Lesson 2: Sometimes the best way to get humans to work together is to give them a common enemy. As such you should… No… no, not like that…
—
A few weeks later, Diana was normal again.
Mostly.
Physically, at least.
Emotionally, she still had problems.
Specifically, every single time Nagisa looked at her with a smug expression and asked, "How's my little flower doing?" Diana felt an immediate and overwhelming need to either deny everything or jump into the nearest river.
Usually both.
"I hate you," Diana muttered as they stood together on a jagged stone outcropping overlooking a vast underground ruin.
Below them stretched an ancient labyrinth of crumbling halls, broken stairways, and torchlit chambers half-swallowed by roots and moss. Strange runes glowed faintly on the walls. Somewhere in the distance, something large roared.
Nagisa, naturally, looked delighted.
"No you don't," she said. "You asked for a second lesson."
Diana crossed her arms. "I asked for a better second lesson. Preferably one that doesn't end with me becoming someone else's daughter."
"You gotta admit, it was funny though."
"For you, perhaps."
"I would call it a very educational week."
Diana glared at her.
Nagisa ignored the glare completely and gestured down into the labyrinth below.
"Today's lesson is about villainy."
Diana blinked.
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"Villainy," Nagisa repeated. "A good goddess needs to know how to play the villain once in a while."
Diana stared at her mentor in open disbelief.
"That is the opposite of teaching people to be better."
"No. It's teaching them without doing the work for them." Nagisa folded her arms and smiled faintly. "Humans are remarkably creative when they stop bickering and unite against a common threat."
Diana frowned. "That sounds manipulative."
"Of course it's manipulative. I'm a dark goddess." Nagisa tilted her head. "Also, it works."
Diana looked scandalized.
"But how do you even 'play' a villain? You either are evil or you're not."
Nagisa laughed softly.
"Spoken like someone with absolutely no sense of theater."
Before Diana could argue, Nagisa snapped her fingers.
A pool of black mist spread in the air before them like a floating mirror.
The image inside sharpened.
Two adventurers appeared, deep in the labyrinth below.
They stood in a circular chamber lined with ancient runes. Broken statues littered the floor. At the far end of the room, an enormous stone door remained stubbornly shut.
And in the middle of the chamber, the two adventurers were arguing.
Again.
The woman was tall, broad-shouldered, and built like somebody who could split an oak tree with a glare. Her long ponytail swung behind her as she paced, one hand braced on the hilt of an oversized sword strapped across her back. There was a scar across one eyebrow, sweat on her forehead, and the increasingly exhausted expression of somebody trying very hard not to strangle her companion.
"I'm saying," she growled, "that your magic is useless in here."
The man opposite her was only slightly shorter, leaner, and somehow managed to look smug despite being covered in dust. Messy dark hair hung in his face. His glasses were crooked. Three different spell scrolls were tucked into his belt, and every bit of his posture radiated offended intelligence.
"And I'm saying," he replied, "that if you had the reading comprehension of an actual adult, we'd have left this room an hour ago."
The swordfighter pointed accusingly at him.
"There! That! That's what I mean!"
Nagisa tapped the image.
"Kara and Elias," she said. "They are strong, capable and bright adventurers with promising futures. They are also stubborn as old brickwork."
The image shifted slightly as Elias knelt to inspect the runes while Kara stood with her arms folded and looked impatient enough to explode.
"They're actually a very good team on paper," Nagisa continued. "Kara is an excellent swordfighter. Elias is a very talented mage. They respect each other's abilities. They simply haven't learned how to use them together yet."
As if summoned by the statement, Kara said, "You're brilliant when your spells work."
Elias replied, "And you're terrifying in a fight."
Diana blinked. "That sounded almost nice."
"Wait." Nagisa held up a finger.
Kara immediately added, "Shame you're dead weight in this maze."
Elias pushed his glasses up his nose and sniffed. "Shame you need me to solve every puzzle because your sword apparently can't cut through literacy."
Diana winced.
Nagisa smirked.
"See?"
The black mirror zoomed in further.
On the walls of the chamber, the runes were visible now, lines of instructions hidden among the decorative spellwork.
Nagisa traced one glowing sentence lazily in the air.
"The solution is embarrassingly simple. In every monster room, the formula to pass is written on the walls. Elias needs time to read it. Kara needs to protect him while he does. But because the labyrinth interferes with magic, Kara thinks he's a liability, and because she keeps charging ahead, Elias thinks she's an idiot."
