N3_ED:

Lyn's metallic boots gently stepped across Llafiella's outskirts, with each step rippling the scarlet dew which originated from its corrupted ivy tendrils. Blood-tinged clouds blotted the skies and the sun from cleansing the infected plains and its ivory-erected castle. Remnants of dead flora sunk beneath the dew-soaked hills, eternally trapped in its haunting viscous poison. Chunks of infected human flesh scattered across the soles of her metallic boots, and the great sloshes of the blood puddles underneath her rippled like water.

Lyn, who donned Alfaic's suit, perched over on the edge of Llafiella's grounds, peering through the infected vines tangled beneath them. She observed the rotten and infected pack roaming beneath the canyon underneath her.

Unusual to her, the infected traveled together carrying flagellation whips, slouching with their crooked backs slurping and sloshing satiated from blood from the dew-encrusted vines. The infected's mottled and speckled-holed skin were pale white and covered in infectious spores where their empty heads were. The worm-like parasites from within were now hung out altogether, moving along with their bodies as they roamed the plains.

The main source of the duo's observations were the infected's behavior. Unlike the ones at the fire station, the infected were scattered across the plains with their frail bodies collapsed to the ground, sucking the dew from the infected vines as a young baby would for sustenance. Multiple infected gathered around nesting sites with an abundance of dew vines, suckling the juice out of each one until they were satisfied.

But they were never satisfied, and that was when the creatures turned to desperate measures to satisfy themselves. They used their flagellation whips to strike each other until death before burrowing their parasitic heads into their stomachs, sucking the dew from their bodies. They fought for them as one would fight for their survival, drinking the elixir of life to fight.

"What the hell is going on...?" Alfaic whispered, observing the dangerous oddities in Llafiella's outskirts. "They're... whipping and eating each other. Not only that, but they're enjoying it. Poor bastards lost their humanity long ago, but something inside their bodies is making them do it."

Lyn observed her surroundings, considering how the mottled infected used their surroundings for sustenance. She snatched a cluster of cherry-red berries hung from one of the vines beside her and dug her fingernail into them to examine it further. The viscous and syrupy juice from within clung to Lyn's fingers, which was nearly impossible to remove from its unnatural stickiness.

"Hope you're not hungry..." Alfaic said.

Lyn gathered several more bushels of blood-red berries and tossed them toward the mottled infected. The tendrils from the worm-like parasites rose their heads in curiosity before stepping toward the berries to devour them slowly.

"Blade," Lyn voiced out in a monotone voice. "Clean yourself. We test this."

"Are you-"

"Do it." Lyn arose from the ground as Alfaic's suit shined magnificently against the blood orange skies. She exited the bushes and stood tall and mighty over the mottled infected with her hair swaying in the wind. She held her breath, anticipating the fear of letting its acidic saliva drown her skin in unsalvageable pain once more. Her pale skin and slim face were still, waiting for the opportunity to strike if there was a sign of immediate threat.

The mottled infected, equipped with whips, gazed over at her with no intent of attacking. Instead, they acknowledged her existence with a slight stare before moving to locate more sources of dew from the vines itself.

Lyn exhaled.

"Wow. A test of bravery, I suppose?" Alfaic asked. "The poor sods only want what their mothers gave them when they were young. But the question is, who's the mother...?"

"The origin of the vines," Lyn mentioned. "The girl mentioned the story with the tree. The tree is the source. If we find the tree, we find the lord."

"Cethe," Alfaic said. "Her name was Cethe. Wouldn't kill you to mention her name. It's only respectful."

Lyn looked down at her collar. "Cethe." She warmly stated.

"You don't suppose that white palace in the center far over there is Llafiella?" Alfaic brought up. "The source is gathering all these bottom-feeders into one area. I'm surprised they're not closer up. Either someone purposefully banished these freaks off into this hell, or someone's playing king and queen here. Look at them. These dwellers from Llafiella have lost a sense of purpose, and now, all there is are remnants of their mother poisoning their minds, and their appetite."

"Elaina." Lyn said, remembering Cethe's sister who never found the ounce of respect that the now deceased village had given her. Even if she had saved her, to what home could she return to? She thought, perhaps in death, she could find peace with her loved ones.

