"Come, then." said Mia, trying to match his pattern of speech as they separated to opposite ends of the avenue. "Magnus Egashira, I shall prove I am worthy of what lies beyond your corpse."

  He laughed, as the two stood at opposite ends of the street. "If you know that name, then perhaps what appears next shall be no surprise. Worldwide!"

  The final piece formed in his final hand. Around his one arm there crawled a thin line of golden scarabs, their backs a tri-helix of red & blue & white that seeped a metal of their color. "An unnatural metal, but a conduit for her elements." It hardened into a blade of the same color, three-scarab shaped insets drilled into it. "It was her weapon. I no longer possess the scarabs to use it fully."

  "And I will." grunted Mia, rushing at him with her own blade drawn.

  As they clashed at the center of the avenue, she felt experience beyond her years flood through her, just as she always had with a weapon, now knowing its source; she could not afford to be struck many times and was not struck once as she blocked and dodged and weaved through in a flurry of blows, his size and strength but her speed and experience; in a whirlwind of strikes they fought down the avenue, flanked by burnt and overgrown buildings, nature having long reclaimed this town in spots.

  He rose his blade at her again and swept down; she dodged and slashed at his wrist, blood spurting; his shoulder slammed against her and forced her back, but in her stagger, she still almost autonomously blocked with the bouncy hilt of her blade and nearly sent his next strike back into him, the two backing slowly away as they caught their breath from the first round.

  "T-That speed..." he gasped. A line of scarabs interlinked and closed his gushing wound. "Her skill carries into you, does it not?"

  "I-It does." she grunted. "I've felt a remembrance every time I've gripped a sword."

  "Epigenetic memory passed through a Revenant. Untheorized, yet unsurprising. ...if only there were time to examine it."

  They rushed to each other and clashed again; Mia swept underneath his vicious swipe, cursing her tall height as she cut off to his side and blasted him with fire; a swarm of his scarabs took the blow and melted into a boiling splatter of gold that seared her flesh; staggering back, she blocked his next strike with a frozen shield over her left arm, yet another swarm of his scarabs coated it in scarabmetal, claiming its temperature; frostbite ripped at her skin, yet she stabbed through his gut and he bashed her with such strength she was launched away and through the next building over, barely a second to rise again to her feet, bits of rubble stuck to her back and burnt & frozen skin flaking from her front.

  In the next instant she expected, then heard the mutter of FTL. A geyser of water blasted her through the ceiling of the building, up onto the roof; another FTL murmur and a second geyser blasted her off of the building, turning midair with a whip of flame that cut through the complex and collapsed it utterly; another FTL, the knowledge that he was now below in the avenue and seeking to impale her; jets of water blasted her wildly about and around him, a thick veil out of which she could burst at any point.

  Within that tornado of water roiling hellishly about, she chose a spot where his back was turned and blasted herself with blade drawn at him; he turned too slowly to cut her, but all sound disappeared from the area and her sight disappeared completely; water rushed into her nostrils and she exhaled a breath of fire that cleared them out, her sight suddenly waterlogged and dim; the ocean around her smothered her with a pressure that would snap apart a civilian, a depth only machinery and host can yet survive.

  Inhaling a breath of fire, she felt all around her gather bioluminescent jellyfish and misshapen sharks, eels and anglerfish, other creatures with deformed heads and abbreviated bodies; they swarmed upon her and she slashed wildly about, no sight to confirm their deaths but for the occasional scent of blood; a bouquet of tendrils yanked her arms back but a burst of fire burnt all meddlesome upstarts to death around her, yet more would soon be upon her.

  Feeling the movement of fish around her erode the water, swarms of scarabs formed lanterns around her, and she felt a presence above that she had not the time to confirm visually; she shot a geyser of fire below herself and fell into the sudden hole in the water caused by it, until sound returned and she was falling through the air, turning in time to grip a nearby tree with a scarab-rope, clambering rapidly down into the clearing of a forest, catching her breath for a moment as she saw no sight of him around.