Diana watched the two of them bicker by the sealed door.
"Then why don't we just tell them?"
Nagisa turned to her and giggled.
"And if I tell them, does that count as them figuring it out by themselves?"
Diana opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Nagisa smiled with the kind of patience that was only slightly mocking.
"Your job is not to solve the puzzle for them," she said. "Your job is to push them into solving it for themselves."
"How?"
Nagisa pointed down at the chamber.
"By playing the villain. Appear before them. Sound ominous. Declare that only those who work as one will conquer the labyrinth or some nonsense like that." She waved one hand vaguely. "You do not need to actually do anything. You merely need to be dramatic enough that their pride takes over. As soon as they think they have a common enemy, then everything should work out."
Diana's face scrunched.
"That sounds ridiculous."
"Yes," Nagisa said. "Which is why it's perfect for you."
"I am not dramatic."
Nagisa stared at her.
Diana stared back.
Nagisa stared a little harder.
Diana folded her arms.
"...Fine. I'm a little dramatic."
"You're a lot dramatic." Nagisa patted her on the shoulder. "Go on, then. Be scary. Be harsh. Be a terrifying goddess of doom. But remember—"
Diana sighed. "Don't actually do anything."
"Good little flower."
Diana pointed at her. "Do not call me that anymore."
Nagisa's smile widened.
Then Diana vanished in a burst of gold.
She reappeared in the center of the chamber below.
Kara and Elias both jumped back.
Kara's sword came halfway free of its sheath.
Elias immediately threw up a hand glowing with unstable blue magic.
Diana tried to strike a terrible and imposing pose.
She raised one arm.
Her sleeve caught briefly on a bit of broken statue.
She stumbled.
Recovered.
Then cleared her throat and tried to look like that had all been intentional.
"Foolish mortals!" she declared.
The chamber echoed.
That helped.
Diana straightened a little more.
"I am the dark goddess of this labyrinth! The spirit of ancient trials! The keeper of this tomb's..."
She flapped one hand vaguely.
"...ominous things!"
There was a pause.
Kara lowered her sword a fraction.
"...You look like you're about to apologize to us," she said.
Elias peered over the top of his crooked glasses. "Is this one of the traps?"
Diana's eye twitched.
"No! I mean... yes! In the sense that I am a threat!"
"Mm," Elias said. "Sure thing, girl."
Diana planted both hands on her hips.
"Listen here, you two! You have failed to progress because you are too prideful, too stubborn, and too busy insulting each other to understand the obvious!"
That at least got their attention.
Kara frowned. "What obvious?"
Diana lifted one finger triumphantly.
"Teamwork!"
Silence.
Then Kara and Elias looked at each other.
Then back at Diana.
Elias blinked. "That was your mysterious villain speech?"
"Yes!"
Kara snorted. "That's not a threat. That's campfire advice."
Diana flushed. "It was an evil warning!"
"From what?" Elias asked. "A motivational poster?"
"You are both being very rude to an ancient evil presence!"
Kara sheathed her sword all the way and folded her arms. "Ancient evil presences usually have better lines."
Elias nodded thoughtfully. "Also more confidence."
Diana sputtered.
"I have confidence! I am full of confidence! I am menacing!"
"You're cute," Kara said.
"Kara!" Diana yelped.
Elias tilted his head. "In an overcommitted priestess sort of way, yes."
Diana went bright red.
"I am not cute! I am the dark goddess of this labyrinth!"
"Then dark-goddess us a better hint," Kara said, waving toward the walls. "Because genius over there can't cast properly, and apparently I need to develop a scholarly love of weird glowing handwriting."
"I heard that," Elias snapped.
"Good."
Diana pointed between them so hard her hand shook.
"This is the problem! This! Exactly this! You're both powerful, and you both clearly know it, and instead of working together you're just standing here throwing insults like children!"
"Because she keeps rushing in without a plan," Elias said.
"Because his plans take ten years," Kara shot back.
"Because your solution to everything is 'hit it harder.'"
"Because yours is 'talk at it until I die of boredom.'"
Diana's shoulders rose.
And rose.
And rose.
Then she shouted, "If you say one more bad thing about each other, I am going to turn you into a chimera so you finally learn teamwork!"
The chamber went quiet.
Kara stared.
Elias stared.