"Do you see those giant holes?" Alfaic suddenly brought up. "There's so many of them all around the place. Those are not man-made. Something's wrong."

Alfaic was right. Lyn scanned the terrain further. Approximately several feet away from her, a crater-sized hole where more mottled infected lingered as their home was dug up. Several hundred feet next to it was another crater-sized hole.

Lyn acknowledged Alfaic's responses and sprinted through the plains, disregarding the mottled infected. She speedily ran past the creatures, leaving them behind to dawdle in their own unsatiable appetites. She leapt over one of the crater-sized holes and turned back to peer inside, watching the mottled infected bunched up, lifeless, unmoving in slumber.

She turned away and continued moving through, leaping hole after hole while checking what remained within. And by one mysterious occasion, Lyn found herself hearing a tiny utterance of what seemed to be a glimpse of humanity that remained in one of them.

One of the holes was a cave dug inward to shelter and inhabit more of the infected. Lyn kneeled and watched as two elongated and slender arms extended out of the caves, revealing a unique infected with a gigantic bloated stomach, as do honeypot ants carry nectar. Small pockets and holes riddled around the bloated stomach bled the dew from the vines, and by one rare mysterious occasion, Lyn actually witnessed the creature weeping in sorrow.

It was only minor, but even minor occurrences in SIGMA could turn major. Lyn crept up closer to the bloated infected, listening to it as it cried in unknown sorrow. The desire to comfort it suddenly grew as a momentous occasion to Lyn as she unknowingly approached the crying creature, sensing a familiar hint of something she had recently witnessed inside the mind of the bloated beast.

It was the encore.

"LYN!" Alfaic roared as a sudden dramatic earthquake rippled through the terrain.

Lyn snapped out of her trance from her past and leaped out of the hole to reach the grassy terrain. A gargantuan pale white mottled worm burst out of the crater-sized hole and snatched the bloated infected, capturing it by the arms with its powerful gaping jaws. As Lyn examined the colossal creature, several whispers from the creature itself seethed into Lyn's ears.

"he was a monster he was a monster he was a monster he was a monster"

She realized the weeping did not come from the bloated infected. It came from the worm itself.

With one powerful swoop, the worm tossed the infected into its mouth and crunched down on it, splattering the blood cherry dew across its white teeth. The creature was instantly vaporized by the rows of teeth collaborating to devour it without making it suffer one iota of pain. Wriggles from the worm's skin indicated that it was swallowing its prey and savoring the dew from the lands. After several seconds of feasting time, the worm launched itself into the opposing crater-sized hole, digging itself back underneath the surface until it was time to eat.

"Holy..." Alfaic uttered. "What was that thing?"

"I know." Lyn replied, looking down at her hands as she kneeled on one leg to gaze upon Llafiella's outskirts. "I know what it is."

"Enlighten me."

"In the fire station, when I was carried away momentarily. There lived a white creature that thrived on the empty hearts of the innocent. I was a mere victim, until I understood what it wanted. I could understand it, just as it could understand me. It had been living there for centuries, creating a way for it to communicate with others that came before it. And there, it showed me, a story of a man who loved a woman, but their love was unreciprocated. I did not know what relationship it had with the two, but I just knew that the creature was the man, searching for the love that he had never had."

Lyn stood up from her kneeled position and set her eyes upon the palace. "I killed it. But it seems it was only a piece of it. I had placed a mermaid doll next to a crafted wooden puppet underneath the brisk sunlight, scattered around with ashes of the dead and the rings of love. It was supposed to rest in piece, only... I gave it hope to seek love. And here it is."

"Hope to love... perhaps... the scarlet lord of SIGMA?" Alfaic suggested. "Elaina."

"Then we shall let it." Lyn determined. "We shall let it love-"

"No, are you crazy?!" Alfaic retorted. "Elaina was Cethe's sister! She would have wanted us to save her, not to have her be some love candidate. You can't let that monster-"

"Do NOT call it a monster." Lyn raised her voice echoing through the horizon. Silence followed immediately after. Lyn's body began slightly throbbing out of a sudden burst of unknown energy, seeking to free the creature that had been suffering for eternity. Yet Alfaic had a different goal in mind.

"It will suffer unless we put an end to it, and only you can do that," Alfaic said. "You know it best, so why don't you decide how to do it?"