  A swarm of birds flew overhead as his voice chanted: "As I exhaled life into her momentary shape, I lift your frozen forms to the thaw of air."

  She recognized it was not only human minds he could control, yet instinctually she felt it absurd she had thought anything else; how else had he commanded the bacterial colonies of his husks?

  The avian swarm descended upon her, scarabmetal pooling from their beaks and flooding upon her; it was a viscous liquid that threatened to trap her utterly if she caught too much of it. Ripping out a strand from Boudoir's blade, she hurled and whipped her blade through the air, cutting and slashing all about, geysers of water carrying away the scarabmetal within before they could land upon her.

  In the trees around herself, she saw his form stalking as a great many creatures rushed upon her; deer and snakes and lower insects; she shouted for Worldwide and her swarm ripped them all to pieces, yet his own scarabs arose from their corpses, making to surround her in a second assault.

  "O-Of course." she said to him, readying. "It isn't only human minds you can control. Otherwise, t-the husks... their Revenants... How many were there?"

  "Thousands, if not more. Far simpler to control than fauna." he grunted, almost wearily. "Humans need only a single idea implanted in their mind to cascade into rationale; force the notion of hatred into a man's head, and he will soon argue that it always existed in himself. A delusion mercifully absent in these lower creatures."

  A wall of his scarabs burst up around her, then shot towards her, but the next scene was instant. A swarm of fire scarabs burst through them all and melted them into molten metal; a swarm of ice scarabs froze them, then tore off a chunk of metal to carry far away, and when the swarm of electric scarabs sparked it created a magnetic arc that yanked away all surrounding metal to its distant cousin, little damage to Mia herself beyond what she had already suffered.

  No time to rest, she felt something enormous rushing at her from behind, and turned in time to sweep back from the vicious pounce of a black bear; it swiped at her, but a chain of scarabs yanked its front leg back, then the other; as it roared in pain, a sadistic rage claimed Mia as she shouted for Worldwide and its chains tightened, constricting, tearing, pulling, until it ripped the beast's legs clear off and scarabmetal flooded out of it; its body attempted to reconstitute, its maw still gnashing at her as she circled rapidly around it.

  She slashed and cut through its flesh; more scarabs contained within; and in one motion she impaled her blade clear through its body, yet its veins and internal sinew resisted her assault; scarabs within chewed at her weapon, and a deep ire came over her that this final segment of the colony that was rightfully her's dared resist her dictates; she yanked her sword out then slammed her left fist clear through the bear's flesh, gouging, ripping, seeking for the heart which she knew lay within. Sinew sewed itself frantically around Mia's hand, twisting, slicing and breaking her fingers apart, until with a final wail she ripped its heart clear out and crushed it in her still-working palm.

  The dreadnought was ahead of her, away but within her pace; all fell to the rage of her gaze; emotions and enemies moved, not thoughts and people; a menace arose in her scarabs as they rushed at each other, and a swarm of his scarabs shot towards her; she swept her mutilated hand out and a swarm of her own met them in an eruption of fire & ice & lightning and metal, pincers gnashing and carapaces bursting from the walls of their struggle, a chatter so deafening all noise submit underneath their hellish melee.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Inch-after-inch, there opened holes in the mosaic of scarabs ahead that her greater numbers could drill clear through; in an instant she swept her hand back and all scarabs returned to her, and as his own cloud swarmed at her, a geyser of water blasted all prior carcasses through them and caught many along for the ride, until the dreadnought burst away from the thick swarm and their blades met again as a tornado of scarabs swirled around them.

  As they clashed, she felt the familiar aura of control envelop her and had almost unconsciously allowed it in herself before it became suffused with malice; she repelled it once and hardened shut the shell of her mind, but again his mentality crashed over her, seeking, flooding into the crevices of her mentality, filling and attempting to erode away from within her control of her self; familiarity and unfamiliarity mingled in a slurry of thoughts her's and not, a command of resistance in his voice yet somehow the tone to accept of her's, then joined by another woman's voice that she did not recognize but knew, acceptance and resistance undulating in the river of thought.