Then Elias pushed up his glasses and looked distinctly unimpressed.
"Right," he said. "Because someone like you can actually hurt us."
Diana made a strangled noise.
"Someone like me?!"
Kara rubbed her temple. "I think you broke her."
"No, no," Elias said, still staring directly at Diana. "Let's hear more from the terrifying tomb goddess whose great evil proclamation was 'please cooperate.'"
That did it.
Diana's temper snapped like a harp string.
Golden light exploded around her hands.
"Fine!" she shouted. "Then let these brats who can't listen become a chimera so they finally learn teamwork!"
Kara's eyes widened. "Oh, that sounds bad—"
The spell hit.
It did not hit neatly.
The labyrinth answered first.
The runes on the walls blazed.
Magic already soaked into the room surged like water finding a break in stone, and Diana's spell seized all of it at once.
The chamber shook.
Kara and Elias were yanked toward each other with startled shouts.
"I knew it!" Elias yelled. "I knew the room was amplifying unstable divine frequencies!"
"That sentence is not helping!" Kara barked.
They hit the center of the chamber together in a burst of gold and blue.
The first thing to go was their balance.
The second was their legs.
Kara gasped as her stance gave way beneath her. Elias lurched against her shoulder, both of them suddenly unable to separate as warm light poured down their bodies. Their hips locked side by side. Thighs pressed together. Knees buckled inward.
"Why are we stuck?!" Kara shouted.
"Damn it! I think its because whatever that spell was, we both didn't dodge it in time." Elias gasped back at Diana.
Diana took a step backward. "You mean that we..."
Then the light tightened.
Both adventurers cried out.
Their legs softened, blurred, and melted together below the waist in a slow, impossible pull. Cloth tore. Leather straps split. Boots vanished into a pooling mass of reshaping flesh and light.
Kara grabbed Elias's arm with crushing force.
"Our legs!"
"I noticed!"
The fused lower half swelled outward.
Bone cracked.
Muscle surged.
Their shared hips widened with a lush, heavy roll, then lengthened into the powerful frame of a beast. Four legs punched down from the glow, hooves and claws forming in the same breath.
The front limbs hit first, quickly becoming thick, leonine forelegs padded with muscle beneath sleek golden fur. Massive shoulders followed, broad and proud and strong enough to shake dust from the floor.
Then the rear half kicked out behind them with a very different shape, becoming much leaner, springier, clothed in soft cream and brown hair as elegant goat legs formed under a curving haunch.
Kara stared downward in disbelief.
Elias did too.
Between them spread a powerful animal body, stunning in the strange way dreams were stunning. It was just so weird to see both of their bodies attached to something so clearly monstrous.
The lion half flexed, and the muscles there rolled beautifully beneath tawny fur. The goat half stamped and jerked with terrified energy, the hindquarters slimmer but still richly shaped, the curve from waist to croup flowing with almost theatrical elegance.
A tail started to grow at the back.
It got six inches before the spell changed its mind.
The half-formed thing froze, hanging in glowing indecision.
"What is that supposed to be?" Kara demanded.
"I don't know!" Diana squeaked.
Above the beast-body, the transformation climbed.
Their waists tightened together next.
The pressure of the fusion became unbearable for a moment as two separate torsos were dragged inward, compressed, and then smoothed into one shared upper body. Kara's broad frame and Elias's lean one met in the middle and remade each other.
Shoulders broadened, then softened.
Muscles swelled, defined and proud along the arms and back, but the new shape that emerged was not merely strong. It was lush.
A narrow, feminine waist drew inward beneath a wide ribcage. Hips remained full where the human torso met the beast-body. Breasts pressed outward beneath torn cloth, rounding into a generous, unmistakably female curve that looked almost absurdly magnificent atop such a monstrous hybrid frame.
Diana stared despite herself.
The new torso was statuesque.
They had one heck of a tall, curvy and powerfully built.
Every line of it seemed sculpted to be as impressive as possible.
Kara noticed at the same time and let out a strangled, deeply offended sound.
"What?! Why did my boobs become so big?!"
"Why do we even have boobs?" Elias complained. "I didn't have any before this and it's not like you brought much to the table!"
"HEY!"
Their arms finished next, growing into two strong feminine arms, beautifully toned, ending in elegant hands tipped with dark nails.
Then came the heads.
Kara's face changed first.
