It was a sensual and beautiful thing, the sensations rolling through her body. The pain coupled by the seething corruption that sunk into her very soul. Amari threw her head back, giving her Master a guttural groan. She was right, sentimental feelings she had began to blur and warp. She realized she was a fool for ever having fallen for, and allowing Shinsou Vaan Osiris to become so close to her.

She should have never allowed Jake to re-enter her life, or for Fenn to live...If she had done those things, perhaps she would have been strong enough to defeat Vincent on her own.

There was Taka, the Akashiman ronin, the Ixian Knight, and the man who had managed to work his way under her skin and into the core of her being in such a short time, warming it with his gentle embrace and his soft, unsure touches. Her memories of him bubbled up to her consciousness. The way he looked upon her with concern, reaching out with unsure hands to clasp hers, as his warmth enveloped her. The way he wrapped his arms around her being, the silken touch of his lips against her bare skin...

She closed her eyes, allowing the continuing corruption to warp her feelings of sentimentality for him. Her desires to see him happy and free began to fade, and was replaced by a cold, uncaring emptiness. “This is what I wanted…” She breathed, almost in relief. She still had those memories...the laughter they shared as they lay naked side by side in the cabin of a rocking ship, the way his eyes lit up in the moonlight, and how his hair looked like the milky way as the winds carried it….the memories, they were all there, but there was no longer any emotion attached to them.

Amari was drowning in the corruption, an all too willing victim of its malicious poison. Her body burned, her skin became hot to the touch and the miasma of suffocating death began to float about the room, thick, heavy, and undiluted.

It had almost completely enveloped her, and may very well would have...

As though in a burst of defiance, Amari felt a rush of warmth deep within her core, and suddenly, she understood why Taka drove her mad, she understood why the mere thought of him made her question herself and her master. She loved him.

Amari blinked, and two tears fell from her red eyes, the last testaments to her lost emotions. Just as quickly as she had realised her folly, it had disappeared. The heart wrenching revelation torn from her before she could cement them in her, no chance to cherish such delightful emotions.

Her voice, cracked and broken was barely above a whisper. “Taka…. Forget me. Live… I’m so sorry….”

Those were the last thoughts, the last words fuelled by an unbreakable connection she had to the ronin before everything that was really, and truly Amari broke.

Lye had won.

A blinding flash of red and black light engulfed the room, eliciting moans from those who still lived in the cells. It faded, and Amari was still lying, injured on the floor. The leather jacket that belonged to Lye was burnt and tattered. Her skin, instead of being completely blackened by the corruption now held a pale, sickly grey tinge, as though the marks that marred her skin had seeped into her very being. Her pale form was covered in thick cracks that erupted on her face, and chest and her hands were painted like a blackend glove.

Amari’s eyes fluttered closed, then opened, the whites of her eyes had been enveloped by an inky black, and her irises, once a glorious green now burned a violent red.


***

The burning sensation had yet to quell, but she felt better, oh so much better. Everything was so clear, so pristine and so utterly peaceful. “Master….” Her voice rolled with velveteen delight.

“I feel wonderful.”


“Beautiful,” she heard her master comment. He looked on her with awe and pride on his face.

Scarlet sat up, glancing down at her arms, she ran her fingers gently upon her oddly coloured skin. ”You have an odd sense of beauty, Master.” She turned to him with lips quirked in a lop-sided smile. “I must say...I’ve never felt better.”


The Ronin seemed to be lost in his own world as his words and actions were unraveled. He seemed at a loss for what to do as he looked at his hands. A hand reached up and gently brushed back the sleeve, showing the mark of his corruption returning even to his arms. He had fallen.

Scarlet turned to the ronin, her eyes glancing up and down his form. “What is this?” She asked, disappointment in her voice. She stood and approached Taka, kneeling down by his side. She took his face in her hands, her fingers running along the blackened lines. “This is how you repay me?” She asked quietly. “I risk my life to recede that demons hold on you, I throw myself into the thralls of corruption in exchange for your safety, and this?” She gripped his face tighter and pushed him back. “THIS is how you repay me!?”

“He is a liar, afterall,” Lye added.

“Yes.” Scarlet agreed. “But he did swear himself to me, didn’t you...Ixian Knight? I suppose if you’re mine, I will have to fix that disgusting marr on your body, perhaps I should offer the Oni a name after all.”