She managed one more step, then the world bucked, the veil between life and death lashing out with a power that rocked even the priests. Like a muffled bomb or an EMP blast, it drove her to her knees without harming anything in the building, and still Dahlia didn't stop. She was so close. She had to make it. She had to help. She had to do something, but she knew exactly what that was.
"Mei!" she wailed, scampering through the door on unsteady feet. "No, not Mei!"
So close, she arrived in time to see her lover pinned to the wall, a thick silver spike protruding from her heart. Mei's perfect cupid's-bow lips were parted, her eyes barely open, and her skin was fading before Dahlia's eyes as the energy of her soul dissipated like static electricity.
"Valka." Mei began to slump. "The sun. The dream. Promise..."
Then her molecules began to relax, returning to their original state. Dust, most of it. Like so many bad horror films, her best friend and lover was crumbling, dissolving right before her eyes. Dahlia couldn't stop the tears. She couldn't force her mind to think. She couldn't do anything but stare at the ghastly scene before her in shock.
Dead.
A wave of grief stole the air from Dahlia's lungs. Her mind frantically spiraled, trying to find a way to change this. Her heart begged for time to just roll back. Mei couldn't be gone. What was the point of living without her? She was Dahlia's life, love, and entire purpose for the insanity they called life. Dahlia was supposed to have protected her!
She'd failed.
Mei Yun was dead. The damn "holy" spike had just short-circuited her soul, changing her from a person into a collection of molecules and ions. It was the energy that made life. The eidolon were nothing but that energy, their bodies merely a shell that gave them senses, and the long silver stake now stuck all alone in the wall was enough to discharge it all. Like a grounding wire, it had taken the soul of the most amazing person Dahlia had ever known and turned her into nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only person Dahlia had dared to love in centuries had just evaporated like water.
Reality came crashing back hard. "No!" Dahlia wailed, grabbing the closest weapon she could find. It was a floor lamp, but it would do.
Someone had to pay. Her grief needed an outlet, and rage would work better than tears. In truth, Dahlia needed everyone in this room to hurt the way she was hurting. Mei was dead, gone, and never coming back. Dahlia's brain couldn't even process that, which only left a blind need to fight - to kill. Revenge might not bring Mei back, but at least it would mean that someone would suffer for what had happened here. Someone had to. This hurt too much to let them get away with it.
Dahlia swung the lamp, knocking a priest away from where Mei's body had once been. Now it was only dust, but the spike was still there, proving her eyes hadn't lied. There was no bloodstain, no crumpled body, just a chunk of silver shoved into the drywall and a pile of dust beneath. In the air around her, the electrical charge that had once belonged to her only friend crackled, waiting to be used.
So Dahlia used it. Opening her mouth, she sucked in a deep breath, feeling the tingle of what was left of Mei's soul as it flowed into her lungs. It would become her lover's last act, Mei's own vengeance. It would fuel the destruction that had to happen, because Dahlia no longer had anything left to lose.
Between her and escape was a very narrow door, one already crowded with priests. Dozens of them. All Mei's residual energy and vitality was just waiting to fuel their downfall. Like the monster they thought she was, Dahlia leaned into the veil, pulling the horror of the Abyss into herself.
Death had no color. It had no substance. It was little more than an idea formed in the mind and shaped into nightmares. As the thin limit of reality stretched over her, she felt her eyes darken, showing the afterlife that waited for them all. Her body glowed, becoming the chooser of life. The power burned. Reality fought against her, trying to force her back, but Dahlia needed to be closer to make them pay. Oh, they would all pay for what they'd just done.
She'd start with the one beside her. Wielding the lamp like a bat, she hit him hard. The next swing was aimed at his head. As close as she was, with as much power as she had flowing through her, he couldn't move fast enough to stop it. The base caught him under the jaw, snapping his neck with the force. She turned to the next.
When his lips began to move, she hacked, bringing the metal down on his head, preventing him from activating the Word. The priest's knees gave out immediately and she kept going, using the force to turn her toward the door. Something solid took the back half of her stroke, letting out a massive grunt, but now she was flailing wildly.
Over, under, it didn't matter. She just wanted to destroy this feeling, remove the agony that was driving her. Tears streamed down Dahlia's face, and she screamed out her grief and rage without shame. She needed to push these men back, to break them all the way they'd ruined her love, and to show them what this felt like - how much it hurt! She needed to shatter the entire concept of the Inquisition, and the multitude of priests in this building would be a damned good start.
They'd killed Mei. They'd killed the one person Dahlia had allowed herself to get close to in centuries. She was going to get her revenge, and they had no idea what hell they'd just unleashed. She owed Mei that much. The last act of a nu gui should always be revenge, and Dahlia would hand it out with pleasure.
At the edge of the bed, she felt the cord jerk from the wall. It wasn't much, but it interrupted her attack enough that the man lived, so she pummeled him again. This time his back snapped. She followed with a kick to the head, hoping his skull would be next.
Death. Pain. Suffering. Agony. Those were the only things Dahlia could think about right now. Her vision was blurred and her throat was clenched with grief, making it hard to breathe. She didn't care. Seeing this man's head shatter when she bashed it in would help. It had to. Something needed to make this better, and nothing was working.
Dahlia's eyes were only on the ground for a second, but it was enough. When she looked up again, it was just in time to see Thane. Moving with her, he grabbed the lamp and yanked, sending it flying at the wall. His fist followed. Dahlia ducked, Thane missed, but he recovered with a blow from the other hand. It hit her in the ribs, knocking away the air that she didn't really need. Then he shoved. Her ass hit the ground.
"Someone block this hall!" he ordered. "Seal it down. Hold in the sounds. Damn it! She's not going to quit now that you killed her partner!"
Crawling backwards, she forced out a dry laugh. "Yeah, that's exactly what I should do. Quit. You fucking idiot!"
"Come on, bitch," he growled, crooking a finger at her. "Wanna play? Well I'm more than happy to end your life."
"And that's what you'll never understand." She was still inching backwards, planning her next move. "You killed the only thing that kept me in line. The only reason I had not to risk it all. I loved her! She never asked for any of this, but you people killed her anyway. You think you're the good guys, saving the world, but it's all a fucking lie!"
"Just surrender and let us take you back." He closed the distance she'd just created, but warily. "Maybe they'll find a way to let you repent your sins." His eyes jumped up, looking over her head. "Or they might at least make your death painless."
Back there was a window. She'd seen it when she rushed into the room. He was slowly pushing her toward it. The priests were stacked up behind him, blocking any other way out, but through the grief flooding her mind, she realized what he was trying to say.
Her hell was the Abyss, a void of nothing where the only sensations she had were the memories trapped in her mind. It was what happened when her body died, but not her soul, and she'd jumped through a window once before with Thane. She could do it again. She just needed to make sure she went through it instead of bouncing off it.
Dahlia crawled another pace back. For the first time in centuries, she had no one ready to speak her name. No one there to dream of her. No living person to form the thought that would serve as a gateway. That meant she'd be gone a very long time, but it would be worth it. She'd have the privacy to grieve Mei on her own. She would have a moment of peace before someone accidentally pulled her back. And then, it would all be worth it when she returned to destroy the Inquisition.