Her scar remained, but the hard edges of her features softened into something strikingly beautiful. Her jaw refined. Her lips grew fuller. Her eyes widened just a little, fierce and golden-brown beneath lashes suddenly too long to be practical. Her ponytail spilled thicker and silkier down her back.
Then two lion ears pushed up through her hair.
Soft tawny fur dusted them, twitching in outraged confusion.
Kara slapped both hands over them immediately.
"No. Absolutely not. I am not becoming a Demihuman! Not now!"
Beside her, Elias let out a startled gasp as his own face reshaped.
His glasses fell, caught for a second on one ear, and then slid down his nose as his features narrowed and softened. His cheekbones lifted. His mouth became soft and lovely. His eyes stayed sharp behind the lenses, but now they sat in the face of a pretty young woman whose expression was still somehow just as snarky.
Dark hair lengthened in waves around his shoulders.
Then curled goat horns spiraled elegantly from his temples.
He reached up, touched one, and went silent.
"It looks like we don't have much choice in the matter anymore," he said weakly.
Kara stared at him.
"How are you this calm?! You also just turned into..."
Elias looked down at the shared body again.
His new voice came out husky and distinctly feminine.
"Oh, don't worry. This is deeply upsetting. I just haven't come up with a good way out of this situation yet."
The light faded enough for them to see themselves clearly.
They stood, or rather, wobbled, on a single chimera body: lion in front, goat behind, one magnificent female torso rising above it, and two transformed feminine heads perched side by side on the same shoulders.
For one single miraculous second, they were too shocked to argue.
Then Kara tried to take a step.
Elias tried to lean the other way.
The chimera promptly collapsed sideways into a pile of offended limbs.
"You moved wrong!" Kara yelled.
"You literally have no idea what you are doing!" Elias shot back.
"Your half almost sat on me!"
"How would that even work...? Anyway, listen, we have to get a feel for this body before..."
"I will punch that goddess in the face before she gets any more great ideas."
"Understandable, but first..."
Diana squeezed her eyes shut.
"Okay," she said. "This is fixable. Probably."
The glowing stump at the back of the chimera twitched.
All three looked at it.
Diana went still.
The unfinished tail glowed brighter.
Diana looked at it wideeyed. "Huh."
The spell did not care.
Golden light lashed out and wrapped around both her ankles.
Diana screamed.
"NO. No no no, not again! I am not part of this!"
She spun and tried to run.
She made it three steps.
Then her legs stuck together mid-stride.
Diana pitched forward with a yelp, caught herself on her hands, and stared in horror as the glow climbed from her feet to her hips. Her calves fused smoothly, the seam vanishing beneath skin gone warm and impossibly sensitive. Her knees melted away entirely. Her thighs pressed inward, softened, and flowed together in a single long sweep.
"Why is it warm?!" Diana cried. "Why is it so warm?!"
The answer was because it was growing.
Her fused legs lengthened beneath her, stretching farther and farther across the stone. Ankles disappeared. Feet compressed together, toes blending into a tapering point before broadening again as scales rippled into existence over smooth skin.
Pale gold at first.
Then richer.
Then gleaming with an iridescent green-gold sheen that caught every bit of torchlight in the chamber.
Diana's hips jerked as the transformation rushed upward. Her lower body swelled and narrowed by turns, becoming serpentine in long elegant waves. The new tail thickened beneath her waist, not merely replacing her legs but expanding into something lush and powerful, coils sliding across the floor with a heavy silken sound.
The more she tried to drag herself away, the longer it grew.
And grew.
And grew.
"Sooo... was this part of your plan of being evil?" Elias asked her calmly.
"It was nooooooooot!" Diana shrieked.
She tried to stand, forgot she no longer had legs, and nearly faceplanted again as another three meters of snake-tail spilled out behind her.
It was gorgeous.
That was part of the problem.
The tail gleamed with a luxurious pattern of gold, green, and cream scales, the underbelly pale and smooth, the whole thing tapering with elegant menace. When it flexed, the muscle beneath it rolled in liquid waves.
Diana noticed and she hated how good it felt.
And then the spell pulled at her.
Her entire new tail snapped backward across the floor toward the waiting glow at the chimera's rear.
"No!" Diana clawed at the stone. "No no no, you two can keep the tail! Find a normal tail! Find literally any other tail!"
Kara, still sprawled on one elbow, stared. "I think she is coming right at us."
"I can see that," Elias said. "Brace for impact."