  Her senses slowed and her movements began to dim. She was too slow on a rightward dodge, and within the ache of her consciousness, his blade sliced her left hand clear off; a flash of scarabs cauterized her wound as she pulled back; her sight then paused; in the next instant her scarab-chain yanked back the head of the bear and its open teeth sank clear through the dreadnought's back, relenting Scourge's aura for a moment; as she slashed through his chest she felt it seep into her once more, yet her mentality counterwaxed against its dictates; Ryumi's bacterium and the anger of its separation poured throughout herself, her temperament, her violent fits of frustration; its ache to be reunited upon one heart once more; until with electric determination, she expelled Scourge from her mind and shattered completely the influence of its aura; she lashed out at him with a whip of flame but he stated "FTL" and was gone; she swept forward just in time to dodge his blade at her back and turned once, twice to block his teleporting blade at her left, as she was transported to another place once more; in a whirlwind of strikes they fought across the shelf of a glacier, and constantly in her ears was:

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  On igneous rock cobbling against her step, she still had not struck his figure teleporting all around and past and near and far from her, his blade blinking into existence repeatedly in strikes she had only a second or so to block.

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  In the Canadian tundra, she knew from Hirogane's note and her own observations that he could only teleport if he had not been touched by host or Revenant in the past few seconds.

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  Again he was behind her in a desert that knew eons and she was dizzy to turn. She burst into red flames and attempted an aura of immolation, yet in the wink of a moment a swarm of scarab-metal devoured her coating and heavily amplified her heat; she was forced to lower it again and turned to block another disappearing strike.

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  Under the attic of a rainforest roof, a swarm of fire & ice & electric scarabs flew above and merged into an electrified rain that claimed the area, yet once more he teleported and continued to disappear between the margins of these droplets; a swarm of scarab-metal shot clear through her right knee and devoured it from within as it passed through the other side, and she was reduced to one knee as she blocked another strike at her neck, gasping and cauterizing her wound with fire.

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  Water spewed out from her in all directions and coated the entire woodland forest; the pressure of her geysers collapsed one tree, then another and another and another and another, and when she turned, barely visible through the mist was him again, standing outside of her range. She breathed again, only for a few moments before a swarm of scarabmetal devoured away all remnant water.

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  "FTL."

  Blood spurted from herself in heavy gushes onto the savannah.

  "FTL."

  She blocked once more in the middle of the abandoned town and gasped out for Worldwide as a swarm of each element burst out in a tri-swarm raid around herself; the ice burst open, then melted via fire into water, and a final blast of electricity electrolyzed them into a host-formed oxygen that permeated the air; she heard the repeat of FTL in the same location behind her, and in the moment that his figure was sank in air and rendered unable to teleport, she lashed out with her blade burning white; his strike met her's; a minor indentation formed in her liquefying metal; before he could realize, she swept left and her blade melted past his own and resolidified frozen in a slash that cut halfway through his midsection, which Mia then yanked free as a swarm of scarabs burrowed into his expanding wound.

  Fog and blood spilled forth from him, his scarabmetal sword dropping; she thrust her blade at him and his hand grasped it midstrike, gripping, bending the blade clear back, until the pressure of her strike shoved him through a wall of electricity that vaporized his spilled blood and she rushed to pursue him staggering ahead.

  She melted her blade and straightened it by hand and froze it all in the same instant, then slashed through another swarm of scarabs desperately forming a shield until he was almost cleaved in two; he made to grab her directly, but a swarm of water slowed his extending hand; she swept back and away, yanking her hand back and a geyser of fire scarabs burst through his back & out his chest in a pillar of fire, as once more another explosion of ice blasted several icicles clear throughout his mangled body and a bolt of lightning electrified what pieces were left within him.

