Chapter Sixty-Seven: Phantom Armor

Lilith had sensed Eternal Life was bottling up a storm. The Little White Dragon hadn’t thought the volcano would be this vast.

As the Little White Dragon swung her pink-and-white blade veined with ghost-blue to finish Eternal Life, the Reaper Fragment rose. Moonswallow Mist thickened like liquid ropes, winding around Eternal Life like a tide pulled by a dark moon. The Little White Dragon couldn’t tell where she’d dredged up so much fog. Before the long night birthed worse dreams, she chose not to evade. She cut straight through the swelling mist toward Eternal Life.

“How annoying.” Lilith’s blade hit a wall. Eternal Life, once sprawled, stood tall. The Reaper Fragment’s body was drowned in liquid Moonswallow Mist. Her face blurred. Her outline twisted. Her voice thinned, distant as a tossed echo across living water, a wavering lake that refused a clear reflection.

“You actually drove me this far.” Ghost-blue fog deepened into bright azure, then indigo, then ink-black. The Moonswallow Mist curdled into clots of ink. The Reaper Fragment’s figure blurred; human flesh was peeled like old lacquer. Only inner bone remained, stubborn as winter rock, holding up the mounting black. “It’s been a long, long time since I showed anyone a shape this ugly.”

“Isn’t this your true face?” The Little White Dragon raised her sword, wary. Ancient Ark was evolving. Lilith no longer knew what to call the blade that had traveled with her. Even so, with a new name or not, she trusted this weapon stained in Star Canvas to block the Reaper Fragment turned pitch-black skeleton.

“If I were you, I’d hate it too.” She kept her voice low. Eternal Life’s true face had always mirrored Lilith’s—an exquisite girl, flawless at a glance. White hair and red eyes, more dangerous than Lilith’s white hair and blue gaze.

Turning into a soot-black skeleton? No one would be happy. The Little White Dragon almost felt sorry for her.

“Shut up. These are time’s scars on me. My indelible medals. Proof of my power.” Eternal Life’s retort rang hard, yet the ghost-blue in her ink-dark eyes flickered with doubt, like a lantern shivering in wind.

“You think it’s ugly too, don’t you?” The Little White Dragon shrugged. She didn’t waste more breath. She lifted her long blade and flicked it toward Sakunae Mashiro.

“Miss Mashiro, give this tormented fragment a clean ending.” Her blue-and-pink sword kissed the ground. White radiance split the clinging black around Eternal Life like dawn cutting fog. Red-black Taint wrapped the Little White Dragon’s white scales. She chose a dignified end for the Reaper Fragment cracking before them.

“Mm. I’ve waited too long for this.” The fox-lady nodded, soft as snowfall. The fox maiden became a colossal white-furred fox again. Red lightning bled through her coat like storm-fire. She licked her claws, calm as a seasoned huntress ready to end a long war.

“I’ll turn all of you into exhibits in my palace.” Eternal Life’s voice frayed, then snapped. The Reaper Fragment dropped elegance like a mask and bared teeth at the Little White Dragon and the great white fox.

“You—I'll make you my sapphire, carried at my side. Your Taint will be swallowed by my fog. You’ll be my favorite ornament, and you’ll never leave me.”

“And you. My disobedient little fox. You don’t deserve to be my pet. Decoration suits you better. I do like the gem that houses the Undead little princess’s soul.” Eternal Life tilted her head, speaking lightly, carving cruelty like frost on glass. “Should I trap you in a gem, grind you to powder, and dust her with you? Or would you prefer the reverse?”

The Little White Dragon felt a knot in her gut, sour as old iron. Good thing Miss Mashiro didn’t take the bait. The white-furred fox lowered her body, the way every skilled predator settles into the earth, eyes locked on prey like stars pinning down the night.

Lilith struck first. Her Taint-tentacles speared the tense air, dark-red flesh whipping onto the ink-black mist clinging outside Eternal Life’s bones. The devouring Taint pared a slice of black away, like dusk cut from the sky.

Eternal Life didn’t slow. In the heartbeat after Lilith attacked, the Reaper Fragment seized the flying tentacle. She hauled hard and yanked the Little White Dragon forward.

Dragged toward Eternal Life, the Little White Dragon felt a flare—no panic, only sharpened intent. She’d wanted to close the gap anyway. Eternal Life had just saved her a sprint. She raised her blade and chopped for Eternal Life’s head.

Eternal Life’s black arm caught the strike. She gripped Lilith’s blue-and-pink blade, Taint writhing like brambles around it, and lashed a kick at the Little White Dragon’s belly.

Lilith’s blade was trapped. She couldn’t dodge. She wouldn’t take the kick head-on. Both hands clamped her sword. Stored power detonated like a thunderstone. The burst threw Eternal Life’s attack off and flung the Little White Dragon backward, skimming air like a tossed feather.

She shouted as she flew. “Sakunae Mashiro!”

“Awoo!” The white-furred fox answered, sliding into Lilith’s place like lightning finding ground. The giant fox opened her blood-red maw and bit down on the Reaper Fragment before her. Canine jaws, forged for crushing bone, fused with red lightning. Sakunae Mashiro’s keen fangs sank into Eternal Life’s body like stakes into frozen earth.

The great fox shook her head once, then bit hard. She tore free a chunk of “meat” — a lump of ink-black mist ripped clean from Eternal Life.

Eternal Life rolled once across the ground. The Reaper Fragment didn’t rise. More mist condensed in her hands, dense as storm-clouds crushed into stone. A beam of pure black shot from her palm, straight for Sakunae Mashiro’s skull.

The white fox sprang aside, light as dandelion fluff on wind. The beam curled in midair, nimble as a snake, and snapped toward Lilith.

“What?” The Little White Dragon flinched. She threw herself sideways and instinctively wrapped her wings around her body like shields hammered from moonlight.

Just as Lilith braced for impact, a black silhouette dropped from the sky.

That figure dragged a hulking mass, planting it before Lilith like a mountain rolled into place. Eternal Life’s beam hit the huge thing and thudded like a river against a cliff. Only a few red flecks spattered free, then nothing.

“Sorry. Wasted a bit of time. Still made it.” The Little White Dragon peeked from her winged shelter and met the gaze of the shadow setting down the giant bulk.

Nidhogg tossed the Devourer’s carcass aside. She flashed the Little White Dragon a wide, feral smile.