and prepare the cross."

[ . . . ]

The woman astronaut regained her senses, she was hanging on a wooden contraption that resembled a cross that was connected to a large wheel. In front of her was a black mirror, its function was simple, to show the effects of her denial.

Astronaut no longer possessed any skin, lower part of body and hands. In place of lost organs, were hundreds of blood vessels, nerves, and tubes, all connected to a wheel to form a shape resembling three pairs of wings.

The dark silhouette materialized before the astronaut and asked. - "Is that, what you really want?"

The woman slowly opened her eyes and noticed her own reflection. - "No... no, no, no... NOO!!!"

The grin of her tormentor grew wider. - "Ah, you finally understand... but you know, it's already too late. I'll make you into a beautiful flower, you'll adorn my garden with all the others. It... might hurt, but only a little." - The shadow giggled. - "A little? Oh, I actually meant, a lot."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" - The astronaut pleaded. - "They've lied to me, you must understand!"

"Oh... they've told you that 'this' would never happen again, and you believed them, my sweet Lily?"

"Please... I beg you..." - Tears of blood rolled down the astronaut's face. - "I'll do anything!"

"Uhm, no, no. No... what could you do for me, anyway, my sweet Lily?"

"I know... I know their leader. I can persuade them to surrender!"

"Oh, sweet Lily. I already probed your memory. It was tinkered with. You were fed nothing, but an illusion."

"They... they would never do that."

"Oh, my sweet, naive Lily. Her knight in shining armor turned out to be a traitor, but otherwise, how else would they survive, denying me for so long?"

"It... it can't be true."

"Don't worry, my child. Once you grow your claws, I'll allow you to lacerate their necks. Once you learn to sing, I'll allow you to shatter their minds and once you learn to love me, I'll set you free to feast on their souls."

The shadow vanished from sight and the outer ring of the wheel started turning, Lily could do nothing, but scream in pain.

[ . . . ]

Beyond the veil of the world, a small girl was hiding underneath an orange cape with two fox ears. She passed the witch's trials, and avoided her traps, leaving the machinery and magical wards as If they were never touched.

"Lily, where are you?" - She said as she put an ear to the ground. Her eyes opened wide in shock, she knew that she was late.

The girl's silhouette dissolved and she reappeared in front of a white ocean. In front of her, was a large tree formed of thousands of polygons. Sharp triangles dangled from its branches.

"I'm sorry." - The girl uttered as she reached for two of the fruits, which in her hands transformed into a pair of blades. She cut through the space itself, forming a rift between worlds, then jumped inside.

"Lily!" - The girl shouted as she arrived next to the cross, but the astronaut's mind was no longer there.

The wheel started creaking and bindings, that held Lily's wings strapped to it, were torn apart by an invisible force.

A thousand razor-sharp blades appeared out of thin air and pierced the spot where the girl in orange cape stood, but it only struck her afterimage. The girl in a cape was already at the top of a cross, working to free Lily from her chains.

After the first lock was disarmed, Lily's space-tearing scream shattered the chamber into forty-four pocket dimensions.

"Invoke: Union of the clockwork order, break the needles, mend the psyche." - The girl in cape chanted. - "Invoke: Gate of the end, forty-four times I leap, break the boundary."

The boundary of these separated worlds melted away and their interiors began to combine into a chaotic assemblage of unsolidified regions, until everything but the girl turned liquid. An astronaut was in the middle of this maelstrom.

The caped girl dived deeper. - "Invoke: Local boundary, restoration. Radius: twenty centimeters. Target: Lily's left shoulder."

A sphere of interweaving objects solidified above the astronaut's arms. The caped girl shattered the external shell with a single blow, nothing but a deformed lock remained. She carefully disarmed it.

Lily was unusually calm, the caped girl's first spell was working. The caped girl cut through the space once more, carrying Lily's deformed body with her.

Both girls landed in a desolate land consisting entirely of clouds of pink fluff, it was melting from the use of their forbidden magic.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I must abandon you here, but do know, she will never reach this place."

The caped girl cut through the space one last time, and was gone.