  A final choked cry left him as he fell back to the ground. A surrendering wave of his hand, and Mia knew that she had won.

  A score of wounds were streaming blood, pain that she didn't yet feel, and the dreadnought's armor was cracked, grisly, and horrific.

  She crouched over him, and his voice began to fade as he spoke.

  "The final piece."

  Following the directive of his gesturing hand, she sliced open his chest, then tore into it until she found the misshapen beat against flesh that was Worldwide's final conduit.

  The spectacle repeated. She accepted with some tears the fourth heart, and the dreadnought's final arm began to crumble as new strength claimed her.

  "Before you- I- can y-you tell me more about Ryumi?" said Mia.

  "T-The moment with h-her I most remember w-was in my second year at Urasaria, during a summer afternoon. I-It was a summer afternoon. I was reading through research papers at my desk, and I had a-a presentation to work through for the start of the semester. She came over to me, and as always, I thought of how beautiful she looked. How unworthy her presence made me. She told me that she couldn't wait for winter, and asked me what my favorite season was. I-I replied that it did not matter much, as I was always indoors. S-She prodded me, b-but I eventually said fall, for how the leaves change, and that it's n-neither too cold or too hot. And when I turned to look at her, she was smiling a little. At that moment, I realized her trait of always asking small questions of me, and why she asked them... I-I cannot explain further why that moved me so... G-Goodbye, Mia."

  "Goodbye, Magnus."

  His armor cracked, then crumbled to reveal what filled it, the black fog scattering overhead as below laid his corpse.

  For a long while, Mia sat there. She listened to the crickets grow in the evening as she extended her right hand, and Ryumi's bacterium made its reason in a blade reflecting the grass that her eyes saw slightly damp.

  [END OF ARC: SCOURGE OVER URASARIA]

  [You have reached the end of Arc 1! Thank you for reading.

  Arc 2 will likely begin being posted in... January 2026, possibly, perhaps out sooner. Perhaps February. I realize that's a long wait, however, and so will provide two gifts. The first gift is that I've commissioned a new cover for Urasaria Academy, and the second gift is the below preview of a certain scene in the second arc for your reading pleasure, and perhaps other pleasures:]

  Mia leaned down, her breath mixing with Aimee's. "Louder. More forceful. Tell me what you want me to do to you."

  "P-Please- please use me to make yourself feel good."

  "Be careful what you wish for."

  Mia flipped Aimee over on her stomach and stripped her down to nothing, then kept her pinned down as she began kissing the back of her neck, her hands sliding over Aimee as her clothed body pressed down into her. "Helpless for me, mmm… good. I don't want you to be able to resist me."

  "God, f-fuck..." whined out Aimee, her muscular body limp under Mia's ministrations, only able to turn her head to catch a half of a kiss to her lips: whatever ones weren't delivered down her neck or other places on her body. She felt Mia's lips grow tantalizing close as they traveled down, then traveled back up, her arms gripped around Aimee in a possessive vice.

  Mia slid her hands over Aimee's chest; there was not much to grip there, but she felt her muscularity tense and grinned to herself. "Already aching for me. Desperate for my touch, little butch."

  "N-Not as- not as much as you think..." gasped Aimee. "You're d-doing fine, b-but-"

  "But what? Admit your desires to me, now." Mia's lips drew against her ears, Aimee's body tensing in excitement below as her fingers followed below, pressing Aimee's thighs apart with some resistance. "Or I'll make you confess them to me with a collar around your neck."

  Aimee gasped out loudly, involuntarily, and Mia felt her thighs dripping; she had unintentionally hit upon a good spot for Aimee, and grinned as she began undressing herself, resisting her urge to grind herself further against Aimee - at least for now. "My, my. Such a depraved little butch. But you're going to be very fun to tease and toy with until you confess how desperate you are for me."