"I will not do such a thing," Lyn said. "It has a right to love-"

"Do you even know what love is?!" Alfaic rose its voice through Lyn's futuristic suit. "You know, you preach and talk almighty about love this, love that, but you have no clue what it even is. These things! They eat. They kill! They took away Cethe and Damian, and they'll take away Elaina!"

Lyn remained silent.

"Don't tell me that you stood in front of that statue and felt nothing for their loss, Lyn," Alfaic continued. "It was only a few days ago. Don't tell me you've already forgotten. They're counting on us to bring her back!"

"There is no 'they' anymore," Lyn said. "They are gone."

"Are you that heartless, Lyn?!"

"I am not a human. Or did you forget that?"

"Goddamn it, Lyn!"

The terrain beneath her began to shudder again as the colossal worm escaped through another one of the holes on the far side of the plains. It snatched another bloated infected repeated the same routine as it did before. And each time it did, it would hum a tune of majesty and harmony to Lyn and her only.

Lyn rushed toward the worm just before it could burrow down again. She disregarded Alfaic's pleas to stop and followed the melodic humming of the worm, beckoning her to it. Once Lyn reached the outer edges of the worm's skin, the head of the beast spun around until it faced Lyn's position. She firmly held her ground and reached her slender hand out toward it, for fear did not exist inside the emptiness of her body.

"Lyn, stop it!" Alfaic yelled.

Without hesitation, the worm lashed out and attempted to snatch Lyn to devour her. Alfaic's powerful suit launched her back from a gravitational pull attached to the soles of her feet. The sun-sized gaping worm screeched in discomfort as it missed its prey, burrowing back into the holes to repeat its routine of collecting dew once again. Lyn collapsed on the dew-splattered floors, standing herself up with Relámpago by her side.

"You idiot!" Alfaic shouted in spite. "Is this what I have to deal with before I find my true master? Attaching myself to some heartless moron and watching as she tries to kill herself before she can even try?" Alfaic detached itself from Lyn's body into blade form, leaving her draped in her black robes. "You are quite, irrevocably, the most ignorant, dense, and brainless person I have ever met!"

"It sung," Lyn said. "I had heard a song."

"And I have heard enough from you," Alfaic retorted, hovering away from her. "If you're trying to get yourself killed before we can even save Elaina, then be my guest. I'll go save her myself."

"Blade." Lyn called.

Alfaic ignored her.

"Blade, come to me." She called once more, extending her arm out.

"My name... is not... BLADE!" Alfaic roared.

Another earthquake suddenly struck the Llafiella Plains once more, but a flash of lightning rained down upon the center, amplifying the worm's aggressiveness. Fissures and ripples from the ground cracked the surface of the terrain as the worm leaped directly out of the ground below Lyn, separating the both of them. The opposite side of the ground caved in as Alfaic was lost in tramples of infected soil and dew splashing from the infected roots. The worm slammed down upon the ground, splitting the surface directly in two.

The mottled infected tumbled underneath a fissure directly made from the worm's tunnel system, and Alfaic had joined them. Lyn was safe on the other side, but it was only a matter of time before Alfaic would lost in the depths of SIGMA, never to be seen again.

"Blade!" Lyn cried, rushing toward Alfaic's silhouette. She disregarded the collapse of the terrain and jolted herself toward the entrance of the falling fissure. She rammed through the infected soil and roots, splashing dew across her eyes and face in the process. After colliding with a solid piece of foundation, she jumped from surface to surface to propel herself toward Alfaic.

After colliding with another wall of dust and debris, Lyn reached out and snatched Alfaic's handle. She was successful in doing so, but the amount of speed she picked up while falling through the fissure was her biggest danger yet. She glanced at Alfaic, who had lost its marvelous glowing orange color.

"Blade!" Lyn raised her voice as heaps of dirt entered her mouth. She spat it out and jabbed Alfaic toward the walls of the collapsing fissure, hoping to stop her momentum. Alfaic sliced through the fissure as Lyn's speed began slowing down at a reasonable pace.

But this pace did not last, as a large chunk of debris from the fissure jutted outwards, leaving Lyn's right arm to collide with it. She lost her grip as the collision tore her entire right arm off, leaving her to collapse into the unknown depths below.