The last few feet of Diana's tail rose into the air, the scales shimmering, and then fused to the back of the chimera with a bright crackle of magic.
Diana arched with a gasp as the connection sealed.
Suddenly she could feel everything.
The weight of the lion forequarters.
The restless tension in the goat hindlegs.
The shared balance of the whole chimera body.
And, maddeningly, the way her tail completed it.
The fit was seamless.
Perfect.
Kara blinked.
Elias blinked.
Diana slowly turned her head and saw a few meters of coiled lamia-tail now attached directly behind them.
"...so uhm... how are you girls doing?" she whispered anxiously.
Elias giggled. "Could be better. But thanks for asking."
The chimera rose unsteadily onto all four legs.
Then lurched sideways.
"Stop pushing," Kara snapped.
"Stop leaning," Elias shot back.
Diana's tail whipped behind them and caught the stumble before they could fall.
All three froze.
"...Again," Kara muttered.
She moved one lion paw.
Elias adjusted the goat legs to match.
Diana's tail curved out behind them.
The balance clicked.
They were standing.
Properly standing.
For one quiet second, nobody argued.
Kara glanced at Elias.
"That was you."
Elias pushed up his glasses. "That was us."
Diana stared. "Did you two just cooperate?"
The chamber door rumbled.
The runes on the wall flared.
A monster dropped from the ceiling.
It looked like somebody had tried to make a gargoyle and gotten bored halfway through.
Kara screamed, "WE ARE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION LATER," and lunged.
Chaos followed.
The next hour was terrible.
The hour after that was somehow worse.
The first problem was walking.
The second problem was turning.
The third problem was that the labyrinth, now apparently satisfied with its work, began throwing monsters at them in waves.
Kara discovered almost immediately that she still had all her strength, and perhaps more of it than before. Once she stopped panicking for three consecutive seconds, the lion forelegs let her pounce with devastating force. Her sword felt lighter in the chimera's shared hands. Her instincts became sharper. Faster.
Elias discovered that while his magic was still disrupted, he could read the runes much more quickly now that he was no longer trying to do it while being called useless every thirty seconds.
"Because," he snapped as he deciphered a glowing inscription on one wall, "someone is finally holding still long enough for me to think!"
"I'm holding still because we physically can't split up anymore!" Kara shouted while parrying a stone skeleton. "That is not the moral victory you think it is!"
Behind them, Diana whipped her new tail around and smacked a crawling tomb-creature into a pillar.
"Why am I good at this?!" she cried.
"Less complaining," Kara barked.
Elias pointed toward another monster creeping up behind them. "More tailing!"
"Do not say that to me!"
But she did it anyway.
Every room after that became a miserable little lesson in how disgustingly well the spell had worked.
A hallway full of dart traps forced Kara to trust Elias's timing.
A collapsing bridge required Elias to trust Kara's footing.
A room full of swarming skeletal hounds taught all three of them that Diana's coils were excellent for sweeping enemies off ledges when she was panicking hard enough.
And in every chamber, the runes on the walls kept confirming the same humiliating thing.
Protect the reader. Read before striking. Strength without thought breaks. Thought without strength stalls. One path. One purpose.
By the third puzzle room, Kara had started growling, "Elias, wall. Now."
By the fourth, Elias was automatically saying, "Left side, three incoming," before Kara even asked.
By the fifth, Diana was hissing, "Can we all please acknowledge that I accidentally solved your relationship problems by turning us into nightmare livestock?"
"Not now," Kara and Elias said together.
Then both looked away.
The deeper they went, the better they moved.
Kara learned how to throw her weight forward without ruining their balance. Elias got better at guiding the rear half through traps. Diana, to her horror, became extremely good at using her tail.
In one mirrored chamber, their reflection stopped all three of them.
The chimera in the glass was ridiculous.
And stunning.
Tawny lion strength in front, elegant goat grace behind, one tall curvy torso between them, and Diana's long gleaming lamia-tail trailing from the rear.
For a moment, all three went quiet.
Elias adjusted his glasses.
"Well," he said at last, "from a purely aesthetic standpoint, this could be worse."
Kara made a noise of outrage. "Whose side are you on?"
"My own. Obviously."
Diana buried her face in her hands. "I want this to eeeeeeend."
Instead, by the time the final monster fell, all three of them were exhausted.
The stone guardian crashed to the floor in a spray of rubble and dying blue fire.
