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Is this really fun?
“Ah, there we go,” Aldith crooned, feeling the spasm from outside. “The mid-stage digestion. The muscles are breaking down now. It’ll get… softer soon. Less defined. Just a nice, warm slurry. Doesn’t that sound cozy, Cynthia? No more thoughts. No more regrets. Just… becoming.”
Cynthia tried to form a prayer, a final plea to her god. Arceus, creator of all… if you can hear me in this foul darkness… grant me oblivion. Let my mind go before… before I feel myself turn to nothing. But even the prayer felt hollow. What god would allow this? What universe permitted such exquisite cruelty?
Aldith hummed a tuneless song, her fingers tracing patterns on the Seviper’s belly. “You know, I almost feel grateful to you, Champion. This victory… it’s my ticket to the top. Admin Aldith. I’ll have my own squad. My own targets to choose. Perhaps I’ll pay a visit to that little island in Hoenn. The one with the Fortree City darling, the one who talks to the skies. Or the red-headed firebrand in Paldea.” She sighed happily. “So many possibilities. And it all started here. With you.”
She leaned in, her lips almost touching the scaled hide, her words a venomous secret meant for Cynthia alone. “Your legacy isn’t your battles, or your research, or your precious ancient myths. Your legacy is the bulge in my Seviper’s gut. Your legacy is the proof that no one is safe. That the age of the trainer is over. You will be remembered as the first domino to fall. And when people whisper your name in fear, I will smile, and I will pat my beautiful Sevvy here, and I will remember how you kicked.”
Cynthia’s consciousness, like her body, was yielding. The edges of her mind grew fuzzy, darkening even beyond the physical blackness. The pain began to feel distant, muffled.