Then the great sealed doors at the far end of the labyrinth groaned open.
Kara stood panting.
Elias leaned heavily against their shared shoulder.
Diana was draped behind them in exhausted coils.
For a long second, nobody spoke.
Then Kara laughed.
It started small.
Then Elias started laughing too.
Diana looked between them in disbelief.
"Why are you both laughing?"
Kara wiped sweat from one brow. "Because that was incredible."
Elias pushed his glasses back up with a trembling hand. "And because I hate how well this worked."
Diana pointed at them with all the offended dignity a magically attached snake-tail could muster.
"I would like the record to show that none of this was my intention."
"Noted," Elias said.
"Also ignored," Kara added.
Together, still fused into a spectacular chimera, they walked out of the labyrinth.
The moment they reached daylight, black mist curled across the ruined entrance.
Nagisa stepped out of it smiling.
She took one look at them.
Then another.
Then her hand flew to her mouth.
Diana's eyes widened. "Please don't..."
Nagisa lost the fight instantly.
She burst into laughter.
Not delicate laughter.
The kind of helpless, ruthless laughter reserved for exactly this kind of disaster.
"Oh," she gasped, bending slightly at the waist. "Oh, Diana, no."
"Yes!" Diana snapped. "Yes, Diana, no! Please fix it!"
Nagisa looked them over again, openly delighted.
Kara's lion ears flattened in irritation.
Elias cleared his throat. "Oh my. And who might you be?"
Nagisa giggled. "No one important. Just the person who was meant to check up on your little Lamia tail."
Diana pointed at her wildly. "Exactly! Thank you! The labyrinth interfered with my magic! It must have! It made everything weird and..."
Nagisa held up one finger.
Diana stopped.
Nagisa's smile turned downright wicked.
"Remind me," she said sweetly, "what exactly did I tell you to do?"
Diana wilted. "Play the villain?"
"And?"
"And not actually do anything."
Nagisa nodded. "Good. And what did you actually do?"
Diana looked away. "Cast a spell."
Nagisa cupped one hand to her ear. "A little louder, little flower."
"I cast a spell," Diana muttered.
"What spell?"
Diana made a pained noise.
Nagisa waited.
Kara and Elias both watched with the fascinated stillness of people realizing they were no longer the funniest thing happening.
At last Diana blurted, "I said those brats who don't listen should become a chimera so they'd learn teamwork!"
Nagisa's smile sharpened.
"Ah," she said. "There it is."
Diana blinked. "What?"
Nagisa strolled a slow circle around the fused trio and gave them an evil smile.
Diana opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Nagisa kept going.
"And tell me, little flower... when I told you to play the villain and not actually do anything, did you listen?"
Diana went still.
"...Oh no," she whispered.
Nagisa laughed.
"Oh yes."
Diana looked down the chimera body, then back at her own gleaming coils.
"That doesn't count! I wasn't one of the brats in the room!"
"You absolutely were one of the brats involved," Nagisa said. "And you were the one who listened the least."
Kara snorted.
Elias smiled.
Nagisa gestured at the chimera.
"So Kara and Elias became a chimera. And since your spell fit you too, you became the tail."
"Your teaching methods are the worst," Diana said weakly.
Nagisa looked the chimera over with a pleased smile.
"Honestly, it's elegant. Lion in front, goat behind, lamia tail for balance."
"I do not want to be elegant!"
Nagisa shrugged.
"You made the mess. You fix it."
Diana went pale.
"No."
"Yes."
"You're staying like this for a week."
Diana shrieked.
"A week?" Elias said.
Nagisa gave him a bland look. "You'll survive. Consider it a team-building exercise."
"Nagisa!"
"If you undo it yourselves, great. If not, maybe I'll separate you later."
"Maybe?!"
Nagisa stepped back into black mist.
"Try listening next time."
Then she vanished.
The ruin entrance went quiet.
After a moment, Kara exhaled.
"Well," she said.
Elias adjusted his glasses.
"We are not getting back into the city like this."
Diana made a strangled sound. "You think?"
Kara glanced back at the long coils trailing behind them.
"The tail is panicking again."
"I am not the tail! I am a goddess!"
Elias considered that for a moment.
"Less complaining," he said.
Kara smirked.
"More tailing."
Diana screamed loud enough to startle birds out of the nearby trees.
And somewhere far away, Nagisa laughed all over again.